Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Options

What a waste of money – politicalbetting.com

SystemSystem Posts: 11,686
edited December 2023 in General
What a waste of money – politicalbetting.com

From what you’ve read and heard, do you think the government’s plan to send some migrants to Rwanda is or is not good value for money?All BritonsIt is: 20%It is not: 49%2019 Con votersIt is: 35%It is not: 36%https://t.co/I9idIsqWzW pic.twitter.com/gG8BWE4Mok

Read the full story here

«1

Comments

  • Options
    The Rwanda policy, the Anthony Martial, Antony, and Andre Onana of politics.
  • Options
    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


  • Options
    TazTaz Posts: 11,183

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
  • Options
    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    "There are no dangerous dogs - just dangerous owners."

    They're the ones who should be re-homed in Scotland.
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 32,001
    edited December 2023
    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,789

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,284

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    I doubt they have much market value right now
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,789

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,199

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    £250m and counting? Paul Kigale could buy a warehouse full of Ferraris with his commission alone.
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 32,001
    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    I gather from a story on the BBC about assistance for MPs who lose their seats that a
    around 150 are expected to lose their seats next time and require assistance in job finding. I wonder why the authorities consider this a priority at the moment?
  • Options
    ‘Brexit to blame’ for Boris Johnson’s stalled Shakespeare book
    The former prime minister is said to have lost the goodwill of experts to advise him after campaigning to leave the EU

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brexit-to-blame-for-boris-johnsons-stalled-shakespeare-book-nw9x6lbb5 (£££)

    Who had that on their Brexit bingo card?
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 32,001
    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    I did wonder whether there was a market among Rangers supporters!
  • Options
    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
  • Options
    Outside on the pavement, before I headed down Millbank towards Westminster, I took my phone out of the pocket of my trench coat and googled something Boris had just said: and bliss it was to be in that dawn alive … Surely, he was quoting someone or something. The answer came straight back: Wordsworth. Boris is the only person I have met in my life who has the ability to effortlessly insert a great poet into daily conversation, without missing a beat.

    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,665
    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    I think much more like the Tanganyika Groundnut scheme in an adjacent country.

    My mother still cites it as an example of government incompetence. This was a Labour scheme of the late 1940s, though well intentioned rather than malevolent.

    "By 1949 it was clear that things were going badly wrong. In the House of Commons in July 1950, Maurice Webb, now minister of food, admitted that the scheme had been pushed forward at breakneck speed and the methods used had not been adequately tested. The accounts were in chaos, too, though he did not put it quite like that, but he said it would be wrong to abandon the scheme or ‘retreat in any fundamental way’. "

    https://www.historytoday.com/archive/britain-abandons-groundnuts-scheme
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,199

    ‘Brexit to blame’ for Boris Johnson’s stalled Shakespeare book
    The former prime minister is said to have lost the goodwill of experts to advise him after campaigning to leave the EU

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brexit-to-blame-for-boris-johnsons-stalled-shakespeare-book-nw9x6lbb5 (£££)

    Who had that on their Brexit bingo card?

    I thought the reason COVID let rip was because Johnson had quite reasonably prioritised completing his Shakespeare work and was too busy to worry about his pin-money side hobble of running the country.
  • Options
    nico679nico679 Posts: 4,841
    They should all be put down and not shipped off to Scotland. Anyone who brought one of these killing machines is a moron and I’m not interested in how Benji is lovely with the children blah blah .

  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,629

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    I gather from a story on the BBC about assistance for MPs who lose their seats that a
    around 150 are expected to lose their seats next time and require assistance in job finding. I wonder why the authorities consider this a priority at the moment?
    Because they are in charge of ‘the authorities’, whatever that might mean.

    It’s a strange thing, since this government has next to no authority.
  • Options
    ThomasNasheThomasNashe Posts: 4,980

    ‘Brexit to blame’ for Boris Johnson’s stalled Shakespeare book
    The former prime minister is said to have lost the goodwill of experts to advise him after campaigning to leave the EU

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brexit-to-blame-for-boris-johnsons-stalled-shakespeare-book-nw9x6lbb5 (£££)

    Who had that on their Brexit bingo card?

    'advise him' = write it for him.
  • Options
    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    Or as one of her secret sources told Nad:-

    The absolute narcissistic egotists who make up the Conservative parliamentary party. Your own MPs, I’m sorry, but they are the most self-serving unpleasant bunch of individuals I have known to serve in a government in my lifetime. They are such an appalling lot.
    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,629
    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    I think much more like the Tanganyika Groundnut scheme in an adjacent country.

    My mother still cites it as an example of government incompetence. This was a Labour scheme of the late 1940s, though well intentioned rather than malevolent.

    "By 1949 it was clear that things were going badly wrong. In the House of Commons in July 1950, Maurice Webb, now minister of food, admitted that the scheme had been pushed forward at breakneck speed and the methods used had not been adequately tested. The accounts were in chaos, too, though he did not put it quite like that, but he said it would be wrong to abandon the scheme or ‘retreat in any fundamental way’. "

    https://www.historytoday.com/archive/britain-abandons-groundnuts-scheme
    It was still quite regularly talked about in the sixties, and I recall as a child being puzzled as to what on earth it was.
  • Options
    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    I was more thinking about this and the Tories fighting on a Get Rwanda Done election.

    The first ambassadors sent by Numantia asked for their liberty in return for complete surrender, but Scipio refused. They were killed upon return by the incredulous populace, who believed they had cut a deal with the Romans.

    The city refused to surrender and starvation set in. Cannibalism ensued and eventually some began to commit suicide with their whole families. The remnant population finally surrendered only after setting their city on fire. Scipio took it and had its ruins levelled. This was late in the summer of 133.
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,789

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,789
    Nigelb said:

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    I think much more like the Tanganyika Groundnut scheme in an adjacent country.

    My mother still cites it as an example of government incompetence. This was a Labour scheme of the late 1940s, though well intentioned rather than malevolent.

    "By 1949 it was clear that things were going badly wrong. In the House of Commons in July 1950, Maurice Webb, now minister of food, admitted that the scheme had been pushed forward at breakneck speed and the methods used had not been adequately tested. The accounts were in chaos, too, though he did not put it quite like that, but he said it would be wrong to abandon the scheme or ‘retreat in any fundamental way’. "

    https://www.historytoday.com/archive/britain-abandons-groundnuts-scheme
    It was still quite regularly talked about in the sixties, and I recall as a child being puzzled as to what on earth it was.
    Me too. Memorable also for the much-touted recycling of old Sherman tanks as groundnut tractors, which seems to have been rather desperately seized on as a marketing point by the PR flacks of the day.

    (Not usually a good idea to use tanks as dzozers (too fragile, too much maintenance) but with something like a Sherman, which was well designed, it might just work!)
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,789

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    I was more thinking about this and the Tories fighting on a Get Rwanda Done election.

    The first ambassadors sent by Numantia asked for their liberty in return for complete surrender, but Scipio refused. They were killed upon return by the incredulous populace, who believed they had cut a deal with the Romans.

    The city refused to surrender and starvation set in. Cannibalism ensued and eventually some began to commit suicide with their whole families. The remnant population finally surrendered only after setting their city on fire. Scipio took it and had its ruins levelled. This was late in the summer of 133.
    Well, that too, as you say!
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,264
    edited December 2023
    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    Are you suggesting there should be a paws on this ban?
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,629

    Outside on the pavement, before I headed down Millbank towards Westminster, I took my phone out of the pocket of my trench coat and googled something Boris had just said: and bliss it was to be in that dawn alive … Surely, he was quoting someone or something. The answer came straight back: Wordsworth. Boris is the only person I have met in my life who has the ability to effortlessly insert a great poet into daily conversation, without missing a beat.

    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson

    The Lost Leader.
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,789
    edited December 2023
    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    Are you suggesting there should be a paws on this ban?
    Well, UKG is certainly going to have to take its legislative dog out for a walk again before long, or it'll end up with a pile of crap on the carpet. (Edit: to redefine the banned breeds yet again.)
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,629

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    Or as one of her secret sources told Nad:-

    The absolute narcissistic egotists who make up the Conservative parliamentary party. Your own MPs, I’m sorry, but they are the most self-serving unpleasant bunch of individuals I have known to serve in a government in my lifetime. They are such an appalling lot.
    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson
    Shows quite the insight into Boris, that.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,629
    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    Are you suggesting there should be a paws on this ban?
    They should get it fixed.
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 32,001
    Nigelb said:

    Outside on the pavement, before I headed down Millbank towards Westminster, I took my phone out of the pocket of my trench coat and googled something Boris had just said: and bliss it was to be in that dawn alive … Surely, he was quoting someone or something. The answer came straight back: Wordsworth. Boris is the only person I have met in my life who has the ability to effortlessly insert a great poet into daily conversation, without missing a beat.

    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson

    The Lost Leader.
    I was quoting Aneurin Bevan yesterday to some well educated, scientifically speaking, people and got some blank looks.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,199

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    I was more thinking about this and the Tories fighting on a Get Rwanda Done election.

    The first ambassadors sent by Numantia asked for their liberty in return for complete surrender, but Scipio refused. They were killed upon return by the incredulous populace, who believed they had cut a deal with the Romans.

    The city refused to surrender and starvation set in. Cannibalism ensued and eventually some began to commit suicide with their whole families. The remnant population finally surrendered only after setting their city on fire. Scipio took it and had its ruins levelled. This was late in the summer of 133.
    If the Conservative Government of AD133 declares it safe, it's safe!
  • Options
    OT for the Formula 1 mob:
    How To Fire An F1 Driver: Guenther Steiner
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxfyO8daQcs
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,789
    While we are on the topic of (ancient) Romans are shits:

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/dec/08/archaeologists-unearth-most-shocking-example-of-roman-slavery-at-pompeii

    (headline slightly misleading btw, not quite what the Archaeologist says)

  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,307

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    "There are no dangerous dogs - just dangerous owners."

    They're the ones who should be re-homed in Scotland.
    Err...no thanks, very kind and all that but no. To either.
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,307
    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    It will become a massive issue when one of these dogs uses a child as a chew toy.
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,789

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    Or as one of her secret sources told Nad:-

    The absolute narcissistic egotists who make up the Conservative parliamentary party. Your own MPs, I’m sorry, but they are the most self-serving unpleasant bunch of individuals I have known to serve in a government in my lifetime. They are such an appalling lot.
    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson
    The most remarkable thing about this is that it would appear that you have voluntarily chosen to read Mad Nad's book.
    Not even Lent, but Advent. Maybe he's opening one chapter every day?
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,789
    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    It will become a massive issue when one of these dogs uses a child as a chew toy.
    Quite. What I'm not clear about is whther this really is happening or just some might and maybe from someone phoned up for a story. The story is evidently lifted from the Herald of some time back.

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23952404.scotland-facing-influx-xl-bully-dogs-ban-england/
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,307
    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    It will become a massive issue when one of these dogs uses a child as a chew toy.
    Quite. What I'm not clear about is whther this really is happening or just some might and maybe from someone phoned up for a story. The story is evidently lifted from the Herald of some time back.

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23952404.scotland-facing-influx-xl-bully-dogs-ban-england/
    This is a case of being different for the sake of it falling into self harm. We really need to get rid of these dogs, both our own domesticated ones and any coming from anywhere else.
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,264
    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    Are you suggesting there should be a paws on this ban?
    They should get it fixed.
    Its nuts, anyway.

    (On a serious point, have any of the XL bullies that have caused a problem *not* been castrated, do we know? That tends to remove a lot of the aggression from dogs.)
  • Options
    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    In the case of Rangers supporters sometimes literally in my experience.
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,264
    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    It will become a massive issue when one of these dogs uses a child as a chew toy.
    Quite. What I'm not clear about is whther this really is happening or just some might and maybe from someone phoned up for a story. The story is evidently lifted from the Herald of some time back.

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23952404.scotland-facing-influx-xl-bully-dogs-ban-england/
    This is a case of being different for the sake of it falling into self harm. We really need to get rid of these dogs, both our own domesticated ones and any coming from anywhere else.
    Is that a reference to XL bullies or a euphemism for the Yousaf government?
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,789
    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    It will become a massive issue when one of these dogs uses a child as a chew toy.
    Quite. What I'm not clear about is whther this really is happening or just some might and maybe from someone phoned up for a story. The story is evidently lifted from the Herald of some time back.

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23952404.scotland-facing-influx-xl-bully-dogs-ban-england/
    This is a case of being different for the sake of it falling into self harm. We really need to get rid of these dogs, both our own domesticated ones and any coming from anywhere else.
    Don't agree on the first point. Being different because HMG adopts a crap policy is not the same thing. I do think the HMG DDA Mk 2 policy is stupid, as any zoologist or biologist could tell them. However I agree on point 2!
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,629
    Gene transfer between organisms happens all the time in nature, but this suggestion is novel.

    Electric organ discharge from electric eel facilitates DNA transformation into teleost larvae in laboratory conditions
    https://peerj.com/articles/16596/
    Electric eels (Electrophorus sp.) are known for their ability to produce electric organ discharge (EOD) reaching voltages of up to 860 V. Given that gene transfer via intense electrical pulses is a well-established technique in genetic engineering, we hypothesized that electric eels could potentially function as a gene transfer mechanism in their aquatic environment.

    Methods
    To investigate this hypothesis, we immersed zebrafish larvae in water containing DNA encoding the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and exposed them to electric eel’s EOD.

    Results and Discussion
    Some embryos exhibited a mosaic expression of green fluorescence, in contrast to the control group without electrical stimulation, which showed little distinct fluorescence. This suggests that electric eel EOD has the potential to function as an electroporator for the transfer of DNA into eukaryotic cells. While electric eel EOD is primarily associated with behaviors related to sensing, predation, and defense, it may incidentally serve as a possible mechanism for gene transfer in natural environment...
  • Options
    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,071
    This tweet is a good example of dysfunctional thinking in Brussels:

    https://x.com/thierrybreton/status/1733254586561888306

    image
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,264

    Nigelb said:

    Outside on the pavement, before I headed down Millbank towards Westminster, I took my phone out of the pocket of my trench coat and googled something Boris had just said: and bliss it was to be in that dawn alive … Surely, he was quoting someone or something. The answer came straight back: Wordsworth. Boris is the only person I have met in my life who has the ability to effortlessly insert a great poet into daily conversation, without missing a beat.

    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson

    The Lost Leader.
    I was quoting Aneurin Bevan yesterday to some well educated, scientifically speaking, people and got some blank looks.
    If you were saying they were 'lower than vermin' I'm not altogether surprised about those blank looks...
  • Options
    CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,789
    Nigelb said:

    Gene transfer between organisms happens all the time in nature, but this suggestion is novel.

    Electric organ discharge from electric eel facilitates DNA transformation into teleost larvae in laboratory conditions
    https://peerj.com/articles/16596/
    Electric eels (Electrophorus sp.) are known for their ability to produce electric organ discharge (EOD) reaching voltages of up to 860 V. Given that gene transfer via intense electrical pulses is a well-established technique in genetic engineering, we hypothesized that electric eels could potentially function as a gene transfer mechanism in their aquatic environment.

    Methods
    To investigate this hypothesis, we immersed zebrafish larvae in water containing DNA encoding the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and exposed them to electric eel’s EOD.

    Results and Discussion
    Some embryos exhibited a mosaic expression of green fluorescence, in contrast to the control group without electrical stimulation, which showed little distinct fluorescence. This suggests that electric eel EOD has the potential to function as an electroporator for the transfer of DNA into eukaryotic cells. While electric eel EOD is primarily associated with behaviors related to sensing, predation, and defense, it may incidentally serve as a possible mechanism for gene transfer in natural environment...

    Mm. That's not in the sense of a specific transfer oir control of genetic informastion through the leccy, though, is it? So it's rather misleadingly titled. As an analogy, one gets adjuvant with immunizations, and it sure helps the immune process, but the adjuvant itself doesn't carry the antigens.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,199
    edited December 2023
    Inflation news.

    At Heathrow, the Fortnum and Mason's store hamperling has increased from £18 to £30 in under a year.

    The squeezed middle are feeling the pinch.
  • Options
    ClippPClippP Posts: 1,687

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    I was more thinking about this and the Tories fighting on a Get Rwanda Done election.

    The first ambassadors sent by Numantia asked for their liberty in return for complete surrender, but Scipio refused. They were killed upon return by the incredulous populace, who believed they had cut a deal with the Romans.

    The city refused to surrender and starvation set in. Cannibalism ensued and eventually some began to commit suicide with their whole families. The remnant population finally surrendered only after setting their city on fire. Scipio took it and had its ruins levelled. This was late in the summer of 133.
    If the Conservative Government of AD133 declares it safe, it's safe!
    Wans't it BC? The Conservative Government is not fit for purpose.
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,307

    This tweet is a good example of dysfunctional thinking in Brussels:

    https://x.com/thierrybreton/status/1733254586561888306

    image

    Just as well these all powerful AI systems are going to be law abiding and respectful of borders, isn't it?
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,264
    Well, it was a rotten pitch but you can't say it's been a dull test.

    And Glenn Phillips deserves to be loaded with ivory, peacocks and Andrew RT Davies for being the one batsman to master it.
  • Options
    bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 7,636

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    "There are no dangerous dogs - just dangerous owners."

    They're the ones who should be re-homed in Scotland.
    The Government is struggling to deport people to Rwanda. Maybe this isn’t the time to start trying to deport another group to another country…
  • Options
    Taz said:

    dixiedean said:

    Late to the party, but as a leftie I would like to acknowledge that the current government has one absolutely brilliant policy:

    The £2 single bus fare cap.

    (Though they're so quiet about it, it's hardly surprising that they get little or no credit for it. Instead, they just go on about failing to stop the boats).

    Yes.
    It's a total sign that they are utterly out of touch.
    Headed on the piss in the Toon for Xmas do. Colleagues all booking taxis at £10 a head each way.
    Me. I'm on the bus. Not a single one of them knew it was £2.
    We’re off to Birtley, of all places, for a meal tonight. We will catch the bus there and back. It’s a bargain.
    Would have gone to the Tanfield Railway back in October, had it not been for the Go-Ahead bus strike :angry:
  • Options
    StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 7,056

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Because they are building an industry doing this and they don’t want to be unreliable
  • Options
    TimSTimS Posts: 9,640

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Because they are building an industry doing this and they don’t want to be unreliable
    They also want the right credentials for other countries though. An agreement that breaches international law makes them unattractive for other more scrupulous governments.
  • Options
    StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 7,056

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    Don’t give them ideas. Health’n’safety… national emergency…
  • Options
    Point of clarification - Numantia was destroyed but the city of Soria grew up in the shadow of its ruins on the banks of the River Duero. I spent a few days there last October. It’s a fine place and the surrounding country is empty, vast and magnificent. Not an easy spot to get to, but well worth the effort. The city’s football team is Numancia, so the name lives on.
  • Options

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    I gather from a story on the BBC about assistance for MPs who lose their seats that a
    around 150 are expected to lose their seats next time and require assistance in job finding. I wonder why the authorities consider this a priority at the moment?
    Perhaps Rwanda will take them.
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,307
    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    It will become a massive issue when one of these dogs uses a child as a chew toy.
    Quite. What I'm not clear about is whther this really is happening or just some might and maybe from someone phoned up for a story. The story is evidently lifted from the Herald of some time back.

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23952404.scotland-facing-influx-xl-bully-dogs-ban-england/
    This is a case of being different for the sake of it falling into self harm. We really need to get rid of these dogs, both our own domesticated ones and any coming from anywhere else.
    Don't agree on the first point. Being different because HMG adopts a crap policy is not the same thing. I do think the HMG DDA Mk 2 policy is stupid, as any zoologist or biologist could tell them. However I agree on point 2!
    The policy is a long way short of perfect and there are problems in this area as the DDA Mark 1 showed that all too clearly but allowing dogs we should have banned to be dumped on us from elsewhere is a pretty good working definition of self harm to me.
  • Options
    CookieCookie Posts: 11,449

    Inflation news.

    At Heathrow, the Fortnum and Mason's store hamperling has increased from £18 to £30 in under a year.

    The squeezed middle are feeling the pinch.

    I don't think the squeezed middle have ever been into Fortnum and Mason's!
  • Options

    This tweet is a good example of dysfunctional thinking in Brussels:

    https://x.com/thierrybreton/status/1733254586561888306

    image

    Disclaimer: Sunil has nowt to do with this pie chart :lol:
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,199
    Cookie said:

    Inflation news.

    At Heathrow, the Fortnum and Mason's store hamperling has increased from £18 to £30 in under a year.

    The squeezed middle are feeling the pinch.

    I don't think the squeezed middle have ever been into Fortnum and Mason's!
    They wouldn't shop anywhere else!
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,307
    ydoethur said:

    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    It will become a massive issue when one of these dogs uses a child as a chew toy.
    Quite. What I'm not clear about is whther this really is happening or just some might and maybe from someone phoned up for a story. The story is evidently lifted from the Herald of some time back.

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23952404.scotland-facing-influx-xl-bully-dogs-ban-england/
    This is a case of being different for the sake of it falling into self harm. We really need to get rid of these dogs, both our own domesticated ones and any coming from anywhere else.
    Is that a reference to XL bullies or a euphemism for the Yousaf government?
    These dogs are way smarter than the Yousaf government.

    This week alone they have lost an appeal against their own information minister which is going to oblige them to disclose material which might well suggest a conspiracy which they have tried very, very hard to ignore and, of course, a judicial review which sought to put one of their main obsessions (policy doesn't seem quite the right word) back on track.

    Oh, and those pesky PISA people showed once again how disastrous their education reforms have been. Which was ridiculous because look at the pass rate!!
  • Options
    MonksfieldMonksfield Posts: 2,203

    ‘Brexit to blame’ for Boris Johnson’s stalled Shakespeare book
    The former prime minister is said to have lost the goodwill of experts to advise him after campaigning to leave the EU

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brexit-to-blame-for-boris-johnsons-stalled-shakespeare-book-nw9x6lbb5 (£££)

    Who had that on their Brexit bingo card?

    'advise him' = write it for him.
    Quite. The interesting revelation here is that others do the research hard yards. Bozo then just takes the output and writes a load of his woffy choffy spin around it.

    Colour me absolutely shocked.
  • Options
    CookieCookie Posts: 11,449

    Taz said:

    dixiedean said:

    Late to the party, but as a leftie I would like to acknowledge that the current government has one absolutely brilliant policy:

    The £2 single bus fare cap.

    (Though they're so quiet about it, it's hardly surprising that they get little or no credit for it. Instead, they just go on about failing to stop the boats).

    Yes.
    It's a total sign that they are utterly out of touch.
    Headed on the piss in the Toon for Xmas do. Colleagues all booking taxis at £10 a head each way.
    Me. I'm on the bus. Not a single one of them knew it was £2.
    We’re off to Birtley, of all places, for a meal tonight. We will catch the bus there and back. It’s a bargain.
    Would have gone to the Tanfield Railway back in October, had it not been for the Go-Ahead bus strike :angry:
    I don't understand the mentality of people whi default to taxis. It's like people who default to deliveroos. It should be a last resort, rather than a default.
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,687
    DavidL said:

    This tweet is a good example of dysfunctional thinking in Brussels:

    https://x.com/thierrybreton/status/1733254586561888306

    image

    Just as well these all powerful AI systems are going to be law abiding and respectful of borders, isn't it?
    Some attempt at regulation is required is it not? Or should we just let it all rip and hope for the best?
  • Options
    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    It will become a massive issue when one of these dogs uses a child as a chew toy.
    Quite. What I'm not clear about is whther this really is happening or just some might and maybe from someone phoned up for a story. The story is evidently lifted from the Herald of some time back.

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23952404.scotland-facing-influx-xl-bully-dogs-ban-england/
    This is a case of being different for the sake of it falling into self harm. We really need to get rid of these dogs, both our own domesticated ones and any coming from anywhere else.
    If Scotland had banned them, and England and Wales had not, one suspects the argument would be about the total irresponsibility of Westminster putting Scotland at risk.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,629
    edited December 2023
    Carnyx said:

    Nigelb said:

    Gene transfer between organisms happens all the time in nature, but this suggestion is novel.

    Electric organ discharge from electric eel facilitates DNA transformation into teleost larvae in laboratory conditions
    https://peerj.com/articles/16596/
    Electric eels (Electrophorus sp.) are known for their ability to produce electric organ discharge (EOD) reaching voltages of up to 860 V. Given that gene transfer via intense electrical pulses is a well-established technique in genetic engineering, we hypothesized that electric eels could potentially function as a gene transfer mechanism in their aquatic environment.

    Methods
    To investigate this hypothesis, we immersed zebrafish larvae in water containing DNA encoding the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and exposed them to electric eel’s EOD.

    Results and Discussion
    Some embryos exhibited a mosaic expression of green fluorescence, in contrast to the control group without electrical stimulation, which showed little distinct fluorescence. This suggests that electric eel EOD has the potential to function as an electroporator for the transfer of DNA into eukaryotic cells. While electric eel EOD is primarily associated with behaviors related to sensing, predation, and defense, it may incidentally serve as a possible mechanism for gene transfer in natural environment...

    Mm. That's not in the sense of a specific transfer or control of genetic informastion through the leccy, though, is it? So it's rather misleadingly titled. As an analogy, one gets adjuvant with immunizations, and it sure helps the immune process, but the adjuvant itself doesn't carry the antigens.
    It is the transfer of genetic information through electroporation.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroporation

    Granted, it’s incorporation of DNA plasmids from the surrounding environment into cells, rather than modification of nuclear DNA.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasmid

  • Options
    CookieCookie Posts: 11,449

    Cookie said:

    Inflation news.

    At Heathrow, the Fortnum and Mason's store hamperling has increased from £18 to £30 in under a year.

    The squeezed middle are feeling the pinch.

    I don't think the squeezed middle have ever been into Fortnum and Mason's!
    They wouldn't shop anywhere else!
    I think we have very different definition of 'middle'! I'm comfortably above 'squeezed middle' but well below the level of easy wealth which would allow me to think about shopping in F&M.
  • Options
    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,071

    This tweet is a good example of dysfunctional thinking in Brussels:

    https://x.com/thierrybreton/status/1733254586561888306

    image

    Disclaimer: Sunil has nowt to do with this pie chart :lol:
    Haha. It does look like one of yours.
  • Options
    TimSTimS Posts: 9,640

    ‘Brexit to blame’ for Boris Johnson’s stalled Shakespeare book
    The former prime minister is said to have lost the goodwill of experts to advise him after campaigning to leave the EU

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brexit-to-blame-for-boris-johnsons-stalled-shakespeare-book-nw9x6lbb5 (£££)

    Who had that on their Brexit bingo card?

    'advise him' = write it for him.
    Colour me.
    Off to con home with you.
  • Options
    algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,541
    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    Taking the long view of Iberia, the survivors are the Basques, whose language, unrelated to every other known language in the world, has seen off everything thrown at it since before the Celts and their successors arrived, bringing their Indo European languages with them. It is amazing how little interest there is in this miraculous survival in the rest of Europe.
  • Options
    TimSTimS Posts: 9,640

    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    It will become a massive issue when one of these dogs uses a child as a chew toy.
    Quite. What I'm not clear about is whther this really is happening or just some might and maybe from someone phoned up for a story. The story is evidently lifted from the Herald of some time back.

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23952404.scotland-facing-influx-xl-bully-dogs-ban-england/
    This is a case of being different for the sake of it falling into self harm. We really need to get rid of these dogs, both our own domesticated ones and any coming from anywhere else.
    If Scotland had banned them, and England and Wales had not, one suspects the argument would be about the total irresponsibility of Westminster putting Scotland at risk.
    Scottish XL Bullies are different though. More intelligent, not violent, generally more egalitarian and welcoming to foreigners. The only people they might (justifiably) savage are English people.
  • Options
    TazTaz Posts: 11,183
    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    Sounds like some dog charity's small and crackbrained private scheme tarted up by a Unionist newspaper. Presumablky they're getting the dogs there as an emergency and worrying about the asylum claims later.
    Nah the SNP minister has realised their error in not accepting Gove's offer.

    Siobhian Brown, the community safety minister.. has now written to Westminster to urge that “people in England and Wales do not use any loopholes created by the UK government in getting rid of their dogs”.

    Doug Smith, a spokesman for Bully Watch, said the Scottish administration could not have it both ways.

    “They seem to have chosen the worst possible option of doing nothing,” he said. “Either you say you are going to follow Westminster and do the ban, or you say you are not going to follow Westminster and close some loophole so you don’t have the negative consequences of the ban.

    “There is literally no way to stop these dogs being moved unless you start doing border checks. I can’t understand why the Scottish government bothered to ask because there’s nothing Westminster can do.”
    The Scottish government is trying to sort out something more rational than the DDA Mark 2 adopted with very little notice south of the border, and can hardly be blamed for the chaos south of the border. Of course Unionists love to shit on the neighbour's garden and blame everyone else very loudly and performatively (see Numantia, siege of, see also P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus).

    Nevertheless: there is clearly an issue. How big it really is remains to be seen.
    It will become a massive issue when one of these dogs uses a child as a chew toy.
    It will be Westminster fault somehow.
  • Options
    TimSTimS Posts: 9,640
    algarkirk said:

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    Taking the long view of Iberia, the survivors are the Basques, whose language, unrelated to every other known language in the world, has seen off everything thrown at it since before the Celts and their successors arrived, bringing their Indo European languages with them. It is amazing how little interest there is in this miraculous survival in the rest of Europe.
    Damp mountainous places seem to do this. Georgia has a similarly insulated culture and unique language, in a similar milieu (windward curving coast, mountains, wet climate). It was also called Iberia back in the day.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,983
    Cookie said:

    Cookie said:

    Inflation news.

    At Heathrow, the Fortnum and Mason's store hamperling has increased from £18 to £30 in under a year.

    The squeezed middle are feeling the pinch.

    I don't think the squeezed middle have ever been into Fortnum and Mason's!
    They wouldn't shop anywhere else!
    I think we have very different definition of 'middle'! I'm comfortably above 'squeezed middle' but well below the level of easy wealth which would allow me to think about shopping in F&M.
    Likewise - except for the fact I really don't rate F&M's products... They are good but simply not worth the extra they charge..
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,665

    Cookie said:

    Inflation news.

    At Heathrow, the Fortnum and Mason's store hamperling has increased from £18 to £30 in under a year.

    The squeezed middle are feeling the pinch.

    I don't think the squeezed middle have ever been into Fortnum and Mason's!
    They wouldn't shop anywhere else!
    Somethings are so essential that economies need to be made. Only one Au Pair for example.
  • Options
    I see it's whining (in a most un XL Bully like way) about Scotland day on PB.
    Again.
  • Options
    algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,541

    Outside on the pavement, before I headed down Millbank towards Westminster, I took my phone out of the pocket of my trench coat and googled something Boris had just said: and bliss it was to be in that dawn alive … Surely, he was quoting someone or something. The answer came straight back: Wordsworth. Boris is the only person I have met in my life who has the ability to effortlessly insert a great poet into daily conversation, without missing a beat.

    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson

    If Boris had read Burke on the French Revolution instead of Wordsworth he might still be Prime Minister.

    Don't tell Dorries what Wordsworth was praising or she will have to pulp the entire print run.
  • Options
    StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 7,056
    TimS said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Because they are building an industry doing this and they don’t want to be unreliable
    They also want the right credentials for other countries though. An agreement that breaches international law makes them unattractive for other more scrupulous governments.
    I fully agree. That’s why they sad what they said but also why they won’t walk away.

    My guess is they demand assurances from the UK government that they are acting in accordance with international law

    Now *that* would be funny…
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,264
    algarkirk said:

    Outside on the pavement, before I headed down Millbank towards Westminster, I took my phone out of the pocket of my trench coat and googled something Boris had just said: and bliss it was to be in that dawn alive … Surely, he was quoting someone or something. The answer came straight back: Wordsworth. Boris is the only person I have met in my life who has the ability to effortlessly insert a great poet into daily conversation, without missing a beat.

    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson

    If Boris had read Burke on the French Revolution instead of Wordsworth he might still be Prime Minister.

    Don't tell Dorries what Wordsworth was praising or she will have to pulp the entire print run.
    I dunno. Johnson must read a work of berks every time he picks up his own stuff or Mad Nad's autobiography.
  • Options
    RogerRoger Posts: 18,891
    edited December 2023
    I'm guessing that the Leave/Remain category that Yougov uses above refers to way people voted in 2016- Or does it? If it was updated to now with a 35/65 Remain bias it would at least show that the country was becoming more enlightened
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,429
    IanB2 said:

    Taz said:

    Well.

    Dozens of XL bullies are being relocated north of the border before the breed is banned in England as part of a TikTok-fuelled operation called Project Scotland.

    A dog-care centre in Glasgow is coordinating a campaign to move unwanted XL bullies, which will be illegal to own in England without a licence from February 1.

    Large vans with cages are driving to a different English city every weekend, removing the dogs — whose breed is responsible for six of the last 15 fatalities from dog attacks — from owners who often cannot afford new licensing requirements.

    The SNP government last month formally rejected a request from Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, to introduce the ban “in light of the threat to public safety”, and to avoid the risk of “creating a potential dumping ground for dangerous dogs” in Scotland.

    Instead, Scotland’s minister for community safety and two SNP MSPs have agreed to visit the dog centre rehoming the XL bullies, many of which are understood to have serious behavioural issues.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/xl-bully-exodus-from-england-in-lead-up-to-ban-v7vb7fvf8

    Honestly, this is a picture in the article, if I saw this running at me, I would be poohing bricks.


    Owning the Brits by allowing dangerous, killer, dogs to be relocated to Scotland. Classy.
    Good morning everyone! Well, in fact, it is raining here.

    How is this dog migration policy supposed to work? Do we have owners in, say Birmingham, who own a dog in Glasgow? And presumably have to travel to Glasgow to take the animal for a walk?
    Are these dogs being sold to Scots?
    I doubt they have much market value right now
    Previous to the ban, Land Megaladons went for serious money.

    I suspect that you are seeing people getting the dogs for nothing in England, and selling them North of the Border
  • Options
    StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 7,056
    Cookie said:

    Taz said:

    dixiedean said:

    Late to the party, but as a leftie I would like to acknowledge that the current government has one absolutely brilliant policy:

    The £2 single bus fare cap.

    (Though they're so quiet about it, it's hardly surprising that they get little or no credit for it. Instead, they just go on about failing to stop the boats).

    Yes.
    It's a total sign that they are utterly out of touch.
    Headed on the piss in the Toon for Xmas do. Colleagues all booking taxis at £10 a head each way.
    Me. I'm on the bus. Not a single one of them knew it was £2.
    We’re off to Birtley, of all places, for a meal tonight. We will catch the bus there and back. It’s a bargain.
    Would have gone to the Tanfield Railway back in October, had it not been for the Go-Ahead bus strike :angry:
    I don't understand the mentality of people whi default to taxis. It's like people who default to deliveroos. It should be a last resort, rather than a default.
    They value time and convenience higher than you do

  • Options
    Roger said:
    I've watched only four of those but would have thought classing Trading Places as a Christmas film was more tenuous than Die Hard.
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,665

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    Or as one of her secret sources told Nad:-

    The absolute narcissistic egotists who make up the Conservative parliamentary party. Your own MPs, I’m sorry, but they are the most self-serving unpleasant bunch of individuals I have known to serve in a government in my lifetime. They are such an appalling lot.
    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson
    The only remarkable thing about this is that it would appear that you have voluntarily chosen to read Mad Nad's book.
    My mother, a lifelong Tory Party member who voted for Truss, has asked for a copy for Christmas. I think she will read it unironically.
  • Options
    algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,541
    TimS said:

    algarkirk said:

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    Taking the long view of Iberia, the survivors are the Basques, whose language, unrelated to every other known language in the world, has seen off everything thrown at it since before the Celts and their successors arrived, bringing their Indo European languages with them. It is amazing how little interest there is in this miraculous survival in the rest of Europe.
    Damp mountainous places seem to do this. Georgia has a similarly insulated culture and unique language, in a similar milieu (windward curving coast, mountains, wet climate). It was also called Iberia back in the day.
    Though sadly Cumbrians no longer speak Cumbric, though we seem to have the relevant qualifications. Our mountainous windward curving coast is raining as I write. (Cumbric is of course, compared with Basque, a modern interloper).
  • Options
    algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,541
    edited December 2023
    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    Or as one of her secret sources told Nad:-

    The absolute narcissistic egotists who make up the Conservative parliamentary party. Your own MPs, I’m sorry, but they are the most self-serving unpleasant bunch of individuals I have known to serve in a government in my lifetime. They are such an appalling lot.
    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson
    The only remarkable thing about this is that it would appear that you have voluntarily chosen to read Mad Nad's book.
    My mother, a lifelong Tory Party member who voted for Truss, has asked for a copy for Christmas. I think she will read it unironically.
    Amazon describes it as best seller in 'Political Science'. To be read unironically?
  • Options
    RogerRoger Posts: 18,891
    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    Or as one of her secret sources told Nad:-

    The absolute narcissistic egotists who make up the Conservative parliamentary party. Your own MPs, I’m sorry, but they are the most self-serving unpleasant bunch of individuals I have known to serve in a government in my lifetime. They are such an appalling lot.
    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson
    The only remarkable thing about this is that it would appear that you have voluntarily chosen to read Mad Nad's book.
    My mother, a lifelong Tory Party member who voted for Truss, has asked for a copy for Christmas. I think she will read it unironically.
    I read it. Your Mother might enjoy it. I did. It goes into the category of most bizarre books ever written. We've all read biographies that suggest the author has fallen in love with their subject-Paula Yates on Bob Geldof for example-but this goes well beyond that. This is a complete invention of a character who she has called 'Boris Johnson' who is the most enchanting and flawless human being that ever lived.
  • Options
    algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,541
    Roger said:

    I'm guessing that the Leave/Remain category that Yougov uses above refers to way people voted in 2016- Or does it? If it was updated to now with a 35/65 Remain bias it would at least show that the country was becoming more enlightened

    Polls are quite often unclear about the meaning of categories; especially 'Remain/Leave' (2016 or now) and party support (last election vote or now).
  • Options
    algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,541
    Roger said:


    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    Or as one of her secret sources told Nad:-

    The absolute narcissistic egotists who make up the Conservative parliamentary party. Your own MPs, I’m sorry, but they are the most self-serving unpleasant bunch of individuals I have known to serve in a government in my lifetime. They are such an appalling lot.
    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson
    The only remarkable thing about this is that it would appear that you have voluntarily chosen to read Mad Nad's book.
    My mother, a lifelong Tory Party member who voted for Truss, has asked for a copy for Christmas. I think she will read it unironically.
    I read it. Your Mother might enjoy it. I did. It goes into the category of most bizarre books ever written. We've all read biographies that suggest the author has fallen in love with their subject-Paula Yates on Bob Geldof for example-but this goes well beyond that. This is a complete invention of a character who she has called 'Boris Johnson' who is the most enchanting and flawless human being that ever lived.
    Another bizarre book is Terry Major-Ball's book on John Major etc. It is modern Pooter, but entirely unintentional. I think it was the late Auberon Waugh who reviewed it saying 'You would need a heart of stone not to laugh'. A classic of the genre.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,983

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    I gather from a story on the BBC about assistance for MPs who lose their seats that a
    around 150 are expected to lose their seats next time and require assistance in job finding. I wonder why the authorities consider this a priority at the moment?
    they will get nice cushy public numbers paying lots for little hours, shedloads of these highly paid gigs for friends and family.
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,264

    Foxy said:

    Carnyx said:

    The whole Rwanda saga sums up the current Tory Party. Interested in performative nonsense. Disinterested in making tough decisions and governing effectively.

    The funniest part of the whole business will be when Rwanda walks away. Why wouldn’t they?

    Not sure the Numantia comparison is quite the right way round. Arguably, the whole thing - including the conquest of Hispania - was primarily performative politics on the part of certain elements of the Roman elite, with a side bonus of lots of loot, public contracts, and downright corruption for themselves and their chums.
    Or as one of her secret sources told Nad:-

    The absolute narcissistic egotists who make up the Conservative parliamentary party. Your own MPs, I’m sorry, but they are the most self-serving unpleasant bunch of individuals I have known to serve in a government in my lifetime. They are such an appalling lot.
    Dorries, Nadine. The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson
    The only remarkable thing about this is that it would appear that you have voluntarily chosen to read Mad Nad's book.
    My mother, a lifelong Tory Party member who voted for Truss, has asked for a copy for Christmas. I think she will read it unironically.
    Who is Dr No? Master of the dark arts, pulling the strings and ousting Tory leaders for 20 years. Too powerful for Dorries to name.

    He attends sex parties, has been in prison, has used class A drugs, circulated rumours about Liz Truss's sex life ...OMG, it's @Leon
    Cummings must be very annoyed that she's invented this character and not named him as the man...
  • Options
    RogerRoger Posts: 18,891
    algarkirk said:

    Roger said:

    I'm guessing that the Leave/Remain category that Yougov uses above refers to way people voted in 2016- Or does it? If it was updated to now with a 35/65 Remain bias it would at least show that the country was becoming more enlightened

    Polls are quite often unclear about the meaning of categories; especially 'Remain/Leave' (2016 or now) and party support (last election vote or now).
    With Party support I cant see it being any other way than 'now' but with Leave/Remain they'd have to continually ask the question which they don't seem to do
This discussion has been closed.