Tbh, it's been common knowledge on Scottish Twitter for ages.
Yes, but for the benefit of PB mods, we are not posting names on here.
What's funny is that if their names do get reported in the mainstream press, it will be because they broke Covid rules. If it was just a bog standard pre March 2020 affair, privacy rules mean it would be buried under an injunction (possibly a super one).
We haven’t had a juicy sex scandal in ages. They provide much needed light entertainment
Especially if the miscreants are odious creeps
The last one was probably Matt Hancock, which undoubtedly fitted your 'odious creep' criterion, if not the 'light entertainment' bit.
The irony is it might actually benefit the Nats if it means they end up with Forbes as leader
Her support for the people who do their odiously creepy silent prayer vigils outside abortion clinics makes me entirely satisfied with the SNP giving her a body swerve.
Forbes is an evangelical Christian and anti abortion and anti homosexual marriage and more socially conservative than Sunak let alone Starmer and Davey.
She is more competent than Yousaf though and would be a contender for the SNP leadership if Sarwar replaced Yousaf as FM after the next Holyrood election and if the SNP need to get over a sex scandal. Her social views didn't stop her getting over 45% of SNP members votes at their last leadership election
What did Forbes say last year? I suspect the only position that works is a "personal conscience, free vote" one.
That was Tim Farron’s position. Fat lot of good it did him.
I suspect SNP supporters are somewhat more liberal minded.
If you mean they’ll be even less tolerant of Forbes prevaricating than Lib Dem target voters were of Farron, then I think you’re right.
One thing about Kate Forbes is that, so far, she has shown little sign of meeting her liberal critics half-way. If anything has doubled down on her social conservatism. Her election as SNP leader would amount to a complete rejection of the Sturgeon political strategy, as inherited by Yousaf, which is to unite "progressive" opinion behind Indy. Forbes's rise would certainly mean an end to the cohabitation with the Greens, for instance.
It is completely bonkers to attach a Nationalist/Independence cause to a strongly marked position on the spectrum in other matters. The question of where state boundaries should be is a matter for history, geography, argument, persuasion and so on. It is not a left/right issue. In a democratic culture it is axiomatic that what sort of government the new state it would have would always be a matter for voters.
The SNP would do best to focus on being competent centrists and making their case. Forbes is the best person by miles, so as a unionist I hope she doesn't get the job.
That was a route they could have chosen. But, that ship has sailed.
Their argument is that Scotland is a left wing, progressive country, held against its will in a union with reactionary Tory England.
Tbh, it's been common knowledge on Scottish Twitter for ages.
Yes, but for the benefit of PB mods, we are not posting names on here.
It's Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. The inevitability of nominative determinism demanded that they mate and exchange eggs in a fishlike manner in a calm pool. Somebody photographed the fertilization as they both released their ichor and Twitter's been proper flustered. It's a fact.
The mental image I now have of Eck trying to leap upstream to spawn.... Thanks for that.
Apparently he secretes a kind of...slime. It reduces the friction as he porpoises through the water. It can be washed off but it leaves an unpleasant smell and discolours the clothing. Some say it was the origin of tartan.
I have to say that the lack of sympathy for Israel shown by so many following 17th Oct, has almost certainly helped to harden opinions in Israel. Why should they compromise if everyone's (apart from USA) against them anyway. There's been huge outrage and bitterness expressed in the Israeli media about this.
Here is a tweet from former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett.
We now know that Hamas terrorists who held hostage 13-year-old Yagel Yaacov and his brother Or, used a boiling hot motorcycle exhaust to “imprint” a burn on their legs as a way to identify them if they try to escape.
Let me repeat: They took a boiling piece of metal and pinned it to the legs of a helpless 13 year old captive child.
Hamas are sadistic monsters, and we’re going to have to kill them.
How about the sadistic monsters who've casually killed 15,000 from the air?
100% down to the degenerates who provide your numbers
If you have better numbers, I'm all ears.
The numbers will come out
And I'm sure that there will be many thousands that have been killed
But every single one will be the responsibility of Hamas, whose numbers you reliably and resolutely report
I have come to admire the American “calendar”. They really celebrate their holidays properly, and there is a clear division of time.
Labor Day (end May) to Memorial Day (early Oct) is summer. Then it’s only one month until Halloween which preludes holiday season.
Thanksgiving is the big break, and immediately it is over the Christmas lights go up. As I write, I am riding a taxi and can hear carollers on a street corner.
The Americans are always celebrating something and it beats hiding inside with a cup of cocoa watching Only Fools and Horses on repeat, or however it is Brits mark the passing of the seasons.
But…they don’t really celebrate summer holidays do they? They seem to spend the whole of July and August moaning about those lazy Europeans and their ridiculously long summer holiday season.
My company has “unlimited holiday”, but in practice frowns on anything longer that two consecutive weeks.
Otherwise, the interesting thing is that over summer, and perhaps during this holiday season, people’s weekends kind of bleed into the week. Folks leave Thursday to go “upstate”, and perhaps do a Friday morning proper and allow Friday PM availability “for calls”.
Somehow this works.
Of course mine is a privileged slice of experience. I can’t really recommend the overall holiday “system”. But my original post was more about the healthy communality engendered by public festivities anyway. It all seems slightly easier, more public, and more fun here.
Tbh, it's been common knowledge on Scottish Twitter for ages.
Yes, but for the benefit of PB mods, we are not posting names on here.
It's Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. The inevitability of nominative determinism demanded that they mate and exchange eggs in a fishlike manner in a calm pool. Somebody photographed the fertilization as they both released their ichor and Twitter's been proper flustered. It's a fact.
The mental image I now have of Eck trying to leap upstream to spawn.... Thanks for that.
Apparently he secretes a kind of...slime. It reduces the friction as he porpoises through the water. It can be washed off but it leaves an unpleasant smell and discolours the clothing. Some say it was the origin of tartan.
Don't make the mistake of equating Gaelic culture with the whole of Scotland, as it does tend to imply one's ignorance.
We haven’t had a juicy sex scandal in ages. They provide much needed light entertainment
Especially if the miscreants are odious creeps
The last one was probably Matt Hancock, which undoubtedly fitted your 'odious creep' criterion, if not the 'light entertainment' bit.
The irony is it might actually benefit the Nats if it means they end up with Forbes as leader
Her support for the people who do their odiously creepy silent prayer vigils outside abortion clinics makes me entirely satisfied with the SNP giving her a body swerve.
Forbes is an evangelical Christian and anti abortion and anti homosexual marriage and more socially conservative than Sunak let alone Starmer and Davey.
She is more competent than Yousaf though and would be a contender for the SNP leadership if Sarwar replaced Yousaf as FM after the next Holyrood election and if the SNP need to get over a sex scandal. Her social views didn't stop her getting over 45% of SNP members votes at their last leadership election
What did Forbes say last year? I suspect the only position that works is a "personal conscience, free vote" one.
That was Tim Farron’s position. Fat lot of good it did him.
I suspect SNP supporters are somewhat more liberal minded.
If you mean they’ll be even less tolerant of Forbes prevaricating than Lib Dem target voters were of Farron, then I think you’re right.
One thing about Kate Forbes is that, so far, she has shown little sign of meeting her liberal critics half-way. If anything has doubled down on her social conservatism. Her election as SNP leader would amount to a complete rejection of the Sturgeon political strategy, as inherited by Yousaf, which is to unite "progressive" opinion behind Indy. Forbes's rise would certainly mean an end to the cohabitation with the Greens, for instance.
It is completely bonkers to attach a Nationalist/Independence cause to a strongly marked position on the spectrum in other matters. The question of where state boundaries should be is a matter for history, geography, argument, persuasion and so on. It is not a left/right issue. In a democratic culture it is axiomatic that what sort of government the new state it would have would always be a matter for voters.
The SNP would do best to focus on being competent centrists and making their case. Forbes is the best person by miles, so as a unionist I hope she doesn't get the job.
The realpolitik though is that the SNP have had success by taking many of Labour’s former Scottish voters, on the basis of saving them from permanent Tory rule from Westminster. Abandon that bloc and you struggle elsewhere I think. I agree in principle the constitutional position and other politics should be separate, but under FPTP it matters which voting bloc you’re targeting, certainly for Westminster elections.
Well, yes, but the reason for a lot of the momentum behind Indy was a sense that Scotland was more radical and egalitarian than gammony old Tory-voting England. The revival of Labour, and a rightwards swing by the SNP would completely upset that applecart. Would make for a complete political reset.
Under Sturgeon and Yousaf, the SNP moved leftwards. Rank and file SNP supporters, as opposed to the inner circle, haven’t. To be to the left of Scottish Labour is not difficult. The Tories under Johnson and Cameron were to the left of Scottish Labour. The SNP are the party of Scottish Independence, or they are nothing. If they want to concentrate on left wing policies, fair enough, but don’t be surprised if more independence supporters defect to Alba. (Not TUD, obviously, who is the SNP version of HYUFD, and will be 100% in favour of whoever is the party leader.
An odd view since I’ve just posted less than favourable opinions of Forbes, the preferred option of PB English Unionists for SNP leader.
When are you expecting enough indy supporters to defect to Alba to enable them to get, say, a councillor elected?
The obvious move for Alba is to appoint Boris Johnson as their leader.
He polls better than their current leader, after all.
I have come to admire the American “calendar”. They really celebrate their holidays properly, and there is a clear division of time.
Labor Day (end May) to Memorial Day (early Oct) is summer. Then it’s only one month until Halloween which preludes holiday season.
Thanksgiving is the big break, and immediately it is over the Christmas lights go up. As I write, I am riding a taxi and can hear carollers on a street corner.
The Americans are always celebrating something and it beats hiding inside with a cup of cocoa watching Only Fools and Horses on repeat, or however it is Brits mark the passing of the seasons.
American holidays are packed into, well, now. Hence, "happy holidays". British bank holidays are concentrated in spring and summer.
And none for FOUR MONTHS between late August and late December.
Why do we still have bank holidays now that the banks have shut most of their branches?
I’m not a Catholic but I deeply regret the English Reformation for the number of holidays that it permanently removed from the calendar. Christmas and Easter being the only ones left and the former had a dicey time under the Commonwealth and Protectorate, they would have been secularised anyway leaving us with a lot more varied holidays throughout the year.
They could plug the Autumn holiday gap by restoring Michaelmas (29 Sep) to mark the end of the harvest season and bringing back All Hallows/Hallowtide (1 Nov) the feast of All Saints (Hallows), the day after Hallows Eve (Halloween).
Tbh, it's been common knowledge on Scottish Twitter for ages.
Yes, but for the benefit of PB mods, we are not posting names on here.
What's funny is that if their names do get reported in the mainstream press, it will be because they broke Covid rules. If it was just a bog standard pre March 2020 affair, privacy rules mean it would be buried under an injunction (possibly a super one).
Do the Scots Courts give out super injunctions (I guess they’d be called super interdicts)?
I worked out today it costs £1.86 to keep my heating on for an hour.
I wonder how many people have shivered through this week's cold snap without heating, and if it has an impact on the polls.
The Tories never recovered from Truss, but also, that happened at the end of October 2022... right when most people start switching their heating on...
The reminder of my heating bill this week means there will be no "swingback" from me. This government needs putting out to pasture.
We haven’t had a juicy sex scandal in ages. They provide much needed light entertainment
Especially if the miscreants are odious creeps
The last one was probably Matt Hancock, which undoubtedly fitted your 'odious creep' criterion, if not the 'light entertainment' bit.
The irony is it might actually benefit the Nats if it means they end up with Forbes as leader
Her support for the people who do their odiously creepy silent prayer vigils outside abortion clinics makes me entirely satisfied with the SNP giving her a body swerve.
Forbes is an evangelical Christian and anti abortion and anti homosexual marriage and more socially conservative than Sunak let alone Starmer and Davey.
She is more competent than Yousaf though and would be a contender for the SNP leadership if Sarwar replaced Yousaf as FM after the next Holyrood election and if the SNP need to get over a sex scandal. Her social views didn't stop her getting over 45% of SNP members votes at their last leadership election
What did Forbes say last year? I suspect the only position that works is a "personal conscience, free vote" one.
That was Tim Farron’s position. Fat lot of good it did him.
I suspect SNP supporters are somewhat more liberal minded.
If you mean they’ll be even less tolerant of Forbes prevaricating than Lib Dem target voters were of Farron, then I think you’re right.
One thing about Kate Forbes is that, so far, she has shown little sign of meeting her liberal critics half-way. If anything has doubled down on her social conservatism. Her election as SNP leader would amount to a complete rejection of the Sturgeon political strategy, as inherited by Yousaf, which is to unite "progressive" opinion behind Indy. Forbes's rise would certainly mean an end to the cohabitation with the Greens, for instance.
It is completely bonkers to attach a Nationalist/Independence cause to a strongly marked position on the spectrum in other matters. The question of where state boundaries should be is a matter for history, geography, argument, persuasion and so on. It is not a left/right issue. In a democratic culture it is axiomatic that what sort of government the new state it would have would always be a matter for voters.
The SNP would do best to focus on being competent centrists and making their case. Forbes is the best person by miles, so as a unionist I hope she doesn't get the job.
That was a route they could have chosen. But, that ship has sailed.
Their argument is that Scotland is a left wing, progressive country, held against its will in a union with reactionary Tory England.
I have come to admire the American “calendar”. They really celebrate their holidays properly, and there is a clear division of time.
Labor Day (end May) to Memorial Day (early Oct) is summer. Then it’s only one month until Halloween which preludes holiday season.
Thanksgiving is the big break, and immediately it is over the Christmas lights go up. As I write, I am riding a taxi and can hear carollers on a street corner.
The Americans are always celebrating something and it beats hiding inside with a cup of cocoa watching Only Fools and Horses on repeat, or however it is Brits mark the passing of the seasons.
But…they don’t really celebrate summer holidays do they? They seem to spend the whole of July and August moaning about those lazy Europeans and their ridiculously long summer holiday season.
My company has “unlimited holiday”, but in practice frowns on anything longer that two consecutive weeks.
Otherwise, the interesting thing is that over summer, and perhaps during this holiday season, people’s weekends kind of bleed into the week. Folks leave Thursday to go “upstate”, and perhaps do a Friday morning proper and allow Friday PM availability “for calls”.
Somehow this works.
Of course mine is a privileged slice of experience. I can’t really recommend the overall holiday “system”. But my original post was more about the healthy communality engendered by public festivities anyway. It all seems slightly easier, more public, and more fun here.
My company allows employees 30 days off a year, although we insist at least half of these days are taken on Sundays.
We haven’t had a juicy sex scandal in ages. They provide much needed light entertainment
Especially if the miscreants are odious creeps
The last one was probably Matt Hancock, which undoubtedly fitted your 'odious creep' criterion, if not the 'light entertainment' bit.
The irony is it might actually benefit the Nats if it means they end up with Forbes as leader
Her support for the people who do their odiously creepy silent prayer vigils outside abortion clinics makes me entirely satisfied with the SNP giving her a body swerve.
Forbes is an evangelical Christian and anti abortion and anti homosexual marriage and more socially conservative than Sunak let alone Starmer and Davey.
She is more competent than Yousaf though and would be a contender for the SNP leadership if Sarwar replaced Yousaf as FM after the next Holyrood election and if the SNP need to get over a sex scandal. Her social views didn't stop her getting over 45% of SNP members votes at their last leadership election
What did Forbes say last year? I suspect the only position that works is a "personal conscience, free vote" one.
That was Tim Farron’s position. Fat lot of good it did him.
I suspect SNP supporters are somewhat more liberal minded.
If you mean they’ll be even less tolerant of Forbes prevaricating than Lib Dem target voters were of Farron, then I think you’re right.
One thing about Kate Forbes is that, so far, she has shown little sign of meeting her liberal critics half-way. If anything has doubled down on her social conservatism. Her election as SNP leader would amount to a complete rejection of the Sturgeon political strategy, as inherited by Yousaf, which is to unite "progressive" opinion behind Indy. Forbes's rise would certainly mean an end to the cohabitation with the Greens, for instance.
It is completely bonkers to attach a Nationalist/Independence cause to a strongly marked position on the spectrum in other matters. The question of where state boundaries should be is a matter for history, geography, argument, persuasion and so on. It is not a left/right issue. In a democratic culture it is axiomatic that what sort of government the new state it would have would always be a matter for voters.
The SNP would do best to focus on being competent centrists and making their case. Forbes is the best person by miles, so as a unionist I hope she doesn't get the job.
That was a route they could have chosen. But, that ship has sailed.
Their argument is that Scotland is a left wing, progressive country, held against its will in a union with reactionary Tory England.
I have come to admire the American “calendar”. They really celebrate their holidays properly, and there is a clear division of time.
Labor Day (end May) to Memorial Day (early Oct) is summer. Then it’s only one month until Halloween which preludes holiday season.
Thanksgiving is the big break, and immediately it is over the Christmas lights go up. As I write, I am riding a taxi and can hear carollers on a street corner.
The Americans are always celebrating something and it beats hiding inside with a cup of cocoa watching Only Fools and Horses on repeat, or however it is Brits mark the passing of the seasons.
But…they don’t really celebrate summer holidays do they? They seem to spend the whole of July and August moaning about those lazy Europeans and their ridiculously long summer holiday season.
My company has “unlimited holiday”, but in practice frowns on anything longer that two consecutive weeks.
Otherwise, the interesting thing is that over summer, and perhaps during this holiday season, people’s weekends kind of bleed into the week. Folks leave Thursday to go “upstate”, and perhaps do a Friday morning proper and allow Friday PM availability “for calls”.
Somehow this works.
Of course mine is a privileged slice of experience. I can’t really recommend the overall holiday “system”. But my original post was more about the healthy communality engendered by public festivities anyway. It all seems slightly easier, more public, and more fun here.
There's a very specific British dreariness that's always there, but right now feels worse than normal. Suspicion of communal fun is part of being English, sure, but there's also a pervasive sense that all we can expect of anything is a fairly basic functionality. And that's on a good day.
Some of it is the vice that local councils are in, trapped between a constrained income and ever rising statutory expenditure. But there's also an attitude that any spending on making life agreeable is a wicked waste that should be recycled as tax cuts instead.
And I get the dilemma. But I really suspect that money spent on lights, music and fun has a pretty good return in public contentment per pound.
I have to say that the lack of sympathy for Israel shown by so many following 17th Oct, has almost certainly helped to harden opinions in Israel. Why should they compromise if everyone's (apart from USA) against them anyway. There's been huge outrage and bitterness expressed in the Israeli media about this.
Here is a tweet from former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett.
We now know that Hamas terrorists who held hostage 13-year-old Yagel Yaacov and his brother Or, used a boiling hot motorcycle exhaust to “imprint” a burn on their legs as a way to identify them if they try to escape.
Let me repeat: They took a boiling piece of metal and pinned it to the legs of a helpless 13 year old captive child.
Hamas are sadistic monsters, and we’re going to have to kill them.
How about the sadistic monsters who've casually killed 15,000 from the air?
100% down to the degenerates who provide your numbers
If you have better numbers, I'm all ears.
The numbers will come out
And I'm sure that there will be many thousands that have been killed
But every single one will be the responsibility of Hamas, whose numbers you reliably and resolutely report
Using that logic, everyone who was killed in Northern Ireland during the troubles would be the responsibility of the IRA, including those killed by unionist paramilitaries.
Tbh, it's been common knowledge on Scottish Twitter for ages.
Yes, but for the benefit of PB mods, we are not posting names on here.
What's funny is that if their names do get reported in the mainstream press, it will be because they broke Covid rules. If it was just a bog standard pre March 2020 affair, privacy rules mean it would be buried under an injunction (possibly a super one).
Do the Scots Courts give out super injunctions (I guess they’d be called super interdicts)?
I've spent much of the last two days, as usual, exposed to the weather
I've prepared myself for the freeze pretty well, from the bottom up..
Three pairs of socks; one normal and two long thermal pulled up to my knees and interweaved with two pairs of longjohns, one tight one loose, over big thick knickers
Above the waist I've worn a long-sleeved t-shirt, a cashmere jumper, a long-sleeved work shirt, a dry weather work jacket and a big waterproof work coat over the top. With a work woolly hat on
My scouse mate Carl went out in shorts, a shirt and a jacket, and a great big Siberian looking hat. I think that I need a better hat. Even so well prepared, I've had numb toes and chilly fingers
The best thing for chilly fingers today has been my dog friends. I think that I've stroked seventeen dogs today
The roads are impassable so I shall be up bright and early on Monday, walking boots on, to trudge my way down the hill to the station to get on whatever train is moving. They've been moving today anyway.
I worked out today it costs £1.86 to keep my heating on for an hour.
I wonder how many people have shivered through this week's cold snap without heating, and if it has an impact on the polls.
The Tories never recovered from Truss, but also, that happened at the end of October 2022... right when most people start switching their heating on...
The reminder of my heating bill this week means there will be no "swingback" from me. This government needs putting out to pasture.
I've spent much of the last two days, as usual, exposed to the weather
I've prepared myself for the freeze pretty well, from the bottom up..
Three pairs of socks; one normal and two long thermal pulled up to my knees and interweaved with two pairs of longjohns, one tight one loose, over big thick knickers
Above the waist I've worn a long-sleeved t-shirt, a cashmere jumper, a long-sleeved work shirt, a dry weather work jacket and a big waterproof work coat over the top. With a work woolly hat on
My scouse mate Carl went out in shorts, a shirt and a jacket, and a great big Siberian looking hat. I think that I need a better hat. Even so well prepared, I've had numb toes and chilly fingers
The best thing for chilly fingers today has been my dog friends. I think that I've stroked seventeen dogs today
A well prepared postie will never be without a supply of dog treats.
The roads are impassable so I shall be up bright and early on Monday, walking boots on, to trudge my way down the hill to the station to get on whatever train is moving. They've been moving today anyway.
Now off to read a book.
Avanti on strike tomorrow (Sunday), but should be OK Monday. All the best!
I worked out today it costs £1.86 to keep my heating on for an hour.
I wonder how many people have shivered through this week's cold snap without heating, and if it has an impact on the polls.
The Tories never recovered from Truss, but also, that happened at the end of October 2022... right when most people start switching their heating on...
The reminder of my heating bill this week means there will be no "swingback" from me. This government needs putting out to pasture.
No government will stop heating bills.
Will they start cooling bills? (See what I did there? )
I have to say that the lack of sympathy for Israel shown by so many following 17th Oct, has almost certainly helped to harden opinions in Israel. Why should they compromise if everyone's (apart from USA) against them anyway. There's been huge outrage and bitterness expressed in the Israeli media about this.
Here is a tweet from former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett.
We now know that Hamas terrorists who held hostage 13-year-old Yagel Yaacov and his brother Or, used a boiling hot motorcycle exhaust to “imprint” a burn on their legs as a way to identify them if they try to escape.
Let me repeat: They took a boiling piece of metal and pinned it to the legs of a helpless 13 year old captive child.
Hamas are sadistic monsters, and we’re going to have to kill them.
How about the sadistic monsters who've casually killed 15,000 from the air?
100% down to the degenerates who provide your numbers
If you have better numbers, I'm all ears.
The numbers will come out
And I'm sure that there will be many thousands that have been killed
But every single one will be the responsibility of Hamas, whose numbers you reliably and resolutely report
Using that logic, everyone who was killed in Northern Ireland during the troubles would be the responsibility of the IRA, including those killed by unionist paramilitaries.
Did either side there declare their intention to commit genocide on the other?
Cyclefree - Those snow pictures sure make me envious. Here we are having large amounts of snow in the mountains -- soon to be followed by enough rain to wash it away below 8,000 feet. For me, it's like seeing your favorite meal brought in -- and then carried away.)
Minor correction: Labor Day in the US is celebrated on the first Monday, which is sometimes on the 1st, so I should have said "in the last four months of the year, or something similar.
I've spent much of the last two days, as usual, exposed to the weather
I've prepared myself for the freeze pretty well, from the bottom up..
Three pairs of socks; one normal and two long thermal pulled up to my knees and interweaved with two pairs of longjohns, one tight one loose, over big thick knickers
Above the waist I've worn a long-sleeved t-shirt, a cashmere jumper, a long-sleeved work shirt, a dry weather work jacket and a big waterproof work coat over the top. With a work woolly hat on
My scouse mate Carl went out in shorts, a shirt and a jacket, and a great big Siberian looking hat. I think that I need a better hat. Even so well prepared, I've had numb toes and chilly fingers
The best thing for chilly fingers today has been my dog friends. I think that I've stroked seventeen dogs today
A well prepared postie will never be without a supply of dog treats.
I never use that sort of bribery and corruption
I make friends with the dogs with love and affection, and by squatting down and looking them in the eye. And scratching the bits that they can't reach
I worked out today it costs £1.86 to keep my heating on for an hour.
I wonder how many people have shivered through this week's cold snap without heating, and if it has an impact on the polls.
The Tories never recovered from Truss, but also, that happened at the end of October 2022... right when most people start switching their heating on...
The reminder of my heating bill this week means there will be no "swingback" from me. This government needs putting out to pasture.
No government will stop heating bills.
A progressive one might mitigate the impact on the poorest.
My father enjoyed a £500 pensioner's credit this year (born before '57, living alone) - he's a millionaire.
Meanwhile a struggling mum and dad in their thirties with two kids get... what exactly?
I can afford £1.86 an hour, a lot of people can't. I was struck last year by a conversation I had with the barmaid in my local pub that it was costing nearly £600 a month to heat her house over the winter. And she would have been on minimum wage.
Graduated support for the poorest in our society, particularly those with young kids, would have been the kind and humane thing to do this winter and last.
What it comes down to is I think a lot of people can't afford £300 a month (heating on for approx 5 hours a day). The government's own figures suggest that 8.8 million people are living in fuel poverty at the moment.
What does it say about our society that in 2023, people are shivering away in unheated rooms?
I worked out today it costs £1.86 to keep my heating on for an hour.
I wonder how many people have shivered through this week's cold snap without heating, and if it has an impact on the polls.
The Tories never recovered from Truss, but also, that happened at the end of October 2022... right when most people start switching their heating on...
The reminder of my heating bill this week means there will be no "swingback" from me. This government needs putting out to pasture.
No government will stop heating bills.
A progressive one might mitigate the impact on the poorest.
My father enjoyed a £500 pensioner's credit this year (born before '57, living alone) - he's a millionaire.
Meanwhile a struggling mum and dad in their thirties with two kids get... what exactly?
I can afford £1.86 an hour, a lot of people can't. I was struck last year by a conversation I had with the barmaid in my local pub that it was costing nearly £600 a month to heat her house over the winter. And she would have been on minimum wage.
Graduated support for the poorest in our society, particularly those with young kids, would have been the kind and humane thing to do this winter and last.
What it comes down to is I think a lot of people can't afford £300 a month (heating on for approx 5 hours a day). The government's own figures suggest that 8.8 million people are living in fuel poverty at the moment.
What does it say about our society that in 2023, people are shivering away in unheated rooms?
Bad news for those who fear climate change: "[China's] coal mines are major emitters of methane, and that is complicating global talks on reducing this potent greenhouse gas."
Oddly. the ChiComs are not rushing to reduce those emissions -- which, to be fair, is not a trivial problem.
We haven’t had a juicy sex scandal in ages. They provide much needed light entertainment
Especially if the miscreants are odious creeps
The last one was probably Matt Hancock, which undoubtedly fitted your 'odious creep' criterion, if not the 'light entertainment' bit.
The irony is it might actually benefit the Nats if it means they end up with Forbes as leader
Her support for the people who do their odiously creepy silent prayer vigils outside abortion clinics makes me entirely satisfied with the SNP giving her a body swerve.
Forbes is an evangelical Christian and anti abortion and anti homosexual marriage and more socially conservative than Sunak let alone Starmer and Davey.
She is more competent than Yousaf though and would be a contender for the SNP leadership if Sarwar replaced Yousaf as FM after the next Holyrood election and if the SNP need to get over a sex scandal. Her social views didn't stop her getting over 45% of SNP members votes at their last leadership election
What did Forbes say last year? I suspect the only position that works is a "personal conscience, free vote" one.
That was Tim Farron’s position. Fat lot of good it did him.
Farron's problem was that he looked shifty. Instead of trying to dodge the question he should have said that theologically, it's a sin, but so are lots of other things and it doesn't have any bearing on politics.
Also that his appeal to the principle of liberalism to avoid answering the question answered it for him. If he hadn't believed homosexuality was a sin, he would have just answered.
We haven’t had a juicy sex scandal in ages. They provide much needed light entertainment
Especially if the miscreants are odious creeps
The last one was probably Matt Hancock, which undoubtedly fitted your 'odious creep' criterion, if not the 'light entertainment' bit.
The irony is it might actually benefit the Nats if it means they end up with Forbes as leader
Her support for the people who do their odiously creepy silent prayer vigils outside abortion clinics makes me entirely satisfied with the SNP giving her a body swerve.
Forbes is an evangelical Christian and anti abortion and anti homosexual marriage and more socially conservative than Sunak let alone Starmer and Davey.
She is more competent than Yousaf though and would be a contender for the SNP leadership if Sarwar replaced Yousaf as FM after the next Holyrood election and if the SNP need to get over a sex scandal. Her social views didn't stop her getting over 45% of SNP members votes at their last leadership election
What did Forbes say last year? I suspect the only position that works is a "personal conscience, free vote" one.
That was Tim Farron’s position. Fat lot of good it did him.
Farron's problem was that he looked shifty. Instead of trying to dodge the question he should have said that theologically, it's a sin, but so are lots of other things and it doesn't have any bearing on politics.
Also that his appeal to the principle of liberalism to avoid answering the question answered it for him. If he hadn't believed homosexuality was a sin, he would have just answered.
And when he did eventually answer I think he's since admitted that he did not tell the truth for the sake of political expediency?
It's not coterminous though. Quite why not is a mystery.
Even positive local government changes like increased unitarisation must in some way be mystifying, arbitrary, and historically confused.
I believe it's been part of our uncodified constitution since parish councils were introduced by the 1894 Local Government Act, and was immediately followed by arguments about how big or small they should be and what powers they should have (arguments which persist to this day).
I've spent much of the last two days, as usual, exposed to the weather
I've prepared myself for the freeze pretty well, from the bottom up..
Three pairs of socks; one normal and two long thermal pulled up to my knees and interweaved with two pairs of longjohns, one tight one loose, over big thick knickers
Above the waist I've worn a long-sleeved t-shirt, a cashmere jumper, a long-sleeved work shirt, a dry weather work jacket and a big waterproof work coat over the top. With a work woolly hat on
My scouse mate Carl went out in shorts, a shirt and a jacket, and a great big Siberian looking hat. I think that I need a better hat. Even so well prepared, I've had numb toes and chilly fingers
The best thing for chilly fingers today has been my dog friends. I think that I've stroked seventeen dogs today
A well prepared postie will never be without a supply of dog treats.
I never use that sort of bribery and corruption
I make friends with the dogs with love and affection, and by squatting down and looking them in the eye. And scratching the bits that they can't reach
Robert Reich @RBReich · 1h Every single American needs to know that Trump has, again, promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act if he's elected. This would rip health care away from millions. Please help spread this far and wide.
Xavi Ruiz @xruiztru · Dec 1 Europe hasn't seen a snow cover like this since 2010—60% is blanketed in white! ❄️
Toby Young @toadmeister · 23h But... global warming.
Everyone knows cold weather is impossible under global warming and climate change, that's just hard science.
But no snow at all this winter would be used by some people as evidence that global warming was happening.
Indeed. Which would be equally moronic. Drives me mad when people conflate weather and climate.
As an aside, possible/likely that global warming makes NW Europe have colder winters as the melting ice shunts the Gulf Stream south. But that’s nothing to do with this week’s weather - which is just weather.
Xavi Ruiz @xruiztru · Dec 1 Europe hasn't seen a snow cover like this since 2010—60% is blanketed in white! ❄️
Toby Young @toadmeister · 23h But... global warming.
Everyone knows cold weather is impossible under global warming and climate change, that's just hard science.
Toby Young got a first in PPE from Oxford and they don't hand those out like... Hold on, David Cameron's on the other line.
Has a single degree course done more damage to the UK than blasted PPE from Oxford?
Jim Hacker of course went to LSE. Frankly he's a better PM than the last Tory Famous Five.
I'm not sure he was. He committed several blatantly corrupt actions as a Cabinet Minister, drove whilst drunk, and used blackmail to force a senior civil servant to lie for his personal benefit.
Xavi Ruiz @xruiztru · Dec 1 Europe hasn't seen a snow cover like this since 2010—60% is blanketed in white! ❄️
Toby Young @toadmeister · 23h But... global warming.
Everyone knows cold weather is impossible under global warming and climate change, that's just hard science.
But no snow at all this winter would be used by some people as evidence that global warming was happening.
No. A significant decrease in snowfall over decades is. A snowfall or lack of it on any particular date isn't.
Neither is. Global warming is certainly happening. But variations in snowfall in a tiny corner of the North Atlantic are neither here nor there in terms of evidence for or against it.
Xavi Ruiz @xruiztru · Dec 1 Europe hasn't seen a snow cover like this since 2010—60% is blanketed in white! ❄️
Toby Young @toadmeister · 23h But... global warming.
Everyone knows cold weather is impossible under global warming and climate change, that's just hard science.
Toby Young got a first in PPE from Oxford and they don't hand those out like... Hold on, David Cameron's on the other line.
Has a single degree course done more damage to the UK than blasted PPE from Oxford?
I give up, TBH. The entire system is just a method of conveyorbelting stupid rich people to the peak of power, and when they fuck up replace them with another.
Colin McCarthy @US_Stormwatch · 4h Jets are literally frozen on the runway in Germany, as Munich has had its largest December snowstorm on record with up to 44 cm (17 in) of snow on the ground.
Xavi Ruiz @xruiztru · Dec 1 Europe hasn't seen a snow cover like this since 2010—60% is blanketed in white! ❄️
Toby Young @toadmeister · 23h But... global warming.
Everyone knows cold weather is impossible under global warming and climate change, that's just hard science.
Toby Young got a first in PPE from Oxford and they don't hand those out like... Hold on, David Cameron's on the other line.
Has a single degree course done more damage to the UK than blasted PPE from Oxford?
I give up, TBH. The entire system is just a method of conveyorbelting stupid rich people to the peak of power, and when they fuck up replace them with another.
It's aspirational. If we make enough money we too can place our progeny on the path to being over confident, over entitled, overly powerful, elistist snobs.
Xavi Ruiz @xruiztru · Dec 1 Europe hasn't seen a snow cover like this since 2010—60% is blanketed in white! ❄️
Toby Young @toadmeister · 23h But... global warming.
Everyone knows cold weather is impossible under global warming and climate change, that's just hard science.
Toby Young got a first in PPE from Oxford and they don't hand those out like... Hold on, David Cameron's on the other line.
Has a single degree course done more damage to the UK than blasted PPE from Oxford?
Judging by some of their output on twitter anyone in acedemia doing colonial studies or intersectional bolivarian race studies or some such, or anything in the humanities really, are giving it a go. But so far, no.
Xavi Ruiz @xruiztru · Dec 1 Europe hasn't seen a snow cover like this since 2010—60% is blanketed in white! ❄️
Toby Young @toadmeister · 23h But... global warming.
Everyone knows cold weather is impossible under global warming and climate change, that's just hard science.
But no snow at all this winter would be used by some people as evidence that global warming was happening.
No. A significant decrease in snowfall over decades is. A snowfall or lack of it on any particular date isn't.
Neither is. Global warming is certainly happening. But variations in snowfall in a tiny corner of the North Atlantic are neither here nor there in terms of evidence for or against it.
Xavi Ruiz @xruiztru · Dec 1 Europe hasn't seen a snow cover like this since 2010—60% is blanketed in white! ❄️
Toby Young @toadmeister · 23h But... global warming.
Everyone knows cold weather is impossible under global warming and climate change, that's just hard science.
Toby Young got a first in PPE from Oxford and they don't hand those out like... Hold on, David Cameron's on the other line.
Has a single degree course done more damage to the UK than blasted PPE from Oxford?
Jim Hacker of course went to LSE. Frankly he's a better PM than the last Tory Famous Five.
I'm not sure he was. He committed several blatantly corrupt actions as a Cabinet Minister, drove whilst drunk, and used blackmail to force a senior civil servant to lie for his personal benefit.
And partaking in an forbidden drinks party as well.
He'd fit right in with the current lot.
Except, didn't his wife say to him "you still have a sense or right and wrong... You just don't use it much."
Xavi Ruiz @xruiztru · Dec 1 Europe hasn't seen a snow cover like this since 2010—60% is blanketed in white! ❄️
Toby Young @toadmeister · 23h But... global warming.
Everyone knows cold weather is impossible under global warming and climate change, that's just hard science.
But no snow at all this winter would be used by some people as evidence that global warming was happening.
No. A significant decrease in snowfall over decades is. A snowfall or lack of it on any particular date isn't.
Neither is. Global warming is certainly happening. But variations in snowfall in a tiny corner of the North Atlantic are neither here nor there in terms of evidence for or against it.
22 degrees today in Belgrade.
No snow here in Ilford, but a bit of fog rolling in.
I have to say that the lack of sympathy for Israel shown by so many following 17th Oct, has almost certainly helped to harden opinions in Israel. Why should they compromise if everyone's (apart from USA) against them anyway. There's been huge outrage and bitterness expressed in the Israeli media about this.
Here is a tweet from former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett.
We now know that Hamas terrorists who held hostage 13-year-old Yagel Yaacov and his brother Or, used a boiling hot motorcycle exhaust to “imprint” a burn on their legs as a way to identify them if they try to escape.
Let me repeat: They took a boiling piece of metal and pinned it to the legs of a helpless 13 year old captive child.
Hamas are sadistic monsters, and we’re going to have to kill them.
How about the sadistic monsters who've casually killed 15,000 from the air?
100% down to the degenerates who provide your numbers
If you have better numbers, I'm all ears.
The numbers will come out
And I'm sure that there will be many thousands that have been killed
But every single one will be the responsibility of Hamas, whose numbers you reliably and resolutely report
Using that logic, everyone who was killed in Northern Ireland during the troubles would be the responsibility of the IRA, including those killed by unionist paramilitaries.
If October 7th doesn't happen, nothing that happens after October 7th happens.
"In 13 weeks, Donald Trump will have locked up the Republican nomination. ."
"The world looks normal right now, but it is not. Forces are in motion that will bring us to a point of national crisis one year from now. We know this as surely as we know that the sun will rise tomorrow.
"In 13 weeks, Donald Trump will have locked up the Republican nomination. ."
"The world looks normal right now, but it is not. Forces are in motion that will bring us to a point of national crisis one year from now. We know this as surely as we know that the sun will rise tomorrow.
So why aren’t people acting like it?
I wish I knew."
The Bulwark
In 6 months Trump could be convicted and jailed, who knows
A man has died and two others have been injured in an attack on a street in central Paris.
France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said an attacker had targeted tourists around the Quai de Grenelle, which is close to the Eiffel Tower.
Citing a police source, AFP news agency said the man who died - identified as a German national - was stabbed.
Mr Darmanin said the alleged attacker had shouted "Allahu Akbar", Arabic for "God is greatest", and told police he was upset about the situation in Gaza.
He said the suspect was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 for planning another attack and was on the French security services watchlist.
I worked out today it costs £1.86 to keep my heating on for an hour.
I wonder how many people have shivered through this week's cold snap without heating, and if it has an impact on the polls.
The Tories never recovered from Truss, but also, that happened at the end of October 2022... right when most people start switching their heating on...
The reminder of my heating bill this week means there will be no "swingback" from me. This government needs putting out to pasture.
No government will stop heating bills.
But the high cost of energy is deliberate policy, and this goes across parties - Labour’s energy policies are afaics worse. Truss was the only one seriously interested in reducing the cost of energy. Posturing at international symposia is a far higher priority for both Sunak and Starmer (to say nothing of the King) than people being able to afford to stay warm.
Colin McCarthy @US_Stormwatch · 4h Jets are literally frozen on the runway in Germany, as Munich has had its largest December snowstorm on record with up to 44 cm (17 in) of snow on the ground.
The GOP is basically going to run as a pro-Jan 6th insurrection party.
Bill Kristol.
They confusingly seem to be both in favour of people storming the Capitol, and insistent that the only people doing the actual storming were Feds dressed as Trump supporters. Everyone else was just peacefully wandering about, even the ones who pled guilty to crimes.
"In 13 weeks, Donald Trump will have locked up the Republican nomination. ."
"The world looks normal right now, but it is not. Forces are in motion that will bring us to a point of national crisis one year from now. We know this as surely as we know that the sun will rise tomorrow.
So why aren’t people acting like it?
I wish I knew."
The Bulwark
In 6 months Trump could be convicted and jailed, who knows
You keep saying this or something similar.
It 'aint gonna happen.
And even if it does. He runs.
The only way to stop him is a) an unbelievable miracle happens and GOP primary voters swerve in early 2024 to Halley or b) Biden scrapes enough ECV to get home thanks to independents who finally wake up to the prospect of living in a dictatorship.
c) is of course a massive heart attack but only the good die young.
A man has died and two others have been injured in an attack on a street in central Paris.
France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said an attacker had targeted tourists around the Quai de Grenelle, which is close to the Eiffel Tower.
Citing a police source, AFP news agency said the man who died - identified as a German national - was stabbed.
Mr Darmanin said the alleged attacker had shouted "Allahu Akbar", Arabic for "God is greatest", and told police he was upset about the situation in Gaza.
He said the suspect was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 for planning another attack and was on the French security services watchlist.
They don't like tourists or fun, whether it be in Israel, France or an Ariane Grande concert.
The GOP is basically going to run as a pro-Jan 6th insurrection party.
Bill Kristol.
They confusingly seem to be both in favour of people storming the Capitol, and insistent that the only people doing the actual storming were Feds dressed as Trump supporters. Everyone else was just peacefully wandering about, even the ones who pled guilty to crimes.
Actually Karl says in this interview that they seem to have given up on the 'it was the feds dressed as protestors' thing.
THEY WERE HIS PEOPLE and Trump told Karl this in an interview.
"In 13 weeks, Donald Trump will have locked up the Republican nomination. ."
"The world looks normal right now, but it is not. Forces are in motion that will bring us to a point of national crisis one year from now. We know this as surely as we know that the sun will rise tomorrow.
So why aren’t people acting like it?
I wish I knew."
The Bulwark
In 6 months Trump could be convicted and jailed, who knows
You keep saying this or something similar.
It 'aint gonna happen.
And even if it does. He runs.
The only way to stop him is a) an unbelievable miracle happens and GOP primary voters swerve in early 2024 to Halley or b) Biden scrapes enough ECV to get home thanks to independents who finally wake up to the prospect of living in a dictatorship.
c) is of course a massive heart attack but only the good die young.
By the time of the trials he already will be miles ahead, the first criminal trial is meant to be the day before Super Tuesday. I think all the other candidates, except Christie, are on the record as intending to support him as candidate even if he is convicted of a criminal offence. They were specifically asked about supporting the nominee in those circumstances. He has been preparing the ground for that since before he was even charged, by hammering home how the charges are phony and the process rigged and political, and every indication is that most GOP voters agree with him about that.
Absent a few lonely polls that some might change their view upon conviction, I don't know why we'd ignore the vast amount of indicators that being convicted really would not make much difference to GOP voter intention.
We should believe what they are telling us, that they want Trump, no matter what. Once he's been chosen, which will happen in practical terms before any potential conviction, I do not believe for a second the base will change its mind.
What counts as a floating voter might, but not them. To believe otherwise is just wishful thinking.
"In 13 weeks, Donald Trump will have locked up the Republican nomination. ."
"The world looks normal right now, but it is not. Forces are in motion that will bring us to a point of national crisis one year from now. We know this as surely as we know that the sun will rise tomorrow.
So why aren’t people acting like it?
I wish I knew."
The Bulwark
In 6 months Trump could be convicted and jailed, who knows
You keep saying this or something similar.
It 'aint gonna happen.
And even if it does. He runs.
The only way to stop him is a) an unbelievable miracle happens and GOP primary voters swerve in early 2024 to Halley or b) Biden scrapes enough ECV to get home thanks to independents who finally wake up to the prospect of living in a dictatorship.
c) is of course a massive heart attack but only the good die young.
Trump has multiple trials, including multiple criminal trials, over the next few months and there is a significant chance he is convicted in at least one maybe more of them and then given a jail sentence.
He may run still even then but the polling evidence is swing voters would desert him. The GOP establishment may also do a stitch up at the convention to deny him the nomination, he still runs as an independent and hands Biden re election on a plate.
However even if none of that happens and Trump wins, so what? That is American voters choice and we survived him as President before
"In 13 weeks, Donald Trump will have locked up the Republican nomination. ."
"The world looks normal right now, but it is not. Forces are in motion that will bring us to a point of national crisis one year from now. We know this as surely as we know that the sun will rise tomorrow.
So why aren’t people acting like it?
I wish I knew."
The Bulwark
In 6 months Trump could be convicted and jailed, who knows
You keep saying this or something similar.
It 'aint gonna happen.
And even if it does. He runs.
The only way to stop him is a) an unbelievable miracle happens and GOP primary voters swerve in early 2024 to Halley or b) Biden scrapes enough ECV to get home thanks to independents who finally wake up to the prospect of living in a dictatorship.
c) is of course a massive heart attack but only the good die young.
By the time of the trials he already will be miles ahead, the first criminal trial is meant to be the day before Super Tuesday. I think all the other candidates, except Christie, are on the record as intending to support him as candidate even if he is convicted of a criminal offence. He has been preparing the ground for that since before he was even charged, by hammering home how the charges are phony and the process rigged and political, and every indication is that most GOP voters agree with him about that.
Absent a few lonely polls that some might change their view upon conviction, I don't know why we'd ignore the vast amount of indicators that being convicted really would not make much difference to GOP voter intention.
We should believe what they are telling us, that they want Trump, no matter what. Once he's been chosen, which will happen in practical terms before any potential conviction, I do not believe for a second the base will change its mind.
What counts as a floating voter might, but not them. To believe otherwise is just wishful thinking.
Yep.
Clear and present danger.
The republic has never been in so much shit. At least since the civil war anyway.
GOP voters seem to have collectively lost their minds.
It is utterly baffling.
I remain unconvinced Biden can pull this off twice.
"In 13 weeks, Donald Trump will have locked up the Republican nomination. ."
"The world looks normal right now, but it is not. Forces are in motion that will bring us to a point of national crisis one year from now. We know this as surely as we know that the sun will rise tomorrow.
So why aren’t people acting like it?
I wish I knew."
The Bulwark
In 6 months Trump could be convicted and jailed, who knows
You keep saying this or something similar.
It 'aint gonna happen.
And even if it does. He runs.
The only way to stop him is a) an unbelievable miracle happens and GOP primary voters swerve in early 2024 to Halley or b) Biden scrapes enough ECV to get home thanks to independents who finally wake up to the prospect of living in a dictatorship.
c) is of course a massive heart attack but only the good die young.
By the time of the trials he already will be miles ahead, the first criminal trial is meant to be the day before Super Tuesday. I think all the other candidates, except Christie, are on the record as intending to support him as candidate even if he is convicted of a criminal offence. They were specifically asked about supporting the nominee in those circumstances. He has been preparing the ground for that since before he was even charged, by hammering home how the charges are phony and the process rigged and political, and every indication is that most GOP voters agree with him about that.
Absent a few lonely polls that some might change their view upon conviction, I don't know why we'd ignore the vast amount of indicators that being convicted really would not make much difference to GOP voter intention.
We should believe what they are telling us, that they want Trump, no matter what. Once he's been chosen, which will happen in practical terms before any potential conviction, I do not believe for a second the base will change its mind.
What counts as a floating voter might, but not them. To believe otherwise is just wishful thinking.
The final Republican primary isn't until late June by which time some of his trial verdicts will already have been in weeks, maybe months before
Comments
And I'm sure that there will be many thousands that have been killed
But every single one will be the responsibility of Hamas, whose numbers you reliably and resolutely report
Otherwise, the interesting thing is that over summer, and perhaps during this holiday season, people’s weekends kind of bleed into the week. Folks leave Thursday to go “upstate”, and perhaps do a Friday morning proper and allow Friday PM availability “for calls”.
Somehow this works.
Of course mine is a privileged slice of experience.
I can’t really recommend the overall holiday “system”.
But my original post was more about the healthy communality engendered by public festivities anyway. It all seems slightly easier, more public, and more fun here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cgaQZmUV_g
He polls better than their current leader, after all.
Newtons pics look nothing like this chap but it’s more why Newton is trending than anything else.
Cumbrian snow pictures - from actual Cumbria. Or Cumberland as it is now known.
They could plug the Autumn holiday gap by restoring Michaelmas (29 Sep) to mark the end of the harvest season and bringing back All Hallows/Hallowtide (1 Nov) the feast of All
Saints (Hallows), the day after Hallows Eve (Halloween).
I worked out today it costs £1.86 to keep my heating on for an hour.
I wonder how many people have shivered through this week's cold snap without heating, and if it has an impact on the polls.
The Tories never recovered from Truss, but also, that happened at the end of October 2022... right when most people start switching their heating on...
The reminder of my heating bill this week means there will be no "swingback" from me. This government needs putting out to pasture.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67595452
Some of it is the vice that local councils are in, trapped between a constrained income and ever rising statutory expenditure. But there's also an attitude that any spending on making life agreeable is a wicked waste that should be recycled as tax cuts instead.
And I get the dilemma. But I really suspect that money spent on lights, music and fun has a pretty good return in public contentment per pound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland_Council
I've prepared myself for the freeze pretty well, from the bottom up..
Three pairs of socks; one normal and two long thermal pulled up to my knees and interweaved with two pairs of longjohns, one tight one loose, over big thick knickers
Above the waist I've worn a long-sleeved t-shirt, a cashmere jumper, a long-sleeved work shirt, a dry weather work jacket and a big waterproof work coat over the top. With a work woolly hat on
My scouse mate Carl went out in shorts, a shirt and a jacket, and a great big Siberian looking hat. I think that I need a better hat. Even so well prepared, I've had numb toes and chilly fingers
The best thing for chilly fingers today has been my dog friends. I think that I've stroked seventeen dogs today
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_holidays_in_the_United_States
Five of them happen after the 1st of September.
(Some states still celebrate Lincoln's birthday:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln's_Birthday )
Now off to read a book.
You can get a good idea what it is like in our mountains now, by looking at these live webcam pictures: https://www.nps.gov/mora/learn/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm
I make friends with the dogs with love and affection, and by squatting down and looking them in the eye. And scratching the bits that they can't reach
My father enjoyed a £500 pensioner's credit this year (born before '57, living alone) - he's a millionaire.
Meanwhile a struggling mum and dad in their thirties with two kids get... what exactly?
I can afford £1.86 an hour, a lot of people can't. I was struck last year by a conversation I had with the barmaid in my local pub that it was costing nearly £600 a month to heat her house over the winter. And she would have been on minimum wage.
Graduated support for the poorest in our society, particularly those with young kids, would have been the kind and humane thing to do this winter and last.
What it comes down to is I think a lot of people can't afford £300 a month (heating on for approx 5 hours a day). The government's own figures suggest that 8.8 million people are living in fuel poverty at the moment.
What does it say about our society that in 2023, people are shivering away in unheated rooms?
Quite why not is a mystery.
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366560856/DWP-to-surveil-bank-accounts-of-benefit-claimants-for-fraud
But it is always nice to see Man U get beaten.
Oddly. the ChiComs are not rushing to reduce those emissions -- which, to be fair, is not a trivial problem.
Xavi Ruiz
@xruiztru
·
Dec 1
Europe hasn't seen a snow cover like this since 2010—60% is blanketed in white! ❄️
Toby Young
@toadmeister
·
23h
But... global warming.
"Europe | Charlemagne
Where there's a will there's a row
What inheritance laws tell you about Europe and why Britain is the odd man out"
https://www.economist.com/europe/2009/10/15/where-theres-a-will-theres-a-row
Spent this afternoon building snowmen, which I haven't done for a couple of decades.
The New Social Contract party said Mr Wilders' election manifesto risked breaching the Dutch constitution.
His Freedom party (PVV) caused a dramatic upset by winning most seats in the general election victory but now needs to secure a majority."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67574033
I believe it's been part of our uncodified constitution since parish councils were introduced by the 1894 Local Government Act, and was immediately followed by arguments about how big or small they should be and what powers they should have (arguments which persist to this day).
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
Oh, wait, that article is mysteriously no longer available on their website.
And then, with the usual self-righteous lack of self-awareness of the "liberal" left, they accuse OTHERS of being Orwellian:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/freedom-of-information-foi-clearing-house-b1760830.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news/the-last-word-orwellian-curb-on-fans-entry-is-id-system-by-the-back-door-8604179.html
Dems must push this message relentlessly.
Robert Reich
@RBReich
·
1h
Every single American needs to know that Trump has, again, promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act if he's elected. This would rip health care away from millions. Please help spread this far and wide.
A significant decrease in snowfall over decades is.
A snowfall or lack of it on any particular date isn't.
Frankly he's a better PM than the last Tory Famous Five.
Drives me mad when people conflate weather and climate.
As an aside, possible/likely that global warming makes NW Europe have colder winters as the melting ice shunts the Gulf
Stream south. But that’s nothing to do with this week’s weather - which is just weather.
But Toby Young was very heaven
@US_Stormwatch
·
4h
Jets are literally frozen on the runway in Germany, as Munich has had its largest December snowstorm on record with up to 44 cm (17 in) of snow on the ground.
Incredible scenes.
https://twitter.com/US_Stormwatch
He'd fit right in with the current lot.
Except, didn't his wife say to him "you still have a sense or right and wrong... You just don't use it much."
Good old days.
"Only Unconnect - Pimlico
Geoff Marshall"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyTfzfOlRok
"The world looks normal right now, but it is not. Forces are in motion that will bring us to a point of national crisis one year from now. We know this as surely as we know that the sun will rise tomorrow.
So why aren’t people acting like it?
I wish I knew."
The Bulwark
Interview with reporter Jonathan Karl:
https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1729839636741005555
Brace...
A man has died and two others have been injured in an attack on a street in central Paris.
France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said an attacker had targeted tourists around the Quai de Grenelle, which is close to the Eiffel Tower.
Citing a police source, AFP news agency said the man who died - identified as a German national - was stabbed.
Mr Darmanin said the alleged attacker had shouted "Allahu Akbar", Arabic for "God is greatest", and told police he was upset about the situation in Gaza.
He said the suspect was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 for planning another attack and was on the French security services watchlist.
Bill Kristol.
It 'aint gonna happen.
And even if it does. He runs.
The only way to stop him is a) an unbelievable miracle happens and GOP primary voters swerve in early 2024 to Halley or b) Biden scrapes enough ECV to get home thanks to independents who finally wake up to the prospect of living in a dictatorship.
c) is of course a massive heart attack but only the good die young.
THEY WERE HIS PEOPLE and Trump told Karl this in an interview.
https://conversationswithbillkristol.org/conversation/jonathan-karl-what-would-a-second-trump-term-look-like/
(15 mins)
Absent a few lonely polls that some might change their view upon conviction, I don't know why we'd ignore the vast amount of indicators that being convicted really would not make much difference to GOP voter intention.
We should believe what they are telling us, that they want Trump, no matter what. Once he's been chosen, which will happen in practical terms before any potential conviction, I do not believe for a second the base will change its mind.
What counts as a floating voter might, but not them. To believe otherwise is just wishful thinking.
He may run still even then but the polling evidence is swing voters would desert him. The GOP establishment may also do a stitch up at the convention to deny him the nomination, he still runs as an independent and hands Biden re election on a plate.
However even if none of that happens and Trump wins, so what? That is American voters choice and we survived him as President before
Clear and present danger.
The republic has never been in so much shit. At least since the civil war anyway.
GOP voters seem to have collectively lost their minds.
It is utterly baffling.
I remain unconvinced Biden can pull this off twice.