Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
That’s bollocks. Look at some of the data from the Americas
Some of the native societies colonised by the Spanish declined by 90-95% - they were in essence wiped out
With all the workers dead - due to serfdom, disease, murder, famine - the Spanish and Portuguese had to import more. Hence, slavery. Worse than anything in your list
Disease likely did the majority of the killing. Population crash was of a similar magnitude in North America in the early colonial period (though more poorly documented).
Certainly a lot of disease, smallpox &c
However on various islands, especially, the Spanish basically destroyed whole populations with actual murder and brutal forced labour. Also in the mines of Bolivia
It’s one reason I am now obsessed with the Kogi people in this bit of Colombia. WHAT a survival. They only survived because they kept going higher and higher up these coastal mountains. Intriguingly, their first retreat from the coast occurred as “Colombia” was invaded by brutal colonisers (possibly cannibalistic) from the Caribbean - long before the Europeans showed up
The Rest is History did a fantastic eight-part series on the fall of the Aztecs and it really is an amazing time in history with extraordinary consequences.
Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
Errrrr: the Thirty Years Was absolutely hammered some parts of Germany.
ILLINOIS > Trump won 81% of statewide GOP primary vote, Haley 14%; she garnered 20% or more in following counties: Champaign (home of U of Illinois), DuPage (Chicago western suburbs, once THE banner GOP county in IL), Lake (Chicago north burbs), McLean (IL State U). > Biden won 91% of statewide Dem primary vote; note that his worst showing was in way-Downstate (closer to Memphis than Chicago in more ways than one) Pope Co, where Marianne Williamson got 23% (out of just 183 total cast in Dem primary).
OHIO > Trump won 79% of statewide GOP primary vote, Haley 14%; in the great Buckeye State she got 20% plus in following counties: Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Delaware (Columbus northern suburbs), Franklin (Columbus), Geauga (Columbus eastern burbs), Hamilton (Cincinnati). > Biden won 87% of Dem primary vote; best showings for Dean Phillips (only other name on ballot) were in four southeastern OH counties were he got 30% or better. > Trump-puppet Bernie Moreno won 50.5% of GOP primary vote for US Senate against two less-Putinist, more establishment (also visa-versa) opponents, thus setting up race against incumbent Democratic US Sen. Sherrod Brown who was unopposed in Dem primary.
He is far away the best leader in the HOC, notwithstanding the terrible state of the SNP
Stephen Flynn asked the Prime Minister: “With his backbenchers looking for a unity candidate to replace him, which of the now numerous, born-again Thatcherites on the Labour frontbench does he believe best fits the bill?”
Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
That’s bollocks. Look at some of the data from the Americas
Some of the native societies colonised by the Spanish declined by 90-95% - they were in essence wiped out
With all the workers dead - due to serfdom, disease, murder, famine - the Spanish and Portuguese had to import more. Hence, slavery. Worse than anything in your list
Disease likely did the majority of the killing. Population crash was of a similar magnitude in North America in the early colonial period (though more poorly documented).
Certainly a lot of disease, smallpox &c
However on various islands, especially, the Spanish basically destroyed whole populations with actual murder and brutal forced labour. Also in the mines of Bolivia
It’s one reason I am now obsessed with the Kogi people in this bit of Colombia. WHAT a survival. They only survived because they kept going higher and higher up these coastal mountains. Intriguingly, their first retreat from the coast occurred as “Colombia” was invaded by brutal colonisers (possibly cannibalistic) from the Caribbean - long before the Europeans showed up
The Rest is History did a fantastic eight-part series on the fall of the Aztecs and it really is an amazing time in history with extraordinary consequences.
Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
That’s bollocks. Look at some of the data from the Americas
Some of the native societies colonised by the Spanish declined by 90-95% - they were in essence wiped out
With all the workers dead - due to serfdom, disease, murder, famine - the Spanish and Portuguese had to import more. Hence, slavery. Worse than anything in your list
Disease likely did the majority of the killing. Population crash was of a similar magnitude in North America in the early colonial period (though more poorly documented).
Certainly a lot of disease, smallpox &c
However on various islands, especially, the Spanish basically destroyed whole populations with actual murder and brutal forced labour. Also in the mines of Bolivia
It’s one reason I am now obsessed with the Kogi people in this bit of Colombia. WHAT a survival. They only survived because they kept going higher and higher up these coastal mountains. Intriguingly, their first retreat from the coast occurred as “Colombia” was invaded by brutal colonisers (possibly cannibalistic) from the Caribbean - long before the Europeans showed up
The Rest is History did a fantastic eight-part series on the fall of the Aztecs and it really is an amazing time in history with extraordinary consequences.
My colleague is looking at holidays, looking back through emails I checked and 10 nights in Turkey back in September 2014 was £1119.84 for me and my better half.
My colleague has looked and informs me something broadly equivalent is over 3k.
Is there a suite of package holidays that has got much cheaper ? Because that's way above the relevant CPI time series.
Most of the time you will save a huge chunk of money (maybe £1000 in this case) and get something at least as good if you buy the components separately: low cost flight, hotel or flat on aggregator or hotel chain site, taxi transfers to airport, pay as you go for meals. Most tourist places have any number of companies offering organised activities if that's your thing.
Of course not everyone wants to do this kind of organisation but they are paying quite a bit for it. I don't think the tour companies are ripping you off necessarily but unbundling the package means you can get the best value on every component.
I'm not heading to Turkey or anywhere abroad this year with nursery fees rinsing me every month, but these factors wouldn't be different in 2014 compared to 2023. Maybe I just got a good offer that year.
Inflation in Turkey has been horrendous for years , ie over 80% so would expect that has caused a lot of it
@MarqueeMark it wouldn't surprise me if Totnes became a three-way marginal
Strictly speaking there isn’t going to be a Totnes constituency any more. It is being subsumed by South Devon. But Electoral Calculus agrees with you: 37% Cons, 32% Lab, 31% LibDem.
I’m in the neighbouring Newton Abbot constituency and under the boundary changes it is a lot more marginal. A quite plausible Lab GAIN. I’d be delighted to see Anne Morris get the boot.
Clearly a seat that needs a steer on tactical voting.
I don’t think the outcome of the general election is going to be determined by tactical voting. Tories lose, Labour win. More or less tactical voting may effect the majority, but polling doesn’t suggest that tactics voting is critical.
The extent of tactical voting is important only for those of us betting on LibDem seat numbers.
He was fun and interesting. Sure he was provocative and right wing and possibly pro-Putin (tho quite subtle about it) - I can see why his views might have outraged people, but then @148grss views are outrageous to me, but I don’t want him cancelled, quite the opposite
However I expect you have a solid moderators’ reason for cancelling him, and if so fair enuff
I didn't ban him, so I don't know.
An explanation would be nice, tho it is your site (etc etc)
I just want reassurance people aren’t being banned for provocative opinions. Naturally, I accept all the other reasons you might ban him - using the N and C words, non verified email, suspicious IP address and so forth
LOL
LOL LOL, you would have though ChatGP could have advised
@MarqueeMark it wouldn't surprise me if Totnes became a three-way marginal
Strictly speaking there isn’t going to be a Totnes constituency any more. It is being subsumed by South Devon. But Electoral Calculus agrees with you: 37% Cons, 32% Lab, 31% LibDem.
I’m in the neighbouring Newton Abbot constituency and under the boundary changes it is a lot more marginal. A quite plausible Lab GAIN. I’d be delighted to see Anne Morris get the boot.
Clearly a seat that needs a steer on tactical voting.
I don’t think the outcome of the general election is going to be determined by tactical voting. Tories lose, Labour win. More or less tactical voting may effect the majority, but polling doesn’t suggest that tactics voting is critical.
The extent of tactical voting is important only for those of us betting on LibDem seat numbers.
He was fun and interesting. Sure he was provocative and right wing and possibly pro-Putin (tho quite subtle about it) - I can see why his views might have outraged people, but then @148grss views are outrageous to me, but I don’t want him cancelled, quite the opposite
However I expect you have a solid moderators’ reason for cancelling him, and if so fair enuff
I didn't ban him, so I don't know.
An explanation would be nice, tho it is your site (etc etc)
I just want reassurance people aren’t being banned for provocative opinions. Naturally, I accept all the other reasons you might ban him - using the N and C words, non verified email, suspicious IP address and so forth
LOL
LOL LOL, you would have though ChatGP could have advised
@MarqueeMark it wouldn't surprise me if Totnes became a three-way marginal
Strictly speaking there isn’t going to be a Totnes constituency any more. It is being subsumed by South Devon. But Electoral Calculus agrees with you: 37% Cons, 32% Lab, 31% LibDem.
I’m in the neighbouring Newton Abbot constituency and under the boundary changes it is a lot more marginal. A quite plausible Lab GAIN. I’d be delighted to see Anne Morris get the boot.
Clearly a seat that needs a steer on tactical voting.
@MarqueeMark it wouldn't surprise me if Totnes became a three-way marginal
Strictly speaking there isn’t going to be a Totnes constituency any more. It is being subsumed by South Devon. But Electoral Calculus agrees with you: 37% Cons, 32% Lab, 31% LibDem.
I’m in the neighbouring Newton Abbot constituency and under the boundary changes it is a lot more marginal. A quite plausible Lab GAIN. I’d be delighted to see Anne Morris get the boot.
Clearly a seat that needs a steer on tactical voting.
I don’t think the outcome of the general election is going to be determined by tactical voting. Tories lose, Labour win. More or less tactical voting may effect the majority, but polling doesn’t suggest that tactics voting is critical.
The extent of tactical voting is important only for those of us betting on LibDem seat numbers.
He was fun and interesting. Sure he was provocative and right wing and possibly pro-Putin (tho quite subtle about it) - I can see why his views might have outraged people, but then @148grss views are outrageous to me, but I don’t want him cancelled, quite the opposite
However I expect you have a solid moderators’ reason for cancelling him, and if so fair enuff
I didn't ban him, so I don't know.
An explanation would be nice, tho it is your site (etc etc)
I just want reassurance people aren’t being banned for provocative opinions. Naturally, I accept all the other reasons you might ban him - using the N and C words, non verified email, suspicious IP address and so forth
LOL
LOL LOL, you would have though ChatGP could have advised
Indeed.
You really do think you’ve *rumbled* me, don’t you?
@MarqueeMark it wouldn't surprise me if Totnes became a three-way marginal
Strictly speaking there isn’t going to be a Totnes constituency any more. It is being subsumed by South Devon. But Electoral Calculus agrees with you: 37% Cons, 32% Lab, 31% LibDem.
I’m in the neighbouring Newton Abbot constituency and under the boundary changes it is a lot more marginal. A quite plausible Lab GAIN. I’d be delighted to see Anne Morris get the boot.
Clearly a seat that needs a steer on tactical voting.
I don’t think the outcome of the general election is going to be determined by tactical voting. Tories lose, Labour win. More or less tactical voting may effect the majority, but polling doesn’t suggest that tactics voting is critical.
The extent of tactical voting is important only for those of us betting on LibDem seat numbers.
He was fun and interesting. Sure he was provocative and right wing and possibly pro-Putin (tho quite subtle about it) - I can see why his views might have outraged people, but then @148grss views are outrageous to me, but I don’t want him cancelled, quite the opposite
However I expect you have a solid moderators’ reason for cancelling him, and if so fair enuff
I didn't ban him, so I don't know.
An explanation would be nice, tho it is your site (etc etc)
I just want reassurance people aren’t being banned for provocative opinions. Naturally, I accept all the other reasons you might ban him - using the N and C words, non verified email, suspicious IP address and so forth
LOL
LOL LOL, you would have though ChatGP could have advised
Indeed.
You really do think you’ve *rumbled* me, don’t you?
Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
That’s bollocks. Look at some of the data from the Americas
Some of the native societies colonised by the Spanish declined by 90-95% - they were in essence wiped out
With all the workers dead - due to serfdom, disease, murder, famine - the Spanish and Portuguese had to import more. Hence, slavery. Worse than anything in your list
Disease likely did the majority of the killing. Population crash was of a similar magnitude in North America in the early colonial period (though more poorly documented).
Certainly a lot of disease, smallpox &c
However on various islands, especially, the Spanish basically destroyed whole populations with actual murder and brutal forced labour. Also in the mines of Bolivia
It’s one reason I am now obsessed with the Kogi people in this bit of Colombia. WHAT a survival. They only survived because they kept going higher and higher up these coastal mountains. Intriguingly, their first retreat from the coast occurred as “Colombia” was invaded by brutal colonisers (possibly cannibalistic) from the Caribbean - long before the Europeans showed up
The Rest is History did a fantastic eight-part series on the fall of the Aztecs and it really is an amazing time in history with extraordinary consequences.
My colleague is looking at holidays, looking back through emails I checked and 10 nights in Turkey back in September 2014 was £1119.84 for me and my better half.
My colleague has looked and informs me something broadly equivalent is over 3k.
Is there a suite of package holidays that has got much cheaper ? Because that's way above the relevant CPI time series.
Most of the time you will save a huge chunk of money (maybe £1000 in this case) and get something at least as good if you buy the components separately: low cost flight, hotel or flat on aggregator or hotel chain site, taxi transfers to airport, pay as you go for meals. Most tourist places have any number of companies offering organised activities if that's your thing.
Of course not everyone wants to do this kind of organisation but they are paying quite a bit for it. I don't think the tour companies are ripping you off necessarily but unbundling the package means you can get the best value on every component.
I'm not heading to Turkey or anywhere abroad this year with nursery fees rinsing me every month, but these factors wouldn't be different in 2014 compared to 2023. Maybe I just got a good offer that year.
Inflation in Turkey has been horrendous for years , ie over 80% so would expect that has caused a lot of it
In Turkish lira maybe, but Sterling buys 12 times as many lira as it did back then.
Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
Errrrr: the Thirty Years Was absolutely hammered some parts of Germany.
We're talking about the "modern era" - 19thC onwards.
@MarqueeMark it wouldn't surprise me if Totnes became a three-way marginal
Strictly speaking there isn’t going to be a Totnes constituency any more. It is being subsumed by South Devon. But Electoral Calculus agrees with you: 37% Cons, 32% Lab, 31% LibDem.
I’m in the neighbouring Newton Abbot constituency and under the boundary changes it is a lot more marginal. A quite plausible Lab GAIN. I’d be delighted to see Anne Morris get the boot.
Clearly a seat that needs a steer on tactical voting.
I don’t think the outcome of the general election is going to be determined by tactical voting. Tories lose, Labour win. More or less tactical voting may effect the majority, but polling doesn’t suggest that tactics voting is critical.
The extent of tactical voting is important only for those of us betting on LibDem seat numbers.
He was fun and interesting. Sure he was provocative and right wing and possibly pro-Putin (tho quite subtle about it) - I can see why his views might have outraged people, but then @148grss views are outrageous to me, but I don’t want him cancelled, quite the opposite
However I expect you have a solid moderators’ reason for cancelling him, and if so fair enuff
I didn't ban him, so I don't know.
An explanation would be nice, tho it is your site (etc etc)
I just want reassurance people aren’t being banned for provocative opinions. Naturally, I accept all the other reasons you might ban him - using the N and C words, non verified email, suspicious IP address and so forth
LOL
LOL LOL, you would have though ChatGP could have advised
Indeed.
You really do think you’ve *rumbled* me, don’t you?
no idea what you're talking about mate
I’m flattered that you think I have time - while travelling around Colombia, writing for the Gazette, editing a flint, trying to find decent Malbec, driving 60km to the nearest ATM, taking ayahusaca, and urgently seeking out contacts amongst the famously insular Kogi people, last surviving remnant of all pre-Colombian civilisations - for detailed sock-puppetry
ILLINOIS > Trump won 81% of statewide GOP primary vote, Haley 14%; she garnered 20% or more in following counties: Champaign (home of U of Illinois), DuPage (Chicago western suburbs, once THE banner GOP county in IL), Lake (Chicago north burbs), McLean (IL State U). > Biden won 91% of statewide Dem primary vote; note that his worst showing was in way-Downstate (closer to Memphis than Chicago in more ways than one) Pope Co, where Marianne Williamson got 23% (out of just 183 total cast in Dem primary).
OHIO > Trump won 79% of statewide GOP primary vote, Haley 14%; in the great Buckeye State she got 20% plus in following counties: Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Delaware (Columbus northern suburbs), Franklin (Columbus), Geauga (Columbus eastern burbs), Hamilton (Cincinnati). > Biden won 87% of Dem primary vote; best showings for Dean Phillips (only other name on ballot) were in four southeastern OH counties were he got 30% or better. > Trump-puppet Bernie Moreno won 50.5% of GOP primary vote for US Senate against two less-Putinist, more establishment (also visa-versa) opponents, thus setting up race against incumbent Democratic US Sen. Sherrod Brown who was unopposed in Dem primary.
Do his numbers in Florida possibly put the state in play ?
Seems unlikely to me, but it's a closed primary, Haley has dropped out, and she still got votes amounting to nearly half his winning margin last time around.
@MarqueeMark it wouldn't surprise me if Totnes became a three-way marginal
Strictly speaking there isn’t going to be a Totnes constituency any more. It is being subsumed by South Devon. But Electoral Calculus agrees with you: 37% Cons, 32% Lab, 31% LibDem.
I’m in the neighbouring Newton Abbot constituency and under the boundary changes it is a lot more marginal. A quite plausible Lab GAIN. I’d be delighted to see Anne Morris get the boot.
Clearly a seat that needs a steer on tactical voting.
I don’t think the outcome of the general election is going to be determined by tactical voting. Tories lose, Labour win. More or less tactical voting may effect the majority, but polling doesn’t suggest that tactics voting is critical.
The extent of tactical voting is important only for those of us betting on LibDem seat numbers.
He was fun and interesting. Sure he was provocative and right wing and possibly pro-Putin (tho quite subtle about it) - I can see why his views might have outraged people, but then @148grss views are outrageous to me, but I don’t want him cancelled, quite the opposite
However I expect you have a solid moderators’ reason for cancelling him, and if so fair enuff
I didn't ban him, so I don't know.
An explanation would be nice, tho it is your site (etc etc)
I just want reassurance people aren’t being banned for provocative opinions. Naturally, I accept all the other reasons you might ban him - using the N and C words, non verified email, suspicious IP address and so forth
LOL
LOL LOL, you would have though ChatGP could have advised
Indeed.
You really do think you’ve *rumbled* me, don’t you?
no idea what you're talking about mate
LADY BRACKNELL. Dead! When did Mr. Bunbury die? His death must have been extremely sudden.
ALGERNON. [Airily.] Oh! I killed Bunbury this afternoon. I mean poor Bunbury died this afternoon.
LADY BRACKNELL. What did he die of?
ALGERNON. Bunbury? Oh, he was quite exploded.
LADY BRACKNELL. Exploded! Was he the victim of a revolutionary outrage? I was not aware that Mr. Bunbury was interested in social legislation. If so, he is well punished for his morbidity.
ALGERNON. My dear Aunt Augusta, I mean he was found out! The doctors found out that Bunbury could not live, that is what I mean - so Bunbury died.
@MarqueeMark it wouldn't surprise me if Totnes became a three-way marginal
Strictly speaking there isn’t going to be a Totnes constituency any more. It is being subsumed by South Devon. But Electoral Calculus agrees with you: 37% Cons, 32% Lab, 31% LibDem.
I’m in the neighbouring Newton Abbot constituency and under the boundary changes it is a lot more marginal. A quite plausible Lab GAIN. I’d be delighted to see Anne Morris get the boot.
Clearly a seat that needs a steer on tactical voting.
I don’t think the outcome of the general election is going to be determined by tactical voting. Tories lose, Labour win. More or less tactical voting may effect the majority, but polling doesn’t suggest that tactics voting is critical.
The extent of tactical voting is important only for those of us betting on LibDem seat numbers.
He was fun and interesting. Sure he was provocative and right wing and possibly pro-Putin (tho quite subtle about it) - I can see why his views might have outraged people, but then @148grss views are outrageous to me, but I don’t want him cancelled, quite the opposite
However I expect you have a solid moderators’ reason for cancelling him, and if so fair enuff
I didn't ban him, so I don't know.
An explanation would be nice, tho it is your site (etc etc)
I just want reassurance people aren’t being banned for provocative opinions. Naturally, I accept all the other reasons you might ban him - using the N and C words, non verified email, suspicious IP address and so forth
LOL
LOL LOL, you would have though ChatGP could have advised
Indeed.
You really do think you’ve *rumbled* me, don’t you?
no idea what you're talking about mate
I’m flattered that you think I have time - while travelling around Colombia, writing for the Gazette, editing a flint, trying to find decent Malbec, driving 60km to the nearest ATM, taking ayahusaca, and urgently seeking out contacts amongst the famously insular Kogi people, last surviving remnant of all pre-Colombian civilisations - for detailed sock-puppetry
@MarqueeMark it wouldn't surprise me if Totnes became a three-way marginal
Strictly speaking there isn’t going to be a Totnes constituency any more. It is being subsumed by South Devon. But Electoral Calculus agrees with you: 37% Cons, 32% Lab, 31% LibDem.
I’m in the neighbouring Newton Abbot constituency and under the boundary changes it is a lot more marginal. A quite plausible Lab GAIN. I’d be delighted to see Anne Morris get the boot.
Clearly a seat that needs a steer on tactical voting.
I don’t think the outcome of the general election is going to be determined by tactical voting. Tories lose, Labour win. More or less tactical voting may effect the majority, but polling doesn’t suggest that tactics voting is critical.
The extent of tactical voting is important only for those of us betting on LibDem seat numbers.
He was fun and interesting. Sure he was provocative and right wing and possibly pro-Putin (tho quite subtle about it) - I can see why his views might have outraged people, but then @148grss views are outrageous to me, but I don’t want him cancelled, quite the opposite
However I expect you have a solid moderators’ reason for cancelling him, and if so fair enuff
I didn't ban him, so I don't know.
An explanation would be nice, tho it is your site (etc etc)
I just want reassurance people aren’t being banned for provocative opinions. Naturally, I accept all the other reasons you might ban him - using the N and C words, non verified email, suspicious IP address and so forth
LOL
LOL LOL, you would have though ChatGP could have advised
Indeed.
You really do think you’ve *rumbled* me, don’t you?
no idea what you're talking about mate
I’m flattered that you think I have time - while travelling around Colombia, writing for the Gazette, editing a flint, trying to find decent Malbec, driving 60km to the nearest ATM, taking ayahusaca, and urgently seeking out contacts amongst the famously insular Kogi people, last surviving remnant of all pre-Colombian civilisations - for detailed sock-puppetry
TBF, you are the one who's spent the last year trying to persuade us of the AI productivity revolution.
@MarqueeMark it wouldn't surprise me if Totnes became a three-way marginal
Strictly speaking there isn’t going to be a Totnes constituency any more. It is being subsumed by South Devon. But Electoral Calculus agrees with you: 37% Cons, 32% Lab, 31% LibDem.
I’m in the neighbouring Newton Abbot constituency and under the boundary changes it is a lot more marginal. A quite plausible Lab GAIN. I’d be delighted to see Anne Morris get the boot.
Clearly a seat that needs a steer on tactical voting.
I don’t think the outcome of the general election is going to be determined by tactical voting. Tories lose, Labour win. More or less tactical voting may effect the majority, but polling doesn’t suggest that tactics voting is critical.
The extent of tactical voting is important only for those of us betting on LibDem seat numbers.
He was fun and interesting. Sure he was provocative and right wing and possibly pro-Putin (tho quite subtle about it) - I can see why his views might have outraged people, but then @148grss views are outrageous to me, but I don’t want him cancelled, quite the opposite
However I expect you have a solid moderators’ reason for cancelling him, and if so fair enuff
I didn't ban him, so I don't know.
An explanation would be nice, tho it is your site (etc etc)
I just want reassurance people aren’t being banned for provocative opinions. Naturally, I accept all the other reasons you might ban him - using the N and C words, non verified email, suspicious IP address and so forth
LOL
LOL LOL, you would have though ChatGP could have advised
Indeed.
You really do think you’ve *rumbled* me, don’t you?
no idea what you're talking about mate
I’m flattered that you think I have time - while travelling around Colombia, writing for the Gazette, editing a flint, trying to find decent Malbec, driving 60km to the nearest ATM, taking ayahusaca, and urgently seeking out contacts amongst the famously insular Kogi people, last surviving remnant of all pre-Colombian civilisations - for detailed sock-puppetry
Does one edit a flint?
For me a fine quartzite pleasure toy is a kind of poem, so: yes
FLORIDA > Trump won 81.2% of GOP primary vote in the great Sunshine State, compared with Haley 13.9% and Gov. DeSantis 3.7%; Trump's worst counties were Leon (Tallahassee = state capital & FL State U) where Haley 18% and DeSantis 7% (his best), Pinellas (Tampa) where Haley 19% vs DeSantis 5%, Alachua (Gainsville = U of FL) where Haley 17 vs DeSantis 5%, also Collier, Sarasota & Lee in southwest FL. >
The coldest summer in the last decade, 2015, had an average mean temperature of 15.3C, and was pretty close to the median of the Central England Temperature series (since 1659).
So, pretty much, every summer is now a hot summer.
ILLINOIS > Trump won 81% of statewide GOP primary vote, Haley 14%; she garnered 20% or more in following counties: Champaign (home of U of Illinois), DuPage (Chicago western suburbs, once THE banner GOP county in IL), Lake (Chicago north burbs), McLean (IL State U). > Biden won 91% of statewide Dem primary vote; note that his worst showing was in way-Downstate (closer to Memphis than Chicago in more ways than one) Pope Co, where Marianne Williamson got 23% (out of just 183 total cast in Dem primary).
OHIO > Trump won 79% of statewide GOP primary vote, Haley 14%; in the great Buckeye State she got 20% plus in following counties: Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Delaware (Columbus northern suburbs), Franklin (Columbus), Geauga (Columbus eastern burbs), Hamilton (Cincinnati). > Biden won 87% of Dem primary vote; best showings for Dean Phillips (only other name on ballot) were in four southeastern OH counties were he got 30% or better. > Trump-puppet Bernie Moreno won 50.5% of GOP primary vote for US Senate against two less-Putinist, more establishment (also visa-versa) opponents, thus setting up race against incumbent Democratic US Sen. Sherrod Brown who was unopposed in Dem primary.
Do his numbers in Florida possibly put the state in play ?
Seems unlikely to me, but it's a closed primary, Haley has dropped out, and she still got votes amounting to nearly half his winning margin last time around.
Doubt it. Yet hope DOES spring (how fitting today) eternal.
And this IS the great Sunshine State, where weirdness is as ingrained in local culture as snake farming and beach/swamp-front property scams.
Judge Scott McAfee issues certificate of immediate review, allowing Trump and seven co-defendants to seek appeal of order denying disqualification of Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis. https://twitter.com/AnnaBower/status/1770460202694754643
Judge Scott McAfee issues certificate of immediate review, allowing Trump and seven co-defendants to seek appeal of order denying disqualification of Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis. https://twitter.com/AnnaBower/status/1770460202694754643
So that's another trial that won't be completed before the election.
Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
That’s bollocks. Look at some of the data from the Americas
Some of the native societies colonised by the Spanish declined by 90-95% - they were in essence wiped out
With all the workers dead - due to serfdom, disease, murder, famine - the Spanish and Portuguese had to import more. Hence, slavery. Worse than anything in your list
Disease likely did the majority of the killing. Population crash was of a similar magnitude in North America in the early colonial period (though more poorly documented).
Certainly a lot of disease, smallpox &c
However on various islands, especially, the Spanish basically destroyed whole populations with actual murder and brutal forced labour. Also in the mines of Bolivia
It’s one reason I am now obsessed with the Kogi people in this bit of Colombia. WHAT a survival. They only survived because they kept going higher and higher up these coastal mountains. Intriguingly, their first retreat from the coast occurred as “Colombia” was invaded by brutal colonisers (possibly cannibalistic) from the Caribbean - long before the Europeans showed up
The Rest is History did a fantastic eight-part series on the fall of the Aztecs and it really is an amazing time in history with extraordinary consequences.
Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
That’s bollocks. Look at some of the data from the Americas
Some of the native societies colonised by the Spanish declined by 90-95% - they were in essence wiped out
With all the workers dead - due to serfdom, disease, murder, famine - the Spanish and Portuguese had to import more. Hence, slavery. Worse than anything in your list
Disease likely did the majority of the killing. Population crash was of a similar magnitude in North America in the early colonial period (though more poorly documented).
Certainly a lot of disease, smallpox &c
However on various islands, especially, the Spanish basically destroyed whole populations with actual murder and brutal forced labour. Also in the mines of Bolivia
It’s one reason I am now obsessed with the Kogi people in this bit of Colombia. WHAT a survival. They only survived because they kept going higher and higher up these coastal mountains. Intriguingly, their first retreat from the coast occurred as “Colombia” was invaded by brutal colonisers (possibly cannibalistic) from the Caribbean - long before the Europeans showed up
The Rest is History did a fantastic eight-part series on the fall of the Aztecs and it really is an amazing time in history with extraordinary consequences.
Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
That’s bollocks. Look at some of the data from the Americas
Some of the native societies colonised by the Spanish declined by 90-95% - they were in essence wiped out
With all the workers dead - due to serfdom, disease, murder, famine - the Spanish and Portuguese had to import more. Hence, slavery. Worse than anything in your list
Disease likely did the majority of the killing. Population crash was of a similar magnitude in North America in the early colonial period (though more poorly documented).
Certainly a lot of disease, smallpox &c
However on various islands, especially, the Spanish basically destroyed whole populations with actual murder and brutal forced labour. Also in the mines of Bolivia
It’s one reason I am now obsessed with the Kogi people in this bit of Colombia. WHAT a survival. They only survived because they kept going higher and higher up these coastal mountains. Intriguingly, their first retreat from the coast occurred as “Colombia” was invaded by brutal colonisers (possibly cannibalistic) from the Caribbean - long before the Europeans showed up
The Rest is History did a fantastic eight-part series on the fall of the Aztecs and it really is an amazing time in history with extraordinary consequences.
I've been watching the webcams at Alpe D'Huez where I'm off to a week on Sunday and the daily shrinkage of snowcover of the slopes is something to behold. The cool down and fresh snow this weekend and mid next week (the latter still a little in doubt) can't come soon enough.
The Lev Parnas testimony is not ideal for the GOP impeachment efforts.
https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1770464030538481707 "The American people have been lied to by Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and various cohorts of individuals in government and media positions. They created falsehoods to serve their own interests, knowing it would undermine the strength of our nation. From November 2018 to October 2019, I was a key participant and a witness to numerous efforts to prove that Joe and Hunter Biden were linked to corruption in Ukraine. Rudy Giuliani, on behalf of then President Donald Trump tasked me with a mission to travel the globe, finding dirt on the Bidens so that an array of networks could spread misinformation about them, thus securing the 2020 election for Donald Trump."
My original indictment linked me to an individual referred to as unindicted coconspirator . We know now this individual to be Congressman Pete Sessions who sits on this very committee https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1770464274151882774
Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
That’s bollocks. Look at some of the data from the Americas
Some of the native societies colonised by the Spanish declined by 90-95% - they were in essence wiped out
With all the workers dead - due to serfdom, disease, murder, famine - the Spanish and Portuguese had to import more. Hence, slavery. Worse than anything in your list
Disease likely did the majority of the killing. Population crash was of a similar magnitude in North America in the early colonial period (though more poorly documented).
Certainly a lot of disease, smallpox &c
However on various islands, especially, the Spanish basically destroyed whole populations with actual murder and brutal forced labour. Also in the mines of Bolivia
It’s one reason I am now obsessed with the Kogi people in this bit of Colombia. WHAT a survival. They only survived because they kept going higher and higher up these coastal mountains. Intriguingly, their first retreat from the coast occurred as “Colombia” was invaded by brutal colonisers (possibly cannibalistic) from the Caribbean - long before the Europeans showed up
The Rest is History did a fantastic eight-part series on the fall of the Aztecs and it really is an amazing time in history with extraordinary consequences.
Why is this house weirdly and poetically symbolic in the story of the Americas
(This is honestly a good one: an amazing story)
Nothing but white space in your post? Got to be the White House in a snowstorm. After it was burnt by the Brits and became the Blackened House first.
Now edited
There are actually enough clues in that photo for a really smart person - who knows their history - to make an educated guess
Simon Bolivar?
No, much much weirder than that
OK some more clues, the house is not in the New World - as you can see from the roof and the vegetation, it is surely Meditteranean. You can now guess where. So how would it have an imperiously weird link with the story of the Americas?
Judge Scott McAfee issues certificate of immediate review, allowing Trump and seven co-defendants to seek appeal of order denying disqualification of Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis. https://twitter.com/AnnaBower/status/1770460202694754643
So that's another trial that won't be completed before the election.
NOT necessarily methinks - suggest reading actual ruling for quasi-clarification.
Judge Scott McAfee issues certificate of immediate review, allowing Trump and seven co-defendants to seek appeal of order denying disqualification of Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis. https://twitter.com/AnnaBower/status/1770460202694754643
So that's another trial that won't be completed before the election.
Depends how long the appeal takes, by September the loans trial and classified docs trial and maybe even the DC insurrection trial may be underway or finished if SC confirms he has no immunity for latter when he was President
My colleague is looking at holidays, looking back through emails I checked and 10 nights in Turkey back in September 2014 was £1119.84 for me and my better half.
My colleague has looked and informs me something broadly equivalent is over 3k.
Is there a suite of package holidays that has got much cheaper ? Because that's way above the relevant CPI time series.
Most of the time you will save a huge chunk of money (maybe £1000 in this case) and get something at least as good if you buy the components separately: low cost flight, hotel or flat on aggregator or hotel chain site, taxi transfers to airport, pay as you go for meals. Most tourist places have any number of companies offering organised activities if that's your thing.
Of course not everyone wants to do this kind of organisation but they are paying quite a bit for it. I don't think the tour companies are ripping you off necessarily but unbundling the package means you can get the best value on every component.
I'm not heading to Turkey or anywhere abroad this year with nursery fees rinsing me every month, but these factors wouldn't be different in 2014 compared to 2023. Maybe I just got a good offer that year.
They might be different. Effectively it's the difference between paying spot versus retail. Sometimes it pays off; sometimes it doesn't. More often than not, it does because the choice is a lot bigger.
Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
That’s bollocks. Look at some of the data from the Americas
Some of the native societies colonised by the Spanish declined by 90-95% - they were in essence wiped out
With all the workers dead - due to serfdom, disease, murder, famine - the Spanish and Portuguese had to import more. Hence, slavery. Worse than anything in your list
Disease likely did the majority of the killing. Population crash was of a similar magnitude in North America in the early colonial period (though more poorly documented).
Certainly a lot of disease, smallpox &c
However on various islands, especially, the Spanish basically destroyed whole populations with actual murder and brutal forced labour. Also in the mines of Bolivia
It’s one reason I am now obsessed with the Kogi people in this bit of Colombia. WHAT a survival. They only survived because they kept going higher and higher up these coastal mountains. Intriguingly, their first retreat from the coast occurred as “Colombia” was invaded by brutal colonisers (possibly cannibalistic) from the Caribbean - long before the Europeans showed up
The Rest is History did a fantastic eight-part series on the fall of the Aztecs and it really is an amazing time in history with extraordinary consequences.
Judge Scott McAfee issues certificate of immediate review, allowing Trump and seven co-defendants to seek appeal of order denying disqualification of Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis. https://twitter.com/AnnaBower/status/1770460202694754643
So that's another trial that won't be completed before the election.
Depends how long the appeal takes, by September the loans trial and classified docs trial and maybe even the DC insurrection trial may be underway or finished if SC confirms he has no immunity for latter when he was President
The appeal court doesn't need to take the appeal, though. It might take a lot of time, or very little.
Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
That’s bollocks. Look at some of the data from the Americas
Some of the native societies colonised by the Spanish declined by 90-95% - they were in essence wiped out
With all the workers dead - due to serfdom, disease, murder, famine - the Spanish and Portuguese had to import more. Hence, slavery. Worse than anything in your list
Disease likely did the majority of the killing. Population crash was of a similar magnitude in North America in the early colonial period (though more poorly documented).
Certainly a lot of disease, smallpox &c
However on various islands, especially, the Spanish basically destroyed whole populations with actual murder and brutal forced labour. Also in the mines of Bolivia
It’s one reason I am now obsessed with the Kogi people in this bit of Colombia. WHAT a survival. They only survived because they kept going higher and higher up these coastal mountains. Intriguingly, their first retreat from the coast occurred as “Colombia” was invaded by brutal colonisers (possibly cannibalistic) from the Caribbean - long before the Europeans showed up
The Rest is History did a fantastic eight-part series on the fall of the Aztecs and it really is an amazing time in history with extraordinary consequences.
Why is this house weirdly and poetically symbolic in the story of the Americas
(This is honestly a good one: an amazing story)
The building is clearly Spanish / Catalan rather than in the Americas.
Is this the tale of Moctezuma's daughter?
Brilliant, SI, this is her house
For those that don’t know the story, we are talking about the third (?) daughter of Emperor Moctezuma II, Princess Xipaguacin Moctezuma, who married conquistador Juan de Grau, Baron of Toleriu - who took her home to Spain as his wife. That is their house in Toleriu, in the Catalan Pyrenees, now a ruin used by cows. I tracked it down and research it all, and photographed the house in 2014.
Xipaguacin died in that house in Toleriu in 1537, supposedly heartbroken and yearning for home
Imagine her journey. She would have grown up in the imperial Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, watching her emperor father preside over all the great Aztec rituals, the piercing of the noble penises, the flaying of the foreign warriors, the parades of condemned prisoners being dragged up the sunburnt pyramids to have their beating hearts torn out by priests wearing human skin as suits and with the aristocrats watching on, adorned with jade and pearls and shimmering blue quetzal feathers…
… and she ended her days making cheese in the kitchen of that house in Spain watching over the sheep in the Pyrenean drizzle, shouting at the neighbours…
Sadly the stories of a great treasure buried in the area are probably untrue, though many have come looking
Judge Scott McAfee issues certificate of immediate review, allowing Trump and seven co-defendants to seek appeal of order denying disqualification of Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis. https://twitter.com/AnnaBower/status/1770460202694754643
So that's another trial that won't be completed before the election.
NOT necessarily methinks - suggest reading actual ruling for quasi-clarification.
So they can still deal with other pre-trial stuff but I very much doubt that the case will be able to proceed to trial until the appeal has been determined in which event its slot in the court diary is likely to be lost.
Sub 60 looks like a distinct possibility. Tories staying home due to anger/despair/fatigue, Labour not as inspiring as 97, and a drop of 8% looks easy enough.
Voter ID I'm not sure will have a huge effect, but I'd think a depression of 1-2% from that is not an unreasonable prediction. I always felt it would hit the older cohort hardest, people who have voted for decades and just plain forget to change habit for the new rules.
I'm told by contacts in Elections things haven't gone too badly with the new rules in many places, but there's no test so big as a GE.
May I just say, if you choose *not* to vote you should lose your right to vote, ever again. Living in a democracy, as we (still) do, means individuals ought to respect their right to vote. If you cannae be arsed going to a Polling Station because Weather, get a postal vote.
@MarqueeMark it wouldn't surprise me if Totnes became a three-way marginal
Strictly speaking there isn’t going to be a Totnes constituency any more. It is being subsumed by South Devon. But Electoral Calculus agrees with you: 37% Cons, 32% Lab, 31% LibDem.
I’m in the neighbouring Newton Abbot constituency and under the boundary changes it is a lot more marginal. A quite plausible Lab GAIN. I’d be delighted to see Anne Morris get the boot.
Clearly a seat that needs a steer on tactical voting.
I don’t think the outcome of the general election is going to be determined by tactical voting. Tories lose, Labour win. More or less tactical voting may effect the majority, but polling doesn’t suggest that tactics voting is critical.
The extent of tactical voting is important only for those of us betting on LibDem seat numbers.
He was fun and interesting. Sure he was provocative and right wing and possibly pro-Putin (tho quite subtle about it) - I can see why his views might have outraged people, but then @148grss views are outrageous to me, but I don’t want him cancelled, quite the opposite
However I expect you have a solid moderators’ reason for cancelling him, and if so fair enuff
I didn't ban him, so I don't know.
An explanation would be nice, tho it is your site (etc etc)
I just want reassurance people aren’t being banned for provocative opinions. Naturally, I accept all the other reasons you might ban him - using the N and C words, non verified email, suspicious IP address and so forth
LOL
LOL LOL, you would have though ChatGP could have advised
Indeed.
You really do think you’ve *rumbled* me, don’t you?
no idea what you're talking about mate
I’m flattered that you think I have time - while travelling around Colombia, writing for the Gazette, editing a flint, trying to find decent Malbec, driving 60km to the nearest ATM, taking ayahusaca, and urgently seeking out contacts amongst the famously insular Kogi people, last surviving remnant of all pre-Colombian civilisations - for detailed sock-puppetry
Here, in a jungly guest house on the Caribbean coast in Palomino, Colombia, there is modest rejoicing
Varadkar is an odious, Anglophobic Woke twat
If any people have a right to hate the UK / Britain / England - it's the Irish. I can't even be bothered to go into the conversation as to whether or not Varadkar is Anglophobic or not; I am willing to defend the proposition that Irish people are allowed to hold nothing but disdain for the UK Government, the monarchy, and even its peoples, based on the long and bloody history of violence enacted on the Irish and the island of Ireland throughout the last half century going up to disgusting crimes committed within many of our life times.
The colonial wars, the genocide, the occupations, the use of sectarian divisions, the war crimes etc. etc. And like it's hard to even be like "pffft, the past is in the past" when that only really stopped in the 90s. Barely a generation ago.
Barely a generation ago the Irish were slaughtering British civilians on the streets of London. I know this because I actually SAW one bomb go off
Otherwise, good point
As ever republic apologists just ignore the grim details. Irish republicans have killed more Irish Catholics than anyone else. Though laundries run by nuns give them a run for their money.
The potato famine killed maybe a million. That beats your examples.
I once read the Atlas of World Population History, in the reference section of my local library. It graphed, over time, the population of modern-day countries. The only population falls comparable to the Black Death, or a visit from Genghis Khan or Timberlane, were Ireland in the 1840s and Poland 1939-1946.
That’s bollocks. Look at some of the data from the Americas
Some of the native societies colonised by the Spanish declined by 90-95% - they were in essence wiped out
With all the workers dead - due to serfdom, disease, murder, famine - the Spanish and Portuguese had to import more. Hence, slavery. Worse than anything in your list
Disease likely did the majority of the killing. Population crash was of a similar magnitude in North America in the early colonial period (though more poorly documented).
Certainly a lot of disease, smallpox &c
However on various islands, especially, the Spanish basically destroyed whole populations with actual murder and brutal forced labour. Also in the mines of Bolivia
It’s one reason I am now obsessed with the Kogi people in this bit of Colombia. WHAT a survival. They only survived because they kept going higher and higher up these coastal mountains. Intriguingly, their first retreat from the coast occurred as “Colombia” was invaded by brutal colonisers (possibly cannibalistic) from the Caribbean - long before the Europeans showed up
The Rest is History did a fantastic eight-part series on the fall of the Aztecs and it really is an amazing time in history with extraordinary consequences.
Why is this house weirdly and poetically symbolic in the story of the Americas
(This is honestly a good one: an amazing story)
Nothing but white space in your post? Got to be the White House in a snowstorm. After it was burnt by the Brits and became the Blackened House first.
Now edited
There are actually enough clues in that photo for a really smart person - who knows their history - to make an educated guess
Simon Bolivar?
No, much much weirder than that
OK some more clues, the house is not in the New World - as you can see from the roof and the vegetation, it is surely Meditteranean. You can now guess where. So how would it have an imperiously weird link with the story of the Americas?
I'll go with the birthplace of Hernan Cortez, in Medellin, Castille
My colleague is looking at holidays, looking back through emails I checked and 10 nights in Turkey back in September 2014 was £1119.84 for me and my better half.
My colleague has looked and informs me something broadly equivalent is over 3k.
Is there a suite of package holidays that has got much cheaper ? Because that's way above the relevant CPI time series.
Most of the time you will save a huge chunk of money (maybe £1000 in this case) and get something at least as good if you buy the components separately: low cost flight, hotel or flat on aggregator or hotel chain site, taxi transfers to airport, pay as you go for meals. Most tourist places have any number of companies offering organised activities if that's your thing.
Of course not everyone wants to do this kind of organisation but they are paying quite a bit for it. I don't think the tour companies are ripping you off necessarily but unbundling the package means you can get the best value on every component.
I'm not heading to Turkey or anywhere abroad this year with nursery fees rinsing me every month, but these factors wouldn't be different in 2014 compared to 2023. Maybe I just got a good offer that year.
Inflation in Turkey has been horrendous for years , ie over 80% so would expect that has caused a lot of it
In Turkish lira maybe, but Sterling buys 12 times as many lira as it did back then.
yes, but at those rates you can be sure padding will hav ebeen added etc to prices and especially to foreign visitor costs
As it says in the article, we were due to be the second constituency doing it, but the process is on the edge of collapse, Labour having refused to participate (as in Devon) and the LibDems pulling out, supposedly on HQ advice, at the last minute. The alternative process referred to in the article is likely to be a rather desperate last minute online poll, based on little more than party allegiance, followed up by an email with the outcome. Whether this has any significant effect remains to be seen. But in any event with Labour refusing to participate, this revolutionary ‘new politics’ isn’t likely to be going anywhere (sadly).
So the article is "be afraid Tories, change is coming" but it isn't because it is another half baked scheme dreamed up by centrist Dad types who think progressive is anything they believe in. What a load of crap.
It is like "vote Swapping", pioneered by the Guardian a few years back, and other so called initiatives. The wet dream of political obsessives and why on earth would Labour waste their time participating. They are poised to win a landslide.
Also this statement in the article is a massive assumption too. "But cooperation among progressive parties could have averted all eight Conservative majority governments bar 2015." Why assume votes for 1 non Tory party are internchangeable with another non Tory Party. I vote Labour. I would not vote Green or Lib Dem irrespective. Not that I vote anymore. But when I did.
Vote swapping goes back a long way.
It was done in a number of local areas in the 1997 election. For example Ed Davey's supporters in Kingston & Surbiton had a deal with I think another local Constituency to swap votes with the Labour Candidate there.
Ed Davey in 1997 turned a majority of 250 or so into a majority of ~16,000 iirc. This may have been part of that. One issue was that Labour did well enough to not need LD support afterwards, so LD leverage was lost, especially (imo) as Blair moved into his authoritarian phase.
No one has ever told how effective such things were - but perhaps OGH and Mark Pack have a decent idea, which I'm not aware either of them have ever written about. Maybe Ryan Cullen (LDV founder now in the Newark area, in short trousers in 1997) may know something (!). Or Lord Bonkers.
At the time it was was partly around "Hmmm. What can we do with the internet in politics?" And partly about visceral opposition to contemporaneous Tories.
When Blair became leader, there was significant co-operation including swapping information on target seats. Later on, Neal Lawson told of a meeting in a pub in Victoria where bits of paper were swapped.
A significant part of this was that information was fed to the Mirror during the campaign. Their subsequent recommendations on tactical voting meant that we won 20 out of our 22 targets.
There was also a lot of parliamentary co-operation between the two parties on policy, the most open being the Cook Maclennan talks on constitutional reform.
There was comparison to 2019 where virtually no tactical voting took place. If Labour voters are going to vote Lib Dem an vice versa, they need to like each other’s leader and have a relatively positive view of what they are saying.
Comments
Why is this house weirdly and poetically symbolic in the story of the Americas
(This is honestly a good one: an amazing story)
ILLINOIS
> Trump won 81% of statewide GOP primary vote, Haley 14%; she garnered 20% or more in following counties: Champaign (home of U of Illinois), DuPage (Chicago western suburbs, once THE banner GOP county in IL), Lake (Chicago north burbs), McLean (IL State U).
> Biden won 91% of statewide Dem primary vote; note that his worst showing was in way-Downstate (closer to Memphis than Chicago in more ways than one) Pope Co, where Marianne Williamson got 23% (out of just 183 total cast in Dem primary).
OHIO
> Trump won 79% of statewide GOP primary vote, Haley 14%; in the great Buckeye State she got 20% plus in following counties: Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Delaware (Columbus northern suburbs), Franklin (Columbus), Geauga (Columbus eastern burbs), Hamilton (Cincinnati).
> Biden won 87% of Dem primary vote; best showings for Dean Phillips (only other name on ballot) were in four southeastern OH counties were he got 30% or better.
> Trump-puppet Bernie Moreno won 50.5% of GOP primary vote for US Senate against two less-Putinist, more establishment (also visa-versa) opponents, thus setting up race against incumbent Democratic US Sen. Sherrod Brown who was unopposed in Dem primary.
Video courtesy of the BBC. Note Rishi is not the only one laughing.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-68615801
There are actually enough clues in that photo for a really smart person - who knows their history - to make an educated guess
'South Devon primary Cutting Through'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApcdKoSgrb0
Lib Dems way ahead apparently.
https://i0.wp.com/wingsoverscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_0008-1.jpeg?ssl=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_squirrel
Seems unlikely to me, but it's a closed primary, Haley has dropped out, and she still got votes amounting to nearly half his winning margin last time around.
ALGERNON. [Airily.] Oh! I killed Bunbury this afternoon. I mean poor Bunbury died this afternoon.
LADY BRACKNELL. What did he die of?
ALGERNON. Bunbury? Oh, he was quite exploded.
LADY BRACKNELL. Exploded! Was he the victim of a revolutionary outrage? I was not aware that Mr. Bunbury was interested in social legislation. If so, he is well punished for his morbidity.
ALGERNON. My dear Aunt Augusta, I mean he was found out! The doctors found out that Bunbury could not live, that is what I mean - so Bunbury died.
I’ll give you a clue. It plays a magnificently indeed imperiously weird role in the history of the Americas
Also, look at the roof
FLORIDA
> Trump won 81.2% of GOP primary vote in the great Sunshine State, compared with Haley 13.9% and Gov. DeSantis 3.7%; Trump's worst counties were Leon (Tallahassee = state capital & FL State U) where Haley 18% and DeSantis 7% (his best), Pinellas (Tampa) where Haley 19% vs DeSantis 5%, Alachua (Gainsville = U of FL) where Haley 17 vs DeSantis 5%, also Collier, Sarasota & Lee in southwest FL.
>
Rishi 1-0 European Super League.
Quite possibly the worst political ad I have ever seen
So, pretty much, every summer is now a hot summer.
And this IS the great Sunshine State, where weirdness is as ingrained in local culture as snake farming and beach/swamp-front property scams.
https://twitter.com/AnnaBower/status/1770460202694754643
We need a dry warm spell to dry things out.
https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1770464030538481707
"The American people have been lied to by Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and various cohorts of individuals in government and media positions. They created falsehoods to serve their own interests, knowing it would undermine the strength of our nation. From November 2018 to October 2019, I was a key participant and a witness to numerous efforts to prove that Joe and Hunter Biden were linked to corruption in Ukraine. Rudy Giuliani, on behalf of then President Donald Trump tasked me with a mission to travel the globe, finding dirt on the Bidens so that an array of networks could spread misinformation about them, thus securing the 2020 election for Donald Trump."
My original indictment linked me to an individual referred to as unindicted coconspirator . We know now this individual to be Congressman Pete Sessions who sits on this very committee
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1770464274151882774
Awks.
OK some more clues, the house is not in the New World - as you can see from the roof and the vegetation, it is surely Meditteranean. You can now guess where. So how would it have an imperiously weird link with the story of the Americas?
Is this the tale of Moctezuma's daughter?
THE BRITISH RIGHT’S FAVORITE SEX OFFENDER
What does a conservative magazine do when a columnist is convicted of attempted rape?
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/03/panagiotis-taki-theodoracopulos-britain-right-sex-offender/677807/
It might take a lot of time, or very little.
For those that don’t know the story, we are talking about the third (?) daughter of Emperor Moctezuma II, Princess Xipaguacin Moctezuma, who married conquistador Juan de Grau, Baron of Toleriu - who took her home to Spain as his wife. That is their house in Toleriu, in the Catalan Pyrenees, now a ruin used by cows. I tracked it down and research it all, and photographed the house in 2014.
Xipaguacin died in that house in Toleriu in 1537, supposedly heartbroken and yearning for home
Imagine her journey. She would have grown up in the imperial Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, watching her emperor father preside over all the great Aztec rituals, the piercing of the noble penises, the flaying of the foreign warriors, the parades of condemned prisoners being dragged up the sunburnt pyramids to have their beating hearts torn out by priests wearing human skin as suits and with the aristocrats watching on, adorned with jade and pearls and shimmering blue quetzal feathers…
… and she ended her days making cheese in the kitchen of that house in Spain watching over the sheep in the Pyrenean drizzle, shouting at the neighbours…
Sadly the stories of a great treasure buried in the area are probably untrue, though many have come looking
NEW THREAD
It was done in a number of local areas in the 1997 election. For example Ed Davey's supporters in Kingston & Surbiton had a deal with I think another local Constituency to swap votes with the Labour Candidate there.
Ed Davey in 1997 turned a majority of 250 or so into a majority of ~16,000 iirc. This may have been part of that. One issue was that Labour did well enough to not need LD support afterwards, so LD leverage was lost, especially (imo) as Blair moved into his authoritarian phase.
No one has ever told how effective such things were - but perhaps OGH and Mark Pack have a decent idea, which I'm not aware either of them have ever written about. Maybe Ryan Cullen (LDV founder now in the Newark area, in short trousers in 1997) may know something (!). Or Lord Bonkers.
At the time it was was partly around "Hmmm. What can we do with the internet in politics?" And partly about visceral opposition to contemporaneous Tories.
There is a summary Lib Dem Voice and Compass podcast from 2022 by Caron Lindsay here, with some interesting comments from people involved:
https://www.libdemvoice.org/lessons-from-97-lib-demlabour-cooperation-compassslf-podcast-69760.html
Compass "It's bloody complicated" Podcasts are here, but the interface to find anything is diabolical. We are after early 2022.
https://www.compassonline.org.uk/podcast/listen/
When Blair became leader, there was significant co-operation including swapping information on target seats. Later on, Neal Lawson told of a meeting in a pub in Victoria where bits of paper were swapped.
A significant part of this was that information was fed to the Mirror during the campaign. Their subsequent recommendations on tactical voting meant that we won 20 out of our 22 targets.
There was also a lot of parliamentary co-operation between the two parties on policy, the most open being the Cook Maclennan talks on constitutional reform.
There was comparison to 2019 where virtually no tactical voting took place. If Labour voters are going to vote Lib Dem an vice versa, they need to like each other’s leader and have a relatively positive view of what they are saying.