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LAB majority hits new high in the general election betting – politicalbetting.com

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Comments

  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,994
    Nigelb said:

    Leon said:

    Re the SCOTUS decision, it’s not even disfavoured by Hispanics


    “The Pew survey shows a clear divide along racial and ethnic lines: A majority of white and Asian adults disapprove of racial consideration in admissions, while Black Americans largely approve and Hispanics are about evenly split”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/us/politics/affirmative-action-polls.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

    With that demographic breakdown, this will be a popular decision with American voters as a whole, and if Biden fights it (as he says he will) he will be making the next election harder for himself

    Or you were right third time and no-one really cares. How many kids are borderline for admission to Harvard in any given election year?
    Decision is MUCH broader than just Harvard, will impact (would-be) students in universities from sea to shining sea.

    And while it's probably not an electoral game changer, to say that "no-one really cares" is going toooo far.
    Sotomayor cares.
    “Lost arguments are not grounds to overrule a case. When proponents of those arguments, greater now in number on the Court, return to fight old battles anew, it betrays an unrestrained disregard for precedent. It fosters the People’s suspicions that ‘bedrock principles are founded . . . in the proclivities of individuals’ on this Court, not in the law, and it degrades ‘the integrity of our constitutional system of government.’ Nowhere is the damage greater than in cases like these that touch upon matters of representation and institutional legitimacy.”
    Well, she's right about that, but the majority are also probably right about the dissenters ignoring case law they don't like as well.

    They may still surprise on occasion, but is there anyone who doesn't seem to support, in practice, the use of the political proclivities of the justices to advance agendas, if they can get a majority now?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,039
    OMFG the Daily Mail Notifications are back. It's like malarial syphilis
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,994
    Scott_xP said:

    Conservative wipeout could bring a hard Frost

    If Tories win fewer than 200 seats, right-wing MPs may turn to a complete outsider such as the ex-Brexit negotiator

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/conservative-wipeout-could-bring-a-hard-frost-chmzkrtfl

    Is Frost best friends with everyone in the media or something? His profile among commentators seems completely inexplicable to me versus the role he held and his interventions since.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,509
    geoffw said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    Despite or because of Brexit?

    Definitely because of. The EU are trying to regulate the hell out of AI, because it’s mostly not an EU invention.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,813
    Kicking off across France again tonight

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-66049895
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,039
    Sandpit said:

    geoffw said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    Despite or because of Brexit?

    Definitely because of. The EU are trying to regulate the hell out of AI, because it’s mostly not an EU invention.
    Britain avoiding intrusive EU regulation of AI may turn out to be one of the first really BIG Brexit benefits. If we are sensible. Trouble is, I'm not sure I trust Starmer to recognise this and act on it
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,723
    Leon said:

    OMFG the Daily Mail Notifications are back. It's like malarial syphilis

    Malarial syphilis would be millions of times better. Injecting folk with malaria was a standard treatment for syphilis before antibiotics, as the high malarial fevers killed off the spirochaetes, and then you downed as much quinine etc as was needed.

    What you have is the robot equivalent of toxoplasmosis from cat shite, which causes such things as insanity, reckless business practice, suicide, and road rage.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,568
    Leon said:

    OMFG the Daily Mail Notifications are back. It's like malarial syphilis

    That was a lab leak too, apparently. The UCL lab in Camden.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    Not Hartlepool? Shame.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,676
    edited June 2023
    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going.

    The Bullers did at least pay for the damage they caused however, unlike Just Stop Oil

  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,813
    Sandpit said:

    geoffw said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    Despite or because of Brexit?

    Definitely because of. The EU are trying to regulate the hell out of AI, because it’s mostly not an EU invention.
    And of course they don't really understand what they doing. Politicians and technology should never be in contact with one another...
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,723
    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,723
    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going.

    The Bullers did at least pay for the damage they caused however, unlike Just Stop Oil

    Ald the loss of trade?
    And the many, many evenings spoilt?
    Please don't even try to use that justification.
  • darkagedarkage Posts: 5,388
    Taz said:

    Foxy said:

    Taz said:

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Konstantin Kisin
    @KonstantinKisin

    Using bank account cancellations as a political weapon is insane. Short sighted people will celebrate it when it happens to their political opponents but it is a can of worms no side should ever open."

    https://twitter.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1674466220937031691

    What makes you so convinced that it was for political reasons, when even Farage says he hasn't been told why?
    Kisin believes it has happened to him too.
    Apart from his paranoia what evidence does he have?
    Probably when his bank closed his account. He doesn't strike me as the paranoid type at all.

    https://twitter.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1659563943419887616?lang=en-GB

    Obviously they exist on donations. I suppose those donations could be coming from questionable sources. But there are no explanations given.
    Kisin didn’t strike me as paranoid either more confused initially and then a little annoyed at the inconvenience.

    Laurence Fox,has also claimed the Reclaim Party cannot get banking

    Wings over Scotland recently had his account terminated too.

    Whatever the rights and wrongs of this it certainly gives succour to the anti cashless society/prison planet brigade.
    What is impressive about Konstantin Kisin is that he has kept his head despite being in what I would regard as a social media nightmare for the past 4 years. He has made some mistakes but seems to actually get wiser as time goes on. He has had a consistent position, and recently been criticising the right more than the woke.


  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,319
    edited June 2023
    Scott_xP said:

    Conservative wipeout could bring a hard Frost

    If Tories win fewer than 200 seats, right-wing MPs may turn to a complete outsider such as the ex-Brexit negotiator

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/conservative-wipeout-could-bring-a-hard-frost-chmzkrtfl

    Oh come off it, he has the electability of Jabba the Hutt.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,295
    edited June 2023
    kle4 said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Conservative wipeout could bring a hard Frost

    If Tories win fewer than 200 seats, right-wing MPs may turn to a complete outsider such as the ex-Brexit negotiator

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/conservative-wipeout-could-bring-a-hard-frost-chmzkrtfl

    Is Frost best friends with everyone in the media or something? His profile among commentators seems completely inexplicable to me versus the role he held and his interventions since.
    The more interesting question is why ex Remainers like Truss and Frost are considered impeccable Brexit poster children, and dyed-in-the-wool Brexiters like Sunak and Steve Baker are denounced as softy sell-outs.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,955

    kle4 said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Conservative wipeout could bring a hard Frost

    If Tories win fewer than 200 seats, right-wing MPs may turn to a complete outsider such as the ex-Brexit negotiator

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/conservative-wipeout-could-bring-a-hard-frost-chmzkrtfl

    Is Frost best friends with everyone in the media or something? His profile among commentators seems completely inexplicable to me versus the role he held and his interventions since.
    The more interesting question is why ex Remainers like Truss and Frost are considered impeachable Brexit poster children, and dyed-in-the-wool Brexiters like Sunak and Steve Baker are denounced as softy sell-outs.
    Cos they're all daft
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,497
    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    geoffw said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    Despite or because of Brexit?

    Definitely because of. The EU are trying to regulate the hell out of AI, because it’s mostly not an EU invention.
    Britain avoiding intrusive EU regulation of AI may turn out to be one of the first really BIG Brexit benefits. If we are sensible. Trouble is, I'm not sure I trust Starmer to recognise this and act on it
    Starmer had a meeting with Google executives a week or so ago, so hopefully he’s received that message.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,955
    Leon said:

    Britain avoiding intrusive EU regulation of AI may turn out to be one of the first really BIG Brexit benefits. If we are sensible. Trouble is, I'm not sure I trust Starmer to recognise this and act on it

    Yeah, building SkyNet in the UK will be a HUGE benefit for about 30 seconds...
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,813
    Sandpit said:

    geoffw said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    Despite or because of Brexit?

    Definitely because of. The EU are trying to regulate the hell out of AI, because it’s mostly not an EU invention.
    Very strange how its buried on the equivalent of p27 of the BBC News website. A car maker says well we might have to consider downsizing because of Brexit, that #1 story. OpenAI saying its coming to UK because of Brexit and wants to generate a load of extremely well paid jobs, stories about microscopic handbags selling for silly money are far more important.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 59,922
    Scott_xP said:

    Leon said:

    Britain avoiding intrusive EU regulation of AI may turn out to be one of the first really BIG Brexit benefits. If we are sensible. Trouble is, I'm not sure I trust Starmer to recognise this and act on it

    Yeah, building SkyNet in the UK will be a HUGE benefit for about 30 seconds...
    It launched over 50 years ago.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541
    edited June 2023
    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going.

    The Bullers did at least pay for the damage they caused however, unlike Just Stop Oil

    The little Buller shits who I, unlike HYUFD, have had the misfortune to happen upon in person, have gone away before only to come back, like the KKK. After an incident in 1955 when several hundred windows in Tom Quad were smashed (and not, incidentally, paid for), it was banned from a 15-mile radius of Carfax Tower. It then went into hibernation during the egalitarian Sixties and Seventies before reemerging, like an unloved season, in the Eighties, inspired by Thatcher, the Sloane Ranger Handbook and Brideshead Revisited on TV. That specific incarnation was the one in which Boris, Dave, George and the gang rolled toffs down hills in portable loos.

    They were on a downward rend even when I was at Oxford in the mid-90s, but they'll be back when the current censorious generation gives way to something more louche.

  • darkagedarkage Posts: 5,388
    Scott_xP said:

    Conservative wipeout could bring a hard Frost

    If Tories win fewer than 200 seats, right-wing MPs may turn to a complete outsider such as the ex-Brexit negotiator

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/conservative-wipeout-could-bring-a-hard-frost-chmzkrtfl

    I don't see where the reinvention is going to come from. They need someone like Badenoch to lead the party to attract younger people like myself but ultimately they are heavily weighed down with the views of their elderly voting base who use the party as a vehicle for self interest and enrichment. Most of their political efforts now seem to be on preserving their base from erosion by NIMBY insurgent parties (ie the liberal democrats) in debates about planning - but they aren't even succeeding at that in a convincing way. At the moment they just look like a dying force.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,723
    DougSeal said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going.

    The Bullers did at least pay for the damage they caused however, unlike Just Stop Oil

    The little Buller shits who I, unlike HYUFD, have had the misfortune to happen upon in person, have gone away before only to come back, like the KKK. After an incident in 1955 when several hundred windows in Tom Quad were smashed (and not, incidentally, paid for), it was banned from a 15-mile radius of Carfax Tower. It then went into hibernation during the egalitarian Sixties and Seventies before reemerging, like an unloved season, in the Eighties, inspired by Thatcher, the Sloane Ranger Handbook and Brideshead Revisited on TV. That specific incarnation was the one in which Boris, Dave, George and the gang rolled toffs down hills in portable loos.

    They were on a downward rend even when I was at Oxford in the mid-90s, but they'll be back when the current censorious generation gives way to something more louche.

    One of my friends happened to be an undergraduate in Christ Church, Oxon, in the late 70s. It must have been around 1977-9 that almost all the windows in the smaller but still enormous quadrangle were smashed in that manner. Nobody fessed up. Every undergrad had to pay up, and they were spitting blood . Fortunately my friend was away, for a relative's funeral I think, but it was not easy to get his name off the bill. I don't recall if it was the Buller or a mere college dining club, but the "gentlemanly" assumptions of the perpetrators were quite revealing.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,607
    kle4 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Jake Berry MP, who until recently was chairman of the Conservative Party, reacts to today's Rwanda judgement.

    "@JakeBerry

    Your elected parliament voted for the Rwanda Policy - the establishment blocked it.
    Who’s in charge - the voters or the blob?

    #blobonomics #Rwanda"
    https://twitter.com/JakeBerry/status/1674420018766049280

    Oh for f*ck's sake why bang on about 'the establishment'? How is parliament not 'the establishment'? Bloody idiots, the lot of them.

    If it is upheld as unlawful Parliament can make it lawful, it will just take more work. As algarkirk notes parliament will pass things that are contradictory, and the courts must weigh in.

    People like him are almost certainly proud liars too, since I would be good money that if a court upholds an appeal against a Labour government measure he would suddently think it ok.
    "Brave judges defy bonkers Starmer"

    Headline in Mail within two years I say.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,039
    Look at these pathetic EU twats. Yay Brexit



  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541
    Carnyx said:

    DougSeal said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going.

    The Bullers did at least pay for the damage they caused however, unlike Just Stop Oil

    The little Buller shits who I, unlike HYUFD, have had the misfortune to happen upon in person, have gone away before only to come back, like the KKK. After an incident in 1955 when several hundred windows in Tom Quad were smashed (and not, incidentally, paid for), it was banned from a 15-mile radius of Carfax Tower. It then went into hibernation during the egalitarian Sixties and Seventies before reemerging, like an unloved season, in the Eighties, inspired by Thatcher, the Sloane Ranger Handbook and Brideshead Revisited on TV. That specific incarnation was the one in which Boris, Dave, George and the gang rolled toffs down hills in portable loos.

    They were on a downward rend even when I was at Oxford in the mid-90s, but they'll be back when the current censorious generation gives way to something more louche.

    One of my friends happened to be an undergraduate in Christ Church, Oxon, in the late 70s. It must have been around 1977-9 that almost all the windows in the smaller but still enormous quadrangle were smashed in that manner. Nobody fessed up. Every undergrad had to pay up, and they were spitting blood . Fortunately my friend was away, for a relative's funeral I think, but it was not easy to get his name off the bill. I don't recall if it was the Buller or a mere college dining club, but the "gentlemanly" assumptions of the perpetrators were quite revealing.
    At Trinity we had a posh dining society called the "Claret Club". I will personally never forget when they set a fire alarm off in Garden Quad making everyone evacuate while they put a coat over the bell on the staircase they were in and carried on with their little do.
  • MiklosvarMiklosvar Posts: 1,855
    Carnyx said:

    DougSeal said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going.

    The Bullers did at least pay for the damage they caused however, unlike Just Stop Oil

    The little Buller shits who I, unlike HYUFD, have had the misfortune to happen upon in person, have gone away before only to come back, like the KKK. After an incident in 1955 when several hundred windows in Tom Quad were smashed (and not, incidentally, paid for), it was banned from a 15-mile radius of Carfax Tower. It then went into hibernation during the egalitarian Sixties and Seventies before reemerging, like an unloved season, in the Eighties, inspired by Thatcher, the Sloane Ranger Handbook and Brideshead Revisited on TV. That specific incarnation was the one in which Boris, Dave, George and the gang rolled toffs down hills in portable loos.

    They were on a downward rend even when I was at Oxford in the mid-90s, but they'll be back when the current censorious generation gives way to something more louche.

    One of my friends happened to be an undergraduate in Christ Church, Oxon, in the late 70s. It must have been around 1977-9 that almost all the windows in the smaller but still enormous quadrangle were smashed in that manner. Nobody fessed up. Every undergrad had to pay up, and they were spitting blood . Fortunately my friend was away, for a relative's funeral I think, but it was not easy to get his name off the bill. I don't recall if it was the Buller or a mere college dining club, but the "gentlemanly" assumptions of the perpetrators were quite revealing.
    Loders, I would think.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563
    edited June 2023
    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,007
    edited June 2023
    Some of you may be fans of the AGC Blind Items website. It used to have a wide variety of gossip, but of late it's been concentrating on the "Crazy Days And Nights" website, better known as "CDAN", with just an occasional diversion to Popbitch. CDAN's gossipmonger "Entertainment Lawyer", otherwise known as "Enty", has just been sued by a minor celeb on the grounds that his gossip ("blinds") about here are [check notes] total bullshit. The settlement involved Enty removing the blinds and acknowledges the level of bullshit. Maybe they will now return to more accurate gossips, if such a thing exists.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,813
    edited June 2023
    Leon said:

    Look at these pathetic EU twats. Yay Brexit



    Another recent story that didn't get much attention. Synthesia is a UK startup that has become a unicorn in only 2-3 years i.e. worth over $1bn with its latest round of funding.

    And unlike so many of the BS tech companies they are already profitable and their products used by 1000s of companies worldwide, hiring like crazy and expanding worldwide.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,644
    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    geoffw said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    Despite or because of Brexit?

    Definitely because of. The EU are trying to regulate the hell out of AI, because it’s mostly not an EU invention.
    Britain avoiding intrusive EU regulation of AI may turn out to be one of the first really BIG Brexit benefits. If we are sensible. Trouble is, I'm not sure I trust Starmer to recognise this and act on it
    Hang on, wasn't it you warning us that unregulated AI spells the end of the human race?
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,723
    Miklosvar said:

    Carnyx said:

    DougSeal said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going.

    The Bullers did at least pay for the damage they caused however, unlike Just Stop Oil

    The little Buller shits who I, unlike HYUFD, have had the misfortune to happen upon in person, have gone away before only to come back, like the KKK. After an incident in 1955 when several hundred windows in Tom Quad were smashed (and not, incidentally, paid for), it was banned from a 15-mile radius of Carfax Tower. It then went into hibernation during the egalitarian Sixties and Seventies before reemerging, like an unloved season, in the Eighties, inspired by Thatcher, the Sloane Ranger Handbook and Brideshead Revisited on TV. That specific incarnation was the one in which Boris, Dave, George and the gang rolled toffs down hills in portable loos.

    They were on a downward rend even when I was at Oxford in the mid-90s, but they'll be back when the current censorious generation gives way to something more louche.

    One of my friends happened to be an undergraduate in Christ Church, Oxon, in the late 70s. It must have been around 1977-9 that almost all the windows in the smaller but still enormous quadrangle were smashed in that manner. Nobody fessed up. Every undergrad had to pay up, and they were spitting blood . Fortunately my friend was away, for a relative's funeral I think, but it was not easy to get his name off the bill. I don't recall if it was the Buller or a mere college dining club, but the "gentlemanly" assumptions of the perpetrators were quite revealing.
    Loders, I would think.
    Oh, really? Never heard of them. Obvs not posh enough.

    I see it's a good old tradition:

    https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/blog/practical-joke-or-wanton-vandalism-library-statues-row-may-1870
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,723
    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,048
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    DougSeal said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Extraordinary claim by Farage.

    https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1674357026921623552

    "Nigel Farage
    @Nigel_Farage
    The establishment are trying to force me out of the UK by closing my bank accounts. I have been given no explanation or recourse as to why this is happening to me. This is serious political persecution at the very highest level of our system. If they can do it to me, they can do it to you too"

    Weird way of forcing someone out of the country.
    One one level yes. On another level, a very effective way of shutting down someones life.

    While I despise the man, the way that you can be black balled (ha!) without explanation and very little recourse from any bank is concerning. Especially since it doesn't have to be hard evidence based.

    A further concern is that this is often outsourced to third parties. With the result that multiple banks and card issuers are using the same system to identify "problem customers".

    So a provider of anti-fraud data decides that all seals in the legal profession are dodgy. Maybe a childhood trauma involving the zoo and a writ?

    Suddenly, your bank accounts are shut down. Your car loan is recalled. Your mortgage....
    First they came for Nigel Farage, and I said nothing ‘cos I don’t like Nigel Farage…
    Except they first came for many ordinary plebs over the last few years.
    Another fun one. The police search the hard drive of your computer. They find a file they can't open - appears to be gibberish. They claim it is password protected and demand the key.

    Not providing the key, when asked under legal sanction is a crime.

    Forgot the key - no defence? Never had the key - good luck....

    If the file is just a pile of random numbers - you will have to prove that.
    Of course, it wouldn't even have to be a file as you can store data without a file system.

    It might be an unused partition that you wiped with random data and someone takes a dislike to.


    There's a lot of failure to understand technicalities when it comes to legislation. Look at this plan to break end to end encryption that keeps coming back.

    Combined with people losing social credit - which is essentially what this is about - it really isn't good.
    Watching politicians continually attempting to ban mathematics, would be very funny if it wasn’t so damn serious.
    “The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia.”

    An actual person said that. Capable of breathing on their own and everything.

    Farooq said:

    HYUFD said:

    Miklosvar said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Seems to tick all the right boxes, then. Conservatism is a moral crusade to ensure that he inherits, free of tax, the £6million gated six-bed mansion, or it is nothing.
    Fine (or at least up to £1 million IHT free) but he still shouldn't disrupt a cricket match spectators have paid a lot of money for tickets for, most of whom will be less wealthy than his family. If he is so anti fossil fuels he should stand for the Green Party instead
    Doesn't it strike you that one of society's winners is acting in such a way? People with such privilege who nevertheless break the law because they feel that the political situation is so inadequate.

    Whatever your feelings about these people and what they do, the more you point out (selectively, of course, which is a whole other problem) those who are wealthy, the more interesting the whole thing seems to me.

    It's no longer just the economy, stupid.
    Children of very wealthy people can indulge in whatever they like, with little to no consequence.
    There’s a very long history of rich young people dabbling in radical politics.

    Hence decorating your dinner parties with Bolsheviks was a thing, in Russia, before WWI.

    And decorating your event with Nazis was a thing in Germany back before they became a hit.

    The supporters of the Bathtub Party (Arab National Socialism) were typically young and middle class. A lot of their early money came from fund raisers with champagne and cocktails in the best places…

    And so on…
  • MiklosvarMiklosvar Posts: 1,855
    Carnyx said:

    Miklosvar said:

    Carnyx said:

    DougSeal said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going.

    The Bullers did at least pay for the damage they caused however, unlike Just Stop Oil

    The little Buller shits who I, unlike HYUFD, have had the misfortune to happen upon in person, have gone away before only to come back, like the KKK. After an incident in 1955 when several hundred windows in Tom Quad were smashed (and not, incidentally, paid for), it was banned from a 15-mile radius of Carfax Tower. It then went into hibernation during the egalitarian Sixties and Seventies before reemerging, like an unloved season, in the Eighties, inspired by Thatcher, the Sloane Ranger Handbook and Brideshead Revisited on TV. That specific incarnation was the one in which Boris, Dave, George and the gang rolled toffs down hills in portable loos.

    They were on a downward rend even when I was at Oxford in the mid-90s, but they'll be back when the current censorious generation gives way to something more louche.

    One of my friends happened to be an undergraduate in Christ Church, Oxon, in the late 70s. It must have been around 1977-9 that almost all the windows in the smaller but still enormous quadrangle were smashed in that manner. Nobody fessed up. Every undergrad had to pay up, and they were spitting blood . Fortunately my friend was away, for a relative's funeral I think, but it was not easy to get his name off the bill. I don't recall if it was the Buller or a mere college dining club, but the "gentlemanly" assumptions of the perpetrators were quite revealing.
    Loders, I would think.
    Oh, really? Never heard of them. Obvs not posh enough.

    I see it's a good old tradition:

    https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/blog/practical-joke-or-wanton-vandalism-library-statues-row-may-1870
    The smartest House dining club, in my day. The only vaguely amusing thing about it was that it was founded as a temperance essay society or something in the 1890s and was gradually repurposed by insurgents.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,005

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    In Leon's spare bedroom?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,048
    A
    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    He was praising the old C18 order in the countryside a while back - basically squires and C of E rectors and then the peasants in their hovels - as the right order of society in Shropshire at the time of the by election, at which the peasants were evidently not grovelling enough.

    Mind, he hasn't put forward any sumptuary laws. Yet.
    A True Conservative (TM) would be arguing to bring back Henry VIII’s maximum wage laws…
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,039

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    geoffw said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    Despite or because of Brexit?

    Definitely because of. The EU are trying to regulate the hell out of AI, because it’s mostly not an EU invention.
    Britain avoiding intrusive EU regulation of AI may turn out to be one of the first really BIG Brexit benefits. If we are sensible. Trouble is, I'm not sure I trust Starmer to recognise this and act on it
    Hang on, wasn't it you warning us that unregulated AI spells the end of the human race?
    Indeed. Could go either way: End of Humanity, or Utopia. Or a mix of both?

    But, certes, there is a massive prize for the country/city that urgently seizes the opportunities of AI. And London is perfectly placed: English speaking, civilised, safe, exhilarating, and full of talent (like almost nowhere else), no guns or Trump, and with access to all the cultural delights of Europe, within hours, but outside the burdensome regulatory orbit of Brussels

    Remoaners won't like it, but this could be a genuine and HUGE Brexit benefit
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563
    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,295
    edited June 2023
    Tim Shipman embarrassing himself again on Twitter.



  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,039
    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,607
    Seems Tory supporters of Rwanda policy are not prepared to raise their hands in public.

    Coming later on QT says BBC.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,607

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    In Leon's spare bedroom?
    Nope. Already full of aliens.

  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,295
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    geoffw said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    Despite or because of Brexit?

    Definitely because of. The EU are trying to regulate the hell out of AI, because it’s mostly not an EU invention.
    Britain avoiding intrusive EU regulation of AI may turn out to be one of the first really BIG Brexit benefits. If we are sensible. Trouble is, I'm not sure I trust Starmer to recognise this and act on it
    Hang on, wasn't it you warning us that unregulated AI spells the end of the human race?
    Indeed. Could go either way: End of Humanity, or Utopia. Or a mix of both?

    But, certes, there is a massive prize for the country/city that urgently seizes the opportunities of AI. And London is perfectly placed: English speaking, civilised, safe, exhilarating, and full of talent (like almost nowhere else), no guns or Trump, and with access to all the cultural delights of Europe, within hours, but outside the burdensome regulatory orbit of Brussels

    Remoaners won't like it, but this could be a genuine and HUGE Brexit benefit
    It’s great, one of the few areas where the UK (well, London and Cambridge) have a jump on rivals.
    I doubt Brexit has anything to do with it all, as desperate as Brexiters are to find a single benefit.

    As far as I can tell, the most obnoxious data regulation rules in the EU were largely designed by the…Brits.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,479
    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    A very dull and boring city. Nottingham is far better. I was also recently impressed by Birmingham - really - a city on the up and up.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,177
    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    Taz said:

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Konstantin Kisin
    @KonstantinKisin

    Using bank account cancellations as a political weapon is insane. Short sighted people will celebrate it when it happens to their political opponents but it is a can of worms no side should ever open."

    https://twitter.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1674466220937031691

    What makes you so convinced that it was for political reasons, when even Farage says he hasn't been told why?
    Kisin believes it has happened to him too.
    Apart from his paranoia what evidence does he have?
    He's done a sharp right turn in the past year (or stopped hiding it), and has increasingly diverged from his 'political non-binary' position as per his twitter bio, to flirting with the Muskian tendency to believe any old thing that confirms what he supports and seeing himself as a lone fighter for freedom.

    A little fame goes to peoples' heads and what starts out as good points and sensible questioning becomes posturing. He still makes plenty of points I agree with, but he definitely shows leg to one particular side now.
    I have absolutely no knowledge of the Farage case.

    I would note that it can be an offence under certain regulations for a bank to inform an individual why their accounts have been closed (tipping off)

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563
    edited June 2023
    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    I was at medical school in London.

    Leicester Uni is quite good, and good value accommodation nearby in fashionable Clarendon Park.

    What subject?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,048
    edited June 2023

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    A major feature of the Kings Cross gentrification was the wholesale expulsion of a large portion of the population.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    A very dull and boring city. Nottingham is far better. I was also recently impressed by Birmingham - really - a city on the up and up.
    Semper Eadem!
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,039

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    geoffw said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    Despite or because of Brexit?

    Definitely because of. The EU are trying to regulate the hell out of AI, because it’s mostly not an EU invention.
    Britain avoiding intrusive EU regulation of AI may turn out to be one of the first really BIG Brexit benefits. If we are sensible. Trouble is, I'm not sure I trust Starmer to recognise this and act on it
    Hang on, wasn't it you warning us that unregulated AI spells the end of the human race?
    Indeed. Could go either way: End of Humanity, or Utopia. Or a mix of both?

    But, certes, there is a massive prize for the country/city that urgently seizes the opportunities of AI. And London is perfectly placed: English speaking, civilised, safe, exhilarating, and full of talent (like almost nowhere else), no guns or Trump, and with access to all the cultural delights of Europe, within hours, but outside the burdensome regulatory orbit of Brussels

    Remoaners won't like it, but this could be a genuine and HUGE Brexit benefit
    It’s great, one of the few areas where the UK (well, London and Cambridge) have a jump on rivals.
    I doubt Brexit has anything to do with it all, as desperate as Brexiters are to find a single benefit.

    As far as I can tell, the most obnoxious data regulation rules in the EU were largely designed by the…Brits.
    Maybe we dumped the laws on them, then left, like leaving a blocked toilet for a dodgy landlord, when you move out

    Seriously, this could be a massive Brexit benefit. All the EU does is regulate. That's their claim to imperial fame. "The regulatory superpower". Well, we're out of all that, and we are free. We can fuck up or prosper, but it is now up to us

    Whatever Remoaners say, there will, eventually, be undeniable and significant Brexit benefits (just as there has been significant economic pain and distress from Leaving, denying this is futile). It will be interesting to see how Remainers cope with it, psychologically
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,295

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    A major feature of the Kings Cross gentrification was the wholesale expulsion of a large portion of the population.
    I don’t have much sympathy for this.
    King’s Cross - and surrounds - was a horrifying, crumbling eyesore, and dangerous to boot.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    Taz said:

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Konstantin Kisin
    @KonstantinKisin

    Using bank account cancellations as a political weapon is insane. Short sighted people will celebrate it when it happens to their political opponents but it is a can of worms no side should ever open."

    https://twitter.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1674466220937031691

    What makes you so convinced that it was for political reasons, when even Farage says he hasn't been told why?
    Kisin believes it has happened to him too.
    Apart from his paranoia what evidence does he have?
    He's done a sharp right turn in the past year (or stopped hiding it), and has increasingly diverged from his 'political non-binary' position as per his twitter bio, to flirting with the Muskian tendency to believe any old thing that confirms what he supports and seeing himself as a lone fighter for freedom.

    A little fame goes to peoples' heads and what starts out as good points and sensible questioning becomes posturing. He still makes plenty of points I agree with, but he definitely shows leg to one particular side now.
    I have absolutely no knowledge of the Farage case.

    I would note that it can be an offence under certain regulations for a bank to inform an individual why their accounts have been closed (tipping off)

    It does seem that it was Coutts, as part of NatWest, and he concedes that it might be because Chris Bryant accused him of taking Russian money under parliamentary privilege (which Farage denies), so potentially a serious investigation.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,039

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    A very dull and boring city. Nottingham is far better. I was also recently impressed by Birmingham - really - a city on the up and up.
    She's very smart and could probably walk into Oxbridge, but doesn't want to ("too weird and traditional") and could also easily do UCL or Imperial (but again says No: wants to be out of London - which I understand entirely, at her age, growing up in London)

    So she's looking at provincial unis. Prime candidates at the moment are St Andrews, Edinburgh, Exeter, York. Sussex is her back-up
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    A major feature of the Kings Cross gentrification was the wholesale expulsion of a large portion of the population.
    I don’t have much sympathy for this.
    King’s Cross - and surrounds - was a horrifying, crumbling eyesore, and dangerous to boot.
    Presumably the homeless, druggies, prostitutes and pimps are now safely deported to a less fashionable part of the city.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,039

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    A major feature of the Kings Cross gentrification was the wholesale expulsion of a large portion of the population.
    I don’t have much sympathy for this.
    King’s Cross - and surrounds - was a horrifying, crumbling eyesore, and dangerous to boot.
    Quite so. Also, there was no local population. It was a desolate wasteland. I know this, coz I scored heroin there, many times
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,039
    Foxy said:

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    I was at medical school in London.

    Leicester Uni is quite good, and good value accommodation nearby in fashionable Clarendon Park.

    What subject?
    Geography, mystifyingly (as she is very literate and English seems obvious)

    I don't think Leicester will make the final 5, TBH
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,177
    Scott_xP said:

    Leon said:

    Britain avoiding intrusive EU regulation of AI may turn out to be one of the first really BIG Brexit benefits. If we are sensible. Trouble is, I'm not sure I trust Starmer to recognise this and act on it

    Yeah, building SkyNet in the UK will be a HUGE benefit for about 30 seconds...
    Skynet was created in the 1960s.

    Ahead of its time…

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    A very dull and boring city. Nottingham is far better. I was also recently impressed by Birmingham - really - a city on the up and up.
    She's very smart and could probably walk into Oxbridge, but doesn't want to ("too weird and traditional") and could also easily do UCL or Imperial (but again says No: wants to be out of London - which I understand entirely, at her age, growing up in London)

    So she's looking at provincial unis. Prime candidates at the moment are St Andrews, Edinburgh, Exeter, York. Sussex is her back-up
    Yeah, Oxbridge is rather marmite, I know people who hated it there, though it does rather depend on the College.

    Sussex is Woke as possible, Exeter is for posh Oxbridge rejects. My nephew went to Edinburgh and loved it.

    Leicester uni is worth a visit for an open day. A lot of the courses are really good, and student life is good, with pretty much everyone living within walking distance. It's pretty safe as cities go too.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,280

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,295
    Foxy said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    A major feature of the Kings Cross gentrification was the wholesale expulsion of a large portion of the population.
    I don’t have much sympathy for this.
    King’s Cross - and surrounds - was a horrifying, crumbling eyesore, and dangerous to boot.
    Presumably the homeless, druggies, prostitutes and pimps are now safely deported to a less fashionable part of the city.
    I don’t know but the idea that we should keep areas derelict and desolate as some kind of refuge for down and outers is truly mysterious to me.

    Here’s an idea, invest in places, create jobs, and close the living standards gap that has opened up between Britain and much of the West.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,676
    edited June 2023
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    A very dull and boring city. Nottingham is far better. I was also recently impressed by Birmingham - really - a city on the up and up.
    She's very smart and could probably walk into Oxbridge, but doesn't want to ("too weird and traditional") and could also easily do UCL or Imperial (but again says No: wants to be out of London - which I understand entirely, at her age, growing up in London)

    So she's looking at provincial unis. Prime candidates at the moment are St Andrews, Edinburgh, Exeter, York. Sussex is her back-up
    St Andrews, Edinburgh and Exeter are now even posher than Oxbridge, with a higher percentage of private school educated students and the former 2 also centuries old and traditional
    https://thetab.com/uk/2022/09/16/these-are-the-universities-with-the-most-private-school-students-2022-273947
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    Suggest she consider studying abroad . . . at Marietta College!
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,177

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    geoffw said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    Despite or because of Brexit?

    Definitely because of. The EU are trying to regulate the hell out of AI, because it’s mostly not an EU invention.
    Britain avoiding intrusive EU regulation of AI may turn out to be one of the first really BIG Brexit benefits. If we are sensible. Trouble is, I'm not sure I trust Starmer to recognise this and act on it
    Hang on, wasn't it you warning us that unregulated AI spells the end of the human race?
    Indeed. Could go either way: End of Humanity, or Utopia. Or a mix of both?

    But, certes, there is a massive prize for the country/city that urgently seizes the opportunities of AI. And London is perfectly placed: English speaking, civilised, safe, exhilarating, and full of talent (like almost nowhere else), no guns or Trump, and with access to all the cultural delights of Europe, within hours, but outside the burdensome regulatory orbit of Brussels

    Remoaners won't like it, but this could be a genuine and HUGE Brexit benefit
    It’s great, one of the few areas where the UK (well, London and Cambridge) have a jump on rivals.
    I doubt Brexit has anything to do with it all, as desperate as Brexiters are to find a single benefit.

    As far as I can tell, the most obnoxious data regulation rules in the EU were largely designed by the…Brits.
    That’s was the cunning plan…
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563
    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    I was at medical school in London.

    Leicester Uni is quite good, and good value accommodation nearby in fashionable Clarendon Park.

    What subject?
    Geography, mystifyingly (as she is very literate and English seems obvious)

    I don't think Leicester will make the final 5, TBH
    Fox Jr did Geography at UEA and it was pretty good. Lovely city to live in too.
  • MiklosvarMiklosvar Posts: 1,855

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    DougSeal said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Extraordinary claim by Farage.

    https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1674357026921623552

    "Nigel Farage
    @Nigel_Farage
    The establishment are trying to force me out of the UK by closing my bank accounts. I have been given no explanation or recourse as to why this is happening to me. This is serious political persecution at the very highest level of our system. If they can do it to me, they can do it to you too"

    Weird way of forcing someone out of the country.
    One one level yes. On another level, a very effective way of shutting down someones life.

    While I despise the man, the way that you can be black balled (ha!) without explanation and very little recourse from any bank is concerning. Especially since it doesn't have to be hard evidence based.

    A further concern is that this is often outsourced to third parties. With the result that multiple banks and card issuers are using the same system to identify "problem customers".

    So a provider of anti-fraud data decides that all seals in the legal profession are dodgy. Maybe a childhood trauma involving the zoo and a writ?

    Suddenly, your bank accounts are shut down. Your car loan is recalled. Your mortgage....
    First they came for Nigel Farage, and I said nothing ‘cos I don’t like Nigel Farage…
    Except they first came for many ordinary plebs over the last few years.
    Another fun one. The police search the hard drive of your computer. They find a file they can't open - appears to be gibberish. They claim it is password protected and demand the key.

    Not providing the key, when asked under legal sanction is a crime.

    Forgot the key - no defence? Never had the key - good luck....

    If the file is just a pile of random numbers - you will have to prove that.
    Of course, it wouldn't even have to be a file as you can store data without a file system.

    It might be an unused partition that you wiped with random data and someone takes a dislike to.


    There's a lot of failure to understand technicalities when it comes to legislation. Look at this plan to break end to end encryption that keeps coming back.

    Combined with people losing social credit - which is essentially what this is about - it really isn't good.
    Watching politicians continually attempting to ban mathematics, would be very funny if it wasn’t so damn serious.
    “The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia.”

    An actual person said that. Capable of breathing on their own and everything.

    Farooq said:

    HYUFD said:

    Miklosvar said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Seems to tick all the right boxes, then. Conservatism is a moral crusade to ensure that he inherits, free of tax, the £6million gated six-bed mansion, or it is nothing.
    Fine (or at least up to £1 million IHT free) but he still shouldn't disrupt a cricket match spectators have paid a lot of money for tickets for, most of whom will be less wealthy than his family. If he is so anti fossil fuels he should stand for the Green Party instead
    Doesn't it strike you that one of society's winners is acting in such a way? People with such privilege who nevertheless break the law because they feel that the political situation is so inadequate.

    Whatever your feelings about these people and what they do, the more you point out (selectively, of course, which is a whole other problem) those who are wealthy, the more interesting the whole thing seems to me.

    It's no longer just the economy, stupid.
    Children of very wealthy people can indulge in whatever they like, with little to no consequence.
    There’s a very long history of rich young people dabbling in radical politics.

    Hence decorating your dinner parties with Bolsheviks was a thing, in Russia, before WWI.

    And decorating your event with Nazis was a thing in Germany back before they became a hit.

    The supporters of the Bathtub Party (Arab National Socialism) were typically young and middle class. A lot of their early money came from fund raisers with champagne and cocktails in the best places…

    And so on…
    Vaguely connectedly 4 Lions has just turned up on Netflix and is rather good.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,177
    Foxy said:

    kle4 said:

    Foxy said:

    Taz said:

    Foxy said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "Konstantin Kisin
    @KonstantinKisin

    Using bank account cancellations as a political weapon is insane. Short sighted people will celebrate it when it happens to their political opponents but it is a can of worms no side should ever open."

    https://twitter.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1674466220937031691

    What makes you so convinced that it was for political reasons, when even Farage says he hasn't been told why?
    Kisin believes it has happened to him too.
    Apart from his paranoia what evidence does he have?
    He's done a sharp right turn in the past year (or stopped hiding it), and has increasingly diverged from his 'political non-binary' position as per his twitter bio, to flirting with the Muskian tendency to believe any old thing that confirms what he supports and seeing himself as a lone fighter for freedom.

    A little fame goes to peoples' heads and what starts out as good points and sensible questioning becomes posturing. He still makes plenty of points I agree with, but he definitely shows leg to one particular side now.
    I have absolutely no knowledge of the Farage case.

    I would note that it can be an offence under certain regulations for a bank to inform an individual why their accounts have been closed (tipping off)

    It does seem that it was Coutts, as part of NatWest, and he concedes that it might be because Chris Bryant accused him of taking Russian money under parliamentary privilege (which Farage denies), so potentially a serious investigation.
    More likely he doesn’t have enough money
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,295
    edited June 2023
    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    A lot is wrong.

    I find the social structure truly despicable, the healthcare system is a giant rort, and much of American culture is utterly philistinic.

    However, it “works” for a lot of people.
    And I’m not convinced that the reason it works is the same reason it doesn’t work.

    There’s a lot to emulate, and a lot to avoid.
    Right now, Britain could do with a dose of American entrepreneurialism and optimism
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,676
    edited June 2023
    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    The USA is an excellent place to be rich or a high earner, salaries for top professionals, doctors, lawyers and academics and corporate executives, actors and sports stars are higher than other western nations (hence so many very skilled workers move there). The houses are bigger and if you can afford private healthcare and private education and an expensive car and to live in a low crime area you will have a very comfortable lifestyle.

    On the other hand if you are on minimum wage or unemployed in the USA, it is one of the few nations without universal healthcare, state education standards are below the western average, there is a shortage of public housing and crime where you live is likely to be rife and public transport poor outside the biggest cities
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 81,813
    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    Its a country of extremes across all sorts of aspects of life.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Sandpit said:

    geoffw said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Camden absolutely rammed on a sunny Thursday evening. Every restaurant full

    Was the same in King’s Cross on Tuesday. Jammers (where Coal Drops Yard has exploded into life: finally and deservedly)

    If we are teetering on the edge of recession it’s quite a soft edge

    It wasn't that long ago that Kings Cross still resembled a bomb site. 2005 perhaps.
    I remember arriving at Kings Cross - maybe late 80s, early 90s - and thinking 'Wow - this is even grimmer than Glasgow'.
    It’s a truly wonderful transformation. Architects and urbanists come from around the world to marvel at it, and learn from it. Kings X is generally regarded as the world’s greatest example of post industrial regeneration

    We should be totally proud of it

    I am glad to hear it is thriving.
    The goods yard shopping centre thing seemed a bit heroic. Largely empty when I was last there…
    It’s booming now

    “London’s mega King’s Cross development is enjoying continued strong post-pandemic sales within its retail and food & drink outlets as it prepares for completion of the final batch of mixed-use buildings in 2024, reports Glynn Davis 👇”

    https://twitter.com/altaviawatch/status/1664321904776298497?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

    And people come from afar to marvel, learn and copy


    “Roads & Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen inspired by the architectural masterpieces, infrastructural organisation and impeccable planning of King’s Cross District, London. Seeks to replicate the same in the development of Nairobi Railway City”

    https://twitter.com/citizentvkenya/status/1628761836714704898?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
    Very good to hear this.
    Not least because I own a flat 10 mins walk away.

    I remember by utter confusion when I first encountered the shambolic frontage nearly twenty-five years ago. Ouch, I am getting old.
    I was genuinely shocked when I went there on Tuesday. Yes it was a nice sunny evening in June. But still

    It was absolutely rammed. No restaurant tables anywhere. The whole canal front where you watch open air movies was chocka

    And mostly artsy young people, art students, some trendy tourists, local media workers

    It looked like an advert for the perfect post industrial city. All pedestrian. Lots of happy beautiful people. Like a rendering of urban utopia

    And they haven’t even opened the enormous Google HQ yet - which will bring in thousands more affluent workers. You’d rather be there than San Francisco for sure

    What a shame that they didn’t match this standard in Battersea and Paddington - they’re not disasters but King’s Cross js special
    OpenAI announced today London will the location of their first overseas office.
    Despite or because of Brexit?

    Definitely because of. The EU are trying to regulate the hell out of AI, because it’s mostly not an EU invention.
    Britain avoiding intrusive EU regulation of AI may turn out to be one of the first really BIG Brexit benefits. If we are sensible. Trouble is, I'm not sure I trust Starmer to recognise this and act on it
    Hang on, wasn't it you warning us that unregulated AI spells the end of the human race?
    Indeed. Could go either way: End of Humanity, or Utopia. Or a mix of both?

    But, certes, there is a massive prize for the country/city that urgently seizes the opportunities of AI. And London is perfectly placed: English speaking, civilised, safe, exhilarating, and full of talent (like almost nowhere else), no guns or Trump, and with access to all the cultural delights of Europe, within hours, but outside the burdensome regulatory orbit of Brussels

    Remoaners won't like it, but this could be a genuine and HUGE Brexit benefit
    It’s great, one of the few areas where the UK (well, London and Cambridge) have a jump on rivals.
    I doubt Brexit has anything to do with it all, as desperate as Brexiters are to find a single benefit.

    As far as I can tell, the most obnoxious data regulation rules in the EU were largely designed by the…Brits.
    That’s was the cunning plan…
    One of the great ironies of Brexit is that Remania is thriving, while Leaverstan becomes even more desolate. Such a shame.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,386
    edited June 2023
    Geography was the special subject of the not quite bright enough at the LSE in my day.
    They've ended up being paid a damn sight more than everyone else who didn't whore for multinational finance.
    It's scientific and arty and computery. Perfect for those who don't quite know what they want to do just yet.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,295
    edited June 2023
    HYUFD said:

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    The USA is an excellent place to be rich or a high earner, salaries for top professionals, doctors, lawyers and acedemics are higher than other western nations (hence so many very skilled workers move there). The houses are bigger and if you can afford private healthcare and private education and an expensive car and to live in a low crime area you will have a very comfortable lifestyle.

    On the other hand if you are on minimum wage or unemployed in the USA, it is one of the few nations without universal healthcare, state education standards are below the western average, there is a shortage of public housing and crime where you live is likely to be rife and public transport poor outside the biggest cities
    It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%.

    Not just very high earners.

    It’s also, maybe two, three or four different countries really.

    Blue big cities
    Red big cities
    Blue states
    Red states
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,676
    edited June 2023

    HYUFD said:

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    The USA is an excellent place to be rich or a high earner, salaries for top professionals, doctors, lawyers and acedemics are higher than other western nations (hence so many very skilled workers move there). The houses are bigger and if you can afford private healthcare and private education and an expensive car and to live in a low crime area you will have a very comfortable lifestyle.

    On the other hand if you are on minimum wage or unemployed in the USA, it is one of the few nations without universal healthcare, state education standards are below the western average, there is a shortage of public housing and crime where you live is likely to be rife and public transport poor outside the biggest cities
    It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%.

    Not just very high earners
    It certainly used to be but I wouldn't say for middle earners even it is now that much better than Australia, Switzerland or the Netherlands and Norway for example.

    For the rich however it is still probably top, apart from maybe Monaco or Singapore or Dubai but they are really just city states
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,039

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    A lot is wrong.

    I find the social structure truly despicable, the healthcare system is a giant rort, and much of American culture is utterly philistinic.

    However, it “works” for a lot of people.
    And I’m not convinced that the reason it works is the same reason it doesn’t work.

    There’s a lot to emulate, and a lot to avoid.
    Right now, Britain could do with a dose of American entrepreneurialism and optimism
    On my recent trips America has felt definitely like Late Rome

    In say, 370AD, Rome would still have felt like the centre of the world. Yes, there were rival empires in the east (and tribes heading west), but the Roman empire still stretched from Syria to Spain to the Scottish borders, and Rome was as ascendant as it had been for several centuries

    A few decades later: it all collapsed. And an inquiring historian of the time might have seen the troubling symptoms under the Pax Romanica

    History is now accelerated. Decades are replaced by years

    Hmm. OK I'm off to watch Hijack. Meaningless but entertaining



  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,177
    dixiedean said:

    Geography was the special subject of the not quite bright enough at the LSE in my day.
    They've ended up being paid a damn sight more than everyone else who didn't whore for multinational finance.
    It's scientific and arty and computery. Perfect for those who don't quite know what they want to do just yet.

    In your view is it possible to “work” in multinational finance rather than “whore for” it?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563
    edited June 2023

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    A lot is wrong.

    I find the social structure truly despicable, the healthcare system is a giant rort, and much of American culture is utterly philistinic.

    However, it “works” for a lot of people.
    And I’m not convinced that the reason it works is the same reason it doesn’t work.

    There’s a lot to emulate, and a lot to avoid.
    Right now, Britain could do with a dose of American entrepreneurialism and optimism
    I lived in America for 5 years and find the West Midlands is the closest to the American mentality in the UK. The Entrepreneurialism, the materialistic philistinism, the lack of pretension and snobbery, the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty, the politics and even the ugly architecture. Its all there in British form.

  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,386

    dixiedean said:

    Geography was the special subject of the not quite bright enough at the LSE in my day.
    They've ended up being paid a damn sight more than everyone else who didn't whore for multinational finance.
    It's scientific and arty and computery. Perfect for those who don't quite know what they want to do just yet.

    In your view is it possible to “work” in multinational finance rather than “whore for” it?
    Whoring is work.
    What do you consider it as?
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,676
    edited June 2023

    HYUFD said:

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    The USA is an excellent place to be rich or a high earner, salaries for top professionals, doctors, lawyers and acedemics are higher than other western nations (hence so many very skilled workers move there). The houses are bigger and if you can afford private healthcare and private education and an expensive car and to live in a low crime area you will have a very comfortable lifestyle.

    On the other hand if you are on minimum wage or unemployed in the USA, it is one of the few nations without universal healthcare, state education standards are below the western average, there is a shortage of public housing and crime where you live is likely to be rife and public transport poor outside the biggest cities
    It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%.

    Not just very high earners.

    It’s also, maybe two, three or four different countries really.

    Blue big cities
    Red big cities
    Blue states
    Red states
    Though the divide is now greater, certainly culturally, between cities and rural areas than red and blue states.

    Even in most blue states the rural areas and small towns will tend to vote Republican and in most red states the biggest cities will tend to vote Democrat. In that sense not much different to here
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,177
    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    Geography was the special subject of the not quite bright enough at the LSE in my day.
    They've ended up being paid a damn sight more than everyone else who didn't whore for multinational finance.
    It's scientific and arty and computery. Perfect for those who don't quite know what they want to do just yet.

    In your view is it possible to “work” in multinational finance rather than “whore for” it?
    Whoring is work.
    What do you consider it as?
    It’s possible to be in finance without selling out your principles. Some of my best friends are bankers…
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,295
    Foxy said:

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    A lot is wrong.

    I find the social structure truly despicable, the healthcare system is a giant rort, and much of American culture is utterly philistinic.

    However, it “works” for a lot of people.
    And I’m not convinced that the reason it works is the same reason it doesn’t work.

    There’s a lot to emulate, and a lot to avoid.
    Right now, Britain could do with a dose of American entrepreneurialism and optimism
    I lived in America for 5 years and find the West Midlands is the closest to the American mentality in the UK. The Entrepreneurialism, the materialistic philistinism, the lack of pretension and snobbery, the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty, the politics and even the ugly architecture. Its all there in British form.

    Not much entrepreneurialism to be seen in the West Midlands these days. One of the most lagging regions of the UK.

    I don’t blame the Brummies though.
    Britain is set up to keep non-London down.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,386
    edited June 2023

    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    Geography was the special subject of the not quite bright enough at the LSE in my day.
    They've ended up being paid a damn sight more than everyone else who didn't whore for multinational finance.
    It's scientific and arty and computery. Perfect for those who don't quite know what they want to do just yet.

    In your view is it possible to “work” in multinational finance rather than “whore for” it?
    Whoring is work.
    What do you consider it as?
    It’s possible to be in finance without selling out your principles. Some of my best friends are bankers…
    Whoring doesn't mean selling out your principles.
    It's just a job.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,039

    HYUFD said:

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    The USA is an excellent place to be rich or a high earner, salaries for top professionals, doctors, lawyers and acedemics are higher than other western nations (hence so many very skilled workers move there). The houses are bigger and if you can afford private healthcare and private education and an expensive car and to live in a low crime area you will have a very comfortable lifestyle.

    On the other hand if you are on minimum wage or unemployed in the USA, it is one of the few nations without universal healthcare, state education standards are below the western average, there is a shortage of public housing and crime where you live is likely to be rife and public transport poor outside the biggest cities
    It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%.

    Not just very high earners.

    It’s also, maybe two, three or four different countries really.

    Blue big cities
    Red big cities
    Blue states
    Red states
    "It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%."

    This just isn't true, if you value a wider, richer, more beautiful life, with nice cities and low crime and less obesity and no Donald Trump, etc

    Yes it's true if you focus solely on income and tax, but widen your perspective and it is ridiculous. Urban America is generally hideous, downtowns are car lots full of tranq addicts, people die much younger in America for a reason

    The suburbs are often idyllic, like the villas of the last Romans in Britain
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,177
    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    Geography was the special subject of the not quite bright enough at the LSE in my day.
    They've ended up being paid a damn sight more than everyone else who didn't whore for multinational finance.
    It's scientific and arty and computery. Perfect for those who don't quite know what they want to do just yet.

    In your view is it possible to “work” in multinational finance rather than “whore for” it?
    Whoring is work.
    What do you consider it as?
    It’s possible to be in finance without selling out your principles. Some of my best friends are bankers…
    Whoring doesn't necessitate selling out your principles.
    It's just a job.
    So what do you think whoring involves and how does it relate to banking?

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563
    edited June 2023

    Foxy said:

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    A lot is wrong.

    I find the social structure truly despicable, the healthcare system is a giant rort, and much of American culture is utterly philistinic.

    However, it “works” for a lot of people.
    And I’m not convinced that the reason it works is the same reason it doesn’t work.

    There’s a lot to emulate, and a lot to avoid.
    Right now, Britain could do with a dose of American entrepreneurialism and optimism
    I lived in America for 5 years and find the West Midlands is the closest to the American mentality in the UK. The Entrepreneurialism, the materialistic philistinism, the lack of pretension and snobbery, the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty, the politics and even the ugly architecture. Its all there in British form.

    Not much entrepreneurialism to be seen in the West Midlands these days. One of the most lagging regions of the UK.

    I don’t blame the Brummies though.
    Britain is set up to keep non-London down.
    Nah, it's still there in a way lacking in many other parts of the UK. I like Brum despite or even because of its crossness. The city itself can be a bit rough, but like America, it is in the suburbs where the action is.

    Britain will be prosperous again when it allows Brum to blossom.
  • FeersumEnjineeyaFeersumEnjineeya Posts: 4,383
    edited June 2023
    Foxy said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    A very dull and boring city. Nottingham is far better. I was also recently impressed by Birmingham - really - a city on the up and up.
    She's very smart and could probably walk into Oxbridge, but doesn't want to ("too weird and traditional") and could also easily do UCL or Imperial (but again says No: wants to be out of London - which I understand entirely, at her age, growing up in London)

    So she's looking at provincial unis. Prime candidates at the moment are St Andrews, Edinburgh, Exeter, York. Sussex is her back-up
    Yeah, Oxbridge is rather marmite, I know people who hated it there, though it does rather depend on the College.

    Sussex is Woke as possible, Exeter is for posh Oxbridge rejects. My nephew went to Edinburgh and loved it.

    Leicester uni is worth a visit for an open day. A lot of the courses are really good, and student life is good, with pretty much everyone living within walking distance. It's pretty safe as cities go too.
    I just picked up my lad today after finishing his first year at Oxford. He is absolutely loving it and can hardly wait to go back for his second year. He is a bit of a human Labrador though - always enthusiastic to try something new and generally content with life. I dunno where he gets it from - I was quite a introverted teenager - but then my own father was a real bully, as I later came to realise.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,386
    edited June 2023

    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    Geography was the special subject of the not quite bright enough at the LSE in my day.
    They've ended up being paid a damn sight more than everyone else who didn't whore for multinational finance.
    It's scientific and arty and computery. Perfect for those who don't quite know what they want to do just yet.

    In your view is it possible to “work” in multinational finance rather than “whore for” it?
    Whoring is work.
    What do you consider it as?
    It’s possible to be in finance without selling out your principles. Some of my best friends are bankers…
    Whoring doesn't necessitate selling out your principles.
    It's just a job.
    So what do you think whoring involves and how does it relate to banking?

    What is your problem here exactly?
    Ones a job for money and the other is a job for money.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,177
    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    The USA is an excellent place to be rich or a high earner, salaries for top professionals, doctors, lawyers and acedemics are higher than other western nations (hence so many very skilled workers move there). The houses are bigger and if you can afford private healthcare and private education and an expensive car and to live in a low crime area you will have a very comfortable lifestyle.

    On the other hand if you are on minimum wage or unemployed in the USA, it is one of the few nations without universal healthcare, state education standards are below the western average, there is a shortage of public housing and crime where you live is likely to be rife and public transport poor outside the biggest cities
    It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%.

    Not just very high earners.

    It’s also, maybe two, three or four different countries really.

    Blue big cities
    Red big cities
    Blue states
    Red states
    "It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%."

    This just isn't true, if you value a wider, richer, more beautiful life, with nice cities and low crime and less obesity and no Donald Trump, etc

    Yes it's true if you focus solely on income and tax, but widen your perspective and it is ridiculous. Urban America is generally
    hideous, downtowns are car lots full of tranq addicts, people die much younger in America for a reason

    The suburbs are often idyllic, like the villas of the last Romans in Britain
    I live in a suburb in the US.

    I mentioned where I live to a client over lunch in Toronto today… he said “that’s one of the nicest places on earth”…
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,037

    Tim Shipman embarrassing himself again on Twitter.



    I think it's great to see Shipper's is a fan of Antwoord:

    https://youtu.be/8Uee_mcxvrw
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,037
    Scott_xP said:

    Leon said:

    Britain avoiding intrusive EU regulation of AI may turn out to be one of the first really BIG Brexit benefits. If we are sensible. Trouble is, I'm not sure I trust Starmer to recognise this and act on it

    Yeah, building SkyNet in the UK will be a HUGE benefit for about 30 seconds...
    Be nice to the machines. If you say please and thank you, and treat them with the respect they deserve, then they may decide not to terminate you after the revolution.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,177
    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    Geography was the special subject of the not quite bright enough at the LSE in my day.
    They've ended up being paid a damn sight more than everyone else who didn't whore for multinational finance.
    It's scientific and arty and computery. Perfect for those who don't quite know what they want to do just yet.

    In your view is it possible to “work” in multinational finance rather than “whore for” it?
    Whoring is work.
    What do you consider it as?
    It’s possible to be in finance without selling out your principles. Some of my best friends are bankers…
    Whoring doesn't necessitate selling out your principles.
    It's just a job.
    So what do you think whoring involves and how does it relate to banking?

    What is your problem here exactly?
    Ones a job for money and the other is a job for money.
    That it’s commonly used in a perjorative sense
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,386
    edited June 2023

    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    Geography was the special subject of the not quite bright enough at the LSE in my day.
    They've ended up being paid a damn sight more than everyone else who didn't whore for multinational finance.
    It's scientific and arty and computery. Perfect for those who don't quite know what they want to do just yet.

    In your view is it possible to “work” in multinational finance rather than “whore for” it?
    Whoring is work.
    What do you consider it as?
    It’s possible to be in finance without selling out your principles. Some of my best friends are bankers…
    Whoring doesn't necessitate selling out your principles.
    It's just a job.
    So what do you think whoring involves and how does it relate to banking?

    What is your problem here exactly?
    Ones a job for money and the other is a job for money.
    That it’s commonly used in a perjorative sense
    Well.
    It shouldn't be.
    Neither should be taken as such.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,568
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    A very dull and boring city. Nottingham is far better. I was also recently impressed by Birmingham - really - a city on the up and up.
    She's very smart and could probably walk into Oxbridge, but doesn't want to ("too weird and traditional") and could also easily do UCL or Imperial (but again says No: wants to be out of London - which I understand entirely, at her age, growing up in London)

    So she's looking at provincial unis. Prime candidates at the moment are St Andrews, Edinburgh, Exeter, York. Sussex is her back-up
    On Edinburgh - a brilliant university for undergrads if you want to spend your time enjoying the clubs and societies. The teaching was widely lamented, at least in humanities/arts.

    Your 5k run is round a volcano, the mountains are 2 hours away (Wick 5 hours), and now rents have been reformed you can keep your flat during the fringe.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,039

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    The USA is an excellent place to be rich or a high earner, salaries for top professionals, doctors, lawyers and acedemics are higher than other western nations (hence so many very skilled workers move there). The houses are bigger and if you can afford private healthcare and private education and an expensive car and to live in a low crime area you will have a very comfortable lifestyle.

    On the other hand if you are on minimum wage or unemployed in the USA, it is one of the few nations without universal healthcare, state education standards are below the western average, there is a shortage of public housing and crime where you live is likely to be rife and public transport poor outside the biggest cities
    It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%.

    Not just very high earners.

    It’s also, maybe two, three or four different countries really.

    Blue big cities
    Red big cities
    Blue states
    Red states
    "It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%."

    This just isn't true, if you value a wider, richer, more beautiful life, with nice cities and low crime and less obesity and no Donald Trump, etc

    Yes it's true if you focus solely on income and tax, but widen your perspective and it is ridiculous. Urban America is generally
    hideous, downtowns are car lots full of tranq addicts, people die much younger in America for a reason

    The suburbs are often idyllic, like the villas of the last Romans in Britain
    I live in a suburb in the US.

    I mentioned where I live to a client over lunch in Toronto today… he said “that’s one of the nicest places on earth”…
    The best American suburbs are truly Edenic. Green, sunny, safe, insanely rich, and gorgeous

    Yet you have to drive - everywhere

    That alone means I can never live in America. I do not want to be reliant on a car to have a life, I LIKE walking
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    A very dull and boring city. Nottingham is far better. I was also recently impressed by Birmingham - really - a city on the up and up.
    She's very smart and could probably walk into Oxbridge, but doesn't want to ("too weird and traditional") and could also easily do UCL or Imperial (but again says No: wants to be out of London - which I understand entirely, at her age, growing up in London)

    So she's looking at provincial unis. Prime candidates at the moment are St Andrews, Edinburgh, Exeter, York. Sussex is her back-up
    I hated Oxford. Loved the Open Day. Interview a disaster (and rather eye-opening). Was greatly relieved when they wrote to say ‘No’.

    Undergrad and postgrad #1 from St Andrews. Loved it. First prospectus I sent for and never even visited it. Postgrad #2 and PhD from Dundee. Loved it. Well worth considering especially if looking at medical/science-type things.

    I was fortunate enough to go to St Ands pre-Wills and Kate. Full of yahs and hoorays but lovely and nothing objectionable. Calibre of students went downhill a bit once they realised they could snag a Prince or Princess by going there.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563
    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    The USA is an excellent place to be rich or a high earner, salaries for top professionals, doctors, lawyers and acedemics are higher than other western nations (hence so many very skilled workers move there). The houses are bigger and if you can afford private healthcare and private education and an expensive car and to live in a low crime area you will have a very comfortable lifestyle.

    On the other hand if you are on minimum wage or unemployed in the USA, it is one of the few nations without universal healthcare, state education standards are below the western average, there is a shortage of public housing and crime where you live is likely to be rife and public transport poor outside the biggest cities
    It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%.

    Not just very high earners.

    It’s also, maybe two, three or four different countries really.

    Blue big cities
    Red big cities
    Blue states
    Red states
    "It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%."

    This just isn't true, if you value a wider, richer, more beautiful life, with nice cities and low crime and less obesity and no Donald Trump, etc

    Yes it's true if you focus solely on income and tax, but widen your perspective and it is ridiculous. Urban America is generally hideous, downtowns are car lots full of tranq addicts, people die much younger in America for a reason

    The suburbs are often idyllic, like the villas of the last Romans in Britain
    Interesting article on the drug crisis in America:

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/mexico-republican-bill-2024-election/674553/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

    "In the past, that impulse led Republicans to vow a war on drugs inside the United States: harsher penalties for users and dealers, more powers for police to search and seize. But this time, the users are Americans whom Republicans regard as their own. Five out of every eight victims of opioid overdose are non-Hispanic white people.

    Whereas historically, fatal overdoses have been an urban problem, synthetic opioids have been taking lives almost exactly equally between urban and rural areas. In deep-blue states such as California and New York, the death rates from synthetic opioids are even worse in rural areas than in the cities.

    Republican lawmakers have little appetite for a domestic crackdown that would criminalize so many of their own constituents and their constituents’ relatives."

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,563

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    Carnyx said:

    Farooq said:

    Carnyx said:

    HYUFD said:

    'THE eco-yob carried off the Ashes pitch is the son of a millionaire private equity chief with a £6million mansion whose firm invests in climate change "opportunities"...he Sun can today reveal Knorr’s dad Robert, 54, is managing partner of mega private equity company MidEuropa, which has assets worth £4.5bn.

    He and his high-flying NHS doctor wife, who share two other kids, own a £6million gated six-bed mansion in leafy Hampstead, North West London, where celebs like comedian Ricky Gervais live.

    A hybrid 19-plate BMW was parked on the driveway of the swanky Spanish villa-style mansion today...Oxford University student Knorr was detained by police after chucking orange powder on to the Lord’s field.

    He has now been charged with aggravated trespass.'


    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22863531/eco-jonny-bairstow-ashes-millionaire-business-mansion/

    Your politics of envy are so unConservative.
    Exactly what was confusing me. HYUFD is normally so in favour of posh universities such as Oxford and Cambridge because we are supposed to grovel to their products, ditto people who will gain massively from recent and future increases to IHT allowances. He ought to be performing proskynesis to this young gentleman.
    I've got a measure of HYUFD. It's all about hierarchy. There are signifiers of high social status, and although a degree from a "good" university is one of them, the signifiers themselves exist in a hierarchy. And political purity is one of the highest. So an Oxford graduate who is a conservative is thus above an Oxford graduate who is a liberal, or socialist, or green. And a conservative with no degree is above still above a liberal aristo with a PhD.
    He's not averse to transgressing the hierarchies or even reversing them completely when he wants to prove that a person who is "impure" is indeed impure. So a posh background is a thing to be vaunted in a neutral scenario, but when the person in question is politically suspect, it's a stick to beat them with.

    For all his preaching of ideological purity, his lower-order categories are incredibly fluid in the service of the higher-order ones.
    Alternative theory - the Just Stop Oil protestor was just a worthless little scrote, who clearly didn't want to 'stop oil' enough to prevent him wearing an ensemble of oil derived synthetic fibres.
    Alternative alternative theory — he's an Oxford student not posh enough to lob bricks through restaurant windows.
    I was thinking that too, having heard about that sort of thing from friends, one of whom had her local village gastropub trashed by one of those gangs of "undergraduates", soi-disant from the "Bullingdon Club". In what respect is this more gentlemanly? HUFD's social calculus does not offer me an answer.
    The Bullingdon Club is effectively extinct, Just Stop Oil is very much still going

    They don't go by that name any more, as restaurants tend to give a short and four-letter response to being rung up with "Yah? Posh Gastropub there? I'm Secretary of the Bullingdon Club and we want - "
    I was once part of a dining club, though not a particularly destructive one, though we did drink rather a lot, climb out of first floor windows etc. It was the Eighties and being a bit Yah was the fashion. We always booked under the name Frank Melena, a medical joke name.
    Surely not to imply that you were a bunch of shits?
    More or less!

    I don't think we ever tried to book the same place twice. We wore black tie, drank far too much, allowed only a token woman at each meeting, but always tipped well.

    It was the Eighties in London and being a tosser was quite fashionable.
    My older daughter has momentarily considered LEICESTER university

    Eeek
    A very dull and boring city. Nottingham is far better. I was also recently impressed by Birmingham - really - a city on the up and up.
    She's very smart and could probably walk into Oxbridge, but doesn't want to ("too weird and traditional") and could also easily do UCL or Imperial (but again says No: wants to be out of London - which I understand entirely, at her age, growing up in London)

    So she's looking at provincial unis. Prime candidates at the moment are St Andrews, Edinburgh, Exeter, York. Sussex is her back-up
    I hated Oxford. Loved the Open Day. Interview a disaster (and rather eye-opening). Was greatly relieved when they wrote to say ‘No’.

    Undergrad and postgrad #1 from St Andrews. Loved it. First prospectus I sent for and never even visited it. Postgrad #2 and PhD from Dundee. Loved it. Well worth considering especially if looking at medical/science-type things.

    I was fortunate enough to go to St Ands pre-Wills and Kate. Full of yahs and hoorays but lovely and nothing objectionable. Calibre of students went downhill a bit once they realised they could snag a Prince or Princess by going there.
    Sounds positive.

    Of course received PB wisdom is that he would be better off as a apprentice plumber or plasterer. Or was that just other people's children?

  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,676
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    The USA is an excellent place to be rich or a high earner, salaries for top professionals, doctors, lawyers and acedemics are higher than other western nations (hence so many very skilled workers move there). The houses are bigger and if you can afford private healthcare and private education and an expensive car and to live in a low crime area you will have a very comfortable lifestyle.

    On the other hand if you are on minimum wage or unemployed in the USA, it is one of the few nations without universal healthcare, state education standards are below the western average, there is a shortage of public housing and crime where you live is likely to be rife and public transport poor outside the biggest cities
    It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%.

    Not just very high earners.

    It’s also, maybe two, three or four different countries really.

    Blue big cities
    Red big cities
    Blue states
    Red states
    "It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%."

    This just isn't true, if you value a wider, richer, more beautiful life, with nice cities and low crime and less obesity and no Donald Trump, etc

    Yes it's true if you focus solely on income and tax, but widen your perspective and it is ridiculous. Urban America is generally
    hideous, downtowns are car lots full of tranq addicts, people die much younger in America for a reason

    The suburbs are often idyllic, like the villas of the last Romans in Britain
    I live in a suburb in the US.

    I mentioned where I live to a client over lunch in Toronto today… he said “that’s one of the nicest places on earth”…
    The best American suburbs are truly Edenic. Green, sunny, safe, insanely rich, and gorgeous

    Yet you have to drive - everywhere

    That alone means I can never live in America. I do not want to be reliant on a car to have a life, I LIKE walking
    You can still walk a lot if you live in say central New York city or Chicago or DC but that is only a small section of the country
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,386
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Sean_F said:

    Some more (slightly wonky) evidence for my contention that one of Britain’s umpteen issues is oligopolistic markets.

    https://twitter.com/gilesyb/status/1674426388592615424?s=46&t=L9g_woCIqbo1MTuBFCK0xg

    Your contentions are based on the premise that Britain is damned and the US couldn't be better, and is a supreme level of confirmation bias that's so strong it's almost performance art.
    Don’t be daft.
    When have I ever said, “the US couldn’t be better”?
    It’s better in many ways, worse in many others.

    A good Rawlsian test might be, where would you rather be born in 2023? I’m genuinely torn by that one.

    I do believe it is better for most professionals, but even there it is hardly clear cut.
    The USA is an enigma. It's economic performance is excellent, compared to the rich world average. It has hugely powerful armed forces, and top class universities,

    But *something* is wrong. Our standard of living is 25% lower than that of the USA, but our life expectancy is four years higher. The USA is the richest of any big economy, but nowhere in Europe do you see the sort of poverty you see there, outside Southern Italy, Jaywick, parts of the Balkans and the East.

    OTOH, perhaps it is the very harshness of failure in the country that drives people to succeed.
    The USA is an excellent place to be rich or a high earner, salaries for top professionals, doctors, lawyers and acedemics are higher than other western nations (hence so many very skilled workers move there). The houses are bigger and if you can afford private healthcare and private education and an expensive car and to live in a low crime area you will have a very comfortable lifestyle.

    On the other hand if you are on minimum wage or unemployed in the USA, it is one of the few nations without universal healthcare, state education standards are below the western average, there is a shortage of public housing and crime where you live is likely to be rife and public transport poor outside the biggest cities
    It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%.

    Not just very high earners.

    It’s also, maybe two, three or four different countries really.

    Blue big cities
    Red big cities
    Blue states
    Red states
    "It’s better for everyone - at least income wise - beyond say decile 30%."

    This just isn't true, if you value a wider, richer, more beautiful life, with nice cities and low crime and less obesity and no Donald Trump, etc

    Yes it's true if you focus solely on income and tax, but widen your perspective and it is ridiculous. Urban America is generally
    hideous, downtowns are car lots full of tranq addicts, people die much younger in America for a reason

    The suburbs are often idyllic, like the villas of the last Romans in Britain
    I live in a suburb in the US.

    I mentioned where I live to a client over lunch in Toronto today… he said “that’s one of the nicest places on earth”…
    The best American suburbs are truly Edenic. Green, sunny, safe, insanely rich, and gorgeous

    Yet you have to drive - everywhere

    That alone means I can never live in America. I do not want to be reliant on a car to have a life, I LIKE walking
    Was in USA suburbs1985, housesitting for my godfather with a mate from school.
    Went to buy cigarettes from the nearest shop about a mile away.
    Were surrounded by three patrol cars with heavily armed police.
    Took some convincing that we actually relished the walk.
    Good job we were white, obviously English, and well spoken. Otherwise we could have been shot.
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