I managed to knock out two kids, somehow, amidst the chaos of my life. I never really lived with either of the mothers - in the first instance we tried but failed within months; the second woman didn't even want to try
And yet even then the responsibilties severely impinged my life for a while, and the whole thing has been horrifically expensive. Albeit now I see it as absolutely worth it, despite all the pain and hassle. The only thing I can really compare it too is Brexit
So I can totally understand why young people don't want their own personal Brexit. However that does mean the human species will die out
The predominant feature of Western culture today is me me me me me..
Anything that might involve any sense of duty, sacrifice or service is dismissed as the individual being a bit of a mug or even sneered at and frowned upon. We are encouraged to have and take whatever we want, whenever we want it, and damn right too, and we don't owe anyone anything or have any obligations to anyone.
And, thus, a secret emptiness creeps into people's lives.
If that was true, I doubt there'd be much of a volunteer or charity sectors in the country.
It's incredible to me how we can have both such a large welfare state in this country and such a big need for charity/volunteer services. I can understand the need for one or the other, but not both at the same time. The whole point of the establishment of the welfare state was supposed to be to largely supersede the need for charity.
Arguably there are too many small charities. Many seem to originate in a personal tragedy (someone is murdered with a knife, family sets up a Charity in the their name. Someone dies of a rare cancer, family sets up a charity in their name etc).
I think these charities are serving a purpose of helping the families feel better, but as actual charities, I'm less convinced.
I also see an awful lot of charities attached to the teat of the public purse - at which point they are not really charities at all, rather they are providers of X for the commissioning body.
Big charities are run by paid professionals, which many object to, so give to smaller charities where no-one is paid even if the net result is uncoordinated duplication at best to a complete shambles at worst (and that's not counting the Captain Tom debacle).
Mrs Flatlander is a trustee on a small charity which is a bit shambolic at times, mainly because she doesn't have time to sort it out properly and the original founder's family isn't really up to the job.
It manages some land and the land is still there and not trashed, so in that sense it still works despite everything.
The large organisation for this kind of thing would be a local Wildlife Trust. Unfortunately they aren't really interested in small pieces of land - even when part of a larger whole - as they are difficult to fund.
As an example, they (the Wildlife Trust) were recently offered a piece of land (limestone grassland) with an important collection of rare plants but refused the gift as the site was apparently too small. Presumably this wouldn't attract enough funding from DEFRA for High Level Stewardship (or whatever the equivalent to this will be) and thus there would not be enough income to pay the staff who would have to manage it.
There's definitely a role for the small charity that can deal with fiddling small change and not have to pay a Chief Executive.
On the general 'civic society' front, I have found that a lot of local clubs and societies have declined or folded or now have age profiles above 70.
One thing I have noticed is that *some* retired people do not make enough allowance for "low time" volunteering.
Working people can put in a smaller number of hours, often, *on a given day*
Saying that, if you can't do 6 hours on Tuesday, then you are slacker, is simply wrong.
Yes, I think that's definitely true.
Retired people tend to do the organising (as they have the time to do it) and too many meetings and events end up being held during working hours and not at weekends.
So the age profile gets ever older and the problem compounds.
I also wonder if the lack of churchgoing has contributed to the decline of volunteering? It was a place where people could meet up and say 'why don't we fix this'. I say this as a total Heathen.
This may be my policy from now on, only the best wine, but less of it
Hic
£30 a bottle in Phnom Penh!
OK I'll drink two bottles a day, but that's my limit
Don't touch the St Emilion 1974. Picked it myself and I know what's in it.
Hah, Wilko
Phnom Penh is so weird when it comes to wine, for such a poor country - GDP of $1900 per capita, less than Zimbabwe, Mauritania and Haiti
The selection is generally good (compared to the equivalent nation in Africa, central Asia or LatAm), the prices are reasonable (compared to bloody Thailand), and almost every big wine store will have at least one sensational French red, grand cru, for a spookily reasonable price (compared to anywhere)
I am buying this St Emillion for about a pound more than it would cost in the UK, in a case
I get that Cambo has a French colonial heritage, but the ergo-economics of this still perplex me
Once you have a temperature controlled container on a ship, the cost of sending it round the world vs a few hundred miles is surprisingly small. A lot of the cost is in the port facilities either end, having a ship to carry it. The actual length of the voyage in between is a much smaller factor in the overall transport cost than you might think.
That and wine forgery is getting really good these days. Especially now that Rudy is out and selling his expertise.
That has crossed my mind
I've seen so many amazing French wines so cheap.... however I don't see how the economics of THAT work, either
Cambodia is a tiny market. So you'd have to develop superb fakery techniques to fool a really small population
Also, if they are faking it, my God they are doing it well. i know my wine and this tastes like good Saint Emilion, typical grand cru, it has that distinctive mix of austerity and generosity. It can feel thin, but then let it breathe and give it a swirl... it's v nice
If they can fake it, bring on the fakers
My only explanation is that there is a big enough and rich enough expat community that demands great wine, and a lot of them are French, and somehow the old trading routes with France somehow survived the end of the French Empire AND the Khmer Rouge
So apparently the big rise in my mortgage is Sunak's plan working.
I get the Tory narrative about "Labour tax rises". But the Tories have just put through a massive tax rise. So what is he thinking? As Starmer put it, are people to believe Starmer's boasts or their own bank accounts?
Awful few minutes for Sunak. But wont matter anyway as I dont think Tory polling can go any lower.
The tories at the moment have terrible polling. The need to start getting better results. So it does still matter, if it reduces the level of swing back at the GE.
Sunak had a poor PMQ and whilst Starmer did have an open goal he didn't miss
However, the NI deal is far more important and it seems Sunak and Cameron may not only have got the DUP on board, but also the EU to amend part of the WF
If that is confirmed and NI government restarts over the weekend, then that will be a major achievement by Sunak and Cameron
However let's wait and see if it happens
Yes, just reading the live BBC feed on Donaldson's interview with BBC Northern Ireland. He is very complementary about Sunak. The first reason I've been given to reassess my opinion that he is drowning - perhaps.
You can read the full agreement here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65ba3b7bee7d490013984a59/Command_Paper__1_.pdf It is densely packed with rhetorical flourishes. It’s hard to make out what actually it entails that is different from what was agreed under the Windsor Framework. On first impression, there’s a lot of windowdressing. Lots of waffle so the DUP can save face. Contrary to what the DUP says, a border of sorts remains down the Irish Sea, but the WF already did the heavy lifting to minimise the impact on goods travelling purely between NI and GB.
However, I await more detailed analyses from people who know what they’re talking about! If windowdressing and rhetoric is what it took to get the DUP to come back to Stormont, it’s great that Sunak has delivered it. Sunak is perhaps better at these important deals than he is at political campaigning.
Has there been any statement from the EU Commission?
I’ve not seen one. The implication of the Command Paper is that they’ve signed off on this.
The $56 Bn was passed by shareholders based on specific performance targets which were met. I'm a bit uneasy with a complaint from someone who owns a grand total of 9 TSLA shares complaining to a court regarding a passed shareholder motion and then a judge quashing passed said shareholder resolution. Feels like judicial interference tbh. I don't own any TSLA - well not directly anyway.
Uncomfortable as well but not sure the court is wrong.
The argument for corporate waste seems fairly strong on the grounds of it being 1) excessive at the time 2) not needed to tie Musk in as he owned a significant slice of Tesla already 3) not effective in tying Musk in as he has spent loads of time on twatter, space, human implants and challenging rivals to cage fights.
From what I've seen elsewhere, there were at least two other issues: the specific performance targets were the same as the targets given to other investors without the bung to Musk; in other words, Tesla were telling people they would meet them anyway. The other is that the board is nowhere near as independent as would be healthy for a company.
Seeing as we are talking about food and eating, I can proudly announce that I am now down to 85.4kg, 188 pounds, 13 stone 6
Just 6 pounds from my target
In about seven weeks I have shed 12kg - 26 pounds! And you can tell, I actually look almost.... slim (by my standards)
Fasting WORKS
I am of course celebrating with a massive ribeye and a $50 bottle of red from the best supermarket in Cambodia, but tomorrow it's back to austerity. Gotta lose those last pounds. The end is in sight!
That’s impressive. I hit 79kg on the scales this morning, for the first time in about 18 months, and down 5kg from three weeks ago.
A massive ribeye and a $50 bottle of red sounds like a plan.
I experienced a wind speed of 155mph+ on our expedition ship in South Georgia and it was just amazing
At anchor? I'm surprised a ship could survive that without serious damage.
The worst winds in any inhabited area must be the Piteraq in Greenland (similar cause?).
Cold air is drawn off the icecap in certain conditions and funnels down the valleys in a freezing cold river at 200mph and -15C.
The UK record is about 170mph, BTW. I have been out in c80mph and it seems Mrs Flatlander flies at that windspeed so we have not tried to repeat the experience.
The Royal Navy used to have a version of the Beaufort Scale that included not just speeds of the various winds and descriptions of their environmental effects, but also actions to be taken by the ship's captain. These I think included battening down hatches, removing loose obects from exposed decks, and crew not to venture on deck. At Force 12. the admirably laconic instruction: Seek Calmer Weather.
I managed to knock out two kids, somehow, amidst the chaos of my life. I never really lived with either of the mothers - in the first instance we tried but failed within months; the second woman didn't even want to try
And yet even then the responsibilties severely impinged my life for a while, and the whole thing has been horrifically expensive. Albeit now I see it as absolutely worth it, despite all the pain and hassle. The only thing I can really compare it too is Brexit
So I can totally understand why young people don't want their own personal Brexit. However that does mean the human species will die out
The predominant feature of Western culture today is me me me me me..
Anything that might involve any sense of duty, sacrifice or service is dismissed as the individual being a bit of a mug or even sneered at and frowned upon. We are encouraged to have and take whatever we want, whenever we want it, and damn right too, and we don't owe anyone anything or have any obligations to anyone.
And, thus, a secret emptiness creeps into people's lives.
If that was true, I doubt there'd be much of a volunteer or charity sectors in the country.
It's incredible to me how we can have both such a large welfare state in this country and such a big need for charity/volunteer services. I can understand the need for one or the other, but not both at the same time. The whole point of the establishment of the welfare state was supposed to be to largely supersede the need for charity.
Arguably there are too many small charities. Many seem to originate in a personal tragedy (someone is murdered with a knife, family sets up a Charity in the their name. Someone dies of a rare cancer, family sets up a charity in their name etc).
I think these charities are serving a purpose of helping the families feel better, but as actual charities, I'm less convinced.
I also see an awful lot of charities attached to the teat of the public purse - at which point they are not really charities at all, rather they are providers of X for the commissioning body.
Big charities are run by paid professionals, which many object to, so give to smaller charities where no-one is paid even if the net result is uncoordinated duplication at best to a complete shambles at worst (and that's not counting the Captain Tom debacle).
Mrs Flatlander is a trustee on a small charity which is a bit shambolic at times, mainly because she doesn't have time to sort it out properly and the original founder's family isn't really up to the job.
It manages some land and the land is still there and not trashed, so in that sense it still works despite everything.
The large organisation for this kind of thing would be a local Wildlife Trust. Unfortunately they aren't really interested in small pieces of land - even when part of a larger whole - as they are difficult to fund.
As an example, they (the Wildlife Trust) were recently offered a piece of land (limestone grassland) with an important collection of rare plants but refused the gift as the site was apparently too small. Presumably this wouldn't attract enough funding from DEFRA for High Level Stewardship (or whatever the equivalent to this will be) and thus there would not be enough income to pay the staff who would have to manage it.
There's definitely a role for the small charity that can deal with fiddling small change and not have to pay a Chief Executive.
On the general 'civic society' front, I have found that a lot of local clubs and societies have declined or folded or now have age profiles above 70.
One thing I have noticed is that *some* retired people do not make enough allowance for "low time" volunteering.
Working people can put in a smaller number of hours, often, *on a given day*
Saying that, if you can't do 6 hours on Tuesday, then you are slacker, is simply wrong.
Yes, I think that's definitely true.
Retired people tend to do the organising (as they have the time to do it) and too many meetings and events end up being held during working hours and not at weekends.
So the age profile gets ever older and the problem compounds.
I also wonder if the lack of churchgoing has contributed to the decline of volunteering? It was a place where people could meet up and say 'why don't we fix this'. I say this as a total Heathen.
It defintely has, and nothing has replaced it.
As I mentioned, collective activities are often sneered at by both the modern left and right. There is this glimmer of hope about the very youngest cohort, though, as Kamski mentions.
Seeing as we are talking about food and eating, I can proudly announce that I am now down to 85.4kg, 188 pounds, 13 stone 6
Just 6 pounds from my target
In about seven weeks I have shed 12kg - 26 pounds! And you can tell, I actually look almost.... slim (by my standards)
Fasting WORKS
I am of course celebrating with a massive ribeye and a $50 bottle of red from the best supermarket in Cambodia, but tomorrow it's back to austerity. Gotta lose those last pounds. The end is in sight!
That’s impressive. I hit 79kg on the scales this morning, for the first time in about 18 months, and down 5kg from three weeks ago.
A massive ribeye and a $50 bottle of red sounds like a plan.
Thanks
I have just eaten the steak and now working my way through the wine (see my commentary, passim), however it's back to monasticism tomorrow. Determined to hit my target: 82kg - before I return home
And well done you!
PB Weightwatchers and Boozewatchers actually works. We keep tabs on each other - and I am grateful for the motivation
So apparently the big rise in my mortgage is Sunak's plan working.
I get the Tory narrative about "Labour tax rises". But the Tories have just put through a massive tax rise. So what is he thinking? As Starmer put it, are people to believe Starmer's boasts or their own bank accounts?
Awful few minutes for Sunak. But wont matter anyway as I dont think Tory polling can go any lower.
The tories at the moment have terrible polling. The need to start getting better results. So it does still matter, if it reduces the level of swing back at the GE.
Sunak had a poor PMQ and whilst Starmer did have an open goal he didn't miss
However, the NI deal is far more important and it seems Sunak and Cameron may not only have got the DUP on board, but also the EU to amend part of the WF
If that is confirmed and NI government restarts over the weekend, then that will be a major achievement by Sunak and Cameron
However let's wait and see if it happens
Yes, just reading the live BBC feed on Donaldson's interview with BBC Northern Ireland. He is very complementary about Sunak. The first reason I've been given to reassess my opinion that he is drowning - perhaps.
You can read the full agreement here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65ba3b7bee7d490013984a59/Command_Paper__1_.pdf It is densely packed with rhetorical flourishes. It’s hard to make out what actually it entails that is different from what was agreed under the Windsor Framework. On first impression, there’s a lot of windowdressing. Lots of waffle so the DUP can save face. Contrary to what the DUP says, a border of sorts remains down the Irish Sea, but the WF already did the heavy lifting to minimise the impact on goods travelling purely between NI and GB.
However, I await more detailed analyses from people who know what they’re talking about! If windowdressing and rhetoric is what it took to get the DUP to come back to Stormont, it’s great that Sunak has delivered it. Sunak is perhaps better at these important deals than he is at political campaigning.
Has there been any statement from the EU Commission?
I’ve not seen one. The implication of the Command Paper is that they’ve signed off on this.
Nothing from the Republic’s government either, unless I’ve missed it. Please tell me Sunak’s not just winging it.
On PMQs, I don't mind Starmer pinning rise in mortgage rates on the government - seems fair enough, especially when Sunak wants to take the credit for falling inflation.
However, I would like to see Starmer taking more interest in the millions of people who rent private property, who have suffered huge rent hikes in recent years. Most of these are younger voters, who need more reason to vote Labour. It's not all about house buyers, Keir.
We need a massive housebuilding programme that is delivered rather than promised. I am expecting it will be promised but not delivered as per usual.
This may be my policy from now on, only the best wine, but less of it
Hic
£30 a bottle in Phnom Penh!
OK I'll drink two bottles a day, but that's my limit
Don't touch the St Emilion 1974. Picked it myself and I know what's in it.
Hah, Wilko
Phnom Penh is so weird when it comes to wine, for such a poor country - GDP of $1900 per capita, less than Zimbabwe, Mauritania and Haiti
The selection is generally good (compared to the equivalent nation in Africa, central Asia or LatAm), the prices are reasonable (compared to bloody Thailand), and almost every big wine store will have at least one sensational French red, grand cru, for a spookily reasonable price (compared to anywhere)
I am buying this St Emillion for about a pound more than it would cost in the UK, in a case
I get that Cambo has a French colonial heritage, but the ergo-economics of this still perplex me
Once you have a temperature controlled container on a ship, the cost of sending it round the world vs a few hundred miles is surprisingly small. A lot of the cost is in the port facilities either end, having a ship to carry it. The actual length of the voyage in between is a much smaller factor in the overall transport cost than you might think.
That and wine forgery is getting really good these days. Especially now that Rudy is out and selling his expertise.
That has crossed my mind
I've seen so many amazing French wines so cheap.... however I don't see how the economics of THAT work, either
Cambodia is a tiny market. So you'd have to develop superb fakery techniques to fool a really small population
Also, if they are faking it, my God they are doing it well. i know my wine and this tastes like good Saint Emilion, typical grand cru, it has that distinctive mix of austerity and generosity. It can feel thin, but then let it breathe and give it a swirl... it's v nice
If they can fake it, bring on the fakers
My only explanation is that there is a big enough and rich enough expat community that demands great wine, and a lot of them are French, and somehow the old trading routes with France somehow survived the end of the French Empire AND the Khmer Rouge
Rudy's method was to buy tons of French old plonk that *was* thin and insipid. Then tune it up with some Californian red and suddenly it was ALIVE.
He was doing a mad operation in his sink. If he'd used a nitrogen handling setup, he could have avoided the wine oxidising - many of the tasters that caught on said that his wines were oxidised the moment the bottle was opened. Which they were.
Apparently the fakers learnt from this.
Remember that Vietnam is doing tons of business with China. And the Chinese are driving the prices in the French high end wine market now.
On PMQs, I don't mind Starmer pinning rise in mortgage rates on the government - seems fair enough, especially when Sunak wants to take the credit for falling inflation.
However, I would like to see Starmer taking more interest in the millions of people who rent private property, who have suffered huge rent hikes in recent years. Most of these are younger voters, who need more reason to vote Labour. It's not all about house buyers, Keir.
We need a massive housebuilding programme that is delivered rather than promised. I am expecting it will be promised but not delivered as per usual.
Quite the change from ‘Project Fear’ and ‘No downsides’. ‘We will be part of a free trade zone.’ It’s almost as if the lying liars knowingly and repeatedly lied because if they’d told the truth they knew Brexit would never have got through.
A hugely over-promoted woman (one of several) who's now come back as a junior minister.
Seeing as we are talking about food and eating, I can proudly announce that I am now down to 85.4kg, 188 pounds, 13 stone 6
Just 6 pounds from my target
In about seven weeks I have shed 12kg - 26 pounds! And you can tell, I actually look almost.... slim (by my standards)
Fasting WORKS
I am of course celebrating with a massive ribeye and a $50 bottle of red from the best supermarket in Cambodia, but tomorrow it's back to austerity. Gotta lose those last pounds. The end is in sight!
That’s impressive. I hit 79kg on the scales this morning, for the first time in about 18 months, and down 5kg from three weeks ago.
A massive ribeye and a $50 bottle of red sounds like a plan.
Thanks
I have just eaten the steak and now working my way through the wine (see my commentary, passim), however it's back to monasticism tomorrow. Determined to hit my target: 82kg - before I return home
And well done you!
PB Weightwatchers and Boozewatchers actually works. We keep tabs on each other - and I am grateful for the motivation
I’m sitting in the pub, and have just ordered the steak and the wine!
But yes, a community of people all working towards goals helps loads. Doubly so on a political forum, where there’s often silly divisions. If I remember correctly, @RochdalePioneers is the weight loss champion for January, and I agree with him on pretty much nothing politically.
One issue though is EU law . What happens if the NI assembly vote against a new EU law , how does this effect their access to the EU market ?
It does look like the EU have made some concessions. It’s amazing what happens when you build trust and don’t continually threaten them as in the Johnson years .
Unfortunately for Sunak this won’t move the polls because the vast majority of the public couldn’t care less about NI .
This may be my policy from now on, only the best wine, but less of it
Hic
£30 a bottle in Phnom Penh!
OK I'll drink two bottles a day, but that's my limit
Don't touch the St Emilion 1974. Picked it myself and I know what's in it.
Hah, Wilko
Phnom Penh is so weird when it comes to wine, for such a poor country - GDP of $1900 per capita, less than Zimbabwe, Mauritania and Haiti
The selection is generally good (compared to the equivalent nation in Africa, central Asia or LatAm), the prices are reasonable (compared to bloody Thailand), and almost every big wine store will have at least one sensational French red, grand cru, for a spookily reasonable price (compared to anywhere)
I am buying this St Emillion for about a pound more than it would cost in the UK, in a case
I get that Cambo has a French colonial heritage, but the ergo-economics of this still perplex me
Once you have a temperature controlled container on a ship, the cost of sending it round the world vs a few hundred miles is surprisingly small. A lot of the cost is in the port facilities either end, having a ship to carry it. The actual length of the voyage in between is a much smaller factor in the overall transport cost than you might think.
That and wine forgery is getting really good these days. Especially now that Rudy is out and selling his expertise.
That has crossed my mind
I've seen so many amazing French wines so cheap.... however I don't see how the economics of THAT work, either
Cambodia is a tiny market. So you'd have to develop superb fakery techniques to fool a really small population
Also, if they are faking it, my God they are doing it well. i know my wine and this tastes like good Saint Emilion, typical grand cru, it has that distinctive mix of austerity and generosity. It can feel thin, but then let it breathe and give it a swirl... it's v nice
If they can fake it, bring on the fakers
My only explanation is that there is a big enough and rich enough expat community that demands great wine, and a lot of them are French, and somehow the old trading routes with France somehow survived the end of the French Empire AND the Khmer Rouge
Rudy's method was to buy tons of French old plonk that *was* thin and insipid. Then tune it up with some Californian red and suddenly it was ALIVE.
He was doing a mad operation in his sink. If he'd used a nitrogen handling setup, he could have avoided the wine oxidising - many of the tasters that caught on said that his wines were oxidised the moment the bottle was opened. Which they were.
Apparently the fakers learnt from this.
Remember that Vietnam is doing tons of business with China. And the Chinese are driving the prices in the French high end wine market now.
Hmm!
Thats fascinating
Perhaps you are right. Also, if you wanted to fake it (in a big way) you'd probably start with testing it in a small backwater population, with money and good taste, and see if you get away with it. If you fail, no one notices, if you succeed, ooooh
The expats of Phnom Penh fit the bill. Often rich, always well paid, tend to be hedonistic, and they like wine
A very sensible thread by my favourite retired U.S. major general.
The past 48 hours have seen much speculation about President Zelenskyy having decided to remove General Zaluzhnyi from his appointment as Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Of course, this is not a new story. But what might be the implications? 1/25 https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1752482925688582469
From (Russian language) Ukrainian news...
Green T-shirt wants rid of Zaluzhny so he can hang the counter-offensive on him. Zaluzhny was summoned and told to resign so he could be ambassador to France (other report says Spain). Zaluzhny told GTS to fuck himself and that he'd have to be fired.
Budanov (head of military intelligence) is the chosen successor despite a pretty thin CV but he's a good media performer which is thought to be very important by El Presidente. However they can't get rid of Zaluzhny without a political mess so the stand-off continues.
Well I can’t seem to edit my post above - but for those that care the NI secretary when the assembly came back after “cash for ash” was not Brokenshire - nor even Karen Bradley - but Julian Smith. Who knew (well definitely not me).
Julian Smith was dumped as NI Sec when seemingly doing a good job. As Tory MPs go, he always seemed to me to be at the better end of the scale.
This may be my policy from now on, only the best wine, but less of it
Hic
£30 a bottle in Phnom Penh!
OK I'll drink two bottles a day, but that's my limit
Don't touch the St Emilion 1974. Picked it myself and I know what's in it.
Hah, Wilko
Phnom Penh is so weird when it comes to wine, for such a poor country - GDP of $1900 per capita, less than Zimbabwe, Mauritania and Haiti
The selection is generally good (compared to the equivalent nation in Africa, central Asia or LatAm), the prices are reasonable (compared to bloody Thailand), and almost every big wine store will have at least one sensational French red, grand cru, for a spookily reasonable price (compared to anywhere)
I am buying this St Emillion for about a pound more than it would cost in the UK, in a case
I get that Cambo has a French colonial heritage, but the ergo-economics of this still perplex me
Once you have a temperature controlled container on a ship, the cost of sending it round the world vs a few hundred miles is surprisingly small. A lot of the cost is in the port facilities either end, having a ship to carry it. The actual length of the voyage in between is a much smaller factor in the overall transport cost than you might think.
That and wine forgery is getting really good these days. Especially now that Rudy is out and selling his expertise.
That has crossed my mind
I've seen so many amazing French wines so cheap.... however I don't see how the economics of THAT work, either
Cambodia is a tiny market. So you'd have to develop superb fakery techniques to fool a really small population
Also, if they are faking it, my God they are doing it well. i know my wine and this tastes like good Saint Emilion, typical grand cru, it has that distinctive mix of austerity and generosity. It can feel thin, but then let it breathe and give it a swirl... it's v nice
If they can fake it, bring on the fakers
My only explanation is that there is a big enough and rich enough expat community that demands great wine, and a lot of them are French, and somehow the old trading routes with France somehow survived the end of the French Empire AND the Khmer Rouge
Rudy's method was to buy tons of French old plonk that *was* thin and insipid. Then tune it up with some Californian red and suddenly it was ALIVE.
He was doing a mad operation in his sink. If he'd used a nitrogen handling setup, he could have avoided the wine oxidising - many of the tasters that caught on said that his wines were oxidised the moment the bottle was opened. Which they were.
Apparently the fakers learnt from this.
Remember that Vietnam is doing tons of business with China. And the Chinese are driving the prices in the French high end wine market now.
Hmm!
Thats fascinating
Perhaps you are right. Also, if you wanted to fake it (in a big way) you'd probably start with testing it in a small backwater population, with money and good taste, and see if you get away with it. If you fail, no one notices, if you succeed, ooooh
The expats of Phnom Penh fit the bill. Often rich, always well paid, tend to be hedonistic, and they like wine
Oh Mandelson is right - however no-one knows HOW right. The lead (factoring in shy Cons) looks to be about 15%. Polling error could put that at 10% in reality. However, those corrections remove most of that soft Lab lead and leave the Cons having to attack an entrenched, made up its mind, Lab lead. That lead appears to be, courtesy of Scotland, well beyond the point where Lab has its majority. There is also an assumption the Cons will make up ground in the GE campaign. From all that I see of them the opposite seems more likely. Mr Sunak will not be able to hide in a fridge and run out the clock on the campaign.
Meanwhile, since 1950, from 11 months out no party has lost the popular vote if it was 5% or more ahead. Lab are three times that amount ahead. If the Cons performed miracles and got the vote level then they would still be facing Prime Minister Starmer.
However, Mandelson is saying exactly what we should expect him too. A far bigger threat to Lab than the Con strategists is the potential for complacency.
Can’t remember if I read it here or somewhere else, but I saw the theory that the government are setting up a load of Brexit traps for the next government. They could well be letting these new import regs come in, after many delays, in time for their full, massively unpopular, impact to land squarely in the lap of a new government. Likewise with this NI stuff today - what, if any, is the plan/timeline for the EU to agree to all this. Again, will it be a steaming turd whose full baleful impact is deposited in the lap of the incoming government?
When the next government has to join the reality-based community and accept the importance of closer alignment with the EU the Tories, who obvs anticipate being in opposition, can scream Brexit betrayal.
The problem is, beyond their own echo chambers, the nutters and the xenophobes, the misty-eyed sovereigntists, everyone else will welcome the betrayal of Brexit. Because the reality-based community know it’s shit.
As cock-a-hoop as I would be with a three figure Labour majority, I would almost prefer a Lab/Lib Dem coalition, so Starmer can, with theatrical hesitation, bend to Lib Dem demands for a full-throated pivot back towards the EU. To work towards rejoining. What a dream!
One issue though is EU law . What happens if the NI assembly vote against a new EU law , how does this effect their access to the EU market ?
It does look like the EU have made some concessions. It’s amazing what happens when you build trust and don’t continually threaten them as in the Johnson years .
Unfortunately for Sunak this won’t move the polls because the vast majority of the public couldn’t care less about NI .
Look at the bar required for the Assembly to do so. It’s inconceivable with the nationalists around. So everyone gets what they want. The DUP get to pretend they can veto new EU laws and the EU gets to know it will never happen. As you say, it’s the sort of deal that requires a good U.K/EU relationship so no one says anything unhelpful, like the truth.
I managed to knock out two kids, somehow, amidst the chaos of my life. I never really lived with either of the mothers - in the first instance we tried but failed within months; the second woman didn't even want to try
And yet even then the responsibilties severely impinged my life for a while, and the whole thing has been horrifically expensive. Albeit now I see it as absolutely worth it, despite all the pain and hassle. The only thing I can really compare it too is Brexit
So I can totally understand why young people don't want their own personal Brexit. However that does mean the human species will die out
The predominant feature of Western culture today is me me me me me..
Anything that might involve any sense of duty, sacrifice or service is dismissed as the individual being a bit of a mug or even sneered at and frowned upon. We are encouraged to have and take whatever we want, whenever we want it, and damn right too, and we don't owe anyone anything or have any obligations to anyone.
And, thus, a secret emptiness creeps into people's lives.
If that was true, I doubt there'd be much of a volunteer or charity sectors in the country.
It's incredible to me how we can have both such a large welfare state in this country and such a big need for charity/volunteer services. I can understand the need for one or the other, but not both at the same time. The whole point of the establishment of the welfare state was supposed to be to largely supersede the need for charity.
Arguably there are too many small charities. Many seem to originate in a personal tragedy (someone is murdered with a knife, family sets up a Charity in the their name. Someone dies of a rare cancer, family sets up a charity in their name etc).
I think these charities are serving a purpose of helping the families feel better, but as actual charities, I'm less convinced.
I also see an awful lot of charities attached to the teat of the public purse - at which point they are not really charities at all, rather they are providers of X for the commissioning body.
Big charities are run by paid professionals, which many object to, so give to smaller charities where no-one is paid even if the net result is uncoordinated duplication at best to a complete shambles at worst (and that's not counting the Captain Tom debacle).
Mrs Flatlander is a trustee on a small charity which is a bit shambolic at times, mainly because she doesn't have time to sort it out properly and the original founder's family isn't really up to the job.
It manages some land and the land is still there and not trashed, so in that sense it still works despite everything.
The large organisation for this kind of thing would be a local Wildlife Trust. Unfortunately they aren't really interested in small pieces of land - even when part of a larger whole - as they are difficult to fund.
As an example, they (the Wildlife Trust) were recently offered a piece of land (limestone grassland) with an important collection of rare plants but refused the gift as the site was apparently too small. Presumably this wouldn't attract enough funding from DEFRA for High Level Stewardship (or whatever the equivalent to this will be) and thus there would not be enough income to pay the staff who would have to manage it.
There's definitely a role for the small charity that can deal with fiddling small change and not have to pay a Chief Executive.
On the general 'civic society' front, I have found that a lot of local clubs and societies have declined or folded or now have age profiles above 70.
This is unsurprising, though I believe small local organisations, groups etc are critical to the good running of communities, especially but not only in more rural areas.
As to why people may be reluctant to commit to unpaid and unappreciated drudgery, Google "Charity trustee risks" and have a look at the 7 pages of Charity Commission advice on trustee liability, or the 33 pages on risk management.
Incidentally huge numbers of people will be trustees without even knowing they are, for example many CoE PCC members have no idea what they are taking on, believing its main task (as it often appears) is to organise the coffee rota and throw away 500 page documents on gays.
I managed to knock out two kids, somehow, amidst the chaos of my life. I never really lived with either of the mothers - in the first instance we tried but failed within months; the second woman didn't even want to try
And yet even then the responsibilties severely impinged my life for a while, and the whole thing has been horrifically expensive. Albeit now I see it as absolutely worth it, despite all the pain and hassle. The only thing I can really compare it too is Brexit
So I can totally understand why young people don't want their own personal Brexit. However that does mean the human species will die out
The predominant feature of Western culture today is me me me me me..
Anything that might involve any sense of duty, sacrifice or service is dismissed as the individual being a bit of a mug or even sneered at and frowned upon. We are encouraged to have and take whatever we want, whenever we want it, and damn right too, and we don't owe anyone anything or have any obligations to anyone.
And, thus, a secret emptiness creeps into people's lives.
If that was true, I doubt there'd be much of a volunteer or charity sectors in the country.
It's incredible to me how we can have both such a large welfare state in this country and such a big need for charity/volunteer services. I can understand the need for one or the other, but not both at the same time. The whole point of the establishment of the welfare state was supposed to be to largely supersede the need for charity.
Arguably there are too many small charities. Many seem to originate in a personal tragedy (someone is murdered with a knife, family sets up a Charity in the their name. Someone dies of a rare cancer, family sets up a charity in their name etc).
I think these charities are serving a purpose of helping the families feel better, but as actual charities, I'm less convinced.
I also see an awful lot of charities attached to the teat of the public purse - at which point they are not really charities at all, rather they are providers of X for the commissioning body.
Big charities are run by paid professionals, which many object to, so give to smaller charities where no-one is paid even if the net result is uncoordinated duplication at best to a complete shambles at worst (and that's not counting the Captain Tom debacle).
Mrs Flatlander is a trustee on a small charity which is a bit shambolic at times, mainly because she doesn't have time to sort it out properly and the original founder's family isn't really up to the job.
It manages some land and the land is still there and not trashed, so in that sense it still works despite everything.
The large organisation for this kind of thing would be a local Wildlife Trust. Unfortunately they aren't really interested in small pieces of land - even when part of a larger whole - as they are difficult to fund.
As an example, they (the Wildlife Trust) were recently offered a piece of land (limestone grassland) with an important collection of rare plants but refused the gift as the site was apparently too small. Presumably this wouldn't attract enough funding from DEFRA for High Level Stewardship (or whatever the equivalent to this will be) and thus there would not be enough income to pay the staff who would have to manage it.
There's definitely a role for the small charity that can deal with fiddling small change and not have to pay a Chief Executive.
On the general 'civic society' front, I have found that a lot of local clubs and societies have declined or folded or now have age profiles above 70.
This is unsurprising, though I believe small local organisations, groups etc are critical to the good running of communities, especially but not only in more rural areas.
As to why people may be reluctant to commit to unpaid and unappreciated drudgery, Google "Charity trustee risks" and have a look at the 7 pages of Charity Commission advice on trustee liability, or the 33 pages on risk management.
Incidentally huge numbers of people will be trustees without even knowing they are, for example many CoE PCC members have no idea what they are taking on, believing its main task (as it often appears) is to organise the coffee rota and throw away 500 page documents on gays.
Exactly. It's one thing being responsible for one's actions, but quite another to risk the family house on some incompetent's behaviour.
It doesn't have to be a trustee who is put off. I was once asked by a civic society to co-lead a field outing over some fairly rough ground. Liability insurance for accidents is absolutely the norm for such events and is easily obtained. But the organiser wouldn't do it even when we pointed it out - so we wouldn't do it. Else we'd have been personally liable for any accidents/injuries.
Why is Bridgen wearing a large paper clip on his suit?
The answer to so many Andrew Bridgen questions are 'because he's a dickhead'.
And it applies here - it's from a Norwegian antivaxxer group (the paperclip being a symbol of the WWII resistance there, now appropriated by the nutjobs).
I managed to knock out two kids, somehow, amidst the chaos of my life. I never really lived with either of the mothers - in the first instance we tried but failed within months; the second woman didn't even want to try
And yet even then the responsibilties severely impinged my life for a while, and the whole thing has been horrifically expensive. Albeit now I see it as absolutely worth it, despite all the pain and hassle. The only thing I can really compare it too is Brexit
So I can totally understand why young people don't want their own personal Brexit. However that does mean the human species will die out
The predominant feature of Western culture today is me me me me me..
Anything that might involve any sense of duty, sacrifice or service is dismissed as the individual being a bit of a mug or even sneered at and frowned upon. We are encouraged to have and take whatever we want, whenever we want it, and damn right too, and we don't owe anyone anything or have any obligations to anyone.
And, thus, a secret emptiness creeps into people's lives.
If that was true, I doubt there'd be much of a volunteer or charity sectors in the country.
It's incredible to me how we can have both such a large welfare state in this country and such a big need for charity/volunteer services. I can understand the need for one or the other, but not both at the same time. The whole point of the establishment of the welfare state was supposed to be to largely supersede the need for charity.
Arguably there are too many small charities. Many seem to originate in a personal tragedy (someone is murdered with a knife, family sets up a Charity in the their name. Someone dies of a rare cancer, family sets up a charity in their name etc).
I think these charities are serving a purpose of helping the families feel better, but as actual charities, I'm less convinced.
I also see an awful lot of charities attached to the teat of the public purse - at which point they are not really charities at all, rather they are providers of X for the commissioning body.
Big charities are run by paid professionals, which many object to, so give to smaller charities where no-one is paid even if the net result is uncoordinated duplication at best to a complete shambles at worst (and that's not counting the Captain Tom debacle).
Mrs Flatlander is a trustee on a small charity which is a bit shambolic at times, mainly because she doesn't have time to sort it out properly and the original founder's family isn't really up to the job.
It manages some land and the land is still there and not trashed, so in that sense it still works despite everything.
The large organisation for this kind of thing would be a local Wildlife Trust. Unfortunately they aren't really interested in small pieces of land - even when part of a larger whole - as they are difficult to fund.
As an example, they (the Wildlife Trust) were recently offered a piece of land (limestone grassland) with an important collection of rare plants but refused the gift as the site was apparently too small. Presumably this wouldn't attract enough funding from DEFRA for High Level Stewardship (or whatever the equivalent to this will be) and thus there would not be enough income to pay the staff who would have to manage it.
There's definitely a role for the small charity that can deal with fiddling small change and not have to pay a Chief Executive.
On the general 'civic society' front, I have found that a lot of local clubs and societies have declined or folded or now have age profiles above 70.
One thing I have noticed is that *some* retired people do not make enough allowance for "low time" volunteering.
Working people can put in a smaller number of hours, often, *on a given day*
Saying that, if you can't do 6 hours on Tuesday, then you are slacker, is simply wrong.
Yes, I think that's definitely true.
Retired people tend to do the organising (as they have the time to do it) and too many meetings and events end up being held during working hours and not at weekends.
So the age profile gets ever older and the problem compounds.
I also wonder if the lack of churchgoing has contributed to the decline of volunteering? It was a place where people could meet up and say 'why don't we fix this'. I say this as a total Heathen.
It is quite possible that the decline in churchgoing (precipitous since the start of Covid but considerable before) is a symptom, not a cause of decline in volunteering.
IMHO the largest single factor in the volunteering problem is the weight of accountability placed on volunteers, of which safeguarding, H and S, bureaucratic accountability, and trustee liability come high up.
The other major issue in volunteering is the unavoidable fact that when most middle class women are working F/T or nearly F/T the time available to that remarkable demographic to do nice stuff for others (the backbone of society when I was a child) reduces to nearly zero.
I managed to knock out two kids, somehow, amidst the chaos of my life. I never really lived with either of the mothers - in the first instance we tried but failed within months; the second woman didn't even want to try
And yet even then the responsibilties severely impinged my life for a while, and the whole thing has been horrifically expensive. Albeit now I see it as absolutely worth it, despite all the pain and hassle. The only thing I can really compare it too is Brexit
So I can totally understand why young people don't want their own personal Brexit. However that does mean the human species will die out
The predominant feature of Western culture today is me me me me me..
Anything that might involve any sense of duty, sacrifice or service is dismissed as the individual being a bit of a mug or even sneered at and frowned upon. We are encouraged to have and take whatever we want, whenever we want it, and damn right too, and we don't owe anyone anything or have any obligations to anyone.
And, thus, a secret emptiness creeps into people's lives.
If that was true, I doubt there'd be much of a volunteer or charity sectors in the country.
It's incredible to me how we can have both such a large welfare state in this country and such a big need for charity/volunteer services. I can understand the need for one or the other, but not both at the same time. The whole point of the establishment of the welfare state was supposed to be to largely supersede the need for charity.
Arguably there are too many small charities. Many seem to originate in a personal tragedy (someone is murdered with a knife, family sets up a Charity in the their name. Someone dies of a rare cancer, family sets up a charity in their name etc).
I think these charities are serving a purpose of helping the families feel better, but as actual charities, I'm less convinced.
I also see an awful lot of charities attached to the teat of the public purse - at which point they are not really charities at all, rather they are providers of X for the commissioning body.
Big charities are run by paid professionals, which many object to, so give to smaller charities where no-one is paid even if the net result is uncoordinated duplication at best to a complete shambles at worst (and that's not counting the Captain Tom debacle).
Mrs Flatlander is a trustee on a small charity which is a bit shambolic at times, mainly because she doesn't have time to sort it out properly and the original founder's family isn't really up to the job.
It manages some land and the land is still there and not trashed, so in that sense it still works despite everything.
The large organisation for this kind of thing would be a local Wildlife Trust. Unfortunately they aren't really interested in small pieces of land - even when part of a larger whole - as they are difficult to fund.
As an example, they (the Wildlife Trust) were recently offered a piece of land (limestone grassland) with an important collection of rare plants but refused the gift as the site was apparently too small. Presumably this wouldn't attract enough funding from DEFRA for High Level Stewardship (or whatever the equivalent to this will be) and thus there would not be enough income to pay the staff who would have to manage it.
There's definitely a role for the small charity that can deal with fiddling small change and not have to pay a Chief Executive.
On the general 'civic society' front, I have found that a lot of local clubs and societies have declined or folded or now have age profiles above 70.
I once set up a fund to help students attend the annual conference in my specialist field, when the owner of a relevant business died and his family gave some cash in his memory. But rather than have a separate charity or leave it as an uncharitable operation, I managed to get it installed before long as a sub-fund within a pre-existing and well-run larger charity in the general field - minimum extra admin costs, charitable status, and so on. Quite lucky really.
Seeing as we are talking about food and eating, I can proudly announce that I am now down to 85.4kg, 188 pounds, 13 stone 6
Just 6 pounds from my target
In about seven weeks I have shed 12kg - 26 pounds! And you can tell, I actually look almost.... slim (by my standards)
Fasting WORKS
I am of course celebrating with a massive ribeye and a $50 bottle of red from the best supermarket in Cambodia, but tomorrow it's back to austerity. Gotta lose those last pounds. The end is in sight!
That’s impressive. I hit 79kg on the scales this morning, for the first time in about 18 months, and down 5kg from three weeks ago.
A massive ribeye and a $50 bottle of red sounds like a plan.
Thanks
I have just eaten the steak and now working my way through the wine (see my commentary, passim), however it's back to monasticism tomorrow. Determined to hit my target: 82kg - before I return home
And well done you!
PB Weightwatchers and Boozewatchers actually works. We keep tabs on each other - and I am grateful for the motivation
I am a (comparatively) gargantuan 107.6kg this morning. But that is -0.7kgs since Monday, and I keep heading downwards. Ultimate target is 85kg, but I have steps to break through before I think about that. Dropping below 100kg will be a Big one. Anything below 95 will be great, and if it stalls at 90 that will be fine.
I have a whole wardrobe of clothes awaiting me to fit back into them. I remember 85kg being too thin for some of them, so going below 90kg isn't a priority yet. But if I get down there and can maintain a weight loss curve, why not?
I experienced a wind speed of 155mph+ on our expedition ship in South Georgia and it was just amazing
At anchor? I'm surprised a ship could survive that without serious damage.
The worst winds in any inhabited area must be the Piteraq in Greenland (similar cause?).
Cold air is drawn off the icecap in certain conditions and funnels down the valleys in a freezing cold river at 200mph and -15C.
The UK record is about 170mph, BTW. I have been out in c80mph and it seems Mrs Flatlander flies at that windspeed so we have not tried to repeat the experience.
No - we weren't at anchor - it was an unexpected Katabatic wind
For the sake of balance, I know a couple of guys with lovely kids and apparently happy families.... who are almost suicidal at the way they "wasted" their life on family stuff, and never took the chance to do something "more exciting"
What can you do. Life's a bitch and then you are uploaded to Neuralink
I am very surprised that @Leon knows some men who are total selfish negative wankers. Having a family is a gift that should be cherished. There are few higher purposes. These "couple of guys" to whom you refer (if they exist,) need to be grateful and less twatish. It is possible, of course, that they have been such shitty selfish fathers that they have failed to get the positive feedback that they would have had from their offspring had they been more normal human beings.
Comments
Retired people tend to do the organising (as they have the time to do it) and too many meetings and events end up being held during working hours and not at weekends.
So the age profile gets ever older and the problem compounds.
I also wonder if the lack of churchgoing has contributed to the decline of volunteering? It was a place where people could meet up and say 'why don't we fix this'. I say this as a total Heathen.
I've seen so many amazing French wines so cheap.... however I don't see how the economics of THAT work, either
Cambodia is a tiny market. So you'd have to develop superb fakery techniques to fool a really small population
Also, if they are faking it, my God they are doing it well. i know my wine and this tastes like good Saint Emilion, typical grand cru, it has that distinctive mix of austerity and generosity. It can feel thin, but then let it breathe and give it a swirl... it's v nice
If they can fake it, bring on the fakers
My only explanation is that there is a big enough and rich enough expat community that demands great wine, and a lot of them are French, and somehow the old trading routes with France somehow survived the end of the French Empire AND the Khmer Rouge
A massive ribeye and a $50 bottle of red sounds like a plan.
Using Fw = pd A gives a wind load of 300kg/m2 for 155mph. That would even pull Shappsie's wig off.
At Force 12. the admirably laconic instruction: Seek Calmer Weather.
As I mentioned, collective activities are often sneered at by both the modern left and right. There is this glimmer of hope about the very youngest cohort, though, as Kamski mentions.
I have just eaten the steak and now working my way through the wine (see my commentary, passim), however it's back to monasticism tomorrow. Determined to hit my target: 82kg - before I return home
And well done you!
PB Weightwatchers and Boozewatchers actually works. We keep tabs on each other - and I am grateful for the motivation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Kurniawan
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5728684/ is worth a watch, if you can get it. A documentary on the story with Rudy himself on camera.
He was doing a mad operation in his sink. If he'd used a nitrogen handling setup, he could have avoided the wine oxidising - many of the tasters that caught on said that his wines were oxidised the moment the bottle was opened. Which they were.
Apparently the fakers learnt from this.
Remember that Vietnam is doing tons of business with China. And the Chinese are driving the prices in the French high end wine market now.
But yes, a community of people all working towards goals helps loads. Doubly so on a political forum, where there’s often silly divisions. If I remember correctly, @RochdalePioneers is the weight loss champion for January, and I agree with him on pretty much nothing politically.
One issue though is EU law . What happens if the NI assembly vote against a new EU law , how does this effect their access to the EU market ?
It does look like the EU have made some concessions. It’s amazing what happens when you build trust and don’t continually threaten them as in the Johnson years .
Unfortunately for Sunak this won’t move the polls because the vast majority of the public couldn’t care less about NI .
Thats fascinating
Perhaps you are right. Also, if you wanted to fake it (in a big way) you'd probably start with testing it in a small backwater population, with money and good taste, and see if you get away with it. If you fail, no one notices, if you succeed, ooooh
The expats of Phnom Penh fit the bill. Often rich, always well paid, tend to be hedonistic, and they like wine
Green T-shirt wants rid of Zaluzhny so he can hang the counter-offensive on him. Zaluzhny was summoned and told to resign so he could be ambassador to France (other report says Spain). Zaluzhny told GTS to fuck himself and that he'd have to be fired.
Budanov (head of military intelligence) is the chosen successor despite a pretty thin CV but he's a good media performer which is thought to be very important by El Presidente. However they can't get rid of Zaluzhny without a political mess so the stand-off continues.
Much of the wine buying is for status and the buyers often trade the bottles and don't actual drink them.
EDIT: Rudy produced a lot, and there are a number of private collectors who got burned and are trying to self his stuff, to this day.
Meanwhile, since 1950, from 11 months out no party has lost the popular vote if it was 5% or more ahead. Lab are three times that amount ahead. If the Cons performed miracles and got the vote level then they would still be facing Prime Minister Starmer.
However, Mandelson is saying exactly what we should expect him too. A far bigger threat to Lab than the Con strategists is the potential for complacency.
When the next government has to join the reality-based community and accept the importance of closer alignment with the EU the Tories, who obvs anticipate being in opposition, can scream Brexit betrayal.
The problem is, beyond their own echo chambers, the nutters and the xenophobes, the misty-eyed sovereigntists, everyone else will welcome the betrayal of Brexit. Because the reality-based community know it’s shit.
As cock-a-hoop as I would be with a three figure Labour majority, I would almost prefer a Lab/Lib Dem coalition, so Starmer can, with theatrical hesitation, bend to Lib Dem demands for a full-throated pivot back towards the EU. To work towards rejoining. What a dream!
As to why people may be reluctant to commit to unpaid and unappreciated drudgery, Google "Charity trustee risks" and have a look at the 7 pages of Charity Commission advice on trustee liability, or the 33 pages on risk management.
Incidentally huge numbers of people will be trustees without even knowing they are, for example many CoE PCC members have no idea what they are taking on, believing its main task (as it often appears) is to organise the coffee rota and throw away 500 page documents on gays.
NEW THREAD
It doesn't have to be a trustee who is put off. I was once asked by a civic society to co-lead a field outing over some fairly rough ground. Liability insurance for accidents is absolutely the norm for such events and is easily obtained. But the organiser wouldn't do it even when we pointed it out - so we wouldn't do it. Else we'd have been personally liable for any accidents/injuries.
And it applies here - it's from a Norwegian antivaxxer group (the paperclip being a symbol of the WWII resistance there, now appropriated by the nutjobs).
IMHO the largest single factor in the volunteering problem is the weight of accountability placed on volunteers, of which safeguarding, H and S, bureaucratic accountability, and trustee liability come high up.
The other major issue in volunteering is the unavoidable fact that when most middle class women are working F/T or nearly F/T the time available to that remarkable demographic to do nice stuff for others (the backbone of society when I was a child) reduces to nearly zero.
I have a whole wardrobe of clothes awaiting me to fit back into them. I remember 85kg being too thin for some of them, so going below 90kg isn't a priority yet. But if I get down there and can maintain a weight loss curve, why not?