Surprised that DeSantis has withdrawn, which leaves Trump almost a dead cert for the nomination. I thought he’d at least carry on until close to Super Tuesday, but his campaign has been a total mess from start to finish.
As with Ramaswarmy, he’ll be looking for a good job in the administration and looking at a run in 2028 - which is what I thought DeSantis was going to do all along, until the day he announced he was standing.
Totally off topic, but a local topic that I cannot get my head around.
Manchester ain't rich, certainly not by London or much of European standards, yet the centre has seen a massive boom in recent years and this is just accelerating faster and faster.
This does not appear to be happening elsewhere in the UK, away from London.
It does not appear to be hugely impacting on the region away from about 3km radius of St Peter's Square and the corridor down to MediaCity.
So what has caused this ? Can and should it try to be replicated to boost the economy of other parts of the country or is it just one huge Ponzi scheme that will all one day collapse leaving loads of debt ?
This sort of thing is really important if we’re going to get proper economic concentration in second cities and their surrounding regions, so it’s good it’s happening. The article says 20 towers over 100m constructed and a further 12 in progress. Good - that will give the skyline a boost and potentially take Manchester ahead of Canary Wharf which per Wikipedia has 28 towers over 100m currently completed.
I was in Leeds last week and, pleasant enough city that it is, it just feels so small and provincial for what is, from memory, something like the 4th or 5th biggest city in the country. Manchester at least has a sense of being a proper city, as do Edinburgh, Glasgow and, despite its diminutive size, Liverpool.
Taking GDP contribution though, Manchester seems to be surprisingly far down the table. Look at this:
City of London, then Westminster (no surprise), followed by Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Tower Hamlets (ie Canary Wharf), Belfast, then Manchester (followed by Camden then Birmingham). And Brighton a touch ahead of Leeds.
The table in that article is a little misleading, it seems to use city regions and metropolitan areas for areas outside London, except for Manchester and Birmingham. The bottom half of the table shows those cities without the surrounding regions below Manchester in GDP.
I believe by itself Manchester would be 4th and Greater Manchester would be 3rd.
Totally off topic, but a local topic that I cannot get my head around.
Manchester ain't rich, certainly not by London or much of European standards, yet the centre has seen a massive boom in recent years and this is just accelerating faster and faster.
This does not appear to be happening elsewhere in the UK, away from London.
It does not appear to be hugely impacting on the region away from about 3km radius of St Peter's Square and the corridor down to MediaCity.
So what has caused this ? Can and should it try to be replicated to boost the economy of other parts of the country or is it just one huge Ponzi scheme that will all one day collapse leaving loads of debt ?
This sort of thing is really important if we’re going to get proper economic concentration in second cities and their surrounding regions, so it’s good it’s happening. The article says 20 towers over 100m constructed and a further 12 in progress. Good - that will give the skyline a boost and potentially take Manchester ahead of Canary Wharf which per Wikipedia has 28 towers over 100m currently completed.
I was in Leeds last week and, pleasant enough city that it is, it just feels so small and provincial for what is, from memory, something like the 4th or 5th biggest city in the country. Manchester at least has a sense of being a proper city, as do Edinburgh, Glasgow and, despite its diminutive size, Liverpool.
Taking GDP contribution though, Manchester seems to be surprisingly far down the table. Look at this:
City of London, then Westminster (no surprise), followed by Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Tower Hamlets (ie Canary Wharf), Belfast, then Manchester (followed by Camden then Birmingham). And Brighton a touch ahead of Leeds.
The table in that article is a little misleading, it seems to use city regions and metropolitan areas for areas outside London, except for Manchester and Birmingham. The bottom half of the table shows those cities without the surrounding regions below Manchester in GDP.
I believe by itself Manchester would be 4th and Greater Manchester would be 3rd.
Correction to myself, Greater Birmingham looks like it would be 3rd and Greater Manchester be 4th.
Barely slept a wink last night thanks to the storm. When I took the dog out just now the wheelybins had both been turned around (which was surprising as they're snug against the side wall). Not sure that even happened when we had the red wind warning.
Hope nobody's home has been structurally affected.
I do think unlike many that the “back to the office” is not some grand conspiracy to save the economy, it is just that a lot of people really did get sick of working from home every day. In hindsight it was never realistic that people wouldn’t go to the office for at least some of the time.
But I do think it’s shattered the concept of many people ever doing five days again. That really has changed - at least amongst my friendship group.
It's complex - I think the pandemic challenged a lot of people's view of work. When life was more compartmentalised - you lived in one place, worked in another, socialised in both but in different ways with different circles.
Bringing work home was a first and a challenge - that gap was gone and the line between your home life and your work life blurred. Some adapted it to well - others didn't. If it was difficult for individuals it was more so for organisations who found themselves with empty offices for which they were either paying rent or an office whose value was going down with the commercial property market.
Hence an inevitability there would be a reaction as there is to most revolutionary or evolutionary events.
The other aspect of the work-life debate was the recognition for some they preferred the latter to the former and for them stopping working equated to starting living.
A lot of it depended on your boss. I had an asshole line manager who basically made it clear I was unemployed if I didn't eat every bite out of every bag of shit he laid on my table (the table which used to be my dining table, but was now my own personal Work Hell™). Nothing against my former employer per se, but my boss directly contributed to my total nervous breakdown. I might have coped if I'd had my support network, been able to work out at the gym, vent with colleagues over beers after work at the pub. But no. I was stuck. On my own. In a tiny flat. For months. With no human contact.
I'm still seething with rage now, just thinking about it.
Your experience is basically mine, with an extra asshole manager
Tho I was also trying to get over a terribly sad divorce (sad because we were in love and we only split because we had to for other reasons). I've recently read some of my notes and messages and tweets from that time - in particular the 3rd lockdown - January-April 2021. My God I was bad. At one point I stayed in bed for three days drinking and thinking - with great seriousness - about suicide. Couple of other times I acted with obvious, ludicrous, selfish suicidality (eg the time I drove at 138mph on a Dorset A Road at noon)
Thank God it's over and Never Ever Again. I don't think I'd even lock down for Bubonic Plague. Fuck it
1/2 million kids with mental health issues are on waiting list says Indie front page tonight.
Social Media, lockdown or over-medicalisation of growing up?
Hard to know. But something aint right.
Social media and its divisions, too much time on phones and laptops and ipads rather than interacting with people, materialist culture, lockdown legacy, breakdown of too many families, decline of organised religion all factors
Basically pick whatever your hobbyhorse of choice is and blame that.
"to ensure that constitutional government can endure"
DeSantis.
Utterly bonkers. Black is white. 2+2=5.
America has gone mad. Sheer decadency.
Trump isn't a danger to democracy. Ridiculous to suggest he might be.
Oh well, we shall have to agree to disagree.
We shall soon know.
If they elect him they wont be able to get him out again imho.
if he was elected again, depends if the army support him or not, in Jan 2021 when he was still President they didn't support attempts to overturn the election result
He changes the constitution.
You need two thirds to approve a proposal to change the constitution in both the House and Senate and then that goes to the state legislatures who must approve that and you need three quarters to agree to it .
So it’s not going to happen thankfully !
It is little known but there are actually five ways to change the US constitution.
1: Two thirds of Congress and three quarters of state legislatures. 2: Two thirds of Congress and three quarters of states conventions. 3: Two thirds of state legislatures and three quarters of state legislatures. 4: Two thirds of state legislatures and three quarters of state conventions. 5: Five ninths of the US Supreme Court dictating that the US constitution is different to how it is written.
The first four are all impossible, but the last one has come rocketing up from nowhere to now be in prime position.
… and is now the premier legislative chamber of the US political system.
The U.K. Supreme Court disappointed many, by its repeated, explicit, refusals to legislate by over ruling Parliament. Not me.
Twitter is now putting 'graphic content' warnings on pictures of railway signalboxes...
Well, since automated signalling has meant that no railway signalling is carried out in railway signalling boxes, they must have found other uses. {closes one eye temporarily}
1/2 million kids with mental health issues are on waiting list says Indie front page tonight.
Social Media, lockdown or over-medicalisation of growing up?
Hard to know. But something aint right.
Social media and its divisions, too much time on phones and laptops and ipads rather than interacting with people, materialist culture, lockdown legacy, breakdown of too many families, decline of organised religion all factors
Basically pick whatever your hobbyhorse of choice is and blame that.
1/2 million kids with mental health issues are on waiting list says Indie front page tonight.
Social Media, lockdown or over-medicalisation of growing up?
Hard to know. But something aint right.
Social media and its divisions, too much time on phones and laptops and ipads rather than interacting with people, materialist culture, lockdown legacy, breakdown of too many families, decline of organised religion all factors
Basically pick whatever your hobbyhorse of choice is and blame that.
It seems incredible to me that the Republican primary - starting with loads of candidates and a huge amount of money spent - has been narrowed down to just two candidates after little more than 100,000 votes have been cast. And potentially down to a single candidate by the end of the week.
I just hope Biden can scrape over the finish line. It all comes down to him now.
Barely slept a wink last night thanks to the storm. When I took the dog out just now the wheelybins had both been turned around (which was surprising as they're snug against the side wall). Not sure that even happened when we had the red wind warning.
Hope nobody's home has been structurally affected.
On the island first impression is that we escaped the worst of it, as it appears to have tracked further north than the initial forecasts. Storm Eunice last year was worse. I believe even a few of the ferry crossings were made during the night.
It seems incredible to me that the Republican primary - starting with loads of candidates and a huge amount of money spent - has been narrowed down to just two candidates after little more than 100,000 votes have been cast. And potentially down to a single candidate by the end of the week.
I just hope Biden can scrape over the finish line. It all comes down to him now.
I think Haley will keep going until Super Tuesday, she’s got some very big old-school Republican money (Koch Bros etc) behind her campaign to get Democrats registering as Republicans to vote against Trump.
She also wants to be clearly the second choice, in case Trump has any one of a number of issues prove to be decisive before the Convention.
Markets think Trump is basically a dead cert for NH at this point, Haley is at 50/1.
IDK, I feel like it's less of a sure thing? I know there was the weather but Iowa didn't get much turnout, it's not really like there's a huge surge of support for Trump. Pollsters can only really guess who will show up, and if there are more independents than Republicans, Haley wins.
Markets think Trump is basically a dead cert for NH at this point, Haley is at 50/1.
IDK, I feel like it's less of a sure thing? I know there was the weather but Iowa didn't get much turnout, it's not really like there's a huge surge of support for Trump. Pollsters can only really guess who will show up, and if there are more independents than Republicans, Haley wins.
Iowa was a ready weird one. Turnout at the caucuses was only 7%, yet the result was pretty close to what we might have expected if it had been 70%.
"to ensure that constitutional government can endure"
DeSantis.
Utterly bonkers. Black is white. 2+2=5.
America has gone mad. Sheer decadency.
Trump isn't a danger to democracy. Ridiculous to suggest he might be.
Oh well, we shall have to agree to disagree.
We shall soon know.
If they elect him they wont be able to get him out again imho.
if he was elected again, depends if the army support him or not, in Jan 2021 when he was still President they didn't support attempts to overturn the election result
He changes the constitution.
You need two thirds to approve a proposal to change the constitution in both the House and Senate and then that goes to the state legislatures who must approve that and you need three quarters to agree to it .
So it’s not going to happen thankfully !
It is little known but there are actually five ways to change the US constitution.
1: Two thirds of Congress and three quarters of state legislatures. 2: Two thirds of Congress and three quarters of states conventions. 3: Two thirds of state legislatures and three quarters of state legislatures. 4: Two thirds of state legislatures and three quarters of state conventions. 5: Five ninths of the US Supreme Court dictating that the US constitution is different to how it is written.
The first four are all impossible, but the last one has come rocketing up from nowhere to now be in prime position.
… and is now the premier legislative chamber of the US political system.
The U.K. Supreme Court disappointed many, by its repeated, explicit, refusals to legislate by over ruling Parliament. Not me.
Articles like this can be seen as hyperbole, but I think this one is justifiable.
Markets think Trump is basically a dead cert for NH at this point, Haley is at 50/1.
IDK, I feel like it's less of a sure thing? I know there was the weather but Iowa didn't get much turnout, it's not really like there's a huge surge of support for Trump. Pollsters can only really guess who will show up, and if there are more independents than Republicans, Haley wins.
If there's one thing which might make NH voters change their minds, it's telling them that they've already made them up.
1/2 million kids with mental health issues are on waiting list says Indie front page tonight.
Social Media, lockdown or over-medicalisation of growing up?
Hard to know. But something aint right.
Perhaps underfunding of the health service?
Not just underfunding, but dysfunctional Trusts too.
"“We think the numbers of deaths in Norfolk and Suffolk are relatively high,” this campaigner told me. There was then an uneasy pause. “But because the national system is so chaotic and inconsistent, nobody can tell.” I instantly knew what they meant: that there could be many more of these catastrophes – hiding, as British scandals often do, in plain sight."
"to ensure that constitutional government can endure"
DeSantis.
Utterly bonkers. Black is white. 2+2=5.
America has gone mad. Sheer decadency.
Trump isn't a danger to democracy. Ridiculous to suggest he might be.
Oh well, we shall have to agree to disagree.
We shall soon know.
If they elect him they wont be able to get him out again imho.
if he was elected again, depends if the army support him or not, in Jan 2021 when he was still President they didn't support attempts to overturn the election result
He changes the constitution.
You need two thirds to approve a proposal to change the constitution in both the House and Senate and then that goes to the state legislatures who must approve that and you need three quarters to agree to it .
So it’s not going to happen thankfully !
It is little known but there are actually five ways to change the US constitution.
1: Two thirds of Congress and three quarters of state legislatures. 2: Two thirds of Congress and three quarters of states conventions. 3: Two thirds of state legislatures and three quarters of state legislatures. 4: Two thirds of state legislatures and three quarters of state conventions. 5: Five ninths of the US Supreme Court dictating that the US constitution is different to how it is written.
The first four are all impossible, but the last one has come rocketing up from nowhere to now be in prime position.
… and is now the premier legislative chamber of the US political system.
The U.K. Supreme Court disappointed many, by its repeated, explicit, refusals to legislate by over ruling Parliament. Not me.
Articles like this can be seen as hyperbole, but I think this one is justifiable.
Nikki Haley questioning whether Trump is mentally fit to be President given his repeated confusion as to why she had not taken steps to prevent January 6th.
It is a bit weird how every misspeak by Biden is seized upon and the increasingly common misspeaks by Trump are just ignored.
I see Tim Scott has just announced his engagement. Does that mean he's in the running for Trump's VP pick ?
FWIW, I think he is in the mix and he would outshine Harris plus there is the racial aspect. However, I think for Trump, he wouldn’t bring enough upsides and there are some signs Trump is making some inroads into the Black (male) vote.
I continue to think the chances are more for a woman VP pick since that is where there is probably the major upside. Trump himself is not young and may bow out mid term in which case having the GOP would have the first female President.
I still think Stefanik - at this stage - is the best bet but there are some other names in the mix (FWIW, I think Trump is smart enough to recognise Kari Lake would be a drag on his chances). That is especially the case if he is serious in his claims he thinks NY is in play (if you are serious about why I think that is not too ludicrous, happy to explain).
Totally off topic, but a local topic that I cannot get my head around.
Manchester ain't rich, certainly not by London or much of European standards, yet the centre has seen a massive boom in recent years and this is just accelerating faster and faster.
This does not appear to be happening elsewhere in the UK, away from London.
It does not appear to be hugely impacting on the region away from about 3km radius of St Peter's Square and the corridor down to MediaCity.
So what has caused this ? Can and should it try to be replicated to boost the economy of other parts of the country or is it just one huge Ponzi scheme that will all one day collapse leaving loads of debt ?
Chinese money in Manchester? Chinese seem to like their tall buildings.
1/2 million kids with mental health issues are on waiting list says Indie front page tonight.
Social Media, lockdown or over-medicalisation of growing up?
Hard to know. But something aint right.
Perhaps underfunding of the health service?
It’s not a money problem - or at least it’s not just a money problem.
Funding has never been higher, and the NHS has had their famous extra £350m a week three times over since 2016 with spending up 2.8% annually in real terms since then to £180bn a year - that’s roughly £3,000 per person in the UK.
It ought to be pointed out that this was during Starmer's leadership of the CPS. The Tory press should note the link in the bolded bit before they get sanctimonious about it. The failure was almost universal.
But I think it would be rather more justifiable to think Starmer bears some responsibility for this than for anything to do with the Post Office.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/21/amid-class-prejudice-and-sensitivities-over-race-rochdales-abused-girls-were-failed ...Amber’s story sums up the scorn of officialdom for those whom they regarded as loose, working-class girls. Aged 14 when first targeted by the grooming gang, she described to the police how she was plied with alcohol before being “passed around” groups of men. She identified more than 20 abusers, providing names, addresses, telephone numbers and car registrations. Her information helped initiate Operation Span, a belated, though half-hearted, drive against grooming gangs launched in 2010.
Yet no one was charged with offences against Amber. So disdainful were the police and lawyers of what one social worker called her “lifestyle choice” they imagined no jury would believe her. Shockingly, Amber was, in 2009, herself arrested for “soliciting” because, under duress from the gang, she had brought along some of her friends. It was two years before the CPS agreed not to treat her as a suspect.
Then, astonishingly, in 2011, Amber, having provided the information that led to nine men appearing in court on rape and trafficking charges, was named in the indictment as a co-conspirator in child sexual exploitation. It came as a complete surprise, the CPS having deliberately withheld information from her. It is difficult to describe this as anything but cowardice and betrayal. The lead prosecutor claimed in court that Amber had played “an active role in helping… these defendants sexually exploit the other girls”. National newspapers demonised her as the “Honey Monster”, a “pimp” and a “bully”. She was denounced on social media as a “paedo” and her address identified, leading to bomb threats...
1/2 million kids with mental health issues are on waiting list says Indie front page tonight.
Social Media, lockdown or over-medicalisation of growing up?
Hard to know. But something aint right.
Perhaps underfunding of the health service?
It’s not a money problem - or at least it’s not just a money problem.
Funding has never been higher, and the NHS has had their famous extra £350m a week three times over since 2016 with spending up 2.8% annually in real terms since then to £180bn a year - that’s roughly £3,000 per person in the UK.
Yes we spend about the OECD average on healthcare as a % of GDP but routinely get the worst results in studies of similar countries, except obviously the US, which spends much more and is often bottom.
Blaming it on a lack of funding is lazy thinking and lets the real culprits (greeedy unions, spineless and incompetent management, spin-obsessed politicians and a monolithic 1940s Stalinist bureaucracy) off the hook too easily.
microhenry (noun) A unit of electrical inductance, one millionth of a henry. or A man called Henry who has suffered a rather unusual accident with a shrinkray.
Nikki Haley questioning whether Trump is mentally fit to be President given his repeated confusion as to why she had not taken steps to prevent January 6th.
It is a bit weird how every misspeak by Biden is seized upon and the increasingly common misspeaks by Trump are just ignored.
It's not that weird. We all think from an instinctive conclusion back to the supporting rationale far more than we might want to admit. (And that includes scientists, who are literally trained to do the opposite.)
Trump is good at manipulating that process, and a section the population quite enjoy being manipulated in a fash-curious direction.
The trickier question is why? A desire for revenge over the bad people who make life rubbish? That shouting is fun? The leatherwear?
Nikki Haley questioning whether Trump is mentally fit to be President given his repeated confusion as to why she had not taken steps to prevent January 6th.
It is a bit weird how every misspeak by Biden is seized upon and the increasingly common misspeaks by Trump are just ignored.
Trump aced yet another really hard cognitive test recently.
1/2 million kids with mental health issues are on waiting list says Indie front page tonight.
Social Media, lockdown or over-medicalisation of growing up?
Hard to know. But something aint right.
Perhaps underfunding of the health service?
It’s not a money problem - or at least it’s not just a money problem.
Funding has never been higher, and the NHS has had their famous extra £350m a week three times over since 2016 with spending up 2.8% annually in real terms since then to £180bn a year - that’s roughly £3,000 per person in the UK.
Yes we spend about the OECD average on healthcare as a % of GDP but routinely get the worst results in studies of similar countries, except obviously the US, which spends much more and is often bottom.
Blaming it on a lack of funding is lazy thinking and lets the real culprits (greeedy unions, spineless and incompetent management, spin-obsessed politicians and a monolithic 1940s Stalinist bureaucracy) off the hook too easily.
It really needs the politicians to take a look at what works well elsewhere in the world, in terms of money vs outcomes, but that requires challenging the almost religious aspect of the ‘service’ that no other OECD country has decided to copy.
Perhaps it needs a Labour government to get the necessary reforms through, past the emotion?
Nikki Haley questioning whether Trump is mentally fit to be President given his repeated confusion as to why she had not taken steps to prevent January 6th.
It is a bit weird how every misspeak by Biden is seized upon and the increasingly common misspeaks by Trump are just ignored.
Trump aced yet another really hard cognitive test recently.
It seems incredible to me that the Republican primary - starting with loads of candidates and a huge amount of money spent - has been narrowed down to just two candidates after little more than 100,000 votes have been cast. And potentially down to a single candidate by the end of the week.
I just hope Biden can scrape over the finish line. It all comes down to him now.
As always with Trump the vast majority of his opponents underestimating his support and not understanding the rules of the game. All played right into his hands with an irrelevant squabble over who would finish in the irrelevant second place.
"to ensure that constitutional government can endure"
DeSantis.
Utterly bonkers. Black is white. 2+2=5.
America has gone mad. Sheer decadency.
Trump isn't a danger to democracy. Ridiculous to suggest he might be.
Oh well, we shall have to agree to disagree.
We shall soon know.
If they elect him they wont be able to get him out again imho.
if he was elected again, depends if the army support him or not, in Jan 2021 when he was still President they didn't support attempts to overturn the election result
He changes the constitution.
You need 2/3 (I think) of the states to agree to that. It’s not happening.
Owing to severe weather warnings related to Storm Isha, operations at Sellafield have been suspended.
This is a precautionary step which allows us to safely shut down our operational plants to prepare for predicted worsening weather conditions this evening.
I have a 10.30 checkin tomorrow morning to fly to a rig West of Shetlands. God knows why as we sure as hell aren't flying anywhere for the next couple of days.
I hope that they pay you for these days you’ve been hanging around!
Nikki Haley questioning whether Trump is mentally fit to be President given his repeated confusion as to why she had not taken steps to prevent January 6th.
It is a bit weird how every misspeak by Biden is seized upon and the increasingly common misspeaks by Trump are just ignored.
“I am not saying anything derogatory, but…” was a nice line.
Markets think Trump is basically a dead cert for NH at this point, Haley is at 50/1.
IDK, I feel like it's less of a sure thing? I know there was the weather but Iowa didn't get much turnout, it's not really like there's a huge surge of support for Trump. Pollsters can only really guess who will show up, and if there are more independents than Republicans, Haley wins.
Iowa was a ready weird one. Turnout at the caucuses was only 7%, yet the result was pretty close to what we might have expected if it had been 70%.
I disagree
You are implicitly assuming Trump doesn’t have a low ceiling
1/2 million kids with mental health issues are on waiting list says Indie front page tonight.
Social Media, lockdown or over-medicalisation of growing up?
Hard to know. But something aint right.
Perhaps underfunding of the health service?
It’s not a money problem - or at least it’s not just a money problem.
Funding has never been higher, and the NHS has had their famous extra £350m a week three times over since 2016 with spending up 2.8% annually in real terms since then to £180bn a year - that’s roughly £3,000 per person in the UK.
1/2 million kids with mental health issues are on waiting list says Indie front page tonight.
Social Media, lockdown or over-medicalisation of growing up?
Hard to know. But something aint right.
Perhaps underfunding of the health service?
It’s not a money problem - or at least it’s not just a money problem.
Funding has never been higher, and the NHS has had their famous extra £350m a week three times over since 2016 with spending up 2.8% annually in real terms since then to £180bn a year - that’s roughly £3,000 per person in the UK.
Yes we spend about the OECD average on healthcare as a % of GDP but routinely get the worst results in studies of similar countries, except obviously the US, which spends much more and is often bottom.
Blaming it on a lack of funding is lazy thinking and lets the real culprits (greeedy unions, spineless and incompetent management, spin-obsessed politicians and a monolithic 1940s Stalinist bureaucracy) off the hook too easily.
Comments
As with Ramaswarmy, he’ll be looking for a good job in the administration and looking at a run in 2028 - which is what I thought DeSantis was going to do all along, until the day he announced he was standing.
I believe by itself Manchester would be 4th and Greater Manchester would be 3rd.
https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.asp?newsIdx=367325
Barely slept a wink last night thanks to the storm. When I took the dog out just now the wheelybins had both been turned around (which was surprising as they're snug against the side wall). Not sure that even happened when we had the red wind warning.
Hope nobody's home has been structurally affected.
Tho I was also trying to get over a terribly sad divorce (sad because we were in love and we only split because we had to for other reasons). I've recently read some of my notes and messages and tweets from that time - in particular the 3rd lockdown - January-April 2021. My God I was bad. At one point I stayed in bed for three days drinking and thinking - with great seriousness - about suicide. Couple of other times I acted with obvious, ludicrous, selfish suicidality (eg the time I drove at 138mph on a Dorset A Road at noon)
Thank God it's over and Never Ever Again. I don't think I'd even lock down for Bubonic Plague. Fuck it
The U.K. Supreme Court disappointed many, by its repeated, explicit, refusals to legislate by over ruling Parliament. Not me.
I just hope Biden can scrape over the finish line. It all comes down to him now.
She also wants to be clearly the second choice, in case Trump has any one of a number of issues prove to be decisive before the Convention.
IDK, I feel like it's less of a sure thing? I know there was the weather but Iowa didn't get much turnout, it's not really like there's a huge surge of support for Trump. Pollsters can only really guess who will show up, and if there are more independents than Republicans, Haley wins.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/homeandproperty/brexit-wiped-200k-off-our-budget-when-we-sold-our-london-home-to-move-to-italy/ar-BB1h15MW?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=288685a1776b41689c3b33246c32ff35&ei=19
We Are Witnessing the Biggest Judicial Power Grab Since 1803
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/we-are-witnessing-the-biggest-judicial-power-grab-since-1803/
"“We think the numbers of deaths in Norfolk and Suffolk are relatively high,” this campaigner told me. There was then an uneasy pause. “But because the national system is so chaotic and inconsistent, nobody can tell.” I instantly knew what they meant: that there could be many more of these catastrophes – hiding, as British scandals often do, in plain sight."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/21/mental-health-trust-deaths?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
But there’s a big difference between what they have done so far and attempts to remove term limits .
The constitution is crystal clear on that since the amendment was passed to stop a repeat of the situation around Roosevelt.
Does that mean he's in the running for Trump's VP pick ?
Nikki Haley questioning whether Trump is mentally fit to be President given his repeated confusion as to why she had not taken steps to prevent January 6th.
It is a bit weird how every misspeak by Biden is seized upon and the increasingly common misspeaks by Trump are just ignored.
I continue to think the chances are more for a woman VP pick since that is where there is probably the major upside. Trump himself is not young and may bow out mid term in which case having the GOP would have the first female President.
I still think Stefanik - at this stage - is the best bet but there are some other names in the mix (FWIW, I think Trump is smart enough to recognise Kari Lake would be a drag on his chances). That is especially the case if he is serious in his claims he thinks NY is in play (if you are serious about why I think that is not too ludicrous, happy to explain).
The storm certainly seems to be passed here,; Reports of trees down across roads last night.
Funding has never been higher, and the NHS has had their famous extra £350m a week three times over since 2016 with spending up 2.8% annually in real terms since then to £180bn a year - that’s roughly £3,000 per person in the UK.
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-budget
The Tory press should note the link in the bolded bit before they get sanctimonious about it. The failure was almost universal.
But I think it would be rather more justifiable to think Starmer bears some responsibility for this than for anything to do with the Post Office.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/21/amid-class-prejudice-and-sensitivities-over-race-rochdales-abused-girls-were-failed
...Amber’s story sums up the scorn of officialdom for those whom they regarded as loose, working-class girls. Aged 14 when first targeted by the grooming gang, she described to the police how she was plied with alcohol before being “passed around” groups of men. She identified more than 20 abusers, providing names, addresses, telephone numbers and car registrations. Her information helped initiate Operation Span, a belated, though half-hearted, drive against grooming gangs launched in 2010.
Yet no one was charged with offences against Amber. So disdainful were the police and lawyers of what one social worker called her “lifestyle choice” they imagined no jury would believe her. Shockingly, Amber was, in 2009, herself arrested for “soliciting” because, under duress from the gang, she had brought along some of her friends. It was two years before the CPS agreed not to treat her as a suspect.
Then, astonishingly, in 2011, Amber, having provided the information that led to nine men appearing in court on rape and trafficking charges, was named in the indictment as a co-conspirator in child sexual exploitation. It came as a complete surprise, the CPS having deliberately withheld information from her. It is difficult to describe this as anything but cowardice and betrayal. The lead prosecutor claimed in court that Amber had played “an active role in helping… these defendants sexually exploit the other girls”. National newspapers demonised her as the “Honey Monster”, a “pimp” and a “bully”. She was denounced on social media as a “paedo” and her address identified, leading to bomb threats...
Blaming it on a lack of funding is lazy thinking and lets the real culprits (greeedy unions, spineless and incompetent management, spin-obsessed politicians and a monolithic 1940s Stalinist bureaucracy) off the hook too easily.
microhenry (noun)
A unit of electrical inductance, one millionth of a henry.
or
A man called Henry who has suffered a rather unusual accident with a shrinkray.
Trump is good at manipulating that process, and a section the population quite enjoy being manipulated in a fash-curious direction.
The trickier question is why? A desire for revenge over the bad people who make life rubbish? That shouting is fun? The leatherwear?
Perhaps it needs a Labour government to get the necessary reforms through, past the emotion?
NEW THREAD
You are implicitly assuming Trump doesn’t have a low ceiling
Health cost inflation: health costs have consistently risen at a higher rate than inflation.