I'd love someone to correct me, as this is from memory;
One of the problems with Heathrow expansion is that the vastly costly third runway (not including connecting infrastructure costs...) only increases capacity enough for it to be pretty much full by the time it is finally finished.
And further expansion is even more expensive.
The answer is a new, less constrained site, where you can build three or four runways (the new Istanbul airport has five) and improved facilities, with room for more expansion.
Either that, or try to restrict passenger usage of planes by doing a French-style domestic restriction - banning flights if there is a competitive high-speed rail route. But that involves having a high-speed rail network...)
The quick and dirty fix for Heathrow is to let it take over RAF Northolt next door.
RAF Northolt 'next door' ????
Yes. RAF Northolt is next door to Heathrow (both are in the London Borough of Hillingdon)
(Snip)
The residents of Hayes and Hillingdon may beg to differ at that...
Edit: Northolt's single runway (1,600m) is also under half the length of Heathrow's runways 3,600/3,990m), and without much room for expansion.
So send it the smaller planes. It is not ideal but RAF Northolt is already there (and already serves as a private airport for VIPs) so would not take decades of planning inquiries before the whole thing is forgotten. As I said, it would be a quick and dirty fix.
Perhaps we could pioneer an innovative distributed airport with a gigantic underground circle line to link the terminals.
Am somewhat curious, as to why it took sooooooo long before "Trent" got the dreaded/coveted PB Ban Hammer?
Seeing as it was obvious from post #1 that "Trent" was yet another Grade F Putin-Bot sub-cadet.
His MO was to take it as far as he could without crossing any of the obvious red lines (on vaccines etc), while at the same time starting arguments on, for example, dealing with dementia, and feeding in latest lines on why (with croc tears) Ukraine can’t win.
He was an obvious Putin-Bot cadet from the get-go. Just sayin'.
This must be a joke. Not even the Russians could be this stoopid...
"The Moscow Crocus City Hall terrorists probably had brain chips implanted by Western intelligence agencies that together with neuro-linguistic programming coordinated their actions,"
I'd love someone to correct me, as this is from memory;
One of the problems with Heathrow expansion is that the vastly costly third runway (not including connecting infrastructure costs...) only increases capacity enough for it to be pretty much full by the time it is finally finished.
And further expansion is even more expensive.
The answer is a new, less constrained site, where you can build three or four runways (the new Istanbul airport has five) and improved facilities, with room for more expansion.
Either that, or try to restrict passenger usage of planes by doing a French-style domestic restriction - banning flights if there is a competitive high-speed rail route. But that involves having a high-speed rail network...)
The quick and dirty fix for Heathrow is to let it take over RAF Northolt next door.
RAF Northolt 'next door' ????
Yes. RAF Northolt is next door to Heathrow (both are in the London Borough of Hillingdon)
(Snip)
The residents of Hayes and Hillingdon may beg to differ at that...
Edit: Northolt's single runway (1,600m) is also under half the length of Heathrow's runways 3,600/3,990m), and without much room for expansion.
Some years ago a 707 accidently landed there thinking it was Heathrow. It took a while to get it back out.
Edit: I think we've had this before on PB, and the truth might be a little different, although not completely so. I just recall my father's tales quite well, and corrections less so.
"Later that year, on 25 October, a Pan Am Boeing 707, heading for Heathrow, mistakenly landed at Northolt with forty-one passengers on board. A Lufthansa Boeing 707 also attempted to land at the station on 28 April 1964 but was dissuaded by a red signal flare fired by personnel from Air Traffic Control."
France is preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine, which will include hundreds of "old but serviceable" armored vehicles and Aster missiles, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu has said in an interview with La Tribune, Le Monde reports. https://twitter.com/Hromadske/status/1774355574672458035
France is one of the countries that is starting to understand the threat
The threat from Europe's point of view is that the US drops the baton if Trump is elected. All European countries, including us, should be gearing up to fill the hole if that happens.
The point of all the tedious Trent style propaganda is to create a perception that the Russian invasion can't be defeated, and that we should bow to the inevitable.
It's considerably more likely that a regular and reliable supply of western arms would see the opposite outcome.
And Putin isn't offering peace anyway. He's demanding capitulation, with no guarantees.
We can stop him now, or we can stop him next time, when he's rebuilt his military, at far greater cost.
What is clear, sadly, is that last summer's offensive campaign by Ukraine was a disaster. I think that there was a belief that the superior kit that they had received from NATO could cut through where the Russians had failed and they learned at terrible cost that that was not the case. There were also delusions that the Russians were running out of kit, ammunition, missiles, even men and one more heave could see their collapse. These delusions proved wildly optimistic and costly. Even with modern tech defence has enormous advantages in both shaping and using the battlefield to expose your enemy to the unspeakable power of modern weaponry.
Ukraine now face several years of grim defence slowly losing ground for Russian lives. It is not an enticing prospect but we need to do all we can to help them.
The thing that can change the calculation is long range weaponry. With long range weaponry Ukraine can hit Russian equipment and supplies away from the front line, and they can inflict damage without incurring casualties with a direct assault.
Two years into the war and Ukraine still has fewer artillery shells, isn't being provided with all the long-range weapons the West has available, and it's having to rely on it's own drone developments to try to fill the gap.
There's a route to victory for Ukraine which lies in providing Taurus, ATACMs, and using the much-vaunted economic superiority of the West to produce long-range missiles and artillery shells in sufficient quantity to obliterate the Russian Army from a distance. Get It Done.
The Storm Shadows have certainly had a major impact, particularly in the Black Sea and they show the merits of your point. What we certainly need to do is to make the price of continued warfare simply unbearable for Russia bringing down Putin and his gang. Longer range weapons are a good way to do that and to retaliate against the never ending destruction of Ukrainian cities. I believe we can and should do this.
I think this is where we see evidence of Ukraine suffering for the absence of Boris Johnson.
We saw it with cycle infrastructure in London, with resolving the Brexit impasse, with the vaccines and with sending ammunition and weapons in February 2022. There have been these times when Boris Johnson recognised what needed to be done and made sure it was done, regardless of who it upset, or whether it broke convention.
I didn't like the man. I cheered his downfall. But it seems clear that his successors, and other Western leaders, have failed to measure up to the example he set on Ukraine.
Nonsense. Johnson actually did rather little for Ukraine. He used his full skillset to make it look much more. Germany has delivered much more, but quietly.
Germany has delivered more because it has more to give, but I think Johnson would have spent the money necessary to start up the production lines to produce new kit to send.
Johnson made sure that Ukraine had the equipment it needed to defend Kyiv in the first month of the war - at a time when Germany was promising to send non-lethal equipment only.
That help was delivered before the invasion. It was actually Ben Wallace's project pushed through in the face of Boris Johnson's scepticism.
Johnson very quickly identified the bandwagon and he jumped on quick. Rhetoric does matter and Johnson is good at it. But it had no effect at all on the Russian advance. For that you need hard weapons and cash. The main suppliers of those have been elsewhere.
Im.not sure now what the west is trying to achieve in ukraine. They seem to be supplying ukraine with just enough to allow them to lose slowly. Surely its best upping the ante and going all in or calli g for peace.
I am in favour of supplying them with nuclear weapons. Big, fuck off ones. That’s the kind of message that sticks in the mind.
Sure if you want to be incinerated in a mushroom cloud.
Why wouldn't you want Ukraine to have nuclear weapons?
Ukraine is losing and desperate so launches a nuclear attack on Moscow. Moscow responds by nuking Kyiv and other western cities perhaps. Everyone loses.
So you would support giving them tactical nukes?
I dont like nuclear escalation period so no.
If you are not in favour of 'nuclear escalation', then you should be calling for Ukraine to win ASAP.
Many appeasers say things like: "Russia may use their nukes against us!!!!!" as a reason not to support Ukraine, or minimise our support.
That is stupid one-dimensional thinking. Because *every* state, and perhaps even some non-state actors, will be watching what is happening and thinking: "Aha! Just the possession of nuclear weapons will protect me if I do EVIL!", and hence try to become nuclear-capable. In the same way the appeasers protect Russia.
And hence the appeaser's argument becomes one for increased proliferation, and an increased chance of becoming cinders.
Which is so obvious that I wonder why they call for it. Either because they're too stoopid to realise that is where it will lead, or because they actually want Russia to 'win'...
Which are you?
But sadly i dont think a ukrainian win is possible now so your point is moot.They dont have either the men or equipment.
You are like the sneak at school snitching to the teacher who everyone hates. Elon Musk agrees with me and i imagine he has considerable more knowledge than yourself.
You're not a teacher; you're a troll.
Correction, was a troll. Which reminds me, no Leon today?
He did an "I'm off" yesterday.
That's a shame. We need Leon.
I imagine he panicked when he realised the true implication of his AI literary editor anecdote. As he told it, authors would in future use AI editors which can do a human editor's work in minutes.
Jeffrey Archer's novels are known for being heavily edited and in one documentary, the man who did it was asked why he could not write his own novels and achieve Archer-level fame and fortune. He replied that he needed the first draft.
That is @Leon's problem. It is not that authors will no longer need human editors but that editors can in future use AI to write that crucial first draft which they can fix up and publish. Claude, write me a 50,000-word thriller about a travel writing serial killer. Editors and publishers will no longer need prima donna authors to hog the limelight and more importantly the royalties. Authors will be first on the scrap heap.
A sad news report about a political activist coming to the same conclusion most do - "she will not put her fingers in letterboxes again" - but unfortunately in her case too late: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-68703087
A colleague in my canvassing/leafleting days was a postman. Some very useful tips about putting fingers in letterboxes and the like!
If party activists ever had any influence on party policy then spring loaded letterboxes would have been banned generations ago.
And door-step level ones!
Also those annoying whiskers. It's not as though a bit of a draught is going to kill anyone.
The most terrifying thing for me is when some psychopathic banshee* hurles itself against the door and the door actually bulges and for one terrible second you contemplate the consequences of it bursting open and just how painful your death is going to be.
* also known as a dog, wouldn’t hurt a fly, of course.**
With respect to danger to canvassers' fingers from what lurks behind door letter-slots in United Kingdom AND Ireland, learned this lesson the hard way decades ago, while delivering leaflets for (ultimately successful) candidate for the Dail in Dublin Central constituency.
Thanks to a wee yappy doggie - damn the cur!
Lucky to still have full complement of fingers & finger joints.
A sad news report about a political activist coming to the same conclusion most do - "she will not put her fingers in letterboxes again" - but unfortunately in her case too late: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-68703087
A colleague in my canvassing/leafleting days was a postman. Some very useful tips about putting fingers in letterboxes and the like!
If party activists ever had any influence on party policy then spring loaded letterboxes would have been banned generations ago.
And door-step level ones!
Also those annoying whiskers. It's not as though a bit of a draught is going to kill anyone.
The most terrifying thing for me is when some psychopathic banshee* hurles itself against the door and the door actually bulges and for one terrible second you contemplate the consequences of it bursting open and just how painful your death is going to be.
* also known as a dog, wouldn’t hurt a fly, of course.**
** unfortunately I am not a fly.
On the other hand, it can be quite funny when the sound of an unfed Hound of the Baskervilles is heard approaching on the other side of an open door, only to manifest itself as a ridiculous tiny little chihuahua.
I concur with the short vid that normal bail conditions have not been applied to Trump. If a defendant is considered to be a threat to even one member of the public, they receive pre-trial detention rather than bail.
There has never been a criminal trial of a former US President before, and the institutions are being timid and are fighting shy of applying the law equally.
It's an indicator that the system needs an overhaul.
Am somewhat curious, as to why it took sooooooo long before "Trent" got the dreaded/coveted PB Ban Hammer?
Seeing as it was obvious from post #1 that "Trent" was yet another Grade F Putin-Bot sub-cadet.
His MO was to take it as far as he could without crossing any of the obvious red lines (on vaccines etc), while at the same time starting arguments on, for example, dealing with dementia, and feeding in latest lines on why (with croc tears) Ukraine can’t win.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
I concur with the short vid that normal bail conditions have not been applied to Trump. If a defendant is considered to be a threat to even one member of the public, they receive pre-trial detention rather than bail.
There has never been a criminal trial of a former US President before, and the institutions are being timid and are fighting shy of applying the law equally.
It's an indicator that the system needs an overhaul.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
From today's paper. Leon's home sounds a damn sight more interesting than those deserted resorts he photographs past a half-full beer glass in an empty bar.
TD of V has been on March 31st since it started in 2009. Similarly, the rules for the painted heggs have not been changed.
It's funny that tolerance for trans is taken as such an affront to Christianity.
Understandable in relation to practising homosexuals, as the Bible prescribes capital punishment for that. But as far as I know there's nothing in the Law or the Prophets about stoning trans people.
TD of V has been on March 31st since it started in 2009. Similarly, the rules for the painted heggs have not been changed.
It's funny that tolerance for trans is taken as such an affront to Christianity.
Understandable in relation to practising homosexuals, as the Bible prescribes capital punishment for that. But as far as I know there's nothing in the Law or the Prophets about stoning trans people.
Jesus didn't say anything against homosexuals or Trans.
I don't see why the Easter Eggs at the White House lawn roll couldn't have some Christian messages though as long as they weren't hateful messages
If it gets repealed (and God forbid Trump wins) we could have a Trump vs Obama election in 2028.
Which is why Congress would never give repeal of it the 2/3 majority required as Republicans don't want Obama back anymore than Democrats want Trump back
TD of V has been on March 31st since it started in 2009. Similarly, the rules for the painted heggs have not been changed.
It's funny that tolerance for trans is taken as such an affront to Christianity.
Understandable in relation to practising homosexuals, as the Bible prescribes capital punishment for that. But as far as I know there's nothing in the Law or the Prophets about stoning trans people.
Jesus didn't say anything against homosexuals or Trans.
But the Law did say practising homosexuals were to be executed, and as far as I remember Jesus did say not one jot or tittle etc?
Not even Jeremy Corbyn disliked the UK as much as the Tories do.
Hi from London, “crime capital of the world”. In Birmingham? Beware “rotting rubbish” and “boarded-up buildings”. Manchester is “the worst city in Europe for eco-friendly transport”. The ruling party’s new social media campaign is doing wonders for tourism
You have to admire the cheek of criticising a lack of eco-friendly transport in Manchester while railing against London's cycle lanes.
The local cycle lanes appear to have been designed by people who once saw a picture of a bicycle. After being dug and rebuilt multiple times., they are slightly less insane.
Just need to take out the electric moped riders who push all the other users out of them.
Having just got a 'road' bike after decades of riding mountain bikes, I'm surprised how different the experience is. I was a very relaxed cyclist on a mountain bike, as it could go over *most* potholes and imperfections on the road, allowing me to get closer to the kerb. I am trying to go faster on my road bike, and I feel any imperfections of the road's surface on my bum and hands, so I ride wider and faster.
It's a rather different mental state, and a somewhat more 'aggressive' one.
I commute on a gravel bike which is a good compromise imo. The 40c tyres take most of the hits.
But this is a wider problem with cycling in the UK. Most cyclists dress for battle - helmets, lights, high vis, riding on the drops. The objective is as short a trip as possible, rather than most enjoyable. The cycle lanes are often hand laid and deeply uncomfortable to ride on, and the roads are experiencing an enormous increase in larger vehicle traffic and therefore potholes (fourth power law).
Contrast to Europe. Sedate, no helmets, step-through, 50:50 gender balance, slow paced, no need for a shower. That's what London and the rest of the UK need to achieve.
(FYI cycling close up the kerb is advised against - less reaction time for vehicles pulling out of side roads, less visible to cars from behind, induces close passes, more likely to hit a pedestrian.)
TD of V has been on March 31st since it started in 2009. Similarly, the rules for the painted heggs have not been changed.
It's funny that tolerance for trans is taken as such an affront to Christianity.
Understandable in relation to practising homosexuals, as the Bible prescribes capital punishment for that. But as far as I know there's nothing in the Law or the Prophets about stoning trans people.
Jesus didn't say anything against homosexuals or Trans.
But the Law did say practising homosexuals were to be executed, and as far as I remember Jesus did say not one jot or tittle etc?
He brought the new covenant, otherwise Christians would still be Jews based solely on the Old Testament
TD of V has been on March 31st since it started in 2009. Similarly, the rules for the painted heggs have not been changed.
It's funny that tolerance for trans is taken as such an affront to Christianity.
Understandable in relation to practising homosexuals, as the Bible prescribes capital punishment for that. But as far as I know there's nothing in the Law or the Prophets about stoning trans people.
Jesus didn't say anything against homosexuals or Trans.
But the Law did say practising homosexuals were to be executed, and as far as I remember Jesus did say not one jot or tittle etc?
He brought the new covenant, otherwise Christians would still be Jews based solely on the Old Testament
Well I suppose you must have some way of reconciling it all.
But I'd be reassured if it were based on something a bit more sophisticated than "That can't be true, otherwise I'd be Jewish!"
We don’t know what the future will bring in Ukraine but you’re either on the right or wrong side of history .
What the west does in terms of help impacts not just Ukraine but bad actors leading other countries . Putin wants to destroy Ukraine . We can’t stand idly by whilst a European country ceases to exist .
There is no middle ground here , you’re either with Ukraine or you’re not .
Thats hyperbolic. Putin doesnt want to destroy ukraine if they sue for peace. Obviously if they dont Putin will go all out for the win which includes destroying ukraines energy infrastructure to make ukraine uninhabitable.
He absolutely does want to destroy 'Ukraine', in that he wants to destroy the Ukrainian identity, because as far as he's concerned, that identity does not exist. He's made that very clear in his long rambling and fictional rantings about Ukrainian 'history'.
That attempt to destroy Ukrainian identity is also why he's importing Russians into Ukrainian territory he holds, and expelling many Ukrainians. It's also one reason the Ukrainians are fighting so hard.
Here is an article by Vladimir Putin on Russia, entitled "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians". Can you point to anywhere in it, from the title on, where he says or suggests that the Ukrainian identity does not exist? I would call him a neo-colonialist but that's different.
I said that Russians and Ukrainians were one people – a single whole
He denies the existence of an *independent* Ukrainian identity
How about you address the question: where does he suggest that the Ukrainian identity does not exist?
It's clear that he argues for an eternal bond with Russia and is essentially a neo-colonialist. He wants Ukraine in the Russian sphere of influence. Many Ukrainians don't. None of that is disputed. Of course that is not independence. But I thought we were talking about identity.
We don’t know what the future will bring in Ukraine but you’re either on the right or wrong side of history .
What the west does in terms of help impacts not just Ukraine but bad actors leading other countries . Putin wants to destroy Ukraine . We can’t stand idly by whilst a European country ceases to exist .
There is no middle ground here , you’re either with Ukraine or you’re not .
Thats hyperbolic. Putin doesnt want to destroy ukraine if they sue for peace. Obviously if they dont Putin will go all out for the win which includes destroying ukraines energy infrastructure to make ukraine uninhabitable.
He absolutely does want to destroy 'Ukraine', in that he wants to destroy the Ukrainian identity, because as far as he's concerned, that identity does not exist. He's made that very clear in his long rambling and fictional rantings about Ukrainian 'history'.
That attempt to destroy Ukrainian identity is also why he's importing Russians into Ukrainian territory he holds, and expelling many Ukrainians. It's also one reason the Ukrainians are fighting so hard.
Here is an article by Vladimir Putin on Russia, entitled "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians". Can you point to anywhere in it, from the title on, where he says or suggests that the Ukrainian identity does not exist? I would call him a neo-colonialist but that's different.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
Back when the area was redeveloped, the locals were systematically pushed out. It was quite brutally done.
I concur with the short vid that normal bail conditions have not been applied to Trump. If a defendant is considered to be a threat to even one member of the public, they receive pre-trial detention rather than bail.
There has never been a criminal trial of a former US President before, and the institutions are being timid and are fighting shy of applying the law equally.
It's an indicator that the system needs an overhaul.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
Back when the area was redeveloped, the locals were systematically pushed out. It was quite brutally done.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
I spent 6 months living in a bedsit at the top of Grays Inn Road by the Scala. 1999. I got propositioned whilst walking to work at 8 in the morning...
Not even Jeremy Corbyn disliked the UK as much as the Tories do.
Hi from London, “crime capital of the world”. In Birmingham? Beware “rotting rubbish” and “boarded-up buildings”. Manchester is “the worst city in Europe for eco-friendly transport”. The ruling party’s new social media campaign is doing wonders for tourism
You have to admire the cheek of criticising a lack of eco-friendly transport in Manchester while railing against London's cycle lanes.
The local cycle lanes appear to have been designed by people who once saw a picture of a bicycle. After being dug and rebuilt multiple times., they are slightly less insane.
Just need to take out the electric moped riders who push all the other users out of them.
Having just got a 'road' bike after decades of riding mountain bikes, I'm surprised how different the experience is. I was a very relaxed cyclist on a mountain bike, as it could go over *most* potholes and imperfections on the road, allowing me to get closer to the kerb. I am trying to go faster on my road bike, and I feel any imperfections of the road's surface on my bum and hands, so I ride wider and faster.
It's a rather different mental state, and a somewhat more 'aggressive' one.
I commute on a gravel bike which is a good compromise imo. The 40c tyres take most of the hits.
But this is a wider problem with cycling in the UK. Most cyclists dress for battle - helmets, lights, high vis, riding on the drops. The objective is as short a trip as possible, rather than most enjoyable. The cycle lanes are often hand laid and deeply uncomfortable to ride on, and the roads are experiencing an enormous increase in larger vehicle traffic and therefore potholes (fourth power law).
Contrast to Europe. Sedate, no helmets, step-through, 50:50 gender balance, slow paced, no need for a shower. That's what London and the rest of the UK need to achieve.
(FYI cycling close up the kerb is advised against - less reaction time for vehicles pulling out of side roads, less visible to cars from behind, induces close passes, more likely to hit a pedestrian.)
TBF, I'm i the 'battle' group at the moment because I'm training for my first sprint triathlon. I just want to ensure I won't be last. Oh, and complete the bugger.
I'm discovering the mindset is rather different when trying to go fast instead of pootling around slowly. Although I did around 70km yesterday and really enjoyed it. Generally quiet country roads, though.
As I'm coming from a running background, I actually feel more threatened when running on roads rather than cycling. So far, at least...
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
The glory days of King's Cross ended on the second of January 1982.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
From today's paper. Leon's home sounds a damn sight more interesting than those deserted resorts he photographs past a half-full beer glass in an empty bar.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
From today's paper. Leon's home sounds a damn sight more interesting than those deserted resorts he photographs past a half-full beer glass in an empty bar.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
I spent 6 months living in a bedsit at the top of Grays Inn Road by the Scala. 1999. I got propositioned whilst walking to work at 8 in the morning...
Back in the early 2000’s (before trains ran 24/7 to Luton Airport), I found myself stranded after a Masonic binge. So, I booked into a cheap hotel in King’s Cross, only to discover that it was a brothel.
I am down in East Wight for the holiday, so looking at the MRP gives me pause for thought. This seat has never been Labour, not in 1997 or 1945, but has been LD in recent times, and had a strong Green vote at last GE. The Isle of Wight has a low income economy, but surely one of the oldest demographics in the country. Can it really be a Lab gain as this MRP suggests?
The Greens have hit their ceiling it seems, and LDs haven't done well in recent GE, with Lab in second place in the last 2 GE (all Island wide of course). The obvious tactical vote here is for Lab, but Lab aren't going to sweep up it all. The Green vote here is more green than Corbynite, so squeezable, but a good well known candidate, with flyers out in a hipster pub that I went to last night, but limited ground game.
So I really don't know. I wonder what @IanB2 thinks?
I think this kind of critique of an MRP is misplaced. No model is going to catch the various local intricacies of voting patterns, and the importance of each demographic factor will change constituency by constituency, candidate by candidate. This is even more obvious in Scotland, with some very odd predictions coming out of the MRP.
It does work on a national level for England and Wales, assuming that everything averages out to what their model suggests.
I treat the seat by seat predictions with a pinch of salt and look instead at the overall picture. The ELE election is no longer an absurd assumption - its real, its shown in repeated polls as a possibility, and the longer we go with more and more polls showing the same, the more baked in that assumption gets.
ELE does one of two things. For a country where even the Tory voters are sick of the Tories, the prospect of obliterating this disgrace of a party becomes tangible, exciting, desirable. Remember that in 1997 the Labour landslide only happened because of a pile on - the desire to hurt the Tories.
However, the further down the ELE road we get, the more that a Labour super-landslide causes its own problems. My assumption is that MRP gets the seat by seat bit wrong in that it starts applying national % and swing by (new) seat and coming up with bonkers. Yes, in a demolition election you can win from 3rd. But some of the seat assumptions are silly. I have to assume more LD seats because thats what both polling, council seats on the ground and sanity suggests.
You could apply a crude adjustment to those seats where Labour is 3rd to get a feeling for how tactical voting changes things.
I think a further one as well - because it is true that Labour should win some from third. Just not necessarily the ones highlighted. (I mean, over and above my own constituency, Labour coming from 12% in a very poor third place in Carshalton and Wallington to a photo-finish with the LDs for the win just looks wrong).
Seats where Labour is 3rd and significantly back from second, where the LDs are a clear second (especially where they held the constituency very recently) and where local council strength forms a stark difference would be ones where you'd suggest would go one way.
Ones where the third place is pretty close to second, or the second place is still a very long way back, and where local strength is either similar or absent for both LDs and Labour would point to places where the air war would be a far bigger factor, and you might well see real shocks from third.
You could then go seat by seat to estimate tactical voting (or lack of it). A pretty big task and unavoidably subjective.
The trouble is that the questionable predictions we are seeing with the latest survey (and its ilk) do have real world ramifications. There will be many seats in the Blue Wall where voters would be fine having a LibDem MP but would react against having a Labour one.
As such, whilst disgruntled Tories may sit on their hands and not vote to prevent the former, they will come out to prevent the latter.
If I were a Tory MP in some of the seats mentioned I would be secretly quite pleased about this survey and play up the supposed threat of a Labour victory in my area. It may give a few of them just the extra votes they need to hold on.
It would be interesting to see polling on that. My impression is that most voters can no longer see a difference between LDs and Lab. Partisans like us think they should, but IMO most anti-Tory voters simply want one or the other and don't much care which.
I concur with the short vid that normal bail conditions have not been applied to Trump. If a defendant is considered to be a threat to even one member of the public, they receive pre-trial detention rather than bail.
There has never been a criminal trial of a former US President before, and the institutions are being timid and are fighting shy of applying the law equally.
It's an indicator that the system needs an overhaul.
Donald Trump clearly WANTS to be jailed - if only for a brief period - BEFORE the November 2024 election.
Personally am NOT all that eager to see him get his wish.
No, and indeed I'm not eager to see anyone in jail prior to trial and conviction. However, the fact is that people are detained prior to trial if they pose a risk to others, whether because the nature of the offences means they are an immediate risk to others if they are guilty, or because they are themselves interferring with witnesses or others involved in the process (such as lawyers, court staff and their families) or are encouraging others to do so.
That is the problem here. I agree detaining Trump would quite possibly boost him politically. But that risk cannot be allowed to take precedence over an assessed risk to individuals. In this case, I don't know enough to assess the risk, but publishing photos of the daughter of the judge in your case to some, er, enthusiastic followers on social media feels at least close to the line.
I am down in East Wight for the holiday, so looking at the MRP gives me pause for thought. This seat has never been Labour, not in 1997 or 1945, but has been LD in recent times, and had a strong Green vote at last GE. The Isle of Wight has a low income economy, but surely one of the oldest demographics in the country. Can it really be a Lab gain as this MRP suggests?
The Greens have hit their ceiling it seems, and LDs haven't done well in recent GE, with Lab in second place in the last 2 GE (all Island wide of course). The obvious tactical vote here is for Lab, but Lab aren't going to sweep up it all. The Green vote here is more green than Corbynite, so squeezable, but a good well known candidate, with flyers out in a hipster pub that I went to last night, but limited ground game.
So I really don't know. I wonder what @IanB2 thinks?
I think this kind of critique of an MRP is misplaced. No model is going to catch the various local intricacies of voting patterns, and the importance of each demographic factor will change constituency by constituency, candidate by candidate. This is even more obvious in Scotland, with some very odd predictions coming out of the MRP.
It does work on a national level for England and Wales, assuming that everything averages out to what their model suggests.
I treat the seat by seat predictions with a pinch of salt and look instead at the overall picture. The ELE election is no longer an absurd assumption - its real, its shown in repeated polls as a possibility, and the longer we go with more and more polls showing the same, the more baked in that assumption gets.
ELE does one of two things. For a country where even the Tory voters are sick of the Tories, the prospect of obliterating this disgrace of a party becomes tangible, exciting, desirable. Remember that in 1997 the Labour landslide only happened because of a pile on - the desire to hurt the Tories.
However, the further down the ELE road we get, the more that a Labour super-landslide causes its own problems. My assumption is that MRP gets the seat by seat bit wrong in that it starts applying national % and swing by (new) seat and coming up with bonkers. Yes, in a demolition election you can win from 3rd. But some of the seat assumptions are silly. I have to assume more LD seats because thats what both polling, council seats on the ground and sanity suggests.
You could apply a crude adjustment to those seats where Labour is 3rd to get a feeling for how tactical voting changes things.
I think a further one as well - because it is true that Labour should win some from third. Just not necessarily the ones highlighted. (I mean, over and above my own constituency, Labour coming from 12% in a very poor third place in Carshalton and Wallington to a photo-finish with the LDs for the win just looks wrong).
Seats where Labour is 3rd and significantly back from second, where the LDs are a clear second (especially where they held the constituency very recently) and where local council strength forms a stark difference would be ones where you'd suggest would go one way.
Ones where the third place is pretty close to second, or the second place is still a very long way back, and where local strength is either similar or absent for both LDs and Labour would point to places where the air war would be a far bigger factor, and you might well see real shocks from third.
You could then go seat by seat to estimate tactical voting (or lack of it). A pretty big task and unavoidably subjective.
The trouble is that the questionable predictions we are seeing with the latest survey (and its ilk) do have real world ramifications. There will be many seats in the Blue Wall where voters would be fine having a LibDem MP but would react against having a Labour one.
As such, whilst disgruntled Tories may sit on their hands and not vote to prevent the former, they will come out to prevent the latter.
If I were a Tory MP in some of the seats mentioned I would be secretly quite pleased about this survey and play up the supposed threat of a Labour victory in my area. It may give a few of them just the extra votes they need to hold on.
It would be interesting to see polling on that. My impression is that most voters can no longer see a difference between LDs and Lab. Partisans like us think they should, but IMO most anti-Tory voters simply want one or the other and don't much care which.
Am in Tunbridge Wells for Easter at my parents, a top 50 LD target seat and already they have had 4 LD leaflets.
Most of which with the usual barcharts and 'Labour can't win here'
Not even Jeremy Corbyn disliked the UK as much as the Tories do.
Hi from London, “crime capital of the world”. In Birmingham? Beware “rotting rubbish” and “boarded-up buildings”. Manchester is “the worst city in Europe for eco-friendly transport”. The ruling party’s new social media campaign is doing wonders for tourism
You have to admire the cheek of criticising a lack of eco-friendly transport in Manchester while railing against London's cycle lanes.
The local cycle lanes appear to have been designed by people who once saw a picture of a bicycle. After being dug and rebuilt multiple times., they are slightly less insane.
Just need to take out the electric moped riders who push all the other users out of them.
Having just got a 'road' bike after decades of riding mountain bikes, I'm surprised how different the experience is. I was a very relaxed cyclist on a mountain bike, as it could go over *most* potholes and imperfections on the road, allowing me to get closer to the kerb. I am trying to go faster on my road bike, and I feel any imperfections of the road's surface on my bum and hands, so I ride wider and faster.
It's a rather different mental state, and a somewhat more 'aggressive' one.
I commute on a gravel bike which is a good compromise imo. The 40c tyres take most of the hits.
But this is a wider problem with cycling in the UK. Most cyclists dress for battle - helmets, lights, high vis, riding on the drops. The objective is as short a trip as possible, rather than most enjoyable. The cycle lanes are often hand laid and deeply uncomfortable to ride on, and the roads are experiencing an enormous increase in larger vehicle traffic and therefore potholes (fourth power law).
Contrast to Europe. Sedate, no helmets, step-through, 50:50 gender balance, slow paced, no need for a shower. That's what London and the rest of the UK need to achieve.
(FYI cycling close up the kerb is advised against - less reaction time for vehicles pulling out of side roads, less visible to cars from behind, induces close passes, more likely to hit a pedestrian.)
TBF, I'm i the 'battle' group at the moment because I'm training for my first sprint triathlon. I just want to ensure I won't be last. Oh, and complete the bugger.
I'm discovering the mindset is rather different when trying to go fast instead of pootling around slowly. Although I did around 70km yesterday and really enjoyed it. Generally quiet country roads, though.
As I'm coming from a running background, I actually feel more threatened when running on roads rather than cycling. So far, at least...
I have given up jogging now, and just walk sometimes on country roads. What I don't like is the fact that when there is a pavement to walk on in a village , the speed limit is 30, but when the pavement runs out and I have to actually walk in the road with the traffic, the limit goes up to 60!
France is preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine, which will include hundreds of "old but serviceable" armored vehicles and Aster missiles, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu has said in an interview with La Tribune, Le Monde reports. https://twitter.com/Hromadske/status/1774355574672458035
France is one of the countries that is starting to understand the threat
The threat from Europe's point of view is that the US drops the baton if Trump is elected. All European countries, including us, should be gearing up to fill the hole if that happens.
The point of all the tedious Trent style propaganda is to create a perception that the Russian invasion can't be defeated, and that we should bow to the inevitable.
It's considerably more likely that a regular and reliable supply of western arms would see the opposite outcome.
And Putin isn't offering peace anyway. He's demanding capitulation, with no guarantees.
We can stop him now, or we can stop him next time, when he's rebuilt his military, at far greater cost.
What is clear, sadly, is that last summer's offensive campaign by Ukraine was a disaster. I think that there was a belief that the superior kit that they had received from NATO could cut through where the Russians had failed and they learned at terrible cost that that was not the case. There were also delusions that the Russians were running out of kit, ammunition, missiles, even men and one more heave could see their collapse. These delusions proved wildly optimistic and costly. Even with modern tech defence has enormous advantages in both shaping and using the battlefield to expose your enemy to the unspeakable power of modern weaponry.
Ukraine now face several years of grim defence slowly losing ground for Russian lives. It is not an enticing prospect but we need to do all we can to help them.
The thing that can change the calculation is long range weaponry. With long range weaponry Ukraine can hit Russian equipment and supplies away from the front line, and they can inflict damage without incurring casualties with a direct assault.
Two years into the war and Ukraine still has fewer artillery shells, isn't being provided with all the long-range weapons the West has available, and it's having to rely on it's own drone developments to try to fill the gap.
There's a route to victory for Ukraine which lies in providing Taurus, ATACMs, and using the much-vaunted economic superiority of the West to produce long-range missiles and artillery shells in sufficient quantity to obliterate the Russian Army from a distance. Get It Done.
The Storm Shadows have certainly had a major impact, particularly in the Black Sea and they show the merits of your point. What we certainly need to do is to make the price of continued warfare simply unbearable for Russia bringing down Putin and his gang. Longer range weapons are a good way to do that and to retaliate against the never ending destruction of Ukrainian cities. I believe we can and should do this.
I think this is where we see evidence of Ukraine suffering for the absence of Boris Johnson.
We saw it with cycle infrastructure in London, with resolving the Brexit impasse, with the vaccines and with sending ammunition and weapons in February 2022. There have been these times when Boris Johnson recognised what needed to be done and made sure it was done, regardless of who it upset, or whether it broke convention.
I didn't like the man. I cheered his downfall. But it seems clear that his successors, and other Western leaders, have failed to measure up to the example he set on Ukraine.
I dislike and distrust Johnson intensely, but he did occasionally get things right, though for every cycle scheme there was a garden bridge flop, or a scrapped water cannon. For every lockdown or furlough there was a party or delayed lockdown. Brexit was his biggest mistake and like Suez for Eden will be written on his political grave. Ukraine was something he got right. Electorally he won the last Tory majority for a generation, and possibly the last one of our lifetimes.
He generated ideas like monkeys on typewriters and every now and then produced something readable.
He was better at latching onto other people's ideas than coming up with his own, and the only judgement he exercised was whether he'd look good opening it. The bike scheme was really Livingstone's. The cable car to nowhere is an expensive white elephant. The airport proposal was ludicrous. The water cannons were a shocking waste of money just to win a cheap media story. The grip and judgememt during the pandemic were risible, even making allowances for his illness, and the only really significant achievement of the vaccine programme was got right largely because, after the PPE fiasco and scandal, Johnson was told in no uncertain terms to let the scientists and businesspeople get on with it without interference.
Ukraine was the correct judgement, but it remains my view that he acted so quickly to distract and cover over his previous Russian connections; if we live until papers are released this may be a bigger story in decades to come.
Surely adopting someone else’s good idea and executing it effectively should be encouraged?
The airport idea was far from ludicrous. Among other things, guess what is the major source of pollutants in West London?
Multiple airports around the world have been moved to specially build islands in shallow water off coasts.
Where Heathrow is now, build a city - with ready made power, public transport, water etc…
Apart from the huge cache of unexploded bombs nearby.
And the thousands of migrating birds, any one of which could demand a pilot to recreate Sully’s magnificent landing on the Hudson.
And the frequent fog.
The need to build tons of infrastructure from scratch.
And the tiny detail that most of the passengers for the airport come from north or west of London.
And the huge workforce living west of London, such that a significant proportion of Hounslow and Hillingdon residents are employed by the airport, or firms ancillary to it. And hundreds of west London businesses rely on the airport for very significant parts of their income, from caterers through taxi firms through the hotels that accommodate all the passengers and flight crews.
And the environmental damage.
And Johnson’s complete inability to explain what would happen to the Heathrow site after.
And the eyewatering cost. Which wouldn’t have worried Johnson but should worry any sensible person.
The obvious answer is to close Heathrow and rebuild it in Manchester. Then have another look at the case for HS3.
Honestly, the piffling lack of ambition and paucity of ideas on PB is hideous. Northolt! Manchester! FFS.
There's an obvious answer, one even better than Boris Island. An answer that has zero land purchase costs, and no non-feathered neighbours.
Build the airport in the sky. The answer's in the name: 'air' port. The planes won't have to use as much fuel to climb and descend to and from flight level, and there's a near-infinite amount of air to build it in.
If we get even more ambitious, we could stack the runways one above the other. Or even place them vertically; the planes could land upwards and takeoff downwards, using gravity to slow down or speed up.
If it gets repealed (and God forbid Trump wins) we could have a Trump vs Obama election in 2028.
It won't be repealed.
They're just laying the ground for a Supreme Court 'interpretation' should Trump win this time around.
Or they were a week early with April 1st.
Take your pick.
You can't interpret a bar on running for a third term.
However I wouldn't have a problem with its repeal, FDR served four terms as President (dying in his fourth) and there no bar on UK PMs running for a third term as Thatcher and Blair did
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
I spent 6 months living in a bedsit at the top of Grays Inn Road by the Scala. 1999. I got propositioned whilst walking to work at 8 in the morning...
I was in Geneva a few years ago during the holiday season (all the UN-esque places closed for holidays). Was greeted every day outside my hotel by various women from across the globe who would lift their skirts to show... I guess... how clean they were and just ask "You want?".
Which I didn't - I just wanted a decent breakfast. But I felt guilty saying 'No' all the same knowing how starved for money/clients they must have been 'out of season'.
Not even Jeremy Corbyn disliked the UK as much as the Tories do.
Hi from London, “crime capital of the world”. In Birmingham? Beware “rotting rubbish” and “boarded-up buildings”. Manchester is “the worst city in Europe for eco-friendly transport”. The ruling party’s new social media campaign is doing wonders for tourism
You have to admire the cheek of criticising a lack of eco-friendly transport in Manchester while railing against London's cycle lanes.
The local cycle lanes appear to have been designed by people who once saw a picture of a bicycle. After being dug and rebuilt multiple times., they are slightly less insane.
Just need to take out the electric moped riders who push all the other users out of them.
Having just got a 'road' bike after decades of riding mountain bikes, I'm surprised how different the experience is. I was a very relaxed cyclist on a mountain bike, as it could go over *most* potholes and imperfections on the road, allowing me to get closer to the kerb. I am trying to go faster on my road bike, and I feel any imperfections of the road's surface on my bum and hands, so I ride wider and faster.
It's a rather different mental state, and a somewhat more 'aggressive' one.
I commute on a gravel bike which is a good compromise imo. The 40c tyres take most of the hits.
But this is a wider problem with cycling in the UK. Most cyclists dress for battle - helmets, lights, high vis, riding on the drops. The objective is as short a trip as possible, rather than most enjoyable. The cycle lanes are often hand laid and deeply uncomfortable to ride on, and the roads are experiencing an enormous increase in larger vehicle traffic and therefore potholes (fourth power law).
Contrast to Europe. Sedate, no helmets, step-through, 50:50 gender balance, slow paced, no need for a shower. That's what London and the rest of the UK need to achieve.
(FYI cycling close up the kerb is advised against - less reaction time for vehicles pulling out of side roads, less visible to cars from behind, induces close passes, more likely to hit a pedestrian.)
TBF, I'm i the 'battle' group at the moment because I'm training for my first sprint triathlon. I just want to ensure I won't be last. Oh, and complete the bugger.
I'm discovering the mindset is rather different when trying to go fast instead of pootling around slowly. Although I did around 70km yesterday and really enjoyed it. Generally quiet country roads, though.
As I'm coming from a running background, I actually feel more threatened when running on roads rather than cycling. So far, at least...
I have given up jogging now, and just walk sometimes on country roads. What I don't like is the fact that when there is a pavement to walk on in a village , the speed limit is 30, but when the pavement runs out and I have to actually walk in the road with the traffic, the limit goes up to 60!
With a few exceptions, if there is no pavement, walk facing the traffic.
What gets me is when cars overtake from behind me. I'm walking facing the traffic, and suddenly a wing mirror is flashing past me at what feels like a zillion miles an hour. It's rare, as most drivers are not inconsiderate @sshats, but it's blooming frightening for a millisecond when it happens.
With a few exceptions, if there is no pavement, walk facing the traffic.
What gets me is when cars overtake from behind me. I'm walking facing the traffic, and suddenly a wing mirror is flashing past me at what feels like a zillion miles an hour. It's rare, as most drivers are not inconsiderate @sshats, but it's blooming frightening for a millisecond when it happens.
This is something I learned growing up in the countryside. Sadly in London nobody seems to understand that it is legitimate.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
First time I was at Kings Cross station (maybe late 80s) I had a very nice full breakfast at about 4am - sharing a table with a lady of the night who was half-p*ssed and regaled me with tales of her last few nights and the clients quirks.
She also nicked and ate - quite provocatively - the sausage from my plate. Dennis Potter could have got a decent commission just based on the way she dipped it into the remaining beans.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
I spent 6 months living in a bedsit at the top of Grays Inn Road by the Scala. 1999. I got propositioned whilst walking to work at 8 in the morning...
I was in Geneva a few years ago during the holiday season (all the UN-esque places closed for holidays). Was greeted every day outside my hotel by various women from across the globe who would lift their skirts to show... I guess... how clean they were and just ask "You want?".
Which I didn't - I just wanted a decent breakfast. But I felt guilty saying 'No' all the same knowing how starved for money/clients they must have been 'out of season'.
Many moons ago I was finishing a day's walk in Luton. It was a summer Saturday, and I was muddy, hot and sweaty. I was passing under a big bridge near the station when a young Asian woman propositioned me.
I ignored her, but my thoughts were: "How desperate must you be for money if you want to proposition a sweaty, mucky man who has just walked twenty-odd miles and looks as though he has bene dragged through a hedge backwards..."
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
I spent 6 months living in a bedsit at the top of Grays Inn Road by the Scala. 1999. I got propositioned whilst walking to work at 8 in the morning...
Back in the early 2000’s (before trains ran 24/7 to Luton Airport), I found myself stranded after a Masonic binge. So, I booked into a cheap hotel in King’s Cross, only to discover that it was a brothel.
Not even Jeremy Corbyn disliked the UK as much as the Tories do.
Hi from London, “crime capital of the world”. In Birmingham? Beware “rotting rubbish” and “boarded-up buildings”. Manchester is “the worst city in Europe for eco-friendly transport”. The ruling party’s new social media campaign is doing wonders for tourism
You have to admire the cheek of criticising a lack of eco-friendly transport in Manchester while railing against London's cycle lanes.
The local cycle lanes appear to have been designed by people who once saw a picture of a bicycle. After being dug and rebuilt multiple times., they are slightly less insane.
Just need to take out the electric moped riders who push all the other users out of them.
Having just got a 'road' bike after decades of riding mountain bikes, I'm surprised how different the experience is. I was a very relaxed cyclist on a mountain bike, as it could go over *most* potholes and imperfections on the road, allowing me to get closer to the kerb. I am trying to go faster on my road bike, and I feel any imperfections of the road's surface on my bum and hands, so I ride wider and faster.
It's a rather different mental state, and a somewhat more 'aggressive' one.
I commute on a gravel bike which is a good compromise imo. The 40c tyres take most of the hits.
But this is a wider problem with cycling in the UK. Most cyclists dress for battle - helmets, lights, high vis, riding on the drops. The objective is as short a trip as possible, rather than most enjoyable. The cycle lanes are often hand laid and deeply uncomfortable to ride on, and the roads are experiencing an enormous increase in larger vehicle traffic and therefore potholes (fourth power law).
Contrast to Europe. Sedate, no helmets, step-through, 50:50 gender balance, slow paced, no need for a shower. That's what London and the rest of the UK need to achieve.
(FYI cycling close up the kerb is advised against - less reaction time for vehicles pulling out of side roads, less visible to cars from behind, induces close passes, more likely to hit a pedestrian.)
TBF, I'm i the 'battle' group at the moment because I'm training for my first sprint triathlon. I just want to ensure I won't be last. Oh, and complete the bugger.
I'm discovering the mindset is rather different when trying to go fast instead of pootling around slowly. Although I did around 70km yesterday and really enjoyed it. Generally quiet country roads, though.
As I'm coming from a running background, I actually feel more threatened when running on roads rather than cycling. So far, at least...
I have given up jogging now, and just walk sometimes on country roads. What I don't like is the fact that when there is a pavement to walk on in a village , the speed limit is 30, but when the pavement runs out and I have to actually walk in the road with the traffic, the limit goes up to 60!
Matters would be greatly improved if there were at least an adequacy of footpaths, but of course almost everything in the built environment revolves around the storage of cars and the prioritization of vehicular rights of way (which also explains why initiatives like the Welsh Government's 20mph zones and low traffic neighbourhoods provoke such tantrums from privileged motorists: the time when their convenience wasn't the be all and end all is beyond living memory.)
Hence also the fact that virtually all pavements are crossed by hundreds of driveways, most front gardens have been replaced by parking spaces, and the nation's youth grow morbidly obese in front of screens in large part because terrified parents fear their offspring being reduced to strawberry jam by angry drivers if they dare let them out to play on the streets.
Early 90s 'Horizon' about the origins of language, how the various linguistic families are tied together. If you remember the days when Horizon did actual informative programmes.
Early 90s 'Horizon' about the origins of language, how the various linguistic families are tied together. If you remember the days when Horizon did actual informative programmes.
And you could buy booklets of the individual programmes, too.
Early 90s 'Horizon' about the origins of language, how the various linguistic families are tied together. If you remember the days when Horizon did actual informative programmes.
And you could buy booklets of the individual programmes, too.
Thank goodness those days are gone. I enjoy just watching the CGI and then pressing 'The Red Button' to see how the CGI was done.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
I spent 6 months living in a bedsit at the top of Grays Inn Road by the Scala. 1999. I got propositioned whilst walking to work at 8 in the morning...
Back in the early 2000’s (before trains ran 24/7 to Luton Airport), I found myself stranded after a Masonic binge. So, I booked into a cheap hotel in King’s Cross, only to discover that it was a brothel.
With a few exceptions, if there is no pavement, walk facing the traffic.
What gets me is when cars overtake from behind me. I'm walking facing the traffic, and suddenly a wing mirror is flashing past me at what feels like a zillion miles an hour. It's rare, as most drivers are not inconsiderate @sshats, but it's blooming frightening for a millisecond when it happens.
This is something I learned growing up in the countryside. Sadly in London nobody seems to understand that it is legitimate.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
I spent 6 months living in a bedsit at the top of Grays Inn Road by the Scala. 1999. I got propositioned whilst walking to work at 8 in the morning...
I was in Geneva a few years ago during the holiday season (all the UN-esque places closed for holidays). Was greeted every day outside my hotel by various women from across the globe who would lift their skirts to show... I guess... how clean they were and just ask "You want?".
Which I didn't - I just wanted a decent breakfast. But I felt guilty saying 'No' all the same knowing how starved for money/clients they must have been 'out of season'.
Ah the Pâquis in Geneva. Always funny meeting people, who had booked a hotel there, for breakfast and they didn’t realise it was the red light district and the girls working 24/7. They honestly didn’t know it was the red light district. Honest.
With a few exceptions, if there is no pavement, walk facing the traffic.
What gets me is when cars overtake from behind me. I'm walking facing the traffic, and suddenly a wing mirror is flashing past me at what feels like a zillion miles an hour. It's rare, as most drivers are not inconsiderate @sshats, but it's blooming frightening for a millisecond when it happens.
This is something I learned growing up in the countryside. Sadly in London nobody seems to understand that it is legitimate.
With a few exceptions, if there is no pavement, walk facing the traffic.
What gets me is when cars overtake from behind me. I'm walking facing the traffic, and suddenly a wing mirror is flashing past me at what feels like a zillion miles an hour. It's rare, as most drivers are not inconsiderate @sshats, but it's blooming frightening for a millisecond when it happens.
This is something I learned growing up in the countryside. Sadly in London nobody seems to understand that it is legitimate.
Me too - drilled into me.
I did it the other day going over Putney Bridge, as people tend to block the pavement. Angry bus driver gave me a honk but as far as I could see, he was way too close to the side if he was concerned about running into me. Also driving without due care and attention.
With a few exceptions, if there is no pavement, walk facing the traffic.
What gets me is when cars overtake from behind me. I'm walking facing the traffic, and suddenly a wing mirror is flashing past me at what feels like a zillion miles an hour. It's rare, as most drivers are not inconsiderate @sshats, but it's blooming frightening for a millisecond when it happens.
This is something I learned growing up in the countryside. Sadly in London nobody seems to understand that it is legitimate.
Me too - drilled into me.
Have you been at a brothel too?
No. Tufty and Wolf Cubs/Cub Scouts. More innocent in those days than yours, I see.
With a few exceptions, if there is no pavement, walk facing the traffic.
What gets me is when cars overtake from behind me. I'm walking facing the traffic, and suddenly a wing mirror is flashing past me at what feels like a zillion miles an hour. It's rare, as most drivers are not inconsiderate @sshats, but it's blooming frightening for a millisecond when it happens.
This is something I learned growing up in the countryside. Sadly in London nobody seems to understand that it is legitimate.
Me too - drilled into me.
Have you been at a brothel too?
No. Tufty and Wolf Cubs/Cub Scouts. More innocent in those days than yours, I see.
I ought to add that I do not pretend nationalisation banishes all problems — hell, I remember British Rail. But it does give us a degree of control, which, to our enormous detriment, we have lost. At least with a state-owned water industry we can’t blame anyone else.
I am down in East Wight for the holiday, so looking at the MRP gives me pause for thought. This seat has never been Labour, not in 1997 or 1945, but has been LD in recent times, and had a strong Green vote at last GE. The Isle of Wight has a low income economy, but surely one of the oldest demographics in the country. Can it really be a Lab gain as this MRP suggests?
The Greens have hit their ceiling it seems, and LDs haven't done well in recent GE, with Lab in second place in the last 2 GE (all Island wide of course). The obvious tactical vote here is for Lab, but Lab aren't going to sweep up it all. The Green vote here is more green than Corbynite, so squeezable, but a good well known candidate, with flyers out in a hipster pub that I went to last night, but limited ground game.
So I really don't know. I wonder what @IanB2 thinks?
I think this kind of critique of an MRP is misplaced. No model is going to catch the various local intricacies of voting patterns, and the importance of each demographic factor will change constituency by constituency, candidate by candidate. This is even more obvious in Scotland, with some very odd predictions coming out of the MRP.
It does work on a national level for England and Wales, assuming that everything averages out to what their model suggests.
I treat the seat by seat predictions with a pinch of salt and look instead at the overall picture. The ELE election is no longer an absurd assumption - its real, its shown in repeated polls as a possibility, and the longer we go with more and more polls showing the same, the more baked in that assumption gets.
ELE does one of two things. For a country where even the Tory voters are sick of the Tories, the prospect of obliterating this disgrace of a party becomes tangible, exciting, desirable. Remember that in 1997 the Labour landslide only happened because of a pile on - the desire to hurt the Tories.
However, the further down the ELE road we get, the more that a Labour super-landslide causes its own problems. My assumption is that MRP gets the seat by seat bit wrong in that it starts applying national % and swing by (new) seat and coming up with bonkers. Yes, in a demolition election you can win from 3rd. But some of the seat assumptions are silly. I have to assume more LD seats because thats what both polling, council seats on the ground and sanity suggests.
You could apply a crude adjustment to those seats where Labour is 3rd to get a feeling for how tactical voting changes things.
I think a further one as well - because it is true that Labour should win some from third. Just not necessarily the ones highlighted. (I mean, over and above my own constituency, Labour coming from 12% in a very poor third place in Carshalton and Wallington to a photo-finish with the LDs for the win just looks wrong).
Seats where Labour is 3rd and significantly back from second, where the LDs are a clear second (especially where they held the constituency very recently) and where local council strength forms a stark difference would be ones where you'd suggest would go one way.
Ones where the third place is pretty close to second, or the second place is still a very long way back, and where local strength is either similar or absent for both LDs and Labour would point to places where the air war would be a far bigger factor, and you might well see real shocks from third.
You could then go seat by seat to estimate tactical voting (or lack of it). A pretty big task and unavoidably subjective.
The trouble is that the questionable predictions we are seeing with the latest survey (and its ilk) do have real world ramifications. There will be many seats in the Blue Wall where voters would be fine having a LibDem MP but would react against having a Labour one.
As such, whilst disgruntled Tories may sit on their hands and not vote to prevent the former, they will come out to prevent the latter.
If I were a Tory MP in some of the seats mentioned I would be secretly quite pleased about this survey and play up the supposed threat of a Labour victory in my area. It may give a few of them just the extra votes they need to hold on.
It would be interesting to see polling on that. My impression is that most voters can no longer see a difference between LDs and Lab. Partisans like us think they should, but IMO most anti-Tory voters simply want one or the other and don't much care which.
There are two slightly different issues here, as a Lib Dem canvasser.
One is the anti-Tory voter. A few years ago, there were a lot of people not voting tactically, spitting rage over Clegg, tuition fees etc. That's essentially gone. There are a few "I know the bar chart, mate, but I'm always Labour [or Green]" people. There always were and always will be. But it's not 2015 by a long, long way - it's a friendly message that they just don't do tactical voting.
Then there are the centrist soft Tories. In 2019, they were a nightmare - "I don't like Johnson... but Corbyn". There is still some of that (not Corbyn but a mix of not liking Labour generally, inexperienced, and a bit of slightly dubious Khan stuff). But it's definitely much less.
So it's not as simple as people deciding who is the most plausible non-Tory option. But, on both fronts, it's closer to that than at any time in many years.
It is so, so lovely to have light evenings again. The summer is the best, I do not believe anyone actually prefers the winter.
A blessed relief, unless or until it gets unbearably roasting hot, when eight degrees and pissing with rain for months on end feels like a past golden age. I dread a repetition of the internal heatwaves of 2022 but also doubt we'll avoid one for very much longer, sadly.
Fortunately there is no immediate prospect of roasting heat. The forecast for the first half of April might best be summarised as fourteen degrees and pissing with yet more rain.
A sad news report about a political activist coming to the same conclusion most do - "she will not put her fingers in letterboxes again" - but unfortunately in her case too late: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-68703087
A colleague in my canvassing/leafleting days was a postman. Some very useful tips about putting fingers in letterboxes and the like!
If party activists ever had any influence on party policy then spring loaded letterboxes would have been banned generations ago.
And door-step level ones!
Also those annoying whiskers. It's not as though a bit of a draught is going to kill anyone.
The most terrifying thing for me is when some psychopathic banshee* hurles itself against the door and the door actually bulges and for one terrible second you contemplate the consequences of it bursting open and just how painful your death is going to be.
* also known as a dog, wouldn’t hurt a fly, of course.**
** unfortunately I am not a fly.
On the other hand, it can be quite funny when the sound of an unfed Hound of the Baskervilles is heard approaching on the other side of an open door, only to manifest itself as a ridiculous tiny little chihuahua.
It does depend on the pitch. Normally inversely proportional to the size of pooch, but it does vary. A friend had a Labrador (fairly medium small for those things) with the most amazingly deep voice. Visitors heard something really like the Hound of the Bs baying away, one expected Basil Rathbone to turn up around the street corner, and when you opened up there was this not very large and ridiculously amiable black mutt who only wanted to drown you in saliva.
With a few exceptions, if there is no pavement, walk facing the traffic.
What gets me is when cars overtake from behind me. I'm walking facing the traffic, and suddenly a wing mirror is flashing past me at what feels like a zillion miles an hour. It's rare, as most drivers are not inconsiderate @sshats, but it's blooming frightening for a millisecond when it happens.
This is something I learned growing up in the countryside. Sadly in London nobody seems to understand that it is legitimate.
Me too - drilled into me.
Have you been at a brothel too?
No. Tufty and Wolf Cubs/Cub Scouts. More innocent in those days than yours, I see.
I once stood on the left of the escalator.
Was that before or after they abolished the Ladies' Underwear?
I ought to add that I do not pretend nationalisation banishes all problems — hell, I remember British Rail. But it does give us a degree of control, which, to our enormous detriment, we have lost. At least with a state-owned water industry we can’t blame anyone else...
And if they rip off the bill payers, at least the proceeds stay in the country.
I wonder how many Tory voters who like me are fed up with the Party and like me had vowed not to vote Blue, now will again to avoid the utter bloodbath that the polls are suggesting. I will vote Toty if the polls are that bad. IT IS a funny old world.
I concur with the short vid that normal bail conditions have not been applied to Trump. If a defendant is considered to be a threat to even one member of the public, they receive pre-trial detention rather than bail.
There has never been a criminal trial of a former US President before, and the institutions are being timid and are fighting shy of applying the law equally.
It's an indicator that the system needs an overhaul.
I am watching Dempsey & Makepeace. We didn't have a TV set in the 80s and my parents would not have let me watch it if we had. I've never been especially fussed to watch it, thinking it was just a fairly naff UK police procedural with a US lead actor to try and give it some star power. But actually it has a charm. Seeing London in its pre-gentrified form, great chemistry between the title characters (who ended up marrying irl apparently), and Peter Brandon has great charisma. Glennis Barber is great to look at and does well too. Both are highly unlikely London police detectives but still. It's also surprisingly grimly violent (for the things I watch) - I'd always had the show pegged as a Magnum PI 'light-hearted' cop show but it's not really like that.
I wonder how many Tory voters who like me are fed up with the Party and like me had vowed not to vote Blue, now will again to avoid the utter bloodbath that the polls are suggesting. I will vote Toty if the polls are that bad. IT IS a funny old world.
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Kings Cross is a different place. I lived there for a while - south of the area, so what would like to describe itself as Bloomsbury. The now nice area north of the station was pretty much derelict. and much of it inaccessible.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
King's Cross used to be an absolute shithole. The station concourse was patrolled by nonces. Surrounding streets weren't safe for unaccompanied young women waiting for somebody - they'd be assumed to be trying to steal business. Etc. etc.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
First time I was at Kings Cross station (maybe late 80s) I had a very nice full breakfast at about 4am - sharing a table with a lady of the night who was half-p*ssed and regaled me with tales of her last few nights and the clients quirks.
She also nicked and ate - quite provocatively - the sausage from my plate. Dennis Potter could have got a decent commission just based on the way she dipped it into the remaining beans.
Perhaps she was giving you a broad (ahem) hint . . . that scarfing down your "sausage" was part of her skill set?
France is preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine, which will include hundreds of "old but serviceable" armored vehicles and Aster missiles, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu has said in an interview with La Tribune, Le Monde reports. https://twitter.com/Hromadske/status/1774355574672458035
France is one of the countries that is starting to understand the threat
The threat from Europe's point of view is that the US drops the baton if Trump is elected. All European countries, including us, should be gearing up to fill the hole if that happens.
The point of all the tedious Trent style propaganda is to create a perception that the Russian invasion can't be defeated, and that we should bow to the inevitable.
It's considerably more likely that a regular and reliable supply of western arms would see the opposite outcome.
And Putin isn't offering peace anyway. He's demanding capitulation, with no guarantees.
We can stop him now, or we can stop him next time, when he's rebuilt his military, at far greater cost.
What is clear, sadly, is that last summer's offensive campaign by Ukraine was a disaster. I think that there was a belief that the superior kit that they had received from NATO could cut through where the Russians had failed and they learned at terrible cost that that was not the case. There were also delusions that the Russians were running out of kit, ammunition, missiles, even men and one more heave could see their collapse. These delusions proved wildly optimistic and costly. Even with modern tech defence has enormous advantages in both shaping and using the battlefield to expose your enemy to the unspeakable power of modern weaponry.
Ukraine now face several years of grim defence slowly losing ground for Russian lives. It is not an enticing prospect but we need to do all we can to help them.
The thing that can change the calculation is long range weaponry. With long range weaponry Ukraine can hit Russian equipment and supplies away from the front line, and they can inflict damage without incurring casualties with a direct assault.
Two years into the war and Ukraine still has fewer artillery shells, isn't being provided with all the long-range weapons the West has available, and it's having to rely on it's own drone developments to try to fill the gap.
There's a route to victory for Ukraine which lies in providing Taurus, ATACMs, and using the much-vaunted economic superiority of the West to produce long-range missiles and artillery shells in sufficient quantity to obliterate the Russian Army from a distance. Get It Done.
The Storm Shadows have certainly had a major impact, particularly in the Black Sea and they show the merits of your point. What we certainly need to do is to make the price of continued warfare simply unbearable for Russia bringing down Putin and his gang. Longer range weapons are a good way to do that and to retaliate against the never ending destruction of Ukrainian cities. I believe we can and should do this.
I think this is where we see evidence of Ukraine suffering for the absence of Boris Johnson.
We saw it with cycle infrastructure in London, with resolving the Brexit impasse, with the vaccines and with sending ammunition and weapons in February 2022. There have been these times when Boris Johnson recognised what needed to be done and made sure it was done, regardless of who it upset, or whether it broke convention.
I didn't like the man. I cheered his downfall. But it seems clear that his successors, and other Western leaders, have failed to measure up to the example he set on Ukraine.
Nonsense. Johnson actually did rather little for Ukraine. He used his full skillset to make it look much more. Germany has delivered much more, but quietly.
Germany has delivered more because it has more to give, but I think Johnson would have spent the money necessary to start up the production lines to produce new kit to send.
Johnson made sure that Ukraine had the equipment it needed to defend Kyiv in the first month of the war - at a time when Germany was promising to send non-lethal equipment only.
That help was delivered before the invasion. It was actually Ben Wallace's project pushed through in the face of Boris Johnson's scepticism.
Johnson very quickly identified the bandwagon and he jumped on quick. Rhetoric does matter and Johnson is good at it. But it had no effect at all on the Russian advance. For that you need hard weapons and cash. The main suppliers of those have been elsewhere.
Im.not sure now what the west is trying to achieve in ukraine. They seem to be supplying ukraine with just enough to allow them to lose slowly. Surely its best upping the ante and going all in or calli g for peace.
The latter is not an option. Putin does not want 'peace'.
Im pretty sure if you offered Putin eastern ukraine and perhaps odessa and kharkiv he would be ok with peace. Kyiv and western ukraine would then be left alone.
Why would we want to give Putin anything when for trivial cost to the Western World thousands of Russians are being killed and hundreds of units of Russian military equipment are being destroyed each and every week ?
The defeat of Russia's energy war against the West means that the West now has all the options.
Mmm theres just the small matter of all the dead ukrainians. Or dont they matter to you.
The Ukrainians are happy defending their own land from occupation and genocide.
The killing of Russian soldiers and destruction of the Russian army is a good thing wherever it would happen.
The more Russia is damaged the better for the Western World.
Does it upset you that Russia's energy war against the West has failed ?
Ordinary ukrainians dont have much choice. Zelensky has near dictatorial powers and there is a massive war propoganda machine in ukraine. Why are so many ukrainian men hiding fron conscription if they are happy to fight.
You are a Russian troll.
For one thing, I think you're wrong in all you said that post. For another. if you want to mention 'dictatorial powers', just look at Putin...
Fuck off back under your bridge.
Zelensky does have immense power under martial law and has suspended presidential elections.
Ukraine do have a recruitment problem, not least because of the political deadlock resulting from nobody wanting to own the horribly unpopular mobilisation legislation. See the two recent WSJ articles.
There is an immense Ukrainian propoganda effort targeted at the west. You have been doggedly and uncritically regurgitating their lines on here for two years.
So, yes comrade, the bones of old mate Trent's post were correct.
Just like the UK government in WWII suspended its own election until the war's end, and gave itself immense emergency powers. There's nothing sinister about it.
Generally, when countries are invaded, they are going to implement measures that would seen extreme.
This must be a joke. Not even the Russians could be this stoopid...
"The Moscow Crocus City Hall terrorists probably had brain chips implanted by Western intelligence agencies that together with neuro-linguistic programming coordinated their actions,"
I am watching Dempsey & Makepeace. We didn't have a TV set in the 80s and my parents would not have let me watch it if we had. I've never been especially fussed to watch it, thinking it was just a fairly naff UK police procedural with a US lead actor to try and give it some star power. But actually it has a charm. Seeing London in its pre-gentrified form, great chemistry between the title characters (who ended up marrying irl apparently), and Peter Brandon has great charisma. Glennis Barber is great to look at and does well too. Both are highly unlikely London police detectives but still. It's also surprisingly grimly violent (for the things I watch) - I'd always had the show pegged as a Magnum PI 'light-hearted' cop show but it's not really like that.
I had a similar experience a few weeks ago watching Minder for the first time. Fascinating to watch a London where normal people could live. But also brilliant: well plotted, well written, well acted. Well worth an hour of your time.
Cookie and Luckyguy reviewing your evening's viewing, 40 years too late.
Am somewhat curious, as to why it took sooooooo long before "Trent" got the dreaded/coveted PB Ban Hammer?
Seeing as it was obvious from post #1 that "Trent" was yet another Grade F Putin-Bot sub-cadet.
His MO was to take it as far as he could without crossing any of the obvious red lines (on vaccines etc), while at the same time starting arguments on, for example, dealing with dementia, and feeding in latest lines on why (with croc tears) Ukraine can’t win.
He was an obvious Putin-Bot cadet from the get-go. Just sayin'.
They made a mistake by speculating possible surrender terms for the Ukrainians. Saying, sue for peace while you still can, has a certain plausibility but once you work out the actual implications for Ukraine should it stop fighting, no-one in their right minds would "sue for peace" in the current circumstances.
NOT a soft landing for one of Trump's softer-headed MAGA-maniacs . . .
Seattle Times - MyPillow, owned by election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used, but company founder and prominent election denier Mike Lindell said that it’s just a formality because the landlord wants to take the property back.
Lindell denied in an interview with The Associated Press that the eviction was another sign of his money woes. He said his financial picture is actually improving after a credit crunch last year disrupted cash flow at MyPillow after the company lost one of its major advertising platforms and was dropped by several national retailers.
“We’re fine,” he said.
Lindell faced a setback last month when a federal judge affirmed a $5 million arbitration award in favor of a software engineer who challenged data that Lindell said proves China interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and tipped the outcome to Joe Biden. Lindell acknowledged in January that Fox News stopped running MyPillow commercials amid a billing dispute. . . .
SSI - Best thing about this clown crying into HIS pillow, is that yours truly is NOT being bombarded with his previously non-stop TV advertisements.
For a product I had ZERO intention of every purchasing; would rather lay my weary head on jagged rock!
I ought to add that I do not pretend nationalisation banishes all problems — hell, I remember British Rail. But it does give us a degree of control, which, to our enormous detriment, we have lost. At least with a state-owned water industry we can’t blame anyone else...
And if they rip off the bill payers, at least the proceeds stay in the country.
The problem is not so much private vs public as
1) Nothing must be done. 2) in order to protect a variety of interests, reform or improvement is impossible.
See the argument that pension funds (foreign and domestic) might catch a cold if Thames Water isn’t allowed to put everything on the bill payers. Likewise Freehold/Leasehold reform.
Earlier, someone was suggesting that the dislocation of business in West London was a reason not to move Heathrow. In the dozens of big airport moves around the globe, similar business has to adapt to the fact that about 10 years from “go”, they would have to move.
Similar arguments were made to not move or modernise British shipbuilding. That worked out really well, didn’t it?
It is so, so lovely to have light evenings again. The summer is the best, I do not believe anyone actually prefers the winter.
What I like is clear skies. I get just as much joy out of a clear wintry sky as a clear summer sky. Even if that clear wintry sky is dark at 7.30.
Actually, I'll add to this: what I like least about winter is dark mornings. The lightness of the mornings now is very welcome. Granted it goes away for couple of weeks now and I'll struggle to get up until mid-April. But still. I like light mornings.
I am watching Dempsey & Makepeace. We didn't have a TV set in the 80s and my parents would not have let me watch it if we had. I've never been especially fussed to watch it, thinking it was just a fairly naff UK police procedural with a US lead actor to try and give it some star power. But actually it has a charm. Seeing London in its pre-gentrified form, great chemistry between the title characters (who ended up marrying irl apparently), and Peter Brandon has great charisma. Glennis Barber is great to look at and does well too. Both are highly unlikely London police detectives but still. It's also surprisingly grimly violent (for the things I watch) - I'd always had the show pegged as a Magnum PI 'light-hearted' cop show but it's not really like that.
I didn't realise they were whining about eggs, too. Apparently that rule has been in place since 1976.
Trump's possible VP pick. https://twitter.com/KristiNoem/status/1774250831275016525 Joe Biden banned “religious themed” eggs at the White House’s Easter Egg design contest for kids, AND he announced that tomorrow is “National Transgender Visibility Day.”
Did he forget that tomorrow is Easter, Resurrection Sunday?
Joe Biden and his White House have made it clear that people of faith, particularly Christians and our Bible-believing views, have no place in his America. We must change that on November 5 by electing
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https://www.lifeinsale.com/news/sale-lollipop-lady-heather-morris-53-years
"Later that year, on 25 October, a Pan Am Boeing 707, heading for Heathrow, mistakenly landed at Northolt with forty-one passengers on board. A Lufthansa Boeing 707 also attempted to land at the station on 28 April 1964 but was dissuaded by a red signal flare fired by personnel from Air Traffic Control."
I imagine he panicked when he realised the true implication of his AI literary editor anecdote. As he told it, authors would in future use AI editors which can do a human editor's work in minutes.
Jeffrey Archer's novels are known for being heavily edited and in one documentary, the man who did it was asked why he could not write his own novels and achieve Archer-level fame and fortune. He replied that he needed the first draft.
That is @Leon's problem. It is not that authors will no longer need human editors but that editors can in future use AI to write that crucial first draft which they can fix up and publish. Claude, write me a 50,000-word thriller about a travel writing serial killer. Editors and publishers will no longer need prima donna authors to hog the limelight and more importantly the royalties. Authors will be first on the scrap heap.
* also known as a dog, wouldn’t hurt a fly, of course.**
** unfortunately I am not a fly.
Thanks to a wee yappy doggie - damn the cur!
Lucky to still have full complement of fingers & finger joints.
GOP legislator posted about ‘illegal invaders’ at airport. It was Gonzaga’s basketball team
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxTXzCUpZqI
I concur with the short vid that normal bail conditions have not been applied to Trump. If a defendant is considered to be a threat to even one member of the public, they receive pre-trial detention rather than bail.
There has never been a criminal trial of a former US President before, and the institutions are being timid and are fighting shy of applying the law equally.
It's an indicator that the system needs an overhaul.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFaO0-KljbU
Great, then I can tell you about Kings Cross which appears to have been transformed since I was last in the area (15 years ago). Wow! No broken Britain here the whole area looks really smart and buzzing. Can’t think why he hasn’t mentioned it at all.
Went to the Lightroom to see Moonwalkers. A must for space geeks - recommended!
Outrage as Biden proclaims Easter Sunday as 'Trans Day of Visibility' - as White House BANS children from submitting religious-themed Easter egg designs at annual event for military families
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13255111/easter-2024-white-house-bans-religious-eggs.html
TD of V has been on March 31st since it started in 2009.
Similarly, the rules for the painted heggs have not been changed.
Personally am NOT all that eager to see him get his wish.
Note that the "Daily Mail" tabloid TV show broadcast on this side of the Atlantic (and Pacific) is way Woke.
Why? Because it's aimed at American youth - NOT British geezers.
There's still a north-eastern corridor which is the old King's Cross.
Why Camden is the most rock’n’roll neighbourhood on Earth
Gritty, trippy and not very pretty, the London borough has been a much-celebrated crucible of musical genius and rebel spirit for decades
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/camden-london-rock-and-roll-bands-disney-dua-lipa/ (£££)
Understandable in relation to practising homosexuals, as the Bible prescribes capital punishment for that. But as far as I know there's nothing in the Law or the Prophets about stoning trans people.
I don't see why the Easter Eggs at the White House lawn roll couldn't have some Christian messages though as long as they weren't hateful messages
But this is a wider problem with cycling in the UK. Most cyclists dress for battle - helmets, lights, high vis, riding on the drops. The objective is as short a trip as possible, rather than most enjoyable. The cycle lanes are often hand laid and deeply uncomfortable to ride on, and the roads are experiencing an enormous increase in larger vehicle traffic and therefore potholes (fourth power law).
Contrast to Europe. Sedate, no helmets, step-through, 50:50 gender balance, slow paced, no need for a shower. That's what London and the rest of the UK need to achieve.
(FYI cycling close up the kerb is advised against - less reaction time for vehicles pulling out of side roads, less visible to cars from behind, induces close passes, more likely to hit a pedestrian.)
But I'd be reassured if it were based on something a bit more sophisticated than "That can't be true, otherwise I'd be Jewish!"
It's clear that he argues for an eternal bond with Russia and is essentially a neo-colonialist. He wants Ukraine in the Russian sphere of influence. Many Ukrainians don't. None of that is disputed. Of course that is not independence. But I thought we were talking about identity.
Have they cleaned up the Scala? Everyone knew they were selling rent boys.
What about street prostitution in the area?
I'm discovering the mindset is rather different when trying to go fast instead of pootling around slowly. Although I did around 70km yesterday and really enjoyed it. Generally quiet country roads, though.
As I'm coming from a running background, I actually feel more threatened when running on roads rather than cycling. So far, at least...
Farewell to Thy Greatness.
As if anyone is going to take them seriously as pontificators on crucibles of musical genius and rebel spirits.
They did a nice cooked breakfast, though.
That is the problem here. I agree detaining Trump would quite possibly boost him politically. But that risk cannot be allowed to take precedence over an assessed risk to individuals. In this case, I don't know enough to assess the risk, but publishing photos of the daughter of the judge in your case to some, er, enthusiastic followers on social media feels at least close to the line.
Bigoted, ignorant and mendacious all in one.
No real surprise.
They're just laying the ground for a Supreme Court 'interpretation' should Trump win this time around.
Or they were a week early with April 1st.
Take your pick.
Most of which with the usual barcharts and 'Labour can't win here'
What I don't like is the fact that when there is a pavement to walk on in a village , the speed limit is 30,
but when the pavement runs out and I have to actually walk in the road with the traffic, the limit goes up to 60!
However I wouldn't have a problem with its repeal, FDR served four terms as President (dying in his fourth) and there no bar on UK PMs running for a third term as Thatcher and Blair did
Which I didn't - I just wanted a decent breakfast. But I felt guilty saying 'No' all the same knowing how starved for money/clients they must have been 'out of season'.
What gets me is when cars overtake from behind me. I'm walking facing the traffic, and suddenly a wing mirror is flashing past me at what feels like a zillion miles an hour. It's rare, as most drivers are not inconsiderate @sshats, but it's blooming frightening for a millisecond when it happens.
She also nicked and ate - quite provocatively - the sausage from my plate. Dennis Potter could have got a decent commission just based on the way she dipped it into the remaining beans.
I ignored her, but my thoughts were: "How desperate must you be for money if you want to proposition a sweaty, mucky man who has just walked twenty-odd miles and looks as though he has bene dragged through a hedge backwards..."
Hence also the fact that virtually all pavements are crossed by hundreds of driveways, most front gardens have been replaced by parking spaces, and the nation's youth grow morbidly obese in front of screens in large part because terrified parents fear their offspring being reduced to strawberry jam by angry drivers if they dare let them out to play on the streets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7x7vLM_q50
Early 90s 'Horizon' about the origins of language, how the various linguistic families are tied together. If you remember the days when Horizon did actual informative programmes.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/41908fdb-055e-4640-a656-daf17be1f43e?shareToken=8fcd3324f083ff377391627caf47f860
Depressingly, Rod Liddle is absolutely right.
One is the anti-Tory voter. A few years ago, there were a lot of people not voting tactically, spitting rage over Clegg, tuition fees etc. That's essentially gone. There are a few "I know the bar chart, mate, but I'm always Labour [or Green]" people. There always were and always will be. But it's not 2015 by a long, long way - it's a friendly message that they just don't do tactical voting.
Then there are the centrist soft Tories. In 2019, they were a nightmare - "I don't like Johnson... but Corbyn". There is still some of that (not Corbyn but a mix of not liking Labour generally, inexperienced, and a bit of slightly dubious Khan stuff). But it's definitely much less.
So it's not as simple as people deciding who is the most plausible non-Tory option. But, on both fronts, it's closer to that than at any time in many years.
Fortunately there is no immediate prospect of roasting heat. The forecast for the first half of April might best be summarised as fourteen degrees and pissing with yet more rain.
I will vote Toty if the polls are that bad. IT IS a funny old world.
.... and another one.
Cookie and Luckyguy reviewing your evening's viewing, 40 years too late.
Seattle Times - MyPillow, owned by election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used, but company founder and prominent election denier Mike Lindell said that it’s just a formality because the landlord wants to take the property back.
Lindell denied in an interview with The Associated Press that the eviction was another sign of his money woes. He said his financial picture is actually improving after a credit crunch last year disrupted cash flow at MyPillow after the company lost one of its major advertising platforms and was dropped by several national retailers.
“We’re fine,” he said.
Lindell faced a setback last month when a federal judge affirmed a $5 million arbitration award in favor of a software engineer who challenged data that Lindell said proves China interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and tipped the outcome to Joe Biden. Lindell acknowledged in January that Fox News stopped running MyPillow commercials amid a billing dispute. . . .
SSI - Best thing about this clown crying into HIS pillow, is that yours truly is NOT being bombarded with his previously non-stop TV advertisements.
For a product I had ZERO intention of every purchasing; would rather lay my weary head on jagged rock!
1) Nothing must be done.
2) in order to protect a variety of interests, reform or improvement is impossible.
See the argument that pension funds (foreign and domestic) might catch a cold if Thames Water isn’t allowed to put everything on the bill payers. Likewise Freehold/Leasehold reform.
Earlier, someone was suggesting that the dislocation of business in West London was a reason not to move Heathrow. In the dozens of big airport moves around the globe, similar business has to adapt to the fact that about 10 years from “go”, they would have to move.
Similar arguments were made to not move or modernise British shipbuilding. That worked out really well, didn’t it?
We did have a tv in our student bedsit 🙂
Trump's possible VP pick.
https://twitter.com/KristiNoem/status/1774250831275016525
Joe Biden banned “religious themed” eggs at the White House’s Easter Egg design contest for kids, AND he announced that tomorrow is “National Transgender Visibility Day.”
Did he forget that tomorrow is Easter, Resurrection Sunday?
Joe Biden and his White House have made it clear that people of faith, particularly Christians and our Bible-believing views, have no place in his America. We must change that on November 5 by electing