Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
Judging by the number of remakes and reboots we see in both TV and cinema, it looks like the studios have given up thinking up new stuff already!
That may get worse before it gets better, given the superhero genrre which has propped up cinemas for 15 years (which is a good run) has spectacularly collapsed. Maybe they'll try once again to revive the Western.
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
Besides, how much new televised drama do we actually need? Consider how many of the channels on our televisions are playing archive programmes on a continuous loop, to a presumably viable audience.
The human urge to create isn't going anywhere, which is the more wholesome of the reasons for writing fanfic. It's just going to be harder to make a living from it, which is a process that's been going on for ages.
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
I just Googled. Charlie is leaving Casualty in 2024. This amazes me because i) I haven't seen it in years, ii) he's been in it for nearly forty years, and iii) I didn't know it was still on.
My wife had it on the other day, and I caught a glimpse of him. I gather Casualty has long since ceased to have any semblance to a real NHS hospital, and I don’t for one moment believe any NHS unit, however short-staffed, would employ anyone in their 90’s.
Like most political labels I would imagine it to be a rather flexibly applied one. Like libertarians who are super keen on imposing their own personal preferences on others.
"The Court of Appeal rules that Shamima Begum was lawfully deprived of her British citizenship. The ruling means she remains in Syria with no chance of return to the UK."
She should be returned to this country to be prosecuted for the war crimes that she admitted (repeatedly) that she commited.
Under oath? Interview to a reporter (who found her 'hot' apparently) is not admissible, surely?
Making a mistake, or being seriously misled, at 15, should surely not mean a lifetime sentence. Even the two vicious little rats who were recently sentenced will probably be released eventually. I have no problem with her being returned her and tried for whatever crimes she has committed.
I think my argument is that I am not sure we have the evidence to try her here. She ought to be tried were the crimes were committed.
While I’ve sympathy with that argument I’m not sure that she’d get what we would describe as a ‘fair trial’ there. I’m very sorry for her family, too.
Probably true. Its a complicated moral mess. Was she groomed? Almost certainly. Did she find herself in the wrong place? Sure. But did she commit hideous crimes? Almost certainly. From her own mouth 'she was ok with it' for a lot of evil acts. A fifteen year old (and older later) knows right from wrong.
Arguably by keeping her from trial were she ought to be tried, but not bringing her home, we are doing her a favour.
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
Yes, but as we've seen, AI has no scruples about making up all kinds of obviously implausible shit - it will make story lines that are self contradictory, with big reveals of stuff that doesn't in any way match the previous story arc and makes the past behaviour of characters who apparently knew these facts completely inconsistent.
Ah... Yes, well maybe it could work
Pretty sure Dr Who under Chris Chibnal was running as early AI, from the sound of that!
I wonder what will happen if Israel qualifies for Euro 2024.
The team's defenders will have a bizarre inability to foresee or respond effectively to opposition attacks and its attackers will offer 'precision' strikes that lead to everyone in the stadium being in danger of getting hit in the face by a football?
What could have people done differently to avoid this chaos.
The SNP could have sought consensus and created a unifying statement and downplayed partisan posturing. The Conservatives could have supported the speakers motives, allowed the vote and used their majority to assert their authority Labour could have adopted a more aggressive position against Israel and backed the snp motion. Hoyle could have ignored the safety fears of MPs and rigidly stuck to old rules.
When you look at it this way, of the main actors, the SNP and the Conservatives were in the position to be most constructive. Hoyle is not the villain.
Yes. With every respect to Cyclefree, I disagree on this one. We entirely agree that the threat (or indeed fact) of violence to MPs is a threat to democracy itself. That is an issue of policing, but also places a responsibility on partisans of all colours not to whip up hatred of their opponents.
However, there is a substantial body of opinion in Parliament which agrees with the Labour motion - essentially demanding an immediate ceasefire without going as far as to accuse Israel of collective punishment. One can agree or disagree, but that's a perfectly respectable position. MPs who agree with this would like to show constituents that they mean it - and that's not only the small minority who are actually threatening, but also the majority who are horrified by what's happening In Gaza and want their MPs to show they agree.
The SNP motion was crafted in a way to make it difficult for anyone who agrees with the above to vote for it. The Conservatives, by pressing their own motion, were using Parliamentary procedure to prevent a vote on Labour's amendment. Both parties were actively trying to stop Labour MPs from voting for their preferred policy, hoping to create a split. Hoyle, by his decision, enabled MPs to vote on all three options - which enabled MPs to show constituents what they actually stood for. By their silly walkout and general simulated outrage, the Tories and SNP have colluded to obscure that and portray the whole thing as a mess. The actual motion that was agreed was entirely obscured for partisan reasons.
Yes, MPs who are actually threatened will probably be slightly less threatened as a result, and that's a benefit too - our disgust at threats of violence shouldn't extend to not allowing MPs to show that they aren't ignoring their constituents.
I understand the point that the SNP doesn't get many supply days and should be able to ensure that their motions get properly considered and voted on. I agree. But if they use that to put down a divisive motion they should expect an attempt to amend it - there is nothing undemocratic in that whatsoever.
Labour had plenty of opportunities to put it's motion before the house. The most recent being February 6th. It was the SNP's day, the convention is there because the 2nd party in our system tends to be much bigger than the 3rd, so they shouldn't be able to butt in on the 3rd party's days.
Most of the time you don’t use an opposition day to score points against another opposition party
Why not. They may be the opposition to the govt in Westminster but in Scotland they are a very real threat to the SNP so in terms of an SNP-Labour battle in the Election it makes perfect sense.
So do it in Scotland then.
My concern was that the whole day was student level virtue politics and should have been thrown in the scrap heap before it began.
The SNP have 3 days a year (and probably none for the foreseeable future when they lose their 3rd party status at the next election). Surely there are a lot of issues related to Scotland and the rest of the UK where the day could have been better used
The SNP have gotten more publicity out of this Opposition Day motion than any other Opposition Day motion they have ever brought, and more than 99% of Opposition Day motions brought by the main opposition. It's hard to feel like they've been hard done by.
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
Besides, how much new televised drama do we actually need? Consider how many of the channels on our televisions are playing archive programmes on a continuous loop, to a presumably viable audience.
The human urge to create isn't going anywhere, which is the more wholesome of the reasons for writing fanfic. It's just going to be harder to make a living from it, which is a process that's been going on for ages.
Radical action is needed to enable an environment which is easier for creatives to flourish in.
A mass book burning/wiping of the back catalogues, so that people have to recreate all their favourite stories as best they can hazily remember them. Then we'll find our what the truly iconic characters and stories of our times are.
I was reading Eternity Road, a pretty good post apocalypse story which had an epic quest to find a vault of ancient books, as very few had survived, so they had like 1 book by Mark Twain and that was that.
A law firm which called the police on pro-Palestine demonstrators has distanced itself from an email calling them “idiots” which was accidentally sent to the whole office.
Activists appeared in the lobby of JMW Solicitors’ Manchester office as part of a city-wide demonstration understood to have been organised against Barclays Bank, which shares premises at 3 Hardman Street with a number of other businesses including the firm.
Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have called for a boycott of Barclays because it “provides more than £3 billion in loans and underwriting to companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians”.
Although no damage was reported, the protest on 26 January was sufficiently disruptive that JMW called the authorities.
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Police told ROF that "officers attended reports of a protest at a premises on Hardman Street" at just before 9am, but when they arrived they "discovered that the group had left and moved on".
“Community tensions are high”, said Rebecca Young, the head of JMW’s media law team, but they were raised even higher at JMW when one of its staff accidentally sent an unsympathetic email about the protestors to the entire office.
The fat-fingered lawyer, whom ROF is not naming, slipped up when an employee working from home asked what was causing the commotion.
“A load of Palestine idiots in the foyer!” replied the lawyer. “One muppet with a megaphone the irony being you couldn’t even tell what he was saying!”
Even mild language risks being inflammatory when it comes to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and one of the email’s unintended recipients told ROF that dismissing the protestors as idiots and a muppet had “managed to upset a lot of colleagues”.
When ROF asked JMW for comment, its response from Young included threats to sue this reporter and RollOnFriday. However, the partner also said, “we are disappointed that this incident ever occurred and as a firm we are taking it very seriously. The Email does not express a view representative of our firm, or our people".
She continued, “The Email does not meet the firm’s expectations of how we expect our people to engage with one another or when representing the firm”, and said it would be “quite wrong... to suggest in any shape or form that this firm condones the conduct in question".
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
Besides, how much new televised drama do we actually need? Consider how many of the channels on our televisions are playing archive programmes on a continuous loop, to a presumably viable audience.
The human urge to create isn't going anywhere, which is the more wholesome of the reasons for writing fanfic. It's just going to be harder to make a living from it, which is a process that's been going on for ages.
Its a fair point. I often find myself with 30 mins of an evening when the son is off to bed, but his mum has not yet come down, and usually end up on Porridge, Dads Army, Miranda or some such. Something reliable.
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
The reason so much stuff is unwatchable is because the human script writing is so bad. It seems to me that large numbers of people have had so much of it that they have stopped noticing how terrible it is.
The fact that humans can produce King Lear and Beethoven piano Sonatas and Dad's Army and Fawlty Towers and Frasier is interesting but, on the evidence, not something the human community can produce simply at will or in unlimited quantities.
AI replacing real rare talent in a number of spheres is in the very early days of being tested out. In the long run it will be pretty clear what the result is. I don't of course know, but still have my doubts.
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
I just Googled. Charlie is leaving Casualty in 2024. This amazes me because i) I haven't seen it in years, ii) he's been in it for nearly forty years, and iii) I didn't know it was still on.
I gather Casualty has long since ceased to have any semblance to a real NHS hospitals.
I assume Casualty's setting mostly works, for a start?
Israel refusing to take part in Eurovision will solve a problem for a number of other countries where there is pressure for them to not take part is Israel is there
As discussed yesterday, the Molodovan entry edited its lyrics to be allowed to compete.
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
I just Googled. Charlie is leaving Casualty in 2024. This amazes me because i) I haven't seen it in years, ii) he's been in it for nearly forty years, and iii) I didn't know it was still on.
My wife had it on the other day, and I caught a glimpse of him. I gather Casualty has long since ceased to have any semblance to a real NHS hospital, and I don’t for one moment believe any NHS unit, however short-staffed, would employ anyone in their 90’s.
Comparing real life A+E shows with casualty is fun. I think casualty used to employ a medical consultant to ensure the accuracy of the medical content. No idea if it still does.
That said most TV/film depictions of someones workplace don't match the reality.
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
Besides, how much new televised drama do we actually need? Consider how many of the channels on our televisions are playing archive programmes on a continuous loop, to a presumably viable audience.
The human urge to create isn't going anywhere, which is the more wholesome of the reasons for writing fanfic. It's just going to be harder to make a living from it, which is a process that's been going on for ages.
Human art will become “artisanal”. The human and handmade element will be valued simply because it is human
But the computer made equivalent will be superior the way a car can go way faster than a human
So some art will survive. A few Hand weavers still make a good living 200+ years after the Luddites tried to destroy machine looms
But 90% of creative jobs will go. Is my rough guess. And that’s millions and millions of people losing jobs they adore
At the same time law and academe and accountancy and finance etc etc will also be obliterated - but people care less about those jobs
I wonder what will happen if Israel qualifies for Euro 2024.
Britain will still come last.
We get what we deserve most years. For a long time we have not taken it seriously as a nation. When we did, and had an act that was well known in Europe with a good song, we won (well came second to the sympathy vote).
The political centre of gravity is definitely drifting away from unquestioning support of Israel. It's probably going to need the inevitable formation of an Islamic political party to shatter the orthodoxy completely. I am surprised it hasn't happened already.
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
Besides, how much new televised drama do we actually need? Consider how many of the channels on our televisions are playing archive programmes on a continuous loop, to a presumably viable audience.
The human urge to create isn't going anywhere, which is the more wholesome of the reasons for writing fanfic. It's just going to be harder to make a living from it, which is a process that's been going on for ages.
Human art will become “artisanal”. The human and handmade element will be valued simply because it is human
But the computer made equivalent will be superior the way a car can go way faster than a human
So some art will survive. A few Hand weavers still make a good living 200+ years after the Luddites tried to destroy machine looms
But 90% of creative jobs will go. Is my rough guess. And that’s millions and millions of people losing jobs they adore
At the same time law and academe and accountancy and finance etc etc will also be obliterated - but people care less about those jobs
Low-level accountancy jobs long since lost out to computers, and medium-level, at least in large companies, was often outsourced to cheaper countries (labour arbitrage in management-speak).
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
Besides, how much new televised drama do we actually need? Consider how many of the channels on our televisions are playing archive programmes on a continuous loop, to a presumably viable audience.
The human urge to create isn't going anywhere, which is the more wholesome of the reasons for writing fanfic. It's just going to be harder to make a living from it, which is a process that's been going on for ages.
Human art will become “artisanal”. The human and handmade element will be valued simply because it is human
But the computer made equivalent will be superior the way a car can go way faster than a human
So some art will survive. A few Hand weavers still make a good living 200+ years after the Luddites tried to destroy machine looms
But 90% of creative jobs will go. Is my rough guess. And that’s millions and millions of people losing jobs they adore
At the same time law and academe and accountancy and finance etc etc will also be obliterated - but people care less about those jobs
Low-level accountancy jobs long since lost out to computers, and medium-level, at least in large companies, was often outsourced to cheaper countries (labour arbitrage in management-speak).
Yes. The AI revolution is going to be really bad for “global south” nations that right now rely on offshored mid level cognitive stuff. Coders in India etc
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
I just Googled. Charlie is leaving Casualty in 2024. This amazes me because i) I haven't seen it in years, ii) he's been in it for nearly forty years, and iii) I didn't know it was still on.
My wife had it on the other day, and I caught a glimpse of him. I gather Casualty has long since ceased to have any semblance to a real NHS hospital, and I don’t for one moment believe any NHS unit, however short-staffed, would employ anyone in their 90’s.
Comparing real life A+E shows with casualty is fun. I think casualty used to employ a medical consultant to ensure the accuracy of the medical content. No idea if it still does.
That said most TV/film depictions of someones workplace don't match the reality.
I recall an early episode of Grey's Anatomy had a woozy patient asking if it really was the case that all the male doctors were really attractive men, but Dr Foxy may explain that truly is how it is.
Of course, depending on the nature of the film or show we don't mind details not matching reality, but sometimes it is so egregious it's just too much, like legal/police dramas which clearly no nothing whatsoever about the law.
And my god cop shows need to figure our new tropes for how they can have the detectives talk to senior suspects without delay or get people to not care about warrants, other than to threaten them with 'obstruction'. Or interview people without lawyers (or have a person ignore their lawyer and answer anyway)
You need something to move the plot along in a 40 minute episode, but honestly they might as well just ignore those sorts of issues rather than trot out the same lines every time, particular when cops outright say getting a lawyer is a sign someone is guilty.
The political centre of gravity is definitely drifting away from unquestioning support of Israel. It's probably going to need the inevitable formation of an Islamic political party to shatter the orthodoxy completely. I am surprised it hasn't happened already.
A law firm which called the police on pro-Palestine demonstrators has distanced itself from an email calling them “idiots” which was accidentally sent to the whole office.
Activists appeared in the lobby of JMW Solicitors’ Manchester office as part of a city-wide demonstration understood to have been organised against Barclays Bank, which shares premises at 3 Hardman Street with a number of other businesses including the firm.
Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have called for a boycott of Barclays because it “provides more than £3 billion in loans and underwriting to companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians”.
Although no damage was reported, the protest on 26 January was sufficiently disruptive that JMW called the authorities.
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Police told ROF that "officers attended reports of a protest at a premises on Hardman Street" at just before 9am, but when they arrived they "discovered that the group had left and moved on".
“Community tensions are high”, said Rebecca Young, the head of JMW’s media law team, but they were raised even higher at JMW when one of its staff accidentally sent an unsympathetic email about the protestors to the entire office.
The fat-fingered lawyer, whom ROF is not naming, slipped up when an employee working from home asked what was causing the commotion.
“A load of Palestine idiots in the foyer!” replied the lawyer. “One muppet with a megaphone the irony being you couldn’t even tell what he was saying!”
Even mild language risks being inflammatory when it comes to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and one of the email’s unintended recipients told ROF that dismissing the protestors as idiots and a muppet had “managed to upset a lot of colleagues”.
When ROF asked JMW for comment, its response from Young included threats to sue this reporter and RollOnFriday. However, the partner also said, “we are disappointed that this incident ever occurred and as a firm we are taking it very seriously. The Email does not express a view representative of our firm, or our people".
She continued, “The Email does not meet the firm’s expectations of how we expect our people to engage with one another or when representing the firm”, and said it would be “quite wrong... to suggest in any shape or form that this firm condones the conduct in question".
The political centre of gravity is definitely drifting away from unquestioning support of Israel. It's probably going to need the inevitable formation of an Islamic political party to shatter the orthodoxy completely. I am surprised it hasn't happened already.
It should happen. It has been tried but rejected. It will come again. Why not. it is democracy.
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
Besides, how much new televised drama do we actually need? Consider how many of the channels on our televisions are playing archive programmes on a continuous loop, to a presumably viable audience.
The human urge to create isn't going anywhere, which is the more wholesome of the reasons for writing fanfic. It's just going to be harder to make a living from it, which is a process that's been going on for ages.
Human art will become “artisanal”. The human and handmade element will be valued simply because it is human
But the computer made equivalent will be superior the way a car can go way faster than a human
So some art will survive. A few Hand weavers still make a good living 200+ years after the Luddites tried to destroy machine looms
But 90% of creative jobs will go. Is my rough guess. And that’s millions and millions of people losing jobs they adore
At the same time law and academe and accountancy and finance etc etc will also be obliterated - but people care less about those jobs
Low-level accountancy jobs long since lost out to computers, and medium-level, at least in large companies, was often outsourced to cheaper countries (labour arbitrage in management-speak).
Yes. The AI revolution is going to be really bad for “global south” nations that right now rely on offshored mid level cognitive stuff. Coders in India etc
All will go
Buy land and learn to farm. And get a gun
Importantly, getting a gun will enable you to make other people prepare plans for you, so it is a win win.
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
Besides, how much new televised drama do we actually need? Consider how many of the channels on our televisions are playing archive programmes on a continuous loop, to a presumably viable audience.
The human urge to create isn't going anywhere, which is the more wholesome of the reasons for writing fanfic. It's just going to be harder to make a living from it, which is a process that's been going on for ages.
Human art will become “artisanal”. The human and handmade element will be valued simply because it is human
But the computer made equivalent will be superior the way a car can go way faster than a human
So some art will survive. A few Hand weavers still make a good living 200+ years after the Luddites tried to destroy machine looms
But 90% of creative jobs will go. Is my rough guess. And that’s millions and millions of people losing jobs they adore
At the same time law and academe and accountancy and finance etc etc will also be obliterated - but people care less about those jobs
Low-level accountancy jobs long since lost out to computers, and medium-level, at least in large companies, was often outsourced to cheaper countries (labour arbitrage in management-speak).
Yes. The AI revolution is going to be really bad for “global south” nations that right now rely on offshored mid level cognitive stuff. Coders in India etc
All will go
Buy land and learn to farm. And get a gun
Coders in India and Indian coders in America who can't get jobs because visa sponsorship is harder for American companies than taking on one of the tens of thousands of Americans recently laid off by the Big Tech. The same problem new US graduates will face.
I mentioned the other day that the person who serves my fish and chips has a Masters degree. Here, America, India, it's all the same: job markets are tight, and people who have played by the rules and got good grades are losing out. And that is before AI.
The political centre of gravity is definitely drifting away from unquestioning support of Israel. It's probably going to need the inevitable formation of an Islamic political party to shatter the orthodoxy completely. I am surprised it hasn't happened already.
Would you call that a good or bad thing?
Though there is probably a market for it.
Like Farage becoming Tory leader, it's one of those ideas that people love to talk about, but doesn't actually happen.
What is more likely is you get a party that is not explicitly an Islamic political party, but which gathers much of its support from a Muslim community, which happened with RESPECT previously and with Aspire now. But, ultimately, neither RESPECT nor Aspire have shattered any orthodoxy. So I don't see why an Islamic political party, if such were to exist and garner some success, would either.
What Hoyle (and others) miss is that if you 'appease' violence you will get more of it because it will be seen to be an effective political tactic.
Therefore, the best way to eliminate violence in our political system and maximise public safety is to have to courage to call it out and ensure the offenders are prosecuted as soon as it happens.
Yes, this requires courage - and, yes, it does carry some risk in and of itself - but all the alternatives carry much greater risk.
Question - how did the debate as played out appease violence? The mob wanted the SNP amendment. They didn't get it.
The mob wanted Labour MPs to vote against the SNP motion, so that they would then have a "justification" for putting dog shite through their letter boxes.
I wonder if the proles will turn on the techno-elite
Look at Sam Altman at OpenAI. He’s a multi-billionaire and his SORA tech has already cost Hollywood hundreds of jobs and $800m. In its first week
Many people will see their life purpose taken away. I presume he has world class security
By and large, the hoi polloi is law abiding. For all the antisemitic sticker-placement on Amy Winehouse's statue, there have not been massacres of British Jews (or Muslims) over Gaza, just as the feared uprising against City bankers did not happen in 2008, and Manchester United fans did not assassinate the Glazers who destroyed their club. Keyboard warriors are keyboard warriors and marchers are marchers. The billionaires are safe.
I wonder if the proles will turn on the techno-elite
Look at Sam Altman at OpenAI. He’s a multi-billionaire and his SORA tech has already cost Hollywood hundreds of jobs and $800m. In its first week
Many people will see their life purpose taken away. I presume he has world class security
A new Highland Clearances? Thousands of people either exported to Canada or sent to the herring ports as the agrarian economy was forcibly, and irrevocably, altered. Kelp being replaced by whale oil from Whitby etc etc
I wonder if the proles will turn on the techno-elite
Look at Sam Altman at OpenAI. He’s a multi-billionaire and his SORA tech has already cost Hollywood hundreds of jobs and $800m. In its first week
Many people will see their life purpose taken away. I presume he has world class security
By and large, the hoi polloi is law abiding. For all the antisemitic sticker-placement on Amy Winehouse's statue, there have not been massacres of British Jews (or Muslims) over Gaza, just as the feared uprising against City bankers did not happen in 2008, and Manchester United fans did not assassinate the Glazers who destroyed their club. Keyboard warriors are keyboard warriors and marchers are marchers. The billionaires are safe.
This is way way bigger than the gazan war
Yes I know. Incredible
But it is the case. This is an epochal change - it may be bigger than any change humanity has witnessed. At the very least it will be the Industrial Revolution all over again but accelerated 20 times at least
The state of dentistry: On the 1 Feb I had root canal treatment and the dentist perforated my tooth. Don't wince, I'm not in any pain whatsoever. I was referred to Kingston Hospital. I also looked at private treatment but that would have been weeks away and I was recommended to have it done in hospital anyway. Kingston needed to triage it (which means read my notes). They kept telling me they were still triaging it when actually over two weeks ago they had rejected me as being out of area, but kept telling me they were still triaging and failed to tell my dentist. They failed to tell anyone. Today they told me I need to go to Guildford. The dentist contacted Guildford (who/where I don't know, but I assume the hospital) who tell the dentist they don't take referrals. They now have to enter my details on REGO and online referral system and can't do that until Tuesday when the dentist is next in.
It appears that a lot of people have been working very hard for a month to achieve absolutely nothing. It is a good job I am not in any pain.
The political centre of gravity is definitely drifting away from unquestioning support of Israel. It's probably going to need the inevitable formation of an Islamic political party to shatter the orthodoxy completely. I am surprised it hasn't happened already.
Would you call that a good or bad thing?
Though there is probably a market for it.
Like Farage becoming Tory leader, it's one of those ideas that people love to talk about, but doesn't actually happen.
What is more likely is you get a party that is not explicitly an Islamic political party, but which gathers much of its support from a Muslim community, which happened with RESPECT previously and with Aspire now. But, ultimately, neither RESPECT nor Aspire have shattered any orthodoxy. So I don't see why an Islamic political party, if such were to exist and garner some success, would either.
And its conclusion is quite different to yours - "The emergence of kleptocratic, extremist-adjacent ethnic politics is a reminder of how poorly this country has managed immigration and integration. Our existing laws are not designed to deal with this. If we don't change things now, Tower Hamlets will not be an isolated case."
The state of dentistry: On the 1 Feb I had root canal treatment and the dentist perforated my tooth. Don't wince, I'm not in any pain whatsoever. I was referred to Kingston Hospital. I also looked at private treatment but that would have been weeks away and I was recommended to have it done in hospital anyway. Kingston needed to triage it (which means read my notes). They kept telling me they were still triaging it when actually over two weeks ago they had rejected me as being out of area, but kept telling me they were still triaging and failed to tell my dentist. They failed to tell anyone. Today they told me I need to go to Guildford. The dentist contacted Guildford (who/where I don't know, but I assume the hospital) who tell the dentist they don't take referrals. They now have to enter my details on REGO and online referral system and can't do that until Tuesday when the dentist is next in.
It appears that a lot of people have been working very hard for a month to achieve absolutely nothing. It is a good job I am not in any pain.
I don’t see any actual work going on there - I see one process being followed slowly and someone else making crap up or not chasing things (still being triaged) rather than taking time to find out what is happening
The state of dentistry: On the 1 Feb I had root canal treatment and the dentist perforated my tooth. Don't wince, I'm not in any pain whatsoever. I was referred to Kingston Hospital. I also looked at private treatment but that would have been weeks away and I was recommended to have it done in hospital anyway. Kingston needed to triage it (which means read my notes). They kept telling me they were still triaging it when actually over two weeks ago they had rejected me as being out of area, but kept telling me they were still triaging and failed to tell my dentist. They failed to tell anyone. Today they told me I need to go to Guildford. The dentist contacted Guildford (who/where I don't know, but I assume the hospital) who tell the dentist they don't take referrals. They now have to enter my details on REGO and online referral system and can't do that until Tuesday when the dentist is next in.
It appears that a lot of people have been working very hard for a month to achieve absolutely nothing. It is a good job I am not in any pain.
I don’t see any actual work going on there - I see one process being followed slowly and someone else making crap up or not chasing things (still being triaged) rather than taking time to find out what is happening
But all the paperwork was immaculate. Or at least they will say so. Process State.
Yes, initially I was prepared to be kind: she had a terrible personal experience, so perhaps all the odd stuff was just some kind of coping mechanism. But of late she's actually becoming dangerous on a global level - arguably the most dangerous person this country has ever produced.
A law firm which called the police on pro-Palestine demonstrators has distanced itself from an email calling them “idiots” which was accidentally sent to the whole office.
Activists appeared in the lobby of JMW Solicitors’ Manchester office as part of a city-wide demonstration understood to have been organised against Barclays Bank, which shares premises at 3 Hardman Street with a number of other businesses including the firm.
Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have called for a boycott of Barclays because it “provides more than £3 billion in loans and underwriting to companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians”.
Although no damage was reported, the protest on 26 January was sufficiently disruptive that JMW called the authorities.
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Police told ROF that "officers attended reports of a protest at a premises on Hardman Street" at just before 9am, but when they arrived they "discovered that the group had left and moved on".
“Community tensions are high”, said Rebecca Young, the head of JMW’s media law team, but they were raised even higher at JMW when one of its staff accidentally sent an unsympathetic email about the protestors to the entire office.
The fat-fingered lawyer, whom ROF is not naming, slipped up when an employee working from home asked what was causing the commotion.
“A load of Palestine idiots in the foyer!” replied the lawyer. “One muppet with a megaphone the irony being you couldn’t even tell what he was saying!”
Even mild language risks being inflammatory when it comes to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and one of the email’s unintended recipients told ROF that dismissing the protestors as idiots and a muppet had “managed to upset a lot of colleagues”.
When ROF asked JMW for comment, its response from Young included threats to sue this reporter and RollOnFriday. However, the partner also said, “we are disappointed that this incident ever occurred and as a firm we are taking it very seriously. The Email does not express a view representative of our firm, or our people".
She continued, “The Email does not meet the firm’s expectations of how we expect our people to engage with one another or when representing the firm”, and said it would be “quite wrong... to suggest in any shape or form that this firm condones the conduct in question".
I actually do think her grip on reality is tenuous at best.
The problem with "national Conservatives" is that they hate liberals more than they love their own countries. So, they ally with their country's enemies against liberals.
I really don't get that. Not that I think all Conservatives will be fans of Joe Biden, but actively supporting Trump does not seem likely to be popular with most Conservatives either. He's crass and insulting, and the Tory base is not at a deny reality of elections kind of stage like the GOP base.
Is this part of some post-Premiership career pitch to the US networks because Boris is inconveniently too pro-Ukraine for Fox News' tastes?
Yes, initially I was prepared to be kind: she had a terrible personal experience, so perhaps all the odd stuff was just some kind of coping mechanism. But of late she's actually becoming dangerous on a global level - arguably the most dangerous person this country has ever produced.
on a global level? around here nobody knows who 'Liz Truss' is. Mention the 'Salatkopf' and they might know who you mean.
A law firm which called the police on pro-Palestine demonstrators has distanced itself from an email calling them “idiots” which was accidentally sent to the whole office.
Activists appeared in the lobby of JMW Solicitors’ Manchester office as part of a city-wide demonstration understood to have been organised against Barclays Bank, which shares premises at 3 Hardman Street with a number of other businesses including the firm.
Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have called for a boycott of Barclays because it “provides more than £3 billion in loans and underwriting to companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians”.
Although no damage was reported, the protest on 26 January was sufficiently disruptive that JMW called the authorities.
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Police told ROF that "officers attended reports of a protest at a premises on Hardman Street" at just before 9am, but when they arrived they "discovered that the group had left and moved on".
“Community tensions are high”, said Rebecca Young, the head of JMW’s media law team, but they were raised even higher at JMW when one of its staff accidentally sent an unsympathetic email about the protestors to the entire office.
The fat-fingered lawyer, whom ROF is not naming, slipped up when an employee working from home asked what was causing the commotion.
“A load of Palestine idiots in the foyer!” replied the lawyer. “One muppet with a megaphone the irony being you couldn’t even tell what he was saying!”
Even mild language risks being inflammatory when it comes to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and one of the email’s unintended recipients told ROF that dismissing the protestors as idiots and a muppet had “managed to upset a lot of colleagues”.
When ROF asked JMW for comment, its response from Young included threats to sue this reporter and RollOnFriday. However, the partner also said, “we are disappointed that this incident ever occurred and as a firm we are taking it very seriously. The Email does not express a view representative of our firm, or our people".
She continued, “The Email does not meet the firm’s expectations of how we expect our people to engage with one another or when representing the firm”, and said it would be “quite wrong... to suggest in any shape or form that this firm condones the conduct in question".
I'd judge that to be fair comment on the solicitor's part.
Yup - we've had muppets with megaphones outside the offices as well. Still not sure what they were protesting about. Maybe their job applications aren't going fast enough?
"Piped Russian gas, which accounted for 40 per cent of the EU’s supplies pre-invasion, has fallen to 8 per cent, according to the European Commission."
Given the fall in gas prices to below pre-war levels and Ukraine's struggles against Russia, should Europe not move to an outright ban on Russian gas imports now we've passed winter with storage levels at record highs for this time of year?
I really don't get that. Not that I think all Conservatives will be fans of Joe Biden, but actively supporting Trump does not seem likely to be popular with most Conservatives either. He's crass and insulting, and the Tory base is not at a deny reality of elections kind of stage like the GOP base.
Is this part of some post-Premiership career pitch to the US networks because Boris is inconveniently too pro-Ukraine for Fox News' tastes?
I don't admire Joe Biden or the US Democrats, but at least they are not actually working for a foreign powr, which is not something one can say of the Republicans.
The political centre of gravity is definitely drifting away from unquestioning support of Israel. It's probably going to need the inevitable formation of an Islamic political party to shatter the orthodoxy completely. I am surprised it hasn't happened already.
Would you call that a good or bad thing?
Though there is probably a market for it.
Like Farage becoming Tory leader, it's one of those ideas that people love to talk about, but doesn't actually happen.
What is more likely is you get a party that is not explicitly an Islamic political party, but which gathers much of its support from a Muslim community, which happened with RESPECT previously and with Aspire now. But, ultimately, neither RESPECT nor Aspire have shattered any orthodoxy. So I don't see why an Islamic political party, if such were to exist and garner some success, would either.
And its conclusion is quite different to yours - "The emergence of kleptocratic, extremist-adjacent ethnic politics is a reminder of how poorly this country has managed immigration and integration. Our existing laws are not designed to deal with this. If we don't change things now, Tower Hamlets will not be an isolated case."
Aspire are awful, and I’m glad if people are noticing that. But they’ve been around for a while now and the “orthodoxy” has not been “shattered”. Barely anyone outside Tower Hamlets have heard of them.
A law firm which called the police on pro-Palestine demonstrators has distanced itself from an email calling them “idiots” which was accidentally sent to the whole office.
Activists appeared in the lobby of JMW Solicitors’ Manchester office as part of a city-wide demonstration understood to have been organised against Barclays Bank, which shares premises at 3 Hardman Street with a number of other businesses including the firm.
Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have called for a boycott of Barclays because it “provides more than £3 billion in loans and underwriting to companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians”.
Although no damage was reported, the protest on 26 January was sufficiently disruptive that JMW called the authorities.
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Police told ROF that "officers attended reports of a protest at a premises on Hardman Street" at just before 9am, but when they arrived they "discovered that the group had left and moved on".
“Community tensions are high”, said Rebecca Young, the head of JMW’s media law team, but they were raised even higher at JMW when one of its staff accidentally sent an unsympathetic email about the protestors to the entire office.
The fat-fingered lawyer, whom ROF is not naming, slipped up when an employee working from home asked what was causing the commotion.
“A load of Palestine idiots in the foyer!” replied the lawyer. “One muppet with a megaphone the irony being you couldn’t even tell what he was saying!”
Even mild language risks being inflammatory when it comes to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and one of the email’s unintended recipients told ROF that dismissing the protestors as idiots and a muppet had “managed to upset a lot of colleagues”.
When ROF asked JMW for comment, its response from Young included threats to sue this reporter and RollOnFriday. However, the partner also said, “we are disappointed that this incident ever occurred and as a firm we are taking it very seriously. The Email does not express a view representative of our firm, or our people".
She continued, “The Email does not meet the firm’s expectations of how we expect our people to engage with one another or when representing the firm”, and said it would be “quite wrong... to suggest in any shape or form that this firm condones the conduct in question".
I'd judge that to be fair comment on the solicitor's part.
Yup - we've had muppets with megaphones outside the offices as well. Still not sure what they were protesting about. Maybe their job applications aren't going fast enough?
The political centre of gravity is definitely drifting away from unquestioning support of Israel. It's probably going to need the inevitable formation of an Islamic political party to shatter the orthodoxy completely. I am surprised it hasn't happened already.
Would you call that a good or bad thing?
Though there is probably a market for it.
Like Farage becoming Tory leader, it's one of those ideas that people love to talk about, but doesn't actually happen.
What is more likely is you get a party that is not explicitly an Islamic political party, but which gathers much of its support from a Muslim community, which happened with RESPECT previously and with Aspire now. But, ultimately, neither RESPECT nor Aspire have shattered any orthodoxy. So I don't see why an Islamic political party, if such were to exist and garner some success, would either.
And its conclusion is quite different to yours - "The emergence of kleptocratic, extremist-adjacent ethnic politics is a reminder of how poorly this country has managed immigration and integration. Our existing laws are not designed to deal with this. If we don't change things now, Tower Hamlets will not be an isolated case."
Aspire are awful, and I’m glad if people are noticing that. But they’ve been around for a while now and the “orthodoxy” has not been “shattered”. Barely anyone outside Tower Hamlets have heard of them.
Nonetheless worrying it takes hold anywhere.
Personally I think those found guilty of corrupt electoral practices should face a permanent ban. It wouldn't affect Aspire as a group doing well, but at least Rahman would be excised from official public life. If you've behaved corruptly and illegally in an election I don't think you should get a do-over.
Radical action is needed to enable an environment which is easier for creatives to flourish in.
A mass book burning/wiping of the back catalogues, so that people have to recreate all their favourite stories as best they can hazily remember them. Then we'll find our what the truly iconic characters and stories of our times are.
I was reading Eternity Road, a pretty good post apocalypse story which had an epic quest to find a vault of ancient books, as very few had survived, so they had like 1 book by Mark Twain and that was that.
This is a great idea.
Unfortunately already recycled.
c.f. The Book of Eli, and to some extent, Yesterday
Could doing the heavy lifting. But yes, soaps are a classic case where good AI can draw on thousands of soap scripts and hash out some 'new' ones. Thats all the writers do now anyway. What else could they do? Casualty has been running for decades. There are only so many stories to tell.
I just Googled. Charlie is leaving Casualty in 2024. This amazes me because i) I haven't seen it in years, ii) he's been in it for nearly forty years, and iii) I didn't know it was still on.
My wife had it on the other day, and I caught a glimpse of him. I gather Casualty has long since ceased to have any semblance to a real NHS hospital, and I don’t for one moment believe any NHS unit, however short-staffed, would employ anyone in their 90’s.
Comparing real life A+E shows with casualty is fun. I think casualty used to employ a medical consultant to ensure the accuracy of the medical content. No idea if it still does.
That said most TV/film depictions of someones workplace don't match the reality.
I was lucky enough to spend 10 hours in an A&E waiting area on New Year's Eve (not me; I was accompanying someone else). The only way to get though it was to imagine I was watching some sort of cross between a hospital drama and a Samuel Beckett play. The highlights were the incredibly aggressive bloke who was carried in handcuffed and leg-bound by four police officers, shouting obscenities at the top of his voice, and the helplessly drunk and scantily-clad young lady who was accompanied by a marginally less drunk young man who knew nothing about her (DOB, name, etc), but proceeded to give a detailed account of their extensive itinerary while his lady friend gently slid off her chair and on to the floor.
A law firm which called the police on pro-Palestine demonstrators has distanced itself from an email calling them “idiots” which was accidentally sent to the whole office.
Activists appeared in the lobby of JMW Solicitors’ Manchester office as part of a city-wide demonstration understood to have been organised against Barclays Bank, which shares premises at 3 Hardman Street with a number of other businesses including the firm.
Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have called for a boycott of Barclays because it “provides more than £3 billion in loans and underwriting to companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians”.
Although no damage was reported, the protest on 26 January was sufficiently disruptive that JMW called the authorities.
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Police told ROF that "officers attended reports of a protest at a premises on Hardman Street" at just before 9am, but when they arrived they "discovered that the group had left and moved on".
“Community tensions are high”, said Rebecca Young, the head of JMW’s media law team, but they were raised even higher at JMW when one of its staff accidentally sent an unsympathetic email about the protestors to the entire office.
The fat-fingered lawyer, whom ROF is not naming, slipped up when an employee working from home asked what was causing the commotion.
“A load of Palestine idiots in the foyer!” replied the lawyer. “One muppet with a megaphone the irony being you couldn’t even tell what he was saying!”
Even mild language risks being inflammatory when it comes to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and one of the email’s unintended recipients told ROF that dismissing the protestors as idiots and a muppet had “managed to upset a lot of colleagues”.
When ROF asked JMW for comment, its response from Young included threats to sue this reporter and RollOnFriday. However, the partner also said, “we are disappointed that this incident ever occurred and as a firm we are taking it very seriously. The Email does not express a view representative of our firm, or our people".
She continued, “The Email does not meet the firm’s expectations of how we expect our people to engage with one another or when representing the firm”, and said it would be “quite wrong... to suggest in any shape or form that this firm condones the conduct in question".
I'd judge that to be fair comment on the solicitor's part.
Yup - we've had muppets with megaphones outside the offices as well. Still not sure what they were protesting about. Maybe their job applications aren't going fast enough?
I was out and about last weekend and saw 2 people outside a train station with a big sign saying 'We want chaos'. I couldn't hear what they were screeching about over the wind, but their banner at least was upfront.
I actually do think her grip on reality is tenuous at best.
The problem with "national Conservatives" is that they hate liberals more than they love their own countries. So, they ally with their country's enemies against liberals.
She's very confused.
A extreme free market and trade advocate who is also selling English Poujadism as today's solution?
It demonstrates that her campaign for popular conservatism is bull crap. Endorsing Trump is about increasing her earnings on the MAGA lecture round.
May makes good money for speaking engagements, was she really that hard up? She's been pretty quiet since being ousted, was this really the best path to take?
A law firm which called the police on pro-Palestine demonstrators has distanced itself from an email calling them “idiots” which was accidentally sent to the whole office.
Activists appeared in the lobby of JMW Solicitors’ Manchester office as part of a city-wide demonstration understood to have been organised against Barclays Bank, which shares premises at 3 Hardman Street with a number of other businesses including the firm.
Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have called for a boycott of Barclays because it “provides more than £3 billion in loans and underwriting to companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians”.
Although no damage was reported, the protest on 26 January was sufficiently disruptive that JMW called the authorities.
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Police told ROF that "officers attended reports of a protest at a premises on Hardman Street" at just before 9am, but when they arrived they "discovered that the group had left and moved on".
“Community tensions are high”, said Rebecca Young, the head of JMW’s media law team, but they were raised even higher at JMW when one of its staff accidentally sent an unsympathetic email about the protestors to the entire office.
The fat-fingered lawyer, whom ROF is not naming, slipped up when an employee working from home asked what was causing the commotion.
“A load of Palestine idiots in the foyer!” replied the lawyer. “One muppet with a megaphone the irony being you couldn’t even tell what he was saying!”
Even mild language risks being inflammatory when it comes to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and one of the email’s unintended recipients told ROF that dismissing the protestors as idiots and a muppet had “managed to upset a lot of colleagues”.
When ROF asked JMW for comment, its response from Young included threats to sue this reporter and RollOnFriday. However, the partner also said, “we are disappointed that this incident ever occurred and as a firm we are taking it very seriously. The Email does not express a view representative of our firm, or our people".
She continued, “The Email does not meet the firm’s expectations of how we expect our people to engage with one another or when representing the firm”, and said it would be “quite wrong... to suggest in any shape or form that this firm condones the conduct in question".
It demonstrates that her campaign for popular conservatism is bull crap. Endorsing Trump is about increasing her earnings on the MAGA lecture round.
May makes good money for speaking engagements, was she really that hard up? She's been pretty quiet since being ousted, was this really the best path to take?
She doesn't want Richi to be the only ex-PM making bank in the US.
The state of dentistry: On the 1 Feb I had root canal treatment and the dentist perforated my tooth. Don't wince, I'm not in any pain whatsoever. I was referred to Kingston Hospital. I also looked at private treatment but that would have been weeks away and I was recommended to have it done in hospital anyway. Kingston needed to triage it (which means read my notes). They kept telling me they were still triaging it when actually over two weeks ago they had rejected me as being out of area, but kept telling me they were still triaging and failed to tell my dentist. They failed to tell anyone. Today they told me I need to go to Guildford. The dentist contacted Guildford (who/where I don't know, but I assume the hospital) who tell the dentist they don't take referrals. They now have to enter my details on REGO and online referral system and can't do that until Tuesday when the dentist is next in.
It appears that a lot of people have been working very hard for a month to achieve absolutely nothing. It is a good job I am not in any pain.
I don’t see any actual work going on there - I see one process being followed slowly and someone else making crap up or not chasing things (still being triaged) rather than taking time to find out what is happening
I feel that now is the time to roll out my The NHS is useless who only avoid killing larger numbers of people than they already because you usually don't die of ailments such as a perforated tooth.
A law firm which called the police on pro-Palestine demonstrators has distanced itself from an email calling them “idiots” which was accidentally sent to the whole office.
Activists appeared in the lobby of JMW Solicitors’ Manchester office as part of a city-wide demonstration understood to have been organised against Barclays Bank, which shares premises at 3 Hardman Street with a number of other businesses including the firm.
Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have called for a boycott of Barclays because it “provides more than £3 billion in loans and underwriting to companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians”.
Although no damage was reported, the protest on 26 January was sufficiently disruptive that JMW called the authorities.
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Police told ROF that "officers attended reports of a protest at a premises on Hardman Street" at just before 9am, but when they arrived they "discovered that the group had left and moved on".
“Community tensions are high”, said Rebecca Young, the head of JMW’s media law team, but they were raised even higher at JMW when one of its staff accidentally sent an unsympathetic email about the protestors to the entire office.
The fat-fingered lawyer, whom ROF is not naming, slipped up when an employee working from home asked what was causing the commotion.
“A load of Palestine idiots in the foyer!” replied the lawyer. “One muppet with a megaphone the irony being you couldn’t even tell what he was saying!”
Even mild language risks being inflammatory when it comes to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and one of the email’s unintended recipients told ROF that dismissing the protestors as idiots and a muppet had “managed to upset a lot of colleagues”.
When ROF asked JMW for comment, its response from Young included threats to sue this reporter and RollOnFriday. However, the partner also said, “we are disappointed that this incident ever occurred and as a firm we are taking it very seriously. The Email does not express a view representative of our firm, or our people".
She continued, “The Email does not meet the firm’s expectations of how we expect our people to engage with one another or when representing the firm”, and said it would be “quite wrong... to suggest in any shape or form that this firm condones the conduct in question".
I'd judge that to be fair comment on the solicitor's part.
Yup - we've had muppets with megaphones outside the offices as well. Still not sure what they were protesting about. Maybe their job applications aren't going fast enough?
Do that lot even work?
Those muppets even turned up with Free Palestine placards to the student loan fee protests in 2010/11.
And I see Rahman is possibly up to his old tricks, or some new ones.
Government inspectors have been sent in to Tower Hamlets council for the second time in a decade amid concerns about how the borough is being run.
The Government said it is uneasy about a range of issues in the local authority, including the "independence" of the returning officer, who oversees elections, and the expansion of Mayor Lutfur Rahman's office.
I actually do think her grip on reality is tenuous at best.
The problem with "national Conservatives" is that they hate liberals more than they love their own countries. So, they ally with their country's enemies against liberals.
No-one who does that has thought about politics more deeply than just as a pissing contest.
A law firm which called the police on pro-Palestine demonstrators has distanced itself from an email calling them “idiots” which was accidentally sent to the whole office.
Activists appeared in the lobby of JMW Solicitors’ Manchester office as part of a city-wide demonstration understood to have been organised against Barclays Bank, which shares premises at 3 Hardman Street with a number of other businesses including the firm.
Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have called for a boycott of Barclays because it “provides more than £3 billion in loans and underwriting to companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians”.
Although no damage was reported, the protest on 26 January was sufficiently disruptive that JMW called the authorities.
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Police told ROF that "officers attended reports of a protest at a premises on Hardman Street" at just before 9am, but when they arrived they "discovered that the group had left and moved on".
“Community tensions are high”, said Rebecca Young, the head of JMW’s media law team, but they were raised even higher at JMW when one of its staff accidentally sent an unsympathetic email about the protestors to the entire office.
The fat-fingered lawyer, whom ROF is not naming, slipped up when an employee working from home asked what was causing the commotion.
“A load of Palestine idiots in the foyer!” replied the lawyer. “One muppet with a megaphone the irony being you couldn’t even tell what he was saying!”
Even mild language risks being inflammatory when it comes to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and one of the email’s unintended recipients told ROF that dismissing the protestors as idiots and a muppet had “managed to upset a lot of colleagues”.
When ROF asked JMW for comment, its response from Young included threats to sue this reporter and RollOnFriday. However, the partner also said, “we are disappointed that this incident ever occurred and as a firm we are taking it very seriously. The Email does not express a view representative of our firm, or our people".
She continued, “The Email does not meet the firm’s expectations of how we expect our people to engage with one another or when representing the firm”, and said it would be “quite wrong... to suggest in any shape or form that this firm condones the conduct in question".
I'd judge that to be fair comment on the solicitor's part.
Yup - we've had muppets with megaphones outside the offices as well. Still not sure what they were protesting about. Maybe their job applications aren't going fast enough?
I was out and about last weekend and saw 2 people outside a train station with a big sign saying 'We want chaos'. I couldn't hear what they were screeching about over the wind, but their banner at least was upfront.
Given the state of the railways, they were in the right place to get what they were looking for.
The political centre of gravity is definitely drifting away from unquestioning support of Israel. It's probably going to need the inevitable formation of an Islamic political party to shatter the orthodoxy completely. I am surprised it hasn't happened already.
Would you call that a good or bad thing?
Though there is probably a market for it.
Like Farage becoming Tory leader, it's one of those ideas that people love to talk about, but doesn't actually happen.
What is more likely is you get a party that is not explicitly an Islamic political party, but which gathers much of its support from a Muslim community, which happened with RESPECT previously and with Aspire now. But, ultimately, neither RESPECT nor Aspire have shattered any orthodoxy. So I don't see why an Islamic political party, if such were to exist and garner some success, would either.
And its conclusion is quite different to yours - "The emergence of kleptocratic, extremist-adjacent ethnic politics is a reminder of how poorly this country has managed immigration and integration. Our existing laws are not designed to deal with this. If we don't change things now, Tower Hamlets will not be an isolated case."
Aspire are awful, and I’m glad if people are noticing that. But they’ve been around for a while now and the “orthodoxy” has not been “shattered”. Barely anyone outside Tower Hamlets have heard of them.
Nonetheless worrying it takes hold anywhere.
Personally I think those found guilty of corrupt electoral practices should face a permanent ban. It wouldn't affect Aspire as a group doing well, but at least Rahman would be excised from official public life. If you've behaved corruptly and illegally in an election I don't think you should get a do-over.
The worry about it taking hold elsewhere is reduced by remembering the fact that it hasn’t taken hold elsewhere.
Rahman was banned from public office for 5 years. He stood anew in 2022 and was elected Mayor with a very healthy majority. Hopefully, the people of Tower Hamlets will vote him out next time around, although the Tories switching mayoral elections to FPTP is to his benefit.
The political centre of gravity is definitely drifting away from unquestioning support of Israel. It's probably going to need the inevitable formation of an Islamic political party to shatter the orthodoxy completely. I am surprised it hasn't happened already.
Would you call that a good or bad thing?
Though there is probably a market for it.
Like Farage becoming Tory leader, it's one of those ideas that people love to talk about, but doesn't actually happen.
What is more likely is you get a party that is not explicitly an Islamic political party, but which gathers much of its support from a Muslim community, which happened with RESPECT previously and with Aspire now. But, ultimately, neither RESPECT nor Aspire have shattered any orthodoxy. So I don't see why an Islamic political party, if such were to exist and garner some success, would either.
And its conclusion is quite different to yours - "The emergence of kleptocratic, extremist-adjacent ethnic politics is a reminder of how poorly this country has managed immigration and integration. Our existing laws are not designed to deal with this. If we don't change things now, Tower Hamlets will not be an isolated case."
Aspire are awful, and I’m glad if people are noticing that. But they’ve been around for a while now and the “orthodoxy” has not been “shattered”. Barely anyone outside Tower Hamlets have heard of them.
You seem to have missed or wilfully ignored the conclusion of the thread, namely that our democratic system isn't designed robustly enough to deal with these threats as and when they occur. Which to my mind means it's only a matter of time before such things become more commonplace.
We have the idea that there are established norms that everyone plays within, even though they don't have to. Then you get at Trump or a Boris who realises that you don't have to follow these established norms at all. And they exploit that to their advantage. And extremist-adjacent ethnic politicians won't play by those norms either, as demonstrated in the above thread.
We are, at present, pretty lucky that extremist-adjacent ethnic politics aren't mainstream. Yet.
It is the yet that is the cause for concern here, because there's very little that can prevent them from taking hold if and when they do. See also The Muslim Vote group, with Nick Timothy coming to some conclusions here - https://twitter.com/NJ_Timothy/status/1755638901824241809
The state of dentistry: On the 1 Feb I had root canal treatment and the dentist perforated my tooth. Don't wince, I'm not in any pain whatsoever. I was referred to Kingston Hospital. I also looked at private treatment but that would have been weeks away and I was recommended to have it done in hospital anyway. Kingston needed to triage it (which means read my notes). They kept telling me they were still triaging it when actually over two weeks ago they had rejected me as being out of area, but kept telling me they were still triaging and failed to tell my dentist. They failed to tell anyone. Today they told me I need to go to Guildford. The dentist contacted Guildford (who/where I don't know, but I assume the hospital) who tell the dentist they don't take referrals. They now have to enter my details on REGO and online referral system and can't do that until Tuesday when the dentist is next in.
It appears that a lot of people have been working very hard for a month to achieve absolutely nothing. It is a good job I am not in any pain.
I don’t see any actual work going on there - I see one process being followed slowly and someone else making crap up or not chasing things (still being triaged) rather than taking time to find out what is happening
I feel that now is the time to roll out my The NHS is useless who only avoid killing larger numbers of people than they already because you usually don't die of ailments such as a perforated tooth.
But our politicians are really, really bothered by the exact wording of a totally meaningless ceasefire of the decades old Israeli/Hamas conflict. They can't do everything....
It demonstrates that her campaign for popular conservatism is bull crap. Endorsing Trump is about increasing her earnings on the MAGA lecture round.
It seems like the kind of faux-idelogical posturing which suggests the other side (which does not relate specifically to a party, it could also be factions of your own party) can never have a point (Even Trump will have had some positive decisions during his time, he's just still awful in ways nothing to do with political choices), so necessitates alignment with others who really should have little to do with whatever you are talking about, in some attempt at pan-atlantic or pan-Europe unity.
I remember in the 2010 leader debates Cameron said that not everything Labour did was bad, and he would keep the good things. I wonder if we'll get anything like that this time. If it had been Truss leading the party into the GE she might have declined to say anything good had happened, given how she slammed the years of Tory government (whilst paradoxically saying Boris was great and should not have been ousted).
O/T is there any actual footage of the Intuitive Machines’ spacecraft Odysseus landing? I thought they were planning to send out a remote camera in the final descent stage.
All I have found from a quick search is less than exciting footage of the control centre.
I cycled to Canary Wharf yday (shocking weather but I was well-protected) and missed the turn off from CS3 to the place itself so ended up in an adjacent neighbourhood. Through which you could barely move for Palestinian flags. I suppose it might be the same in Golders Green with Israeli flags.
As this next GE appears to be about to be fought over the killing fields of Gaza I don't see why there shouldn't be an Islamic Party established. It does, however, somewhat give the lie to those who disagreed with me when I said that unlike other religions today, Islam is both a religion and a political system which differentiates and explains actions taken in its name.
Couldn't the politicians have just used AI to script the bloody ceasefire? Couldn't have made a worse hash of it than our lot.
Remember when I started banging on about AI on here? It was in mid-late 2020 I believe. When @FrancisUrquhart told me about GPT2 and the oncoming GPT3
I then EXTRAPOLATED what it meant. Almost everyone here scoffed at me
Here we are just over 3 years later and Hollywood moguls are shuttering planned studios. Because of AI
Give the man a cigar.
Thing to remember the future will be unevenly distributed with things that look simple turning out to be complete nightmares (self driving cars) while things that looked impossible (identifying an individual bird from a set of photos of birds) proving to be remarkably easy.
I wonder if the proles will turn on the techno-elite
Look at Sam Altman at OpenAI. He’s a multi-billionaire and his SORA tech has already cost Hollywood hundreds of jobs and $800m. In its first week
Many people will see their life purpose taken away. I presume he has world class security
All these people getting degrees at the moment and the debt that goes with it, looking for careers in the arts and in middle management, will be sorely disappointed.
We need to start keeping a list of these Tory fucktards who are coming out for Trump.
Jake Berry Liz Trump Jacob Rees-Mogg Boris Johnson
It’s becoming a thing.
Given that motley cast of characters I doubt there is any principle involved. They are just hoping that DJT will reward their obeisance by being unpleasant and difficult to Starmer when he is PM.
I cycled to Canary Wharf yday (shocking weather but I was well-protected) and missed the turn off from CS3 to the place itself so ended up in an adjacent neighbourhood. Through which you could barely move for Palestinian flags. I suppose it might be the same in Golders Green with Israeli flags.
As this next GE appears to be about to be fought over the killing fields of Gaza I don't see why there shouldn't be an Islamic Party established. It does, however, somewhat give the lie to those who disagreed with me when I said that unlike other religions today, Islam is both a religion and a political system which differentiates and explains actions taken in its name.
I don't find it remarkable that those posters hoping for another Conservative Government are shilling for a Muslim Party.
A law firm which called the police on pro-Palestine demonstrators has distanced itself from an email calling them “idiots” which was accidentally sent to the whole office.
Activists appeared in the lobby of JMW Solicitors’ Manchester office as part of a city-wide demonstration understood to have been organised against Barclays Bank, which shares premises at 3 Hardman Street with a number of other businesses including the firm.
Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have called for a boycott of Barclays because it “provides more than £3 billion in loans and underwriting to companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians”.
Although no damage was reported, the protest on 26 January was sufficiently disruptive that JMW called the authorities.
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Police told ROF that "officers attended reports of a protest at a premises on Hardman Street" at just before 9am, but when they arrived they "discovered that the group had left and moved on".
“Community tensions are high”, said Rebecca Young, the head of JMW’s media law team, but they were raised even higher at JMW when one of its staff accidentally sent an unsympathetic email about the protestors to the entire office.
The fat-fingered lawyer, whom ROF is not naming, slipped up when an employee working from home asked what was causing the commotion.
“A load of Palestine idiots in the foyer!” replied the lawyer. “One muppet with a megaphone the irony being you couldn’t even tell what he was saying!”
Even mild language risks being inflammatory when it comes to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and one of the email’s unintended recipients told ROF that dismissing the protestors as idiots and a muppet had “managed to upset a lot of colleagues”.
When ROF asked JMW for comment, its response from Young included threats to sue this reporter and RollOnFriday. However, the partner also said, “we are disappointed that this incident ever occurred and as a firm we are taking it very seriously. The Email does not express a view representative of our firm, or our people".
She continued, “The Email does not meet the firm’s expectations of how we expect our people to engage with one another or when representing the firm”, and said it would be “quite wrong... to suggest in any shape or form that this firm condones the conduct in question".
I'd judge that to be fair comment on the solicitor's part.
Yup - we've had muppets with megaphones outside the offices as well. Still not sure what they were protesting about. Maybe their job applications aren't going fast enough?
I was out and about last weekend and saw 2 people outside a train station with a big sign saying 'We want chaos'. I couldn't hear what they were screeching about over the wind, but their banner at least was upfront.
Did it look like one of them had just stepped out of a 911 Turbo S?
The political centre of gravity is definitely drifting away from unquestioning support of Israel. It's probably going to need the inevitable formation of an Islamic political party to shatter the orthodoxy completely. I am surprised it hasn't happened already.
Would you call that a good or bad thing?
Though there is probably a market for it.
I'd call it a very good thing. I also think it's a good thing for our elected leaders to be terrified of the citizenry at all times.
We need to start keeping a list of these Tory fucktards who are coming out for Trump.
Jake Berry Liz Trump Jacob Rees-Mogg Boris Johnson
It’s becoming a thing.
Given that motley cast of characters I doubt there is any principle involved. They are just hoping that DJT will reward their obeisance by being unpleasant and difficult to Starmer when he is PM.
We need to start keeping a list of these Tory fucktards who are coming out for Trump.
Jake Berry Liz Trump Jacob Rees-Mogg Boris Johnson
It’s becoming a thing.
William Glenn The Kitchen Cabinet / Mr Ed
Has Mr Ed really transformed from a TV horse character into an item of IKEA furniture?
@Oluckyman or whatever his name is also shills for Tru mp/ss
Yes, it's one of the more remarkable PB transformations
William Glenn's transformation from Euro-Federalist Remainer to full frontal MAGA apologist is quite remarkable. Has anyone ever seen Liz Truss and William Glenn in the same rightwing conference room, and does he wear an S and M charm?
I cycled to Canary Wharf yday (shocking weather but I was well-protected) and missed the turn off from CS3 to the place itself so ended up in an adjacent neighbourhood. Through which you could barely move for Palestinian flags. I suppose it might be the same in Golders Green with Israeli flags.
As this next GE appears to be about to be fought over the killing fields of Gaza I don't see why there shouldn't be an Islamic Party established. It does, however, somewhat give the lie to those who disagreed with me when I said that unlike other religions today, Islam is both a religion and a political system which differentiates and explains actions taken in its name.
I don't find it remarkable that those posters hoping for another Conservative Government are shilling for a Muslim Party.
We need to start keeping a list of these Tory fucktards who are coming out for Trump.
Jake Berry Liz Trump Jacob Rees-Mogg Boris Johnson
It’s becoming a thing.
William Glenn The Kitchen Cabinet / Mr Ed
Has Mr Ed really transformed from a TV horse character into an item of IKEA furniture?
@Oluckyman or whatever his name is also shills for Tru mp/ss
Yes, it's one of the more remarkable PB transformations
William Glenn's transformation from Euro-Federalist Remainer to full frontal MAGA apologist is quite remarkable. Has anyone ever seen Liz Truss and William Glenn in the same rightwing conference room, and does he wear an S and M charm?
The universe is in equilibrium because our very own Rochdale has made the journey in the opposite direction (over the EU, no idea of his views on America Trump).
We need to start keeping a list of these Tory fucktards who are coming out for Trump.
Jake Berry Liz Trump Jacob Rees-Mogg Boris Johnson
It’s becoming a thing.
William Glenn The Kitchen Cabinet / Mr Ed
Has Mr Ed really transformed from a TV horse character into an item of IKEA furniture?
@Oluckyman or whatever his name is also shills for Tru mp/ss
Yes, it's one of the more remarkable PB transformations
William Glenn's transformation from Euro-Federalist Remainer to full frontal MAGA apologist is quite remarkable. Has anyone ever seen Liz Truss and William Glenn in the same rightwing conference room, and does he wear an S and M charm?
O/T is there any actual footage of the Intuitive Machines’ spacecraft Odysseus landing? I thought they were planning to send out a remote camera in the final descent stage.
All I have found from a quick search is less than exciting footage of the control centre.
The political centre of gravity is definitely drifting away from unquestioning support of Israel. It's probably going to need the inevitable formation of an Islamic political party to shatter the orthodoxy completely. I am surprised it hasn't happened already.
Would you call that a good or bad thing?
Though there is probably a market for it.
Like Farage becoming Tory leader, it's one of those ideas that people love to talk about, but doesn't actually happen.
What is more likely is you get a party that is not explicitly an Islamic political party, but which gathers much of its support from a Muslim community, which happened with RESPECT previously and with Aspire now. But, ultimately, neither RESPECT nor Aspire have shattered any orthodoxy. So I don't see why an Islamic political party, if such were to exist and garner some success, would either.
And its conclusion is quite different to yours - "The emergence of kleptocratic, extremist-adjacent ethnic politics is a reminder of how poorly this country has managed immigration and integration. Our existing laws are not designed to deal with this. If we don't change things now, Tower Hamlets will not be an isolated case."
Aspire are awful, and I’m glad if people are noticing that. But they’ve been around for a while now and the “orthodoxy” has not been “shattered”. Barely anyone outside Tower Hamlets have heard of them.
You seem to have missed or wilfully ignored the conclusion of the thread, namely that our democratic system isn't designed robustly enough to deal with these threats as and when they occur. Which to my mind means it's only a matter of time before such things become more commonplace.
We have the idea that there are established norms that everyone plays within, even though they don't have to. Then you get at Trump or a Boris who realises that you don't have to follow these established norms at all. And they exploit that to their advantage. And extremist-adjacent ethnic politicians won't play by those norms either, as demonstrated in the above thread.
We are, at present, pretty lucky that extremist-adjacent ethnic politics aren't mainstream. Yet.
It is the yet that is the cause for concern here, because there's very little that can prevent them from taking hold if and when they do. See also The Muslim Vote group, with Nick Timothy coming to some conclusions here - https://twitter.com/NJ_Timothy/status/1755638901824241809
I haven’t ignored the conclusion of the thread. I just consider it needlessly alarmist. Where are these other Aspire-like parties?
Tower Hamlets politics has been shonky for as long as I can remember, long before Rahman. That’s not a good thing, but we’re not at Trump levels of dysfunction. Rahman is terrible, but he didn’t lead a mob to attack the Town Hall. I am glad irregularities in the council are being looked at. That is our democratic system dealing with the matter.
Do you or Sam Bidwell have particular suggestions for how we should reform our democratic system to prevent these things happening?
Comments
The human urge to create isn't going anywhere, which is the more wholesome of the reasons for writing fanfic. It's just going to be harder to make a living from it, which is a process that's been going on for ages.
Arguably by keeping her from trial were she ought to be tried, but not bringing her home, we are doing her a favour.
A mass book burning/wiping of the back catalogues, so that people have to recreate all their favourite stories as best they can hazily remember them. Then we'll find our what the truly iconic characters and stories of our times are.
I was reading Eternity Road, a pretty good post apocalypse story which had an epic quest to find a vault of ancient books, as very few had survived, so they had like 1 book by Mark Twain and that was that.
Activists appeared in the lobby of JMW Solicitors’ Manchester office as part of a city-wide demonstration understood to have been organised against Barclays Bank, which shares premises at 3 Hardman Street with a number of other businesses including the firm.
Groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have called for a boycott of Barclays because it “provides more than £3 billion in loans and underwriting to companies whose weapons, components, and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians”.
Although no damage was reported, the protest on 26 January was sufficiently disruptive that JMW called the authorities.
A spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Police told ROF that "officers attended reports of a protest at a premises on Hardman Street" at just before 9am, but when they arrived they "discovered that the group had left and moved on".
“Community tensions are high”, said Rebecca Young, the head of JMW’s media law team, but they were raised even higher at JMW when one of its staff accidentally sent an unsympathetic email about the protestors to the entire office.
The fat-fingered lawyer, whom ROF is not naming, slipped up when an employee working from home asked what was causing the commotion.
“A load of Palestine idiots in the foyer!” replied the lawyer. “One muppet with a megaphone the irony being you couldn’t even tell what he was saying!”
Even mild language risks being inflammatory when it comes to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and one of the email’s unintended recipients told ROF that dismissing the protestors as idiots and a muppet had “managed to upset a lot of colleagues”.
When ROF asked JMW for comment, its response from Young included threats to sue this reporter and RollOnFriday. However, the partner also said, “we are disappointed that this incident ever occurred and as a firm we are taking it very seriously. The Email does not express a view representative of our firm, or our people".
She continued, “The Email does not meet the firm’s expectations of how we expect our people to engage with one another or when representing the firm”, and said it would be “quite wrong... to suggest in any shape or form that this firm condones the conduct in question".
https://www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/exclusive-firm-calls-police-protestors-branded-palestine-idiots
The fact that humans can produce King Lear and Beethoven piano Sonatas and Dad's Army and Fawlty Towers and Frasier is interesting but, on the evidence, not something the human community can produce simply at will or in unlimited quantities.
AI replacing real rare talent in a number of spheres is in the very early days of being tested out. In the long run it will be pretty clear what the result is. I don't of course know, but still have my doubts.
That said most TV/film depictions of someones workplace don't match the reality.
But the computer made equivalent will be superior the way a car can go way faster than a human
So some art will survive. A few Hand weavers still make a good living 200+ years after the Luddites tried to destroy machine looms
But 90% of creative jobs will go. Is my rough guess. And that’s millions and millions of people losing jobs they adore
At the same time law and academe and accountancy and finance etc etc will also be
obliterated - but people care less about those jobs
All will go
Buy land and learn to farm. And get a gun
Of course, depending on the nature of the film or show we don't mind details not matching reality, but sometimes it is so egregious it's just too much, like legal/police dramas which clearly no nothing whatsoever about the law.
And my god cop shows need to figure our new tropes for how they can have the detectives talk to senior suspects without delay or get people to not care about warrants, other than to threaten them with 'obstruction'. Or interview people without lawyers (or have a person ignore their lawyer and answer anyway)
You need something to move the plot along in a 40 minute episode, but honestly they might as well just ignore those sorts of issues rather than trot out the same lines every time, particular when cops outright say getting a lawyer is a sign someone is guilty.
Though there is probably a market for it.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/party-of-islam-application-electoral-commission-rejected-140549589.html
Look at Sam Altman at OpenAI. He’s a multi-billionaire and his SORA tech has already cost Hollywood hundreds of jobs and $800m. In its first week
Many people will see their life purpose taken away. I presume he has world class security
I mentioned the other day that the person who serves my fish and chips has a Masters degree. Here, America, India, it's all the same: job markets are tight, and people who have played by the rules and got good grades are losing out. And that is before AI.
What is more likely is you get a party that is not explicitly an Islamic political party, but which gathers much of its support from a Muslim community, which happened with RESPECT previously and with Aspire now. But, ultimately, neither RESPECT nor Aspire have shattered any orthodoxy. So I don't see why an Islamic political party, if such were to exist and garner some success, would either.
Yes I know. Incredible
But it is the case. This is an epochal change - it may be bigger than any change humanity has witnessed. At the very least it will be the Industrial Revolution all over again but accelerated 20 times at least
It appears that a lot of people have been working very hard for a month to achieve absolutely nothing. It is a good job I am not in any pain.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/23/liz-truss-donald-trump-joe-biden-us-election/
And its conclusion is quite different to yours - "The emergence of kleptocratic, extremist-adjacent ethnic politics is a reminder of how poorly this country has managed immigration and integration. Our existing laws are not designed to deal with this. If we don't change things now, Tower Hamlets will not be an isolated case."
Jake Berry
Liz Trump
Jacob Rees-Mogg
Boris Johnson
It’s becoming a thing.
It's been one hell of a journey from the LibDems to where she is today.
The problem with "national Conservatives" is that they hate liberals more than they love their own countries. So, they ally with their country's enemies against liberals.
Is this part of some post-Premiership career pitch to the US networks because Boris is inconveniently too pro-Ukraine for Fox News' tastes?
Given the fall in gas prices to below pre-war levels and Ukraine's struggles against Russia, should Europe not move to an outright ban on Russian gas imports now we've passed winter with storage levels at record highs for this time of year?
Personally I think those found guilty of corrupt electoral practices should face a permanent ban. It wouldn't affect Aspire as a group doing well, but at least Rahman would be excised from official public life. If you've behaved corruptly and illegally in an election I don't think you should get a do-over.
The Kitchen Cabinet / Mr Ed
Unfortunately already recycled.
c.f. The Book of Eli, and to some extent, Yesterday
https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/maths/staff/4087/professor-j-k-truss
A extreme free market and trade advocate who is also selling English Poujadism as today's solution?
The lettuce had more sense.
Purely because I'm utterly sick of hearing about it.
Both of them chasing Nick Clegg of course
@Oluckyman or whatever his name is also shills for Tru mp/ss
Government inspectors have been sent in to Tower Hamlets council for the second time in a decade amid concerns about how the borough is being run.
The Government said it is uneasy about a range of issues in the local authority, including the "independence" of the returning officer, who oversees elections, and the expansion of Mayor Lutfur Rahman's office.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/tower-hamlets-council-mayor-lutfur-rahman-inspectors-government-b1140958.html
Rahman was banned from public office for 5 years. He stood anew in 2022 and was elected Mayor with a very healthy majority. Hopefully, the people of Tower Hamlets will vote him out next time around, although the Tories switching mayoral elections to FPTP is to his benefit.
We have the idea that there are established norms that everyone plays within, even though they don't have to. Then you get at Trump or a Boris who realises that you don't have to follow these established norms at all. And they exploit that to their advantage. And extremist-adjacent ethnic politicians won't play by those norms either, as demonstrated in the above thread.
We are, at present, pretty lucky that extremist-adjacent ethnic politics aren't mainstream. Yet.
It is the yet that is the cause for concern here, because there's very little that can prevent them from taking hold if and when they do. See also The Muslim Vote group, with Nick Timothy coming to some conclusions here - https://twitter.com/NJ_Timothy/status/1755638901824241809
I remember in the 2010 leader debates Cameron said that not everything Labour did was bad, and he would keep the good things. I wonder if we'll get anything like that this time. If it had been Truss leading the party into the GE she might have declined to say anything good had happened, given how she slammed the years of Tory government (whilst paradoxically saying Boris was great and should not have been ousted).
All I have found from a quick search is less than exciting footage of the control centre.
Thanks
As this next GE appears to be about to be fought over the killing fields of Gaza I don't see why there shouldn't be an Islamic Party established. It does, however, somewhat give the lie to those who disagreed with me when I said that unlike other religions today, Islam is both a religion and a political system which differentiates and explains actions taken in its name.
What on earth are some of you smoking?
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/john-savident-death-coronation-street-legend-dies-aged-86/ar-BB1iLjx1?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=c11a669f46414ddd968b1e65ff8e01e6&ei=13
Tower Hamlets politics has been shonky for as long as I can remember, long before Rahman. That’s not a good thing, but we’re not at Trump levels of dysfunction. Rahman is terrible, but he didn’t lead a mob to attack the Town Hall. I am glad irregularities in the council are being looked at. That is our democratic system dealing with the matter.
Do you or Sam Bidwell have particular suggestions for how we should reform our democratic system to prevent these things happening?