The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
There's something fundamentally wrong with the whole printer business anyway.
We don't print much at home, so we have one of those fairly basic low-range printer scanners. It does the job we need perfectly adequately. Replacing the cartridges costs more than replacing the whole damn printer.
I can sort of see why; all the clever stuff is in the cartridge and the printer is a plastic box containing not much. But it's also bonkers. There must be a range of usage where the thing to do is just treat the whole thing as a disposable.
Which is insane on so many levels. I'm sure it's rational, but it's also insane.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
Apple got out of the printer game a long time ago.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
I agree, but they're actually quite complicated little beasts, built to be cheap.
There are many failure modes: the interface between the OS and the printer, especially if wireless. Having to cope with different types, weights and sizes of paper. Multi-sheet feeders and two-sided printing. Also having to cope with room temperature variations, and any dust in the room.
IME they generally work if you use them regularly. If you don't use a printer for a few months, then expect it to print 1,000 pages of perfect prose, they'll fail. If my printer has been inactive for a while, I print a couple of test pages and/or do an alignment thngymajig as a paper sacrifice to the Printer Gods.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
There's something fundamentally wrong with the whole printer business anyway.
We don't print much at home, so we have one of those fairly basic low-range printer scanners. It does the job we need perfectly adequately. Replacing the cartridges costs more than replacing the whole damn printer.
I can sort of see why; all the clever stuff is in the cartridge and the printer is a plastic box containing not much. But it's also bonkers. There must be a range of usage where the thing to do is just treat the whole thing as a disposable.
Which is insane on so many levels. I'm sure it's rational, but it's also insane.
The "get your arses back into the office" zealots should be promoting access to a good printer for all your printing needs as one of the benefits.
So more thought Boris was doing a good job as PM when he left office than thought Truss was doing a good job when she left and think Sunak is doing a good job now
Still apologist for the Liar King? He is the principle reason the Tories are in such dire straits now, because he created the toxic environment for Liz Truss to become PM and try out her amoeba-brain economics experiment.
Boris also brought Rishi into the limelight way before he was ready.
(OK, it's got him a spell in the top job. Had he progressed normally, that might not have happened; his fairly uncompromising right wing views would have told against him. But had he made it, he'd have been better at politics and government than he is.)
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
As someone told you, buy a laser printer and not an inkjet. Inkjet printers are notoriously temperamental, especially if not in near-constant and even use, and the print quality is worse.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Watching escape to the country this evening I’m led to note that the property and home improvement genre really hasn’t progressed for a long time.
We need, at the very least:
- Expensive escape to the country: same format but only £1m+ properties - Escape to the city: country bumpkins want a bit of life and action, so decide to move to zone 1, Manhattan, Roppongi hills or one of the arondissements - A place in the third world: couples looking to relocate somewhere in a poor country where the proceeds of their Barnet semi buy them a 2,000 hectare plantation - Build a new life in the shanty: self builders on the margins of large developing world cities taking a design approach to their corrugated iron and plywood quarters - naff grand designs: visionary self-builders who want to create something indescribably non-Kevin McCloud, like a domestic size replica of Caesars palace or Brighton pavilion - Escape to the back of beyond. ETTC but for true hermits
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
There's something fundamentally wrong with the whole printer business anyway.
We don't print much at home, so we have one of those fairly basic low-range printer scanners. It does the job we need perfectly adequately. Replacing the cartridges costs more than replacing the whole damn printer.
I can sort of see why; all the clever stuff is in the cartridge and the printer is a plastic box containing not much. But it's also bonkers. There must be a range of usage where the thing to do is just treat the whole thing as a disposable.
Which is insane on so many levels. I'm sure it's rational, but it's also insane.
Another opportunity for me to say: "Epson EcoTank!"
Seriously; I've had loads of printers in the past, both at home and work, of many sorts. For my small-to-medium home usage, my Epson EcoTank has been superb.
Basically, you pay more for the printer, but the inks come in bottles that you decant into reservoirs in the printer. And it sips ink. I recently printed 400 sides of paper with text, and it used barely a fifth of the black reservoir.
"Usually I would agree, however, there is in Britain a new four party (I include the SNP and Lib Dems) political consensus based around a set of deeply unpopular and economically harmful policies, largely the result of politicians (and administrators) agreeing to things at international symposia.
This is why Starmer hasn't sealed the deal and isn't trusted or liked. Whilst he's hamstrung with these terrible policies (support for ulez, stratospheric green levies, destroying the UK's oil industry, open door immigration), he will always be vulnerable to the first party to espouse a more popular agenda, be it Nigel, or (as they did successfully before) the Tories robbing Nigel's clothes."
There are more of these dividing lines, if Sunak and his team are brave enough to exploit them, and do so with conviction and seriousness. He's sort of done it on green - though the execution hasn't been flawless.
Starmer has now been captured on film stating that he's against any divergence from EU law. As the heir presumptive, if he wasn't already an EU devotee, he's expected to align the UK closely with the EU with a view to joining Macron's new 'outer group' and potentially going all the way back in. Sunak could ban EU supertrawlers from UK waters - a policy that is environmentally-sound and beneficial to the UK fishing industry. Starmer wouldn't be able to follow.
Brexit didn't necessarily entail burning every damn boat.
The UK clearly should be closely aligned with the EU and (now) entirely independent.
I agree. But what it should involve is co-operation and alignment where its beneficial, and divergence where it's beneficial. What we have at the moment is the UK pickled in EU aspic, at the behest of the Civil Service, aided by elements within Parliament including some within the PCP. That's a bad policy for the people of Britain.
All Sunak needs to do to grant his Government a stay of execution is take good, sensible, UK-focused political and economical decisions - the heir presumptive can't follow for fear of upsetting his international backers.
'No way,’ I said, when I heard the news about the Chagos Islands. ‘Why would we be so utterly spineless?’
‘I am afraid so,’ said my informant, wearily. ‘It’s a done deal.’
It seems that this country is on the verge of a colossal mistake. After more than two centuries of uninterrupted British sovereignty we are apparently about to perform a U-turn and abandon the British Indian Ocean Territory.
I give it 3 weeks before it goes catastrophically wrong and requires 5 hours of helpless rebooting
It is very odd that you can buy miraculous printers for a couple of hundred pounds. Just wonderful. Somehow the clever designers never managed to perfect the reasonably priced ink-cartridge though.
As others have said, Inkjet printers need to be used every few days if you want to prevent the print head gumming up and the ink slowly evaporating.
And if you're printing that regularly, then a laser printer is going to have much, much lower running costs than an inkjet. They cost a bit more to buy, but they don't gum up, the toner cartridges last much longer, and they're much less user-hostile in every way.
But if you're only doing a couple of pages each month (or less), your best bet is to simply go to your local library - they'll charge you around 20p a page.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
Compared to other bits of tech, they have a lot more moving parts and requirements for precise alignment. And inkjet types are working with liquid ink that can dry up and clog up. On top of that the domestic printer market is subject to relentless downward pressure on costs, which means both cheeseparing on robustness and playing silly games with consumables prices. And domestic printers probably see a wider range of usage patterns from "print one page every six months and the ink has probably dried up" through to "small business levels of constant usage on a printer designed for lighter duty".
Personally I found I had less annoyance with printers when I (a) switched to a laser printer and (b) paid a bit more money for something targeting the small business market. Those 1990s era HP inkjets were terrible for very occasional use scenarios.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
There's something fundamentally wrong with the whole printer business anyway.
We don't print much at home, so we have one of those fairly basic low-range printer scanners. It does the job we need perfectly adequately. Replacing the cartridges costs more than replacing the whole damn printer.
I can sort of see why; all the clever stuff is in the cartridge and the printer is a plastic box containing not much. But it's also bonkers. There must be a range of usage where the thing to do is just treat the whole thing as a disposable.
Which is insane on so many levels. I'm sure it's rational, but it's also insane.
The "get your arses back into the office" zealots should be promoting access to a good printer for all your printing needs as one of the benefits.
How many offices still have printers?
Of the four that I've worked in post-Covid, two didn't have publicly-available printers, one did but you had to buy some sort of payment card to use it, and the fourth was in a leased WeWork floor so probably had access to printers elswhere in the building but it wasn't clear where they were or how we should go about using them.
Fucking about with printers is one of the big overheads in running an office space. They're rapidly going the way of phones and wired network connections.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
Compared to other bits of tech, they have a lot more moving parts and requirements for precise alignment. And inkjet types are working with liquid ink that can dry up and clog up. On top of that the domestic printer market is subject to relentless downward pressure on costs, which means both cheeseparing on robustness and playing silly games with consumables prices. And domestic printers probably see a wider range of usage patterns from "print one page every six months and the ink has probably dried up" through to "small business levels of constant usage on a printer designed for lighter duty".
Personally I found I had less annoyance with printers when I (a) switched to a laser printer and (b) paid a bit more money for something targeting the small business market. Those 1990s era HP inkjets were terrible for very occasional use scenarios.
Defo on laser printer. Different class in my experience. I wont let an ink jet across the threshold.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
I know Moscow is further away than Sevastopol, and will be better protected, but if Ukraine can hit the Black Sea Fleet Headquarters and kill the commander of the Black Sea Fleet after 19 months of war, how many months until they have the means of hitting army headquarters for the invasion in Rostov-on-Don and killing the Chief of the General Staff, or the Kremlin in Moscow and killing Putin himself?
Might this be the first time that Putin would stay to feel the first stirrings of fear that Ukraine are able to threaten his life directly?
Indeed
I’m also surprised, however, that the Russians haven’t really tried to take out Zelensky
I suspect there might be a tacit agreement between them. Don’t kill the leader
The failed Russian war plan from the beginning was to kill Zelensky and install a puppet in his place. I thought the story as told was that the Russians made it within a few dozen soldiers of doing so in the first 36 hours or so.
The Russians would kill Zelensky without a moment's hesitation.
Watching escape to the country this evening I’m led to note that the property and home improvement genre really hasn’t progressed for a long time.
We need, at the very least:
- Expensive escape to the country: same format but only £1m+ properties - Escape to the city: country bumpkins want a bit of life and action, so decide to move to zone 1, Manhattan, Roppongi hills or one of the arondissements - A place in the third world: couples looking to relocate somewhere in a poor country where the proceeds of their Barnet semi buy them a 2,000 hectare plantation - Build a new life in the shanty: self builders on the margins of large developing world cities taking a design approach to their corrugated iron and plywood quarters - naff grand designs: visionary self-builders who want to create something indescribably non-Kevin McCloud, like a domestic size replica of Caesars palace or Brighton pavilion - Escape to the back of beyond. ETTC but for true hermits
A Place in the Slum - Home or Away?
Couples have to choose between the roughest of Parisian banlieue and South Acton.
But the official launch of the iPhone 15 descended into chaos in Dubai when a 'massive fight' broke out and security guards were forced to intervene.
Shocking footage shows customers shoving each other outside Apple's flagship store in the UAE's Dubai Mall, before several people appear to fall to the ground.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
There's something fundamentally wrong with the whole printer business anyway.
We don't print much at home, so we have one of those fairly basic low-range printer scanners. It does the job we need perfectly adequately. Replacing the cartridges costs more than replacing the whole damn printer.
I can sort of see why; all the clever stuff is in the cartridge and the printer is a plastic box containing not much. But it's also bonkers. There must be a range of usage where the thing to do is just treat the whole thing as a disposable.
Which is insane on so many levels. I'm sure it's rational, but it's also insane.
The "get your arses back into the office" zealots should be promoting access to a good printer for all your printing needs as one of the benefits.
How many offices still have printers?
Of the four that I've worked in post-Covid, two didn't have publicly-available printers, one did but you had to buy some sort of payment card to use it, and the fourth was in a leased WeWork floor so probably had access to printers elswhere in the building but it wasn't clear where they were or how we should go about using them.
Fucking about with printers is one of the big overheads in running an office space. They're rapidly going the way of phones and wired network connections.
Many years ago, a colleague was fighting a printer as he tried to print out a document he needed for a meeting the next day.
He died on his way to that meeting.
My last memory of a great techie engineer is of him swearing at a printer.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
And the cars thing, whatever you thought of it, at least works as a wedge issue. A Level reform? Smoking policy? Has he given up on the politics?
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
There's something fundamentally wrong with the whole printer business anyway.
We don't print much at home, so we have one of those fairly basic low-range printer scanners. It does the job we need perfectly adequately. Replacing the cartridges costs more than replacing the whole damn printer.
I can sort of see why; all the clever stuff is in the cartridge and the printer is a plastic box containing not much. But it's also bonkers. There must be a range of usage where the thing to do is just treat the whole thing as a disposable.
Which is insane on so many levels. I'm sure it's rational, but it's also insane.
The "get your arses back into the office" zealots should be promoting access to a good printer for all your printing needs as one of the benefits.
How many offices still have printers?
Of the four that I've worked in post-Covid, two didn't have publicly-available printers, one did but you had to buy some sort of payment card to use it, and the fourth was in a leased WeWork floor so probably had access to printers elswhere in the building but it wasn't clear where they were or how we should go about using them.
Fucking about with printers is one of the big overheads in running an office space. They're rapidly going the way of phones and wired network connections.
Christ. We've opened up a new front on the Tech-head v Luddite battlefield.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
I think the problem is that they make their margins on the ink but are in a constant battle with cheap non-branded alternatives.
To combat this, they try to make sure the printer only works with official ink cartridges, but if the protection mechanism gets hacked then they lose their revenue stream, so it's better to make the printers unreliable and cheap.
They make their margins on the ink because of market dynamics. Everyone has to sell the printer as cheaply as possible, or it won't sell.
The main problem is technological. Most home printers are used infrequently, and the cheapest technology really does work well with long gaps between each use. The ink simply dries out and gunks up the nozzles.
Anyone who is using a home printer often enough that the ink doesn't dry out is almost certainly better off with a laser printer, which is more expensive technology still, but works out cheaper with high enough print volume.
Mind you, this has been the paradigm for two decades at least. I'd be surprised if it wasn't an area ripe for being shaken up.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
And the cars thing, whatever you thought of it, at least works as a wedge issue. A Level reform? Smoking policy? Has he given up on the politics?
It’s of a piece with his “maths for 18 year olds”, “crack down on tuk-tuks”, and “chess boards for councils”.
At least Gordon Brown had a global financial crisis to wrestle with at the same time.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
And the cars thing, whatever you thought of it, at least works as a wedge issue. A Level reform? Smoking policy? Has he given up on the politics?
It’s of a piece with his “maths for 18 year olds”, “crack down on tuk-tuks”, and “chess boards for councils”.
At least Gordon Brown had a global financial crisis to wrestle with at the same time.
To be fair, I don't think he's topped Brown's 'compulsory volunteering' idea.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
Resurrecting the £10 fine for missing a GP appointment policy, as mentioned in the same article, is even more useless. Huge amounts of admin work for... what benefit, exactly?
People talk about the Cones Hotline, but that was part of the wider Citizens Charter scheme which I believe was broadly successful in creating a bit more of a customer-focussed mindset within the public sector. The arse end of this government is proving to be much more pathetic than anything seen in the final year of either the Brown or Major governments. Was the last year of Callaghan anything like this?
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
The anti-smoking measures would probably kill smoking, finally. Which, given the number of people it kills is a non-trivial good thing.
IIRC the evidence is that the following cohorts are not sneaking a smoke in any number, in New Zealand.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
Resurrecting the £10 fine for missing a GP appointment policy, as mentioned in the same article, is even more useless. Huge amounts of admin work for... what benefit, exactly?
People talk about the Cones Hotline, but that was part of the wider Citizens Charter scheme which I believe was broadly successful in creating a bit more of a customer-focussed mindset within the public sector. The arse end of this government is proving to be much more pathetic than anything seen in the final year of either the Brown or Major governments. Was the last year of Callaghan anything like this?
What Sunak needs to do is create some sort of phone line that we can ring when there are cones left out on the road unnecessarily.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
Compared to other bits of tech, they have a lot more moving parts and requirements for precise alignment. And inkjet types are working with liquid ink that can dry up and clog up. On top of that the domestic printer market is subject to relentless downward pressure on costs, which means both cheeseparing on robustness and playing silly games with consumables prices. And domestic printers probably see a wider range of usage patterns from "print one page every six months and the ink has probably dried up" through to "small business levels of constant usage on a printer designed for lighter duty".
Personally I found I had less annoyance with printers when I (a) switched to a laser printer and (b) paid a bit more money for something targeting the small business market. Those 1990s era HP inkjets were terrible for very occasional use scenarios.
Defo on laser printer. Different class in my experience. I wont let an ink jet across the threshold.
Yup - domestic inkjets are like cheap DIY tools. Designed to work about 10 times. As cheaply as possible
Laser printers are where the serious tools start, generally.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
Resurrecting the £10 fine for missing a GP appointment policy, as mentioned in the same article, is even more useless. Huge amounts of admin work for... what benefit, exactly?
People talk about the Cones Hotline, but that was part of the wider Citizens Charter scheme which I believe was broadly successful in creating a bit more of a customer-focussed mindset within the public sector. The arse end of this government is proving to be much more pathetic than anything seen in the final year of either the Brown or Major governments. Was the last year of Callaghan anything like this?
What Sunak needs to do is create some sort of phone line that we can ring when there are cones left out on the road unnecessarily.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
Resurrecting the £10 fine for missing a GP appointment policy, as mentioned in the same article, is even more useless. Huge amounts of admin work for... what benefit, exactly?
People talk about the Cones Hotline, but that was part of the wider Citizens Charter scheme which I believe was broadly successful in creating a bit more of a customer-focussed mindset within the public sector. The arse end of this government is proving to be much more pathetic than anything seen in the final year of either the Brown or Major governments. Was the last year of Callaghan anything like this?
What Sunak needs to do is create some sort of phone line that we can ring when there are cones left out on the road unnecessarily.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
There's something fundamentally wrong with the whole printer business anyway.
We don't print much at home, so we have one of those fairly basic low-range printer scanners. It does the job we need perfectly adequately. Replacing the cartridges costs more than replacing the whole damn printer.
I can sort of see why; all the clever stuff is in the cartridge and the printer is a plastic box containing not much. But it's also bonkers. There must be a range of usage where the thing to do is just treat the whole thing as a disposable.
Which is insane on so many levels. I'm sure it's rational, but it's also insane.
The "get your arses back into the office" zealots should be promoting access to a good printer for all your printing needs as one of the benefits.
How many offices still have printers?
Of the four that I've worked in post-Covid, two didn't have publicly-available printers, one did but you had to buy some sort of payment card to use it, and the fourth was in a leased WeWork floor so probably had access to printers elswhere in the building but it wasn't clear where they were or how we should go about using them.
Fucking about with printers is one of the big overheads in running an office space. They're rapidly going the way of phones and wired network connections.
Bank I work for has fewer and fewer - a couple on each floor. High end photocopier/scanner/printer, can do a zillion sheets a minute, collate and staple. Rarely used.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
And the cars thing, whatever you thought of it, at least works as a wedge issue. A Level reform? Smoking policy? Has he given up on the politics?
It’s of a piece with his “maths for 18 year olds”, “crack down on tuk-tuks”, and “chess boards for councils”.
At least Gordon Brown had a global financial crisis to wrestle with at the same time.
What's the chess board for councils? Sorry. I've been too pre-occupied with the effects of the almost complete collapse of CAMHS all week to have been following closely.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
Resurrecting the £10 fine for missing a GP appointment policy, as mentioned in the same article, is even more useless. Huge amounts of admin work for... what benefit, exactly?
People talk about the Cones Hotline, but that was part of the wider Citizens Charter scheme which I believe was broadly successful in creating a bit more of a customer-focussed mindset within the public sector. The arse end of this government is proving to be much more pathetic than anything seen in the final year of either the Brown or Major governments. Was the last year of Callaghan anything like this?
I don't think so. The last year of Callaghan was mostly fire-fighting. They were just getting past the IMF loan when the Winter of Discontent broke out. A honourable man (if a bit of a bastich: I didn't say he was nice), Callaghan had the intellectual nous to know the post-war consensus was over but was too emotionally tied to the unions to take the logical steps. Thatcher had no such compunctions and the rest is history.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
Resurrecting the £10 fine for missing a GP appointment policy, as mentioned in the same article, is even more useless. Huge amounts of admin work for... what benefit, exactly?
People talk about the Cones Hotline, but that was part of the wider Citizens Charter scheme which I believe was broadly successful in creating a bit more of a customer-focussed mindset within the public sector. The arse end of this government is proving to be much more pathetic than anything seen in the final year of either the Brown or Major governments. Was the last year of Callaghan anything like this?
What Sunak needs to do is create some sort of phone line that we can ring when there are cones left out on the road unnecessarily.
A smartphone app to report sightings of dangerous dogs and cyclists running red lights would be the modern equivalent I am guessing.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
And the cars thing, whatever you thought of it, at least works as a wedge issue. A Level reform? Smoking policy? Has he given up on the politics?
It’s of a piece with his “maths for 18 year olds”, “crack down on tuk-tuks”, and “chess boards for councils”.
At least Gordon Brown had a global financial crisis to wrestle with at the same time.
Cycle rickshaws are NOT tuk-tuks! Cycles don't have a motor to make the "tuk-tuk" noise!
Idle thought: using Electoral Calculus there's a point (around Con 23%, LD 14%, Lab 45%) where the LDs win more seats than the Tories and become the official opposition, at which point presumably the Tory press will be crying foul and demanding PR.
Worth it just for the irony.
FPTP brings more dramatic swings however.
In 1993 for example the Canadian Tories won just 2 seats after losing power in a landslide defeat, ending up 5th on seats behind the Liberals, BQ, Reform and NDP.
Yet by 2006 the Canadian Conservatives won 124 seats and most seats and by 2011 166 seats and a majority
Rebranded reform though, not the traditional party
I give it 3 weeks before it goes catastrophically wrong and requires 5 hours of helpless rebooting
It is very odd that you can buy miraculous printers for a couple of hundred pounds. Just wonderful. Somehow the clever designers never managed to perfect the reasonably priced ink-cartridge though.
Exactly. Which is why it is inktank jobs for me from now on.
They did lag with them - not putting great printer gubbins in them, for obvious reasons a cynic might suspect. But I kept an eye on the reviews and bought the first decent quality printer with an ink tank. Had it for nigh on 2 years now.
Edit: admittedly I did make sure I had a 2 year guarantee for free, from the maker and/or shop.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
And the cars thing, whatever you thought of it, at least works as a wedge issue. A Level reform? Smoking policy? Has he given up on the politics?
It’s of a piece with his “maths for 18 year olds”, “crack down on tuk-tuks”, and “chess boards for councils”.
At least Gordon Brown had a global financial crisis to wrestle with at the same time.
What's the chess board for councils? Sorry. I've been too pre-occupied with the effects of the almost complete collapse of CAMHS all week to have been following closely.
Is CAMHS the only organisation having to deal with an exponential increase in demand, only partly due to mental health becoming fashionable, whilst suffering an exponential decrease in supply, due to mental health professionals being undervalued.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
I don’t smoke, never have, and I hate the smell. Banning it in pubs really helped me. Beyond that, who am I to take pleasure from others’ lives? They know it’s killing them but they enjoy and do it anyway. Their choice.
When did that view stop being the normal, liberal one? Do what you like if it doesn’t affect others.
I am also happy to defend the smokers because I like a drink and they’ll come for me next.
I remember Dominic Lawson going on about that a couple of months ago on R4. He is some high up in UK Chess, apparently, and said that Sunak was a keen supporter and that some public money would be forthcoming. Its a bit of a gesture, it has taken me way longer to type this post than it takes the government to spend £1m, but harmless enough.
Very telling that we are comparing Sunak to Brown.
Maybe he has found the Farmy Farm characters in the back of a Number 10 cupboard?
I mentioned Brown's Gulags For Slags policy disaster the other day as a bit of a joke. It's hard to believe that actually happened - proposing that teenage mothers should be forced into Magdalene Laundry-style mother & baby homes... in 2009? really?!
But actually, such a policy might fit Sunak's new look all too well. This government truly has the smell of death about it.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
And the cars thing, whatever you thought of it, at least works as a wedge issue. A Level reform? Smoking policy? Has he given up on the politics?
It’s of a piece with his “maths for 18 year olds”, “crack down on tuk-tuks”, and “chess boards for councils”.
At least Gordon Brown had a global financial crisis to wrestle with at the same time.
What's the chess board for councils? Sorry. I've been too pre-occupied with the effects of the almost complete collapse of CAMHS all week to have been following closely.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
And the cars thing, whatever you thought of it, at least works as a wedge issue. A Level reform? Smoking policy? Has he given up on the politics?
These are Sunak's real policies. The Net Zero thing was clever politics. These policies (which I don't think will ever happen) have Sunak's shitty hallmark all over them.
I remember Dominic Lawson going on about that a couple of months ago on R4. He is some high up in UK Chess, apparently, and said that Sunak was a keen supporter and that some public money would be forthcoming. Its a bit of a gesture, it has taken me way longer to type this post than it takes the government to spend £1m, but harmless enough.
I remember Dominic Lawson going on about that a couple of months ago on R4. He is some high up in UK Chess, apparently, and said that Sunak was a keen supporter and that some public money would be forthcoming. Its a bit of a gesture, it has taken me way longer to type this post than it takes the government to spend £1m, but harmless enough.
Totally harmless, except that it again exposes the bizarre Soviet-style centralisation of UK government.
Councils - when they are not going bankrupt - are literally having to bid to install chess boards in parks.
In my view, British public frustration is to some extent explained by incredibly limited agency to make a local change, pretty much unparalleled in the OECD.
That personal hobbyhorse aside, the issue is what/how Sunak is choosing to focus his time on.
Watching escape to the country this evening I’m led to note that the property and home improvement genre really hasn’t progressed for a long time.
We need, at the very least:
- Expensive escape to the country: same format but only £1m+ properties - Escape to the city: country bumpkins want a bit of life and action, so decide to move to zone 1, Manhattan, Roppongi hills or one of the arondissements - A place in the third world: couples looking to relocate somewhere in a poor country where the proceeds of their Barnet semi buy them a 2,000 hectare plantation - Build a new life in the shanty: self builders on the margins of large developing world cities taking a design approach to their corrugated iron and plywood quarters - naff grand designs: visionary self-builders who want to create something indescribably non-Kevin McCloud, like a domestic size replica of Caesars palace or Brighton pavilion - Escape to the back of beyond. ETTC but for true hermits
A Place in the Slum - Home or Away?
Couples have to choose between the roughest of Parisian banlieue and South Acton.
Through the K-hole:
In which someone is given a heroic dose of ketamine and has to figure out whose house they are in when they wake up. Also, where are their pants.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
There's something fundamentally wrong with the whole printer business anyway.
We don't print much at home, so we have one of those fairly basic low-range printer scanners. It does the job we need perfectly adequately. Replacing the cartridges costs more than replacing the whole damn printer.
I can sort of see why; all the clever stuff is in the cartridge and the printer is a plastic box containing not much. But it's also bonkers. There must be a range of usage where the thing to do is just treat the whole thing as a disposable.
Which is insane on so many levels. I'm sure it's rational, but it's also insane.
The "get your arses back into the office" zealots should be promoting access to a good printer for all your printing needs as one of the benefits.
How many offices still have printers?
Of the four that I've worked in post-Covid, two didn't have publicly-available printers, one did but you had to buy some sort of payment card to use it, and the fourth was in a leased WeWork floor so probably had access to printers elswhere in the building but it wasn't clear where they were or how we should go about using them.
Fucking about with printers is one of the big overheads in running an office space. They're rapidly going the way of phones and wired network connections.
Bank I work for has fewer and fewer - a couple on each floor. High end photocopier/scanner/printer, can do a zillion sheets a minute, collate and staple. Rarely used.
I can still remember the fuss when they first told us everyone would lose the printer each person had on their own desk.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
I don’t smoke, never have, and I hate the smell. Banning it in pubs really helped me. Beyond that, who am I to take pleasure from others’ lives? They know it’s killing them but they enjoy and do it anyway. Their choice.
When did that view stop being the normal, liberal one? Do what you like if it doesn’t affect others.
I am also happy to defend the smokers because I like a drink and they’ll come for me next.
I generally agree; except I would also ban smoking in front of kids. And that means smoking in homes where kids live. AIUI, if passive smoke is bad for adults, then it's far worse for kids.
Ah, so that's why the change in climate change policy required an emergency cabinet meeting. Sunak was so busy with his chess policy that he was surprised to find out about his government's climate change policy more than three years after it was brought in while he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
And the cars thing, whatever you thought of it, at least works as a wedge issue. A Level reform? Smoking policy? Has he given up on the politics?
These are Sunak's real policies. The Net Zero thing was clever politics. These policies (which I don't think will ever happen) have Sunak's shitty hallmark all over them.
I personally believe he has a notable political cloth-ear.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
There's something fundamentally wrong with the whole printer business anyway.
We don't print much at home, so we have one of those fairly basic low-range printer scanners. It does the job we need perfectly adequately. Replacing the cartridges costs more than replacing the whole damn printer.
I can sort of see why; all the clever stuff is in the cartridge and the printer is a plastic box containing not much. But it's also bonkers. There must be a range of usage where the thing to do is just treat the whole thing as a disposable.
Which is insane on so many levels. I'm sure it's rational, but it's also insane.
The "get your arses back into the office" zealots should be promoting access to a good printer for all your printing needs as one of the benefits.
How many offices still have printers?
Of the four that I've worked in post-Covid, two didn't have publicly-available printers, one did but you had to buy some sort of payment card to use it, and the fourth was in a leased WeWork floor so probably had access to printers elswhere in the building but it wasn't clear where they were or how we should go about using them.
Fucking about with printers is one of the big overheads in running an office space. They're rapidly going the way of phones and wired network connections.
Bank I work for has fewer and fewer - a couple on each floor. High end photocopier/scanner/printer, can do a zillion sheets a minute, collate and staple. Rarely used.
I can still remember the fuss when they first told us everyone would lose the printer each person had on their own desk.
I have to admit it was only working from home in Covid that finally stopped me printing out docs and red penning them.
On smoking: it'll be interesting to see what attitudes to vaping will be like in a few decades time.
Given the health issues, I wonder if it will be as long as a few decades. Some of the individual health collapses seem to have been very fast even by cimparison with tobacco.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
And the cars thing, whatever you thought of it, at least works as a wedge issue. A Level reform? Smoking policy? Has he given up on the politics?
It’s of a piece with his “maths for 18 year olds”, “crack down on tuk-tuks”, and “chess boards for councils”.
At least Gordon Brown had a global financial crisis to wrestle with at the same time.
Properly funded and done right then Maths for 18 year olds is entirely reasonable. Almost every modern developed country on the planet has maths until 18, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but I can't think of any others that don't - and for good reason. I've long felt dropping down to just 3 subjects at 18 is absurd, that's too young for people to be specialising and giving up on a well rounded education.
I finished my Baccalaureate (A-level equivalent) at 17 as I skipped a year, but my Baccalaureate had as compulsory: Main Language, Second (foreign) Language, Maths, a Science, a Social Science and one free subject you could choose eg a second Science or Social Science. I chose to do English, French, Maths, Physics, Economics and Computer Science.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
Resurrecting the £10 fine for missing a GP appointment policy, as mentioned in the same article, is even more useless. Huge amounts of admin work for... what benefit, exactly?
People talk about the Cones Hotline, but that was part of the wider Citizens Charter scheme which I believe was broadly successful in creating a bit more of a customer-focussed mindset within the public sector. The arse end of this government is proving to be much more pathetic than anything seen in the final year of either the Brown or Major governments. Was the last year of Callaghan anything like this?
You have to remember that £10 policy is aimed voter wise at farts even older than me. From when you could have an evening out for ninepence farthing.
I said the other day Sunak's polling is going to outdo Truss and I was right.
#LegendaryModestyKlaxon
Sunak's USP was supposed to be that he was both more honest than Boris, and more reliable than Truss. The ridiculous net zero volte face, and its accompanying nonsensical claims have destroyed both parts of that.
FWIW, I didn't expect a great deal for him, and he would never have swayed my vote, but I'm nonetheless genuinely disappointed in him.
I got the impression that Sunak’s USP, from the leadership election he lost to Truss, was that he would tell hard truths (whether you agree with the 2030/35 change). I think he’s someone who doesn’t actually disagree with Truss in the long term but was very much “you can’t do that now”. Whilst he gets criticised for being managerialist/declinist I think he’s just a cold realist who says “I want to slash taxes etc but only when the balance sheet works” or “ I want net zero but only in a way that we can take everyone along with us”.
It’s not exciting nor does it give the impression that he has an ideology but in its own way it’s more honest. Rather than promise unicorns he is more about making sure he has the lab ready to genetically create the unicorns first.
If he had come in as PM, say Cameron’s second term I think you would see a more Truss style small state, low spending, low tax approach but Covid and Ukraine made it impossible these last few years.
Having said that he might just be an empty suit, that doesn’t fit.
On current evidence, he’s just another bullshitter.
Watching escape to the country this evening I’m led to note that the property and home improvement genre really hasn’t progressed for a long time.
We need, at the very least:
- Expensive escape to the country: same format but only £1m+ properties - Escape to the city: country bumpkins want a bit of life and action, so decide to move to zone 1, Manhattan, Roppongi hills or one of the arondissements - A place in the third world: couples looking to relocate somewhere in a poor country where the proceeds of their Barnet semi buy them a 2,000 hectare plantation - Build a new life in the shanty: self builders on the margins of large developing world cities taking a design approach to their corrugated iron and plywood quarters - naff grand designs: visionary self-builders who want to create something indescribably non-Kevin McCloud, like a domestic size replica of Caesars palace or Brighton pavilion - Escape to the back of beyond. ETTC but for true hermits
A Place in the Slum - Home or Away?
Couples have to choose between the roughest of Parisian banlieue and South Acton.
Through the K-hole:
In which someone is given a heroic dose of ketamine and has to figure out whose house they are in when they wake up. Also, where are their pants.
Non-Grand Designs. Where a grown adult commissions a standard design house built of brick and tile, engages a project manager, budgets realistically, has a 20% emergency fund, does not change the plans or materials half-way thru, brings it in on time and on budget, and does not get divorced or takes gifts from their parents.
On smoking: it'll be interesting to see what attitudes to vaping will be like in a few decades time.
Given the health issues, I wonder if it will be as long as a few decades. Some of the individual health collapses seem to have been very fast even by cimparison with tobacco.
That sounds... cheaper. "Rishi unveils vaping-while-playing-chess campaign!"
I give it 3 weeks before it goes catastrophically wrong and requires 5 hours of helpless rebooting
It is very odd that you can buy miraculous printers for a couple of hundred pounds. Just wonderful. Somehow the clever designers never managed to perfect the reasonably priced ink-cartridge though.
Printers, fascinating case study in technology that hasn’t improved for decades.
I suppose it’s the very physical inkiness that makes them problematic. But they are also shit at linking with other devices on wifi and various other things.
I give it 3 weeks before it goes catastrophically wrong and requires 5 hours of helpless rebooting
It is very odd that you can buy miraculous printers for a couple of hundred pounds. Just wonderful. Somehow the clever designers never managed to perfect the reasonably priced ink-cartridge though.
Printers, fascinating case study in technology that hasn’t improved for decades.
I suppose it’s the very physical inkiness that makes them problematic. But they are also shit at linking with other devices on wifi and various other things.
It’s because Apple stopped making printers.
Apple's first laser printer cost about $7,000 when released in 1985, which is $20k today, or £16k.
I remember Dominic Lawson going on about that a couple of months ago on R4. He is some high up in UK Chess, apparently, and said that Sunak was a keen supporter and that some public money would be forthcoming. Its a bit of a gesture, it has taken me way longer to type this post than it takes the government to spend £1m, but harmless enough.
Totally harmless, except that it again exposes the bizarre Soviet-style centralisation of UK government.
Councils - when they are not going bankrupt - are literally having to bid to install chess boards in parks.
In my view, British public frustration is to some extent explained by incredibly limited agency to make a local change, pretty much unparalleled in the OECD.
That personal hobbyhorse aside, the issue is what/how Sunak is choosing to focus his time on.
Yes. The idea that local government has to waste time bidding for £10,000 to install a single public chess table, presumably using masses of management time deciding where to locate the thing, putting together the bid document, and all for naught if they're not in a Tory marginal, is absolutely bonkers.
On smoking: it'll be interesting to see what attitudes to vaping will be like in a few decades time.
Given the health issues, I wonder if it will be as long as a few decades. Some of the individual health collapses seem to have been very fast even by cimparison with tobacco.
That sounds... cheaper. "Rishi unveils vaping-while-playing-chess campaign!"
Trouble is, it won't do anything for the pensions issue, given the demographics involved.
I’m instinctively hostile to simply banning cigarettes. But I guess that’s just me.
I find it bizarre that in the US, marijuana is now broadly tolerated but cigarette smoking is actively shunned.
Prohibition doesn't work.
Cigarettes should be legal but shunned. Same for others drugs.
Have you ever tried lemsip? Great stuff.
Touché, I meant presently illegal drugs, but you know what I mean. Caffeine like bacon you could take from my cold, dead hands.
As it happens I'm currently taking Lemsip, or ASDA own brand version of it as its half the price and I doubt there's any difference between the two. Full of cold and feel like death warmed up. Could tell its serious as when I woke up this morning I made my wife a coffee and myself the own brand Lemsip. First time in years I've started a day without a coffee probably. 🤒
I remember Dominic Lawson going on about that a couple of months ago on R4. He is some high up in UK Chess, apparently, and said that Sunak was a keen supporter and that some public money would be forthcoming. Its a bit of a gesture, it has taken me way longer to type this post than it takes the government to spend £1m, but harmless enough.
Totally harmless, except that it again exposes the bizarre Soviet-style centralisation of UK government.
Councils - when they are not going bankrupt - are literally having to bid to install chess boards in parks.
In my view, British public frustration is to some extent explained by incredibly limited agency to make a local change, pretty much unparalleled in the OECD.
That personal hobbyhorse aside, the issue is what/how Sunak is choosing to focus his time on.
They simply have to sell off the parks to developers, who can then lease the chess parts back to the council. On not very favourable terms.
I remember Dominic Lawson going on about that a couple of months ago on R4. He is some high up in UK Chess, apparently, and said that Sunak was a keen supporter and that some public money would be forthcoming. Its a bit of a gesture, it has taken me way longer to type this post than it takes the government to spend £1m, but harmless enough.
Totally harmless, except that it again exposes the bizarre Soviet-style centralisation of UK government.
Councils - when they are not going bankrupt - are literally having to bid to install chess boards in parks.
In my view, British public frustration is to some extent explained by incredibly limited agency to make a local change, pretty much unparalleled in the OECD.
That personal hobbyhorse aside, the issue is what/how Sunak is choosing to focus his time on.
Yes. The idea that local government has to waste time bidding for £10,000 to install a single public chess table, presumably using masses of management time deciding where to locate the thing, putting together the bid document, and all for naught if they're not in a Tory marginal, is absolutely bonkers.
Presumably there are Barnett consequentials to the policy too and, as a result, an extra £84,000 (or some other ridiculous amount) is added to the Scottish block grant?
I remember Dominic Lawson going on about that a couple of months ago on R4. He is some high up in UK Chess, apparently, and said that Sunak was a keen supporter and that some public money would be forthcoming. Its a bit of a gesture, it has taken me way longer to type this post than it takes the government to spend £1m, but harmless enough.
Totally harmless, except that it again exposes the bizarre Soviet-style centralisation of UK government.
Councils - when they are not going bankrupt - are literally having to bid to install chess boards in parks.
In my view, British public frustration is to some extent explained by incredibly limited agency to make a local change, pretty much unparalleled in the OECD.
That personal hobbyhorse aside, the issue is what/how Sunak is choosing to focus his time on.
Yes. The idea that local government has to waste time bidding for £10,000 to install a single public chess table, presumably using masses of management time deciding where to locate the thing, putting together the bid document, and all for naught if they're not in a Tory marginal, is absolutely bonkers.
There is also the small matter of where to keep the pieces, and making sure they aren't stolen or vandalised when not in use, in a way in which legitimate users can nevertheless access on the spot on demand. Which means, a chap in a wooden hut, or similar. Or key access, which raises similar issues to footie pavilions. It's not as ifd you can lug along a giant version of a Staunton set like you can bring your football.
How many parks, outside the fevered fantasies of ignorant Tory flacks who have never been to a municipal park, actually have park keepers these days?? I'd be surprised if as many as 100 do.
It'd have to be outside places like municipal swimming pools. Er ... which are closing like flies.
I remember Dominic Lawson going on about that a couple of months ago on R4. He is some high up in UK Chess, apparently, and said that Sunak was a keen supporter and that some public money would be forthcoming. Its a bit of a gesture, it has taken me way longer to type this post than it takes the government to spend £1m, but harmless enough.
Totally harmless, except that it again exposes the bizarre Soviet-style centralisation of UK government.
Councils - when they are not going bankrupt - are literally having to bid to install chess boards in parks.
In my view, British public frustration is to some extent explained by incredibly limited agency to make a local change, pretty much unparalleled in the OECD.
That personal hobbyhorse aside, the issue is what/how Sunak is choosing to focus his time on.
Yes. The idea that local government has to waste time bidding for £10,000 to install a single public chess table, presumably using masses of management time deciding where to locate the thing, putting together the bid document, and all for naught if they're not in a Tory marginal, is absolutely bonkers.
Presumably there are Barnett consequentials to the policy too and, as a result, an extra £84,000 (or some other ridiculous amount) is added to the Scottish block grant?
Wales too. Might pay for a titivation of the public loo at Pwllheli (and none the worse for that).
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
As someone told you, buy a laser printer and not an inkjet. Inkjet printers are notoriously temperamental, especially if not in near-constant and even use, and the print quality is worse.
I had this problem with printers. Bought 2 laserjets and they both went wrong, a disaster. We've got a stack of useless, wasted printers which now need to go to the tip. I found that HP sell the printers at a loss to tie you in to their expensive ink products, particularly the 'instant ink', all of which requires the printer to be connected to wifi which inevitably gets tempremental.
However someone on PB advised me to get an epson inkjet printer, which I did, at quite a significant cost - but I can just plug any computer in to it via a USB cable and it works.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
There's something fundamentally wrong with the whole printer business anyway.
We don't print much at home, so we have one of those fairly basic low-range printer scanners. It does the job we need perfectly adequately. Replacing the cartridges costs more than replacing the whole damn printer.
I can sort of see why; all the clever stuff is in the cartridge and the printer is a plastic box containing not much. But it's also bonkers. There must be a range of usage where the thing to do is just treat the whole thing as a disposable.
Which is insane on so many levels. I'm sure it's rational, but it's also insane.
The "get your arses back into the office" zealots should be promoting access to a good printer for all your printing needs as one of the benefits.
How many offices still have printers?
Of the four that I've worked in post-Covid, two didn't have publicly-available printers, one did but you had to buy some sort of payment card to use it, and the fourth was in a leased WeWork floor so probably had access to printers elswhere in the building but it wasn't clear where they were or how we should go about using them.
Fucking about with printers is one of the big overheads in running an office space. They're rapidly going the way of phones and wired network connections.
Bank I work for has fewer and fewer - a couple on each floor. High end photocopier/scanner/printer, can do a zillion sheets a minute, collate and staple. Rarely used.
I can still remember the fuss when they first told us everyone would lose the printer each person had on their own desk.
I have to admit it was only working from home in Covid that finally stopped me printing out docs and red penning them.
I find the best way round that is multiple monitors, or better yet, a single huge monitor. Think my next one might be 50”.
I remember Dominic Lawson going on about that a couple of months ago on R4. He is some high up in UK Chess, apparently, and said that Sunak was a keen supporter and that some public money would be forthcoming. Its a bit of a gesture, it has taken me way longer to type this post than it takes the government to spend £1m, but harmless enough.
Totally harmless, except that it again exposes the bizarre Soviet-style centralisation of UK government.
Councils - when they are not going bankrupt - are literally having to bid to install chess boards in parks.
In my view, British public frustration is to some extent explained by incredibly limited agency to make a local change, pretty much unparalleled in the OECD.
That personal hobbyhorse aside, the issue is what/how Sunak is choosing to focus his time on.
Yes. The idea that local government has to waste time bidding for £10,000 to install a single public chess table, presumably using masses of management time deciding where to locate the thing, putting together the bid document, and all for naught if they're not in a Tory marginal, is absolutely bonkers.
There is also the small matter of where to keep the pieces, and making sure they aren't stolen or vandalised when not in use, in a way in which legitimate users can access on the spot. Which means, a chap in a wooden hut, or similar. Or key access, which raises similar issues to footie pavilions. It's not as ifd you can lug along a giant version of a Staunton set like you can bring your football.
How many parks, outside the fevered fantasies of ignorant Tory flacks who have never been to a municipal park, actually have park keepers these days?? I'd be surprised if as many as 100 do.
When I lived in Australia we used to regularly use barbecues built in the parks. It was great, just put a coin in and it would light and etiquette was to just scrape it to clean it when you're done with it for the next people who'd use it.
When I came back to the UK (2000) and was at uni I visited a friend who was watching Neighbours on the BBC. The characters on Neighbours were using one of these barbecues in the show and it was just a normal setting for a scene but he reacted saying how ridiculous is that, as if there'd be public barbecues in parks.
I said no, they're real, we used them regularly. He couldn't understand and said "how come nobody nicks them?"
This is why we can't have nice things in this country it seems.
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
Resurrecting the £10 fine for missing a GP appointment policy, as mentioned in the same article, is even more useless. Huge amounts of admin work for... what benefit, exactly?
People talk about the Cones Hotline, but that was part of the wider Citizens Charter scheme which I believe was broadly successful in creating a bit more of a customer-focussed mindset within the public sector. The arse end of this government is proving to be much more pathetic than anything seen in the final year of either the Brown or Major governments. Was the last year of Callaghan anything like this?
You have to remember that £10 policy is aimed voter wise at farts even older than me. From when you could have an evening out for ninepence farthing.
Our missed appointments cost about 10x that.
Around 40% of our DNAs never got the letter (probably true for at least some of them) another 20% are in hospital for something else. Most of the rest don't respond to anything.
It will be a car-crash of a policy that will make the Cones hotline look like political genius!
Now this is good from Rishi, so long as he isn’t all fart and no follow through.
Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
It is understood Sunak’s leadership pledge to fine people £10 for missing a GP or hospital appointment may also be back on the table, although this could be politically difficult. The idea was announced by the prime minister during his campaign in summer 2022, but appeared to have been dropped when he took office last autumn.
A New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy would mean cigarettes were phased out completely for the next generation. Under the former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand also legislated to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products and force them to be sold only through specialty tobacco stores, rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.
I am beginning to really, really hate Sunak. Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea, this really is not a priority. Do the job in front of you you stupid badly-dressed ha'porth (not you @TSE), stop doing displacement activity. What other stupid f*****g idea will Sunak come up with tomorrow? Mow the lawn? Sort your books in descending order of height? Do your job, you lazy [redacted].
Resurrecting the £10 fine for missing a GP appointment policy, as mentioned in the same article, is even more useless. Huge amounts of admin work for... what benefit, exactly?
People talk about the Cones Hotline, but that was part of the wider Citizens Charter scheme which I believe was broadly successful in creating a bit more of a customer-focussed mindset within the public sector. The arse end of this government is proving to be much more pathetic than anything seen in the final year of either the Brown or Major governments. Was the last year of Callaghan anything like this?
What Sunak needs to do is create some sort of phone line that we can ring when there are cones left out on the road unnecessarily.
A smartphone app to report sightings of dangerous dogs and cyclists running red lights would be the modern equivalent I am guessing.
I remember Dominic Lawson going on about that a couple of months ago on R4. He is some high up in UK Chess, apparently, and said that Sunak was a keen supporter and that some public money would be forthcoming. Its a bit of a gesture, it has taken me way longer to type this post than it takes the government to spend £1m, but harmless enough.
Totally harmless, except that it again exposes the bizarre Soviet-style centralisation of UK government.
Councils - when they are not going bankrupt - are literally having to bid to install chess boards in parks.
In my view, British public frustration is to some extent explained by incredibly limited agency to make a local change, pretty much unparalleled in the OECD.
That personal hobbyhorse aside, the issue is what/how Sunak is choosing to focus his time on.
It would have been better giving the money to UK chess and get them and their members to organise it. But chess is a good thing, it helped me develop my memory and concentration as a kid, and we have had worse ideas in the last 24 hours, or any 24 hours in the last year to be honest.
I give it 3 weeks before it goes catastrophically wrong and requires 5 hours of helpless rebooting
It is very odd that you can buy miraculous printers for a couple of hundred pounds. Just wonderful. Somehow the clever designers never managed to perfect the reasonably priced ink-cartridge though.
Printers, fascinating case study in technology that hasn’t improved for decades.
I suppose it’s the very physical inkiness that makes them problematic. But they are also shit at linking with other devices on wifi and various other things.
It’s because Apple stopped making printers.
Apple's first laser printer cost about $7,000 when released in 1985, which is $20k today, or £16k.
But revolutionary at the time.
It’s hard to recall just how crap stuff was back then.
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
There's something fundamentally wrong with the whole printer business anyway.
We don't print much at home, so we have one of those fairly basic low-range printer scanners. It does the job we need perfectly adequately. Replacing the cartridges costs more than replacing the whole damn printer.
I can sort of see why; all the clever stuff is in the cartridge and the printer is a plastic box containing not much. But it's also bonkers. There must be a range of usage where the thing to do is just treat the whole thing as a disposable.
Which is insane on so many levels. I'm sure it's rational, but it's also insane.
The "get your arses back into the office" zealots should be promoting access to a good printer for all your printing needs as one of the benefits.
How many offices still have printers?
Of the four that I've worked in post-Covid, two didn't have publicly-available printers, one did but you had to buy some sort of payment card to use it, and the fourth was in a leased WeWork floor so probably had access to printers elswhere in the building but it wasn't clear where they were or how we should go about using them.
Fucking about with printers is one of the big overheads in running an office space. They're rapidly going the way of phones and wired network connections.
Bank I work for has fewer and fewer - a couple on each floor. High end photocopier/scanner/printer, can do a zillion sheets a minute, collate and staple. Rarely used.
I can still remember the fuss when they first told us everyone would lose the printer each person had on their own desk.
I have to admit it was only working from home in Covid that finally stopped me printing out docs and red penning them.
I find the best way round that is multiple monitors, or better yet, a single huge monitor. Think my next one might be 50”.
Direct retinal projection is surely the way to go, before they perfect the neural interface ?
The shitness of printers is an odd thing. I don’t know of any other major machine that everyone regards with such justified mistrust, on the grounds of constant failure
Imagine if microwaves or washing machines went wrong all the time. It would get fixed
Is there something in the technology of basic domestic printers that means they can’t be made reliable? Are the manufacturers knowingly selling dud products?
Otherwise there is surely room for a new printer manufacturer to step in and say “here, try this, it almost never goes wrong”. Boom
I think the problem is that they make their margins on the ink but are in a constant battle with cheap non-branded alternatives.
To combat this, they try to make sure the printer only works with official ink cartridges, but if the protection mechanism gets hacked then they lose their revenue stream, so it's better to make the printers unreliable and cheap.
Ah, Interesting! Yes, that's logical and makes sense
Comments
We don't print much at home, so we have one of those fairly basic low-range printer scanners. It does the job we need perfectly adequately. Replacing the cartridges costs more than replacing the whole damn printer.
I can sort of see why; all the clever stuff is in the cartridge and the printer is a plastic box containing not much. But it's also bonkers. There must be a range of usage where the thing to do is just treat the whole thing as a disposable.
Which is insane on so many levels. I'm sure it's rational, but it's also insane.
Just saying...
There are many failure modes: the interface between the OS and the printer, especially if wireless. Having to cope with different types, weights and sizes of paper. Multi-sheet feeders and two-sided printing. Also having to cope with room temperature variations, and any dust in the room.
IME they generally work if you use them regularly. If you don't use a printer for a few months, then expect it to print 1,000 pages of perfect prose, they'll fail. If my printer has been inactive for a while, I print a couple of test pages and/or do an alignment thngymajig as a paper sacrifice to the Printer Gods.
(OK, it's got him a spell in the top job. Had he progressed normally, that might not have happened; his fairly uncompromising right wing views would have told against him. But had he made it, he'd have been better at politics and government than he is.)
We need, at the very least:
- Expensive escape to the country: same format but only £1m+ properties
- Escape to the city: country bumpkins want a bit of life and action, so decide to move to zone 1, Manhattan, Roppongi hills or one of the arondissements
- A place in the third world: couples looking to relocate somewhere in a poor country where the proceeds of their Barnet semi buy them a 2,000 hectare plantation
- Build a new life in the shanty: self builders on the margins of large developing world cities taking a design approach to their corrugated iron and plywood quarters
- naff grand designs: visionary self-builders who want to create something indescribably non-Kevin McCloud, like a domestic size replica of Caesars palace or Brighton pavilion
- Escape to the back of beyond. ETTC but for true hermits
Seriously; I've had loads of printers in the past, both at home and work, of many sorts. For my small-to-medium home usage, my Epson EcoTank has been superb.
Basically, you pay more for the printer, but the inks come in bottles that you decant into reservoirs in the printer. And it sips ink. I recently printed 400 sides of paper with text, and it used barely a fifth of the black reservoir.
All Sunak needs to do to grant his Government a stay of execution is take good, sensible, UK-focused political and economical decisions - the heir presumptive can't follow for fear of upsetting his international backers.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12550055/BORIS-JOHNSON-utterly-spineless-away-military-base-plays-key-role-alliance-America.html
'No way,’ I said, when I heard the news about the Chagos Islands. ‘Why would we be so utterly spineless?’
‘I am afraid so,’ said my informant, wearily. ‘It’s a done deal.’
It seems that this country is on the verge of a colossal mistake. After more than two centuries of uninterrupted British sovereignty we are apparently about to perform a U-turn and abandon the British Indian Ocean Territory.
And if you're printing that regularly, then a laser printer is going to have much, much lower running costs than an inkjet. They cost a bit more to buy, but they don't gum up, the toner cartridges last much longer, and they're much less user-hostile in every way.
But if you're only doing a couple of pages each month (or less), your best bet is to simply go to your local library - they'll charge you around 20p a page.
Personally I found I had less annoyance with printers when I (a) switched to a laser printer and (b) paid a bit more money for something targeting the small business market. Those 1990s era HP inkjets were terrible for very occasional use scenarios.
Of the four that I've worked in post-Covid, two didn't have publicly-available printers, one did but you had to buy some sort of payment card to use it, and the fourth was in a leased WeWork floor so probably had access to printers elswhere in the building but it wasn't clear where they were or how we should go about using them.
Fucking about with printers is one of the big overheads in running an office space. They're rapidly going the way of phones and wired network connections.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12548489/iPhone-15-goes-sale-Thousands-queue-outside-Apple-Stores-Britain-France-Thailand-pre-orders-delivered-customers-world.html
The Russians would kill Zelensky without a moment's hesitation.
Couples have to choose between the roughest of Parisian banlieue and South Acton.
Shocking footage shows customers shoving each other outside Apple's flagship store in the UAE's Dubai Mall, before several people appear to fall to the ground.
@Sandpit has had a fun day
He died on his way to that meeting.
My last memory of a great techie engineer is of him swearing at a printer.
The main problem is technological. Most home printers are used infrequently, and the cheapest technology really does work well with long gaps between each use. The ink simply dries out and gunks up the nozzles.
Anyone who is using a home printer often enough that the ink doesn't dry out is almost certainly better off with a laser printer, which is more expensive technology still, but works out cheaper with high enough print volume.
Mind you, this has been the paradigm for two decades at least. I'd be surprised if it wasn't an area ripe for being shaken up.
At least Gordon Brown had a global financial crisis to wrestle with at the same time.
Didn't Gordon Brown try that play when things were getting desperate?
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/apr/12/young-people-compulsory-voluntary-work-community-service
People talk about the Cones Hotline, but that was part of the wider Citizens Charter scheme which I believe was broadly successful in creating a bit more of a customer-focussed mindset within the public sector. The arse end of this government is proving to be much more pathetic than anything seen in the final year of either the Brown or Major governments. Was the last year of Callaghan anything like this?
IIRC the evidence is that the following cohorts are not sneaking a smoke in any number, in New Zealand.
Maybe he has found the Farmy Farm characters in the back of a Number 10 cupboard?
Laser printers are where the serious tools start, generally.
An app.
Sorry. I've been too pre-occupied with the effects of the almost complete collapse of CAMHS all week to have been following closely.
They did lag with them - not putting great printer gubbins in them, for obvious reasons a cynic might suspect. But
I kept an eye on the reviews and bought the first decent quality printer with an ink tank. Had it for nigh on 2 years now.
Edit: admittedly I did make sure I had a 2 year guarantee for free, from the maker and/or shop.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-22/rishi-sunak-channels-1-million-to-attract-young-britons-to-chess?embedded-checkout=true
Seems to have Sunak’s personal imprimatur.
When did that view stop being the normal, liberal one? Do what you like if it doesn’t affect others.
I am also happy to defend the smokers because I like a drink and they’ll come for me next.
But actually, such a policy might fit Sunak's new look all too well. This government truly has the smell of death about it.
Let no one say Rishi doesn't know the nations priorities!
Notification that Evri is handling the delivery…
Councils - when they are not going bankrupt - are literally having to bid to install chess boards in parks.
In my view, British public frustration is to some extent explained by incredibly limited agency to make a local change, pretty much unparalleled in the OECD.
That personal hobbyhorse aside, the issue is what/how Sunak is choosing to focus his time on.
In which someone is given a heroic dose of ketamine and has to figure out whose house they are in when they wake up. Also, where are their pants.
All makes sense now.
But I guess that’s just me.
I find it bizarre that in the US, marijuana is now broadly tolerated but cigarette smoking is actively shunned.
I finished my Baccalaureate (A-level equivalent) at 17 as I skipped a year, but my Baccalaureate had as compulsory: Main Language, Second (foreign) Language, Maths, a Science, a Social Science and one free subject you could choose eg a second Science or Social Science. I chose to do English, French, Maths, Physics, Economics and Computer Science.
Cigarettes should be legal but shunned. Same for others drugs.
As it happens I'm currently taking Lemsip, or ASDA own brand version of it as its half the price and I doubt there's any difference between the two. Full of cold and feel like death warmed up. Could tell its serious as when I woke up this morning I made my wife a coffee and myself the own brand Lemsip. First time in years I've started a day without a coffee probably. 🤒
Or else.
How many parks, outside the fevered fantasies of ignorant Tory flacks who have never been to a municipal park, actually have park keepers these days?? I'd be surprised if as many as 100 do.
It'd have to be outside places like municipal swimming pools. Er ... which are closing like flies.
However someone on PB advised me to get an epson inkjet printer, which I did, at quite a significant cost - but I can just plug any computer in to it via a USB cable and it works.
When I came back to the UK (2000) and was at uni I visited a friend who was watching Neighbours on the BBC. The characters on Neighbours were using one of these barbecues in the show and it was just a normal setting for a scene but he reacted saying how ridiculous is that, as if there'd be public barbecues in parks.
I said no, they're real, we used them regularly. He couldn't understand and said "how come nobody nicks them?"
This is why we can't have nice things in this country it seems.
Around 40% of our DNAs never got the letter (probably true for at least some of them) another 20% are in hospital for something else. Most of the rest don't respond to anything.
It will be a car-crash of a policy that will make the Cones hotline look like political genius!
I reckon that could be better used to cut child mental health waiting times.
But what do I know?
It’s hard to recall just how crap stuff was back then.