The Black Swan for the Tories is Nigel Farage. Not tax cuts, not Rwanda, not Starmer who doesn't have a plan or know what a woman is and who defends Terrorists.
Despite the polls, the notion of the Tories coming 3rd - or 4th - feels fanciful. Until you consider the impact of ReFUK. Farage now strongly rumoured to be stepping back in - and with his GBeebies presence he isn't exactly invisible as it is.
How do we go 1979 > 1997 > Canada 93? Nigel Farage leads ReFUK with his usual simplicity of thought and panache and the remaining Tory vote collapses. And they can't even buy him off. Why be bought off with baubles now when he can have the whole thing in a few months?
The 1979 comparison is interesting more for what will happen next rather than the result of the vote. It is assumed by many, including on this board, that Starmer will crash and burn and the natural Conservative order will swiftly be resumed. I am not convinced. Starmer will likely have the opportunity to be transformative like Thatcher was. Will he take take the opportunity? I suspect he will try. The warning for him though is that Thatcher wasn't at all popular and was only rescued by random Argentinian generals invading an island full of sheep.
I'm not convinced Starmer will crash and burn as much as he will just continue the status quo and that, in and of itself, will lead to ruin. I think one of the things that the Tories (correctly) learnt from Brexit was that, for a lot of the British public, big change is wanted. They just drank their own Kool Aid that the EU was the big thing stopping popular big change when, in fact, it's the neoliberal consensus (that the EU is part of) that is hindering it.
Again, I put Johnson's large electoral win as much down to his promise (true or otherwise) to turn the spigot on for spending as much as down to "sorting out" Brexit. Corbyn's popularity (his election against May was surprisingly close) was also, in part, down to his adamant opposition to the continuation of austerity. I know many here like to argue that austerity never happened, but if you interact with the NHS or with schools or with local councils - the impact is unmistakeable.
With his "fiscal rules" Starmer and Reeves have essentially signed up to Tory economic policy. Unless that's a lie from SKS (which I personally doubt) that is why I see his government being unpopular. Not because it doesn't look more professional or isn't passing legislation - but because his entire ethos will still be underpinned by a view of economics that will not allow government intervention on behalf of the vast majority of people in this country.
Correct me if I am wrong but I believe Starmer could keep to the fiscal rules and increase public spending by raising taxes on those above average incomes or wealth.
I am not saying he will, I fear he won’t, but neoliberalism is not the only way to stick to the fiscal rules.
Quite. Hunt's fiscal "rule" is that public sector debt should be falling as a % of GDP in the fifth year of the OBR forecast. But as anyone who has ever done a financial forecast knows, by the fifth year it's all pretty much finger in the air stuff, it's very hard to come up with solid numbers that far ahead. Hunt has stuck in a few numbers which hardly anyone believes are realistic (including unfreezing fuel duty and cuts in unprotected departments which will not be delivered). And he has reduced the "margin" in the numbers (an allowance for things to go wrong if you like) to £9bn - which is 0.75% of the total - a ridiculously small number and, having done all that, he just about manages to get debt coming down in year 5. It's obvious that Labour is going to have to unpick all this and come up with a more realistic way forward, which is going to involve tax increases.
The other flaw in such a useless and unrealistic measure is that at each budget year 5 is another year away so if you don't actually make it in what had been year 5 before you still haven't breached the target. I'd like to say that as a target it is as useful as a chocolate tea pot but that is plainly not true because you can eat the latter.
It's a fiction, yes, but it seems to be enough to mollify the financial markets, whereas Truss's approach caused complete panic. Funny thing, confidence. Life will be a lot harder for Britain if the country ever loses the confidence of the financial markets for an extended period.
That's one reason for Starmer to be relatively cautious about pre-election promises. Convincing the financial markets he's a safe pair of hands is arguably as important as convincing the voters.
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It’s driven (ha!) to an extent by concerns about the ludicrous sizes of American trucks/SUVs on social media.
A surprising number of people in the UK don’t realise that when the Americans talk about big vehicles they mean something about the size of a P1000.
The Black Swan for the Tories is Nigel Farage. Not tax cuts, not Rwanda, not Starmer who doesn't have a plan or know what a woman is and who defends Terrorists.
Despite the polls, the notion of the Tories coming 3rd - or 4th - feels fanciful. Until you consider the impact of ReFUK. Farage now strongly rumoured to be stepping back in - and with his GBeebies presence he isn't exactly invisible as it is.
How do we go 1979 > 1997 > Canada 93? Nigel Farage leads ReFUK with his usual simplicity of thought and panache and the remaining Tory vote collapses. And they can't even buy him off. Why be bought off with baubles now when he can have the whole thing in a few months?
The 1979 comparison is interesting more for what will happen next rather than the result of the vote. It is assumed by many, including on this board, that Starmer will crash and burn and the natural Conservative order will swiftly be resumed. I am not convinced. Starmer will likely have the opportunity to be transformative like Thatcher was. Will he take take the opportunity? I suspect he will try. The warning for him though is that Thatcher wasn't at all popular and was only rescued by random Argentinian generals invading an island full of sheep.
I'm not convinced Starmer will crash and burn as much as he will just continue the status quo and that, in and of itself, will lead to ruin. I think one of the things that the Tories (correctly) learnt from Brexit was that, for a lot of the British public, big change is wanted. They just drank their own Kool Aid that the EU was the big thing stopping popular big change when, in fact, it's the neoliberal consensus (that the EU is part of) that is hindering it.
Again, I put Johnson's large electoral win as much down to his promise (true or otherwise) to turn the spigot on for spending as much as down to "sorting out" Brexit. Corbyn's popularity (his election against May was surprisingly close) was also, in part, down to his adamant opposition to the continuation of austerity. I know many here like to argue that austerity never happened, but if you interact with the NHS or with schools or with local councils - the impact is unmistakeable.
With his "fiscal rules" Starmer and Reeves have essentially signed up to Tory economic policy. Unless that's a lie from SKS (which I personally doubt) that is why I see his government being unpopular. Not because it doesn't look more professional or isn't passing legislation - but because his entire ethos will still be underpinned by a view of economics that will not allow government intervention on behalf of the vast majority of people in this country.
There is definitely a risk of Starmer continuing down the status quo into the dead end. But he will probably have a big enough majority he doesn't need to go there. He is also probably aware of the risk and will want to avoid it.
You say that he will have a big enough majority that he doesn't need to go there; but I have seen no evidence that he doesn't want to go there. He has had no reason to be as right wing as he has been - the Tories have fallen apart by themselves, he could have stood still and benefited from that. Instead he has taken a course of action actively shifting Labour policy not just to the centre, but to the right.
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
Off topic, looking at best buys in the mortgage market - the very best offers (By about 0.2%) seem to be Northern Ireland only. Any reason for this, can the lender arb against the ECB rather than the BoE or some such there ?! Slightly annoyingly won't be able to remortgage will September or so due to ERC though at least my rates are low till next March.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
O/T but some of us might want to look at this pdq. I was mulling over the need to do the annual tax return, and then I see this on the Graun feed:
'HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is closing down much of its telephone help services for months, as part of a push to make peope use its website instead.
The tax authority has announced that:
between April and September, the Self Assessment helpline will be closed and customers will be directed to self-serve through HMRC’s highly-rated online services between October and March the Self Assessment helpline will be open to deal with priority queries – customers with queries that can be quickly and easily resolved online will be directed to HMRC’s online services the VAT helpline will be open for 5 days every month ahead of the deadline for filing VAT returns – outside of this time, customers will be directed to use HMRC’s online services the PAYE helpline will no longer take calls from customers relating to refunds – customers will be directed to use HMRC’s online services HMRC advisers will continue to always be available during normal office opening hours to support customers who cannot use online services or who have health or personal circumstances that mean they need extra support all other helplines will continue to operate as they do currently'
Because making it more difficult to pay tax is a good thing?
(grumblegrumblesillypoliticsgrumblegrumble)
Was thinking, this is a time when quite a few OAPs will find themselves having to sort out their tax for the first time for a while - fiscal drag, interest rates going up and interest allowance down to £500, and so on. A related point being that the deadline for a paper return is October 31, too.
It'd be a unique trick to pull off a landslide with such a low (Sub 39) approval rating.
I fully expect Biden's numbers to tick up - he will get some benefit from much better upcoming economic data that even Trump will be hard pressed to explain away. The feel-good factor is rising dramatically - and that is only going to benefit one candidate.
But I also expect Trump's numbers to take a hit. Partly because his shit-talking the US economy will play badly. Partly because his claims to be some business genius are falling apart before our eyes, after the fall-out from the New York civil fraud case. No-one in the world will put up a half-billion bond for the supposed multi-billionaire. It might yet happen, but the source will be very opaque - and feed into the narrative that he had been bought by a foreign power.
But mostly because every public appearance and utterance he makes shows just how demented he has become. He is clearly not coping well with his various woes. As he lashes out, he looks ever more petty and juvenile. Whilst Biden seems to be a reasonably-together mind trapped in a very frail body, Trump is losing cognitive ability by the month. His rally speeches are littered with errors, dead-end sentences, fluffed words... And when he does string a few words together, he goes into the mode that turns off independent voters. His Dayton, Ohio speech about a "bloodbath" if he doesn't win is but the latest.
Another interesting post, Mark. Thanks.
There's a big poll out that now shows it tied, Trump having lost his advantage.
Trump and Biden are tied in the general election matchup, with 43% support each, compared with a 1-percentage-point advantage for the presumptive Republican nominee last week. While Trump consistently led Biden during most of the first two months of 2024, the race has narrowed in recent weeks.
I am still morose about the election, but if you look at independents one would probably give the edge to Biden. Trump typically won the undecideds / independent voter v Clinton, and lost them in 2020. His anti democracy talk and the chance of being found guilty for crimes seem like things that have seen independents stay away from Trump. But the Dems are losing some of their base voters (specifically non-white males) whilst the GOP are losing some of their core voters to Biden (he overperforms with older white voters).
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
A few years back we had to dzemolish our old 1960s asbestos-lined wooden garage and replace it one for one to keep the grandfather rights. We considered a garage-used-as-shed but found it was too narrow for a modern car anyway, so just went plain shed. It was quite a surprise how useless it would be as a garage these days.
It'd be a unique trick to pull off a landslide with such a low (Sub 39) approval rating.
I fully expect Biden's numbers to tick up - he will get some benefit from much better upcoming economic data that even Trump will be hard pressed to explain away. The feel-good factor is rising dramatically - and that is only going to benefit one candidate.
But I also expect Trump's numbers to take a hit. Partly because his shit-talking the US economy will play badly. Partly because his claims to be some business genius are falling apart before our eyes, after the fall-out from the New York civil fraud case. No-one in the world will put up a half-billion bond for the supposed multi-billionaire. It might yet happen, but the source will be very opaque - and feed into the narrative that he had been bought by a foreign power.
But mostly because every public appearance and utterance he makes shows just how demented he has become. He is clearly not coping well with his various woes. As he lashes out, he looks ever more petty and juvenile. Whilst Biden seems to be a reasonably-together mind trapped in a very frail body, Trump is losing cognitive ability by the month. His rally speeches are littered with errors, dead-end sentences, fluffed words... And when he does string a few words together, he goes into the mode that turns off independent voters. His Dayton, Ohio speech about a "bloodbath" if he doesn't win is but the latest.
Another interesting post, Mark. Thanks.
There's a big poll out that now shows it tied, Trump having lost his advantage.
Trump and Biden are tied in the general election matchup, with 43% support each, compared with a 1-percentage-point advantage for the presumptive Republican nominee last week. While Trump consistently led Biden during most of the first two months of 2024, the race has narrowed in recent weeks.
It is a bit troubling, however, to see that on a day when RCP still has Trump 1.7% ahead Biden led in 2020 by 6.7% and Clinton led by 8.7% in 2016.
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
A few years back we had to dzemolish our old 1960s asbestos-lined wooden garage and replace it one for one to keep the grandfather rights. We considered a garage-used-as-shed but found it was too narrow for a modern car anyway, so just went plain shed. It was quite a surprise how useless it would be as a garage these days.
We own a classic mini and in the old garage, if there was nothing else there, it was quite roomy. But our modern cars barely scrape through the door. I imagine there is a huge garage door lobby with vested interests in NOT changing the size of the doors...
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
Maybe so, but it was the nonsense focus on SUVs specifically that I was challenging.
(The Q5 is only an inch wider than the 5 series estate in any case)
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
It's the debate of the office today. We're divided, and I've changed my mind twice on the matter.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Nah, Christmas is just a secular piss up and party holiday for most people. Nowt to do with God. I'd be stunned if more than 10% of people even attended midnight mass etc.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
I think it looks like someone who has been rather unwell, if I'm honest. But is this a black vs gold dress thing?
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
A few years back we had to dzemolish our old 1960s asbestos-lined wooden garage and replace it one for one to keep the grandfather rights. We considered a garage-used-as-shed but found it was too narrow for a modern car anyway, so just went plain shed. It was quite a surprise how useless it would be as a garage these days.
We are inching towards revisiting the Ship of Theseus; we were there quite recently.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
It's the debate of the office today. We're divided, and I've changed my mind twice on the matter.
This seems like a good argument against democracy....
It'd be a unique trick to pull off a landslide with such a low (Sub 39) approval rating.
I fully expect Biden's numbers to tick up - he will get some benefit from much better upcoming economic data that even Trump will be hard pressed to explain away. The feel-good factor is rising dramatically - and that is only going to benefit one candidate.
But I also expect Trump's numbers to take a hit. Partly because his shit-talking the US economy will play badly. Partly because his claims to be some business genius are falling apart before our eyes, after the fall-out from the New York civil fraud case. No-one in the world will put up a half-billion bond for the supposed multi-billionaire. It might yet happen, but the source will be very opaque - and feed into the narrative that he had been bought by a foreign power.
But mostly because every public appearance and utterance he makes shows just how demented he has become. He is clearly not coping well with his various woes. As he lashes out, he looks ever more petty and juvenile. Whilst Biden seems to be a reasonably-together mind trapped in a very frail body, Trump is losing cognitive ability by the month. His rally speeches are littered with errors, dead-end sentences, fluffed words... And when he does string a few words together, he goes into the mode that turns off independent voters. His Dayton, Ohio speech about a "bloodbath" if he doesn't win is but the latest.
Another interesting post, Mark. Thanks.
There's a big poll out that now shows it tied, Trump having lost his advantage.
Trump and Biden are tied in the general election matchup, with 43% support each, compared with a 1-percentage-point advantage for the presumptive Republican nominee last week. While Trump consistently led Biden during most of the first two months of 2024, the race has narrowed in recent weeks.
Unleaded gasoline at 2 year highs now. This combined with rising oil prices will hit the us economy quite badly. And the Fed aint gonna cut as soon as people thought.
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It’s driven (ha!) to an extent by concerns about the ludicrous sizes of American trucks/SUVs on social media.
A surprising number of people in the UK don’t realise that when the Americans talk about big vehicles they mean something about the size of a P1000.
That's exactly right I think. What the Americans mean by SUV is, as I note, very different to what we mean by it.
The degree where you can get in with Cs and earn as much as an Oxford graduate Graduating from a selective institution doesn’t guarantee the highest possible earnings
The Telegraph lists:-
Economics at the University of Birkbeck ... Architecture at Anglia Ruskin University ... Engineering at The Open University ... Pharmacy at the University of Brighton With the expectation of making £42,300 five years after graduation, the pharmacology, toxicology and pharmacy alumni from the University of Brighton beat all other competitors in the earnings race.
The A-level requirement is a BBB. King’s College London and UCL are both more stringent, yet lead to salaries averaging £42,000 and £40,500 respectively.
Students can get onto Pharmacy courses with CDD (that won't be the offer, but the Uni will accept).
BUT.
Many such students fail to complete their studies. One course I know has around 50% fail to graduate.
Then the student must pass the Pre-Registration exam - set nationally, not in the control of the Universities. You only get three (3) chances to pass. Many from the lower ranked Unis that admit students with CDD fail to ever pass the pre-reg.
But yes, if you make it, pharmacy is a high payer at the start of your career (although to progress you need to move up, away from being the direct pharmacist on the Boots counter, or in the hospital).
EDIT - also this year you will not get into the top schools of Pharmacy with less than ABB (Nottingham, Manchester, Bath etc)
I was amazed how long it has taken since I left Bath uni back in 2002 for the gov't (Any of them) to end the mahoosive underemployment of pharmacists and give them some prescribing powers for minor illnesses. The most obvious stone in obvious land to relieve some pressure from GPs for anyone who knows anything of quite how well educated pharmacists are.
Its been coming for a while. We have long had a post grad prescribing course but from next year all pharmacy graduates will be prescribers (i.e. anyone graduating 2025 on - its not retrospective). This has led to some tricky changes in course material as the 2025 cohort were not heading in that direction when they started.
Pharmacy has hugely changed. Back in the day students did a lot of science and manufacturing of ointments creams etc, but very little of the soft clinical skills. My colleague at Bath, who graduated in the mid 80's, did not do any clinical at all, as it was on Wednesday afternoons when he was playing rugby. In those days you learned science at Uni and clinical on the job.
I'm not most pharmacists would claim to be underemployed - many of the public have a very dim idea of what the pharmacist actually does at work. Very few actually dispense (at least not in the bigger companies) - thats a job for less well paid dispensers.
I do think it will help to have minor conditions being able to pharmacists prescribe treatment, but I think there are also other issues with GP's. A better approach might be to create more drop in GP centres in towns - turn up and wait. My son had an ear infection at the weekend. Full time wife took him to the minor injury unit in the next town (which functions as a walk in GP) and got treatment in less than an hour. If we had tried with the surgery we would still be waiting. GPs won't necessarily like them - being part of a GP practice can be very lucrative, but I think something needs to give.
There's no minor injuries unit in our area, it's a bit of a missed trick I think - in practice the A&E unit functions as an out of hour GP service (Bassetlaw).
I'm not sure where you are in Bassetlaw - my Go To MIU (it used to be called something else) is just over in Derbyshire at Ripley. The service has changed over the years, but that's where I went when I was burnt by fat jumping out of a pan when I dropped a steak in from slightly too high 2 years ago.
Compared to the local A&E the wait is a fraction (my arm-burn wait was 30-40 minutes), even though the local A&E on this side is well-regarded, but their usual system (they told me) now is phone up and pre-book for a bit later on. So for my burn it would be phone up whilst one arm is in the cold water in the sink.
I've been in the local A&E too, but that was a telephone insta-referral by a GP last summer, so I skipped most of the queue. I came out 3 weeks later .
It'd be a unique trick to pull off a landslide with such a low (Sub 39) approval rating.
I fully expect Biden's numbers to tick up - he will get some benefit from much better upcoming economic data that even Trump will be hard pressed to explain away. The feel-good factor is rising dramatically - and that is only going to benefit one candidate.
But I also expect Trump's numbers to take a hit. Partly because his shit-talking the US economy will play badly. Partly because his claims to be some business genius are falling apart before our eyes, after the fall-out from the New York civil fraud case. No-one in the world will put up a half-billion bond for the supposed multi-billionaire. It might yet happen, but the source will be very opaque - and feed into the narrative that he had been bought by a foreign power.
But mostly because every public appearance and utterance he makes shows just how demented he has become. He is clearly not coping well with his various woes. As he lashes out, he looks ever more petty and juvenile. Whilst Biden seems to be a reasonably-together mind trapped in a very frail body, Trump is losing cognitive ability by the month. His rally speeches are littered with errors, dead-end sentences, fluffed words... And when he does string a few words together, he goes into the mode that turns off independent voters. His Dayton, Ohio speech about a "bloodbath" if he doesn't win is but the latest.
Another interesting post, Mark. Thanks.
There's a big poll out that now shows it tied, Trump having lost his advantage.
Trump and Biden are tied in the general election matchup, with 43% support each, compared with a 1-percentage-point advantage for the presumptive Republican nominee last week. While Trump consistently led Biden during most of the first two months of 2024, the race has narrowed in recent weeks.
It is a bit troubling, however, to see that on a day when RCP still has Trump 1.7% ahead Biden led in 2020 by 6.7% and Clinton led by 8.7% in 2016.
That's not tight, that's pointing to a big win by Trump. It's an 8.4pp difference in the lead compared to 2020, which, if reflected at polling day, would result in Trump winning the popular vote by 3.7pp, the largest popular vote win by the Republicans since 1988.
Biden's incredibly unpopular and people are in denial about it. The polling evidence is that Trump isn't going to have to steal this election because he's going to cruise to victory.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Nah, Christmas is just a secular piss up and party holiday for most people. Nowt to do with God. I'd be stunned if more than 10% of people even attended midnight mass etc.
It doesn't matter if people celebrate it because of religion - it has the position it does in our society due to its religious significance. You can't say "no public displays of religion, please, except Christmas" because there is no coherent argument that can remove the significance we place in Christmas with the historical significance of Christianity to British culture.
It'd be a unique trick to pull off a landslide with such a low (Sub 39) approval rating.
I fully expect Biden's numbers to tick up - he will get some benefit from much better upcoming economic data that even Trump will be hard pressed to explain away. The feel-good factor is rising dramatically - and that is only going to benefit one candidate.
But I also expect Trump's numbers to take a hit. Partly because his shit-talking the US economy will play badly. Partly because his claims to be some business genius are falling apart before our eyes, after the fall-out from the New York civil fraud case. No-one in the world will put up a half-billion bond for the supposed multi-billionaire. It might yet happen, but the source will be very opaque - and feed into the narrative that he had been bought by a foreign power.
But mostly because every public appearance and utterance he makes shows just how demented he has become. He is clearly not coping well with his various woes. As he lashes out, he looks ever more petty and juvenile. Whilst Biden seems to be a reasonably-together mind trapped in a very frail body, Trump is losing cognitive ability by the month. His rally speeches are littered with errors, dead-end sentences, fluffed words... And when he does string a few words together, he goes into the mode that turns off independent voters. His Dayton, Ohio speech about a "bloodbath" if he doesn't win is but the latest.
Another interesting post, Mark. Thanks.
There's a big poll out that now shows it tied, Trump having lost his advantage.
Trump and Biden are tied in the general election matchup, with 43% support each, compared with a 1-percentage-point advantage for the presumptive Republican nominee last week. While Trump consistently led Biden during most of the first two months of 2024, the race has narrowed in recent weeks.
It is a bit troubling, however, to see that on a day when RCP still has Trump 1.7% ahead Biden led in 2020 by 6.7% and Clinton led by 8.7% in 2016.
Who says that SOTUS does NOT have a wicked sense of humor?
AP (via Seattle Times) - Supreme Court rejects appeal by former New Mexico county commissioner banned for Jan. 6 insurrection
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a former New Mexico county commissioner who was kicked out of office over his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Former Otero County commissioner Couy Griffin, a cowboy pastor who rode to national political fame by embracing then-President Donald Trump with a series of horseback caravans, is the only elected official thus far to be banned from office in connection with the Capitol attack, which disrupted Congress as it was trying to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over Trump.
At a 2022 trial in state district court, Griffin received the first disqualification from office in over a century under a provision of the 14th Amendment written to prevent former Confederates from serving in government after the Civil War.
Though the Supreme Court ruled this month that states don’t have the ability to bar Trump or other candidates for federal offices from the ballot, the justices said different rules apply to state and local candidates. . . .
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
TBF to Trump at least fake Melania(s?) looked like Melania.
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It’s driven (ha!) to an extent by concerns about the ludicrous sizes of American trucks/SUVs on social media.
A surprising number of people in the UK don’t realise that when the Americans talk about big vehicles they mean something about the size of a P1000.
I think it's driven mostly by people's daily experience in car parks, and other spots which haven't expanded to accommodate the expansion of cars.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Along with inherited custom - such as Christmas and Easter holiday seasons, the two things which could unite rather than divide society are liberalism and humanism. You can be a secular or religious humanist, and a secular or religious liberal. Secular and religious people who are liberal and humanist tend to get on fine, even when bashing each other up in their free speech inspired arguments.
It'd be a unique trick to pull off a landslide with such a low (Sub 39) approval rating.
I fully expect Biden's numbers to tick up - he will get some benefit from much better upcoming economic data that even Trump will be hard pressed to explain away. The feel-good factor is rising dramatically - and that is only going to benefit one candidate.
But I also expect Trump's numbers to take a hit. Partly because his shit-talking the US economy will play badly. Partly because his claims to be some business genius are falling apart before our eyes, after the fall-out from the New York civil fraud case. No-one in the world will put up a half-billion bond for the supposed multi-billionaire. It might yet happen, but the source will be very opaque - and feed into the narrative that he had been bought by a foreign power.
But mostly because every public appearance and utterance he makes shows just how demented he has become. He is clearly not coping well with his various woes. As he lashes out, he looks ever more petty and juvenile. Whilst Biden seems to be a reasonably-together mind trapped in a very frail body, Trump is losing cognitive ability by the month. His rally speeches are littered with errors, dead-end sentences, fluffed words... And when he does string a few words together, he goes into the mode that turns off independent voters. His Dayton, Ohio speech about a "bloodbath" if he doesn't win is but the latest.
Another interesting post, Mark. Thanks.
There's a big poll out that now shows it tied, Trump having lost his advantage.
Trump and Biden are tied in the general election matchup, with 43% support each, compared with a 1-percentage-point advantage for the presumptive Republican nominee last week. While Trump consistently led Biden during most of the first two months of 2024, the race has narrowed in recent weeks.
It is a bit troubling, however, to see that on a day when RCP still has Trump 1.7% ahead Biden led in 2020 by 6.7% and Clinton led by 8.7% in 2016.
That's not tight, that's pointing to a big win by Trump. It's an 8.4pp difference in the lead compared to 2020, which, if reflected at polling day, would result in Trump winning the popular vote by 3.7pp, the largest popular vote win by the Republicans since 1988.
Biden's incredibly unpopular and people are in denial about it. The polling evidence is that Trump isn't going to have to steal this election because he's going to cruise to victory.
You say that, but some of the movement in polls is from very historically atypical groups. For example, if Trump is winning more non-white men than a typical GOP candidate (he is), yes that makes Georgia closer to a deffo red state, but it also would have little impact in other states where Trump could make gains but will still never win (like NY). Similarly, Biden performing better with older white voters may keep certain states in play that typically aren't.
It'd be a unique trick to pull off a landslide with such a low (Sub 39) approval rating.
I fully expect Biden's numbers to tick up - he will get some benefit from much better upcoming economic data that even Trump will be hard pressed to explain away. The feel-good factor is rising dramatically - and that is only going to benefit one candidate.
But I also expect Trump's numbers to take a hit. Partly because his shit-talking the US economy will play badly. Partly because his claims to be some business genius are falling apart before our eyes, after the fall-out from the New York civil fraud case. No-one in the world will put up a half-billion bond for the supposed multi-billionaire. It might yet happen, but the source will be very opaque - and feed into the narrative that he had been bought by a foreign power.
But mostly because every public appearance and utterance he makes shows just how demented he has become. He is clearly not coping well with his various woes. As he lashes out, he looks ever more petty and juvenile. Whilst Biden seems to be a reasonably-together mind trapped in a very frail body, Trump is losing cognitive ability by the month. His rally speeches are littered with errors, dead-end sentences, fluffed words... And when he does string a few words together, he goes into the mode that turns off independent voters. His Dayton, Ohio speech about a "bloodbath" if he doesn't win is but the latest.
Another interesting post, Mark. Thanks.
There's a big poll out that now shows it tied, Trump having lost his advantage.
Trump and Biden are tied in the general election matchup, with 43% support each, compared with a 1-percentage-point advantage for the presumptive Republican nominee last week. While Trump consistently led Biden during most of the first two months of 2024, the race has narrowed in recent weeks.
It is a bit troubling, however, to see that on a day when RCP still has Trump 1.7% ahead Biden led in 2020 by 6.7% and Clinton led by 8.7% in 2016.
That's not tight, that's pointing to a big win by Trump. It's an 8.4pp difference in the lead compared to 2020, which, if reflected at polling day, would result in Trump winning the popular vote by 3.7pp, the largest popular vote win by the Republicans since 1988.
Biden's incredibly unpopular and people are in denial about it. The polling evidence is that Trump isn't going to have to steal this election because he's going to cruise to victory.
The polls don't mean much this far out. It will be close.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Along with inherited custom - such as Christmas and Easter holiday seasons, the two things which could unite rather than divide society are liberalism and humanism. You can be a secular or religious humanist, and a secular or religious liberal. Secular and religious people who are liberal and humanist tend to get on fine, even when bashing each other up in their free speech inspired arguments.
Sure, but then we need to accept that customs change over time and there is no problem with that. I'm not Muslim, but if I'm expected to see very obvious Christian stuff all the time, I have no issue also seeing obviously Muslim or Jewish or Hindu stuff. I just feel that if you're going to be outraged at a train station quoting a hadith you should also hate "Merry Christmas".
It'd be a unique trick to pull off a landslide with such a low (Sub 39) approval rating.
I fully expect Biden's numbers to tick up - he will get some benefit from much better upcoming economic data that even Trump will be hard pressed to explain away. The feel-good factor is rising dramatically - and that is only going to benefit one candidate.
But I also expect Trump's numbers to take a hit. Partly because his shit-talking the US economy will play badly. Partly because his claims to be some business genius are falling apart before our eyes, after the fall-out from the New York civil fraud case. No-one in the world will put up a half-billion bond for the supposed multi-billionaire. It might yet happen, but the source will be very opaque - and feed into the narrative that he had been bought by a foreign power.
But mostly because every public appearance and utterance he makes shows just how demented he has become. He is clearly not coping well with his various woes. As he lashes out, he looks ever more petty and juvenile. Whilst Biden seems to be a reasonably-together mind trapped in a very frail body, Trump is losing cognitive ability by the month. His rally speeches are littered with errors, dead-end sentences, fluffed words... And when he does string a few words together, he goes into the mode that turns off independent voters. His Dayton, Ohio speech about a "bloodbath" if he doesn't win is but the latest.
Another interesting post, Mark. Thanks.
There's a big poll out that now shows it tied, Trump having lost his advantage.
Trump and Biden are tied in the general election matchup, with 43% support each, compared with a 1-percentage-point advantage for the presumptive Republican nominee last week. While Trump consistently led Biden during most of the first two months of 2024, the race has narrowed in recent weeks.
It is a bit troubling, however, to see that on a day when RCP still has Trump 1.7% ahead Biden led in 2020 by 6.7% and Clinton led by 8.7% in 2016.
That's not tight, that's pointing to a big win by Trump. It's an 8.4pp difference in the lead compared to 2020, which, if reflected at polling day, would result in Trump winning the popular vote by 3.7pp, the largest popular vote win by the Republicans since 1988.
Biden's incredibly unpopular and people are in denial about it. The polling evidence is that Trump isn't going to have to steal this election because he's going to cruise to victory.
You are assuming that this election will follow the same trends as the previous 2 in where we go from here. I don't think that will be the case because Biden has a really good story to sell and Trump has a nightmare of litigation to fight his way out of. I think we are only starting to see the movement in Biden's favour. Biden also has the advantage of incumbency which neither of Trump's previous opponents did.
But it is fair to say that Trump is currently doing much better than he was in either 2016 or 2020.
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
Maybe so, but it was the nonsense focus on SUVs specifically that I was challenging.
(The Q5 is only an inch wider than the 5 series estate in any case)
Right, but compare to cars from a decade, two decades and three decades ago and you will see the difference plain as day.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
why are xmas decorations up too. Honestly all this misinformation and division it aint good for the morale of the country.
Who says that SOTUS does NOT have a wicked sense of humor?
AP (via Seattle Times) - Supreme Court rejects appeal by former New Mexico county commissioner banned for Jan. 6 insurrection
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a former New Mexico county commissioner who was kicked out of office over his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Former Otero County commissioner Couy Griffin, a cowboy pastor who rode to national political fame by embracing then-President Donald Trump with a series of horseback caravans, is the only elected official thus far to be banned from office in connection with the Capitol attack, which disrupted Congress as it was trying to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over Trump.
At a 2022 trial in state district court, Griffin received the first disqualification from office in over a century under a provision of the 14th Amendment written to prevent former Confederates from serving in government after the Civil War.
Though the Supreme Court ruled this month that states don’t have the ability to bar Trump or other candidates for federal offices from the ballot, the justices said different rules apply to state and local candidates. . . .
I mean it would make sense that state elections and positions sit with the states and federal elections and positions sit with the federal government. If it wasn't for the fact that the 14th Amendment and other post civil war amendments specifically say otherwise... and that states already all do federal elections differently.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Nah, Christmas is just a secular piss up and party holiday for most people. Nowt to do with God. I'd be stunned if more than 10% of people even attended midnight mass etc.
Nowhere near 10% of UK population attend services at midnight or on Christmas morning. I would guess it is more like 3%. But many millions attend some sort of religious Christmas service in the weeks leading up to it. This bit of the observance remains fairly strong, but should not be equated with committed faith. Equally, it is wrong to describe all these people as secular. People are complicated.
It'd be a unique trick to pull off a landslide with such a low (Sub 39) approval rating.
I fully expect Biden's numbers to tick up - he will get some benefit from much better upcoming economic data that even Trump will be hard pressed to explain away. The feel-good factor is rising dramatically - and that is only going to benefit one candidate.
But I also expect Trump's numbers to take a hit. Partly because his shit-talking the US economy will play badly. Partly because his claims to be some business genius are falling apart before our eyes, after the fall-out from the New York civil fraud case. No-one in the world will put up a half-billion bond for the supposed multi-billionaire. It might yet happen, but the source will be very opaque - and feed into the narrative that he had been bought by a foreign power.
But mostly because every public appearance and utterance he makes shows just how demented he has become. He is clearly not coping well with his various woes. As he lashes out, he looks ever more petty and juvenile. Whilst Biden seems to be a reasonably-together mind trapped in a very frail body, Trump is losing cognitive ability by the month. His rally speeches are littered with errors, dead-end sentences, fluffed words... And when he does string a few words together, he goes into the mode that turns off independent voters. His Dayton, Ohio speech about a "bloodbath" if he doesn't win is but the latest.
Another interesting post, Mark. Thanks.
There's a big poll out that now shows it tied, Trump having lost his advantage.
Trump and Biden are tied in the general election matchup, with 43% support each, compared with a 1-percentage-point advantage for the presumptive Republican nominee last week. While Trump consistently led Biden during most of the first two months of 2024, the race has narrowed in recent weeks.
It is a bit troubling, however, to see that on a day when RCP still has Trump 1.7% ahead Biden led in 2020 by 6.7% and Clinton led by 8.7% in 2016.
That's not tight, that's pointing to a big win by Trump. It's an 8.4pp difference in the lead compared to 2020, which, if reflected at polling day, would result in Trump winning the popular vote by 3.7pp, the largest popular vote win by the Republicans since 1988.
Biden's incredibly unpopular and people are in denial about it. The polling evidence is that Trump isn't going to have to steal this election because he's going to cruise to victory.
You say that, but some of the movement in polls is from very historically atypical groups. For example, if Trump is winning more non-white men than a typical GOP candidate (he is), yes that makes Georgia closer to a deffo red state, but it also would have little impact in other states where Trump could make gains but will still never win (like NY). Similarly, Biden performing better with older white voters may keep certain states in play that typically aren't.
If an MRP shows Biden winning the electoral college even with a 3.7% popular vote deficit then I'll be interested, but I don't think such hand-waving arguments can wish away a greater than 4% swing in the headline vote numbers on their own.
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
Maybe so, but it was the nonsense focus on SUVs specifically that I was challenging.
(The Q5 is only an inch wider than the 5 series estate in any case)
Right, but compare to cars from a decade, two decades and three decades ago and you will see the difference plain as day.
So what though? That was never the point I was making. My point was the endless focus on SUVs specifically, when the truth is they often have smaller footprints than estates.
AP (via Seattle Times) - Supreme Court chief justice denies ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro’s bid to stave off prison sentence
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to halt a prison sentence for former Trump White House official Peter Navarro as he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction.
Navarro is due to report Tuesday to a federal prison for a four-month sentence, after being found guilty of misdemeanor charges for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He had asked to stay free while he appealed his conviction.
Navarro has maintained that he couldn’t cooperate with the committee because former President Donald Trump had invoked executive privilege. Lower courts have rejected that argument, finding he couldn’t prove Trump had actually invoked it.
The Monday order signed by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency applications from Washington, D.C., said he has “no basis to disagree” with the appeals court ruling, though he said the finding doesn’t affect the eventual outcome of Navarro’s appeal. . . .
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
Maybe so, but it was the nonsense focus on SUVs specifically that I was challenging.
(The Q5 is only an inch wider than the 5 series estate in any case)
Right, but compare to cars from a decade, two decades and three decades ago and you will see the difference plain as day.
So what though? That was never the point I was making. My point was the endless focus on SUVs specifically, when the truth is they often have smaller footprints than estates.
But it's pointless to the question at hand. Cars are getting wider and that is causing problems. It doesn't matter what you call the cars.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
Why not? 1 She's dumped him 2 He is heir to the throne 3 If they debag him (and thus his children) then the heir apparent is Harry which means 4 Queen Meghan
So yes, he has judged that he can do basically what the fuck he likes with minimal consequences.
AP (via Seattle Times) - Supreme Court chief justice denies ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro’s bid to stave off prison sentence
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to halt a prison sentence for former Trump White House official Peter Navarro as he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction.
Navarro is due to report Tuesday to a federal prison for a four-month sentence, after being found guilty of misdemeanor charges for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He had asked to stay free while he appealed his conviction.
Navarro has maintained that he couldn’t cooperate with the committee because former President Donald Trump had invoked executive privilege. Lower courts have rejected that argument, finding he couldn’t prove Trump had actually invoked it.
The Monday order signed by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency applications from Washington, D.C., said he has “no basis to disagree” with the appeals court ruling, though he said the finding doesn’t affect the eventual outcome of Navarro’s appeal. . . .
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Along with inherited custom - such as Christmas and Easter holiday seasons, the two things which could unite rather than divide society are liberalism and humanism. You can be a secular or religious humanist, and a secular or religious liberal. Secular and religious people who are liberal and humanist tend to get on fine, even when bashing each other up in their free speech inspired arguments.
Sure, but then we need to accept that customs change over time and there is no problem with that. I'm not Muslim, but if I'm expected to see very obvious Christian stuff all the time, I have no issue also seeing obviously Muslim or Jewish or Hindu stuff. I just feel that if you're going to be outraged at a train station quoting a hadith you should also hate "Merry Christmas".
I think the two thinks are a bit different. If the station was simply saying Happy Eid or some such, thats different.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
Why not? 1 She's dumped him 2 He is heir to the throne 3 If they debag him (and thus his children) then the heir apparent is Harry which means 4 Queen Meghan
So yes, he has judged that he can do basically what the fuck he likes with minimal consequences.
At this point the royals are just the kardashians. They should have their own reality tv programme and we should no longer fund them.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Along with inherited custom - such as Christmas and Easter holiday seasons, the two things which could unite rather than divide society are liberalism and humanism. You can be a secular or religious humanist, and a secular or religious liberal. Secular and religious people who are liberal and humanist tend to get on fine, even when bashing each other up in their free speech inspired arguments.
Sure, but then we need to accept that customs change over time and there is no problem with that. I'm not Muslim, but if I'm expected to see very obvious Christian stuff all the time, I have no issue also seeing obviously Muslim or Jewish or Hindu stuff. I just feel that if you're going to be outraged at a train station quoting a hadith you should also hate "Merry Christmas".
Absolutely. I think this started at Kings Cross station, yards from where I once lived. Within a mile of that railway cathedral are quite a number of visible and obvious buildings called churches, impossible to avoid even to the eye that finds them offensive. I hope the snowflakes can cope with this.
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
Maybe so, but it was the nonsense focus on SUVs specifically that I was challenging.
(The Q5 is only an inch wider than the 5 series estate in any case)
Right, but compare to cars from a decade, two decades and three decades ago and you will see the difference plain as day.
So what though? That was never the point I was making. My point was the endless focus on SUVs specifically, when the truth is they often have smaller footprints than estates.
SUVs are more dangerous for pedestrians than "ordinary" cars, they are less fuel efficient (because they are heavier) and they cause greater wear on roads (again because they are heavier). They can be handy in rural locations where roads are poor, and generally empty, but in cities they are a menace with no redeeming features.
"David Lloyd George, former British Prime Minister, speaks in House of Commons: "Our help is always too late. Too late for Czechoslovakia, for Poland, now for Finland. We never save them.""
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
They were shopping not snogging!
Assuming it was William, it could easily be their nanny etc.
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It’s driven (ha!) to an extent by concerns about the ludicrous sizes of American trucks/SUVs on social media.
A surprising number of people in the UK don’t realise that when the Americans talk about big vehicles they mean something about the size of a P1000.
That's exactly right I think. What the Americans mean by SUV is, as I note, very different to what we mean by it.
The American category is "Light Trucks", I believe, and they are exempt from some safety requirements of normal vehicles (ie 'cars'), so cheaper to build and the manufacturers love them for their profitability.
The KSI numbers for people not in the SUV are quite frightening. A significant contribution to the 80% increase in pedestrian deaths on US roads from 2010 to 2021, aiui. Ref:https://www.ghsa.org/resources/Pedestrians23
It's not an unknown problem. Here is a paper from 2005 from the NIH looking at the period 1980-2004 when light trucks increased in market share from 16% to 50%.
Light trucks have doubled their share of the vehicle fleet from 1980 to 2004. This paper examines the effects of this increase on traffic safety, combining estimates from a state-level panel data set with an accident-level micro data set. The results suggest that a one percentage point increase in light truck share raises annual traffic fatalities by 0.34 percent, or 143 deaths per year. Of this increase, approximately one-fifth accrue to the light trucks’ own occupants, and the remaining four-fifths accrue to the occupants of other vehicles and pedestrians. Using standard value of life figures, the implied Pigovian tax is approximately 3,850 dollars per light truck sold. Overall, light trucks pose a significant hazard to other users of the highway system but on average provide no additional protection to their own occupants. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2486272/
US road safety is now f*cked, and imo it's a type of curve (though not identical) we need to avoid.
There are other factors involved, such as US drivers being only half trained by Western European standards, road design about half-a-century behind, and others - but these type of vehicles make consequences of a collision worse each time.
The closest UK equivalent are probably the 6m long >1 tonne payload crew-cab trucks for which our government have just restored several k per annum tax breaks.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
Why not? 1 She's dumped him 2 He is heir to the throne 3 If they debag him (and thus his children) then the heir apparent is Harry which means 4 Queen Meghan
So yes, he has judged that he can do basically what the fuck he likes with minimal consequences.
At this point the royals are just the kardashians. They should have their own reality tv programme and we should no longer fund them.
We don't fund them beyond security, profits of the crown estate and duchies do
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
There are many Xmas traditions, from different sources. But I’m not convinced by the argument that Xmas is “inherently secular”. There is a tradition of exaggerating its supposed pagan origins: e.g. see this video, https://youtu.be/mWgzjwy51kU
I'm pretty sure that Christmas in the UK is 99% a secular event (as defined by how many attend Christmas services at Church).
Which planet is this? In many villages and towns literally thousands pass through churches (and school halls and so on too) for nativity services, school Christmas services, carol services, all running from the end of November to Christmas. In my patch the local cattle mart is packed to the rafters for one such service. In one small city cathedral I know they have to run the same service four times in a row to fit all the people in. I agree with all the people who point out this isn't the same as Christian commitment, but neither is it secular.
I'm not sure, I go to several carol concerts each year and even sing in a choir at one of them but am an atheist. I just really like carols and Christmas, while not believing in God. I think there are a lot of people like me, also a lot of people who go because they're Christians, also a lot of people in various positions in between.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
Why not? 1 She's dumped him 2 He is heir to the throne 3 If they debag him (and thus his children) then the heir apparent is Harry which means 4 Queen Meghan
So yes, he has judged that he can do basically what the fuck he likes with minimal consequences.
Seems an awful stretch to that from one grainy video. Last time I heard on PB Meghan and Harry were about to divorce. Still waiting on that one.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Along with inherited custom - such as Christmas and Easter holiday seasons, the two things which could unite rather than divide society are liberalism and humanism. You can be a secular or religious humanist, and a secular or religious liberal. Secular and religious people who are liberal and humanist tend to get on fine, even when bashing each other up in their free speech inspired arguments.
Sure, but then we need to accept that customs change over time and there is no problem with that. I'm not Muslim, but if I'm expected to see very obvious Christian stuff all the time, I have no issue also seeing obviously Muslim or Jewish or Hindu stuff. I just feel that if you're going to be outraged at a train station quoting a hadith you should also hate "Merry Christmas".
I am not outraged by religious quotes at a train station. I just do not believe it is the place for it.
Your seem to be confusing someone saying 'Merry Christmas ' with a religious message. For some it might be, but for me and millions of others it has no religious significance whatsoever. It is just a greeting hence why I don't object to a Merry Christmas message but do to a religious message. Just because you believe it is religious doesn't mean for others it is.
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
Maybe so, but it was the nonsense focus on SUVs specifically that I was challenging.
(The Q5 is only an inch wider than the 5 series estate in any case)
Right, but compare to cars from a decade, two decades and three decades ago and you will see the difference plain as day.
So what though? That was never the point I was making. My point was the endless focus on SUVs specifically, when the truth is they often have smaller footprints than estates.
But it's pointless to the question at hand. Cars are getting wider and that is causing problems. It doesn't matter what you call the cars.
No. Why is it pointless? The was talk on the thread earlier about changing the rules to ban SUVs – specifically SUVs, not all cars, or all SUVs and estates, or all wide cars. SUVs.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
Why not? 1 She's dumped him 2 He is heir to the throne 3 If they debag him (and thus his children) then the heir apparent is Harry which means 4 Queen Meghan
So yes, he has judged that he can do basically what the fuck he likes with minimal consequences.
At this point the royals are just the kardashians. They should have their own reality tv programme and we should no longer fund them.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
There are many Xmas traditions, from different sources. But I’m not convinced by the argument that Xmas is “inherently secular”. There is a tradition of exaggerating its supposed pagan origins: e.g. see this video, https://youtu.be/mWgzjwy51kU
I'm pretty sure that Christmas in the UK is 99% a secular event (as defined by how many attend Christmas services at Church).
Which planet is this? In many villages and towns literally thousands pass through churches (and school halls and so on too) for nativity services, school Christmas services, carol services, all running from the end of November to Christmas. In my patch the local cattle mart is packed to the rafters for one such service. In one small city cathedral I know they have to run the same service four times in a row to fit all the people in. I agree with all the people who point out this isn't the same as Christian commitment, but neither is it secular.
I'm not sure, I go to several carol concerts each year and even sing in a choir at one of them but am an atheist. I just really like carols and Christmas, while not believing in God. I think there are a lot of people like me, also a lot of people who go because they're Christians, also a lot of people in various positions in between.
I believe that famous Christian Professor Richard Dawkins is rather fond of singing Christmas carols.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Along with inherited custom - such as Christmas and Easter holiday seasons, the two things which could unite rather than divide society are liberalism and humanism. You can be a secular or religious humanist, and a secular or religious liberal. Secular and religious people who are liberal and humanist tend to get on fine, even when bashing each other up in their free speech inspired arguments.
Sure, but then we need to accept that customs change over time and there is no problem with that. I'm not Muslim, but if I'm expected to see very obvious Christian stuff all the time, I have no issue also seeing obviously Muslim or Jewish or Hindu stuff. I just feel that if you're going to be outraged at a train station quoting a hadith you should also hate "Merry Christmas".
I think the two thinks are a bit different. If the station was simply saying Happy Eid or some such, thats different.
If a cafe has a bible verse on the specials board then I might think about going somewhere else, and I'd certainly feel a bit put upon if a train information board had Matthew 7:1-3 displayed, instead of information about the prodigious delays.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
Cathedrals are private spaces are they not? They belong to the Church, who can use it as they please.
They can put whatever messages they want in their buildings and on signage on their land. Free speech.
But it shouldn't be shoved down people's throats in secular spaces.
The initial post was about a railway station. So, this comes down to how you feel about rail nationalisation presumably. If you think railways should be privatised, then the station is owned by a company and they should get to say what they want. If you think railways should be nationalised, then it’s a secular space. Bart: privatised or nationalised rail?
Personally I think they should be privatised, but aren't currently in London, so it's not about what I want but about what the situation is currently.
The status of whether it's public or private doesn't change based on what I want, it's a matter of objective fact not subjective opinion.
So, if station ownership was privatised, as you wish, you would withdraw any objection to the message?
Then it's a private matter. I would dislike it, but it wouldn't be a public issue like it is now.
If Costa Coffee want to push a religion that's their private business, but if Starbucks don't then ceteris paribus that'd be a competitive incentive for me to go to Starbucks where that's not an issue.
Public spaces though should be secular IMHO.
Fair enough. Presumably you favour the disestablishment of the Anglican Church too? (Where are the forces of antidisestablishmentarianism to oppose you?)
Of course I do!
As for the forces of antidisestablishmentarianism you probably need @HYUFD to be online
The Church of England isn't part of the state ie it is not taxpayer funded nor are its churches public spaces but owned by the Church.
So that really has little to do with it being the established church, the main consequence of ending which for most people would be the ending of their automatic right to be married or baptised or have a funeral in their local Parish church
But it most certainly is part of the English State. Crown, legislature, and government all include its hierarchy or take part in it.
Next you'll be telling us that the Duke of Rothesay isn't part of the state.
It is the established church but that doesn't make it public sector, the vast majority of the clergy are not in the legislature and none in the government and the fact the monarch is its supreme governor doesn't make him a priest either
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Nah, Christmas is just a secular piss up and party holiday for most people. Nowt to do with God. I'd be stunned if more than 10% of people even attended midnight mass etc.
Nowhere near 10% of UK population attend services at midnight or on Christmas morning. I would guess it is more like 3%. But many millions attend some sort of religious Christmas service in the weeks leading up to it. This bit of the observance remains fairly strong, but should not be equated with committed faith. Equally, it is wrong to describe all these people as secular. People are complicated.
I would guess more than 10% attend at least one carol service, nativity play, midnight mass or Christmas morning service during the Christmas period
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Nah, Christmas is just a secular piss up and party holiday for most people. Nowt to do with God. I'd be stunned if more than 10% of people even attended midnight mass etc.
It doesn't matter if people celebrate it because of religion - it has the position it does in our society due to its religious significance. You can't say "no public displays of religion, please, except Christmas" because there is no coherent argument that can remove the significance we place in Christmas with the historical significance of Christianity to British culture.
Where I live all the pubs and bars close at 11 on the night before Good Friday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday as it’s a hangover (sorry) from more Christian times. Every year the spokesperson for the hospitality industry has a big whinge in the media about it saying it’s not fair that bars and clubs can’t be open late etc because it’s a period of public holidays.
What he clearly doesn’t get is that they wouldn’t be fucking bank holidays if it wasn’t for religion so it’s not entirely unfair that their should be a nod towards the more religious that it’s the most serious Christian holiday and so piss ups shouldn’t be the main priority.
He can’t see that they get a load of people out on the Thursday who are out because they have the day off the next day, people out lunching on the Friday because nobody is working and then people out all Sunday because they aren’t working on the Monday so getting loads more revenue thanks to the Christianity that he’s complaining about for cutting a couple of hours a night off .
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
There are many Xmas traditions, from different sources. But I’m not convinced by the argument that Xmas is “inherently secular”. There is a tradition of exaggerating its supposed pagan origins: e.g. see this video, https://youtu.be/mWgzjwy51kU
I'm pretty sure that Christmas in the UK is 99% a secular event (as defined by how many attend Christmas services at Church).
Which planet is this? In many villages and towns literally thousands pass through churches (and school halls and so on too) for nativity services, school Christmas services, carol services, all running from the end of November to Christmas. In my patch the local cattle mart is packed to the rafters for one such service. In one small city cathedral I know they have to run the same service four times in a row to fit all the people in. I agree with all the people who point out this isn't the same as Christian commitment, but neither is it secular.
I'm not sure, I go to several carol concerts each year and even sing in a choir at one of them but am an atheist. I just really like carols and Christmas, while not believing in God. I think there are a lot of people like me, also a lot of people who go because they're Christians, also a lot of people in various positions in between.
I believe that famous Christian Professor Richard Dawkins is rather fond of singing Christmas carols.
I can well believe it. Who doesn't love a lusty rendition of Hark the Herald?
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
Maybe so, but it was the nonsense focus on SUVs specifically that I was challenging.
(The Q5 is only an inch wider than the 5 series estate in any case)
Right, but compare to cars from a decade, two decades and three decades ago and you will see the difference plain as day.
So what though? That was never the point I was making. My point was the endless focus on SUVs specifically, when the truth is they often have smaller footprints than estates.
SUVs are more dangerous for pedestrians than "ordinary" cars, they are less fuel efficient (because they are heavier) and they cause greater wear on roads (again because they are heavier). They can be handy in rural locations where roads are poor, and generally empty, but in cities they are a menace with no redeeming features.
Heavier. Hmm.
The problem with the catch-all term SUV is, I think, the definition.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
Why not? 1 She's dumped him 2 He is heir to the throne 3 If they debag him (and thus his children) then the heir apparent is Harry which means 4 Queen Meghan
So yes, he has judged that he can do basically what the fuck he likes with minimal consequences.
No evidence for that at all and of course even if she did his children are Kate's too so George would still remain 2nd in line
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Along with inherited custom - such as Christmas and Easter holiday seasons, the two things which could unite rather than divide society are liberalism and humanism. You can be a secular or religious humanist, and a secular or religious liberal. Secular and religious people who are liberal and humanist tend to get on fine, even when bashing each other up in their free speech inspired arguments.
Sure, but then we need to accept that customs change over time and there is no problem with that. I'm not Muslim, but if I'm expected to see very obvious Christian stuff all the time, I have no issue also seeing obviously Muslim or Jewish or Hindu stuff. I just feel that if you're going to be outraged at a train station quoting a hadith you should also hate "Merry Christmas".
I think the two thinks are a bit different. If the station was simply saying Happy Eid or some such, thats different.
It's a pretty anodyne Hadith, exorting people who have wronged others to reflect and reform.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
Why not? 1 She's dumped him 2 He is heir to the throne 3 If they debag him (and thus his children) then the heir apparent is Harry which means 4 Queen Meghan
So yes, he has judged that he can do basically what the fuck he likes with minimal consequences.
No evidence for that at all and of course even if she did his children are Kate's too so George would still remain 2nd in line
Plenty of evidence - as the "truth" is so discredited you then have to start tugging at the edges to peer in.
As for William, lets play the scenario. If they remove him from the line of succession how can they keep in place the children spawned of that line?
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
There are many Xmas traditions, from different sources. But I’m not convinced by the argument that Xmas is “inherently secular”. There is a tradition of exaggerating its supposed pagan origins: e.g. see this video, https://youtu.be/mWgzjwy51kU
I'm pretty sure that Christmas in the UK is 99% a secular event (as defined by how many attend Christmas services at Church).
Which planet is this? In many villages and towns literally thousands pass through churches (and school halls and so on too) for nativity services, school Christmas services, carol services, all running from the end of November to Christmas. In my patch the local cattle mart is packed to the rafters for one such service. In one small city cathedral I know they have to run the same service four times in a row to fit all the people in. I agree with all the people who point out this isn't the same as Christian commitment, but neither is it secular.
I'm not sure, I go to several carol concerts each year and even sing in a choir at one of them but am an atheist. I just really like carols and Christmas, while not believing in God. I think there are a lot of people like me, also a lot of people who go because they're Christians, also a lot of people in various positions in between.
I believe that famous Christian Professor Richard Dawkins is rather fond of singing Christmas carols.
I can well believe it. Who doesn't love a lusty rendition of Hark the Herald?
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Nah, Christmas is just a secular piss up and party holiday for most people. Nowt to do with God. I'd be stunned if more than 10% of people even attended midnight mass etc.
It doesn't matter if people celebrate it because of religion - it has the position it does in our society due to its religious significance. You can't say "no public displays of religion, please, except Christmas" because there is no coherent argument that can remove the significance we place in Christmas with the historical significance of Christianity to British culture.
Where I live all the pubs and bars close at 11 on the night before Good Friday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday as it’s a hangover (sorry) from more Christian times. Every year the spokesperson for the hospitality industry has a big whinge in the media about it saying it’s not fair that bars and clubs can’t be open late etc because it’s a period of public holidays.
What he clearly doesn’t get is that they wouldn’t be fucking bank holidays if it wasn’t for religion so it’s not entirely unfair that their should be a nod towards the more religious that it’s the most serious Christian holiday and so piss ups shouldn’t be the main priority.
He can’t see that they get a load of people out on the Thursday who are out because they have the day off the next day, people out lunching on the Friday because nobody is working and then people out all Sunday because they aren’t working on the Monday so getting loads more revenue thanks to the Christianity that he’s complaining about for cutting a couple of hours a night off .
What a weird place you must live in. None of that nonsense here.
"David Lloyd George, former British Prime Minister, speaks in House of Commons: "Our help is always too late. Too late for Czechoslovakia, for Poland, now for Finland. We never save them.""
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Along with inherited custom - such as Christmas and Easter holiday seasons, the two things which could unite rather than divide society are liberalism and humanism. You can be a secular or religious humanist, and a secular or religious liberal. Secular and religious people who are liberal and humanist tend to get on fine, even when bashing each other up in their free speech inspired arguments.
Sure, but then we need to accept that customs change over time and there is no problem with that. I'm not Muslim, but if I'm expected to see very obvious Christian stuff all the time, I have no issue also seeing obviously Muslim or Jewish or Hindu stuff. I just feel that if you're going to be outraged at a train station quoting a hadith you should also hate "Merry Christmas".
Absolutely. I think this started at Kings Cross station, yards from where I once lived. Within a mile of that railway cathedral are quite a number of visible and obvious buildings called churches, impossible to avoid even to the eye that finds them offensive. I hope the snowflakes can cope with this.
Completely missing the point. As already discussed nobody is objecting to churches etc. The objection is to religious messages in non religious locations. Why the hell should a railway station be preaching religious messages to their customers.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Along with inherited custom - such as Christmas and Easter holiday seasons, the two things which could unite rather than divide society are liberalism and humanism. You can be a secular or religious humanist, and a secular or religious liberal. Secular and religious people who are liberal and humanist tend to get on fine, even when bashing each other up in their free speech inspired arguments.
Sure, but then we need to accept that customs change over time and there is no problem with that. I'm not Muslim, but if I'm expected to see very obvious Christian stuff all the time, I have no issue also seeing obviously Muslim or Jewish or Hindu stuff. I just feel that if you're going to be outraged at a train station quoting a hadith you should also hate "Merry Christmas".
I think the two thinks are a bit different. If the station was simply saying Happy Eid or some such, thats different.
It's a pretty anodyne Hadith, exorting people who have wronged others to reflect and reform.
It's not exactly a call to behead unbelievers!
Which considering the level of overcrowding on trains from Kings Cross is perhaps unfortunate.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Nah, Christmas is just a secular piss up and party holiday for most people. Nowt to do with God. I'd be stunned if more than 10% of people even attended midnight mass etc.
It doesn't matter if people celebrate it because of religion - it has the position it does in our society due to its religious significance. You can't say "no public displays of religion, please, except Christmas" because there is no coherent argument that can remove the significance we place in Christmas with the historical significance of Christianity to British culture.
Where I live all the pubs and bars close at 11 on the night before Good Friday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday as it’s a hangover (sorry) from more Christian times. Every year the spokesperson for the hospitality industry has a big whinge in the media about it saying it’s not fair that bars and clubs can’t be open late etc because it’s a period of public holidays.
What he clearly doesn’t get is that they wouldn’t be fucking bank holidays if it wasn’t for religion so it’s not entirely unfair that their should be a nod towards the more religious that it’s the most serious Christian holiday and so piss ups shouldn’t be the main priority.
He can’t see that they get a load of people out on the Thursday who are out because they have the day off the next day, people out lunching on the Friday because nobody is working and then people out all Sunday because they aren’t working on the Monday so getting loads more revenue thanks to the Christianity that he’s complaining about for cutting a couple of hours a night off .
In the Republic of Ireland Good Friday isn't even a Bank Holiday, because why should people get a day off work and enjoy themselves on what should be a day of penance? One of the more surprising details of life in Ireland.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
Why not? 1 She's dumped him 2 He is heir to the throne 3 If they debag him (and thus his children) then the heir apparent is Harry which means 4 Queen Meghan
So yes, he has judged that he can do basically what the fuck he likes with minimal consequences.
At this point the royals are just the kardashians. They should have their own reality tv programme and we should no longer fund them.
How much UK tax have you ever paid?
If he happens to be a Russian Oligarch enobled by Boris Johnson, I suspect he is exempt.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Along with inherited custom - such as Christmas and Easter holiday seasons, the two things which could unite rather than divide society are liberalism and humanism. You can be a secular or religious humanist, and a secular or religious liberal. Secular and religious people who are liberal and humanist tend to get on fine, even when bashing each other up in their free speech inspired arguments.
I'm a secular, liberal, atheist - no way am I a humanist!
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
Maybe so, but it was the nonsense focus on SUVs specifically that I was challenging.
(The Q5 is only an inch wider than the 5 series estate in any case)
Right, but compare to cars from a decade, two decades and three decades ago and you will see the difference plain as day.
So what though? That was never the point I was making. My point was the endless focus on SUVs specifically, when the truth is they often have smaller footprints than estates.
SUVs are more dangerous for pedestrians than "ordinary" cars, they are less fuel efficient (because they are heavier) and they cause greater wear on roads (again because they are heavier). They can be handy in rural locations where roads are poor, and generally empty, but in cities they are a menace with no redeeming features.
Heavier. Hmm.
The problem with the catch-all term SUV is, I think, the definition.
See below:
BMW 5 series estate 1,790 to 2,035 kg
Audi Q5 1,775 to 2,075 kg
Yes I am sure there are exceptions but SUVs generally are heavier than other types of car. And more dangerous to pedestrians. And take up more roadspace. And are less fuel efficient.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
Why not? 1 She's dumped him 2 He is heir to the throne 3 If they debag him (and thus his children) then the heir apparent is Harry which means 4 Queen Meghan
So yes, he has judged that he can do basically what the fuck he likes with minimal consequences.
Seems an awful stretch to that from one grainy video. Last time I heard on PB Meghan and Harry were about to divorce. Still waiting on that one.
It's obviously Will and Meghan in the video! Which also explains the animosity between the brothers.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
There are many Xmas traditions, from different sources. But I’m not convinced by the argument that Xmas is “inherently secular”. There is a tradition of exaggerating its supposed pagan origins: e.g. see this video, https://youtu.be/mWgzjwy51kU
I'm pretty sure that Christmas in the UK is 99% a secular event (as defined by how many attend Christmas services at Church).
Which planet is this? In many villages and towns literally thousands pass through churches (and school halls and so on too) for nativity services, school Christmas services, carol services, all running from the end of November to Christmas. In my patch the local cattle mart is packed to the rafters for one such service. In one small city cathedral I know they have to run the same service four times in a row to fit all the people in. I agree with all the people who point out this isn't the same as Christian commitment, but neither is it secular.
I'm not sure, I go to several carol concerts each year and even sing in a choir at one of them but am an atheist. I just really like carols and Christmas, while not believing in God. I think there are a lot of people like me, also a lot of people who go because they're Christians, also a lot of people in various positions in between.
I believe that famous Christian Professor Richard Dawkins is rather fond of singing Christmas carols.
I can well believe it. Who doesn't love a lusty rendition of Hark the Herald?
As Tim Minchin put it:
Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords But the lyrics are dodgy.
Fun fact: his wife Sam Taylor-Wood is 23 years his senior – and met him when he was 18.
I read this as Anya Taylor-Joy.
She'd be a much better Bond.
Why would you have a woman play a male character? Makes no sense.
It was all the rage in Shakespeare's time to have men play female characters!
AIUI it was the law; women were not allowed on the stage.
But as it happens, I don't think there should be a female James Bond. I wouldn't mind a black or asian JB; it's just that JB's entire backstory and character is very masculine. You'd be better off creating a new female character and series, perhaps even set in the same universe as JB/SIS.
That video in The Sun of Wills and "Kate". Erm, they do know that's his new gf don't they? Unless she has shot up in height and had significant plastic surgery...
Bullshit. Kate is 5 foot 9. How tall do you think the person in the video is? Bang on 5'9" I'd say.
William does seem to have a type, right enough. But that doesn't look like Kate to me.
Would he really be stupid enough to be out and about with another woman?
"David Lloyd George, former British Prime Minister, speaks in House of Commons: "Our help is always too late. Too late for Czechoslovakia, for Poland, now for Finland. We never save them.""
Just catching up on the SUV threadette. There is a lot of nonsense written on this topic because (I think??) people confuse the US idea of an SUV with our concept of it.
Someone earlier sought to compare our SUVs with estates (i.e. the modern incarnation of them). This is a great point, I think.
In many cases, the estates are larger.
BMW 5 series estate has a larger footprint than an Audi Q5, for example.
And the 7-seater (!) Audi Q7 is barely 10cm longer and wider.
Full disclosure, I'm an SUV driver. But there's a whiff of moral panic about them I think.
It's not the length, it's the width, and all modern cars have become a lot wider, not just SUVs.
Maybe so, but it was the nonsense focus on SUVs specifically that I was challenging.
(The Q5 is only an inch wider than the 5 series estate in any case)
Right, but compare to cars from a decade, two decades and three decades ago and you will see the difference plain as day.
So what though? That was never the point I was making. My point was the endless focus on SUVs specifically, when the truth is they often have smaller footprints than estates.
SUVs are more dangerous for pedestrians than "ordinary" cars, they are less fuel efficient (because they are heavier) and they cause greater wear on roads (again because they are heavier). They can be handy in rural locations where roads are poor, and generally empty, but in cities they are a menace with no redeeming features.
Heavier. Hmm.
The problem with the catch-all term SUV is, I think, the definition.
See below:
BMW 5 series estate 1,790 to 2,035 kg
Audi Q5 1,775 to 2,075 kg
Yes I am sure there are exceptions but SUVs generally are heavier than other types of car. And more dangerous to pedestrians. And take up more roadspace. And are less fuel efficient.
Well, as I say it depends on your definition of SUVs! Light trucks (sic) as @MattW notes are often called SUVs, it's become a catch-all term for "big cars that I don't approve of".
But, the Audi Q5 is pretty much a common-or-garden SUV and as I have shown is similar to a common-or-garden BMW 5 series estate in weight.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Nah, Christmas is just a secular piss up and party holiday for most people. Nowt to do with God. I'd be stunned if more than 10% of people even attended midnight mass etc.
It doesn't matter if people celebrate it because of religion - it has the position it does in our society due to its religious significance. You can't say "no public displays of religion, please, except Christmas" because there is no coherent argument that can remove the significance we place in Christmas with the historical significance of Christianity to British culture.
Where I live all the pubs and bars close at 11 on the night before Good Friday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday as it’s a hangover (sorry) from more Christian times. Every year the spokesperson for the hospitality industry has a big whinge in the media about it saying it’s not fair that bars and clubs can’t be open late etc because it’s a period of public holidays.
What he clearly doesn’t get is that they wouldn’t be fucking bank holidays if it wasn’t for religion so it’s not entirely unfair that their should be a nod towards the more religious that it’s the most serious Christian holiday and so piss ups shouldn’t be the main priority.
He can’t see that they get a load of people out on the Thursday who are out because they have the day off the next day, people out lunching on the Friday because nobody is working and then people out all Sunday because they aren’t working on the Monday so getting loads more revenue thanks to the Christianity that he’s complaining about for cutting a couple of hours a night off .
What a weird place you must live in. None of that nonsense here.
You must be a youngster. This used to be de rigeur. At least in Scotland. My dad used to live next door to a bar. I recall the time I was working on his place one Good Friday morning when some chaps came along to the bar and found it closed till 1230 pm much to their confusion - they still didn't get it even when I pointed out the date ...
"David Lloyd George, former British Prime Minister, speaks in House of Commons: "Our help is always too late. Too late for Czechoslovakia, for Poland, now for Finland. We never save them.""
Indeed. Putin looking very confident and chipper at present.
Which Putin?
Always rumours of Putin having a body double. Buth then social media rumours about Kate having a body double too. The world is a strange place and claims of one side to have moral superiority dont always stack up.
Fun fact: his wife Sam Taylor-Wood is 23 years his senior – and met him when he was 18.
I read this as Anya Taylor-Joy.
She'd be a much better Bond.
Why would you have a woman play a male character? Makes no sense.
It was all the rage in Shakespeare's time to have men play female characters!
AIUI it was the law; women were not allowed on the stage.
But as it happens, I don't think there should be a female James Bond. I wouldn't mind a black or asian JB; it's just that JB's entire backstory and character is very masculine. You'd be better off creating a new female character and series, perhaps even set in the same universe as JB/SIS.
OK. Keep Bond as a male character, but just have Anya Taylor-Joy playing him.
We get this sort of religious shit from tube station operatives quite frequently on their marker pen whiteboards. Usually Christian texts, occasionally something Buddhist, but frankly it’s the same stuff. When they’re not writing live-laugh-love type self help messages
I suspect Isam is fine with Christian texts.
I would not be.
Religion shouldn't be in public spaces.
Good luck with all that cathedral demolishing then...
I'm with Bart of this one. Happy with churches, etc for those that want them, but I don't want religion rammed down my throat in unrelated places.
Another person to join my "end public Christmas displays" club. I'm sure that the strength of your convictions will also apply to this religious holiday as well!
I have no problem with public Christmas displays. Just wondering what that has to do with religion?
Similarly Easter. I enjoy an Easter egg and hot cross bun like the next person as long as religion is not brought into it.
Christmas is inherently religious - just because people claim it is secular doesn't mean that is true or how people receive it.
No it's inherently secular.
You're just ignorant of the subject matter.
Our oldest Christmas traditions predate the birth of Christ. Our newest ones are from this century.
This is disingenuous. Christmas is the holiday it is because of Christianity; as is Easter. They are the significant religious holidays when it comes to dispensation from work and education and are often everywhere, in public and private settings. If you want to interpret it as secular, you can, but then others can interpret quotes from the Hadith or any generally woo quotes from religious or spiritual texts as secular.
Nah, Christmas is just a secular piss up and party holiday for most people. Nowt to do with God. I'd be stunned if more than 10% of people even attended midnight mass etc.
Nowhere near 10% of UK population attend services at midnight or on Christmas morning. I would guess it is more like 3%. But many millions attend some sort of religious Christmas service in the weeks leading up to it. This bit of the observance remains fairly strong, but should not be equated with committed faith. Equally, it is wrong to describe all these people as secular. People are complicated.
The importance of occasionally expressed possibly nominal faith, which still means something in a modern age, is an interesting phenomenon.
Christingle did not start until 1970, and now draws around 1 million people per annum (Childrens' Society numbers).
A similar point can be about "9 Lessons and Carols", normally seen as Carols from Kings, which is a recent creation. That was only devised by the first Bishop of Truro in 1880, so it's younger than the football league or Wimbledon.
Comments
That's one reason for Starmer to be relatively cautious about pre-election promises. Convincing the financial markets he's a safe pair of hands is arguably as important as convincing the voters.
A surprising number of people in the UK don’t realise that when the Americans talk about big vehicles they mean something about the size of a P1000.
Slightly annoyingly won't be able to remortgage will September or so due to ERC though at least my rates are low till next March.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson to be new James Bond?
Fun fact: his wife Sam Taylor-Wood is 23 years his senior – and met him when he was 18.
https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/2024/trump-vs-biden
This is looking painfully tight at the moment.
(The Q5 is only an inch wider than the 5 series estate in any case)
She'd be a much better Bond.
Compared to the local A&E the wait is a fraction (my arm-burn wait was 30-40 minutes), even though the local A&E on this side is well-regarded, but their usual system (they told me) now is phone up and pre-book for a bit later on. So for my burn it would be phone up whilst one arm is in the cold water in the sink.
I've been in the local A&E too, but that was a telephone insta-referral by a GP last summer, so I skipped most of the queue. I came out 3 weeks later
Biden's incredibly unpopular and people are in denial about it. The polling evidence is that Trump isn't going to have to steal this election because he's going to cruise to victory.
AP (via Seattle Times) - Supreme Court rejects appeal by former New Mexico county commissioner banned for Jan. 6 insurrection
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a former New Mexico county commissioner who was kicked out of office over his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Former Otero County commissioner Couy Griffin, a cowboy pastor who rode to national political fame by embracing then-President Donald Trump with a series of horseback caravans, is the only elected official thus far to be banned from office in connection with the Capitol attack, which disrupted Congress as it was trying to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over Trump.
At a 2022 trial in state district court, Griffin received the first disqualification from office in over a century under a provision of the 14th Amendment written to prevent former Confederates from serving in government after the Civil War.
Though the Supreme Court ruled this month that states don’t have the ability to bar Trump or other candidates for federal offices from the ballot, the justices said different rules apply to state and local candidates. . . .
The only time I have seen was when Bond-the-Abominable-Snowman escaped from North Korea.
But it is fair to say that Trump is currently doing much better than he was in either 2016 or 2020.
Bad enough on my humble pc, must be misery (and NOT the kind Brits love to hate) on a cellphone!
AP (via Seattle Times) - Supreme Court chief justice denies ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro’s bid to stave off prison sentence
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to halt a prison sentence for former Trump White House official Peter Navarro as he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction.
Navarro is due to report Tuesday to a federal prison for a four-month sentence, after being found guilty of misdemeanor charges for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He had asked to stay free while he appealed his conviction.
Navarro has maintained that he couldn’t cooperate with the committee because former President Donald Trump had invoked executive privilege. Lower courts have rejected that argument, finding he couldn’t prove Trump had actually invoked it.
The Monday order signed by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency applications from Washington, D.C., said he has “no basis to disagree” with the appeals court ruling, though he said the finding doesn’t affect the eventual outcome of Navarro’s appeal. . . .
1 She's dumped him
2 He is heir to the throne
3 If they debag him (and thus his children) then the heir apparent is Harry which means
4 Queen Meghan
So yes, he has judged that he can do basically what the fuck he likes with minimal consequences.
"David Lloyd George, former British Prime Minister, speaks in House of Commons: "Our help is always too late. Too late for Czechoslovakia, for Poland, now for Finland. We never save them.""
https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII/status/1770093061567103306
We must not be too late for Ukraine, again.
Assuming it was William, it could easily be their nanny etc.
The KSI numbers for people not in the SUV are quite frightening. A significant contribution to the 80% increase in pedestrian deaths on US roads from 2010 to 2021, aiui.
Ref:https://www.ghsa.org/resources/Pedestrians23
It's not an unknown problem. Here is a paper from 2005 from the NIH looking at the period 1980-2004 when light trucks increased in market share from 16% to 50%.
Light trucks have doubled their share of the vehicle fleet from 1980 to 2004. This paper examines the effects of this increase on traffic safety, combining estimates from a state-level panel data set with an accident-level micro data set. The results suggest that a one percentage point increase in light truck share raises annual traffic fatalities by 0.34 percent, or 143 deaths per year. Of this increase, approximately one-fifth accrue to the light trucks’ own occupants, and the remaining four-fifths accrue to the occupants of other vehicles and pedestrians. Using standard value of life figures, the implied Pigovian tax is approximately 3,850 dollars per light truck sold. Overall, light trucks pose a significant hazard to other users of the highway system but on average provide no additional protection to their own occupants.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2486272/
US road safety is now f*cked, and imo it's a type of curve (though not identical) we need to avoid.
There are other factors involved, such as US drivers being only half trained by Western European standards, road design about half-a-century behind, and others - but these type of vehicles make consequences of a collision worse each time.
The closest UK equivalent are probably the 6m long >1 tonne payload crew-cab trucks for which our government have just restored several k per annum tax breaks.
Your seem to be confusing someone saying 'Merry Christmas ' with a religious message. For some it might be, but for me and millions of others it has no religious significance whatsoever. It is just a greeting hence why I don't object to a Merry Christmas message but do to a religious message. Just because you believe it is religious doesn't mean for others it is.
What he clearly doesn’t get is that they wouldn’t be fucking bank holidays if it wasn’t for religion so it’s not entirely unfair that their should be a nod towards the more religious that it’s the most serious Christian holiday and so piss ups shouldn’t be the main priority.
He can’t see that they get a load of people out on the Thursday who are out because they have the day off the next day, people out lunching on the Friday because nobody is working and then people out all Sunday because they aren’t working on the Monday so getting loads more revenue thanks to the Christianity that he’s complaining about for cutting a couple of hours a night off .
The problem with the catch-all term SUV is, I think, the definition.
See below:
BMW 5 series estate
1,790 to 2,035 kg
Audi Q5
1,775 to 2,075 kg
It's not exactly a call to behead unbelievers!
As for William, lets play the scenario. If they remove him from the line of succession how can they keep in place the children spawned of that line?
Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords
But the lyrics are dodgy.
But as it happens, I don't think there should be a female James Bond. I wouldn't mind a black or asian JB; it's just that JB's entire backstory and character is very masculine. You'd be better off creating a new female character and series, perhaps even set in the same universe as JB/SIS.
But, the Audi Q5 is pretty much a common-or-garden SUV and as I have shown is similar to a common-or-garden BMW 5 series estate in weight.
So, the definition matters.
Christingle did not start until 1970, and now draws around 1 million people per annum (Childrens' Society numbers).
A similar point can be about "9 Lessons and Carols", normally seen as Carols from Kings, which is a recent creation. That was only devised by the first Bishop of Truro in 1880, so it's younger than the football league or Wimbledon.