Leon and the Spectator writer are according to Leon different people. Although I get the impression they travel together and although I can't be sure, most likely share the same bed.
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.)
Good to have you back Charles.
It can't be Charles, he hasn't tried to justify the actions of the Republican party.
Given the recent pols that suggested that they either like our King better than any possible President or
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.)
Good to have you back Charles.
It can't be Charles, he hasn't tried to justify the actions of the Republican party.
Given the recent polls that suggested that the Americans either like our King better than any possible President or that they want to crown The Donald, are the Republicans actually… Republican anymore?
The Republicans are definitely a sideshow these days.
Let's hope they stay that way at least until they come to their senses and boot out the nutcases.
Kelsey Grammer being a Trump supporter is such a disappointment
Yes I was shocked when I read that . Frasier is one of my all time favourite series . I still watch it and try and give Grammer a pass due to some horrific events that he and his family suffered in the past .
Detach the art from the man, every time. Why should your enjoyment of Frasier (one of the all time great classics) be tempered because one of the cast votes in a way you disapprove of?
That’s a good point . I still enjoy Frasier but was troubled by his Trump support . I also liked Person of Interest and then found out Jim Caviezel is a real conspiracy theorist and bible basher. I’ve decided to now stop finding out about tv stars and just watch the shows .
If you think that's a problem - TS Eliot said after ww2, after Dimbleby had reported on Belsen etc, that it was all very well but if the remaining Jews continued to breed we'd be back with the same problem in a couple of generations. How is one meant to carry on reading the 4 quartets and so on?
And we are back to the Artist Excuse once again. Ezra Pound wasn’t a persecuted genius - he was a raving Fascist who instead of being shot for the treason he committed got therapy. Dali was a full on Franco fan - but, because he was an artist we are supposed to believe that it was ironic support. Or something.
Leon and the Spectator writer are according to Leon different people. Although I get the impression they travel together and although I can't be sure, most likely share the same bed.
Leon and the Spectator writer are according to Leon different people. Although I get the impression they travel together and although I can't be sure, most likely share the same bed.
The greatest love of all.
I am not implying anything sworded. I am sure room sharing makes fiscal sense.
The Russians don’t even need to have their aircraft shot down any more, they maintain them so badly that they crash on training flights and lose the crew.
A Russian Su-30 fighter jet has crashed during a training mission in the enclave of Kaliningrad , killing both pilots on board.
“The Su-30 aircraft crashed in a deserted area. The flight was carried out without ammunition. The crew died,” local military authorities said.
Military officials said that it was likely caused by a technical malfunction.
From your link: Two Russian fighter jets also crashed last month while on training missions, one into the Pacific Ocean and one into the Sea of Azov.
Flying too close to open windows, I expect.
Losing three fighter aircraft a month in training accidents might be considered somewhat less than optimal, for an Air Force that appears to be unable to field more than about a dozen fighters on any given day, and can’t maintain air superiority over their own territory, let alone the territory they are trying to occupy.
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Leon and the Spectator writer are according to Leon different people. Although I get the impression they travel together and although I can't be sure, most likely share the same bed.
Masturbation - sex with someone you love…
The origin of the term "wanker", of course.
Well the Speccie writer ( not Leon) wrote a thesis on the subject as I recall.
Leon and the Spectator writer are according to Leon different people. Although I get the impression they travel together and although I can't be sure, most likely share the same bed.
The greatest love of all.
I am not implying anything sworded. I am sure room sharing makes fiscal sense.
Leon and the Spectator writer are according to Leon different people. Although I get the impression they travel together and although I can't be sure, most likely share the same bed.
The greatest love of all.
I am not implying anything sworded. I am sure room sharing makes fiscal sense.
The Russians don’t even need to have their aircraft shot down any more, they maintain them so badly that they crash on training flights and lose the crew.
A Russian Su-30 fighter jet has crashed during a training mission in the enclave of Kaliningrad , killing both pilots on board.
“The Su-30 aircraft crashed in a deserted area. The flight was carried out without ammunition. The crew died,” local military authorities said.
Military officials said that it was likely caused by a technical malfunction.
From your link: Two Russian fighter jets also crashed last month while on training missions, one into the Pacific Ocean and one into the Sea of Azov.
Flying too close to open windows, I expect.
Losing three fighter aircraft a month in training accidents might be considered somewhat less than optimal, for an Air Force that appears to be unable to field more than about a dozen fighters on any given day, and can’t maintain air superiority over their own territory, let alone the territory they are trying to occupy.
Which side of the border did they bury the survivors?
Leon and the Spectator writer are according to Leon different people. Although I get the impression they travel together and although I can't be sure, most likely share the same bed.
The greatest love of all.
I am not implying anything sworded. I am sure room sharing makes fiscal sense.
I won't let you have Broadstairs, which is a lovely seaside resort with a beautiful beach and a literary heritage. And actually Broadstairs is the only place on your list that I've been to, so maybe they are all lovely! I tend to like everywhere though, especially down at heel places in this country, with that Boring Postcards kind of vibe. But maybe that's because I'm only visiting. Jarvis Cocker might have had people like me in mind when he sings that everybody hates a tourist. The kinds of places I don't like are glitzy modern places that feel like they've been plonked down with no connection to the past or the locale. You don't get many places like that in this country thankfully - Canary Wharf is one that comes to mind and I really don't like it. You get lots in the US, which I can't stand. Luxury resorts in places like the Maldives or Turks and Caicos are similar. On paper lovely, but in reality too much like the Truman Show - too plastic, antiseptic, disconnected, leaving me yearning for a chippy in a layby or a stationary caravan park in Great Yarmouth.
For several years I have thought that Donald Trump -- to the extent he has an ideology -- is a monarchist. In support of that idea, I note that he has tried hard to get along with North Korea's Kim, head of that strange hybrid, a Communist monarchy, and MBS of Saudi Arabia. Which, I agree, makes him an odd choice for the Republican Party. (However, Walter Bagehot would not be surprised.)
Leon and the Spectator writer are according to Leon different people. Although I get the impression they travel together and although I can't be sure, most likely share the same bed.
The greatest love of all.
I am not implying anything sworded. I am sure room sharing makes fiscal sense.
You do realise that's "sordid"?
Sorry. I never had the advantage of a private education.
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
I won't let you have Broadstairs, which is a lovely seaside resort with a beautiful beach and a literary heritage. And actually Broadstairs is the only place on your list that I've been to, so maybe they are all lovely! I tend to like everywhere though, especially down at heel places in this country, with that Boring Postcards kind of vibe. But maybe that's because I'm only visiting. Jarvis Cocker might have had people like me in mind when he sings that everybody hates a tourist. The kinds of places I don't like are glitzy modern places that feel like they've been plonked down with no connection to the past or the locale. You don't get many places like that in this country thankfully - Canary Wharf is one that comes to mind and I really don't like it. You get lots in the US, which I can't stand. Luxury resorts in places like the Maldives or Turks and Caicos are similar. On paper lovely, but in reality too much like the Truman Show - too plastic, antiseptic, disconnected, leaving me yearning for a chippy in a layby or a stationary caravan park in Great Yarmouth.
The endless business parks around Bristol Parkway (“Aztec West” et al) are the most soulless places I’ve experienced in the UK. And I’ve been to Slough.
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Well your second paragraph is kind of the point. In all honesty, I think as a larger group we do pretty well, especially given the different personalities involved. But we've been wondering for years whether we should be showing the girls some more of the world beyond these shores, and I think now is probably the time to do so.
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.
Yeah yeah yeah
You went there. Voluntarily. While cursing your own country. Own it
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
If your family are hardy types, and flying is too expensive, the coach to Bruges is an option. Only(!) 7h25m on flixbus, with nice modern aircon coaches. About £350 return for a family of four this week, luggage included. Probably half that booked in advance for next year.
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
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.
Yeah yeah yeah
You went there. Voluntarily. While cursing your own country. Own it
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
If your family are hardy types, and flying is too expensive, the coach to Bruges is an option. Only(!) 7h25m on flixbus, with nice modern aircon coaches. About £350 return for a family of four this week, luggage included. Probably half that booked in advance for next year.
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
The tower in Bruges is OK.
I love Dublin. If I’d grown up in a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn’t, so it doesn’t.
I can't speak for @SeanT himself, but I would guess it is because he, the writer, did not want to pigeon-hole such a fine poet as Paul Celan - who is, at his best, wonderful - as "just" a Holocaust poet. Yes Celan wrote with chilling genius about the Holocaust. But he wrote about other things, too. Should his sole revelance be: "he wrote about the Shoah"? Should it?
Yet you need to sign to the reader why Celan is important in this context, and still-read today (when many fine poets are not). And that is: the Holocuast. Hence: "Holocaust" in inverted commas, which tries to impart necessary nuance (within the parameters of a 1400 word article)
I sometimes get the feeling 99.3% of you have never been near a deadline and a wordcount
Hahaha. There's a reason why science articles like this get published on non science websites like aeon. Does he not realise Darwin didn't know about particulate mendelian heredity, does he realise how little damage the existence of transposons does to the theory and does he realise how many innocent victims from Pitchfork on are due immediate release from prison after his proof of the non existence of non coding DNA?
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
If your family are hardy types, and flying is too expensive, the coach to Bruges is an option. Only(!) 7h25m on flixbus, with nice modern aircon coaches. About £350 return for a family of four this week, luggage included. Probably half that booked in advance for next year.
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
If there's one thing I can't do anymore it's a long coach trip. I've done a coach trip to Prague, and I've done the Megabus up north, and I am never doing anything like that again. Almost any form of transport is preferable to a coach as far as I'm concerned.
I won't let you have Broadstairs, which is a lovely seaside resort with a beautiful beach and a literary heritage. And actually Broadstairs is the only place on your list that I've been to, so maybe they are all lovely! I tend to like everywhere though, especially down at heel places in this country, with that Boring Postcards kind of vibe. But maybe that's because I'm only visiting. Jarvis Cocker might have had people like me in mind when he sings that everybody hates a tourist. The kinds of places I don't like are glitzy modern places that feel like they've been plonked down with no connection to the past or the locale. You don't get many places like that in this country thankfully - Canary Wharf is one that comes to mind and I really don't like it. You get lots in the US, which I can't stand. Luxury resorts in places like the Maldives or Turks and Caicos are similar. On paper lovely, but in reality too much like the Truman Show - too plastic, antiseptic, disconnected, leaving me yearning for a chippy in a layby or a stationary caravan park in Great Yarmouth.
Yeah, I know what you mean about luxury resorts. Not my scene either.
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.)
Good to have you back Charles.
It can't be Charles, he hasn't tried to justify the actions of the Republican party.
Given the recent polls that suggested that the Americans either like our King better than any possible President or that they want to crown The Donald, are the Republicans actually… Republican anymore?
The Republicans are definitely a sideshow these days.
Let's hope they stay that way at least until they come to their senses and boot out the nutcases.
Kelsey Grammer being a Trump supporter is such a disappointment
Yes I was shocked when I read that . Frasier is one of my all time favourite series . I still watch it and try and give Grammer a pass due to some horrific events that he and his family suffered in the past .
Detach the art from the man, every time. Why should your enjoyment of Frasier (one of the all time great classics) be tempered because one of the cast votes in a way you disapprove of?
That’s a good point . I still enjoy Frasier but was troubled by his Trump support . I also liked Person of Interest and then found out Jim Caviezel is a real conspiracy theorist and bible basher. I’ve decided to now stop finding out about tv stars and just watch the shows .
If you think that's a problem - TS Eliot said after ww2, after Dimbleby had reported on Belsen etc, that it was all very well but if the remaining Jews continued to breed we'd be back with the same problem in a couple of generations. How is one meant to carry on reading the 4 quartets and so on?
He was a great poet, but a snob and a racist. He mostly kept these unpleasant traits out of his poetry, so people like me have no difficulty enjoying it despite these flaws, but the mask did occasionally slip, sometimes embarrassingly so, and then one should not hesitate to call out the nastiness for what it is. See for example Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar:-
The rats are underneath the piles. The Jew is underneath the lot.
There are also elements of snobbery in The Waste Land, but they are not so obvious and it is easy to overlook them in such a majestic and powerful work.
Salmond believes he can rescue the SNP from almost certain defeat in the crucial Rutherglen by-election, and in next year’s general election. He offers Sturgeon’s successor, Humza Yousaf, a deal: change the direction of the party, drop its coalition with the Greens and commit itself to a full-blown campaign for independence at the general election, and he will consider standing down his Alba candidates in marginal seats. That way, he said, independence could be won within five years.
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
If your family are hardy types, and flying is too expensive, the coach to Bruges is an option. Only(!) 7h25m on flixbus, with nice modern aircon coaches. About £350 return for a family of four this week, luggage included. Probably half that booked in advance for next year.
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
If there's one thing I can't do anymore it's a long coach trip. I've done a coach trip to Prague, and I've done the Megabus up north, and I am never doing anything like that again. Almost any form of transport is preferable to a coach as far as I'm concerned.
Twenty years ago I took Megabus to Paris, for £4. Overnight. Got no sleep, shitty old rattly coach. Spoilt the weekend away. Fell asleep in a museum, being unable to check into the hotel until three, and got poked in the ribs by a security guard.
A day coach with a brand new Flixbus is a very different affair. It's not much worse than a train, comfort-wise.
Still no reason to do it unless finances are limited, of course. If I only had one holiday a year, I could splash out. Sadly I like several holidays a year.
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
If your family are hardy types, and flying is too expensive, the coach to Bruges is an option. Only(!) 7h25m on flixbus, with nice modern aircon coaches. About £350 return for a family of four this week, luggage included. Probably half that booked in advance for next year.
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
The tower in Bruges is OK.
I love Dublin. If I’d grown up in a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn’t, so it doesn’t.
Well I love Bruges and hate Dublin. Nothing more yawny than the 'craic'. Total cliche.
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
If your family are hardy types, and flying is too expensive, the coach to Bruges is an option. Only(!) 7h25m on flixbus, with nice modern aircon coaches. About £350 return for a family of four this week, luggage included. Probably half that booked in advance for next year.
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
The tower in Bruges is OK.
I love Dublin. If I’d grown up in a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn’t, so it doesn’t.
Well I love Bruges and hate Dublin. Nothing more yawny than the 'craic'. Total cliche.
Dublin has excellent small museums, pleasant architecture and tolerable food. But the best of Ireland is, well, the rest of it.
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
If your family are hardy types, and flying is too expensive, the coach to Bruges is an option. Only(!) 7h25m on flixbus, with nice modern aircon coaches. About £350 return for a family of four this week, luggage included. Probably half that booked in advance for next year.
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
If there's one thing I can't do anymore it's a long coach trip. I've done a coach trip to Prague, and I've done the Megabus up north, and I am never doing anything like that again. Almost any form of transport is preferable to a coach as far as I'm concerned.
Twenty years ago I took Megabus to Paris, for £4. Overnight. Got no sleep, shitty old rattly coach. Spoilt the weekend away. Fell asleep in a museum, being unable to check into the hotel until three, and got poked in the ribs by a security guard.
A day coach with a brand new Flixbus is a very different affair. It's not much worse than a train, comfort-wise.
Still no reason to do it unless finances are limited, of course. If I only had one holiday a year, I could splash out. Sadly I like several holidays a year.
I flixbused Heathrow to Plymouth the other day, as the only alternative was hotel then train. I can promise you there was nothing brand new about the bus.
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
If your family are hardy types, and flying is too expensive, the coach to Bruges is an option. Only(!) 7h25m on flixbus, with nice modern aircon coaches. About £350 return for a family of four this week, luggage included. Probably half that booked in advance for next year.
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
The tower in Bruges is OK.
I love Dublin. If I’d grown up in a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn’t, so it doesn’t.
Well I love Bruges and hate Dublin. Nothing more yawny than the 'craic'. Total cliche.
Dublin has excellent small museums, pleasant architecture and tolerable food. But the best of Ireland is, well, the rest of it.
Sadly I've seen no Ireland apart from Dublin. I'll rectify that one day. Dublin and me didn't get on the 2 times I went there. Probably my fault but it's hardcoded now as a non fav for me.
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
If your family are hardy types, and flying is too expensive, the coach to Bruges is an option. Only(!) 7h25m on flixbus, with nice modern aircon coaches. About £350 return for a family of four this week, luggage included. Probably half that booked in advance for next year.
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
If there's one thing I can't do anymore it's a long coach trip. I've done a coach trip to Prague, and I've done the Megabus up north, and I am never doing anything like that again. Almost any form of transport is preferable to a coach as far as I'm concerned.
Twenty years ago I took Megabus to Paris, for £4. Overnight. Got no sleep, shitty old rattly coach. Spoilt the weekend away. Fell asleep in a museum, being unable to check into the hotel until three, and got poked in the ribs by a security guard.
A day coach with a brand new Flixbus is a very different affair. It's not much worse than a train, comfort-wise.
Still no reason to do it unless finances are limited, of course. If I only had one holiday a year, I could splash out. Sadly I like several holidays a year.
I flixbused Heathrow to Plymouth the other day, as the only alternative was hotel then train. I can promise you there was nothing brand new about the bus.
Ah. Perhaps the international routes are better. My driver back from Bruges explained that it was the first journey for this new bus, that the bus cost €250000, and that we must not shit in the toilets. In three languages.
Salmond believes he can rescue the SNP from almost certain defeat in the crucial Rutherglen by-election, and in next year’s general election. He offers Sturgeon’s successor, Humza Yousaf, a deal: change the direction of the party, drop its coalition with the Greens and commit itself to a full-blown campaign for independence at the general election, and he will consider standing down his Alba candidates in marginal seats. That way, he said, independence could be won within five years.
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.)
Good to have you back Charles.
It can't be Charles, he hasn't tried to justify the actions of the Republican party.
Given the recent polls that suggested that the Americans either like our King better than any possible President or that they want to crown The Donald, are the Republicans actually… Republican anymore?
The Republicans are definitely a sideshow these days.
Let's hope they stay that way at least until they come to their senses and boot out the nutcases.
Kelsey Grammer being a Trump supporter is such a disappointment
Yes I was shocked when I read that . Frasier is one of my all time favourite series . I still watch it and try and give Grammer a pass due to some horrific events that he and his family suffered in the past .
Detach the art from the man, every time. Why should your enjoyment of Frasier (one of the all time great classics) be tempered because one of the cast votes in a way you disapprove of?
That’s a good point . I still enjoy Frasier but was troubled by his Trump support . I also liked Person of Interest and then found out Jim Caviezel is a real conspiracy theorist and bible basher. I’ve decided to now stop finding out about tv stars and just watch the shows .
Jim Caviezel is a great actor but has been limited in his career by his beliefs. People would be angry if he was cancelled or held back for being a pinko or gay and should be as angry for him being held back because he’s a bit of a nut job. It works both ways.
He was the star of the Passion of the Christ however which made $612 million worldwide
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
If your family are hardy types, and flying is too expensive, the coach to Bruges is an option. Only(!) 7h25m on flixbus, with nice modern aircon coaches. About £350 return for a family of four this week, luggage included. Probably half that booked in advance for next year.
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
The tower in Bruges is OK.
I love Dublin. If I’d grown up in a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn’t, so it doesn’t.
Well I love Bruges and hate Dublin. Nothing more yawny than the 'craic'. Total cliche.
Dublin has excellent small museums, pleasant architecture and tolerable food. But the best of Ireland is, well, the rest of it.
Sadly I've seen no Ireland apart from Dublin. I'll rectify that one day. Dublin and me didn't get on the 2 times I went there. Probably my fault but it's hardcoded now as a non fav for me.
Can report that county Waterford is very nice indeed. Like a cross between south Devon, Dorset and Pembrokeshire but with Irish architecture.
Our friends somehow managed to buy a vast single storey house on a patch of land on a clifftop with direct access to their own virtually private cove - there are two other houses with access who occasionally use it. A few hundred metres of crashing waves, sand, pebbles, rock pools, sea caves. Basically proper full-on famous five. And they picked it up for a song after the financial crash. Now let it on Airbnb for extravagant sums. I am extremely jealous. Our French place is nice but it’ll never have its own beach.
Spanish is up though even if French and German are in decline. Sadly the last Labour government's decision not to make studying a foreign language compulsory at GSCE is still having an effect. The EBacc Gove introduced at least ensured a language would be included within it and therefore included in league tables of the number of pupils achieving it but still not enough to stem the overall trend
Have you seen the video of him having a beer and a curry during lockdown?
I’m just Keir.
Doesn't seem to matter what I do I'm always number two No one knows how hard I tried, oh-oh I, I have feelings that I can't explain Drivin' me insane All my life, been so polite But I'll sleep alone tonight 'Cause I'm just Keir, anywhere else I'd be a seer Is it my destiny to live and die a life of blonde fragility? I'm just Keir Where I see love, she sees a peer What will it take for her to see the man behind the tan and fight for me?
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
If your family are hardy types, and flying is too expensive, the coach to Bruges is an option. Only(!) 7h25m on flixbus, with nice modern aircon coaches. About £350 return for a family of four this week, luggage included. Probably half that booked in advance for next year.
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
The tower in Bruges is OK.
I love Dublin. If I’d grown up in a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn’t, so it doesn’t.
Well I love Bruges and hate Dublin. Nothing more yawny than the 'craic'. Total cliche.
Er… you didn’t get that was a quote from the film?
ULEZ zones with a fixed charge are a classic producer interest policy - easy for the those implementing them, forget about the consumers.
What we need is a charging system that is pay per actual pollution/congestion. Something that also gives advantage to small cars. Rather than free driving for those with expensive cars.
It would be a good idea to design it to handle the transition to full ZEV and provide a sensible form of congestion taxation at that point.
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
Why is your family going on holiday? Surely that is the key question. If you want the kids to play with other kids, fly kites and paddle in the sea, stick with Cornwall. If you want to explore European heritage, then follow the 19th Century Grand Tour to Rome and Greece, though it might be best to avoid high summer. Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) heritage? Try Israel, which has all the conventional resorts too.
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
Great advice but the last bit is easier said than done.
If your family are hardy types, and flying is too expensive, the coach to Bruges is an option. Only(!) 7h25m on flixbus, with nice modern aircon coaches. About £350 return for a family of four this week, luggage included. Probably half that booked in advance for next year.
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
The tower in Bruges is OK.
I love Dublin. If I’d grown up in a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn’t, so it doesn’t.
Well I love Bruges and hate Dublin. Nothing more yawny than the 'craic'. Total cliche.
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.)
Good to have you back Charles.
It can't be Charles, he hasn't tried to justify the actions of the Republican party.
Given the recent polls that suggested that the Americans either like our King better than any possible President or that they want to crown The Donald, are the Republicans actually… Republican anymore?
The Republicans are definitely a sideshow these days.
Let's hope they stay that way at least until they come to their senses and boot out the nutcases.
Kelsey Grammer being a Trump supporter is such a disappointment
Yes I was shocked when I read that . Frasier is one of my all time favourite series . I still watch it and try and give Grammer a pass due to some horrific events that he and his family suffered in the past .
Detach the art from the man, every time. Why should your enjoyment of Frasier (one of the all time great classics) be tempered because one of the cast votes in a way you disapprove of?
That’s a good point . I still enjoy Frasier but was troubled by his Trump support . I also liked Person of Interest and then found out Jim Caviezel is a real conspiracy theorist and bible basher. I’ve decided to now stop finding out about tv stars and just watch the shows .
Jim Caviezel is a great actor but has been limited in his career by his beliefs. People would be angry if he was cancelled or held back for being a pinko or gay and should be as angry for him being held back because he’s a bit of a nut job. It works both ways.
He was the star of the Passion of the Christ however which made $612 million worldwide
Jim Caviezel is career limiting himself by being difficult to work with. By bringing his fruit and nut act on set.
Hollywood has plenty of weird talent. Bordering on and often crossing into full on criminality. But the killer is bringing your shit to the job.
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.)
Good to have you back Charles.
It can't be Charles, he hasn't tried to justify the actions of the Republican party.
Given the recent polls that suggested that the Americans either like our King better than any possible President or that they want to crown The Donald, are the Republicans actually… Republican anymore?
The Republicans are definitely a sideshow these days.
Let's hope they stay that way at least until they come to their senses and boot out the nutcases.
Kelsey Grammer being a Trump supporter is such a disappointment
Yes I was shocked when I read that . Frasier is one of my all time favourite series . I still watch it and try and give Grammer a pass due to some horrific events that he and his family suffered in the past .
Detach the art from the man, every time. Why should your enjoyment of Frasier (one of the all time great classics) be tempered because one of the cast votes in a way you disapprove of?
That’s a good point . I still enjoy Frasier but was troubled by his Trump support . I also liked Person of Interest and then found out Jim Caviezel is a real conspiracy theorist and bible basher. I’ve decided to now stop finding out about tv stars and just watch the shows .
Jim Caviezel is a great actor but has been limited in his career by his beliefs. People would be angry if he was cancelled or held back for being a pinko or gay and should be as angry for him being held back because he’s a bit of a nut job. It works both ways.
He was the star of the Passion of the Christ however which made $612 million worldwide
Jim Caviezel is career limiting himself by being difficult to work with. By bringing his fruit and nut act on set.
Hollywood has plenty of weird talent. Bordering on and often crossing into full on criminality. But the killer is bringing your shit to the job.
True. But Jared Leto sends used condoms to his co-stars and still gets hired.
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.)
Good to have you back Charles.
It can't be Charles, he hasn't tried to justify the actions of the Republican party.
Given the recent polls that suggested that the Americans either like our King better than any possible President or that they want to crown The Donald, are the Republicans actually… Republican anymore?
The Republicans are definitely a sideshow these days.
Let's hope they stay that way at least until they come to their senses and boot out the nutcases.
Kelsey Grammer being a Trump supporter is such a disappointment
Yes I was shocked when I read that . Frasier is one of my all time favourite series . I still watch it and try and give Grammer a pass due to some horrific events that he and his family suffered in the past .
Detach the art from the man, every time. Why should your enjoyment of Frasier (one of the all time great classics) be tempered because one of the cast votes in a way you disapprove of?
That’s a good point . I still enjoy Frasier but was troubled by his Trump support . I also liked Person of Interest and then found out Jim Caviezel is a real conspiracy theorist and bible basher. I’ve decided to now stop finding out about tv stars and just watch the shows .
Jim Caviezel is a great actor but has been limited in his career by his beliefs. People would be angry if he was cancelled or held back for being a pinko or gay and should be as angry for him being held back because he’s a bit of a nut job. It works both ways.
He was the star of the Passion of the Christ however which made $612 million worldwide
Jim Caviezel is career limiting himself by being difficult to work with. By bringing his fruit and nut act on set.
Hollywood has plenty of weird talent. Bordering on and often crossing into full on criminality. But the killer is bringing your shit to the job.
True. But Jared Leto sends used condoms to his co-stars and still gets hired.
Which just shows how corrupt and nasty Hollyweird can be.
Imagine what you have to do to be an outcast there.
We used to go on family holidays to the Netherlands but that was back in the 80s and 90s before they started to get a bit annoyed with too many tourists.
Promising clarity of purpose from the Trump judge.
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1690024764218232835 CHUTKAN: "While I intend to ensure that Mr. Trump is afforded all the rights that any citizen would have. I also take seriously my obligation to prevent [Supreme Court] has called a carnival atmosphere of unchecked publicity and trial by media."
"This case is no exception."
Quite a close from CHUTKAN:
"I intend to ensure the orderly adminsitratio nof justice in this case as I would with any other case. Even arguably ambiguous statements from parties or their counsel … can threaten the process."
"In addition, the more a party makes inflammatory statements about this case which could taint the jury pool ... the greater the urgency will be that we proceed to trial quickly ... I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings."
There has to be a non-trivial chance he'll breach his bail conditions badly enough that she'll put him in jail this year.
Salmond believes he can rescue the SNP from almost certain defeat in the crucial Rutherglen by-election, and in next year’s general election. He offers Sturgeon’s successor, Humza Yousaf, a deal: change the direction of the party, drop its coalition with the Greens and commit itself to a full-blown campaign for independence at the general election, and he will consider standing down his Alba candidates in marginal seats. That way, he said, independence could be won within five years.
Promising clarity of purpose from the Trump judge.
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1690024764218232835 CHUTKAN: "While I intend to ensure that Mr. Trump is afforded all the rights that any citizen would have. I also take seriously my obligation to prevent [Supreme Court] has called a carnival atmosphere of unchecked publicity and trial by media."
"This case is no exception."
Quite a close from CHUTKAN:
"I intend to ensure the orderly adminsitratio nof justice in this case as I would with any other case. Even arguably ambiguous statements from parties or their counsel … can threaten the process."
"In addition, the more a party makes inflammatory statements about this case which could taint the jury pool ... the greater the urgency will be that we proceed to trial quickly ... I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings."
There has to be a non-trivial chance he'll breach his bail conditions badly enough that she'll put him in jail this year.
I think they'll move heaven and earth to avoid that, but there's no way he is capable of adhering to conditions so a confrontation point is inevitable.
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.
To be clear, I'm far from sick of Cornwall! I have loved my holidays there, and Polzeath is my favourite beach in the world. But I think it's important with kids to see and do new things, and we've now seen and done almost everything there is to do in the 10 miles or so round there. (We did coasteering this year - jumping into the sea from 30 foot ledges on cliffs - that was new.) And more pertinently, the large family group which we go with is getting larger, and babies are coming onto the scene - what was once just the five of us plus my mother in law is becoming a large unwieldy group. And we've got maybe five more holidays with my oldest daughter before she gies and does her own thing, and playing on the big field behind the lodge with kids from neughbouring lodges is not the easy joy it was for her a few years ago - but if she hangs round with the family she gets given baby cousins to look after. And also, wonderful as Cornwall is, there's a big wide world out there. So, with some tears and regret, and with not a great deal of certainty, because these holidays have been the best and happiest of my life, it's time to consider the rest of the world.
not saying this is true merely something to think about. Is the problem the destination or the size and disparity of your group?
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.
Yeah yeah yeah
You went there. Voluntarily. While cursing your own country. Own it
I do not curse my country. I curse people like you who poison the public culture with crass and facile commentary. If you had actually bothered to read the piece sober, you might also notice that I am not cursing Estonia either, I am cursing Putin and all his works
Spanish is up though even if French and German are in decline. Sadly the last Labour government's decision not to make studying a foreign language compulsory at GSCE is still having an effect. The EBacc Gove introduced at least ensured a language would be included within it and therefore included in league tables of the number of pupils achieving it but still not enough to stem the overall trend
Even by your standards, this is truly one-eyed stupidity:
1) Labour were last in power over 13 years ago. If your mob had wanted to change MFL to a compulsory subject, they have had ample time to;
2) The Ebacc is a joke that nobody pays overmuch attention to, because (again) the idiot who came up with it didn’t understand education and so had essentially a meaningless wish list of things grammars think are important.
3) The reason MFL is cratering is partly because of the truly terrible quality of the A-level, which is far too hard (I’ve had native speakers of Chinese who struggle with Mandarin A-level) but also because the GCSE is even worse. It is far too hard (literally, you can go straight from GCSE to degree level) and stuffed with far too much content. Which kills any affection for the subject stone dead and means people don’t want to take it.
Your party have a dreadful record on education and have done enormous damage that may take decades to undo. This is but one example. I just doubt if Labour will be better.
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.
Yeah yeah yeah
You went there. Voluntarily. While cursing your own country. Own it
I do not curse my country. I curse people like you who poison the public culture with crass and facile commentary. If you had actually bothered to read the piece sober, you might also notice that I am not cursing Estonia either, I am cursing Putin and all his works
Spanish is up though even if French and German are in decline. Sadly the last Labour government's decision not to make studying a foreign language compulsory at GSCE is still having an effect. The EBacc Gove introduced at least ensured a language would be included within it and therefore included in league tables of the number of pupils achieving it but still not enough to stem the overall trend
Even by your standards, this is truly one-eyed stupidity:
1) Labour were last in power over 13 years ago. If your mob had wanted to change MFL to a compulsory subject, they have had ample time to;
2) The Ebacc is a joke that nobody pays overmuch attention to, because (again) the idiot who came up with it didn’t understand education and so had essentially a meaningless wish list of things grammars think are important.
3) The reason MFL is cratering is partly because of the truly terrible quality of the A-level, which is far too hard (I’ve had native speakers of Chinese who struggle with Mandarin A-level) but also because the GCSE is even worse. It is far too hard (literally, you can go straight from GCSE to degree level) and stuffed with far too much content. Which kills any affection for the subject stone dead and means people don’t want to take it.
Your party have a dreadful record on education and have done enormous damage that may take decades to undo. This is but one example. I just doubt if Labour will be better.
When it comes to education policy the Conservatives are so malign anyone would be better.
HY, who has many qualities that I admire, demonstrates personally how awful and anti-meritocratic Conservative educational thinking has become.
Firstly, the focus is on elite education for the elite. Be that private schools for the wealthy. If that is your choice, fine, but pay VAT for the privilege.
Secondly the move back to selection at 11. Which in my book is immoral. Back in the day when my father attended Llanelli Grammar School in the 1940s that was a distinct route out of poverty via self-improvement for the motivated poor. Nonetheless my own experience of Grammar School was by and large one of the council house kids who passed the 11 plus being tacitly left to flounder whilst the posh kids thrived. Today's 11 plus, it would seem is passable if parents spend vast amounts of money to pay the Kip MCGrath organisation to cram for the exam.
I am not comfortable with the Blair Government's Academy programme which has been supercharged into a burgeoning cash-cow business for friends of the Conservative Party.
Whenever I waver and think Tories are OK I am reminded of their elitist educational ideology.
Labour and anyone else may fail operationally, it at least their basic premise isn't good quality education is exclusively for us, and us alone.
I had written several more critical paragraphs about higher and further education but Vanilla deleted them. Are vanilla agents of this Conservative Government?
Spanish is up though even if French and German are in decline. Sadly the last Labour government's decision not to make studying a foreign language compulsory at GSCE is still having an effect. The EBacc Gove introduced at least ensured a language would be included within it and therefore included in league tables of the number of pupils achieving it but still not enough to stem the overall trend
Even by your standards, this is truly one-eyed stupidity:
1) Labour were last in power over 13 years ago. If your mob had wanted to change MFL to a compulsory subject, they have had ample time to;
2) The Ebacc is a joke that nobody pays overmuch attention to, because (again) the idiot who came up with it didn’t understand education and so had essentially a meaningless wish list of things grammars think are important.
3) The reason MFL is cratering is partly because of the truly terrible quality of the A-level, which is far too hard (I’ve had native speakers of Chinese who struggle with Mandarin A-level) but also because the GCSE is even worse. It is far too hard (literally, you can go straight from GCSE to degree level) and stuffed with far too much content. Which kills any affection for the subject stone dead and means people don’t want to take it.
Your party have a dreadful record on education and have done enormous damage that may take decades to undo. This is but one example. I just doubt if Labour will be better.
Rubbish. It was still a Labour government who ended MFLs being compulsory at GCSE in 2004 not the Tories.
Second, the EBacc isn't a joke to genuine traditional educationalists unlike you who know that knowledge of English, Maths, Science and Humanities and Languages is important and should be measured accordingly.
Third, your pathetic rants about A Levels and GCSEs being too hard is absurd, exams are supposed to be hard and that applies to all subjects, if pupils had to study it to GCSE they would at least have left with a genuine tough subject even if they did not take it to A level.
My party has done excellent work with free schools, the EBacc etc reversing the damage of the last Labour government on that, if it annoys non traditionalist educationalists like you so what?
Spanish is up though even if French and German are in decline. Sadly the last Labour government's decision not to make studying a foreign language compulsory at GSCE is still having an effect. The EBacc Gove introduced at least ensured a language would be included within it and therefore included in league tables of the number of pupils achieving it but still not enough to stem the overall trend
Even by your standards, this is truly one-eyed stupidity:
1) Labour were last in power over 13 years ago. If your mob had wanted to change MFL to a compulsory subject, they have had ample time to;
2) The Ebacc is a joke that nobody pays overmuch attention to, because (again) the idiot who came up with it didn’t understand education and so had essentially a meaningless wish list of things grammars think are important.
3) The reason MFL is cratering is partly because of the truly terrible quality of the A-level, which is far too hard (I’ve had native speakers of Chinese who struggle with Mandarin A-level) but also because the GCSE is even worse. It is far too hard (literally, you can go straight from GCSE to degree level) and stuffed with far too much content. Which kills any affection for the subject stone dead and means people don’t want to take it.
Your party have a dreadful record on education and have done enormous damage that may take decades to undo. This is but one example. I just doubt if Labour will be better.
Rubbish. It was still a Labour government who ended MFLs being compulsory at GCSE in 2004 not the Tories.
Second, the EBacc isn't a joke to genuine traditional educationalists unlike you who know that knowledge of English, Maths, Science and Humanities and Languages is important and should be measured accordingly.
Third, your pathetic rants about A Levels and GCSEs being too hard is absurd, exams are supposed to be hard and that applies to all subjects, if pupils had to study it to GCSE they would at least have left with a genuine tough subject even if they did not take it to A level.
My party has done excellent work with free schools, the EBacc etc reversing the damage of the last Labour government on that, if it annoys non traditionalist educationalists like you so what?
Hyufd:
1) You've been in power for 13 years. That was my point. It could have been reversed. It has not been. Your comment therefore is nonsensical. You remind me of the cleaner who on being told a room looked as if it hadn't been dusted for a year, said 'don't blame me, I've only been here nine months.'
2) That is a lie. Even by your standards, it is a dim lie. I am an internationally recognised expert with a long track record of publishing in this field. I am also one of the country's best qualified history teachers and examiners. If I say that the Ebacc is a stupid idea, it's because it is. It is far too narrow a curriculum and prizes only things that work for the top 10% of the population academically. It reinforces all the problems the grammars caused, in such a way as to seriously damage our economy. If you think that's a good idea, you're an even bigger fool than I thought.
3) Again, you don't understand exams - which is not surprising for an ex-public schoolboy and Russell Group graduate, which are rather infamous for their obsession with exams ahead of intellectual rigour, as we see at Ofqual and the DfE, but is annoying. Exams are meant to tell you what you want to know about somebody's ability and knowledge in a way that you can be sure you are getting consistent data. Exams that are too hard are actually even less useful than ones that are too easy, because everyone just fails them. And if they put people off the subject, that makes things worse.
4)Bullshit. Free schools are very mixed, but above all academisation has been a total disaster. It is expensive, disruptive, overly bureaucratic and grossly mismanaged by a party that doesn't understand simple management processes.
I say again - as somebody who is both much more intelligent than you and much more knowledgeable than you on this subject - the Tories have done appalling damage. They may not have meant to, but as Anna Sewell pointed out 150 years ago, stupidity really is no excuse and often more damaging than malice.
Your problem, if you will forgive me for saying so, is the narrowness of your knowledge, coupled with boundless arrogance. You really should learn to listen to people who know what they're talking about and try to overcome your prejudices.
Spanish is up though even if French and German are in decline. Sadly the last Labour government's decision not to make studying a foreign language compulsory at GSCE is still having an effect. The EBacc Gove introduced at least ensured a language would be included within it and therefore included in league tables of the number of pupils achieving it but still not enough to stem the overall trend
Even by your standards, this is truly one-eyed stupidity:
1) Labour were last in power over 13 years ago. If your mob had wanted to change MFL to a compulsory subject, they have had ample time to;
2) The Ebacc is a joke that nobody pays overmuch attention to, because (again) the idiot who came up with it didn’t understand education and so had essentially a meaningless wish list of things grammars think are important.
3) The reason MFL is cratering is partly because of the truly terrible quality of the A-level, which is far too hard (I’ve had native speakers of Chinese who struggle with Mandarin A-level) but also because the GCSE is even worse. It is far too hard (literally, you can go straight from GCSE to degree level) and stuffed with far too much content. Which kills any affection for the subject stone dead and means people don’t want to take it.
Your party have a dreadful record on education and have done enormous damage that may take decades to undo. This is but one example. I just doubt if Labour will be better.
Rubbish. It was still a Labour government who ended MFLs being compulsory at GCSE in 2004 not the Tories.
Second, the EBacc isn't a joke to genuine traditional educationalists unlike you who know that knowledge of English, Maths, Science and Humanities and Languages is important and should be measured accordingly.
Third, your pathetic rants about A Levels and GCSEs being too hard is absurd, exams are supposed to be hard and that applies to all subjects, if pupils had to study it to GCSE they would at least have left with a genuine tough subject even if they did not take it to A level.
My party has done excellent work with free schools, the EBacc etc reversing the damage of the last Labour government on that, if it annoys non traditionalist educationalists like you so what?
Hyufd:
1) You've been in power for 13 years. That was my point. It could have been reversed. It has not been. Your comment therefore is nonsensical. You remind me of the cleaner who on being told a room looked as if it hadn't been dusted for a year, said 'don't blame me, I've only been here nine months.'
2) That is a lie. Even by your standards, it is a dim lie. I am an internationally recognised expert with a long track record of publishing in this field. I am also one of the country's best qualified history teachers and examiners. If I say that the Ebacc is a stupid idea, it's because it is. It is far too narrow a curriculum and prizes only things that work for the top 10% of the population academically. It reinforces all the problems the grammars caused, in such a way as to seriously damage our economy. If you think that's a good idea, you're an even bigger fool than I thought.
3) Again, you don't understand exams - which is not surprising for an ex-public schoolboy and Russell Group graduate, which are rather infamous for their obsession with exams ahead of intellectual rigour, as we see at Ofqual and the DfE, but is annoying. Exams are meant to tell you what you want to know about somebody's ability and knowledge in a way that you can be sure you are getting consistent data. Exams that are too hard are actually even less useful than ones that are too easy, because everyone just fails them. And if they put people off the subject, that makes things worse.
4)Bullshit. Free schools are very mixed, but above all academisation has been a total disaster. It is expensive, disruptive, overly bureaucratic and grossly mismanaged by a party that doesn't understand simple management processes.
I say again - as somebody who is both much more intelligent than you and much more knowledgeable than you on this subject - the Tories have done appalling damage. They may not have meant to, but as Anna Sewell pointed out 150 years ago, stupidity really is no excuse and often more damaging than malice.
Your problem, if you will forgive me for saying so, is the narrowness of your knowledge, coupled with boundless arrogance. You really should learn to listen to people who know what they're talking about and try to overcome your prejudices.
1) Yes, personally I would make a modern language compulsory at GCSE again but there is no escape that it was the last Labour government in 2004 that made it no longer compulsory to do modern languages at GCSE not the Tories.
2) I don't care if you have won a Nobel Prize, you are still wrong on EBacc. It was an excellent idea and we should properly measure how many pupils in schools get proper, traditional GCSEs in core subjects like English, Maths, Science, a language and humanity. Only a patronising leftist would think those core subjects should not be studied by 90% of the population, they should be the core of what even the most basically educated have studied.
3). Exams are supposed to be hard and test a broad range of knowledge and skills, not so easy top grades are handed out like smarties.
4) Free schools are outstanding, often excellent schools in often deprived areas where parents previously didn't have any choice. Academies were introduced by Blair but nonetheless at least offer more autonomy for school leadership and outside investment.
You are an ideological member of the education blob, it is no surprise you dislike Gove's reforms
Comments
The bigger break might not be with Cornwall but with the extended family. It is unrealistic to expect teenagers and toddlers to appreciate the same things, or each other's company for a whole fortnight.
Work out what the family wants, then try to find a political betting blog with one of the world's leading travel writers and ask on there.
I tend to like everywhere though, especially down at heel places in this country, with that Boring Postcards kind of vibe. But maybe that's because I'm only visiting. Jarvis Cocker might have had people like me in mind when he sings that everybody hates a tourist.
The kinds of places I don't like are glitzy modern places that feel like they've been plonked down with no connection to the past or the locale. You don't get many places like that in this country thankfully - Canary Wharf is one that comes to mind and I really don't like it. You get lots in the US, which I can't stand. Luxury resorts in places like the Maldives or Turks and Caicos are similar. On paper lovely, but in reality too much like the Truman Show - too plastic, antiseptic, disconnected, leaving me yearning for a chippy in a layby or a stationary caravan park in Great Yarmouth.
Evolution without accidents
Despite advances in molecular genetics, too many biologists think that natural selection is driven by random mutations
https://aeon.co/essays/why-did-darwins-20th-century-followers-get-evolution-so-wrong
You went there. Voluntarily. While cursing your own country. Own it
I did this last August, and accomodation in the suburbs was surprisingly economical. Brussels, Ghent, Ostend, Kortrijk, Lille all decent day trips on the train.
Trump on David Weiss appointment: ‘He would not have been picked by me’
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4150236-donald-trump-on-david-weiss-special-counsel-appointment/
I love Dublin. If I’d grown up in a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn’t, so it doesn’t.
I can't speak for @SeanT himself, but I would guess it is because he, the writer, did not want to pigeon-hole such a fine poet as Paul Celan - who is, at his best, wonderful - as "just" a Holocaust poet. Yes Celan wrote with chilling genius about the Holocaust. But he wrote about other things, too. Should his sole revelance be: "he wrote about the Shoah"? Should it?
Yet you need to sign to the reader why Celan is important in this context, and still-read today (when many fine poets are not). And that is: the Holocuast. Hence: "Holocaust" in inverted commas, which tries to impart necessary nuance (within the parameters of a 1400 word article)
I sometimes get the feeling 99.3% of you have never been near a deadline and a wordcount
LOL
https://twitter.com/TmorrowsPapers/status/1690465333511876608?t=R8AcsKIzNEx2KoUYsaTagQ&s=19
The rats are underneath the piles.
The Jew is underneath the lot.
There are also elements of snobbery in The Waste Land, but they are not so obvious and it is easy to overlook them in such a majestic and powerful work.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/alex-salmond-s-plan-to-save-the-snp-and-win-independence-in-five-years-7d2dk9v3s
A day coach with a brand new Flixbus is a very different affair. It's not much worse than a train, comfort-wise.
Still no reason to do it unless finances are limited, of course. If I only had one holiday a year, I could splash out. Sadly I like several holidays a year.
Our friends somehow managed to buy a vast single storey house on a patch of land on a clifftop with direct access to their own virtually private cove - there are two other houses with access who occasionally use it. A few hundred metres of crashing waves, sand, pebbles, rock pools, sea caves. Basically proper full-on famous five. And they picked it up for a song after the financial crash. Now let it on Airbnb for extravagant sums. I am extremely jealous. Our French place is nice but it’ll never have its own beach.
Doesn't seem to matter what I do
I'm always number two
No one knows how hard I tried, oh-oh
I, I have feelings that I can't explain
Drivin' me insane
All my life, been so polite
But I'll sleep alone tonight
'Cause I'm just Keir, anywhere else I'd be a seer
Is it my destiny to live and die a life of blonde fragility?
I'm just Keir
Where I see love, she sees a peer
What will it take for her to see the man behind the tan and fight for me?
Would you like some dim-dims?
What we need is a charging system that is pay per actual pollution/congestion. Something that also gives advantage to small cars. Rather than free driving for those with expensive cars.
It would be a good idea to design it to handle the transition to full ZEV and provide a sensible form of congestion taxation at that point.
Hollywood has plenty of weird talent. Bordering on and often crossing into full on criminality. But the killer is bringing your shit to the job.
Yes, see what you mean.
Imagine what you have to do to be an outcast there.
Still,any amount of splitting welcomed.
Has anyone tried using the Topaz Video AI program to enhance the quality of videos?
1) Labour were last in power over 13 years ago. If your mob had wanted to change MFL to a compulsory subject, they have had ample time to;
2) The Ebacc is a joke that nobody pays overmuch attention to, because (again) the idiot who came up with it didn’t understand education and so had essentially a meaningless wish list of things grammars think are important.
3) The reason MFL is cratering is partly because of the truly terrible quality of the A-level, which is far too hard (I’ve had native speakers of Chinese who struggle with Mandarin A-level) but also because the GCSE is even worse. It is far too hard (literally, you can go straight from GCSE to degree level) and stuffed with far too much content. Which kills any affection for the subject stone dead and means people don’t want to take it.
Your party have a dreadful record on education and have done enormous damage that may take decades to undo. This is but one example. I just doubt if Labour will be better.
HY, who has many qualities that I admire, demonstrates personally how awful and anti-meritocratic Conservative educational thinking has become.
Firstly, the focus is on elite education for the elite. Be that private schools for the wealthy. If that is your choice, fine, but pay VAT for the privilege.
Secondly the move back to selection at 11. Which in my book is immoral. Back in the day when my father attended Llanelli Grammar School in the 1940s that was a distinct route out of poverty via self-improvement for the motivated poor. Nonetheless my own experience of Grammar School was by and large one of the council house kids who passed the 11 plus being tacitly left to flounder whilst the posh kids thrived. Today's 11 plus, it would seem is passable if parents spend vast amounts of money to pay the Kip MCGrath organisation to cram for the exam.
I am not comfortable with the Blair Government's Academy programme which has been supercharged into a burgeoning cash-cow business for friends of the Conservative Party.
Whenever I waver and think Tories are OK I am reminded of their elitist educational ideology.
Labour and anyone else may fail operationally, it at least their basic premise isn't good quality education is exclusively for us, and us alone.
I had written several more critical paragraphs about higher and further education but Vanilla deleted them. Are vanilla agents of this Conservative Government?
Second, the EBacc isn't a joke to genuine traditional educationalists unlike you who know that knowledge of English, Maths, Science and Humanities and Languages is important and should be measured accordingly.
Third, your pathetic rants about A Levels and GCSEs being too hard is absurd, exams are supposed to be hard and that applies to all subjects, if pupils had to study it to GCSE they would at least have left with a genuine tough subject even if they did not take it to A level.
My party has done excellent work with free schools, the EBacc etc reversing the damage of the last Labour government on that, if it annoys non traditionalist educationalists like you so what?
1) You've been in power for 13 years. That was my point. It could have been reversed. It has not been. Your comment therefore is nonsensical. You remind me of the cleaner who on being told a room looked as if it hadn't been dusted for a year, said 'don't blame me, I've only been here nine months.'
2) That is a lie. Even by your standards, it is a dim lie. I am an internationally recognised expert with a long track record of publishing in this field. I am also one of the country's best qualified history teachers and examiners. If I say that the Ebacc is a stupid idea, it's because it is. It is far too narrow a curriculum and prizes only things that work for the top 10% of the population academically. It reinforces all the problems the grammars caused, in such a way as to seriously damage our economy. If you think that's a good idea, you're an even bigger fool than I thought.
3) Again, you don't understand exams - which is not surprising for an ex-public schoolboy and Russell Group graduate, which are rather infamous for their obsession with exams ahead of intellectual rigour, as we see at Ofqual and the DfE, but is annoying. Exams are meant to tell you what you want to know about somebody's ability and knowledge in a way that you can be sure you are getting consistent data. Exams that are too hard are actually even less useful than ones that are too easy, because everyone just fails them. And if they put people off the subject, that makes things worse.
4)Bullshit. Free schools are very mixed, but above all academisation has been a total disaster. It is expensive, disruptive, overly bureaucratic and grossly mismanaged by a party that doesn't understand simple management processes.
I say again - as somebody who is both much more intelligent than you and much more knowledgeable than you on this subject - the Tories have done appalling damage. They may not have meant to, but as Anna Sewell pointed out 150 years ago, stupidity really is no excuse and often more damaging than malice.
Your problem, if you will forgive me for saying so, is the narrowness of your knowledge, coupled with boundless arrogance. You really should learn to listen to people who know what they're talking about and try to overcome your prejudices.
2) I don't care if you have won a Nobel Prize, you are still wrong on EBacc. It was an excellent idea and we should properly measure how many pupils in schools get proper, traditional GCSEs in core subjects like English, Maths, Science, a language and humanity. Only a patronising leftist would think those core subjects should not be studied by 90% of the population, they should be the core of what even the most basically educated have studied.
3). Exams are supposed to be hard and test a broad range of knowledge and skills, not so easy top grades are handed out like smarties.
4) Free schools are outstanding, often excellent schools in often deprived areas where parents previously didn't have any choice. Academies were introduced by Blair but nonetheless at least offer more autonomy for school leadership and outside investment.
You are an ideological member of the education blob, it is no surprise you dislike Gove's reforms