I suspect Starmer's praise of Thatcher for bringing about "meaningful change" is designed to contrast her (for Telegraph readers particularly) with the current PM, who has no plan to bring about any significant change and is left with detritus such as clamping down on small boats and smoking. As long as he doesn't sink to praising Truss or Johnson, I can live with it.
He also praises Atlee and Blair, and in the past has been glowing about Harold Wilson.
I sometimes think Starmer is in danger of trying too hard.
Thing is, that's where the frontline of the electoral battleground currently is- voters who are old enough and right wing enough to have been pretty keen on Thatcher.
It's almost a law of nature that parties on the up expand into opposition territory- Boris did it in 2019.
It's what Starmer does with all those votes that will be interesting; Thatcher (for example) in power was rather different to campaigning Thatcher.
Quite a lot about the national finances has changed since then. John Maynard Keynes on what to do when the facts change applies here.
Personally, I'd say that fees are much less an issue than maintenance funding while students are studying, but that's another matter.
Politicians change their views to grope towards what the electorate wants. That's not news. Thatcher did it (she was happy enough to be in Heath's cabinet), Blair did it (contrast '83 and '97), Johnson did it.
The advantage Starmer has, the only reason he's on track for the Premiership, is how comprehensively the Conservative class of 2019 have fouled the nest. And that was their choice. Had Boris not repeatedly doubled down on a pathetic lie, he'd probably still be there.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
I suspect Starmer's praise of Thatcher for bringing about "meaningful change" is designed to contrast her (for Telegraph readers particularly) with the current PM, who has no plan to bring about any significant change and is left with detritus such as clamping down on small boats and smoking. As long as he doesn't sink to praising Truss or Johnson, I can live with it.
He also praises Atlee and Blair, and in the past has been glowing about Harold Wilson.
I sometimes think Starmer is in danger of trying too hard.
Thing is, that's where the frontline of the electoral battleground currently is- voters who are old enough and right wing enough to have been pretty keen on Thatcher.
It's almost a law of nature that parties on the up expand into opposition territory- Boris did it in 2019.
It's what Starmer does with all those votes that will be interesting; Thatcher (for example) in power was rather different to campaigning Thatcher.
Quite a lot about the national finances has changed since then. John Maynard Keynes on what to do when the facts change applies here.
Personally, I'd say that fees are much less an issue than maintenance funding while students are studying, but that's another matter.
Politicians change their views to grope towards what the electorate wants. That's not news. Thatcher did it (she was happy enough to be in Heath's cabinet), Blair did it (contrast '83 and '97), Johnson did it.
The advantage Starmer has, the only reason he's on track for the Premiership, is how comprehensively the Conservative class of 2019 have fouled the nest. And that was their choice. Had Boris not repeatedly doubled down on a pathetic lie, he'd probably still be there.
I suspect Starmer's praise of Thatcher for bringing about "meaningful change" is designed to contrast her (for Telegraph readers particularly) with the current PM, who has no plan to bring about any significant change and is left with detritus such as clamping down on small boats and smoking. As long as he doesn't sink to praising Truss or Johnson, I can live with it.
He also praises Atlee and Blair, and in the past has been glowing about Harold Wilson.
I sometimes think Starmer is in danger of trying too hard.
The main point of this is to make it clear that Corbynism is dead. He just can't emphasise that too often, and it has got him consistent 20 point poll leads. So expect such stunts to continue.
Well, all it’s doing for me is to make me look even more carefully at Davey and his team.
If you’re in a Lib Dem Tory marginal, good. And you’re in Chelmsford I think? In which case go for it.
Witham actually.
I played football in Witham last month - 3rd game back after a vitrectomy and got poked in the eye after ten mins!
Sounds like Witham footballers are as cruel as their MP.
I suspect Starmer's praise of Thatcher for bringing about "meaningful change" is designed to contrast her (for Telegraph readers particularly) with the current PM, who has no plan to bring about any significant change and is left with detritus such as clamping down on small boats and smoking. As long as he doesn't sink to praising Truss or Johnson, I can live with it.
He also praises Atlee and Blair, and in the past has been glowing about Harold Wilson.
I sometimes think Starmer is in danger of trying too hard.
The main point of this is to make it clear that Corbynism is dead. He just can't emphasise that too often, and it has got him consistent 20 point poll leads. So expect such stunts to continue.
Well, all it’s doing for me is to make me look even more carefully at Davey and his team.
If you’re in a Lib Dem Tory marginal, good. And you’re in Chelmsford I think? In which case go for it.
Witham actually.
I played football in Witham last month - 3rd game back after a vitrectomy and got poked in the eye after ten mins!
Sounds like Witham footballers are as cruel as their MP.
It's never a bad move for a Labour leader to park his vehicles on the Conservative lawn. Tony Blair did it to huge effect thirty years ago and Starmer knows the road to electoral victory doesn't lie down Radical Road or Corbyn Close but Reassurance Street. From now until polling day everything will be about persuading those millions of voters who didn't vote Labour last time (for whatever reason, whether it be Brexit or Corbyn) they can now vote Labour safe in the knowledge Brexit is "safe" and this Labour Party is no Corbynite closed shop.
Starmer is basically saying his Labour Party is a non-socialist party of the centre or centre-left. Public services (especially the blessed NHS) will be safe and this will be about a Government doing much of the same as the current administration but just doing it better.
The Conservatives, hampered by having to defend their long period in Government, aren't even able to answer such basic questions as why anyone would vote for them.
I'm not sure that's lefty hypocrisy, given that the three people cited in the second article as availing themselves of a private jet are Jeff Bezos, Prince (?) Charles and Boris Johnson. Righty hypocrisy?
Rishi took a huge personal airliner there and back to spend just 12 hours in Dubai!
Why does the amount of time there matter to his transport choice?
And should not political heads of state / government have the security and flexibility of their own aircraft? It's nonsense hairshirting to expect them to fly scheduled. What if they have to take a time-critical phone call? Or if they need to change their destination mid-flight? Emergencies happen. Yes, these things can be deputised but it's introducing unnecessary risk into the system for what is - in the scheme of things - a trivial carbon output, whatever the optics.
As he not heard of Zoom or Teams??
Ridiculous. Being at a conference in person is far more effective than staring at an often blank compter screen.
Conference is about REDUCING carbon footprint!
And? That still requires people to meet, discuss, lobby to get the necessary agreements. Good luck doing all that via zoom.
Excuses, excuses!
No, they are legitimate reasons to prefer face-to-face meetings over zoom.
1. Buffet lunch 2. Pub afterwards
That's it.
That’s an extremely good reason, Two good reasons if the buffet is decent.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
I'm not sure that's lefty hypocrisy, given that the three people cited in the second article as availing themselves of a private jet are Jeff Bezos, Prince (?) Charles and Boris Johnson. Righty hypocrisy?
Rishi took a huge personal airliner there and back to spend just 12 hours in Dubai!
Why does the amount of time there matter to his transport choice?
And should not political heads of state / government have the security and flexibility of their own aircraft? It's nonsense hairshirting to expect them to fly scheduled. What if they have to take a time-critical phone call? Or if they need to change their destination mid-flight? Emergencies happen. Yes, these things can be deputised but it's introducing unnecessary risk into the system for what is - in the scheme of things - a trivial carbon output, whatever the optics.
As he not heard of Zoom or Teams??
Ridiculous. Being at a conference in person is far more effective than staring at an often blank compter screen.
Conference is about REDUCING carbon footprint!
And? That still requires people to meet, discuss, lobby to get the necessary agreements. Good luck doing all that via zoom.
Excuses, excuses!
No, they are legitimate reasons to prefer face-to-face meetings over zoom.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
Many people brought meaningful change to the UK. Attlee. Blair. Goering. Change is not the same as good.
Indeed, notwithstanding 13 years of New Labour in-between, many of Thatchers Friedman economics chickens are coming home to roost as we speak. Failed privatised utilities and the current housing crisis can be traced back to the 1980s. Her Euroscepticism coupled with her client press boosted reputation unwittingly made her the Godmother of Brexit.
“the Godmother of Brexit.”
You say that like it’s a bad thing
Well two thirds of the public think it is. Though it's an inaccurate characterisation of her anyway.
Come, come. If I had a pound for every PB Brexiteer who claimed had she hung on another three years Mrs T. Would have voted Leave, I would have at least a tenner.
The fairy godmother of Brexit, then. An imaginary being - as she is for most Tories anyway.
So what is the PB collective's view of Haley? Not what are her chances of beating Trump and Biden but what would a Haley Presidency look like? I am somewhat ashamed to say I know absolutely nothing about her and just looking up stuff on wiki or googling doesn't really give much insight of the sort one generally gets on here.
I suspect Starmer's praise of Thatcher for bringing about "meaningful change" is designed to contrast her (for Telegraph readers particularly) with the current PM, who has no plan to bring about any significant change and is left with detritus such as clamping down on small boats and smoking. As long as he doesn't sink to praising Truss or Johnson, I can live with it.
He also praises Atlee and Blair, and in the past has been glowing about Harold Wilson.
I sometimes think Starmer is in danger of trying too hard.
Thing is, that's where the frontline of the electoral battleground currently is- voters who are old enough and right wing enough to have been pretty keen on Thatcher.
It's almost a law of nature that parties on the up expand into opposition territory- Boris did it in 2019.
It's what Starmer does with all those votes that will be interesting; Thatcher (for example) in power was rather different to campaigning Thatcher.
Every Labour Prime Minister since Thatcher (admittedly that's only 2), and now its likely future one has said something warm about herat some point, when all three were vehement opponents (One imagines Starmer's time editing Socialist Alternatives wasn't full of praise) when she was PM.
They do so because it shows a certain generosity and open-mindedness to opponents you disagree with, and because she's now so far in the past it doesn't undermine your pitch that the Tories are rubbish today. Plus it shows they're not in the bit of the Labour party that eternally wants to cosplay the 1980s again in the hope there's a different result this time. Finally, it's quite useful if you want to sound a bit radical and someone who will change things but still reassure Tory switchers.
Though of course her most enduring policy legacies - housing, local government, and private monopoly utility companies - are among our most intractable problems which need sorting out.
'Thatcherism', whatever that really meant,, has very little relevance to today's reality.
If Haley defeats (or looks on course to defeat) Trump do we seriously think he will accept that with quiet dignity? He will throw his rattle out of the pram and cause complete havoc. I am not sure primary system can contain that.
The dogs bark but the caravan moves on? Obviously he'd say he woz robbed and it would be a fun convention, but if he hasn't got the votes then he hasn't got the votes.
The real question would be whether he tried to run as an independent, but even if he wants to that seems hard because of the sore loser laws and so forth. The rational thing to do would be to bargain with Haley for a pardon, but at that point I guess we'd find out how rational he is.
Even if he doesn’t run as an independent, he will constantly distract from Haley (or whoever), criticise her, drive down Republican turnout, launch quixotic lawsuits, demand loyalty pledges from House and Senate candidates, etc. etc. All great news for the Dems.
The idea that he’ll bargain for a pardon, as I’ve said before, I’m not buying it. Even if he made some sort of agreement, it would take less than a week for him to break whatever terms were agreed. He cannot stop himself bloviating.
Yes, but on the other hand if Haley did win the primaries, if she is facing Biden she will immediately contrast favourably with him. He loses his “saviour of democracy” piece and all of the queries around his mental acuity etc will come to the fore against someone who is clearly as sharp as a pin. I’m not saying he can’t win against Haley, but even with Trump as a thorn in her side she has to be favoured.
It is still a low probability she gets the nomination, though.
If Trump shuffles off his mortal coil, Haley could win the Republican primary and, then, yes, I think she’d be the strong favourite against Biden. Voters don’t like high inflation and they blame incumbents. Haley can appeal to independents and most Republicans.
However, if Trump is around, Haley either has to placate him and his voters, in which case she looks worse to independents and Biden’s “saviour of democracy” still holds. Or she distances herself from Trump and the Trumpists don’t vote for her.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
Many people brought meaningful change to the UK. Attlee. Blair. Goering. Change is not the same as good.
Indeed, notwithstanding 13 years of New Labour in-between, many of Thatchers Friedman economics chickens are coming home to roost as we speak. Failed privatised utilities and the current housing crisis can be traced back to the 1980s. Her Euroscepticism coupled with her client press boosted reputation unwittingly made her the Godmother of Brexit.
“the Godmother of Brexit.”
You say that like it’s a bad thing
Well two thirds of the public think it is. Though it's an inaccurate characterisation of her anyway.
Come, come. If I had a pound for every PB Brexiteer who claimed had she hung on another three years Mrs T. Would have voted Leave, I would have at least a tenner.
The fairy godmother of Brexit, then. An imaginary being - as she is for most Tories anyway.
She is for everyone. The quality of her being dead allows people to imbue her with their own views - though she was actually quite explicit as to what her views were, to the extent of publishing them.
If Haley defeats (or looks on course to defeat) Trump do we seriously think he will accept that with quiet dignity? He will throw his rattle out of the pram and cause complete havoc. I am not sure primary system can contain that.
The dogs bark but the caravan moves on? Obviously he'd say he woz robbed and it would be a fun convention, but if he hasn't got the votes then he hasn't got the votes.
The real question would be whether he tried to run as an independent, but even if he wants to that seems hard because of the sore loser laws and so forth. The rational thing to do would be to bargain with Haley for a pardon, but at that point I guess we'd find out how rational he is.
Even if he doesn’t run as an independent, he will constantly distract from Haley (or whoever), criticise her, drive down Republican turnout, launch quixotic lawsuits, demand loyalty pledges from House and Senate candidates, etc. etc. All great news for the Dems.
The idea that he’ll bargain for a pardon, as I’ve said before, I’m not buying it. Even if he made some sort of agreement, it would take less than a week for him to break whatever terms were agreed. He cannot stop himself bloviating.
Yes, but on the other hand if Haley did win the primaries, if she is facing Biden she will immediately contrast favourably with him. He loses his “saviour of democracy” piece and all of the queries around his mental acuity etc will come to the fore against someone who is clearly as sharp as a pin. I’m not saying he can’t win against Haley, but even with Trump as a thorn in her side she has to be favoured.
It is still a low probability she gets the nomination, though.
If Trump shuffles off his mortal coil, Haley could win the Republican primary and, then, yes, I think she’d be the strong favourite against Biden. Voters don’t like high inflation and they blame incumbents. Haley can appeal to independents and most Republicans.
However, if Trump is around, Haley either has to placate him and his voters, in which case she looks worse to independents and Biden’s “saviour of democracy” still holds. Or she distances herself from Trump and the Trumpists don’t vote for her.
Haley's run is all about setting herself up to be DJT's Veep surely. Although she's probably a bit too warry and ethnic for his preferences.
Haley is, inter alia, a massive fan of La Thatcher
Because she was a successful woman politician who's still very popular in the U.S. And Haley knows how to pander to her constituency as well as anyone.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Dunno. As my old prof used to say, everything is linked to stress. Burning the candle at both ends; lack of sleep; lowered immune response; not noticing she was ill... who knows?
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
If Haley defeats (or looks on course to defeat) Trump do we seriously think he will accept that with quiet dignity? He will throw his rattle out of the pram and cause complete havoc. I am not sure primary system can contain that.
The dogs bark but the caravan moves on? Obviously he'd say he woz robbed and it would be a fun convention, but if he hasn't got the votes then he hasn't got the votes.
The real question would be whether he tried to run as an independent, but even if he wants to that seems hard because of the sore loser laws and so forth. The rational thing to do would be to bargain with Haley for a pardon, but at that point I guess we'd find out how rational he is.
Even if he doesn’t run as an independent, he will constantly distract from Haley (or whoever), criticise her, drive down Republican turnout, launch quixotic lawsuits, demand loyalty pledges from House and Senate candidates, etc. etc. All great news for the Dems.
The idea that he’ll bargain for a pardon, as I’ve said before, I’m not buying it. Even if he made some sort of agreement, it would take less than a week for him to break whatever terms were agreed. He cannot stop himself bloviating.
Yes, but on the other hand if Haley did win the primaries, if she is facing Biden she will immediately contrast favourably with him. He loses his “saviour of democracy” piece and all of the queries around his mental acuity etc will come to the fore against someone who is clearly as sharp as a pin. I’m not saying he can’t win against Haley, but even with Trump as a thorn in her side she has to be favoured.
It is still a low probability she gets the nomination, though.
If Trump shuffles off his mortal coil, Haley could win the Republican primary and, then, yes, I think she’d be the strong favourite against Biden. Voters don’t like high inflation and they blame incumbents. Haley can appeal to independents and most Republicans.
However, if Trump is around, Haley either has to placate him and his voters, in which case she looks worse to independents and Biden’s “saviour of democracy” still holds. Or she distances herself from Trump and the Trumpists don’t vote for her.
Haley's run is all about setting herself up to be DJT's Veep surely. Although she's probably a bit too warry and ethnic for his preferences.
I think she’s been too aggressively anti-Trump in comments to ever get picked as his VP. He’ll only go for someone superloyal, possibly a son.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
That big majority is looking more and more certain.
As is the fact he is a Tory
He is a globalist. He wants to turn Britain into a World Economic Forum poster child, and will gladly destroy our quality of life, freedom of speech, remaining wealth, and national sovereignty to get us there. Destruction of our oil industry isn't a left wing policy, nor is mass immigration particularly. Left and right are not particularly relevant descriptors for Starmer. His praise of Thatcher afaiks is not for the change that she brought about, but the fact that she brought about huge changes (of any kind) - against significant opposition. Clearly he plans the same.
It would just be delicious, utterly delicious, if somehow the electorate delivered him a massive smack in his greasy, expectant chops and he remained in indignant opposition. Would almost be worth the triumphant return of Sunak.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
I'm not sure that's lefty hypocrisy, given that the three people cited in the second article as availing themselves of a private jet are Jeff Bezos, Prince (?) Charles and Boris Johnson. Righty hypocrisy?
Rishi took a huge personal airliner there and back to spend just 12 hours in Dubai!
Why does the amount of time there matter to his transport choice?
And should not political heads of state / government have the security and flexibility of their own aircraft? It's nonsense hairshirting to expect them to fly scheduled. What if they have to take a time-critical phone call? Or if they need to change their destination mid-flight? Emergencies happen. Yes, these things can be deputised but it's introducing unnecessary risk into the system for what is - in the scheme of things - a trivial carbon output, whatever the optics.
As he not heard of Zoom or Teams??
Ridiculous. Being at a conference in person is far more effective than staring at an often blank compter screen.
For a normal person, yes. For someone who has minimal respect on the international stage as they all know he’s going to be out of office soon, and who is really bad at politics, he might as well just dial in on Teams.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
That big majority is looking more and more certain.
As is the fact he is a Tory
He is a globalist. He wants to turn Britain into a World Economic Forum poster child, and will gladly destroy our quality of life, freedom of speech, remaining wealth, and national sovereignty to get us there. Destruction of our oil industry isn't a left wing policy, nor is mass immigration particularly. Left and right are not particularly relevant descriptors for Starmer. His praise of Thatcher afaiks is not for the change that she brought about, but the fact that she brought about huge changes (of any kind) - against significant opposition. Clearly he plans the same.
It would just be delicious, utterly delicious, if somehow the electorate delivered him a massive smack in his greasy, expectant chops and he remained in indignant opposition. Would almost be worth the triumphant return of Sunak.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
So what is the PB collective's view of Haley? Not what are her chances of beating Trump and Biden but what would a Haley Presidency look like? I am somewhat ashamed to say I know absolutely nothing about her and just looking up stuff on wiki or googling doesn't really give much insight of the sort one generally gets on here.
Has the best chance of any Republican if Trump gets sufficiently ensnared in his legal tangles. Appears to believe in the constitution and rules of law which is a plus - and has critics Trump as much as she can without doing her campaign fatal damage.
Anti abortion - but also against banning it. Was a competent governor.
How she might deal with the US's current challenges is a but unclear - but she's pretty conservative. And not an isolationist.
So what is the PB collective's view of Haley? Not what are her chances of beating Trump and Biden but what would a Haley Presidency look like? I am somewhat ashamed to say I know absolutely nothing about her and just looking up stuff on wiki or googling doesn't really give much insight of the sort one generally gets on here.
She has said some pretty daft things. Wokeness being more dangerous than any pandemic, for example (1.1m Americans died of Covid). And on abortion. And on eliminating anonymity on the internet. But she is trying to survive in a party of loons and Trumpists so saying some daft things is probably inevitable. The ratio is better than it is for most leading Republicans.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
Many people brought meaningful change to the UK. Attlee. Blair. Goering. Change is not the same as good.
Indeed, notwithstanding 13 years of New Labour in-between, many of Thatchers Friedman economics chickens are coming home to roost as we speak. Failed privatised utilities and the current housing crisis can be traced back to the 1980s. Her Euroscepticism coupled with her client press boosted reputation unwittingly made her the Godmother of Brexit.
“the Godmother of Brexit.”
You say that like it’s a bad thing
Well two thirds of the public think it is. Though it's an inaccurate characterisation of her anyway.
Come, come. If I had a pound for every PB Brexiteer who claimed had she hung on another three years Mrs T. Would have voted Leave, I would have at least a tenner.
The fairy godmother of Brexit, then. An imaginary being - as she is for most Tories anyway.
She is for everyone. The quality of her being dead allows people to imbue her with their own views - though she was actually quite explicit as to what her views were, to the extent of publishing them.
Not exactly required reading as far as I'm concerned - though having lived through the 80s, I'm not unfamiliar. But I'm more interested in the practical (or impractical) effects of her governments' policies.
I suspect Starmer's praise of Thatcher for bringing about "meaningful change" is designed to contrast her (for Telegraph readers particularly) with the current PM, who has no plan to bring about any significant change and is left with detritus such as clamping down on small boats and smoking. As long as he doesn't sink to praising Truss or Johnson, I can live with it.
He also praises Atlee and Blair, and in the past has been glowing about Harold Wilson.
I sometimes think Starmer is in danger of trying too hard.
Thing is, that's where the frontline of the electoral battleground currently is- voters who are old enough and right wing enough to have been pretty keen on Thatcher.
It's almost a law of nature that parties on the up expand into opposition territory- Boris did it in 2019.
It's what Starmer does with all those votes that will be interesting; Thatcher (for example) in power was rather different to campaigning Thatcher.
Every Labour Prime Minister since Thatcher (admittedly that's only 2), and now its likely future one has said something warm about herat some point, when all three were vehement opponents (One imagines Starmer's time editing Socialist Alternatives wasn't full of praise) when she was PM.
They do so because it shows a certain generosity and open-mindedness to opponents you disagree with, and because she's now so far in the past it doesn't undermine your pitch that the Tories are rubbish today. Plus it shows they're not in the bit of the Labour party that eternally wants to cosplay the 1980s again in the hope there's a different result this time. Finally, it's quite useful if you want to sound a bit radical and someone who will change things but still reassure Tory switchers.
Though of course her most enduring policy legacies - housing, local government, and private monopoly utility companies - are among our most intractable problems which need sorting out.
'Thatcherism', whatever that really meant,, has very little relevance to today's reality.
I'd completely agree with that. But the final part is also the point. If you look at Starmer's words - they're followed by praise for Blair and Attlee as PMs who changed Britain in some ways.
Mildly acknowledging Thatcher was a transformational PM is a) stating the obvious - even if as you rightly say, a lot wrong with Britain today could be said to have its origins in much of the flaws and short-sightedness of the Thatcherite settlement. b) Pretty much cost-free as other than for headbangers in the Tory Party and on the bit of the left that has never got over its 1980s defeats, is increasingly a historic figure who no longer elicits the same passions as 25 years ago when the pain of policies was still very raw. You can make Cameron, Osborne, Boris, Truss and Sunak the bogeymen/women now, as those responsible for the mess.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
Two thoughts: First, one of the small reasons I would like to see Haley become president, or at least win the Republican nomination, is for the effect it will have on Modi. Her parents are Sikhs, but she converted to Christianity (though she still celebrates on of the Sikh holidays).
At best, Modi would have mixed feelings?
(Kamala Harris is, fomally, a Baptist, so if the two were to run against each other, it would be a Baptist against a Methodist.)
Second, the most successful politician in that group is Mitch McConnell -- and he has by far the worst ratings.
(One of the things I admire about him is his consistent support for civil rights. The way he reshaped the Supreme Court is already allowing us to get back to following our civil rights laws, after the decades long quota/affirmative action detour.)
Two thoughts: First, one of the small reasons I would like to see Haley become president, or at least win the Republican nomination, is for the effect it will have on Modi. Her parents are Sikhs, but she converted to Christianity (though she still celebrates on of the Sikh holidays).
At best, Modi would have mixed feelings?
(Kamala Harris is, fomally, a Baptist, so if the two were to run against each other, it would be a Baptist against a Methodist.)
Second, the most successful politician in that group is Mitch McConnell -- and he has by far the worst ratings.
(One of the things I admire about him is his consistent support for civil rights. The way he reshaped the Supreme Court is already allowing us to get back to following our civil rights laws, after the decades long quota/affirmative action detour.)
The way Mitch McConnell reshaped the Supreme Court is by refusing to progress Obama's nominee, and not properly investigating Trump's. McConnell is a party hack masquerading as a man of principle.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
'However, the Labour leader drew ire for failing to explicitly back the Prime Minister's assertion of Russian responsibility for the attack.'
Thats over5 years ago. Also over 5 years ago he said to the 2018 Lab Conference " 'We are entering a new fast-changing and more dangerous world including the reckless attacks in Salisbury which the evidence painstakingly assembled by the police now points clearly to the Russian state."
You said Isn't he still trying to work out who was responsible for the Salisbury poisonings? Israel would be his most likely conclusion.
Why do you reach that conclusion apart from the fact he lives rent free in your head?
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
Many people brought meaningful change to the UK. Attlee. Blair. Goering. Change is not the same as good.
Indeed, notwithstanding 13 years of New Labour in-between, many of Thatchers Friedman economics chickens are coming home to roost as we speak. Failed privatised utilities and the current housing crisis can be traced back to the 1980s. Her Euroscepticism coupled with her client press boosted reputation unwittingly made her the Godmother of Brexit.
“the Godmother of Brexit.”
You say that like it’s a bad thing
Well two thirds of the public think it is. Though it's an inaccurate characterisation of her anyway.
Come, come. If I had a pound for every PB Brexiteer who claimed had she hung on another three years Mrs T. Would have voted Leave, I would have at least a tenner.
The fairy godmother of Brexit, then. An imaginary being - as she is for most Tories anyway.
She is for everyone. The quality of her being dead allows people to imbue her with their own views - though she was actually quite explicit as to what her views were, to the extent of publishing them.
Not exactly required reading as far as I'm concerned - though having lived through the 80s, I'm not unfamiliar. But I'm more interested in the practical (or impractical) effects of her governments' policies.
If Luckyguy was born in 1983 he obviously knows much more about Thatcher than those of us who lived through the 80s as adults.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
'However, the Labour leader drew ire for failing to explicitly back the Prime Minister's assertion of Russian responsibility for the attack.'
Thats over5 years ago. Also over 5 years ago he said to the 2018 Lab Conference " 'We are entering a new fast-changing and more dangerous world including the reckless attacks in Salisbury which the evidence painstakingly assembled by the police now points clearly to the Russian state.'
You said Isn't he still trying to work out who was responsible for the Salisbury poisonings? Israel would be his most likely conclusion.
Why do you reach that conclusion apart from the fact he lives rent free in your head?
A bit of sarc, based on the fact that condemning Israel comes rather easier to him than condemning Russia.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
Happy to place fevered imaginations at rest.
My backup steak knife Opinel is an Opinel 6 with a blade length of 7cm aka 2.75 inches, with the locking cuff removed with circlip pliers.
The Plan A option is either a Spyderco or CRTK folder with a 2.9 inch blade.
Some might argue I overprioritize steak eating pleasure; I say not on your nelly - eating pleasure can't be overprioritized.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
Just measured the blade of my Opinel picnic knife that I bought in France for actual French Francs and which has nestled in the pocket of my rucksack for well over 30 years. That extra quarter inch could have earned me a prison sentence anywhere from the NW Highlands to the South Downs Way, all for the sake of a soupçon de fromage! But, looking on the bright side, maybe a reputation as a knife-wielding hard man isn't a bad thing to have these days, even in rural Warwickshire.
ETA especially for one who resembles OKC's avatar IRL.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
Many people brought meaningful change to the UK. Attlee. Blair. Goering. Change is not the same as good.
Indeed, notwithstanding 13 years of New Labour in-between, many of Thatchers Friedman economics chickens are coming home to roost as we speak. Failed privatised utilities and the current housing crisis can be traced back to the 1980s. Her Euroscepticism coupled with her client press boosted reputation unwittingly made her the Godmother of Brexit.
“the Godmother of Brexit.”
You say that like it’s a bad thing
Well two thirds of the public think it is. Though it's an inaccurate characterisation of her anyway.
Come, come. If I had a pound for every PB Brexiteer who claimed had she hung on another three years Mrs T. Would have voted Leave, I would have at least a tenner.
The fairy godmother of Brexit, then. An imaginary being - as she is for most Tories anyway.
She is for everyone. The quality of her being dead allows people to imbue her with their own views - though she was actually quite explicit as to what her views were, to the extent of publishing them.
Not exactly required reading as far as I'm concerned - though having lived through the 80s, I'm not unfamiliar. But I'm more interested in the practical (or impractical) effects of her governments' policies.
If Luckyguy was born in 1983 he obviously knows much more about Thatcher than those of us who lived through the 80s as adults.
Perhaps the trauma of Thatcher's defenestration when he was 7 hit him hard. My dog died when I was 7 and you don't forget stuff like that.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
'However, the Labour leader drew ire for failing to explicitly back the Prime Minister's assertion of Russian responsibility for the attack.'
Thats over5 years ago. Also over 5 years ago he said to the 2018 Lab Conference " 'We are entering a new fast-changing and more dangerous world including the reckless attacks in Salisbury which the evidence painstakingly assembled by the police now points clearly to the Russian state.'
You said Isn't he still trying to work out who was responsible for the Salisbury poisonings? Israel would be his most likely conclusion.
Why do you reach that conclusion apart from the fact he lives rent free in your head?
A bit of sarc, based on the fact that condemning Israel comes rather easier to him than condemning Russia.
Did you read the article? Corbyn was anti-Putin at a time when Blair, Cameron and Johnson were in bed with Russia.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
'However, the Labour leader drew ire for failing to explicitly back the Prime Minister's assertion of Russian responsibility for the attack.'
Thats over5 years ago. Also over 5 years ago he said to the 2018 Lab Conference " 'We are entering a new fast-changing and more dangerous world including the reckless attacks in Salisbury which the evidence painstakingly assembled by the police now points clearly to the Russian state.'
You said Isn't he still trying to work out who was responsible for the Salisbury poisonings? Israel would be his most likely conclusion.
Why do you reach that conclusion apart from the fact he lives rent free in your head?
A bit of sarc, based on the fact that condemning Israel comes rather easier to him than condemning Russia.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
'However, the Labour leader drew ire for failing to explicitly back the Prime Minister's assertion of Russian responsibility for the attack.'
Thats over5 years ago. Also over 5 years ago he said to the 2018 Lab Conference " 'We are entering a new fast-changing and more dangerous world including the reckless attacks in Salisbury which the evidence painstakingly assembled by the police now points clearly to the Russian state.'
You said Isn't he still trying to work out who was responsible for the Salisbury poisonings? Israel would be his most likely conclusion.
Why do you reach that conclusion apart from the fact he lives rent free in your head?
A bit of sarc, based on the fact that condemning Israel comes rather easier to him than condemning Russia.
Did you read the article? Corbyn was anti-Putin at a time when Blair, Cameron and Johnson were in bed with Russia.
Jezza's position was endorsed by Brendan, the Tories' favourite Marxist: Witness the response to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s sensible plea that we remain in a ‘robust dialogue with Russia’ rather than ‘cutting off contact and letting the tensions and divisions get worse and potentially even more dangerous’. A politician calling for calm? For diplomacy? For dialogue? Boo! That cannot be tolerated. He has been branded ‘disgusting’ and ‘disgraceful’. David Miliband compared him to Trump: in short, he’s all but a Russia stooge.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
Happy to place fevered imaginations at rest.
My backup steak knife Opinel is an Opinel 6 with a blade length of 7cm aka 2.75 inches, with the locking cuff removed with circlip pliers.
The Plan A option is either a Spyderco or CRTK folder with a 2.9 inch blade.
Some might argue I overprioritize steak eating pleasure; I say not on your nelly - eating pleasure can't be overprioritized.
Missed a bit:
If anyone wants a decent picnic knife, I'd say the Spyderco or the CRTK. There have been strange cases around eg iirc a 2" blade on a souvenir mini-orange-peeling knife (it is a "fixed" blade), and this one around a Swiss Army knife in a car glovebox ("offensive weapon", 61 year old disabled gentleman) which I can't quite fathom - unless it was more than 3":
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Sympathise with that view, Ben, but I would make an exception for BB. Made in Wales, near Snowdonia I believe?
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
Happy to place fevered imaginations at rest.
My backup steak knife Opinel is an Opinel 6 with a blade length of 7cm aka 2.75 inches, with the locking cuff removed with circlip pliers.
The Plan A option is either a Spyderco or CRTK folder with a 2.9 inch blade.
Some might argue I overprioritize steak eating pleasure; I say not on your nelly - eating pleasure can't be overprioritized.
Missed a bit:
If anyone wants a decent picnic knife, I'd say the Spyderco or the CRTK. There have been strange cases around eg iirc a 2" blade on a souvenir mini-orange-peeling knife (it is a "fixed" blade), and this one around a Swiss Army knife in a car glovebox ("offensive weapon", 61 year old disabled gentleman) which I can't quite fathom - unless it was more than 3":
Can you be weak dull and boring, yet determined to turn Britain into the poster child of the World Economic Forum?
Sunak surely has more in common with the average attendee of the annual corporate shindig that is the WEF than Starmer. I’d see him as more of a Daily Mail Ideal Home Show in Olympia type, or maybe Masterchef Live.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
Just measured the blade of my Opinel picnic knife that I bought in France for actual French Francs and which has nestled in the pocket of my rucksack for well over 30 years. That extra quarter inch could have earned me a prison sentence anywhere from the NW Highlands to the South Downs Way, all for the sake of a soupçon de fromage! But, looking on the bright side, maybe a reputation as a knife-wielding hard man isn't a bad thing to have these days, even in rural Warwickshire.
ETA especially for one who resembles OKC's avatar IRL.
The issue I have found with the Opinel 6 is that Opinel have a nearly 50:50 handle:blade proportion, which makes the handle feel diddy.
To comply with UK law it works better with a ~100mm handle and slightly shorter blade.
I'm generally happy with the laws here, which are quite flexible except for some bits of silliness. I'm not happy when the issue is used for panic-mongering by politicians who ignore more serious problems.
Aside: I've worked out he disabled chaps Swiss Army Knife problem - it's UK media reporting and it seems it was a multitool with locking blade, which is one of the triggers.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
Just measured the blade of my Opinel picnic knife that I bought in France for actual French Francs and which has nestled in the pocket of my rucksack for well over 30 years. That extra quarter inch could have earned me a prison sentence anywhere from the NW Highlands to the South Downs Way, all for the sake of a soupçon de fromage! But, looking on the bright side, maybe a reputation as a knife-wielding hard man isn't a bad thing to have these days, even in rural Warwickshire.
ETA especially for one who resembles OKC's avatar IRL.
The issue I have found with the Opinel 6 is that Opinel have a nearly 50:50 handle:blade proportion, which makes the handle feel diddy.
To comply with UK law it works better with a ~100mm handle and slightly shorter blade.
I'm generally happy with the laws here, which are quite flexible except for some bits of silliness. I'm not happy when the issue is used for panic-mongering by politicians who ignore more serious problems.
Aside: I've worked out he disabled chaps Swiss Army Knife problem - it's UK media reporting and it seems it was a multitool with locking blade, which is one of the triggers.
I used to walk through town to the scout hut with a 5-inch sheath knife dangling from my belt. It never occurred to me to carve anyone up and it never occurred to anyone else to carve me up preemptively. Innocent times, the 1960s, but barely 50 miles away Brady and Hindley were killing children for pleasure and pushing back the boundaries of the unimaginable. The seeds of our present dystopia were already sown.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
Happy to place fevered imaginations at rest.
My backup steak knife Opinel is an Opinel 6 with a blade length of 7cm aka 2.75 inches, with the locking cuff removed with circlip pliers.
The Plan A option is either a Spyderco or CRTK folder with a 2.9 inch blade.
Some might argue I overprioritize steak eating pleasure; I say not on your nelly - eating pleasure can't be overprioritized.
Missed a bit:
If anyone wants a decent picnic knife, I'd say the Spyderco or the CRTK. There have been strange cases around eg iirc a 2" blade on a souvenir mini-orange-peeling knife (it is a "fixed" blade), and this one around a Swiss Army knife in a car glovebox ("offensive weapon", 61 year old disabled gentleman) which I can't quite fathom - unless it was more than 3":
What about game birds. I need to skin and quarter them (breasts and legs/thighs) for the freezer.
Through my superior powers of discernment I have picked up that you are quite a knife guy.
What should I use.
I think the most convenient knife for the job, to do it effectively.
It would I think come under "lawful purpose" for being in possession of an otherwise-not-legal knife. As would imo, for example, a survival course, or camping in the woods and building a shelter.
As would (I think, afaics) the Good Doctor's sailor's knife in his lifejacket. Or something in possession of a climber who may need to do things to ropes in an emergency, whilst dangling upside down by his left ankle halfway up the Old Man of Hoy.
You would potentially be at risk imo if you eg had it in your car when you were not going to hunt some game on an arrangement you could prove, depending on how tightly the rules were enforced by the policemen who stopped you.
Slight nerd rather than knife guy, who once got annoyed by a steak-knife that shredded a lovely steak. I've also found that in my day job (LL) having a pocketknife is very useful.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
Happy to place fevered imaginations at rest.
My backup steak knife Opinel is an Opinel 6 with a blade length of 7cm aka 2.75 inches, with the locking cuff removed with circlip pliers.
The Plan A option is either a Spyderco or CRTK folder with a 2.9 inch blade.
Some might argue I overprioritize steak eating pleasure; I say not on your nelly - eating pleasure can't be overprioritized.
Missed a bit:
If anyone wants a decent picnic knife, I'd say the Spyderco or the CRTK. There have been strange cases around eg iirc a 2" blade on a souvenir mini-orange-peeling knife (it is a "fixed" blade), and this one around a Swiss Army knife in a car glovebox ("offensive weapon", 61 year old disabled gentleman) which I can't quite fathom - unless it was more than 3":
What about game birds. I need to skin and quarter them (breasts and legs/thighs) for the freezer.
Through my superior powers of discernment I have picked up that you are quite a knife guy.
What should I use.
I think the most convenient knife for the job, to do it effectively.
It would I think come under "lawful purpose" for being in possession of an otherwise-not-legal knife. As would imo, for example, a survival course, or camping in the woods and building a shelter.
As would (I think, afaics) the Good Doctor's sailor's knife in his lifejacket. Or something in possession of a climber who may need to do things to ropes in an emergency, whilst dangling upside down by his left ankle halfway up the Old Man of Hoy.
You would potentially be at risk imo if you eg had it in your car when you were not going to hunt some game on an arrangement you could prove, depending on how tightly the rules were enforced by the policemen who stopped you.
Slight nerd rather than knife guy, who once got annoyed by a steak-knife that shredded a lovely steak. I've also found that in my day job (LL) having a pocketknife is very useful.
So which one should I get? That does that particular job.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
Unless I have him mixed up with someone else, I always thought of Oborne as a right winger. I must have him mixed up
Interesting article, seem like Jezza has a case not to be thought of as a Putinite. It’s a shame he was been banished, I hope he wins as in Indy or becomes Mayor of London, I think he has earned it
Always fascinating the range of unexpectedly deep expertise on this site. Today pocket knives.
I think it's one end of the spectrum on an interesting range of issues - how far do we want weapons knowledge / experience in our society, and will the situation change as the international climate changes?
Ukraine could throw up the type of resistance to Russia that we could not - does that matter? (There's another one there about the vulnerability of our armed forces to sudden attack, us having concentrated our forces in far fewer bases for 'efficiency'.)
Do we want to restyle our military and culture more towards something like Finland / Switzerland, or our resilience to something more like Sweden? Swedish Stu once posted links to the official SW recommendations for what should be kept at home.
The USA has gone way too far one way, to the extent that they kill 10s of thousands with their guns every year; have we gone too far the other way?
Completely snowed in now. Cannot open front door. Managed to open back door and collect wood for fire. It is quite beautiful outside. There is a magical stillness in a snow covered landscape.
Fortunately the main road nearby seems to have been cleared. So at least we can walk to the town, even it will take an hour or so.
1. Scotland does not have the same rebuttable presumption that computer evidence is reliable unless the defendant proves otherwise. 2. Scottish prosecutors had doubts about Horizon evidence and did not therefore prosecute. 3. The Post Office in Scotland could not run its own prosecutions so there was some independent review - and attempt to comply with the rules - of the type so dismally lacking in England & Wales.
Bluntly the PO was not able to subvert the Scottish criminal justice system in the way that it did elsewhere. Though the evidence in recent days suggests that the PO did try to by trying to bully Scottish prosecutors.
It makes Ministers' refusal to look again at the computer evidence presumption even more unconscionable than it is.
Many thanks - I'd missed it. I'd been wondering what the situation was up here. Were there really no prosecutions in Scotland?
Presumably the PF and Crown Office might have had their suspicions - but without looking into it in detail they couldn't be sure. And it would be unfair to expect them to spend the time to do so (which they couldn't, without a case, anyway, which meant a formal complaint from the PO) or to go public - unless, that was, there was an actual case in Scotland and expert witnesses could go to town on the prosecution evidence and the whole laundry-basket could be emptied out in court.
I do wonder however how many Scottish subPMs had to pay the losses the system reportedly magicked out of thin air, and lost their livelihoods on the quiet, even if they did not go to court.
I'm now beginning to wonder just why at least one supermarket I know closed its subPO.
I don't know the answer to your first question. The key point is that Scots law required corroboration and there was no such evidence.
But you make an important point which is often overlooked: many SPMs were pursued for the money but not prosecuted. So the injustice goes wider than the prosecutions - all the debt recovery proceedings are also fundamentally flawed. And all the monies SPMs paid out of their own pockets to resolve discrepancies were obtained under false pretences.
Basically nothing the PO legal department did in relation to the SPM - whether civil or criminal - from 2000 onwards - can be relied on.
I wouldn't rely on anything they say or do now, frankly, given the ongoing disclosure failings. The entire legal and investigative function at the PO is discredited.
One of the PO investigation managers who recently gave evidence is now an internal investigator at Sellafield, which is a tad worrying. She boasts about her time at the PO on her LinkedIn page which shows an alarming lack of awareness.
The position in Scotland is not quite as different as is being portrayed. The relevant provision is paragraph 4 of schedule 8 of the Criminal Procedure (S) Act 1995 which provides:
"Unless the court otherwise directs, a document may in any criminal proceedings be taken to be a document kept by a business or undertaking or by or on behalf of the holder of a paid or unpaid office if it is certified as such by a docquet in the prescribed form and purporting to be authenticated, in such manner as may be prescribed— (a) by a person authorised to authenticate such a docquet on behalf of the business or undertaking by which; or (b) by, or by a person authorised to authenticate such a docquet on behalf of, the office-holder by whom, the document was kept."
This is know as the business records exception in relation to hearsay. If the holder of the records confirms that they are the records of the business with the appropriate certificate then those records are deemed to be accurate and true records unless the contrary is shown. So if the likes of the hapless Mr Singh had certified the Horizon records for a prosecution in Scotland that would have created a similar position to that in England and Wales.
The prosecution, however, would still be in the hands of the COPFS and not in the hands of the PO itself so it would have been independently assessed.
The requirement for corroboration of the records would normally be met by someone speaking to the records which showed the alleged deficiency. The court would normally be looking for someone who had carried out an investigation or audit which vouched the shortfall.
I am not aware of prosecutions in Scotland (as opposed to civil claims) but it seems very unlikely that there were not any. If Procurators fiscal were unwilling to proceed on the basis of the Horizon evidence as early as 2012 then I think that their good sense and judgment is to be commended.
Thank you.
The problem was that the PO did not actually carry out any investigations into what was causing the discrepancies and alleged shortfalls. They simply accepted what Horizon was telling them. So they would have had difficulty finding someone to say they'd done an audit which showed the shortfall. The hapless Mr Singh's evidence was that only Fujitsu could explain how Horizon worked.
The real problem seems to me to be this one: when you are faced with a discrepancy like this you need to eliminate all possibilities before assuming theft eg human error, fat finger, computer error, bug, some sort of malfunction etc.,. It is only when you have eliminated all other possibilities that you get into the question of malice. PO investigators did not do that. They automatically assumed theft and did not look at what else might have been going wrong. So they were not in a position to say that the Horizon record was true because..... and then provide an explanation.
It was true because it was Horizon. Not it was true because they'd done these checks and these tests and they'd looked at this, that and the other and so on.
Hence the increasing hysteria when it was challenged and hence - too - the refusal to make proper disclosure because that disclosure would have shown that no proper investigations had been done and such audits as there were did show a host of problems. There was more than enough reasonable doubt to make even the thought of prosecution a non-starter.
It seems to me that if a computer system is showing you that something has gone adrift the best test of its accuracy is to find where the allegedly adrift item went and show that it is there. So, in these cases, if the SPOs were supposedly making unlawful transfers to themselves then those transfers really ought to be showing up in their bank accounts. If there is no equivalent entry to where the system says the money went then its time for a much closer look.
Further to this point: should not the system throw up disappearances of things like stamps which are - I presume - given their own audit trail, at least as far as sheets of them are concerned? If so, did nobody look?
Unlike money transfers, the [edit] hypothesis of subbie fraud is much easier to falsify. If 100 x £2 stamps go AWOL and they - or most of them - are still in the counter drawer ...
Same with things like registered post - the parcels must have existed if their arrival can be traced.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
Unless I have him mixed up with someone else, I always thought of Oborne as a right winger. I must have him mixed up
Interesting article, seem like Jezza has a case not to be thought of as a Putinite. It’s a shame he was been banished, I hope he wins as in Indy or becomes Mayor of London, I think he has earned it
Peter Oborne is a weird one. Absolutely right wing (whatever that means) and erstwhile bessie mates with BoJo.
But he has always been an investigative reporter (a bit polemical for me).
A few years ago he turned on Boris big style, ended up writing a damning book about him and isn't worried about calling things as he (Oborne) sees them. Not always right imo but an interesting voice.
Police were called after the partner of an SNP politician at the centre of affair claims said her relatives turned up at his home making threats.
The man told officers he was shouted at and intimidated by two men outside his house and ordered to stop talking about the alleged affair. Police Scotland confirmed they had attended the incident.
A source said: “They were trying to put pressure on him and his family to shut up. The police had to be called.”
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
Unless I have him mixed up with someone else, I always thought of Oborne as a right winger. I must have him mixed up
Interesting article, seem like Jezza has a case not to be thought of as a Putinite. It’s a shame he was been banished, I hope he wins as in Indy or becomes Mayor of London, I think he has earned it
Oborne is interesting - he has imo been fairly extreme on Palestinian politics (froma PCS type viewpoint) for a long time.
I'd make the same point about that particular website, even though it is run by a former correspondent for the Guardian.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
I love Wookey Hole Cheddar (I believe that's the authentic type?) it's delicous, creamy and approachable. Black Bomber and its even savoury-er stablemate Rockstar (@DavidL try it you will love it) is different, it's got this vintage, salty savour that grabs your tastebuds and shakes them by the lapels. Both are great, and the competition between producers keeps quality high. You're not knocking one by liking the other.
Many Sikhs carry a "symbolic" Kirpan, which is about 2" long and blunt. Seems quite a good compromise practice imo.
Not good for cutting steaks, but the culture of Sikhism is generally towards vegetarian but not required, so it may be a moot point.
Anecdata: when I was about 12 I bought a large Khukri at an exhibition at the NEC - it may even have been an Ideal Home exhibition. No idea if *that* was a real or toy Kukri. It was quite large compared to me at the time. It cost £3.50.
Police were called after the partner of an SNP politician at the centre of affair claims said her relatives turned up at his home making threats.
The man told officers he was shouted at and intimidated by two men outside his house and ordered to stop talking about the alleged affair. Police Scotland confirmed they had attended the incident.
A source said: “They were trying to put pressure on him and his family to shut up. The police had to be called.”
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
I love Wookey Hole Cheddar (I believe that's the authentic type?) it's delicous, creamy and approachable. Black Bomber and its even savoury-er stablemate Rockstar (@DavidL try it you will love it) is different, it's got this vintage, salty savour that grabs your tastebuds and shakes them by the lapels. Both are great, and the competition between producers keeps quality high. You're not knocking one by liking the other.
On cheeses I had an amazing two year old Comté yesterday served on a hot waffle with super thin slices of apple. It was absolutely incredible with a perfect balance of the oozing aged cheese and the sweetness of the apple and waffle. I have been daydreaming about it all day.
I suspect Starmer's praise of Thatcher for bringing about "meaningful change" is designed to contrast her (for Telegraph readers particularly) with the current PM, who has no plan to bring about any significant change and is left with detritus such as clamping down on small boats and smoking. As long as he doesn't sink to praising Truss or Johnson, I can live with it.
He also praises Atlee and Blair, and in the past has been glowing about Harold Wilson.
I sometimes think Starmer is in danger of trying too hard.
The main point of this is to make it clear that Corbynism is dead. He just can't emphasise that too often, and it has got him consistent 20 point poll leads. So expect such stunts to continue.
Well, all it’s doing for me is to make me look even more carefully at Davey and his team.
If you’re in a Lib Dem Tory marginal, good. And you’re in Chelmsford I think? In which case go for it.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
Unless I have him mixed up with someone else, I always thought of Oborne as a right winger. I must have him mixed up
Interesting article, seem like Jezza has a case not to be thought of as a Putinite. It’s a shame he was been banished, I hope he wins as in Indy or becomes Mayor of London, I think he has earned it
Oborne's been on a journey. As a staunch Tory he hated Blair, focussing on his mendacity in particular. But when Blair departed Oborne's still had his disliking of mendacity so went after the Tories instead. Since Boris the Tories haven't been particularly conservative, so he probably has no conflict of loyalties on that front.
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
I am uncomfortable with that, but at least he hasn't "praised" Putin, yet. Unlike your lad.
Source?
Peter Oborne @OborneTweets I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
'However, the Labour leader drew ire for failing to explicitly back the Prime Minister's assertion of Russian responsibility for the attack.'
Thats over5 years ago. Also over 5 years ago he said to the 2018 Lab Conference " 'We are entering a new fast-changing and more dangerous world including the reckless attacks in Salisbury which the evidence painstakingly assembled by the police now points clearly to the Russian state.'
You said Isn't he still trying to work out who was responsible for the Salisbury poisonings? Israel would be his most likely conclusion.
Why do you reach that conclusion apart from the fact he lives rent free in your head?
A bit of sarc, based on the fact that condemning Israel comes rather easier to him than condemning Russia.
Did you read the article? Corbyn was anti-Putin at a time when Blair, Cameron and Johnson were in bed with Russia.
Perhaps he was anti-Putin *because* Putin was 'in bed' with those people? Putin wasn't the 'right' or (left) Russian for Corbyn?
Besides, I think that mischaracterises the situation heavily. There were early signs of Putin's autocracy; say, the Beslan siege, or Litvinenko. But before that it was imperative for the west to try to bring Russia alongside and into the league of civilised nations. This meant the west spent vast amounts of treasure trying to help Russia; whether it was helping them decommission nuclear submarines, or the joint work in space, or any other number of projects. That is to be commended (and is very different from the Russian, and Tankie, view that the west abandoned Russia post-1990).
Then Georgia happened, and Ukraine '14, and Salisbury, and it became clear that Putin had a very different worldview from the west's.
Did it have to be that way? No. It was Putin's choice, because he sees Russia as some stronkiest of stronk player on the world stage, whereas in fact it is getting its backside whipped by Ukraine with some western hand-me-downs. He has squandered two decades of opportunity for Russia.
But were the west incorrect to try to bring Russia into the fold? No.
I posted this discussion on Biden's chances a few days ago with Nate Silver on the New Liberal podcast. One of the things the Neoliberal guy mentions is that net favourability ratings seem to be best if you're only somewhat known; If nobody's heard of you then you don't get many favourables, but once you get to the other end of the scale and become very well-known you also get a lot of unfavourables. This is also the thing to be careful about with some of the highly-rated Biden alternatives like Gretchen Whitmer.
So I think there's a good reason to think that Haley's ratings would drop if ended up in a head-to-head with Donald Trump. But I do think she's impressive; She was one of the only people to come out of a job with the Trump administration with her reputation intact. And although Trump is obviously the favourite for the primary, early states often surprise and if she beats him in a couple of those then we're off to the races.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
Many people brought meaningful change to the UK. Attlee. Blair. Goering. Change is not the same as good.
Indeed, notwithstanding 13 years of New Labour in-between, many of Thatchers Friedman economics chickens are coming home to roost as we speak. Failed privatised utilities and the current housing crisis can be traced back to the 1980s. Her Euroscepticism coupled with her client press boosted reputation unwittingly made her the Godmother of Brexit.
“the Godmother of Brexit.”
You say that like it’s a bad thing
Well two thirds of the public think it is. Though it's an inaccurate characterisation of her anyway.
No, it's accurate. Her views by the 1990s had changed very considerably from those of 1975 (or 1985). Her opposition to Maastricht was critical in the development of Euroscepticism within both the Tories and the country at large, and giving it the momentum and legitimacy that would ultimately propel it to being a Leave party.
It's worth noting that UKIP v0.0 was the Anti-Federalist League, which contested the 1992 election on an anti-Maastricht platform (though not a withdrawalist one).
Always fascinating the range of unexpectedly deep expertise on this site. Today pocket knives.
I think it's one end of the spectrum on an interesting range of issues - how far do we want weapons knowledge / experience in our society, and will the situation change as the international climate changes?
Ukraine could throw up the type of resistance to Russia that we could not - does that matter? (There's another one there about the vulnerability of our armed forces to sudden attack, us having concentrated our forces in far fewer bases for 'efficiency'.)
Do we want to restyle our military and culture more towards something like Finland / Switzerland, or our resilience to something more like Sweden? Swedish Stu once posted links to the official SW recommendations for what should be kept at home.
The USA has gone way too far one way, to the extent that they kill 10s of thousands with their guns every year; have we gone too far the other way?
Ultimately I think the answer to that question depends on the strength and reliability of our alliances. If they are solid and dependable then there’s little need for Sweden or Switzerland (or frontline countries like Finland, Poland or of course Ukraine). We’re not on a front line, so any surprise attack would be asymmetric or from the skies anyway.
It’s the strength and stability of these alliances which is being tested in real time on Capitol Hill between now and next November.
Many Sikhs carry a "symbolic" Kirpan, which is about 2" long and blunt. Seems quite a good compromise practice imo.
Not good for cutting steaks, but the culture of Sikhism is generally towards vegetarian but not required, so it may be a moot point.
Anecdata: when I was about 12 I bought a large Khukri at an exhibition at the NEC - it may even have been an Ideal Home exhibition. No idea if *that* was a real or toy Kukri. It was quite large compared to me at the time. It cost £3.50.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
There is some fantastic cheddar made in Ballinneen. They make some cheddar, which I think is exclusive to Dunnes stores, which uses milk from specific seasons, on the basis that milk from cows in the autumn is different to milk from cows in the spring, etc. In terms of paying attention to cheese and its ingredients it's way ahead of anything I've come across in England. It would be a travesty if cheddar became a restricted term to the Westcountry when they don't even make the best cheddar there.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
I love Wookey Hole Cheddar (I believe that's the authentic type?) it's delicous, creamy and approachable. Black Bomber and its even savoury-er stablemate Rockstar (@DavidL try it you will love it) is different, it's got this vintage, salty savour that grabs your tastebuds and shakes them by the lapels. Both are great, and the competition between producers keeps quality high. You're not knocking one by liking the other.
On cheeses I had an amazing two year old Comté yesterday served on a hot waffle with super thin slices of apple. It was absolutely incredible with a perfect balance of the oozing aged cheese and the sweetness of the apple and waffle. I have been daydreaming about it all day.
Yum, love a nice Comte. It's definitely melted cheese weather.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
I love Wookey Hole Cheddar (I believe that's the authentic type?) it's delicous, creamy and approachable. Black Bomber and its even savoury-er stablemate Rockstar (@DavidL try it you will love it) is different, it's got this vintage, salty savour that grabs your tastebuds and shakes them by the lapels. Both are great, and the competition between producers keeps quality high. You're not knocking one by liking the other.
On cheeses I had an amazing two year old Comté yesterday served on a hot waffle with super thin slices of apple. It was absolutely incredible with a perfect balance of the oozing aged cheese and the sweetness of the apple and waffle. I have been daydreaming about it all day.
That sounds very good. I also had a new cheese experience yesterday, not a million miles from Comte. A “ramequin” of melted tomme in the Jura, with bread and salad. Like a fondue but much stronger and more acidic. Apparently a Jura / Bugey speciality.
Completely snowed in now. Cannot open front door. Managed to open back door and collect wood for fire. It is quite beautiful outside. There is a magical stillness in a snow covered landscape.
Fortunately the main road nearby seems to have been cleared. So at least we can walk to the town, even it will take an hour or so.
1. Scotland does not have the same rebuttable presumption that computer evidence is reliable unless the defendant proves otherwise. 2. Scottish prosecutors had doubts about Horizon evidence and did not therefore prosecute. 3. The Post Office in Scotland could not run its own prosecutions so there was some independent review - and attempt to comply with the rules - of the type so dismally lacking in England & Wales.
Bluntly the PO was not able to subvert the Scottish criminal justice system in the way that it did elsewhere. Though the evidence in recent days suggests that the PO did try to by trying to bully Scottish prosecutors.
It makes Ministers' refusal to look again at the computer evidence presumption even more unconscionable than it is.
Many thanks - I'd missed it. I'd been wondering what the situation was up here. Were there really no prosecutions in Scotland?
Presumably the PF and Crown Office might have had their suspicions - but without looking into it in detail they couldn't be sure. And it would be unfair to expect them to spend the time to do so (which they couldn't, without a case, anyway, which meant a formal complaint from the PO) or to go public - unless, that was, there was an actual case in Scotland and expert witnesses could go to town on the prosecution evidence and the whole laundry-basket could be emptied out in court.
I do wonder however how many Scottish subPMs had to pay the losses the system reportedly magicked out of thin air, and lost their livelihoods on the quiet, even if they did not go to court.
I'm now beginning to wonder just why at least one supermarket I know closed its subPO.
I don't know the answer to your first question. The key point is that Scots law required corroboration and there was no such evidence.
But you make an important point which is often overlooked: many SPMs were pursued for the money but not prosecuted. So the injustice goes wider than the prosecutions - all the debt recovery proceedings are also fundamentally flawed. And all the monies SPMs paid out of their own pockets to resolve discrepancies were obtained under false pretences.
Basically nothing the PO legal department did in relation to the SPM - whether civil or criminal - from 2000 onwards - can be relied on.
I wouldn't rely on anything they say or do now, frankly, given the ongoing disclosure failings. The entire legal and investigative function at the PO is discredited.
One of the PO investigation managers who recently gave evidence is now an internal investigator at Sellafield, which is a tad worrying. She boasts about her time at the PO on her LinkedIn page which shows an alarming lack of awareness.
The position in Scotland is not quite as different as is being portrayed. The relevant provision is paragraph 4 of schedule 8 of the Criminal Procedure (S) Act 1995 which provides:
"Unless the court otherwise directs, a document may in any criminal proceedings be taken to be a document kept by a business or undertaking or by or on behalf of the holder of a paid or unpaid office if it is certified as such by a docquet in the prescribed form and purporting to be authenticated, in such manner as may be prescribed— (a) by a person authorised to authenticate such a docquet on behalf of the business or undertaking by which; or (b) by, or by a person authorised to authenticate such a docquet on behalf of, the office-holder by whom, the document was kept."
This is know as the business records exception in relation to hearsay. If the holder of the records confirms that they are the records of the business with the appropriate certificate then those records are deemed to be accurate and true records unless the contrary is shown. So if the likes of the hapless Mr Singh had certified the Horizon records for a prosecution in Scotland that would have created a similar position to that in England and Wales.
The prosecution, however, would still be in the hands of the COPFS and not in the hands of the PO itself so it would have been independently assessed.
The requirement for corroboration of the records would normally be met by someone speaking to the records which showed the alleged deficiency. The court would normally be looking for someone who had carried out an investigation or audit which vouched the shortfall.
I am not aware of prosecutions in Scotland (as opposed to civil claims) but it seems very unlikely that there were not any. If Procurators fiscal were unwilling to proceed on the basis of the Horizon evidence as early as 2012 then I think that their good sense and judgment is to be commended.
Thank you.
The problem was that the PO did not actually carry out any investigations into what was causing the discrepancies and alleged shortfalls. They simply accepted what Horizon was telling them. So they would have had difficulty finding someone to say they'd done an audit which showed the shortfall. The hapless Mr Singh's evidence was that only Fujitsu could explain how Horizon worked.
The real problem seems to me to be this one: when you are faced with a discrepancy like this you need to eliminate all possibilities before assuming theft eg human error, fat finger, computer error, bug, some sort of malfunction etc.,. It is only when you have eliminated all other possibilities that you get into the question of malice. PO investigators did not do that. They automatically assumed theft and did not look at what else might have been going wrong. So they were not in a position to say that the Horizon record was true because..... and then provide an explanation.
It was true because it was Horizon. Not it was true because they'd done these checks and these tests and they'd looked at this, that and the other and so on.
Hence the increasing hysteria when it was challenged and hence - too - the refusal to make proper disclosure because that disclosure would have shown that no proper investigations had been done and such audits as there were did show a host of problems. There was more than enough reasonable doubt to make even the thought of prosecution a non-starter.
People tend to think that other people act and think like themselves. In which case, Post Office managers would tend to assume that sub-postmasters were incompetent liars with amnesia, like themselves.
The "amnesia" is entirely performative and highly convenient.
The quest to find the clitoris of the English electorate is unending.
He suddenly looks like he’s wearing a weird multicoloured toupee
Had the weird experience of thinking about you yesterday at a birthday lunch. I didn’t know your favourite knife-makers made knives for dining purposes but they were every bit as sharp as their fold up fun knives.
Lovely knives
Tho technically my favourite knives are these
Wolf and Dingo. Hand forged on Bodmin Moor. I have three. Superb
Only problem is they are 25 times the price of Opinel
I never had you down as a rustle something up oh where's the asafoetida kind of guy.
I have a mild knife obsession
Coincidentally I am reading a book about forensic psychiatry and “an obsession with knives” is one of the top 20 primary indicators of psychopathy
I also tick several other boxes. Odd sensation
Not an obsession, but I too love pocket knives and similar. I think it stems from a childhood spent camping.
I have a beautiful Laguiole corkscrew that I simply love to handle too.
My most evil knife is my sailors knife, designed for cutting ropes in an emergency, which I keep on a cord in my buoyancy aid.
Must be a bit alarming for your patients.
I'm something of a fan.
Opinel knives are beautifully sharpenable. I have one as my backup "take to restaurants in case their steak knives are blunt" pocket knife.
More worringly for monoglot British they have one called a "Couteau d'Office", which sounds like something needed by Miss Moneypenny for controlling 007 and to obtain sweetbread-slices for the lunchtime sandwiches.
You are presumably aware that having a knife or sharpened implement with a blade of more than 3 inches in a public place without lawful authoritiy is an offence under s 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988? I really wouldn't carry a blade like that around with you.
I've always wondered how you get it home from the shops.
Taking it home at the time of purchase would be a lawful purpose. Having it handy in case your steak restaurant doesn't have a suitably sharp knife is very probably not.
How are you meant to have a decent picnic without a proper knife? Is a picnic a lawful purpose?
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Oh I love black bomber. King of cheddars. And yes, a picnic that actually requires a knife like that would very probably be a reasonable excuse.
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
I’ve got to object to a claim for the ‘King of Cheddars’ being made outside of Somerset, or the West Country at least.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Not when it is better. And it is.
Well that’s a bold claim. What does better mean when talking about cheese? Everyone has different preferences.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
I love Wookey Hole Cheddar (I believe that's the authentic type?) it's delicous, creamy and approachable. Black Bomber and its even savoury-er stablemate Rockstar (@DavidL try it you will love it) is different, it's got this vintage, salty savour that grabs your tastebuds and shakes them by the lapels. Both are great, and the competition between producers keeps quality high. You're not knocking one by liking the other.
On cheeses I had an amazing two year old Comté yesterday served on a hot waffle with super thin slices of apple. It was absolutely incredible with a perfect balance of the oozing aged cheese and the sweetness of the apple and waffle. I have been daydreaming about it all day.
That sounds very good. I also had a new cheese experience yesterday, not a million miles from Comte. A “ramequin” of melted tomme in the Jura, with bread and salad. Like a fondue but much stronger and more acidic. Apparently a Jura / Bugey speciality.
Completely snowed in now. Cannot open front door. Managed to open back door and collect wood for fire. It is quite beautiful outside. There is a magical stillness in a snow covered landscape.
Fortunately the main road nearby seems to have been cleared. So at least we can walk to the town, even it will take an hour or so.
1. Scotland does not have the same rebuttable presumption that computer evidence is reliable unless the defendant proves otherwise. 2. Scottish prosecutors had doubts about Horizon evidence and did not therefore prosecute. 3. The Post Office in Scotland could not run its own prosecutions so there was some independent review - and attempt to comply with the rules - of the type so dismally lacking in England & Wales.
Bluntly the PO was not able to subvert the Scottish criminal justice system in the way that it did elsewhere. Though the evidence in recent days suggests that the PO did try to by trying to bully Scottish prosecutors.
It makes Ministers' refusal to look again at the computer evidence presumption even more unconscionable than it is.
Does the law society recommendation still stand? If so, I can see why ministers wouldn’t want to overrule them.
Shouldn’t the law society review its recommendation first?
Completely snowed in now. Cannot open front door. Managed to open back door and collect wood for fire. It is quite beautiful outside. There is a magical stillness in a snow covered landscape.
Fortunately the main road nearby seems to have been cleared. So at least we can walk to the town, even it will take an hour or so.
1. Scotland does not have the same rebuttable presumption that computer evidence is reliable unless the defendant proves otherwise. 2. Scottish prosecutors had doubts about Horizon evidence and did not therefore prosecute. 3. The Post Office in Scotland could not run its own prosecutions so there was some independent review - and attempt to comply with the rules - of the type so dismally lacking in England & Wales.
Bluntly the PO was not able to subvert the Scottish criminal justice system in the way that it did elsewhere. Though the evidence in recent days suggests that the PO did try to by trying to bully Scottish prosecutors.
It makes Ministers' refusal to look again at the computer evidence presumption even more unconscionable than it is.
Many thanks - I'd missed it. I'd been wondering what the situation was up here. Were there really no prosecutions in Scotland?
Presumably the PF and Crown Office might have had their suspicions - but without looking into it in detail they couldn't be sure. And it would be unfair to expect them to spend the time to do so (which they couldn't, without a case, anyway, which meant a formal complaint from the PO) or to go public - unless, that was, there was an actual case in Scotland and expert witnesses could go to town on the prosecution evidence and the whole laundry-basket could be emptied out in court.
I do wonder however how many Scottish subPMs had to pay the losses the system reportedly magicked out of thin air, and lost their livelihoods on the quiet, even if they did not go to court.
I'm now beginning to wonder just why at least one supermarket I know closed its subPO.
I don't know the answer to your first question. The key point is that Scots law required corroboration and there was no such evidence.
But you make an important point which is often overlooked: many SPMs were pursued for the money but not prosecuted. So the injustice goes wider than the prosecutions - all the debt recovery proceedings are also fundamentally flawed. And all the monies SPMs paid out of their own pockets to resolve discrepancies were obtained under false pretences.
Basically nothing the PO legal department did in relation to the SPM - whether civil or criminal - from 2000 onwards - can be relied on.
I wouldn't rely on anything they say or do now, frankly, given the ongoing disclosure failings. The entire legal and investigative function at the PO is discredited.
One of the PO investigation managers who recently gave evidence is now an internal investigator at Sellafield, which is a tad worrying. She boasts about her time at the PO on her LinkedIn page which shows an alarming lack of awareness.
The position in Scotland is not quite as different as is being portrayed. The relevant provision is paragraph 4 of schedule 8 of the Criminal Procedure (S) Act 1995 which provides:
"Unless the court otherwise directs, a document may in any criminal proceedings be taken to be a document kept by a business or undertaking or by or on behalf of the holder of a paid or unpaid office if it is certified as such by a docquet in the prescribed form and purporting to be authenticated, in such manner as may be prescribed— (a) by a person authorised to authenticate such a docquet on behalf of the business or undertaking by which; or (b) by, or by a person authorised to authenticate such a docquet on behalf of, the office-holder by whom, the document was kept."
This is know as the business records exception in relation to hearsay. If the holder of the records confirms that they are the records of the business with the appropriate certificate then those records are deemed to be accurate and true records unless the contrary is shown. So if the likes of the hapless Mr Singh had certified the Horizon records for a prosecution in Scotland that would have created a similar position to that in England and Wales.
The prosecution, however, would still be in the hands of the COPFS and not in the hands of the PO itself so it would have been independently assessed.
The requirement for corroboration of the records would normally be met by someone speaking to the records which showed the alleged deficiency. The court would normally be looking for someone who had carried out an investigation or audit which vouched the shortfall.
I am not aware of prosecutions in Scotland (as opposed to civil claims) but it seems very unlikely that there were not any. If Procurators fiscal were unwilling to proceed on the basis of the Horizon evidence as early as 2012 then I think that their good sense and judgment is to be commended.
Thank you.
The problem was that the PO did not actually carry out any investigations into what was causing the discrepancies and alleged shortfalls. They simply accepted what Horizon was telling them. So they would have had difficulty finding someone to say they'd done an audit which showed the shortfall. The hapless Mr Singh's evidence was that only Fujitsu could explain how Horizon worked.
The real problem seems to me to be this one: when you are faced with a discrepancy like this you need to eliminate all possibilities before assuming theft eg human error, fat finger, computer error, bug, some sort of malfunction etc.,. It is only when you have eliminated all other possibilities that you get into the question of malice. PO investigators did not do that. They automatically assumed theft and did not look at what else might have been going wrong. So they were not in a position to say that the Horizon record was true because..... and then provide an explanation.
It was true because it was Horizon. Not it was true because they'd done these checks and these tests and they'd looked at this, that and the other and so on.
Hence the increasing hysteria when it was challenged and hence - too - the refusal to make proper disclosure because that disclosure would have shown that no proper investigations had been done and such audits as there were did show a host of problems. There was more than enough reasonable doubt to make even the thought of prosecution a non-starter.
It seems to me that if a computer system is showing you that something has gone adrift the best test of its accuracy is to find where the allegedly adrift item went and show that it is there. So, in these cases, if the SPOs were supposedly making unlawful transfers to themselves then those transfers really ought to be showing up in their bank accounts. If there is no equivalent entry to where the system says the money went then its time for a much closer look.
If I had been a SPM accused of theft I think my first reaction would have been to ask for the PO's audit trail. They wouldn't have provided one, of course, so I'd like to think I would have simply said that without such a trial, nothing can be proved. The PO would have effectively been treating Horizon as God -infallible and unchallengable.
Not sure how far that would have got me but when Second Sight were called in to audit Horizon they soon began to find errors. The PO pulled them of the case then, a clear indication of the Horizon Is God syndrome, but at least the cat was creeping out of the bag by then.
One trusts that those Board Members responsible for removing Second Sight can look forward to some lengthy chokey.
Comments
Sorry, as ‘one’ thought
NEW: Keir Starmer has praised Margaret Thatcher for effecting "meaningful change" in Britain
It's never a bad move for a Labour leader to park his vehicles on the Conservative lawn. Tony Blair did it to huge effect thirty years ago and Starmer knows the road to electoral victory doesn't lie down Radical Road or Corbyn Close but Reassurance Street. From now until polling day everything will be about persuading those millions of voters who didn't vote Labour last time (for whatever reason, whether it be Brexit or Corbyn) they can now vote Labour safe in the knowledge Brexit is "safe" and this Labour Party is no Corbynite closed shop.
Starmer is basically saying his Labour Party is a non-socialist party of the centre or centre-left. Public services (especially the blessed NHS) will be safe and this will be about a Government doing much of the same as the current administration but just doing it better.
The Conservatives, hampered by having to defend their long period in Government, aren't even able to answer such basic questions as why anyone would vote for them.
They will have to prise my Opinel number 8 from my cold dead hands and after I’ve finished the saucisson and Black Bomber cheddar
Otherwise, as the bug said in MIB, your offer is acceptable.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67606077
An imaginary being - as she is for most Tories anyway.
'Thatcherism', whatever that really meant,, has very little relevance to today's reality.
However, if Trump is around, Haley either has to placate him and his voters, in which case she looks worse to independents and Biden’s “saviour of democracy” still holds. Or she distances herself from Trump and the Trumpists don’t vote for her.
I would want the Mackems to lose whoever they were play, but as with yesterday, that is the overarching desire, not to see The Toon win any more.
A bit of a depressing negativity when it comes to the footy. At least I can still cheer for The Heed.
Would be remarkable if she weren't.
We should copy the French and place more value on terroir for our foods.
Peter Oborne
@OborneTweets
I've fact-checked the claims that Jeremy Corbyn is "pro-Putin". It turns out that no politician has been more consistent or more prescient about Putin than Corbyn.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/russia-ukraine-war-jeremy-corbyn-right-putin-oligarchs
It would just be delicious, utterly delicious, if somehow the electorate delivered him a massive smack in his greasy, expectant chops and he remained in indignant opposition. Would almost be worth the triumphant return of Sunak.
Your head rent free?
Appears to believe in the constitution and rules of law which is a plus - and has critics Trump as much as she can without doing her campaign fatal damage.
Anti abortion - but also against banning it.
Was a competent governor.
How she might deal with the US's current challenges is a but unclear - but she's pretty conservative. And not an isolationist.
'However, the Labour leader drew ire for failing to explicitly back the Prime Minister's assertion of Russian responsibility for the attack.'
But I'm more interested in the practical (or impractical) effects of her governments' policies.
Mildly acknowledging Thatcher was a transformational PM is a) stating the obvious - even if as you rightly say, a lot wrong with Britain today could be said to have its origins in much of the flaws and short-sightedness of the Thatcherite settlement. b) Pretty much cost-free as other than for headbangers in the Tory Party and on the bit of the left that has never got over its 1980s defeats, is increasingly a historic figure who no longer elicits the same passions as 25 years ago when the pain of policies was still very raw. You can make Cameron, Osborne, Boris, Truss and Sunak the bogeymen/women now, as those responsible for the mess.
Then even if you can define better (which you can’t) is this one better than every West Country cheddar?
I accept you like it, that’s fine. I just think that we should value tradition a bit more.
At best, Modi would have mixed feelings?
(Kamala Harris is, fomally, a Baptist, so if the two were to run against each other, it would be a Baptist against a Methodist.)
Second, the most successful politician in that group is Mitch McConnell -- and he has by far the worst ratings.
(One of the things I admire about him is his consistent support for civil rights. The way he reshaped the Supreme Court is already allowing us to get back to following our civil rights laws, after the decades long quota/affirmative action detour.)
You said Isn't he still trying to work out who was responsible for the Salisbury poisonings? Israel would be his most likely conclusion.
Why do you reach that conclusion apart from the fact he lives rent free in your head?
My backup steak knife Opinel is an Opinel 6 with a blade length of 7cm aka 2.75 inches, with the locking cuff removed with circlip pliers.
The Plan A option is either a Spyderco or CRTK folder with a 2.9 inch blade.
Some might argue I overprioritize steak eating pleasure; I say not on your nelly - eating pleasure can't be overprioritized.
ETA especially for one who resembles OKC's avatar IRL.
Witness the response to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s sensible plea that we remain in a ‘robust dialogue with Russia’ rather than ‘cutting off contact and letting the tensions and divisions get worse and potentially even more dangerous’. A politician calling for calm? For diplomacy? For dialogue? Boo! That cannot be tolerated. He has been branded ‘disgusting’ and ‘disgraceful’. David Miliband compared him to Trump: in short, he’s all but a Russia stooge.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2018/03/13/the-jingoistic-fear-of-russia-is-out-of-control/
If anyone wants a decent picnic knife, I'd say the Spyderco or the CRTK. There have been strange cases around eg iirc a 2" blade on a souvenir mini-orange-peeling knife (it is a "fixed" blade), and this one around a Swiss Army knife in a car glovebox ("offensive weapon", 61 year old disabled gentleman) which I can't quite fathom - unless it was more than 3":
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1266170/Disabled-caravanner-prosecuted-keeping-penknife-car-use-picnics.html
Through my superior powers of discernment I have picked up that you are quite a knife guy.
What should I use.
To comply with UK law it works better with a ~100mm handle and slightly shorter blade.
I'm generally happy with the laws here, which are quite flexible except for some bits of silliness. I'm not happy when the issue is used for panic-mongering by politicians who ignore more serious problems.
Aside: I've worked out he disabled chaps Swiss Army Knife problem - it's UK media reporting and it seems it was a multitool with locking blade, which is one of the triggers.
It would I think come under "lawful purpose" for being in possession of an otherwise-not-legal knife. As would imo, for example, a survival course, or camping in the woods and building a shelter.
As would (I think, afaics) the Good Doctor's sailor's knife in his lifejacket. Or something in possession of a climber who may need to do things to ropes in an emergency, whilst dangling upside down by his left ankle halfway up the Old Man of Hoy.
You would potentially be at risk imo if you eg had it in your car when you were not going to hunt some game on an arrangement you could prove, depending on how tightly the rules were enforced by the policemen who stopped you.
Slight nerd rather than knife guy, who once got annoyed by a steak-knife that shredded a lovely steak. I've also found that in my day job (LL) having a pocketknife is very useful.
Interesting article, seem like Jezza has a case not to be thought of as a Putinite. It’s a shame he was been banished, I hope he wins as in Indy or becomes Mayor of London, I think he has earned it
Ukraine could throw up the type of resistance to Russia that we could not - does that matter? (There's another one there about the vulnerability of our armed forces to sudden attack, us having concentrated our forces in far fewer bases for 'efficiency'.)
Do we want to restyle our military and culture more towards something like Finland / Switzerland, or our resilience to something more like Sweden? Swedish Stu once posted links to the official SW recommendations for what should be kept at home.
The USA has gone way too far one way, to the extent that they kill 10s of thousands with their guns every year; have we gone too far the other way?
Unlike money transfers, the [edit] hypothesis of subbie fraud is much easier to falsify. If 100 x £2 stamps go AWOL and they - or most of them - are still in the counter drawer ...
Same with things like registered post - the parcels must have existed if their arrival can be traced.
But he has always been an investigative reporter (a bit polemical for me).
A few years ago he turned on Boris big style, ended up writing a damning book about him and isn't worried about calling things as he (Oborne) sees them. Not always right imo but an interesting voice.
Police were called after the partner of an SNP politician at the centre of affair claims said her relatives turned up at his home making threats.
The man told officers he was shouted at and intimidated by two men outside his house and ordered to stop talking about the alleged affair. Police Scotland confirmed they had attended the incident.
A source said: “They were trying to put pressure on him and his family to shut up. The police had to be called.”
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/partner-snp-politician-affair-claim-31582917
Convert to Sikhism and carry a Kirpan.
I'd make the same point about that particular website, even though it is run by a former correspondent for the Guardian.
Not good for cutting steaks, but the culture of Sikhism is generally towards vegetarian but not required, so it may be a moot point.
Anecdata: when I was about 12 I bought a large Khukri at an exhibition at the NEC - it may even have been an Ideal Home exhibition. No idea if *that* was a real or toy Kukri. It was quite large compared to me at the time. It cost £3.50.
Besides, I think that mischaracterises the situation heavily. There were early signs of Putin's autocracy; say, the Beslan siege, or Litvinenko. But before that it was imperative for the west to try to bring Russia alongside and into the league of civilised nations. This meant the west spent vast amounts of treasure trying to help Russia; whether it was helping them decommission nuclear submarines, or the joint work in space, or any other number of projects. That is to be commended (and is very different from the Russian, and Tankie, view that the west abandoned Russia post-1990).
Then Georgia happened, and Ukraine '14, and Salisbury, and it became clear that Putin had a very different worldview from the west's.
Did it have to be that way? No. It was Putin's choice, because he sees Russia as some stronkiest of stronk player on the world stage, whereas in fact it is getting its backside whipped by Ukraine with some western hand-me-downs. He has squandered two decades of opportunity for Russia.
But were the west incorrect to try to bring Russia into the fold? No.
It's worth noting that UKIP v0.0 was the Anti-Federalist League, which contested the 1992 election on an anti-Maastricht platform (though not a withdrawalist one).
It’s the strength and stability of these alliances which is being tested in real time on Capitol Hill between now and next November.
Turns out the bit not reported by the Daily Mail involved threats of violence with a knife in a pub, and essentially a misleading narrative to the papers.
https://police.community/topic/224563-swiss-army-knife/page/3/
Ashley Neal just published a video about trying cycling in Dubai. The ones about driving there some out soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIQThH1HANc
It was a "New York" or "Australia" experience imo
Shouldn’t the law society review its recommendation first?
Not sure how far that would have got me but when Second Sight were called in to audit Horizon they soon began to find errors. The PO pulled them of the case then, a clear indication of the Horizon Is God syndrome, but at least the cat was creeping out of the bag by then.
One trusts that those Board Members responsible for removing Second Sight can look forward to some lengthy chokey.