I live in the constituency and have never heard of Gareth Mackey outside this website. I've been canvassed twice by Labour. Usually there's no campaigns to speak of and the Tories walk it.
Most people don't know who local councillors are, even if they are popular, given there's little reporting on local government matters and in a parliamentary constituency there will be loads of them.
Obviously these are not usual times, so that makes the Tories far more vulnerable in a by-election, but it is the sort that should be comfortable for any government not dying a slow death.
Meanwhile, the whole UFO thing gets weirder and weirder
Yesterday the Mexican government examines some fake dolls put together 600 years ago with llama skulls, balsa wood and tofu, and claims they might be aliens - which is laughable - then today NASA comes out with a report which, in places, says, Well,Yeah, we genuinely dunno what UFOs are, they are inexplicable, and we’ve really tried, thou we’ve got no evidence of extra terrestrial life YET
The ludicrously bogus sits alongside the teasingly confirmatory
This is like when people moan about EU flags at the Proms - if its true people should just ignore it, since if you get in a flap about it you just look like an insecure arse.
Sorry to disappoint. The Steppingly Hospital is not an active unit. It was a former isolation hospital for infectious diseases, now a 24 bedded care home for dementia, and centre for wheelchair services.
Would have thought next to a hospital/OAP home would be the perfect site for a crematorium. Like a taxi rank outside a train station. Many die in hospitals and OAP's homes. There's nothing insensitive about this fact. At the risk of turning into Barty, people die, get over it.
This is like when people moan about EU flags at the Proms - if its true people should just ignore it, since if you get in a flap about it you just look like an insecure arse.
I don’t think it will do him much harm with SNP voters, who are generally anti-royalist
It might harden royalist Unionists against him, tho they are not exactly swing voters
Possibly the only damage it will do it him is increase an image of him being a bit of a twat, and unserious, and not up to the job. Sturgeon or Salmond would generally not have made a crass, unforced mistake like this. Salmond in particular was adept at seeming quite royalist - chatting with the Queen about the gee-gees - while also fiercely Nat, pleasing many sides
Come to think of it. Whatever happened to "Smirking Starmer"? It was all the rage in the Tory supporting Press some months ago. Did someone, somewhere twig it was effing nonsense? Not fitting, nor amusing.
As effective as calling him Gordon Brittas.
I don’t think that one ever emerged from the darkest reaches of PB, not least because 90% of the population has no idea who Brittas is.
This is like when people moan about EU flags at the Proms - if its true people should just ignore it, since if you get in a flap about it you just look like an insecure arse.
I don’t think it will do him much harm with SNP voters, who are generally anti-royalist
It might harden royalist Unionists against him, tho they are not exactly swing voters
Possibly the only damage it will do it him is increase an image of him being a bit of a twat, and unserious, and not up to the job. Sturgeon or Salmond would generally not have made a crass, unforced mistake like this. Salmond in particular was adept at seeming quite royalist - chatting with the Queen about the gee-gees - while also fiercely Nat, pleasing many sides
What nobody on PB seems to have realised is that GSTK is the UK anthem. Not the English anthem. If anyone is making a crass misstep ...
Today I exited a side road onto a another road (all 30mph limit, residential, though I dont' think that's important). I was turning right. There was no traffic visible to left (limited visibility, but to the distance I could see) and to the right there was a car indicating to turn left into my road, a cyclist behind that and a bus behind the cyclist. I waited to ensure the car was turning left into my road (i.e. significant slow down to add to indicator) and pulled out. At this point, the cyclist has not caught up with the slowing down car and is continuing a normal pace, say 100m still from where I'm exiting). Once I've turned on to main road, I see the bus has started to overtake the cyclist, heading towards me partially in my lane. Bus driver bails on the overtake, perhaps 50-60m from me and pulls back in behind the cyclist (I'm also pulling to one side and slowing down to make space). The bus had not started to overtake nor indicated as I started to leave the side road (I'm pretty sure of this, as the bus or other vehicles overtaking was in my mind, but I did a last check left where the visibility is poor - and just to the left is a 60mph limit, so sometimes cars come into the 30 fast - just before I pulled out, so there's a chance the indicator started a moment before I started to move).
Who was right there? If the bus was already overtaking or even indicating and would still be out of lane before reaching me I should yield and not come out of the side road, I think. But if I've started to come out, then the bus should not begin the overtake. I think... But it struck me as not entirely clear cut.
Anyway, the bus driver didn't indicate any annoyance, cyclist was safe etc as we could all three have sqeezed past. Just wondering whether I should have waited anyway for the possibility of an overtaking move.
Is that even a thing? You turned right into a road no one hurt, inconvenienced, angry, irritated, upset or otherwise put out.
Unless you all screeched to a halt, had a huge scrap in the middle of the road, and @MattW posts the footage of it there really is nothing to discuss.
noneoftheabove may have footage as it appears he/she was there
More seriously, if something happens when I drive/cycle where I think I might have got it wrong then I tend to have a think about it (and often conclude one way or the other whether I was wrong). Here it wasn't very clear to me, but I think I'd act differently next time.
Been there done that. I think you shouldn't have pulled out but that takes a hell of a lot of foresight. It is the classic example of two people doing something simultaneously which individually are fine but together are dangerous. The obvious similar scenario is the scenario on a motorway where lane 1 driver pulls out to overtake and lane 3 driver pulls in having overtaken at the same time. If people drive defensively when these scenarios arise it tends to be ok even if one party does get unreasonably upset.
I think the most dangerous drivers are the those who think they are really good and don't drive defensively, because there are people like me around who make mistakes and they haven't taken that into account.
SKS in a speech on the day we left the EU: "We have to make the case for Freedom of Movement"
SKS now: There is no case for freedom of movement.
It's simple. He's a liar.
In addition SKS should be judged on past behaviour as indicative of future behaviour. He:-
• Breaks pledges
• Is an autocrat
• Will not stand on picket lines
• Quotes Thatcher
• Writes for The S*n
• Says he’s a Tory
• Breaks pledges - a politician then
• Is an autocrat - it's only a political party, it can run itself how it likes
• Will not stand on picket lines - ok, in fairness I'm surprised at this one
• Quotes Thatcher - in what context?
• Writes for The S*n - People need to get the f*ck over whether someone writes in a particular newspaper or not
• Says he’s a Tory - he what now?
I'm actually kidding a little, I think if Labour supporters thinks he breaks pledges and is autocratic in running things that is good reason to be wary to a degree, but some of the others are just ridiculous.
Painting Starmer as the devil is just self defeating, he looks and sounds like a bog standard establishment type a lot of the time, if that's a reason to criticise him then he's wide open, but some machiavellian scumbag? No.
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Hmmm:
Was Oracle that big a beneficiary of the digitization of the NHS? The big contracts for digitisation of medical records went to - IIRC - Fujitsu and iSoft. Sure, they probably had backend Oracle databases, but I don't think they were a particularly important supplier.
Today I exited a side road onto a another road (all 30mph limit, residential, though I dont' think that's important). I was turning right. There was no traffic visible to left (limited visibility, but to the distance I could see) and to the right there was a car indicating to turn left into my road, a cyclist behind that and a bus behind the cyclist. I waited to ensure the car was turning left into my road (i.e. significant slow down to add to indicator) and pulled out. At this point, the cyclist has not caught up with the slowing down car and is continuing a normal pace, say 100m still from where I'm exiting). Once I've turned on to main road, I see the bus has started to overtake the cyclist, heading towards me partially in my lane. Bus driver bails on the overtake, perhaps 50-60m from me and pulls back in behind the cyclist (I'm also pulling to one side and slowing down to make space). The bus had not started to overtake nor indicated as I started to leave the side road (I'm pretty sure of this, as the bus or other vehicles overtaking was in my mind, but I did a last check left where the visibility is poor - and just to the left is a 60mph limit, so sometimes cars come into the 30 fast - just before I pulled out, so there's a chance the indicator started a moment before I started to move).
Who was right there? If the bus was already overtaking or even indicating and would still be out of lane before reaching me I should yield and not come out of the side road, I think. But if I've started to come out, then the bus should not begin the overtake. I think... But it struck me as not entirely clear cut.
Anyway, the bus driver didn't indicate any annoyance, cyclist was safe etc as we could all three have sqeezed past. Just wondering whether I should have waited anyway for the possibility of an overtaking move.
Is that even a thing? You turned right into a road no one hurt, inconvenienced, angry, irritated, upset or otherwise put out.
Unless you all screeched to a halt, had a huge scrap in the middle of the road, and @MattW posts the footage of it there really is nothing to discuss.
Oh, I dunno.
If you only consider whether you did something wrong after you've had a crash, you aren't learning much. Near misses are very valuable.
If the bus had already started overtaking, then you'd be at fault, as you are supposed to give way to anything on the main road, even if it is on the wrong side. On the other hand, the bus shouldn't be overtaking next to a junction without double checking.
Probably 50/50 in law as it would be hard to prove who moved first.
I'd hope my approach would have been to look at that scene and think "too complicated, lets see what happens" before pulling out, regardless of the rights and wrongs.
This is like when people moan about EU flags at the Proms - if its true people should just ignore it, since if you get in a flap about it you just look like an insecure arse.
I don’t think it will do him much harm with SNP voters, who are generally anti-royalist
It might harden royalist Unionists against him, tho they are not exactly swing voters
Possibly the only damage it will do it him is increase an image of him being a bit of a twat, and unserious, and not up to the job. Sturgeon or Salmond would generally not have made a crass, unforced mistake like this. Salmond in particular was adept at seeming quite royalist - chatting with the Queen about the gee-gees - while also fiercely Nat, pleasing many sides
What nobody on PB seems to have realised is that GSTK is the UK anthem. Not the English anthem. If anyone is making a crass misstep ...
But that’s a different argument. Although I agree: England should use Jerusalem or I Vow To Thee or Bohemian Rhapsody or Land of Hope and Glory. Save GSTK for truly UK events and celebrations
Would have thought next to a hospital/OAP home would be the perfect site for a crematorium. Like a taxi rank outside a train station. Many die in hospitals and OAP's homes. There's nothing insensitive about this fact. At the risk of turning into Barty, people die, get over it.
Thing is, this stuff doesn’t surprise me any more. I know it came from the lab, I’ve known this for years, I’ve also long known there was an obvious blatant conspiracy to cover that up (still going on, tho increasingly feeble)
Anyone who denies this is now an idiot, or some perverse ideologue, the argument is not worth having
"I know" you are essentially a cultist at this point.
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
This is like when people moan about EU flags at the Proms - if its true people should just ignore it, since if you get in a flap about it you just look like an insecure arse.
I don’t think it will do him much harm with SNP voters, who are generally anti-royalist
It might harden royalist Unionists against him, tho they are not exactly swing voters
Possibly the only damage it will do it him is increase an image of him being a bit of a twat, and unserious, and not up to the job. Sturgeon or Salmond would generally not have made a crass, unforced mistake like this. Salmond in particular was adept at seeming quite royalist - chatting with the Queen about the gee-gees - while also fiercely Nat, pleasing many sides
What nobody on PB seems to have realised is that GSTK is the UK anthem. Not the English anthem. If anyone is making a crass misstep ...
But that’s a different argument. Although I agree: England should use Jerusalem or I Vow To Thee or Bohemian Rhapsody or Land of Hope and Glory. Save GSTK for truly UK events and celebrations
Yes, England uses Jerusalem at the Commonwealth Games already anyway as does the England cricket team now. GSTK should be reserved for the Olympics and UK team competitions and when a member of the royal family attends an event it can also be played.
Indeed GSTK is already the second national anthem of New Zealand and the royal anthem for all Commonwealth realms
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Stop the boats!
A surprising stat I read about the Blair Foundation the other day is that they are quite large - they have 450 staff.
Thing is, this stuff doesn’t surprise me any more. I know it came from the lab, I’ve known this for years, I’ve also long known there was an obvious blatant conspiracy to cover that up (still going on, tho increasingly feeble)
Anyone who denies this is now an idiot, or some perverse ideologue, the argument is not worth having
"I know" you are essentially a cultist at this point.
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Stop the boats!
Not sure what that's got to do with anything - I've criticised Tory sleaze. It's horriffic that they haven't got that PPE money back. Anyway, have fun being sold to the Americans by Starmer.
This is like when people moan about EU flags at the Proms - if its true people should just ignore it, since if you get in a flap about it you just look like an insecure arse.
I don’t think it will do him much harm with SNP voters, who are generally anti-royalist
It might harden royalist Unionists against him, tho they are not exactly swing voters
Possibly the only damage it will do it him is increase an image of him being a bit of a twat, and unserious, and not up to the job. Sturgeon or Salmond would generally not have made a crass, unforced mistake like this. Salmond in particular was adept at seeming quite royalist - chatting with the Queen about the gee-gees - while also fiercely Nat, pleasing many sides
What nobody on PB seems to have realised is that GSTK is the UK anthem. Not the English anthem. If anyone is making a crass misstep ...
But that’s a different argument. Although I agree: England should use Jerusalem or I Vow To Thee or Bohemian Rhapsody or Land of Hope and Glory. Save GSTK for truly UK events and celebrations
But what everyone is missing is that the booing is simply indignation at the cultural appropriation. GSTK is very popular amongst Scottish football fans, hence the upset at being deprived of it.
Thing is, this stuff doesn’t surprise me any more. I know it came from the lab, I’ve known this for years, I’ve also long known there was an obvious blatant conspiracy to cover that up (still going on, tho increasingly feeble)
Anyone who denies this is now an idiot, or some perverse ideologue, the argument is not worth having
"I know" you are essentially a cultist at this point.
So the latest evidence. - after all the other years of evidence - that US intel experts were bribed to keep quiet about their consensus: that it came from the lab - means nothing at all? Nothing to see, move along here?
Exactly who is displaying cultic loyalty to a false idol, in this instance?
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Stop the boats!
A surprising stat I read about the Blair Foundation the other day is that they are quite large - they have 450 staff.
Today I exited a side road onto a another road (all 30mph limit, residential, though I dont' think that's important). I was turning right. There was no traffic visible to left (limited visibility, but to the distance I could see) and to the right there was a car indicating to turn left into my road, a cyclist behind that and a bus behind the cyclist. I waited to ensure the car was turning left into my road (i.e. significant slow down to add to indicator) and pulled out. At this point, the cyclist has not caught up with the slowing down car and is continuing a normal pace, say 100m still from where I'm exiting). Once I've turned on to main road, I see the bus has started to overtake the cyclist, heading towards me partially in my lane. Bus driver bails on the overtake, perhaps 50-60m from me and pulls back in behind the cyclist (I'm also pulling to one side and slowing down to make space). The bus had not started to overtake nor indicated as I started to leave the side road (I'm pretty sure of this, as the bus or other vehicles overtaking was in my mind, but I did a last check left where the visibility is poor - and just to the left is a 60mph limit, so sometimes cars come into the 30 fast - just before I pulled out, so there's a chance the indicator started a moment before I started to move).
Who was right there? If the bus was already overtaking or even indicating and would still be out of lane before reaching me I should yield and not come out of the side road, I think. But if I've started to come out, then the bus should not begin the overtake. I think... But it struck me as not entirely clear cut.
Anyway, the bus driver didn't indicate any annoyance, cyclist was safe etc as we could all three have sqeezed past. Just wondering whether I should have waited anyway for the possibility of an overtaking move.
Is that even a thing? You turned right into a road no one hurt, inconvenienced, angry, irritated, upset or otherwise put out.
Unless you all screeched to a halt, had a huge scrap in the middle of the road, and @MattW posts the footage of it there really is nothing to discuss.
noneoftheabove may have footage as it appears he/she was there
More seriously, if something happens when I drive/cycle where I think I might have got it wrong then I tend to have a think about it (and often conclude one way or the other whether I was wrong). Here it wasn't very clear to me, but I think I'd act differently next time.
Are my ears burning?
(But grr my reply just vanished.)
50m at 30mph takes 4 seconds. It is arguably (from Highway Code) marginal for the bus to start an overtake when he does not have a clear path to complete the manoeuvre safely as you might exit the junction. Equally it is arguable that you could stall halfway across, which would cause the bus to do an emergency stop.
And that the defensive and safe approach is to accept an extra 5s on the length of your journey and wait for both, given that the bus may very easily have been doing 35 not 30.
Kudos to you for spotting the cyclist at a good distance.
Hunter Biden might be a self admitted crook (he is), but there is zero reason for him to provide his bank records to politicians without justification. This will be an amusing legal confrontation.
https://twitter.com/jordainc/status/1702361717110452647 Hunter Biden's lawyer in a letter to Comer re-upped their offer to meet with the committee to discuss if Hunter Biden had information that "may inform some legitimate legislative purpose"
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Hmmm:
Was Oracle that big a beneficiary of the digitization of the NHS? The big contracts for digitisation of medical records went to - IIRC - Fujitsu and iSoft. Sure, they probably had backend Oracle databases, but I don't think they were a particularly important supplier.
Plus, when you are working at scale, need lots of 9s of reliability, the list of relational databases you’d want to spend money on gets quite short.
Plus the JVM won the backend wars, so licenses for Java related stuff from Uncle Larry are almost inevitable.
In WW2 German manpower was chewed up on the Eastern Front. But the Germans allocated the bulk of their resources to defending their homeland from Allied bombing. Can't remember the exact figs but I think it was something like 2/3 of their economic output went on countering the Allied strategic bomber offensive once that really got going from '43 onwards. So that's steel and munitions output that was used for AA guns around cities not for U-boats or tanks, fighter planes denuded in the East to attack the bombers, scarce fuel used to power those fighters, etc, etc. Vast resources used to protect cities all across the country could not be used in the East where the land fighting was taking place. Don't forget the logistical challenges of moving all that material around the country, taking up rail capacity, burning fuel.
The killing of workers, the weakening of morale through bombing happened to an extent, but it wasn't enough to stop the Germans fighting - it perhaps even stiffened the resolve of the Wehrmacht to keep fighting in some ways. But defending against the bombing used up massive resources that couldn't be used elsewhere, reducing pressure on the Soviets in the East and allowing them to tear the Wehrmacht to pieces more easily.
So, if the Russians now have to divert resources to protect their assets that the Ukrainians could conceivably attack, that means there are fewer resources that can be used on the battlefield.
I don't think it was anything like 2/3 of economic output.
But, yes, the Strategic Bombing Campaign did force the Germans to divert resources to counter it, and it did increasing harm to their manufacturing capacity and transport links as the war went on.
After August 1944, the bombing was heavily degrading Germany's ability to produce munitions.
Maybe not quite, but it was a surprisingly big chunk. The We Have Ways podcast has been looking at this stuff recently - I'm sure they said 2/3 but I could well remembering the wrong figure. But it is certainly surprisingly large. They've cited a book that's on my list to read called 'How the War Was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II' by Phillips Payson O'Brien, which uses all the economic data to argue that the strategic bombing campaign played a much bigger role than generally accepted, due to the German resources it sucked up. I think the book's quite controversial in certain quarters.
The podcast throws up really interesting stuff - the amount of minesweepers the Germans had to build to counter the thousand of mines the RAF dropped in coastal waters, for example. Steel that couldn't be used in U-boats. All good stuff.
John Keegan's view of the bombing war (specifically the resources allocated to Bomber Command) was that it didn't achieve enough for the price paid. He's the expert so I defer to him, but I wonder how much of the economic factors he considered, and the the impacts of Pointblank etc on Normandy. It seems to me that while the cost was huge, the effects on Germany were vast and while bombing didn't win the war on its own, it almost certainly made victory in the West possible. After all, image Normandy with a decent German air force presence...
Yeah I think O'Brien's work is challenging the more traditional view that Keegan put forward. On the surface of it, perhaps the bombing campaign didn't deliver what Harris certainly thought it could, it didn't demoralise the population so much they wouldn't carry on, but I gather that O'Brien's saying if you look at all the economic data the resources the Germans used to defend themselves against the bombing campaign were vast. Massive. And affected the entire war effort across the board. For example, dealing with the bombed-out, moving them around Germany, feeding and clothing them was itself a huge effort.
Bomber Command lost, what, 60,000 men I think off the top of my head, during the war. The Russians lost 80,000 men, that's dead not including casualties, during the attack on Berlin. Post-Dresden (which, at the risk of opening another Pandora's box, I think was entirely justified at the time) the bombing campaign was seen as having gone too far. But I think the price those 60,000 men paid should be recognised in the disproportionately large amount of resources they tied up, and how that helped to win the war.
55,573, apparently. Should also add in the 8th Air force deaths (which were pretty bad too, certainly before the advent of long range fighter support - 26000).
I have read widely on Normandy (Sand and Steel most recently) and I remain convinced that it was only the success it was because of the bombing campaign. The defeat of the Luftwaffe was absolutely critical (just as defeating the RAF would have been for Sealion, although the Navy would have had something to say to that too). If you take Harris's line of trying to win the war from the air alone, then it was a failure, but taken in the round, horrific though it was, and I give thanks that I never had to get into a Lancaster to fly for 12 hours over occupied Europe, it has to be seen as part of the overall victory. It also allowed Churchill to postpone Overlord until 1944, under constant pressure from Stalin, who could rightly point to the death toll paid by Russians on the battlefields of the East.
IIRC they had to fight tooth and nail to get Harris to break off from the bombing campaign and give the critical support in Normandy, and as soon as he could take the Lancs back he did.
I’ve only recently started listening to the We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast, where Al Murray (he of Pub Landlord fame) and James Holland the historian discuss all things WW2. I’d given it a miss ‘cos I wrongly assumed it would be all Spitfires and Tiger tanks, but it really is very good, very detailed, very wide-ranging. I think they themselves are going on a bit of a journey with their knowledge of the conflict because of what they’ve discussed. Highly recommended for all the WW2 buffs on here.
Thanks NM.
I have become such a buff on account of a book I am putting together which focuses largely on the North Africa campaign, Desert Rats and all that.
If any PBers have a similar preoccupation or want to assist can they please PM me.
Not sure I can assist much but am interested in the book. My grandad was in the Desert Rats (and then Iraq and also up through Italy - he was at Montecassino).
Mine was wounded just before Tobruk and that was the end of his war. I am cataloguing and editing the 400 or so letters I found when my parents died which mainly cover the war period, and a bit besides. They are mostly of interest from a family point of view, but also some historic interest.
Would have thought next to a hospital/OAP home would be the perfect site for a crematorium. Like a taxi rank outside a train station. Many die in hospitals and OAP's homes. There's nothing insensitive about this fact. At the risk of turning into Barty, people die, get over it.
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Stop the boats!
A surprising stat I read about the Blair Foundation the other day is that they are quite large - they have 450 staff.
The Tony Blair Institute is a charity. They should not be, as it's hard to see how they do any 'charitable' work.
Edit: I might well be wrong. The The "Tony Blair Faith Foundation" was a charity; the TBIGC might not be...
Would have thought next to a hospital/OAP home would be the perfect site for a crematorium. Like a taxi rank outside a train station. Many die in hospitals and OAP's homes. There's nothing insensitive about this fact. At the risk of turning into Barty, people die, get over it.
Maybe they could install a conveyor belt.
Solid fuel boiler in the basement?
Not sure what I have started here but it's getting a bit dark.
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Stop the boats!
A surprising stat I read about the Blair Foundation the other day is that they are quite large - they have 450 staff.
The Tony Blair Institute is a charity. They should not be, as it's hard to see how they do any 'charitable' work.
A problem is the use of “charity” for what the Americans would call a non-profit think tank.
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Stop the boats!
A surprising stat I read about the Blair Foundation the other day is that they are quite large - they have 450 staff.
The Tony Blair Institute is a charity. They should not be, as it's hard to see how they do any 'charitable' work.
Edit: I might well be wrong. The The "Tony Blair Faith Foundation" was a charity; the TBIGC might not be...
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Stop the boats!
In fairness to him I think LuckyGuy has plenty of ire for shady people on the right.
Would have thought next to a hospital/OAP home would be the perfect site for a crematorium. Like a taxi rank outside a train station. Many die in hospitals and OAP's homes. There's nothing insensitive about this fact. At the risk of turning into Barty, people die, get over it.
Maybe they could install a conveyor belt.
Solid fuel boiler in the basement?
Not sure what I have started here but it's getting a bit dark.
If you need to wash your hands if it, there’s some soap. Fresh made.
I live in the constituency and have never heard of Gareth Mackey outside this website. I've been canvassed twice by Labour. Usually there's no campaigns to speak of and the Tories walk it.
Finally an actual voter speaks! Tell us more? Are Labour the only party who's canvassed you? How many leaflets have you had? What's your impression of how it's going?
O/T re last thread on school uniform @MikeSmithson Many thanks for highlighting this issue. It has just hammered a family related to me, already well overstretched by the cost of living inflation.
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Stop the boats!
A surprising stat I read about the Blair Foundation the other day is that they are quite large - they have 450 staff.
The Tony Blair Institute is a charity. They should not be, as it's hard to see how they do any 'charitable' work.
Edit: I might well be wrong. The The "Tony Blair Faith Foundation" was a charity; the TBIGC might not be...
I gather that trendy fun-loving ex-pm Sanna Marin is getting a job there
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
Who do we think this chap will mainly be taking votes off?
I think that is the apposite question, and I suspect he takes votes off Tories who are unhappy with the Govt/Dorries but can't bring themselves to vote Lab or LibDem, but he also takes votes off Tories who are unhappy with the Govt/Dorries but can't bring themselves to vote Lab and thus would otherwise have voted LibDem. So, if he does well, that's good for Labour.
But I still think the LibDems win.
I'm on Labour @ 3.5. If the landslide is happening (which I think it is) they will take a seat like this.
I'm ++ Lab, +Con, flat Indy, - LD so 🤞
I'm ++ Lab and Con, flat on LDs, -- on the Indy. I see Labour have moved into a narrow favourite position on Betfair (3 vs 3.05 LD and 3.3 Con), which is what I've been predicting for weeks, though tbh I think the Tories should be favourites.
Would have thought next to a hospital/OAP home would be the perfect site for a crematorium. Like a taxi rank outside a train station. Many die in hospitals and OAP's homes. There's nothing insensitive about this fact. At the risk of turning into Barty, people die, get over it.
Exactly. Directly opposite Warrington Hospital is a funeral home, with big writing you can't miss if you are going into the hospital's car park if you drive in via the main road.
Sorry, but it's all the circle of life and so long as it's handled sensitively there's really no reason to hide away elements of real life and pretend they don't exist.
The US recovered battleships after Pearl Harbour that were possibly in a worse state, e.g. West Virginia or California. But it took the US a couple of years to do so for some of them, at a time they were in a massive shipbuilding program.
My idiot's verdict: if the Ropucha sails as a warship again, it will be because it is seen as a prestige project. My bet is that it would be cheaper and quicker to scrap it and build anew, using anything that can be salvaged.
Had a great afternoon bowling for the upstart team against the 150 year old local aristos, whom we walloped. I wore a golfing glove inside-out for the magic touch
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Stop the boats!
You (& me & we) DO enjoy a bit of a moan (sp?) every now & then.
I just want to point out, being here and doing this is MY JOB
To the extent I actually get paid to sit here and do this
I am available for career advice. DM me
I dunno. I'm playing with my son at the moment. Your life - and 'career' - seem somewhat more empty than mine.
But whatever floats your boat. I'm not jealous of your lifestyle - far from it. But if you're happy, cool. It's just that your constant attempts at showing your supposedly brilliant lifestyle rings sorta empty...
A pox on all your houses might be the right reaction.
So long as he's not another bloody NIMBY, so no better than any of the others.
Good luck with that. He's an extract from a lengthy Facebook post from him on a proposed crematorium:
"I have always recognised the eventual benefits of a Crematorium facility to residents of Central Bedfordshire. However, my main concern here is the location proposed. CBC has seemed to be virulently opposed to any discussion which seeks to address the location, refusing all overtures to seek compromise. The site in question, insensitively located behind Steppingley Hospital and Orchard Lawns Care Home is plainly less than ideal.... effect of a cortège moving through a busy Town Centre... Could this site not be added to the holdings of local farmers..." and so on.
Sounds classic NIMBY councillor - essentially, I'd love a crematorium, just not in my ward/yard.
Incidentally, I'd have thought having a crematorium conveniently located between a hospital and care home isn't such a bad thing, but there we are.
AIUI, most deceased people are taken to funeral parlours, so few are buried/cremated from either hospitals or care homes.
I just want to point out, being here and doing this is MY JOB
To the extent I actually get paid to sit here and do this
I am available for career advice. DM me
I dunno. I'm playing with my son at the moment. Your life - and 'career' - seem somewhat more empty than mine.
But whatever floats your boat. I'm not jealous of your lifestyle - far from it. But if you're happy, cool. It's just that your constant attempts at showing your supposedly brilliant lifestyle rings sorta empty...
I’ve actually been reining in the Fuck-me-look-at-these-views the last few days
I understand they can rile people
But I couldn’t resist this one, half way down the Gorge du Tarn which a magnificent Aubrac ribeye, served by the cataracts, with an excellent Syrah, and an exquisite later summer twilight, and I AM BEING PAID TO DO THIS
It is quite ridiculous. If it makes you feel better to imagine me suffused with existential angst and loneliness, go ahead and knock yerself out. I shall toast you from the 15th century riverside garden
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Stop the boats!
You (& me & we) DO enjoy a bit of a moan (sp?) every now & then.
Way, way, off-topic. In fact, it is so far off-topic that I am resting with a nice glass of red with some aliens on a small planet orbiting Aldebaran, whilst the topic is happily campaigning in mid-Beds.
A few years back, I started recording every episode of the Archers podcast.
I've idly wondered in the past whether I could listen to every episode of the Archers, from the beginning, if I was ever to walk the coast again.
Well, there's this (1) story about the 20,000 episode. If each episode is 13 minutes long (2), then the total output would be 4,333 hours to listen to, or 180 days. At three miles per hour walking, that would be a walk of 13,000 miles. Or just over double my coastal walk, or three times the way most sane people do it.
I have no idea why I decided to do this calculation, or even share it with you. But the main questions are: is every episode of the Archers available? Are they even recorded? Would I have any sanity left after listening to all of them?
Where is our modern Oliver Cromwell to rid us of this dictatorial head of state?
What is the King afraid of?
Ryley’s decision to speak out has broken the omertà around the secret agreements between British television and the royal family over coverage of formal events. His comments confirm many details previously reported in the Guardian about how Buckingham Palace controlled coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and King Charles III’s coronation.
This included a WhatsApp group where royal courtiers would tell senior editors at the BBC, ITN, and Sky News in real time if the royal family wanted specific pieces of footage removed from circulation.
Ryley told the audience in London the royal family regularly escaped real scrutiny by broadcasters.
He said he regretted that Sky News made the “bad decision” to provide Prince William with a full list of questions before an interview with the future king in 2017: “If a viewer had interrogated us about whether that was entirely in keeping with our core values of being honest with our audiences it would have been hard to mount a robust defence. Imagine submitting a list of questions to a top politician or business leader. Maybe in a puppet state.”
In his speech – in memory of Hewlett, the broadcaster and writer who died in 2017 – he demanded more scrutiny of the royal family from British journalism, saying broadcasters were now “too supine … too incurious … too compliant” when it comes to the monarchy: “Topics such as why King Charles didn’t pay any inheritance tax on the fortune he inherited from his mother or the fact the Duchy of Cornwall doesn’t pay capital gains tax should be examined properly. The reporting needs to be far more rigorous.”
He also explained how Buckingham Palace reacts when journalists try to ask questions directly to royal family members: “You already know – perhaps you don’t – that spin doctors at the royal palaces freak out when a broadcast journalist doorsteps a member of the royal family. Haughty emails, phone calls, and even a summons for a head of news to a meeting can swiftly follow. I’ve experienced this treatment.”
I just want to point out, being here and doing this is MY JOB
To the extent I actually get paid to sit here and do this
I am available for career advice. DM me
I dunno. I'm playing with my son at the moment. Your life - and 'career' - seem somewhat more empty than mine.
But whatever floats your boat. I'm not jealous of your lifestyle - far from it. But if you're happy, cool. It's just that your constant attempts at showing your supposedly brilliant lifestyle rings sorta empty...
I’ve actually been reining in the Fuck-me-look-at-these-views the last few days
I understand they can rile people
But I couldn’t resist this one, half way down the Gorge du Tarn which a magnificent Aubrac ribeye, served by the cataracts, with an excellent Syrah, and an exquisite later summer twilight, and I AM BEING PAID TO DO THIS
On the subject of dogs, Bully XLs I posted the other day a photo of someone’s old English bulldog who could get mistaken for a Bully but is soft as and gets bullied by the French bulldog he lives with.
To prove it here he is taking a left hook from a Frenchie. I’m very pleased that the French one’s punch didn’t get any reaction from the English.
Who do we think this chap will mainly be taking votes off?
I think that is the apposite question, and I suspect he takes votes off Tories who are unhappy with the Govt/Dorries but can't bring themselves to vote Lab or LibDem, but he also takes votes off Tories who are unhappy with the Govt/Dorries but can't bring themselves to vote Lab and thus would otherwise have voted LibDem. So, if he does well, that's good for Labour.
But I still think the LibDems win.
I'm on Labour @ 3.5. If the landslide is happening (which I think it is) they will take a seat like this.
I just want to point out, being here and doing this is MY JOB
To the extent I actually get paid to sit here and do this
I am available for career advice. DM me
And you probably have an annual income more than the PM while doing it too
That has been the case for most of the last 10 or so years, yes
I’d like to claim it is thanks to my unique talent and slaving work-ethic and sheer determination, and I do have a talent and I can work hard and I am ruthlessly competitive (which makes you determined) but, TBH, at least half of it has been sheer dumb idiotic luck. Maybe more than half
i think any honest person who ends up having a good, rich life should be honest enough to admit that SO much of it is down to embarrassingly random good fortune, right from the day you are born (to the right or wrong parents in the right or wrong place)
Way, way, off-topic. In fact, it is so far off-topic that I am resting with a nice glass of red with some aliens on a small planet orbiting Aldebaran, whilst the topic is happily campaigning in mid-Beds.
A few years back, I started recording every episode of the Archers podcast.
I've idly wondered in the past whether I could listen to every episode of the Archers, from the beginning, if I was ever to walk the coast again.
Well, there's this (1) story about the 20,000 episode. If each episode is 13 minutes long (2), then the total output would be 4,333 hours to listen to, or 180 days. At three miles per hour walking, that would be a walk of 13,000 miles. Or just over double my coastal walk, or three times the way most sane people do it.
I have no idea why I decided to do this calculation, or even share it with you. But the main questions are: is every episode of the Archers available? Are they even recorded? Would I have any sanity left after listening to all of them?
Today I exited a side road onto a another road (all 30mph limit, residential, though I dont' think that's important). I was turning right. There was no traffic visible to left (limited visibility, but to the distance I could see) and to the right there was a car indicating to turn left into my road, a cyclist behind that and a bus behind the cyclist. I waited to ensure the car was turning left into my road (i.e. significant slow down to add to indicator) and pulled out. At this point, the cyclist has not caught up with the slowing down car and is continuing a normal pace, say 100m still from where I'm exiting). Once I've turned on to main road, I see the bus has started to overtake the cyclist, heading towards me partially in my lane. Bus driver bails on the overtake, perhaps 50-60m from me and pulls back in behind the cyclist (I'm also pulling to one side and slowing down to make space). The bus had not started to overtake nor indicated as I started to leave the side road (I'm pretty sure of this, as the bus or other vehicles overtaking was in my mind, but I did a last check left where the visibility is poor - and just to the left is a 60mph limit, so sometimes cars come into the 30 fast - just before I pulled out, so there's a chance the indicator started a moment before I started to move).
Who was right there? If the bus was already overtaking or even indicating and would still be out of lane before reaching me I should yield and not come out of the side road, I think. But if I've started to come out, then the bus should not begin the overtake. I think... But it struck me as not entirely clear cut.
Anyway, the bus driver didn't indicate any annoyance, cyclist was safe etc as we could all three have sqeezed past. Just wondering whether I should have waited anyway for the possibility of an overtaking move.
My commute to work has several fast overtaking straights with good sight lines. One of them has a junction halfway along. Wise drivers don't start an overtake until they reach it, as plenty of people turn left out of it having only looked right. Whilst the resulting head-on would be entirely the other guy's fault, it wouldn't make the bang at a 60-100mph closing speed any more enjoyable...
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
And TPE is going to get worse from December.
The North has been well and truly fucked by Sunak.
Where is our modern Oliver Cromwell to rid us of this dictatorial head of state?
What is the King afraid of?
Ryley’s decision to speak out has broken the omertà around the secret agreements between British television and the royal family over coverage of formal events. His comments confirm many details previously reported in the Guardian about how Buckingham Palace controlled coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and King Charles III’s coronation.
This included a WhatsApp group where royal courtiers would tell senior editors at the BBC, ITN, and Sky News in real time if the royal family wanted specific pieces of footage removed from circulation.
Ryley told the audience in London the royal family regularly escaped real scrutiny by broadcasters.
He said he regretted that Sky News made the “bad decision” to provide Prince William with a full list of questions before an interview with the future king in 2017: “If a viewer had interrogated us about whether that was entirely in keeping with our core values of being honest with our audiences it would have been hard to mount a robust defence. Imagine submitting a list of questions to a top politician or business leader. Maybe in a puppet state.”
In his speech – in memory of Hewlett, the broadcaster and writer who died in 2017 – he demanded more scrutiny of the royal family from British journalism, saying broadcasters were now “too supine … too incurious … too compliant” when it comes to the monarchy: “Topics such as why King Charles didn’t pay any inheritance tax on the fortune he inherited from his mother or the fact the Duchy of Cornwall doesn’t pay capital gains tax should be examined properly. The reporting needs to be far more rigorous.”
He also explained how Buckingham Palace reacts when journalists try to ask questions directly to royal family members: “You already know – perhaps you don’t – that spin doctors at the royal palaces freak out when a broadcast journalist doorsteps a member of the royal family. Haughty emails, phone calls, and even a summons for a head of news to a meeting can swiftly follow. I’ve experienced this treatment.”
We really should discuss the King being a tax dodger.
So what? It was his do, his coronation, he can decide what subsequent footage was included.
The King and Prince of Wales are also supposed to be apolitical, ceremonial heads of state and heir, they shouldn't give too many opinions, especially not the King. It is politicians who decide the future of legislation and government and businesspeople corporations, so extensive questions for them is different. The Queen rarely gave interviews at all and was very popular as a result.
Funds from the Duchy of Cornwall and crown estate mean taxpayers pay very little for the royals beyond security and the King's not paying inheritance tax ensures that much of the royal collection etc remains in private hands and open to the public. It also helps maintain private royal residences like Sandringham and Balmoral
Way, way, off-topic. In fact, it is so far off-topic that I am resting with a nice glass of red with some aliens on a small planet orbiting Aldebaran, whilst the topic is happily campaigning in mid-Beds.
A few years back, I started recording every episode of the Archers podcast.
I've idly wondered in the past whether I could listen to every episode of the Archers, from the beginning, if I was ever to walk the coast again.
Well, there's this (1) story about the 20,000 episode. If each episode is 13 minutes long (2), then the total output would be 4,333 hours to listen to, or 180 days. At three miles per hour walking, that would be a walk of 13,000 miles. Or just over double my coastal walk, or three times the way most sane people do it.
I have no idea why I decided to do this calculation, or even share it with you. But the main questions are: is every episode of the Archers available? Are they even recorded? Would I have any sanity left after listening to all of them?
"Would I have any sanity left after listening to all of them?" If I had to attempt to listen to The Archers non-stop, I doubt I would remain sane for more than 3 days.
Brent Cross West (London's newest station) pushed back from Oct to Dec.
West Midlands Metro (ie. Tram) extension to Wolverhampton station opening this Sunday 17th, though the original terminus, St George's will be closed for a short period.
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
And TPE is going to get worse from December.
The North has been well and truly fucked by Sunak.
Using TPE on the north east leg I cannot see how it would get any worse.
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
Probably bad news for Hitachi Rail too as they’re unlikely to need all of the rolling stock currently planned.
Where is our modern Oliver Cromwell to rid us of this dictatorial head of state?
What is the King afraid of?
Ryley’s decision to speak out has broken the omertà around the secret agreements between British television and the royal family over coverage of formal events. His comments confirm many details previously reported in the Guardian about how Buckingham Palace controlled coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and King Charles III’s coronation.
This included a WhatsApp group where royal courtiers would tell senior editors at the BBC, ITN, and Sky News in real time if the royal family wanted specific pieces of footage removed from circulation.
Ryley told the audience in London the royal family regularly escaped real scrutiny by broadcasters.
He said he regretted that Sky News made the “bad decision” to provide Prince William with a full list of questions before an interview with the future king in 2017: “If a viewer had interrogated us about whether that was entirely in keeping with our core values of being honest with our audiences it would have been hard to mount a robust defence. Imagine submitting a list of questions to a top politician or business leader. Maybe in a puppet state.”
In his speech – in memory of Hewlett, the broadcaster and writer who died in 2017 – he demanded more scrutiny of the royal family from British journalism, saying broadcasters were now “too supine … too incurious … too compliant” when it comes to the monarchy: “Topics such as why King Charles didn’t pay any inheritance tax on the fortune he inherited from his mother or the fact the Duchy of Cornwall doesn’t pay capital gains tax should be examined properly. The reporting needs to be far more rigorous.”
He also explained how Buckingham Palace reacts when journalists try to ask questions directly to royal family members: “You already know – perhaps you don’t – that spin doctors at the royal palaces freak out when a broadcast journalist doorsteps a member of the royal family. Haughty emails, phone calls, and even a summons for a head of news to a meeting can swiftly follow. I’ve experienced this treatment.”
We really should discuss the King being a tax dodger.
So what? It was his do, his coronation, he can decide what subsequent footage was included.
The King and Prince of Wales are also supposed to be apolitical, ceremonial heads of state and heir, they shouldn't give too many opinions, especially not the King. It is politicians who decide the future of legislation and government and businesspeople corporations, so extensive questions for them is different. The Queen rarely gave interviews at all and was very popular as a result.
Funds from the Duchy of Cornwall and crown estate mean taxpayers pay very little for the royals beyond security and the King's not paying inheritance tax ensures that much of the royal collection etc remains in private hands and open to the public. It also helps maintain private royal residences like Sandringham and Balmoral
No, it was the state's do. It was the state paying for it, it was the state coronating its head of state.
If he wants his entire life to be private, then we should become a republic and he can have all the privacy he wants.
And the crown estate belong to the state, it does not belong to the royal family. If we become a republic, it would remain state land as it is not their private property.
I can't PM you but my grandfather fought in the Western Desert as well, as an officer in 9th Armoured Brigade. Have quite a lot of his recollections memorised if you would like them. Somewhere I think I have his unpublished memoirs too but I don't know where at this moment.
Lots of criticism of cover (frankly I don’t care) but contents are *incredibly well* put together.
Recent cliche has been left has the ideas. But seeing panel by Blair Institute on future of healthcare suggests not.
Another good day for Sir Keir Royale ‘No Drama’ Starmer.
Anything that pisses off the likes of Bastani is likely to be A Good Thing.
It seems pretty likely to me that Labour's sudden realisation that the creaking state monopoly of the NHS doesn't work, is straightforward grift. One of the biggest funders of TBlair's foundation (to the tune of £80mn apparently) is Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle Software benefitted a huge amount from contracts awarded in the Blair years. However the NHS is liberalised, we can expect a lot of companies to make a lot of money. https://order-order.com/2023/09/13/left-of-centre-think-tanks-dwarf-tufton-street-in-terms-of-money-and-manpower/
Stop the boats!
You (& me & we) DO enjoy a bit of a moan (sp?) every now & then.
Mone, Mone, Mone, it's a rich (wo)man's world...
Mone, Mone, Mone, how do you like it, how do you like it. Andrea True Connection.
Who do we think this chap will mainly be taking votes off?
I think that is the apposite question, and I suspect he takes votes off Tories who are unhappy with the Govt/Dorries but can't bring themselves to vote Lab or LibDem, but he also takes votes off Tories who are unhappy with the Govt/Dorries but can't bring themselves to vote Lab and thus would otherwise have voted LibDem. So, if he does well, that's good for Labour.
But I still think the LibDems win.
I'm on Labour @ 3.5. If the landslide is happening (which I think it is) they will take a seat like this.
I'm ++ Lab, +Con, flat Indy, - LD so 🤞
Tiny stakes
So basically, the Tories and Lib Dems are not quite Poundshop Labour parties?
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
And TPE is going to get worse from December.
The North has been well and truly fucked by Sunak.
Using TPE on the north east leg I cannot see how it would get any worse.
TransPennine Express will mothball a fleet of 13 almost new trains as part of drastic plans to cut services from December and improve its dreadful punctuality record.
The company's boss said the moves were aimed at simplifying its operations and 'deliver improved punctuality and reliability'. The train firm was nationalised in May after months of poor performance.
The train company only began using its Spain-built Nova 3 trains in August 2019 but bosses have now confirmed they will be withdrawn because they don't have enough drivers trained to operate them.
Is this NASA just angling for more money (in today’s official NASA/UFO briefing) or does it suggest they really do think something is up there?
“CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA said Thursday that the study of UFOs will require new scientific techniques, including advanced satellites as well as a shift in how unidentified flying objects are perceived.“
For me, both makes sense. There is too much evidence, now, of American agencies/intels/militaries being genuinely bewildered. However this won’t stop them trying to profit from it, and accrue new funding
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
And TPE is going to get worse from December.
The North has been well and truly fucked by Sunak.
Using TPE on the north east leg I cannot see how it would get any worse.
TransPennine Express will mothball a fleet of 13 almost new trains as part of drastic plans to cut services from December and improve its dreadful punctuality record.
The company's boss said the moves were aimed at simplifying its operations and 'deliver improved punctuality and reliability'. The train firm was nationalised in May after months of poor performance.
The train company only began using its Spain-built Nova 3 trains in August 2019 but bosses have now confirmed they will be withdrawn because they don't have enough drivers trained to operate them.
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
I'd like to see the revised economic case for the current shitshow.
Where is our modern Oliver Cromwell to rid us of this dictatorial head of state?
What is the King afraid of?
Ryley’s decision to speak out has broken the omertà around the secret agreements between British television and the royal family over coverage of formal events. His comments confirm many details previously reported in the Guardian about how Buckingham Palace controlled coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and King Charles III’s coronation.
This included a WhatsApp group where royal courtiers would tell senior editors at the BBC, ITN, and Sky News in real time if the royal family wanted specific pieces of footage removed from circulation.
Ryley told the audience in London the royal family regularly escaped real scrutiny by broadcasters.
He said he regretted that Sky News made the “bad decision” to provide Prince William with a full list of questions before an interview with the future king in 2017: “If a viewer had interrogated us about whether that was entirely in keeping with our core values of being honest with our audiences it would have been hard to mount a robust defence. Imagine submitting a list of questions to a top politician or business leader. Maybe in a puppet state.”
In his speech – in memory of Hewlett, the broadcaster and writer who died in 2017 – he demanded more scrutiny of the royal family from British journalism, saying broadcasters were now “too supine … too incurious … too compliant” when it comes to the monarchy: “Topics such as why King Charles didn’t pay any inheritance tax on the fortune he inherited from his mother or the fact the Duchy of Cornwall doesn’t pay capital gains tax should be examined properly. The reporting needs to be far more rigorous.”
He also explained how Buckingham Palace reacts when journalists try to ask questions directly to royal family members: “You already know – perhaps you don’t – that spin doctors at the royal palaces freak out when a broadcast journalist doorsteps a member of the royal family. Haughty emails, phone calls, and even a summons for a head of news to a meeting can swiftly follow. I’ve experienced this treatment.”
We really should discuss the King being a tax dodger.
So what? It was his do, his coronation, he can decide what subsequent footage was included.
The King and Prince of Wales are also supposed to be apolitical, ceremonial heads of state and heir, they shouldn't give too many opinions, especially not the King. It is politicians who decide the future of legislation and government and businesspeople corporations, so extensive questions for them is different. The Queen rarely gave interviews at all and was very popular as a result.
Funds from the Duchy of Cornwall and crown estate mean taxpayers pay very little for the royals beyond security and the King's not paying inheritance tax ensures that much of the royal collection etc remains in private hands and open to the public. It also helps maintain private royal residences like Sandringham and Balmoral
No, it was the state's do. It was the state paying for it, it was the state coronating its head of state.
If he wants his entire life to be private, then we should become a republic and he can have all the privacy he wants.
And the crown estate belong to the state, it does not belong to the royal family. If we become a republic, it would remain state land as it is not their private property.
The coronation itself was broadcast in full, including on the state broadcaster which is not Sky. Sky is a private corporation and what footage it got after the crown was entitled to control.
If we became a republic taxpayers would be paying for the President and Vice President
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
And TPE is going to get worse from December.
The North has been well and truly fucked by Sunak.
Using TPE on the north east leg I cannot see how it would get any worse.
TransPennine Express will mothball a fleet of 13 almost new trains as part of drastic plans to cut services from December and improve its dreadful punctuality record.
The company's boss said the moves were aimed at simplifying its operations and 'deliver improved punctuality and reliability'. The train firm was nationalised in May after months of poor performance.
The train company only began using its Spain-built Nova 3 trains in August 2019 but bosses have now confirmed they will be withdrawn because they don't have enough drivers trained to operate them.
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
I'd like to see the revised economic case for the current shitshow.
Lots of consultants are making fortunes from it pointing out where the DfE has epochally fucked up, increasing the income of a number of Tory voters.
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
And TPE is going to get worse from December.
The North has been well and truly fucked by Sunak.
Using TPE on the north east leg I cannot see how it would get any worse.
TransPennine Express will mothball a fleet of 13 almost new trains as part of drastic plans to cut services from December and improve its dreadful punctuality record.
The company's boss said the moves were aimed at simplifying its operations and 'deliver improved punctuality and reliability'. The train firm was nationalised in May after months of poor performance.
The train company only began using its Spain-built Nova 3 trains in August 2019 but bosses have now confirmed they will be withdrawn because they don't have enough drivers trained to operate them.
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
I'd like to see the revised economic case for the current shitshow.
Hunt is desperately looking for tax cut money for next year so why on earth does £34b of capital investment to be spent over the next 20 years come into the frame?
Incidentally can I correct one error in the media reporting on Sunak's latest insanity? Construction of HS2 north of Birmingham is underway and has been for about two years.
If the Government is briefing it hasn't started yet so they can axe it, either they're lying or so bloody stupid it's no wonder the country's collapsing in a heap.
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
I'd like to see the revised economic case for the current shitshow.
Hunt is desperately looking for tax cut money for next year so why on earth does £34b of capital investment to be spent over the next 20 years come into the frame?
Fag end days of this administration.
Appropriate for a government that is full of butts.
Is this NASA just angling for more money (in today’s official NASA/UFO briefing) or does it suggest they really do think something is up there?
“CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA said Thursday that the study of UFOs will require new scientific techniques, including advanced satellites as well as a shift in how unidentified flying objects are perceived.“
For me, both makes sense. There is too much evidence, now, of American agencies/intels/militaries being genuinely bewildered. However this won’t stop them trying to profit from it, and accrue new funding
Astronomers, scientists in general, and the military have always (for very good reasons) wanted better sensors of all kinds.
There's nothing to get particularly excited about here. (A gentle reminder that they've had problems reliably detecting something as prosaic as large balloons in the very recent past.)
Incidentally can I correct one error in the media reporting on Sunak's latest insanity? Construction of HS2 north of Birmingham is underway and has been for about two years.
If the Government is briefing it hasn't started yet so they can axe it, either they're lying or so bloody stupid it's no wonder the country's collapsing in a heap.
No doubt there have already been wildly expensive purchases of the needed sites too. If there were unexpected mountains it'd be a different thing, but once you get the whole rail thing going it's choo choo.
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
And TPE is going to get worse from December.
The North has been well and truly fucked by Sunak.
First northern england PM since Blair and yet ironically he does not give a flying f.
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
And TPE is going to get worse from December.
The North has been well and truly fucked by Sunak.
Using TPE on the north east leg I cannot see how it would get any worse.
TransPennine Express will mothball a fleet of 13 almost new trains as part of drastic plans to cut services from December and improve its dreadful punctuality record.
The company's boss said the moves were aimed at simplifying its operations and 'deliver improved punctuality and reliability'. The train firm was nationalised in May after months of poor performance.
The train company only began using its Spain-built Nova 3 trains in August 2019 but bosses have now confirmed they will be withdrawn because they don't have enough drivers trained to operate them.
There is an argument for a new Labour government to actually borrow more money to drive through improved metro and intercity links in the Midlands and the North. Especially the northern power link, or whatever it was: a regular Crossrail-esque train from Liverpool to Salford to Manc to Sheffield to Leeds to Newcastle. And then build proper tram or light rail links in the northern cities, all integrated with some Oystercard contactless system that works across the north
I cannot think of a single thing more likely to “level up”
No 10 refuses to confirm HS2 will run to Manchester Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
HS2 looking increasingly like a very, very long-burn version of the classic Monorail episode of The Simpsons.
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
And TPE is going to get worse from December.
The North has been well and truly fucked by Sunak.
Using TPE on the north east leg I cannot see how it would get any worse.
TransPennine Express will mothball a fleet of 13 almost new trains as part of drastic plans to cut services from December and improve its dreadful punctuality record.
The company's boss said the moves were aimed at simplifying its operations and 'deliver improved punctuality and reliability'. The train firm was nationalised in May after months of poor performance.
The train company only began using its Spain-built Nova 3 trains in August 2019 but bosses have now confirmed they will be withdrawn because they don't have enough drivers trained to operate them.
There is an argument for a new Labour government to actually borrow more money to drive through improved metro and intercity links in the Midlands and the North. Especially the northern power link, or whatever it was: a regular Crossrail-esque train from Liverpool to Salford to Manc to Sheffield to Leeds to Newcastle. And then build proper tram or light rail links in the northern cities, all integrated with some Oystercard contactless system that works across the north
I cannot think of a single thing more likely to “level up”
"There is an argument for a new Labour government to actually borrow more money"
Well don't worry on that score. If there's one thing that is certain about Labour it's that they'll borrow more money.
There, I've said it. I didn't used to hate them, and I'm generally courteous to bike riders - when overtaking I'll wait for a safe spot, slow down and leave plenty of room - but more and more a large percentage of cyclists have gone militant and seem to deliberately want to piss off other road users.
Coming home from the supermarket this afternoon, and oh look there's cyclists on the road. About thirty of them, strung out at irregular intervals and every one riding dead centre in the lane. It's a twisty rural road with loads of blind bends, so effectively they've made sure any car trying to overtake has to do so in a dangerous manner or spend the next five miles moving at a crawl.
But I'm riding a scooter, not driving a car. evil cackle
I can still get past, although without as much gap as I'd normally leave. So I carefully and slowly make my way past several of them, only to have one shake his fist at me and another obviously shouting something (futile, as I'm wearing earplugs). Clearly the objective was to stop anyone getting past.
If I indulged in that sort of twattery on the road the courts would, rightly, look to confiscate my license. But cyclists don't have licences. Or registration plates to identify them.
Comments
Obviously these are not usual times, so that makes the Tories far more vulnerable in a by-election, but it is the sort that should be comfortable for any government not dying a slow death.
Yesterday the Mexican government examines some fake dolls put together 600 years ago with llama skulls, balsa wood and tofu, and claims they might be aliens - which is laughable - then today NASA comes out with a report which, in places, says, Well,Yeah, we genuinely dunno what UFOs are, they are inexplicable, and we’ve really tried, thou we’ve got no evidence of extra terrestrial life YET
The ludicrously bogus sits alongside the teasingly confirmatory
WTF is going on?
https://bedsarchives.bedford.gov.uk/CommunityHistories/Steppingley/Steppingley-Isolation-Hospital.aspx
SKS now: There is no case for freedom of movement.
It's simple. He's a liar.
In addition SKS should be judged on past behaviour as indicative of future behaviour. He:-
• Breaks pledges
• Is an autocrat
• Will not stand on picket lines
• Quotes Thatcher
• Writes for The S*n
• Says he’s a Tory
Like a taxi rank outside a train station.
Many die in hospitals and OAP's homes. There's nothing insensitive about this fact.
At the risk of turning into Barty, people die, get over it.
It might harden royalist Unionists against him, tho they are not exactly swing voters
Possibly the only damage it will do it him is increase an image of him being a bit of a twat, and unserious, and not up to the job. Sturgeon or Salmond would generally not have made a crass, unforced mistake like this. Salmond in particular was adept at seeming quite royalist - chatting with the Queen about the gee-gees - while also fiercely Nat, pleasing many sides
I think the most dangerous drivers are the those who think they are really good and don't drive defensively, because there are people like me around who make mistakes and they haven't taken that into account.
• Is an autocrat - it's only a political party, it can run itself how it likes
• Will not stand on picket lines - ok, in fairness I'm surprised at this one
• Quotes Thatcher - in what context?
• Writes for The S*n - People need to get the f*ck over whether someone writes in a particular newspaper or not
• Says he’s a Tory - he what now?
I'm actually kidding a little, I think if Labour supporters thinks he breaks pledges and is autocratic in running things that is good reason to be wary to a degree, but some of the others are just ridiculous.
Painting Starmer as the devil is just self defeating, he looks and sounds like a bog standard establishment type a lot of the time, if that's a reason to criticise him then he's wide open, but some machiavellian scumbag? No.
If you only consider whether you did something wrong after you've had a crash, you aren't learning much. Near misses are very valuable.
If the bus had already started overtaking, then you'd be at fault, as you are supposed to give way to anything on the main road, even if it is on the wrong side. On the other hand, the bus shouldn't be overtaking next to a junction without double checking.
Probably 50/50 in law as it would be hard to prove who moved first.
I'd hope my approach would have been to look at that scene and think "too complicated, lets see what happens" before pulling out, regardless of the rights and wrongs.
There have been FPTP elections in Papua New Guinea won with <5% of the vote, I believe.
"I know" you are essentially a cultist at this point.
Indeed GSTK is already the second national anthem of New Zealand and the royal anthem for all Commonwealth realms
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/nipah-virus-outbreak-kerala-india-deaths-infections/
New deadly virus on the loose.
Isn't Leon off to Kerala shortly? Hope he hasn't dumped his PPE...
My word they are big bastards.
Exactly who is displaying cultic loyalty to a false idol, in this instance?
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2023/09/14/congress/mccarthys-profane-dare-00115873
...“If you think you scare me because you want to file a motion to vacate, move the f—ing motion,” McCarthy said at the top of the meeting, according to three Republicans in the room, referring to the technical name of a vote that would oust him from leadership.
https://www.institute.global/future-of-britain
It will be interesting to see how much of this makes the Labour manifesto. Colour me unconvinced.
(But grr my reply just vanished.)
50m at 30mph takes 4 seconds. It is arguably (from Highway Code) marginal for the bus to start an overtake when he does not have a clear path to complete the manoeuvre safely as you might exit the junction. Equally it is arguable that you could stall halfway across, which would cause the bus to do an emergency stop.
And that the defensive and safe approach is to accept an extra 5s on the length of your journey and wait for both, given that the bus may very easily have been doing 35 not 30.
Kudos to you for spotting the cyclist at a good distance.
This will be an amusing legal confrontation.
https://twitter.com/jordainc/status/1702361717110452647
Hunter Biden's lawyer in a letter to Comer re-upped their offer to meet with the committee to discuss if Hunter Biden had information that "may inform some legitimate legislative purpose"
Plus the JVM won the backend wars, so licenses for Java related stuff from Uncle Larry are almost inevitable.
Drop me a line?
Edit: I might well be wrong. The The "Tony Blair Faith Foundation" was a charity; the TBIGC might not be...
Their stated goal is "unlocking potential for countries, citizens and our team".
Yesterday I dropped my laptop and the screen stopped working
I’ve been using my wall instead. I have a projector
I’ve had to sacrifice my bin
@MikeSmithson Many thanks for highlighting this issue. It has just hammered a family related to me, already well overstretched by the cost of living inflation.
Good evening everybody.
Fresh uncertainty for high-speed line as leaked document suggests Sunak and Hunt have met to discuss more cuts
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/14/no-10-refuses-to-confirm-hs2-will-run-to-manchester-sunak-hunt
...The visible details appeared to show Rishi Sunak and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, were meeting to discuss potential savings, with a total £34.1bn expenditure listed for the second phase of the railway from Birmingham to Manchester and to the east Midlands.
While Downing Street said the government was “committed to HS2”, the PM’s spokesperson would not confirm that HS2 would extend to Manchester, under repeated questioning at a briefing on Thursday...
Sorry, but it's all the circle of life and so long as it's handled sensitively there's really no reason to hide away elements of real life and pretend they don't exist.
https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1702363787032981685
The US recovered battleships after Pearl Harbour that were possibly in a worse state, e.g. West Virginia or California. But it took the US a couple of years to do so for some of them, at a time they were in a massive shipbuilding program.
My idiot's verdict: if the Ropucha sails as a warship again, it will be because it is seen as a prestige project. My bet is that it would be cheaper and quicker to scrap it and build anew, using anything that can be salvaged.
edit:
And allegedly, two other Russian ships were damaged as part of the same campaign:
https://twitter.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1702358441719664675
To the extent I actually get paid to sit here and do this
I am available for career advice. DM me
But whatever floats your boat. I'm not jealous of your lifestyle - far from it. But if you're happy, cool. It's just that your constant attempts at showing your supposedly brilliant lifestyle rings sorta empty...
I understand they can rile people
But I couldn’t resist this one, half way down the Gorge du Tarn which a magnificent Aubrac ribeye, served by the cataracts, with an excellent Syrah, and an exquisite later summer twilight, and I AM BEING PAID TO DO THIS
It is quite ridiculous. If it makes you feel better to imagine me suffused with existential angst and loneliness, go ahead and knock yerself out. I shall toast you from the 15th century riverside garden
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1702373267149914334
Basically what Biden already pled to in the abortive plea deal.
But the prosecutor has decided to upgrade the charge from misdemeanour to felony.
The legal arguments over this will be interesting, since the felony charge means Biden now has the right of discovery.
A few years back, I started recording every episode of the Archers podcast.
I've idly wondered in the past whether I could listen to every episode of the Archers, from the beginning, if I was ever to walk the coast again.
Well, there's this (1) story about the 20,000 episode. If each episode is 13 minutes long (2), then the total output would be 4,333 hours to listen to, or 180 days. At three miles per hour walking, that would be a walk of 13,000 miles. Or just over double my coastal walk, or three times the way most sane people do it.
I have no idea why I decided to do this calculation, or even share it with you. But the main questions are: is every episode of the Archers available? Are they even recorded? Would I have any sanity left after listening to all of them?
(1): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66813828
(2): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1Drqg78L9DDDJvpPYKKst8s/about-the-archers
What is the King afraid of?
Ryley’s decision to speak out has broken the omertà around the secret agreements between British television and the royal family over coverage of formal events. His comments confirm many details previously reported in the Guardian about how Buckingham Palace controlled coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and King Charles III’s coronation.
This included a WhatsApp group where royal courtiers would tell senior editors at the BBC, ITN, and Sky News in real time if the royal family wanted specific pieces of footage removed from circulation.
Ryley told the audience in London the royal family regularly escaped real scrutiny by broadcasters.
He said he regretted that Sky News made the “bad decision” to provide Prince William with a full list of questions before an interview with the future king in 2017: “If a viewer had interrogated us about whether that was entirely in keeping with our core values of being honest with our audiences it would have been hard to mount a robust defence. Imagine submitting a list of questions to a top politician or business leader. Maybe in a puppet state.”
In his speech – in memory of Hewlett, the broadcaster and writer who died in 2017 – he demanded more scrutiny of the royal family from British journalism, saying broadcasters were now “too supine … too incurious … too compliant” when it comes to the monarchy: “Topics such as why King Charles didn’t pay any inheritance tax on the fortune he inherited from his mother or the fact the Duchy of Cornwall doesn’t pay capital gains tax should be examined properly. The reporting needs to be far more rigorous.”
He also explained how Buckingham Palace reacts when journalists try to ask questions directly to royal family members: “You already know – perhaps you don’t – that spin doctors at the royal palaces freak out when a broadcast journalist doorsteps a member of the royal family. Haughty emails, phone calls, and even a summons for a head of news to a meeting can swiftly follow. I’ve experienced this treatment.”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/14/british-tv-allowed-monarchy-to-censor-king-charles-coronation-coverage?CMP=share_btn_tw
We really should discuss the King being a tax dodger.
On the subject of dogs, Bully XLs I posted the other day a photo of someone’s old English bulldog who could get mistaken for a Bully but is soft as and gets bullied by the French bulldog he lives with.
To prove it here he is taking a left hook from a Frenchie. I’m very pleased that the French one’s punch didn’t get any reaction from the English.
I’d like to claim it is thanks to my unique talent and slaving work-ethic and sheer determination, and I do have a talent and I can work hard and I am ruthlessly competitive (which makes you determined) but, TBH, at least half of it has been sheer dumb idiotic luck. Maybe more than half
i think any honest person who ends up having a good, rich life should be honest enough to admit that SO much of it is down to embarrassingly random good fortune, right from the day you are born (to the right or wrong parents in the right or wrong place)
The scale of the failure here is genuinely very difficult to fully comprehend - I'm sure someone's made out of it like an absolute bandit though.
The Town That Went Feral
When a group of libertarians set about scrapping their local government, chaos descended. And then the bears moved in.
https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project
The North has been well and truly fucked by Sunak.
The King and Prince of Wales are also supposed to be apolitical, ceremonial heads of state and heir, they shouldn't give too many opinions, especially not the King. It is politicians who decide the future of legislation and government and businesspeople corporations, so extensive questions for them is different. The Queen rarely gave interviews at all and was very popular as a result.
Funds from the Duchy of Cornwall and crown estate mean taxpayers pay very little for the royals beyond security and the King's not paying inheritance tax ensures that much of the royal collection etc remains in private hands and open to the public. It also helps maintain private royal residences like Sandringham and Balmoral
West Midlands Metro (ie. Tram) extension to Wolverhampton station opening this Sunday 17th, though the original terminus, St George's will be closed for a short period.
If he wants his entire life to be private, then we should become a republic and he can have all the privacy he wants.
And the crown estate belong to the state, it does not belong to the royal family. If we become a republic, it would remain state land as it is not their private property.
I can't PM you but my grandfather fought in the Western Desert as well, as an officer in 9th Armoured Brigade. Have quite a lot of his recollections memorised if you would like them. Somewhere I think I have his unpublished memoirs too but I don't know where at this moment.
The company's boss said the moves were aimed at simplifying its operations and 'deliver improved punctuality and reliability'. The train firm was nationalised in May after months of poor performance.
The train company only began using its Spain-built Nova 3 trains in August 2019 but bosses have now confirmed they will be withdrawn because they don't have enough drivers trained to operate them.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/transpennine-express-mothball-fleet-new-27687553
“CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA said Thursday that the study of UFOs will require new scientific techniques, including advanced satellites as well as a shift in how unidentified flying objects are perceived.“
https://apnews.com/article/nasa-ufos-inidentified-flying-objects-8b477a5ed6a42f99bb13a4518368ce9a
Or maybe it is both?
For me, both makes sense. There is too much evidence, now, of American agencies/intels/militaries being genuinely bewildered. However this won’t stop them trying to profit from it, and accrue new funding
If we became a republic taxpayers would be paying for the President and Vice President
Fag end days of this administration.
If the Government is briefing it hasn't started yet so they can axe it, either they're lying or so bloody stupid it's no wonder the country's collapsing in a heap.
There's nothing to get particularly excited about here.
(A gentle reminder that they've had problems reliably detecting something as prosaic as large balloons in the very recent past.)
I cannot think of a single thing more likely to “level up”
Well don't worry on that score. If there's one thing that is certain about Labour it's that they'll borrow more money.
I hate cyclists.
There, I've said it. I didn't used to hate them, and I'm generally courteous to bike riders - when overtaking I'll wait for a safe spot, slow down and leave plenty of room - but more and more a large percentage of cyclists have gone militant and seem to deliberately want to piss off other road users.
Coming home from the supermarket this afternoon, and oh look there's cyclists on the road. About thirty of them, strung out at irregular intervals and every one riding dead centre in the lane. It's a twisty rural road with loads of blind bends, so effectively they've made sure any car trying to overtake has to do so in a dangerous manner or spend the next five miles moving at a crawl.
But I'm riding a scooter, not driving a car. evil cackle
I can still get past, although without as much gap as I'd normally leave. So I carefully and slowly make my way past several of them, only to have one shake his fist at me and another obviously shouting something (futile, as I'm wearing earplugs). Clearly the objective was to stop anyone getting past.
If I indulged in that sort of twattery on the road the courts would, rightly, look to confiscate my license. But cyclists don't have licences. Or registration plates to identify them.
I hate cyclists.