I sense several narratives turning for Ukraine. Maybe not in a good way
How many times have you said this before?
Maybe not ever?
I’ve mentioned before when I’ve felt the war is going as well as we’d like. This is different
This seems like a larger shift
And, just for the record, I’d be delighted if Ukraine rolled every Russian soldier back to the pre-2014 frontiers
Ukraine made some tactical significant gains yesterday. They are grinding away at the Russian defences
Yes it’s taking longer than expected, but there’s been slow advances towards Chernihivka in the past few weeks, from where they can take out the railway line to Crimea. The advances of the last few days, put parts of that railway line close to HIMARS range.
(Grey shading shows the extent of territory previously-held by the invaders)
It is notable that a number of publications - like the NYTimes - that had been pretty pessimistic about the Ukrainian offensive have turned more positive recently.
That gives me hope… perhaps the NYTimes will write something positive about the UK one of these days…
Leon has been predicting a nuclear escalation and various forms of calamity for Ukraine all the way through. He said the Ukrainians were going to freeze over the winter. It's been doom and gloom all the way through.
Does he not ever stop to wonder why he has been wrong so many times in the past?
This is tiresome
Again we were discussing possiblities. I foresaw that Putin's new tactic (as it then was) - of bombing the shit out of Ukrainian infra, might have some significant success
This was acknowledged as true, even at the time, even by the Ukes
"Kyiv Planning for Total Evacuation if It Loses Electricity"
We now know they came really close to doing this: evacuating Kyiv
You seem to want every PB-er to say "Yay Ukraine is doing fantastically well" all the time and at every juncture. That is not commentary, it is cheerleading
That's not what I want. I expect that when people make mistakes and errors of judgement that they will reflect on them and correct themselves.
For example, I repeated a report from someone on twitter a while ago who I had previously found reliable, and it subsequently proved that they had overstated a situation. I no longer use that source of information because it gives a misleadingly positive view of the situation for Ukraine.
But you are a stuck record on Ukraine, and you are incapable of self-correcting, and your constant doom-bleating is tiresome.
"... I expect that when people make mistakes and errors of judgement that they will reflect on them and correct themselves."
You must be desperately disappointed at the weather forecasters in this country then.
Not at all. They have scientists employed to look at errors in the model and work out how to fix them. There are people whose job is to look at major forecast busts and work out what went wrong in the forecast.
There's a huge amount of work that goes into improving weather forecasts. Your attitude on this is bizarrely offensive and ignorant.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
If you *can* avoid flying, it would be amazing. Have you considered going up to the Peaks or the Lakes? Depending on how old your kids are there are loads of family days out, things to do if wet, adventure.activities etc.
Peaks and Lakes are great - and if it was down to me I'd sign up for a week in the Lakes tomorrow - but both are less than 90 minutes away and the wife fancies somewhere we haven't been before.I will keep up a low level campaign for the Lakes though!
Two Washington Post columnists together described the issue, little discussed, underlying many American's voting choices. The leftist, Paul Waldman, describes it as a conflict between good guys (himself, for instance) and "anti-antiracists": "In a sense, anti-antiracism is its own ideology. It holds that racism directed at minorities is largely a thing of the past; that whatever racism does exist is a product only of individual hearts and not of institutions and systems; that efforts to ameliorate racism and promote diversity are both counterproductive and morally abhorrent; and, most critically, that those efforts must not only be stopped but also rolled back.
Listen to conservative rhetoric on book banning, affirmative action, teaching history or any of the ways race touches their war on “wokeness,” and you hear this theme repeated: We must stop talking and thinking about racism, and most of all we must stop trying to do anything about racism."
Leon has been predicting a nuclear escalation and various forms of calamity for Ukraine all the way through. He said the Ukrainians were going to freeze over the winter. It's been doom and gloom all the way through.
Does he not ever stop to wonder why he has been wrong so many times in the past?
This is tiresome
Again we were discussing possiblities. I foresaw that Putin's new tactic (as it then was) - of bombing the shit out of Ukrainian infra, might have some significant success
This was acknowledged as true, even at the time, even by the Ukes
"Kyiv Planning for Total Evacuation if It Loses Electricity"
We now know they came really close to doing this: evacuating Kyiv
You seem to want every PB-er to say "Yay Ukraine is doing fantastically well" all the time and at every juncture. That is not commentary, it is cheerleading
That's not what I want. I expect that when people make mistakes and errors of judgement that they will reflect on them and correct themselves.
For example, I repeated a report from someone on twitter a while ago who I had previously found reliable, and it subsequently proved that they had overstated a situation. I no longer use that source of information because it gives a misleadingly positive view of the situation for Ukraine.
But you are a stuck record on Ukraine, and you are incapable of self-correcting, and your constant doom-bleating is tiresome.
Yeah well you can shove your pickled tapir’s penis of pomposity up your bizarrely entitled butthole
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Have you thought about Sweden? There should be low cost flights there?
I had not thought about Sweden at all. Instinctively I recoil from Scandinavia as eye-wateringly expensive, but we went to Finland and, alcohol aside, it wasn't as bad as I feared. Where in Sweden would you go for a summer holiday?
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Have you thought about Sweden? There should be low cost flights there?
I had not thought about Sweden at all. Instinctively I recoil from Scandinavia as eye-wateringly expensive, but we went to Finland and, alcohol aside, it wasn't as bad as I feared. Where in Sweden would you go for a summer holiday?
Northern Europe also better than southern for us as we are not a family who does well in the heat!
Leon has been predicting a nuclear escalation and various forms of calamity for Ukraine all the way through. He said the Ukrainians were going to freeze over the winter. It's been doom and gloom all the way through.
Does he not ever stop to wonder why he has been wrong so many times in the past?
This is tiresome
Again we were discussing possiblities. I foresaw that Putin's new tactic (as it then was) - of bombing the shit out of Ukrainian infra, might have some significant success
This was acknowledged as true, even at the time, even by the Ukes
"Kyiv Planning for Total Evacuation if It Loses Electricity"
We now know they came really close to doing this: evacuating Kyiv
You seem to want every PB-er to say "Yay Ukraine is doing fantastically well" all the time and at every juncture. That is not commentary, it is cheerleading
That's not what I want. I expect that when people make mistakes and errors of judgement that they will reflect on them and correct themselves.
For example, I repeated a report from someone on twitter a while ago who I had previously found reliable, and it subsequently proved that they had overstated a situation. I no longer use that source of information because it gives a misleadingly positive view of the situation for Ukraine.
But you are a stuck record on Ukraine, and you are incapable of self-correcting, and your constant doom-bleating is tiresome.
Yeah well you can shove your pickled tapir’s penis of pomposity up your bizarrely entitled butthole
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Well I’m having a very pleasant short holiday at the moment near Waterford in Ireland. If you like Cornwall you’d like it here. Children just been paddling in Dunmore East cove.
But I’d also recommend the Southern Black Forest for family holidays. Around Staufen and Munsterthal.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Have you thought about Sweden? There should be low cost flights there?
I had not thought about Sweden at all. Instinctively I recoil from Scandinavia as eye-wateringly expensive, but we went to Finland and, alcohol aside, it wasn't as bad as I feared. Where in Sweden would you go for a summer holiday?
Depends what you like
Gothenburg or the islands are lovely for sailing and other countryside stuff
Stockholm is the only place that anything actually happens
Copenhagen is a trendy happening place
Hamburg (I know) is probably better for a long weekend but as a quaint port city with harbour cafes and cycling it’s hard to beat
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Have you thought about Sweden? There should be low cost flights there?
I had not thought about Sweden at all. Instinctively I recoil from Scandinavia as eye-wateringly expensive, but we went to Finland and, alcohol aside, it wasn't as bad as I feared. Where in Sweden would you go for a summer holiday?
Northern Europe also better than southern for us as we are not a family who does well in the heat!
Cotswolds are nice for the scenery at this time of year, or for kids’ activities somewhere like Bournemouth or Brighton, larger towns than in Cornwall. Alternatively, base a holiday around a particular event or activity, such as a music festival or sporting event, or go sailing / snorkelling if that interests everyone.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Well I’m having a very pleasant short holiday at the moment near Waterford in Ireland. If you like Cornwall you’d like it here. Children just been paddling in Dunmore East cove.
But I’d also recommend the Southern Black Forest for family holidays. Around Staufen and Munsterthal.
Someone I follow on twitter has been posting photos of his family holiday in the Black Forest and they look fun. He's been travelling by train. I don't know if your family is into train travel.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Have you thought about Sweden? There should be low cost flights there?
I had not thought about Sweden at all. Instinctively I recoil from Scandinavia as eye-wateringly expensive, but we went to Finland and, alcohol aside, it wasn't as bad as I feared. Where in Sweden would you go for a summer holiday?
Depends what you like
Gothenburg or the islands are lovely for sailing and other countryside stuff
Stockholm is the only place that anything actually happens
Copenhagen is a trendy happening place
Hamburg (I know) is probably better for a long weekend but as a quaint port city with harbour cafes and cycling it’s hard to beat
Soem good museums in Copenhagen. Roskilde near Copenhagen is an old town which has a Viking ship museum - both really fine local originals salvaged from the inlet there, and modern recreations on which sailing is possible sometimes (no idea of booking or whether youngsters permitted). NB that there is a rail connection with Sweden too over the Oresund (?) Bridge..
Re UK hols, maybe look at the East Lothian/Berwickshire/north Northumberland area and the hinterland up Tweeddale/Wall country - a fair bit to do but not as intensive as some areas. Depends so much on the children, that I hesitate to suggest it more firmly than that.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Isle of Wight is always good!
The Netherlands is lovely. Beaches in the North are a bit like North Norfolk, with sand dunes. Interesting towns and cities, and great for cycling with cycle paths everywhere, often as wide as the road.
I did Belgium by motorbike with my brother. Ypres is interesting for a day, but the Ardennes had the best scenery and some beaches on the Meuse for swimming. Nothing spectacular, but pretty.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Well I’m having a very pleasant short holiday at the moment near Waterford in Ireland. If you like Cornwall you’d like it here. Children just been paddling in Dunmore East cove.
But I’d also recommend the Southern Black Forest for family holidays. Around Staufen and Munsterthal.
Someone I follow on twitter has been posting photos of his family holiday in the Black Forest and they look fun. He's been travelling by train. I don't know if your family is into train travel.
Germanys reasonably priced too. Black Forest is good if you like: moderate height mountains and long walks, cute timber framed towns out of Disney, very good value wines, lots of outdoorsy activities, dramatic afternoon thunderstorms, and schnitzels with potato salad. Not so great if you like the sea of course.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Well I’m having a very pleasant short holiday at the moment near Waterford in Ireland. If you like Cornwall you’d like it here. Children just been paddling in Dunmore East cove.
But I’d also recommend the Southern Black Forest for family holidays. Around Staufen and Munsterthal.
I love both these suggestions. Ireland is foreign enough to be different and interesting, yet accessible enough to be not-too-challenging. And I've always wanted to go to the Black Forest wuthout really knowing why. Thanks.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Isle of Wight is always good!
The Netherlands is lovely. Beaches in the North are a bit like North Norfolk, with sand dunes. Interesting towns and cities, and great for cycling with cycle paths everywhere, often as wide as the road.
I did Belgium by motorbike with my brother. Ypres is interesting for a day, but the Ardennes had the best scenery and some beaches on the Meuse for swimming. Nothing spectacular, but pretty.
Now now, you'll set off our motorists.
Very fond of Wight. Really good for fossils - plenty of dinos in the local museum (I assume it is still open) and you can find fossils easily in the right areas, and see footprints (casts, anyway) and fossil tree trunks at Hanover Point.But not everyone is into that. Plenty of scenery to combine with that, and things like the Needles Fort. Mind, great place to holiday with a dog. Must have walked all over West Wight with our host's pooch.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Isle of Wight is always good!
The Netherlands is lovely. Beaches in the North are a bit like North Norfolk, with sand dunes. Interesting towns and cities, and great for cycling with cycle paths everywhere, often as wide as the road.
I did Belgium by motorbike with my brother. Ypres is interesting for a day, but the Ardennes had the best scenery and some beaches on the Meuse for swimming. Nothing spectacular, but pretty.
Now now, you'll set off our motorists.
Very fond of Wight. Really good for fossils - plenty of dinos in the local museum (I assume it is still open) and you can find fossils easily in the right areas, and see footprints (casts, anyway) and fossil tree trunks at Hanover Point.But not everyone is into that. Plenty of scenery to combine with that, and things like the Needles Fort. Mind, great place to holiday with a dog. Must have walked all over West Wight with our host's pooch.
I go to the IoW several times a year, as family there, but still plenty to see and do. Some bits a bit downmarket and other bits Chelsea on Sea. The sea is quite a bit more warm for swimming than Cornwall as more sheltered.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Well I’m having a very pleasant short holiday at the moment near Waterford in Ireland. If you like Cornwall you’d like it here. Children just been paddling in Dunmore East cove.
But I’d also recommend the Southern Black Forest for family holidays. Around Staufen and Munsterthal.
I love both these suggestions. Ireland is foreign enough to be different and interesting, yet accessible enough to be not-too-challenging. And I've always wanted to go to the Black Forest wuthout really knowing why. Thanks.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Well I’m having a very pleasant short holiday at the moment near Waterford in Ireland. If you like Cornwall you’d like it here. Children just been paddling in Dunmore East cove.
But I’d also recommend the Southern Black Forest for family holidays. Around Staufen and Munsterthal.
I love both these suggestions. Ireland is foreign enough to be different and interesting, yet accessible enough to be not-too-challenging. And I've always wanted to go to the Black Forest wuthout really knowing why. Thanks.
Ireland is expensive though.
Not as bad as I expected, except in Dublin. But then we have free accommodation with friends in a very swanky cliff top house on the coast.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
I've just had a thoroughly enjoyable holiday in Norfolk. Plenty to do there for everyone.
Edit - if you wanted Cornwall-ish but not Cornwall, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire are both very pleasant and Carmarthenshire isn't crazy expensive.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
I've just had a thoroughly enjoyable holiday in Norfolk. Plenty to do there for everyone.
Edit - if you wanted Cornwall-ish but not Cornwall, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire are both very pleasant and Carmarthenshire isn't crazy expensive.
Am in Norfolk at the moment myself, always look forward to coming, never disappoints.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Have you thought about Sweden? There should be low cost flights there?
I had not thought about Sweden at all. Instinctively I recoil from Scandinavia as eye-wateringly expensive, but we went to Finland and, alcohol aside, it wasn't as bad as I feared. Where in Sweden would you go for a summer holiday?
Northern Europe also better than southern for us as we are not a family who does well in the heat!
Scotland is a Lake District the size of a small country. Mull and Skye are good. Iona unique. Usually good for those who don't do well in the heat. And only for the active who don't require constant artificial stimulation and attractions. Occasional bits of heat in the month of June, the only non-winter month in most of Scotland.
Different from all of this is Edinburgh, Athens of the the north.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Netherlands is great with kids. If they like theme parks spend a night at Efteling.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
I've just had a thoroughly enjoyable holiday in Norfolk. Plenty to do there for everyone.
Edit - if you wanted Cornwall-ish but not Cornwall, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire are both very pleasant and Carmarthenshire isn't crazy expensive.
Agree about Norfolk. For those who find it too exciting, Lincolnshire remains for most people an unknown country altogether. It is fabulous ans a lost land steeped in history (Katherine Swynford and Kettlethorpe, Bolingbroke and Henry IV, Snarford and the St Pols the list is endless); though most of it not perhaps for children, unless you like the Lincs coast - which is rather retro.
In lieu of yet another thread becoming dominated by @SeanT or @Leon ....
I wonder if Sunak's only hope is to disassociate himself from the Conservative Party much as Johnson did last time when he sounded like an opposition leader criticising the Government of which he was Prime Minister.
Sunak has to play the "vote for me, not my party" card for all its worth - the "Conservative" brand is electoral hemlock yet Sunak himself, pace Major, may be able to convince more people to vote for him as PM - his personal ratings run ahead of the party.
Great if he had any personality for personal ratings to be about. There is so little to him, there is nothing even to caricature. Not even the bare minimum shirt tucked in to underpants, teasmade, frozen peas of John Major. Private Eye has no sort of handle on him, cartoonists just make him look Indian. He makes Starmer look substantial.
On the Private Eye thing, he's not even the star of his own Prime Ministerial Parody. Even Gordon Brown managed that.
(The Cabinet group chat isn't that great an idea, but what would you do with Rishi anyway? Some sort of management consultant/Apprentice notes?)
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Well I’m having a very pleasant short holiday at the moment near Waterford in Ireland. If you like Cornwall you’d like it here. Children just been paddling in Dunmore East cove.
But I’d also recommend the Southern Black Forest for family holidays. Around Staufen and Munsterthal.
I love both these suggestions. Ireland is foreign enough to be different and interesting, yet accessible enough to be not-too-challenging. And I've always wanted to go to the Black Forest wuthout really knowing why. Thanks.
I just had a 2-week driving tour around the Rhine - Liege, Koblenz, Strasbourg. I would suggest if you like old towns and castles, good walking and scenery then anywhere around there is good. Belgium is a bit boring but with nice towns, anywhere in SW Germany has a lot of castles, but the towns were generally bombed flat in WW2 so might have lost a bit of character sometimes. Alsace has a lot of interesting small towns/large villages in the wine area and more castles, Strasbourg and Colmar are lovely. Half timber everywhere (we got bored with it in the end). But with teenager-ish kids you might find being close to borders good so you can do at least 4 of Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France and Luxembourg all on the same trip, which my slightly older children thought was cool. Entirely unvisited by the English - didn't see another British car the whole time.
But - you said you're not keen on the heat so I would suggest further north as we had a typical continental summer with some days above 30 (but some cooler ones too).
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Have you thought about Sweden? There should be low cost flights there?
I had not thought about Sweden at all. Instinctively I recoil from Scandinavia as eye-wateringly expensive, but we went to Finland and, alcohol aside, it wasn't as bad as I feared. Where in Sweden would you go for a summer holiday?
Northern Europe also better than southern for us as we are not a family who does well in the heat!
Scotland is what I know about from it being my adopted homeland, though I know you came last year so wouldn't dissuade you from discovering more of continental Europe. You just scratched the surface with Perthshire, there's the West Coast, Mull, Arran, St Andrews and Fife, the Highlands, the world is your lobster.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Isle of Wight is always good!
The Netherlands is lovely. Beaches in the North are a bit like North Norfolk, with sand dunes. Interesting towns and cities, and great for cycling with cycle paths everywhere, often as wide as the road.
I did Belgium by motorbike with my brother. Ypres is interesting for a day, but the Ardennes had the best scenery and some beaches on the Meuse for swimming. Nothing spectacular, but pretty.
Now now, you'll set off our motorists.
Very fond of Wight. Really good for fossils
Unfair on yourself, but possibly a fair description of the usual demographic.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Isle of Wight is always good!
The Netherlands is lovely. Beaches in the North are a bit like North Norfolk, with sand dunes. Interesting towns and cities, and great for cycling with cycle paths everywhere, often as wide as the road.
I did Belgium by motorbike with my brother. Ypres is interesting for a day, but the Ardennes had the best scenery and some beaches on the Meuse for swimming. Nothing spectacular, but pretty.
Now now, you'll set off our motorists.
Very fond of Wight. Really good for fossils
Unfair on yourself, but possibly a fair description of the usual demographic.
True of a lot of coastal areas, of course. Some interesting tensions [edit] in a number of places - not thinking specifically of the IoW - between the nimby incomers and the locals who want work, not always in the tourist season, even before the house price rise exacerbated the second/retiree home problem.
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
Well I’m having a very pleasant short holiday at the moment near Waterford in Ireland. If you like Cornwall you’d like it here. Children just been paddling in Dunmore East cove.
But I’d also recommend the Southern Black Forest for family holidays. Around Staufen and Munsterthal.
I love both these suggestions. Ireland is foreign enough to be different and interesting, yet accessible enough to be not-too-challenging. And I've always wanted to go to the Black Forest wuthout really knowing why. Thanks.
I just had a 2-week driving tour around the Rhine - Liege, Koblenz, Strasbourg. I would suggest if you like old towns and castles, good walking and scenery then anywhere around there is good. Belgium is a bit boring but with nice towns, anywhere in SW Germany has a lot of castles, but the towns were generally bombed flat in WW2 so might have lost a bit of character sometimes. Alsace has a lot of interesting small towns/large villages in the wine area and more castles, Strasbourg and Colmar are lovely. Half timber everywhere (we got bored with it in the end). But with teenager-ish kids you might find being close to borders good so you can do at least 4 of Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France and Luxembourg all on the same trip, which my slightly older children thought was cool. Entirely unvisited by the English - didn't see another British car the whole time.
But - you said you're not keen on the heat so I would suggest further north as we had a typical continental summer with some days above 30 (but some cooler ones too).
It'll be far too hot, and you'll absolutely hate it.
But in subsequent years you can simply return to Cornwall and be happy that you're not in Dubai.
LOL!
Every year there are loads of Brits who turn up in the sandpit in August, wondering why the big 5• beach resort hotels are £150 a night, or who see a promo for seven nights for a family cheaper than Majorca, and think they always wanted to go to Dubai!
Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field (The Weeknd) and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn.
It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t.
Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe.
We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year.
Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hope and truth and positivity, but in the dark night I carry their despair to bed and it becomes my own.
I am tired of hearing the horrible stories. The utter cruelty that has been visited upon totally innocent people. I am tired of the painstaking way we continue to try to construct political coalitions to get Ukraine the critical support they need. This despicable invasion seems so self evidently a fight of good and monstrous evil, that we cannot understand how western leaders can even hesitate.
We seem to be back to those terrible early weeks, where fear and grim determination was in the eyes of the Estonians as we faced the reality that if Ukraine lost, then we would face the same fate. Its different of course, we do not think that the Ukrainians will be destroyed now. Yet, yet the costs that they have to pay are so horrific.
Now the insanity of the Putinists has descended to drunken raving: mad threats to NATO, threats of nuclear attack and the constant barrage of demented hate from the Vermin in the Russian media. Another thing that has changed is that we now see that this is normal, that the Russians support this fascism. The perception of Russia as anything positive at all, has simply fallen to pieces. The tolerance for them has utterly gone. I know that those who have the perception must make the allowances, but even with my Russian friends I struggle not to feel profound rage and hatred, and I think that this is now everywhere that the Soviet flag once flew. I warn myself not to even consider hatred as an option. It is a symptom of how tired we all are, the fear never goes away, the little coiled spring at the back of your mind.... This could happen here. It could happen again.
So why stay? Of course my life is here, I am settled, I love this country. To be driven out by runty Vova and his cast of gargoyles is insupportable. So I stay. But there is a price, even as the concert crowds gather, the shadows linger in the corners.
Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field (The Weeknd) and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn.
It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t.
Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe.
We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year.
Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hope and truth and positivity, but in the dark night I carry their despair to bed and it becomes my own.
I am tired of hearing the horrible stories. The utter cruelty that has been visited upon totally innocent people. I am tired of the painstaking way we continue to try to construct political coalitions to get Ukraine the critical support they need. This despicable invasion seems so self evidently a fight of good and monstrous evil, that we cannot understand how western leaders can even hesitate.
We seem to be back to those terrible early weeks, where fear and grim determination was in the eyes of the Estonians as we faced the reality that if Ukraine lost, then we would face the same fate. Its different of course, we do not think that the Ukrainians will be destroyed now. Yet, yet the costs that they have to pay are so horrific.
Now the insanity of the Putinists has descended to drunken raving: mad threats to NATO, threats of nuclear attack and the constant barrage of demented hate from the Vermin in the Russian media. Another thing that has changed is that we now see that this is normal, that the Russians support this fascism. The perception of Russia as anything positive at all, has simply fallen to pieces. The tolerance for them has utterly gone. I know that those who have the perception must make the allowances, but even with my Russian friends I struggle not to feel profound rage and hatred, and I think that this is now everywhere that the Soviet flag once flew. I warn myself not to even consider hatred as an option. It is a symptom of how tired we all are, the fear never goes away, the little coiled spring at the back of your mind.... This could happen here. It could happen again.
So why stay? Of course my life is here, I am settled, I love this country. To be driven out by runty Vova and his cast of gargoyles is insupportable. So I stay. But there is a price, even as the concert crowds gather, the shadows linger in the corners.
Thanks buzzkill. As if the England v Wales match wasn’t bad enough.
I sense several narratives turning for Ukraine. Maybe not in a good way
How many times have you said this before?
Maybe not ever?
I’ve mentioned before when I’ve felt the war is going as well as we’d like. This is different
This seems like a larger shift
And, just for the record, I’d be delighted if Ukraine rolled every Russian soldier back to the pre-2014 frontiers
Ukraine made some tactical significant gains yesterday. They are grinding away at the Russian defences
Yes it’s taking longer than expected, but there’s been slow advances towards Chernihivka in the past few weeks, from where they can take out the railway line to Crimea. The advances of the last few days, put parts of that railway line close to HIMARS range.
(Grey shading shows the extent of territory previously-held by the invaders)
I don't dispute the figures, but I do point out that since 11 May Ukrainian forces have advanced about 15-20km south of Orikhiv. Unfortunately, the Russians have advanced by a similar amount towards Lyman and other places.
I keep pointing this out but nobody listens: thy are driving thru an enormous minefield in full view of their artillery. What outcome were you expecting?
PB: After 8 idyllic years of family holidays in Cornwall, the consensus is that the time has come to try somewhere else. But where? I'm open to going abroad, but flying a family of five in the school holidays is prohibitively expensive and every time I've been to France it's been disappointing. Anyone had any good family holidays in the Netherlands or Germany (or anywhere else apart from Cornwall)? Kids will range from 14 to 9.
I'd also recommend the Black Forest, we got the train to Strasbourg via Paris, then hired a car. Some great walking and our kids loved a brilliant waterpark there called Rulantica. We've had short breaks in the Netherlands. One tip is to stay in Rotterdam, much cheaper than Amsterdam and loads to see round there too. Skye and Arran are the best of the Scottish islands IMHO. Arran is a bit of a hidden gem. Quite small but loads to see. Are you sure you are sick of Cornwall? I can't imagine that! We go to Whitsand Bay every year, I don't think I will ever get bored of it.
Anyone interested in health policy should know about the "Hispanic Paradox": "The Hispanic paradox is an epidemiological finding that Hispanic Americans tend to have health outcomes that "paradoxically" are comparable to, or in some cases better than, those of their U.S. non-Hispanic White counterparts, even though Hispanics have lower average income and education. Low socioeconomic status is almost universally associated with worse population health and higher death rates everywhere in the world.[2] The paradox usually refers in particular to low mortality among Hispanics in the United States relative to non-Hispanic Whites.[3][4][5][6][7][8] According to the Center for Disease Control's 2015 Vital Signs report, Hispanics in the United States had a 24% lower risk of mortality, as well as lower risk for nine of the fifteen leading causes of death as compared to Whites." (Links omitted.)
When I last looked at the CDC data -- a few years before the COVID pandemic -- I found that the six largest groups in the US could be ranked this way by life expectancy: black men, white men, black women, Hispanic men and white women (roughly tied), and Hispanic women. (I haven't looked at the data more recently, but expect similar results once the effects of the pandemic are past us.)
(My guess at the reasons for this advantage: stronger families, stronger communities.)
As an alternative to the travel recommendations which are the most dreary places to visit in this country and others ?
Estonia by the sound of things.
Certainly not dreary... in fact extremely beautiful.
It is indeed but you are posting a very negative view of it. As someone with long held positive views of it and deep experience of the troubles of the Russian influence - bad influence which cost an Estonian friend their life - try and be more positive about the place and it’s future.
Well in contrast to the report from Estonia, I’m pleased to say that Zhytomyr, Ukraine, is a lovely place to be this evening. There’s a queue to get into the restaurant, there hundreds of people walking down the boulevard enjoying the sunset, a kids’ activity day is packing up and teenagers are playing in the skate park, in my restaurant the beer is £1 a pint.
Life would seem good, were it not for too many police walking around, and army vehicles parked up at the side of many roads.
No, it’s not normal, but everyone is making the best of the situation in which they find themselves. We all owe it to this country to help them out of their mess. Keep the support coming, it’s massively appreciated.
As an alternative to the travel recommendations which are the most dreary places to visit in this country and others ?
Stoke Bognor Middlesbrough Grimsby/Cleethorpes Bradford Southend-on-Sea Hayling Island Blackpool
Blackpool is awesome.
The seafront, yes. But like so many places, go two streets in from the 'good' area and it's a very different story.
Context also matters. Before I left London in 1995, friends took me for a typical 'Londoner' day out to Margate. I hated it. Every stall was selling football tat, the ice cream was minging, and it felt on the edge of violence from drunken fools.
I passed through on my coastal walk seven years later, and it felt like a different place. It was winter, but it also had much more character.
As an alternative to the travel recommendations which are the most dreary places to visit in this country and others ?
Estonia by the sound of things.
Certainly not dreary... in fact extremely beautiful.
It is indeed but you are posting a very negative view of it. As someone with long held positive views of it and deep experience of the troubles of the Russian influence - bad influence which cost an Estonian friend their life - try and be more positive about the place and it’s future.
I guess you have not read my previous posts on these subjects? Things are not easy, and though I remain positive overall, I think people should understand the terrible price of this war.
Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field (The Weeknd) and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn.
It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t.
Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe.
We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year.
Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hope and truth and positivity, but in the dark night I carry their despair to bed and it becomes my own.
I am tired of hearing the horrible stories. The utter cruelty that has been visited upon totally innocent people. I am tired of the painstaking way we continue to try to construct political coalitions to get Ukraine the critical support they need. This despicable invasion seems so self evidently a fight of good and monstrous evil, that we cannot understand how western leaders can even hesitate.
We seem to be back to those terrible early weeks, where fear and grim determination was in the eyes of the Estonians as we faced the reality that if Ukraine lost, then we would face the same fate. Its different of course, we do not think that the Ukrainians will be destroyed now. Yet, yet the costs that they have to pay are so horrific.
Now the insanity of the Putinists has descended to drunken raving: mad threats to NATO, threats of nuclear attack and the constant barrage of demented hate from the Vermin in the Russian media. Another thing that has changed is that we now see that this is normal, that the Russians support this fascism. The perception of Russia as anything positive at all, has simply fallen to pieces. The tolerance for them has utterly gone. I know that those who have the perception must make the allowances, but even with my Russian friends I struggle not to feel profound rage and hatred, and I think that this is now everywhere that the Soviet flag once flew. I warn myself not to even consider hatred as an option. It is a symptom of how tired we all are, the fear never goes away, the little coiled spring at the back of your mind.... This could happen here. It could happen again.
So why stay? Of course my life is here, I am settled, I love this country. To be driven out by runty Vova and his cast of gargoyles is insupportable. So I stay. But there is a price, even as the concert crowds gather, the shadows linger in the corners.
Thanks buzzkill. As if the England v Wales match wasn’t bad enough.
Actually, I find it strangely reassuring. Instead of mad hate, a kind of tired anger at the shit that the Very Small Monkey From Moscow is throwing around.
Anyone interested in health policy should know about the "Hispanic Paradox": "The Hispanic paradox is an epidemiological finding that Hispanic Americans tend to have health outcomes that "paradoxically" are comparable to, or in some cases better than, those of their U.S. non-Hispanic White counterparts, even though Hispanics have lower average income and education. Low socioeconomic status is almost universally associated with worse population health and higher death rates everywhere in the world.[2] The paradox usually refers in particular to low mortality among Hispanics in the United States relative to non-Hispanic Whites.[3][4][5][6][7][8] According to the Center for Disease Control's 2015 Vital Signs report, Hispanics in the United States had a 24% lower risk of mortality, as well as lower risk for nine of the fifteen leading causes of death as compared to Whites." (Links omitted.)
When I last looked at the CDC data -- a few years before the COVID pandemic -- I found that the six largest groups in the US could be ranked this way by life expectancy: black men, white men, black women, Hispanic men and white women (roughly tied), and Hispanic women. (I haven't looked at the data more recently, but expect similar results once the effects of the pandemic are past us.)
(My guess at the reasons for this advantage: stronger families, stronger communities.)
As an alternative to the travel recommendations which are the most dreary places to visit in this country and others ?
Estonia by the sound of things.
Certainly not dreary... in fact extremely beautiful.
It is indeed but you are posting a very negative view of it. As someone with long held positive views of it and deep experience of the troubles of the Russian influence - bad influence which cost an Estonian friend their life - try and be more positive about the place and it’s future.
My father had a friend murdered outside his window in Northern Ireland. He got to see the killer released, on TV. He's a community representative now.
As an alternative to the travel recommendations which are the most dreary places to visit in this country and others ?
Stoke Bognor Middlesbrough Grimsby/Cleethorpes Bradford Southend-on-Sea Hayling Island Blackpool
I rarely visit Stoke, but have never not had a good time there. There is a post-modern zoo there, which only has one species, which is good fun. Bradford is a handsome town and well worth a visit. The science and media museum is excellent. The City Council have been pursuing an excellent programme of knocking down all the towns ugliest buildings to make public open space, leaving one of the best Victorian City Centres in the country. And Salt's Mill and Bronte Country, natch. And Ilkley Moor (amd indeed Ilkley) are within the city limits. And you'll find very few finer cities surrounded by countryside as good as Bradford's. Middlesbrough isn't great, tbh, but the transporter bridge is fascinating. And again, the countryside around it is very fine. Blackpool is possibly the least dreary town in the country! It is entirely dedicated to bringing you fun. If you can't have fun in Blackpool you are dead inside. I go several times a year and like it more each time. Yes, it is a but run down behund the front - but the front itself is glorious, and the comedy carpet the best piece of public art in the country. And half a mile back from the front the town appears puzzlingly comfortable. Can't speak much for the others. But I would certainly deter no one from a holiday in Bradford or Blackpool.
Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field (The Weeknd) and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn.
It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t.
Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe.
We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year.
Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hope and truth and positivity, but in the dark night I carry their despair to bed and it becomes my own.
I am tired of hearing the horrible stories. The utter cruelty that has been visited upon totally innocent people. I am tired of the painstaking way we continue to try to construct political coalitions to get Ukraine the critical support they need. This despicable invasion seems so self evidently a fight of good and monstrous evil, that we cannot understand how western leaders can even hesitate.
We seem to be back to those terrible early weeks, where fear and grim determination was in the eyes of the Estonians as we faced the reality that if Ukraine lost, then we would face the same fate. Its different of course, we do not think that the Ukrainians will be destroyed now. Yet, yet the costs that they have to pay are so horrific.
Now the insanity of the Putinists has descended to drunken raving: mad threats to NATO, threats of nuclear attack and the constant barrage of demented hate from the Vermin in the Russian media. Another thing that has changed is that we now see that this is normal, that the Russians support this fascism. The perception of Russia as anything positive at all, has simply fallen to pieces. The tolerance for them has utterly gone. I know that those who have the perception must make the allowances, but even with my Russian friends I struggle not to feel profound rage and hatred, and I think that this is now everywhere that the Soviet flag once flew. I warn myself not to even consider hatred as an option. It is a symptom of how tired we all are, the fear never goes away, the little coiled spring at the back of your mind.... This could happen here. It could happen again.
So why stay? Of course my life is here, I am settled, I love this country. To be driven out by runty Vova and his cast of gargoyles is insupportable. So I stay. But there is a price, even as the concert crowds gather, the shadows linger in the corners.
Thanks buzzkill. As if the England v Wales match wasn’t bad enough.
Actually, I find it strangely reassuring. Instead of mad hate, a kind of tired anger at the shit that the Very Small Monkey From Moscow is throwing around.
I get that but I’m a bit jaded by the shit Russia have caused Estonia and Estonians and it seems that it was ignored by the wider world until Ukraine. In a previous life I was face to face with Estonian and Finnish friends, colleagues and business associates who were dealing day to day with the tentacles of dark Russia in their lives. Some throwing their lot in with the Russians financially and some actively thwarting and as I said, it cost a friend their life who was found in a badly staged suicide in a forest in Estonia, having given Estonia his highest service, and then whoever did it had the balls to be trying to contact me through his Skype (and I checked it wasn’t his family) for a year after his death trying to get info from me seemingly not knowing I knew he was dead.
As an alternative to the travel recommendations which are the most dreary places to visit in this country and others ?
Estonia by the sound of things.
Certainly not dreary... in fact extremely beautiful.
It is indeed but you are posting a very negative view of it. As someone with long held positive views of it and deep experience of the troubles of the Russian influence - bad influence which cost an Estonian friend their life - try and be more positive about the place and it’s future.
I don't have much knowledge about Estonia, but in Finland I can detect a sense of relief that the truth about Russia has been revealed. There is no naivety about Russia anymore. No pretence that it is benign and that investment from it should be welcomed. That debate is over.
Finland also remains untouched by mass tourism, pretty much - and I suspect that the Finns are generally happy with this arrangement. But it has a lot to offer.
1. The multiple (or at least serial) identity person to whom you refer is just Seumas having a laugh. Relax. Why shouldn't he praise Leon? Are you jealous? Do you want me to have a word with him and suggest he switches to praising Boris Johnson sometimes for a change?
2. In other news, key fake identities here include
a - BlancheLivermore - The documentation this silly Oxford graduate has posted to back up their legend as a postal worker is just hilarious.
b - Dura_Ace - He's much better at it. If he doesn't give advanced instruction to the 77th Brigade, he should. Still gives frequent tells, though.
3. BartholomewRoberts - He isn't included as item 2c. He did start off doing a covert job, but he came to enjoy banging his head so much that eventually his main motivation became to prove to himself that he's got a hard head, because look how he bangs it so much. Saying he went native in politico debating society world would be a kind of way of putting it. His narrowness of range makes him one of the most boring posters here.
4. Miklosvar is Ishmael_X. He couldn't resist saying some of the same doubtless (for him) intellectually extremely hard-won but nonetheless essentially navel-gazing stuff that he similarly couldn't resist saying under his previous identity.
5. The Saturday "Russian troll" isn't by any means a serious effort. It's either a 19yo at the CDU or at a pinch one of the other British trolling agencies just doing it out of habit more than anything else, being so chuffed with himself that he can do stuff under false names on the internet ("Look, Mum! I'm James e-Bond"), or else it's TSE exercising his infantile side on his Saturday hangover. The Saturday effort is a good way to tempt out the saddo men in their 50s who think they're fighting an online psywar effort against the Kremlin though, by denouncing literary efforts to the effect that "Our boys destroyed Kiev last night innit". (OK, with some references to weaponry added in. But countering this crap is of no importance except for the feeble-minded and over-funded.)
1. The multiple (or at least serial) identity person to whom you refer is just Seumas having a laugh. Relax. Why shouldn't he praise Leon? Are you jealous? Do you want me to have a word with him and suggest he switches to praising Boris Johnson sometimes for a change?
2. In other news, key fake identities here include
a - BlancheLivermore - The documentation this silly Oxford graduate has posted to back up their legend as a postal worker is just hilarious.
b - Dura_Ace - He's much better at it. If he doesn't give advanced instruction to the 77th Brigade, he should. Still gives frequent tells, though.
3. BartholomewRoberts - He isn't included as item 2c. He did start off doing a covert job, but he came to enjoy banging his head so much that eventually his main motivation became to prove to himself that he's got a hard head, because look how he bangs it so much. Saying he went native in politico debating society world would be a kind of way of putting it. His narrowness of range makes him one of the most boring posters here.
4. Miklosvar is Ishmael_X. He couldn't resist saying some of the same doubtless (for him) intellectually extremely hard-won but nonetheless essentially navel-gazing stuff that he similarly couldn't resist saying under his previous identity.
5. The Saturday "Russian troll" isn't by any means a serious effort. It's either a 19yo at the CDU or at a pinch one of the other British trolling agencies just doing it out of habit more than anything else, being so chuffed with himself that he can do stuff under false names on the internet ("Look, Mum! I'm James e-Bond"), or else it's TSE exercising his infantile side on his Saturday hangover. The Saturday effort is a good way to tempt out the saddo men in their 50s who think they're fighting an online psywar effort against the Kremlin though, by denouncing literary efforts to the effect that "Our boys destroyed Kiev last night innit". (OK, with some references to weaponry added in. But countering this crap is of no importance except for the feeble-minded and over-funded.)
Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field (The Weeknd) and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn.
It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t.
Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe.
We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year.
Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hope and truth and positivity, but in the dark night I carry their despair to bed and it becomes my own.
I am tired of hearing the horrible stories. The utter cruelty that has been visited upon totally innocent people. I am tired of the painstaking way we continue to try to construct political coalitions to get Ukraine the critical support they need. This despicable invasion seems so self evidently a fight of good and monstrous evil, that we cannot understand how western leaders can even hesitate.
We seem to be back to those terrible early weeks, where fear and grim determination was in the eyes of the Estonians as we faced the reality that if Ukraine lost, then we would face the same fate. Its different of course, we do not think that the Ukrainians will be destroyed now. Yet, yet the costs that they have to pay are so horrific.
Now the insanity of the Putinists has descended to drunken raving: mad threats to NATO, threats of nuclear attack and the constant barrage of demented hate from the Vermin in the Russian media. Another thing that has changed is that we now see that this is normal, that the Russians support this fascism. The perception of Russia as anything positive at all, has simply fallen to pieces. The tolerance for them has utterly gone. I know that those who have the perception must make the allowances, but even with my Russian friends I struggle not to feel profound rage and hatred, and I think that this is now everywhere that the Soviet flag once flew. I warn myself not to even consider hatred as an option. It is a symptom of how tired we all are, the fear never goes away, the little coiled spring at the back of your mind.... This could happen here. It could happen again.
So why stay? Of course my life is here, I am settled, I love this country. To be driven out by runty Vova and his cast of gargoyles is insupportable. So I stay. But there is a price, even as the concert crowds gather, the shadows linger in the corners.
Thanks buzzkill. As if the England v Wales match wasn’t bad enough.
Actually, I find it strangely reassuring. Instead of mad hate, a kind of tired anger at the shit that the Very Small Monkey From Moscow is throwing around.
I get that but I’m a bit jaded by the shit Russia have caused Estonia and Estonians and it seems that it was ignored by the wider world until Ukraine. In a previous life I was face to face with Estonian and Finnish friends, colleagues and business associates who were dealing day to day with the tentacles of dark Russia in their lives. Some throwing their lot in with the Russians financially and some actively thwarting and as I said, it cost a friend their life who was found in a badly staged suicide in a forest in Estonia, having given Estonia his highest service, and then whoever did it had the balls to be trying to contact me through his Skype (and I checked it wasn’t his family) for a year after his death trying to get info from me seemingly not knowing I knew he was dead.
Excuse my grumpiness about it.
Yeah - and when the poisoning happened in the UK, the idiots defending Russia. When I pointed out that they've been murdering their exiles since 1919, that apparently wasn't relevant. Because Corbyn is an upstanding chap. Or something.
1. The multiple (or at least serial) identity person to whom you refer is just Seumas having a laugh. Relax. Why shouldn't he praise Leon? Are you jealous? Do you want me to have a word with him and suggest he switches to praising Boris Johnson sometimes for a change?
2. In other news, key fake identities here include
a - BlancheLivermore - The documentation this silly Oxford graduate has posted to back up their legend as a postal worker is just hilarious.
b - Dura_Ace - He's much better at it. If he doesn't give advanced instruction to the 77th Brigade, he should. Still gives frequent tells, though.
3. BartholomewRoberts - He isn't included as item 2c. He did start off doing a covert job, but he came to enjoy banging his head so much that eventually his main motivation became to prove to himself that he's got a hard head, because look how he bangs it so much. Saying he went native in politico debating society world would be a kind of way of putting it. His narrowness of range makes him one of the most boring posters here.
4. Miklosvar is Ishmael_X. He couldn't resist saying some of the same doubtless (for him) intellectually extremely hard-won but nonetheless essentially navel-gazing stuff that he similarly couldn't resist saying under his previous identity.
5. The Saturday "Russian troll" isn't by any means a serious effort. It's either a 19yo at the CDU or at a pinch one of the other British trolling agencies just doing it out of habit more than anything else, being so chuffed with himself that he can do stuff under false names on the internet ("Look, Mum! I'm James e-Bond"), or else it's TSE exercising his infantile side on his Saturday hangover. The Saturday effort is a good way to tempt out the saddo men in their 50s who think they're fighting an online psywar effort against the Kremlin though, by denouncing literary efforts to the effect that "Our boys destroyed Kiev last night innit". (OK, with some references to weaponry added in. But countering this crap is of no importance except for the feeble-minded and over-funded.)
1. The multiple (or at least serial) identity person to whom you refer is just Seumas having a laugh. Relax. Why shouldn't he praise Leon? Are you jealous? Do you want me to have a word with him and suggest he switches to praising Boris Johnson sometimes for a change?
2. In other news, key fake identities here include
a - BlancheLivermore - The documentation this silly Oxford graduate has posted to back up their legend as a postal worker is just hilarious.
b - Dura_Ace - He's much better at it. If he doesn't give advanced instruction to the 77th Brigade, he should. Still gives frequent tells, though.
3. BartholomewRoberts - He isn't included as item 2c. He did start off doing a covert job, but he came to enjoy banging his head so much that eventually his main motivation became to prove to himself that he's got a hard head, because look how he bangs it so much. Saying he went native in politico debating society world would be a kind of way of putting it. His narrowness of range makes him one of the most boring posters here.
4. Miklosvar is Ishmael_X. He couldn't resist saying some of the same doubtless (for him) intellectually extremely hard-won but nonetheless essentially navel-gazing stuff that he similarly couldn't resist saying under his previous identity.
5. The Saturday "Russian troll" isn't by any means a serious effort. It's either a 19yo at the CDU or at a pinch one of the other British trolling agencies just doing it out of habit more than anything else, being so chuffed with himself that he can do stuff under false names on the internet ("Look, Mum! I'm James e-Bond"), or else it's TSE exercising his infantile side on his Saturday hangover. The Saturday effort is a good way to tempt out the saddo men in their 50s who think they're fighting an online psywar effort against the Kremlin though, by denouncing literary efforts to the effect that "Our boys destroyed Kiev last night innit". (OK, with some references to weaponry added in. But countering this crap is of no importance except for the feeble-minded and over-funded.)
If a plane crashes on the Ukraine/Republic of China border, on which side of the border do you bury the survivors?
1. The multiple (or at least serial) identity person to whom you refer is just Seumas having a laugh. Relax. Why shouldn't he praise Leon? Are you jealous? Do you want me to have a word with him and suggest he switches to praising Boris Johnson sometimes for a change?
2. In other news, key fake identities here include
a - BlancheLivermore - The documentation this silly Oxford graduate has posted to back up their legend as a postal worker is just hilarious.
b - Dura_Ace - He's much better at it. If he doesn't give advanced instruction to the 77th Brigade, he should. Still gives frequent tells, though.
3. BartholomewRoberts - He isn't included as item 2c. He did start off doing a covert job, but he came to enjoy banging his head so much that eventually his main motivation became to prove to himself that he's got a hard head, because look how he bangs it so much. Saying he went native in politico debating society world would be a kind of way of putting it. His narrowness of range makes him one of the most boring posters here.
4. Miklosvar is Ishmael_X. He couldn't resist saying some of the same doubtless (for him) intellectually extremely hard-won but nonetheless essentially navel-gazing stuff that he similarly couldn't resist saying under his previous identity.
5. The Saturday "Russian troll" isn't by any means a serious effort. It's either a 19yo at the CDU or at a pinch one of the other British trolling agencies just doing it out of habit more than anything else, being so chuffed with himself that he can do stuff under false names on the internet ("Look, Mum! I'm James e-Bond"), or else it's TSE exercising his infantile side on his Saturday hangover. The Saturday effort is a good way to tempt out the saddo men in their 50s who think they're fighting an online psywar effort against the Kremlin though, by denouncing literary efforts to the effect that "Our boys destroyed Kiev last night innit". (OK, with some references to weaponry added in. But countering this crap is of no importance except for the feeble-minded and over-funded.)
Who the fuck is Seumas?
Milne I guess. I thought DJ41 was him for a while but not anymore as I got some age guidance from Peck.
As an alternative to the travel recommendations which are the most dreary places to visit in this country and others ?
Stoke Bognor Middlesbrough Grimsby/Cleethorpes Bradford Southend-on-Sea Hayling Island Blackpool
I rarely visit Stoke, but have never not had a good time there. There is a post-modern zoo there, which only has one species, which is good fun. Bradford is a handsome town and well worth a visit. The science and media museum is excellent. The City Council have been pursuing an excellent programme of knocking down all the towns ugliest buildings to make public open space, leaving one of the best Victorian City Centres in the country. And Salt's Mill and Bronte Country, natch. And Ilkley Moor (amd indeed Ilkley) are within the city limits. And you'll find very few finer cities surrounded by countryside as good as Bradford's. Middlesbrough isn't great, tbh, but the transporter bridge is fascinating. And again, the countryside around it is very fine. Blackpool is possibly the least dreary town in the country! It is entirely dedicated to bringing you fun. If you can't have fun in Blackpool you are dead inside. I go several times a year and like it more each time. Yes, it is a but run down behund the front - but the front itself is glorious, and the comedy carpet the best piece of public art in the country. And half a mile back from the front the town appears puzzlingly comfortable. Can't speak much for the others. But I would certainly deter no one from a holiday in Bradford or Blackpool.
All the best bits of Bradford (borough) aren't in Bradford (city).
Some of the architecture in the city centre is very nice, but the dubious characters you encounter as you walk through drag things down rather a lot. And some parts of the city are as grim as anything.
And I must add the Bingley Five Rise Lcks to the list of things in Bradford but not in Bradford that are worth a visit. Plus of course the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.
Mentioning Keighley, like Bradford some fine architecture, but populated by people you don't want sitting next to you on the bus.
1. The multiple (or at least serial) identity person to whom you refer is just Seumas having a laugh. Relax. Why shouldn't he praise Leon? Are you jealous? Do you want me to have a word with him and suggest he switches to praising Boris Johnson sometimes for a change?
2. In other news, key fake identities here include
a - BlancheLivermore - The documentation this silly Oxford graduate has posted to back up their legend as a postal worker is just hilarious.
b - Dura_Ace - He's much better at it. If he doesn't give advanced instruction to the 77th Brigade, he should. Still gives frequent tells, though.
3. BartholomewRoberts - He isn't included as item 2c. He did start off doing a covert job, but he came to enjoy banging his head so much that eventually his main motivation became to prove to himself that he's got a hard head, because look how he bangs it so much. Saying he went native in politico debating society world would be a kind of way of putting it. His narrowness of range makes him one of the most boring posters here.
4. Miklosvar is Ishmael_X. He couldn't resist saying some of the same doubtless (for him) intellectually extremely hard-won but nonetheless essentially navel-gazing stuff that he similarly couldn't resist saying under his previous identity.
5. The Saturday "Russian troll" isn't by any means a serious effort. It's either a 19yo at the CDU or at a pinch one of the other British trolling agencies just doing it out of habit more than anything else, being so chuffed with himself that he can do stuff under false names on the internet ("Look, Mum! I'm James e-Bond"), or else it's TSE exercising his infantile side on his Saturday hangover. The Saturday effort is a good way to tempt out the saddo men in their 50s who think they're fighting an online psywar effort against the Kremlin though, by denouncing literary efforts to the effect that "Our boys destroyed Kiev last night innit". (OK, with some references to weaponry added in. But countering this crap is of no importance except for the feeble-minded and over-funded.)
If a plane crashes on the Ukraine/Republic of China border, on which side of the border do you bury the survivors?
Depends somewhat on who's on the plane.
If it's Mad Vlad or Bad Lav or any of their fellow Russian government ministers, the key thing is they must be buried. The side of the border is immaterial.
If it's anyone else, then as survivors they're still alive it's probably worth waiting a bit for burying them. So again, the side of the border is again immaterial.
Wait until Jeddah gets the Olympics, because no-one else is willing to throw $100bn at hosting them.
I was talking to an engineer recently and he told me his firm had been asked to look into Saudi hosting the Winter Olympics (they basically said "ummm, you could, but it would be expensive, even for you."
Comments
Just like Donald Trump is sincere re: his Mad Vlad Mini-Me impersonation.
There's a huge amount of work that goes into improving weather forecasts. Your attitude on this is bizarrely offensive and ignorant.
Two Washington Post columnists together described the issue, little discussed, underlying many American's voting choices. The leftist, Paul Waldman, describes it as a conflict between good guys (himself, for instance) and "anti-antiracists":
"In a sense, anti-antiracism is its own ideology. It holds that racism directed at minorities is largely a thing of the past; that whatever racism does exist is a product only of individual hearts and not of institutions and systems; that efforts to ameliorate racism and promote diversity are both counterproductive and morally abhorrent; and, most critically, that those efforts must not only be stopped but also rolled back.
Listen to conservative rhetoric on book banning, affirmative action, teaching history or any of the ways race touches their war on “wokeness,” and you hear this theme repeated: We must stop talking and thinking about racism, and most of all we must stop trying to do anything about racism."
And then goes on to say that research shows that opposition to affirmative action (and similar things) is the strongest predictor of votes, other than partisan ID, citing research by Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer. (Which I have not looked at.)
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/31/racism-antiracism-republicans-2024/
In contrast, conservative George Will reminds us that most Americans oppose those things Waldman favors: "But notice this: Racial preferences starkly divide academia from the public, 74 percent of which (including majorities of Democrats and Black Americans) opposes them."
(Poll: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/04/26/u-s-public-continues-to-view-grades-test-scores-as-top-factors-in-college-admissions/ )
source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/29/affirmative-action-after-supreme-court-ruling/
And not just academia. American journalists risk their careers now, if they stand up for civil rights, and oppose affirmative action.
But I’d also recommend the Southern Black Forest for family holidays. Around Staufen and Munsterthal.
Gothenburg or the islands are lovely for sailing and other countryside stuff
Stockholm is the only place that anything actually happens
Copenhagen is a trendy happening place
Hamburg (I know) is probably better for a long weekend but as a quaint port city with harbour cafes and cycling it’s hard to beat
Re UK hols, maybe look at the East Lothian/Berwickshire/north Northumberland area and the hinterland up Tweeddale/Wall country - a fair bit to do but not as intensive as some areas. Depends so much on the children, that I hesitate to suggest it more firmly than that.
The Netherlands is lovely. Beaches in the North are a bit like North Norfolk, with sand dunes. Interesting towns and cities, and great for cycling with cycle paths everywhere, often as wide as the road.
I did Belgium by motorbike with my brother. Ypres is interesting for a day, but the Ardennes had the best scenery and some beaches on the Meuse for swimming. Nothing spectacular, but pretty.
Death threats against librarians, staff leaving, money having to be spent on regular book challenges.
Very fond of Wight. Really good for fossils - plenty of dinos in the local museum (I assume it is still open) and you can find fossils easily in the right areas, and see footprints (casts, anyway) and fossil tree trunks at Hanover Point.But not everyone is into that. Plenty of scenery to combine with that, and things like the Needles Fort. Mind, great place to holiday with a dog. Must have walked all over West Wight with our host's pooch.
Edit - if you wanted Cornwall-ish but not Cornwall, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire are both very pleasant and Carmarthenshire isn't crazy expensive.
Different from all of this is Edinburgh, Athens of the the north.
(The Cabinet group chat isn't that great an idea, but what would you do with Rishi anyway? Some sort of management consultant/Apprentice notes?)
But - you said you're not keen on the heat so I would suggest further north as we had a typical continental summer with some days above 30 (but some cooler ones too).
HTH
Go to Dubai.
It'll be far too hot, and you'll absolutely hate it.
But in subsequent years you can simply return to Cornwall and be happy that you're not in Dubai.
Every year there are loads of Brits who turn up in the sandpit in August, wondering why the big 5• beach resort hotels are £150 a night, or who see a promo for seven nights for a family cheaper than Majorca, and think they always wanted to go to Dubai!
It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t.
Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe.
We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year.
Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hope and truth and positivity, but in the dark night I carry their despair to bed and it becomes my own.
I am tired of hearing the horrible stories. The utter cruelty that has been visited upon totally innocent people. I am tired of the painstaking way we continue to try to construct political coalitions to get Ukraine the critical support they need. This despicable invasion seems so self evidently a fight of good and monstrous evil, that we cannot understand how western leaders can even hesitate.
We seem to be back to those terrible early weeks, where fear and grim determination was in the eyes of the Estonians as we faced the reality that if Ukraine lost, then we would face the same fate. Its different of course, we do not think that the Ukrainians will be destroyed now. Yet, yet the costs that they have to pay are so horrific.
Now the insanity of the Putinists has descended to drunken raving: mad threats to NATO, threats of nuclear attack and the constant barrage of demented hate from the Vermin in the Russian media. Another thing that has changed is that we now see that this is normal, that the Russians support this fascism. The perception of Russia as anything positive at all, has simply fallen to pieces. The tolerance for them has utterly gone. I know that those who have the perception must make the allowances, but even with my Russian friends I struggle not to feel profound rage and hatred, and I think that this is now everywhere that the Soviet flag once flew. I warn myself not to even consider hatred as an option. It is a symptom of how tired we all are, the fear never goes away, the little coiled spring at the back of your mind.... This could happen here. It could happen again.
So why stay? Of course my life is here, I am settled, I love this country. To be driven out by runty Vova and his cast of gargoyles is insupportable. So I stay. But there is a price, even as the concert crowds gather, the shadows linger in the corners.
I keep pointing this out but nobody listens: thy are driving thru an enormous minefield in full view of their artillery. What outcome were you expecting?
https://liveuamap.com/en/time/11.05.2023
https://liveuamap.com/en/time/11.06.2023
https://liveuamap.com/en/time/11.07.2023
https://liveuamap.com/en/time/11.08.2023
The Hundred is T20 was designed to be shit.
Skye and Arran are the best of the Scottish islands IMHO. Arran is a bit of a hidden gem. Quite small but loads to see.
Are you sure you are sick of Cornwall? I can't imagine that! We go to Whitsand Bay every year, I don't think I will ever get bored of it.
Bognor
Middlesbrough
Grimsby/Cleethorpes
Bradford
Southend-on-Sea
Hayling Island
Blackpool
"The Hispanic paradox is an epidemiological finding that Hispanic Americans tend to have health outcomes that "paradoxically" are comparable to, or in some cases better than, those of their U.S. non-Hispanic White counterparts, even though Hispanics have lower average income and education. Low socioeconomic status is almost universally associated with worse population health and higher death rates everywhere in the world.[2] The paradox usually refers in particular to low mortality among Hispanics in the United States relative to non-Hispanic Whites.[3][4][5][6][7][8] According to the Center for Disease Control's 2015 Vital Signs report, Hispanics in the United States had a 24% lower risk of mortality, as well as lower risk for nine of the fifteen leading causes of death as compared to Whites."
(Links omitted.)
When I last looked at the CDC data -- a few years before the COVID pandemic -- I found that the six largest groups in the US could be ranked this way by life expectancy: black men, white men, black women, Hispanic men and white women (roughly tied), and Hispanic women. (I haven't looked at the data more recently, but expect similar results once the effects of the pandemic are past us.)
(My guess at the reasons for this advantage: stronger families, stronger communities.)
michael Moorcock's best gag was a far-future post apocalyptic England featuring a Baron Meleager of Kroiden.
Life would seem good, were it not for too many police walking around, and army vehicles parked up at the side of many roads.
No, it’s not normal, but everyone is making the best of the situation in which they find themselves. We all owe it to this country to help them out of their mess. Keep the support coming, it’s massively appreciated.
I grew up in Croydon, and I'll have you know that....no sorry, I can't argue with you.
Context also matters. Before I left London in 1995, friends took me for a typical 'Londoner' day out to Margate. I hated it. Every stall was selling football tat, the ice cream was minging, and it felt on the edge of violence from drunken fools.
I passed through on my coastal walk seven years later, and it felt like a different place. It was winter, but it also had much more character.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/german-a-levels-halved-why-modern-languages-are-in-freefall-gjzcnp9bq (£££)
Bradford is a handsome town and well worth a visit. The science and media museum is excellent. The City Council have been pursuing an excellent programme of knocking down all the towns ugliest buildings to make public open space, leaving one of the best Victorian City Centres in the country. And Salt's Mill and Bronte Country, natch. And Ilkley Moor (amd indeed Ilkley) are within the city limits. And you'll find very few finer cities surrounded by countryside as good as Bradford's.
Middlesbrough isn't great, tbh, but the transporter bridge is fascinating. And again, the countryside around it is very fine.
Blackpool is possibly the least dreary town in the country! It is entirely dedicated to bringing you fun. If you can't have fun in Blackpool you are dead inside. I go several times a year and like it more each time. Yes, it is a but run down behund the front - but the front itself is glorious, and the comedy carpet the best piece of public art in the country. And half a mile back from the front the town appears puzzlingly comfortable.
Can't speak much for the others.
But I would certainly deter no one from a holiday in Bradford or Blackpool.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/iceland-prime-minister-katrin-jakobsdottir-crime-thriller-book-zl0lm9k7l (£££)
Boris has no excuse for not writing that Shakespeare book he spent the advance for.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/alevel-association-of-school-and-college-leaders-english-action-england-b1019028.html
This is in turn having an alarming knock-on effect in recruiting teachers of English, which is unthinkably at risk of becoming a shortage subject.
Asking for a travelling salesman in cosmetics.
Excuse my grumpiness about it.
https://twitter.com/Betfred/status/1690427168503877633
Betfred wins today's stats contest.
Finland also remains untouched by mass tourism, pretty much - and I suspect that the Finns are generally happy with this arrangement. But it has a lot to offer.
1. The multiple (or at least serial) identity person to whom you refer is just Seumas having a laugh. Relax. Why shouldn't he praise Leon? Are you jealous? Do you want me to have a word with him and suggest he switches to praising Boris Johnson sometimes for a change?
2. In other news, key fake identities here include
a - BlancheLivermore - The documentation this silly Oxford graduate has posted to back up their legend as a postal worker is just hilarious.
b - Dura_Ace - He's much better at it. If he doesn't give advanced instruction to the 77th Brigade, he should. Still gives frequent tells, though.
3. BartholomewRoberts - He isn't included as item 2c. He did start off doing a covert job, but he came to enjoy banging his head so much that eventually his main motivation became to prove to himself that he's got a hard head, because look how he bangs it so much. Saying he went native in politico debating society world would be a kind of way of putting it. His narrowness of range makes him one of the most boring posters here.
4. Miklosvar is Ishmael_X. He couldn't resist saying some of the same doubtless (for him) intellectually extremely hard-won but nonetheless essentially navel-gazing stuff that he similarly couldn't resist saying under his previous identity.
5. The Saturday "Russian troll" isn't by any means a serious effort. It's either a 19yo at the CDU or at a pinch one of the other British trolling agencies just doing it out of habit more than anything else, being so chuffed with himself that he can do stuff under false names on the internet ("Look, Mum! I'm James e-Bond"), or else it's TSE exercising his infantile side on his Saturday hangover. The Saturday effort is a good way to tempt out the saddo men in their 50s who think they're fighting an online psywar effort against the Kremlin though, by denouncing literary efforts to the effect that "Our boys destroyed Kiev last night innit". (OK, with some references to weaponry added in. But countering this crap is of no importance except for the feeble-minded and over-funded.)
England were down to 12 men LOL.
Some of the architecture in the city centre is very nice, but the dubious characters you encounter as you walk through drag things down rather a lot. And some parts of the city are as grim as anything.
And I must add the Bingley Five Rise Lcks to the list of things in Bradford but not in Bradford that are worth a visit. Plus of course the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.
Mentioning Keighley, like Bradford some fine architecture, but populated by people you don't want sitting next to you on the bus.
Give us the Webb Ellis trophy now.
It's coming home.
If it's Mad Vlad or Bad Lav or any of their fellow Russian government ministers, the key thing is they must be buried. The side of the border is immaterial.
If it's anyone else, then as survivors they're still alive it's probably worth waiting a bit for burying them. So again, the side of the border is again immaterial.