I’m not letting this amazing sudden returning memory DIE just coz of a new thread
So. FPT
Just had a vivid memory of me age 23, wearing sort of Hitler Youth black shorts - with braces - inhabiting a £2 a night hostel on the wild bank of the Nile at Luxor, a hostel which was actually part of some ancient temple, so you woke up in the morning and stared at Anubis staring back at you. Superb
I was with three friends and we were all equally insane and we spent every day chasing down opium until we found a good supplier, and that kept us zonked for a week, opiated to fuck, the only problem was that the hostel owner/opium dealer really really wanted to have gay sex with my very handsome best friend Trevor, and, failing that, me (less handsome but still pretty enough, back then)
So we had to spend the whole time begging him to sell us more opium while at the same time coming up with excuses why we would not let him sodomise us (or bugger him, I don’t know if he batted or bowled)
THAT, my PB friends, is a true story
I believe you, I mean nobody is shocked that you dressed like the Hitler Youth.
The same man who has young Hitler as the screensaver on his laptop; why would we be surprised?
The surprise is that his more extreme comments on here are tolerated, rather than moderated.
There you go. Try and ban me again
You just can’t let it go, can you?
And what exactly is it I’ve said that is so extreme now? That I once wore shorts that resembled Hitler Youth Attire? is that bannable, wearing clothes that might look a tad fash in a lowlight?
I once saw a bunch of German lads rock up to a bar in Bratislava rocking the Afrika Corps look. Khaki/cream shirts/t-shirts and shorts, peaked caps (probably mostly baseball caps to be honest) with sunglasses on their hats a la that famous picture of Rommel with his tanker goggles on his hat. Mostly blond and with a certain swagger. To be honest they were probably just a bunch of young lads away for a beery weekend and dressed for a mitteleuropean summer, but if I thought WTF I'm not sure what the locals thought.
Didn’t Bryan Ferry nearly get cancelled for saying the SS had cool uniforms?
Its ridiculous. Because they did. Hugo Boss knew what he was doing - as did Hitler and Goebbels. As did everyone since the year dot
Men look good in military uniforms - it’s why the royals crave them despite doing 2 weeks in the reserves. And the Nazi uniforms were particularly good - tho not the best
Some of the Italian uniforms from WW1 were just magnificent
Can't beat the Hussar and Lancer regiments. Napoleonic era French, British and Prussian uniforms for me.
Yeah they were pretty cool
I wish I could find an image of the Italian uniform I’m recalling. It was a futurist regiment from the White War
They had feathers in their caps. Looked brilliant. Utterly impractical
The Bersaglieri?
Yes. You and @Theuniondivvie have convinced me I’m thinking of the Bersaglieri - but a particular futurist cycling subset that fought in the Dolomites
I immediately discounted this for the simple reason that he is not going to live in fucking Clacton. However... in the next parliament when the tories are a shattered collection of survivors with radiation burns and SKS is firing up the Rejoin Machine then maybe being in a position to defect to the tories while an MP is the move.
NF could then launch a Nigelnacht leadership bid.
Over in the real world, the UK has one of the lowest opinion poll ratings for any party or parties that might be described as hard-right. On the other hand, in Germany they're on 24% and 23% in Sweden.
I don’t think we should pat ourselves on the back too quickly. It’s FPTP.
The GOP shows how the rise of the hard right looks different in a FPTP system.
What do you think would fit in a PB collective definition of hard right?
We had a similar debate a few days ago, but hard right is an interesting term and different from far right with fewer confusing Nazi connotations.
I’d put much of the MAGA right of the Republicans in the hard right (but Trump himself? It always seems like he cosplays hard/far right), Poland’s PiS, Le Pen’s RN, UKIP and some parts of Refuk, Matt Goodwin, and a handful of Tory MPs including Braverman.
Hard right to me is more than populism. It’s more ideological. But less fashy than far right.
I’m not even sure Trump is hard right let alone far right
He’s trumpite. He doesn’t really have much philosophy other than what gets him elected with lots of populism and a dash of xenophobia and a deal making business agenda, treating America as a company
Defining him kinda OVER-complicates him
That’s exactly my point. He doesn’t strike me as remotely ideological, other than his ideology being Donald Trump, but he plays the hard/far right part - recall his bloodthirsty comments last week - because he knows his audience likes it.
Yes. Apologies. I misread you. I’m simply repeating your sensible point
It’s 11pm here and I’ve had a long and gratifying day and I’m gonna watch Foundation and drink Malbec. Later
I think that Reform would probably perform far better in elections if they were named 'Nigel Farage's Reform Party'. I don't see that this name-change would be a problem (someone better versed in these things could let me know), and it would be a free way to get more votes. Beyond that, I am not sure what Nigel's current dance of the seven veils is really about. He doesn't have to be a candidate to lead the party into the election, and if he did succeed, does he really want to be a back-bench MP for 5 years, doing constituency surgeries and listening to boring speeches - perhaps he does.
Can't usually have a person's name in the party description on the ballot paper;
but what they do in other publicity is up to them. Scottish Conservatives made great play out of being RUTH DAVIDSON'S Conservatives for a while.
The catch for Reform is that Nigeybaby repels voters as well as attracting them, encouraging heavy tactical voting against him.
Other question- what does Nigel actually want? If it's to get to the top in politics, he's got to stand this time, but he's left it awfully late. Really, he needed to stand somewhere winnable in 2019.
I am afraid I think it highly possible that the UK will have a popular “hard right” political force coming into play in national politics in the next 5 years. We are in many ways an outlier in the rest of the Western world (largely I suspect because of the Brexit distraction and the fact the Tories were able to capitalise on the populist movement in 2019).
Whether that person leads the Tories, or is an independent force, is difficult to say.
Also, whether that person is Farage or not is a tricky one to answer. In some ways, Farage has the baggage that another may not. But he does have the name recognition.
Whilst not 'hard right' Kemi Badenoch is the only person I've ever really heard in the front(ish) line of politics put forward a genuine small c conservative position on the world. It's genuine, its not an act (or is a very good act, but i dont think so), its Corbyn like in how the Conservative party membership lap it up. If she had got through to the membership when the parliamentary party bother to ask last time she would have gained huge support as the campaign developed.
PO Scandal may finish her off. She cannot remain the invisible woman.
She talks the culture war talk, but disappears like the Cheshire Cat when a real scandal shows up.
The tactic helped 'Submarine' May survive the kind of scandals that would have finished off most Home Secretaries.
Not a very good preparation for a leadership role though was it?
Another terrible decision from VAR in the Villa game. A forward in the box gets wrestled to the ground and his foot goes in front of the defender. The ball does not come anywhere near either of them but is centred and then superbly hit into the corner. Just ridiculous.
Why can't they get VAR right? Mindboggling.
Football is institutionally stupid. They spend years utterly refusing to countenance technological assistance while rugby, cricket, tennis etc introduce it quite effectively and without fuss - then suddenly do a big about turn and start swanking about as if they invented it, but, bafflingly, and uniquely to football, manage to make things more controversial rather than less. Football: you're a bloody idiot.
If they were smart (and they are anything but) they would abandon VAR and work on it in secret until they had figured out a way of using it to the benefit of the game. At the moment, it's a drag.
No other country, nor the World Cup, seemed to have a problem with it.
Have you borrowed a script from the Post Office Helpdesk?
I think that Reform would probably perform far better in elections if they were named 'Nigel Farage's Reform Party'. I don't see that this name-change would be a problem (someone better versed in these things could let me know), and it would be a free way to get more votes. Beyond that, I am not sure what Nigel's current dance of the seven veils is really about. He doesn't have to be a candidate to lead the party into the election, and if he did succeed, does he really want to be a back-bench MP for 5 years, doing constituency surgeries and listening to boring speeches - perhaps he does.
Can't usually have a person's name in the party description on the ballot paper;
but what they do in other publicity is up to them. Scottish Conservatives made great play out of being RUTH DAVIDSON'S Conservatives for a while.
The catch for Reform is that Nigeybaby repels voters as well as attracting them, encouraging heavy tactical voting against him.
Other question- what does Nigel actually want? If it's to get to the top in politics, he's got to stand this time, but he's left it awfully late. Really, he needed to stand somewhere winnable in 2019.
He wants to shout from the sidelines and have influence without any responsibility. To be fair, he's been hugely successful at it this far.
Perhaps @isam is getting to me but I’m getting increasingly annoyed at Keir Starmer.
He doesn’t actually DO anything.
(This is a general vibe-based post, not related to his alleged flip-flop on Houthi action).
His timidity is appalling. Unwilling to say anything on anything, backtracking on even the most innocuous policies that have been floated by his party.
He will win on the "Kick the Tories out" vote, but what next?
Perhaps @isam is getting to me but I’m getting increasingly annoyed at Keir Starmer.
He doesn’t actually DO anything.
(This is a general vibe-based post, not related to his alleged flip-flop on Houthi action).
His timidity is appalling. Unwilling to say anything on anything, backtracking on even the most innocuous policies that have been floated by his party.
He will win on the "Kick the Tories out" vote, but what next?
He is also personally unlikeable. Puritanical and grey.
Indeed, I actually suspect he has LESS of a sense of humour than Theresa May who brought a kind of wry 1950s-style middle class noblesse oblige.
We are not supposed to worry about this because the extreme urgency is to rid the country of Tory blight, but still…
Starmer’s qualification of consulting Parliament for boots on the ground seems a reasonable one, but that qualification appears absent here:
While campaigning to take over from Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in 2020, Sir Keir said he wanted a new law "that said military action could be taken if first the lawful case for it was made, secondly there was a viable objective and thirdly you got the consent of the Commons".
Ultimately, I think Starmer is on firm ground. I don’t know if there’s any polling on the Yemen air strikes, but I’d imagine there’s a decent level of support for them. He’s likely to annoy the far left in his party, but what can they do? There’s no sign of a mass transfer of votes to the Green Party and Labour are the only game in town for kicking the Tories out.
Perhaps @isam is getting to me but I’m getting increasingly annoyed at Keir Starmer.
He doesn’t actually DO anything.
(This is a general vibe-based post, not related to his alleged flip-flop on Houthi action).
His timidity is appalling. Unwilling to say anything on anything, backtracking on even the most innocuous policies that have been floated by his party.
He will win on the "Kick the Tories out" vote, but what next?
Yes. I am getting concerned. Labour remain the best option because we need a change and the Tories are done. But I am really not convinced Starmer has what it takes to effect real change and get the country back on its feet. He is too timid, too uncertain.
I am hoping I will be proved wrong once the campaign starts. I really want to be.
TBH I think the USAF dress blues are much underrated: far less performative than the others, it's basically a business suit with medals and silver buttons. Far more professional to my eye.
If you really want the best dress-up uniforms, Americans seem to top-rate the USMC dress uniform.
I think that Reform would probably perform far better in elections if they were named 'Nigel Farage's Reform Party'. I don't see that this name-change would be a problem (someone better versed in these things could let me know), and it would be a free way to get more votes. Beyond that, I am not sure what Nigel's current dance of the seven veils is really about. He doesn't have to be a candidate to lead the party into the election, and if he did succeed, does he really want to be a back-bench MP for 5 years, doing constituency surgeries and listening to boring speeches - perhaps he does.
Can't usually have a person's name in the party description on the ballot paper;
but what they do in other publicity is up to them. Scottish Conservatives made great play out of being RUTH DAVIDSON'S Conservatives for a while.
The catch for Reform is that Nigeybaby repels voters as well as attracting them, encouraging heavy tactical voting against him.
Other question- what does Nigel actually want? If it's to get to the top in politics, he's got to stand this time, but he's left it awfully late. Really, he needed to stand somewhere winnable in 2019.
He wants to shout from the sidelines and have influence without any responsibility. To be fair, he's been hugely successful at it this far.
Nigel Farage "wants . . .influence without any responsibility." - dixiedean
"Power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot through the ages." - Stanley Baldwin
Perhaps @isam is getting to me but I’m getting increasingly annoyed at Keir Starmer.
He doesn’t actually DO anything.
(This is a general vibe-based post, not related to his alleged flip-flop on Houthi action).
His timidity is appalling. Unwilling to say anything on anything, backtracking on even the most innocuous policies that have been floated by his party.
He will win on the "Kick the Tories out" vote, but what next?
Yes. I am getting concerned. Labour remain the best option because we need a change and the Tories are done. But I am really not convinced Starmer has what it takes to effect real change and get the country back on its feet. He is too timid, too uncertain.
I am hoping I will be proved wrong once the campaign starts. I really want to be.
His track record within Labour is of ruthlessness in achieving his goals, while acting like he’s being reasonable. Hopefully we’ll see a bit more of that as PM.
TBH I think the USAF dress blues are much underrated: far less performative than the others, it's basically a business suit with medals and silver buttons. Far more professional to my eye.
If you really want the best dress-up uniforms, Americans seem to top-rate the USMC dress uniform.
Perhaps you could provide lists from vids, so that sensitive PBers don't have to wade though this drivel ourselves?
Re: famous "jarhead" dress uniform of "Jarheads" it's been featured on USMC recruiting posters for many decades.
I think that Reform would probably perform far better in elections if they were named 'Nigel Farage's Reform Party'. I don't see that this name-change would be a problem (someone better versed in these things could let me know), and it would be a free way to get more votes. Beyond that, I am not sure what Nigel's current dance of the seven veils is really about. He doesn't have to be a candidate to lead the party into the election, and if he did succeed, does he really want to be a back-bench MP for 5 years, doing constituency surgeries and listening to boring speeches - perhaps he does.
Can't usually have a person's name in the party description on the ballot paper;
but what they do in other publicity is up to them. Scottish Conservatives made great play out of being RUTH DAVIDSON'S Conservatives for a while.
The catch for Reform is that Nigeybaby repels voters as well as attracting them, encouraging heavy tactical voting against him.
Other question- what does Nigel actually want? If it's to get to the top in politics, he's got to stand this time, but he's left it awfully late. Really, he needed to stand somewhere winnable in 2019.
Why would he want to?
He’s left his mark on the UK’s history for good or ill. He’s not going to be PM.
Better to be an occasional well-paid pundit, frequent centre of attention and well lubricated man about town
Perhaps @isam is getting to me but I’m getting increasingly annoyed at Keir Starmer.
He doesn’t actually DO anything.
(This is a general vibe-based post, not related to his alleged flip-flop on Houthi action).
His timidity is appalling. Unwilling to say anything on anything, backtracking on even the most innocuous policies that have been floated by his party.
He will win on the "Kick the Tories out" vote, but what next?
He is also personally unlikeable. Puritanical and grey.
Indeed, I actually suspect he has LESS of a sense of humour than Theresa May who brought a kind of wry 1950s-style middle class noblesse oblige.
We are not supposed to worry about this because the extreme urgency is to rid the country of Tory blight, but still…
I’m likely to keep the moral high ground by abstaining…
I think that Reform would probably perform far better in elections if they were named 'Nigel Farage's Reform Party'. I don't see that this name-change would be a problem (someone better versed in these things could let me know), and it would be a free way to get more votes. Beyond that, I am not sure what Nigel's current dance of the seven veils is really about. He doesn't have to be a candidate to lead the party into the election, and if he did succeed, does he really want to be a back-bench MP for 5 years, doing constituency surgeries and listening to boring speeches - perhaps he does.
Can't usually have a person's name in the party description on the ballot paper;
but what they do in other publicity is up to them. Scottish Conservatives made great play out of being RUTH DAVIDSON'S Conservatives for a while.
The catch for Reform is that Nigeybaby repels voters as well as attracting them, encouraging heavy tactical voting against him.
Other question- what does Nigel actually want? If it's to get to the top in politics, he's got to stand this time, but he's left it awfully late. Really, he needed to stand somewhere winnable in 2019.
He wants to shout from the sidelines and have influence without any responsibility. To be fair, he's been hugely successful at it this far.
Nigel Farage "wants . . .influence without any responsibility." - dixiedean
"Power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot through the ages." - Stanley Baldwin
There are many problems with Farage, but that is slightly unfair. Farage and friends have time and again stood in elections and campaigned on a manifesto. He and friends have often stood in enough seats to hold power if voted in. I am pleased they didn't win, but I am only one vote. There isn't any other route to having responsibility in a democracy. What more else is he supposed to do?
Democracy depends on people standing and losing as much as those who stand and win. Such people are especially entitled to try to influence opinion, as are the rest of us.
TBH I think the USAF dress blues are much underrated: far less performative than the others, it's basically a business suit with medals and silver buttons. Far more professional to my eye.
If you really want the best dress-up uniforms, Americans seem to top-rate the USMC dress uniform.
And the USMC with blood stripe is one of the most ugly
Perhaps @isam is getting to me but I’m getting increasingly annoyed at Keir Starmer.
He doesn’t actually DO anything.
(This is a general vibe-based post, not related to his alleged flip-flop on Houthi action).
His timidity is appalling. Unwilling to say anything on anything, backtracking on even the most innocuous policies that have been floated by his party.
He will win on the "Kick the Tories out" vote, but what next?
Yes. I am getting concerned. Labour remain the best option because we need a change and the Tories are done. But I am really not convinced Starmer has what it takes to effect real change and get the country back on its feet. He is too timid, too uncertain.
I am hoping I will be proved wrong once the campaign starts. I really want to be.
His track record within Labour is of ruthlessness in achieving his goals, while acting like he’s being reasonable. Hopefully we’ll see a bit more of that as PM.
That depends on his goals, a closely guarded secret, understandably. It's all trust at the moment. He deserves it more than the others, which isn't saying much.
Far be it for me to correct Andrew Rawnsley but responsibility for Postal Affairs, while part of the department of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, fell to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary.
After 2010, that was Ed Davey, followed by Norman Lamb and then Jo Swinson. After the Conservative majority in 2015, the direct reference to Posal Affairs disappeared from the job title and became part of the responsibilities of the Minister of State for Small Business and Enterprise.
The first Minister of State was Anna Soubry but in 2016 the job title was changed again to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business as part of the new Department of Business and Trade.
The first incumbent was Margot James, followed by Andrew Griffiths, then Kelly Tolhurst and then Paul Scully all between June 2017 and February 2020.
Scully did nearly two and a half years (though that included the pandemic) before in July 2022 it went to Jane Hunt who did two months before Dean Russell served in the Truss administration and since November 2022 it's been with Kevin Hollirake.
I make that 11 incumberns in nearly 14 years - is this managing a Government department or a Championship football club?
There's a more serious point about the turnover of junior ministers and the ability of any single person to take control of their brief given they serve such a short period - in a couple of cases, just weeks.
FPT: First, I want to commend Dr. Foxy for admitting that he reads the Guardian. It's good to have that public admission, but I do wonder whether he approves of their anti-American, anti-Israeli, and anti-British bigotry.
The consequences of that bigotry can be serious. I don't know whether Edward Jay Epstein's last book has been banned in Britain, but if so I would be willing to try to to send him a copy concealed in a plain brown paper cover.
(Anyone who is concerned about Putin's attack on Ukraine or the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel -- and gets much of their news from the Guardian -- should read that book.)
Perhaps @isam is getting to me but I’m getting increasingly annoyed at Keir Starmer.
He doesn’t actually DO anything.
(This is a general vibe-based post, not related to his alleged flip-flop on Houthi action).
His timidity is appalling. Unwilling to say anything on anything, backtracking on even the most innocuous policies that have been floated by his party.
He will win on the "Kick the Tories out" vote, but what next?
IIRC Starmer was not doing too well against Boris before Boris started repeatedly kicking himself in the back of his own head. Starmer certainly is no Blair, and I do not detect much enthusiasm for him personally or his project.
Having said that: Starmer as LOTO might be very different from Starmer as PM, and once in the top job he might start showing some policy backbone. If so, some voters will be disappointed, and others will be ecstatic.
Can somebody explain in clear terms how a poll which includes swingback, showing a Labour lead of 14% is "bad" for Labour? That would produce by my reckoning, close to the largest Labour majority in history.
What a load of nonsense from all three of you. I didn’t pass any view on what sort of electoral position Labour are currently in, which would be the only basis for your mock laughter - except to say Labour sure don’t look like getting as much % as Boris got; that Labour fail to outscore Boris 43% is a good bet to place today, primarily due to so much competition and tactical vote there will be at 24 election, and that Labours HoC optimism from current polling, especially where converted via seat predictors, owes much less to their position of support now even before swingback, and more to Con being stuck at historic 25.5 lows.
But truth is looking for trend in polls about where position might be headed, and, not on position but on/off trend, Yesterday’s Opinum was a relief for Tories and a disappointment for Labour. Absolutely, you can’t possibly argue against that. yesterday’s Opinium, before it got published, based on fall in Tory share since Christmas, labour fans could have hoped to see it fall there too and didn’t get it, based on Labours post Christmas recovery, Labour could have hoped for more than 1% increase from a previous drop to low 40% poll that probably needed MOE reverting in this poll anyway, and despite was taken nearly a month ago - Labour didn’t get it. So doubly disappointing to Labour. So we wait two weeks to see if Labour hopes being disappointed like yesterday becomes a trend, and we look for similar or different trend pointers from all polls in the coming week too.
The correct way to analyse a poll right now is not what is the HoC seats look like after a fictitious election tomorrow, but to surmise what is the actual PV we are trending to in the election. Becuase this faux to real election campaign and countdown to vote day, is not anything to do with what polls and EC are showing at any point in it, and everything to do with what the actual PV turns out to be. So it’s about analysing trend in individual polling shares, not the gaps, for the actual PV.
This definitely isn’t rabbit raving rashly about polls yet again, these are very important poll watching principles. 😠
I’m not letting this amazing sudden returning memory DIE just coz of a new thread
So. FPT
Just had a vivid memory of me age 23, wearing sort of Hitler Youth black shorts - with braces - inhabiting a £2 a night hostel on the wild bank of the Nile at Luxor, a hostel which was actually part of some ancient temple, so you woke up in the morning and stared at Anubis staring back at you. Superb
I was with three friends and we were all equally insane and we spent every day chasing down opium until we found a good supplier, and that kept us zonked for a week, opiated to fuck, the only problem was that the hostel owner/opium dealer really really wanted to have gay sex with my very handsome best friend Trevor, and, failing that, me (less handsome but still pretty enough, back then)
So we had to spend the whole time begging him to sell us more opium while at the same time coming up with excuses why we would not let him sodomise us (or bugger him, I don’t know if he batted or bowled)
THAT, my PB friends, is a true story
Basically Withnail and I, without the memorable dialogue. And better weather.
TBH I think the USAF dress blues are much underrated: far less performative than the others, it's basically a business suit with medals and silver buttons. Far more professional to my eye.
If you really want the best dress-up uniforms, Americans seem to top-rate the USMC dress uniform.
And the USMC with blood stripe is one of the most ugly
Indeed, they’ve mixed the trousers from Starmer’s taking the knee photo (grim cheap blue) with an alright coat and then stuck the cap badge in a really stupid place. Doesn’t remotely compare to the dark simplicity of the Royal Marines uniform which is way down the list of smart uniforms anyway compared to the Rifles for one.
FPT: First, I want to commend Dr. Foxy for admitting that he reads the Guardian. It's good to have that public admission, but I do wonder whether he approves of their anti-American, anti-Israeli, and anti-British bigotry.
The consequences of that bigotry can be serious. I don't know whether Edward Jay Epstein's last book has been banned in Britain, but if so I would be willing to try to to send him a copy concealed in a plain brown paper cover.
(Anyone who is concerned about Putin's attack on Ukraine or the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel -- and gets much of their news from the Guardian -- should read that book.)
I read the Guardian too. It's unashamedly left of centre but not bigoted imho.
I think that Reform would probably perform far better in elections if they were named 'Nigel Farage's Reform Party'. I don't see that this name-change would be a problem (someone better versed in these things could let me know), and it would be a free way to get more votes. Beyond that, I am not sure what Nigel's current dance of the seven veils is really about. He doesn't have to be a candidate to lead the party into the election, and if he did succeed, does he really want to be a back-bench MP for 5 years, doing constituency surgeries and listening to boring speeches - perhaps he does.
Can't usually have a person's name in the party description on the ballot paper;
but what they do in other publicity is up to them. Scottish Conservatives made great play out of being RUTH DAVIDSON'S Conservatives for a while.
The catch for Reform is that Nigeybaby repels voters as well as attracting them, encouraging heavy tactical voting against him.
Other question- what does Nigel actually want? If it's to get to the top in politics, he's got to stand this time, but he's left it awfully late. Really, he needed to stand somewhere winnable in 2019.
He wants to shout from the sidelines and have influence without any responsibility. To be fair, he's been hugely successful at it this far.
Nigel Farage "wants . . .influence without any responsibility." - dixiedean
"Power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot through the ages." - Stanley Baldwin
"Responsibility without power" - LibDems in a Tory-led coalition.
I’m not letting this amazing sudden returning memory DIE just coz of a new thread
So. FPT
Just had a vivid memory of me age 23, wearing sort of Hitler Youth black shorts - with braces - inhabiting a £2 a night hostel on the wild bank of the Nile at Luxor, a hostel which was actually part of some ancient temple, so you woke up in the morning and stared at Anubis staring back at you. Superb
I was with three friends and we were all equally insane and we spent every day chasing down opium until we found a good supplier, and that kept us zonked for a week, opiated to fuck, the only problem was that the hostel owner/opium dealer really really wanted to have gay sex with my very handsome best friend Trevor, and, failing that, me (less handsome but still pretty enough, back then)
So we had to spend the whole time begging him to sell us more opium while at the same time coming up with excuses why we would not let him sodomise us (or bugger him, I don’t know if he batted or bowled)
THAT, my PB friends, is a true story
Is this the script that the makers of Withnail & I turned down?
FPT: First, I want to commend Dr. Foxy for admitting that he reads the Guardian. It's good to have that public admission, but I do wonder whether he approves of their anti-American, anti-Israeli, and anti-British bigotry.
The consequences of that bigotry can be serious. I don't know whether Edward Jay Epstein's last book has been banned in Britain, but if so I would be willing to try to to send him a copy concealed in a plain brown paper cover.
(Anyone who is concerned about Putin's attack on Ukraine or the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel -- and gets much of their news from the Guardian -- should read that book.)
What a strange view of Britain you have. Assuming you mean this one "Assume Nothing: Encounters with Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe", I can confirm it's freely available in Waterstones in the UK of via Amazon.co.uk.
I think that Reform would probably perform far better in elections if they were named 'Nigel Farage's Reform Party'. I don't see that this name-change would be a problem (someone better versed in these things could let me know), and it would be a free way to get more votes. Beyond that, I am not sure what Nigel's current dance of the seven veils is really about. He doesn't have to be a candidate to lead the party into the election, and if he did succeed, does he really want to be a back-bench MP for 5 years, doing constituency surgeries and listening to boring speeches - perhaps he does.
Can't usually have a person's name in the party description on the ballot paper;
but what they do in other publicity is up to them. Scottish Conservatives made great play out of being RUTH DAVIDSON'S Conservatives for a while.
The catch for Reform is that Nigeybaby repels voters as well as attracting them, encouraging heavy tactical voting against him.
Other question- what does Nigel actually want? If it's to get to the top in politics, he's got to stand this time, but he's left it awfully late. Really, he needed to stand somewhere winnable in 2019.
He wants to shout from the sidelines and have influence without any responsibility. To be fair, he's been hugely successful at it this far.
Nigel Farage "wants . . .influence without any responsibility." - dixiedean
"Power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot through the ages." - Stanley Baldwin
"Responsibility without power" - LibDems in a Tory-led coalition.
As we are, sadly for Ed Davey, now seeing. The Conservative Press is absolutely delighted at having a LibDem ‘scapegoat’.
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
I’m not letting this amazing sudden returning memory DIE just coz of a new thread
So. FPT
Just had a vivid memory of me age 23, wearing sort of Hitler Youth black shorts - with braces - inhabiting a £2 a night hostel on the wild bank of the Nile at Luxor, a hostel which was actually part of some ancient temple, so you woke up in the morning and stared at Anubis staring back at you. Superb
I was with three friends and we were all equally insane and we spent every day chasing down opium until we found a good supplier, and that kept us zonked for a week, opiated to fuck, the only problem was that the hostel owner/opium dealer really really wanted to have gay sex with my very handsome best friend Trevor, and, failing that, me (less handsome but still pretty enough, back then)
So we had to spend the whole time begging him to sell us more opium while at the same time coming up with excuses why we would not let him sodomise us (or bugger him, I don’t know if he batted or bowled)
THAT, my PB friends, is a true story
Second post in and you are attempting to hijack the thread. A record I suspect even for @Leon .
@MarqueeMark commandeered the last thread beautifully. He achieved a parallel conversation and interesting diversion on the state of comedy with steely guile.
Two tips for you: it wasn't all about him and who these days is interested in the procurement of class A drugs? The accomplishment of which is neither big nor clever.
"Steely guile"? Oo-er.
Have now finished over 4,000 lines of moth records on my spreadsheet for 2023. I think steering the conversation on this thread towards moths might be a greater challenge.
Although reminiscences of fash knickerbockers with braces is probably preferable to bigging up the ego of Nigel Farage.
Theory: Britain started going downhill when the army gave up wearing redcoats
Up until then we were unbeatable. After that…. Decline
It wasn't the army that was unbeatable. But, largely, the navy - plus allying with as many others as possible.
FPT: First, I want to commend Dr. Foxy for admitting that he reads the Guardian. It's good to have that public admission, but I do wonder whether he approves of their anti-American, anti-Israeli, and anti-British bigotry.
The consequences of that bigotry can be serious. I don't know whether Edward Jay Epstein's last book has been banned in Britain, but if so I would be willing to try to to send him a copy concealed in a plain brown paper cover.
(Anyone who is concerned about Putin's attack on Ukraine or the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel -- and gets much of their news from the Guardian -- should read that book.)
What a strange view of Britain you have. Assuming you mean this one "Assume Nothing: Encounters with Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe", I can confirm it's freely available in Waterstones in the UK of via Amazon.co.uk.
I wonder if PB has more or fewer nutters than the general population.
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
FPT: First, I want to commend Dr. Foxy for admitting that he reads the Guardian. It's good to have that public admission, but I do wonder whether he approves of their anti-American, anti-Israeli, and anti-British bigotry.
The consequences of that bigotry can be serious. I don't know whether Edward Jay Epstein's last book has been banned in Britain, but if so I would be willing to try to to send him a copy concealed in a plain brown paper cover.
(Anyone who is concerned about Putin's attack on Ukraine or the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel -- and gets much of their news from the Guardian -- should read that book.)
What a strange view of Britain you have. Assuming you mean this one "Assume Nothing: Encounters with Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe", I can confirm it's freely available in Waterstones in the UK of via Amazon.co.uk.
Sorta the flip side of Brits who believe - or pretend to believe - that the New York Times is ipso facto Anglophobic.
When in reality, it is the most Anglophilic major media publication in American. And has been since circa 1914.
Fact that they print WAY more news from & about UK than any other US publication, outside of People Magazine that is.
With NYT coverage being far more pro-British on average.
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
Most governments don't either, including UK and USA. Government policy boils down to "ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies".
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
Only 12 counties (plus the Vatican) recognize Taiwan. The UK isn't one of them.
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
Ben Pointer - My mistake. I meant Epstein's book on Snowden, and somehow had missed the later collection, though I have read most of Epstein's books.
As for the Guardian's bigotry, I note that, according to Wiki, cartoonist Steve Bell worked there from 1981 to 2023, when his bigotry became embarrassing, finally.
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
Well, the UK doesn't; the US doesn't; the UN doesn't.
FPT: First, I want to commend Dr. Foxy for admitting that he reads the Guardian. It's good to have that public admission, but I do wonder whether he approves of their anti-American, anti-Israeli, and anti-British bigotry.
The consequences of that bigotry can be serious. I don't know whether Edward Jay Epstein's last book has been banned in Britain, but if so I would be willing to try to to send him a copy concealed in a plain brown paper cover.
(Anyone who is concerned about Putin's attack on Ukraine or the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel -- and gets much of their news from the Guardian -- should read that book.)
What a strange view of Britain you have. Assuming you mean this one "Assume Nothing: Encounters with Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe", I can confirm it's freely available in Waterstones in the UK of via Amazon.co.uk.
I wonder if PB has more or fewer nutters than the general population.
Going off the Facebook pages I see now and then, I would say there are fewer nutters here. However there’s an issue there about degrees of nuttiness.
Far be it for me to correct Andrew Rawnsley but responsibility for Postal Affairs, while part of the department of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, fell to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary.
After 2010, that was Ed Davey, followed by Norman Lamb and then Jo Swinson. After the Conservative majority in 2015, the direct reference to Posal Affairs disappeared from the job title and became part of the responsibilities of the Minister of State for Small Business and Enterprise.
The first Minister of State was Anna Soubry but in 2016 the job title was changed again to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business as part of the new Department of Business and Trade.
The first incumbent was Margot James, followed by Andrew Griffiths, then Kelly Tolhurst and then Paul Scully all between June 2017 and February 2020.
Scully did nearly two and a half years (though that included the pandemic) before in July 2022 it went to Jane Hunt who did two months before Dean Russell served in the Truss administration and since November 2022 it's been with Kevin Hollirake.
I make that 11 incumberns in nearly 14 years - is this managing a Government department or a Championship football club?
There's a more serious point about the turnover of junior ministers and the ability of any single person to take control of their brief given they serve such a short period - in a couple of cases, just weeks.
The only PO Minister Bates had any kind words for was Norman Lamb. He showed a sympathetic interest but wasn't in post long enough to get anything done.
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
But that's just a diplomatic nicety, surely? Surely the rest of us recognise that Taiwan is an independent democratic state being bullied by its massive neighbour?
Far be it for me to correct Andrew Rawnsley but responsibility for Postal Affairs, while part of the department of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, fell to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary.
After 2010, that was Ed Davey, followed by Norman Lamb and then Jo Swinson. After the Conservative majority in 2015, the direct reference to Posal Affairs disappeared from the job title and became part of the responsibilities of the Minister of State for Small Business and Enterprise.
The first Minister of State was Anna Soubry but in 2016 the job title was changed again to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business as part of the new Department of Business and Trade.
The first incumbent was Margot James, followed by Andrew Griffiths, then Kelly Tolhurst and then Paul Scully all between June 2017 and February 2020.
Scully did nearly two and a half years (though that included the pandemic) before in July 2022 it went to Jane Hunt who did two months before Dean Russell served in the Truss administration and since November 2022 it's been with Kevin Hollirake.
I make that 11 incumberns in nearly 14 years - is this managing a Government department or a Championship football club?
There's a more serious point about the turnover of junior ministers and the ability of any single person to take control of their brief given they serve such a short period - in a couple of cases, just weeks.
The only PO Minister Bates had any kind words for was Norman Lamb. He showed a sympathetic interest but wasn't in post long enough to get anything done.
Norman Lamb was an excellent politician and it’s a shame he ended up parting ways with the Lib Dems. A natural maverick and nonconformist, which is probably exactly what Bates needed.
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
Most governments don't either, including UK and USA. Government policy boils down to "ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies".
TLDR: It would piss off Beijing, and they've got nukes.
And they are going to nuke their own country (as they see it)? The US has been arming Taiwan pretty consistently during the Biden administration. Militarily, this remains beyond China, at least if the US Pacific fleet doesn't stand back and watch. That, of course, may well depend on who is President.
I’m not letting this amazing sudden returning memory DIE just coz of a new thread
So. FPT
Just had a vivid memory of me age 23, wearing sort of Hitler Youth black shorts - with braces - inhabiting a £2 a night hostel on the wild bank of the Nile at Luxor, a hostel which was actually part of some ancient temple, so you woke up in the morning and stared at Anubis staring back at you. Superb
I was with three friends and we were all equally insane and we spent every day chasing down opium until we found a good supplier, and that kept us zonked for a week, opiated to fuck, the only problem was that the hostel owner/opium dealer really really wanted to have gay sex with my very handsome best friend Trevor, and, failing that, me (less handsome but still pretty enough, back then)
So we had to spend the whole time begging him to sell us more opium while at the same time coming up with excuses why we would not let him sodomise us (or bugger him, I don’t know if he batted or bowled)
THAT, my PB friends, is a true story
Second post in and you are attempting to hijack the thread. A record I suspect even for @Leon .
@MarqueeMark commandeered the last thread beautifully. He achieved a parallel conversation and interesting diversion on the state of comedy with steely guile.
Two tips for you: it wasn't all about him and who these days is interested in the procurement of class A drugs? The accomplishment of which is neither big nor clever.
"Steely guile"? Oo-er.
Have now finished over 4,000 lines of moth records on my spreadsheet for 2023. I think steering the conversation on this thread towards moths might be a greater challenge.
Although reminiscences of fash knickerbockers with braces is probably preferable to bigging up the ego of Nigel Farage.
Theory: Britain started going downhill when the army gave up wearing redcoats
Up until then we were unbeatable. After that…. Decline
It wasn't the army that was unbeatable. But, largely, the navy - plus allying with as many others as possible.
It was neither, until the NU10k and all the plebs started being allowed to vote and get into government positions we were top nation. The empire was under the direction of sons of nobles and public school boys directing the dregs in redcoats.
Everyone who wanted a more equal society is to blame for the downturn in our nations fortunes. Notice we still had colonies until those weird lefty Labour people got elected after the war. There is a clear correlation between how many wars and colonies we lost compared to how many people we allowed to vote.
With reference to China / Taiwan, note that while US recognizes Peoples Republic of China (PRC) is maintains significant economic, diplomatic AND security ties with Republic of China (ROC) aka Taiwan.
Further note that number of US states with significant numbers of Chinese Americans (including Washington State) also maintain their own links with Taipei.
On topic, surely the funniest outcome in Clacton is that Farage runs, splits the pro-Leave vote and Labour come through the middle by rallying remainers against him and putting in resources they normally wouldn't as they think they'll have a chance. He then has to watch as some bright young thing declares a new dawn of better relations with the EU.
Ben Pointer - My mistake. I meant Epstein's book on Snowden, and somehow had missed the later collection, though I have read most of Epstein's books.
As for the Guardian's bigotry, I note that, according to Wiki, cartoonist Steve Bell worked there from 1981 to 2023, when his bigotry became embarrassing, finally.
How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft, is listed on amazon.co.uk. and other online retailers for sale in the UK.
What is it about the book that makes you think it would be banned in the UK?
PS Bell has been sacked by the Graun of course, long overdue imo, mainly because he's not been very funny since the 80s.
Far be it for me to correct Andrew Rawnsley but responsibility for Postal Affairs, while part of the department of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, fell to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary.
After 2010, that was Ed Davey, followed by Norman Lamb and then Jo Swinson. After the Conservative majority in 2015, the direct reference to Posal Affairs disappeared from the job title and became part of the responsibilities of the Minister of State for Small Business and Enterprise.
The first Minister of State was Anna Soubry but in 2016 the job title was changed again to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business as part of the new Department of Business and Trade.
The first incumbent was Margot James, followed by Andrew Griffiths, then Kelly Tolhurst and then Paul Scully all between June 2017 and February 2020.
Scully did nearly two and a half years (though that included the pandemic) before in July 2022 it went to Jane Hunt who did two months before Dean Russell served in the Truss administration and since November 2022 it's been with Kevin Hollirake.
I make that 11 incumberns in nearly 14 years - is this managing a Government department or a Championship football club?
There's a more serious point about the turnover of junior ministers and the ability of any single person to take control of their brief given they serve such a short period - in a couple of cases, just weeks.
The only PO Minister Bates had any kind words for was Norman Lamb. He showed a sympathetic interest but wasn't in post long enough to get anything done.
Norman Lamb was an excellent politician and it’s a shame he ended up parting ways with the Lib Dems. A natural maverick and nonconformist, which is probably exactly what Bates needed.
According to Wikipedia his retirement from Parliament was due to doubtful health. He had a stroke and was told to take things easier.
Another terrible decision from VAR in the Villa game. A forward in the box gets wrestled to the ground and his foot goes in front of the defender. The ball does not come anywhere near either of them but is centred and then superbly hit into the corner. Just ridiculous.
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
TBH I think the USAF dress blues are much underrated: far less performative than the others, it's basically a business suit with medals and silver buttons. Far more professional to my eye.
If you really want the best dress-up uniforms, Americans seem to top-rate the USMC dress uniform.
Perhaps you could provide lists from vids, so that sensitive PBers don't have to wade though this drivel ourselves?
Re: famous "jarhead" dress uniform of "Jarheads" it's been featured on USMC recruiting posters for many decades.
Fair enough. Will try. I was disappointed to see the USSF dress uniform start off badly and get worse. If they had just swallowed their pride and ripped off the Battlestar Galactica uniforms totally instead of just pretendy, they would have looked fantastic
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
Strangely, no. The official position, endorsed by governments around the world, is that there is only one China, which includes the Province of Taiwan, Jinmen and Matsu. The only difference being in who is the legitimate government. The current government of Taiwan does not claim independence. That's why they aren't in the UN. Of course, de facto they are. But nobody says that.
On topic, surely the funniest outcome in Clacton is that Farage runs, splits the pro-Leave vote and Labour come through the middle by rallying remainers against him and putting in resources they normally wouldn't as they think they'll have a chance. He then has to watch as some bright young thing declares a new dawn of better relations with the EU.
I think that was the thinking behind Mike Smithson’s recommendation of backing Labour at 9/2 to win the Clacton By Election in 2014
Far be it for me to correct Andrew Rawnsley but responsibility for Postal Affairs, while part of the department of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, fell to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary.
After 2010, that was Ed Davey, followed by Norman Lamb and then Jo Swinson. After the Conservative majority in 2015, the direct reference to Posal Affairs disappeared from the job title and became part of the responsibilities of the Minister of State for Small Business and Enterprise.
The first Minister of State was Anna Soubry but in 2016 the job title was changed again to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business as part of the new Department of Business and Trade.
The first incumbent was Margot James, followed by Andrew Griffiths, then Kelly Tolhurst and then Paul Scully all between June 2017 and February 2020.
Scully did nearly two and a half years (though that included the pandemic) before in July 2022 it went to Jane Hunt who did two months before Dean Russell served in the Truss administration and since November 2022 it's been with Kevin Hollirake.
I make that 11 incumberns in nearly 14 years - is this managing a Government department or a Championship football club?
There's a more serious point about the turnover of junior ministers and the ability of any single person to take control of their brief given they serve such a short period - in a couple of cases, just weeks.
The only PO Minister Bates had any kind words for was Norman Lamb. He showed a sympathetic interest but wasn't in post long enough to get anything done.
Norman Lamb was an excellent politician and it’s a shame he ended up parting ways with the Lib Dems. A natural maverick and nonconformist, which is probably exactly what Bates needed.
According to Wikipedia his retirement from Parliament was due to doubtful health. He had a stroke and was told to take things easier.
He left the Lib Dems shortly after over their stance on Brexit.
TBH I think the USAF dress blues are much underrated: far less performative than the others, it's basically a business suit with medals and silver buttons. Far more professional to my eye.
If you really want the best dress-up uniforms, Americans seem to top-rate the USMC dress uniform.
Perhaps you could provide lists from vids, so that sensitive PBers don't have to wade though this drivel ourselves?
Re: famous "jarhead" dress uniform of "Jarheads" it's been featured on USMC recruiting posters for many decades.
Fair enough. Will try. I was disappointed to see the USSF dress uniform start off badly and get worse. If they had just swallowed their pride and ripped off the Battlestar Galactica uniforms totally instead of just pretendy, they would have looked fantastic
Actually, meant the rankings. Started watching the first vid on your (previous) email, and was typical YouTubery of lots of wasted space for about 5 seconds of actual content. Which yours truly has neither time nor patience to glean from the chaff.
Far be it for me to correct Andrew Rawnsley but responsibility for Postal Affairs, while part of the department of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, fell to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary.
After 2010, that was Ed Davey, followed by Norman Lamb and then Jo Swinson. After the Conservative majority in 2015, the direct reference to Posal Affairs disappeared from the job title and became part of the responsibilities of the Minister of State for Small Business and Enterprise.
The first Minister of State was Anna Soubry but in 2016 the job title was changed again to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business as part of the new Department of Business and Trade.
The first incumbent was Margot James, followed by Andrew Griffiths, then Kelly Tolhurst and then Paul Scully all between June 2017 and February 2020.
Scully did nearly two and a half years (though that included the pandemic) before in July 2022 it went to Jane Hunt who did two months before Dean Russell served in the Truss administration and since November 2022 it's been with Kevin Hollirake.
I make that 11 incumberns in nearly 14 years - is this managing a Government department or a Championship football club?
There's a more serious point about the turnover of junior ministers and the ability of any single person to take control of their brief given they serve such a short period - in a couple of cases, just weeks.
The only PO Minister Bates had any kind words for was Norman Lamb. He showed a sympathetic interest but wasn't in post long enough to get anything done.
I note the Second Sight audit started in 2012. Was that Lamb?
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
WHY are Brit's sooooooo sniffy about French eating frog-legs, when yez are cooking up whole toads?
TBH I think the USAF dress blues are much underrated: far less performative than the others, it's basically a business suit with medals and silver buttons. Far more professional to my eye.
If you really want the best dress-up uniforms, Americans seem to top-rate the USMC dress uniform.
Perhaps you could provide lists from vids, so that sensitive PBers don't have to wade though this drivel ourselves?
Re: famous "jarhead" dress uniform of "Jarheads" it's been featured on USMC recruiting posters for many decades.
Fair enough. Will try. I was disappointed to see the USSF dress uniform start off badly and get worse. If they had just swallowed their pride and ripped off the Battlestar Galactica uniforms totally instead of just pretendy, they would have looked fantastic
Actually, meant the rankings. Started watching the first vid on your (previous) email, and was typical YouTubery of lots of wasted space for about 5 seconds of actual content. Which yours truly has neither time nor patience to glean from the chaff.
Fair enough. I'll try to strip from the transcripts.
TBH I think the USAF dress blues are much underrated: far less performative than the others, it's basically a business suit with medals and silver buttons. Far more professional to my eye.
If you really want the best dress-up uniforms, Americans seem to top-rate the USMC dress uniform.
Perhaps you could provide lists from vids, so that sensitive PBers don't have to wade though this drivel ourselves?
Re: famous "jarhead" dress uniform of "Jarheads" it's been featured on USMC recruiting posters for many decades.
Fair enough. Will try. I was disappointed to see the USSF dress uniform start off badly and get worse. If they had just swallowed their pride and ripped off the Battlestar Galactica uniforms totally instead of just pretendy, they would have looked fantastic
Actually, meant the rankings. Started watching the first vid on your (previous) email, and was typical YouTubery of lots of wasted space for about 5 seconds of actual content. Which yours truly has neither time nor patience to glean from the chaff.
Fair enough. I'll try to strip from the transcripts.
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
You're not selling the idea to me tbh.
Never tried them and now most certainly never will.
Far be it for me to correct Andrew Rawnsley but responsibility for Postal Affairs, while part of the department of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, fell to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary.
After 2010, that was Ed Davey, followed by Norman Lamb and then Jo Swinson. After the Conservative majority in 2015, the direct reference to Posal Affairs disappeared from the job title and became part of the responsibilities of the Minister of State for Small Business and Enterprise.
The first Minister of State was Anna Soubry but in 2016 the job title was changed again to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business as part of the new Department of Business and Trade.
The first incumbent was Margot James, followed by Andrew Griffiths, then Kelly Tolhurst and then Paul Scully all between June 2017 and February 2020.
Scully did nearly two and a half years (though that included the pandemic) before in July 2022 it went to Jane Hunt who did two months before Dean Russell served in the Truss administration and since November 2022 it's been with Kevin Hollirake.
I make that 11 incumberns in nearly 14 years - is this managing a Government department or a Championship football club?
There's a more serious point about the turnover of junior ministers and the ability of any single person to take control of their brief given they serve such a short period - in a couple of cases, just weeks.
The only PO Minister Bates had any kind words for was Norman Lamb. He showed a sympathetic interest but wasn't in post long enough to get anything done.
I note the Second Sight audit started in 2012. Was that Lamb?
Don't know. My impression is that it was Vennells. It is unclear why she agreed to it. My guess is that she didn't have much option, but there's no evidence that I have seen of Ministerial pressure.
She of course backtracked when Second Sight started to report, which kind of suggests she was unaware of what had been going on, but this is all surmise as far as I'm concerned.
Maybe we will know a lot more when she speaks before the Inquiry.
Today’s Sunday Rawnsley, arriving to a cold still south and a rather windy north:
..it is only now that the conscience of Westminster has been sufficiently stirred for the government to propose remedies. And only after the intense public outrage generated by the compelling ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
A mounting pile of evidence suggests the government-owned organisation and its corporate collaborator sought to conceal their own blunders to protect their brands, profits and the reputations of senior executives at the expense of innocent people.
Having let this go on for so long, politicians from Rishi Sunak downwards are falling over each other to try to blag a bogus halo by hailing the campaign led by Mr Bates and declaring that he deserves a knighthood. There’s less enthusiasm at Westminster for acknowledging a collective failure to wake up to this scandal much earlier.
An unusual feature of this scandal is that its taint is on more than one party. This is a large part of the explanation for why none was previously keen to give it the attention and profile that it deserved. Over the past 25 years, there have been 15 business secretaries, one Lib Dem, six Labour and eight Conservative. Politicians from all three parties have held ministerial responsibility for postal affairs. Tories chucking stones are doing so from glass houses.
The government expects a mass exoneration to take the heat out of public anger, but justice will not be properly done until there is condign punishment of all those responsible for inflicting devastating cruelty and hardship on so many innocent people. They endured it for so long because politicians who should have been alert to what was going on were asleep at the wheel of state.
That extract sums things up, almost perfectly.
Goodness me. I'm getting a teensy bit bored of journalists who have paid absolutely no attention to this until now copying what was said on here (yes, by me - and others) months ago.
TBH I think the USAF dress blues are much underrated: far less performative than the others, it's basically a business suit with medals and silver buttons. Far more professional to my eye.
If you really want the best dress-up uniforms, Americans seem to top-rate the USMC dress uniform.
Perhaps you could provide lists from vids, so that sensitive PBers don't have to wade though this drivel ourselves?
Re: famous "jarhead" dress uniform of "Jarheads" it's been featured on USMC recruiting posters for many decades.
Fair enough. Will try. I was disappointed to see the USSF dress uniform start off badly and get worse. If they had just swallowed their pride and ripped off the Battlestar Galactica uniforms totally instead of just pretendy, they would have looked fantastic
Actually, meant the rankings. Started watching the first vid on your (previous) email, and was typical YouTubery of lots of wasted space for about 5 seconds of actual content. Which yours truly has neither time nor patience to glean from the chaff.
Fair enough. I'll try to strip from the transcripts.
You may have better things to do with your time!
More than you would believe .
Me answering questions or writing articles are basically neurotic tics trying to deflect PB from error. In this case although @Leon does have a point regarding SS uniforms, it is based on a very restricted set of military uniforms, and by expanding his knowledge set I hoped to deflect him to a perhaps saner course.
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
WHY are Brit's sooooooo sniffy about French eating frog-legs, when yez are cooking up whole toads?
The toad is mildly flavoured and delicious. It’s the hole that’s challenging.
I’m quite partial to frogs legs and have indeed eaten whole frogs too. A big bony but same flavour as the legs. Speciality of the Dombes region in Ain.
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
Strangely, no. The official position, endorsed by governments around the world, is that there is only one China, which includes the Province of Taiwan, Jinmen and Matsu. The only difference being in who is the legitimate government. The current government of Taiwan does not claim independence. That's why they aren't in the UN. Of course, de facto they are. But nobody says that.
I thought Taiwan was thrown out of the UN because China was a big country and Let justice be done though the heavens fall we have to be realistic.
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
Strangely, no. The official position, endorsed by governments around the world, is that there is only one China, which includes the Province of Taiwan, Jinmen and Matsu. The only difference being in who is the legitimate government. The current government of Taiwan does not claim independence. That's why they aren't in the UN. Of course, de facto they are. But nobody says that.
I can see why governments don't. But for the rest of us not to seems a but craven.
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
You're not selling the idea to me tbh.
Never tried them and now most certainly never will.
I’m not letting this amazing sudden returning memory DIE just coz of a new thread
So. FPT
Just had a vivid memory of me age 23, wearing sort of Hitler Youth black shorts - with braces - inhabiting a £2 a night hostel on the wild bank of the Nile at Luxor, a hostel which was actually part of some ancient temple, so you woke up in the morning and stared at Anubis staring back at you. Superb
I was with three friends and we were all equally insane and we spent every day chasing down opium until we found a good supplier, and that kept us zonked for a week, opiated to fuck, the only problem was that the hostel owner/opium dealer really really wanted to have gay sex with my very handsome best friend Trevor, and, failing that, me (less handsome but still pretty enough, back then)
So we had to spend the whole time begging him to sell us more opium while at the same time coming up with excuses why we would not let him sodomise us (or bugger him, I don’t know if he batted or bowled)
THAT, my PB friends, is a true story
I believe you, I mean nobody is shocked that you dressed like the Hitler Youth.
I’m a bit shocked he didn’t pick a tonier outfit than the Hitler Youth. The SD?
Bit hot and sweaty for the climate. DAK, or at a pinch the loose overalls of the OT or the Fallschirmjaeger.
They must have had a summer uniform, surely?
SD? No idea, my boyhood model army didn't get beyond the Afrika Korps and paratroops! But now you mention it the army did have a tropical/summer uniform used in the Mediterranean summer as well as North Africa, so yes I should think so - just use the appropriate badges.
According to Wiki the SD wore Waffen SS uniforms and they did indeed have a white summer tunic.
One learns something new on PB daily. Never thought of the SS in white (except in the mess).
You often see pix of Hermann Goering in a white tunic, he probably thought it made him look less fat.
Temp outside my cabin door here in Sunny Seattle was 19 degrees Fahrenheit (-7 Celsius) at sunrise this morning, and is now a balmy 26 F (-3 C).
Actually, make that -3.33333333333333333333333333333333333333etc. degrees Celsius.
Colder out by Jim Miller's country estate (or suburban ranch?) but he's tough (and rough?) enough to take it in his stride.
BTW, our current cold snap is due to repeated failure of Canucks, in particular BCers, to do something, anything to curb their notorious "Fraser Valley Outflow".
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
You're not selling the idea to me tbh.
Never tried them and now most certainly never will.
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
You're not selling the idea to me tbh.
Never tried them and now most certainly never will.
I doubt they're a patch on turnips.
Simply ejaculate into a pan of boiled turnips to give the illusion of cooking yams.
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation." A Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
Strangely, no. The official position, endorsed by governments around the world, is that there is only one China, which includes the Province of Taiwan, Jinmen and Matsu. The only difference being in who is the legitimate government. The current government of Taiwan does not claim independence. That's why they aren't in the UN. Of course, de facto they are. But nobody says that.
I thought Taiwan was thrown out of the UN because China was a big country and Let justice be done though the heavens fall we have to be realistic.
The Republic of China was replaced by the PRC. But, yeah.
Today’s Sunday Rawnsley, arriving to a cold still south and a rather windy north:
..it is only now that the conscience of Westminster has been sufficiently stirred for the government to propose remedies. And only after the intense public outrage generated by the compelling ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
A mounting pile of evidence suggests the government-owned organisation and its corporate collaborator sought to conceal their own blunders to protect their brands, profits and the reputations of senior executives at the expense of innocent people.
Having let this go on for so long, politicians from Rishi Sunak downwards are falling over each other to try to blag a bogus halo by hailing the campaign led by Mr Bates and declaring that he deserves a knighthood. There’s less enthusiasm at Westminster for acknowledging a collective failure to wake up to this scandal much earlier.
An unusual feature of this scandal is that its taint is on more than one party. This is a large part of the explanation for why none was previously keen to give it the attention and profile that it deserved. Over the past 25 years, there have been 15 business secretaries, one Lib Dem, six Labour and eight Conservative. Politicians from all three parties have held ministerial responsibility for postal affairs. Tories chucking stones are doing so from glass houses.
The government expects a mass exoneration to take the heat out of public anger, but justice will not be properly done until there is condign punishment of all those responsible for inflicting devastating cruelty and hardship on so many innocent people. They endured it for so long because politicians who should have been alert to what was going on were asleep at the wheel of state.
That extract sums things up, almost perfectly.
Goodness me. I'm getting a teensy bit bored of journalists who have paid absolutely no attention to this until now copying what was said on here (yes, by me - and others) months ago.
Mrs PtP, who has suffered similarly from plagiarism, suggest you write to the editor and complain. You need an apology and assurance that in future you expect to be acknowledged as a source. The days when 'on-line' writings could be freely lifted are long gone.
PB is widely read and respected in political circles. Stealing from it will not go down well. Don't let it pass, or it will keep happening, and that's not fair on all contributors.
I’m not letting this amazing sudden returning memory DIE just coz of a new thread
So. FPT
Just had a vivid memory of me age 23, wearing sort of Hitler Youth black shorts - with braces - inhabiting a £2 a night hostel on the wild bank of the Nile at Luxor, a hostel which was actually part of some ancient temple, so you woke up in the morning and stared at Anubis staring back at you. Superb
I was with three friends and we were all equally insane and we spent every day chasing down opium until we found a good supplier, and that kept us zonked for a week, opiated to fuck, the only problem was that the hostel owner/opium dealer really really wanted to have gay sex with my very handsome best friend Trevor, and, failing that, me (less handsome but still pretty enough, back then)
So we had to spend the whole time begging him to sell us more opium while at the same time coming up with excuses why we would not let him sodomise us (or bugger him, I don’t know if he batted or bowled)
THAT, my PB friends, is a true story
I believe you, I mean nobody is shocked that you dressed like the Hitler Youth.
I’m a bit shocked he didn’t pick a tonier outfit than the Hitler Youth. The SD?
Bit hot and sweaty for the climate. DAK, or at a pinch the loose overalls of the OT or the Fallschirmjaeger.
They must have had a summer uniform, surely?
SD? No idea, my boyhood model army didn't get beyond the Afrika Korps and paratroops! But now you mention it the army did have a tropical/summer uniform used in the Mediterranean summer as well as North Africa, so yes I should think so - just use the appropriate badges.
According to Wiki the SD wore Waffen SS uniforms and they did indeed have a white summer tunic.
One learns something new on PB daily. Never thought of the SS in white (except in the mess).
You often see pix of Hermann Goering in a white tunic, he probably thought it made him look less fat.
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
Strangely, no. The official position, endorsed by governments around the world, is that there is only one China, which includes the Province of Taiwan, Jinmen and Matsu. The only difference being in who is the legitimate government. The current government of Taiwan does not claim independence. That's why they aren't in the UN. Of course, de facto they are. But nobody says that.
I can see why governments don't. But for the rest of us not to seems a but craven.
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
I might be tempted to dry Yam Chips, which is number 24.
I have half the yam left (they’re big buggers) so might have a go at chips later this week.
Yams now parboiled and in the oven, and no longer smelling cummy, but with somewhat phallic looking sausages below awaiting the batter mix.
Oh by the way what that website calls yams are not yams, they’re sweet potatoes. The murricans call sweet potatoes “yams” for reasons best known to themselves.
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
You're not selling the idea to me tbh.
Never tried them and now most certainly never will.
I doubt they're a patch on turnips.
Simply ejaculate into a pan of boiled turnips to give the illusion of cooking yams.
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
You're not selling the idea to me tbh.
Never tried them and now most certainly never will.
I doubt they're a patch on turnips.
Simply ejaculate into a pan of boiled turnips to give the illusion of cooking yams.
Slightly odd article from the BBC on tge Taiwanese election: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541 " China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
Strangely, no. The official position, endorsed by governments around the world, is that there is only one China, which includes the Province of Taiwan, Jinmen and Matsu. The only difference being in who is the legitimate government. The current government of Taiwan does not claim independence. That's why they aren't in the UN. Of course, de facto they are. But nobody says that.
Isn't it reciprocal, with Taiwan claiming sovereignty over the mainland too?
I’m not letting this amazing sudden returning memory DIE just coz of a new thread
So. FPT
Just had a vivid memory of me age 23, wearing sort of Hitler Youth black shorts - with braces - inhabiting a £2 a night hostel on the wild bank of the Nile at Luxor, a hostel which was actually part of some ancient temple, so you woke up in the morning and stared at Anubis staring back at you. Superb
I was with three friends and we were all equally insane and we spent every day chasing down opium until we found a good supplier, and that kept us zonked for a week, opiated to fuck, the only problem was that the hostel owner/opium dealer really really wanted to have gay sex with my very handsome best friend Trevor, and, failing that, me (less handsome but still pretty enough, back then)
So we had to spend the whole time begging him to sell us more opium while at the same time coming up with excuses why we would not let him sodomise us (or bugger him, I don’t know if he batted or bowled)
THAT, my PB friends, is a true story
I believe you, I mean nobody is shocked that you dressed like the Hitler Youth.
I’m a bit shocked he didn’t pick a tonier outfit than the Hitler Youth. The SD?
Bit hot and sweaty for the climate. DAK, or at a pinch the loose overalls of the OT or the Fallschirmjaeger.
They must have had a summer uniform, surely?
SD? No idea, my boyhood model army didn't get beyond the Afrika Korps and paratroops! But now you mention it the army did have a tropical/summer uniform used in the Mediterranean summer as well as North Africa, so yes I should think so - just use the appropriate badges.
According to Wiki the SD wore Waffen SS uniforms and they did indeed have a white summer tunic.
One learns something new on PB daily. Never thought of the SS in white (except in the mess).
You often see pix of Hermann Goering in a white tunic, he probably thought it made him look less fat.
I’m not letting this amazing sudden returning memory DIE just coz of a new thread
So. FPT
Just had a vivid memory of me age 23, wearing sort of Hitler Youth black shorts - with braces - inhabiting a £2 a night hostel on the wild bank of the Nile at Luxor, a hostel which was actually part of some ancient temple, so you woke up in the morning and stared at Anubis staring back at you. Superb
I was with three friends and we were all equally insane and we spent every day chasing down opium until we found a good supplier, and that kept us zonked for a week, opiated to fuck, the only problem was that the hostel owner/opium dealer really really wanted to have gay sex with my very handsome best friend Trevor, and, failing that, me (less handsome but still pretty enough, back then)
So we had to spend the whole time begging him to sell us more opium while at the same time coming up with excuses why we would not let him sodomise us (or bugger him, I don’t know if he batted or bowled)
THAT, my PB friends, is a true story
I believe you, I mean nobody is shocked that you dressed like the Hitler Youth.
The same man who has young Hitler as the screensaver on his laptop; why would we be surprised?
The surprise is that his more extreme comments on here are tolerated, rather than moderated.
There you go. Try and ban me again
You just can’t let it go, can you?
And what exactly is it I’ve said that is so extreme now? That I once wore shorts that resembled Hitler Youth Attire? is that bannable, wearing clothes that might look a tad fash in a lowlight?
I once saw a bunch of German lads rock up to a bar in Bratislava rocking the Afrika Corps look. Khaki/cream shirts/t-shirts and shorts, peaked caps (probably mostly baseball caps to be honest) with sunglasses on their hats a la that famous picture of Rommel with his tanker goggles on his hat. Mostly blond and with a certain swagger. To be honest they were probably just a bunch of young lads away for a beery weekend and dressed for a mitteleuropean summer, but if I thought WTF I'm not sure what the locals thought.
Didn’t Bryan Ferry nearly get cancelled for saying the SS had cool uniforms?
Its ridiculous. Because they did. Hugo Boss knew what he was doing - as did Hitler and Goebbels. As did everyone since the year dot
Men look good in military uniforms - it’s why the royals crave them despite doing 2 weeks in the reserves. And the Nazi uniforms were particularly good - tho not the best
Some of the Italian uniforms from WW1 were just magnificent
Can't beat the Hussar and Lancer regiments. Napoleonic era French, British and Prussian uniforms for me.
Yeah they were pretty cool
I wish I could find an image of the Italian uniform I’m recalling. It was a futurist regiment from the White War
They had feathers in their caps. Looked brilliant. Utterly impractical
The Bersaglieri?
Yes. You and @Theuniondivvie have convinced me I’m thinking of the Bersaglieri - but a particular futurist cycling subset that fought in the Dolomites
By August 1948, however, the Communists' victories caused the British government to begin preparing for a Communist takeover of the country. It kept open consulates in CCP-controlled areas and rejected the Nationalists' requests that British citizens assist in the defence of Shanghai.
By December, the government concluded that although British property in China would likely be nationalised, British traders would benefit in the long run from a stable, industrialising Communist China.
Retaining Hong Kong was especially important; although the CCP promised to not interfere with its rule, Britain reinforced the Hong Kong Garrison during 1949.
When the victorious Communist government declared on 1 October 1949 that it would exchange diplomats with any country that ended relations with the Nationalists, Britain—after discussions with other Commonwealth members and European countries—formally recognised the People's Republic of China in January 1950.
In other news I’m attempting for the first time, to cook yams. I’ve passed them so many times, scruffy old things alongside the shinier but more dangerous looking cassava, but never thought to try them.
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
Funnily enough I did once think I heard someone say that Leon had been spotted on Deptford High Street, but I misheard. It turned out they were talking about a massive anchor.
The trouble is that Taiwan pulls the rug from under the feet of those who praise the 'success' of communist China. A bit like a free democratic Ukraine being a permanent sore for a chauvinistic authoritarian Russia.
Comments
Way cool
It’s 11pm here and I’ve had a long and gratifying day and I’m gonna watch Foundation and drink Malbec. Later
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/how-register-your-political-party/how-we-assess-your-identity-marks
but what they do in other publicity is up to them. Scottish Conservatives made great play out of being RUTH DAVIDSON'S Conservatives for a while.
The catch for Reform is that Nigeybaby repels voters as well as attracting them, encouraging heavy tactical voting against him.
Other question- what does Nigel actually want? If it's to get to the top in politics, he's got to stand this time, but he's left it awfully late. Really, he needed to stand somewhere winnable in 2019.
To be fair, he's been hugely successful at it this far.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-67973868
Just as well Rishi never changes his mind.
He doesn’t actually DO anything.
(This is a general vibe-based post, not related to his alleged flip-flop on Houthi action).
He will win on the "Kick the Tories out" vote, but what next?
Indeed, I actually suspect he has LESS of a sense of humour than Theresa May who brought a kind of wry 1950s-style middle class noblesse oblige.
We are not supposed to worry about this because the extreme urgency is to rid the country of Tory blight, but still…
While campaigning to take over from Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in 2020, Sir Keir said he wanted a new law "that said military action could be taken if first the lawful case for it was made, secondly there was a viable objective and thirdly you got the consent of the Commons".
Ultimately, I think Starmer is on firm ground. I don’t know if there’s any polling on the Yemen air strikes, but I’d imagine there’s a decent level of support for them. He’s likely to annoy the far left in his party, but what can they do? There’s no sign of a mass transfer of votes to the Green Party and Labour are the only game in town for kicking the Tories out.
I am hoping I will be proved wrong once the campaign starts. I really want to be.
* 25 Hottest Military Uniforms Ever : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GQ_C4ZxZ5w
* Ranking Military Uniforms Around The World // Tier List : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-IPMr21R-Y
TBH I think the USAF dress blues are much underrated: far less performative than the others, it's basically a business suit with medals and silver buttons. Far more professional to my eye.
If you really want the best dress-up uniforms, Americans seem to top-rate the USMC dress uniform.
Nigel Farage "wants . . .influence without any responsibility." - dixiedean
"Power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot through the ages." - Stanley Baldwin
Re: famous "jarhead" dress uniform of "Jarheads" it's been featured on USMC recruiting posters for many decades.
He’s left his mark on the UK’s history for good or ill. He’s not going to be PM.
Better to be an occasional well-paid pundit, frequent centre of attention and well lubricated man about town
Democracy depends on people standing and losing as much as those who stand and win. Such people are especially entitled to try to influence opinion, as are the rest of us.
Luckily for Starmer, Political Betting isn’t representative, although, it does tend to be ahead of the curve (see post office scandal).
Far be it for me to correct Andrew Rawnsley but responsibility for Postal Affairs, while part of the department of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, fell to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary.
After 2010, that was Ed Davey, followed by Norman Lamb and then Jo Swinson. After the Conservative majority in 2015, the direct reference to Posal Affairs disappeared from the job title and became part of the responsibilities of the Minister of State for Small Business and Enterprise.
The first Minister of State was Anna Soubry but in 2016 the job title was changed again to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business as part of the new Department of Business and Trade.
The first incumbent was Margot James, followed by Andrew Griffiths, then Kelly Tolhurst and then Paul Scully all between June 2017 and February 2020.
Scully did nearly two and a half years (though that included the pandemic) before in July 2022 it went to Jane Hunt who did two months before Dean Russell served in the Truss administration and since November 2022 it's been with Kevin Hollirake.
I make that 11 incumberns in nearly 14 years - is this managing a Government department or a Championship football club?
There's a more serious point about the turnover of junior ministers and the ability of any single person to take control of their brief given they serve such a short period - in a couple of cases, just weeks.
The consequences of that bigotry can be serious. I don't know whether Edward Jay Epstein's last book has been banned in Britain, but if so I would be willing to try to to send him a copy concealed in a plain brown paper cover.
(Anyone who is concerned about Putin's attack on Ukraine or the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel -- and gets much of their news from the Guardian -- should read that book.)
Having said that: Starmer as LOTO might be very different from Starmer as PM, and once in the top job he might start showing some policy backbone. If so, some voters will be disappointed, and others will be ecstatic.
But truth is looking for trend in polls about where position might be headed, and, not on position but on/off trend, Yesterday’s Opinum was a relief for Tories and a disappointment for Labour. Absolutely, you can’t possibly argue against that. yesterday’s Opinium, before it got published, based on fall in Tory share since Christmas, labour fans could have hoped to see it fall there too and didn’t get it, based on Labours post Christmas recovery, Labour could have hoped for more than 1% increase from a previous drop to low 40% poll that probably needed MOE reverting in this poll anyway, and despite was taken nearly a month ago - Labour didn’t get it. So doubly disappointing to Labour. So we wait two weeks to see if Labour hopes being disappointed like yesterday becomes a trend, and we look for similar or different trend pointers from all polls in the coming week too.
The correct way to analyse a poll right now is not what is the HoC seats look like after a fictitious election tomorrow, but to surmise what is the actual PV we are trending to in the election. Becuase this faux to real election campaign and countdown to vote day, is not anything to do with what polls and EC are showing at any point in it, and everything to do with what the actual PV turns out to be. So it’s about analysing trend in individual polling shares, not the gaps, for the actual PV.
This definitely isn’t rabbit raving rashly about polls yet again, these are very important poll watching principles. 😠
And better weather.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67974541
" China sees any statement of support towards the DPP as lending legitimacy to politicians, which Beijing sees as a gang of separatists hoping to turn Taiwan into an independent sovereign nation."
Are we not supposed to see Taiwan as an independent sovereign nation then, BBC?
When in reality, it is the most Anglophilic major media publication in American. And has been since circa 1914.
Fact that they print WAY more news from & about UK than any other US publication, outside of People Magazine that is.
With NYT coverage being far more pro-British on average.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_status_of_Taiwan
TLDR: It would piss off Beijing, and they've got nukes.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-that-recognize-taiwan
I plucked a reasonably straight and unpockmarked puna yam from the pile at one of the many grocers on Deptford high street - recently unfairly disrespected by Leon who has never visited, and would feel right at home among the at least a dozen shops and restaurants from indochina (mainly Vietnam - Deptford has one of if not the largest Viet community in London).
They are chopped and currently boiling. The starch scum in the pan smells and looks unnervingly like cum.
Going to roast them with tonight’s toad in the hole. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
As for the Guardian's bigotry, I note that, according to Wiki, cartoonist Steve Bell worked there from 1981 to 2023, when his bigotry became embarrassing, finally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_China
Everyone who wanted a more equal society is to blame for the downturn in our nations fortunes. Notice we still had colonies until those weird lefty Labour people got elected after the war. There is a clear correlation between how many wars and colonies we lost compared to how many people we allowed to vote.
Further note that number of US states with significant numbers of Chinese Americans (including Washington State) also maintain their own links with Taipei.
What is it about the book that makes you think it would be banned in the UK?
PS Bell has been sacked by the Graun of course, long overdue imo, mainly because he's not been very funny since the 80s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Space_Force#Uniforms
https://nypost.com/2021/09/22/space-force-guardians-uniform-compared-to-star-trek-battlestar-galactica/
The official position, endorsed by governments around the world, is that there is only one China, which includes the Province of Taiwan, Jinmen and Matsu.
The only difference being in who is the legitimate government.
The current government of Taiwan does not claim independence. That's why they aren't in the UN.
Of course, de facto they are. But nobody says that.
https://insanelygoodrecipes.com/yam-recipes/
I might be tempted to dry Yam Chips, which is number 24.
She of course backtracked when Second Sight started to report, which kind of suggests she was unaware of what had been going on, but this is all surmise as far as I'm concerned.
Maybe we will know a lot more when she speaks before the Inquiry.
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/05/08/the-cheque-is-in-the-post/
Me answering questions or writing articles are basically neurotic tics trying to deflect PB from error. In this case although @Leon does have a point regarding SS uniforms, it is based on a very restricted set of military uniforms, and by expanding his knowledge set I hoped to deflect him to a perhaps saner course.
I’m quite partial to frogs legs and have indeed eaten whole frogs too. A big bony but same flavour as the legs. Speciality of the Dombes region in Ain.
Temp outside my cabin door here in Sunny Seattle was 19 degrees Fahrenheit (-7 Celsius) at sunrise this morning, and is now a balmy 26 F (-3 C).
Actually, make that -3.33333333333333333333333333333333333333etc. degrees Celsius.
Colder out by Jim Miller's country estate (or suburban ranch?) but he's tough (and rough?) enough to take it in his stride.
BTW, our current cold snap is due to repeated failure of Canucks, in particular BCers, to do something, anything to curb their notorious "Fraser Valley Outflow".
But, yeah.
PB is widely read and respected in political circles. Stealing from it will not go down well. Don't let it pass, or it will keep happening, and that's not fair on all contributors.
I find them about as entertaining as clowns.
Yams now parboiled and in the oven, and no longer smelling cummy, but with somewhat phallic looking sausages below awaiting the batter mix.
Oh by the way what that website calls yams are not yams, they’re sweet potatoes. The murricans call sweet potatoes “yams” for reasons best known to themselves.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bersaglieri#/media/File:Bersagliere_in_uniform_(circa1900).jpg
By August 1948, however, the Communists' victories caused the British government to begin preparing for a Communist takeover of the country. It kept open consulates in CCP-controlled areas and rejected the Nationalists' requests that British citizens assist in the defence of Shanghai.
By December, the government concluded that although British property in China would likely be nationalised, British traders would benefit in the long run from a stable, industrialising Communist China.
Retaining Hong Kong was especially important; although the CCP promised to not interfere with its rule, Britain reinforced the Hong Kong Garrison during 1949.
When the victorious Communist government declared on 1 October 1949 that it would exchange diplomats with any country that ended relations with the Nationalists, Britain—after discussions with other Commonwealth members and European countries—formally recognised the People's Republic of China in January 1950.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China–United_Kingdom_relations
See also
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan–United_Kingdom_relations
https://www.timeout.com/london/news/how-people-power-got-the-deptford-anchor-back-022118