The Tories must shoulder some of the blame for this. They have been in power for 14 years and they've had ample opportunity to extirpate this vile, damaging Woke nonsense, to drive it out of public life and to punish those that proselytise it. Instead they have actively let it spread, it has got worse, to the extent that we now refuse to deport known sex offenders back to Afghanistan, because they might suffer for being sex offenders, and so they rape and murder British people instead. That is where we are. That is what the Tories have allowed to flourish, that level of insanity
The only way we retrieve the situation is something close to revolution. An entire class of people needs to be exiled from power forever, and a grotesque ideology needs to be forcibly eliminated. We need the Labour party to fuck up massively and a proper right wing party to assume power
Either that or let the machines take over
"Fourteen years of Tory rule have left Britain a lazy, dangerous, Left-wing mess It hardly matters that Labour will be worse, when voters feel so betrayed by the Tories
Imagine being called lazy by someone who writes newspaper columns for a living.
Have you ever had the job of newspaper columnist? I doubt it. Do you think they just sit there and toss out any old crap in half an hour and pocket £2k per column, ta very much? If it is that easy, surely everyone would do it? eg You?
But of course they don't. Because it is hard. And only a few people can do it and make it really pay
Is it really hard in the same way as, say, managing a big construction project is? Or running a hospital? Or successfully integrating a merger of two companies?
In fact I'll go further and illustrate my point. Your comparison is absurd, because you are making a category error
You're essentially asking which is harder, running a health trust, or being a brilliant premier league striker?
The query makes no sense. The latter requires skills which are much rarer than the former, even though the former is surely very hard work. But if you have the skills to be a great striker, if you are Erling Haaland, you will make it look effortless, but that is because you are very talented, and almost no one else has your talent. You might even appear "lazy" to people who don't understand football
Erling Haaland runs two 5km runs back to back every 3 days. Plus all the training and weightlifting behind the scenes. I am going to go out on a limb and declare him less lazy than an OpEd writer.
That's what I am saying. Haaland will look lazy to people who don't understand football. Those that do, know that Yes he's bloody talented, but he still has to train like a bastard because the competition is insane
I actually KNOW some newspaper columnists. They will spend days raging for an idea, exploring themes, engaging concepts, rejecting duds. They have to read tons of news and books and other stuff, to gather material. Vanishingly few - in fact, probably none - can constantly toss out brilliant columns in half an hour then piss off to the swimming pool
You really don't know what you're talking about, on this point
I have written 349 columns since March 2016 - not just for here but for other forums - some paid and some for trade journals. Not quite 1 a week (there have been 420 weeks since March 2016) but getting bloody close.
And, frankly, better than a lot of the dross in newspapers.
Fancied something different tonight so tried an ostrich burger from Morrisons.
Was really tasty, would recommend.
They had some venison next to it, for our vegan friends here.
Are you really just eating meat and nothing else, so no bun, slaw or sauce with that burger, or have I misunderstood?
I had two fried eggs with it.
No bun, slaw, sauce etc - though I'm not against sauce so long as its not loaded with sugar, been having hot sauce quite a bit, you get good hot sauces that have next to no carbs per serving.
Your diet really is fascinating. You should write a newspaper column about it.
Reminds me of the Louis Theroux Bear Grylls interview. Bear gave up on most carbs and cereals a few years ago and now eats steak every night, meaty breakfasts and god knows what for lunch. He said “my poos are the cleanest they’ve ever been. They just slip out and I rarely need to wipe”.
Me ex, who used to be a hippy woowoo vegan tofu eater (with the occasional guilty bacon sarny or steak) has now gone Totes Bear Grylls. Meat meat meat. Liver and ribeye. Tons of protein. She looks amazing. Slim, glowing, oodles of energy. So I really do wonder if Bart and Bear are on to something
The Tories must shoulder some of the blame for this. They have been in power for 14 years and they've had ample opportunity to extirpate this vile, damaging Woke nonsense, to drive it out of public life and to punish those that proselytise it. Instead they have actively let it spread, it has got worse, to the extent that we now refuse to deport known sex offenders back to Afghanistan, because they might suffer for being sex offenders, and so they rape and murder British people instead. That is where we are. That is what the Tories have allowed to flourish, that level of insanity
The only way we retrieve the situation is something close to revolution. An entire class of people needs to be exiled from power forever, and a grotesque ideology needs to be forcibly eliminated. We need the Labour party to fuck up massively and a proper right wing party to assume power
Either that or let the machines take over
"Fourteen years of Tory rule have left Britain a lazy, dangerous, Left-wing mess It hardly matters that Labour will be worse, when voters feel so betrayed by the Tories
Imagine being called lazy by someone who writes newspaper columns for a living.
Have you ever had the job of newspaper columnist? I doubt it. Do you think they just sit there and toss out any old crap in half an hour and pocket £2k per column, ta very much? If it is that easy, surely everyone would do it? eg You?
But of course they don't. Because it is hard. And only a few people can do it and make it really pay
Is it really hard in the same way as, say, managing a big construction project is? Or running a hospital? Or successfully integrating a merger of two companies?
In fact I'll go further and illustrate my point. Your comparison is absurd, because you are making a category error
You're essentially asking which is harder, running a health trust, or being a brilliant premier league striker?
The query makes no sense. The latter requires skills which are much rarer than the former, even though the former is surely very hard work. But if you have the skills to be a great striker, if you are Erling Haaland, you will make it look effortless, but that is because you are very talented, and almost no one else has your talent. You might even appear "lazy" to people who don't understand football
Erling Haaland runs two 5km runs back to back every 3 days. Plus all the training and weightlifting behind the scenes. I am going to go out on a limb and declare him less lazy than an OpEd writer.
That's what I am saying. Haaland will look lazy to people who don't understand football. Those that do, know that Yes he's bloody talented, but he still has to train like a bastard because the competition is insane
I actually KNOW some newspaper columnists. They will spend days raging for an idea, exploring themes, engaging concepts, rejecting duds. They have to read tons of news and books and other stuff, to gather material. Vanishingly few - in fact, probably none - can constantly toss out brilliant columns in half an hour then piss off to the swimming pool
You really don't know what you're talking about, on this point
I have written 349 columns since March 2016 - not just for here but for other forums - some paid and some for trade journals. Not quite 1 a week (there have been 420 weeks since March 2016) but getting bloody close.
And, frankly, better than a lot of the dross in newspapers.
Well then off you go to the Telegraph or the Times and demand £200k a year
The Tories must shoulder some of the blame for this. They have been in power for 14 years and they've had ample opportunity to extirpate this vile, damaging Woke nonsense, to drive it out of public life and to punish those that proselytise it. Instead they have actively let it spread, it has got worse, to the extent that we now refuse to deport known sex offenders back to Afghanistan, because they might suffer for being sex offenders, and so they rape and murder British people instead. That is where we are. That is what the Tories have allowed to flourish, that level of insanity
The only way we retrieve the situation is something close to revolution. An entire class of people needs to be exiled from power forever, and a grotesque ideology needs to be forcibly eliminated. We need the Labour party to fuck up massively and a proper right wing party to assume power
Either that or let the machines take over
"Fourteen years of Tory rule have left Britain a lazy, dangerous, Left-wing mess It hardly matters that Labour will be worse, when voters feel so betrayed by the Tories
Imagine being called lazy by someone who writes newspaper columns for a living.
Have you ever had the job of newspaper columnist? I doubt it. Do you think they just sit there and toss out any old crap in half an hour and pocket £2k per column, ta very much? If it is that easy, surely everyone would do it? eg You?
But of course they don't. Because it is hard. And only a few people can do it and make it really pay
Is it really hard in the same way as, say, managing a big construction project is? Or running a hospital? Or successfully integrating a merger of two companies?
I don't know for sure, of course, but all I can say is that I know lots of talented journalists who have tried to be columnists, and failed badly. And these are professional journalists - they already have the skillset, theoretically
The job of columnist is really quite strange. You have to express a forthright, interesting and eloquent opinion, in an engaging way, at least once a week. For week after week and year after year. When you examine it, that is much harder than it seems, which is why very few do it well, and very very few make good money at it - but when they do, the money is great, because readers will return for a particular writer they like, and editors know this
The celeb columnist is a different genre. Boris straddles both. He is a rather good columnist anyway, if not quite a fighter ace, but his celebrity value surely triples his salary
I do take your point, to a certain extent. But there are lots of very good blog writers out there, which suggests the art of writing such pieces was mainly restricted by access and barriers to entry. And I don't rate the skill of bog standard journalists that highly, given how easily replaceable by AI it was.
You are confusing workrate with talent (as I explain below). You need a special talent to be a good columnist, and it is surprisingly rare (otherwise the good ones would not get so well paid). If you haven't got the basic talent, the gift with words AND opinions, then you could work at it 24/7 and you'd still be shit
Travel writing is similar. A lot of very skilled journalists think Fuck that, looks easy, free booze and a five star hotel, I'm in! - then it turns out they can't do it, because it requires a very particular skill with words invoking place, which is surprisingly uncommon
I agree with the threat of AI, it will take a lot of these jobs, AI can write brilliantly. Thankfully it can't eat oysters in St Malo. Yet
Though going back to the jumping off point for this conversation, the issue was Camilla T complaining about the laziness of the nation. And doing that from the perch of a Telegraph column is a bit off.
That isn't to say that she isn't talented (and I don't mean that in a snide way), or that she doesn't deserve the income she gets. But it's not hard work... nor is it (really) important work.
There are lots of people whose work is more key to the functioning of society than newspaper columnists, and lots who work harder for less reward. Even in the rather guilded set here. But in broad terms, that's OK.
But there's the caveat Michael Young feared. If you take Meritocracy too seriously, life's winners (Tominey, say, or Sunak) start to think that their winning is down to their talent and industry and that life's losers deserve to lose.
I don't think any of the other compared tasks are that hard or even that important. Running a company, running a hospital, merging whatever the fuck? - who cares, it is cognitive gruntwork and it is ALL going to be automated in the next 5 years, 10 absolute max, and anyone who doesn't expect this is an idiot. It is coming, it really is coming
It's just sorting data and managing info and maximising whatever, and AI will be brilliant at that, it already is brilliant at that. I've got a video showing what AI can do ALREADY, it is just 1 minute 30 seconds and I showed it to my SAS friend today at lunch and he reacted the same as my tog friend yesterday, his jaw dropped and he was speechless then he said "fuck"
AI is coming for all of us who work in the cognitive industries, so the entire argument is fairly pointless. The interesting question is who will be LEFT. As I say, travel writers, weirdly, might just survive
Managers and all that? No chance. There is no human personality needed, just efficiency
The Tories must shoulder some of the blame for this. They have been in power for 14 years and they've had ample opportunity to extirpate this vile, damaging Woke nonsense, to drive it out of public life and to punish those that proselytise it. Instead they have actively let it spread, it has got worse, to the extent that we now refuse to deport known sex offenders back to Afghanistan, because they might suffer for being sex offenders, and so they rape and murder British people instead. That is where we are. That is what the Tories have allowed to flourish, that level of insanity
The only way we retrieve the situation is something close to revolution. An entire class of people needs to be exiled from power forever, and a grotesque ideology needs to be forcibly eliminated. We need the Labour party to fuck up massively and a proper right wing party to assume power
Either that or let the machines take over
"Fourteen years of Tory rule have left Britain a lazy, dangerous, Left-wing mess It hardly matters that Labour will be worse, when voters feel so betrayed by the Tories
Imagine being called lazy by someone who writes newspaper columns for a living.
Have you ever had the job of newspaper columnist? I doubt it. Do you think they just sit there and toss out any old crap in half an hour and pocket £2k per column, ta very much? If it is that easy, surely everyone would do it? eg You?
But of course they don't. Because it is hard. And only a few people can do it and make it really pay
Is it really hard in the same way as, say, managing a big construction project is? Or running a hospital? Or successfully integrating a merger of two companies?
In fact I'll go further and illustrate my point. Your comparison is absurd, because you are making a category error
You're essentially asking which is harder, running a health trust, or being a brilliant premier league striker?
The query makes no sense. The latter requires skills which are much rarer than the former, even though the former is surely very hard work. But if you have the skills to be a great striker, if you are Erling Haaland, you will make it look effortless, but that is because you are very talented, and almost no one else has your talent. You might even appear "lazy" to people who don't understand football
Erling Haaland runs two 5km runs back to back every 3 days. Plus all the training and weightlifting behind the scenes. I am going to go out on a limb and declare him less lazy than an OpEd writer.
Being pedantic, isn’t two 5K runs back to back, a 10K run?
"Perseverance is not a long race, it' is many short races one after the other"
Fancied something different tonight so tried an ostrich burger from Morrisons.
Was really tasty, would recommend.
They had some venison next to it, for our vegan friends here.
Are you really just eating meat and nothing else, so no bun, slaw or sauce with that burger, or have I misunderstood?
I had two fried eggs with it.
No bun, slaw, sauce etc - though I'm not against sauce so long as its not loaded with sugar, been having hot sauce quite a bit, you get good hot sauces that have next to no carbs per serving.
Your diet really is fascinating. You should write a newspaper column about it.
Reminds me of the Louis Theroux Bear Grylls interview. Bear gave up on most carbs and cereals a few years ago and now eats steak every night, meaty breakfasts and god knows what for lunch. He said “my poos are the cleanest they’ve ever been. They just slip out and I rarely need to wipe”.
Well I wouldn't say that, I wipe, but yes cutting out carbs essentially also means cutting out fibre which has done wonders for my health. Much better now.
I think the diet will eventually become more mainstream as it works and there's increasing evidence for it, future people will wonder how 20th century health advice got it so badly wrong in advocating carbs, vegetables, fibre etc as essential and fats, protein, red meat etc as dangerous. So very wrong and has led to ever expanding amounts of obesity.
A lot of the issues around dietary advice have been because evidence was rarely part of the process. It’s also quite hard studying the effects of diet. I don’t eat the same as I did last year, or the year before or the decade before that. And stripping out confounders is hard. Do richer people eat more fruit and veg and live longer because of the diet or for other reasons? The demonisation of fat has been catastrophic and has led to ghastly low or no fat products that are right up there on the ultra processed scale. Think of the low fat yoghurts, packed with artificial ingredients to get the mouth feel of fat. It’s not as if the body cannot create its own fatty acids (it’s a key part of energy metabolism). You don’t necessarily deposit the fat you eat onto your hips. Is mainly eating meat the way to go? I’d worry about doing it all the time, and want to be sure that you are getting all the micronutrients you need, but if it’s working for you, that’s great.
The Tories must shoulder some of the blame for this. They have been in power for 14 years and they've had ample opportunity to extirpate this vile, damaging Woke nonsense, to drive it out of public life and to punish those that proselytise it. Instead they have actively let it spread, it has got worse, to the extent that we now refuse to deport known sex offenders back to Afghanistan, because they might suffer for being sex offenders, and so they rape and murder British people instead. That is where we are. That is what the Tories have allowed to flourish, that level of insanity
The only way we retrieve the situation is something close to revolution. An entire class of people needs to be exiled from power forever, and a grotesque ideology needs to be forcibly eliminated. We need the Labour party to fuck up massively and a proper right wing party to assume power
Either that or let the machines take over
"Fourteen years of Tory rule have left Britain a lazy, dangerous, Left-wing mess It hardly matters that Labour will be worse, when voters feel so betrayed by the Tories
Imagine being called lazy by someone who writes newspaper columns for a living.
Have you ever had the job of newspaper columnist? I doubt it. Do you think they just sit there and toss out any old crap in half an hour and pocket £2k per column, ta very much? If it is that easy, surely everyone would do it? eg You?
But of course they don't. Because it is hard. And only a few people can do it and make it really pay
Is it really hard in the same way as, say, managing a big construction project is? Or running a hospital? Or successfully integrating a merger of two companies?
I don't know for sure, of course, but all I can say is that I know lots of talented journalists who have tried to be columnists, and failed badly. And these are professional journalists - they already have the skillset, theoretically
The job of columnist is really quite strange. You have to express a forthright, interesting and eloquent opinion, in an engaging way, at least once a week. For week after week and year after year. When you examine it, that is much harder than it seems, which is why very few do it well, and very very few make good money at it - but when they do, the money is great, because readers will return for a particular writer they like, and editors know this
The celeb columnist is a different genre. Boris straddles both. He is a rather good columnist anyway, if not quite a fighter ace, but his celebrity value surely triples his salary
I do take your point, to a certain extent. But there are lots of very good blog writers out there, which suggests the art of writing such pieces was mainly restricted by access and barriers to entry. And I don't rate the skill of bog standard journalists that highly, given how easily replaceable by AI it was.
You are confusing workrate with talent (as I explain below). You need a special talent to be a good columnist, and it is surprisingly rare (otherwise the good ones would not get so well paid). If you haven't got the basic talent, the gift with words AND opinions, then you could work at it 24/7 and you'd still be shit
Travel writing is similar. A lot of very skilled journalists think Fuck that, looks easy, free booze and a five star hotel, I'm in! - then it turns out they can't do it, because it requires a very particular skill with words invoking place, which is surprisingly uncommon
I agree with the threat of AI, it will take a lot of these jobs, AI can write brilliantly. Thankfully it can't eat oysters in St Malo. Yet
Though going back to the jumping off point for this conversation, the issue was Camilla T complaining about the laziness of the nation. And doing that from the perch of a Telegraph column is a bit off.
That isn't to say that she isn't talented (and I don't mean that in a snide way), or that she doesn't deserve the income she gets. But it's not hard work... nor is it (really) important work.
There are lots of people whose work is more key to the functioning of society than newspaper columnists, and lots who work harder for less reward. Even in the rather guilded set here. But in broad terms, that's OK.
But there's the caveat Michael Young feared. If you take Meritocracy too seriously, life's winners (Tominey, say, or Sunak) start to think that their winning is down to their talent and industry and that life's losers deserve to lose.
I don't think any of the other compared tasks are that hard or even that important. Running a company, running a hospital, merging whatever the fuck? - who cares, it is cognitive gruntwork and it is ALL going to be automated in the next 5 years, 10 absolute max, and anyone who doesn't expect this is an idiot. It is coming, it really is coming
It's just sorting data and managing info and maximising whatever, and AI will be brilliant at that, it already is brilliant at that. I've got a video showing what AI can do ALREADY, it is just 1 minute 30 seconds and I showed it to my SAS friend today at lunch and he reacted the same as my tog friend yesterday, his jaw dropped and he was speechless then he said "fuck"
AI is coming for all of us who work in the cognitive industries, so the entire argument is fairly pointless. The interesting question is who will be LEFT. As I say, travel writers, weirdly, might just survive
Managers and all that? No chance. There is no human personality needed, just efficiency
Who will be left?
Politicians, surely.
Could AI have generated a Donald Trump?
Could AI have generated a Boris Johnson?
Could AI have generated a Keir Starmer?
Ah.
AI can do vaguely-plausible-to-the-ignorant bullshit very well. Donald Trump should be worried.
Did I miss the promised Solarpunk thread, or is it still coming?
It is still coming @dixiedean. It has been superseded by another article which is in the process. When that's out I shall return to the Solarpunk article which will (gods of PB willing) appear about 7-10 days later.
What's the solarpunk thread ?
It's an article about Solarpunk. The thread will be attached to it.
The SF genre, or a speculative look at actual industrial development ?
Fancied something different tonight so tried an ostrich burger from Morrisons.
Was really tasty, would recommend.
They had some venison next to it, for our vegan friends here.
Are you really just eating meat and nothing else, so no bun, slaw or sauce with that burger, or have I misunderstood?
I had two fried eggs with it.
No bun, slaw, sauce etc - though I'm not against sauce so long as its not loaded with sugar, been having hot sauce quite a bit, you get good hot sauces that have next to no carbs per serving.
Your diet really is fascinating. You should write a newspaper column about it.
Reminds me of the Louis Theroux Bear Grylls interview. Bear gave up on most carbs and cereals a few years ago and now eats steak every night, meaty breakfasts and god knows what for lunch. He said “my poos are the cleanest they’ve ever been. They just slip out and I rarely need to wipe”.
Well I wouldn't say that, I wipe, but yes cutting out carbs essentially also means cutting out fibre which has done wonders for my health. Much better now.
I think the diet will eventually become more mainstream as it works and there's increasing evidence for it, future people will wonder how 20th century health advice got it so badly wrong in advocating carbs, vegetables, fibre etc as essential and fats, protein, red meat etc as dangerous. So very wrong and has led to ever expanding amounts of obesity.
A lot of the issues around dietary advice have been because evidence was rarely part of the process. It’s also quite hard studying the effects of diet. I don’t eat the same as I did last year, or the year before or the decade before that. And stripping out confounders is hard. Do richer people eat more fruit and veg and live longer because of the diet or for other reasons? The demonisation of fat has been catastrophic and has led to ghastly low or no fat products that are right up there on the ultra processed scale. Think of the low fat yoghurts, packed with artificial ingredients to get the mouth feel of fat. It’s not as if the body cannot create its own fatty acids (it’s a key part of energy metabolism). You don’t necessarily deposit the fat you eat onto your hips. Is mainly eating meat the way to go? I’d worry about doing it all the time, and want to be sure that you are getting all the micronutrients you need, but if it’s working for you, that’s great.
Indeed, that's a part of the problem is that most "evidence" on diet is based on surveys that struggle to separate correlation from causation. For too long those who sceptically question that evidence have been dismissed as cranks.
Combined with the problem that having incorrectly demonised fat, protein, meat etc as being "unhealthy", and incorrectly praised vegetables, fibre, processed carbs etc as being "healthier" then you'd expect those who care about their health - exercise, look after themselves etc - to tend towards being carb eaters and living longer, while meat/fat eaters would be more likely those who don't exercise, smoke, don't take care of themselves etc
Give people bad advice, and that bad advice if taken seriously can correlate to a longer life because those who follow the bad advice are those who listen to the rest of the advice which is good advice.
The Tories must shoulder some of the blame for this. They have been in power for 14 years and they've had ample opportunity to extirpate this vile, damaging Woke nonsense, to drive it out of public life and to punish those that proselytise it. Instead they have actively let it spread, it has got worse, to the extent that we now refuse to deport known sex offenders back to Afghanistan, because they might suffer for being sex offenders, and so they rape and murder British people instead. That is where we are. That is what the Tories have allowed to flourish, that level of insanity
The only way we retrieve the situation is something close to revolution. An entire class of people needs to be exiled from power forever, and a grotesque ideology needs to be forcibly eliminated. We need the Labour party to fuck up massively and a proper right wing party to assume power
Either that or let the machines take over
"Fourteen years of Tory rule have left Britain a lazy, dangerous, Left-wing mess It hardly matters that Labour will be worse, when voters feel so betrayed by the Tories
Imagine being called lazy by someone who writes newspaper columns for a living.
Have you ever had the job of newspaper columnist? I doubt it. Do you think they just sit there and toss out any old crap in half an hour and pocket £2k per column, ta very much? If it is that easy, surely everyone would do it? eg You?
But of course they don't. Because it is hard. And only a few people can do it and make it really pay
Is it really hard in the same way as, say, managing a big construction project is? Or running a hospital? Or successfully integrating a merger of two companies?
In fact I'll go further and illustrate my point. Your comparison is absurd, because you are making a category error
You're essentially asking which is harder, running a health trust, or being a brilliant premier league striker?
The query makes no sense. The latter requires skills which are much rarer than the former, even though the former is surely very hard work. But if you have the skills to be a great striker, if you are Erling Haaland, you will make it look effortless, but that is because you are very talented, and almost no one else has your talent. You might even appear "lazy" to people who don't understand football
Erling Haaland runs two 5km runs back to back every 3 days. Plus all the training and weightlifting behind the scenes. I am going to go out on a limb and declare him less lazy than an OpEd writer.
That's what I am saying. Haaland will look lazy to people who don't understand football. Those that do, know that Yes he's bloody talented, but he still has to train like a bastard because the competition is insane
I actually KNOW some newspaper columnists. They will spend days raging for an idea, exploring themes, engaging concepts, rejecting duds. They have to read tons of news and books and other stuff, to gather material. Vanishingly few - in fact, probably none - can constantly toss out brilliant columns in half an hour then piss off to the swimming pool
You really don't know what you're talking about, on this point
I have written 349 columns since March 2016 - not just for here but for other forums - some paid and some for trade journals. Not quite 1 a week (there have been 420 weeks since March 2016) but getting bloody close.
And, frankly, better than a lot of the dross in newspapers.
Well then off you go to the Telegraph or the Times and demand £200k a year
The Telegraph is crap; glance at the Times. Long time since I actually read a paper properly. Quite like Matthew Syed though.
Don't have the connections. And that's what counts these days after all.
Might the Knappers Gazette want something? I don't fit the usual mould after all - so would do wonders for their diversity stats. And I'd promise not to steal ideas from the "let me tell you about my brothel experiences" crowd.
The "Why deadheading roses is like delaying your orgasm" column would be more up my street.
The Tories must shoulder some of the blame for this. They have been in power for 14 years and they've had ample opportunity to extirpate this vile, damaging Woke nonsense, to drive it out of public life and to punish those that proselytise it. Instead they have actively let it spread, it has got worse, to the extent that we now refuse to deport known sex offenders back to Afghanistan, because they might suffer for being sex offenders, and so they rape and murder British people instead. That is where we are. That is what the Tories have allowed to flourish, that level of insanity
The only way we retrieve the situation is something close to revolution. An entire class of people needs to be exiled from power forever, and a grotesque ideology needs to be forcibly eliminated. We need the Labour party to fuck up massively and a proper right wing party to assume power
Either that or let the machines take over
"Fourteen years of Tory rule have left Britain a lazy, dangerous, Left-wing mess It hardly matters that Labour will be worse, when voters feel so betrayed by the Tories
Imagine being called lazy by someone who writes newspaper columns for a living.
Have you ever had the job of newspaper columnist? I doubt it. Do you think they just sit there and toss out any old crap in half an hour and pocket £2k per column, ta very much? If it is that easy, surely everyone would do it? eg You?
But of course they don't. Because it is hard. And only a few people can do it and make it really pay
Is it really hard in the same way as, say, managing a big construction project is? Or running a hospital? Or successfully integrating a merger of two companies?
In fact I'll go further and illustrate my point. Your comparison is absurd, because you are making a category error
You're essentially asking which is harder, running a health trust, or being a brilliant premier league striker?
The query makes no sense. The latter requires skills which are much rarer than the former, even though the former is surely very hard work. But if you have the skills to be a great striker, if you are Erling Haaland, you will make it look effortless, but that is because you are very talented, and almost no one else has your talent. You might even appear "lazy" to people who don't understand football
Erling Haaland runs two 5km runs back to back every 3 days. Plus all the training and weightlifting behind the scenes. I am going to go out on a limb and declare him less lazy than an OpEd writer.
That's what I am saying. Haaland will look lazy to people who don't understand football. Those that do, know that Yes he's bloody talented, but he still has to train like a bastard because the competition is insane
I actually KNOW some newspaper columnists. They will spend days raging for an idea, exploring themes, engaging concepts, rejecting duds. They have to read tons of news and books and other stuff, to gather material. Vanishingly few - in fact, probably none - can constantly toss out brilliant columns in half an hour then piss off to the swimming pool
You really don't know what you're talking about, on this point
I have written 349 columns since March 2016 - not just for here but for other forums - some paid and some for trade journals. Not quite 1 a week (there have been 420 weeks since March 2016) but getting bloody close.
And, frankly, better than a lot of the dross in newspapers.
Well then off you go to the Telegraph or the Times and demand £200k a year
The Telegraph is crap; glance at the Times. Long time since I actually read a paper properly. Quite like Matthew Syed though.
Don't have the connections. And that's what counts these days after all.
Might the Knappers Gazette want something? I don't fit the usual mould after all - so would do wonders for their diversity stats. And I'd promise not to steal ideas from the "let me tell you about my brothel experiences" crowd.
The "Why deadheading roses is like delaying your orgasm" column would be more up my street.
"Gardening is like doing a jigsaw: a pointless way to pass the time until you die." - J. Clarkson.
The Tories must shoulder some of the blame for this. They have been in power for 14 years and they've had ample opportunity to extirpate this vile, damaging Woke nonsense, to drive it out of public life and to punish those that proselytise it. Instead they have actively let it spread, it has got worse, to the extent that we now refuse to deport known sex offenders back to Afghanistan, because they might suffer for being sex offenders, and so they rape and murder British people instead. That is where we are. That is what the Tories have allowed to flourish, that level of insanity
The only way we retrieve the situation is something close to revolution. An entire class of people needs to be exiled from power forever, and a grotesque ideology needs to be forcibly eliminated. We need the Labour party to fuck up massively and a proper right wing party to assume power
Either that or let the machines take over
"Fourteen years of Tory rule have left Britain a lazy, dangerous, Left-wing mess It hardly matters that Labour will be worse, when voters feel so betrayed by the Tories
Imagine being called lazy by someone who writes newspaper columns for a living.
Have you ever had the job of newspaper columnist? I doubt it. Do you think they just sit there and toss out any old crap in half an hour and pocket £2k per column, ta very much? If it is that easy, surely everyone would do it? eg You?
But of course they don't. Because it is hard. And only a few people can do it and make it really pay
Is it really hard in the same way as, say, managing a big construction project is? Or running a hospital? Or successfully integrating a merger of two companies?
I don't know for sure, of course, but all I can say is that I know lots of talented journalists who have tried to be columnists, and failed badly. And these are professional journalists - they already have the skillset, theoretically
The job of columnist is really quite strange. You have to express a forthright, interesting and eloquent opinion, in an engaging way, at least once a week. For week after week and year after year. When you examine it, that is much harder than it seems, which is why very few do it well, and very very few make good money at it - but when they do, the money is great, because readers will return for a particular writer they like, and editors know this
The celeb columnist is a different genre. Boris straddles both. He is a rather good columnist anyway, if not quite a fighter ace, but his celebrity value surely triples his salary
I do take your point, to a certain extent. But there are lots of very good blog writers out there, which suggests the art of writing such pieces was mainly restricted by access and barriers to entry. And I don't rate the skill of bog standard journalists that highly, given how easily replaceable by AI it was.
You are confusing workrate with talent (as I explain below). You need a special talent to be a good columnist, and it is surprisingly rare (otherwise the good ones would not get so well paid). If you haven't got the basic talent, the gift with words AND opinions, then you could work at it 24/7 and you'd still be shit
Travel writing is similar. A lot of very skilled journalists think Fuck that, looks easy, free booze and a five star hotel, I'm in! - then it turns out they can't do it, because it requires a very particular skill with words invoking place, which is surprisingly uncommon
I agree with the threat of AI, it will take a lot of these jobs, AI can write brilliantly. Thankfully it can't eat oysters in St Malo. Yet
Though going back to the jumping off point for this conversation, the issue was Camilla T complaining about the laziness of the nation. And doing that from the perch of a Telegraph column is a bit off.
That isn't to say that she isn't talented (and I don't mean that in a snide way), or that she doesn't deserve the income she gets. But it's not hard work... nor is it (really) important work.
There are lots of people whose work is more key to the functioning of society than newspaper columnists, and lots who work harder for less reward. Even in the rather guilded set here. But in broad terms, that's OK.
But there's the caveat Michael Young feared. If you take Meritocracy too seriously, life's winners (Tominey, say, or Sunak) start to think that their winning is down to their talent and industry and that life's losers deserve to lose.
I don't think any of the other compared tasks are that hard or even that important. Running a company, running a hospital, merging whatever the fuck? - who cares, it is cognitive gruntwork and it is ALL going to be automated in the next 5 years, 10 absolute max, and anyone who doesn't expect this is an idiot. It is coming, it really is coming
It's just sorting data and managing info and maximising whatever, and AI will be brilliant at that, it already is brilliant at that. I've got a video showing what AI can do ALREADY, it is just 1 minute 30 seconds and I showed it to my SAS friend today at lunch and he reacted the same as my tog friend yesterday, his jaw dropped and he was speechless then he said "fuck"
AI is coming for all of us who work in the cognitive industries, so the entire argument is fairly pointless. The interesting question is who will be LEFT. As I say, travel writers, weirdly, might just survive
Managers and all that? No chance. There is no human personality needed, just efficiency
That's the future, I'm thinking (for now) about the now, and the strange inversion we already have.
So someone like @dixiedean undoubtedly works harder (working with really troubled kids) than I do (working with kids who mostly are only troubled in the way that all kids are troubled). Same goes for police officers, making horrible judgement calls and getting buckets of shit poured over them when they get them wrong. And a bajillion other jobs.
And at the other end of the scale, certain professions allow those at the top to scoop huge amounts of cash for relatively little effort. Because the pay and conditions at the top aren't there to incentivise the current winner, but all those who aspire to take their place in the future; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournament_theory
And to repeat- I'm not particularly bothered about the cash. (Heck, if I were, I wouldn't be teaching science, it's a terrible way to turn my knowledge and skills into money.) But people at the top telling people at the bottom that their bottomness is down to indolence... that frankly jars.
Off topic - I do hope Football League and Non-League teams do announce an FA Cup boycott next season. More than the issue at hand, the scrapping of replays, it's the principle of the thing and time a stand was taken in sport against wealthy elites of investors and administrators who believe they have the right to push everyone else around to fatten their wallets.
The same as cricket, if we continue scrapping everything that gets in the way of very rich people making even more money from a game they didn't build, you'll soon have a hollowed out husk that is solely there to milk 'customers' for cash.
Tell the FA to stick it. Threaten to set up an alternative without the Premier League clubs, and see how they get on without the rest of the football pyramid. They might have to sit up and take notice for once. Oh and kick Premier League reserve teams out of the EFL Trophy while they're at it.
They were serving ostrich burgers at Christmas markets about 5 years ago, but I haven't seen them in that context more recently.
For about 1 year about a decade ago the Indian takeaways in my area started selling curries with what was purportedly Ostrich meat for some reason. Either it didn't take off or their Ostrich supplier went out of business, as they've not done it since.
The Tories must shoulder some of the blame for this. They have been in power for 14 years and they've had ample opportunity to extirpate this vile, damaging Woke nonsense, to drive it out of public life and to punish those that proselytise it. Instead they have actively let it spread, it has got worse, to the extent that we now refuse to deport known sex offenders back to Afghanistan, because they might suffer for being sex offenders, and so they rape and murder British people instead. That is where we are. That is what the Tories have allowed to flourish, that level of insanity
The only way we retrieve the situation is something close to revolution. An entire class of people needs to be exiled from power forever, and a grotesque ideology needs to be forcibly eliminated. We need the Labour party to fuck up massively and a proper right wing party to assume power
Either that or let the machines take over
"Fourteen years of Tory rule have left Britain a lazy, dangerous, Left-wing mess It hardly matters that Labour will be worse, when voters feel so betrayed by the Tories
Imagine being called lazy by someone who writes newspaper columns for a living.
Have you ever had the job of newspaper columnist? I doubt it. Do you think they just sit there and toss out any old crap in half an hour and pocket £2k per column, ta very much? If it is that easy, surely everyone would do it? eg You?
But of course they don't. Because it is hard. And only a few people can do it and make it really pay
Is it really hard in the same way as, say, managing a big construction project is? Or running a hospital? Or successfully integrating a merger of two companies?
I don't know for sure, of course, but all I can say is that I know lots of talented journalists who have tried to be columnists, and failed badly. And these are professional journalists - they already have the skillset, theoretically
The job of columnist is really quite strange. You have to express a forthright, interesting and eloquent opinion, in an engaging way, at least once a week. For week after week and year after year. When you examine it, that is much harder than it seems, which is why very few do it well, and very very few make good money at it - but when they do, the money is great, because readers will return for a particular writer they like, and editors know this
The celeb columnist is a different genre. Boris straddles both. He is a rather good columnist anyway, if not quite a fighter ace, but his celebrity value surely triples his salary
I do take your point, to a certain extent. But there are lots of very good blog writers out there, which suggests the art of writing such pieces was mainly restricted by access and barriers to entry. And I don't rate the skill of bog standard journalists that highly, given how easily replaceable by AI it was.
You are confusing workrate with talent (as I explain below). You need a special talent to be a good columnist, and it is surprisingly rare (otherwise the good ones would not get so well paid). If you haven't got the basic talent, the gift with words AND opinions, then you could work at it 24/7 and you'd still be shit
Travel writing is similar. A lot of very skilled journalists think Fuck that, looks easy, free booze and a five star hotel, I'm in! - then it turns out they can't do it, because it requires a very particular skill with words invoking place, which is surprisingly uncommon
I agree with the threat of AI, it will take a lot of these jobs, AI can write brilliantly. Thankfully it can't eat oysters in St Malo. Yet
Though going back to the jumping off point for this conversation, the issue was Camilla T complaining about the laziness of the nation. And doing that from the perch of a Telegraph column is a bit off.
That isn't to say that she isn't talented (and I don't mean that in a snide way), or that she doesn't deserve the income she gets. But it's not hard work... nor is it (really) important work.
There are lots of people whose work is more key to the functioning of society than newspaper columnists, and lots who work harder for less reward. Even in the rather guilded set here. But in broad terms, that's OK.
But there's the caveat Michael Young feared. If you take Meritocracy too seriously, life's winners (Tominey, say, or Sunak) start to think that their winning is down to their talent and industry and that life's losers deserve to lose.
I don't think any of the other compared tasks are that hard or even that important. Running a company, running a hospital, merging whatever the fuck? - who cares, it is cognitive gruntwork and it is ALL going to be automated in the next 5 years, 10 absolute max, and anyone who doesn't expect this is an idiot. It is coming, it really is coming
It's just sorting data and managing info and maximising whatever, and AI will be brilliant at that, it already is brilliant at that. I've got a video showing what AI can do ALREADY, it is just 1 minute 30 seconds and I showed it to my SAS friend today at lunch and he reacted the same as my tog friend yesterday, his jaw dropped and he was speechless then he said "fuck"
AI is coming for all of us who work in the cognitive industries, so the entire argument is fairly pointless. The interesting question is who will be LEFT. As I say, travel writers, weirdly, might just survive
Managers and all that? No chance. There is no human personality needed, just efficiency
That's the future, I'm thinking (for now) about the now, and the strange inversion we already have.
So someone like @dixiedean undoubtedly works harder (working with really troubled kids) than I do (working with kids who mostly are only troubled in the way that all kids are troubled). Same goes for police officers, making horrible judgement calls and getting buckets of shit poured over them when they get them wrong. And a bajillion other jobs.
And at the other end of the scale, certain professions allow those at the top to scoop huge amounts of cash for relatively little effort. Because the pay and conditions at the top aren't there to incentivise the current winner, but all those who aspire to take their place in the future; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournament_theory
And to repeat- I'm not particularly bothered about the cash. (Heck, if I were, I wouldn't be teaching science, it's a terrible way to turn my knowledge and skills into money.) But people at the top telling people at the bottom that their bottomness is down to indolence... that frankly jars.
As someone what has basically made a career out of never leaving university, I’m with you. Being an academic at even a top 10 Uni will not make you rich, unless you are a star Prof bring in seven figure grants on a regular basis, and even the you are only looking at just creeping into six figure salaries. Even the pension has got noticeably worse in recent times. And yet I don’t regret my choice. I get to reach science to undergrads. I get to do research (I.e. mess about in the lab). I get to use state of the art scientific kit (and if I’m really lucky, to buy more of it). Did I get where I am on merit? Or was I lucky in my family, background etc? Arguably both. Do I work hard? Sometimes yes. Sometimes it’s a struggle to keep up with PB during working hours…
They were serving ostrich burgers at Christmas markets about 5 years ago, but I haven't seen them in that context more recently.
For about 1 year about a decade ago the Indian takeaways in my area started selling curries with what was purportedly Ostrich meat for some reason. Either it didn't take off or their Ostrich supplier went out of business, as they've not done it since.
Off topic - I do hope Football League and Non-League teams do announce an FA Cup boycott next season. More than the issue at hand, the scrapping of replays, it's the principle of the thing and time a stand was taken in sport against wealthy elites of investors and administrators who believe they have the right to push everyone else around to fatten their wallets.
The same as cricket, if we continue scrapping everything that gets in the way of very rich people making even more money from a game they didn't build, you'll soon have a hollowed out husk that is solely there to milk 'customers' for cash.
Tell the FA to stick it. Threaten to set up an alternative without the Premier League clubs, and see how they get on without the rest of the football pyramid. They might have to sit up and take notice for once. Oh and kick Premier League reserve teams out of the EFL Trophy while they're at it.
I remember when the Premier League went their own way certain clubs in the league (Sunderland, for one) advocating a similar approach. Go on then, piss off and have your own little league for rich people, but we won't be joining it The pinnacle of English football will remain Football League, division 1. I wish it had happened. Not least because it would have innoculated us against the bloody stupid convention - now spreading to other sports - that league 1 is the third tier.
Fancied something different tonight so tried an ostrich burger from Morrisons.
Was really tasty, would recommend.
They had some venison next to it, for our vegan friends here.
Are you really just eating meat and nothing else, so no bun, slaw or sauce with that burger, or have I misunderstood?
I had two fried eggs with it.
No bun, slaw, sauce etc - though I'm not against sauce so long as its not loaded with sugar, been having hot sauce quite a bit, you get good hot sauces that have next to no carbs per serving.
Your diet really is fascinating. You should write a newspaper column about it.
Reminds me of the Louis Theroux Bear Grylls interview. Bear gave up on most carbs and cereals a few years ago and now eats steak every night, meaty breakfasts and god knows what for lunch. He said “my poos are the cleanest they’ve ever been. They just slip out and I rarely need to wipe”.
Me ex, who used to be a hippy woowoo vegan tofu eater (with the occasional guilty bacon sarny or steak) has now gone Totes Bear Grylls. Meat meat meat. Liver and ribeye. Tons of protein. She looks amazing. Slim, glowing, oodles of energy. So I really do wonder if Bart and Bear are on to something
A good friend of mine - a fellow Ops Geologist - was a vegetarian for a decade or more. He is now one of the countries leading BBQ experts with his own books, school and very successful BBQ career. He and I both reached around 23 stone about 5 or 6 years ago and since then, both following the low carb diet, have lost 6 stone a piece.
Off topic - I do hope Football League and Non-League teams do announce an FA Cup boycott next season. More than the issue at hand, the scrapping of replays, it's the principle of the thing and time a stand was taken in sport against wealthy elites of investors and administrators who believe they have the right to push everyone else around to fatten their wallets.
The same as cricket, if we continue scrapping everything that gets in the way of very rich people making even more money from a game they didn't build, you'll soon have a hollowed out husk that is solely there to milk 'customers' for cash.
Tell the FA to stick it. Threaten to set up an alternative without the Premier League clubs, and see how they get on without the rest of the football pyramid. They might have to sit up and take notice for once. Oh and kick Premier League reserve teams out of the EFL Trophy while they're at it.
I remember when the Premier League went their own way certain clubs in the league (Sunderland, for one) advocating a similar approach. Go on then, piss off and have your own little league for rich people, but we won't be joining it The pinnacle of English football will remain Football League, division 1. I wish it had happened. Not least because it would have innoculated us against the bloody stupid convention - now spreading to other sports - that league 1 is the third tier.
Indeed. It’s all rather bizarre. My team, Swindon, won the 4th division in 1986, and the 2nd division in 2012. Yet both were the 4th tier of English foootball. Perverse.
They're learning a little, previously they'd've just released another one defending the first statement.
Sadly it demonstrates that their instincts as an organisation still remain messed up, and their defensiveness in response to criticism probably lies at the heart of it.
The Tories must shoulder some of the blame for this. They have been in power for 14 years and they've had ample opportunity to extirpate this vile, damaging Woke nonsense, to drive it out of public life and to punish those that proselytise it. Instead they have actively let it spread, it has got worse, to the extent that we now refuse to deport known sex offenders back to Afghanistan, because they might suffer for being sex offenders, and so they rape and murder British people instead. That is where we are. That is what the Tories have allowed to flourish, that level of insanity
The only way we retrieve the situation is something close to revolution. An entire class of people needs to be exiled from power forever, and a grotesque ideology needs to be forcibly eliminated. We need the Labour party to fuck up massively and a proper right wing party to assume power
Either that or let the machines take over
"Fourteen years of Tory rule have left Britain a lazy, dangerous, Left-wing mess It hardly matters that Labour will be worse, when voters feel so betrayed by the Tories
Imagine being called lazy by someone who writes newspaper columns for a living.
Have you ever had the job of newspaper columnist? I doubt it. Do you think they just sit there and toss out any old crap in half an hour and pocket £2k per column, ta very much? If it is that easy, surely everyone would do it? eg You?
But of course they don't. Because it is hard. And only a few people can do it and make it really pay
Is it really hard in the same way as, say, managing a big construction project is? Or running a hospital? Or successfully integrating a merger of two companies?
In fact I'll go further and illustrate my point. Your comparison is absurd, because you are making a category error
You're essentially asking which is harder, running a health trust, or being a brilliant premier league striker?
The query makes no sense. The latter requires skills which are much rarer than the former, even though the former is surely very hard work. But if you have the skills to be a great striker, if you are Erling Haaland, you will make it look effortless, but that is because you are very talented, and almost no one else has your talent. You might even appear "lazy" to people who don't understand football
Erling Haaland runs two 5km runs back to back every 3 days. Plus all the training and weightlifting behind the scenes. I am going to go out on a limb and declare him less lazy than an OpEd writer.
That's what I am saying. Haaland will look lazy to people who don't understand football. Those that do, know that Yes he's bloody talented, but he still has to train like a bastard because the competition is insane
I actually KNOW some newspaper columnists. They will spend days raging for an idea, exploring themes, engaging concepts, rejecting duds. They have to read tons of news and books and other stuff, to gather material. Vanishingly few - in fact, probably none - can constantly toss out brilliant columns in half an hour then piss off to the swimming pool
You really don't know what you're talking about, on this point
I have written 349 columns since March 2016 - not just for here but for other forums - some paid and some for trade journals. Not quite 1 a week (there have been 420 weeks since March 2016) but getting bloody close.
And, frankly, better than a lot of the dross in newspapers.
Well then off you go to the Telegraph or the Times and demand £200k a year
The Telegraph is crap; glance at the Times. Long time since I actually read a paper properly. Quite like Matthew Syed though.
Don't have the connections. And that's what counts these days after all.
Might the Knappers Gazette want something? I don't fit the usual mould after all - so would do wonders for their diversity stats. And I'd promise not to steal ideas from the "let me tell you about my brothel experiences" crowd.
The "Why deadheading roses is like delaying your orgasm" column would be more up my street.
It really is NOT "all about the connections". Sure your Daddy might get you a job for a year or two but if you can't do it, you're gone. Journalism is fiercely competitive
It is also a very open industry, you could send an idea to the features editor at the Telegraph or Guardian (or cookery editor, or travel, sex, gardening) and if it's a brilliant idea they will say Sure, have a go, send me 1000 words. And if it's good, they will print it, and then you're in. I don't know many other industries which are that open, in fact. They don't ask for diplomas, they don't ask what degree you got or where you went to school, they just wanna know you can write and you have a flow of good ideas - if you want to do features journalism or travel or columns etc
What has dried up is the classic route for working class hacks from local rag to Fleet Street, because the local rags have disappeared, and that is a damn shame. Journalism is becoming posher and I regret that. But it is still open and egalitarian, probably the poshest and least egalitarian is the Guardian, they are all insanely public school and rich, it is an industry in-joke
But seriously. If you have a cracking idea, send it to an editor, and they will have a look. The door is not closed. They all love great ideas
More idiocy from the Tories . Planning a stamp duty cut which will just fuel the housing market. Many still can’t get on the housing ladder .
Stamp duty shouldn't be cut, it should be abolished.
An annual property tax everyone who owns land has to pay should replace stamp duty and Council Tax, stamp duty being a perverse tax on those trying to get on the housing ladder or those who are mobile and move homes.
It is a tax that shafts those of working age who get on the ladder the most, while those who are retired in a "forever home" never pay the tax.
Why you'd object to it being cut is beyond me. It makes those trying to get on the ladder more affordable if they only have to pay a deposit and not stamp duty on top of the deposit.
First time buyers don't pay stamp duty on property up to £425,000.
But someone who bought for the first time only a few years ago, but changes jobs and now wants to move does.
Or someone who's a first time buyer now but knows they may need to move in the next few years needs to factor it in too.
Why should there be a tax only paid by those who are moving etc?
Isn't the catch that the market response to a stamp duty cut will be to nudge prices higher? After all, the going rate for housing in the UK is still "every single penny that can be prised from the buyer/renter".
Oh indeed it might nudge prices higher, but that's only because supply and demand is out of whack and we need to build, build, build millions more homes. Ten million plus, not a few hundred thousand per year which doesn't even address population growth.
But still, it makes it more affordable to not have to pay the tax up-front for those who are moving etc - why should a worker who relocates town or city be lumped with stamp duty while someone who lives in the same home for decades does not?
M It WILL nudge prices higher. Consider a FTB can afford (say) £250k gross. Ie that it includes purchase price plus stamp duty.
If stamp duty is reduced by (say) £5k, the seller, knowing that the buyer is prepared to pay £250k gross will simply up their price by £5k so the gross price is still £5k. This will work its way up the chain. Invisible hand of the market an and all that.
Off topic - I do hope Football League and Non-League teams do announce an FA Cup boycott next season. More than the issue at hand, the scrapping of replays, it's the principle of the thing and time a stand was taken in sport against wealthy elites of investors and administrators who believe they have the right to push everyone else around to fatten their wallets.
The same as cricket, if we continue scrapping everything that gets in the way of very rich people making even more money from a game they didn't build, you'll soon have a hollowed out husk that is solely there to milk 'customers' for cash.
Tell the FA to stick it. Threaten to set up an alternative without the Premier League clubs, and see how they get on without the rest of the football pyramid. They might have to sit up and take notice for once. Oh and kick Premier League reserve teams out of the EFL Trophy while they're at it.
I remember when the Premier League went their own way certain clubs in the league (Sunderland, for one) advocating a similar approach. Go on then, piss off and have your own little league for rich people, but we won't be joining it The pinnacle of English football will remain Football League, division 1. I wish it had happened. Not least because it would have innoculated us against the bloody stupid convention - now spreading to other sports - that league 1 is the third tier.
Indeed. It’s all rather bizarre. My team, Swindon, won the 4th division in 1986, and the 2nd division in 2012. Yet both were the 4th tier of English foootball. Perverse.
I was at Wembley Stadium in 1991 to see my team, Tranmere Rovers, get promoted from the third to the second division.
We're now in League Two. Unfortunately that's due to multiple relegations and is neither the second, nor the third division in reality.
More idiocy from the Tories . Planning a stamp duty cut which will just fuel the housing market. Many still can’t get on the housing ladder .
Stamp duty shouldn't be cut, it should be abolished.
An annual property tax everyone who owns land has to pay should replace stamp duty and Council Tax, stamp duty being a perverse tax on those trying to get on the housing ladder or those who are mobile and move homes.
It is a tax that shafts those of working age who get on the ladder the most, while those who are retired in a "forever home" never pay the tax.
Why you'd object to it being cut is beyond me. It makes those trying to get on the ladder more affordable if they only have to pay a deposit and not stamp duty on top of the deposit.
First time buyers don't pay stamp duty on property up to £425,000.
But someone who bought for the first time only a few years ago, but changes jobs and now wants to move does.
Or someone who's a first time buyer now but knows they may need to move in the next few years needs to factor it in too.
Why should there be a tax only paid by those who are moving etc?
Isn't the catch that the market response to a stamp duty cut will be to nudge prices higher? After all, the going rate for housing in the UK is still "every single penny that can be prised from the buyer/renter".
Oh indeed it might nudge prices higher, but that's only because supply and demand is out of whack and we need to build, build, build millions more homes. Ten million plus, not a few hundred thousand per year which doesn't even address population growth.
But still, it makes it more affordable to not have to pay the tax up-front for those who are moving etc - why should a worker who relocates town or city be lumped with stamp duty while someone who lives in the same home for decades does not?
M It WILL nudge prices higher. Consider a FTB can afford (say) £250k gross. Ie that it includes purchase price plus stamp duty.
If stamp duty is reduced by (say) £5k, the seller, knowing that the buyer is prepared to pay £250k gross will simply up their price by £5k so the gross price is still £5k. This will work its way up the chain. Invisible hand of the market an and all that.
s
I think the market is a lot more complex than that.
They're learning a little, previously they'd've just released another one defending the first statement.
Sadly it demonstrates that their instincts as an organisation still remain messed up, and their defensiveness in response to criticism probably lies at the heart of it.
Hmm. My initial thought before knowing the circumstances was that it might just be a reflection of illiteracy. But clearly the statement implies that anyone obviously Jewish could be escorted away at the police's whim. How could they think that would be remotely acceptable?
They're learning a little, previously they'd've just released another one defending the first statement.
Sadly it demonstrates that their instincts as an organisation still remain messed up, and their defensiveness in response to criticism probably lies at the heart of it.
Hmm. My initial thought before knowing the circumstances was that it might just be a reflection of illiteracy. But clearly the statement implies that anyone obviously Jewish could be escorted away at the police's whim. How could they think that would be remotely acceptable?
They thought bemoaning how difficult policing is (which it admittedly is) would garner sufficient sympathy to have to avoid sincerely apologising.
Which, since someone senior will have approved the earlier statement, they still haven't and indeed cannot do, since we know what their preferred official response was.
Seattle Times - Semi Bird supporters beat back WA GOP attempt to stop endorsement vote
SPOKANE — The Republican Party state convention erupted with boos and shouts of protest Friday after GOP officials tried to stop an endorsement vote in the race for governor, saying candidate Semi Bird “was not forthcoming” in the party’s vetting process.
About 1,800 delegates at the Spokane convention center — many of them waving Bird signs — reacted with outrage after GOP officials announced their endorsement ruling, which came after a Seattle Times article detailed Bird’s 1993 conviction on a misdemeanor bank larceny charge for falsifying a credit application.
They said, as a result, the party would remove the governor’s race from the endorsement schedule — with no endorsement for Bird or former U.S. Rep. [and former King Co Sheriff] Dave Reichert — a choice widely anticipated at the convention.
As the announcement was made, Bird said: “This not 1960!” In a brief interview, he said party officials had been moving against him, but he had faith in the grassroots delegates.
His supporters, clearly in the majority of delegates at the convention, quickly voted to reverse the decision by GOP executive committee officials. The endorsement vote is scheduled to take place Saturday.
Reichert, who did not show up to the convention Friday as expected, quickly announced he was withdrawing from the chaotic GOP endorsement process.
In a post on the social media platform X, Reichert slammed the GOP process, saying some in the party had “changed rules, broke rules, and twisted the process.”
“I am still seeking the endorsement of Republicans statewide and reconfirm my intention to fight for the state as a Republican all the way to November,” he said.
SSI - Nothing above is likely to change basic fact, that in August 2024 primary for Governor, the top Republican vote-getter AND one of the Top Two finishers advancing to Nov general election, will almost certainly be Dave Reichert. Along with WA Attorney General Bob Ferguson, almost certainly the top Democratic hopeful.
Thus setting up battle royal, with Reichert the GOP's best gubernatorial prospect in two decades.
So naturally the MAGA-maniacs who today dominate the (seriously withered) Republican grassroots, think he's a Libtard RINO (also visa versa).
"...Earlier this month, with characteristic acerbity, Rod Liddle described X as a ‘rancid convocation of the demented, the obsessive and the deranged’..."
They were serving ostrich burgers at Christmas markets about 5 years ago, but I haven't seen them in that context more recently.
For about 1 year about a decade ago the Indian takeaways in my area started selling curries with what was purportedly Ostrich meat for some reason. Either it didn't take off or their Ostrich supplier went out of business, as they've not done it since.
Surely there’s some wider context to this piece of footage, and a Met Police sargeant didn’t actually threaten to arrest a man for “being openly Jewish in a public place”?
Victim blaming. Presumably women will be told that wearing attractive clothes will provoke men, who may not have a handy brothel nearby and so on.
You are absolutely right in every way except that if you were that Police chap and you see something that could turn into a clusterfuck you have to try and stop it. I have stopped many fights in my life where the person was right to want to make the point but it would be me that had to batter the crap out of someone to get him out safely.
The Jewish guy should not have had to try and make the point because those marches should have stopped long ago, frankly should never have started, and that’s the problem. That copper was in a no-win situation. I think we’ve exchanged a PM about our opinion on Israel/Gaza and I rein myself in here but this situation was a problem that the police could not really win.
I feel slightly bad for the copper in question for expressing something clunkily which has caused it to blow up, but on the other hand I think it clunkily reveals a dangerous attitude on behalf of the Met and so his impolitic language has helpfully crystallised the situation.
Sometimes you need to cut out the bullshit, and his instinctive response, defended by the Met in meally mouthed 'apologetic' fashion as essentially correct in principle but poorly expressed, reveals the problem inherent in their attitude.
If it was a one-off incident, then it could be passed off as some clunky language. But it’s not a one-off, it’s yet another similar incident which is becoming indicative of a pattern of behaviour, that the Met thinks Jews aren’t welcome in London.
Surely there’s some wider context to this piece of footage, and a Met Police sargeant didn’t actually threaten to arrest a man for “being openly Jewish in a public place”?
Well the context is the police's peacekeeping duties around a demo.
Yes, you have a lot of Palestinians and supporters very het up about Gaza etc. and you have a person wearing a Jewish head cap wanting to walk through them. It is almost inevitably going to cause a breach of the peace and very likely result in someone being hurt, most likely the Jewish chap.
The general principle is that he is doing nothing wrong, why should his freedom of movement be restricted by the possible likelihood of others breaking the law etc but if I was a cop in that situation I would be anxious to avoid an unnecessary confrontation. Not ideal but entirely sensible to me.
Comments
And, frankly, better than a lot of the dross in newspapers.
Politicians, surely.
Could AI have generated a Donald Trump?
Could AI have generated a Boris Johnson?
Could AI have generated a Keir Starmer?
Ah.
Is mainly eating meat the way to go? I’d worry about doing it all the time, and want to be sure that you are getting all the micronutrients you need, but if it’s working for you, that’s great.
Combined with the problem that having incorrectly demonised fat, protein, meat etc as being "unhealthy", and incorrectly praised vegetables, fibre, processed carbs etc as being "healthier" then you'd expect those who care about their health - exercise, look after themselves etc - to tend towards being carb eaters and living longer, while meat/fat eaters would be more likely those who don't exercise, smoke, don't take care of themselves etc
Give people bad advice, and that bad advice if taken seriously can correlate to a longer life because those who follow the bad advice are those who listen to the rest of the advice which is good advice.
Don't have the connections. And that's what counts these days after all.
Might the Knappers Gazette want something? I don't fit the usual mould after all - so would do wonders for their diversity stats. And I'd promise not to steal ideas from the "let me tell you about my brothel experiences" crowd.
The "Why deadheading roses is like delaying your orgasm" column would be more up my street.
Note to editors: don't tell my mum!
So someone like @dixiedean undoubtedly works harder (working with really troubled kids) than I do (working with kids who mostly are only troubled in the way that all kids are troubled). Same goes for police officers, making horrible judgement calls and getting buckets of shit poured over them when they get them wrong. And a bajillion other jobs.
And at the other end of the scale, certain professions allow those at the top to scoop huge amounts of cash for relatively little effort. Because the pay and conditions at the top aren't there to incentivise the current winner, but all those who aspire to take their place in the future;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournament_theory
And to repeat- I'm not particularly bothered about the cash. (Heck, if I were, I wouldn't be teaching science, it's a terrible way to turn my knowledge and skills into money.) But people at the top telling people at the bottom that their bottomness is down to indolence... that frankly jars.
The same as cricket, if we continue scrapping everything that gets in the way of very rich people making even more money from a game they didn't build, you'll soon have a hollowed out husk that is solely there to milk 'customers' for cash.
Tell the FA to stick it. Threaten to set up an alternative without the Premier League clubs, and see how they get on without the rest of the football pyramid. They might have to sit up and take notice for once. Oh and kick Premier League reserve teams out of the EFL Trophy while they're at it.
Did I get where I am on merit? Or was I lucky in my family, background etc? Arguably both. Do I work hard? Sometimes yes. Sometimes it’s a struggle to keep up with PB during working hours…
s
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-ministers-speech-on-welfare-19-april-2024
Sadly it demonstrates that their instincts as an organisation still remain messed up, and their defensiveness in response to criticism probably lies at the heart of it.
It is also a very open industry, you could send an idea to the features editor at the Telegraph or Guardian (or cookery editor, or travel, sex, gardening) and if it's a brilliant idea they will say Sure, have a go, send me 1000 words. And if it's good, they will print it, and then you're in. I don't know many other industries which are that open, in fact. They don't ask for diplomas, they don't ask what degree you got or where you went to school, they just wanna know you can write and you have a flow of good ideas - if you want to do features journalism or travel or columns etc
What has dried up is the classic route for working class hacks from local rag to Fleet Street, because the local rags have disappeared, and that is a damn shame. Journalism is becoming posher and I regret that. But it is still open and egalitarian, probably the poshest and least egalitarian is the Guardian, they are all insanely public school and rich, it is an industry in-joke
But seriously. If you have a cracking idea, send it to an editor, and they will have a look. The door is not closed. They all love great ideas
It WILL nudge prices higher. Consider a FTB can afford (say) £250k gross. Ie that it includes purchase price plus stamp duty.
If stamp duty is reduced by (say) £5k, the seller, knowing that the buyer is prepared to pay £250k gross will simply up their price by £5k so the gross price is still £5k. This will work its way up the chain. Invisible hand of the market an and all that.
s
We're now in League Two. Unfortunately that's due to multiple relegations and is neither the second, nor the third division in reality.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/19/police-threaten-jewish-man-arrest-palestine-protest-london/
Which, since someone senior will have approved the earlier statement, they still haven't and indeed cannot do, since we know what their preferred official response was.
SPOKANE — The Republican Party state convention erupted with boos and shouts of protest Friday after GOP officials tried to stop an endorsement vote in the race for governor, saying candidate Semi Bird “was not forthcoming” in the party’s vetting process.
About 1,800 delegates at the Spokane convention center — many of them waving Bird signs — reacted with outrage after GOP officials announced their endorsement ruling, which came after a Seattle Times article detailed Bird’s 1993 conviction on a misdemeanor bank larceny charge for falsifying a credit application.
They said, as a result, the party would remove the governor’s race from the endorsement schedule — with no endorsement for Bird or former U.S. Rep. [and former King Co Sheriff] Dave Reichert — a choice widely anticipated at the convention.
As the announcement was made, Bird said: “This not 1960!” In a brief interview, he said party officials had been moving against him, but he had faith in the grassroots delegates.
His supporters, clearly in the majority of delegates at the convention, quickly voted to reverse the decision by GOP executive committee officials. The endorsement vote is scheduled to take place Saturday.
Reichert, who did not show up to the convention Friday as expected, quickly announced he was withdrawing from the chaotic GOP endorsement process.
In a post on the social media platform X, Reichert slammed the GOP process, saying some in the party had “changed rules, broke rules, and twisted the process.”
“I am still seeking the endorsement of Republicans statewide and reconfirm my intention to fight for the state as a Republican all the way to November,” he said.
SSI - Nothing above is likely to change basic fact, that in August 2024 primary for Governor, the top Republican vote-getter AND one of the Top Two finishers advancing to Nov general election, will almost certainly be Dave Reichert. Along with WA Attorney General Bob Ferguson, almost certainly the top Democratic hopeful.
Thus setting up battle royal, with Reichert the GOP's best gubernatorial prospect in two decades.
So naturally the MAGA-maniacs who today dominate the (seriously withered) Republican grassroots, think he's a Libtard RINO (also visa versa).
Without face-to-face, in-person interaction, we lose our humanity
Patrick West"
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/04/19/how-social-media-drove-us-mad/
Pot calling the kettle black, surely?
@AndyJS
https://newsthump.com/2024/04/19/rishi-sunak-to-end-sick-note-culture-by-putting-coma-patients-to-work-as-draft-excluders/
https://benryan.substack.com/p/the-cass-review-fact-check-its-clear
NEW THREAD
The general principle is that he is doing nothing wrong, why should his freedom of movement be restricted by the possible likelihood of others breaking the law etc but if I was a cop in that situation I would be anxious to avoid an unnecessary confrontation. Not ideal but entirely sensible to me.