I think the point on reallocating roadspace is that motor vehicles have had all of it for half a century, so that is where it is coming back from as we rebalance priorities to give individuals choice in how they travel. And inevitably there will be bit of a backlash from those attached to, or benefitting from, the legacy forms of transport.
Yet we wonder why the cycling enthusiasts come across as primarily anti-car rather than pro-bike.
If you want to improve cycling provision then it needs to be *new* roadway, not “repurposing” the existing road to make driving more difficult.
Pro-bike is pro-car. It's not a zero-sum game.
Wanting to increase taxes on cars, and wanting to reduce the number of lanes available to them, are both very much anti-car.
It’s not a zero-sum game if you’re adding *new* roads.
Not necessarily. Bikes take up less road space. So if you shift some people to bikes from cars, there will be more road per car even without building new roads.
What's everyone's thoughts on the Fitch downgrade for US Debt from AAA to AA+. Ol' Sec & ex Fed reserve head Yellen isn't happy !
viewcode, get the fuck in here.
I'm working. Go away. Possible range of outcomes vary from a five-minute blip on the radar to the downfall of Western civilization as we know it and a rise in canned food and shotgun futures.
[OK, I had a brief look at the statement. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yelland's response was i) it isn't a problem, and ii) even if it is we don't deserve this, and iii) even if we do why didn't you do it to the other guy huh? Huh?
Which does not inspire confidence.
The problem is the same as the UK: during the neoliberal consensus money could not be raised by tax because TAX BAD and instead was raised by debt via various instruments that I don't pretend to understand. So debt has been building up and things are ratcheting downwards over time, with the Fitch downgrade merely the latest ratchet. We'll pass a threshold at some point and I would be really glad if I knew where that was]
I think the point on reallocating roadspace is that motor vehicles have had all of it for half a century, so that is where it is coming back from as we rebalance priorities to give individuals choice in how they travel. And inevitably there will be bit of a backlash from those attached to, or benefitting from, the legacy forms of transport.
Yet we wonder why the cycling enthusiasts come across as primarily anti-car rather than pro-bike.
If you want to improve cycling provision then it needs to be *new* roadway, not “repurposing” the existing road to make driving more difficult.
Pro-bike is pro-car. It's not a zero-sum game.
I still like my scheme to dig the A4/M4, within London, into the ground, using a tunnelling shield, Marc Brunel style.
Put all the ugly shit below ground. Shops, house and nice cycle way on the surface when you are done.
It would be paid for by the property created, and the increase in the value of the properties within 100 yards of the road....
Riding on Crossrail at the weekend I marvelled at how them managed to thread the running tunnels through all of the existing infrastructure. In several places the clearance is *tight*. How much more subterranean infrastructure could be added is debatable.
"The girl put the skirt neatly beside her shirt, opened the string bag, took out an old soda–water bottle containing some heavy colourless liquid and went over to the man and knelt on the grass beside him. She poured some of the liquid, a light olive oil, scented, as was everything in that part of the world, with roses..."
Newsflash: I am one of the many cyclists who make up the supposedly 10,000/day bikes along the Embankment. Absolutely tipping it down today and I had only half the right clothes. And even when I'm suited up days like these are miserable on a bike.
When people advocate for increased cycle usage in the UK they really do need to do it in conjunction with the British Meteorogical Office and a cold hard (and wet) dose of reality. They need to understand that a huge number of people are simply not going to get on a bike in these or, frankly, any other conditions.
Oh here we go!
I had a look at the cycle stats for Amsterdam and they hardly vary with weather. In Edinburgh, on a monthly basis, there isn't much seasonal variation either.
We shouldn't have started from there but that's all we have.
Trying to get the UK to be a cycling culture = trying to get the UK to be a cafe culture.
Ain't gonna happen.
Why? Is the weather and topography of the London estuary so very different from Amsterdam? Or Paris, for that matter?
Thanks to Stuart in Romford for finding thos fantastic graphs:
But look at how people actually get around at the moment:
If your cycling provision is made at the expense of existing road provision, that just pisses off the motorists.
Except perhaps in central London, no-one is going to be cycling 10 miles to work in the rain and cold when they have a car in the drive.
As with ULEZ, there need to be more carrots and fewer sticks. The people need to feel that they are being brought along, rather than these things being done to them against their will.
According to that chart upthread, 80% of the country live in urban conurbations, so the 10 miles thing seems a bit of a red herring.
London has a medieval road pattern, and the carriageways are not very wide. But even so, not enough space is given over to pedestrians or cyclists.
I think the point on reallocating roadspace is that motor vehicles have had all of it for half a century, so that is where it is coming back from as we rebalance priorities to give individuals choice in how they travel. And inevitably there will be bit of a backlash from those attached to, or benefitting from, the legacy forms of transport.
The remorseless cycles vs motor vehicles logic is that as a way of moving people in urban settings cycles are 4 or 5 times more efficient than the normal usage patterns for motor vehicles. Both are dominated by single occupancy use, and a pedal cycle is 0.75m wide by 1.7m long and can easily coexist with other modes, whilst a normal individual motor vehicle is 2m wide by 5m long and have to be further apart, and other road users have to be protected from them because of the danger.
Where we see it is in 3m cycle tracks carrying more people than 10m of 2 or 3 x vehicle lanes, whilst still having spare capacity. We are seeing that in a number of places now, and it will appear in many more.
I think that quadricycles will have a larger role to play - for example Citroen Ami or Renault Twizy, initially perhaps replacing 2nd vehicles.
I think a couple of places to watch in London are the Embankment, which as I pointed out yesterday carries approx 10-12k cycles on a weekday - when only 20% of London has decent quality cycle infra within a 400m distance. I predict that in 5 years that will be 20k per day, and 30k per day in 10-15 years, unless a fruitloop like Susan Hall becomes Mayor.
The other is Kensington High Street, where RBKC have given one of two lanes over to parking, and forced the several thousands of cycles per day into a single lane with all the motor vehicles. Not sure how that will play out, apart form likely an increase in Killed and Seriously Injured people.
Outside London watch places like Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol and the West Midlands.
On capacity:
I found TfL's logic behind building the two major cycle superhighways (East-West via the Embankment, North-South) really interesting. Basically their projections showed that n,000 more people would want to get across London every day by 2030, and the Tube and buses would be at capacity. Building another Tube line is prohibitively expensive and it's not clear there'd be space anyway. There certainly isn't space for more roads.
The cycle superhighways were the cheapest and easiest way to deliver that capacity, while also providing massive safety improvements. I don't see that equation changing any time soon.
That was the initial stimulus in the Netherlands too - they didn't have enough money for loads of road building or railways (they also had a big campaign against child casualties in road collisions).
BR was talking about a £1 trillion investment in roads last night. Just pop some cycle lanes in instead.
I think the point on reallocating roadspace is that motor vehicles have had all of it for half a century, so that is where it is coming back from as we rebalance priorities to give individuals choice in how they travel. And inevitably there will be bit of a backlash from those attached to, or benefitting from, the legacy forms of transport.
Yet we wonder why the cycling enthusiasts come across as primarily anti-car rather than pro-bike.
If you want to improve cycling provision then it needs to be *new* roadway, not “repurposing” the existing road to make driving more difficult.
Pro-bike is pro-car. It's not a zero-sum game.
I still like my scheme to dig the A4/M4, within London, into the ground, using a tunnelling shield, Marc Brunel style.
Put all the ugly shit below ground. Shops, house and nice cycle way on the surface when you are done.
It would be paid for by the property created, and the increase in the value of the properties within 100 yards of the road....
Riding on Crossrail at the weekend I marvelled at how them managed to thread the running tunnels through all of the existing infrastructure. In several places the clearance is *tight*. How much more subterranean infrastructure could be added is debatable.
There's not too much along the lines of that road, IIRC.
But it will never happen. It would be a decade to do it and the payoff would be at the end.
Bit like moving Heathrow - which is perfectly possible. A number of countries have done this, complete with building the islands to put the airports on.
I am in the Valley of the Roses in Bulgaria. Also known as the Valley of the Thracian Kings. And for good reason.
Simply divine. The majority of the world's rose oil comes from here.
Went there in the mid 80’s, when it was still under the old regime. The Communist National Secretary and other dignitaries were due to visit later on the day that we left so the water in the hotel was turned off, that the street outside might be cleaned.
It was critical for America that Trump was charged for the attempted coup. When you read up on the details it most definitely was an attempted coup that built for some time - the charging of the Capitol was only the denouement.
What is at stake is very simple - America. I fear that it would take a black swan event to deny Trump the republican nomination, and he is going to be All In offering people the kind of America they want. War against minorities / women / liberals / deviants / Iran - you name it and he'll offer it.
I can see the 2024 election being a repeat of 2020 only on a bigger scale. Biden will will more votes than the pundits thought possible as people who never vote turn out to keep Trump out. But the electoral college is a perverse thing, and there remains a clear a present danger that Trump does well enough in the EC to keep him in the game. And with the idiocy of their system having TV networks call results we can expect a Roman Roy figure to call key states for Trump whether he has them on not. At least NewsMax and possibly Fox too.
If Trump wins, that is America done. The republic will fall and be replaced by a "Christian" version of Iran.
That dastardly Trump and his heinous attempt to win an election by offering the people what they want.
Some of the people. A minority of people. Where what they want will turn them into an international pariah.
The unfairness of the US electoral system is a totally different issue. They seem happy with it - I'm not aware of any serious moves to change it, and the Democrats are in power.
For the rest, that's democracy. Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want is not your finest hour.
"and the Democrats are in power" They would need to change the constitution. They don't have a two thirds majority in the House or Senate, nor majorities in three quarters of the states. So no, they don't have the power to change it.
"Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want" doesn't seem to be an accurate reflection of what RP wrote.
Maybe not your finest hour either?
Meh. He doesn't have enough finest hours for me to have any interest in his opinion on what I wrote.
He was able to celebrate the appointment of a PM that he really wanted, which is more than I can say about the last couple of decades...
I wasn't - I didn't want Truss; I said that she was an appalling, cringe-making candidate, who would be like May but even odder. I warmed to her during the campaign, and more afterwards, but I didn't 'really want' her to be PM. I can't think of anyone on the Tory front benches who I 'really want' to be PM. Probably nobody in the entire HOC.
Where's Louis Mountbatten when you really need him?
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
"The girl put the skirt neatly beside her shirt, opened the string bag, took out an old soda–water bottle containing some heavy colourless liquid and went over to the man and knelt on the grass beside him. She poured some of the liquid, a light olive oil, scented, as was everything in that part of the world, with roses..."
A story or two more of the same ilk, and then WHAM, it will be Rishi tells the Supreme Court it can stick European human rights law up its Remainer arse, and the dumping of alleged so-called self-styled asylum seekers in Rwanda has begun.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
It was critical for America that Trump was charged for the attempted coup. When you read up on the details it most definitely was an attempted coup that built for some time - the charging of the Capitol was only the denouement.
What is at stake is very simple - America. I fear that it would take a black swan event to deny Trump the republican nomination, and he is going to be All In offering people the kind of America they want. War against minorities / women / liberals / deviants / Iran - you name it and he'll offer it.
I can see the 2024 election being a repeat of 2020 only on a bigger scale. Biden will will more votes than the pundits thought possible as people who never vote turn out to keep Trump out. But the electoral college is a perverse thing, and there remains a clear a present danger that Trump does well enough in the EC to keep him in the game. And with the idiocy of their system having TV networks call results we can expect a Roman Roy figure to call key states for Trump whether he has them on not. At least NewsMax and possibly Fox too.
If Trump wins, that is America done. The republic will fall and be replaced by a "Christian" version of Iran.
That dastardly Trump and his heinous attempt to win an election by offering the people what they want.
Some of the people. A minority of people. Where what they want will turn them into an international pariah.
The unfairness of the US electoral system is a totally different issue. They seem happy with it - I'm not aware of any serious moves to change it, and the Democrats are in power.
For the rest, that's democracy. Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want is not your finest hour.
"and the Democrats are in power" They would need to change the constitution. They don't have a two thirds majority in the House or Senate, nor majorities in three quarters of the states. So no, they don't have the power to change it.
"Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want" doesn't seem to be an accurate reflection of what RP wrote.
Maybe not your finest hour either?
Meh. He doesn't have enough finest hours for me to have any interest in his opinion on what I wrote.
He was able to celebrate the appointment of a PM that he really wanted, which is more than I can say about the last couple of decades...
I wasn't - I didn't want Truss; I said that she was an appalling, cringe-making candidate, who would be like May but even odder. I warmed to her during the campaign, and more afterwards, but I didn't 'really want' her to be PM. I can't think of anyone on the Tory front benches who I 'really want' to be PM. Probably nobody in the entire HOC.
Where's Louis Mountbatten when you really need him?
Kincora usually
Or up to his back wheels in an unfortunate midshipman.
FOI response has revealed that Chief Medical Officer @DrGregorSmith has approved SPATH as Scotland's new treatment protocol. GPs will be able to prescribe hormones, & refer patients for surgery, without psychological assessment. This decision goes against @Hilary_Cass recommendations
Essentially they think it comes down not to whether Trump was advised that he was breaching the Constitution (clearly true) but whether he "internalised" (believed) the advice. That may be hard to determine. It's likely to go to the Supreme Court in the end, I assume.
True, but you need to be clear as to what an appellate court is and is not able to look at.
As in the UK, the Supreme Court isn't there to re-litigate the facts of a case. In particular, if the jury finds as a point of fact that Trump did not believe that his allegations of widespread voter fraud by/for his opponent were true, then the Supreme Court won't take that decision again. What they would consider, for example, is whether the judge misdirected the jury about the appropriate test and matters they could validly consider.
That's important as you might assume Amy Coney Barrett would be more inclined to give Trump the benefit of the doubt on some matters than an average juror. But she's not on the jury - she'd be being asked a separate question principally relating to the proper handling of legal points by the trial judge.
I have no idea why Vanilla rotates all my images 90°. Cringe.
A lot of phones only take images in one orientation and simply put the rotation status in the metadata (so phone, computer display it right, but popping the image in html gives you the original, unrotated image).
"The girl put the skirt neatly beside her shirt, opened the string bag, took out an old soda–water bottle containing some heavy colourless liquid and went over to the man and knelt on the grass beside him. She poured some of the liquid, a light olive oil, scented, as was everything in that part of the world, with roses..."
Where is that from?
Google takes all the fun out of these things these days. So I won't spoil it for everyone else even though I have done for myself.
It was critical for America that Trump was charged for the attempted coup. When you read up on the details it most definitely was an attempted coup that built for some time - the charging of the Capitol was only the denouement.
What is at stake is very simple - America. I fear that it would take a black swan event to deny Trump the republican nomination, and he is going to be All In offering people the kind of America they want. War against minorities / women / liberals / deviants / Iran - you name it and he'll offer it.
I can see the 2024 election being a repeat of 2020 only on a bigger scale. Biden will will more votes than the pundits thought possible as people who never vote turn out to keep Trump out. But the electoral college is a perverse thing, and there remains a clear a present danger that Trump does well enough in the EC to keep him in the game. And with the idiocy of their system having TV networks call results we can expect a Roman Roy figure to call key states for Trump whether he has them on not. At least NewsMax and possibly Fox too.
If Trump wins, that is America done. The republic will fall and be replaced by a "Christian" version of Iran.
That dastardly Trump and his heinous attempt to win an election by offering the people what they want.
Some of the people. A minority of people. Where what they want will turn them into an international pariah.
The unfairness of the US electoral system is a totally different issue. They seem happy with it - I'm not aware of any serious moves to change it, and the Democrats are in power.
For the rest, that's democracy. Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want is not your finest hour.
"and the Democrats are in power" They would need to change the constitution. They don't have a two thirds majority in the House or Senate, nor majorities in three quarters of the states. So no, they don't have the power to change it.
"Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want" doesn't seem to be an accurate reflection of what RP wrote.
Maybe not your finest hour either?
Meh. He doesn't have enough finest hours for me to have any interest in his opinion on what I wrote.
He was able to celebrate the appointment of a PM that he really wanted, which is more than I can say about the last couple of decades...
I wasn't - I didn't want Truss; I said that she was an appalling, cringe-making candidate, who would be like May but even odder. I warmed to her during the campaign, and more afterwards, but I didn't 'really want' her to be PM. I can't think of anyone on the Tory front benches who I 'really want' to be PM. Probably nobody in the entire HOC.
Where's Louis Mountbatten when you really need him?
"...What all successful insurgencies have in common are five key elements
control of the media
control of the economy and the capture of administrative targets
for which you need the fourth element, the loyalty of the military...
...which brings me to the fifth element, legitimacy
Now our government draws its strength from long-established institutions that support it
the courts
the body of common law
the constitution
[So] for any action against the state to succeed you'd have to overthrow these as well, but in a highly evolved democracy such as ours their authority is sacrosanct. Which is why, gentlemen, a coup d'etat in the United Kingdom doesn't stand a chance.
I have no idea why Vanilla rotates all my images 90°. Cringe.
A lot of phones only take images in one orientation and simply put the rotation status in the metadata (so phone, computer display it right, but popping the image in html gives you the original, unrotated image).
Never seen this issue on any images I've posted from my iPhone on a variety of platforms.
"The girl put the skirt neatly beside her shirt, opened the string bag, took out an old soda–water bottle containing some heavy colourless liquid and went over to the man and knelt on the grass beside him. She poured some of the liquid, a light olive oil, scented, as was everything in that part of the world, with roses..."
Where is that from?
Google takes all the fun out of these things these days. So I won't spoil it for everyone else even though I have done for myself.
It was critical for America that Trump was charged for the attempted coup. When you read up on the details it most definitely was an attempted coup that built for some time - the charging of the Capitol was only the denouement.
What is at stake is very simple - America. I fear that it would take a black swan event to deny Trump the republican nomination, and he is going to be All In offering people the kind of America they want. War against minorities / women / liberals / deviants / Iran - you name it and he'll offer it.
I can see the 2024 election being a repeat of 2020 only on a bigger scale. Biden will will more votes than the pundits thought possible as people who never vote turn out to keep Trump out. But the electoral college is a perverse thing, and there remains a clear a present danger that Trump does well enough in the EC to keep him in the game. And with the idiocy of their system having TV networks call results we can expect a Roman Roy figure to call key states for Trump whether he has them on not. At least NewsMax and possibly Fox too.
If Trump wins, that is America done. The republic will fall and be replaced by a "Christian" version of Iran.
That dastardly Trump and his heinous attempt to win an election by offering the people what they want.
Some of the people. A minority of people. Where what they want will turn them into an international pariah.
The unfairness of the US electoral system is a totally different issue. They seem happy with it - I'm not aware of any serious moves to change it, and the Democrats are in power.
For the rest, that's democracy. Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want is not your finest hour.
"and the Democrats are in power" They would need to change the constitution. They don't have a two thirds majority in the House or Senate, nor majorities in three quarters of the states. So no, they don't have the power to change it.
"Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want" doesn't seem to be an accurate reflection of what RP wrote.
Maybe not your finest hour either?
Meh. He doesn't have enough finest hours for me to have any interest in his opinion on what I wrote.
He was able to celebrate the appointment of a PM that he really wanted, which is more than I can say about the last couple of decades...
I wasn't - I didn't want Truss; I said that she was an appalling, cringe-making candidate, who would be like May but even odder. I warmed to her during the campaign, and more afterwards, but I didn't 'really want' her to be PM. I can't think of anyone on the Tory front benches who I 'really want' to be PM. Probably nobody in the entire HOC.
Where's Louis Mountbatten when you really need him?
I'm not sure I trust the military to take over either tbh. Can we have a coup by that lady who did the vaccines? She seems OK.
You must mean the woman who said we shouldn't vaccinate the whole population because the side effects were so dangerous?
It doesn't surprise me one little bit that you think she was "OK" and should take over the country.
I ratrher think [edit] that when LG sees those, she'll be scratched from LG's shopping list for posters.
I'm genuinely surprised that you think either of those stories would stop me thinking that Kate Bingham is a capable person. On the latter (from what I can read before the paywall) she's right that Labour are likelier to be able to drive NHS reform better than the Tories (though whether they will or not is open to debate), and as far as disliking her calling out the 'dumb-arse' decisions made by the Tories, I highlight those all myself the time.
It was critical for America that Trump was charged for the attempted coup. When you read up on the details it most definitely was an attempted coup that built for some time - the charging of the Capitol was only the denouement.
What is at stake is very simple - America. I fear that it would take a black swan event to deny Trump the republican nomination, and he is going to be All In offering people the kind of America they want. War against minorities / women / liberals / deviants / Iran - you name it and he'll offer it.
I can see the 2024 election being a repeat of 2020 only on a bigger scale. Biden will will more votes than the pundits thought possible as people who never vote turn out to keep Trump out. But the electoral college is a perverse thing, and there remains a clear a present danger that Trump does well enough in the EC to keep him in the game. And with the idiocy of their system having TV networks call results we can expect a Roman Roy figure to call key states for Trump whether he has them on not. At least NewsMax and possibly Fox too.
If Trump wins, that is America done. The republic will fall and be replaced by a "Christian" version of Iran.
That dastardly Trump and his heinous attempt to win an election by offering the people what they want.
Some of the people. A minority of people. Where what they want will turn them into an international pariah.
The unfairness of the US electoral system is a totally different issue. They seem happy with it - I'm not aware of any serious moves to change it, and the Democrats are in power.
For the rest, that's democracy. Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want is not your finest hour.
"and the Democrats are in power" They would need to change the constitution. They don't have a two thirds majority in the House or Senate, nor majorities in three quarters of the states. So no, they don't have the power to change it.
"Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want" doesn't seem to be an accurate reflection of what RP wrote.
Maybe not your finest hour either?
Meh. He doesn't have enough finest hours for me to have any interest in his opinion on what I wrote.
He was able to celebrate the appointment of a PM that he really wanted, which is more than I can say about the last couple of decades...
I wasn't - I didn't want Truss; I said that she was an appalling, cringe-making candidate, who would be like May but even odder. I warmed to her during the campaign, and more afterwards, but I didn't 'really want' her to be PM. I can't think of anyone on the Tory front benches who I 'really want' to be PM. Probably nobody in the entire HOC.
Where's Louis Mountbatten when you really need him?
"...What all successful insurgencies have in common are five key elements
control of the media
control of the economy and the capture of administrative targets
for which you need the fourth element, the loyalty of the military...
...which brings me to the fifth element, legitimacy
Now our government draws its strength from long-established institutions that support it
the courts
the body of common law
the constitution
[So] for any action against the state to succeed you'd have to overthrow these as well, but in a highly evolved democracy such as ours their authority is sacrosanct. Which is why, gentlemen, a coup d'etat in the United Kingdom doesn't stand a chance.
Isn't a coup relatively simple if you have a parliamentary majority (& willing lickspittle MPs)
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022
4
Automatic dissolution of Parliament after five years If it has not been dissolved earlier, a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met.
Replace five with thousand Replace 'fifth' with 'thousandth'
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
They aren't terrible but wouldn't be my choice because there is no 1x option and I don't care for steel frames. The OEM wheels are fucking shit obviously and should be thrown in the woods for replacement by Mavic/Corima ASAFP. Also no dropper, which is VERY useful on a commuter.
I have a Whyte Gisburn for my daily driver and I like it although the same comments about the wheels apply.
That looks lovely, if I lie on my table and squint horizontally
This is a gremlin in the Vanilla system. It is easy to fix. If you want to post a photo which is in Portrait, first go to Edit then rotate it 4 times, so it returns to its original upright portrait mode. That usually fixes it when you post it here. And if that doesn't work, just snip a bit of the photo off - something irrelevant
Again, editing the photo seems to override Vanilla's manic tendency to post Portrait photos at 90 degrees
Shunning, as it does, the urban form of Paris intra muros or Manhattan, it feels like a melange of low-rise suburban villages, as organised by the NHS.
Ladies and gentlemen, the enviable “urban form of Manhattan”, as per today’s New York Times
= 100,000 homeless people, and getting worse every day
Another snowflake. I merely noted the difference. Manhattan architecture can be enviable, the lack of green space is claustrophobic and of course the US is a social disaster.
I’ve finally diagnosed you. You’re not stupid, far from it, in fact you are often insightful. Yet you make negative, scornful remarks about all aspects of the UK to an extent which is beyond rationality, and sometimes approaches pathology
It’s plain old Cultural Cringe, but quite eloquently done. You’re a kiwi. London and the UK is simultaneously the beloved mother country, but also the old hag from whose shadow you desire to escape - while never quite managing it. Hence your obsessive return to the subject - and to PB, where you can vent your Oedipal weirdness
Having now identified this to my own satisfaction, I shall observe the rest of your commentary with wry gratification at my own percipience
Very clever but pretty sure (as much as one can self-diagnose) wrong.
I quite like the “old hag”, and raised my family here. My time in New York was always envisaged as temporary and I’ll be back properly at some stage.
Maybe sooner in the event of Trump win.
I just despair at British politics. But, walking through London over the last day or so and seeing the vibrancy I remember, I’m hopeful about a (post-election) future.
FOI response has revealed that Chief Medical Officer @DrGregorSmith has approved SPATH as Scotland's new treatment protocol. GPs will be able to prescribe hormones, & refer patients for surgery, without psychological assessment. This decision goes against @Hilary_Cass recommendations
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Goodwood thought for today, Inspiral is a massive price at 4/1 for the 3.35 Sussex Stakes. Paddington has beaten nothing that has run well the next time. Inspiral has significantly better form.
Shunning, as it does, the urban form of Paris intra muros or Manhattan, it feels like a melange of low-rise suburban villages, as organised by the NHS.
Ladies and gentlemen, the enviable “urban form of Manhattan”, as per today’s New York Times
= 100,000 homeless people, and getting worse every day
Another snowflake. I merely noted the difference. Manhattan architecture can be enviable, the lack of green space is claustrophobic and of course the US is a social disaster.
I’ve finally diagnosed you. You’re not stupid, far from it, in fact you are often insightful. Yet you make negative, scornful remarks about all aspects of the UK to an extent which is beyond rationality, and sometimes approaches pathology
It’s plain old Cultural Cringe, but quite eloquently done. You’re a kiwi. London and the UK is simultaneously the beloved mother country, but also the old hag from whose shadow you desire to escape - while never quite managing it. Hence your obsessive return to the subject - and to PB, where you can vent your Oedipal weirdness
Having now identified this to my own satisfaction, I shall observe the rest of your commentary with wry gratification at my own percipience
Very clever but pretty sure (as much as one can self-diagnose) wrong.
I quite like the “old hag”, and raised my family here. My time in New York was always envisaged as temporary and I’ll be back properly at some stage.
Maybe sooner in the event of Trump win.
I just despair at British politics. But, walking through London over the last day or so and seeing the vibrancy I remember, I’m hopeful about a (post-election) future.
I am 100% right. I am quite good at this stuff
Less good on cycle infrastructure, heat pumps, etc
And now: to work. I was woken at 8am in the middle of profound sleep by air raid klaxons wailing like muezzin on my balcony. But I have now had the second sleep, and the mind is sharp, and the coffee is good
As a Watergate historian, it’s worth noting that nothing Nixon did—and he had plenty of crimes and conspiracies, involving more than 60 people criminally charged—approached the scale and severity of Trump’s assault on American democracy. https://twitter.com/vermontgmg/status/1686531761352609792?s=20
Good point. Viewed at this remove, Nixon's crimes appear almost quaint in comparison
The Democrats have opened Pandoras box and this could go anywhere . THe US is screwed
"Lock her up" was shouted by who, again?
And, it's the Democrats fault that Donald Trump allegedly committed crimes?
You can call a "pox on both your houses" with some degree of accuracy. But to point to the Dems and say the ball is entirely in your court - as you are doing - is willfully blind.
Now, I really, really hate the idea that governments use their political power to pursue political opponents. (Like Trump and the IRS vs Comey, for example.) But at the same time, should your political position shield you from all legal liability?
What of the upcoming tax/wirefraud case in NY? Trump valued properties at one price for the tax authorities and another for mortgages. And this wasn't a 10% difference, it was a multiple. People go to jail for that kind of thing all the time. Should he not be prosecuted, solely because he was President?
What is it about Trump that make otherwise sensible people lose their marbles ?
Hounding Trump will achieve precisely nothing except to make him more popular with his supporters and make diviisions in US society deeper.
As for the legal guff, Hilary is still walking free and has never been near a court nd I dont think anyome seriously expects the Biden\Hunter mess to be investigated before an election.
So you're saying laws actually should not apply to him?
That's his attitude, certainly, and that's what's got him into trouble.
Nobody is 'hounding' him, they're enforcing the multiple laws he's deliberately broken for his own gain.
Im saying the laws should apply to everyone and not just one individual. The US justice system is highly partisan and this is using the law to hamper an opponent who it appears cant be beaten by normal means.
That matter alone says what a poor position the Dems have, Worse now that the principle has been established if Trump were to win the election he can quite happily clear out the DoJ, pack it with his place men like Giuliani and lock up who he pleases as the Dems arent exactly choirboys.
And for the record I think that would be a total bag of shit too,
Trump tried to use the justice system to hound his opponents. It didn't work for him because ultimately the law-breaking of say, Hilary Clinton was quite low level. She should not have done what she did, but she was stupid rather than malign.
Her husband was, in case you've forgotten, impeached for his crimes although he wasn't in the end convicted.
Her husbands case I would actually say was the start of this whole sorry saga, The GOP tried to nobble Clinton by foul means and that set off the tit for tat escalation we have seen ever since.
As for Trump using the justice system, well as you say nobody got convicted. But I dont agree with that either , someone somewhere has to put the genie back in the bottle it just wont be either of the two presidential candidates.
Sigh.
The point is he *tried* to use the justice system to nobble his opponents and he failed because what happened wasn't ultimately significant enough to secure an indictment so the lawyers concerned told him 'no.' Had Clinton not handed over her email server, however belatedly and reluctantly, it might have been different. But that was not his call. Just as this is not Biden's. Or anyone in the government.
What's happening now is they *are* indicting him for multiple crimes he has not only committed but is repeatedly doubling down on.
And if you genuinely think January 6th was bad policing, you are profoundly ignorant of what happened. Again, read the indictment. How would 'bad policing,' for example, have led to a crowd gathering at Trump's urging that wanted to lynch the Vice President?
And if you don't think that, well...
No the point is he has been accused of it. He hasnt been convicted of anything,
And he has been accused of it not directly after the event when logically the state would lock up a real and present danger, but just before an election and by a partisan justice system. You draw one conclusion I draw another.
As for the policing issue London regulary gets trashed by people who shout down with the govt but these are riots not coups. And our police despite their critics handle them quite well. And just to wind you up even further J6 wasnt even a decent riot, I grew up in Ulster so I know what a riot looks like there were no petrol bombs, no stones no tear gas. Because all of those thinsg would have required organisation and hard work and Trump is too chaotic .
He has been INDICTED. That is the difference.
As for your last somewhat incoherent and illogical paragraph, put differently you are saying that should something not be exactly like your memories of a riot in Ulster it must not be a riot and therefore can't be a coup.
As a Watergate historian, it’s worth noting that nothing Nixon did—and he had plenty of crimes and conspiracies, involving more than 60 people criminally charged—approached the scale and severity of Trump’s assault on American democracy. https://twitter.com/vermontgmg/status/1686531761352609792?s=20
Good point. Viewed at this remove, Nixon's crimes appear almost quaint in comparison
The Democrats have opened Pandoras box and this could go anywhere . THe US is screwed
"Lock her up" was shouted by who, again?
And, it's the Democrats fault that Donald Trump allegedly committed crimes?
You can call a "pox on both your houses" with some degree of accuracy. But to point to the Dems and say the ball is entirely in your court - as you are doing - is willfully blind.
Now, I really, really hate the idea that governments use their political power to pursue political opponents. (Like Trump and the IRS vs Comey, for example.) But at the same time, should your political position shield you from all legal liability?
What of the upcoming tax/wirefraud case in NY? Trump valued properties at one price for the tax authorities and another for mortgages. And this wasn't a 10% difference, it was a multiple. People go to jail for that kind of thing all the time. Should he not be prosecuted, solely because he was President?
What is it about Trump that make otherwise sensible people lose their marbles ?
I think as one of the two people most affected on here by this phenomenon perhaps you could tell us?
Ive been indicted myself and had to go to court but never convicted because the charges were nonsense. In my case it was a french trade union trying it on for their own purposes. So so far Trump hasnt been convicted of anything, bar losing a civil case.
An indictment isnt a conviction unless youve decided hes guilty until proven innocent, which in its own way demonstrates the madness of a politicised justice system.
As for your second point Trump is like Brexit , people are so partisan about it they only eve believe one line of propaganda. There is very little room for standing back and looking at things in the round.
The democrats won the popular vote in the last 2 elections and on that basis should win the next one but as Ive said theyve opened Pandoras box so anything could happen.
Losing more than one civil case.
In addition, Trump Organization, his business, has been found guilty of 17 criminal charges and lost other civil cases. His charity, the Donald J Trump Foundation, was found guilty of various charges.
So Clinton level stuff ?
a) Trump and his organisations have lost or settled far more law suits than the Clintons, so no.
b) Is whataboutery all you have to offer?
I think he says upthread he's trolling. I'll take him at his word and stop responding.
well its hardly as if either one of us is going to change our mind.
I believe that NigelB is open to facts but I'll take your word that you're not. Remember cultists can recover, good luck.
ROFL.
So suddenly - despite saying I dont want Trump as president - Im a MAGA man .
Questioning spin is what this site is supposed to do.
But if you want to assume all those politicians and lawyers are telling you the Gods honest truth then do so. But I wont.
I was going to add a 'by the way I don't like Trump' disclaimer to my post upthread, then found I couldn't be arsed. Apparently if you don't think his being re-elected is armageddon, that makes you a cult member. Despite the fact that he's been President before and nothing of any consequence happened.
“Nothing of any consequence” is an odd take.
Really? A lot more seems to have gone to shit in the world since Biden 're-established America's leadership' upon his accession.
Whether more has “gone to shit in the world” during Biden’s presidency is another matter. Were that true, that wouldn’t mean that nothing of any consequence happened under Trump.
Also, given the COVID-19 pandemic happened during Trump’s presidency, it is ludicrous to suggest that more has “gone to shit in the world” under Biden.
I assume some level of intelligent interpretation of my comments. Of course things that are of consequence happen every day. A more precise way of expressing my sentiments would be to say 'by the standards of his antecedents, and to an extent his successor, no significant disasters appear to have been caused as a direct result of his Presidency' - more precise, but more of a hassle to type, and read, when we both know what I meant.
No significant disasters? The US had one of the higher COVID-19 death rates, 3100 per million, compared to 2687 in the UK or 1111 in Canada or 250 in Japan. If the US had a similar death rate to the UK, that would be 140000 fewer deaths. If 140000 deaths isn’t a disaster, what is? If they’d done as well as Japan, that’s would have been about a million fewer deaths. This is in large part because of Trump.
Trump was impeached an unprecedented two times. That seems like a disaster for the office of the Presidency. Once was about withholding arms for Ukraine, which was pretty bad for the Ukrainians. His anti-Ukrainian, pro-Putin positioning has left a toxic legacy in the US that still hampers aid to Ukraine. The second time was for his actions trying to overturn the election result, which is why we’re talking about him today. That’s been disastrous for respect in the democratic system in the US.
Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, because of Trump appointments, a disaster for women in much of the US.
Many have described the US withdrawal from Afghanistan as a disaster. While that took place under his successor, it was started by Trump.
It was critical for America that Trump was charged for the attempted coup. When you read up on the details it most definitely was an attempted coup that built for some time - the charging of the Capitol was only the denouement.
What is at stake is very simple - America. I fear that it would take a black swan event to deny Trump the republican nomination, and he is going to be All In offering people the kind of America they want. War against minorities / women / liberals / deviants / Iran - you name it and he'll offer it.
I can see the 2024 election being a repeat of 2020 only on a bigger scale. Biden will will more votes than the pundits thought possible as people who never vote turn out to keep Trump out. But the electoral college is a perverse thing, and there remains a clear a present danger that Trump does well enough in the EC to keep him in the game. And with the idiocy of their system having TV networks call results we can expect a Roman Roy figure to call key states for Trump whether he has them on not. At least NewsMax and possibly Fox too.
If Trump wins, that is America done. The republic will fall and be replaced by a "Christian" version of Iran.
That dastardly Trump and his heinous attempt to win an election by offering the people what they want.
Some of the people. A minority of people. Where what they want will turn them into an international pariah.
The unfairness of the US electoral system is a totally different issue. They seem happy with it - I'm not aware of any serious moves to change it, and the Democrats are in power.
For the rest, that's democracy. Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want is not your finest hour.
"and the Democrats are in power" They would need to change the constitution. They don't have a two thirds majority in the House or Senate, nor majorities in three quarters of the states. So no, they don't have the power to change it.
"Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want" doesn't seem to be an accurate reflection of what RP wrote.
Maybe not your finest hour either?
Meh. He doesn't have enough finest hours for me to have any interest in his opinion on what I wrote.
He was able to celebrate the appointment of a PM that he really wanted, which is more than I can say about the last couple of decades...
I wasn't - I didn't want Truss; I said that she was an appalling, cringe-making candidate, who would be like May but even odder. I warmed to her during the campaign, and more afterwards, but I didn't 'really want' her to be PM. I can't think of anyone on the Tory front benches who I 'really want' to be PM. Probably nobody in the entire HOC.
Where's Louis Mountbatten when you really need him?
"...What all successful insurgencies have in common are five key elements
control of the media
control of the economy and the capture of administrative targets
for which you need the fourth element, the loyalty of the military...
...which brings me to the fifth element, legitimacy
Now our government draws its strength from long-established institutions that support it
the courts
the body of common law
the constitution
[So] for any action against the state to succeed you'd have to overthrow these as well, but in a highly evolved democracy such as ours their authority is sacrosanct. Which is why, gentlemen, a coup d'etat in the United Kingdom doesn't stand a chance.
Isn't a coup relatively simple if you have a parliamentary majority (& willing lickspittle MPs)
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022
4
Automatic dissolution of Parliament after five years If it has not been dissolved earlier, a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met.
Replace five with thousand Replace 'fifth' with 'thousandth'
Parliament is sovereign, which means that it can largely do what it likes. Largely. Lets assume that Sunak decides the solution to his impending ouster is simply indefinitely postponing the election.
So your bill is proposed to Parliament. HY et al on here along with the right wing tabloid media position it as *protection* of our democratic processes against the bad guys (the international woke liberal blob media socialist conspiracy).
A chunk of Tory MPs would be outraged, and the Lords would throw it back at the Commons. But should the Commons still keep voting for an enabling act we would eventually reach a crisis point where even a Commons majority was not enough, no matter what GBeebies and the Daily Heil were saying.
As the fictionalised Lord Mountbatten said, there's no chance.
I think we might all agree that if the events of Jan.6th in Washington D.C. were intended as a coup, it was a very poorly engineered one.
What is the sentencing discount for poorly engineered bank robberies?
Back when the modern armed police was just starting out, they staged some ambushes for armed robbers. Informants etc.
The armed robbers, on a couple of occasions, decided to fight. And discovered that MP5 vs sawn off isn't really a contest.
Some lawyers were quite upset - some of their best clients gone. They tried (and failed) to get a judgement that the police, in such ambushes, had some kind of extra responsibility to take the criminals alive.
This failed. So the penalty for poorly engineered bank robberies was death, sometimes.
Essentially they think it comes down not to whether Trump was advised that he was breaching the Constitution (clearly true) but whether he "internalised" (believed) the advice. That may be hard to determine. It's likely to go to the Supreme Court in the end, I assume.
True, but you need to be clear as to what an appellate court is and is not able to look at.
As in the UK, the Supreme Court isn't there to re-litigate the facts of a case. In particular, if the jury finds as a point of fact that Trump did not believe that his allegations of widespread voter fraud by/for his opponent were true, then the Supreme Court won't take that decision again. What they would consider, for example, is whether the judge misdirected the jury about the appropriate test and matters they could validly consider.
That's important as you might assume Amy Coney Barrett would be more inclined to give Trump the benefit of the doubt on some matters than an average juror. But she's not on the jury - she'd be being asked a separate question principally relating to the proper handling of legal points by the trial judge.
Yes, very good point. I'd not realised that it will be a jury trial. The US system of trying to determine whether the potential juror is biased will then be critical. Other things being equal, I assume that over 40% of the jury will currently be inclined to vote for Trump, so potentially reluctant to accept that he's guilty. I wonder if the questioning of potential jurors allows the question "Do you know how you will vote if Mr Trump is a candidate?" (anyone who says yes, regardless of which way they will vote, would then be ineligible for cause) Does the US have majority verdicts in such cases?
It was critical for America that Trump was charged for the attempted coup. When you read up on the details it most definitely was an attempted coup that built for some time - the charging of the Capitol was only the denouement.
What is at stake is very simple - America. I fear that it would take a black swan event to deny Trump the republican nomination, and he is going to be All In offering people the kind of America they want. War against minorities / women / liberals / deviants / Iran - you name it and he'll offer it.
I can see the 2024 election being a repeat of 2020 only on a bigger scale. Biden will will more votes than the pundits thought possible as people who never vote turn out to keep Trump out. But the electoral college is a perverse thing, and there remains a clear a present danger that Trump does well enough in the EC to keep him in the game. And with the idiocy of their system having TV networks call results we can expect a Roman Roy figure to call key states for Trump whether he has them on not. At least NewsMax and possibly Fox too.
If Trump wins, that is America done. The republic will fall and be replaced by a "Christian" version of Iran.
That dastardly Trump and his heinous attempt to win an election by offering the people what they want.
Some of the people. A minority of people. Where what they want will turn them into an international pariah.
The unfairness of the US electoral system is a totally different issue. They seem happy with it - I'm not aware of any serious moves to change it, and the Democrats are in power.
For the rest, that's democracy. Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want is not your finest hour.
"and the Democrats are in power" They would need to change the constitution. They don't have a two thirds majority in the House or Senate, nor majorities in three quarters of the states. So no, they don't have the power to change it.
"Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want" doesn't seem to be an accurate reflection of what RP wrote.
Maybe not your finest hour either?
Meh. He doesn't have enough finest hours for me to have any interest in his opinion on what I wrote.
He was able to celebrate the appointment of a PM that he really wanted, which is more than I can say about the last couple of decades...
I wasn't - I didn't want Truss; I said that she was an appalling, cringe-making candidate, who would be like May but even odder. I warmed to her during the campaign, and more afterwards, but I didn't 'really want' her to be PM. I can't think of anyone on the Tory front benches who I 'really want' to be PM. Probably nobody in the entire HOC.
Where's Louis Mountbatten when you really need him?
"...What all successful insurgencies have in common are five key elements
control of the media
control of the economy and the capture of administrative targets
for which you need the fourth element, the loyalty of the military...
...which brings me to the fifth element, legitimacy
Now our government draws its strength from long-established institutions that support it
the courts
the body of common law
the constitution
[So] for any action against the state to succeed you'd have to overthrow these as well, but in a highly evolved democracy such as ours their authority is sacrosanct. Which is why, gentlemen, a coup d'etat in the United Kingdom doesn't stand a chance.
Isn't a coup relatively simple if you have a parliamentary majority (& willing lickspittle MPs)
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022
4
Automatic dissolution of Parliament after five years If it has not been dissolved earlier, a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met.
Replace five with thousand Replace 'fifth' with 'thousandth'
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
It's a pleasure. I was being slightly tongue in cheek.
An Omafiets may not be fashionable in the UK even though we are slowly moving that way, being a near replica of an "English Roadster" from around 1900 - taken by the Dutch as an easy to use comfortable 'town bike'.
But they are great for transport cycling, if it is about trundling-around convenience not speed. One thing we struggle with in the UK is secure parking for cycles at destinations, so it is always worth a check.
The is also an Opafiets, which is an Omafiets with a crossbar.
If it was about getting to the station for a commute, I would probably go for a light folder and take it with me. E-Brompton using the kit the kit I described can be under 14kg, or an official E-Brompton can be under 13kg.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
They aren't terrible but wouldn't be my choice because there is no 1x option and I don't care for steel frames. The OEM wheels are fucking shit obviously and should be thrown in the woods for replacement by Mavic/Corima ASAFP. Also no dropper, which is VERY useful on a commuter.
I have a Whyte Gisburn for my daily driver and I like it although the same comments about the wheels apply.
Shunning, as it does, the urban form of Paris intra muros or Manhattan, it feels like a melange of low-rise suburban villages, as organised by the NHS.
Ladies and gentlemen, the enviable “urban form of Manhattan”, as per today’s New York Times
= 100,000 homeless people, and getting worse every day
Another snowflake. I merely noted the difference. Manhattan architecture can be enviable, the lack of green space is claustrophobic and of course the US is a social disaster.
I’ve finally diagnosed you. You’re not stupid, far from it, in fact you are often insightful. Yet you make negative, scornful remarks about all aspects of the UK to an extent which is beyond rationality, and sometimes approaches pathology
It’s plain old Cultural Cringe, but quite eloquently done. You’re a kiwi. London and the UK is simultaneously the beloved mother country, but also the old hag from whose shadow you desire to escape - while never quite managing it. Hence your obsessive return to the subject - and to PB, where you can vent your Oedipal weirdness
Having now identified this to my own satisfaction, I shall observe the rest of your commentary with wry gratification at my own percipience
Very clever but pretty sure (as much as one can self-diagnose) wrong.
I quite like the “old hag”, and raised my family here. My time in New York was always envisaged as temporary and I’ll be back properly at some stage.
Maybe sooner in the event of Trump win.
I just despair at British politics. But, walking through London over the last day or so and seeing the vibrancy I remember, I’m hopeful about a (post-election) future.
Your views on Britain are entirely coupled with who you think is in the political ascendancy here; they are in no sense objective.
Essentially they think it comes down not to whether Trump was advised that he was breaching the Constitution (clearly true) but whether he "internalised" (believed) the advice. That may be hard to determine. It's likely to go to the Supreme Court in the end, I assume.
If it comes down to whether Trump believed the advice, then that won’t be decided by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court consider points of law, not evidence.
For it to go to the Supreme Court, there has to be an uncertain point of law, and there might well be given the unprecedented nature of the charges.
Shunning, as it does, the urban form of Paris intra muros or Manhattan, it feels like a melange of low-rise suburban villages, as organised by the NHS.
Ladies and gentlemen, the enviable “urban form of Manhattan”, as per today’s New York Times
= 100,000 homeless people, and getting worse every day
Another snowflake. I merely noted the difference. Manhattan architecture can be enviable, the lack of green space is claustrophobic and of course the US is a social disaster.
I’ve finally diagnosed you. You’re not stupid, far from it, in fact you are often insightful. Yet you make negative, scornful remarks about all aspects of the UK to an extent which is beyond rationality, and sometimes approaches pathology
It’s plain old Cultural Cringe, but quite eloquently done. You’re a kiwi. London and the UK is simultaneously the beloved mother country, but also the old hag from whose shadow you desire to escape - while never quite managing it. Hence your obsessive return to the subject - and to PB, where you can vent your Oedipal weirdness
Having now identified this to my own satisfaction, I shall observe the rest of your commentary with wry gratification at my own percipience
Very clever but pretty sure (as much as one can self-diagnose) wrong.
I quite like the “old hag”, and raised my family here. My time in New York was always envisaged as temporary and I’ll be back properly at some stage.
Maybe sooner in the event of Trump win.
I just despair at British politics. But, walking through London over the last day or so and seeing the vibrancy I remember, I’m hopeful about a (post-election) future.
Your views on Britain are entirely coupled with who you think is in the political ascendancy here; they are in no sense objective.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
Essentially they think it comes down not to whether Trump was advised that he was breaching the Constitution (clearly true) but whether he "internalised" (believed) the advice. That may be hard to determine. It's likely to go to the Supreme Court in the end, I assume.
True, but you need to be clear as to what an appellate court is and is not able to look at.
As in the UK, the Supreme Court isn't there to re-litigate the facts of a case. In particular, if the jury finds as a point of fact that Trump did not believe that his allegations of widespread voter fraud by/for his opponent were true, then the Supreme Court won't take that decision again. What they would consider, for example, is whether the judge misdirected the jury about the appropriate test and matters they could validly consider.
That's important as you might assume Amy Coney Barrett would be more inclined to give Trump the benefit of the doubt on some matters than an average juror. But she's not on the jury - she'd be being asked a separate question principally relating to the proper handling of legal points by the trial judge.
Yes, very good point. I'd not realised that it will be a jury trial. The US system of trying to determine whether the potential juror is biased will then be critical. Other things being equal, I assume that over 40% of the jury will currently be inclined to vote for Trump, so potentially reluctant to accept that he's guilty. I wonder if the questioning of potential jurors allows the question "Do you know how you will vote if Mr Trump is a candidate?" (anyone who says yes, regardless of which way they will vote, would then be ineligible for cause) Does the US have majority verdicts in such cases?
They got a unanimous verdict in the Jean Carroll case before a jury of 12, some of whom must have voted Republican before.
It was critical for America that Trump was charged for the attempted coup. When you read up on the details it most definitely was an attempted coup that built for some time - the charging of the Capitol was only the denouement.
What is at stake is very simple - America. I fear that it would take a black swan event to deny Trump the republican nomination, and he is going to be All In offering people the kind of America they want. War against minorities / women / liberals / deviants / Iran - you name it and he'll offer it.
I can see the 2024 election being a repeat of 2020 only on a bigger scale. Biden will will more votes than the pundits thought possible as people who never vote turn out to keep Trump out. But the electoral college is a perverse thing, and there remains a clear a present danger that Trump does well enough in the EC to keep him in the game. And with the idiocy of their system having TV networks call results we can expect a Roman Roy figure to call key states for Trump whether he has them on not. At least NewsMax and possibly Fox too.
If Trump wins, that is America done. The republic will fall and be replaced by a "Christian" version of Iran.
That dastardly Trump and his heinous attempt to win an election by offering the people what they want.
Some of the people. A minority of people. Where what they want will turn them into an international pariah.
The unfairness of the US electoral system is a totally different issue. They seem happy with it - I'm not aware of any serious moves to change it, and the Democrats are in power.
For the rest, that's democracy. Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want is not your finest hour.
"and the Democrats are in power" They would need to change the constitution. They don't have a two thirds majority in the House or Senate, nor majorities in three quarters of the states. So no, they don't have the power to change it.
"Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want" doesn't seem to be an accurate reflection of what RP wrote.
Maybe not your finest hour either?
Meh. He doesn't have enough finest hours for me to have any interest in his opinion on what I wrote.
He was able to celebrate the appointment of a PM that he really wanted, which is more than I can say about the last couple of decades...
I wasn't - I didn't want Truss; I said that she was an appalling, cringe-making candidate, who would be like May but even odder. I warmed to her during the campaign, and more afterwards, but I didn't 'really want' her to be PM. I can't think of anyone on the Tory front benches who I 'really want' to be PM. Probably nobody in the entire HOC.
Where's Louis Mountbatten when you really need him?
"...What all successful insurgencies have in common are five key elements
control of the media
control of the economy and the capture of administrative targets
for which you need the fourth element, the loyalty of the military...
...which brings me to the fifth element, legitimacy
Now our government draws its strength from long-established institutions that support it
the courts
the body of common law
the constitution
[So] for any action against the state to succeed you'd have to overthrow these as well, but in a highly evolved democracy such as ours their authority is sacrosanct. Which is why, gentlemen, a coup d'etat in the United Kingdom doesn't stand a chance.
Isn't a coup relatively simple if you have a parliamentary majority (& willing lickspittle MPs)
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022
4
Automatic dissolution of Parliament after five years If it has not been dissolved earlier, a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met.
Replace five with thousand Replace 'fifth' with 'thousandth'
Parliament is sovereign, which means that it can largely do what it likes. Largely. Lets assume that Sunak decides the solution to his impending ouster is simply indefinitely postponing the election.
So your bill is proposed to Parliament. HY et al on here along with the right wing tabloid media position it as *protection* of our democratic processes against the bad guys (the international woke liberal blob media socialist conspiracy).
A chunk of Tory MPs would be outraged, and the Lords would throw it back at the Commons. But should the Commons still keep voting for an enabling act we would eventually reach a crisis point where even a Commons majority was not enough, no matter what GBeebies and the Daily Heil were saying.
As the fictionalised Lord Mountbatten said, there's no chance.
The Lords could be overcome relatively trivially as you say. The issue would be Royal assent, with Charles on the spot. Say Charles refused to give the Tausend Jahre bill Royal assent, I presume 'Emperor' Sunak would try and dissolve the Monarchy with a money bill. But that would also need Royal assent, and whilst Charles would sign if we were moving to a proper presidential system he probably wouldn't for the Sunak Reich.
Shunning, as it does, the urban form of Paris intra muros or Manhattan, it feels like a melange of low-rise suburban villages, as organised by the NHS.
Ladies and gentlemen, the enviable “urban form of Manhattan”, as per today’s New York Times
= 100,000 homeless people, and getting worse every day
Another snowflake. I merely noted the difference. Manhattan architecture can be enviable, the lack of green space is claustrophobic and of course the US is a social disaster.
I’ve finally diagnosed you. You’re not stupid, far from it, in fact you are often insightful. Yet you make negative, scornful remarks about all aspects of the UK to an extent which is beyond rationality, and sometimes approaches pathology
It’s plain old Cultural Cringe, but quite eloquently done. You’re a kiwi. London and the UK is simultaneously the beloved mother country, but also the old hag from whose shadow you desire to escape - while never quite managing it. Hence your obsessive return to the subject - and to PB, where you can vent your Oedipal weirdness
Having now identified this to my own satisfaction, I shall observe the rest of your commentary with wry gratification at my own percipience
Very clever but pretty sure (as much as one can self-diagnose) wrong.
I quite like the “old hag”, and raised my family here. My time in New York was always envisaged as temporary and I’ll be back properly at some stage.
Maybe sooner in the event of Trump win.
I just despair at British politics. But, walking through London over the last day or so and seeing the vibrancy I remember, I’m hopeful about a (post-election) future.
Your views on Britain are entirely coupled with who you think is in the political ascendancy here; they are in no sense objective.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
Shunning, as it does, the urban form of Paris intra muros or Manhattan, it feels like a melange of low-rise suburban villages, as organised by the NHS.
Ladies and gentlemen, the enviable “urban form of Manhattan”, as per today’s New York Times
= 100,000 homeless people, and getting worse every day
Another snowflake. I merely noted the difference. Manhattan architecture can be enviable, the lack of green space is claustrophobic and of course the US is a social disaster.
I’ve finally diagnosed you. You’re not stupid, far from it, in fact you are often insightful. Yet you make negative, scornful remarks about all aspects of the UK to an extent which is beyond rationality, and sometimes approaches pathology
It’s plain old Cultural Cringe, but quite eloquently done. You’re a kiwi. London and the UK is simultaneously the beloved mother country, but also the old hag from whose shadow you desire to escape - while never quite managing it. Hence your obsessive return to the subject - and to PB, where you can vent your Oedipal weirdness
Having now identified this to my own satisfaction, I shall observe the rest of your commentary with wry gratification at my own percipience
Very clever but pretty sure (as much as one can self-diagnose) wrong.
I quite like the “old hag”, and raised my family here. My time in New York was always envisaged as temporary and I’ll be back properly at some stage.
Maybe sooner in the event of Trump win.
I just despair at British politics. But, walking through London over the last day or so and seeing the vibrancy I remember, I’m hopeful about a (post-election) future.
Your views on Britain are entirely coupled with who you think is in the political ascendancy here; they are in no sense objective.
I think the point on reallocating roadspace is that motor vehicles have had all of it for half a century, so that is where it is coming back from as we rebalance priorities to give individuals choice in how they travel. And inevitably there will be bit of a backlash from those attached to, or benefitting from, the legacy forms of transport.
Yet we wonder why the cycling enthusiasts come across as primarily anti-car rather than pro-bike.
If you want to improve cycling provision then it needs to be *new* roadway, not “repurposing” the existing road to make driving more difficult.
Pro-bike is pro-car. It's not a zero-sum game.
Wanting to increase taxes on cars, and wanting to reduce the number of lanes available to them, are both very much anti-car.
It’s not a zero-sum game if you’re adding *new* roads.
IMO it's not a zero sum game anyway - as moving a small number of people (even 10%) out of their one-up private vehicles has a disproportionate effect on congestion, just from space factors.
One stark example can be in eg hospital or supermarket car parks. Just taking out 5% of parking spaces will give about 5x as many potential cycle parking spaces - which will give parking capacity of 20%+ more in the same space. Needs to be done correctly - here the route to get to the supermarket is really difficult - but carrying a week of family groceries on a cycle is easy. That's the sort of detail we need imo to be sweating.
I'd love to get my local hospital to develop that sort of strategy since it generates around 2,5 million trips per annum, and has umpteen car parks that chocca even though charged form, and with vehicles permanently driving around looking for a space. There are about 150k-170k people living within easy cycling / mobility scootering distance.
But the local active transport infra is diabolical, even though some shared 2.5m wide pavements are going in. They even have pedestrian crossings near by with the pedestrian cages so tight that they can't be crossed in a mobility scooter.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
But why not start with a bare frame? Put exactly what you want on it.
It's not as if bare frames and bits are hard to get hold of.
As a Watergate historian, it’s worth noting that nothing Nixon did—and he had plenty of crimes and conspiracies, involving more than 60 people criminally charged—approached the scale and severity of Trump’s assault on American democracy. https://twitter.com/vermontgmg/status/1686531761352609792?s=20
Good point. Viewed at this remove, Nixon's crimes appear almost quaint in comparison
The Democrats have opened Pandoras box and this could go anywhere . THe US is screwed
"Lock her up" was shouted by who, again?
And, it's the Democrats fault that Donald Trump allegedly committed crimes?
You can call a "pox on both your houses" with some degree of accuracy. But to point to the Dems and say the ball is entirely in your court - as you are doing - is willfully blind.
Now, I really, really hate the idea that governments use their political power to pursue political opponents. (Like Trump and the IRS vs Comey, for example.) But at the same time, should your political position shield you from all legal liability?
What of the upcoming tax/wirefraud case in NY? Trump valued properties at one price for the tax authorities and another for mortgages. And this wasn't a 10% difference, it was a multiple. People go to jail for that kind of thing all the time. Should he not be prosecuted, solely because he was President?
What is it about Trump that make otherwise sensible people lose their marbles ?
Hounding Trump will achieve precisely nothing except to make him more popular with his supporters and make diviisions in US society deeper.
As for the legal guff, Hilary is still walking free and has never been near a court nd I dont think anyome seriously expects the Biden\Hunter mess to be investigated before an election.
So you're saying laws actually should not apply to him?
That's his attitude, certainly, and that's what's got him into trouble.
Nobody is 'hounding' him, they're enforcing the multiple laws he's deliberately broken for his own gain.
Im saying the laws should apply to everyone and not just one individual. The US justice system is highly partisan and this is using the law to hamper an opponent who it appears cant be beaten by normal means.
That matter alone says what a poor position the Dems have, Worse now that the principle has been established if Trump were to win the election he can quite happily clear out the DoJ, pack it with his place men like Giuliani and lock up who he pleases as the Dems arent exactly choirboys.
And for the record I think that would be a total bag of shit too,
Trump tried to use the justice system to hound his opponents. It didn't work for him because ultimately the law-breaking of say, Hilary Clinton was quite low level. She should not have done what she did, but she was stupid rather than malign.
Her husband was, in case you've forgotten, impeached for his crimes although he wasn't in the end convicted.
Her husbands case I would actually say was the start of this whole sorry saga, The GOP tried to nobble Clinton by foul means and that set off the tit for tat escalation we have seen ever since.
As for Trump using the justice system, well as you say nobody got convicted. But I dont agree with that either , someone somewhere has to put the genie back in the bottle it just wont be either of the two presidential candidates.
Sigh.
The point is he *tried* to use the justice system to nobble his opponents and he failed because what happened wasn't ultimately significant enough to secure an indictment so the lawyers concerned told him 'no.' Had Clinton not handed over her email server, however belatedly and reluctantly, it might have been different. But that was not his call. Just as this is not Biden's. Or anyone in the government.
What's happening now is they *are* indicting him for multiple crimes he has not only committed but is repeatedly doubling down on.
And if you genuinely think January 6th was bad policing, you are profoundly ignorant of what happened. Again, read the indictment. How would 'bad policing,' for example, have led to a crowd gathering at Trump's urging that wanted to lynch the Vice President?
And if you don't think that, well...
No the point is he has been accused of it. He hasnt been convicted of anything,
And he has been accused of it not directly after the event when logically the state would lock up a real and present danger, but just before an election and by a partisan justice system. You draw one conclusion I draw another.
As for the policing issue London regulary gets trashed by people who shout down with the govt but these are riots not coups. And our police despite their critics handle them quite well. And just to wind you up even further J6 wasnt even a decent riot, I grew up in Ulster so I know what a riot looks like there were no petrol bombs, no stones no tear gas. Because all of those thinsg would have required organisation and hard work and Trump is too chaotic .
He has been INDICTED. That is the difference.
As for your last somewhat incoherent and illogical paragraph, put differently you are saying that should something not be exactly like your memories of a riot in Ulster it must not be a riot and therefore can't be a coup.
As a Watergate historian, it’s worth noting that nothing Nixon did—and he had plenty of crimes and conspiracies, involving more than 60 people criminally charged—approached the scale and severity of Trump’s assault on American democracy. https://twitter.com/vermontgmg/status/1686531761352609792?s=20
Good point. Viewed at this remove, Nixon's crimes appear almost quaint in comparison
The Democrats have opened Pandoras box and this could go anywhere . THe US is screwed
"Lock her up" was shouted by who, again?
And, it's the Democrats fault that Donald Trump allegedly committed crimes?
You can call a "pox on both your houses" with some degree of accuracy. But to point to the Dems and say the ball is entirely in your court - as you are doing - is willfully blind.
Now, I really, really hate the idea that governments use their political power to pursue political opponents. (Like Trump and the IRS vs Comey, for example.) But at the same time, should your political position shield you from all legal liability?
What of the upcoming tax/wirefraud case in NY? Trump valued properties at one price for the tax authorities and another for mortgages. And this wasn't a 10% difference, it was a multiple. People go to jail for that kind of thing all the time. Should he not be prosecuted, solely because he was President?
What is it about Trump that make otherwise sensible people lose their marbles ?
I think as one of the two people most affected on here by this phenomenon perhaps you could tell us?
Ive been indicted myself and had to go to court but never convicted because the charges were nonsense. In my case it was a french trade union trying it on for their own purposes. So so far Trump hasnt been convicted of anything, bar losing a civil case.
An indictment isnt a conviction unless youve decided hes guilty until proven innocent, which in its own way demonstrates the madness of a politicised justice system.
As for your second point Trump is like Brexit , people are so partisan about it they only eve believe one line of propaganda. There is very little room for standing back and looking at things in the round.
The democrats won the popular vote in the last 2 elections and on that basis should win the next one but as Ive said theyve opened Pandoras box so anything could happen.
Losing more than one civil case.
In addition, Trump Organization, his business, has been found guilty of 17 criminal charges and lost other civil cases. His charity, the Donald J Trump Foundation, was found guilty of various charges.
So Clinton level stuff ?
a) Trump and his organisations have lost or settled far more law suits than the Clintons, so no.
b) Is whataboutery all you have to offer?
I think he says upthread he's trolling. I'll take him at his word and stop responding.
well its hardly as if either one of us is going to change our mind.
I believe that NigelB is open to facts but I'll take your word that you're not. Remember cultists can recover, good luck.
ROFL.
So suddenly - despite saying I dont want Trump as president - Im a MAGA man .
Questioning spin is what this site is supposed to do.
But if you want to assume all those politicians and lawyers are telling you the Gods honest truth then do so. But I wont.
I was going to add a 'by the way I don't like Trump' disclaimer to my post upthread, then found I couldn't be arsed. Apparently if you don't think his being re-elected is armageddon, that makes you a cult member. Despite the fact that he's been President before and nothing of any consequence happened.
“Nothing of any consequence” is an odd take.
Really? A lot more seems to have gone to shit in the world since Biden 're-established America's leadership' upon his accession.
Whether more has “gone to shit in the world” during Biden’s presidency is another matter. Were that true, that wouldn’t mean that nothing of any consequence happened under Trump.
Also, given the COVID-19 pandemic happened during Trump’s presidency, it is ludicrous to suggest that more has “gone to shit in the world” under Biden.
I assume some level of intelligent interpretation of my comments. Of course things that are of consequence happen every day. A more precise way of expressing my sentiments would be to say 'by the standards of his antecedents, and to an extent his successor, no significant disasters appear to have been caused as a direct result of his Presidency' - more precise, but more of a hassle to type, and read, when we both know what I meant.
No significant disasters? The US had one of the higher COVID-19 death rates, 3100 per million, compared to 2687 in the UK or 1111 in Canada or 250 in Japan. If the US had a similar death rate to the UK, that would be 140000 fewer deaths. If 140000 deaths isn’t a disaster, what is? If they’d done as well as Japan, that’s would have been about a million fewer deaths. This is in large part because of Trump.
Trump was impeached an unprecedented two times. That seems like a disaster for the office of the Presidency. Once was about withholding arms for Ukraine, which was pretty bad for the Ukrainians. His anti-Ukrainian, pro-Putin positioning has left a toxic legacy in the US that still hampers aid to Ukraine. The second time was for his actions trying to overturn the election result, which is why we’re talking about him today. That’s been disastrous for respect in the democratic system in the US.
Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, because of Trump appointments, a disaster for women in much of the US.
Many have described the US withdrawal from Afghanistan as a disaster. While that took place under his successor, it was started by Trump.
Shunning, as it does, the urban form of Paris intra muros or Manhattan, it feels like a melange of low-rise suburban villages, as organised by the NHS.
Ladies and gentlemen, the enviable “urban form of Manhattan”, as per today’s New York Times
= 100,000 homeless people, and getting worse every day
Another snowflake. I merely noted the difference. Manhattan architecture can be enviable, the lack of green space is claustrophobic and of course the US is a social disaster.
I’ve finally diagnosed you. You’re not stupid, far from it, in fact you are often insightful. Yet you make negative, scornful remarks about all aspects of the UK to an extent which is beyond rationality, and sometimes approaches pathology
It’s plain old Cultural Cringe, but quite eloquently done. You’re a kiwi. London and the UK is simultaneously the beloved mother country, but also the old hag from whose shadow you desire to escape - while never quite managing it. Hence your obsessive return to the subject - and to PB, where you can vent your Oedipal weirdness
Having now identified this to my own satisfaction, I shall observe the rest of your commentary with wry gratification at my own percipience
Very clever but pretty sure (as much as one can self-diagnose) wrong.
I quite like the “old hag”, and raised my family here. My time in New York was always envisaged as temporary and I’ll be back properly at some stage.
Maybe sooner in the event of Trump win.
I just despair at British politics. But, walking through London over the last day or so and seeing the vibrancy I remember, I’m hopeful about a (post-election) future.
Your views on Britain are entirely coupled with who you think is in the political ascendancy here; they are in no sense objective.
"The girl put the skirt neatly beside her shirt, opened the string bag, took out an old soda–water bottle containing some heavy colourless liquid and went over to the man and knelt on the grass beside him. She poured some of the liquid, a light olive oil, scented, as was everything in that part of the world, with roses..."
Where is that from?
Google takes all the fun out of these things these days. So I won't spoil it for everyone else even though I have done for myself.
Nice and unexpected reference.
I actually recognised that, despite its being well over three decades since I read the book.
Despite writing some unmitigated tosh, he was a genuinely memorable prose stylist.
I think the point on reallocating roadspace is that motor vehicles have had all of it for half a century, so that is where it is coming back from as we rebalance priorities to give individuals choice in how they travel. And inevitably there will be bit of a backlash from those attached to, or benefitting from, the legacy forms of transport.
Yet we wonder why the cycling enthusiasts come across as primarily anti-car rather than pro-bike.
If you want to improve cycling provision then it needs to be *new* roadway, not “repurposing” the existing road to make driving more difficult.
Pro-bike is pro-car. It's not a zero-sum game.
Wanting to increase taxes on cars, and wanting to reduce the number of lanes available to them, are both very much anti-car.
It’s not a zero-sum game if you’re adding *new* roads.
carrying a week of family groceries on a cycle is easy.
For god's sake let's not put you in charge of cycling policy.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
But why not start with a bare frame? Put exactly what you want on it.
It's not as if bare frames and bits are hard to get hold of.
Mechanical ineptitiude. I would break things, order incompatibles, kill myself by forgetting to put fluid in the hydraulics, and need to spend £00s at least on tools and bikestands which I do not know how to use. And Ribble do give you a wide choice of everything else, i have asked for non-standard wheels and tyres from a choice of about 8 of each.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
Fucking hell! It's not a fucking cog! A cog is a toothed wheel which engages another toothed wheel. A toothed wheel engaged by a chain is a sprocket. Honestly, Gardenwalker is bang on about this country.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
Fucking hell! It's not a fucking cog! A cog is a toothed wheel which engages another toothed wheel. A toothed wheel engaged by a chain is a sprocket. Honestly, Gardenwalker is bang on about this country.
Thank you for answering @Malmesbury's question more eloquently than I did.
It was critical for America that Trump was charged for the attempted coup. When you read up on the details it most definitely was an attempted coup that built for some time - the charging of the Capitol was only the denouement.
What is at stake is very simple - America. I fear that it would take a black swan event to deny Trump the republican nomination, and he is going to be All In offering people the kind of America they want. War against minorities / women / liberals / deviants / Iran - you name it and he'll offer it.
I can see the 2024 election being a repeat of 2020 only on a bigger scale. Biden will will more votes than the pundits thought possible as people who never vote turn out to keep Trump out. But the electoral college is a perverse thing, and there remains a clear a present danger that Trump does well enough in the EC to keep him in the game. And with the idiocy of their system having TV networks call results we can expect a Roman Roy figure to call key states for Trump whether he has them on not. At least NewsMax and possibly Fox too.
If Trump wins, that is America done. The republic will fall and be replaced by a "Christian" version of Iran.
That dastardly Trump and his heinous attempt to win an election by offering the people what they want.
Some of the people. A minority of people. Where what they want will turn them into an international pariah.
The unfairness of the US electoral system is a totally different issue. They seem happy with it - I'm not aware of any serious moves to change it, and the Democrats are in power.
For the rest, that's democracy. Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want is not your finest hour.
"and the Democrats are in power" They would need to change the constitution. They don't have a two thirds majority in the House or Senate, nor majorities in three quarters of the states. So no, they don't have the power to change it.
"Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want" doesn't seem to be an accurate reflection of what RP wrote.
Maybe not your finest hour either?
Meh. He doesn't have enough finest hours for me to have any interest in his opinion on what I wrote.
He was able to celebrate the appointment of a PM that he really wanted, which is more than I can say about the last couple of decades...
I wasn't - I didn't want Truss; I said that she was an appalling, cringe-making candidate, who would be like May but even odder. I warmed to her during the campaign, and more afterwards, but I didn't 'really want' her to be PM. I can't think of anyone on the Tory front benches who I 'really want' to be PM. Probably nobody in the entire HOC.
Where's Louis Mountbatten when you really need him?
"...What all successful insurgencies have in common are five key elements
control of the media
control of the economy and the capture of administrative targets
for which you need the fourth element, the loyalty of the military...
...which brings me to the fifth element, legitimacy
Now our government draws its strength from long-established institutions that support it
the courts
the body of common law
the constitution
[So] for any action against the state to succeed you'd have to overthrow these as well, but in a highly evolved democracy such as ours their authority is sacrosanct. Which is why, gentlemen, a coup d'etat in the United Kingdom doesn't stand a chance.
Isn't a coup relatively simple if you have a parliamentary majority (& willing lickspittle MPs)
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022
4
Automatic dissolution of Parliament after five years If it has not been dissolved earlier, a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met.
Replace five with thousand Replace 'fifth' with 'thousandth'
Parliament is sovereign, which means that it can largely do what it likes. Largely. Lets assume that Sunak decides the solution to his impending ouster is simply indefinitely postponing the election.
So your bill is proposed to Parliament. HY et al on here along with the right wing tabloid media position it as *protection* of our democratic processes against the bad guys (the international woke liberal blob media socialist conspiracy).
A chunk of Tory MPs would be outraged, and the Lords would throw it back at the Commons. But should the Commons still keep voting for an enabling act we would eventually reach a crisis point where even a Commons majority was not enough, no matter what GBeebies and the Daily Heil were saying.
As the fictionalised Lord Mountbatten said, there's no chance.
The Lords could be overcome relatively trivially as you say. The issue would be Royal assent, with Charles on the spot. Say Charles refused to give the Tausend Jahre bill Royal assent, I presume 'Emperor' Sunak would try and dissolve the Monarchy with a money bill. But that would also need Royal assent, and whilst Charles would sign if we were moving to a proper presidential system he probably wouldn't for the Sunak Reich.
Ultimately any such power grab would depend on the acquiescence of either the military or the electorate, though.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
But why not start with a bare frame? Put exactly what you want on it.
It's not as if bare frames and bits are hard to get hold of.
Because most of us want a transport appliance not a time consumption device to fiddle with.
That's why most of us drive bog-standard Nissans and Fords and Jaguars not Performance Cars and Kit Cars.
As a Watergate historian, it’s worth noting that nothing Nixon did—and he had plenty of crimes and conspiracies, involving more than 60 people criminally charged—approached the scale and severity of Trump’s assault on American democracy. https://twitter.com/vermontgmg/status/1686531761352609792?s=20
Good point. Viewed at this remove, Nixon's crimes appear almost quaint in comparison
The Democrats have opened Pandoras box and this could go anywhere . THe US is screwed
"Lock her up" was shouted by who, again?
And, it's the Democrats fault that Donald Trump allegedly committed crimes?
You can call a "pox on both your houses" with some degree of accuracy. But to point to the Dems and say the ball is entirely in your court - as you are doing - is willfully blind.
Now, I really, really hate the idea that governments use their political power to pursue political opponents. (Like Trump and the IRS vs Comey, for example.) But at the same time, should your political position shield you from all legal liability?
What of the upcoming tax/wirefraud case in NY? Trump valued properties at one price for the tax authorities and another for mortgages. And this wasn't a 10% difference, it was a multiple. People go to jail for that kind of thing all the time. Should he not be prosecuted, solely because he was President?
What is it about Trump that make otherwise sensible people lose their marbles ?
Hounding Trump will achieve precisely nothing except to make him more popular with his supporters and make diviisions in US society deeper.
As for the legal guff, Hilary is still walking free and has never been near a court nd I dont think anyome seriously expects the Biden\Hunter mess to be investigated before an election.
So you're saying laws actually should not apply to him?
That's his attitude, certainly, and that's what's got him into trouble.
Nobody is 'hounding' him, they're enforcing the multiple laws he's deliberately broken for his own gain.
Im saying the laws should apply to everyone and not just one individual. The US justice system is highly partisan and this is using the law to hamper an opponent who it appears cant be beaten by normal means.
That matter alone says what a poor position the Dems have, Worse now that the principle has been established if Trump were to win the election he can quite happily clear out the DoJ, pack it with his place men like Giuliani and lock up who he pleases as the Dems arent exactly choirboys.
And for the record I think that would be a total bag of shit too,
Trump tried to use the justice system to hound his opponents. It didn't work for him because ultimately the law-breaking of say, Hilary Clinton was quite low level. She should not have done what she did, but she was stupid rather than malign.
Her husband was, in case you've forgotten, impeached for his crimes although he wasn't in the end convicted.
Her husbands case I would actually say was the start of this whole sorry saga, The GOP tried to nobble Clinton by foul means and that set off the tit for tat escalation we have seen ever since.
As for Trump using the justice system, well as you say nobody got convicted. But I dont agree with that either , someone somewhere has to put the genie back in the bottle it just wont be either of the two presidential candidates.
Sigh.
The point is he *tried* to use the justice system to nobble his opponents and he failed because what happened wasn't ultimately significant enough to secure an indictment so the lawyers concerned told him 'no.' Had Clinton not handed over her email server, however belatedly and reluctantly, it might have been different. But that was not his call. Just as this is not Biden's. Or anyone in the government.
What's happening now is they *are* indicting him for multiple crimes he has not only committed but is repeatedly doubling down on.
And if you genuinely think January 6th was bad policing, you are profoundly ignorant of what happened. Again, read the indictment. How would 'bad policing,' for example, have led to a crowd gathering at Trump's urging that wanted to lynch the Vice President?
And if you don't think that, well...
No the point is he has been accused of it. He hasnt been convicted of anything,
And he has been accused of it not directly after the event when logically the state would lock up a real and present danger, but just before an election and by a partisan justice system. You draw one conclusion I draw another.
As for the policing issue London regulary gets trashed by people who shout down with the govt but these are riots not coups. And our police despite their critics handle them quite well. And just to wind you up even further J6 wasnt even a decent riot, I grew up in Ulster so I know what a riot looks like there were no petrol bombs, no stones no tear gas. Because all of those thinsg would have required organisation and hard work and Trump is too chaotic .
He has been INDICTED. That is the difference.
As for your last somewhat incoherent and illogical paragraph, put differently you are saying that should something not be exactly like your memories of a riot in Ulster it must not be a riot and therefore can't be a coup.
As a Watergate historian, it’s worth noting that nothing Nixon did—and he had plenty of crimes and conspiracies, involving more than 60 people criminally charged—approached the scale and severity of Trump’s assault on American democracy. https://twitter.com/vermontgmg/status/1686531761352609792?s=20
Good point. Viewed at this remove, Nixon's crimes appear almost quaint in comparison
The Democrats have opened Pandoras box and this could go anywhere . THe US is screwed
"Lock her up" was shouted by who, again?
And, it's the Democrats fault that Donald Trump allegedly committed crimes?
You can call a "pox on both your houses" with some degree of accuracy. But to point to the Dems and say the ball is entirely in your court - as you are doing - is willfully blind.
Now, I really, really hate the idea that governments use their political power to pursue political opponents. (Like Trump and the IRS vs Comey, for example.) But at the same time, should your political position shield you from all legal liability?
What of the upcoming tax/wirefraud case in NY? Trump valued properties at one price for the tax authorities and another for mortgages. And this wasn't a 10% difference, it was a multiple. People go to jail for that kind of thing all the time. Should he not be prosecuted, solely because he was President?
What is it about Trump that make otherwise sensible people lose their marbles ?
I think as one of the two people most affected on here by this phenomenon perhaps you could tell us?
Ive been indicted myself and had to go to court but never convicted because the charges were nonsense. In my case it was a french trade union trying it on for their own purposes. So so far Trump hasnt been convicted of anything, bar losing a civil case.
An indictment isnt a conviction unless youve decided hes guilty until proven innocent, which in its own way demonstrates the madness of a politicised justice system.
As for your second point Trump is like Brexit , people are so partisan about it they only eve believe one line of propaganda. There is very little room for standing back and looking at things in the round.
The democrats won the popular vote in the last 2 elections and on that basis should win the next one but as Ive said theyve opened Pandoras box so anything could happen.
Losing more than one civil case.
In addition, Trump Organization, his business, has been found guilty of 17 criminal charges and lost other civil cases. His charity, the Donald J Trump Foundation, was found guilty of various charges.
So Clinton level stuff ?
a) Trump and his organisations have lost or settled far more law suits than the Clintons, so no.
b) Is whataboutery all you have to offer?
I think he says upthread he's trolling. I'll take him at his word and stop responding.
well its hardly as if either one of us is going to change our mind.
I believe that NigelB is open to facts but I'll take your word that you're not. Remember cultists can recover, good luck.
ROFL.
So suddenly - despite saying I dont want Trump as president - Im a MAGA man .
Questioning spin is what this site is supposed to do.
But if you want to assume all those politicians and lawyers are telling you the Gods honest truth then do so. But I wont.
I was going to add a 'by the way I don't like Trump' disclaimer to my post upthread, then found I couldn't be arsed. Apparently if you don't think his being re-elected is armageddon, that makes you a cult member. Despite the fact that he's been President before and nothing of any consequence happened.
“Nothing of any consequence” is an odd take.
Really? A lot more seems to have gone to shit in the world since Biden 're-established America's leadership' upon his accession.
Whether more has “gone to shit in the world” during Biden’s presidency is another matter. Were that true, that wouldn’t mean that nothing of any consequence happened under Trump.
Also, given the COVID-19 pandemic happened during Trump’s presidency, it is ludicrous to suggest that more has “gone to shit in the world” under Biden.
I assume some level of intelligent interpretation of my comments. Of course things that are of consequence happen every day. A more precise way of expressing my sentiments would be to say 'by the standards of his antecedents, and to an extent his successor, no significant disasters appear to have been caused as a direct result of his Presidency' - more precise, but more of a hassle to type, and read, when we both know what I meant.
No significant disasters? The US had one of the higher COVID-19 death rates, 3100 per million, compared to 2687 in the UK or 1111 in Canada or 250 in Japan. If the US had a similar death rate to the UK, that would be 140000 fewer deaths. If 140000 deaths isn’t a disaster, what is? If they’d done as well as Japan, that’s would have been about a million fewer deaths. This is in large part because of Trump.
Trump was impeached an unprecedented two times. That seems like a disaster for the office of the Presidency. Once was about withholding arms for Ukraine, which was pretty bad for the Ukrainians. His anti-Ukrainian, pro-Putin positioning has left a toxic legacy in the US that still hampers aid to Ukraine. The second time was for his actions trying to overturn the election result, which is why we’re talking about him today. That’s been disastrous for respect in the democratic system in the US.
Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, because of Trump appointments, a disaster for women in much of the US.
Many have described the US withdrawal from Afghanistan as a disaster. While that took place under his successor, it was started by Trump.
I don't think you can count appointing Conservative judges, as any other Republican president would have done the same.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
Fucking hell! It's not a fucking cog! A cog is a toothed wheel which engages another toothed wheel. A toothed wheel engaged by a chain is a sprocket. Honestly, Gardenwalker is bang on about this country.
Maybe you can set up a radio and put the aerial on the back of the bike.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
But why not start with a bare frame? Put exactly what you want on it.
It's not as if bare frames and bits are hard to get hold of.
Because most of us want a transport appliance not a time consumption device to fiddle with.
That's why most of us drive bog-standard Nissans and Fords and Jaguars not Performance Cars and Kit Cars.
Not so much that. This is a purely recreational deal.
Shunning, as it does, the urban form of Paris intra muros or Manhattan, it feels like a melange of low-rise suburban villages, as organised by the NHS.
Ladies and gentlemen, the enviable “urban form of Manhattan”, as per today’s New York Times
= 100,000 homeless people, and getting worse every day
Another snowflake. I merely noted the difference. Manhattan architecture can be enviable, the lack of green space is claustrophobic and of course the US is a social disaster.
I’ve finally diagnosed you. You’re not stupid, far from it, in fact you are often insightful. Yet you make negative, scornful remarks about all aspects of the UK to an extent which is beyond rationality, and sometimes approaches pathology
It’s plain old Cultural Cringe, but quite eloquently done. You’re a kiwi. London and the UK is simultaneously the beloved mother country, but also the old hag from whose shadow you desire to escape - while never quite managing it. Hence your obsessive return to the subject - and to PB, where you can vent your Oedipal weirdness
Having now identified this to my own satisfaction, I shall observe the rest of your commentary with wry gratification at my own percipience
Very clever but pretty sure (as much as one can self-diagnose) wrong.
I quite like the “old hag”, and raised my family here. My time in New York was always envisaged as temporary and I’ll be back properly at some stage.
Maybe sooner in the event of Trump win.
I just despair at British politics. But, walking through London over the last day or so and seeing the vibrancy I remember, I’m hopeful about a (post-election) future.
Your views on Britain are entirely coupled with who you think is in the political ascendancy here; they are in no sense objective.
Britain is having a spell of political dominance by the hatemongers and reactionaries. They’ve also fucked the economy.
So sure, it’s less conducive. No need for Freudian misdiagnosis.
But it will pass, and they are in steep decline.
The much more interesting question is what's going on with gloomsters on the British right. The ones who, at last, have the sort of government they want and still complain about the way the country is going broke and woke.
(As for the nation's future, a lot depends on how much reward there is in Governments Doing Fewer Dumb Things. I'm hopeful that there's quite a bit.)
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
But why not start with a bare frame? Put exactly what you want on it.
It's not as if bare frames and bits are hard to get hold of.
Mechanical ineptitiude. I would break things, order incompatibles, kill myself by forgetting to put fluid in the hydraulics, and need to spend £00s at least on tools and bikestands which I do not know how to use. And Ribble do give you a wide choice of everything else, i have asked for non-standard wheels and tyres from a choice of about 8 of each.
Bike stands! Luuuuuuxuuuury!
Seriously, when we were kids, it never occurred to us that you needed one.
Tools were a collection of screwdrivers, a set of Allen keys, and an adjustable spanner. Oh, and some pliers.
These days most of that can be done with a cheap driver set from Amazon
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
I bought a steel tourer from this lot a while ago, although I kind of want the titanium one now: https://spacycles.co.uk/
Cheaper components than some but it does fine for me.
Had no trouble getting them to put the tiniest granny gear which they could supply on (24/32) which is what I need to get up 25%+ hills in the Dales.
Shunning, as it does, the urban form of Paris intra muros or Manhattan, it feels like a melange of low-rise suburban villages, as organised by the NHS.
Ladies and gentlemen, the enviable “urban form of Manhattan”, as per today’s New York Times
= 100,000 homeless people, and getting worse every day
Another snowflake. I merely noted the difference. Manhattan architecture can be enviable, the lack of green space is claustrophobic and of course the US is a social disaster.
I’ve finally diagnosed you. You’re not stupid, far from it, in fact you are often insightful. Yet you make negative, scornful remarks about all aspects of the UK to an extent which is beyond rationality, and sometimes approaches pathology
It’s plain old Cultural Cringe, but quite eloquently done. You’re a kiwi. London and the UK is simultaneously the beloved mother country, but also the old hag from whose shadow you desire to escape - while never quite managing it. Hence your obsessive return to the subject - and to PB, where you can vent your Oedipal weirdness
Having now identified this to my own satisfaction, I shall observe the rest of your commentary with wry gratification at my own percipience
Very clever but pretty sure (as much as one can self-diagnose) wrong.
I quite like the “old hag”, and raised my family here. My time in New York was always envisaged as temporary and I’ll be back properly at some stage.
Maybe sooner in the event of Trump win.
I just despair at British politics. But, walking through London over the last day or so and seeing the vibrancy I remember, I’m hopeful about a (post-election) future.
Your views on Britain are entirely coupled with who you think is in the political ascendancy here; they are in no sense objective.
Britain is having a spell of political dominance by the hatemongers and reactionaries. They’ve also fucked the economy.
So sure, it’s less conducive. No need for Freudian misdiagnosis.
But it will pass, and they are in steep decline.
The much more interesting question is what's going on with gloomsters on the British right. The ones who, at last, have the sort of government they want and still complain about the way the country is going broke and woke.
(As for the nation's future, a lot depends on how much reward there is in Governments Doing Fewer Dumb Things. I'm hopeful that there's quite a bit.)
Each minister who has pledged his to address the various forms of woke have ended their career in incompetence and disgrace.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
Fucking hell! It's not a fucking cog! A cog is a toothed wheel which engages another toothed wheel. A toothed wheel engaged by a chain is a sprocket. Honestly, Gardenwalker is bang on about this country.
Maybe you can set up a radio and put the aerial on the back of the bike.
Gonna tape a BT speaker to the handle bars and blast out a 90 BPM dubstep playlist. 4 da cadence innit
It was critical for America that Trump was charged for the attempted coup. When you read up on the details it most definitely was an attempted coup that built for some time - the charging of the Capitol was only the denouement.
What is at stake is very simple - America. I fear that it would take a black swan event to deny Trump the republican nomination, and he is going to be All In offering people the kind of America they want. War against minorities / women / liberals / deviants / Iran - you name it and he'll offer it.
I can see the 2024 election being a repeat of 2020 only on a bigger scale. Biden will will more votes than the pundits thought possible as people who never vote turn out to keep Trump out. But the electoral college is a perverse thing, and there remains a clear a present danger that Trump does well enough in the EC to keep him in the game. And with the idiocy of their system having TV networks call results we can expect a Roman Roy figure to call key states for Trump whether he has them on not. At least NewsMax and possibly Fox too.
If Trump wins, that is America done. The republic will fall and be replaced by a "Christian" version of Iran.
That dastardly Trump and his heinous attempt to win an election by offering the people what they want.
Some of the people. A minority of people. Where what they want will turn them into an international pariah.
The unfairness of the US electoral system is a totally different issue. They seem happy with it - I'm not aware of any serious moves to change it, and the Democrats are in power.
For the rest, that's democracy. Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want is not your finest hour.
"and the Democrats are in power" They would need to change the constitution. They don't have a two thirds majority in the House or Senate, nor majorities in three quarters of the states. So no, they don't have the power to change it.
"Hoping for a 'black swan event' (I'm not going to probe what that might be) to stop this awful act of people voting for what they want" doesn't seem to be an accurate reflection of what RP wrote.
Maybe not your finest hour either?
Meh. He doesn't have enough finest hours for me to have any interest in his opinion on what I wrote.
He was able to celebrate the appointment of a PM that he really wanted, which is more than I can say about the last couple of decades...
I wasn't - I didn't want Truss; I said that she was an appalling, cringe-making candidate, who would be like May but even odder. I warmed to her during the campaign, and more afterwards, but I didn't 'really want' her to be PM. I can't think of anyone on the Tory front benches who I 'really want' to be PM. Probably nobody in the entire HOC.
Where's Louis Mountbatten when you really need him?
"...What all successful insurgencies have in common are five key elements
control of the media
control of the economy and the capture of administrative targets
for which you need the fourth element, the loyalty of the military...
...which brings me to the fifth element, legitimacy
Now our government draws its strength from long-established institutions that support it
the courts
the body of common law
the constitution
[So] for any action against the state to succeed you'd have to overthrow these as well, but in a highly evolved democracy such as ours their authority is sacrosanct. Which is why, gentlemen, a coup d'etat in the United Kingdom doesn't stand a chance.
Isn't a coup relatively simple if you have a parliamentary majority (& willing lickspittle MPs)
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022
4
Automatic dissolution of Parliament after five years If it has not been dissolved earlier, a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met.
Replace five with thousand Replace 'fifth' with 'thousandth'
Parliament is sovereign, which means that it can largely do what it likes. Largely. Lets assume that Sunak decides the solution to his impending ouster is simply indefinitely postponing the election.
So your bill is proposed to Parliament. HY et al on here along with the right wing tabloid media position it as *protection* of our democratic processes against the bad guys (the international woke liberal blob media socialist conspiracy).
A chunk of Tory MPs would be outraged, and the Lords would throw it back at the Commons. But should the Commons still keep voting for an enabling act we would eventually reach a crisis point where even a Commons majority was not enough, no matter what GBeebies and the Daily Heil were saying.
As the fictionalised Lord Mountbatten said, there's no chance.
The Lords could be overcome relatively trivially as you say. The issue would be Royal assent, with Charles on the spot. Say Charles refused to give the Tausend Jahre bill Royal assent, I presume 'Emperor' Sunak would try and dissolve the Monarchy with a money bill. But that would also need Royal assent, and whilst Charles would sign if we were moving to a proper presidential system he probably wouldn't for the Sunak Reich.
I don't think the Lords would be overcome. An Enabling Act was not a manifesto promise - and if it was they wouldn't accept it as legitimate. This bill wouldn't clear Parliament, and if Sunak responded with a bill to either cripple or abolish the Other Place that would also not pass inspection.
When Truss tried to break the economy we very quickly progressed to the powers that be telling the grandees in the Tory party to ignore wazzocks like Simon Ding Dong Clarke and have her out of office. An Enabling Act to cling to power wouldn't have universal support in the party (perhaps only with ex Plaid entryists like HY), and the powers that be would inform Mrs Brady that he needed to get the pearl-handled revolver out again.
Her Ma'am may well have stayed out of it. But King Chuck isn't afraid to speak his mind - especially when as in this scenario constitutionally he is expected to give advice. Would be fun to watch though. Imagine the aftermath - "HOW THE BLOB STOLE OUR DEMOCRACY" - a 3 hour debate on GBeebies with Nadine Dorries and Lee Anderson.
I think the point on reallocating roadspace is that motor vehicles have had all of it for half a century, so that is where it is coming back from as we rebalance priorities to give individuals choice in how they travel. And inevitably there will be bit of a backlash from those attached to, or benefitting from, the legacy forms of transport.
Yet we wonder why the cycling enthusiasts come across as primarily anti-car rather than pro-bike.
If you want to improve cycling provision then it needs to be *new* roadway, not “repurposing” the existing road to make driving more difficult.
Pro-bike is pro-car. It's not a zero-sum game.
Wanting to increase taxes on cars, and wanting to reduce the number of lanes available to them, are both very much anti-car.
It’s not a zero-sum game if you’re adding *new* roads.
carrying a week of family groceries on a cycle is easy.
For god's sake let's not put you in charge of cycling policy.
It *is* easy. Get a trailer for about £70-£100.
If you want to go extreme there are the new EAV 2Cubed e-cycles, which have 2 cubic metres of carrying space - more than my full size estate car - and are being used by Amazon for urban deliveries. Even I was surprised what they had got inside the EAPC regs; they look like Postman Pat's van - but just 1m wide like a tricycle. Coming soon to a cycle track / road near you.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
I bought a steel tourer from this lot a while ago, although I kind of want the titanium one now: https://spacycles.co.uk/
Cheaper components than some but it does fine for me.
Had no trouble getting them to put the tiniest granny gear which they could supply on (24/32) which is what I need to get up 25%+ hills in the Dales.
(Try Park Rash above Kettlewell for a laugh)
Interesting - someone else suggested them too. I am oddly attracted to their very dated website.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
Fucking hell! It's not a fucking cog! A cog is a toothed wheel which engages another toothed wheel. A toothed wheel engaged by a chain is a sprocket. Honestly, Gardenwalker is bang on about this country.
Maybe you can set up a radio and put the aerial on the back of the bike.
Gonna tape a BT speaker to the handle bars and blast out a 90 BPM dubstep playlist. 4 da cadence innit
Essentially they think it comes down not to whether Trump was advised that he was breaching the Constitution (clearly true) but whether he "internalised" (believed) the advice. That may be hard to determine. It's likely to go to the Supreme Court in the end, I assume.
True, but you need to be clear as to what an appellate court is and is not able to look at.
As in the UK, the Supreme Court isn't there to re-litigate the facts of a case. In particular, if the jury finds as a point of fact that Trump did not believe that his allegations of widespread voter fraud by/for his opponent were true, then the Supreme Court won't take that decision again. What they would consider, for example, is whether the judge misdirected the jury about the appropriate test and matters they could validly consider.
That's important as you might assume Amy Coney Barrett would be more inclined to give Trump the benefit of the doubt on some matters than an average juror. But she's not on the jury - she'd be being asked a separate question principally relating to the proper handling of legal points by the trial judge.
Yes, very good point. I'd not realised that it will be a jury trial. The US system of trying to determine whether the potential juror is biased will then be critical. Other things being equal, I assume that over 40% of the jury will currently be inclined to vote for Trump, so potentially reluctant to accept that he's guilty. I wonder if the questioning of potential jurors allows the question "Do you know how you will vote if Mr Trump is a candidate?" (anyone who says yes, regardless of which way they will vote, would then be ineligible for cause) Does the US have majority verdicts in such cases?
They got a unanimous verdict in the Jean Carroll case before a jury of 12, some of whom must have voted Republican before.
That was a civil case. It’s easier for a jury to tell a rich man to pay someone a sum of money, than it is to send someone to a federal prison.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
I bought a steel tourer from this lot a while ago, although I kind of want the titanium one now: https://spacycles.co.uk/
Cheaper components than some but it does fine for me.
Had no trouble getting them to put the tiniest granny gear which they could supply on (24/32) which is what I need to get up 25%+ hills in the Dales.
(Try Park Rash above Kettlewell for a laugh)
I have gone down the Ti route.
It comes 50-34T and 11-34, I am shooting for 11-36. I live slap in the middle of what everyone says is the worst day of LEJOG. Hills, we got 'em.
I think the point on reallocating roadspace is that motor vehicles have had all of it for half a century, so that is where it is coming back from as we rebalance priorities to give individuals choice in how they travel. And inevitably there will be bit of a backlash from those attached to, or benefitting from, the legacy forms of transport.
Yet we wonder why the cycling enthusiasts come across as primarily anti-car rather than pro-bike.
If you want to improve cycling provision then it needs to be *new* roadway, not “repurposing” the existing road to make driving more difficult.
Pro-bike is pro-car. It's not a zero-sum game.
Wanting to increase taxes on cars, and wanting to reduce the number of lanes available to them, are both very much anti-car.
It’s not a zero-sum game if you’re adding *new* roads.
carrying a week of family groceries on a cycle is easy.
For god's sake let's not put you in charge of cycling policy.
It *is* easy. Get a trailer for about £70-£100.
If you want to go extreme there are the new EAV 2Cubed e-cycles, which have 2 cubic metres of carrying space - more than my full size estate car - and are being used by Amazon for urban deliveries. Even I was surprised what they had got inside the EAPC regs; they look like Postman Pat's van - but just 1m wide like a tricycle. Coming soon to a cycle track / road near you.
Yes very good. Carrying a week of family groceries on a cycle is easy. As long as you have a trailer or an EAV 2Cubed e-cycle. Or, of course, a Ford Fiesta.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
What's the verdict on cargo ebikes? I'm tempted by something like a Tern or the cheaper Radwagon. Where we live, it'd make sense for me, rather than use the Transporter for a 10 minute drive to town. It'd be a crime to use my hardtail with panniers.
I think the point on reallocating roadspace is that motor vehicles have had all of it for half a century, so that is where it is coming back from as we rebalance priorities to give individuals choice in how they travel. And inevitably there will be bit of a backlash from those attached to, or benefitting from, the legacy forms of transport.
Yet we wonder why the cycling enthusiasts come across as primarily anti-car rather than pro-bike.
If you want to improve cycling provision then it needs to be *new* roadway, not “repurposing” the existing road to make driving more difficult.
Pro-bike is pro-car. It's not a zero-sum game.
Wanting to increase taxes on cars, and wanting to reduce the number of lanes available to them, are both very much anti-car.
It’s not a zero-sum game if you’re adding *new* roads.
carrying a week of family groceries on a cycle is easy.
For god's sake let's not put you in charge of cycling policy.
It *is* easy. Get a trailer for about £70-£100.
If you want to go extreme there are the new EAV 2Cubed e-cycles, which have 2 cubic metres of carrying space - more than my full size estate car - and are being used by Amazon for urban deliveries. Even I was surprised what they had got inside the EAPC regs; they look like Postman Pat's van - but just 1m wide like a tricycle. Coming soon to a cycle track / road near you.
Saw someone on a Danish bike the other day, with a trailer that looked like a running pram. Had a front wheel for the trailer clipped to the side - so a three wheeler when not attached to the bike.
Two kids in the front, heaps of stuff in the trailer.
@MattW is the acknowledged expert on cycling infrastructure. I’m sure his predictions that cycling can be expected to triple in coming years is right.
I’m hopeful about Birmingham and Nottingham too.
I remember when I posted that it was a shame that cities outside London lacked cyclehire schemes and I was denounced as a cappuccino supping metro elitist.
A small, but very useful scheme - Brompton offer cycle hire
I'm seeing on the trains an increasing number of people who've obviously hired one (the colour scheme is quiet, but noticeable) for a day out - train out to somewhere in the country side, unfold and ride.
For those who don't know them, Brompton folding bikes are allowed on all trains because they are so compact. They are, in addition, very rideable, compared to other small wheel bikes.
Bromptons are very cool, as well as a British manufacturing success story.
I have a single speed titanium one with flat bars because that's just how I roll.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
Genesis Croix de Fer - yay or nay?
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Crap bottom bracket too, although it is Hollowtech II so you could put a 𝘿𝙐𝙍𝘼 𝘼𝘾𝙀 in it.
Wy is it that serious bike people* buy ready built bikes, only to replace most of the bits?
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike. 2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else. 3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Trickle down in action, we should all be pleased
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
Fucking hell! It's not a fucking cog! A cog is a toothed wheel which engages another toothed wheel. A toothed wheel engaged by a chain is a sprocket. Honestly, Gardenwalker is bang on about this country.
Maybe you can set up a radio and put the aerial on the back of the bike.
Gonna tape a BT speaker to the handle bars and blast out a 90 BPM dubstep playlist. 4 da cadence innit
Drill surely?
Rockabilly in reality, you have seen through my down wiv da kidz pretence.
Comments
[OK, I had a brief look at the statement. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yelland's response was i) it isn't a problem, and ii) even if it is we don't deserve this, and iii) even if we do why didn't you do it to the other guy huh? Huh?
Which does not inspire confidence.
The problem is the same as the UK: during the neoliberal consensus money could not be raised by tax because TAX BAD and instead was raised by debt via various instruments that I don't pretend to understand. So debt has been building up and things are ratcheting downwards over time, with the Fitch downgrade merely the latest ratchet. We'll pass a threshold at some point and I would be really glad if I knew where that was]
"The girl put the skirt neatly beside her shirt, opened the string bag, took out an old soda–water bottle containing some heavy colourless liquid and went over to the man and knelt on the grass beside him. She poured some of the liquid, a light olive oil, scented, as was everything in that part of the world, with roses..."
Where is that from?
BR was talking about a £1 trillion investment in roads last night. Just pop some cycle lanes in instead.
And, now, roughly translated, Wild Boar in a Pot:
But it will never happen. It would be a decade to do it and the payoff would be at the end.
Bit like moving Heathrow - which is perfectly possible. A number of countries have done this, complete with building the islands to put the airports on.
You’re right about the roses though.
They are not particularly 'rideable' because of a very short mechanical trail distance of 27mm. A normal bicycle has 40-65mm and therefore much stronger castering action. I have ridden mine over 60km in one ride though.
"Bibby Stockholm: Health and safety worker checks delaying barge taking asylum seekers"
A story or two more of the same ilk, and then WHAM, it will be Rishi tells the Supreme Court it can stick European human rights law up its Remainer arse, and the dumping of alleged so-called self-styled asylum seekers in Rwanda has begun.
I want a commuter that also tours. It seems appalling value for money for the components, but I can't see an alternative other than a Sonder Santiago or a Bombtrack.
FOI response has revealed that Chief Medical Officer @DrGregorSmith has approved SPATH as Scotland's new treatment protocol. GPs will be able to prescribe hormones, & refer patients for surgery, without psychological assessment. This decision goes against @Hilary_Cass
recommendations
https://twitter.com/CanSG_org/status/1686645272129011712?s=20
As in the UK, the Supreme Court isn't there to re-litigate the facts of a case. In particular, if the jury finds as a point of fact that Trump did not believe that his allegations of widespread voter fraud by/for his opponent were true, then the Supreme Court won't take that decision again. What they would consider, for example, is whether the judge misdirected the jury about the appropriate test and matters they could validly consider.
That's important as you might assume Amy Coney Barrett would be more inclined to give Trump the benefit of the doubt on some matters than an average juror. But she's not on the jury - she'd be being asked a separate question principally relating to the proper handling of legal points by the trial judge.
Nice and unexpected reference.
- control of the media
- control of the economy and the capture of administrative targets
- for which you need the fourth element, the loyalty of the military...
- ...which brings me to the fifth element, legitimacy
Now our government draws its strength from long-established institutions that support it- the courts
- the body of common law
- the constitution
[So] for any action against the state to succeed you'd have to overthrow these as well, but in a highly evolved democracy such as ours their authority is sacrosanct. Which is why, gentlemen, a coup d'etat in the United Kingdom doesn't stand a chance.Unless..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maA5TmGiPIE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEeP3zausAc
Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022
4
Automatic dissolution of Parliament after five years
If it has not been dissolved earlier, a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met.
Replace five with thousand
Replace 'fifth' with 'thousandth'
Inline style declaration for rotate property should work too, but seems not to, unless I had a typo.
ETA: Taking photos and videos only in landscape format as god intended is also a solution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1YtNaFFsRg&t=8s
I have a Whyte Gisburn for my daily driver and I like it although the same comments about the wheels apply.
This is a gremlin in the Vanilla system. It is easy to fix. If you want to post a photo which is in Portrait, first go to Edit then rotate it 4 times, so it returns to its original upright portrait mode. That usually fixes it when you post it here. And if that doesn't work, just snip a bit of the photo off - something irrelevant
Again, editing the photo seems to override Vanilla's manic tendency to post Portrait photos at 90 degrees
I quite like the “old hag”, and raised my family here.
My time in New York was always envisaged as temporary and I’ll be back properly at some stage.
Maybe sooner in the event of Trump win.
I just despair at British politics. But, walking through London over the last day or so and seeing the vibrancy I remember, I’m hopeful about a (post-election) future.
https://ifs.org.uk/articles/immediate-response-scottish-fiscal-framework-review
Looks Ok except the brakes. RX600 is meant to be equivalent to 105.
Less good on cycle infrastructure, heat pumps, etc
And now: to work. I was woken at 8am in the middle of profound sleep by air raid klaxons wailing like muezzin on my balcony. But I have now had the second sleep, and the mind is sharp, and the coffee is good
Later
Trump was impeached an unprecedented two times. That seems like a disaster for the office of the Presidency. Once was about withholding arms for Ukraine, which was pretty bad for the Ukrainians. His anti-Ukrainian, pro-Putin positioning has left a toxic legacy in the US that still hampers aid to Ukraine. The second time was for his actions trying to overturn the election result, which is why we’re talking about him today. That’s been disastrous for respect in the democratic system in the US.
Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, because of Trump appointments, a disaster for women in much of the US.
Many have described the US withdrawal from Afghanistan as a disaster. While that took place under his successor, it was started by Trump.
Hoping it works in landscape.
So your bill is proposed to Parliament. HY et al on here along with the right wing tabloid media position it as *protection* of our democratic processes against the bad guys (the international woke liberal blob media socialist conspiracy).
A chunk of Tory MPs would be outraged, and the Lords would throw it back at the Commons. But should the Commons still keep voting for an enabling act we would eventually reach a crisis point where even a Commons majority was not enough, no matter what GBeebies and the Daily Heil were saying.
As the fictionalised Lord Mountbatten said, there's no chance.
The armed robbers, on a couple of occasions, decided to fight. And discovered that MP5 vs sawn off isn't really a contest.
Some lawyers were quite upset - some of their best clients gone. They tried (and failed) to get a judgement that the police, in such ambushes, had some kind of extra responsibility to take the criminals alive.
This failed. So the penalty for poorly engineered bank robberies was death, sometimes.
An Omafiets may not be fashionable in the UK even though we are slowly moving that way, being a near replica of an "English Roadster" from around 1900 - taken by the Dutch as an easy to use comfortable 'town bike'.
But they are great for transport cycling, if it is about trundling-around convenience not speed. One thing we struggle with in the UK is secure parking for cycles at destinations, so it is always worth a check.
The is also an Opafiets, which is an Omafiets with a crossbar.
If it was about getting to the station for a commute, I would probably go for a light folder and take it with me. E-Brompton using the kit the kit I described can be under 14kg, or an official E-Brompton can be under 13kg.
https://www.lightningmaps.org/#m=oss;t=3;s=200;o=0;b=;ts=1;y=51.445;x=-2.2257;z=6;d=2;dl=2;dc=0;as=22-10-23T18;ts24=0;
@Leon got you bang on.
For it to go to the Supreme Court, there has to be an uncertain point of law, and there might well be given the unprecedented nature of the charges.
My brother and I built all our bikes from bare frames, when we were kids.
A local bike shop is doing a good trade in the following -
1) Someone buys an expensive bike.
2) Pays for them to strip half the parts off it and change them for something else.
3) The shop sells/gives the parts to a community workshop on the local housing estates that helps youngsters build and maintain their own bikes.
A variation is that the customer does the work themselves - and *gives* the bag of spare bits to the shop.
*Defined as those spending 4 figures+ on a bike.
Say Charles refused to give the Tausend Jahre bill Royal assent, I presume 'Emperor' Sunak would try and dissolve the Monarchy with a money bill. But that would also need Royal assent, and whilst Charles would sign if we were moving to a proper presidential system he probably wouldn't for the Sunak Reich.
I am about to do exactly this. ribble claim that their bikes are infinitely customisable, but they won't change a cassette for the (readily available as far as I can see) bigger-biggest-cog alternative for getting the old and weak up steep hills. So I will probably get it swapped in the first month. Hang on to the original cassette tho.
Updated chrome last night, it may not like that
One stark example can be in eg hospital or supermarket car parks. Just taking out 5% of parking spaces will give about 5x as many potential cycle parking spaces - which will give parking capacity of 20%+ more in the same space. Needs to be done correctly - here the route to get to the supermarket is really difficult - but carrying a week of family groceries on a cycle is easy. That's the sort of detail we need imo to be sweating.
I'd love to get my local hospital to develop that sort of strategy since it generates around 2,5 million trips per annum, and has umpteen car parks that chocca even though charged form, and with vehicles permanently driving around looking for a space. There are about 150k-170k people living within easy cycling / mobility scootering distance.
But the local active transport infra is diabolical, even though some shared 2.5m wide pavements are going in. They even have pedestrian crossings near by with the pedestrian cages so tight that they can't be crossed in a mobility scooter.
It's not as if bare frames and bits are hard to get hold of.
So sure, it’s less conducive.
No need for Freudian misdiagnosis.
But it will pass, and they are in steep decline.
Despite writing some unmitigated tosh, he was a genuinely memorable prose stylist.
It's like being back in the UK in the late 90s again, and so odd as to cause a minor culture shock.
That's why most of us drive bog-standard Nissans and Fords and Jaguars not Performance Cars and Kit Cars.
Not so much that. This is a purely recreational deal.
Admittedly I have returned to Islington-Hackney borders. Your mileage may vary.
(As for the nation's future, a lot depends on how much reward there is in Governments Doing Fewer Dumb Things. I'm hopeful that there's quite a bit.)
Seriously, when we were kids, it never occurred to us that you needed one.
Tools were a collection of screwdrivers, a set of Allen keys, and an adjustable spanner. Oh, and some pliers.
These days most of that can be done with a cheap driver set from Amazon
https://spacycles.co.uk/
Cheaper components than some but it does fine for me.
Had no trouble getting them to put the tiniest granny gear which they could supply on (24/32) which is what I need to get up 25%+ hills in the Dales.
(Try Park Rash above Kettlewell for a laugh)
That’s the current British right in précis.
Gonna tape a BT speaker to the handle bars and blast out a 90 BPM dubstep playlist. 4 da cadence innit
When Truss tried to break the economy we very quickly progressed to the powers that be telling the grandees in the Tory party to ignore wazzocks like Simon Ding Dong Clarke and have her out of office. An Enabling Act to cling to power wouldn't have universal support in the party (perhaps only with ex Plaid entryists like HY), and the powers that be would inform Mrs Brady that he needed to get the pearl-handled revolver out again.
Her Ma'am may well have stayed out of it. But King Chuck isn't afraid to speak his mind - especially when as in this scenario constitutionally he is expected to give advice. Would be fun to watch though. Imagine the aftermath - "HOW THE BLOB STOLE OUR DEMOCRACY" - a 3 hour debate on GBeebies with Nadine Dorries and Lee Anderson.
If you want to go extreme there are the new EAV 2Cubed e-cycles, which have 2 cubic metres of carrying space - more than my full size estate car - and are being used by Amazon for urban deliveries. Even I was surprised what they had got inside the EAPC regs; they look like Postman Pat's van - but just 1m wide like a tricycle. Coming soon to a cycle track / road near you.
It comes 50-34T and 11-34, I am shooting for 11-36. I live slap in the middle of what everyone says is the worst day of LEJOG. Hills, we got 'em.
Political Bicycling on here.
Two kids in the front, heaps of stuff in the trailer.