"When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of 'bringing red cows' to the Holy Land.
The cows he was talking about are red heifers, which now graze at a secure, undisclosed location in the Israeli-occupied West Bank."
[...]
"A massive white altar awaits, where they are to be burned on a plot of land overlooking the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Mamo said the ceremony must be performed looking directly into where the ancient Second Temple stood, until it was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70."
The Tories will absolutely go into opposition and some point back PR and I expect reversing Brexit too
I dont see either Tories or Labour backing PR. The system works in their favour as it is.
I strongly disagree. At some point we will have PR.
Why do you think that? FPTP suits the two dominant parties. Also the country rejected a change to a form of PR last time the question was asked.
The country never got offered PR and anyhow it was a different time.
It will not suit them in time and then PR will come in. Maybe even this time if Labour have to negotiate with the Lib Dems
PR would benefit Galloway and Farage rather than the Lib Dems. The ideas that it would mean permanent sensible supremacy is a centrist delusion.
Isn't the point of democracy that people should get what they vote for ?
The rest of it is your delusion about what sensible centrists think.
Would you be supportive of a referendum on the ECHR or the death penalty?
People who want to leave the ECHR, restore the death penalty, reintroduce trial by ordeal or whatever can stick it in a manifesto and stand for parliament.
One option would to make ECHR an opt in / opt out, like organ donation. Those who would like to be covered by the European convention on human rights can be, but if they’d prefer to opt out and take their chances then they’re free to.
Nah, it’s like taxes. People want tax rises for everyone else and the ECHR not to apply to them.
I was attempting to be humorous. I’ll stick to the day job
And yet I took it as a serious or semi serious idea. I quite like the idea of personalised laws (based on a universally standard that you can choose to elevate in certain areas). Why not? It’s like insurance. Minimum or fully comp?
Would be an interesting prospect if your tax bill could vary too. Would you pay £300 less tax per year in exchange for forfeiting the right to legal aid, for example.
Perhaps I could skip the military funding, and accept a small risk of invasion.
We are now approaching the Margot Leadbetter approach to paying the rates…
They're nothing like the English who are attracted to the south of France.
That's PSG out of it. Leaves Man City or Chelsea. I'll guarantee there's no booing in the UK
A Spanish friend (Ghanaian wife) notes that the incidents of abuse, they experience in Spain, seems to map quite well to whether the area was Republican or Nationalist in the Civil War.
interesting. That would make Nationalist Madrid the epicentre of the racists
Would I be right to assume that some PB punters aren't that well acquainted with Blackpool? I can see ReFUK doing really well.
In summary, Blackpool is run down, squalid, dirty and poor. Despite the tourist traps, the rest of the town is tatty. And I don't even mean tucked away - go a few streets back from the Pleasure Beach and have a look.
As the traditional seaside B&Bs ceased to have appeal to holidaymakers the town has made dollah from housing asylum seekers. Which isn't popular with non-asylum seekers.
Yes, ReFUK ran few candidates for council. But they only need one candidate to ask the question - do you want your town back? They rejected Labour in 2019 because of the decay, and it has got so much worse under the tenure of Scott Braincell. Play on that and ReFUK should comfortably come second.
You used to be able to get a cheap B and B room in Blackpool for Tory (and Labour) conferences which even students could afford. Plus enjoy some bracing sea air after the debates and speeches before the evening bars.
Now you have to spend a fortune for some corporate soulless hotel room in Manchester or Birmingham if you want to attend a party conference. One thing that could do something to stop even further decline in Blackpool is to have some party conferences in seaside resorts again!
So in summary, the Tory solution to a town which is run down, squalid, dirty and poor is to hold Tory Party conference there for part of 1 week. What about the other 51 weeks?
Well Tory conference brought in thousands of delegates for that week, many of them wealthy retirees or well paid City workers from London and filled up every b and b in town.
It probably brought in more revenue to Blackpool than the rest of the year combined, except for high summer tourist season to the Pleasure Beach.
The only other solution would be a massive tax on flights to Spain, so more UK holidaymakers can only afford to take their annual holiday at the seaside in Blackpool rather than the Costas. However doubt that would play well beyond Blackpool
Jesus...
That is true, the B and B and hotel owners were furious when the Tory and Labour conferences moved to Manchester and Birmingham as they lost their biggest source of revenue in the autumn and winter. Blackpool being a tourist seaside town which makes little revenue otherwise outside of the summer tourist season
Blackpool wants a fast line to Manchester and/or Liverpool with multiple stops along the coast. Would increase the day trade. Bloody expensive though, probably.
Currently 1hr25, a bit too much for commuting or evening trips.
Michael Portillo would tell you that, according to the 1908 Bradshaw, the businessman’s express only took 1hr 5mins.
The Blackpool Club carriage was in action on the KWVR at the weekend. Back in the day, the well healed could sit in their leather armchairs on their commute to Manchester, ready for another day oppressing the working class.
The Tories will absolutely go into opposition and some point back PR and I expect reversing Brexit too
I dont see either Tories or Labour backing PR. The system works in their favour as it is.
I strongly disagree. At some point we will have PR.
Why do you think that? FPTP suits the two dominant parties. Also the country rejected a change to a form of PR last time the question was asked.
The country never got offered PR and anyhow it was a different time.
It will not suit them in time and then PR will come in. Maybe even this time if Labour have to negotiate with the Lib Dems
PR would benefit Galloway and Farage rather than the Lib Dems. The ideas that it would mean permanent sensible supremacy is a centrist delusion.
Isn't the point of democracy that people should get what they vote for ?
The rest of it is your delusion about what sensible centrists think.
Would you be supportive of a referendum on the ECHR or the death penalty?
People who want to leave the ECHR, restore the death penalty, reintroduce trial by ordeal or whatever can stick it in a manifesto and stand for parliament.
One option would to make ECHR an opt in / opt out, like organ donation. Those who would like to be covered by the European convention on human rights can be, but if they’d prefer to opt out and take their chances then they’re free to.
Nah, it’s like taxes. People want tax rises for everyone else and the ECHR not to apply to them.
I want the ECHR to apply to me, thank you.
I like Tim's suggestion: Lee Anderson et al can opt out if they wish to.
Would I be right to assume that some PB punters aren't that well acquainted with Blackpool? I can see ReFUK doing really well.
In summary, Blackpool is run down, squalid, dirty and poor. Despite the tourist traps, the rest of the town is tatty. And I don't even mean tucked away - go a few streets back from the Pleasure Beach and have a look.
As the traditional seaside B&Bs ceased to have appeal to holidaymakers the town has made dollah from housing asylum seekers. Which isn't popular with non-asylum seekers.
Yes, ReFUK ran few candidates for council. But they only need one candidate to ask the question - do you want your town back? They rejected Labour in 2019 because of the decay, and it has got so much worse under the tenure of Scott Braincell. Play on that and ReFUK should comfortably come second.
You used to be able to get a cheap B and B room in Blackpool for Tory (and Labour) conferences which even students could afford. Plus enjoy some bracing sea air after the debates and speeches before the evening bars.
Now you have to spend a fortune for some corporate soulless hotel room in Manchester or Birmingham if you want to attend a party conference. One thing that could do something to stop even further decline in Blackpool is to have some party conferences in seaside resorts again!
So in summary, the Tory solution to a town which is run down, squalid, dirty and poor is to hold Tory Party conference there for part of 1 week. What about the other 51 weeks?
Well Tory conference brought in thousands of delegates for that week, many of them wealthy retirees or well paid City workers from London and filled up every b and b in town.
It probably brought in more revenue to Blackpool than the rest of the year combined, except for high summer tourist season to the Pleasure Beach.
The only other solution would be a massive tax on flights to Spain, so more UK holidaymakers can only afford to take their annual holiday at the seaside in Blackpool rather than the Costas. However doubt that would play well beyond Blackpool
Jesus...
That is true, the B and B and hotel owners were furious when the Tory and Labour conferences moved to Manchester and Birmingham as they lost their biggest source of revenue in the autumn and winter. Blackpool being a tourist seaside town which makes little revenue otherwise outside of the summer tourist season
Blackpool wants a fast line to Manchester and/or Liverpool with multiple stops along the coast. Would increase the day trade. Bloody expensive though, probably.
Currently 1hr25, a bit too much for commuting or evening trips.
Michael Portillo would tell you that, according to the 1908 Bradshaw, the businessman’s express only took 1hr 5mins.
The Blackpool Club carriage was in action on the KWVR at the weekend. Back in the day, the well healed could sit in their leather armchairs on their commute to Manchester, ready for another day oppressing the working class.
Must... have... tram extension to Blackpool North station...
The Tories will absolutely go into opposition and some point back PR and I expect reversing Brexit too
I dont see either Tories or Labour backing PR. The system works in their favour as it is.
I strongly disagree. At some point we will have PR.
Why do you think that? FPTP suits the two dominant parties. Also the country rejected a change to a form of PR last time the question was asked.
The country never got offered PR and anyhow it was a different time.
It will not suit them in time and then PR will come in. Maybe even this time if Labour have to negotiate with the Lib Dems
PR would benefit Galloway and Farage rather than the Lib Dems. The ideas that it would mean permanent sensible supremacy is a centrist delusion.
Isn't the point of democracy that people should get what they vote for ?
The rest of it is your delusion about what sensible centrists think.
Would you be supportive of a referendum on the ECHR or the death penalty?
People who want to leave the ECHR, restore the death penalty, reintroduce trial by ordeal or whatever can stick it in a manifesto and stand for parliament.
One option would to make ECHR an opt in / opt out, like organ donation. Those who would like to be covered by the European convention on human rights can be, but if they’d prefer to opt out and take their chances then they’re free to.
Nah, it’s like taxes. People want tax rises for everyone else and the ECHR not to apply to them.
I was attempting to be humorous. I’ll stick to the day job
And yet I took it as a serious or semi serious idea. I quite like the idea of personalised laws (based on a universally standard that you can choose to elevate in certain areas). Why not? It’s like insurance. Minimum or fully comp?
Would be an interesting prospect if your tax bill could vary too. Would you pay £300 less tax per year in exchange for forfeiting the right to legal aid, for example.
Who was the poster on here who didn't want to pay NI because he never used the NHS (and presumably didn't want a State Pension)?
They're nothing like the English who are attracted to the south of France.
That's PSG out of it. Leaves Man City or Chelsea. I'll guarantee there's no booing in the UK
A Spanish friend (Ghanaian wife) notes that the incidents of abuse, they experience in Spain, seems to map quite well to whether the area was Republican or Nationalist in the Civil War.
interesting. That would make Nationalist Madrid the epicentre of the racists
Madrid was under Republican control for most of the Spanish Civil War.
The Tories will absolutely go into opposition and some point back PR and I expect reversing Brexit too
I dont see either Tories or Labour backing PR. The system works in their favour as it is.
I strongly disagree. At some point we will have PR.
Why do you think that? FPTP suits the two dominant parties. Also the country rejected a change to a form of PR last time the question was asked.
The country never got offered PR and anyhow it was a different time.
It will not suit them in time and then PR will come in. Maybe even this time if Labour have to negotiate with the Lib Dems
PR would benefit Galloway and Farage rather than the Lib Dems. The ideas that it would mean permanent sensible supremacy is a centrist delusion.
Isn't the point of democracy that people should get what they vote for ?
The rest of it is your delusion about what sensible centrists think.
Would you be supportive of a referendum on the ECHR or the death penalty?
People who want to leave the ECHR, restore the death penalty, reintroduce trial by ordeal or whatever can stick it in a manifesto and stand for parliament.
One option would to make ECHR an opt in / opt out, like organ donation. Those who would like to be covered by the European convention on human rights can be, but if they’d prefer to opt out and take their chances then they’re free to.
Nah, it’s like taxes. People want tax rises for everyone else and the ECHR not to apply to them.
I was attempting to be humorous. I’ll stick to the day job
And yet I took it as a serious or semi serious idea. I quite like the idea of personalised laws (based on a universally standard that you can choose to elevate in certain areas). Why not? It’s like insurance. Minimum or fully comp?
Would be an interesting prospect if your tax bill could vary too. Would you pay £300 less tax per year in exchange for forfeiting the right to legal aid, for example.
Who was the poster on here who didn't want to pay NI because he never used the NHS (and presumably didn't want a State Pension)?
They're nothing like the English who are attracted to the south of France.
That's PSG out of it. Leaves Man City or Chelsea. I'll guarantee there's no booing in the UK
A Spanish friend (Ghanaian wife) notes that the incidents of abuse, they experience in Spain, seems to map quite well to whether the area was Republican or Nationalist in the Civil War.
interesting. That would make Nationalist Madrid the epicentre of the racists
Madrid was under Republican control for most of the Spanish Civil War.
We have put so many people in prison for life and got it wrong that the death penalty is just not ever going to be applied in a remotely just way.
It’s certainly true that there have been far too many miscarriages of justice. My big bugbear in the current system is the denial of parole if you don’t admit to the crime you have been convicted of. Yet if you are innocent you are forced to lie and admit to a crime you did not commit, or stay in prison. With the number of wrongful convictions, this system ought to be untenable.
The Tories will absolutely go into opposition and some point back PR and I expect reversing Brexit too
I dont see either Tories or Labour backing PR. The system works in their favour as it is.
I strongly disagree. At some point we will have PR.
Why do you think that? FPTP suits the two dominant parties. Also the country rejected a change to a form of PR last time the question was asked.
The country never got offered PR and anyhow it was a different time.
It will not suit them in time and then PR will come in. Maybe even this time if Labour have to negotiate with the Lib Dems
PR would benefit Galloway and Farage rather than the Lib Dems. The ideas that it would mean permanent sensible supremacy is a centrist delusion.
Isn't the point of democracy that people should get what they vote for ?
The rest of it is your delusion about what sensible centrists think.
Would you be supportive of a referendum on the ECHR or the death penalty?
People who want to leave the ECHR, restore the death penalty, reintroduce trial by ordeal or whatever can stick it in a manifesto and stand for parliament.
One option would to make ECHR an opt in / opt out, like organ donation. Those who would like to be covered by the European convention on human rights can be, but if they’d prefer to opt out and take their chances then they’re free to.
Nah, it’s like taxes. People want tax rises for everyone else and the ECHR not to apply to them.
I want the ECHR to apply to me, thank you.
I like Tim's suggestion: Lee Anderson et al can opt out if they wish to.
This may not quite work. The I don't opt out of ECHR so I am under a duty not to torture Lee Anderson; he has opted out so he has a right to torture me. This is taking the turning the other cheek malarky a little far.
Immediately, there should be a half-the-size replica of the Arc De Triomphe added, with a sky bar.
Paris could be Paris on its own for a while, then a further redevelopment would turn the further side of town into a replica of New York, with high rise hotels, yellow taxis, and a replica of the Statue of Liberty with a kiss me quick hat on and a Mr Whippy ice cream instead of a torch.
The you could add Chinatown, sponsored by the CCP, and if they won't stump up, it can just be sponsored by the mad Shen Yun people who hate the CCP.
It needs to be a spectacle that you can't get this side of Vegas. For people that can't get to Vegas but can get to Blackpool.
They're nothing like the English who are attracted to the south of France.
That's PSG out of it. Leaves Man City or Chelsea. I'll guarantee there's no booing in the UK
A Spanish friend (Ghanaian wife) notes that the incidents of abuse, they experience in Spain, seems to map quite well to whether the area was Republican or Nationalist in the Civil War.
interesting. That would make Nationalist Madrid the epicentre of the racists
Madrid was under Republican control for most of the Spanish Civil War.
Real Madrid was a Francoist club, but Athletico Madrid was too.
They're nothing like the English who are attracted to the south of France.
That's PSG out of it. Leaves Man City or Chelsea. I'll guarantee there's no booing in the UK
A Spanish friend (Ghanaian wife) notes that the incidents of abuse, they experience in Spain, seems to map quite well to whether the area was Republican or Nationalist in the Civil War.
interesting. That would make Nationalist Madrid the epicentre of the racists
Madrid was under Republican control for most of the Spanish Civil War.
I assumed Roger was being ironic.
Ah, apologies. I missed that if so. Vinicius Jr has been a victim of racism chiefly from Athletico and Barca fans, according to that story. Both clubs lie in territories that were under Republican control during the SCW.
Immediately, there should be a half-the-size replica of the Arc De Triomphe added, with a sky bar.
Paris could be Paris on its own for a while, then a further redevelopment would turn the further side of town into a replica of New York, with high rise hotels, yellow taxis, and a replica of the Statue of Liberty with a kiss me quick hat on and a Mr Whippy ice cream instead of a torch.
The you could add Chinatown, sponsored by the CCP, and if they won't stump up, it can just be sponsored by the mad Shen Yun people who hate the CCP.
It needs to be a spectacle that you can't get this side of Vegas. For people that can't get to Vegas but can get to Blackpool.
We don’t have enough of that sort of thing. Proper pastiche architecture, doing things properly not by halves. I agree it’s the sort of thing that one or two places like Blackpool would really benefit from.
Trouble is there’d be a local conservation association campaigning to preserve the historic amusement arcades.
They're nothing like the English who are attracted to the south of France.
That's PSG out of it. Leaves Man City or Chelsea. I'll guarantee there's no booing in the UK
A Spanish friend (Ghanaian wife) notes that the incidents of abuse, they experience in Spain, seems to map quite well to whether the area was Republican or Nationalist in the Civil War.
interesting. That would make Nationalist Madrid the epicentre of the racists
Madrid was under Republican control for most of the Spanish Civil War.
Real Madrid was a Francoist club, but Athletico Madrid was too.
Immediately, there should be a half-the-size replica of the Arc De Triomphe added, with a sky bar.
Paris could be Paris on its own for a while, then a further redevelopment would turn the further side of town into a replica of New York, with high rise hotels, yellow taxis, and a replica of the Statue of Liberty with a kiss me quick hat on and a Mr Whippy ice cream instead of a torch.
The you could add Chinatown, sponsored by the CCP, and if they won't stump up, it can just be sponsored by the mad Shen Yun people who hate the CCP.
It needs to be a spectacle that you can't get this side of Vegas. For people that can't get to Vegas but can get to Blackpool.
We don’t have enough of that sort of thing. Proper pastiche architecture, doing things properly not by halves. I agree it’s the sort of thing that one or two places like Blackpool would really benefit from.
Trouble is there’d be a local conservation association campaigning to preserve the historic amusement arcades.
I think you could build it all without much historic amusement arcade demolition. There's enough 60s, 70s, 80s and frankly 90s shite in Blackpool that nobody would miss.
If anyone wants to hire me as a consultant on this project, I've wanted to do it all my career, and I come cheap.
The Tories will absolutely go into opposition and some point back PR and I expect reversing Brexit too
I dont see either Tories or Labour backing PR. The system works in their favour as it is.
I strongly disagree. At some point we will have PR.
Why do you think that? FPTP suits the two dominant parties. Also the country rejected a change to a form of PR last time the question was asked.
The country never got offered PR and anyhow it was a different time.
It will not suit them in time and then PR will come in. Maybe even this time if Labour have to negotiate with the Lib Dems
PR would benefit Galloway and Farage rather than the Lib Dems. The ideas that it would mean permanent sensible supremacy is a centrist delusion.
Isn't the point of democracy that people should get what they vote for ?
The rest of it is your delusion about what sensible centrists think.
Would you be supportive of a referendum on the ECHR or the death penalty?
People who want to leave the ECHR, restore the death penalty, reintroduce trial by ordeal or whatever can stick it in a manifesto and stand for parliament.
One option would to make ECHR an opt in / opt out, like organ donation. Those who would like to be covered by the European convention on human rights can be, but if they’d prefer to opt out and take their chances then they’re free to.
Nah, it’s like taxes. People want tax rises for everyone else and the ECHR not to apply to them.
I want the ECHR to apply to me, thank you.
I like Tim's suggestion: Lee Anderson et al can opt out if they wish to.
This may not quite work. The I don't opt out of ECHR so I am under a duty not to torture Lee Anderson; he has opted out so he has a right to torture me. This is taking the turning the other cheek malarky a little far.
The Tories will absolutely go into opposition and some point back PR and I expect reversing Brexit too
I dont see either Tories or Labour backing PR. The system works in their favour as it is.
I strongly disagree. At some point we will have PR.
Why do you think that? FPTP suits the two dominant parties. Also the country rejected a change to a form of PR last time the question was asked.
The country never got offered PR and anyhow it was a different time.
It will not suit them in time and then PR will come in. Maybe even this time if Labour have to negotiate with the Lib Dems
PR would benefit Galloway and Farage rather than the Lib Dems. The ideas that it would mean permanent sensible supremacy is a centrist delusion.
Isn't the point of democracy that people should get what they vote for ?
The rest of it is your delusion about what sensible centrists think.
Would you be supportive of a referendum on the ECHR or the death penalty?
People who want to leave the ECHR, restore the death penalty, reintroduce trial by ordeal or whatever can stick it in a manifesto and stand for parliament.
One option would to make ECHR an opt in / opt out, like organ donation. Those who would like to be covered by the European convention on human rights can be, but if they’d prefer to opt out and take their chances then they’re free to.
They're nothing like the English who are attracted to the south of France.
That's PSG out of it. Leaves Man City or Chelsea. I'll guarantee there's no booing in the UK
A Spanish friend (Ghanaian wife) notes that the incidents of abuse, they experience in Spain, seems to map quite well to whether the area was Republican or Nationalist in the Civil War.
interesting. That would make Nationalist Madrid the epicentre of the racists
Madrid was under Republican control for most of the Spanish Civil War.
Real Madrid was a Francoist club, but Athletico Madrid was too.
The Tories will absolutely go into opposition and some point back PR and I expect reversing Brexit too
I dont see either Tories or Labour backing PR. The system works in their favour as it is.
I strongly disagree. At some point we will have PR.
Why do you think that? FPTP suits the two dominant parties. Also the country rejected a change to a form of PR last time the question was asked.
The country never got offered PR and anyhow it was a different time.
It will not suit them in time and then PR will come in. Maybe even this time if Labour have to negotiate with the Lib Dems
PR would benefit Galloway and Farage rather than the Lib Dems. The ideas that it would mean permanent sensible supremacy is a centrist delusion.
Isn't the point of democracy that people should get what they vote for ?
The rest of it is your delusion about what sensible centrists think.
Would you be supportive of a referendum on the ECHR or the death penalty?
People who want to leave the ECHR, restore the death penalty, reintroduce trial by ordeal or whatever can stick it in a manifesto and stand for parliament.
One option would to make ECHR an opt in / opt out, like organ donation. Those who would like to be covered by the European convention on human rights can be, but if they’d prefer to opt out and take their chances then they’re free to.
Nah, it’s like taxes. People want tax rises for everyone else and the ECHR not to apply to them.
I want the ECHR to apply to me, thank you.
I like Tim's suggestion: Lee Anderson et al can opt out if they wish to.
This may not quite work. The I don't opt out of ECHR so I am under a duty not to torture Lee Anderson; he has opted out so he has a right to torture me. This is taking the turning the other cheek malarky a little far.
Yes, I may not have thought this through.
This is a great forum for half formed (baked? Ed) ideas. Someone will always be able to spot the flaws.
They're nothing like the English who are attracted to the south of France.
That's PSG out of it. Leaves Man City or Chelsea. I'll guarantee there's no booing in the UK
A Spanish friend (Ghanaian wife) notes that the incidents of abuse, they experience in Spain, seems to map quite well to whether the area was Republican or Nationalist in the Civil War.
interesting. That would make Nationalist Madrid the epicentre of the racists
Madrid was under Republican control for most of the Spanish Civil War.
Real Madrid was a Francoist club, but Athletico Madrid was too.
They're nothing like the English who are attracted to the south of France.
That's PSG out of it. Leaves Man City or Chelsea. I'll guarantee there's no booing in the UK
A Spanish friend (Ghanaian wife) notes that the incidents of abuse, they experience in Spain, seems to map quite well to whether the area was Republican or Nationalist in the Civil War.
interesting. That would make Nationalist Madrid the epicentre of the racists
Madrid was under Republican control for most of the Spanish Civil War.
Real Madrid was a Francoist club, but Athletico Madrid was too.
The Tories will absolutely go into opposition and some point back PR and I expect reversing Brexit too
I dont see either Tories or Labour backing PR. The system works in their favour as it is.
I strongly disagree. At some point we will have PR.
Why do you think that? FPTP suits the two dominant parties. Also the country rejected a change to a form of PR last time the question was asked.
The country never got offered PR and anyhow it was a different time.
It will not suit them in time and then PR will come in. Maybe even this time if Labour have to negotiate with the Lib Dems
PR would benefit Galloway and Farage rather than the Lib Dems. The ideas that it would mean permanent sensible supremacy is a centrist delusion.
Isn't the point of democracy that people should get what they vote for ?
The rest of it is your delusion about what sensible centrists think.
Would you be supportive of a referendum on the ECHR or the death penalty?
People who want to leave the ECHR, restore the death penalty, reintroduce trial by ordeal or whatever can stick it in a manifesto and stand for parliament.
One option would to make ECHR an opt in / opt out, like organ donation. Those who would like to be covered by the European convention on human rights can be, but if they’d prefer to opt out and take their chances then they’re free to.
Nah, it’s like taxes. People want tax rises for everyone else and the ECHR not to apply to them.
I want the ECHR to apply to me, thank you.
I like Tim's suggestion: Lee Anderson et al can opt out if they wish to.
This may not quite work. The I don't opt out of ECHR so I am under a duty not to torture Lee Anderson; he has opted out so he has a right to torture me. This is taking the turning the other cheek malarky a little far.
Yes, I may not have thought this through.
This is a great forum for half formed (baked? Ed) ideas. Someone will always be able to spot the flaws.
Living in Scotland, may I caution people that clever wheezes on electoral systems to game a permanent majority for your party can have unintended consequences. FPTP allows the pendulum to swing decisively to clear out the party in power if the electorate choose to do so, avoiding situations in some European countries where despised parties manage to cling on to power within coalitions. Being able to genuinely kick the b*****ds out is a useful feature not a bug.
This is quite an amusing/interesting YouTube channel, a guy who visits either the top hotels in the country or the worst ones, and does reviews on them. ie, one video is the Grand Hotel Scarborough or the International Hotel Canary Wharf, the next is the Ritz or Claridges. Also air travel, such as first class with Emirates.
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
To win the election Labour need a couple of million Tory votes to switch to Labour, and more to stay at home, go LD and Reform and so on. Labour already have Bootle. In Cumbria, where I live, they hold zero seats and have a real chance of winning all but one next time. I think they will. This will be on the basis of voters thinking they are more competent than the Tories, do not hold revolutionary views that offend those who normally vote Tory but feel deserted, will be more honest and consistent and will take a long view.
So what will be the size of the Labour victory in your view?
The last time I had to guess (I foolishly entered the New Year guessing game) I said NOM - Labour on 315 seats or thereabouts. I would settle for that as a Labour/LD deal being necessary for governing would not be at all bad.
However the Tories have plumbed depths beyond imagining so far this year, and it looks as if one or two others are like me - always vote Tory but not this time.
I feel like those academic polling people who after massive amounts of maths confidently predict a Labour majority between -30 and +300 with 95% certainty.
A Tory wipe out is what they deserve. Rationally I think the result will be something like 1997. Which would, I hope, be enough for One Nation Tories to be able to take their party back.
Rishi and Hunt and Cameron are the One Nation Tories relatively now, if they lose therefore it will be the ERG and the right and the likes of Braverman, Badenoch, Jenrick and Rees Mogg and Patel looking to get their party back
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
They're nothing like the English who are attracted to the south of France.
That's PSG out of it. Leaves Man City or Chelsea. I'll guarantee there's no booing in the UK
A Spanish friend (Ghanaian wife) notes that the incidents of abuse, they experience in Spain, seems to map quite well to whether the area was Republican or Nationalist in the Civil War.
interesting. That would make Nationalist Madrid the epicentre of the racists
Madrid was under Republican control for most of the Spanish Civil War.
Real Madrid was a Francoist club, but Athletico Madrid was too.
This is quite an amusing/interesting YouTube channel, a guy who visits either the top hotels in the country or the worst ones, and does reviews on them. ie, one video is the Grand Hotel Scarborough or the International Hotel Canary Wharf, the next is the Ritz or Claridges. Also air travel, such as first class with Emirates.
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
Personally the concept of the death penalty is so utterly appalling I just cannot ever be in support of it. If it were introduced I would emigrate.
IIUC It wasn't abolished until after 1997 for things like treason and something funny about ports
Wikipedia says the last holdouts til 1998 were treason, piracy with violence, and some purely military offences like mutiny. Arson in a royal dockyard lost its death penalty in 1971, and spying in a ship of the Royal Navy lost it in 1981.
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
To win the election Labour need a couple of million Tory votes to switch to Labour, and more to stay at home, go LD and Reform and so on. Labour already have Bootle. In Cumbria, where I live, they hold zero seats and have a real chance of winning all but one next time. I think they will. This will be on the basis of voters thinking they are more competent than the Tories, do not hold revolutionary views that offend those who normally vote Tory but feel deserted, will be more honest and consistent and will take a long view.
So what will be the size of the Labour victory in your view?
The last time I had to guess (I foolishly entered the New Year guessing game) I said NOM - Labour on 315 seats or thereabouts. I would settle for that as a Labour/LD deal being necessary for governing would not be at all bad.
However the Tories have plumbed depths beyond imagining so far this year, and it looks as if one or two others are like me - always vote Tory but not this time.
I feel like those academic polling people who after massive amounts of maths confidently predict a Labour majority between -30 and +300 with 95% certainty.
A Tory wipe out is what they deserve. Rationally I think the result will be something like 1997. Which would, I hope, be enough for One Nation Tories to be able to take their party back.
Rishi and Hunt and Cameron are the One Nation Tories relatively now, if they lose therefore it will be the ERG and the right and the likes of Braverman, Badenoch, Jenrick and Rees Mogg and Patel looking to get their party back
And face oblivion - the one thing Reform and those mentioned cannot seem to understand is that the political gravity has moved far away from Brexit and the right and they will suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs, whilst Starmer looks at 2 if not 3 election wins
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
I’m so old it was a known and accepted “perk of the job” for the professors at UCL Philosophy
And you know what? Good luck to them. Consenting adults. It’s not like someone is 15 and the other is his 40 year old married drama teacher who weirdly has no photos of herself aged 7 to 30
Reform also need to target the disengaged nationally but I'm turning up for my local council voters
the only election there is Police Commissioner - only the most political of political voters would be voting otherwise so the differential voting numbers in Blackpool south are going to have a significant impact say on the outcome there.
I've been trying to encourage attention to Police and Crime Commissioners, especially in Nottinghamshire where the Conservatives won 51.3%:48.7% (final round) last time, and then the new married-to-a-Conservative MP got herself banned from driving within about 2 months via 5 speeding offences in about 4 months (excuse was basically: I was in a hurry), so her credibility is slightly (!) low.
Turnout is perhaps 30% (estimate) - 200k votes.
I think we can possibly call this for Labour already in Notts, but turnouts are low and nationally it is all a bit Tory dominated. 2016 was more even.
To win the election Labour need a couple of million Tory votes to switch to Labour, and more to stay at home, go LD and Reform and so on. Labour already have Bootle. In Cumbria, where I live, they hold zero seats and have a real chance of winning all but one next time. I think they will. This will be on the basis of voters thinking they are more competent than the Tories, do not hold revolutionary views that offend those who normally vote Tory but feel deserted, will be more honest and consistent and will take a long view.
So what will be the size of the Labour victory in your view?
The last time I had to guess (I foolishly entered the New Year guessing game) I said NOM - Labour on 315 seats or thereabouts. I would settle for that as a Labour/LD deal being necessary for governing would not be at all bad.
However the Tories have plumbed depths beyond imagining so far this year, and it looks as if one or two others are like me - always vote Tory but not this time.
I feel like those academic polling people who after massive amounts of maths confidently predict a Labour majority between -30 and +300 with 95% certainty.
A Tory wipe out is what they deserve. Rationally I think the result will be something like 1997. Which would, I hope, be enough for One Nation Tories to be able to take their party back.
Rishi and Hunt and Cameron are the One Nation Tories relatively now, if they lose therefore it will be the ERG and the right and the likes of Braverman, Badenoch, Jenrick and Rees Mogg and Patel looking to get their party back
Quite. PB's one nation tendency seem to have slipped into a state of thorough-going delusion recently. Must be ptsd from 'the grown ups' coming 'back in the room' and it not resulting in a 10 point poll lead.
Personally the concept of the death penalty is so utterly appalling I just cannot ever be in support of it. If it were introduced I would emigrate.
IIUC It wasn't abolished until after 1997 for things like treason and something funny about ports
Arson in a royal dockyard?
I’m trying to remember a name - memoir of a QC who became a judge.
They had a teenage arsonist up for burning down a building on the edge of a dockyard. Apparently the judge thought the lad wasn’t taking the proceedings seriously enough, and commented on the fact the prosecution could have asked for the death penalty.
The author, who was defending, thought the effect on the boy was way over the top.
This is quite an amusing/interesting YouTube channel, a guy who visits either the top hotels in the country or the worst ones, and does reviews on them. ie, one video is the Grand Hotel Scarborough or the International Hotel Canary Wharf, the next is the Ritz or Claridges. Also air travel, such as first class with Emirates.
Starmer was here in North Wales today with Gething, who has already said his new cabinet in the Senedd will review the ending of road building and the 20 mph speed legislation under Drakeford and is even looking at the third Menai crossing
To be fair that is a good start by him, but he has a problem with the doctors who are on strike in Wales and who said they can earn more in England and Scotland NHS and that is before he takes on the farmers
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
I’m so old it was a known and accepted “perk of the job” for the professors at UCL Philosophy
And you know what? Good luck to them. Consenting adults. It’s not like someone is 15 and the other is his 40 year old married drama teacher who weirdly has no photos of herself aged 7 to 30
Not quite that simple. Academic dates UG from another course? Consenting adults can apply, so sure, get on with it. From the course you teach on? And mark essays, exams, coursework? Abuse of power (potentially).
And as I said, for my colleague it ended in ruin and his suicide.
This is quite an amusing/interesting YouTube channel, a guy who visits either the top hotels in the country or the worst ones, and does reviews on them. ie, one video is the Grand Hotel Scarborough or the International Hotel Canary Wharf, the next is the Ritz or Claridges. Also air travel, such as first class with Emirates.
The Ritz review is amusing. Shows how old the building is, and how in need of a closure and renovation.
IIRC during a recent(ish) renovation at the Savoy, they found that the wall of the building facing the river was held in place by paint and hope.
The economics of “how much would this cost to fix and how much time would it take” vs “how much money can we make soldiering on” are fascinating. In a different life, I’d quite like to have a bash at the hotel business.
Personally the concept of the death penalty is so utterly appalling I just cannot ever be in support of it. If it were introduced I would emigrate.
IIUC It wasn't abolished until after 1997 for things like treason and something funny about ports
Arson in a royal dockyard?
I’m trying to remember a name - memoir of a QC who became a judge.
They had a teenage arsonist up for burning down a building on the edge of a dockyard. Apparently the judge thought the lad wasn’t taking the proceedings seriously enough, and commented on the fact the prosecution could have asked for the death penalty.
The author, who was defending, thought the effect on the boy was way over the top.
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
I’m so old it was a known and accepted “perk of the job” for the professors at UCL Philosophy
And you know what? Good luck to them. Consenting adults. It’s not like someone is 15 and the other is his 40 year old married drama teacher who weirdly has no photos of herself aged 7 to 30
Her first wedding picture is in the public domain, and she has 3 children by that marriage.
So being a man doesn't seem very likely. Only the most gullible of conspiracy theorists would fall for such transparent nonsense.
Reform also need to target the disengaged nationally but I'm turning up for my local council voters
the only election there is Police Commissioner - only the most political of political voters would be voting otherwise so the differential voting numbers in Blackpool south are going to have a significant impact say on the outcome there.
I've been trying to encourage attention to Police and Crime Commissioners, especially in Nottinghamshire where the Conservatives won 51.3%:48.7% (final round) last time, and then the new married-to-a-Conservative MP got herself banned from driving within about 2 months via 5 speeding offences in about 4 months (excuse was basically: I was in a hurry), so her credibility is slightly (!) low.
Turnout is perhaps 30% (estimate) - 200k votes.
I think we can possibly call this for Labour already in Notts, but turnouts are low and nationally it is all a bit Tory dominated. 2016 was more even.
2016:
Not only has she been done for speeding but has overseen a police force that is now in some kind of special measures iirc.
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
Just before Christmas I rewatched the dramatisation of 'The History Man'. Very well worth a track down if you can.
Would I be right to assume that some PB punters aren't that well acquainted with Blackpool? I can see ReFUK doing really well.
In summary, Blackpool is run down, squalid, dirty and poor. Despite the tourist traps, the rest of the town is tatty. And I don't even mean tucked away - go a few streets back from the Pleasure Beach and have a look.
As the traditional seaside B&Bs ceased to have appeal to holidaymakers the town has made dollah from housing asylum seekers. Which isn't popular with non-asylum seekers.
Yes, ReFUK ran few candidates for council. But they only need one candidate to ask the question - do you want your town back? They rejected Labour in 2019 because of the decay, and it has got so much worse under the tenure of Scott Braincell. Play on that and ReFUK should comfortably come second.
You used to be able to get a cheap B and B room in Blackpool for Tory (and Labour) conferences which even students could afford. Plus enjoy some bracing sea air after the debates and speeches before the evening bars.
Now you have to spend a fortune for some corporate soulless hotel room in Manchester or Birmingham if you want to attend a party conference. One thing that could do something to stop even further decline in Blackpool is to have some party conferences in seaside resorts again!
I went once as a delegate to a NUS conference. It was a very interesting experience. If I remember correctly we voted for a Communist as President (Aaronvitch or similar name?) because he was more sensible and likeable than the Labour/Broad Left candidate.
Reform also need to target the disengaged nationally but I'm turning up for my local council voters
the only election there is Police Commissioner - only the most political of political voters would be voting otherwise so the differential voting numbers in Blackpool south are going to have a significant impact say on the outcome there.
I've been trying to encourage attention to Police and Crime Commissioners, especially in Nottinghamshire where the Conservatives won 51.3%:48.7% (final round) last time, and then the new married-to-a-Conservative MP got herself banned from driving within about 2 months via 5 speeding offences in about 4 months (excuse was basically: I was in a hurry), so her credibility is slightly (!) low.
Turnout is perhaps 30% (estimate) - 200k votes.
I think we can possibly call this for Labour already in Notts, but turnouts are low and nationally it is all a bit Tory dominated. 2016 was more even.
2016:
This lot of PCC elections is also the first with FPTP rather than supplementary vote though, right? That might help some Tory PCCs to hold on.
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
I’m so old it was a known and accepted “perk of the job” for the professors at UCL Philosophy
And you know what? Good luck to them. Consenting adults. It’s not like someone is 15 and the other is his 40 year old married drama teacher who weirdly has no photos of herself aged 7 to 30
Not quite that simple. Academic dates UG from another course? Consenting adults can apply, so sure, get on with it. From the course you teach on? And mark essays, exams, coursework? Abuse of power (potentially).
And as I said, for my colleague it ended in ruin and his suicide.
How about we all just calm down and say that anyone over the age of 18 can choose any sexual partner they like - even, yes, shudder - a professor at their own university? Who actually teaches them?
We are free to disapprove, and very many would - but if you’re an adult you’re an adult. I’d apply this across the board
In our worthy attempts to protect young people we have problematised all kinds of perfectly wholesome relationships at the workplace and so on. Its prudish nonsense
Reform also need to target the disengaged nationally but I'm turning up for my local council voters
the only election there is Police Commissioner - only the most political of political voters would be voting otherwise so the differential voting numbers in Blackpool south are going to have a significant impact say on the outcome there.
I've been trying to encourage attention to Police and Crime Commissioners, especially in Nottinghamshire where the Conservatives won 51.3%:48.7% (final round) last time, and then the new married-to-a-Conservative MP got herself banned from driving within about 2 months via 5 speeding offences in about 4 months (excuse was basically: I was in a hurry), so her credibility is slightly (!) low.
Turnout is perhaps 30% (estimate) - 200k votes.
I think we can possibly call this for Labour already in Notts, but turnouts are low and nationally it is all a bit Tory dominated. 2016 was more even.
2016:
This lot of PCC elections is also the first with FPTP rather than supplementary vote though, right? That might help some Tory PCCs to hold on.
That I think may be one thing Mr Starmer, assuming he wins, may get around to overturning.
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
I’m so old it was a known and accepted “perk of the job” for the professors at UCL Philosophy
And you know what? Good luck to them. Consenting adults. It’s not like someone is 15 and the other is his 40 year old married drama teacher who weirdly has no photos of herself aged 7 to 30
Not quite that simple. Academic dates UG from another course? Consenting adults can apply, so sure, get on with it. From the course you teach on? And mark essays, exams, coursework? Abuse of power (potentially).
And as I said, for my colleague it ended in ruin and his suicide.
At 100% not my current institution, there used to be a professor who kept a mattress in his office. For 'his bad back'. Which everyone 100% believed.
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
Just before Christmas I rewatched the dramatisation of 'The History Man'. Very well worth a track down if you can.
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
I’m so old it was a known and accepted “perk of the job” for the professors at UCL Philosophy
And you know what? Good luck to them. Consenting adults. It’s not like someone is 15 and the other is his 40 year old married drama teacher who weirdly has no photos of herself aged 7 to 30
Her first wedding picture is in the public domain, and she has 3 children by that marriage.
So being a man doesn't seem very likely. Only the most gullible of conspiracy theorists would fall for such transparent nonsense.
Aaaaaaaand I haven’t fallen for it. I don’t believe she is a man. It is too ridiculous
Nonetheless the Elysee is behaving very strangely and is finding it very hard to flatten a conspiracy theory which is so outlandish it should be crushable in seconds
Why? As I said last night I suspect something like Kategate is going on. The Palace acted oddly around Kate’s non-visibility (and they really did - the fake photo etc) because they really were trying to hide something. Now of course we all know it was; very sadly, it was her cancer
The Elysee I think is trying to hide something awkward here, which means they cannot take the easy route of total honesty. Let’s face it the origins of the macron marriage are bizarre enough already. He was 15. She was 40 and his teacher
So you can see why they might be evasive simply from that
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
Just before Christmas I rewatched the dramatisation of 'The History Man'. Very well worth a track down if you can.
Reform also need to target the disengaged nationally but I'm turning up for my local council voters
the only election there is Police Commissioner - only the most political of political voters would be voting otherwise so the differential voting numbers in Blackpool south are going to have a significant impact say on the outcome there.
I've been trying to encourage attention to Police and Crime Commissioners, especially in Nottinghamshire where the Conservatives won 51.3%:48.7% (final round) last time, and then the new married-to-a-Conservative MP got herself banned from driving within about 2 months via 5 speeding offences in about 4 months (excuse was basically: I was in a hurry), so her credibility is slightly (!) low.
Turnout is perhaps 30% (estimate) - 200k votes.
I think we can possibly call this for Labour already in Notts, but turnouts are low and nationally it is all a bit Tory dominated. 2016 was more even.
2016:
This lot of PCC elections is also the first with FPTP rather than supplementary vote though, right? That might help some Tory PCCs to hold on.
Not if they have a Reform candidate for PCC it won't
At this rate SKS really will be in government for a decade. What on Earth are the Tories doing.
This latest ad is nuts.
Sadiq Khan seized London? Images of New York used in place of ones from London?
What on Earth is going on at CCHQ?
Whether SKS stays in office for a decade depends far more on how he and Reeves run the economy if they form the next government after the general election than what CCHQ does now
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
I’m so old it was a known and accepted “perk of the job” for the professors at UCL Philosophy
And you know what? Good luck to them. Consenting adults. It’s not like someone is 15 and the other is his 40 year old married drama teacher who weirdly has no photos of herself aged 7 to 30
Not quite that simple. Academic dates UG from another course? Consenting adults can apply, so sure, get on with it. From the course you teach on? And mark essays, exams, coursework? Abuse of power (potentially).
And as I said, for my colleague it ended in ruin and his suicide.
How about we all just calm down and say that anyone over the age of 18 can choose any sexual partner they like - even, yes, shudder - a professor at their own university? Who actually teaches them?
We are free to disapprove, and very many would - but if you’re an adult you’re an adult. I’d apply this across the board
In our worthy attempts to protect young people we have problematised all kinds of perfectly wholesome relationships at the workplace and so on. Its prudish nonsense
The principle applied here and more generally in the world of work is “not between people with power over each other”
A professor and a student of *that professor* have a power imbalance.
Avoid that and you avoid about 99% of the problems.
Starmer was here in North Wales today with Gething, who has already said his new cabinet in the Senedd will review the ending of road building and the 20 mph speed legislation under Drakeford and is even looking at the third Menai crossing
To be fair that is a good start by him, but he has a problem with the doctors who are on strike in Wales and who said they can earn more in England and Scotland NHS and that is before he takes on the farmers
I take it the farmers are still enforcing 5mph speed limits?
Would I be right to assume that some PB punters aren't that well acquainted with Blackpool? I can see ReFUK doing really well.
In summary, Blackpool is run down, squalid, dirty and poor. Despite the tourist traps, the rest of the town is tatty. And I don't even mean tucked away - go a few streets back from the Pleasure Beach and have a look.
As the traditional seaside B&Bs ceased to have appeal to holidaymakers the town has made dollah from housing asylum seekers. Which isn't popular with non-asylum seekers.
Yes, ReFUK ran few candidates for council. But they only need one candidate to ask the question - do you want your town back? They rejected Labour in 2019 because of the decay, and it has got so much worse under the tenure of Scott Braincell. Play on that and ReFUK should comfortably come second.
You used to be able to get a cheap B and B room in Blackpool for Tory (and Labour) conferences which even students could afford. Plus enjoy some bracing sea air after the debates and speeches before the evening bars.
Now you have to spend a fortune for some corporate soulless hotel room in Manchester or Birmingham if you want to attend a party conference. One thing that could do something to stop even further decline in Blackpool is to have some party conferences in seaside resorts again!
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
I’m so old it was a known and accepted “perk of the job” for the professors at UCL Philosophy
And you know what? Good luck to them. Consenting adults. It’s not like someone is 15 and the other is his 40 year old married drama teacher who weirdly has no photos of herself aged 7 to 30
Not quite that simple. Academic dates UG from another course? Consenting adults can apply, so sure, get on with it. From the course you teach on? And mark essays, exams, coursework? Abuse of power (potentially).
And as I said, for my colleague it ended in ruin and his suicide.
How about we all just calm down and say that anyone over the age of 18 can choose any sexual partner they like - even, yes, shudder - a professor at their own university? Who actually teaches them?
We are free to disapprove, and very many would - but if you’re an adult you’re an adult. I’d apply this across the board
In our worthy attempts to protect young people we have problematised all kinds of perfectly wholesome relationships at the workplace and so on. Its prudish nonsense
The principle applied here and more generally in the world of work is “not between people with power over each other”
A professor and a student of *that professor* have a power imbalance.
Avoid that and you avoid about 99% of the problems.
Which is an arguable position (I disagree but I accept I am more at the libertarian end of the spectrum)
But it seems to me that this definition has expanded to make almost any relationship within the same institution fraught with problems unless both parties are at exactly the same level. Or so I have heard
Luckily im a wandering minstrel with no master or mistress except the cruel muse of my knapping talent, so I can ignore all these mad rules
Starmer was here in North Wales today with Gething, who has already said his new cabinet in the Senedd will review the ending of road building and the 20 mph speed legislation under Drakeford and is even looking at the third Menai crossing
To be fair that is a good start by him, but he has a problem with the doctors who are on strike in Wales and who said they can earn more in England and Scotland NHS and that is before he takes on the farmers
I take it the farmers are still enforcing 5mph speed limits?
Would I be right to assume that some PB punters aren't that well acquainted with Blackpool? I can see ReFUK doing really well.
In summary, Blackpool is run down, squalid, dirty and poor. Despite the tourist traps, the rest of the town is tatty. And I don't even mean tucked away - go a few streets back from the Pleasure Beach and have a look.
As the traditional seaside B&Bs ceased to have appeal to holidaymakers the town has made dollah from housing asylum seekers. Which isn't popular with non-asylum seekers.
Yes, ReFUK ran few candidates for council. But they only need one candidate to ask the question - do you want your town back? They rejected Labour in 2019 because of the decay, and it has got so much worse under the tenure of Scott Braincell. Play on that and ReFUK should comfortably come second.
You used to be able to get a cheap B and B room in Blackpool for Tory (and Labour) conferences which even students could afford. Plus enjoy some bracing sea air after the debates and speeches before the evening bars.
Now you have to spend a fortune for some corporate soulless hotel room in Manchester or Birmingham if you want to attend a party conference. One thing that could do something to stop even further decline in Blackpool is to have some party conferences in seaside resorts again!
So in summary, the Tory solution to a town which is run down, squalid, dirty and poor is to hold Tory Party conference there for part of 1 week. What about the other 51 weeks?
Well Tory conference brought in thousands of delegates for that week, many of them wealthy retirees or well paid City workers from London and filled up every b and b in town.
It probably brought in more revenue to Blackpool than the rest of the year combined, except for high summer tourist season to the Pleasure Beach.
The only other solution would be a massive tax on flights to Spain, so more UK holidaymakers can only afford to take their annual holiday at the seaside in Blackpool rather than the Costas. However doubt that would play well beyond Blackpool
Jesus...
That is true, the B and B and hotel owners were furious when the Tory and Labour conferences moved to Manchester and Birmingham as they lost their biggest source of revenue in the autumn and winter. Blackpool being a tourist seaside town which makes little revenue otherwise outside of the summer tourist season
Blackpool wants a fast line to Manchester and/or Liverpool with multiple stops along the coast. Would increase the day trade. Bloody expensive though, probably.
Currently 1hr25, a bit too much for commuting or evening trips.
Michael Portillo would tell you that, according to the 1908 Bradshaw, the businessman’s express only took 1hr 5mins.
The Blackpool Club carriage was in action on the KWVR at the weekend. Back in the day, the well healed could sit in their leather armchairs on their commute to Manchester, ready for another day oppressing the working class.
When I visited the National Railway Museum in York, and saw the historic railway carriages, I was struck that people must have been a lot slimmer back in the day.
Let’s take Brigitte Macron’s first marriage to “banker” Andre Louis Auzière
Only one photo of him seems to exist. The wedding photo. He apparently died as a recluse in 2019 - tho the death was not announced til 9 months later. No one is sure how he died?
No one was able to find him when he was still alive. And there’s lots more:
“He [ALAuziere] never spoke about the split from his wife, and there are no recent photographs of him whatsoever.
It is not known if if either Brigitte Macron or her husband attended his funeral, or how and where he died.
A presidential spokesman said there would be 'no comment on this subject because it is of a private nature.'”
Does that sound perfectly normal? No, it doesn’t
The Elysee is hiding something. I don’t believe they are hiding the fact Mme macron is a man but I believe the reason they can’t squash this insane theory like a bug is because that would need complete honesty and it might reveal something ELSE
Starmer was here in North Wales today with Gething, who has already said his new cabinet in the Senedd will review the ending of road building and the 20 mph speed legislation under Drakeford and is even looking at the third Menai crossing
To be fair that is a good start by him, but he has a problem with the doctors who are on strike in Wales and who said they can earn more in England and Scotland NHS and that is before he takes on the farmers
I take it the farmers are still enforcing 5mph speed limits?
I don't think ending road building was ever a proposal. Some schemes were stopped, and others were not stopped.
I don;t see the default 20mph speed limit in urban areas being reviewed - aiui we are due another interim report soon, and I think the benefits will be too significant to prevent a reverse ferret.
Let’s take Brigitte Macron’s first marriage to “banker” Andre Louis Auzière
Only one photo of him seems to exist. The wedding photo. He apparently died as a recluse in 2019 - tho the death was not announced til 9 months later. No one is sure how he died?
No one was able to find him when he was still alive. And there’s lots more:
“He [ALAuziere] never spoke about the split from his wife, and there are no recent photographs of him whatsoever.
It is not known if if either Brigitte Macron or her husband attended his funeral, or how and where he died.
A presidential spokesman said there would be 'no comment on this subject because it is of a private nature.'”
Does that sound perfectly normal? No, it doesn’t
The Elysee is hiding something. I don’t believe they are hiding the fact Mme macron is a man but I believe the reason they can’t squash this insane theory like a bug is because that would need complete honesty and it might reveal something ELSE
Doubt the French will care. La Grand Passion is much respected.
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
Just before Christmas I rewatched the dramatisation of 'The History Man'. Very well worth a track down if you can.
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
I’m so old it was a known and accepted “perk of the job” for the professors at UCL Philosophy
And you know what? Good luck to them. Consenting adults. It’s not like someone is 15 and the other is his 40 year old married drama teacher who weirdly has no photos of herself aged 7 to 30
Not quite that simple. Academic dates UG from another course? Consenting adults can apply, so sure, get on with it. From the course you teach on? And mark essays, exams, coursework? Abuse of power (potentially).
And as I said, for my colleague it ended in ruin and his suicide.
How about we all just calm down and say that anyone over the age of 18 can choose any sexual partner they like - even, yes, shudder - a professor at their own university? Who actually teaches them?
We are free to disapprove, and very many would - but if you’re an adult you’re an adult. I’d apply this across the board
In our worthy attempts to protect young people we have problematised all kinds of perfectly wholesome relationships at the workplace and so on. Its prudish nonsense
The principle applied here and more generally in the world of work is “not between people with power over each other”
A professor and a student of *that professor* have a power imbalance.
Avoid that and you avoid about 99% of the problems.
Which is an arguable position (I disagree but I accept I am more at the libertarian end of the spectrum)
But it seems to me that this definition has expanded to make almost any relationship within the same institution fraught with problems unless both parties are at exactly the same level. Or so I have heard
Luckily im a wandering minstrel with no master or mistress except the cruel muse of my knapping talent, so I can ignore all these mad rules
When your daughter goes to Uni, would you be happy with her shacking up with her professor?
Let’s take Brigitte Macron’s first marriage to “banker” Andre Louis Auzière
Only one photo of him seems to exist. The wedding photo. He apparently died as a recluse in 2019 - tho the death was not announced til 9 months later. No one is sure how he died?
No one was able to find him when he was still alive. And there’s lots more:
“He [ALAuziere] never spoke about the split from his wife, and there are no recent photographs of him whatsoever.
It is not known if if either Brigitte Macron or her husband attended his funeral, or how and where he died.
A presidential spokesman said there would be 'no comment on this subject because it is of a private nature.'”
Does that sound perfectly normal? No, it doesn’t
The Elysee is hiding something. I don’t believe they are hiding the fact Mme macron is a man but I believe the reason they can’t squash this insane theory like a bug is because that would need complete honesty and it might reveal something ELSE
Doubt the French will care. La Grand Passion is much respected.
No, they do care
If you talk to the right sort of French person they gossip about this a lot
I have met two people that know these families from Amiens. One intimated to me that there is indeed a scandal, but wouldn’t say what, the other actually described her version of the scandal (or the shocking truth) but I won’t repeat it here because I don’t want to get banned - and nor do I want to get arrested in France
Let’s take Brigitte Macron’s first marriage to “banker” Andre Louis Auzière
Only one photo of him seems to exist. The wedding photo. He apparently died as a recluse in 2019 - tho the death was not announced til 9 months later. No one is sure how he died?
No one was able to find him when he was still alive. And there’s lots more:
“He [ALAuziere] never spoke about the split from his wife, and there are no recent photographs of him whatsoever.
It is not known if if either Brigitte Macron or her husband attended his funeral, or how and where he died.
A presidential spokesman said there would be 'no comment on this subject because it is of a private nature.'”
Does that sound perfectly normal? No, it doesn’t
The Elysee is hiding something. I don’t believe they are hiding the fact Mme macron is a man but I believe the reason they can’t squash this insane theory like a bug is because that would need complete honesty and it might reveal something ELSE
Doubt the French will care. La Grand Passion is much respected.
No, they do care
If you talk to the right sort of French person they gossip about this a lot
I have met two people that know these families from Amiens. One intimated to me that there is indeed a scandal, but wouldn’t say what, the other actually described her version of the scandal (or the shocking truth) but I won’t repeat it here because I don’t want to get banned - and nor do I want to get arrested in France
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
I’m so old it was a known and accepted “perk of the job” for the professors at UCL Philosophy
And you know what? Good luck to them. Consenting adults. It’s not like someone is 15 and the other is his 40 year old married drama teacher who weirdly has no photos of herself aged 7 to 30
Not quite that simple. Academic dates UG from another course? Consenting adults can apply, so sure, get on with it. From the course you teach on? And mark essays, exams, coursework? Abuse of power (potentially).
And as I said, for my colleague it ended in ruin and his suicide.
How about we all just calm down and say that anyone over the age of 18 can choose any sexual partner they like - even, yes, shudder - a professor at their own university? Who actually teaches them?
We are free to disapprove, and very many would - but if you’re an adult you’re an adult. I’d apply this across the board
In our worthy attempts to protect young people we have problematised all kinds of perfectly wholesome relationships at the workplace and so on. Its prudish nonsense
Plenty of 18-year-olds are still at school. Some are at boarding school.
Starmer was here in North Wales today with Gething, who has already said his new cabinet in the Senedd will review the ending of road building and the 20 mph speed legislation under Drakeford and is even looking at the third Menai crossing
To be fair that is a good start by him, but he has a problem with the doctors who are on strike in Wales and who said they can earn more in England and Scotland NHS and that is before he takes on the farmers
I take it the farmers are still enforcing 5mph speed limits?
I don't think ending road building was ever a proposal. Some schemes were stopped, and others were not stopped.
I don;t see the default 20mph speed limit in urban areas being reviewed - aiui we are due another interim report soon, and I think the benefits will be too significant to prevent a reverse ferret.
The 20mph limits will be reviewed and amended with the support of the local authorities, bus companies, and the Welsh government
There will not be a return to the 30mph but many roads especially here in North Wales will see changes in the speed limits
My wife and I are having our diamond anniversary at one of Llandudno's leading hotels and it has come to light that they have lost considerable business as English coach companies will not travel to Wales specifically because of this policy.
GET ME THE FUCK BACK TO COLD GREY DEPRESSING LONDON
You really don't want to be here. I am in London with a fire on, 2 thick woolly layers, a snood, wrist warmers and a blanket and am still freezing as well as looking as depressed and fed up as Whistler's Mother.
Jeez. It does look pretty bad. One nice day. Otherwise perpetual late February
It should not be 10C max and sunless in early April
Five sunny days forecast, and some cloud and rain to keep the flowers happy. What are you moaning about?
The outlook is giving moo until the 5-6th of April.
It is what the kids say to describe inelegant, ugly or unappealing: e.g.: "i look like a cow today. This outfit is giving moo."
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
Lingeri = lingo
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
It’s fine. Everyone just assumed you’re a professor who likes to go round picking up his students’ lingerie
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
Every departments got one - the academic who is just too friendly with the undergraduates. Sometimes it’s goes a bit too far. A few years ago we had an older colleague who dated and fathered a child with a PhD student (not his own). Sadly did not end well - he took his own life as lots of the brown smelly was about to hit the fan. I miss him - he was a decent sort, at heart.
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
I’m so old it was a known and accepted “perk of the job” for the professors at UCL Philosophy
And you know what? Good luck to them. Consenting adults. It’s not like someone is 15 and the other is his 40 year old married drama teacher who weirdly has no photos of herself aged 7 to 30
Not quite that simple. Academic dates UG from another course? Consenting adults can apply, so sure, get on with it. From the course you teach on? And mark essays, exams, coursework? Abuse of power (potentially).
And as I said, for my colleague it ended in ruin and his suicide.
How about we all just calm down and say that anyone over the age of 18 can choose any sexual partner they like - even, yes, shudder - a professor at their own university? Who actually teaches them?
We are free to disapprove, and very many would - but if you’re an adult you’re an adult. I’d apply this across the board
In our worthy attempts to protect young people we have problematised all kinds of perfectly wholesome relationships at the workplace and so on. Its prudish nonsense
The principle applied here and more generally in the world of work is “not between people with power over each other”
A professor and a student of *that professor* have a power imbalance.
Avoid that and you avoid about 99% of the problems.
Which is an arguable position (I disagree but I accept I am more at the libertarian end of the spectrum)
But it seems to me that this definition has expanded to make almost any relationship within the same institution fraught with problems unless both parties are at exactly the same level. Or so I have heard
Luckily im a wandering minstrel with no master or mistress except the cruel muse of my knapping talent, so I can ignore all these mad rules
When your daughter goes to Uni, would you be happy with her shacking up with her professor?
Probably not, but who knows. She might be genuinely in love and he might be a nice guy? He might make her happy? How can I know beforehand?
I married a woman 30+ years younger than me and we were very very happy
My point is the law should not get involved here and people should not be driven to suicide
Let’s take Brigitte Macron’s first marriage to “banker” Andre Louis Auzière
Only one photo of him seems to exist. The wedding photo. He apparently died as a recluse in 2019 - tho the death was not announced til 9 months later. No one is sure how he died?
No one was able to find him when he was still alive. And there’s lots more:
“He [ALAuziere] never spoke about the split from his wife, and there are no recent photographs of him whatsoever.
It is not known if if either Brigitte Macron or her husband attended his funeral, or how and where he died.
A presidential spokesman said there would be 'no comment on this subject because it is of a private nature.'”
Does that sound perfectly normal? No, it doesn’t
The Elysee is hiding something. I don’t believe they are hiding the fact Mme macron is a man but I believe the reason they can’t squash this insane theory like a bug is because that would need complete honesty and it might reveal something ELSE
Doubt the French will care. La Grand Passion is much respected.
No, they do care
If you talk to the right sort of French person they gossip about this a lot
I have met two people that know these families from Amiens. One intimated to me that there is indeed a scandal, but wouldn’t say what, the other actually described her version of the scandal (or the shocking truth) but I won’t repeat it here because I don’t want to get banned - and nor do I want to get arrested in France
Devil's Island isn't a million miles from Colombia...
Starmer was here in North Wales today with Gething, who has already said his new cabinet in the Senedd will review the ending of road building and the 20 mph speed legislation under Drakeford and is even looking at the third Menai crossing
To be fair that is a good start by him, but he has a problem with the doctors who are on strike in Wales and who said they can earn more in England and Scotland NHS and that is before he takes on the farmers
I take it the farmers are still enforcing 5mph speed limits?
I don't think ending road building was ever a proposal. Some schemes were stopped, and others were not stopped.
I don;t see the default 20mph speed limit in urban areas being reviewed - aiui we are due another interim report soon, and I think the benefits will be too significant to prevent a reverse ferret.
That's the problem with evidence-based policy making.
Let’s take Brigitte Macron’s first marriage to “banker” Andre Louis Auzière
Only one photo of him seems to exist. The wedding photo. He apparently died as a recluse in 2019 - tho the death was not announced til 9 months later. No one is sure how he died?
No one was able to find him when he was still alive. And there’s lots more:
“He [ALAuziere] never spoke about the split from his wife, and there are no recent photographs of him whatsoever.
It is not known if if either Brigitte Macron or her husband attended his funeral, or how and where he died.
A presidential spokesman said there would be 'no comment on this subject because it is of a private nature.'”
Does that sound perfectly normal? No, it doesn’t
The Elysee is hiding something. I don’t believe they are hiding the fact Mme macron is a man but I believe the reason they can’t squash this insane theory like a bug is because that would need complete honesty and it might reveal something ELSE
Doubt the French will care. La Grand Passion is much respected.
No, they do care
If you talk to the right sort of French person they gossip about this a lot
I have met two people that know these families from Amiens. One intimated to me that there is indeed a scandal, but wouldn’t say what, the other actually described her version of the scandal (or the shocking truth) but I won’t repeat it here because I don’t want to get banned - and nor do I want to get arrested in France
Macron is the son?
I’m not even going to go there. Suffice to say people that believe the Elysee is hiding something are not crazy conspiracy theorists
Starmer was here in North Wales today with Gething, who has already said his new cabinet in the Senedd will review the ending of road building and the 20 mph speed legislation under Drakeford and is even looking at the third Menai crossing
To be fair that is a good start by him, but he has a problem with the doctors who are on strike in Wales and who said they can earn more in England and Scotland NHS and that is before he takes on the farmers
I take it the farmers are still enforcing 5mph speed limits?
They certainly are in Whitehall tonight
They are being arrested and sent to jail like the Just Stop Oil activists, right?
Let’s take Brigitte Macron’s first marriage to “banker” Andre Louis Auzière
Only one photo of him seems to exist. The wedding photo. He apparently died as a recluse in 2019 - tho the death was not announced til 9 months later. No one is sure how he died?
No one was able to find him when he was still alive. And there’s lots more:
“He [ALAuziere] never spoke about the split from his wife, and there are no recent photographs of him whatsoever.
It is not known if if either Brigitte Macron or her husband attended his funeral, or how and where he died.
A presidential spokesman said there would be 'no comment on this subject because it is of a private nature.'”
Does that sound perfectly normal? No, it doesn’t
The Elysee is hiding something. I don’t believe they are hiding the fact Mme macron is a man but I believe the reason they can’t squash this insane theory like a bug is because that would need complete honesty and it might reveal something ELSE
Doubt the French will care. La Grand Passion is much respected.
No, they do care
If you talk to the right sort of French person they gossip about this a lot
I have met two people that know these families from Amiens. One intimated to me that there is indeed a scandal, but wouldn’t say what, the other actually described her version of the scandal (or the shocking truth) but I won’t repeat it here because I don’t want to get banned - and nor do I want to get arrested in France
Comments
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-war-hamas-red-heifers-from-texas-jerusalem-jewish-temple-al-aqsa/
"When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of 'bringing red cows' to the Holy Land.
The cows he was talking about are red heifers, which now graze at a secure, undisclosed location in the Israeli-occupied West Bank."
[...]
"A massive white altar awaits, where they are to be burned on a plot of land overlooking the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Mamo said the ceremony must be performed looking directly into where the ancient Second Temple stood, until it was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_heifer
(You know it, if you know it)
I like Tim's suggestion: Lee Anderson et al can opt out if they wish to.
But it's a load of balls, and wouldn't help them even if they tried it as a last throw of the dice.
Personally, I think it should be developed into a themed 'the world' seaside resort. The immediate environs of the Tower (which is already a replica of the Eiffel Tower) should become Paris, like this but a bit more budget: https://www.oyster.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/grounds-paris-las-vegas-v210807-1440-1024x683.jpg
Immediately, there should be a half-the-size replica of the Arc De Triomphe added, with a sky bar.
Paris could be Paris on its own for a while, then a further redevelopment would turn the further side of town into a replica of New York, with high rise hotels, yellow taxis, and a replica of the Statue of Liberty with a kiss me quick hat on and a Mr Whippy ice cream instead of a torch.
The you could add Chinatown, sponsored by the CCP, and if they won't stump up, it can just be sponsored by the mad Shen Yun people who hate the CCP.
It needs to be a spectacle that you can't get this side of Vegas. For people that can't get to Vegas but can get to Blackpool.
https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/why-everything-you-know-about-madrid-derby-might-be-wrong
Trouble is there’d be a local conservation association campaigning to preserve the historic amusement arcades.
If anyone wants to hire me as a consultant on this project, I've wanted to do it all my career, and I come cheap.
Any lawyers want to comment on how the French government chucked him out of the country?
This is quite an amusing/interesting YouTube channel, a guy who visits either the top hotels in the country or the worst ones, and does reviews on them. ie, one video is the Grand Hotel Scarborough or the International Hotel Canary Wharf, the next is the Ritz or Claridges. Also air travel, such as first class with Emirates.
https://www.youtube.com/@WalkWithMeTim/videos
I teach undergrads so I pick up the lingeri 😆😆😆
My keyboard was on Danish spell check 😅
While the musician faces several lawsuits alleging sexual assault, the reason for the raids in LA, Miami and New York is unclear
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/25/sean-diddy-properties-raided-homeland-security
Are there rights, of any kind, that the majority cannot strip from the majority? And, if so, what is the best way to protect them?
Nothing won’t with that. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the busybodies
https://x.com/hillelneuer/status/1772176010403856789
But stay away from the students is very, very sound advice.
She has absolutely no clue
She’s one of those Millennials who thinks “river to the sea” means the Nile and, er, like, the Pacific
And you know what? Good luck to them. Consenting adults. It’s not like someone is 15 and the other is his 40 year old married drama teacher who weirdly has no photos of herself aged 7 to 30
Turnout is perhaps 30% (estimate) - 200k votes.
I think we can possibly call this for Labour already in Notts, but turnouts are low and nationally it is all a bit Tory dominated. 2016 was more even.
2016:
They had a teenage arsonist up for burning down a building on the edge of a dockyard. Apparently the judge thought the lad wasn’t taking the proceedings seriously enough, and commented on the fact the prosecution could have asked for the death penalty.
The author, who was defending, thought the effect on the boy was way over the top.
This latest ad is nuts.
Sadiq Khan seized London? Images of New York used in place of ones from London?
What on Earth is going on at CCHQ?
You can entrench rights, but history provides ample evidence that there's no guarantee against an majority that wants to steal them.
The ECHR is, of course, one of the ways of entrenching such rights. Presumably why the illiberal right dislikes it.
To be fair that is a good start by him, but he has a problem with the doctors who are on strike in Wales and who said they can earn more in England and Scotland NHS and that is before he takes on the farmers
From the course you teach on? And mark essays, exams, coursework? Abuse of power (potentially).
And as I said, for my colleague it ended in ruin and his suicide.
But you should probably remember that you are not the target audience.
So being a man doesn't seem very likely. Only the most gullible of conspiracy theorists would fall for such transparent nonsense.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081898/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Aaronovitch
We are free to disapprove, and very many would - but if you’re an adult you’re an adult. I’d apply this across the board
In our worthy attempts to protect young people we have problematised all kinds of perfectly wholesome relationships at the workplace and so on. Its prudish nonsense
Fullish details:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_England_and_Wales_police_and_crime_commissioner_elections
Nonetheless the Elysee is behaving very strangely and is finding it very hard to flatten a conspiracy theory which is so outlandish it should be crushable in seconds
Why? As I said last night I suspect something like Kategate is going on. The Palace acted oddly around Kate’s non-visibility (and they really did - the fake photo etc) because they really were trying to hide something. Now of course we all know it was; very sadly, it was her cancer
The Elysee I think is trying to hide something awkward here, which means they cannot take the easy route of total honesty. Let’s face it the origins of the macron marriage are bizarre enough already. He was 15. She was 40 and his teacher
So you can see why they might be evasive simply from that
A professor and a student of *that professor* have a power imbalance.
Avoid that and you avoid about 99% of the problems.
https://x.com/paulmasonnews/status/1772363948232249411?t=7D7ud36NSsJmkNGv4wVp0w&s=09
https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/lord-hailsham-dead-october-2001-nee-quintin-1944718a?consentChanged=true
But it seems to me that this definition has expanded to make almost any relationship within the same institution fraught with problems unless both parties are at exactly the same level. Or so I have heard
Luckily im a wandering minstrel with no master or mistress except the cruel muse of my knapping talent, so I can ignore all these mad rules
Only one photo of him seems to exist. The wedding photo. He apparently died as a recluse in 2019 - tho the death was not announced til 9 months later. No one is sure how he died?
No one was able to find him when he was still alive. And there’s lots more:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8816409/French-Lady-Brigitte-Macrons-husband-dies-recluse-aged-69.html
“He [ALAuziere] never spoke about the split from his wife, and there are no recent photographs of him whatsoever.
It is not known if if either Brigitte Macron or her husband attended his funeral, or how and where he died.
A presidential spokesman said there would be 'no comment on this subject because it is of a private nature.'”
Does that sound perfectly normal? No, it doesn’t
The Elysee is hiding something. I don’t believe they are hiding the fact Mme macron is a man but I believe the reason they can’t squash this insane theory like a bug is because that would need complete honesty and it might reveal something ELSE
I don;t see the default 20mph speed limit in urban areas being reviewed - aiui we are due another interim report soon, and I think the benefits will be too significant to prevent a reverse ferret.
If you talk to the right sort of French person they gossip about this a lot
I have met two people that know these families from Amiens. One intimated to me that there is indeed a scandal, but wouldn’t say what, the other actually described her version of the scandal (or the shocking truth) but I won’t repeat it here because I don’t want to get banned - and nor do I want to get arrested in France
There will not be a return to the 30mph but many roads especially here in North Wales will see changes in the speed limits
My wife and I are having our diamond anniversary at one of Llandudno's leading hotels and it has come to light that they have lost considerable business as English coach companies will not travel to Wales specifically because of this policy.
I married a woman 30+ years younger than me and we were very very happy
My point is the law should not get involved here and people should not be driven to suicide
I’m not even going to go there. Suffice to say people that believe the Elysee is hiding something are not crazy conspiracy theorists