Some children look older than they are, and its not racist or sexist to mention it when it happens. Puberty is a funny thing in how it treats different children differently.
I mentioned this a few months ago but over the last summer I attended a family wedding where my daughter (9) was one of the bridesmaids, she both is and looks like a child. There were 5 bridesmaids, 3 adults and 2 children but the other child was an 11 year old who looked much more like the adults and at all not like a child. She may have been 11, but she was already taller than the bride and could have easily passed for 18 or 19. For anyone who mentioned it, which happened a fair bit, I would never have considered that racist or sexist.
All these jokes about Luke Littler looking old for his age… if he were a black 16 yr old and the same jokes were being made, I get the feeling a lot of those making the jokes would be saying “That’s a racist trope, you wouldn’t say it if he was white”
Early contender for the most bizarre post of 2024?
It’s bizarre that it’s true - if a black 16 yr old prodigy looked a lot older than his age, people wouldn’t dare say so, and those who did would be called out as racist for focussing on appearance rather than ability. I think the same logic works if it were a female prodigy
Emma Raducanu? Sky the skateboarder? I don't think they were called out as faking their age.
Emma Raducanu didn’t look like she was in her late thirties when she was sixteen
So what's your point?
Luke does, so people have commented on that about Luke, because its true.
Find a black or female 16 year old who looks like he's in his late thirties or forties and see if others haven't made remarks to that effect.
Its absurd, you don't have to turn everything into race.
The point is that if a 16 yr old black sporting prodigy looked 38, people taking the piss out of that would be getting called racist by some people who are happy to take the piss out of Luke Littler for looking old
Why would they? When has that ever happened?
Luke looks like he's in his late thirties or older. I think he looks older than I do and I'm 42, if I was working in a shop selling alcohol I wouldn't ask for his ID under Challenge 25. Commenting on that, is not racist, there is no race issue here.
(Dons fireproof clothes) There is a bit of an issue here, but it's not about race. Possibly about class, certainly about people's sterotype of what darts players look like. See the Smith and Jones Darts sketch...
John Rentoul @JohnRentoul · 1h Farage as leader would increase Reform vote from 11% to 14%, leaving Lab lead unchanged at 21pts: @YouGov for Times
Labour at 21% ????
Tice's warning of a "Starmergeddon" gaining massive traction?
Tax cuts, reduction in Government spending of a whopping 5% and standards improving through reduction in "waste" under a Reform Government. So promoting the same old Mom and apple pie bollocks as Con and Lab.
Although... the 21% was the Labour lead
I was being mischievous. Nonetheless I don't believe Tice's "new politics" offering is that much different from the old rubbish promoted by everyone else.
Although Rishi has excelled himself with his most recent alternative truth proclamations.
All these jokes about Luke Littler looking old for his age… if he were a black 16 yr old and the same jokes were being made, I get the feeling a lot of those making the jokes would be saying “That’s a racist trope, you wouldn’t say it if he was white”
Early contender for the most bizarre post of 2024?
It’s bizarre that it’s true - if a black 16 yr old prodigy looked a lot older than his age, people wouldn’t dare say so, and those who did would be called out as racist for focussing on appearance rather than ability. I think the same logic works if it were a female prodigy
Emma Raducanu? Sky the skateboarder? I don't think they were called out as faking their age.
Emma Raducanu didn’t look like she was in her late thirties when she was sixteen
So what's your point?
Luke does, so people have commented on that about Luke, because its true.
Find a black or female 16 year old who looks like he's in his late thirties or forties and see if others haven't made remarks to that effect.
Its absurd, you don't have to turn everything into race.
The point is that if a 16 yr old black sporting prodigy looked 38, people taking the piss out of that would be getting called racist by some people who are happy to take the piss out of Luke Littler for looking old
Why would they? When has that ever happened?
Luke looks like he's in his late thirties or older. I think he looks older than I do and I'm 42, if I was working in a shop selling alcohol I wouldn't ask for his ID under Challenge 25. Commenting on that, is not racist, there is no race issue here.
(Dons fireproof clothes) There is a bit of an issue here, but it's not about race. Possibly about class, certainly about people's sterotype of what darts players look like. See the Smith and Jones Darts sketch...
Excellent news. So our data will be handled in a way our sovereign Parliament decrees and in accordance with British laws.
So it should be.
And if you don't like those laws, you are free to vote for a new Government at the next election.
Sovereignty works. Democracy works.
Er...
"Google is planning to move its British users' accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead"
Some children look older than they are, and its not racist or sexist to mention it when it happens. Puberty is a funny thing in how it treats different children differently.
I mentioned this a few months ago but over the last summer I attended a family wedding where my daughter (9) was one of the bridesmaids, she both is and looks like a child. There were 5 bridesmaids, 3 adults and 2 children but the other child was an 11 year old who looked much more like the adults and at all not like a child. She may have been 11, but she was already taller than the bride and could have easily passed for 18 or 19. For anyone who mentioned it, which happened a fair bit, I would never have considered that racist or sexist.
“Meanwhile, campaigning in Surrey where the Liberal Democrats are hoping to win a number of Conservative-held seats at the next general election, party leader Sir Ed Davey said he regretted not asking "tougher questions" of Post Office managers when he was postal affairs minister in the coalition government from 2010 to 2012. Asked why he refused to meet Alan Bates, the postmaster who led the campaign to expose the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, he said: "It is a national scandal... dreadful and it's been going on for so long. The Conservative government really needs to sort out the compensation. "I regret not having asked the Post Office managers even tougher questions than I did." Asked why he accepted the Post Office's assertions at face value, Sir Ed replied: "I asked really tough questions of Post Office managers and indeed the officials. I wish I'd gone further." He congratulated Mr Bates for his campaign, he added.”
Ed Davey regrets his part in the Post Office scandal. That's all right then. He regrets it. He's not losing sleep over it, or money, or his job. Do the decent thing, Ed, or STFU.
He was responsible for 19 months of the two decades. Who are the other ministers responsible, before or after?
It starts with Blair/Harman and runs right the way through to Johnson, who at least had the decency to authorise a public Inquiry.
One of the reasons why the story has not gathered more traction is that none of the main political Parties stand to benefit from it. They are all implicated. The LDs had a surprisingly large involvement. In addition to Davy's role, Vince Cable appointed Paula Vennells, and Jo Swinson was effectively Minister for the Post Office for a significant period.
I'm not saying the LDs were any worse than the others, but they are certainly not in the clear.
I bet that if Nigel Farage was a sixteen year old Nigerian cattle farmer there would be a ton of comments about him being unfit to lead the Labour Party and no one would bat an eyelid.
Excellent news. So our data will be handled in a way our sovereign Parliament decrees and in accordance with British laws.
So it should be.
And if you don't like those laws, you are free to vote for a new Government at the next election.
Sovereignty works. Democracy works.
Er...
"Google is planning to move its British users' accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead"
Er...
An employee familiar with the planned move said that British privacy rules, which at least for now track GDPR, would continue to apply to that government's requests for data from Google's U.S. headquarters.
I bet that if Nigel Farage was a sixteen year old Nigerian cattle farmer there would be a ton of comments about him being unfit to lead the Labour Party and no one would bat an eyelid.
Excellent news. So our data will be handled in a way our sovereign Parliament decrees and in accordance with British laws.
So it should be.
And if you don't like those laws, you are free to vote for a new Government at the next election.
Sovereignty works. Democracy works.
Er...
"Google is planning to move its British users' accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead"
Good news for haters of GDPR pop-ups and bad news for those who care about privacy. Ironically, the former group probably only see so many pop-ups because they delete cookies on closing browsers.
John Rentoul @JohnRentoul · 1h Farage as leader would increase Reform vote from 11% to 14%, leaving Lab lead unchanged at 21pts: @YouGov for Times
So Reform would go from winning no seats under Tice to winning no seats under Farage.
Reform would be a clear 3rd on voteshare though, as UKIP were in 2015, on 14% and well ahead of the LDs on 10% with the Greens on 8%. UKIP also did get 1 MP for their 12% of the 2015 vote.
If Farage returned as Reform leader the Sunak Tories would fall to only 21%, just 7% ahead of Reform (as opposed to 11% ahead of the current Tice led Reform) who are closer to the Tories than the Tories are to Labour on 42% https://x.com/JohnRentoul/status/1742602515324035262?s=20
The 2019 Euros give an indication of what a Farage led party can do to the Tories when they have a leader their voters don’t like
Yes and Farage is charismatic too, more so than May was and Sunak is.
Combined Yougov has the Tories and a Farage ledx Reform on 35%, yet divided the Tories are on just 21%. In that scenario PR would actually be better for the Tories, otherwise as in Canada in the post 1993 split between the Canadian Tories and Reform FPTP just splits the rightwing vote (which it did until the Tories and Canadian Alliance, successor to Reform, merged in 2003 to form today's Conservative Party of Canada). In the US too if Trump doesn't get the GOP nomination and goes 3rd party he could also hand the election to Biden on a plate via the FPTP EC.
While in Italy, which has PR, a united coalition of centre right Forza Italia and populist right Lega Nord and Brothers of Italy is in government. In NZ too a rightwing government of centre right Nationals and populist NZ First and libertarian ACT are in government with PR and in Spain the PP and Vox are just a whisker away from government, also with PR. In Sweden as well the Sweden Democrats and Moderates have formed a rightwing government with PR. Of course Netanyahu's broad rightwing government of multiple parties in Israel has also been elected via PR
If Labour fail to gain an absolute majority, and have to accept PR as a condition of coalition, it could paradoxically save the Conservatives from themselves.
“Meanwhile, campaigning in Surrey where the Liberal Democrats are hoping to win a number of Conservative-held seats at the next general election, party leader Sir Ed Davey said he regretted not asking "tougher questions" of Post Office managers when he was postal affairs minister in the coalition government from 2010 to 2012. Asked why he refused to meet Alan Bates, the postmaster who led the campaign to expose the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, he said: "It is a national scandal... dreadful and it's been going on for so long. The Conservative government really needs to sort out the compensation. "I regret not having asked the Post Office managers even tougher questions than I did." Asked why he accepted the Post Office's assertions at face value, Sir Ed replied: "I asked really tough questions of Post Office managers and indeed the officials. I wish I'd gone further." He congratulated Mr Bates for his campaign, he added.”
Ed Davey regrets his part in the Post Office scandal. That's all right then. He regrets it. He's not losing sleep over it, or money, or his job. Do the decent thing, Ed, or STFU.
He was responsible for 19 months of the two decades. Who are the other ministers responsible, before or after?
It starts with Blair/Harman and runs right the way through to Johnson, who at least had the decency to authorise a public Inquiry.
One of the reasons why the story has not gathered more traction is that none of the main political Parties stand to benefit from it. They are all implicated. The LDs had a surprisingly large involvement. In addition to Davy's role, Vince Cable appointed Paula Vennells, and Jo Swinson was effectively Minister for the Post Office for a significant period.
I'm not saying the LDs were any worse than the others, but they are certainly not in the clear.
Clearly not. But there haven't been any LibDems in government for more than eight years. Which ministers have been responsible since?
Excellent news. So our data will be handled in a way our sovereign Parliament decrees and in accordance with British laws.
So it should be.
And if you don't like those laws, you are free to vote for a new Government at the next election.
Sovereignty works. Democracy works.
Er...
"Google is planning to move its British users' accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead"
Er...
An employee familiar with the planned move said that British privacy rules, which at least for now track GDPR, would continue to apply to that government's requests for data from Google's U.S. headquarters.
Right, so it's under US jurisdiction (over which we have no influence), but if for the time being Google will kindly continue to apply British privacy rules (which track GDPR, over which we have no influence anymore). Got it.
Excellent news. So our data will be handled in a way our sovereign Parliament decrees and in accordance with British laws.
So it should be.
And if you don't like those laws, you are free to vote for a new Government at the next election.
Sovereignty works. Democracy works.
Er...
"Google is planning to move its British users' accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead"
Good news for haters of GDPR pop-ups and bad news for those who care about privacy. Ironically, the former group probably only see so many pop-ups because they delete cookies on closing browsers.
Which is precisely why its a bad law.
It was always possible to control cookies, no law was necessary to do so, but doing so now is made harder not easier because you get nagged every time you visit a site if you do.
Whereas if you just click accept all to make it go away, then you don't get nagged anymore, but do have cookies tracking your every move.
In the darts, Luke took an early lead only for Luke to come roaring back in front, but then Luke has fighted back so it's now level between Luke and Luke.
“Meanwhile, campaigning in Surrey where the Liberal Democrats are hoping to win a number of Conservative-held seats at the next general election, party leader Sir Ed Davey said he regretted not asking "tougher questions" of Post Office managers when he was postal affairs minister in the coalition government from 2010 to 2012. Asked why he refused to meet Alan Bates, the postmaster who led the campaign to expose the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, he said: "It is a national scandal... dreadful and it's been going on for so long. The Conservative government really needs to sort out the compensation. "I regret not having asked the Post Office managers even tougher questions than I did." Asked why he accepted the Post Office's assertions at face value, Sir Ed replied: "I asked really tough questions of Post Office managers and indeed the officials. I wish I'd gone further." He congratulated Mr Bates for his campaign, he added.”
Ed Davey regrets his part in the Post Office scandal. That's all right then. He regrets it. He's not losing sleep over it, or money, or his job. Do the decent thing, Ed, or STFU.
He was responsible for 19 months of the two decades. Who are the other ministers responsible, before or after?
It starts with Blair/Harman and runs right the way through to Johnson, who at least had the decency to authorise a public Inquiry.
One of the reasons why the story has not gathered more traction is that none of the main political Parties stand to benefit from it. They are all implicated. The LDs had a surprisingly large involvement. In addition to Davy's role, Vince Cable appointed Paula Vennells, and Jo Swinson was effectively Minister for the Post Office for a significant period.
I'm not saying the LDs were any worse than the others, but they are certainly not in the clear.
In the darts, Luke took an early lead only for Luke to come roaring back in front, but then Luke has fighted back so it's now level between Luke and Luke.
This Luke confusion must be causing havoc with the bookies.
So many Lukes must be really confusing if you're a layer.
Does anyone think (as opposed to wish) that charges will eventually arise from this performance, and, if so, when? My guess is yes, and shortly after the GE date is announced.
Have to be charges Red, teh £600K alone is gone, not to mention all the other stuff found, will SNP be bankrupt before then. They have now taken all the branches money and will burn through that quickly, only income they have now is the short money and no chance they will find £1.5M for the election. Good few court cases coming up as well, judge will not be happy they have shredded all the evidence, she is toast one way or another, almost as many cases as Trump.
It will be interesting to see how they fight an election with no money, no donors and having pissed off most of their activists. Hope their SPADs are good at canvassing!
Problem SNP have is that they won't be able to focus their resources in certain key target seats in the way that Labour, Con and LibDem will. The downside to their previous success. I guess, in practice, they will have to respond to the demands of sitting MPs, which will be good news for the incumbents in the seats the Scottish Tories and LibDems are defending.
I suspect they will concentrate their resources on supporting their most loyal MPs. So, support for people like Alison Thewliss, but not for people like Joanna Cherry.
Quite likely. Joanna Cherry will not be much-loved by the Greens, due to her outspokeness on gender issues, and I imagine they will run a candidate against her which could be damaging somewhere like middle-class Edinburgh.
In the darts, Luke took an early lead only for Luke to come roaring back in front, but then Luke has fighted back so it's now level between Luke and Luke.
This Luke confusion must be causing havoc with the bookies.
So many Lukes must be really confusing if you're a layer.
All these jokes about Luke Littler looking old for his age… if he were a black 16 yr old and the same jokes were being made, I get the feeling a lot of those making the jokes would be saying “That’s a racist trope, you wouldn’t say it if he was white”
Early contender for the most bizarre post of 2024?
It’s bizarre that it’s true - if a black 16 yr old prodigy looked a lot older than his age, people wouldn’t dare say so, and those who did would be called out as racist for focussing on appearance rather than ability. I think the same logic works if it were a female prodigy
They would. There have been endless insinuations about certain African footballers' birth certificates possibly not being entirely accurate over the years. Often with some level of seriousness.
And people's reactions would entirely depend on whether, as with Littler, it was for the most part good-natured jokey disbelief and awe. Or whether it was accompanied by some much nastier stuff.
When Jude Bellingham broke through at Birmingham there were lots of comments about scarcely being able to believe his age as there was this 6ft lad bossing fully grown men aged 16 - no one shouted racism because it was clear there was nothing sinister to it.
I think you are missing the point - Littler’s age isn’t being questioned just because he’s bossing fully grown men, it’s because he looks about 40.
Bellingham doesn’t look 20 years older than he is, he’s just a great footballer
Your first paragraph is why lots of people wouldn’t make the jokes about a hypothetical black Luke Littler, and would cry ‘racist’ if someone did
You missed my point. Bellingham did look older than 16 when I saw him play at that age. Yes, he looked like an athlete and you could tell from his face he wasn't a veteran but he was 6ft, physical and someone who'd have looked hugely out of place playing against other 16 year olds. Unlike say Saka/Sterling, who also came through very young but looked their age or even younger. And it was commented on.
And my point was that broadly the comments about intent mattering. If people are saying it in a mean-spirited way - which could be someone being racist by intimating other things, or people just being nasty. Broadly, though no doubt there's some unpleasantness out there, the comments about Littler's age have been in good spirit.
In both cases, you can broadly tell the intent of someone doing it - whether someone is black or white. Whether a comment or a joke is just that or being a bit stunned someone looks (physically and in how they carry themselves) mature beyond their years. Or whether it's said with nastier intentions meant to belittle - which can be racist.
All these jokes about Luke Littler looking old for his age… if he were a black 16 yr old and the same jokes were being made, I get the feeling a lot of those making the jokes would be saying “That’s a racist trope, you wouldn’t say it if he was white”
Early contender for the most bizarre post of 2024?
It’s bizarre that it’s true - if a black 16 yr old prodigy looked a lot older than his age, people wouldn’t dare say so, and those who did would be called out as racist for focussing on appearance rather than ability. I think the same logic works if it were a female prodigy
They would. There have been endless insinuations about certain African footballers' birth certificates possibly not being entirely accurate over the years. Often with some level of seriousness.
And people's reactions would entirely depend on whether, as with Littler, it was for the most part good-natured jokey disbelief and awe. Or whether it was accompanied by some much nastier stuff.
When Jude Bellingham broke through at Birmingham there were lots of comments about scarcely being able to believe his age as there was this 6ft lad bossing fully grown men aged 16 - no one shouted racism because it was clear there was nothing sinister to it.
I think you are missing the point - Littler’s age isn’t being questioned just because he’s bossing fully grown men, it’s because he looks about 40.
Bellingham doesn’t look 20 years older than he is, he’s just a great footballer
Your first paragraph is why lots of people wouldn’t make the jokes about a hypothetical black Luke Littler, and would cry ‘racist’ if someone did
You missed my point. Bellingham did look older than 16 when I saw him play at that age. Yes, he looked like an athlete and you could tell from his face he wasn't a veteran but he was 6ft, physical and someone who'd have looked hugely out of place playing against other 16 year olds. Unlike say Saka/Sterling, who also came through very young but looked their age or even younger. And it was commented on.
And my point was that broadly the comments about intent mattering. If people are saying it in a mean-spirited way - which could be someone being racist by intimating other things, or people just being nasty. Broadly, though no doubt there's some unpleasantness out there, the comments about Littler's age have been in good spirit.
In both cases, you can broadly tell the intent of someone doing it - whether someone is black or white. Whether a comment or a joke is just that or being a bit stunned someone looks (physically and in how they carry themselves) mature beyond their years. Or whether it's said with nastier intentions meant to belittle - which can be racist.
In the darts, Luke took an early lead only for Luke to come roaring back in front, but then Luke has fighted back so it's now level between Luke and Luke.
This Luke confusion must be causing havoc with the bookies.
So many Lukes must be really confusing if you're a layer.
Excellent news. So our data will be handled in a way our sovereign Parliament decrees and in accordance with British laws.
So it should be.
And if you don't like those laws, you are free to vote for a new Government at the next election.
Sovereignty works. Democracy works.
Er...
"Google is planning to move its British users' accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead"
Good news for haters of GDPR pop-ups and bad news for those who care about privacy. Ironically, the former group probably only see so many pop-ups because they delete cookies on closing browsers.
Which is precisely why its a bad law.
It was always possible to control cookies, no law was necessary to do so, but doing so now is made harder not easier because you get nagged every time you visit a site if you do.
Whereas if you just click accept all to make it go away, then you don't get nagged anymore, but do have cookies tracking your every move.
Terrible, terrible piece of legislation.
Believe you owe a apology to PB's own Cookie, for your aspersions against him!
AND why is it, that proper (and improper) Brits do NOT refer to computer "cookies" as "biscuits"?
In the darts, Luke took an early lead only for Luke to come roaring back in front, but then Luke has fighted back so it's now level between Luke and Luke.
This Luke confusion must be causing havoc with the bookies.
So many Lukes must be really confusing if you're a layer.
Wales is, in a way, Labour’s biggest achilles heel. Place has been a shit-show since forever, and there appears no desire amongst the Welsh ruling class (nor the Welsh at large, tbh) to address it.
The tweeter is possibly not the most objective assessor of Labour, tbh...
I live in Wales and it is not as bad as the Tory client media would have us believe. Betsi Cadwallader and the botched rollout and certainly botched media rollout of the otherwise reasonable idea of the 20mph urban speed limit notwithstanding.
From my side of Offa's Dyke, the Welsh Government are a 4/10 exam pass. On the bright side the current Welsh government may be very vin ordinaire, but just imagine the sour grapes of a ruddy faced First Minister A.R.T. Davies. The Welsh answer to Liz Truss.
It’s actually worse.
There’s barely any Welsh economy to speak of, save social funds directly or indirectly (via the benefits system) redistributed from the rest of the country.
PISA scores are an abomination. Wales sends barely anyone to Oxbridge nowadays. The health system, as we know, is in a state of crisis.
Welsh democracy is tightly gripped by an incestuous Labour mafia, and what dissent there exists is hopelessly quixotic or irredeemably moronic.
In the darts, Luke took an early lead only for Luke to come roaring back in front, but then Luke has fighted back so it's now level between Luke and Luke.
This Luke confusion must be causing havoc with the bookies.
So many Lukes must be really confusing if you're a layer.
Excellent news. So our data will be handled in a way our sovereign Parliament decrees and in accordance with British laws.
So it should be.
And if you don't like those laws, you are free to vote for a new Government at the next election.
Sovereignty works. Democracy works.
Er...
"Google is planning to move its British users' accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead"
Good news for haters of GDPR pop-ups and bad news for those who care about privacy. Ironically, the former group probably only see so many pop-ups because they delete cookies on closing browsers.
Which is precisely why its a bad law.
It was always possible to control cookies, no law was necessary to do so, but doing so now is made harder not easier because you get nagged every time you visit a site if you do.
Whereas if you just click accept all to make it go away, then you don't get nagged anymore, but do have cookies tracking your every move.
Terrible, terrible piece of legislation.
Believe you owe a apology to PB's own Cookie, for your aspersions against him!
AND why is it, that proper (and improper) Brits do NOT refer to computer "cookies" as "biscuits"?
I bet that if Nigel Farage was a sixteen year old Nigerian cattle farmer there would be a ton of comments about him being unfit to lead the Labour Party and no one would bat an eyelid.
Bunch of hypocrites.
Do you have any evidence that Nigel Farage is not a 16 year old Nigerian cattle farmer?
All these jokes about Luke Littler looking old for his age… if he were a black 16 yr old and the same jokes were being made, I get the feeling a lot of those making the jokes would be saying “That’s a racist trope, you wouldn’t say it if he was white”
Early contender for the most bizarre post of 2024?
It’s bizarre that it’s true - if a black 16 yr old prodigy looked a lot older than his age, people wouldn’t dare say so, and those who did would be called out as racist for focussing on appearance rather than ability. I think the same logic works if it were a female prodigy
They would. There have been endless insinuations about certain African footballers' birth certificates possibly not being entirely accurate over the years. Often with some level of seriousness.
And people's reactions would entirely depend on whether, as with Littler, it was for the most part good-natured jokey disbelief and awe. Or whether it was accompanied by some much nastier stuff.
When Jude Bellingham broke through at Birmingham there were lots of comments about scarcely being able to believe his age as there was this 6ft lad bossing fully grown men aged 16 - no one shouted racism because it was clear there was nothing sinister to it.
I think you are missing the point - Littler’s age isn’t being questioned just because he’s bossing fully grown men, it’s because he looks about 40.
Bellingham doesn’t look 20 years older than he is, he’s just a great footballer
Your first paragraph is why lots of people wouldn’t make the jokes about a hypothetical black Luke Littler, and would cry ‘racist’ if someone did
You missed my point. Bellingham did look older than 16 when I saw him play at that age. Yes, he looked like an athlete and you could tell from his face he wasn't a veteran but he was 6ft, physical and someone who'd have looked hugely out of place playing against other 16 year olds. Unlike say Saka/Sterling, who also came through very young but looked their age or even younger. And it was commented on.
And my point was that broadly the comments about intent mattering. If people are saying it in a mean-spirited way - which could be someone being racist by intimating other things, or people just being nasty. Broadly, though no doubt there's some unpleasantness out there, the comments about Littler's age have been in good spirit.
In both cases, you can broadly tell the intent of someone doing it - whether someone is black or white. Whether a comment or a joke is just that or being a bit stunned someone looks (physically and in how they carry themselves) mature beyond their years. Or whether it's said with nastier intentions meant to belittle - which can be racist.
Not to carry this on too long - but plenty of folk I know made light of how hard Mako Vunipola's paper round must have been when he first came on the scene - This is him in his early twenties: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/21714408
I really don't think anyone hearing those comments or making them at the time thought there was a racist or racial point at stake. He just looks old and always has done. Some of this may well be done to where he has to put his head in the game. The same comments are made about Dan Cole.
“Meanwhile, campaigning in Surrey where the Liberal Democrats are hoping to win a number of Conservative-held seats at the next general election, party leader Sir Ed Davey said he regretted not asking "tougher questions" of Post Office managers when he was postal affairs minister in the coalition government from 2010 to 2012. Asked why he refused to meet Alan Bates, the postmaster who led the campaign to expose the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, he said: "It is a national scandal... dreadful and it's been going on for so long. The Conservative government really needs to sort out the compensation. "I regret not having asked the Post Office managers even tougher questions than I did." Asked why he accepted the Post Office's assertions at face value, Sir Ed replied: "I asked really tough questions of Post Office managers and indeed the officials. I wish I'd gone further." He congratulated Mr Bates for his campaign, he added.”
Ed Davey regrets his part in the Post Office scandal. That's all right then. He regrets it. He's not losing sleep over it, or money, or his job. Do the decent thing, Ed, or STFU.
He was responsible for 19 months of the two decades. Who are the other ministers responsible, before or after?
It starts with Blair/Harman and runs right the way through to Johnson, who at least had the decency to authorise a public Inquiry.
One of the reasons why the story has not gathered more traction is that none of the main political Parties stand to benefit from it. They are all implicated. The LDs had a surprisingly large involvement. In addition to Davy's role, Vince Cable appointed Paula Vennells, and Jo Swinson was effectively Minister for the Post Office for a significant period.
I'm not saying the LDs were any worse than the others, but they are certainly not in the clear.
I don't know how people can say the LibDems aren't ready for government. See: they can fuck things up just as badly as Labour or Conservative.
“Meanwhile, campaigning in Surrey where the Liberal Democrats are hoping to win a number of Conservative-held seats at the next general election, party leader Sir Ed Davey said he regretted not asking "tougher questions" of Post Office managers when he was postal affairs minister in the coalition government from 2010 to 2012. Asked why he refused to meet Alan Bates, the postmaster who led the campaign to expose the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, he said: "It is a national scandal... dreadful and it's been going on for so long. The Conservative government really needs to sort out the compensation. "I regret not having asked the Post Office managers even tougher questions than I did." Asked why he accepted the Post Office's assertions at face value, Sir Ed replied: "I asked really tough questions of Post Office managers and indeed the officials. I wish I'd gone further." He congratulated Mr Bates for his campaign, he added.”
Ed Davey regrets his part in the Post Office scandal. That's all right then. He regrets it. He's not losing sleep over it, or money, or his job. Do the decent thing, Ed, or STFU.
He was responsible for 19 months of the two decades. Who are the other ministers responsible, before or after?
It starts with Blair/Harman and runs right the way through to Johnson, who at least had the decency to authorise a public Inquiry.
One of the reasons why the story has not gathered more traction is that none of the main political Parties stand to benefit from it. They are all implicated. The LDs had a surprisingly large involvement. In addition to Davy's role, Vince Cable appointed Paula Vennells, and Jo Swinson was effectively Minister for the Post Office for a significant period.
I'm not saying the LDs were any worse than the others, but they are certainly not in the clear.
I don't know how people can say the LibDems aren't ready for government. See: they can fuck things up just as badly as Labour or Conservative.
I suppose one possible conclusion is that elected legislators are not very good at supervising Quangos and government owned corporations. A wide variety of politicians from a wide variety of parties and factions within parties, and no one got it.
It doesn't absolve individuals but does rather suggest that there is a systemic problem of how we supervise, or more accurately fail to supervise.
“Meanwhile, campaigning in Surrey where the Liberal Democrats are hoping to win a number of Conservative-held seats at the next general election, party leader Sir Ed Davey said he regretted not asking "tougher questions" of Post Office managers when he was postal affairs minister in the coalition government from 2010 to 2012. Asked why he refused to meet Alan Bates, the postmaster who led the campaign to expose the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, he said: "It is a national scandal... dreadful and it's been going on for so long. The Conservative government really needs to sort out the compensation. "I regret not having asked the Post Office managers even tougher questions than I did." Asked why he accepted the Post Office's assertions at face value, Sir Ed replied: "I asked really tough questions of Post Office managers and indeed the officials. I wish I'd gone further." He congratulated Mr Bates for his campaign, he added.”
Ed Davey regrets his part in the Post Office scandal. That's all right then. He regrets it. He's not losing sleep over it, or money, or his job. Do the decent thing, Ed, or STFU.
He was responsible for 19 months of the two decades. Who are the other ministers responsible, before or after?
It starts with Blair/Harman and runs right the way through to Johnson, who at least had the decency to authorise a public Inquiry.
One of the reasons why the story has not gathered more traction is that none of the main political Parties stand to benefit from it. They are all implicated. The LDs had a surprisingly large involvement. In addition to Davy's role, Vince Cable appointed Paula Vennells, and Jo Swinson was effectively Minister for the Post Office for a significant period.
I'm not saying the LDs were any worse than the others, but they are certainly not in the clear.
I don't know how people can say the LibDems aren't ready for government. See: they can fuck things up just as badly as Labour or Conservative.
LDs have been in government more recently than Labour of course.
It really does surprise that the government recently extended Fujitsus contract to run Horizon, amongst a number of other recent contract awards to the company:
Wales is, in a way, Labour’s biggest achilles heel. Place has been a shit-show since forever, and there appears no desire amongst the Welsh ruling class (nor the Welsh at large, tbh) to address it.
The tweeter is possibly not the most objective assessor of Labour, tbh...
I live in Wales and it is not as bad as the Tory client media would have us believe. Betsi Cadwallader and the botched rollout and certainly botched media rollout of the otherwise reasonable idea of the 20mph urban speed limit notwithstanding.
From my side of Offa's Dyke, the Welsh Government are a 4/10 exam pass. On the bright side the current Welsh government may be very vin ordinaire, but just imagine the sour grapes of a ruddy faced First Minister A.R.T. Davies. The Welsh answer to Liz Truss.
It’s actually worse.
There’s barely any Welsh economy to speak of, save social funds directly or indirectly (via the benefits system) redistributed from the rest of the country.
PISA scores are an abomination. Wales sends barely anyone to Oxbridge nowadays. The health system, as we know, is in a state of crisis.
Welsh democracy is tightly gripped by an incestuous Labour mafia, and what dissent there exists is hopelessly quixotic or irredeemably moronic.
You could say most of this about 80% of the country.* Welsh Labour are not responsible for the UK's decline. Yes they've participated in it and thus have to swallow a proportion of the blame. But its absurd to level it all at WL when such poor metrics are available throughout the UK.
The whole thing is on ITVX, along with the documentary
It is a painful watch because we empathise with the SPMs but know there is no happy ending.
The drama does its best to end on an uplift, and of course they do win their case in court and go on to be cleared and exonerated - at least those in the drama. The eventual ending we still await - the inquiry won't report until 2025.
Sexism, misogyny, domestic violence, attacks on whistleblowers, firemen found guilty of misconduct and allowed to retire in full pensions with no adverse consequences.
The Chief has resigned - yes - on a full pension with the usual pro forma apology.
Need I go on?
No - it's the same old story with the same outcome. Everyone gets away with it. And somewhere in a remote office some new procedure gets written so that it can be ignored by the next generation of staff.
Repeat ad nauseam.
If PB or something like it exists in a century, Cyclefree - the 3rd generation will probably be writing the same bloody posts with even greater levels of cynicism and despair than I am.
Excellent news. So our data will be handled in a way our sovereign Parliament decrees and in accordance with British laws.
So it should be.
And if you don't like those laws, you are free to vote for a new Government at the next election.
Sovereignty works. Democracy works.
Er...
"Google is planning to move its British users' accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead"
Er...
An employee familiar with the planned move said that British privacy rules, which at least for now track GDPR, would continue to apply to that government's requests for data from Google's U.S. headquarters.
Right, so it's under US jurisdiction (over which we have no influence), but if for the time being Google will kindly continue to apply British privacy rules (which track GDPR, over which we have no influence anymore). Got it.
It said that British privacy rules apply to "that government's" (ie HMG?) requests for data. It did not say that they apply to American commercial requests.
I've just strayed on to the Netweather Community winter weather discussion.
It's completely baffling really, but my amateur conclusion is that the weather nerds are getting rather excited about the prospects for a really cold snap.
Frankly, I'm disappointed in both the Guardian and the Mullahs. They could at least have hinted that the US might deserve credit for ridding the earth of some murderous thugs.
Makes me wonder whether we have lost our coveted position as the "Great Satan".
And, as a loyal ally, I am disappointed that Britain was, apparently, not mentioned either.
Wales is, in a way, Labour’s biggest achilles heel. Place has been a shit-show since forever, and there appears no desire amongst the Welsh ruling class (nor the Welsh at large, tbh) to address it.
The tweeter is possibly not the most objective assessor of Labour, tbh...
I live in Wales and it is not as bad as the Tory client media would have us believe. Betsi Cadwallader and the botched rollout and certainly botched media rollout of the otherwise reasonable idea of the 20mph urban speed limit notwithstanding.
From my side of Offa's Dyke, the Welsh Government are a 4/10 exam pass. On the bright side the current Welsh government may be very vin ordinaire, but just imagine the sour grapes of a ruddy faced First Minister A.R.T. Davies. The Welsh answer to Liz Truss.
It’s actually worse.
There’s barely any Welsh economy to speak of, save social funds directly or indirectly (via the benefits system) redistributed from the rest of the country.
PISA scores are an abomination. Wales sends barely anyone to Oxbridge nowadays. The health system, as we know, is in a state of crisis.
Welsh democracy is tightly gripped by an incestuous Labour mafia, and what dissent there exists is hopelessly quixotic or irredeemably moronic.
You are absolutely correct in this and whilst I expect the conservatives to lose many seats in Wales at the next GE, the Senedd elections in 2026 will be interesting
As the only poster( as far as I am aware) on this forum currently facing a serious health issue here in Wales it has come to something that my son is on 24 hour call to take me to A & E for an emergency pacemaker if my conditions deteriorates before the planned date for the pacemaker of the 5th February
Wales NHS is in a terrible place and there is no prospect of any improvement anytime soon
And remember Wales gets £120 per person to England's £100
Also the 20mph change has been widely condemned across Wales, and it is significant that both candidates to succeed Drakeford have publicallly admitted it and promised a comprehensive review when they take office in March
“Meanwhile, campaigning in Surrey where the Liberal Democrats are hoping to win a number of Conservative-held seats at the next general election, party leader Sir Ed Davey said he regretted not asking "tougher questions" of Post Office managers when he was postal affairs minister in the coalition government from 2010 to 2012. Asked why he refused to meet Alan Bates, the postmaster who led the campaign to expose the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, he said: "It is a national scandal... dreadful and it's been going on for so long. The Conservative government really needs to sort out the compensation. "I regret not having asked the Post Office managers even tougher questions than I did." Asked why he accepted the Post Office's assertions at face value, Sir Ed replied: "I asked really tough questions of Post Office managers and indeed the officials. I wish I'd gone further." He congratulated Mr Bates for his campaign, he added.”
Ed Davey regrets his part in the Post Office scandal. That's all right then. He regrets it. He's not losing sleep over it, or money, or his job. Do the decent thing, Ed, or STFU.
He was responsible for 19 months of the two decades. Who are the other ministers responsible, before or after?
It starts with Blair/Harman and runs right the way through to Johnson, who at least had the decency to authorise a public Inquiry.
One of the reasons why the story has not gathered more traction is that none of the main political Parties stand to benefit from it. They are all implicated. The LDs had a surprisingly large involvement. In addition to Davy's role, Vince Cable appointed Paula Vennells, and Jo Swinson was effectively Minister for the Post Office for a significant period.
I'm not saying the LDs were any worse than the others, but they are certainly not in the clear.
I don't know how people can say the LibDems aren't ready for government. See: they can fuck things up just as badly as Labour or Conservative.
I suppose one possible conclusion is that elected legislators are not very good at supervising Quangos and government owned corporations. A wide variety of politicians from a wide variety of parties and factions within parties, and no one got it.
It doesn't absolve individuals but does rather suggest that there is a systemic problem of how we supervise, or more accurately fail to supervise.
Well that was rather the point of my header -
"The issue is not ownership. It is how government entities are governed, controlled and kept up to high professional standards. It is how governments avoid creating conflicts of interest or manage them properly, if unavoidable. It is how their Boards and managers are made meaningfully accountable.
There are no signs that Labour even understands the problem let alone know what to do about it. But backroom as good governance and accountability issue may seem, they are nonetheless one of the next government’s vital tasks."
If we can't do this, why have such a large state? What is Labour - which believes in a large state - going to do to deal with this?
I've just strayed on to the Netweather Community winter weather discussion.
It's completely baffling really, but my amateur conclusion is that the weather nerds are getting rather excited about the prospects for a really cold snap.
Caution needed. Many in the snow chasing community (I count myself as one) are still burned by the memory of the failed 2006 easterly… The real cold is still 10 days out and much can change in those days.
Frankly, I'm disappointed in both the Guardian and the Mullahs. They could at least have hinted that the US might deserve credit for ridding the earth of some murderous thugs.
Makes me wonder whether we have lost our coveted position as the "Great Satan".
And, as a loyal ally, I am disappointed that Britain was, apparently, not mentioned either.
Does this mean that they have noticed that we have been living in their heads rent free, and up'd the rates?
The whole thing is on ITVX, along with the documentary
It is a painful watch because we empathise with the SPMs but know there is no happy ending.
The drama does its best to end on an uplift, and of course they do win their case in court and go on to be cleared and exonerated - at least those in the drama. The eventual ending we still await - the inquiry won't report until 2025.
Er... spoiler alert!
(Ok I know we all know the story but we plan to watch the drama and would prefer to experience it as intended by the producers.)
I've just strayed on to the Netweather Community winter weather discussion.
It's completely baffling really, but my amateur conclusion is that the weather nerds are getting rather excited about the prospects for a really cold snap.
Caution needed. Many in the snow chasing community (I count myself as one) are still burned by the memory of the failed 2006 easterly… The real cold is still 10 days out and much can change in those days.
Indeed. It did feel a bit like a bunch of kids wish-casting for heavy snow and a few days off school.
Another great PDC worlds. Luke Humphries has had a brilliant year winning more than one major and deservedly won.
Onto the waste of time that is the premier league and Q school. I suspect both Luke’s will get a spot in the premier. Like Littler has picked up 250k plus whatever sponsorship money they make.
I follow the darts all year, but I think it’s great this tournament brings so many new people to the sport.
Another great PDC worlds. Luke Humphries has had a brilliant year winning more than one major and deservedly won.
Onto the waste of time that is the premier league and Q school. I suspect both Luke’s will get a spot in the premier. Like Littler has picked up 250k plus whatever sponsorship money they make.
I follow the darts all year, but I think it’s great this tournament brings so many new people to the sport.
The standard of play from these two is utterly ridiculous. They could sweep aside absolutely everyone...
I've just strayed on to the Netweather Community winter weather discussion.
It's completely baffling really, but my amateur conclusion is that the weather nerds are getting rather excited about the prospects for a really cold snap.
Caution needed. Many in the snow chasing community (I count myself as one) are still burned by the memory of the failed 2006 easterly… The real cold is still 10 days out and much can change in those days.
Indeed, weather nerd forums get excited about cold snaps the same way economists predicted 10 of the last 3 recessions.
Much more fruitful, and better odds, predicting heatwaves. For those you just need a reasonably well aligned synoptic setup during a summer month, and a hot source region. And the landing zone is region or country-wide. For memorable snow you need precisely the right Synoptics, exactly the right wind direction, precipitation at the right time and place and a dose of luck.
That said, it’s definitely going to be cold. And there will be snow *somewhere*
Wales is, in a way, Labour’s biggest achilles heel. Place has been a shit-show since forever, and there appears no desire amongst the Welsh ruling class (nor the Welsh at large, tbh) to address it.
The tweeter is possibly not the most objective assessor of Labour, tbh...
I live in Wales and it is not as bad as the Tory client media would have us believe. Betsi Cadwallader and the botched rollout and certainly botched media rollout of the otherwise reasonable idea of the 20mph urban speed limit notwithstanding.
From my side of Offa's Dyke, the Welsh Government are a 4/10 exam pass. On the bright side the current Welsh government may be very vin ordinaire, but just imagine the sour grapes of a ruddy faced First Minister A.R.T. Davies. The Welsh answer to Liz Truss.
It’s actually worse.
There’s barely any Welsh economy to speak of, save social funds directly or indirectly (via the benefits system) redistributed from the rest of the country.
PISA scores are an abomination. Wales sends barely anyone to Oxbridge nowadays. The health system, as we know, is in a state of crisis.
Welsh democracy is tightly gripped by an incestuous Labour mafia, and what dissent there exists is hopelessly quixotic or irredeemably moronic.
You are absolutely correct in this and whilst I expect the conservatives to lose many seats in Wales at the next GE, the Senedd elections in 2026 will be interesting
As the only poster( as far as I am aware) on this forum currently facing a serious health issue here in Wales it has come to something that my son is on 24 hour call to take me to A & E for an emergency pacemaker if my conditions deteriorates before the planned date for the pacemaker of the 5th February
Wales NHS is in a terrible place and there is no prospect of any improvement anytime soon
And remember Wales gets £120 per person to England's £100
Also the 20mph change has been widely condemned across Wales, and it is significant that both candidates to succeed Drakeford have publicallly admitted it and promised a comprehensive review when they take office in March
It's not unique to Wales, indeed NI NHS is significantly worse, so doesn't particularly relate to which politicians are in charge, or in the case of NI no government at all.
The whole thing is on ITVX, along with the documentary
It is a painful watch because we empathise with the SPMs but know there is no happy ending.
The drama does its best to end on an uplift, and of course they do win their case in court and go on to be cleared and exonerated - at least those in the drama. The eventual ending we still await - the inquiry won't report until 2025.
Only 93 convictions have been overturned.
Re the Bates litigation, yes they did win. But note that because they were funded externally, of the amount they got - through settlement because they were at the end of their funding- £55 million, ca. £46 million was taken up in legal costs. Those costs were enormous because the Post Office fought every single point endlessly and was severely criticised by the court for its behaviour.
What that meant was that the compensation amounts individual SPMs got was way way less than their losses.
It was a bit of a Pyrrhic victory. What it did achieve was that it crowbarred open the case and showed that the Post Office had lied about Horizon. It opened the way for the Inquiry. But even now those SPMs have not been compensated and many still have criminal convictions. And 63 of the SPMs have died without seeing any sort of justice or apology.
I see that Ed Davey is now trying to justify his inaction. A bit bloody late, frankly.
So Amazon Prime video is now introducing adverts unless you agree to pay extra….
If you pay extra, do you get Amazon Prime Prime?
This reminds me of what Starbucks call their smallest size coffee. "Tall".
I've always been infuriated by that. So much so that I refuse to acknowledge it. If for some reason I find myself in Starbucks (which sometimes despite best efforts I do) I will make a point to freight my coffee order with "your smallest size" please.
They used to have a "Short", but ditched it because it was too small.
Another great PDC worlds. Luke Humphries has had a brilliant year winning more than one major and deservedly won.
Onto the waste of time that is the premier league and Q school. I suspect both Luke’s will get a spot in the premier. Like Littler has picked up 250k plus whatever sponsorship money they make.
I follow the darts all year, but I think it’s great this tournament brings so many new people to the sport.
The standard of play from these two is utterly ridiculous. They could sweep aside absolutely everyone...
And they are both so young too and still have to reach the peak of their careers. They make it look so easy and their averages are exceptional. But so is their finishing.
It reminds me of the late, great, Sid Waddell quote about Eric Bristow.
Wales is, in a way, Labour’s biggest achilles heel. Place has been a shit-show since forever, and there appears no desire amongst the Welsh ruling class (nor the Welsh at large, tbh) to address it.
The tweeter is possibly not the most objective assessor of Labour, tbh...
I live in Wales and it is not as bad as the Tory client media would have us believe. Betsi Cadwallader and the botched rollout and certainly botched media rollout of the otherwise reasonable idea of the 20mph urban speed limit notwithstanding.
From my side of Offa's Dyke, the Welsh Government are a 4/10 exam pass. On the bright side the current Welsh government may be very vin ordinaire, but just imagine the sour grapes of a ruddy faced First Minister A.R.T. Davies. The Welsh answer to Liz Truss.
It’s actually worse.
There’s barely any Welsh economy to speak of, save social funds directly or indirectly (via the benefits system) redistributed from the rest of the country.
PISA scores are an abomination. Wales sends barely anyone to Oxbridge nowadays. The health system, as we know, is in a state of crisis.
Welsh democracy is tightly gripped by an incestuous Labour mafia, and what dissent there exists is hopelessly quixotic or irredeemably moronic.
You are right, there is no remaining manufacturing so to speak of. That ship was sailing before devolution, which you are correct is a one party state, with the alternative being even more abject.
I don't dispute the PISA figures, although I can't fault my own children's state school experience, and Oxbridge entry is in my view a pretty meaningless metric.
My mother was summarily executed by the Welsh NHS at the Princess of Wales Hospital during their scandal. With the exception of Betsi Cadwallader the NHS oversight now seems less poor.
Perhaps here in the Vale of Glamorgan I am insulated from the widespread poverty North of the M4 so I am not best placed to comment, unlike someone who lives in upstate New York.
So Amazon Prime video is now introducing adverts unless you agree to pay extra….
If you pay extra, do you get Amazon Prime Prime?
This reminds me of what Starbucks call their smallest size coffee. "Tall".
I've always been infuriated by that. So much so that I refuse to acknowledge it. If for some reason I find myself in Starbucks (which sometimes despite best efforts I do) I will make a point to freight my coffee order with "your smallest size" please.
They used to have a "Short", but ditched it because it was too small.
So Amazon Prime video is now introducing adverts unless you agree to pay extra….
If you pay extra, do you get Amazon Prime Prime?
This reminds me of what Starbucks call their smallest size coffee. "Tall".
I've always been infuriated by that. So much so that I refuse to acknowledge it. If for some reason I find myself in Starbucks (which sometimes despite best efforts I do) I will make a point to freight my coffee order with "your smallest size" please.
Standard practice. At McDonalds when I worked there you always asked if customers wanted a large this, that, or the other. There was no small, just medium or large.
Although there are small and medium options there (eg on the chips) even if the staff are trained to steer you away from them. And on the coffee they describe their smallest as "regular" which is not a complete lie. But this thing of Starbucks, calling their actual smallest available coffee "tall" is just gratuitous mendacity as far as I can see. If they have a good reason for it I'm all ears but I bet they haven't.
I would assume that it is easier to upsell from tall > grande than from small > grande because of the psychological appeal of the words.
Whether that it a “good reason” I will leave up to you to decide
Sexism, misogyny, domestic violence, attacks on whistleblowers, firemen found guilty of misconduct and allowed to retire in full pensions with no adverse consequences.
The Chief has resigned - yes - on a full pension with the usual pro forma apology.
Need I go on?
No - it's the same old story with the same outcome. Everyone gets away with it. And somewhere in a remote office some new procedure gets written so that it can be ignored by the next generation of staff.
Repeat ad nauseam.
If PB or something like it exists in a century, Cyclefree - the 3rd generation will probably be writing the same bloody posts with even greater levels of cynicism and despair than I am.
You missed out Jakeway's £12,000 (making a £175,000 salary) pay increase awarded as the review was being conducted.
The whole thing is on ITVX, along with the documentary
It is a painful watch because we empathise with the SPMs but know there is no happy ending.
The drama does its best to end on an uplift, and of course they do win their case in court and go on to be cleared and exonerated - at least those in the drama. The eventual ending we still await - the inquiry won't report until 2025.
Er... spoiler alert!
(Ok I know we all know the story but we plan to watch the drama and would prefer to experience it as intended by the producers.)
It’s a true story and what happened is all over the news! Given the legal issues are current, they are sticking very close to the documented events - this isn’t Netflix!
Watching Newsnight for the first time in yonks. I do like Victoria Derbyshire as an interviewer. She just plows over rhetoric and tries to get answers to her questions.
So Amazon Prime video is now introducing adverts unless you agree to pay extra….
If you pay extra, do you get Amazon Prime Prime?
This reminds me of what Starbucks call their smallest size coffee. "Tall".
I've always been infuriated by that. So much so that I refuse to acknowledge it. If for some reason I find myself in Starbucks (which sometimes despite best efforts I do) I will make a point to freight my coffee order with "your smallest size" please.
Standard practice. At McDonalds when I worked there you always asked if customers wanted a large this, that, or the other. There was no small, just medium or large.
Although there are small and medium options there (eg on the chips) even if the staff are trained to steer you away from them. And on the coffee they describe their smallest as "regular" which is not a complete lie. But this thing of Starbucks, calling their actual smallest available coffee "tall" is just gratuitous mendacity as far as I can see. If they have a good reason for it I'm all ears but I bet they haven't.
"Tall" used to be the second smallest size and there was a "small", but when they added "venti", they didn't want too many size options and "small" got dropped.
Starbucks still sells "short" drinks, they're just not listed on the menu. I always have a "short latte".
Keen to roadtest this but I'm skeptical. Only celebs can usually order off menu.
It works. Short filter for me, on the rare occasions there isn't a better place nearby...
I too will avoid Starbucks.
But there are times when it is the best - or only - option.
Small Airports in the US, for example. There Starbucks is often the best chance of getting a coffee that isn't flavoured in some weird and deeply unpleasant way.
Another great PDC worlds. Luke Humphries has had a brilliant year winning more than one major and deservedly won.
Onto the waste of time that is the premier league and Q school. I suspect both Luke’s will get a spot in the premier. Like Littler has picked up 250k plus whatever sponsorship money they make.
I follow the darts all year, but I think it’s great this tournament brings so many new people to the sport.
Russ Bray’s last tournament? I used to love the way he called “85” and told him so when I met him at some do for a Darts magazine in about 2002. He looked at me as if I was a lunatic and walked off!
I've just strayed on to the Netweather Community winter weather discussion.
It's completely baffling really, but my amateur conclusion is that the weather nerds are getting rather excited about the prospects for a really cold snap.
Caution needed. Many in the snow chasing community (I count myself as one) are still burned by the memory of the failed 2006 easterly… The real cold is still 10 days out and much can change in those days.
Indeed. It did feel a bit like a bunch of kids wish-casting for heavy snow and a few days off school.
He congratulated Mr Bates for his campaign, he added.”
Ed Davey regrets his part in the Post Office scandal. That's all right then. He regrets it. He's not losing sleep over it, or money, or his job. Do the decent thing, Ed, or STFU.
He was responsible for 19 months of the two decades. Who are the other ministers responsible, before or after?
It starts with Blair/Harman and runs right the way through to Johnson, who at least had the decency to authorise a public Inquiry.
One of the reasons why the story has not gathered more traction is that none of the main political Parties stand to benefit from it. They are all implicated. The LDs had a surprisingly large involvement. In addition to Davy's role, Vince Cable appointed Paula Vennells, and Jo Swinson was effectively Minister for the Post Office for a significant period.
It goes further back than that - it was under the Tories that the system was originally commissioned, as an early PFI project in the mid 1990s. The PO had done a deal with that government that benefit claimants would have a ‘benefits card’, replacing the then familiar giro, effectively forcing benefit claimants to continue visiting the post office. The PO was terrified that if claimants got their benefits straight into a bank account, much of their weekly footfall would disappear. Of course, back then bank account penetration amongst the poor was often low, giving them a strong card to play.
When New Labour came to power, the project was already over budget, hugely delayed, and not working well. And more people were getting bank accounts. So the BA was getting a cold feet, and after six months of seeing if the original plan would fly, the government decided that the benefit card was a blind alley and pulled out. There were crisis meetings because the Post Office risked losing its automation programme altogether; in the event they patched up a deal enabling the PO and Fujitsu to limp on without the DWP. But it left the PO with an over-engineered system designed around a facility they would no longer be using, and so the IT was more complicated than it should have been given the people who would be using it. The first seed in what turned into a long and tragic series of events.
Vennells would have been a Board appointment, not a government one. Whether the government would have had any other involvement, other than via its rep on the board, I don’t know. We can’t really blame Cable for Vennells, especially as she was by then an internal promotee.
Comments
I mentioned this a few months ago but over the last summer I attended a family wedding where my daughter (9) was one of the bridesmaids, she both is and looks like a child. There were 5 bridesmaids, 3 adults and 2 children but the other child was an 11 year old who looked much more like the adults and at all not like a child. She may have been 11, but she was already taller than the bride and could have easily passed for 18 or 19. For anyone who mentioned it, which happened a fair bit, I would never have considered that racist or sexist.
There is a bit of an issue here, but it's not about race. Possibly about class, certainly about people's sterotype of what darts players look like. See the Smith and Jones Darts sketch...
https://youtu.be/9SJnSmQCxkg
Although Rishi has excelled himself with his most recent alternative truth proclamations.
That was really funny.
So it should be.
And if you don't like those laws, you are free to vote for a new Government at the next election.
Sovereignty works. Democracy works.
"Google is planning to move its British users' accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwqsmNR_Q1M
One of the reasons why the story has not gathered more traction is that none of the main political Parties stand to benefit from it. They are all implicated. The LDs had a surprisingly large involvement. In addition to Davy's role, Vince Cable appointed Paula Vennells, and Jo Swinson was effectively Minister for the Post Office for a significant period.
I'm not saying the LDs were any worse than the others, but they are certainly not in the clear.
Bunch of hypocrites.
An employee familiar with the planned move said that British privacy rules, which at least for now track GDPR, would continue to apply to that government's requests for data from Google's U.S. headquarters.
It was always possible to control cookies, no law was necessary to do so, but doing so now is made harder not easier because you get nagged every time you visit a site if you do.
Whereas if you just click accept all to make it go away, then you don't get nagged anymore, but do have cookies tracking your every move.
Terrible, terrible piece of legislation.
https://www.cyclefree.co.uk/what-are-ministers-for/
Every single political party played a part in this.
So many Lukes must be really confusing if you're a layer.
I'll get my coat.
And my point was that broadly the comments about intent mattering. If people are saying it in a mean-spirited way - which could be someone being racist by intimating other things, or people just being nasty. Broadly, though no doubt there's some unpleasantness out there, the comments about Littler's age have been in good spirit.
In both cases, you can broadly tell the intent of someone doing it - whether someone is black or white. Whether a comment or a joke is just that or being a bit stunned someone looks (physically and in how they carry themselves) mature beyond their years. Or whether it's said with nastier intentions meant to belittle - which can be racist.
AND why is it, that proper (and improper) Brits do NOT refer to computer "cookies" as "biscuits"?
There’s barely any Welsh economy to speak of, save social funds directly or indirectly (via the benefits system) redistributed from the rest of the country.
PISA scores are an abomination. Wales sends barely anyone to Oxbridge nowadays. The health system, as we know, is in a state of crisis.
Welsh democracy is tightly gripped by an incestuous Labour mafia, and what dissent there exists is hopelessly quixotic or irredeemably moronic.
I really don't think anyone hearing those comments or making them at the time thought there was a racist or racial point at stake. He just looks old and always has done. Some of this may well be done to where he has to put his head in the game. The same comments are made about Dan Cole.
Also after a bit of google Mako's brother at (apparently) nine-ish is hilarious in this photo: https://www.ruck.co.uk/5-rugby-players-who-dont-look-their-age/2/
It doesn't absolve individuals but does rather suggest that there is a systemic problem of how we supervise, or more accurately fail to supervise.
Tomorrow's concluding part will hopefully complete the county's outrage and result in demands for justice and jail time for some
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366560655/Controversial-Fujitsu-contract-with-Post-Office-extended-again
What do they have to do to lose the contract?
*Chopping and changing for political party.
https://nitter.net/pronounced_kyle/status/1742588127628361809#m
https://nitter.net/Andercot/status/1742650506559005158#m
Sexism, misogyny, domestic violence, attacks on whistleblowers, firemen found guilty of misconduct and allowed to retire in full pensions with no adverse consequences.
The Chief has resigned - yes - on a full pension with the usual pro forma apology.
Need I go on?
No - it's the same old story with the same outcome. Everyone gets away with it. And somewhere in a remote office some new procedure gets written so that it can be ignored by the next generation of staff.
Repeat ad nauseam.
If PB or something like it exists in a century, Cyclefree - the 3rd generation will probably be writing the same bloody posts with even greater levels of cynicism and despair than I am.
It's completely baffling really, but my amateur conclusion is that the weather nerds are getting rather excited about the prospects for a really cold snap.
https://community.netweather.tv/topic/99706-model-output-discussion-into-2024/page/113/
Makes me wonder whether we have lost our coveted position as the "Great Satan".
And, as a loyal ally, I am disappointed that Britain was, apparently, not mentioned either.
As the only poster( as far as I am aware) on this forum currently facing a serious health issue here in Wales it has come to something that my son is on 24 hour call to take me to A & E for an emergency pacemaker if my conditions deteriorates before the planned date for the pacemaker of the 5th February
Wales NHS is in a terrible place and there is no prospect of any improvement anytime soon
And remember Wales gets £120 per person to England's £100
Also the 20mph change has been widely condemned across Wales, and it is significant that both candidates to succeed Drakeford have publicallly admitted it and promised a comprehensive review when they take office in March
"The issue is not ownership. It is how government entities are governed, controlled and kept up to high professional standards. It is how governments avoid creating conflicts of interest or manage them properly, if unavoidable. It is how their Boards and managers are made meaningfully accountable.
There are no signs that Labour even understands the problem let alone know what to do about it. But backroom as good governance and accountability issue may seem, they are nonetheless one of the next government’s vital tasks."
If we can't do this, why have such a large state? What is Labour - which believes in a large state - going to do to deal with this?
The real cold is still 10 days out and much can change in those days.
(Ok I know we all know the story but we plan to watch the drama and would prefer to experience it as intended by the producers.)
Onto the waste of time that is the premier league and Q school. I suspect both Luke’s will get a spot in the premier. Like Littler has picked up 250k plus whatever sponsorship money they make.
I follow the darts all year, but I think it’s great this tournament brings so many new people to the sport.
Much more fruitful, and better odds, predicting heatwaves. For those you just need a reasonably well aligned synoptic setup during a summer month, and a hot source region. And the landing zone is region or country-wide. For memorable snow you need precisely the right Synoptics, exactly the right wind direction, precipitation at the right time and place and a dose of luck.
That said, it’s definitely going to be cold. And there will be snow *somewhere*
This is Portsmouth for example.
https://twitter.com/PHU_NHS/status/1742503899947266289?t=zykuzrUDm8JkDBECWjm2xQ&s=19
Re the Bates litigation, yes they did win. But note that because they were funded externally, of the amount they got - through settlement because they were at the end of their funding- £55 million, ca. £46 million was taken up in legal costs. Those costs were enormous because the Post Office fought every single point endlessly and was severely criticised by the court for its behaviour.
What that meant was that the compensation amounts individual SPMs got was way way less than their losses.
It was a bit of a Pyrrhic victory. What it did achieve was that it crowbarred open the case and showed that the Post Office had lied about Horizon. It opened the way for the Inquiry. But even now those SPMs have not been compensated and many still have criminal convictions. And 63 of the SPMs have died without seeing any sort of justice or apology.
I see that Ed Davey is now trying to justify his inaction. A bit bloody late, frankly.
It reminds me of the late, great, Sid Waddell quote about Eric Bristow.
I don't dispute the PISA figures, although I can't fault my own children's state school experience, and Oxbridge entry is in my view a pretty meaningless metric.
My mother was summarily executed by the Welsh NHS at the Princess of Wales Hospital during their scandal. With the exception of Betsi Cadwallader the NHS oversight now seems less poor.
Perhaps here in the Vale of Glamorgan I am insulated from the widespread poverty North of the M4 so I am not best placed to comment, unlike someone who lives in upstate New York.
Whether that it a “good reason” I will leave up to you to decide
source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/01/02/menendez-qatar-bribery-indictment/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Menendez
(It's wrong of me, but I can't help being amused that the senator allegedly received some of his bribes in actual gold bars.)
Next stop Wilts and Dorset Fire Service.
Coffee Bean
In extremis Peets
Are all better
That isn't the kids...
When New Labour came to power, the project was already over budget, hugely delayed, and not working well. And more people were getting bank accounts. So the BA was getting a cold feet, and after six months of seeing if the original plan would fly, the government decided that the benefit card was a blind alley and pulled out. There were crisis meetings because the Post Office risked losing its automation programme altogether; in the event they patched up a deal enabling the PO and Fujitsu to limp on without the DWP. But it left the PO with an over-engineered system designed around a facility they would no longer be using, and so the IT was more complicated than it should have been given the people who would be using it. The first seed in what turned into a long and tragic series of events.
Vennells would have been a Board appointment, not a government one. Whether the government would have had any other involvement, other than via its rep on the board, I don’t know. We can’t really blame Cable for Vennells, especially as she was by then an internal promotee.