I think you've cracked it. Our new national mission should be to oppose Twenty20 and the IPL.
I really only watch a few Test Matches now, and as much as I can of Ashes series. The rest doesn't seem important enough to spend time on - like football when there is too much and all hyped up none of it is important. Arlott got it right when he said 'Cricket is a triviality but a great triviality'. I am not sure he would feel the same about the culture of cricket now.
Probably not. But times change - and cricket has changed more than most sports over the centuries.
Personally, I feel The Ashes is overhyped and a legacy of a long-gone era but enough fans seem to think otherwise. The ICC should really sort out a proper test world championship with groups and a final, rather than the current ad hoc thing that no-one understands.
There's no reason that couldn't be done. You play the group stages over three years, with each series being a minimum of 3 tests.
But you absolutely do need a structure, including a final (which could also be a series). Anything else provides no focus and therefore no story. And without focus, the format will continue to die.
The 50 over game has a focus and I have more confidence in test cricket surviving longer than that format.
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
Do you speak any foreign languages?
[swaggering] I have GCSE A-grades in French AND German
I think you've cracked it. Our new national mission should be to oppose Twenty20 and the IPL.
I really only watch a few Test Matches now, and as much as I can of Ashes series. The rest doesn't seem important enough to spend time on - like football when there is too much and all hyped up none of it is important. Arlott got it right when he said 'Cricket is a triviality but a great triviality'. I am not sure he would feel the same about the culture of cricket now.
Probably not. But times change - and cricket has changed more than most sports over the centuries.
Personally, I feel The Ashes is overhyped and a legacy of a long-gone era but enough fans seem to think otherwise. The ICC should really sort out a proper test world championship with groups and a final, rather than the current ad hoc thing that no-one understands.
There's no reason that couldn't be done. You play the group stages over three years, with each series being a minimum of 3 tests.
But you absolutely do need a structure, including a final (which could also be a series). Anything else provides no focus and therefore no story. And without focus, the format will continue to die.
The 50 over game has a focus and I have more confidence in test cricket surviving longer than that format.
There is no reason that both the 50-over format and test cricket could end as meaningful international formats. The demise of one doesn't mean the survival of the other.
If the Tories are going to change leader (and if still in power, PM again), it doesn't make sense to go back to Truss, as her reputation has been comprehensively trashed with the wider public - though she continues to be quite successful at rehabilitating herself with conservatives. They would be starting from back at behind zero, not at the clean slate which every new leader gets.
There aren't really any great options (and I class keeping Rishi Sunak as amongst those not great options), but I favour Jake Berry at the moment.
I don't think you can write off a return to the cabinet for Truss, as she was a fairly successful minister.
Blue Berry has a majority of under 5,000. Unlikely to be around much longer.
No he doesn't. He has a majority of 9,522 (and boundaries are unchanged). Your conclusion may well be right, but his seat isn't as marginal as you say.
It's a bellwether. If Starmer wins a reasonable working majority it'll certainly go red.
Indeed. Every election between 2001-17 produced a majority for the party forming the govt, and all of less than 6k.
After going over on the ice twice I hope that I am only mildly concussed and this makes sense.
The problem isn't Sunak. Or Truss. Or any of them. The problem is that Conservatism isn't working.
Proper conservatives - not gobby ex-PC voters, I mean proper conservatives - look at the enormous tax take and lack of delivery on every policy you can name and wonder what is going on. Plus they look at the erosion of decency in politics - the lies, the deceit, the appalling treatment of people they believe a safety net should be there for - and feel shame.
Swing voters don't care about conservatism or any ideology. They vote for people who seem decent and competent and offer at least some policies which seem decent. They were happy to vote for May and Cameron, voted for Boris relucantly, but won't vote for any of them now as its all awful. The other lot aren't mental any more so no risk that needs to be kept out unlike Corbyn.
Populist voters think this lot are traitors. They promised good times with Brexit and its got worse. They promised the forrin would be sorted out and nothing has changed. They said they would give us £350m for the NHS and New Hospitals and Levelling Up and everything has got worse. They're either going back under their do not vote rock, or back to Labour or they're watching I'm a Celebrity thinking we need Nigel.
The Tories are a political cadaver, tied each limb to a different wild animal and they are about to be torn apart as the coalition that Boris pieced together pulls away in different directions. They can't stop losing votes because for every pull back of one of the limbs the others pull away even harder.
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
Do you speak any foreign languages?
Speak, no; I can listen in other languages, though (I'm very bad at remembering tenses, vocab, sentence structure etc. but I can listen well enough in German and Welsh, I can keep up with Italian, French and Spanish if not spoken too quickly, and I know a bit of Yiddish).
I suppose Klingon passed you by.?
You've not experienced PB until you have read it in the original Klingon!
Scenery is a dish best served cold. More chewy that way….
If the Tories are going to change leader (and if still in power, PM again), it doesn't make sense to go back to Truss, as her reputation has been comprehensively trashed with the wider public - though she continues to be quite successful at rehabilitating herself with conservatives. They would be starting from back at behind zero, not at the clean slate which every new leader gets.
There aren't really any great options (and I class keeping Rishi Sunak as amongst those not great options), but I favour Jake Berry at the moment.
I don't think you can write off a return to the cabinet for Truss, as she was a fairly successful minister.
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
After going over on the ice twice I hope that I am only mildly concussed and this makes sense.
The problem isn't Sunak. Or Truss. Or any of them. The problem is that Conservatism isn't working.
Proper conservatives - not gobby ex-PC voters, I mean proper conservatives - look at the enormous tax take and lack of delivery on every policy you can name and wonder what is going on. Plus they look at the erosion of decency in politics - the lies, the deceit, the appalling treatment of people they believe a safety net should be there for - and feel shame.
Swing voters don't care about conservatism or any ideology. They vote for people who seem decent and competent and offer at least some policies which seem decent. They were happy to vote for May and Cameron, voted for Boris relucantly, but won't vote for any of them now as its all awful. The other lot aren't mental any more so no risk that needs to be kept out unlike Corbyn.
Populist voters think this lot are traitors. They promised good times with Brexit and its got worse. They promised the forrin would be sorted out and nothing has changed. They said they would give us £350m for the NHS and New Hospitals and Levelling Up and everything has got worse. They're either going back under their do not vote rock, or back to Labour or they're watching I'm a Celebrity thinking we need Nigel.
The Tories are a political cadaver, tied each limb to a different wild animal and they are about to be torn apart as the coalition that Boris pieced together pulls away in different directions. They can't stop losing votes because for every pull back of one of the limbs the others pull away even harder.
Not even a proper cadaver. That implies it was once a single living body. The current Conservative Party is some Frankenstein creation, stitched together from disparate parts of different animals.
It worked brilliantly in 2019, but the threads of the Corbyn Threat and Brexit being in peril have gone. See the ongoing resentment between fundis and realos, let alone the long departed Conservative Centrist Dads.
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
Do you speak any foreign languages?
[swaggering] I have GCSE A-grades in French AND German
That doesnt mean you speak either language - it just means you can pass an exam. (Not having a go at you - but rather the way languages are taught and examined in UK)
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
After going over on the ice twice I hope that I am only mildly concussed and this makes sense.
The problem isn't Sunak. Or Truss. Or any of them. The problem is that Conservatism isn't working.
Proper conservatives - not gobby ex-PC voters, I mean proper conservatives - look at the enormous tax take and lack of delivery on every policy you can name and wonder what is going on. Plus they look at the erosion of decency in politics - the lies, the deceit, the appalling treatment of people they believe a safety net should be there for - and feel shame.
Swing voters don't care about conservatism or any ideology. They vote for people who seem decent and competent and offer at least some policies which seem decent. They were happy to vote for May and Cameron, voted for Boris relucantly, but won't vote for any of them now as its all awful. The other lot aren't mental any more so no risk that needs to be kept out unlike Corbyn.
Populist voters think this lot are traitors. They promised good times with Brexit and its got worse. They promised the forrin would be sorted out and nothing has changed. They said they would give us £350m for the NHS and New Hospitals and Levelling Up and everything has got worse. They're either going back under their do not vote rock, or back to Labour or they're watching I'm a Celebrity thinking we need Nigel.
The Tories are a political cadaver, tied each limb to a different wild animal and they are about to be torn apart as the coalition that Boris pieced together pulls away in different directions. They can't stop losing votes because for every pull back of one of the limbs the others pull away even harder.
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
Do you speak any foreign languages?
Speak, no; I can listen in other languages, though (I'm very bad at remembering tenses, vocab, sentence structure etc. but I can listen well enough in German and Welsh, I can keep up with Italian, French and Spanish if not spoken too quickly, and I know a bit of Yiddish).
I suppose Klingon passed you by.?
You've not experienced PB until you have read it in the original Klingon!
Since many of you are discussing the BBC, I'll share three observations.
First, the BBC really ought to, finally, release the Balen report.
Second, when I was running a small web site of my own, I ran into enough anti-American bias at the BBC that I started calling it "routine".
Third, almost all TV news suffers from low density of information. A half hour program would, typically, fit on a single page of a newspaper like the NYT, the WaPO, or the WSJ. The exceptions are when the picture, or pictures, are the story.
(For the record: That said, the BBC is still, probably, the best news organization in the world.)
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
You're saying we have to respect MUSLIMS??!
If a muslim accepts that for example that women are equal, they accept that homosexuals are equally allowed here to name but two then yes respect them. If they refuse to be tolerant then we have no duty of tolerance back.
They should leave with some honour instead of salting the earth.
Some things they could do before they leave-
1. Pay compensation to the victims and families of those affected by contaminated blood.
2. Pay compensation in full to the all the subpostmasters prosecuted by the PO since 2000, pass a law overturning all their convictions and sack the PO Board and pretty much all its legal and investigations departments - none of them are fit for purpose. Refer them to the CPS and their professional bodies.
3. Implement all the recommendations of the IICSA Final Report.
It won't get many votes. But these are the right thing to do. They will have long-term benefits and they will be something in the credit column which is, frankly, pretty bare.
Appoint me (7-year contract with appropriately tough powers and a proper budget to appoint my team) to go round the public sector - including the police - making sure they bloody well learn and implement the recommendations made and generally kicking arses, teaching them what responsibility, good judgment, professionalism and moral compasses mean.
OK - this last one may be a step too far - but some sort of investigative/compliance unit with teeth (and no I do not mean another Sue Gray but something much much tougher) is badly needed in the public sector.
The cause and effect of individual polling is of course a mug's game (if fun to play) but there are clear suggestions that Starmer's new found admiration for Thatcher has annoyed rather more than the usual suspects, especially north of the border.
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
After going over on the ice twice I hope that I am only mildly concussed and this makes sense.
The problem isn't Sunak. Or Truss. Or any of them. The problem is that Conservatism isn't working.
Proper conservatives - not gobby ex-PC voters, I mean proper conservatives - look at the enormous tax take and lack of delivery on every policy you can name and wonder what is going on. Plus they look at the erosion of decency in politics - the lies, the deceit, the appalling treatment of people they believe a safety net should be there for - and feel shame.
Swing voters don't care about conservatism or any ideology. They vote for people who seem decent and competent and offer at least some policies which seem decent. They were happy to vote for May and Cameron, voted for Boris relucantly, but won't vote for any of them now as its all awful. The other lot aren't mental any more so no risk that needs to be kept out unlike Corbyn.
Populist voters think this lot are traitors. They promised good times with Brexit and its got worse. They promised the forrin would be sorted out and nothing has changed. They said they would give us £350m for the NHS and New Hospitals and Levelling Up and everything has got worse. They're either going back under their do not vote rock, or back to Labour or they're watching I'm a Celebrity thinking we need Nigel.
The Tories are a political cadaver, tied each limb to a different wild animal and they are about to be torn apart as the coalition that Boris pieced together pulls away in different directions. They can't stop losing votes because for every pull back of one of the limbs the others pull away even harder.
This is a solid take imo. That BorisBrexit 2019 election triumph flattered to deceive. First because it was artificially inflated by Corbyn. Second because of the inherent contradictions in the voter coalition that delivered it. It was not built to last.
Course it didn't have to collapse quite so quickly and completely. The reason it has, I think, is because it acted in political terms like a hard recreational drug. Initially it's great, you bounce around feeling on top of the world, but soon you're neglecting the basics, you're not eating properly, not getting enough sleep, you're acting like a jerk to everybody, it's destroying you.
To me this is what Brexit and Boris (which turned out to be a package deal) has done to the Conservative Party. They need detox and rehab now. In that order obviously. It won't be easy, it will take years, but my money is on this most venerable of institutions managing to do it.
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
Stick your Britishness up yer jacksie
LOL. Malcolm, we'd miss you.
I rarely agree with Malcolm however on this he is right....I don't recognise any of this crap 148grss came out with in anyone I have ever known
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
The cause and effect of individual polling is of course a mug's game (if fun to play) but there are clear suggestions that Starmer's new found admiration for Thatcher has annoyed rather more than the usual suspects, especially north of the border.
The only swing in the Redfield poll taken yesterday seems to be from Labour to Tories and LDs, SNP and Greens unchanged
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
Stick your Britishness up yer jacksie
That response is more British than a Danish Prince married to a German Monarch singing God Save The Queen, while drinking tea. In an NHS queue.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Got to say the screams on Twitter from people who want cheap labour (fresh graduates in their case) was a sight to behold.
The screams from care home owners and people who understand university finances are however a very different problem.
Care homes aren’t going to be able to get staff and some universities will be sacking staff everywhere over the next few months to try and remain viable
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Got to say the screams on Twitter from people who want cheap labour (fresh graduates in their case) was a sight to behold.
The screams from care home owners and people who understand university finances are however a very different problem.
Care homes aren’t going to be able to get staff and some universities will be sacking staff everywhere over the next few months to try and remain viable
There will still be shortage occupation lists exempt from the £38,700 minimum salary needed for a migrant visa but Cleverly said the number of such shortage occupations will be cut.
Care homes will still be in the list of occupations exempt from the £38,700 minimum salary to get visas for migrants on their staff but those migrants will be banned from bringing their families with them
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
You fail to mention that health and social care workers are exempt from the £38,700 threshold, and most will therefore continue to be paid appallingly low wages.
Watch this space: it won't be long until employer pressure leads to other groups of workers 'needing' to be exempt. Nobody's going to pay that salary for many of the jobs that current migrants fill.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Got to say the screams on Twitter from people who want cheap labour (fresh graduates in their case) was a sight to behold.
The screams from care home owners and people who understand university finances are however a very different problem.
Care homes aren’t going to be able to get staff and some universities will be sacking staff everywhere over the next few months to try and remain viable
There will still be shortage occupation lists exempt from the £38,700 minimum salary needed for a migrant visa but Cleverly said the number of such shortage occupations will be cut.
Care homes will be in the list of occupations exempt from the £38,700 minimum salary to get visas for migrants on their staff but those migrants will be banned from bringing their families with them
I said there was screams from care home owners.
If care workers can’t bring their family with them the fear is they are not going to bother coming to the Uk and will just go elsewhere instead .
The Premier League has concluded deals with Sky Sports and TNT Sports for five UK live packages and with BBC Sport for the free-to-air highlights package. All three agreements will cover the four-year period starting Season 2025/26 and are the largest sports media rights deals ever concluded in the UK.
Sky Sports has been awarded live rights packages B, C, D and E, covering a minimum of 215 live matches per season, which will include more than 140 matches played at weekends, evening matches on Fridays and Mondays, and full coverage of three midweek match rounds. For the first time, Sky Sports will also broadcast all 10 matches on the final day of each season.
TNT Sports has been awarded live rights package A, covering 52 live matches per season, including exclusive coverage of matches played on Saturdays at 12.30pm and full coverage of two midweek match rounds.
For the first time in the UK, all matches taking place outside of the Saturday 3pm "closed period", including those displaced to Sunday 2pm because of club participation in European competitions, will be broadcast live.
The Premier League has concluded deals with Sky Sports and TNT Sports for five UK live packages and with BBC Sport for the free-to-air highlights package. All three agreements will cover the four-year period starting Season 2025/26 and are the largest sports media rights deals ever concluded in the UK.
Sky Sports has been awarded live rights packages B, C, D and E, covering a minimum of 215 live matches per season, which will include more than 140 matches played at weekends, evening matches on Fridays and Mondays, and full coverage of three midweek match rounds. For the first time, Sky Sports will also broadcast all 10 matches on the final day of each season.
TNT Sports has been awarded live rights package A, covering 52 live matches per season, including exclusive coverage of matches played on Saturdays at 12.30pm and full coverage of two midweek match rounds.
For the first time in the UK, all matches taking place outside of the Saturday 3pm "closed period", including those displaced to Sunday 2pm because of club participation in European competitions, will be broadcast live.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Got to say the screams on Twitter from people who want cheap labour (fresh graduates in their case) was a sight to behold.
The screams from care home owners and people who understand university finances are however a very different problem.
Care homes aren’t going to be able to get staff and some universities will be sacking staff everywhere over the next few months to try and remain viable
There will still be shortage occupation lists exempt from the £38,700 minimum salary needed for a migrant visa but Cleverly said the number of such shortage occupations will be cut.
Care homes will be in the list of occupations exempt from the £38,700 minimum salary to get visas for migrants on their staff but those migrants will be banned from bringing their families with them
I said there was screams from care home owners.
If care workers can’t bring their family with them the fear is they are not going to bother coming to the Uk and will just go elsewhere instead .
Well so be it, it is them offered the job not all their families needing to be housed, using public services etc as well.
Unemployed British workers or those on part time contracts who want extra hours can fill in any vacancies in the care sector instead
The Premier League has concluded deals with Sky Sports and TNT Sports for five UK live packages and with BBC Sport for the free-to-air highlights package. All three agreements will cover the four-year period starting Season 2025/26 and are the largest sports media rights deals ever concluded in the UK.
Sky Sports has been awarded live rights packages B, C, D and E, covering a minimum of 215 live matches per season, which will include more than 140 matches played at weekends, evening matches on Fridays and Mondays, and full coverage of three midweek match rounds. For the first time, Sky Sports will also broadcast all 10 matches on the final day of each season.
TNT Sports has been awarded live rights package A, covering 52 live matches per season, including exclusive coverage of matches played on Saturdays at 12.30pm and full coverage of two midweek match rounds.
For the first time in the UK, all matches taking place outside of the Saturday 3pm "closed period", including those displaced to Sunday 2pm because of club participation in European competitions, will be broadcast live.
I assume that means Amazon/Prime have lost out completely (or not bid)? Good news. This week's round of matches are all on Prime - a pain.
Yup, Amazon have lost the PL matches from next season, but next season they will have some Champions League matches, one per match day, however they will have first pick.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
You fail to mention that health and social care workers are exempt from the £38,700 threshold, and most will therefore continue to be paid appallingly low wages.
Watch this space: it won't be long until employer pressure leads to other groups of workers 'needing' to be exempt. Nobody's going to pay that salary for many of the jobs that current migrants fill.
And the government will hold the line, their priority is winning back Leave voters lost to ReformUK not containing bleets from some industries too reliant on foreign labour with less than a year until a general election
They should leave with some honour instead of salting the earth.
Some things they could do before they leave-
1. Pay compensation to the victims and families of those affected by contaminated blood.
2. Pay compensation in full to the all the subpostmasters prosecuted by the PO since 2000, pass a law overturning all their convictions and sack the PO Board and pretty much all its legal and investigations departments - none of them are fit for purpose. Refer them to the CPS and their professional bodies.
3. Implement all the recommendations of the IICSA Final Report.
It won't get many votes. But these are the right thing to do. They will have long-term benefits and they will be something in the credit column which is, frankly, pretty bare.
Appoint me (7-year contract with appropriately tough powers and a proper budget to appoint my team) to go round the public sector - including the police - making sure they bloody well learn and implement the recommendations made and generally kicking arses, teaching them what responsibility, good judgment, professionalism and moral compasses mean.
OK - this last one may be a step too far - but some sort of investigative/compliance unit with teeth (and no I do not mean another Sue Gray but something much much tougher) is badly needed in the public sector.
Instead of which this -
"Govt to whip Tory MPs against infected blood amendment tonight. Spokesman says ministers 'deeply sympathetic to the strength of feeling on this and understand the need for action' but won't 'pre-empt' final inquiry report. Tory rebels number 30-plus - could be close"
The claim that this will pre-empt the final inquiry report is a straight out lie by the government because the Inquiry Chair has already issued a report urging the government to pay compensation now while some of the victims are still alive. Three-quarters of them have died.
I am so fucking pissed off with Ministers blatantly lying like this when a moment's research shows up their lies. For this alone the Tories need to be shot into electoral oblivion. It is so fucking contemptuous of voters and this particular voter has had enough of it.
Ministers last week rushed an amendment through the Commons, allowing it to look into the bank account of everybody claiming State Pension. Their only reason was that it might be useful one day. The only change which could make it useful would be to means test the State Pension
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
They should leave with some honour instead of salting the earth.
Some things they could do before they leave-
1. Pay compensation to the victims and families of those affected by contaminated blood.
2. Pay compensation in full to the all the subpostmasters prosecuted by the PO since 2000, pass a law overturning all their convictions and sack the PO Board and pretty much all its legal and investigations departments - none of them are fit for purpose. Refer them to the CPS and their professional bodies.
3. Implement all the recommendations of the IICSA Final Report.
It won't get many votes. But these are the right thing to do. They will have long-term benefits and they will be something in the credit column which is, frankly, pretty bare.
Appoint me (7-year contract with appropriately tough powers and a proper budget to appoint my team) to go round the public sector - including the police - making sure they bloody well learn and implement the recommendations made and generally kicking arses, teaching them what responsibility, good judgment, professionalism and moral compasses mean.
OK - this last one may be a step too far - but some sort of investigative/compliance unit with teeth (and no I do not mean another Sue Gray but something much much tougher) is badly needed in the public sector.
Instead of which this -
"Govt to whip Tory MPs against infected blood amendment tonight. Spokesman says ministers 'deeply sympathetic to the strength of feeling on this and understand the need for action' but won't 'pre-empt' final inquiry report. Tory rebels number 30-plus - could be close"
The claim that this will pre-empt the final inquiry report is a straight out lie by the government because the Inquiry Chair has already issued a report urging the government to pay compensation now while some of the victims are still alive. Three-quarters of them have died.
I am so fucking pissed off with Ministers blatantly lying like this when a moment's research shows up their lies. For this alone the Tories need to be shot into electoral oblivion. It is so fucking contemptuous of voters and this particular voter has had enough of it.
Language! You'll jeopardise that 7-year contract with language like that. Though I get your fury.
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
Stick your Britishness up yer jacksie
LOL. Malcolm, we'd miss you.
I rarely agree with Malcolm however on this he is right....I don't recognise any of this crap 148grss came out with in anyone I have ever known
You haven't come across elite arrogance or weird exceptionalism or crab bucket mentality in anyone you have ever known? Really? That's great news if true.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Got to say the screams on Twitter from people who want cheap labour (fresh graduates in their case) was a sight to behold.
The screams from care home owners and people who understand university finances are however a very different problem.
Care homes aren’t going to be able to get staff and some universities will be sacking staff everywhere over the next few months to try and remain viable
Start-ups often pay low wages because they cannot afford more as they have yet to develop revenue streams. They get staff on the back of being able to pay higher wages later and offering share options etc. Obviously, if they cannot get the skilled staff they need at wages they can afford now they will not grow and so we will all lose out. But maybe we've had enough of high growth, tech-based start-ups.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Ministers last week rushed an amendment through the Commons, allowing it to look into the bank account of everybody claiming State Pension. Their only reason was that it might be useful one day. The only change which could make it useful would be to means test the State Pension
Ministers last week rushed an amendment through the Commons, allowing it to look into the bank account of everybody claiming State Pension. Their only reason was that it might be useful one day. The only change which could make it useful would be to means test the State Pension
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
You fail to mention that health and social care workers are exempt from the £38,700 threshold, and most will therefore continue to be paid appallingly low wages.
Watch this space: it won't be long until employer pressure leads to other groups of workers 'needing' to be exempt. Nobody's going to pay that salary for many of the jobs that current migrants fill.
And the government will hold the line, their priority is winning back Leave voters lost to ReformUK not containing bleets from some industries too reliant on foreign labour with less than a year until a general election
The problem with that argument is that, in many of the sectors most dependent on foreign labour being paid less than 38k- health, social care, education, the direct or indirect employer is the government.
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
Stick your Britishness up yer jacksie
LOL. Malcolm, we'd miss you.
I rarely agree with Malcolm however on this he is right....I don't recognise any of this crap 148grss came out with in anyone I have ever known
You haven't come across elite arrogance or weird exceptionalism or crab bucket mentality in anyone you have ever known? Really? That's great news if true.
I don't think I have. Well not the first two, anyway. I'm not sure what crab bucket mentality is.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
You fail to mention that health and social care workers are exempt from the £38,700 threshold, and most will therefore continue to be paid appallingly low wages.
Watch this space: it won't be long until employer pressure leads to other groups of workers 'needing' to be exempt. Nobody's going to pay that salary for many of the jobs that current migrants fill.
And the government will hold the line, their priority is winning back Leave voters lost to ReformUK not containing bleets from some industries too reliant on foreign labour with less than a year until a general election
The problem with that argument is that, in many of the sectors most dependent on foreign labour being paid less than 38k- health, social care, education, the direct or indirect employer is the government.
Well they can use more domestic labour instead then, will save on the benefits bill as well
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
The next annual net figures are due at the end of November 2024. Another January 2025 election indicator?
Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll
If that were the case, don't you think they'd be clamouring for the Rwanda flights to begin by then, rather than saying it's vital for them to begin by the Spring?
The Premier League has concluded deals with Sky Sports and TNT Sports for five UK live packages and with BBC Sport for the free-to-air highlights package. All three agreements will cover the four-year period starting Season 2025/26 and are the largest sports media rights deals ever concluded in the UK.
Sky Sports has been awarded live rights packages B, C, D and E, covering a minimum of 215 live matches per season, which will include more than 140 matches played at weekends, evening matches on Fridays and Mondays, and full coverage of three midweek match rounds. For the first time, Sky Sports will also broadcast all 10 matches on the final day of each season.
TNT Sports has been awarded live rights package A, covering 52 live matches per season, including exclusive coverage of matches played on Saturdays at 12.30pm and full coverage of two midweek match rounds.
For the first time in the UK, all matches taking place outside of the Saturday 3pm "closed period", including those displaced to Sunday 2pm because of club participation in European competitions, will be broadcast live.
New visa stuff is a bloody disaster for care sector imho.
Have they any idea what is happening, staff-wise, in care homes?
See:
Mike Padgham, the chair of the Independent Care Group which runs several care homes in North Yorkshire tells us: “Well I think we are going to find more businesses fail, care homes closing.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
The next annual net figures are due at the end of November 2024. Another January 2025 election indicator?
Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll
If that were the case, don't you think they'd be clamouring for the Rwanda flights to begin by then, rather than saying it's vital for them to begin by the Spring?
"Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll"
As has been pointed out on Twix: the migration stats are lagged so nothing done now will make blind difference to the figures being seen at autumn election.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
The next annual net figures are due at the end of November 2024. Another January 2025 election indicator?
Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll
If that were the case, don't you think they'd be clamouring for the Rwanda flights to begin by then, rather than saying it's vital for them to begin by the Spring?
"Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll"
As has been pointed out on Twix: the migration stats are lagged so nothing done now will make blind difference to the figures being seen at autumn election.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
The next annual net figures are due at the end of November 2024. Another January 2025 election indicator?
Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll
If that were the case, don't you think they'd be clamouring for the Rwanda flights to begin by then, rather than saying it's vital for them to begin by the Spring?
Rwanda flights are only to reduce asylum numbers, today's measures are to reduce all immigrants coming to the UK
New visa stuff is a bloody disaster for care sector imho.
Have they any idea what is happening, staff-wise, in care homes?
See:
Mike Padgham, the chair of the Independent Care Group which runs several care homes in North Yorkshire tells us: “Well I think we are going to find more businesses fail, care homes closing.
BBC News
Well if they are reliant on foreign workers bringing their extended families over that is their problem
Ministers last week rushed an amendment through the Commons, allowing it to look into the bank account of everybody claiming State Pension. Their only reason was that it might be useful one day. The only change which could make it useful would be to means test the State Pension
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
The next annual net figures are due at the end of November 2024. Another January 2025 election indicator?
Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll
If that were the case, don't you think they'd be clamouring for the Rwanda flights to begin by then, rather than saying it's vital for them to begin by the Spring?
"Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll"
As has been pointed out on Twix: the migration stats are lagged so nothing done now will make blind difference to the figures being seen at autumn election.
End of November 2024 is still autumn, as is early December 2024
New visa stuff is a bloody disaster for care sector imho.
Have they any idea what is happening, staff-wise, in care homes?
See:
Mike Padgham, the chair of the Independent Care Group which runs several care homes in North Yorkshire tells us: “Well I think we are going to find more businesses fail, care homes closing.
BBC News
Well if they are reliant on foreign workers bringing their extended families over that is their problem
Well they are reliant on foreign workers because UK workers want more money than the foreign workers are willing to work for.
And care home wages need to be kept low as councils cannot afford to pay more for the residents they pay for while privately paid for residents can’t be charged enough to make up the shortfall.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
The next annual net figures are due at the end of November 2024. Another January 2025 election indicator?
Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll
If that were the case, don't you think they'd be clamouring for the Rwanda flights to begin by then, rather than saying it's vital for them to begin by the Spring?
For flights to happen, as oppose to being flights of fancy, new legislation needs to be in place in all probability. This would then (whatever it says) be tested in court both generically and by each individual involved.
a) This can't happen before an election because the Lords will be able to delay long enough
b) This can't happen before an election because only a court can decide the meaning and scope of legislation, including the meaning and scope of legislation purporting to be ousting the court's jurisdiction. Put 2026/7 into the diary for the SC hearing. (OTOH don't, as it will be abandoned by then).
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
The next annual net figures are due at the end of November 2024. Another January 2025 election indicator?
Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll
If that were the case, don't you think they'd be clamouring for the Rwanda flights to begin by then, rather than saying it's vital for them to begin by the Spring?
"Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll"
As has been pointed out on Twix: the migration stats are lagged so nothing done now will make blind difference to the figures being seen at autumn election.
End of November 2024 is still autumn, as is early December 2024
Snow and ice here for days. It's ****ing winter. And nobody would want to go to vote in weather like this. Except Tory voters with postal votes.
New visa stuff is a bloody disaster for care sector imho.
Have they any idea what is happening, staff-wise, in care homes?
See:
Mike Padgham, the chair of the Independent Care Group which runs several care homes in North Yorkshire tells us: “Well I think we are going to find more businesses fail, care homes closing.
BBC News
Well if they are reliant on foreign workers bringing their extended families over that is their problem
Well they are reliant on foreign workers because UK workers want more money than the foreign workers are willing to work for.
And care home wages need to be kept low as councils cannot afford to pay more for the residents they pay for while privately paid for residents can’t be charged enough to make up the shortfall.
And UK unemployed will lose all their benefits after 6 months if they do not look for and take any paid job offered to them regardless of salary as Hunt announced
They should leave with some honour instead of salting the earth.
Some things they could do before they leave-
1. Pay compensation to the victims and families of those affected by contaminated blood.
2. Pay compensation in full to the all the subpostmasters prosecuted by the PO since 2000, pass a law overturning all their convictions and sack the PO Board and pretty much all its legal and investigations departments - none of them are fit for purpose. Refer them to the CPS and their professional bodies.
3. Implement all the recommendations of the IICSA Final Report.
It won't get many votes. But these are the right thing to do. They will have long-term benefits and they will be something in the credit column which is, frankly, pretty bare.
Appoint me (7-year contract with appropriately tough powers and a proper budget to appoint my team) to go round the public sector - including the police - making sure they bloody well learn and implement the recommendations made and generally kicking arses, teaching them what responsibility, good judgment, professionalism and moral compasses mean.
OK - this last one may be a step too far - but some sort of investigative/compliance unit with teeth (and no I do not mean another Sue Gray but something much much tougher) is badly needed in the public sector.
Instead of which this -
"Govt to whip Tory MPs against infected blood amendment tonight. Spokesman says ministers 'deeply sympathetic to the strength of feeling on this and understand the need for action' but won't 'pre-empt' final inquiry report. Tory rebels number 30-plus - could be close"
The claim that this will pre-empt the final inquiry report is a straight out lie by the government because the Inquiry Chair has already issued a report urging the government to pay compensation now while some of the victims are still alive. Three-quarters of them have died.
I am so fucking pissed off with Ministers blatantly lying like this when a moment's research shows up their lies. For this alone the Tories need to be shot into electoral oblivion. It is so fucking contemptuous of voters and this particular voter has had enough of it.
Generally my current attitude.
Add in:
1 - Create a credible compensation scheme and set of rules for people wrongfully imprisoned. 2 - Resolve the Indeterminate Sentences debacle, which is still a debacle 13 years after this Govt started, to a very tight timescale (I suggest 6 months max).
No any Brit can marry a foreigner provided the foreigner earns over £38k a year or is in a shortage occupation
So someone like my father - a doctor - marrying a foreign woman who chooses to stay at home to bring up children would now be unable to do so. If such a rule had been in place, he would have left England. So rather than gain a skilled migrant Britain would have lost one and 2 skilled children who have also contributed a load of taxes to this country.
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
I thought you lot were in favour of traditional stable families.
Is there anyone left in the Tory party able to think through the consequences of what they announce? Anyone at all?
New visa stuff is a bloody disaster for care sector imho.
Have they any idea what is happening, staff-wise, in care homes?
See:
Mike Padgham, the chair of the Independent Care Group which runs several care homes in North Yorkshire tells us: “Well I think we are going to find more businesses fail, care homes closing.
BBC News
Well if they are reliant on foreign workers bringing their extended families over that is their problem
Well they are reliant on foreign workers because UK workers want more money than the foreign workers are willing to work for.
And care home wages need to be kept low as councils cannot afford to pay more for the residents they pay for while privately paid for residents can’t be charged enough to make up the shortfall.
And UK unemployed will lose all their benefits after 6 months if they do not look for and take any paid job offered to them regardless of salary as Hunt announced
Given that the unemployment rate is 3.5% (I.e. at almost full employment) I can’t see that helping things
The only people not working are as Hunt equally pointed out those who are either disabled or not 100% well.
And I don’t think either group of people would be fit enough to work in a care home
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
The next annual net figures are due at the end of November 2024. Another January 2025 election indicator?
Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll
If that were the case, don't you think they'd be clamouring for the Rwanda flights to begin by then, rather than saying it's vital for them to begin by the Spring?
"Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll"
As has been pointed out on Twix: the migration stats are lagged so nothing done now will make blind difference to the figures being seen at autumn election.
In the New Statesman, Kevin Maguire reckons Cameron's appointment is a surefire sign any election won't be Autumn
New visa stuff is a bloody disaster for care sector imho.
Have they any idea what is happening, staff-wise, in care homes?
See:
Mike Padgham, the chair of the Independent Care Group which runs several care homes in North Yorkshire tells us: “Well I think we are going to find more businesses fail, care homes closing.
BBC News
Well if they are reliant on foreign workers bringing their extended families over that is their problem
Well they are reliant on foreign workers because UK workers want more money than the foreign workers are willing to work for.
And care home wages need to be kept low as councils cannot afford to pay more for the residents they pay for while privately paid for residents can’t be charged enough to make up the shortfall.
And UK unemployed will lose all their benefits after 6 months if they do not look for and take any paid job offered to them regardless of salary as Hunt announced
And what proportion of them do we, as a nation, actually want working in health and in social care?
Ministers last week rushed an amendment through the Commons, allowing it to look into the bank account of everybody claiming State Pension. Their only reason was that it might be useful one day. The only change which could make it useful would be to means test the State Pension
I'm going to try to get mine paid in cash. Don't tell Anabob.
I used cash for the first time in ages last week, it was weird.
Yes, it's utterly pointless in this country.
A complete an utter PITA. I had to use it in SE Europe over the summer: what a farce. People didn't have change, ATMs didn't work, you name it, something cocked up.
Some day very soon we'll look back on the time whereby we bartered with stupid scraps of paper and ludicrous shards of metal and think: "Jesus that was bloody stupid."
New visa stuff is a bloody disaster for care sector imho.
Have they any idea what is happening, staff-wise, in care homes?
See:
Mike Padgham, the chair of the Independent Care Group which runs several care homes in North Yorkshire tells us: “Well I think we are going to find more businesses fail, care homes closing.
BBC News
Well if they are reliant on foreign workers bringing their extended families over that is their problem
Well they are reliant on foreign workers because UK workers want more money than the foreign workers are willing to work for.
And care home wages need to be kept low as councils cannot afford to pay more for the residents they pay for while privately paid for residents can’t be charged enough to make up the shortfall.
And UK unemployed will lose all their benefits after 6 months if they do not look for and take any paid job offered to them regardless of salary as Hunt announced
Given that the unemployment rate is 3.5% (I.e. at almost full employment) I can’t see that helping things
The only people not working are as Hunt equally pointed out those who are either disabled or not 100% well.
And I don’t think either group of people would be fit enough to work in a care home
Getting the hospital waiting lists down is the best way to reduce the number of economically inactive. I'd imagine a high proportion of 50-65s who wait a couple of years for an operation are not just unnecessarily inactive for that period but also for the following years as harder to return to the workforce at that age after a gap.
New visa stuff is a bloody disaster for care sector imho.
Have they any idea what is happening, staff-wise, in care homes?
See:
Mike Padgham, the chair of the Independent Care Group which runs several care homes in North Yorkshire tells us: “Well I think we are going to find more businesses fail, care homes closing.
BBC News
Well if they are reliant on foreign workers bringing their extended families over that is their problem
Well they are reliant on foreign workers because UK workers want more money than the foreign workers are willing to work for.
And care home wages need to be kept low as councils cannot afford to pay more for the residents they pay for while privately paid for residents can’t be charged enough to make up the shortfall.
And UK unemployed will lose all their benefits after 6 months if they do not look for and take any paid job offered to them regardless of salary as Hunt announced
You've cracked it. Forced labour in care homes will work a treat. Make those sofa-surfing scroungers wipe old people's arses for a living.
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
Stick your Britishness up yer jacksie
Is messing about with one's jacksie a core British value, either historically or as a modern innovation?
So clearly the Tories should never have got rid of Boris.
Even after he resigned when he was still PM in August 2022 and after partygate and Pinchergate etc Boris retained 74% of 2019 Conservative voters. Truss retained just 63% of them after her disastrous budget and now Sunak is retaining just 59% of them (he has gained a handful of 2019 LDs which means the Tory voteshare is still fractionally above Truss' worst poll ratings but still much worse than under Boris)
Boris is about to get eviscerated by the COVID Inquiry later this week. If your name is Alexander Johnson, brace, brace!
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
Do you speak any foreign languages?
Speak, no; I can listen in other languages, though (I'm very bad at remembering tenses, vocab, sentence structure etc. but I can listen well enough in German and Welsh, I can keep up with Italian, French and Spanish if not spoken too quickly, and I know a bit of Yiddish).
The Premier League has concluded deals with Sky Sports and TNT Sports for five UK live packages and with BBC Sport for the free-to-air highlights package. All three agreements will cover the four-year period starting Season 2025/26 and are the largest sports media rights deals ever concluded in the UK.
Sky Sports has been awarded live rights packages B, C, D and E, covering a minimum of 215 live matches per season, which will include more than 140 matches played at weekends, evening matches on Fridays and Mondays, and full coverage of three midweek match rounds. For the first time, Sky Sports will also broadcast all 10 matches on the final day of each season.
TNT Sports has been awarded live rights package A, covering 52 live matches per season, including exclusive coverage of matches played on Saturdays at 12.30pm and full coverage of two midweek match rounds.
For the first time in the UK, all matches taking place outside of the Saturday 3pm "closed period", including those displaced to Sunday 2pm because of club participation in European competitions, will be broadcast live.
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
Stick your Britishness up yer jacksie
Is messing about with one's jacksie a core British value, either historically or as a modern innovation?
Core tradition of the Royal Navy, vide Churchill W. One of them anyway. W. Churchill
Every other non-UK alternative (Netflix, CNN, YouTube) cannot replace it because of its parochial nature
So although I am comfortable with discussions of alternate funding models and its scope, I would regret the departure of the BBC. In fact, given their recent gutting of its news programmes and journalist staff, its news/current affairs/documentaries funding should be expanded not contracted.
Having now definitively settled the matter, you can now speak of something else. You're welcome.
The direction of travel of the BBC and its fate is not only a cause and consequence of something but also a symptom.
Viewcode says we need something to unite us as a nation. Maybe. But it does not follow that this will actually occur.
The BBC was a candidate for this. PB alone indicates this is no more. Other candidates abound or once did; each person can make their own commentary:
The Crown/Crown in Parliament Christian culture/church The NHS Effortless superiority of being top dog The good chaps theory of government Empire The anglophone world Common law and legal system An incorruptible civil order 'No sex please we're British' Our traditions of policing by consent A locally spread out aristocracy with obligations as well as rights Stiff upper lip/reserve John Stuart Mill 'On Liberty' The Times/Oxford/Cambridge 'Fair play' or 'It's not cricket' The threat from Vikings/Normans/The French/The Germans/The Russians/Johnny Foreigner.
FWIW I struggle to identify now what would hold us together as a nation, unless it is a literati writing endless articles Why Oh Why on the loss of one or more of the above. Because of reasons.
What should hold us together is a tolerance of difference as long as you comply to the british values which i would list as believing we are all equally human and worthy of respect regardless of colour, creed ,sexuality or biological sex. A belief that the same law should apply to all and last but not least in my view not trying to make others conform to our views unless they violate the previous
Lol - when have those ever been universal British values?
I didn't claim they were universal, I stated what I believed are british values and I do believe most here hold pretty much those views. The fact there are exceptions means nothing. You won't find universal values anywhere....but I do think probably 80% of people would nod along to those I stated
What about Britishness holds those values? Like - even modern Britain does not have a society or even a social norm to uphold those values.
Britishness - in my mind - has as core values a deference to power (whether that be working class crab bucket mentality, or elitist arrogance), a weird exceptionalism (typically based in the Empire, but also as a kind of semi-mythic figure of enlightenment and giver of natural justice to the world) as well as a general view that "things are shit, they deserve to be shit", and "it was shit when I was young and it didn't do me any harm".
I've never really bought this exceptionalism stuff, the usual proof of it given is about Britain focusing too much on itself and overegging its accomplishments, which seems pretty unexceptional to me as just how nationalism works.
New visa stuff is a bloody disaster for care sector imho.
Have they any idea what is happening, staff-wise, in care homes?
See:
Mike Padgham, the chair of the Independent Care Group which runs several care homes in North Yorkshire tells us: “Well I think we are going to find more businesses fail, care homes closing.
BBC News
I agree it's a disaster as things stand, but should it be?
Should these jobs not be well paid enough to attract UK residents to take them? E.g. a material step up from stacking shelves at supermarkets or other low skill jobs at or above minimum wage.
Of course the implication is the cost of care would rise, and the state or those under care would shoulder the cost of that, but that's how things should be.
Our migration policy shouldn't be determined just because there are business models that are reliant on an endless stream of cheap labour from overseas.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
The next annual net figures are due at the end of November 2024. Another January 2025 election indicator?
Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll
If that were the case, don't you think they'd be clamouring for the Rwanda flights to begin by then, rather than saying it's vital for them to begin by the Spring?
"Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll"
As has been pointed out on Twix: the migration stats are lagged so nothing done now will make blind difference to the figures being seen at autumn election.
End of November 2024 is still autumn, as is early December 2024
True. The media can/should make Rishi rule out a Dec/Jan election now though – narrow the field of play.
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
That seems an esoteric interpretation, but I don't know the details of rules around importing a spouse.
Is it actually based on partners not being allowed to work unless paid more than 38k?
I thought we were supposed to be short of workers.
What happens if the spouse is a teleworker for a foreign employer?
Short of workers with record numbers of Brits not working.
The weird thing is that I went looking for figures to back up that statement earlier and couldn’t find them.
The underemployment of people (both in the hours they work and the fact the job they do is below their qualification level) is an anecdote I know is true but can’t find the numerical evidence to backup
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
The next annual net figures are due at the end of November 2024. Another January 2025 election indicator?
Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll
If that were the case, don't you think they'd be clamouring for the Rwanda flights to begin by then, rather than saying it's vital for them to begin by the Spring?
"Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll"
As has been pointed out on Twix: the migration stats are lagged so nothing done now will make blind difference to the figures being seen at autumn election.
In the New Statesman, Kevin Maguire reckons Cameron's appointment is a surefire sign any election won't be Autumn
Skilled worker threshold for immigrants to rise to £38,700 from £26,000 as now Cleverly announces and health and social care workers will be unable to bring their families and dependents with them if they come to work here.
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
The next annual net figures are due at the end of November 2024. Another January 2025 election indicator?
Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll
If that were the case, don't you think they'd be clamouring for the Rwanda flights to begin by then, rather than saying it's vital for them to begin by the Spring?
"Certainly an indicator of a late autumn election at the earliest to give the immigration figures time to fall before the poll"
As has been pointed out on Twix: the migration stats are lagged so nothing done now will make blind difference to the figures being seen at autumn election.
In the New Statesman, Kevin Maguire reckons Cameron's appointment is a surefire sign any election won't be Autumn
Why?
+1 - I thought the reason behind Cameron was just because there wasn’t anyone else suitable given Cleverly needed to be shifted to the Home Office
Comments
The problem isn't Sunak. Or Truss. Or any of them. The problem is that Conservatism isn't working.
Proper conservatives - not gobby ex-PC voters, I mean proper conservatives - look at the enormous tax take and lack of delivery on every policy you can name and wonder what is going on. Plus they look at the erosion of decency in politics - the lies, the deceit, the appalling treatment of people they believe a safety net should be there for - and feel shame.
Swing voters don't care about conservatism or any ideology. They vote for people who seem decent and competent and offer at least some policies which seem decent. They were happy to vote for May and Cameron, voted for Boris relucantly, but won't vote for any of them now as its all awful. The other lot aren't mental any more so no risk that needs to be kept out unlike Corbyn.
Populist voters think this lot are traitors. They promised good times with Brexit and its got worse. They promised the forrin would be sorted out and nothing has changed. They said they would give us £350m for the NHS and New Hospitals and Levelling Up and everything has got worse. They're either going back under their do not vote rock, or back to Labour or they're watching I'm a Celebrity thinking we need Nigel.
The Tories are a political cadaver, tied each limb to a different wild animal and they are about to be torn apart as the coalition that Boris pieced together pulls away in different directions. They can't stop losing votes because for every pull back of one of the limbs the others pull away even harder.
Labour leads by 16% nationally.
Westminster VI (3 December):
Labour 42% (-3)
Conservative 26% (+1)
Liberal Democrat 12% (+1)
Reform UK 10% (–)
Green 6% (–)
Scottish National Party 3% (–)
Other 0% (-1)
Changes +/- 26 November
https://x.com/redfieldwilton/status/1731720023679414619?s=61&t=c6bcp0cjChLfQN5Tc8A_6g
https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/12/italian-rocket-maker-has-a-problem-key-parts-of-final-vega-booster-were-trashed/
“So, you lost some major components of the $35 million rocket?”
It worked brilliantly in 2019, but the threads of the Corbyn Threat and Brexit being in peril have gone. See the ongoing resentment between fundis and realos, let alone the long departed Conservative Centrist Dads.
For those that can't walk to the hospital in full mountaineering crampons to visit their relative with a broken leg...
(2010 - it really was that bad)
First, the BBC really ought to, finally, release the Balen report.
Second, when I was running a small web site of my own, I ran into enough anti-American bias at the BBC that I started calling it "routine".
Third, almost all TV news suffers from low density of information. A half hour program would, typically, fit on a single page of a newspaper like the NYT, the WaPO, or the WSJ. The exceptions are when the picture, or pictures, are the story.
(For the record: That said, the BBC is still, probably, the best news organization in the world.)
Some things they could do before they leave-
1. Pay compensation to the victims and families of those affected by contaminated blood.
2. Pay compensation in full to the all the subpostmasters prosecuted by the PO since 2000, pass a law overturning all their convictions and sack the PO Board and pretty much all its legal and investigations departments - none of them are fit for purpose. Refer them to the CPS and their professional bodies.
3. Implement all the recommendations of the IICSA Final Report.
It won't get many votes. But these are the right thing to do. They will have long-term benefits and they will be something in the credit column which is, frankly, pretty bare.
Appoint me (7-year contract with appropriately tough powers and a proper budget to appoint my team) to go round the public sector - including the police - making sure they bloody well learn and implement the recommendations made and generally kicking arses, teaching them what responsibility, good judgment, professionalism and moral compasses mean.
OK - this last one may be a step too far - but some sort of investigative/compliance unit with teeth (and no I do not mean another Sue Gray but something much much tougher) is badly needed in the public sector.
Course it didn't have to collapse quite so quickly and completely. The reason it has, I think, is because it acted in political terms like a hard recreational drug. Initially it's great, you bounce around feeling on top of the world, but soon you're neglecting the basics, you're not eating properly, not getting enough sleep, you're acting like a jerk to everybody, it's destroying you.
To me this is what Brexit and Boris (which turned out to be a package deal) has done to the Conservative Party. They need detox and rehab now. In that order obviously. It won't be easy, it will take years, but my money is on this most venerable of institutions managing to do it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-67612152
Should finally bring the immigration numbers down and maybe start winning back some ReformUK voters to the Tories
The screams from care home owners and people who understand university finances are however a very different problem.
Care homes aren’t going to be able to get staff and some universities will be sacking staff everywhere over the next few months to try and remain viable
Care homes will still be in the list of occupations exempt from the £38,700 minimum salary to get visas for migrants on their staff but those migrants will be banned from bringing their families with them
Watch this space: it won't be long until employer pressure leads to other groups of workers 'needing' to be exempt. Nobody's going to pay that salary for many of the jobs that current migrants fill.
If care workers can’t bring their family with them the fear is they are not going to bother coming to the Uk and will just go elsewhere instead .
Sky Sports has been awarded live rights packages B, C, D and E, covering a minimum of 215 live matches per season, which will include more than 140 matches played at weekends, evening matches on Fridays and Mondays, and full coverage of three midweek match rounds. For the first time, Sky Sports will also broadcast all 10 matches on the final day of each season.
TNT Sports has been awarded live rights package A, covering 52 live matches per season, including exclusive coverage of matches played on Saturdays at 12.30pm and full coverage of two midweek match rounds.
For the first time in the UK, all matches taking place outside of the Saturday 3pm "closed period", including those displaced to Sunday 2pm because of club participation in European competitions, will be broadcast live.
https://www.premierleague.com/news/3807882
Unemployed British workers or those on part time contracts who want extra hours can fill in any vacancies in the care sector instead
"Govt to whip Tory MPs against infected blood amendment tonight. Spokesman says ministers 'deeply sympathetic to the strength of feeling on this and understand the need for action' but won't 'pre-empt' final inquiry report. Tory rebels number 30-plus - could be close"
The claim that this will pre-empt the final inquiry report is a straight out lie by the government because the Inquiry Chair has already issued a report urging the government to pay compensation now while some of the victims are still alive. Three-quarters of them have died.
I am so fucking pissed off with Ministers blatantly lying like this when a moment's research shows up their lies. For this alone the Tories need to be shot into electoral oblivion. It is so fucking contemptuous of voters and this particular voter has had enough of it.
Ministers last week rushed an amendment through the Commons, allowing it to look into the bank account of everybody claiming State Pension. Their only reason was that it might be useful one day. The only change which could make it useful would be to means test the State Pension
https://twitter.com/stephenctimms/status/1731313291564089658
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12822849/omid-scobie-endgame-book-drops-amazon-100-list.html
Are we in a position to do anything with regard to Guyana?
Don't tell Anabob.
https://twitter.com/Smyth_Chris/status/1731732325401047354
Prime is much cheaper than Sky
Have they any idea what is happening, staff-wise, in care homes?
See:
Mike Padgham, the chair of the Independent Care Group which runs several care homes in North Yorkshire tells us: “Well I think we are going to find more businesses fail, care homes closing.
BBC News
As has been pointed out on Twix: the migration stats are lagged so nothing done now will make blind difference to the figures being seen at autumn election.
As has been pointed out on Twix: the migration stats are lagged so nothing done now will make blind difference to the figures being seen at autumn election.
And care home wages need to be kept low as councils cannot afford to pay more for the residents they pay for while privately paid for residents can’t be charged enough to make up the shortfall.
a) This can't happen before an election because the Lords will be able to delay long enough
b) This can't happen before an election because only a court can decide the meaning and scope of legislation, including the meaning and scope of legislation purporting to be ousting the court's jurisdiction. Put 2026/7 into the diary for the SC hearing. (OTOH don't, as it will be abandoned by then).
Add in:
1 - Create a credible compensation scheme and set of rules for people wrongfully imprisoned.
2 - Resolve the Indeterminate Sentences debacle, which is still a debacle 13 years after this Govt started, to a very tight timescale (I suggest 6 months max).
Holden announces the return of party membership cards – and unveils the four designs members can vote on
Is it actually based on partners not being allowed to work unless paid more than 38k?
I thought we were supposed to be short of workers.
What happens if the spouse is a teleworker for a foreign employer?
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
I thought you lot were in favour of traditional stable families.
Is there anyone left in the Tory party able to think through the consequences of what they announce? Anyone at all?
The only people not working are as Hunt equally pointed out those who are either disabled or not 100% well.
And I don’t think either group of people would be fit enough to work in a care home
Caring for your parents, for example?
A complete an utter PITA. I had to use it in SE Europe over the summer: what a farce. People didn't have change, ATMs didn't work, you name it, something cocked up.
Some day very soon we'll look back on the time whereby we bartered with stupid scraps of paper and ludicrous shards of metal and think: "Jesus that was bloody stupid."
W. Churchill
Should these jobs not be well paid enough to attract UK residents to take them? E.g. a material step up from stacking shelves at supermarkets or other low skill jobs at or above minimum wage.
Of course the implication is the cost of care would rise, and the state or those under care would shoulder the cost of that, but that's how things should be.
Our migration policy shouldn't be determined just because there are business models that are reliant on an endless stream of cheap labour from overseas.
The underemployment of people (both in the hours they work and the fact the job they do is below their qualification level) is an anecdote I know is true but can’t find the numerical evidence to backup