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This looks an interesting bet – politicalbetting.com

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  • Beibheirli_CBeibheirli_C Posts: 8,163
    edited February 2

    On topic, the value on the Trump / Biden pairing is, IMO, about right.

    Politically, both are now bullet-proof nominations. They have either no challengers at all (Biden) or are so far ahead that they're out of sight (Trump).

    So, what could bring them down and what are the chances?

    Trump will absolutely not stand down voluntarily. We can rate that as zero. Biden might, unprompted, but it's a very low chance. He's given no indication he might (but then he probably wouldn't), and more importantly, to stand down between now and the convention would create a lot of mess and probably be viewed very badly by the public, who'd have been denied a say in the nomination. If one criticism of Trump is his autocratic tendency, it does the Democrats no favours for Biden to hand the nomination to his preferred candidate. Maybe 1-2%.

    Health? Well, it's possible that might rule one out but time is ticking. The Republican convention is in mid-July, the Democrat one five weeks later. While both men are old, they're not at death's door. An actuary could provide the proper figures but my guess would be that the chance of either being ruled out by a serious health issue in the next 6 months or so is low- to mid-single figures.

    Legal stuff. Biden here again is the zero. Trump obviously has many challenges but the Colorado-inspired one about his eligibility is the main threat. He will either brush off or appeal everything else. Hard to put a precise number on it but I don't think more than 10% myself. He deliberately kept well away from giving any direct or even indirect instructions on Jan 6 (which, ironically, is why it failed).

    Add these together and, at most, you get somewhere near a 20% chance that one or other won't be on the ballot - but half of that is Trump's risk of being debarred. You may take a different view and it's the most unknowable of the risks to either.

    Trump's latest bone-headed insanity may have serious consequences for him. By pushing the appeals process for his "Presidential immunity for all crimes ever" he seems to have derailed a Federal trial - which he could have dodged / annulled - and has replaced it with a State trial in NY which is very likely to go bad for him. NY juries have not been kind to him and that crazy woman who says she is his lawyer
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Extraordinary, if true. The total pathetic decadence of our politicians


    "Newsnight asked (Labour MP) Bell Ribeiro-Addy and (Tory MP) Caroline Nokes about the fact the alkali attacker was granted asylum on his 3rd attempt after a sexual assault conviction

    BRA: "His asylum status is not really the issue of concern"

    CN: "I think it's wrong to comment on that""


    WHY IS IT WRONG TO COMMENT ON THAT. HOW CAN HIS ASYLUM STATUS AND CRIMINAL RECORD NOT BE AN ISSUE OF CONCERN

    These people make me want to puke

    https://x.com/christiancalgie/status/1753320770468495775?s=20

    If someone's come from an oppressive regime then that trumps absolutely everything else, ever. It's regarded pretty much as a law of physics for those in the system.
    One of the remarkable things about that exchange is that it is two female MPs spewing this Woke drivel

    What about the rights of the woman who got her face melted? And her kids, likewise? Don't they have the right to be defended from failed asylum seeking Afghan perverts with criminal records who should have been deported???

    What happened to feminism? What happened to sticking up for women?
    Along not dissimilar lines, this is utterly bonkers

    https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/humphrey-burke-free-two-years-after-sentence-kick-prison-guard-to-death/
    Hard not to lapse into despair
    I see the usual right-wing dog-whistles are still going off.

    They need to catch this loon (the attacker, not the OP) and lock him up for a long time.

    The attacker's asylum status is utterly irrelevant. Plenty of women get attacked / raped / murdered by white, British born nutters with a UK family history that goes back centuries, possibly millennia. Statistically, immigrants are not the issue simply because it is a numbers game. There are far more non-immigrants here.

    But I suppose a chance to bash some bl**dy foreigner is just too triggering...
    And while studies vary, they broadly show that immigrants commit fewer or similar numbers of crimes to non-immigrants.
    Citation required
    Certainly.

    Citation: bondegezou on PoliticalBetting 2nd Feb 2024
    No, seriously, citation required

    That's an interesting claim by @bondegezou - but he's an academic, he knows he has to back it up

    Citation required
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    edited February 2
    That's one of the hoariest stories ever wheeled out by bar-room bores, I must have heard it 15 times over the years.

    You can tell this iteration of it is bollocks due to the inexactitude regarding anatine physiology.
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,784
    F1: ramble about the Hamilton/Mercedes/Sainz situation:

    https://medium.com/@rkilner/hamilton-to-ferrari-who-to-mercedes-53abf732eaab
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258
    Dura_Ace said:

    That's one of the hoariest stories ever wheeled out by bar-room bores, I must have heard it 15 times over the years.

    You can tell this iteration of it is bollocks due to the inexactitude regarding anatine physiology.

    Take it up with Francois Bizot, author of The Gate. He says it is true

    https://www.amazon.com/Gate-Francois-Bizot/dp/037572723X

    A marvellous book
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,727
    edited February 2
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Extraordinary, if true. The total pathetic decadence of our politicians


    "Newsnight asked (Labour MP) Bell Ribeiro-Addy and (Tory MP) Caroline Nokes about the fact the alkali attacker was granted asylum on his 3rd attempt after a sexual assault conviction

    BRA: "His asylum status is not really the issue of concern"

    CN: "I think it's wrong to comment on that""


    WHY IS IT WRONG TO COMMENT ON THAT. HOW CAN HIS ASYLUM STATUS AND CRIMINAL RECORD NOT BE AN ISSUE OF CONCERN

    These people make me want to puke

    https://x.com/christiancalgie/status/1753320770468495775?s=20

    If someone's come from an oppressive regime then that trumps absolutely everything else, ever. It's regarded pretty much as a law of physics for those in the system.
    One of the remarkable things about that exchange is that it is two female MPs spewing this Woke drivel

    What about the rights of the woman who got her face melted? And her kids, likewise? Don't they have the right to be defended from failed asylum seeking Afghan perverts with criminal records who should have been deported???

    What happened to feminism? What happened to sticking up for women?
    Along not dissimilar lines, this is utterly bonkers

    https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/humphrey-burke-free-two-years-after-sentence-kick-prison-guard-to-death/
    Hard not to lapse into despair
    I see the usual right-wing dog-whistles are still going off.

    They need to catch this loon (the attacker, not the OP) and lock him up for a long time.

    The attacker's asylum status is utterly irrelevant. Plenty of women get attacked / raped / murdered by white, British born nutters with a UK family history that goes back centuries, possibly millennia. Statistically, immigrants are not the issue simply because it is a numbers game. There are far more non-immigrants here.

    But I suppose a chance to bash some bl**dy foreigner is just too triggering...
    And while studies vary, they broadly show that immigrants commit fewer or similar numbers of crimes to non-immigrants.
    Citation required
    Certainly.

    Citation: bondegezou on PoliticalBetting 2nd Feb 2024
    No, seriously, citation required

    That's an interesting claim by @bondegezou - but he's an academic, he knows he has to back it up

    Citation required
    https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=immigrant+crime+rates+united+kingdom

    TLDR (from a very quick skim or abstracts): Varies a bit, but no strong signal for increased crime in general. Some immigrant communities associated with lower than indigenous crime rates.

    (as always, it depends what else you control for an what your question is - some control for other socioeconomic determinants, but if your question is does immigration -> more crime then you might not want to control for that if immigrants are generally more deprived than indigenous populations)
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,243
    Selebian said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Extraordinary, if true. The total pathetic decadence of our politicians


    "Newsnight asked (Labour MP) Bell Ribeiro-Addy and (Tory MP) Caroline Nokes about the fact the alkali attacker was granted asylum on his 3rd attempt after a sexual assault conviction

    BRA: "His asylum status is not really the issue of concern"

    CN: "I think it's wrong to comment on that""


    WHY IS IT WRONG TO COMMENT ON THAT. HOW CAN HIS ASYLUM STATUS AND CRIMINAL RECORD NOT BE AN ISSUE OF CONCERN

    These people make me want to puke

    https://x.com/christiancalgie/status/1753320770468495775?s=20

    If someone's come from an oppressive regime then that trumps absolutely everything else, ever. It's regarded pretty much as a law of physics for those in the system.
    One of the remarkable things about that exchange is that it is two female MPs spewing this Woke drivel

    What about the rights of the woman who got her face melted? And her kids, likewise? Don't they have the right to be defended from failed asylum seeking Afghan perverts with criminal records who should have been deported???

    What happened to feminism? What happened to sticking up for women?
    Along not dissimilar lines, this is utterly bonkers

    https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/humphrey-burke-free-two-years-after-sentence-kick-prison-guard-to-death/
    Hard not to lapse into despair
    I see the usual right-wing dog-whistles are still going off.

    They need to catch this loon (the attacker, not the OP) and lock him up for a long time.

    The attacker's asylum status is utterly irrelevant. Plenty of women get attacked / raped / murdered by white, British born nutters with a UK family history that goes back centuries, possibly millennia. Statistically, immigrants are not the issue simply because it is a numbers game. There are far more non-immigrants here.

    But I suppose a chance to bash some bl**dy foreigner is just too triggering...
    And while studies vary, they broadly show that immigrants commit fewer or similar numbers of crimes to non-immigrants.
    Citation required
    Certainly.

    Citation: bondegezou on PoliticalBetting 2nd Feb 2024
    No, seriously, citation required

    That's an interesting claim by @bondegezou - but he's an academic, he knows he has to back it up

    Citation required
    https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=immigrant+crime+rates+united+kingdom

    TLDR (from a very quick skim or abstracts): Varies a bit, but no strong signal for increased crime in general. Some immigrant communities associated with lower than indigenous crime rates.

    (as always, it depends what else you control for an what your question is - some control for other socioeconomic determinants, but if your question is does immigration -> more crime then you might not want to control for that if immigrants are generally more deprived than indigenous populations)
    Significantly lower and higher imprisonment rates have been noted for different immigrant groups in the UK. Thoughts on causes?
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Extraordinary, if true. The total pathetic decadence of our politicians


    "Newsnight asked (Labour MP) Bell Ribeiro-Addy and (Tory MP) Caroline Nokes about the fact the alkali attacker was granted asylum on his 3rd attempt after a sexual assault conviction

    BRA: "His asylum status is not really the issue of concern"

    CN: "I think it's wrong to comment on that""


    WHY IS IT WRONG TO COMMENT ON THAT. HOW CAN HIS ASYLUM STATUS AND CRIMINAL RECORD NOT BE AN ISSUE OF CONCERN

    These people make me want to puke

    https://x.com/christiancalgie/status/1753320770468495775?s=20

    If someone's come from an oppressive regime then that trumps absolutely everything else, ever. It's regarded pretty much as a law of physics for those in the system.
    One of the remarkable things about that exchange is that it is two female MPs spewing this Woke drivel

    What about the rights of the woman who got her face melted? And her kids, likewise? Don't they have the right to be defended from failed asylum seeking Afghan perverts with criminal records who should have been deported???

    What happened to feminism? What happened to sticking up for women?
    Along not dissimilar lines, this is utterly bonkers

    https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/humphrey-burke-free-two-years-after-sentence-kick-prison-guard-to-death/
    Hard not to lapse into despair
    I see the usual right-wing dog-whistles are still going off.

    They need to catch this loon (the attacker, not the OP) and lock him up for a long time.

    The attacker's asylum status is utterly irrelevant. Plenty of women get attacked / raped / murdered by white, British born nutters with a UK family history that goes back centuries, possibly millennia. Statistically, immigrants are not the issue simply because it is a numbers game. There are far more non-immigrants here.

    But I suppose a chance to bash some bl**dy foreigner is just too triggering...
    And while studies vary, they broadly show that immigrants commit fewer or similar numbers of crimes to non-immigrants.
    Citation required
    Certainly.

    Citation: bondegezou on PoliticalBetting 2nd Feb 2024
    No, seriously, citation required

    That's an interesting claim by @bondegezou - but he's an academic, he knows he has to back it up

    Citation required
    No data but I'd be curious if there's a split between regular and irregular immigrants.

    Regular migration (exc EU when we had free movement) I'd logically think should have a lower rate of crime than non-migrants, because they migrants to be filtered by criminal record checks in order to be in the country, and can be deported if they offend. Non-migrants aren't filtered before being allowed into the country, and if they offend they are almost always just released to be free to offend again.

    Irregular migration like asylum seekers however doesn't have those safeguards. No criminal record check before entering, and as far as I know there's no law that enables deportation of those with grounds for asylum if they offend like how regular migrants can have their visas rescinded.

    Thus logically I'd expect the rate of offending of irregular migrants to be comparable to non-migrants, and regular migrants to be lower.
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,727

    Leon said:

    OK fuck it I will tell you. I did advise you to wait for a more seemly hour, but anyway

    That photo shows number 7, road 310, Phnom Penh, in the city's trendy BKK district

    It may now be full of pho bars and expat pubs and Ethiopian coffee roasters, but back in the day BKK was a very sleepy suburb yet with a faintly seedy reputation. At number 7 there was, in particular, a famous institution, Madam Chum's bordello and opium den

    For decades until the Khmer Rouge anyone who was anyone, with low morals, came here

    Along with nice pipes of opium it was notorious as the place where the French indochinese sex trick of the "Cholon Duck" was, apparently, perfected. Originating in the stews of Saigon, at Madam Chum's they took the "Cholon Duck" to a new level

    First, a butt naked duck had its head stuck in a drawer, then the drawer was shut tight enough, trapping the duck with its arse sticking out. The panic meant the duck's rear orifice opened wider, allowing the drunk and opiated customer to penetrate more easily, with his virile member. This further increased the panic of the duck - being fucked, without even foreplay - so the orifice then tightened and loosened and tightened, in a cycle, causing "tremendous pleasure" for the duck-violator

    Furthermore, the flapping of the duck's angry feet against the testicles led, it is said, to the most intense orgasms ever

    After the client had enjoyed his wicked way with the duck, it was quickly despatched (if it hadn't died of a heart attack), it was then defeathered, cooked and served to the same customer in a light curry sauce

    That's nothing, when David Cameron was at university he (That's enough - TSE)
    That's nothing. When David Cameron ran the country, he set in motion a chain of events that... :wink:
  • Leon said:

    OK fuck it I will tell you. I did advise you to wait for a more seemly hour, but anyway

    That photo shows number 7, road 310, Phnom Penh, in the city's trendy BKK district

    It may now be full of pho bars and expat pubs and Ethiopian coffee roasters, but back in the day BKK was a very sleepy suburb yet with a faintly seedy reputation. At number 7 there was, in particular, a famous institution, Madam Chum's bordello and opium den

    For decades until the Khmer Rouge anyone who was anyone, with low morals, came here

    Along with nice pipes of opium it was notorious as the place where the French indochinese sex trick of the "Cholon Duck" was, apparently, perfected. Originating in the stews of Saigon, at Madam Chum's they took the "Cholon Duck" to a new level

    First, a butt naked duck had its head stuck in a drawer, then the drawer was shut tight enough, trapping the duck with its arse sticking out. The panic meant the duck's rear orifice opened wider, allowing the drunk and opiated customer to penetrate more easily, with his virile member. This further increased the panic of the duck - being fucked, without even foreplay - so the orifice then tightened and loosened and tightened, in a cycle, causing "tremendous pleasure" for the duck-violator

    Furthermore, the flapping of the duck's angry feet against the testicles led, it is said, to the most intense orgasms ever

    After the client had enjoyed his wicked way with the duck, it was quickly despatched (if it hadn't died of a heart attack), it was then defeathered, cooked and served to the same customer in a light curry sauce

    Funnily enough a relative of Princess Diana told me a similar story about geese and the English upper classes, with the variation that the drawer was slammed shut while the goose was penetrated. I’d imagine a goose would give your bawbag a right battering. Don’t remember any post coital cooking though, probably handed over to the starving peasantry with a knowing smirk.
    I was probably a teenager when I heard a similar tale about achieving the same effect whilst banging a chicken by plucking it. Thought it was hilarious.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258
    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,727

    Selebian said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Extraordinary, if true. The total pathetic decadence of our politicians


    "Newsnight asked (Labour MP) Bell Ribeiro-Addy and (Tory MP) Caroline Nokes about the fact the alkali attacker was granted asylum on his 3rd attempt after a sexual assault conviction

    BRA: "His asylum status is not really the issue of concern"

    CN: "I think it's wrong to comment on that""


    WHY IS IT WRONG TO COMMENT ON THAT. HOW CAN HIS ASYLUM STATUS AND CRIMINAL RECORD NOT BE AN ISSUE OF CONCERN

    These people make me want to puke

    https://x.com/christiancalgie/status/1753320770468495775?s=20

    If someone's come from an oppressive regime then that trumps absolutely everything else, ever. It's regarded pretty much as a law of physics for those in the system.
    One of the remarkable things about that exchange is that it is two female MPs spewing this Woke drivel

    What about the rights of the woman who got her face melted? And her kids, likewise? Don't they have the right to be defended from failed asylum seeking Afghan perverts with criminal records who should have been deported???

    What happened to feminism? What happened to sticking up for women?
    Along not dissimilar lines, this is utterly bonkers

    https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/humphrey-burke-free-two-years-after-sentence-kick-prison-guard-to-death/
    Hard not to lapse into despair
    I see the usual right-wing dog-whistles are still going off.

    They need to catch this loon (the attacker, not the OP) and lock him up for a long time.

    The attacker's asylum status is utterly irrelevant. Plenty of women get attacked / raped / murdered by white, British born nutters with a UK family history that goes back centuries, possibly millennia. Statistically, immigrants are not the issue simply because it is a numbers game. There are far more non-immigrants here.

    But I suppose a chance to bash some bl**dy foreigner is just too triggering...
    And while studies vary, they broadly show that immigrants commit fewer or similar numbers of crimes to non-immigrants.
    Citation required
    Certainly.

    Citation: bondegezou on PoliticalBetting 2nd Feb 2024
    No, seriously, citation required

    That's an interesting claim by @bondegezou - but he's an academic, he knows he has to back it up

    Citation required
    https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=immigrant+crime+rates+united+kingdom

    TLDR (from a very quick skim or abstracts): Varies a bit, but no strong signal for increased crime in general. Some immigrant communities associated with lower than indigenous crime rates.

    (as always, it depends what else you control for an what your question is - some control for other socioeconomic determinants, but if your question is does immigration -> more crime then you might not want to control for that if immigrants are generally more deprived than indigenous populations)
    Significantly lower and higher imprisonment rates have been noted for different immigrant groups in the UK. Thoughts on causes?
    Not really. I'd have to read the literature.

    A lot probably linked to socioeconomic profile within the UK - that tends to be the strongest predictor for a lot of things and correlates/confounds with ethnic group.

    Off the top of my head, I'd guess immigration from India tends to be more high skilled and low crime. Immigration from some other areas (parts of Africa/Eastern Europe) probably more into the murkier parts of the economy and/or into low wage/low skill positions where routes into crime might be more appealing. But I'd want to see evidence to see whether that perception, which I think is probably quite widespread, is true.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    Leon said:

    Done a bit of research

    Here are old French imperial veterans discussing the legendary canards de Cholon in 2010; they seem to believe it might be true, one insists it is true

    https://www.anciens-cols-bleus.net/t13670p875-operations-de-guerre-indochine-tome-3

    So it's a colonialist canard ?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    QAnon-aligned son decapitates federal employee dad, shows off ‘traitor’s’ head in sick YouTube video
    https://nypost.com/2024/01/30/news/pa-son-arrested-after-posting-video-of-fathers-severed-head-report/
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    Unless they actually drop dead, the chances of which must be < 5%, then even health issues won't stop them standing as they will be attended by squads of loblolly boys 24/7 to keep them upright, moving and relatively piss free.

    Biden already looks like he is in a non-ironic reboot of the Weekend at Bernie's franchise and even if Trump were riddled with cancer from arsehole to breakfast time, it wouldn’t stop him standing and campaigning.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258
    Nigelb said:

    Leon said:

    Done a bit of research

    Here are old French imperial veterans discussing the legendary canards de Cholon in 2010; they seem to believe it might be true, one insists it is true

    https://www.anciens-cols-bleus.net/t13670p875-operations-de-guerre-indochine-tome-3

    So it's a colonialist canard ?
    VG

    And now I must to the gym. My weight loss proceeds apace, sorta
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,953
    edited February 2
    Selebian said:

    Leon said:

    OK fuck it I will tell you. I did advise you to wait for a more seemly hour, but anyway

    That photo shows number 7, road 310, Phnom Penh, in the city's trendy BKK district

    It may now be full of pho bars and expat pubs and Ethiopian coffee roasters, but back in the day BKK was a very sleepy suburb yet with a faintly seedy reputation. At number 7 there was, in particular, a famous institution, Madam Chum's bordello and opium den

    For decades until the Khmer Rouge anyone who was anyone, with low morals, came here

    Along with nice pipes of opium it was notorious as the place where the French indochinese sex trick of the "Cholon Duck" was, apparently, perfected. Originating in the stews of Saigon, at Madam Chum's they took the "Cholon Duck" to a new level

    First, a butt naked duck had its head stuck in a drawer, then the drawer was shut tight enough, trapping the duck with its arse sticking out. The panic meant the duck's rear orifice opened wider, allowing the drunk and opiated customer to penetrate more easily, with his virile member. This further increased the panic of the duck - being fucked, without even foreplay - so the orifice then tightened and loosened and tightened, in a cycle, causing "tremendous pleasure" for the duck-violator

    Furthermore, the flapping of the duck's angry feet against the testicles led, it is said, to the most intense orgasms ever

    After the client had enjoyed his wicked way with the duck, it was quickly despatched (if it hadn't died of a heart attack), it was then defeathered, cooked and served to the same customer in a light curry sauce

    That's nothing, when David Cameron was at university he (That's enough - TSE)
    That's nothing. When David Cameron ran the country, he set in motion a chain of events that... :wink:
    'Look, I neither wanted you to bend over and put your head in that drawer or encouraged you to do so. I'm afraid I must go now and leave you to the consequences.'
  • kyf_100kyf_100 Posts: 4,938
    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,815

    On topic, the value on the Trump / Biden pairing is, IMO, about right.

    Politically, both are now bullet-proof nominations. They have either no challengers at all (Biden) or are so far ahead that they're out of sight (Trump).

    So, what could bring them down and what are the chances?

    Trump will absolutely not stand down voluntarily. We can rate that as zero. Biden might, unprompted, but it's a very low chance. He's given no indication he might (but then he probably wouldn't), and more importantly, to stand down between now and the convention would create a lot of mess and probably be viewed very badly by the public, who'd have been denied a say in the nomination. If one criticism of Trump is his autocratic tendency, it does the Democrats no favours for Biden to hand the nomination to his preferred candidate. Maybe 1-2%.

    Health? Well, it's possible that might rule one out but time is ticking. The Republican convention is in mid-July, the Democrat one five weeks later. While both men are old, they're not at death's door. An actuary could provide the proper figures but my guess would be that the chance of either being ruled out by a serious health issue in the next 6 months or so is low- to mid-single figures.

    Legal stuff. Biden here again is the zero. Trump obviously has many challenges but the Colorado-inspired one about his eligibility is the main threat. He will either brush off or appeal everything else. Hard to put a precise number on it but I don't think more than 10% myself. He deliberately kept well away from giving any direct or even indirect instructions on Jan 6 (which, ironically, is why it failed).

    Add these together and, at most, you get somewhere near a 20% chance that one or other won't be on the ballot - but half of that is Trump's risk of being debarred. You may take a different view and it's the most unknowable of the risks to either.

    Spot on.
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 13,494

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Outside the main 3 that’s 19%.

    What do Kelnner and others call Lab to Con reality swingback with that 19% out there playing on the roundabouts? They are going to need more swings. They are going to need a bigger play park.

    Are you the PBer Nicky who does a Friday polling chart that looks like happy fluffy clouds in a sky? I like that one. It’s very pretty and a little mystical.

    Are the Tories still falling backwards, against the most benign and supportive backdrop they are likely to get all year? As predicted Boat crossings up year on year, but not yet all over the news, voters have just witnessed the pleasure of pre election tax cut in their pay packets - can the government have more favourable winds than this?
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,815

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,873
    edited February 2
    Nigelb said:

    QAnon-aligned son decapitates federal employee dad, shows off ‘traitor’s’ head in sick YouTube video
    https://nypost.com/2024/01/30/news/pa-son-arrested-after-posting-video-of-fathers-severed-head-report/

    Part of the battle against woke, apparently, and presumably the deep state. Online grooming can be a powerful tool.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,394

    Nigelb said:

    QAnon-aligned son decapitates federal employee dad, shows off ‘traitor’s’ head in sick YouTube video
    https://nypost.com/2024/01/30/news/pa-son-arrested-after-posting-video-of-fathers-severed-head-report/

    Part of the battle against woke, apparently. Online grooming can be a powerful tool.
    Good lord, is QAnon still a thing?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    Dura_Ace said:

    Unless they actually drop dead, the chances of which must be < 5%, then even health issues won't stop them standing as they will be attended by squads of loblolly boys 24/7 to keep them upright, moving and relatively piss free.

    Biden already looks like he is in a non-ironic reboot of the Weekend at Bernie's franchise and even if Trump were riddled with cancer from arsehole to breakfast time, it wouldn’t stop him standing and campaigning.

    A late entry in the Veep stakes.
    https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1753088713519682034
  • Does anyone have an alternative to nitter to view Twitter links? I installed a nitter extension that renames twitter urls to nitter ones which made Twitter links usable, but nitter seems to not be working anymore?
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,047

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Extraordinary, if true. The total pathetic decadence of our politicians


    "Newsnight asked (Labour MP) Bell Ribeiro-Addy and (Tory MP) Caroline Nokes about the fact the alkali attacker was granted asylum on his 3rd attempt after a sexual assault conviction

    BRA: "His asylum status is not really the issue of concern"

    CN: "I think it's wrong to comment on that""


    WHY IS IT WRONG TO COMMENT ON THAT. HOW CAN HIS ASYLUM STATUS AND CRIMINAL RECORD NOT BE AN ISSUE OF CONCERN

    These people make me want to puke

    https://x.com/christiancalgie/status/1753320770468495775?s=20

    If someone's come from an oppressive regime then that trumps absolutely everything else, ever. It's regarded pretty much as a law of physics for those in the system.
    One of the remarkable things about that exchange is that it is two female MPs spewing this Woke drivel

    What about the rights of the woman who got her face melted? And her kids, likewise? Don't they have the right to be defended from failed asylum seeking Afghan perverts with criminal records who should have been deported???

    What happened to feminism? What happened to sticking up for women?
    Along not dissimilar lines, this is utterly bonkers

    https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/humphrey-burke-free-two-years-after-sentence-kick-prison-guard-to-death/
    Hard not to lapse into despair
    I see the usual right-wing dog-whistles are still going off.

    They need to catch this loon (the attacker, not the OP) and lock him up for a long time.

    The attacker's asylum status is utterly irrelevant. Plenty of women get attacked / raped / murdered by white, British born nutters with a UK family history that goes back centuries, possibly millennia. Statistically, immigrants are not the issue simply because it is a numbers game. There are far more non-immigrants here.

    But I suppose a chance to bash some bl**dy foreigner is just too triggering...
    And while studies vary, they broadly show that immigrants commit fewer or similar numbers of crimes to non-immigrants.
    Citation required
    Certainly.

    Citation: bondegezou on PoliticalBetting 2nd Feb 2024
    No, seriously, citation required

    That's an interesting claim by @bondegezou - but he's an academic, he knows he has to back it up

    Citation required
    No data but I'd be curious if there's a split between regular and irregular immigrants.

    Regular migration (exc EU when we had free movement) I'd logically think should have a lower rate of crime than non-migrants, because they migrants to be filtered by criminal record checks in order to be in the country, and can be deported if they offend. Non-migrants aren't filtered before being allowed into the country, and if they offend they are almost always just released to be free to offend again.

    Irregular migration like asylum seekers however doesn't have those safeguards. No criminal record check before entering, and as far as I know there's no law that enables deportation of those with grounds for asylum if they offend like how regular migrants can have their visas rescinded.

    Thus logically I'd expect the rate of offending of irregular migrants to be comparable to non-migrants, and regular migrants to be lower.
    This is a thorough review: https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/immigration-and-crime-evidence-for-the-uk-and-other-countries/ The evidence is complex and varied, but it suggests possibly that regular migration produces a fall in crime, while irregular migration doesn't.

    It also notes the paradox that prison populations show higher rates of immigrants.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,214

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
  • Just realised that it's Groundhog Day

    Like, it really is. I'm not calling you all repetitive!
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Extraordinary, if true. The total pathetic decadence of our politicians


    "Newsnight asked (Labour MP) Bell Ribeiro-Addy and (Tory MP) Caroline Nokes about the fact the alkali attacker was granted asylum on his 3rd attempt after a sexual assault conviction

    BRA: "His asylum status is not really the issue of concern"

    CN: "I think it's wrong to comment on that""


    WHY IS IT WRONG TO COMMENT ON THAT. HOW CAN HIS ASYLUM STATUS AND CRIMINAL RECORD NOT BE AN ISSUE OF CONCERN

    These people make me want to puke

    https://x.com/christiancalgie/status/1753320770468495775?s=20

    If someone's come from an oppressive regime then that trumps absolutely everything else, ever. It's regarded pretty much as a law of physics for those in the system.
    One of the remarkable things about that exchange is that it is two female MPs spewing this Woke drivel

    What about the rights of the woman who got her face melted? And her kids, likewise? Don't they have the right to be defended from failed asylum seeking Afghan perverts with criminal records who should have been deported???

    What happened to feminism? What happened to sticking up for women?
    Along not dissimilar lines, this is utterly bonkers

    https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/humphrey-burke-free-two-years-after-sentence-kick-prison-guard-to-death/
    Hard not to lapse into despair
    I see the usual right-wing dog-whistles are still going off.

    They need to catch this loon (the attacker, not the OP) and lock him up for a long time.

    The attacker's asylum status is utterly irrelevant. Plenty of women get attacked / raped / murdered by white, British born nutters with a UK family history that goes back centuries, possibly millennia. Statistically, immigrants are not the issue simply because it is a numbers game. There are far more non-immigrants here.

    But I suppose a chance to bash some bl**dy foreigner is just too triggering...
    And while studies vary, they broadly show that immigrants commit fewer or similar numbers of crimes to non-immigrants.
    Citation required
    Certainly.

    Citation: bondegezou on PoliticalBetting 2nd Feb 2024
    No, seriously, citation required

    That's an interesting claim by @bondegezou - but he's an academic, he knows he has to back it up

    Citation required
    No data but I'd be curious if there's a split between regular and irregular immigrants.

    Regular migration (exc EU when we had free movement) I'd logically think should have a lower rate of crime than non-migrants, because they migrants to be filtered by criminal record checks in order to be in the country, and can be deported if they offend. Non-migrants aren't filtered before being allowed into the country, and if they offend they are almost always just released to be free to offend again.

    Irregular migration like asylum seekers however doesn't have those safeguards. No criminal record check before entering, and as far as I know there's no law that enables deportation of those with grounds for asylum if they offend like how regular migrants can have their visas rescinded.

    Thus logically I'd expect the rate of offending of irregular migrants to be comparable to non-migrants, and regular migrants to be lower.
    This is a thorough review: https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/immigration-and-crime-evidence-for-the-uk-and-other-countries/ The evidence is complex and varied, but it suggests possibly that regular migration produces a fall in crime, while irregular migration doesn't.

    It also notes the paradox that prison populations show higher rates of immigrants.
    So the data matches my logic?

    Makes perfect sense.
  • Penddu2Penddu2 Posts: 689
    Leon said:

    OK fuck it I will tell you. I did advise you to wait for a more seemly hour, but anyway

    That photo shows number 7, road 310, Phnom Penh, in the city's trendy BKK district

    It may now be full of pho bars and expat pubs and Ethiopian coffee roasters, but back in the day BKK was a very sleepy suburb yet with a faintly seedy reputation. At number 7 there was, in particular, a famous institution, Madam Chum's bordello and opium den

    For decades until the Khmer Rouge anyone who was anyone, with low morals, came here

    Along with nice pipes of opium it was notorious as the place where the French indochinese sex trick of the "Cholon Duck" was, apparently, perfected. Originating in the stews of Saigon, at Madam Chum's they took the "Cholon Duck" to a new level

    First, a butt naked duck had its head stuck in a drawer, then the drawer was shut tight enough, trapping the duck with its arse sticking out. The panic meant the duck's rear orifice opened wider, allowing the drunk and opiated customer to penetrate more easily, with his virile member. This further increased the panic of the duck - being fucked, without even foreplay - so the orifice then tightened and loosened and tightened, in a cycle, causing "tremendous pleasure" for the duck-violator

    Furthermore, the flapping of the duck's angry feet against the testicles led, it is said, to the most intense orgasms ever

    After the client had enjoyed his wicked way with the duck, it was quickly despatched (if it hadn't died of a heart attack), it was then defeathered, cooked and served to the same customer in a light curry sauce

    Hence the expression...'fuck a duck'...
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,814

    Nigelb said:

    QAnon-aligned son decapitates federal employee dad, shows off ‘traitor’s’ head in sick YouTube video
    https://nypost.com/2024/01/30/news/pa-son-arrested-after-posting-video-of-fathers-severed-head-report/

    Part of the battle against woke, apparently, and presumably the deep state. Online grooming can be a powerful tool.
    Er, unfortunate expression.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,873
    Tory MP Desmond Swayne calls for fly-tippers to be strangled with their ripped out intestines
    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-mp-desmond-swayne-calls-32022477

    Sensible policies for a happier Britain.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258
    edited February 2
    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,047
    Selebian said:

    Selebian said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Extraordinary, if true. The total pathetic decadence of our politicians


    "Newsnight asked (Labour MP) Bell Ribeiro-Addy and (Tory MP) Caroline Nokes about the fact the alkali attacker was granted asylum on his 3rd attempt after a sexual assault conviction

    BRA: "His asylum status is not really the issue of concern"

    CN: "I think it's wrong to comment on that""


    WHY IS IT WRONG TO COMMENT ON THAT. HOW CAN HIS ASYLUM STATUS AND CRIMINAL RECORD NOT BE AN ISSUE OF CONCERN

    These people make me want to puke

    https://x.com/christiancalgie/status/1753320770468495775?s=20

    If someone's come from an oppressive regime then that trumps absolutely everything else, ever. It's regarded pretty much as a law of physics for those in the system.
    One of the remarkable things about that exchange is that it is two female MPs spewing this Woke drivel

    What about the rights of the woman who got her face melted? And her kids, likewise? Don't they have the right to be defended from failed asylum seeking Afghan perverts with criminal records who should have been deported???

    What happened to feminism? What happened to sticking up for women?
    Along not dissimilar lines, this is utterly bonkers

    https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/humphrey-burke-free-two-years-after-sentence-kick-prison-guard-to-death/
    Hard not to lapse into despair
    I see the usual right-wing dog-whistles are still going off.

    They need to catch this loon (the attacker, not the OP) and lock him up for a long time.

    The attacker's asylum status is utterly irrelevant. Plenty of women get attacked / raped / murdered by white, British born nutters with a UK family history that goes back centuries, possibly millennia. Statistically, immigrants are not the issue simply because it is a numbers game. There are far more non-immigrants here.

    But I suppose a chance to bash some bl**dy foreigner is just too triggering...
    And while studies vary, they broadly show that immigrants commit fewer or similar numbers of crimes to non-immigrants.
    Citation required
    Certainly.

    Citation: bondegezou on PoliticalBetting 2nd Feb 2024
    No, seriously, citation required

    That's an interesting claim by @bondegezou - but he's an academic, he knows he has to back it up

    Citation required
    https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=immigrant+crime+rates+united+kingdom

    TLDR (from a very quick skim or abstracts): Varies a bit, but no strong signal for increased crime in general. Some immigrant communities associated with lower than indigenous crime rates.

    (as always, it depends what else you control for an what your question is - some control for other socioeconomic determinants, but if your question is does immigration -> more crime then you might not want to control for that if immigrants are generally more deprived than indigenous populations)
    Significantly lower and higher imprisonment rates have been noted for different immigrant groups in the UK. Thoughts on causes?
    Not really. I'd have to read the literature.

    A lot probably linked to socioeconomic profile within the UK - that tends to be the strongest predictor for a lot of things and correlates/confounds with ethnic group.

    Off the top of my head, I'd guess immigration from India tends to be more high skilled and low crime. Immigration from some other areas (parts of Africa/Eastern Europe) probably more into the murkier parts of the economy and/or into low wage/low skill positions where routes into crime might be more appealing. But I'd want to see evidence to see whether that perception, which I think is probably quite widespread, is true.
    https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/59323/1/CEP_Bell_Fasani_Machin_Crime-and-immigration_2013.pdf suggests immigration from eastern Europe associated with a (small) reduction in crime.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,814

    Tory MP Desmond Swayne calls for fly-tippers to be strangled with their ripped out intestines
    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-mp-desmond-swayne-calls-32022477

    Sensible policies for a happier Britain.

    Just wait till he finds out about the PPE mountains.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,873
    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I never got American Pie. Do Americans really wander about sticking their willies into innocent baked goods?
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,394
    Penddu2 said:

    Leon said:

    OK fuck it I will tell you. I did advise you to wait for a more seemly hour, but anyway

    That photo shows number 7, road 310, Phnom Penh, in the city's trendy BKK district

    It may now be full of pho bars and expat pubs and Ethiopian coffee roasters, but back in the day BKK was a very sleepy suburb yet with a faintly seedy reputation. At number 7 there was, in particular, a famous institution, Madam Chum's bordello and opium den

    For decades until the Khmer Rouge anyone who was anyone, with low morals, came here

    Along with nice pipes of opium it was notorious as the place where the French indochinese sex trick of the "Cholon Duck" was, apparently, perfected. Originating in the stews of Saigon, at Madam Chum's they took the "Cholon Duck" to a new level

    First, a butt naked duck had its head stuck in a drawer, then the drawer was shut tight enough, trapping the duck with its arse sticking out. The panic meant the duck's rear orifice opened wider, allowing the drunk and opiated customer to penetrate more easily, with his virile member. This further increased the panic of the duck - being fucked, without even foreplay - so the orifice then tightened and loosened and tightened, in a cycle, causing "tremendous pleasure" for the duck-violator

    Furthermore, the flapping of the duck's angry feet against the testicles led, it is said, to the most intense orgasms ever

    After the client had enjoyed his wicked way with the duck, it was quickly despatched (if it hadn't died of a heart attack), it was then defeathered, cooked and served to the same customer in a light curry sauce

    Hence the expression...'fuck a duck'...
    Any thoughts on the rugby this weekend? Looks too close to call tonight, England should have enough against Italy and I have no clue for Wales v Scotland...
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,727

    Selebian said:

    Selebian said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Extraordinary, if true. The total pathetic decadence of our politicians


    "Newsnight asked (Labour MP) Bell Ribeiro-Addy and (Tory MP) Caroline Nokes about the fact the alkali attacker was granted asylum on his 3rd attempt after a sexual assault conviction

    BRA: "His asylum status is not really the issue of concern"

    CN: "I think it's wrong to comment on that""


    WHY IS IT WRONG TO COMMENT ON THAT. HOW CAN HIS ASYLUM STATUS AND CRIMINAL RECORD NOT BE AN ISSUE OF CONCERN

    These people make me want to puke

    https://x.com/christiancalgie/status/1753320770468495775?s=20

    If someone's come from an oppressive regime then that trumps absolutely everything else, ever. It's regarded pretty much as a law of physics for those in the system.
    One of the remarkable things about that exchange is that it is two female MPs spewing this Woke drivel

    What about the rights of the woman who got her face melted? And her kids, likewise? Don't they have the right to be defended from failed asylum seeking Afghan perverts with criminal records who should have been deported???

    What happened to feminism? What happened to sticking up for women?
    Along not dissimilar lines, this is utterly bonkers

    https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/humphrey-burke-free-two-years-after-sentence-kick-prison-guard-to-death/
    Hard not to lapse into despair
    I see the usual right-wing dog-whistles are still going off.

    They need to catch this loon (the attacker, not the OP) and lock him up for a long time.

    The attacker's asylum status is utterly irrelevant. Plenty of women get attacked / raped / murdered by white, British born nutters with a UK family history that goes back centuries, possibly millennia. Statistically, immigrants are not the issue simply because it is a numbers game. There are far more non-immigrants here.

    But I suppose a chance to bash some bl**dy foreigner is just too triggering...
    And while studies vary, they broadly show that immigrants commit fewer or similar numbers of crimes to non-immigrants.
    Citation required
    Certainly.

    Citation: bondegezou on PoliticalBetting 2nd Feb 2024
    No, seriously, citation required

    That's an interesting claim by @bondegezou - but he's an academic, he knows he has to back it up

    Citation required
    https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=immigrant+crime+rates+united+kingdom

    TLDR (from a very quick skim or abstracts): Varies a bit, but no strong signal for increased crime in general. Some immigrant communities associated with lower than indigenous crime rates.

    (as always, it depends what else you control for an what your question is - some control for other socioeconomic determinants, but if your question is does immigration -> more crime then you might not want to control for that if immigrants are generally more deprived than indigenous populations)
    Significantly lower and higher imprisonment rates have been noted for different immigrant groups in the UK. Thoughts on causes?
    Not really. I'd have to read the literature.

    A lot probably linked to socioeconomic profile within the UK - that tends to be the strongest predictor for a lot of things and correlates/confounds with ethnic group.

    Off the top of my head, I'd guess immigration from India tends to be more high skilled and low crime. Immigration from some other areas (parts of Africa/Eastern Europe) probably more into the murkier parts of the economy and/or into low wage/low skill positions where routes into crime might be more appealing. But I'd want to see evidence to see whether that perception, which I think is probably quite widespread, is true.
    https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/59323/1/CEP_Bell_Fasani_Machin_Crime-and-immigration_2013.pdf suggests immigration from eastern Europe associated with a (small) reduction in crime.
    Well, there you go. Shows why we do studies rather than just writing what we think.

    (I was thinking of immigration from outwith EU, in my comment, but that perception still may be largely driven by media reports)
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I never got American Pie. Do Americans really wander about sticking their willies into innocent baked goods?
    You've heard the expression motherhood and apple pie ?

    They're just a bit confused.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,068
    Leon said:

    OK fuck it I will tell you. I did advise you to wait for a more seemly hour, but anyway

    That photo shows number 7, road 310, Phnom Penh, in the city's trendy BKK district

    It may now be full of pho bars and expat pubs and Ethiopian coffee roasters, but back in the day BKK was a very sleepy suburb yet with a faintly seedy reputation. At number 7 there was, in particular, a famous institution, Madam Chum's bordello and opium den

    For decades until the Khmer Rouge anyone who was anyone, with low morals, came here

    Along with nice pipes of opium it was notorious as the place where the French indochinese sex trick of the "Cholon Duck" was, apparently, perfected. Originating in the stews of Saigon, at Madam Chum's they took the "Cholon Duck" to a new level

    First, a butt naked duck had its head stuck in a drawer, then the drawer was shut tight enough, trapping the duck with its arse sticking out. The panic meant the duck's rear orifice opened wider, allowing the drunk and opiated customer to penetrate more easily, with his virile member. This further increased the panic of the duck - being fucked, without even foreplay - so the orifice then tightened and loosened and tightened, in a cycle, causing "tremendous pleasure" for the duck-violator

    Furthermore, the flapping of the duck's angry feet against the testicles led, it is said, to the most intense orgasms ever

    After the client had enjoyed his wicked way with the duck, it was quickly despatched (if it hadn't died of a heart attack), it was then defeathered, cooked and served to the same customer in a light curry sauce

    The more time I spend on PB, the more I feel the rich should be locked up on general principles. In solitary confinement. Under a mountain. On a desert island. In space. In an alternate timeline. 😀
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067

    Just realised that it's Groundhog Day

    Like, it really is. I'm not calling you all repetitive!

    Today’s your annual reminder that Georgia has a groundhog named General Beauregard Lee who comes out of a plantation house that should’ve been burned to the ground by Punxsutawney Phil on his March to the Sea… but here we are. He’s not to be trusted.
    https://twitter.com/AnthonyMKreis/status/1621142932454604800
  • I think @leon is the Baby-Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells

    "No form of sexual depravity is too low for me, I'll do anything to anything"
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,068

    Tory MP Desmond Swayne calls for fly-tippers to be strangled with their ripped out intestines
    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-mp-desmond-swayne-calls-32022477

    Sensible policies for a happier Britain.

    Most sensible comment of the last fifteen years, if you ask me.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I never got American Pie. Do Americans really wander about sticking their willies into innocent baked goods?
    Spend a few months in prison - as I have done - and you will soon gain - and if you are unlucky, witness - overwhelming evidence for the fact that men will stick their willies into ANYTHING

    So I can totally believe a trapped duck
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,243
    a
    Carnyx said:

    Tory MP Desmond Swayne calls for fly-tippers to be strangled with their ripped out intestines
    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-mp-desmond-swayne-calls-32022477

    Sensible policies for a happier Britain.

    Just wait till he finds out about the PPE mountains.
    On a serious note - why disposable PPE? Yes, it is somewhat convenient to just bin stuff. But dressing medical staff in light weight biodegradable plastic, with tons of gaps will be a fail when we get hit by an airborne virus. aside form the supply issues.

    The issues of overheating, fogging, airtightness etc have all been solved for other applications. Making re-useable materials that can survive being dunked in a variety of cleaning chemicals is solved as well. Even electronics that can survive dramatic cleaning measures is a done thing. Fitted masks, using a 3D printed dam to fit exactly to the facial profile of the person using it, is a done thing.

    Put it together and you could have a comfortable, easy to use, long lasting system that modularly fits together - so that you could deal with basic threats, but take it all the way to "space suit" level, if required.

  • kyf_100kyf_100 Posts: 4,938
    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258

    I think @leon is the Baby-Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells

    "No form of sexual depravity is too low for me, I'll do anything to anything"

    I haven’t actually tried Cholon Duck; merely passing on salacious stories

    Also, if you think I’m bad, check out Marcel Proust

    😶
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258
    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
    My weight loss has severely slowed. Nonetheless I’m at my lowest weight yet today - 85.2kg

    Not far from target

    You can hit the dreaded plateau when losing weight. Your metabolism adjusts to lower calories and the diet stops working

    My advice: fast. Eat nothing at all. It’s bloody hard but in the end the weight starts dropping again, because it must

    Don’t give up!
  • kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
    Just keep doing whatever you're doing that works for you and don't get disheartened, plateaus are normal unfortunately for points of time.

    I was losing a steady 2lbs per week but have flatlined for the last couple of weeks. Not giving up hope though.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
    Just keep doing whatever you're doing that works for you and don't get disheartened, plateaus are normal unfortunately for points of time.

    I was losing a steady 2lbs per week but have flatlined for the last couple of weeks. Not giving up hope though.
    Yes. Plateaus are a KNOWN ISSUE

    Fight on!
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,131
    edited February 2
    Talking of Betjeman, although he occasionally hit the heights, there's a certain repressed-but-dirty-raincoat-brigade aspect to both him and Larkin that I find a bit off-putting.

    They disliked the more generous and colourful culture of the 1960's, but you get the feeling that they went around with their hands rather too deeply in their pockets when they saw "the young people"..
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,873

    a

    Carnyx said:

    Tory MP Desmond Swayne calls for fly-tippers to be strangled with their ripped out intestines
    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-mp-desmond-swayne-calls-32022477

    Sensible policies for a happier Britain.

    Just wait till he finds out about the PPE mountains.
    On a serious note - why disposable PPE? Yes, it is somewhat convenient to just bin stuff. But dressing medical staff in light weight biodegradable plastic, with tons of gaps will be a fail when we get hit by an airborne virus. aside form the supply issues.

    The issues of overheating, fogging, airtightness etc have all been solved for other applications. Making re-useable materials that can survive being dunked in a variety of cleaning chemicals is solved as well. Even electronics that can survive dramatic cleaning measures is a done thing. Fitted masks, using a 3D printed dam to fit exactly to the facial profile of the person using it, is a done thing.

    Put it together and you could have a comfortable, easy to use, long lasting system that modularly fits together - so that you could deal with basic threats, but take it all the way to "space suit" level, if required.

    Maybe the Covid inquiry will get around to useful precautions for the next pandemic once it gets past low-level gossip in Whatsapp groups.
  • Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
    My weight loss has severely slowed. Nonetheless I’m at my lowest weight yet today - 85.2kg

    Not far from target

    You can hit the dreaded plateau when losing weight. Your metabolism adjusts to lower calories and the diet stops working

    My advice: fast. Eat nothing at all. It’s bloody hard but in the end the weight starts dropping again, because it must

    Don’t give up!
    Plateaus aren't just metabolism but can be other biological changes. Your weight can not change, but you can still be healthier and less fat.

    One issue I've mentioned before is that muscle is much denser than fat - and overweight active people tend to have more muscles than comparably active people. This is logical, if you're not overweight then imagine putting on a 20kg backpack every time you took a step or stood up or did any activity - that'd be exercise for you.

    If you're losing weight but becoming more active, then you might be exchanging fat for (even more) muscle, which won't show on the scales but will show in your overall health and fitness.

    In order to reach a stereotypical 'goal weight' from being particularly overweight though at some point you'll need to lose muscle mass and not just fat.
  • Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    There is no iron law that prevents it from being cancelled.

    It may be, it may not; we just don't know.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,375

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258

    Talking of Betjeman, although he occasionally hit the heights, there's a certain repressed-but-dirty-raincoat-brigade aspect to both him and Larkin that I find a bit off-putting.

    They disliked the more generous and colourful culture of the 1960's, but you get the feeling that they went around with their hands rather too deeply in their pockets when they saw "the young people"..

    I’m pretty sure they were both quite sexual men who didn’t get much, and they were simply annoyed that they missed out on all the free love of the 60s. Larkin famously wrote about it, Betjeman spoke of it on his deathbed
  • kyf_100kyf_100 Posts: 4,938

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
    My weight loss has severely slowed. Nonetheless I’m at my lowest weight yet today - 85.2kg

    Not far from target

    You can hit the dreaded plateau when losing weight. Your metabolism adjusts to lower calories and the diet stops working

    My advice: fast. Eat nothing at all. It’s bloody hard but in the end the weight starts dropping again, because it must

    Don’t give up!
    Plateaus aren't just metabolism but can be other biological changes. Your weight can not change, but you can still be healthier and less fat.

    One issue I've mentioned before is that muscle is much denser than fat - and overweight active people tend to have more muscles than comparably active people. This is logical, if you're not overweight then imagine putting on a 20kg backpack every time you took a step or stood up or did any activity - that'd be exercise for you.

    If you're losing weight but becoming more active, then you might be exchanging fat for (even more) muscle, which won't show on the scales but will show in your overall health and fitness.

    In order to reach a stereotypical 'goal weight' from being particularly overweight though at some point you'll need to lose muscle mass and not just fat.
    One thing I think that might have happened is I have overdone the calorie deficit, to the point where my body went into starvation mode and decided to hang on to every ounce it can get. I've actually upped my intake from 1200 calories a day to more like 1600 this week as a result. Counter-intuitive, possibly, but there are reports of this happening when people eat too little.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,183

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
  • kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
    My weight loss has severely slowed. Nonetheless I’m at my lowest weight yet today - 85.2kg

    Not far from target

    You can hit the dreaded plateau when losing weight. Your metabolism adjusts to lower calories and the diet stops working

    My advice: fast. Eat nothing at all. It’s bloody hard but in the end the weight starts dropping again, because it must

    Don’t give up!
    Plateaus aren't just metabolism but can be other biological changes. Your weight can not change, but you can still be healthier and less fat.

    One issue I've mentioned before is that muscle is much denser than fat - and overweight active people tend to have more muscles than comparably active people. This is logical, if you're not overweight then imagine putting on a 20kg backpack every time you took a step or stood up or did any activity - that'd be exercise for you.

    If you're losing weight but becoming more active, then you might be exchanging fat for (even more) muscle, which won't show on the scales but will show in your overall health and fitness.

    In order to reach a stereotypical 'goal weight' from being particularly overweight though at some point you'll need to lose muscle mass and not just fat.
    One thing I think that might have happened is I have overdone the calorie deficit, to the point where my body went into starvation mode and decided to hang on to every ounce it can get. I've actually upped my intake from 1200 calories a day to more like 1600 this week as a result. Counter-intuitive, possibly, but there are reports of this happening when people eat too little.
    Yes, its why I prefer to stick to three meals a day than go into fasting like Leon advises (though good luck to anyone who does that, whatever works for you!)

    As far as I understand it the healthy maximum to lose weight is about 200lbs a week which requires a deficit of 1000 calories a day. Preferably from approximately 500 calorie deficit in food, and 500 calories burnt in additional exercise.
  • El_CapitanoEl_Capitano Posts: 4,239
    Leon said:

    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes

    Good excuse to drop in this bit of 2007-vintage punk, "Girls, Skirts, Boots, Bikes":

    https://ourstage.com/media_items/HTLMIGZYJWQX-girls-skirts-boots-bikes
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,679
    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    A friend's wife is a 'coder' for the NHS, which means her job is to log the various cases that are treated in (Truro) hospital. All the stories you've ever heard about injuries from sexual experiments gone wrong are true.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,355

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
    My weight loss has severely slowed. Nonetheless I’m at my lowest weight yet today - 85.2kg

    Not far from target

    You can hit the dreaded plateau when losing weight. Your metabolism adjusts to lower calories and the diet stops working

    My advice: fast. Eat nothing at all. It’s bloody hard but in the end the weight starts dropping again, because it must

    Don’t give up!
    Plateaus aren't just metabolism but can be other biological changes. Your weight can not change, but you can still be healthier and less fat.

    One issue I've mentioned before is that muscle is much denser than fat - and overweight active people tend to have more muscles than comparably active people. This is logical, if you're not overweight then imagine putting on a 20kg backpack every time you took a step or stood up or did any activity - that'd be exercise for you.

    If you're losing weight but becoming more active, then you might be exchanging fat for (even more) muscle, which won't show on the scales but will show in your overall health and fitness.

    In order to reach a stereotypical 'goal weight' from being particularly overweight though at some point you'll need to lose muscle mass and not just fat.
    This is why there is advice to measure your waist circumference, because that's where a lot of the fat will show up, but muscle mass will mostly be elsewhere.

    Though the problem is that it's easier to be dishonest with a waist measurement than with the scales.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,408
    Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,815

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
    My weight loss has severely slowed. Nonetheless I’m at my lowest weight yet today - 85.2kg

    Not far from target

    You can hit the dreaded plateau when losing weight. Your metabolism adjusts to lower calories and the diet stops working

    My advice: fast. Eat nothing at all. It’s bloody hard but in the end the weight starts dropping again, because it must

    Don’t give up!
    Plateaus aren't just metabolism but can be other biological changes. Your weight can not change, but you can still be healthier and less fat.

    One issue I've mentioned before is that muscle is much denser than fat - and overweight active people tend to have more muscles than comparably active people. This is logical, if you're not overweight then imagine putting on a 20kg backpack every time you took a step or stood up or did any activity - that'd be exercise for you.

    If you're losing weight but becoming more active, then you might be exchanging fat for (even more) muscle, which won't show on the scales but will show in your overall health and fitness.

    In order to reach a stereotypical 'goal weight' from being particularly overweight though at some point you'll need to lose muscle mass and not just fat.
    One thing I think that might have happened is I have overdone the calorie deficit, to the point where my body went into starvation mode and decided to hang on to every ounce it can get. I've actually upped my intake from 1200 calories a day to more like 1600 this week as a result. Counter-intuitive, possibly, but there are reports of this happening when people eat too little.
    Yes, its why I prefer to stick to three meals a day than go into fasting like Leon advises (though good luck to anyone who does that, whatever works for you!)

    As far as I understand it the healthy maximum to lose weight is about 200lbs a week which requires a deficit of 1000 calories a day. Preferably from approximately 500 calorie deficit in food, and 500 calories burnt in additional exercise.
    I think at 200 pounds you may be confusing maximum loss limit at the bookies with weight loss there.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,953

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    There is no iron law that prevents it from being cancelled.

    It may be, it may not; we just don't know.
    Replacement bus service which encourages many to stay at home.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,183

    Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    £61,250 can't be real for commercial airline pilots bearing in mind all the initial training they need to do at their own cost, surely ?
  • Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    So long as the revenue comes from the tickets of those they are driving around, I don't see a problem with that. The problem however is that it does not, it comes from taxpayers.

    Abolish subsidies and let trains be staffed by whatever revenue comes from their customers - put up the prices if need be, and if the price goes up too far that fewer people travel by train, then fewer drivers will be needed and some will lose their jobs. That's supply and demand.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 41,953

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
    My weight loss has severely slowed. Nonetheless I’m at my lowest weight yet today - 85.2kg

    Not far from target

    You can hit the dreaded plateau when losing weight. Your metabolism adjusts to lower calories and the diet stops working

    My advice: fast. Eat nothing at all. It’s bloody hard but in the end the weight starts dropping again, because it must

    Don’t give up!
    Plateaus aren't just metabolism but can be other biological changes. Your weight can not change, but you can still be healthier and less fat.

    One issue I've mentioned before is that muscle is much denser than fat - and overweight active people tend to have more muscles than comparably active people. This is logical, if you're not overweight then imagine putting on a 20kg backpack every time you took a step or stood up or did any activity - that'd be exercise for you.

    If you're losing weight but becoming more active, then you might be exchanging fat for (even more) muscle, which won't show on the scales but will show in your overall health and fitness.

    In order to reach a stereotypical 'goal weight' from being particularly overweight though at some point you'll need to lose muscle mass and not just fat.
    One thing I think that might have happened is I have overdone the calorie deficit, to the point where my body went into starvation mode and decided to hang on to every ounce it can get. I've actually upped my intake from 1200 calories a day to more like 1600 this week as a result. Counter-intuitive, possibly, but there are reports of this happening when people eat too little.
    Yes, its why I prefer to stick to three meals a day than go into fasting like Leon advises (though good luck to anyone who does that, whatever works for you!)

    As far as I understand it the healthy maximum to lose weight is about 200lbs a week which requires a deficit of 1000 calories a day. Preferably from approximately 500 calorie deficit in food, and 500 calories burnt in additional exercise.
    200lbs a week!
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258
    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
    My weight loss has severely slowed. Nonetheless I’m at my lowest weight yet today - 85.2kg

    Not far from target

    You can hit the dreaded plateau when losing weight. Your metabolism adjusts to lower calories and the diet stops working

    My advice: fast. Eat nothing at all. It’s bloody hard but in the end the weight starts dropping again, because it must

    Don’t give up!
    Plateaus aren't just metabolism but can be other biological changes. Your weight can not change, but you can still be healthier and less fat.

    One issue I've mentioned before is that muscle is much denser than fat - and overweight active people tend to have more muscles than comparably active people. This is logical, if you're not overweight then imagine putting on a 20kg backpack every time you took a step or stood up or did any activity - that'd be exercise for you.

    If you're losing weight but becoming more active, then you might be exchanging fat for (even more) muscle, which won't show on the scales but will show in your overall health and fitness.

    In order to reach a stereotypical 'goal weight' from being particularly overweight though at some point you'll need to lose muscle mass and not just fat.
    One thing I think that might have happened is I have overdone the calorie deficit, to the point where my body went into starvation mode and decided to hang on to every ounce it can get. I've actually upped my intake from 1200 calories a day to more like 1600 this week as a result. Counter-intuitive, possibly, but there are reports of this happening when people eat too little.
    This is why I fast. No fucking about with calorie counting. Simpler

    But each to their own and don’t give up. Also - I had the same feeling as you a few months ago. The sense that Covid had permanently altered my body and metabolism and I would never get down to a reasonable weight (as I saw it, pre Covid) ever again. Well it’s not true because I’ve already done it

    I’m now at a weight where before Covid I’d have thought ok, bit chunky, not bad, just lose a few
    pound

    And all my old linen shirts fit me again

    Don’t give up!
  • kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
    My weight loss has severely slowed. Nonetheless I’m at my lowest weight yet today - 85.2kg

    Not far from target

    You can hit the dreaded plateau when losing weight. Your metabolism adjusts to lower calories and the diet stops working

    My advice: fast. Eat nothing at all. It’s bloody hard but in the end the weight starts dropping again, because it must

    Don’t give up!
    Plateaus aren't just metabolism but can be other biological changes. Your weight can not change, but you can still be healthier and less fat.

    One issue I've mentioned before is that muscle is much denser than fat - and overweight active people tend to have more muscles than comparably active people. This is logical, if you're not overweight then imagine putting on a 20kg backpack every time you took a step or stood up or did any activity - that'd be exercise for you.

    If you're losing weight but becoming more active, then you might be exchanging fat for (even more) muscle, which won't show on the scales but will show in your overall health and fitness.

    In order to reach a stereotypical 'goal weight' from being particularly overweight though at some point you'll need to lose muscle mass and not just fat.
    One thing I think that might have happened is I have overdone the calorie deficit, to the point where my body went into starvation mode and decided to hang on to every ounce it can get. I've actually upped my intake from 1200 calories a day to more like 1600 this week as a result. Counter-intuitive, possibly, but there are reports of this happening when people eat too little.
    Yes, its why I prefer to stick to three meals a day than go into fasting like Leon advises (though good luck to anyone who does that, whatever works for you!)

    As far as I understand it the healthy maximum to lose weight is about 200lbs a week which requires a deficit of 1000 calories a day. Preferably from approximately 500 calorie deficit in food, and 500 calories burnt in additional exercise.
    I think at 200 pounds you may be confusing maximum loss limit at the bookies with weight loss there.
    Oops that's a weird typo. 2 lbs = 7000 kcal is what I was talking about.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,653
    edited February 2
    Apols for disrupting the porn-peccadilloes site with a politics post but have we done this one?

    @techneUK
    NEW POLL: Labour extends its lead as Conservatives falter:

    Lab 45% (+1)
    Con 23% (-1)
    Lib Dem 10% (=)
    Reform 10% (+1)
    Green 6% (-1)
    SNP 3% (=)
    Others 3% (=)

    image

    https://x.com/techneUK/status/1753358515450659165?s=20
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,408
    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    £61,250 can't be real for commercial airline pilots bearing in mind all the initial training they need to do at their own cost, surely ?
    It probably varies a fair bit depending on if you're doing shorthaul for Flybe/Logan or a very experienced and doing longhaul internationally for BA or Virgin.

    I don't think it's far off the entry level though.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,645
    edited February 2

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Leon said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    The goose/duck head slammed in drawer thing is an old urban myth. It’s in the Profanisaurus, if memory serves. Related to the donkey punch.

    I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it, at all

    There are extraordinary stories from the most famous of les maisons tolerees - the One Two Two, the Chabanais - of similar things involving animals. I'll spare you further deets, it is early in Blighty

    And these are well attested, I don't believe they are disputed

    So it is quite conceivable that tradition translated to French colonies, especially eroticised, Orientalised, hedonistic Indochina

    Still filing next to 'Cleveland Steamer', 'Quumf' and' 'Reggae Like It Used To Be'.
    Is Quumfing a myth?

    Betjeman basically admitted it. In verse




    Senex, by John Betjeman

    Oh would I could subdue the flesh
    Which sadly troubles me!
    And then perhaps could view the flesh
    As though I never knew the flesh
    And merry misery.

    To see the golden hiking girl
    With wind about her hair,
    The tennis-playing, biking girl,
    The wholly-to-my-liking girl,
    To see and not to care.

    At sundown on my tricycle
    I tour the Borough’s edge,
    And icy as an icicle
    See bicycle by bicycle
    Stacked waiting in the hedge.

    Get down from me! I thunder there,
    You spaniels! Shut your jaws!
    Your teeth are stuffed with underwear,
    Suspenders torn asunder there
    And buttocks in your paws!

    Oh whip the dogs away my Lord,
    They make me ill with lust.
    Bend bare knees down to pray, my Lord,
    Teach sulky lips to say, my Lord,
    That flaxen hair is dust.



    Absolutely OBSESSED with girls on bikes
    Since I know there are a few Viz fans here...

    https://twitter.com/vizcomic/status/708025093860016129
    I used to think the watermelon thing was an urban myth - until a friend of mine confessed that he’d tried it. Indeed it was a minor craze at his school


    In fact, it seems to be an actual porn genre

    What’s that rule about sexual kinks? Anything you can think of is on the net and someone’s done it and turned it into porn

    I believe you're thinking of "rule 34".

    There is a website dedicated to examples of it, which I will not link to here...

    Weight has stubbornly refused to budge the last week or two, btw. Starting to wonder if I did so much harm to my body during lockdown that I will never return to my pre-lockdown weight...
    My weight loss has severely slowed. Nonetheless I’m at my lowest weight yet today - 85.2kg

    Not far from target

    You can hit the dreaded plateau when losing weight. Your metabolism adjusts to lower calories and the diet stops working

    My advice: fast. Eat nothing at all. It’s bloody hard but in the end the weight starts dropping again, because it must

    Don’t give up!
    Plateaus aren't just metabolism but can be other biological changes. Your weight can not change, but you can still be healthier and less fat.

    One issue I've mentioned before is that muscle is much denser than fat - and overweight active people tend to have more muscles than comparably active people. This is logical, if you're not overweight then imagine putting on a 20kg backpack every time you took a step or stood up or did any activity - that'd be exercise for you.

    If you're losing weight but becoming more active, then you might be exchanging fat for (even more) muscle, which won't show on the scales but will show in your overall health and fitness.

    In order to reach a stereotypical 'goal weight' from being particularly overweight though at some point you'll need to lose muscle mass and not just fat.
    "Comparably active" is the important bit here. Being overweight has the double whammy of preventing people from being active (consider stairs v escalator).

    Swimming and cycling are the gateway drugs to exercise for overweight people. Reduce s impact injuries and both keep you cooler as you do them.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,132
    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    £61,250 can't be real for commercial airline pilots bearing in mind all the initial training they need to do at their own cost, surely ?
    AIUI Low Cost airlines have undermined the average significantly over a couple of decades, have they not?
  • Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    If Rishi is in charge, the station will not even be built.....
    Its entertaining that there is now a post-HS2 working group led Andy Burnham and Andy Street. Finding solutions to the catastrophic capacity issues which the Brum-only scheme creates. Turns out that there is a really good investment opportunity to build a new railway line from a place called Handsacre to another place called High Legh to connect up these two other bits of railway.

    Even better is that the land is both already purchased and has legal powers to build a railway line. As the evil plot to sell the land before Labour gets in hasn't happened (and what do you do with a ribbon strip of land which has planning permission for chuffa tracks?), it would be relatively fast and cheap for a consortium to build it...
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,653

    Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    Free market economics in action surely?
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,496

    Talking of Betjeman, although he occasionally hit the heights, there's a certain repressed-but-dirty-raincoat-brigade aspect to both him and Larkin that I find a bit off-putting.

    They disliked the more generous and colourful culture of the 1960's, but you get the feeling that they went around with their hands rather too deeply in their pockets when they saw "the young people"..

    Larkin's last collection was published 50 years ago, in 1974, after which he published only one more major work, Aubade in 1977. Yes, he disliked much about the post 1960s culture with its various liberations (see Annus Mirabilis on 1963!).

    But an issue is this: Since Larkin has there been a poet of stature that lots of people actually read?

    Both Betjeman and Larkin were highly self aware, and knew that if they produced gold it was out of dross. As Yeats knew:

    Now that my ladder's gone
    I must lie down where all the ladders start
    In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 21,968
    edited February 2

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    If Rishi is in charge, the station will not even be built.....
    Its entertaining that there is now a post-HS2 working group led Andy Burnham and Andy Street. Finding solutions to the catastrophic capacity issues which the Brum-only scheme creates. Turns out that there is a really good investment opportunity to build a new railway line from a place called Handsacre to another place called High Legh to connect up these two other bits of railway.

    Even better is that the land is both already purchased and has legal powers to build a railway line. As the evil plot to sell the land before Labour gets in hasn't happened (and what do you do with a ribbon strip of land which has planning permission for chuffa tracks?), it would be relatively fast and cheap for a consortium to build it...
    One of the biggest problems with HS2 is it was putting all the eggs into one basket and building routes between places that were already connected.

    We see the same insanity with a stubborn refusal to build any new major roads and instead trying to sweat extra capacity by spending a fortune converting them to "smart" motorways to add a little bit of extra capacity.

    Boosting capacity between already connect places isn't the be all and end all, it only really helps at peak times and it useless the rest of the time. Spending capital building connections where there are none or no direct ones yet is far, far more important.

    We should be building new motorways, A-roads and train lines linking places that are currently not linked more than trying to expand capacity on pre-existing routes.

    If Handsacre to High Leigh isn't currently connected, that's the kind of thing we should be doing, with both new roads and rails.
  • GhedebravGhedebrav Posts: 3,860
    edited February 2
    Sport betting post (with the disclaimer that I'm not currently betting on anything at the moment).

    AFCON looks really interesting. I'd have said Senegal were my favourites going in, but they are OUT. Ever-fanciable Egypt also out. Nigeria now outright faves at 2/1 but I reckon Angola will be a challenge for them and are actually a little underpriced at 20/1 outsiders. They topped their group and absolutely schooled (admittedly only) Namibia in the R16 game.

    That being said, I think Ivory Coast are likely winners, still at around 3/1. Oooh Aah Cote D'Ivoire.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,873
    MattW said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    £61,250 can't be real for commercial airline pilots bearing in mind all the initial training they need to do at their own cost, surely ?
    AIUI Low Cost airlines have undermined the average significantly over a couple of decades, have they not?
    Yes they have but thinking about supply and demand, more airliners and (especially in the United States) air courier services (eg FedEx and UPS have fleets of aircraft to fly parcels between states) should have increased competition for pilots and raised salaries.

    So look to the supply side. My guess is huge numbers of trained and experienced pilots being churned out by the US armed forces.
  • MightyAlexMightyAlex Posts: 1,660
    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    £61,250 can't be real for commercial airline pilots bearing in mind all the initial training they need to do at their own cost, surely ?
    Maybe they need to let in the Lynch.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,047

    Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    So long as the revenue comes from the tickets of those they are driving around, I don't see a problem with that. The problem however is that it does not, it comes from taxpayers.

    Abolish subsidies and let trains be staffed by whatever revenue comes from their customers - put up the prices if need be, and if the price goes up too far that fewer people travel by train, then fewer drivers will be needed and some will lose their jobs. That's supply and demand.
    Supply and demand does not take into account the externalities. It is of benefit to society generally if more people travel on trains.
  • Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    So long as the revenue comes from the tickets of those they are driving around, I don't see a problem with that. The problem however is that it does not, it comes from taxpayers.

    Abolish subsidies and let trains be staffed by whatever revenue comes from their customers - put up the prices if need be, and if the price goes up too far that fewer people travel by train, then fewer drivers will be needed and some will lose their jobs. That's supply and demand.
    Supply and demand does not take into account the externalities. It is of benefit to society generally if more people travel on trains.
    No it isn't.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,243

    a

    Carnyx said:

    Tory MP Desmond Swayne calls for fly-tippers to be strangled with their ripped out intestines
    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-mp-desmond-swayne-calls-32022477

    Sensible policies for a happier Britain.

    Just wait till he finds out about the PPE mountains.
    On a serious note - why disposable PPE? Yes, it is somewhat convenient to just bin stuff. But dressing medical staff in light weight biodegradable plastic, with tons of gaps will be a fail when we get hit by an airborne virus. aside form the supply issues.

    The issues of overheating, fogging, airtightness etc have all been solved for other applications. Making re-useable materials that can survive being dunked in a variety of cleaning chemicals is solved as well. Even electronics that can survive dramatic cleaning measures is a done thing. Fitted masks, using a 3D printed dam to fit exactly to the facial profile of the person using it, is a done thing.

    Put it together and you could have a comfortable, easy to use, long lasting system that modularly fits together - so that you could deal with basic threats, but take it all the way to "space suit" level, if required.

    Maybe the Covid inquiry will get around to useful precautions for the next pandemic once it gets past low-level gossip in Whatsapp groups.
    What a ridiculous idea.

    For some reason this topic reminds me of attending a deep sea engineering related conference I attended* years ago.

    Some NASA spacesuit guys turned up - because their bosses wanted them to interact with the deep suit types.

    NASA engineer 1 - "I don't think we've got much to learn here. I mean how many suits have you actually got built?"

    Deep Suit engineer 1 - "3 different designs. Maybe 60 builds. 6 Navies, about the same commercial users."
    Deep Suit engineer 2 - "2 designs.....
    etc

    NASA engineer 1 - {attempts to sink through floor}

    *The company I worked for would send me to any conference I wanted in the Oil and Gas space. Would also sign me up for any training I wanted. Should really have stretched it.....
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,047

    Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    So long as the revenue comes from the tickets of those they are driving around, I don't see a problem with that. The problem however is that it does not, it comes from taxpayers.

    Abolish subsidies and let trains be staffed by whatever revenue comes from their customers - put up the prices if need be, and if the price goes up too far that fewer people travel by train, then fewer drivers will be needed and some will lose their jobs. That's supply and demand.
    Supply and demand does not take into account the externalities. It is of benefit to society generally if more people travel on trains.
    No it isn't.
    I bow before your robust and well-argued case.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,243

    MattW said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    £61,250 can't be real for commercial airline pilots bearing in mind all the initial training they need to do at their own cost, surely ?
    AIUI Low Cost airlines have undermined the average significantly over a couple of decades, have they not?
    Yes they have but thinking about supply and demand, more airliners and (especially in the United States) air courier services (eg FedEx and UPS have fleets of aircraft to fly parcels between states) should have increased competition for pilots and raised salaries.

    So look to the supply side. My guess is huge numbers of trained and experienced pilots being churned out by the US armed forces.
    Some airlines are taking advantage of the huge numbers of people who've paid their own way through flying school to practically charge for flying their planes!

    https://www.pprune.org/terms-endearment/555359-airlines-have-its-pilots-pay-fly.html
  • Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    So long as the revenue comes from the tickets of those they are driving around, I don't see a problem with that. The problem however is that it does not, it comes from taxpayers.

    Abolish subsidies and let trains be staffed by whatever revenue comes from their customers - put up the prices if need be, and if the price goes up too far that fewer people travel by train, then fewer drivers will be needed and some will lose their jobs. That's supply and demand.
    Supply and demand does not take into account the externalities. It is of benefit to society generally if more people travel on trains.
    No it isn't.
    I bow before your robust and well-argued case.
    I gave you as much argument as you gave me.

    Its hard to prove a negative, its upon the person making the assertion to make their claim before it can be rebutted.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,258
    edited February 2
    algarkirk said:

    Talking of Betjeman, although he occasionally hit the heights, there's a certain repressed-but-dirty-raincoat-brigade aspect to both him and Larkin that I find a bit off-putting.

    They disliked the more generous and colourful culture of the 1960's, but you get the feeling that they went around with their hands rather too deeply in their pockets when they saw "the young people"..

    Larkin's last collection was published 50 years ago, in 1974, after which he published only one more major work, Aubade in 1977. Yes, he disliked much about the post 1960s culture with its various liberations (see Annus Mirabilis on 1963!).

    But an issue is this: Since Larkin has there been a poet of stature that lots of people actually read?

    Both Betjeman and Larkin were highly self aware, and knew that if they produced gold it was out of dross. As Yeats knew:

    Now that my ladder's gone
    I must lie down where all the ladders start
    In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.
    Betjeman was a really fine poet. Larkin is one of the greatest poets in the English language. It is really hard to think of many poets who produced as many memorable and resonant lines as Larkin

    I could quote a dozen now from They fuck you up to What will survive of us is love


    Only Yeats and Eliot equal him in the 20th century; and maybe Plath in her cometary way

    Was he a racist, misogynist, curmudgeonly old git obsessed with lesbian schoolgirl spanking? Yes. Was he a genius poet, so who cares? Also yes
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,183
    edited February 2


    Supply and demand does not take into account the externalities. It is of benefit to society generally if more people travel on trains.

    Why ?

  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    If Rishi is in charge, the station will not even be built.....
    Its entertaining that there is now a post-HS2 working group led Andy Burnham and Andy Street. Finding solutions to the catastrophic capacity issues which the Brum-only scheme creates. Turns out that there is a really good investment opportunity to build a new railway line from a place called Handsacre to another place called High Legh to connect up these two other bits of railway.

    Even better is that the land is both already purchased and has legal powers to build a railway line. As the evil plot to sell the land before Labour gets in hasn't happened (and what do you do with a ribbon strip of land which has planning permission for chuffa tracks?), it would be relatively fast and cheap for a consortium to build it...
    What's the betting it gets sold before the election ?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    .

    Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    So long as the revenue comes from the tickets of those they are driving around, I don't see a problem with that. The problem however is that it does not, it comes from taxpayers.

    Abolish subsidies and let trains be staffed by whatever revenue comes from their customers - put up the prices if need be, and if the price goes up too far that fewer people travel by train, then fewer drivers will be needed and some will lose their jobs. That's supply and demand.
    Supply and demand does not take into account the externalities. It is of benefit to society generally if more people travel on trains.
    The market is great at delivering price signals.
    It can be utterly crap at delivering outcomes - see also the water industry.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    algarkirk said:

    Talking of Betjeman, although he occasionally hit the heights, there's a certain repressed-but-dirty-raincoat-brigade aspect to both him and Larkin that I find a bit off-putting.

    They disliked the more generous and colourful culture of the 1960's, but you get the feeling that they went around with their hands rather too deeply in their pockets when they saw "the young people"..

    Larkin's last collection was published 50 years ago, in 1974, after which he published only one more major work, Aubade in 1977. Yes, he disliked much about the post 1960s culture with its various liberations (see Annus Mirabilis on 1963!).

    But an issue is this: Since Larkin has there been a poet of stature that lots of people actually read?

    Both Betjeman and Larkin were highly self aware, and knew that if they produced gold it was out of dross. As Yeats knew:

    Now that my ladder's gone
    I must lie down where all the ladders start
    In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.
    Bob Dylan ?
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,241

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    FPT - I'd have thought, at this stage, Alan Bates can basically name his price.

    I'm sure, being the sort of guy he is, that once he's got it he will take a modest amount for himself and use the rest to help others and his community.

    He just doesn't want to be taken for a fool.

    It would be interesting to know the sums involved
    It's good to see that the attitude to compensation is still honouring the traditions of Aberfan.
    Wait, have I said they're being overgenerous? Or mean? Or anything?

    I merely observe it would be interesting to see what they've offered, and what he sees as apposite. He is claiming the sums are derisory, less than a quarter of what it should be, and I confess - after all the terrible publicity - I am surprised by this, is HMG contriving to screw it all up, all over again, by being mean and stupid?

    Lets say you have been wrongly sacked from your flint knapping job 15 years ago. Lets say the salary was 40K per year, so directly you have a claim for 600K. Then add in the legal fees fighting this. Who knows how big the amount should be? I suspect that the bean counters are trying to pay as little as possible and are totally misjudging the public mood. Yet again.
    That’s all easy to calculate.

    Based on some of the comments in the ITV drama (which is obviously drama not fact) I wouldn’t be surprised if they are holding out for consequential damages

    Made bankrupt and lost your house 15 years ago? What’s the value today?

    That’s a tough one to negotiate.

    Also I suspect it has been delegated to people who are focused on precedent and value for money rather than realising that they just need to get it done
  • Nigelb said:

    .

    Pulpstar said:

    Survation have started doing fortnightly polls.

    https://www.survation.com/labour-maintains-a-stable-17-point-lead/

    NEW: Westminster Voting Intention from Survation’s fortnightly tracker.

    LAB 44 (-1)
    CON 27 (-1)
    LD 11 (+1)
    GRN 3 (+1)
    RFM 7 (-1)
    SNP 4 (+2)
    OTH 5 (+1)

    F/w 30th - 31st January. Changes vs. 18th December 2023.

    Daveygate not cutting through as predicted by the fan boys. Most perplexing.
    Apart from the Con to RefUK switch in the last quarter of 2023 (and that seems to have stabilised), pretty much nothing has cut through for over a year.

    Is the swingback train ever going to leave the station?
    Not if ASLEF and the RMT have anything to do with it.
    I'm fully behind pay restoration to 2008 levels for train drivers.
    Salaries are comparable to the average for a commercial airline pilot:

    https://www.reed.com/articles/train-driver-salary-benefits
    So long as the revenue comes from the tickets of those they are driving around, I don't see a problem with that. The problem however is that it does not, it comes from taxpayers.

    Abolish subsidies and let trains be staffed by whatever revenue comes from their customers - put up the prices if need be, and if the price goes up too far that fewer people travel by train, then fewer drivers will be needed and some will lose their jobs. That's supply and demand.
    Supply and demand does not take into account the externalities. It is of benefit to society generally if more people travel on trains.
    The market is great at delivering price signals.
    It can be utterly crap at delivering outcomes - see also the water industry.
    The water industry is crap because its not got enough of a market.

    There's limited to zero competition and there is an aversion for some bizarre reason to letting the firms go bust. If the water companies are badly managed they should go bankrupt, with their shareholders and creditors getting wiped out.

    Bankruptcy doesn't mean that the water stops flowing, it means the firm goes bust but under bankruptcy orders someone else takes over the assets and operations can continue.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,106
    My tip to drink wine out of a sherry glass is as relevant to weight loss as it is to combatting alcoholism btw.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,067
    You'd think the Chief Sec would have some awareness of the difference between capital and revenue spending.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/feb/02/labour-28bn-green-investment-pledge-keir-starmer-rachel-reeves-uk-politics-live
    In a statement issued this morning by CCHQ, Laura Trott, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said:

    Labour are now trying to pretend they never said their 2030 energy policy would cost £28bn a year, despite repeatedly saying that their 2030 policy costs £28bn a year.
    Labour are resorting to this desperate dishonesty because they cannot say how they will pay for their 2030 spending spree as they do not have a plan.
    Everyone knows they will end up having to raise thousands of pounds of taxes on working people to fill their £28bn black hole...
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    Dura_Ace said:

    That's one of the hoariest stories ever wheeled out by bar-room bores, I must have heard it 15 times over the years.

    You can tell this iteration of it is bollocks due to the inexactitude regarding anatine physiology.

    Are you calling one of PB's most pungent pundits, a "bar-room bore"?

    Tell it to the Extraterrestrial Marines!
This discussion has been closed.