Incidentally for those of you thinking - as on the previous thread - that there really wouldn't be much of a problem with ID cards, do please remember that the quality of the people designing and implementing such a scheme would have the same quality and integrity as those who introduced and implemented Horizon and decided to persecute innocent people on the back of it.
And by "quality" I mean people (for instance recent Post Office witnesses) of whom the adjective "third rate" would be a gross over-estimation. As for "integrity" they have none.
Did you see today's witness?
Mrs PtP and I spent a while discussing whether she was really plug stupid or being deliberately evasive. In the end we decided it was both.
Another candidate for a perjury prosecution I should think.
And the Arab suddenly pulled away from his captors, scooping up the rock he dropped, and hastily returned to covering up the corpses.
The sound of Bartholomew racking his machine gun off safety froze the prisoner, and he carefully got to his feet and turned to face them.
'Please,' he said in English, pleadingly. 'I like Israel!' His accent was thick, almost stereotypically Middle Eastern, his teeth bared in a miserable, desperate excuse for a smile. 'How do you do? Nice to meet you! Do you have the time?'
Leon racked his machine gun off safety. The Arab began to laugh, softly, hysterically. Tears were welling as he said, 'Gal Gadot! What a dish! Dana International? Nice gams!' And the prisoner lifted hisslacks to the knees, laughing.
Blanche racked their machine gun off safety. The Arab stood straight now, his legs still exposed. He started singing part of the Israeli national anthem, 'Hatikvah...' However, that was all he knew; he kept singing the word again and again. 'Hatikvah... Hatikvah....'
The three privates were standing in firing-squad fashion now, facing the prisoner. Sickened, Dura_Ace looked away. Smithson was still dismantling machine guns, Herdson gathering ammo, as if completely unaware, or anyway unconcerned, about what was happening. The young prisoner finally played his trump card:
'Fuck Hamas!' he glanced first at Dura_Ace, then at the privates. 'Fuck Hamas!'
'Fuck you!' Bartholomew said. The prisoner lurched for Dura_Ace, grabbing his arm, and spewed a terrified stream of Arabic at the corporal.
Dura_Ace called to Smithson, 'Sir, he says he's sorry about SeanT. I don't think he was the gunner, sir!'
'Tell him 'sorry' don't cut the mustard,' Leon said, the big machine gun loose and deadly in the former flint-knapper's hands. 'Tell him my piles bleed for him.'
'Tell him...,' Smithson finally said, 'the war's over for him.' The squad members were nodding, Leon saying, 'Fuckin' 'ell,' and Smithson was dropping the last of the disarmed machine guns down and striding over to the Arab. A handkerchief came from one of the captain's pockets and he swiftly tied it around the Arab's head, in blindfold fashion.
'Sir,' Dura_Ace said softly but urgently, 'this isn't right.'
Smithson knew that Dura_Ace had very pro-Arab sympathies before the Braverman government introduced the draft in preparation for this land war in support of Israel, in fact he was only drafted back into the military because of his verbal Arabic skills, but the captain replied without umbrage.
'Just tell him, corporal. Tell him what I just said.'
Nodding, Dura_Ace then whispered to the Arab. Smithson spun the prisoner around, so that his back was towards the squad. Resigned to whatever Smithson's order might be, Herdson reluctantly fell in line with the privates and racked his weapon off safety. The prisoner jumped. Smithson looked at his squad - Leon's eyes were glittering, Bartholomew's were hooded with a hunter's nonchalance, Blanche's were as dead as the stones covering the corpses.
Then Smithson said to Dura_Ace, 'Tell him to march two hundred paces and wait until he can't hear us anymore. Then he's to surrender himself to the first NATO patrol he runs into.'
'What?' Bartholomew said, shaking his head as if his ears were lying to him. 'Wait a goddam minute...'
'Yes, sir,' Dura_Ace said, relieved, but careful not to smile. And to the young Arab he repeated Smithson's order in Arabic. Then the captain checked the blindfold, snugging the knot tight, then patted the Arab twice on the shoulder, signalling him to take off, which he did.
'Close shave,' the Arab smiled, and said something like farewell in the vernacular.
Dura_Ace finally allowed himself a smile. The former prisoner's erstwhile captors watched him disappear into the distance, singing what sounded like, 'It's coming home, it's coming home!' until he was too far away for them to hear anything.
David Davis: Removing warrant requirement is 'fundamental mistake'
David Davis has argued the Government will make a “fundamental mistake” if it goes ahead with plans to let the police search properties without a court warrant.
The former Brexit secretary, a long-standing campaigner for civil rights, said the move would take away a “fundamental foundation stone… of free British society”.
He continued: “It’s there with jury trials and it’s there with the presumption of innocence.
“The right not to have the state kick your door down and come search your house with judicial approval is a massively important British value. The judicial control of the police is vital and must be preserved.”
He is absolutely right on that. But like you it is the first I have heard of it. Surely someone in the media or the Opposition must have heard about it and would be making a noise?
I think this relates to the absurd situation where a bike or phone is stolen and has GPS tracking so that the owner can tell exactly where it is, but the police can't actually do anything because getting a warrant takes too long.
Still no excuse. In that case we need to change the system to speed up the production of warrants, not abandon them altogether.
And to be honest, given that the police don't seem to care two figs about catching criminals even when they have all the evidence handed to them on a plate I seriously doubt this is either the reason nor that it will make any diference to solving those sorts of crimes.
It's exactly because the police can't do anything even when the evidence is provided on a plate that this has been proposed.
Of course if we prefer, they can instead sift through silly things said on Twitter. No warrants needed for that.
Another set piece damp squib. There's nothing in the set of bills announced that are going to alter the government's political fortunes.
I see the political timeline left as:
- Budget this month: no money to spend - Winter: annual stories about NHS crisis and/or people not being able to heat their homes - Spring statement: find some money down the sofa to win people over with tax cuts, but accidentally spend almost all of it on everyday, struggling millionaires that Rishi can almost relate to - Take a walloping in the local elections - Summer break in California for Sunak - Conferences/campaign - Big Labour majority
David Davis: Removing warrant requirement is 'fundamental mistake'
David Davis has argued the Government will make a “fundamental mistake” if it goes ahead with plans to let the police search properties without a court warrant.
The former Brexit secretary, a long-standing campaigner for civil rights, said the move would take away a “fundamental foundation stone… of free British society”.
He continued: “It’s there with jury trials and it’s there with the presumption of innocence.
“The right not to have the state kick your door down and come search your house with judicial approval is a massively important British value. The judicial control of the police is vital and must be preserved.”
He is absolutely right on that. But like you it is the first I have heard of it. Surely someone in the media or the Opposition must have heard about it and would be making a noise?
It’s odd. Even if Labour tacitly support it (they’re fond of a bit of authoritarianism) I’m surprised the Lib Dems wouldn’t have made a fuss. Can only assume it’s snuck under the radar until the Davisdar picked it up.
I think these things are civil service initiatives - they seem to be so high and mighty they're just legislating openly now. There was a frighteningly Orwellian policy the other day that 'the Cabinet Office is drawing up plans for' - related to censorship of some sort I think, banning speech that is 'undermining confidence in the UK's institutions'. Where did that come from? Not Rishi's Government who can't even be arsed to look into building more houses, and has a sell-by date of a year anyhow.
The hybrid variant of that would be departments cooking up crazy policies they assume their ministers would approve of.
Openly briefing against Ministers seems to be more the order of the day at present.
Another set piece damp squib. There's nothing in the set of bills announced that are going to alter the government's political fortunes.
I see the political timeline left as:
- Budget this month: no money to spend - Winter: annual stories about NHS crisis and/or people not being able to heat their homes - Spring statement: find some money down the sofa to win people over with tax cuts, but accidentally spend almost all of it on everyday, struggling millionaires that Rishi can almost relate to - Take a walloping in the local elections - Summer break in California for Sunak - Conferences/campaign - Big Labour majority
Here Remembrance weekend is taken very seriously indeed. Not in a "you must wear your poppy" way but rather in that the town makes an effort and virtually all the shops are collecting money. It is rather endearing - a reminder that people are still fighting and dying - and that the suffering of the wounded carries on even after the fighting has stopped.
The main square
And
Plus outside the post office. This changes to reflect whatever significant event is happening.
One of the ladies in my sewing circle has a 10 year old niece in Gaza. With her mother - both British citizens - they are now in Rafat waiting to get out. So we're all hoping they do manage to leave and soon.
I don't think the fact that it is more than a century since WW1 is reason to stop. There are plenty of recent wars and very many good reasons to reflect for a few minutes on those who fight to stop inhumanity and those who suffer because of it. As the last month, if nothing else, has shown us.
The longer term trend on this is not so bad. People much less pessimistic than they were a year ago, and roughly similar to where they were just before Partygate broke out.
As 1997 showed, this doesn't necessarily translate into Tory votes, in fact people may partly feel more optimistic because they expect a change of government. I think there are a few things likely to make the public less pessimistic than in 2022:
- Inflation is now falling, albeit still high, rather than skyrocketing. Particularly noticeable in heating bills as we enter winter - For all that Sunak's government is a bit limp, it's not the same crazed chaos as under latter day Johnson or the Truss-Kwarteng fever dream - The Russia-Ukraine war was pretty terrifying when it started but is now part of the furniture
So I don't think I agree with the header. There's a short term rise in pessimism but it's well down longer term.
Yes, I agree
Also, I think the nation is finally getting over Brexit. The departure of Boris has probably drawn a lot of the poison, but I also sense a genuine feeling of: it's done, like it or not, make the best of it. Clearly a lot of people, a sizeable majority, regret it - as things stand- but I doubt half of those people want to actually revisit it
This itself removes a shadow from British politics. We are in the post-Brexit era now, with its advantages and disadvantages; turns out it wasn't the immediate sunlit uplands promised by some, but neither was it the catastrophe that broke up the UK threatened by others. Meh
Speak for yourself Buster! Brexit is the weeping sore that will continue to infect UK politics no matter how much you wish for it to stop.
Brexit is like having a baby, that grows up to be Jimmy Saville.
I just had drinks with my favourite Cornish friends. All smart and funny
One of them pointed out that Jimmy Savile probably had a lot of fun, and died happy. Which I realised is almost certainly true, and quite disconcerting
Another one told me this superb anecdote. He was living in Bangor in Wales during 9/11. He was so enraged by it the next day he vandalised the local mosque - which was tiny, it being Bangor. Like a two room bungalow. He graffiti'd a Star of David and a swastika on the door, not quite knowing what else to do
The next day he was consumed with guilt and remorse and went BACK to the mosque and graffitoed under his graffiti the word "SORRY"
I just finished watching the Reckoning, about Saville. If that is accurate I don't think there's any chance Saville died happy, or indeed was ever happy. Steve Coogan is superb in it. The only downside is that I found myself whistling the theme tune to Jim'll Fix It as I walked down the street. Your second friend is a racist POS who engages in hate crimes.
It isn't entirely surprising that @Leon has friends like this.
You mean - candid, clever, amusing friends? Yes
I can only guess what your friends are like, and the painful "Leicester GP" small talk involved. Ditto @OnlyLivingBoy
My money is that there was no graffiti of any sort on Bangor mosque.
No, it is true. This guy does not lie
He may be a "racist POS who engages in hate crimes" (sigh), but he is not a liar. He revealed this anecdote with sincere and cringing excruciation, and was duly relieved when we all laughed, very loudly
It is of a piece with his behaviour at that time, he was definitely having troubles, and acting out in odd ways. He has told several other very funny stories from those days (funny if you're looking back not funny if you were him at the time)
I am sorry his behaviour and revelation offends the po-faced PB Left, please do not ever invite me to meet you, I could not bear the tedium of your company, and I would surely tell you this to your face, after the third martini
Let's see some evidence then. I think him more full of bullshit than even credulous you.
So on the one hand you think it happened and it says "a lot about me that these are my friends" and on the other it didn't happen and you want proof that it did?
Get tae fuck, you sad sack o shite
Yeah, I didn't think you could substantiate the tale.
Some people are just born gullible.
So, wait, where are you now? I'm making this up, he's making this up, or it is true as you said before and you are unsurprised that I have "friends like this" who really do this? But, wait, now they don't do this? But wait yes they do? What? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ON ABOUT YOU STUIPID BORING PROVINCIAL QUACK
You are just TRAGIC
No, I just think you are gullible enough to buy any bullshit that your racist friends make up.
How many good friends do you have? I'm guessing less than two, possibly under one. Somewhere between zero and one?
No one could possibly abide your desolate, humourless, self congratulating piety for more than an hour without wanting to stab themselves in the perineum
How are the long term relationships going?
lol. One of them is coming round tomorrow. Tho I am unsure what will happen
I am pretty shit at long term romantic relationships. Weirdly, however, I am good at friends, and have a lot. Coz I don't judge and I am very tolerant. And I make sure I choose friends that amuse (and/or they choose me, of course)
I've always thought that should be my emotional epitaph, inasmuch as it matters. Good at Friends, Bad at Family
There are worse Fates
Incidentally. This anecdote I heard tonight is true beyond reasonable doubt (it squares with everything we all know about the guy, esp at the the time) and the way he revealed it was utterly sincere (with shuddering guilt, then relief when we laughed)
Would the PB lefties really have said to him "you are a racist piece of shit" and stormed off? Really? Maybe one or two of the worst of you would have done that (eg @foxy). But far more likely this very funny guy would not have told this funny story in the first place, knowing of your morally sneering reaction. That is your loss. It really is. The Left is in a dreadful place
"...I don't judge and I am very tolerant."
And you are either very good at titanic levels irony or incredibly lacking in self-awareness; I prefer to believe it is the former.
I don't judge people MORALLY (unless they are actually criminal and vile); I accept we are all made from Crooked Timber. No doubt my own many failings play a part here
I absolutely judge people intellectually, and in terms of personality, humour, etc. How else do you choose friends?!
So you don't judge others except morally, sometimes, and based on their intellect, personality, humour - so pretty much the same as everyone else really.
And I presume you are tolerant to a fault (except for leftists, wokes, and people who disagree with any of your views on AI, aliens, lab-leak, pets, Brexit... )
Here Remembrance weekend is taken very seriously indeed. Not in a "you must wear your poppy" way but rather in that the town makes an effort and virtually all the shops are collecting money. It is rather endearing - a reminder that people are still fighting and dying - and that the suffering of the wounded carries on even after the fighting has stopped.
The main square
And
Plus outside the post office. This changes to reflect whatever significant event is happening.
One of the ladies in my sewing circle has a 10 year old niece in Gaza. With her mother - both British citizens - they are now in Rafat waiting to get out. So we're all hoping they do manage to leave and soon.
I don't think the fact that it is more than a century since WW1 is reason to stop. There are plenty of recent wars and very many good reasons to reflect for a few minutes on those who fight to stop inhumanity and those who suffer because of it. As the last month, if nothing else, has shown us.
Does anyone know if what used to be called the Haig Fund has expenditure in reasonable proportion to its income now, allowing for accumulated resources, but also reduced needs from the earlier mass conscript wars? The elderly of WW2/Korea will largely have passed on now, but, as you say, there have been other wars since.
Just caught up on the gist of the speech. Wow. Pedicabs, vaping and forcing criminals to attend sentencing. Parish pump stuff. So parochial; embarrassing for country that aspires to be a global leader.
Purely from a strategic point of view, we're approaching an election, and the government have the initiative by default - they're squandering it, and Sunak continues to be really, really bad at politics. There's no vision, no answers to the big questions. Just performative nibbling around the edges.
Can someone explain to me how one can force someone to attend the dock? What happens if they just leave the country?
No idea but if it's for sentencing then they are about to force that person to do a stretch in HMP so forcing is perhaps not the challenge you think it is.
Meanwhile - it is your fault that the nation is largely poppyless because no one carries cash any more. Proud of yourself?
Just caught up on the gist of the speech. Wow. Pedicabs, vaping and forcing criminals to attend sentencing. Parish pump stuff. So parochial; embarrassing for country that aspires to be a global leader.
Purely from a strategic point of view, we're approaching an election, and the government have the initiative by default - they're squandering it, and Sunak continues to be really, really bad at politics. There's no vision, no answers to the big questions. Just performative nibbling around the edges.
Can someone explain to me how one can force someone to attend the dock? What happens if they just leave the country?
No idea but if it's for sentencing then they are about to force that person to do a stretch in HMP so forcing is perhaps not the challenge you think it is.
Meanwhile - it is your fault that the nation is largely poppyless because no one carries cash any more. Proud of yourself?
Probably a reaction to compulsory poppy fascism.
Definitely noticed a huge decline in people wearing them and indeed people selling them. It does appear that poppy fascism may have backfired: there was a period not too long ago where newsreaders/poilticians/anyone on the telly were lambasted by an angry twitter mob if their failed to wear a poppy (which is easily done by accident – the sodding things just fall off).
Or you change jackets. I buy 2-3 of these buggers a year.
I did wonder if there might be a business opportunity for a lapel badge saying 'my poppy is on my Barbour'.
Alternatively, "I bought a poppy but it fell off".
Few poppies this year. I think I am not the only one to have stopped wearing one. A century is long enough. Time to move on.
Maybe it's also time to stop marking 11th November as well as Remembrance Sunday?
The latter was introduced to replace the former in the 1930s because two-minutes silence on a work day was causing ructions. But much more recently (maybe the 1990s?) the British Legion (sorry, Royal British Legion) launched a successful campaign to reinstate Armistice Day in addition to Donkey Jacket Day.
And, of course, shops and offices throughout the land were blackmailed into taking part.
Such is our devotion to the public interest and general worthiness we are spending our whole weekend on a training course to yet further improve the prosecution service (as if such a thing is possible). But we are having a 2 minute break on Saturday in memory of our grandads or great grandparents who did not survive the slaughter of WW 1.
Not completely sure this is still necessary to be honest.
David Davis: Removing warrant requirement is 'fundamental mistake'
David Davis has argued the Government will make a “fundamental mistake” if it goes ahead with plans to let the police search properties without a court warrant.
The former Brexit secretary, a long-standing campaigner for civil rights, said the move would take away a “fundamental foundation stone… of free British society”.
He continued: “It’s there with jury trials and it’s there with the presumption of innocence.
“The right not to have the state kick your door down and come search your house with judicial approval is a massively important British value. The judicial control of the police is vital and must be preserved.”
He is absolutely right on that. But like you it is the first I have heard of it. Surely someone in the media or the Opposition must have heard about it and would be making a noise?
I think this relates to the absurd situation where a bike or phone is stolen and has GPS tracking so that the owner can tell exactly where it is, but the police can't actually do anything because getting a warrant takes too long.
As if the police would do anything even if they didn't need a warrant. The only thing the police do when such a crime is reported is give you a crime number which takes zero effort from them. Ditto other thefts, fraud, burglaries, criminal damage etc.,.
Another set piece damp squib. There's nothing in the set of bills announced that are going to alter the government's political fortunes.
I see the political timeline left as:
- Budget this month: no money to spend - Winter: annual stories about NHS crisis and/or people not being able to heat their homes - Spring statement: find some money down the sofa to win people over with tax cuts, but accidentally spend almost all of it on everyday, struggling millionaires that Rishi can almost relate to - Take a walloping in the local elections - Summer break in California for Sunak - Conferences/campaign - Big Labour majority
Anything I'm missing?
England lose at cricket.
The Netherlands’ turn tomorrow. But this has become boring and predictable. It is no longer a surprise, let alone a disappointment.
Here Remembrance weekend is taken very seriously indeed. Not in a "you must wear your poppy" way but rather in that the town makes an effort and virtually all the shops are collecting money. It is rather endearing - a reminder that people are still fighting and dying - and that the suffering of the wounded carries on even after the fighting has stopped.
The main square
And
Plus outside the post office. This changes to reflect whatever significant event is happening.
One of the ladies in my sewing circle has a 10 year old niece in Gaza. With her mother - both British citizens - they are now in Rafat waiting to get out. So we're all hoping they do manage to leave and soon.
I don't think the fact that it is more than a century since WW1 is reason to stop. There are plenty of recent wars and very many good reasons to reflect for a few minutes on those who fight to stop inhumanity and those who suffer because of it. As the last month, if nothing else, has shown us.
Agreed, and anyone who has done really any reading at all on the abattoir that was The Great War would find it hard to argue that such a senseless meat-grinder of a conflict was not still worthy of commemoration even after it has slipped from living memory.
Personally wear a red and a white poppy to cause maximum offence. To me the red is specifically for WWI and the white is to mourn the senselessness, pain and grief of conflict in general.
The longer term trend on this is not so bad. People much less pessimistic than they were a year ago, and roughly similar to where they were just before Partygate broke out.
As 1997 showed, this doesn't necessarily translate into Tory votes, in fact people may partly feel more optimistic because they expect a change of government. I think there are a few things likely to make the public less pessimistic than in 2022:
- Inflation is now falling, albeit still high, rather than skyrocketing. Particularly noticeable in heating bills as we enter winter - For all that Sunak's government is a bit limp, it's not the same crazed chaos as under latter day Johnson or the Truss-Kwarteng fever dream - The Russia-Ukraine war was pretty terrifying when it started but is now part of the furniture
So I don't think I agree with the header. There's a short term rise in pessimism but it's well down longer term.
Yes, I agree
Also, I think the nation is finally getting over Brexit. The departure of Boris has probably drawn a lot of the poison, but I also sense a genuine feeling of: it's done, like it or not, make the best of it. Clearly a lot of people, a sizeable majority, regret it - as things stand- but I doubt half of those people want to actually revisit it
This itself removes a shadow from British politics. We are in the post-Brexit era now, with its advantages and disadvantages; turns out it wasn't the immediate sunlit uplands promised by some, but neither was it the catastrophe that broke up the UK threatened by others. Meh
Speak for yourself Buster! Brexit is the weeping sore that will continue to infect UK politics no matter how much you wish for it to stop.
Brexit is like having a baby, that grows up to be Jimmy Saville.
I just had drinks with my favourite Cornish friends. All smart and funny
One of them pointed out that Jimmy Savile probably had a lot of fun, and died happy. Which I realised is almost certainly true, and quite disconcerting
Another one told me this superb anecdote. He was living in Bangor in Wales during 9/11. He was so enraged by it the next day he vandalised the local mosque - which was tiny, it being Bangor. Like a two room bungalow. He graffiti'd a Star of David and a swastika on the door, not quite knowing what else to do
The next day he was consumed with guilt and remorse and went BACK to the mosque and graffitoed under his graffiti the word "SORRY"
I just finished watching the Reckoning, about Saville. If that is accurate I don't think there's any chance Saville died happy, or indeed was ever happy. Steve Coogan is superb in it. The only downside is that I found myself whistling the theme tune to Jim'll Fix It as I walked down the street. Your second friend is a racist POS who engages in hate crimes.
It isn't entirely surprising that @Leon has friends like this.
You mean - candid, clever, amusing friends? Yes
I can only guess what your friends are like, and the painful "Leicester GP" small talk involved. Ditto @OnlyLivingBoy
My money is that there was no graffiti of any sort on Bangor mosque.
No, it is true. This guy does not lie
He may be a "racist POS who engages in hate crimes" (sigh), but he is not a liar. He revealed this anecdote with sincere and cringing excruciation, and was duly relieved when we all laughed, very loudly
It is of a piece with his behaviour at that time, he was definitely having troubles, and acting out in odd ways. He has told several other very funny stories from those days (funny if you're looking back not funny if you were him at the time)
I am sorry his behaviour and revelation offends the po-faced PB Left, please do not ever invite me to meet you, I could not bear the tedium of your company, and I would surely tell you this to your face, after the third martini
Let's see some evidence then. I think him more full of bullshit than even credulous you.
So on the one hand you think it happened and it says "a lot about me that these are my friends" and on the other it didn't happen and you want proof that it did?
Get tae fuck, you sad sack o shite
Yeah, I didn't think you could substantiate the tale.
Some people are just born gullible.
So, wait, where are you now? I'm making this up, he's making this up, or it is true as you said before and you are unsurprised that I have "friends like this" who really do this? But, wait, now they don't do this? But wait yes they do? What? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ON ABOUT YOU STUIPID BORING PROVINCIAL QUACK
You are just TRAGIC
No, I just think you are gullible enough to buy any bullshit that your racist friends make up.
How many good friends do you have? I'm guessing less than two, possibly under one. Somewhere between zero and one?
No one could possibly abide your desolate, humourless, self congratulating piety for more than an hour without wanting to stab themselves in the perineum
How are the long term relationships going?
lol. One of them is coming round tomorrow. Tho I am unsure what will happen
I am pretty shit at long term romantic relationships. Weirdly, however, I am good at friends, and have a lot. Coz I don't judge and I am very tolerant. And I make sure I choose friends that amuse (and/or they choose me, of course)
I've always thought that should be my emotional epitaph, inasmuch as it matters. Good at Friends, Bad at Family
There are worse Fates
Incidentally. This anecdote I heard tonight is true beyond reasonable doubt (it squares with everything we all know about the guy, esp at the the time) and the way he revealed it was utterly sincere (with shuddering guilt, then relief when we laughed)
Would the PB lefties really have said to him "you are a racist piece of shit" and stormed off? Really? Maybe one or two of the worst of you would have done that (eg @foxy). But far more likely this very funny guy would not have told this funny story in the first place, knowing of your morally sneering reaction. That is your loss. It really is. The Left is in a dreadful place
"...I don't judge and I am very tolerant."
And you are either very good at titanic levels irony or incredibly lacking in self-awareness; I prefer to believe it is the former.
I don't judge people MORALLY (unless they are actually criminal and vile); I accept we are all made from Crooked Timber. No doubt my own many failings play a part here
I absolutely judge people intellectually, and in terms of personality, humour, etc. How else do you choose friends?!
So you don't judge others except morally, sometimes, and based on their intellect, personality, humour - so pretty much the same as everyone else really.
And I presume you are tolerant to a fault (except for leftists, wokes, and people who disagree with any of your views on AI, aliens, lab-leak, pets, Brexit... )
You are talking to a man who has said that "wokes" are Nazis-with-pronouns.
Incidentally for those of you thinking - as on the previous thread - that there really wouldn't be much of a problem with ID cards, do please remember that the quality of the people designing and implementing such a scheme would have the same quality and integrity as those who introduced and implemented Horizon and decided to persecute innocent people on the back of it.
And by "quality" I mean people (for instance recent Post Office witnesses) of whom the adjective "third rate" would be a gross over-estimation. As for "integrity" they have none.
Did you see today's witness?
Mrs PtP and I spent a while discussing whether she was really plug stupid or being deliberately evasive. In the end we decided it was both.
Another candidate for a perjury prosecution I should think.
The Post Office witnesses are both dishonest and grossly incompetent.
The Post Office is deliberately undermining and obstructing the inquiry, as it has sought to undermine and obstruct every single legal action taken against it ever since this disaster became known. There is a point at which incompetence is so bad, flagrant and prolonged that it becomes deliberate and malicious. The Post Office long ago crossed that boundary.
Further thoughts from me in my next header on this topic which I will write after I have done some fee-paying work (and calmed down about this).
Nodding, Dura_Ace then whispered to the Arab. Smithson spun the prisoner around, so that his back was towards the squad. Resigned to whatever Smithson's order might be, Herdson reluctantly fell in line with the privates and racked his weapon off safety. The prisoner jumped. Smithson looked at his squad - Leon's eyes were glittering, Bartholomew's were hooded with a hunter's nonchalance, Blanche's were as dead as the stones covering the corpses.
Then Smithson said to Dura_Ace, 'Tell him to march two hundred paces and wait until he can't hear us anymore. Then he's to surrender himself to the first NATO patrol he runs into.'
'What?' Bartholomew said, shaking his head as if his ears were lying to him. 'Wait a goddam minute...'
'Yes, sir,' Dura_Ace said, relieved, but careful not to smile. And to the young Arab he repeated Smithson's order in Arabic. Then the captain checked the blindfold, snugging the knot tight, then patted the Arab twice on the shoulder, signalling him to take off, which he did.
'Close shave,' the Arab smiled, and said something like farewell in the vernacular.
Dura_Ace finally allowed himself a smile. The former prisoner's erstwhile captors watched him disappear into the distance, singing what sounded like, 'It's coming home, it's coming home!' until he was too far away for them to hear anything.
The longer term trend on this is not so bad. People much less pessimistic than they were a year ago, and roughly similar to where they were just before Partygate broke out.
As 1997 showed, this doesn't necessarily translate into Tory votes, in fact people may partly feel more optimistic because they expect a change of government. I think there are a few things likely to make the public less pessimistic than in 2022:
- Inflation is now falling, albeit still high, rather than skyrocketing. Particularly noticeable in heating bills as we enter winter - For all that Sunak's government is a bit limp, it's not the same crazed chaos as under latter day Johnson or the Truss-Kwarteng fever dream - The Russia-Ukraine war was pretty terrifying when it started but is now part of the furniture
So I don't think I agree with the header. There's a short term rise in pessimism but it's well down longer term.
Yes, I agree
Also, I think the nation is finally getting over Brexit. The departure of Boris has probably drawn a lot of the poison, but I also sense a genuine feeling of: it's done, like it or not, make the best of it. Clearly a lot of people, a sizeable majority, regret it - as things stand- but I doubt half of those people want to actually revisit it
This itself removes a shadow from British politics. We are in the post-Brexit era now, with its advantages and disadvantages; turns out it wasn't the immediate sunlit uplands promised by some, but neither was it the catastrophe that broke up the UK threatened by others. Meh
Speak for yourself Buster! Brexit is the weeping sore that will continue to infect UK politics no matter how much you wish for it to stop.
Brexit is like having a baby, that grows up to be Jimmy Saville.
I just had drinks with my favourite Cornish friends. All smart and funny
One of them pointed out that Jimmy Savile probably had a lot of fun, and died happy. Which I realised is almost certainly true, and quite disconcerting
Another one told me this superb anecdote. He was living in Bangor in Wales during 9/11. He was so enraged by it the next day he vandalised the local mosque - which was tiny, it being Bangor. Like a two room bungalow. He graffiti'd a Star of David and a swastika on the door, not quite knowing what else to do
The next day he was consumed with guilt and remorse and went BACK to the mosque and graffitoed under his graffiti the word "SORRY"
I just finished watching the Reckoning, about Saville. If that is accurate I don't think there's any chance Saville died happy, or indeed was ever happy. Steve Coogan is superb in it. The only downside is that I found myself whistling the theme tune to Jim'll Fix It as I walked down the street. Your second friend is a racist POS who engages in hate crimes.
It isn't entirely surprising that @Leon has friends like this.
You mean - candid, clever, amusing friends? Yes
I can only guess what your friends are like, and the painful "Leicester GP" small talk involved. Ditto @OnlyLivingBoy
My money is that there was no graffiti of any sort on Bangor mosque.
No, it is true. This guy does not lie
He may be a "racist POS who engages in hate crimes" (sigh), but he is not a liar. He revealed this anecdote with sincere and cringing excruciation, and was duly relieved when we all laughed, very loudly
It is of a piece with his behaviour at that time, he was definitely having troubles, and acting out in odd ways. He has told several other very funny stories from those days (funny if you're looking back not funny if you were him at the time)
I am sorry his behaviour and revelation offends the po-faced PB Left, please do not ever invite me to meet you, I could not bear the tedium of your company, and I would surely tell you this to your face, after the third martini
Let's see some evidence then. I think him more full of bullshit than even credulous you.
So on the one hand you think it happened and it says "a lot about me that these are my friends" and on the other it didn't happen and you want proof that it did?
Get tae fuck, you sad sack o shite
Yeah, I didn't think you could substantiate the tale.
Some people are just born gullible.
So, wait, where are you now? I'm making this up, he's making this up, or it is true as you said before and you are unsurprised that I have "friends like this" who really do this? But, wait, now they don't do this? But wait yes they do? What? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ON ABOUT YOU STUIPID BORING PROVINCIAL QUACK
You are just TRAGIC
No, I just think you are gullible enough to buy any bullshit that your racist friends make up.
How many good friends do you have? I'm guessing less than two, possibly under one. Somewhere between zero and one?
No one could possibly abide your desolate, humourless, self congratulating piety for more than an hour without wanting to stab themselves in the perineum
How are the long term relationships going?
lol. One of them is coming round tomorrow. Tho I am unsure what will happen
I am pretty shit at long term romantic relationships. Weirdly, however, I am good at friends, and have a lot. Coz I don't judge and I am very tolerant. And I make sure I choose friends that amuse (and/or they choose me, of course)
I've always thought that should be my emotional epitaph, inasmuch as it matters. Good at Friends, Bad at Family
There are worse Fates
Incidentally. This anecdote I heard tonight is true beyond reasonable doubt (it squares with everything we all know about the guy, esp at the the time) and the way he revealed it was utterly sincere (with shuddering guilt, then relief when we laughed)
Would the PB lefties really have said to him "you are a racist piece of shit" and stormed off? Really? Maybe one or two of the worst of you would have done that (eg @foxy). But far more likely this very funny guy would not have told this funny story in the first place, knowing of your morally sneering reaction. That is your loss. It really is. The Left is in a dreadful place
"...I don't judge and I am very tolerant."
And you are either very good at titanic levels irony or incredibly lacking in self-awareness; I prefer to believe it is the former.
I don't judge people MORALLY (unless they are actually criminal and vile); I accept we are all made from Crooked Timber. No doubt my own many failings play a part here
I absolutely judge people intellectually, and in terms of personality, humour, etc. How else do you choose friends?!
So you don't judge others except morally, sometimes, and based on their intellect, personality, humour - so pretty much the same as everyone else really.
And I presume you are tolerant to a fault (except for leftists, wokes, and people who disagree with any of your views on AI, aliens, lab-leak, pets, Brexit... )
At least half my friends are on the left
But they are funny or clever or sensitive or artistic or something. Or I just got hammered with them on E and weed in about 1998, and it stuck
Friends are an underrated thing. I suspect they are more important for long term happiness than Family
Just caught up on the gist of the speech. Wow. Pedicabs, vaping and forcing criminals to attend sentencing. Parish pump stuff. So parochial; embarrassing for country that aspires to be a global leader.
Purely from a strategic point of view, we're approaching an election, and the government have the initiative by default - they're squandering it, and Sunak continues to be really, really bad at politics. There's no vision, no answers to the big questions. Just performative nibbling around the edges.
Can someone explain to me how one can force someone to attend the dock? What happens if they just leave the country?
No idea but if it's for sentencing then they are about to force that person to do a stretch in HMP so forcing is perhaps not the challenge you think it is.
Meanwhile - it is your fault that the nation is largely poppyless because no one carries cash any more. Proud of yourself?
Just caught up on the gist of the speech. Wow. Pedicabs, vaping and forcing criminals to attend sentencing. Parish pump stuff. So parochial; embarrassing for country that aspires to be a global leader.
Purely from a strategic point of view, we're approaching an election, and the government have the initiative by default - they're squandering it, and Sunak continues to be really, really bad at politics. There's no vision, no answers to the big questions. Just performative nibbling around the edges.
Can someone explain to me how one can force someone to attend the dock? What happens if they just leave the country?
No idea but if it's for sentencing then they are about to force that person to do a stretch in HMP so forcing is perhaps not the challenge you think it is.
Meanwhile - it is your fault that the nation is largely poppyless because no one carries cash any more. Proud of yourself?
Probably a reaction to compulsory poppy fascism.
Definitely noticed a huge decline in people wearing them and indeed people selling them. It does appear that poppy fascism may have backfired: there was a period not too long ago where newsreaders/poilticians/anyone on the telly were lambasted by an angry twitter mob if their failed to wear a poppy (which is easily done by accident – the sodding things just fall off).
Or you change jackets. I buy 2-3 of these buggers a year.
I did wonder if there might be a business opportunity for a lapel badge saying 'my poppy is on my Barbour'.
Alternatively, "I bought a poppy but it fell off".
Few poppies this year. I think I am not the only one to have stopped wearing one. A century is long enough. Time to move on.
Maybe it's also time to stop marking 11th November as well as Remembrance Sunday?
The latter was introduced to replace the former in the 1930s because two-minutes silence on a work day was causing ructions. But much more recently (maybe the 1990s?) the British Legion (sorry, Royal British Legion) launched a successful campaign to reinstate Armistice Day in addition to Donkey Jacket Day.
And, of course, shops and offices throughout the land were blackmailed into taking part.
Such is our devotion to the public interest and general worthiness we are spending our whole weekend on a training course to yet further improve the prosecution service (as if such a thing is possible). But we are having a 2 minute break on Saturday in memory of our grandads or great grandparents who did not survive the slaughter of WW 1.
Not completely sure this is still necessary to be honest.
See my earlier post. There are young men still wounded in the Iraq war. They deserve help. There are men and women who died in that war. Some of them are commemorated in Carlisle cathedral. They need remembering. And for some time to come. That is the point of this Sunday.
Edited: see you meant it about Saturday. I had no idea anything was happening on Saturday. Sunday seems sufficient.
Incidentally for those of you thinking - as on the previous thread - that there really wouldn't be much of a problem with ID cards, do please remember that the quality of the people designing and implementing such a scheme would have the same quality and integrity as those who introduced and implemented Horizon and decided to persecute innocent people on the back of it.
And by "quality" I mean people (for instance recent Post Office witnesses) of whom the adjective "third rate" would be a gross over-estimation. As for "integrity" they have none.
Did you see today's witness?
Mrs PtP and I spent a while discussing whether she was really plug stupid or being deliberately evasive. In the end we decided it was both.
Another candidate for a perjury prosecution I should think.
The Post Office witnesses are both dishonest and grossly incompetent.
The Post Office is deliberately undermining and obstructing the inquiry, as it has sought to undermine and obstruct every single legal action taken against it ever since this disaster became known. There is a point at which incompetence is so bad, flagrant and prolonged that it becomes deliberate and malicious. The Post Office long ago crossed that boundary.
Further thoughts from me in my next header on this topic which I will write after I have done some fee-paying work (and calmed down about this).
Agreed, but it's not just the Post Office. Judges, defence lawyers, prosecution lawyers, expert witnesses, all share blame. The entire system which is supposed to protect the innocent failed, and even now there seems to be no urgency or priority given to redressing the massive injustice.
Here Remembrance weekend is taken very seriously indeed. Not in a "you must wear your poppy" way but rather in that the town makes an effort and virtually all the shops are collecting money. It is rather endearing - a reminder that people are still fighting and dying - and that the suffering of the wounded carries on even after the fighting has stopped.
The main square
And
Plus outside the post office. This changes to reflect whatever significant event is happening.
One of the ladies in my sewing circle has a 10 year old niece in Gaza. With her mother - both British citizens - they are now in Rafat waiting to get out. So we're all hoping they do manage to leave and soon.
I don't think the fact that it is more than a century since WW1 is reason to stop. There are plenty of recent wars and very many good reasons to reflect for a few minutes on those who fight to stop inhumanity and those who suffer because of it. As the last month, if nothing else, has shown us.
Agreed, and anyone who has done really any reading at all on the abattoir that was The Great War would find it hard to argue that such a senseless meat-grinder of a conflict was not still worthy of commemoration even after it has slipped from living memory.
Personally wear a red and a white poppy to cause maximum offence. To me the red is specifically for WWI and the white is to mourn the senselessness, pain and grief of conflict in general.
A fun thought.
If WWI had ended in a quick victory for Germany… then WWII would have started in about 1930. Given that part of the victory plan for WWI was to be in good position for the next war…
So, in 1930, a Germany built on the cult of War is Good, War is God would have gone to war again.
With the interesting products of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics as their weapons…
Here Remembrance weekend is taken very seriously indeed. Not in a "you must wear your poppy" way but rather in that the town makes an effort and virtually all the shops are collecting money. It is rather endearing - a reminder that people are still fighting and dying - and that the suffering of the wounded carries on even after the fighting has stopped.
The main square
And
Plus outside the post office. This changes to reflect whatever significant event is happening.
One of the ladies in my sewing circle has a 10 year old niece in Gaza. With her mother - both British citizens - they are now in Rafat waiting to get out. So we're all hoping they do manage to leave and soon.
I don't think the fact that it is more than a century since WW1 is reason to stop. There are plenty of recent wars and very many good reasons to reflect for a few minutes on those who fight to stop inhumanity and those who suffer because of it. As the last month, if nothing else, has shown us.
Agreed, and anyone who has done really any reading at all on the abattoir that was The Great War would find it hard to argue that such a senseless meat-grinder of a conflict was not still worthy of commemoration even after it has slipped from living memory.
Personally wear a red and a white poppy to cause maximum offence. To me the red is specifically for WWI and the white is to mourn the senselessness, pain and grief of conflict in general.
A fun thought.
If WWI had ended in a quick victory for Germany… then WWII would have started in about 1930. Given that part of the victory plan for WWI was to be in good position for the next war…
So, in 1930, a Germany built on the cult of War is Good, War is God would have gone to war again.
With the interesting products of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics as their weapons…
The Austro-Hungarian empire would still be hobbling on, as would the Ottomans. There would be no British or French control of Palestine and Lebanon. There would probably be no Armenians left at all. The next war would presumably involve an early edition of operation Barbarossa and the subjugation of Eastern Europe and Russia.
Assume Germany won that, overthrew the communists and America stayed out. The next confrontation might then have been Germany vs imperial Japan, in the Far East.
Just caught up on the gist of the speech. Wow. Pedicabs, vaping and forcing criminals to attend sentencing. Parish pump stuff. So parochial; embarrassing for country that aspires to be a global leader.
Purely from a strategic point of view, we're approaching an election, and the government have the initiative by default - they're squandering it, and Sunak continues to be really, really bad at politics. There's no vision, no answers to the big questions. Just performative nibbling around the edges.
Can someone explain to me how one can force someone to attend the dock? What happens if they just leave the country?
No idea but if it's for sentencing then they are about to force that person to do a stretch in HMP so forcing is perhaps not the challenge you think it is.
Meanwhile - it is your fault that the nation is largely poppyless because no one carries cash any more. Proud of yourself?
Just caught up on the gist of the speech. Wow. Pedicabs, vaping and forcing criminals to attend sentencing. Parish pump stuff. So parochial; embarrassing for country that aspires to be a global leader.
Purely from a strategic point of view, we're approaching an election, and the government have the initiative by default - they're squandering it, and Sunak continues to be really, really bad at politics. There's no vision, no answers to the big questions. Just performative nibbling around the edges.
Can someone explain to me how one can force someone to attend the dock? What happens if they just leave the country?
No idea but if it's for sentencing then they are about to force that person to do a stretch in HMP so forcing is perhaps not the challenge you think it is.
Meanwhile - it is your fault that the nation is largely poppyless because no one carries cash any more. Proud of yourself?
Probably a reaction to compulsory poppy fascism.
Definitely noticed a huge decline in people wearing them and indeed people selling them. It does appear that poppy fascism may have backfired: there was a period not too long ago where newsreaders/poilticians/anyone on the telly were lambasted by an angry twitter mob if their failed to wear a poppy (which is easily done by accident – the sodding things just fall off).
Or you change jackets. I buy 2-3 of these buggers a year.
I did wonder if there might be a business opportunity for a lapel badge saying 'my poppy is on my Barbour'.
Alternatively, "I bought a poppy but it fell off".
Few poppies this year. I think I am not the only one to have stopped wearing one. A century is long enough. Time to move on.
Maybe it's also time to stop marking 11th November as well as Remembrance Sunday?
The latter was introduced to replace the former in the 1930s because two-minutes silence on a work day was causing ructions. But much more recently (maybe the 1990s?) the British Legion (sorry, Royal British Legion) launched a successful campaign to reinstate Armistice Day in addition to Donkey Jacket Day.
And, of course, shops and offices throughout the land were blackmailed into taking part.
Such is our devotion to the public interest and general worthiness we are spending our whole weekend on a training course to yet further improve the prosecution service (as if such a thing is possible). But we are having a 2 minute break on Saturday in memory of our grandads or great grandparents who did not survive the slaughter of WW 1.
Not completely sure this is still necessary to be honest.
See my earlier post. There are young men still wounded in the Iraq war. They deserve help. There are men and women who died in that war. Some of them are commemorated in Carlisle cathedral. They need remembering. And for some time to come. That is the point of this Sunday.
Edited: see you meant it about Saturday. I had no idea anything was happening on Saturday. Sunday seems sufficient.
My father served 23 years in the army and had 3 combat medals. I understand the need to recognise and respect the ongoing sacrifice of those who serve. I have absolutely no problem with that. But commemorating those over 100 years dead? That I am not so sure of, despite my grandfather having been killed in WW2.
Incidentally for those of you thinking - as on the previous thread - that there really wouldn't be much of a problem with ID cards, do please remember that the quality of the people designing and implementing such a scheme would have the same quality and integrity as those who introduced and implemented Horizon and decided to persecute innocent people on the back of it.
And by "quality" I mean people (for instance recent Post Office witnesses) of whom the adjective "third rate" would be a gross over-estimation. As for "integrity" they have none.
Did you see today's witness?
Mrs PtP and I spent a while discussing whether she was really plug stupid or being deliberately evasive. In the end we decided it was both.
Another candidate for a perjury prosecution I should think.
The Post Office witnesses are both dishonest and grossly incompetent.
The Post Office is deliberately undermining and obstructing the inquiry, as it has sought to undermine and obstruct every single legal action taken against it ever since this disaster became known. There is a point at which incompetence is so bad, flagrant and prolonged that it becomes deliberate and malicious. The Post Office long ago crossed that boundary.
Further thoughts from me in my next header on this topic which I will write after I have done some fee-paying work (and calmed down about this).
Agreed, but it's not just the Post Office. Judges, defence lawyers, prosecution lawyers, expert witnesses, all share blame. The entire system which is supposed to protect the innocent failed, and even now there seems to be no urgency or priority given to redressing the massive injustice.
Every single person and firm involved in this from politicians down should be named and shamed. Next to this enormously long list there will be a much shorter list of those who have worked hard to right this injustice.
It should be a website. What to call it? "J'accuse" - in memory of Zola's letter on the Dreyfus affair - would be a good title. Because the scale and wrongness of the injustice and the fact that the state from senior Ministers down has been culpable is as serious as that affair and should stain the British state in the same way. It needs a level of righteous anger, of fury at what has happened and is continuing to happen.
And, yes, the lawyers need a damn good kicking - I am ashamed, utterly ashamed of how appallingly so many of them have behaved. The fantastic work of Jason Beer KC, Flora Paige, Edward Henry KC and others is - and this is no discredit to them - not enough to weigh in the balance.
Poll-closing times in key 2023 off-year elections (major races)
Kentucky (Governor) - polls closed in most of state 15 min ago; Republican state AG David Cameron ahead of Democratic incumbent Gov. Andy Brashear in very fragmentary (four rural counties) returns.
Nodding, Dura_Ace then whispered to the Arab. Smithson spun the prisoner around, so that his back was towards the squad. Resigned to whatever Smithson's order might be, Herdson reluctantly fell in line with the privates and racked his weapon off safety. The prisoner jumped. Smithson looked at his squad - Leon's eyes were glittering, Bartholomew's were hooded with a hunter's nonchalance, Blanche's were as dead as the stones covering the corpses.
Then Smithson said to Dura_Ace, 'Tell him to march two hundred paces and wait until he can't hear us anymore. Then he's to surrender himself to the first NATO patrol he runs into.'
'What?' Bartholomew said, shaking his head as if his ears were lying to him. 'Wait a goddam minute...'
'Yes, sir,' Dura_Ace said, relieved, but careful not to smile. And to the young Arab he repeated Smithson's order in Arabic. Then the captain checked the blindfold, snugging the knot tight, then patted the Arab twice on the shoulder, signalling him to take off, which he did.
'Close shave,' the Arab smiled, and said something like farewell in the vernacular.
Dura_Ace finally allowed himself a smile. The former prisoner's erstwhile captors watched him disappear into the distance, singing what sounded like, 'It's coming home, it's coming home!' until he was too far away for them to hear anything.
Not bad, quite a few nice touches. Let's get real though, a toss up as to whether Barty or Blanche would have slotted the Arab as he departed. Leon would have beeen distracted from joining in by some ancient masonry.
Here Remembrance weekend is taken very seriously indeed. Not in a "you must wear your poppy" way but rather in that the town makes an effort and virtually all the shops are collecting money. It is rather endearing - a reminder that people are still fighting and dying - and that the suffering of the wounded carries on even after the fighting has stopped.
The main square
And
Plus outside the post office. This changes to reflect whatever significant event is happening.
One of the ladies in my sewing circle has a 10 year old niece in Gaza. With her mother - both British citizens - they are now in Rafat waiting to get out. So we're all hoping they do manage to leave and soon.
I don't think the fact that it is more than a century since WW1 is reason to stop. There are plenty of recent wars and very many good reasons to reflect for a few minutes on those who fight to stop inhumanity and those who suffer because of it. As the last month, if nothing else, has shown us.
Nodding, Dura_Ace then whispered to the Arab. Smithson spun the prisoner around, so that his back was towards the squad. Resigned to whatever Smithson's order might be, Herdson reluctantly fell in line with the privates and racked his weapon off safety. The prisoner jumped. Smithson looked at his squad - Leon's eyes were glittering, Bartholomew's were hooded with a hunter's nonchalance, Blanche's were as dead as the stones covering the corpses.
Then Smithson said to Dura_Ace, 'Tell him to march two hundred paces and wait until he can't hear us anymore. Then he's to surrender himself to the first NATO patrol he runs into.'
'What?' Bartholomew said, shaking his head as if his ears were lying to him. 'Wait a goddam minute...'
'Yes, sir,' Dura_Ace said, relieved, but careful not to smile. And to the young Arab he repeated Smithson's order in Arabic. Then the captain checked the blindfold, snugging the knot tight, then patted the Arab twice on the shoulder, signalling him to take off, which he did.
'Close shave,' the Arab smiled, and said something like farewell in the vernacular.
Dura_Ace finally allowed himself a smile. The former prisoner's erstwhile captors watched him disappear into the distance, singing what sounded like, 'It's coming home, it's coming home!' until he was too far away for them to hear anything.
Kentucky hasn't voted for a Democrat for President since Bill Clinton, so not that surprising if the governorship goes Republican, especially with the GOP out of the White House and half of Congress and getting the protest vote
Just caught up on the gist of the speech. Wow. Pedicabs, vaping and forcing criminals to attend sentencing. Parish pump stuff. So parochial; embarrassing for country that aspires to be a global leader.
Purely from a strategic point of view, we're approaching an election, and the government have the initiative by default - they're squandering it, and Sunak continues to be really, really bad at politics. There's no vision, no answers to the big questions. Just performative nibbling around the edges.
Can someone explain to me how one can force someone to attend the dock? What happens if they just leave the country?
No idea but if it's for sentencing then they are about to force that person to do a stretch in HMP so forcing is perhaps not the challenge you think it is.
Meanwhile - it is your fault that the nation is largely poppyless because no one carries cash any more. Proud of yourself?
Just caught up on the gist of the speech. Wow. Pedicabs, vaping and forcing criminals to attend sentencing. Parish pump stuff. So parochial; embarrassing for country that aspires to be a global leader.
Purely from a strategic point of view, we're approaching an election, and the government have the initiative by default - they're squandering it, and Sunak continues to be really, really bad at politics. There's no vision, no answers to the big questions. Just performative nibbling around the edges.
Can someone explain to me how one can force someone to attend the dock? What happens if they just leave the country?
No idea but if it's for sentencing then they are about to force that person to do a stretch in HMP so forcing is perhaps not the challenge you think it is.
Meanwhile - it is your fault that the nation is largely poppyless because no one carries cash any more. Proud of yourself?
Probably a reaction to compulsory poppy fascism.
Definitely noticed a huge decline in people wearing them and indeed people selling them. It does appear that poppy fascism may have backfired: there was a period not too long ago where newsreaders/poilticians/anyone on the telly were lambasted by an angry twitter mob if their failed to wear a poppy (which is easily done by accident – the sodding things just fall off).
Or you change jackets. I buy 2-3 of these buggers a year.
I did wonder if there might be a business opportunity for a lapel badge saying 'my poppy is on my Barbour'.
Alternatively, "I bought a poppy but it fell off".
Few poppies this year. I think I am not the only one to have stopped wearing one. A century is long enough. Time to move on.
Maybe it's also time to stop marking 11th November as well as Remembrance Sunday?
The latter was introduced to replace the former in the 1930s because two-minutes silence on a work day was causing ructions. But much more recently (maybe the 1990s?) the British Legion (sorry, Royal British Legion) launched a successful campaign to reinstate Armistice Day in addition to Donkey Jacket Day.
And, of course, shops and offices throughout the land were blackmailed into taking part.
Such is our devotion to the public interest and general worthiness we are spending our whole weekend on a training course to yet further improve the prosecution service (as if such a thing is possible). But we are having a 2 minute break on Saturday in memory of our grandads or great grandparents who did not survive the slaughter of WW 1.
Not completely sure this is still necessary to be honest.
See my earlier post. There are young men still wounded in the Iraq war. They deserve help. There are men and women who died in that war. Some of them are commemorated in Carlisle cathedral. They need remembering. And for some time to come. That is the point of this Sunday.
Edited: see you meant it about Saturday. I had no idea anything was happening on Saturday. Sunday seems sufficient.
My father served 23 years in the army and had 3 combat medals. I understand the need to recognise and respect the ongoing sacrifice of those who serve. I have absolutely no problem with that. But commemorating those over 100 years dead? That I am not so sure of, despite my grandfather having been killed in WW2.
The point is that the overwhelming human sacrifice of World War One has come to emblematise all the dead in all wars, by its sheer scale and futility. For Britain, that makes sense. We lost about ONE MILLION young men, as did France and Germany, and Italy, Austro-Hungary, and Russia, and it is arguable that Europe never truly recovered. It also led directly to Communism and World War Two: outright global catastrophes
It is our holocaust: we must NEVER forget it. Poppies are the perfect symbol. And so we do remember, as a people, because if we do not remember, we risk it happening again - and we know this is possible, because it is happening right now in Europe, in Ukraine, where the losses now approach WW1 levels of horror and carnage
Incidentally for those of you thinking - as on the previous thread - that there really wouldn't be much of a problem with ID cards, do please remember that the quality of the people designing and implementing such a scheme would have the same quality and integrity as those who introduced and implemented Horizon and decided to persecute innocent people on the back of it.
And by "quality" I mean people (for instance recent Post Office witnesses) of whom the adjective "third rate" would be a gross over-estimation. As for "integrity" they have none.
Did you see today's witness?
Mrs PtP and I spent a while discussing whether she was really plug stupid or being deliberately evasive. In the end we decided it was both.
Another candidate for a perjury prosecution I should think.
It was astonishing. She couldn't remember making a witness statement to a civil court, and that she was managing 112 post offices. She could only remember managing 27.
Mississippi - 8pm central (Governor - Let's Go Brandon Presley!)
All of the other state will also be reporting unofficial, partial returns for THEIR off-year general election this evening (my time) but not a lot of national significance.
For example, City of Seattle is electing 7 out of 9 city council members, with ballots due at 8pm pacific, if returned via drop box, OR postmarked on or before Nov. 7, if returned via the mail.
Just caught up on the gist of the speech. Wow. Pedicabs, vaping and forcing criminals to attend sentencing. Parish pump stuff. So parochial; embarrassing for country that aspires to be a global leader.
Purely from a strategic point of view, we're approaching an election, and the government have the initiative by default - they're squandering it, and Sunak continues to be really, really bad at politics. There's no vision, no answers to the big questions. Just performative nibbling around the edges.
Can someone explain to me how one can force someone to attend the dock? What happens if they just leave the country?
No idea but if it's for sentencing then they are about to force that person to do a stretch in HMP so forcing is perhaps not the challenge you think it is.
Meanwhile - it is your fault that the nation is largely poppyless because no one carries cash any more. Proud of yourself?
Just caught up on the gist of the speech. Wow. Pedicabs, vaping and forcing criminals to attend sentencing. Parish pump stuff. So parochial; embarrassing for country that aspires to be a global leader.
Purely from a strategic point of view, we're approaching an election, and the government have the initiative by default - they're squandering it, and Sunak continues to be really, really bad at politics. There's no vision, no answers to the big questions. Just performative nibbling around the edges.
Can someone explain to me how one can force someone to attend the dock? What happens if they just leave the country?
No idea but if it's for sentencing then they are about to force that person to do a stretch in HMP so forcing is perhaps not the challenge you think it is.
Meanwhile - it is your fault that the nation is largely poppyless because no one carries cash any more. Proud of yourself?
Probably a reaction to compulsory poppy fascism.
Definitely noticed a huge decline in people wearing them and indeed people selling them. It does appear that poppy fascism may have backfired: there was a period not too long ago where newsreaders/poilticians/anyone on the telly were lambasted by an angry twitter mob if their failed to wear a poppy (which is easily done by accident – the sodding things just fall off).
Or you change jackets. I buy 2-3 of these buggers a year.
I did wonder if there might be a business opportunity for a lapel badge saying 'my poppy is on my Barbour'.
Alternatively, "I bought a poppy but it fell off".
Few poppies this year. I think I am not the only one to have stopped wearing one. A century is long enough. Time to move on.
Maybe it's also time to stop marking 11th November as well as Remembrance Sunday?
The latter was introduced to replace the former in the 1930s because two-minutes silence on a work day was causing ructions. But much more recently (maybe the 1990s?) the British Legion (sorry, Royal British Legion) launched a successful campaign to reinstate Armistice Day in addition to Donkey Jacket Day.
And, of course, shops and offices throughout the land were blackmailed into taking part.
Such is our devotion to the public interest and general worthiness we are spending our whole weekend on a training course to yet further improve the prosecution service (as if such a thing is possible). But we are having a 2 minute break on Saturday in memory of our grandads or great grandparents who did not survive the slaughter of WW 1.
Not completely sure this is still necessary to be honest.
See my earlier post. There are young men still wounded in the Iraq war. They deserve help. There are men and women who died in that war. Some of them are commemorated in Carlisle cathedral. They need remembering. And for some time to come. That is the point of this Sunday.
Edited: see you meant it about Saturday. I had no idea anything was happening on Saturday. Sunday seems sufficient.
My father served 23 years in the army and had 3 combat medals. I understand the need to recognise and respect the ongoing sacrifice of those who serve. I have absolutely no problem with that. But commemorating those over 100 years dead? That I am not so sure of, despite my grandfather having been killed in WW2.
Doris Lessing once wrote that she was shaped by her parents' experiences in the war. WW1 cast a shadow over life even though she did not live through it. I understand that. My father was born in 1913. My Italian grandfather fought in WW1. My father fought in WW2. My one remaining uncle remembers being a child in wartime Italy. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. Even without consciously being told much about their experiences or those of my parents, those wars and their reactions to it cast a shadow over my life, in ways which I probably don't fully realise even now.
We - both individually and as a society - are made by more than just the present. The past does not, should not determine everything - or even very much - but it should be remembered and thought about, particularly the latter. There is not enough quiet time to think about how we are affected by what has happened. Social memory - like corporate memory - is valuable - if used wisely. There is not enough of it IMO. I treasure days like Remembrance Sunday because it is a time to stop and think - though too often it becomes a moment just to show off rather than think. Which is a pity.
PS My father came to fatherhood late just in case anyone thinks I'm about 90 or something.
David Davis: Removing warrant requirement is 'fundamental mistake'
David Davis has argued the Government will make a “fundamental mistake” if it goes ahead with plans to let the police search properties without a court warrant.
The former Brexit secretary, a long-standing campaigner for civil rights, said the move would take away a “fundamental foundation stone… of free British society”.
He continued: “It’s there with jury trials and it’s there with the presumption of innocence.
“The right not to have the state kick your door down and come search your house with judicial approval is a massively important British value. The judicial control of the police is vital and must be preserved.”
He is absolutely right on that. But like you it is the first I have heard of it. Surely someone in the media or the Opposition must have heard about it and would be making a noise?
I think this relates to the absurd situation where a bike or phone is stolen and has GPS tracking so that the owner can tell exactly where it is, but the police can't actually do anything because getting a warrant takes too long.
As if the police would do anything even if they didn't need a warrant. The only thing the police do when such a crime is reported is give you a crime number which takes zero effort from them. Ditto other thefts, fraud, burglaries, criminal damage etc.,.
Indeed. I know a couple of people who've had motorcycles stolen in the past and been able to track their bike to an exact address, only for the police to refuse to get involved. One of these was an old neighbour of mine who discovered the bike was hidden in a rather shabby lock-up. He armed himself with a crow-bar and broke in to recover it.
He called the police and told them the bike had been recovered without mentioning his B&E work, probably wisely!
Betfair suggesting Dems retain Kentucky Governor. First batch of votes just in from Louisville - Dem leading 61/39 (whereas Rep had been leading before then).
Sorry, in KY the GOP challenger is DANIEL Cameron.
No relation btw, unless former PM has a Black Bluegrass brother.
As I type, with 3% of voted reported (as per NYT) AG Cameron leads (53.3%) over Gov. Brashear (47.7%).
However, in 8 out of 19 counties that have reported any returns, Brashear is leading; these include Jefferson (Louisville) and some exurban/surburban turf near Lexington and Cincinnati but also some rural counties in eastern KY which is Brashear's home base.
EDIT - two corrections, its Beshear; and he is NOT from eastern Kentucky, but rather Louisville
One thing the Canadian Liberals and the UK Tories have in common: they're averaging 26% in the opinion polls. Both looking at a big defeat in elections to be held within the next year or two.
Just caught up on the gist of the speech. Wow. Pedicabs, vaping and forcing criminals to attend sentencing. Parish pump stuff. So parochial; embarrassing for country that aspires to be a global leader.
Purely from a strategic point of view, we're approaching an election, and the government have the initiative by default - they're squandering it, and Sunak continues to be really, really bad at politics. There's no vision, no answers to the big questions. Just performative nibbling around the edges.
Can someone explain to me how one can force someone to attend the dock? What happens if they just leave the country?
No idea but if it's for sentencing then they are about to force that person to do a stretch in HMP so forcing is perhaps not the challenge you think it is.
Meanwhile - it is your fault that the nation is largely poppyless because no one carries cash any more. Proud of yourself?
Just caught up on the gist of the speech. Wow. Pedicabs, vaping and forcing criminals to attend sentencing. Parish pump stuff. So parochial; embarrassing for country that aspires to be a global leader.
Purely from a strategic point of view, we're approaching an election, and the government have the initiative by default - they're squandering it, and Sunak continues to be really, really bad at politics. There's no vision, no answers to the big questions. Just performative nibbling around the edges.
Can someone explain to me how one can force someone to attend the dock? What happens if they just leave the country?
No idea but if it's for sentencing then they are about to force that person to do a stretch in HMP so forcing is perhaps not the challenge you think it is.
Meanwhile - it is your fault that the nation is largely poppyless because no one carries cash any more. Proud of yourself?
Probably a reaction to compulsory poppy fascism.
Definitely noticed a huge decline in people wearing them and indeed people selling them. It does appear that poppy fascism may have backfired: there was a period not too long ago where newsreaders/poilticians/anyone on the telly were lambasted by an angry twitter mob if their failed to wear a poppy (which is easily done by accident – the sodding things just fall off).
Or you change jackets. I buy 2-3 of these buggers a year.
I did wonder if there might be a business opportunity for a lapel badge saying 'my poppy is on my Barbour'.
Alternatively, "I bought a poppy but it fell off".
Few poppies this year. I think I am not the only one to have stopped wearing one. A century is long enough. Time to move on.
Maybe it's also time to stop marking 11th November as well as Remembrance Sunday?
The latter was introduced to replace the former in the 1930s because two-minutes silence on a work day was causing ructions. But much more recently (maybe the 1990s?) the British Legion (sorry, Royal British Legion) launched a successful campaign to reinstate Armistice Day in addition to Donkey Jacket Day.
And, of course, shops and offices throughout the land were blackmailed into taking part.
Such is our devotion to the public interest and general worthiness we are spending our whole weekend on a training course to yet further improve the prosecution service (as if such a thing is possible). But we are having a 2 minute break on Saturday in memory of our grandads or great grandparents who did not survive the slaughter of WW 1.
Not completely sure this is still necessary to be honest.
See my earlier post. There are young men still wounded in the Iraq war. They deserve help. There are men and women who died in that war. Some of them are commemorated in Carlisle cathedral. They need remembering. And for some time to come. That is the point of this Sunday.
Edited: see you meant it about Saturday. I had no idea anything was happening on Saturday. Sunday seems sufficient.
My father served 23 years in the army and had 3 combat medals. I understand the need to recognise and respect the ongoing sacrifice of those who serve. I have absolutely no problem with that. But commemorating those over 100 years dead? That I am not so sure of, despite my grandfather having been killed in WW2.
It should change over time to reflect the ongoing and recent sacrifices more, but as the very last veterans (or even thouse alive at the time) of those much larger conflicts start to reach their end I think the focus on the distant past becomes even greater.
No, IMHO, more interesting is Mississippi, where a crap GOP incumbent is being challenged by strong Democratic challenger.
from wiki
Most analysts consider Reeves to be a favorite to win reelection, given the state's partisan lean. Nonetheless, some consider the race to have the potential to become competitive, citing factors such as Reeves' narrow victory four years prior and the heavy criticism he has faced for his handling of the Jackson water crisis and for his ties to a welfare corruption scandal, both of which have led him to have the lowest approval ratings of any Republican governor in the country.
The Democratic nominee, Brandon Presley, is considered to be a potentially strong general election candidate; he has represented the Northern district on the Mississippi Public Service Commission since 2008, despite that district having a strong Republican bent, and holds relatively moderate views on social issues, thus being closer to fitting the state.
David Davis: Removing warrant requirement is 'fundamental mistake'
David Davis has argued the Government will make a “fundamental mistake” if it goes ahead with plans to let the police search properties without a court warrant.
The former Brexit secretary, a long-standing campaigner for civil rights, said the move would take away a “fundamental foundation stone… of free British society”.
He continued: “It’s there with jury trials and it’s there with the presumption of innocence.
“The right not to have the state kick your door down and come search your house with judicial approval is a massively important British value. The judicial control of the police is vital and must be preserved.”
He is absolutely right on that. But like you it is the first I have heard of it. Surely someone in the media or the Opposition must have heard about it and would be making a noise?
I think this relates to the absurd situation where a bike or phone is stolen and has GPS tracking so that the owner can tell exactly where it is, but the police can't actually do anything because getting a warrant takes too long.
As if the police would do anything even if they didn't need a warrant. The only thing the police do when such a crime is reported is give you a crime number which takes zero effort from them. Ditto other thefts, fraud, burglaries, criminal damage etc.,.
Indeed. I know a couple of people who've had motorcycles stolen in the past and been able to track their bike to an exact address, only for the police to refuse to get involved. One of these was an old neighbour of mine who discovered the bike was hidden in a rather shabby lock-up. He armed himself with a crow-bar and broke in to recover it.
He called the police and told them the bike had been recovered without mentioning his B&E work, probably wisely!
Indeed, they may no longer care about 'petty' crime that is not on an approved list of things to care about, but you can bet a lot that they'd come down very hard on someone taking the law into their own hands. It's their job to ignore crime, matey, not for others to take action.
One thing the Canadian Liberals and the UK Tories have in common: they're averaging 26% in the opinion polls. Both looking at a big defeat in elections to be held within the next year or two.
The former have been in power 8 years, the latter have been in power 13 years so really not that surprising.
It is surprising if a party loses power after only 4 or 5 years, not after getting on for a decade or more in government
One thing the Canadian Liberals and the UK Tories have in common: they're averaging 26% in the opinion polls. Both looking at a big defeat in elections to be held within the next year or two.
The former have been in power 13 years, the latter have been in power 8 years so really not that surprising.
It is surprising if a party loses more after only 4 or 5 years, not after getting on for a decade or more
That is true, though for the latter doesn't disguise that it would still be a shock to lose badly, given 9 years in they would not generally be expected to thrash the opposition either.
Incidentally for those of you thinking - as on the previous thread - that there really wouldn't be much of a problem with ID cards, do please remember that the quality of the people designing and implementing such a scheme would have the same quality and integrity as those who introduced and implemented Horizon and decided to persecute innocent people on the back of it.
And by "quality" I mean people (for instance recent Post Office witnesses) of whom the adjective "third rate" would be a gross over-estimation. As for "integrity" they have none.
Did you see today's witness?
Mrs PtP and I spent a while discussing whether she was really plug stupid or being deliberately evasive. In the end we decided it was both.
Another candidate for a perjury prosecution I should think.
The Post Office witnesses are both dishonest and grossly incompetent.
The Post Office is deliberately undermining and obstructing the inquiry, as it has sought to undermine and obstruct every single legal action taken against it ever since this disaster became known. There is a point at which incompetence is so bad, flagrant and prolonged that it becomes deliberate and malicious. The Post Office long ago crossed that boundary.
Further thoughts from me in my next header on this topic which I will write after I have done some fee-paying work (and calmed down about this).
Really seeming like a vindictive and mendacious organisation, a corporate burning and salting of the earth seems appropriate.
The longer term trend on this is not so bad. People much less pessimistic than they were a year ago, and roughly similar to where they were just before Partygate broke out.
As 1997 showed, this doesn't necessarily translate into Tory votes, in fact people may partly feel more optimistic because they expect a change of government. I think there are a few things likely to make the public less pessimistic than in 2022:
- Inflation is now falling, albeit still high, rather than skyrocketing. Particularly noticeable in heating bills as we enter winter - For all that Sunak's government is a bit limp, it's not the same crazed chaos as under latter day Johnson or the Truss-Kwarteng fever dream - The Russia-Ukraine war was pretty terrifying when it started but is now part of the furniture
So I don't think I agree with the header. There's a short term rise in pessimism but it's well down longer term.
Yes, I agree
Also, I think the nation is finally getting over Brexit. The departure of Boris has probably drawn a lot of the poison, but I also sense a genuine feeling of: it's done, like it or not, make the best of it. Clearly a lot of people, a sizeable majority, regret it - as things stand- but I doubt half of those people want to actually revisit it
This itself removes a shadow from British politics. We are in the post-Brexit era now, with its advantages and disadvantages; turns out it wasn't the immediate sunlit uplands promised by some, but neither was it the catastrophe that broke up the UK threatened by others. Meh
Speak for yourself Buster! Brexit is the weeping sore that will continue to infect UK politics no matter how much you wish for it to stop.
Brexit is like having a baby, that grows up to be Jimmy Saville.
I just had drinks with my favourite Cornish friends. All smart and funny
One of them pointed out that Jimmy Savile probably had a lot of fun, and died happy. Which I realised is almost certainly true, and quite disconcerting
Another one told me this superb anecdote. He was living in Bangor in Wales during 9/11. He was so enraged by it the next day he vandalised the local mosque - which was tiny, it being Bangor. Like a two room bungalow. He graffiti'd a Star of David and a swastika on the door, not quite knowing what else to do
The next day he was consumed with guilt and remorse and went BACK to the mosque and graffitoed under his graffiti the word "SORRY"
I just finished watching the Reckoning, about Saville. If that is accurate I don't think there's any chance Saville died happy, or indeed was ever happy. Steve Coogan is superb in it. The only downside is that I found myself whistling the theme tune to Jim'll Fix It as I walked down the street. Your second friend is a racist POS who engages in hate crimes.
It isn't entirely surprising that @Leon has friends like this.
You mean - candid, clever, amusing friends? Yes
I can only guess what your friends are like, and the painful "Leicester GP" small talk involved. Ditto @OnlyLivingBoy
My money is that there was no graffiti of any sort on Bangor mosque.
No, it is true. This guy does not lie
He may be a "racist POS who engages in hate crimes" (sigh), but he is not a liar. He revealed this anecdote with sincere and cringing excruciation, and was duly relieved when we all laughed, very loudly
It is of a piece with his behaviour at that time, he was definitely having troubles, and acting out in odd ways. He has told several other very funny stories from those days (funny if you're looking back not funny if you were him at the time)
I am sorry his behaviour and revelation offends the po-faced PB Left, please do not ever invite me to meet you, I could not bear the tedium of your company, and I would surely tell you this to your face, after the third martini
I expect in face to face company you’d all get on very well with each other. After all everyone on here has an interest in politics in common, for a start.
I expect not.
No, absolutely not
A fat Woke worthy boring semi-retired Lib Dem voting evangelical GP from Leicester? Er, No. NOPE. Noooooo
And @Foxy is right to swerve me. We would despise each other. I'd die of boredom first, tho, before he died of being offended
I like to imagne that you have never watched a RomCom, international man of mystery that you are. (I recommend The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill... Hugh Grant without Richard Curtis. Worked for me, anyway.)
That's the kind of thing they always say in Reel One.
No. The PB lefties are generally awful: spectrumy, humourless, pious and devoid of imagination. I enjoy jousting with you guys on here - lots of you know your political onions, and I am sincerely grateful for the online company - but I seriously never want to meet you. None of you strike me as likely to be "entertaining company" in real life
I am sure you feel the same about me, for diverse reasons. And that's totally cool. That's exactly why we meet on here, in our virtual pub, where all are welcome
I like to think every poster is the complete opposite of their online persona in real life. Sunil's a boozer who's never been on a train in his life, you're an abstemious stay at home sort, that sort of thing.
Incidentally for those of you thinking - as on the previous thread - that there really wouldn't be much of a problem with ID cards, do please remember that the quality of the people designing and implementing such a scheme would have the same quality and integrity as those who introduced and implemented Horizon and decided to persecute innocent people on the back of it.
And by "quality" I mean people (for instance recent Post Office witnesses) of whom the adjective "third rate" would be a gross over-estimation. As for "integrity" they have none.
Did you see today's witness?
Mrs PtP and I spent a while discussing whether she was really plug stupid or being deliberately evasive. In the end we decided it was both.
Another candidate for a perjury prosecution I should think.
The Post Office witnesses are both dishonest and grossly incompetent.
The Post Office is deliberately undermining and obstructing the inquiry, as it has sought to undermine and obstruct every single legal action taken against it ever since this disaster became known. There is a point at which incompetence is so bad, flagrant and prolonged that it becomes deliberate and malicious. The Post Office long ago crossed that boundary.
Further thoughts from me in my next header on this topic which I will write after I have done some fee-paying work (and calmed down about this).
Really seeming like a vindictive and mendacious organisation, a corporate burning and salting of the earth seems appropriate.
It rivals the Met for organisations which need pulling down and starting again. The entire Board and senior management need sacking. Mind you, the Ministers in charge - Badenoch, for instance - are utterly useless.
Eventually, but they'd be advised to tackle more critical problems first, and seem to have taken that on board a bit.
They will tinker with it and likely phase out the remaining hereditaries but Starmer does not want a Tory elected upper house blocking his legislation
Given the remaining hereditaries was supposed to be a temporary measure that has now lasted nearly a quarter century it would be about time, though rather hilarious if they did leave it. Having by-elections to replace hereditary peers, including at least one instance where there were more candidates than eligible voters, is worth the inherent lack of democracy for humour value.
One thing the Canadian Liberals and the UK Tories have in common: they're averaging 26% in the opinion polls. Both looking at a big defeat in elections to be held within the next year or two.
The former have been in power 13 years, the latter have been in power 8 years so really not that surprising.
It is surprising if a party loses more after only 4 or 5 years, not after getting on for a decade or more
That is true, though for the latter doesn't disguise that it would still be a shock to lose badly, given 9 years in they would not generally be expected to thrash the opposition either.
When Trudeau took over the Liberals they were in third place, even if he does lose in 2025 at ten years in office he would still be one of the longest serving Canadian PMs
To win statewide in Kentucky, a Democrat must not only win by healthy margin in metro Lexington and Louisville, but also carry a sufficient number of rural counties.
Which is exactly what Gov. Beshear is doing right this moment, in eastern KY.
Real question now is, are their enough GOP votes in rural western KY to beat him.
My own guess is, no. But polls haven't closed yet in the western part of the state.
Off topic, but possibly of interest to many of you: This WaPo opinion piece: "Eight columnists discuss: How in the world is Trump winning?" For me, the single most interesting paragraph was this, from conservative Jim Geraghty: "There are an enormous number of grass-roots Republicans who choose to believe that the pre-Trump GOP were a bunch of losers — but in early 2015, the year Trump showed up, the party held 54 Senate seats, 247 House of Representatives seats, 31 governor’s mansions and the highest number of majorities in the state legislatures in the party’s history since 1928. These same voters believe that only Trump is a “winner” who knows how to beat Democrats, never mind that he and his like-minded freak-show candidates led the party to defeats in 2018, 2020 and 2022. A non-Trump GOP presidential candidate needed to convince primary voters that the point of a president is to alter policy and run the executive branch, not to say and do things on television and social media that entertain them." source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/06/trump-winning-2024-polls-reasons/
I call Trump the "Loser" for good reasons.
None of the eight columnists mention three things that I would: First, the tactics used against Trump by both Republicans and Democrats have been poor. Were I running a campaign against him, I would have a Trump figure -- with security -- at every Trump event, depicting him as a little boy with his pants on fire. I would run commercials telling the stories of real victims of his "leadership", beginning with Trump University, and I argue that those who follow him often ending up losing their money, their health, or even their freedom.
Second, the distrust of the "mainstream" media by so many Republicans has made it possible that the best way that, for example, the New York Times could help defeat Trump -- would be to endorse him.
Third, there have been so many failures by elected leftists that many voters are looking for alternatives, almost any alternatives. (New York Mayor Eric Adams seems to understand this, as does California Governor Gavin Newsom, but I am not sure how many others in the Democratic Party do.)
David Davis: Removing warrant requirement is 'fundamental mistake'
David Davis has argued the Government will make a “fundamental mistake” if it goes ahead with plans to let the police search properties without a court warrant.
The former Brexit secretary, a long-standing campaigner for civil rights, said the move would take away a “fundamental foundation stone… of free British society”.
He continued: “It’s there with jury trials and it’s there with the presumption of innocence.
“The right not to have the state kick your door down and come search your house with judicial approval is a massively important British value. The judicial control of the police is vital and must be preserved.”
He is absolutely right on that. But like you it is the first I have heard of it. Surely someone in the media or the Opposition must have heard about it and would be making a noise?
I think this relates to the absurd situation where a bike or phone is stolen and has GPS tracking so that the owner can tell exactly where it is, but the police can't actually do anything because getting a warrant takes too long.
Still no excuse. In that case we need to change the system to speed up the production of warrants, not abandon them altogether.
And to be honest, given that the police don't seem to care two figs about catching criminals even when they have all the evidence handed to them on a plate I seriously doubt this is either the reason nor that it will make any diference to solving those sorts of crimes.
It's exactly because the police can't do anything even when the evidence is provided on a plate that this has been proposed.
Of course if we prefer, they can instead sift through silly things said on Twitter. No warrants needed for that.
Nah. This has nothing to do with that. The police simply can't be arsed to chase common criminals like thieves, muggers or housebreakers. They know that even if they do then nothing will be done to them in court anyway and these sorts of crimes are simply no longer a priority with their restricted manpower.
If you think the purpose of allowing police entry without a warrant is to catch the sorts of criminals the public are actually bothered about, then you are naive in the extreme.
Kentucky hasn't voted for a Democrat for President since Bill Clinton, so not that surprising if the governorship goes Republican, especially with the GOP out of the White House and half of Congress and getting the protest vote
Not too shabby for a Democrat. And note that DeSoto Co (southern burbs of Memphis TN) are 86% reported, with Reeves 58%, Presley 40%, Gray 1%. Again, not bad for a Dem, and one major source of GOP votes mostly dried up.
Kentucky hasn't voted for a Democrat for President since Bill Clinton, so not that surprising if the governorship goes Republican, especially with the GOP out of the White House and half of Congress and getting the protest vote
Didn't happen though.
Not a surprise IF you actually read anything about this race in particular, as opposed to fixating on national generalities.
For one thing, governor's races are different from legislative/congressional races. With states that lean heavily one way or another when the latter is on the line, going the other when choosing their state executives.
It's LONG been a thing in the USA, and tonight proves it still is.
Now turn your gaze to the great Magnolia State of Mississippi.
Looking like a surprisingly good night for the Dems:
Beshear reelected Governor in Kentucky in a race that wasn't that tight in the end. Virginia looks like the Dems are going to hold the State Senate, and may regain the House of Delegates
Mississippi Governor looks like a comfortable Republican hold.
Here Remembrance weekend is taken very seriously indeed. Not in a "you must wear your poppy" way but rather in that the town makes an effort and virtually all the shops are collecting money. It is rather endearing - a reminder that people are still fighting and dying - and that the suffering of the wounded carries on even after the fighting has stopped.
The main square
And
Plus outside the post office. This changes to reflect whatever significant event is happening.
One of the ladies in my sewing circle has a 10 year old niece in Gaza. With her mother - both British citizens - they are now in Rafat waiting to get out. So we're all hoping they do manage to leave and soon.
I don't think the fact that it is more than a century since WW1 is reason to stop. There are plenty of recent wars and very many good reasons to reflect for a few minutes on those who fight to stop inhumanity and those who suffer because of it. As the last month, if nothing else, has shown us.
Agreed, and anyone who has done really any reading at all on the abattoir that was The Great War would find it hard to argue that such a senseless meat-grinder of a conflict was not still worthy of commemoration even after it has slipped from living memory.
Personally wear a red and a white poppy to cause maximum offence. To me the red is specifically for WWI and the white is to mourn the senselessness, pain and grief of conflict in general.
A fun thought.
If WWI had ended in a quick victory for Germany… then WWII would have started in about 1930. Given that part of the victory plan for WWI was to be in good position for the next war…
So, in 1930, a Germany built on the cult of War is Good, War is God would have gone to war again.
With the interesting products of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics as their weapons…
How fortunate the Empire was willing to spend the accumulated treasure of generations to preserve our liberties
Looking like a surprisingly good night for the Dems:
Beshear reelected Governor in Kentucky in a race that wasn't that tight in the end. Virginia looks like the Dems are going to hold the State Senate, and may regain the House of Delegates
Mississippi Governor looks like a comfortable Republican hold.
Yep: like like the Dems regain the Virginia House of Delagates.
Incidentally for those of you thinking - as on the previous thread - that there really wouldn't be much of a problem with ID cards, do please remember that the quality of the people designing and implementing such a scheme would have the same quality and integrity as those who introduced and implemented Horizon and decided to persecute innocent people on the back of it.
And by "quality" I mean people (for instance recent Post Office witnesses) of whom the adjective "third rate" would be a gross over-estimation. As for "integrity" they have none.
Reading the Post Office scandal blog, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that some senior members of our profession have no qualms about committing perjury or perverting the course of justice.
Incidentally for those of you thinking - as on the previous thread - that there really wouldn't be much of a problem with ID cards, do please remember that the quality of the people designing and implementing such a scheme would have the same quality and integrity as those who introduced and implemented Horizon and decided to persecute innocent people on the back of it.
And by "quality" I mean people (for instance recent Post Office witnesses) of whom the adjective "third rate" would be a gross over-estimation. As for "integrity" they have none.
Reading the Post Office scandal blog, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that some senior members of our profession have no qualms about committing perjury or perverting the course of justice.
Comments
Mrs PtP and I spent a while discussing whether she was really plug stupid or being deliberately evasive. In the end we decided it was both.
Another candidate for a perjury prosecution I should think.
And the Arab suddenly pulled away from his captors, scooping up
the rock he dropped, and hastily returned to covering up the corpses.
The sound of Bartholomew racking his machine gun off safety froze the prisoner, and he carefully got to his feet and turned to face them.
'Please,' he said in English, pleadingly. 'I like Israel!' His accent was thick, almost stereotypically Middle Eastern, his teeth bared in a miserable, desperate excuse for a smile. 'How do you do? Nice to meet you! Do you have the time?'
Leon racked his machine gun off safety. The Arab began to laugh, softly, hysterically. Tears were welling as he said, 'Gal Gadot! What a dish! Dana International? Nice gams!' And the prisoner lifted hisslacks to the knees, laughing.
Blanche racked their machine gun off safety. The Arab stood straight now, his legs still exposed. He started singing part of the Israeli national anthem, 'Hatikvah...' However, that was all he knew; he kept singing the word again and again. 'Hatikvah... Hatikvah....'
The three privates were standing in firing-squad fashion now, facing the prisoner. Sickened, Dura_Ace looked away. Smithson was still dismantling machine guns, Herdson gathering ammo, as if completely unaware, or anyway unconcerned, about what was happening. The young prisoner finally played his trump card:
'Fuck Hamas!' he glanced first at Dura_Ace, then at the privates. 'Fuck Hamas!'
'Fuck you!' Bartholomew said. The prisoner lurched for Dura_Ace, grabbing his arm, and spewed a terrified stream of Arabic at the corporal.
Dura_Ace called to Smithson, 'Sir, he says he's sorry about SeanT. I don't think he was the gunner, sir!'
'Tell him 'sorry' don't cut the mustard,' Leon said, the big machine gun loose and deadly in the former flint-knapper's hands. 'Tell him my piles bleed for him.'
'Tell him...,' Smithson finally said, 'the war's over for him.' The squad members were nodding, Leon saying, 'Fuckin' 'ell,' and Smithson was dropping the last of the disarmed machine guns down and striding over to the Arab. A handkerchief came from one of the captain's pockets and he swiftly tied it around the Arab's head, in blindfold fashion.
'Sir,' Dura_Ace said softly but urgently, 'this isn't right.'
Smithson knew that Dura_Ace had very pro-Arab sympathies before the Braverman government introduced the draft in preparation for this land war in support of Israel, in fact he was only drafted back into the military because of his verbal Arabic skills, but the captain replied without umbrage.
'Just tell him, corporal. Tell him what I just said.'
[continued....]
Nodding, Dura_Ace then whispered to the Arab. Smithson spun the prisoner around, so that his back was towards the squad. Resigned to whatever Smithson's order might be, Herdson reluctantly fell in line with the privates and racked his weapon off safety. The prisoner jumped. Smithson looked at his squad - Leon's eyes were glittering, Bartholomew's were hooded with a hunter's nonchalance, Blanche's were as dead as the stones covering the corpses.
Then Smithson said to Dura_Ace, 'Tell him to march two hundred paces and wait until he can't hear us anymore. Then he's to surrender himself to the first NATO patrol he runs into.'
'What?' Bartholomew said, shaking his head as if his ears were lying to him. 'Wait a goddam minute...'
'Yes, sir,' Dura_Ace said, relieved, but careful not to smile. And to the young Arab he repeated Smithson's order in Arabic. Then the captain checked the blindfold, snugging the knot tight, then patted the Arab twice on the shoulder, signalling him to take off, which he did.
'Close shave,' the Arab smiled, and said something like farewell in the vernacular.
Dura_Ace finally allowed himself a smile. The former prisoner's erstwhile captors watched him disappear into the distance, singing what sounded like, 'It's coming home, it's coming home!' until he was too far away for them to hear anything.
Of course if we prefer, they can instead sift through silly things said on Twitter. No warrants needed for that.
I see the political timeline left as:
- Budget this month: no money to spend
- Winter: annual stories about NHS crisis and/or people not being able to heat their homes
- Spring statement: find some money down the sofa to win people over with tax cuts, but accidentally spend almost all of it on everyday, struggling millionaires that Rishi can almost relate to
- Take a walloping in the local elections
- Summer break in California for Sunak
- Conferences/campaign
- Big Labour majority
Anything I'm missing?
Rochdale Cenotaph is graffitied with ‘Free Palestine’ ahead of Remembrance Sunday'
https://x.com/LBC/status/1721995245401800738?s=20
The main square
And
Plus outside the post office. This changes to reflect whatever significant event is happening.
One of the ladies in my sewing circle has a 10 year old niece in Gaza. With her mother - both British citizens - they are now in Rafat waiting to get out. So we're all hoping they do manage to leave and soon.
I don't think the fact that it is more than a century since WW1 is reason to stop. There are plenty of recent wars and very many good reasons to reflect for a few minutes on those who fight to stop inhumanity and those who suffer because of it. As the last month, if nothing else, has shown us.
And I presume you are tolerant to a fault (except for leftists, wokes, and people who disagree with any of your views on AI, aliens, lab-leak, pets, Brexit... )
Might try to keep going until just before Christmas.
Not completely sure this is still necessary to be honest.
Personally wear a red and a white poppy to cause maximum offence. To me the red is specifically for WWI and the white is to mourn the senselessness, pain and grief of conflict in general.
The Post Office is deliberately undermining and obstructing the inquiry, as it has sought to undermine and obstruct every single legal action taken against it ever since this disaster became known. There is a point at which incompetence is so bad, flagrant and prolonged that it becomes deliberate and malicious. The Post Office long ago crossed that boundary.
Further thoughts from me in my next header on this topic which I will write after I have done some fee-paying work (and calmed down about this).
But they are funny or clever or sensitive or artistic or something. Or I just got hammered with them on E and weed in about 1998, and it stuck
Friends are an underrated thing. I suspect they are more important for long term happiness than Family
Edited: see you meant it about Saturday. I had no idea anything was happening on Saturday. Sunday seems sufficient.
The SCOURGE.
A grateful populace will be ready to gift Rishi a supersized majority for delivering us from this scourge.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-welsh-marches-englands-foodie-frontier/
If WWI had ended in a quick victory for Germany… then WWII would have started in about 1930. Given that part of the victory plan for WWI was to be in good position for the next war…
So, in 1930, a Germany built on the cult of War is Good, War is God would have gone to war again.
With the interesting products of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics as their weapons…
Meaning you'd do better relying on in-depth fiscal analysis calculated by Lord Home's ghost with an empty box of matches.
Assume Germany won that, overthrew the communists and America stayed out. The next confrontation might then have been Germany vs imperial Japan, in the Far East.
It should be a website. What to call it? "J'accuse" - in memory of Zola's letter on the Dreyfus affair - would be a good title. Because the scale and wrongness of the injustice and the fact that the state from senior Ministers down has been culpable is as serious as that affair and should stain the British state in the same way. It needs a level of righteous anger, of fury at what has happened and is continuing to happen.
And, yes, the lawyers need a damn good kicking - I am ashamed, utterly ashamed of how appallingly so many of them have behaved. The fantastic work of Jason Beer KC, Flora Paige, Edward Henry KC and others is - and this is no discredit to them - not enough to weigh in the balance.
Kentucky (Governor) - polls closed in most of state 15 min ago; Republican state AG David Cameron ahead of Democratic incumbent Gov. Andy Brashear in very fragmentary (four rural counties) returns.
Kentucky Governor results slowly starting to come in.
https://edition.cnn.com/election/2023
Let's get real though, a toss up as to whether Barty or Blanche would have slotted the Arab as he departed. Leon would have beeen distracted from joining in by some ancient masonry.
https://youtu.be/SdbLqOXmJ04?si=PKUHQ66JKUAvlFV3
Top poppying
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cD634S3JxQk
It is our holocaust: we must NEVER forget it. Poppies are the perfect symbol. And so we do remember, as a people, because if we do not remember, we risk it happening again - and we know this is possible, because it is happening right now in Europe, in Ukraine, where the losses now approach WW1 levels of horror and carnage
Lest We Forget
Virginia - 7pm eastern (VA legislature)
Ohio - 7.30pm eastern (abortion rights, marijuana legalization)
Mississippi - 8pm central (Governor - Let's Go Brandon Presley!)
All of the other state will also be reporting unofficial, partial returns for THEIR off-year general election this evening (my time) but not a lot of national significance.
For example, City of Seattle is electing 7 out of 9 city council members, with ballots due at 8pm pacific, if returned via drop box, OR postmarked on or before Nov. 7, if returned via the mail.
We - both individually and as a society - are made by more than just the present. The past does not, should not determine everything - or even very much - but it should be remembered and thought about, particularly the latter. There is not enough quiet time to think about how we are affected by what has happened. Social memory - like corporate memory - is valuable - if used wisely. There is not enough of it IMO. I treasure days like Remembrance Sunday because it is a time to stop and think - though too often it becomes a moment just to show off rather than think. Which is a pity.
PS My father came to fatherhood late just in case anyone thinks I'm about 90 or something.
He called the police and told them the bike had been recovered without mentioning his B&E work, probably wisely!
‘We don’t have a choice’: Bradford’s rough sleepers dismayed by Braverman’s tent attack
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/07/bradford-rough-sleepers-suella-braverman-tent-lifestyle-choice
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/oct/15/labour-to-omit-social-care-reform-from-manifesto-and-scale-back-lords-plans
Betfair suggesting Dems retain Kentucky Governor. First batch of votes just in from Louisville - Dem leading 61/39 (whereas Rep had been leading before then).
No relation btw, unless former PM has a Black Bluegrass brother.
As I type, with 3% of voted reported (as per NYT) AG Cameron leads (53.3%) over Gov. Brashear (47.7%).
However, in 8 out of 19 counties that have reported any returns, Brashear is leading; these include Jefferson (Louisville) and some exurban/surburban turf near Lexington and Cincinnati but also some rural counties in eastern KY which is Brashear's home base.
EDIT - two corrections, its Beshear; and he is NOT from eastern Kentucky, but rather Louisville
from wiki
Most analysts consider Reeves to be a favorite to win reelection, given the state's partisan lean. Nonetheless, some consider the race to have the potential to become competitive, citing factors such as Reeves' narrow victory four years prior and the heavy criticism he has faced for his handling of the Jackson water crisis and for his ties to a welfare corruption scandal, both of which have led him to have the lowest approval ratings of any Republican governor in the country.
The Democratic nominee, Brandon Presley, is considered to be a potentially strong general election candidate; he has represented the Northern district on the Mississippi Public Service Commission since 2008, despite that district having a strong Republican bent, and holds relatively moderate views on social issues, thus being closer to fitting the state.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Mississippi_gubernatorial_election
It is surprising if a party loses power after only 4 or 5 years, not after getting on for a decade or more in government
Which is exactly what Gov. Beshear is doing right this moment, in eastern KY.
Real question now is, are their enough GOP votes in rural western KY to beat him.
My own guess is, no. But polls haven't closed yet in the western part of the state.
Early returns from out there starting to trickle in, with Beshear holding his own so far.
For me, the single most interesting paragraph was this, from conservative Jim Geraghty:
"There are an enormous number of grass-roots Republicans who choose to believe that the pre-Trump GOP were a bunch of losers — but in early 2015, the year Trump showed up, the party held 54 Senate seats, 247 House of Representatives seats, 31 governor’s mansions and the highest number of majorities in the state legislatures in the party’s history since 1928. These same voters believe that only Trump is a “winner” who knows how to beat Democrats, never mind that he and his like-minded freak-show candidates led the party to defeats in 2018, 2020 and 2022. A non-Trump GOP presidential candidate needed to convince primary voters that the point of a president is to alter policy and run the executive branch, not to say and do things on television and social media that entertain them."
source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/06/trump-winning-2024-polls-reasons/
I call Trump the "Loser" for good reasons.
None of the eight columnists mention three things that I would: First, the tactics used against Trump by both Republicans and Democrats have been poor. Were I running a campaign against him, I would have a Trump figure -- with security -- at every Trump event, depicting him as a little boy with his pants on fire. I would run commercials telling the stories of real victims of his "leadership", beginning with Trump University, and I argue that those who follow him often ending up losing their money, their health, or even their freedom.
Second, the distrust of the "mainstream" media by so many Republicans has made it possible that the best way that, for example, the New York Times could help defeat Trump -- would be to endorse him.
Third, there have been so many failures by elected leftists that many voters are looking for alternatives, almost any alternatives. (New York Mayor Eric Adams seems to understand this, as does California Governor Gavin Newsom, but I am not sure how many others in the Democratic Party do.)
Kentucky Rain - made a hit by Elvis Presley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czuc4q4axqU
Issue 1 - establishing state constitutional right to abortion
with 6% of votes reported (NYT)
Yes
148,771 66.2%
No
76,073 33.8%
based on early returns, believe Issue 1 passes.
Issue 2 - marijuana legalization
Yes
137,186 57.5%
No
101,396 42.5%
too close to call
If you think the purpose of allowing police entry without a warrant is to catch the sorts of criminals the public are actually bothered about, then you are naive in the extreme.
1974: 46%
1978: 40%
1982: 35%
1986: 33%
1990: 30%
1994: 27%
1998: 27%
2002: 26%
2006: 22%
2010: 20%
2014: 18%
2018: 15%
2022: 13%
https://ash.org.uk/uploads/Smoking-Statistics-Fact-Sheet.pdf?v=1697728811
D 52.9
R 47.0
83% counted
OHIO VOTES YES TO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO ABORTION
Yes 56.1
No 43.9
48% counted
with 13% reported (NYT)
Tate Reeves
Republican 91,772 56.3%
Brandon Presley
Democrat 68,982 42.3%
Gwendolyn Gray
Independent 2,375 1.5%
Not too shabby for a Democrat. And note that DeSoto Co (southern burbs of Memphis TN) are 86% reported, with Reeves 58%, Presley 40%, Gray 1%. Again, not bad for a Dem, and one major source of GOP votes mostly dried up.
For one thing, governor's races are different from legislative/congressional races. With states that lean heavily one way or another when the latter is on the line, going the other when choosing their state executives.
It's LONG been a thing in the USA, and tonight proves it still is.
Now turn your gaze to the great Magnolia State of Mississippi.
Issue 1 guaranteeing state constitutional right to abortion, now 55.9% Yes
Issue 2 legalizing marijuana, now 55.5% Yes
Beshear reelected Governor in Kentucky in a race that wasn't that tight in the end.
Virginia looks like the Dems are going to hold the State Senate, and may regain the House of Delegates
Mississippi Governor looks like a comfortable Republican hold.
And does anyone really think Trump is 'soft on abortion' sufficiently to trust (LOL) him on the issue ?
Hard call.