About twenty miles east of Sarria in Galicia, near a village called Viduedo
I'm near the top
When I saw the photo I assumed Lake District (UK).
Reminds me of where I live in very exotic South Wales
There's a look isn't there: mild, wet Western coastal hills. Rich green hillsides of grass and bracken, purple-hazed moors, thick hedgerows, well fed cattle. Similar sights to be had in Wicklow or Kerry and parts of Devon too. Makes me quite fancy visiting Northern Galicia. I've only seen Rias Baixas which is a bit drier and more Southerly looking.
Perplexingly lush though, given I was led to believe the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain
(first hearing that as a kid, I wondered why the rain fell mainly on the [aero]planes - seemed unlikely given the relative surface area of aeroplanes compared to Spain)
Interesting. I suppose if Labour can win the election with those sorts of low expectations then they are less likely to disappoint.
I would have expected the majority to answer "the same".
The British are slowly adopting the attitude the russians had under communism, enjoy this year for next year will be worse. And they have the wisdom to realise no current political party can change that dynamic.
What are the figures for the same question if the Tories win?
Unless we have a lot of LD true-believers they should be more or less the reverse! But I suspect they wouldn't be - people answering whether they expect to be better or worse off after the election, rather than compared to the Tories winning the election.
Not necessarily, many people might anticipate being worse off whoever wins. They are likely to be correct.
The 'otherwise' means Labour don't win, which realistically* means the Tories win? If it was better or worse off than 'now' then I'd agree (and I do think that's probably how people are answering the question, but it's not how I read the question)
*in normal times. this time, who knows - the most plausible otherwise might be a coalition, I guess
You are making a rather large assumption about the English comprehension skills of respondents there.
About twenty miles east of Sarria in Galicia, near a village called Viduedo
I'm near the top
When I saw the photo I assumed Lake District (UK).
Reminds me of where I live in very exotic South Wales
The north of Spain has the most amazing rolling green scenery - it's a complete contrast to the other 90%.
Geographically very similar to Northern Turkey: North-facing curving coast with barrier mountain range, thin strip of very green, humid land benefiting from orographic rainfall enhancement, with dry upland plateaux on the other side of the mountains.
In that comparison the Basque country is Georgia: almost identical geographical setting and coincidentally a unique self-contained ancient culture with weird language that has somehow survived the empires that surround it.
About twenty miles east of Sarria in Galicia, near a village called Viduedo
I'm near the top
When I saw the photo I assumed Lake District (UK).
Reminds me of where I live in very exotic South Wales
There's a look isn't there: mild, wet Western coastal hills. Rich green hillsides of grass and bracken, purple-hazed moors, thick hedgerows, well fed cattle. Similar sights to be had in Wicklow or Kerry and parts of Devon too. Makes me quite fancy visiting Northern Galicia. I've only seen Rias Baixas which is a bit drier and more Southerly looking.
Perplexingly lush though, given I was led to believe the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains
About twenty miles east of Sarria in Galicia, near a village called Viduedo
I'm near the top
When I saw the photo I assumed Lake District (UK).
Reminds me of where I live in very exotic South Wales
There's a look isn't there: mild, wet Western coastal hills. Rich green hillsides of grass and bracken, purple-hazed moors, thick hedgerows, well fed cattle. Similar sights to be had in Wicklow or Kerry and parts of Devon too. Makes me quite fancy visiting Northern Galicia. I've only seen Rias Baixas which is a bit drier and more Southerly looking.
Perplexingly lush though, given I was led to believe the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain
(first hearing that as a kid, I wondered why the rain fell mainly on the [aero]planes - seemed unlikely given the relative surface area of aeroplanes compared to Spain)
And the water in Majorca actually tastes perfectly pleasant, just as it ought to.
About twenty miles east of Sarria in Galicia, near a village called Viduedo
I'm near the top
When I saw the photo I assumed Lake District (UK).
Reminds me of where I live in very exotic South Wales
There's a look isn't there: mild, wet Western coastal hills. Rich green hillsides of grass and bracken, purple-hazed moors, thick hedgerows, well fed cattle. Similar sights to be had in Wicklow or Kerry and parts of Devon too. Makes me quite fancy visiting Northern Galicia. I've only seen Rias Baixas which is a bit drier and more Southerly looking.
Perplexingly lush though, given I was led to believe the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain
(first hearing that as a kid, I wondered why the rain fell mainly on the [aero]planes - seemed unlikely given the relative surface area of aeroplanes compared to Spain)
And the water in Majorca actually tastes perfectly pleasant, just as it ought to.
On topic, i've just been looking at who is left after a bad Tory GE performance (c.120 seats).
Wonder if John Redwood might be the fiscal hawk that we'd need after a Labour government reverting to its old tricks.....
Tories are in no position to lecture anyone on fiscal rectitude.
I remember old Spock advocating Trussonomics (then called Reaganomics) shortly after his resignation and failed leadership bid. Ken Clarke absolutely wiped the floor with him in the discussion, which surprised me at the time.
What are the figures for the same question if the Tories win?
Unless we have a lot of LD true-believers they should be more or less the reverse! But I suspect they wouldn't be - people answering whether they expect to be better or worse off after the election, rather than compared to the Tories winning the election.
Not necessarily, many people might anticipate being worse off whoever wins. They are likely to be correct.
The 'otherwise' means Labour don't win, which realistically* means the Tories win? If it was better or worse off than 'now' then I'd agree (and I do think that's probably how people are answering the question, but it's not how I read the question)
*in normal times. this time, who knows - the most plausible otherwise might be a coalition, I guess
Found the figures in the New Statesman article if the Cons win*.
"Former justice of the Supreme Court, Lord Sumption, has said the government's Rwanda Bill breaches two international treaties which maintain courts challenges cannot be blocked."
About twenty miles east of Sarria in Galicia, near a village called Viduedo
I'm near the top
When I saw the photo I assumed Lake District (UK).
Reminds me of where I live in very exotic South Wales
There's a look isn't there: mild, wet Western coastal hills. Rich green hillsides of grass and bracken, purple-hazed moors, thick hedgerows, well fed cattle. Similar sights to be had in Wicklow or Kerry and parts of Devon too. Makes me quite fancy visiting Northern Galicia. I've only seen Rias Baixas which is a bit drier and more Southerly looking.
Perplexingly lush though, given I was led to believe the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain
(first hearing that as a kid, I wondered why the rain fell mainly on the [aero]planes - seemed unlikely given the relative surface area of aeroplanes compared to Spain)
But the planes are moving fast ... so yes, disproportionately on the planes in terms of rain/sq metre, compared to the plains.
BREAKING 210 migrants have arrived in four small boats today in Dover, reports @markwhiteTV for @GBNEWS, with two more small boats on the way right now, containing as many as 100 more migrants.
So, a Rwanda full in one day. Where are they going to send tomorrow's boats?
From the news on BBC this morning - a boat launched, was turned around by the French, came back to shore, picked up more and then launched again (no French vessel in sight). Clearly if we want to stop desperate people risking their lives crossing the channel we need to beef up the patrols (pay the French more?) but also provide a realistic route that people can claim asylum into the UK from places that these people are from. I don't think Northern France is the right place - we need to have arrangements much closer to the countries people are fleeing.
But ultimately, the real issue is that in the UK we are extremely lucky. Most of us live a life far beyond what most of the planet can ever hope to. The way to end the migrant issue is to raise the standard of living everywhere else. Much of Africa is stunning, yet also can be desperately poor. The disparity between the life of Turbotubbs in SW Wiltshire and someone from many African states is what is driving the issue.
Oodles of cash has been sent to Africa as long as I can remember and it makes little difference, the corruption is unbridled and they seem to like shooting , raping and pillaging far too much.
There's a wonderful book on economic growth in third world countries, that starts with the awesome line: there's only one thing worse than aid to the people of developing economies, and that's the discovery of oil.
But that doesn't mean there isn't stuff you can do that can make a real difference, such as free trade and support of democratic systems and the rule of law.
Was that the Bottom Billion by Paul Collier? He certainly went on about the natural resource trap, all too often leading to the conflict trap.
"Former justice of the Supreme Court, Lord Sumption, has said the government's Rwanda Bill breaches two international treaties which maintain courts challenges cannot be blocked."
On topic, i've just been looking at who is left after a bad Tory GE performance (c.120 seats).
Wonder if John Redwood might be the fiscal hawk that we'd need after a Labour government reverting to its old tricks.....
Tories are in no position to lecture anyone on fiscal rectitude.
I remember old Spock advocating Trussonomics (then called Reaganomics) shortly after his resignation and failed leadership bid. Ken Clarke absolutely wiped the floor with him in the discussion, which surprised me at the time.
He's recently discovered autarchy too, so his economic philosophy references are eclectic to say the least. Keeps banging the drum for Britain making and growing everything here.
BBC shows about 'media' are often pretty dull, but this interview from this afternoon, with Matthew Freud, is genuinely interesting. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001yj19
Gordon Brown viewed Rupert Murdoch as a friend ?
Freud makes the sound point that the media only has power over politicians if they get too close to it. And they should not do so.
Politico.com - Republicans wince as their Ukrainian-born colleague thrashes Zelenskyy
Victoria Spartz took the GOP mantle on aiding Kyiv back in the spring. Now, her fellow lawmakers worry she’s undermining the effort.
House Republicans gave Ukraine-born Rep. Victoria Spartz a coveted platform to speak out against Russia’s war. They’re coming to regret that.
Spartz (R-Ind.), who has traveled to Ukraine a half-dozen times since the war began and spoken passionately about the conflict, shocked lawmakers in both parties recently with her intense criticisms of the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and his confidants. She drew a rare rebuke last weekend from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, which accused her of “trying to earn extra political capital on baseless speculation.”
Inside the House GOP Conference, there’s a widespread fear that her posture is damaging U.S.-Ukraine relations at the worst possible time — and that she’s being played by forces that aim to weaken the Western alliance. GOP national-security hawks also worry that the MAGA wing of their party, where there’s already resistance to supporting Ukraine, will point to Spartz’s comments as justification. . . .
The 43-year-old’s Zelenskyy-gadfly persona this summer marks a sharp turnaround from her message on March 1, when she made an impassioned and tearful plea for the Biden administration to respond more forcefully to the crisis unfolding in her motherland. As Spartz described the struggle of some family members to survive bloody Russian assaults, House GOP leaders and dozens of rank-and-file members stood behind her, dressed in blue and yellow to match Ukraine’s flag, nodding in agreement.
SSI - What Politico article does NOT mention, is fact that Rep(tile) Victoria Spartz is up for renomination in May 7 Indiana GOP primary, versus a full-throated MAGA-maniac Putin-pimper.
So naturally (for her anyway) she'd decided if you might NOT beat 'em, best join 'em.
Reminds me for some reason of PB's most prominent UKR flag-waver AND Trump-fluffer.
What are the figures for the same question if the Tories win?
Unless we have a lot of LD true-believers they should be more or less the reverse! But I suspect they wouldn't be - people answering whether they expect to be better or worse off after the election, rather than compared to the Tories winning the election.
Not necessarily, many people might anticipate being worse off whoever wins. They are likely to be correct.
The 'otherwise' means Labour don't win, which realistically* means the Tories win? If it was better or worse off than 'now' then I'd agree (and I do think that's probably how people are answering the question, but it's not how I read the question)
*in normal times. this time, who knows - the most plausible otherwise might be a coalition, I guess
Found the figures in the New Statesman article if the Cons win*.
Better off 14% Worse off 46% About the same 34%
So Labour has the lead.
*stop laughing at the back!
I imagine the 14% better off are the top 3 to 5% and wealthy pensioners.
About twenty miles east of Sarria in Galicia, near a village called Viduedo
I'm near the top
When I saw the photo I assumed Lake District (UK).
Reminds me of where I live in very exotic South Wales
There's a look isn't there: mild, wet Western coastal hills. Rich green hillsides of grass and bracken, purple-hazed moors, thick hedgerows, well fed cattle. Similar sights to be had in Wicklow or Kerry and parts of Devon too. Makes me quite fancy visiting Northern Galicia. I've only seen Rias Baixas which is a bit drier and more Southerly looking.
Perplexingly lush though, given I was led to believe the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain
(first hearing that as a kid, I wondered why the rain fell mainly on the [aero]planes - seemed unlikely given the relative surface area of aeroplanes compared to Spain)
And the water in Majorca actually tastes perfectly pleasant, just as it ought to.
Galicia. Peak District with added Eucalyptus. And good fish dishes.
The Camino can be very cheering. I’ve had wrinkly peasant folk foist bunches of grapes on me while walking in the morning sunshine.
BREAKING 210 migrants have arrived in four small boats today in Dover, reports @markwhiteTV for @GBNEWS, with two more small boats on the way right now, containing as many as 100 more migrants.
The fact remains that France is a safe country, and therefore this counts as economic migration, not asylum seeking.
According to various human rights organisations conditions for the refugees, in France, are intolerable.
This means that France is a failed state. And they have oil.
We all know what we do with failed states, with oil, don't we, children?
Geologically, the Paris basin and get area around Bordeaux look highly attractive for oil. Sadly, the locals probably won't be too keen.
(Iirc, a Canadian company, Vermilion, owns almost all the rights. I wouldn't be rushing to invest.)
"Former justice of the Supreme Court, Lord Sumption, has said the government's Rwanda Bill breaches two international treaties which maintain courts challenges cannot be blocked."
There is no mechanism in existence, nor in a society with the rule of law could there be, to prevent an application to a court to decide whether or not matter X is justiciable or whether, and if so to what extent, the jurisdiction of the court has been ousted. As we shall discover unless an election intervenes. Which it may well.
Sir Peter Hordern, backbencher under Heath and Thatcher who brought City wisdom to the House – obituary Firmly on the Right (but not over Europe), Hordern was an early champion of monetarism and urged the Thatcher government to be more radical ... Yet he remained an influential figure, “overlooked for simply being too clever” according to one colleague, and, for another, “the most respected backbencher never to hold office”. That respect survived a period as parliamentary adviser to the House of Fraser and Mohamed Al-Fayed during which – unlike two colleagues whose careers were destroyed – he meticulously declared payments he received. ... Hordern epitomised the informed City gent who by keeping the day job could bring keen insight to the House: never more so than when in 1965 he arrived in the Chamber to tell James Callaghan that as a result of changes the Chancellor had made to the Finance Bill, the market in gilts had come to a near-standstill for the first time since the crisis of 1931. ... After the Conservatives’ unexpected return to power in 1970, he applauded the free-market Toryism embraced by Edward Heath, Iain Macleod and Anthony Barber. Within a year he was urging the use of monetary policy to check inflation, and even before the fuel crisis and industrial chaos of late 1973 he termed Heath’s U-turn “not the most scintillating policy on which to win an election”.
That election lost, Hordern was a focus for dissatisfaction with Heath. But the party leader Margaret Thatcher, over four years in opposition, never brought him into her team. Hordern, however, floated in The Daily Telegraph a number of ideas she later implemented.
He urged the privatisation of nationalised industries, enunciating the doctrine before there was a word for it. His sole difference with the Tory Right on the economy was that he rejected tax allowances for private health care, reckoning them a signal that the NHS was “second-rate” and opening the door for parents to demand tax breaks for private education .... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/04/23/sir-peter-hordern-fina-city-thatcher-commons-horsham/ (£££)
Looks like the hearing on whether Trump had breached the gag order went as badly as it could have for Trump. His counsel was told that they were losing all credibility with the court, the defence were not able to identify any post that Trump's posts were supposedly responding to and the Judge was not willing to accept a submission that reposting a post was not a breach of the order.
Trump's response to all this? Well, to tweet from the Court House that the Judge should recuse himself of course. He is truly the client from hell.
The Judge has reserved judgment on the contempt but it looks inevitable that Trump will be in breach on multiple occasions. And then there is today's genius move. The prospects of Trump getting through this trial whilst on bail must surely be diminishing.
Judges will be smart to find ways of NOT granting Donald Trump his current heart's desire - to be locked up as a "martyr" for MAGA.
BREAKING 210 migrants have arrived in four small boats today in Dover, reports @markwhiteTV for @GBNEWS, with two more small boats on the way right now, containing as many as 100 more migrants.
So, a Rwanda full in one day. Where are they going to send tomorrow's boats?
From the news on BBC this morning - a boat launched, was turned around by the French, came back to shore, picked up more and then launched again (no French vessel in sight). Clearly if we want to stop desperate people risking their lives crossing the channel we need to beef up the patrols (pay the French more?) but also provide a realistic route that people can claim asylum into the UK from places that these people are from. I don't think Northern France is the right place - we need to have arrangements much closer to the countries people are fleeing.
But ultimately, the real issue is that in the UK we are extremely lucky. Most of us live a life far beyond what most of the planet can ever hope to. The way to end the migrant issue is to raise the standard of living everywhere else. Much of Africa is stunning, yet also can be desperately poor. The disparity between the life of Turbotubbs in SW Wiltshire and someone from many African states is what is driving the issue.
Oodles of cash has been sent to Africa as long as I can remember and it makes little difference, the corruption is unbridled and they seem to like shooting , raping and pillaging far too much.
There's a wonderful book on economic growth in third world countries, that starts with the awesome line: there's only one thing worse than aid to the people of developing economies, and that's the discovery of oil.
But that doesn't mean there isn't stuff you can do that can make a real difference, such as free trade and support of democratic systems and the rule of law.
Was that the Bottom Billion by Paul Collier? He certainly went on about the natural resource trap, all too often leading to the conflict trap.
On topic, i've just been looking at who is left after a bad Tory GE performance (c.120 seats).
Wonder if John Redwood might be the fiscal hawk that we'd need after a Labour government reverting to its old tricks.....
Tories are in no position to lecture anyone on fiscal rectitude.
I remember old Spock advocating Trussonomics (then called Reaganomics) shortly after his resignation and failed leadership bid. Ken Clarke absolutely wiped the floor with him in the discussion, which surprised me at the time.
He's recently discovered autarchy too, so his economic philosophy references are eclectic to say the least. Keeps banging the drum for Britain making and growing everything here.
Had autarchy ever been successfully implemented.
I mean, implemented in a way that didn't impoverish the population.
About twenty miles east of Sarria in Galicia, near a village called Viduedo
I'm near the top
When I saw the photo I assumed Lake District (UK).
Reminds me of where I live in very exotic South Wales
There's a look isn't there: mild, wet Western coastal hills. Rich green hillsides of grass and bracken, purple-hazed moors, thick hedgerows, well fed cattle. Similar sights to be had in Wicklow or Kerry and parts of Devon too. Makes me quite fancy visiting Northern Galicia. I've only seen Rias Baixas which is a bit drier and more Southerly looking.
I was in a tourist coach passing through the Rias Baixas when one group's guide said "over there's the Albariño winery", at which a coachload of Spanish señors and señoras burst into applause.
About twenty miles east of Sarria in Galicia, near a village called Viduedo
I'm near the top
When I saw the photo I assumed Lake District (UK).
Reminds me of where I live in very exotic South Wales
There's a look isn't there: mild, wet Western coastal hills. Rich green hillsides of grass and bracken, purple-hazed moors, thick hedgerows, well fed cattle. Similar sights to be had in Wicklow or Kerry and parts of Devon too. Makes me quite fancy visiting Northern Galicia. I've only seen Rias Baixas which is a bit drier and more Southerly looking.
Perplexingly lush though, given I was led to believe the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain
(first hearing that as a kid, I wondered why the rain fell mainly on the [aero]planes - seemed unlikely given the relative surface area of aeroplanes compared to Spain)
And the water in Majorca actually tastes perfectly pleasant, just as it ought to.
Galicia. Peak District with added Eucalyptus. And good fish dishes.
The Camino can be very cheering. I’ve had wrinkly peasant folk foist bunches of grapes on me while walking in the morning sunshine.
And there’s a fountain of free wine.
I sailed from Galicia to Santander in a 44 ft Moody once. Beautiful coast and lovely small towns, most of the tourists were Spanish and it was much more low key than the Costas. Often quite a sea mist in the mornings so not ideal for beach boys and girls.
A bit hairy going round Cape Ortugal as we had too much sail up and wind much stronger than forecast.
On topic, i've just been looking at who is left after a bad Tory GE performance (c.120 seats).
Wonder if John Redwood might be the fiscal hawk that we'd need after a Labour government reverting to its old tricks.....
Tories are in no position to lecture anyone on fiscal rectitude.
I remember old Spock advocating Trussonomics (then called Reaganomics) shortly after his resignation and failed leadership bid. Ken Clarke absolutely wiped the floor with him in the discussion, which surprised me at the time.
He's recently discovered autarchy too, so his economic philosophy references are eclectic to say the least. Keeps banging the drum for Britain making and growing everything here.
Had autarchy ever been successfully implemented.
I mean, implemented in a way that didn't impoverish the population.
Only cos it hasn’t been done properly up till now. Cometh the hour..
BBC shows about 'media' are often pretty dull, but this interview from this afternoon, with Matthew Freud, is genuinely interesting. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001yj19
Gordon Brown viewed Rupert Murdoch as a friend ?
Freud makes the sound point that the media only has power over politicians if they get too close to it. And they should not do so.
He's also absolutely scathing about the media's attempts to bounce Starmer into sacking Rayner.
Looks like the hearing on whether Trump had breached the gag order went as badly as it could have for Trump. His counsel was told that they were losing all credibility with the court, the defence were not able to identify any post that Trump's posts were supposedly responding to and the Judge was not willing to accept a submission that reposting a post was not a breach of the order.
Trump's response to all this? Well, to tweet from the Court House that the Judge should recuse himself of course. He is truly the client from hell.
The Judge has reserved judgment on the contempt but it looks inevitable that Trump will be in breach on multiple occasions. And then there is today's genius move. The prospects of Trump getting through this trial whilst on bail must surely be diminishing.
Judges will be smart to find ways of NOT granting Donald Trump his current heart's desire - to be locked up as a "martyr" for MAGA.
It's an unenviable position - he is baiting courts to lock him up, so he can be even more a martyr to his base and hopefully get some independents think he is being hard done by, so judges are trying not to rise to the baiting.
But by not doing so they are treating him more favourably than they would other criminal defendents, even some famous ones (see Sam Bankman-Fried, who was remanded in custody ahead of trial for milder acts). He still benefits by proving blustering and moaning works to get him an easier time.
On topic, i've just been looking at who is left after a bad Tory GE performance (c.120 seats).
Wonder if John Redwood might be the fiscal hawk that we'd need after a Labour government reverting to its old tricks.....
Tories are in no position to lecture anyone on fiscal rectitude.
I remember old Spock advocating Trussonomics (then called Reaganomics) shortly after his resignation and failed leadership bid. Ken Clarke absolutely wiped the floor with him in the discussion, which surprised me at the time.
He's recently discovered autarchy too, so his economic philosophy references are eclectic to say the least. Keeps banging the drum for Britain making and growing everything here.
Had autarchy ever been successfully implemented.
I mean, implemented in a way that didn't impoverish the population.
Only cos it hasn’t been done properly up till now. Cometh the hour..
I read most of what Redwood puts out. His supposed calls to 'make and grow everything here' are nothing of the kind - little more than a recognition that we need to do something pay the bills, because the NHS doesn't magically pay for itself. I find it puzzling that such a concept isn't just accepted as undeniable fact, let alone mocked as somehow being eccentric.
On topic, i've just been looking at who is left after a bad Tory GE performance (c.120 seats).
Wonder if John Redwood might be the fiscal hawk that we'd need after a Labour government reverting to its old tricks.....
Tories are in no position to lecture anyone on fiscal rectitude.
I remember old Spock advocating Trussonomics (then called Reaganomics) shortly after his resignation and failed leadership bid. Ken Clarke absolutely wiped the floor with him in the discussion, which surprised me at the time.
He's recently discovered autarchy too, so his economic philosophy references are eclectic to say the least. Keeps banging the drum for Britain making and growing everything here.
Had autarchy ever been successfully implemented.
I mean, implemented in a way that didn't impoverish the population.
Only cos it hasn’t been done properly up till now. Cometh the hour..
On topic, i've just been looking at who is left after a bad Tory GE performance (c.120 seats).
Wonder if John Redwood might be the fiscal hawk that we'd need after a Labour government reverting to its old tricks.....
Tories are in no position to lecture anyone on fiscal rectitude.
I remember old Spock advocating Trussonomics (then called Reaganomics) shortly after his resignation and failed leadership bid. Ken Clarke absolutely wiped the floor with him in the discussion, which surprised me at the time.
He's recently discovered autarchy too, so his economic philosophy references are eclectic to say the least. Keeps banging the drum for Britain making and growing everything here.
Had autarchy ever been successfully implemented.
I mean, implemented in a way that didn't impoverish the population.
Only cos it hasn’t been done properly up till now. Cometh the hour..
Hmm, soya free. And some without nasty vegan stuff. Definitely straight to the bowls of our more carnivorous PBers. Just think how convenient the granules are in the morning, basically breakfast food.
Looks like the hearing on whether Trump had breached the gag order went as badly as it could have for Trump. His counsel was told that they were losing all credibility with the court, the defence were not able to identify any post that Trump's posts were supposedly responding to and the Judge was not willing to accept a submission that reposting a post was not a breach of the order.
Trump's response to all this? Well, to tweet from the Court House that the Judge should recuse himself of course. He is truly the client from hell.
The Judge has reserved judgment on the contempt but it looks inevitable that Trump will be in breach on multiple occasions. And then there is today's genius move. The prospects of Trump getting through this trial whilst on bail must surely be diminishing.
Judges will be smart to find ways of NOT granting Donald Trump his current heart's desire - to be locked up as a "martyr" for MAGA.
It's an unenviable position - he is baiting courts to lock him up, so he can be even more a martyr to his base and hopefully get some independents think he is being hard done by, so judges are trying not to rise to the baiting.
But by not doing so they are treating him more favourably than they would other criminal defendents, even some famous ones (see Sam Bankman-Fried, who was remanded in custody ahead of trial for milder acts). He still benefits by proving blustering and moaning works to get him an easier time.
I agree with Sea Shanty, the man is itching to get his pair of arrow pyjamas and ball and chain, and anyone who doesn't want him to be re-elected won't give him the chance.
On topic, i've just been looking at who is left after a bad Tory GE performance (c.120 seats).
Wonder if John Redwood might be the fiscal hawk that we'd need after a Labour government reverting to its old tricks.....
Tories are in no position to lecture anyone on fiscal rectitude.
I remember old Spock advocating Trussonomics (then called Reaganomics) shortly after his resignation and failed leadership bid. Ken Clarke absolutely wiped the floor with him in the discussion, which surprised me at the time.
He's recently discovered autarchy too, so his economic philosophy references are eclectic to say the least. Keeps banging the drum for Britain making and growing everything here.
Had autarchy ever been successfully implemented.
I mean, implemented in a way that didn't impoverish the population.
Only cos it hasn’t been done properly up till now. Cometh the hour..
On topic, i've just been looking at who is left after a bad Tory GE performance (c.120 seats).
Wonder if John Redwood might be the fiscal hawk that we'd need after a Labour government reverting to its old tricks.....
Tories are in no position to lecture anyone on fiscal rectitude.
I remember old Spock advocating Trussonomics (then called Reaganomics) shortly after his resignation and failed leadership bid. Ken Clarke absolutely wiped the floor with him in the discussion, which surprised me at the time.
He's recently discovered autarchy too, so his economic philosophy references are eclectic to say the least. Keeps banging the drum for Britain making and growing everything here.
Had autarchy ever been successfully implemented.
I mean, implemented in a way that didn't impoverish the population.
Only cos it hasn’t been done properly up till now. Cometh the hour..
Hmm, soya free. And some without nasty vegan stuff. Definitely straight to the bowls of our more carnivorous PBers. Just think how convenient the granules are in the morning, basically breakfast food.
I met someone in the pub the other night who was investing in a dog food that used insect protein. His reasoning was that people don't want to eat it but dogs don't have the choice. I'm not sure I'd buy it for dogs either, but I nodded and smiled politely.
Looks like the hearing on whether Trump had breached the gag order went as badly as it could have for Trump. His counsel was told that they were losing all credibility with the court, the defence were not able to identify any post that Trump's posts were supposedly responding to and the Judge was not willing to accept a submission that reposting a post was not a breach of the order.
Trump's response to all this? Well, to tweet from the Court House that the Judge should recuse himself of course. He is truly the client from hell.
The Judge has reserved judgment on the contempt but it looks inevitable that Trump will be in breach on multiple occasions. And then there is today's genius move. The prospects of Trump getting through this trial whilst on bail must surely be diminishing.
Judges will be smart to find ways of NOT granting Donald Trump his current heart's desire - to be locked up as a "martyr" for MAGA.
It's an unenviable position - he is baiting courts to lock him up, so he can be even more a martyr to his base and hopefully get some independents think he is being hard done by, so judges are trying not to rise to the baiting.
But by not doing so they are treating him more favourably than they would other criminal defendents, even some famous ones (see Sam Bankman-Fried, who was remanded in custody ahead of trial for milder acts). He still benefits by proving blustering and moaning works to get him an easier time.
Were I a judge - I think you would wait until there was enough examples of a serious enough nature that you could jail him until December - and watch the Republicans try and campaign without him...
"Former justice of the Supreme Court, Lord Sumption, has said the government's Rwanda Bill breaches two international treaties which maintain courts challenges cannot be blocked."
"Only somebody with a fetish for sadomasochistic pain, punishment, and humiliation would want to see Liz Truss back as Tory leader/PM."
Whatever could TSE be implying?
I'm confused here because only a sadomasochistic would want Liz Truss back as PM but were Truss the Tory leader of the opposition (as a none Tory) I can see a lot of sadistic delight in watching the slowly drawn out outcome....
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
Bit disappointed by today, but I did climb about 1200 metres which makes it rather harder work! And I'm not far behind my 40 km per day target
Jeez that’s a lot of walking. I thought my 10 miles around Paris to see if it is in mortal decay (spoiler: see next week’s Gazette) was impressive
Serious question: have you done training for this? I guess your job IS training
You must love walking to do it for work and for fun!
I asked you if you were doing an article on "Paris to the dogs" and you flat out denied it.
Once trust has gone it's hard to get it back.
No I became inspired to write it after I’d experienced it
You thought I’d come pre-armed with an opinion. I really hadn’t. Indeed if you read my comments that day I started with an honest desire to compare the cities - london and Paris - why would I lie about that on here? Pointless
I arrived at gare du nord and it was tatty. But it always is. It was only when I went onwards that I kept finding surprising grot and then real menace
And then about hour 5 I did think: yes this is an article - but only when I’d accumulated sufficient evidence (otherwise the piece would not work)
BREAKING 210 migrants have arrived in four small boats today in Dover, reports @markwhiteTV for @GBNEWS, with two more small boats on the way right now, containing as many as 100 more migrants.
So, a Rwanda full in one day. Where are they going to send tomorrow's boats?
From the news on BBC this morning - a boat launched, was turned around by the French, came back to shore, picked up more and then launched again (no French vessel in sight). Clearly if we want to stop desperate people risking their lives crossing the channel we need to beef up the patrols (pay the French more?) but also provide a realistic route that people can claim asylum into the UK from places that these people are from. I don't think Northern France is the right place - we need to have arrangements much closer to the countries people are fleeing.
But ultimately, the real issue is that in the UK we are extremely lucky. Most of us live a life far beyond what most of the planet can ever hope to. The way to end the migrant issue is to raise the standard of living everywhere else. Much of Africa is stunning, yet also can be desperately poor. The disparity between the life of Turbotubbs in SW Wiltshire and someone from many African states is what is driving the issue.
Oodles of cash has been sent to Africa as long as I can remember and it makes little difference, the corruption is unbridled and they seem to like shooting , raping and pillaging far too much.
There's a wonderful book on economic growth in third world countries, that starts with the awesome line: there's only one thing worse than aid to the people of developing economies, and that's the discovery of oil.
But that doesn't mean there isn't stuff you can do that can make a real difference, such as free trade and support of democratic systems and the rule of law.
Imagine if Charles Stuart had received development aid. Parliamentary democracy would never have happened.
On topic, i've just been looking at who is left after a bad Tory GE performance (c.120 seats).
Wonder if John Redwood might be the fiscal hawk that we'd need after a Labour government reverting to its old tricks.....
Tories are in no position to lecture anyone on fiscal rectitude.
I remember old Spock advocating Trussonomics (then called Reaganomics) shortly after his resignation and failed leadership bid. Ken Clarke absolutely wiped the floor with him in the discussion, which surprised me at the time.
He's recently discovered autarchy too, so his economic philosophy references are eclectic to say the least. Keeps banging the drum for Britain making and growing everything here.
Had autarchy ever been successfully implemented.
I mean, implemented in a way that didn't impoverish the population.
Only cos it hasn’t been done properly up till now. Cometh the hour..
On topic, i've just been looking at who is left after a bad Tory GE performance (c.120 seats).
Wonder if John Redwood might be the fiscal hawk that we'd need after a Labour government reverting to its old tricks.....
Tories are in no position to lecture anyone on fiscal rectitude.
I remember old Spock advocating Trussonomics (then called Reaganomics) shortly after his resignation and failed leadership bid. Ken Clarke absolutely wiped the floor with him in the discussion, which surprised me at the time.
He's recently discovered autarchy too, so his economic philosophy references are eclectic to say the least. Keeps banging the drum for Britain making and growing everything here.
Had autarchy ever been successfully implemented.
I mean, implemented in a way that didn't impoverish the population.
Only cos it hasn’t been done properly up till now. Cometh the hour..
Hmm, soya free. And some without nasty vegan stuff. Definitely straight to the bowls of our more carnivorous PBers. Just think how convenient the granules are in the morning, basically breakfast food.
I met someone in the pub the other night who was investing in a dog food that used insect protein. His reasoning was that people don't want to eat it but dogs don't have the choice. I'm not sure I'd buy it for dogs either, but I nodded and smiled politely.
Perfectly normal canid dietary element in the wild, in all seriousness. You shouldn't knock it for the insect component alone.
On topic, i've just been looking at who is left after a bad Tory GE performance (c.120 seats).
Wonder if John Redwood might be the fiscal hawk that we'd need after a Labour government reverting to its old tricks.....
Tories are in no position to lecture anyone on fiscal rectitude.
The current 'Tories' are as wet as you get, fiscally.
The problem is the state tries to do too much, and so consistently has to borrow.
So again - what exactly can this (or any other) Government actually cut?
Indeed. Government after government has discovered that once the state is into paying for something it is almost impossible to stop. Society organises itself around the expectations it creates. Tuition fees are an interesting exception, but of course the political cost to the LDs was immense.
Similarly, time after time it is discovered that 'cuts' actually means slightly reduced increases in expenditure.
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
I have spent millions of days there over my life - haven’t done the part you are in. I Mostly go to Dinan, Dinard and St Malo in the north and La Baule in the south (it’s technically Loire Atlantique now but very much considered Breton).
Dinan is a beautiful medieval river port, Dinard is a very relaxed but actually v preppy/wealthy beach town which is packed with upper class frenchies in the summer, St Malo you probs know anyway and La Baule is very smart beach resort, very few Brits etc, wealthy French for the beaches and casino. Love them all whatever the weather tbh.
Bit disappointed by today, but I did climb about 1200 metres which makes it rather harder work! And I'm not far behind my 40 km per day target
Jeez that’s a lot of walking. I thought my 10 miles around Paris to see if it is in mortal decay (spoiler: see next week’s Gazette) was impressive
Serious question: have you done training for this? I guess your job IS training
You must love walking to do it for work and for fun!
I asked you if you were doing an article on "Paris to the dogs" and you flat out denied it.
Once trust has gone it's hard to get it back.
What we want in the way of proof is Leon to post a photo of one of those scooters that do a sort of reverse defecation of the merde de chien on the streets (rather reminiscent of the time reversal episode of Red Dwarf, come to think of it).
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
I have spent millions of days there over my life - haven’t done the part you are in.
You're thousands of years old? Seems odd you haven't made it to that bit.
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
I have spent millions of days there over my life - haven’t done the part you are in. I Mostly go to Dinan, Dinard and St Malo in the north and La Baule in the south (it’s technically Loire Atlantique now but very much considered Breton).
Dinan is a beautiful medieval river port, Dinard is a very relaxed but actually v preppy/wealthy beach town which is packed with upper class frenchies in the summer, St Malo you probs know anyway and La Baule is very smart beach resort, very few Brits etc, wealthy French for the beaches and casino. Love them all whatever the weather tbh.
I don’t know them at all so Oooh
How exciting to have a whole new region of France to discover! I feel like I’m starting an unexpected and highly regarded new season of the Sopranos
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
You could visit the Channel Islands for a couple of days.
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
I have spent millions of days there over my life - haven’t done the part you are in. I Mostly go to Dinan, Dinard and St Malo in the north and La Baule in the south (it’s technically Loire Atlantique now but very much considered Breton).
Dinan is a beautiful medieval river port, Dinard is a very relaxed but actually v preppy/wealthy beach town which is packed with upper class frenchies in the summer, St Malo you probs know anyway and La Baule is very smart beach resort, very few Brits etc, wealthy French for the beaches and casino. Love them all whatever the weather tbh.
I don’t know them at all so Oooh
How exciting to have a whole new region of France to discover! I feel like I’m starting an unexpected and highly regarded new season of the Sopranos
I also need to get my arse to Carnac and might do it this summer as it looks bloody impressive - you will love it, bazillions of big carved stones.
Also if you are into spas they are big into their thalassotherapy spas on the coast in Brittany.
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
I have spent millions of days there over my life - haven’t done the part you are in. I Mostly go to Dinan, Dinard and St Malo in the north and La Baule in the south (it’s technically Loire Atlantique now but very much considered Breton).
Dinan is a beautiful medieval river port, Dinard is a very relaxed but actually v preppy/wealthy beach town which is packed with upper class frenchies in the summer, St Malo you probs know anyway and La Baule is very smart beach resort, very few Brits etc, wealthy French for the beaches and casino. Love them all whatever the weather tbh.
Btw I recommend this bit of Brittany too. It’s cute. It lacks the mystical intensity of Cornwall but it is nonetheless seductive
Because devolved justice is a devolved issue had HMG done this Humza Yousaf would have lost his poo.
NEW: FM @HumzaYousaf “utterly furious” UK Gov hasn’t extended legislation to pardon sub-postmasters to Scotland - accuses ministers of using Horizon victims as “political pawns”.
Huge misjudgment by Sunak. The lure of a free flight to beautiful Rwanda (plus maybe a bit of a financial bribe) is clearly going to lead to a huge increase in the number of people seeking to arrive in small boats or even swimming across the Channel.
Sky reported from a refugee centre in Derby and every refugee there said that had they thought they were going to be sent to Rwanda they would not have come to the UK
Your boy has had a good couple of days. His Rwanda victory and his electioneering evisceration of Starmer at a NATO press conference (which was granted, outrageous) will shift hearts and minds, and I think considerably.
Bit disappointed by today, but I did climb about 1200 metres which makes it rather harder work! And I'm not far behind my 40 km per day target
Jeez that’s a lot of walking. I thought my 10 miles around Paris to see if it is in mortal decay (spoiler: see next week’s Gazette) was impressive
Serious question: have you done training for this? I guess your job IS training
You must love walking to do it for work and for fun!
I've walked twelve to fifteen miles a day, five days a week, for the last year at work, which I guess is pretty good training!
I don't love the walking itself; at work it's just work, but I love walking through a country - I don't think there's a better way for me to experience it
I loved my tour of Brittany last year, my walk from Girona to Perpignan the year before, and I think I'm going to do this kind of walking holiday from now on. Until I can't
I'm considering the Pyrenean route next year, from where I hopefully finish in a few weeks, Saint Jean Pied de Port, on to Perpignan then Montpellier, to start joining bits together
Sir Peter Hordern, backbencher under Heath and Thatcher who brought City wisdom to the House – obituary Firmly on the Right (but not over Europe), Hordern was an early champion of monetarism and urged the Thatcher government to be more radical ... Yet he remained an influential figure, “overlooked for simply being too clever” according to one colleague, and, for another, “the most respected backbencher never to hold office”. That respect survived a period as parliamentary adviser to the House of Fraser and Mohamed Al-Fayed during which – unlike two colleagues whose careers were destroyed – he meticulously declared payments he received. ... Hordern epitomised the informed City gent who by keeping the day job could bring keen insight to the House: never more so than when in 1965 he arrived in the Chamber to tell James Callaghan that as a result of changes the Chancellor had made to the Finance Bill, the market in gilts had come to a near-standstill for the first time since the crisis of 1931. ... After the Conservatives’ unexpected return to power in 1970, he applauded the free-market Toryism embraced by Edward Heath, Iain Macleod and Anthony Barber. Within a year he was urging the use of monetary policy to check inflation, and even before the fuel crisis and industrial chaos of late 1973 he termed Heath’s U-turn “not the most scintillating policy on which to win an election”.
That election lost, Hordern was a focus for dissatisfaction with Heath. But the party leader Margaret Thatcher, over four years in opposition, never brought him into her team. Hordern, however, floated in The Daily Telegraph a number of ideas she later implemented.
He urged the privatisation of nationalised industries, enunciating the doctrine before there was a word for it. His sole difference with the Tory Right on the economy was that he rejected tax allowances for private health care, reckoning them a signal that the NHS was “second-rate” and opening the door for parents to demand tax breaks for private education .... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/04/23/sir-peter-hordern-fina-city-thatcher-commons-horsham/ (£££)
He was my MP when I was a kid.
I have a distant memory that he won the largest numerical Tory majority at the 1983 election.
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
I have spent millions of days there over my life - haven’t done the part you are in. I Mostly go to Dinan, Dinard and St Malo in the north and La Baule in the south (it’s technically Loire Atlantique now but very much considered Breton).
Dinan is a beautiful medieval river port, Dinard is a very relaxed but actually v preppy/wealthy beach town which is packed with upper class frenchies in the summer, St Malo you probs know anyway and La Baule is very smart beach resort, very few Brits etc, wealthy French for the beaches and casino. Love them all whatever the weather tbh.
I don’t know them at all so Oooh
How exciting to have a whole new region of France to discover! I feel like I’m starting an unexpected and highly regarded new season of the Sopranos
I also need to get my arse to Carnac and might do it this summer as it looks bloody impressive - you will love it, bazillions of big carved stones.
Also if you are into spas they are big into their thalassotherapy spas on the coast in Brittany.
Spoiler: it’s not. Carnac and pont aven are the only bits of Brittany I’ve been before
Carnac is weirdly crap. I dunno why but it is and I love megaliths. There is no spirituality. Think of Callanish or Avebury or Grey Wethers - they all have an intensity
Carnac feels like megaliths by committee. It doesn’t help that it is surrounded by housing in that sprawling French way (ie pleasant but boring)
I am actually on the hunt for resonant Breton megaliths for my article so if you know any please tell! I hear there might be some at the end of the crozon peninsula
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
I have spent millions of days there over my life - haven’t done the part you are in. I Mostly go to Dinan, Dinard and St Malo in the north and La Baule in the south (it’s technically Loire Atlantique now but very much considered Breton).
Dinan is a beautiful medieval river port, Dinard is a very relaxed but actually v preppy/wealthy beach town which is packed with upper class frenchies in the summer, St Malo you probs know anyway and La Baule is very smart beach resort, very few Brits etc, wealthy French for the beaches and casino. Love them all whatever the weather tbh.
I don’t know them at all so Oooh
How exciting to have a whole new region of France to discover! I feel like I’m starting an unexpected and highly regarded new season of the Sopranos
I also need to get my arse to Carnac and might do it this summer as it looks bloody impressive - you will love it, bazillions of big carved stones.
Also if you are into spas they are big into their thalassotherapy spas on the coast in Brittany.
Small stones in Carnac, but many, many acres of them
Bit disappointed by today, but I did climb about 1200 metres which makes it rather harder work! And I'm not far behind my 40 km per day target
Jeez that’s a lot of walking. I thought my 10 miles around Paris to see if it is in mortal decay (spoiler: see next week’s Gazette) was impressive
Serious question: have you done training for this? I guess your job IS training
You must love walking to do it for work and for fun!
I asked you if you were doing an article on "Paris to the dogs" and you flat out denied it.
Once trust has gone it's hard to get it back.
No I became inspired to write it after I’d experienced it
You thought I’d come pre-armed with an opinion. I really hadn’t. Indeed if you read my comments that day I started with an honest desire to compare the cities - london and Paris - why would I lie about that on here? Pointless
I arrived at gare du nord and it was tatty. But it always is. It was only when I went onwards that I kept finding surprising grot and then real menace
And then about hour 5 I did think: yes this is an article - but only when I’d accumulated sufficient evidence (otherwise the piece would not work)
Ok plausible, I suppose. It wouldn't have been lying anyway. More just inhabiting the part. Which we all do to varying degrees.
(had to edit that because I'd missed out the final full stop)
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
I have spent millions of days there over my life - haven’t done the part you are in. I Mostly go to Dinan, Dinard and St Malo in the north and La Baule in the south (it’s technically Loire Atlantique now but very much considered Breton).
Dinan is a beautiful medieval river port, Dinard is a very relaxed but actually v preppy/wealthy beach town which is packed with upper class frenchies in the summer, St Malo you probs know anyway and La Baule is very smart beach resort, very few Brits etc, wealthy French for the beaches and casino. Love them all whatever the weather tbh.
I don’t know them at all so Oooh
How exciting to have a whole new region of France to discover! I feel like I’m starting an unexpected and highly regarded new season of the Sopranos
I also need to get my arse to Carnac and might do it this summer as it looks bloody impressive - you will love it, bazillions of big carved stones.
Also if you are into spas they are big into their thalassotherapy spas on the coast in Brittany.
Small stones in Carnac, but many, many acres of them
It’s disappointing isn’t it? I got zero vibes from Carnac and I was super receptive
Bit disappointed by today, but I did climb about 1200 metres which makes it rather harder work! And I'm not far behind my 40 km per day target
Jeez that’s a lot of walking. I thought my 10 miles around Paris to see if it is in mortal decay (spoiler: see next week’s Gazette) was impressive
Serious question: have you done training for this? I guess your job IS training
You must love walking to do it for work and for fun!
I've walked twelve to fifteen miles a day, five days a week, for the last year at work, which I guess is pretty good training!
I don't love the walking itself; at work it's just work, but I love walking through a country - I don't think there's a better way for me to experience it
I loved my tour of Brittany last year, my walk from Girona to Perpignan the year before, and I think I'm going to do this kind of walking holiday from now on. Until I can't
I'm considering the Pyrenean route next year, from where I hopefully finish in a few weeks, Saint Jean Pied de Port, on to Perpignan then Montpellier, to start joining bits together
Very impressive @BlancheLivermore . I find walking is too slow for me to see stuff and a car too fast, hence the bike for my trips. The bike is also good for seeing wildlife.
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
I have spent millions of days there over my life - haven’t done the part you are in. I Mostly go to Dinan, Dinard and St Malo in the north and La Baule in the south (it’s technically Loire Atlantique now but very much considered Breton).
Dinan is a beautiful medieval river port, Dinard is a very relaxed but actually v preppy/wealthy beach town which is packed with upper class frenchies in the summer, St Malo you probs know anyway and La Baule is very smart beach resort, very few Brits etc, wealthy French for the beaches and casino. Love them all whatever the weather tbh.
I don’t know them at all so Oooh
How exciting to have a whole new region of France to discover! I feel like I’m starting an unexpected and highly regarded new season of the Sopranos
I also need to get my arse to Carnac and might do it this summer as it looks bloody impressive - you will love it, bazillions of big carved stones.
Also if you are into spas they are big into their thalassotherapy spas on the coast in Brittany.
Spoiler: it’s not. Carnac and pont aven are the only bits of Brittany I’ve been before
Carnac is weirdly crap. I dunno why but it is and I love megaliths. There is no spirituality. Think of Callanish or Avebury or Grey Wethers - they all have an intensity
Carnac feels like megaliths by committee. It doesn’t help that it is surrounded by housing in that sprawling French way (ie pleasant but boring)
I am actually on the hunt for resonant Breton megaliths for my article so if you know any please tell! I hear there might be some at the end of the crozon peninsula
Great. I now don’t have to go there which is a nice time saver. Shame though as always looks interesting. Definitely check out La Baule, Dinard, and Dinan. La B is like the south of France without the wankers.
Bit disappointed by today, but I did climb about 1200 metres which makes it rather harder work! And I'm not far behind my 40 km per day target
Jeez that’s a lot of walking. I thought my 10 miles around Paris to see if it is in mortal decay (spoiler: see next week’s Gazette) was impressive
Serious question: have you done training for this? I guess your job IS training
You must love walking to do it for work and for fun!
I asked you if you were doing an article on "Paris to the dogs" and you flat out denied it.
Once trust has gone it's hard to get it back.
No I became inspired to write it after I’d experienced it
You thought I’d come pre-armed with an opinion. I really hadn’t. Indeed if you read my comments that day I started with an honest desire to compare the cities - london and Paris - why would I lie about that on here? Pointless
I arrived at gare du nord and it was tatty. But it always is. It was only when I went onwards that I kept finding surprising grot and then real menace
And then about hour 5 I did think: yes this is an article - but only when I’d accumulated sufficient evidence (otherwise the piece would not work)
Ok plausible, I suppose. It wouldn't have been lying anyway. More just inhabiting the part. Which we all do to varying degrees.
I readily confess I seek out stories. But I don’t invent them from broad cloth let alone go somewhere intent on proving a contentious opinion. That’s not how it works, it would be like you the accountant starting with a taxable sum of annual income then afterwards trying to get the real income to fit that. You’d either end up lying or looking a fool and you’d soon lose your job
And remember, I am LITERALLY the “Jay Rayner of Place”
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
I have spent millions of days there over my life - haven’t done the part you are in. I Mostly go to Dinan, Dinard and St Malo in the north and La Baule in the south (it’s technically Loire Atlantique now but very much considered Breton).
Dinan is a beautiful medieval river port, Dinard is a very relaxed but actually v preppy/wealthy beach town which is packed with upper class frenchies in the summer, St Malo you probs know anyway and La Baule is very smart beach resort, very few Brits etc, wealthy French for the beaches and casino. Love them all whatever the weather tbh.
I don’t know them at all so Oooh
How exciting to have a whole new region of France to discover! I feel like I’m starting an unexpected and highly regarded new season of the Sopranos
I also need to get my arse to Carnac and might do it this summer as it looks bloody impressive - you will love it, bazillions of big carved stones.
Also if you are into spas they are big into their thalassotherapy spas on the coast in Brittany.
Spoiler: it’s not. Carnac and pont aven are the only bits of Brittany I’ve been before
Carnac is weirdly crap. I dunno why but it is and I love megaliths. There is no spirituality. Think of Callanish or Avebury or Grey Wethers - they all have an intensity
Carnac feels like megaliths by committee. It doesn’t help that it is surrounded by housing in that sprawling French way (ie pleasant but boring)
I am actually on the hunt for resonant Breton megaliths for my article so if you know any please tell! I hear there might be some at the end of the crozon peninsula
There's a mega monolith at Dol de Bretagne near St Malo
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
I have spent millions of days there over my life - haven’t done the part you are in. I Mostly go to Dinan, Dinard and St Malo in the north and La Baule in the south (it’s technically Loire Atlantique now but very much considered Breton).
Dinan is a beautiful medieval river port, Dinard is a very relaxed but actually v preppy/wealthy beach town which is packed with upper class frenchies in the summer, St Malo you probs know anyway and La Baule is very smart beach resort, very few Brits etc, wealthy French for the beaches and casino. Love them all whatever the weather tbh.
I don’t know them at all so Oooh
How exciting to have a whole new region of France to discover! I feel like I’m starting an unexpected and highly regarded new season of the Sopranos
I also need to get my arse to Carnac and might do it this summer as it looks bloody impressive - you will love it, bazillions of big carved stones.
Also if you are into spas they are big into their thalassotherapy spas on the coast in Brittany.
Spoiler: it’s not. Carnac and pont aven are the only bits of Brittany I’ve been before
Carnac is weirdly crap. I dunno why but it is and I love megaliths. There is no spirituality. Think of Callanish or Avebury or Grey Wethers - they all have an intensity
Carnac feels like megaliths by committee. It doesn’t help that it is surrounded by housing in that sprawling French way (ie pleasant but boring)
I am actually on the hunt for resonant Breton megaliths for my article so if you know any please tell! I hear there might be some at the end of the crozon peninsula
Great. I now don’t have to go there which is a nice time saver. Shame though as always looks interesting. Definitely check out La Baule, Dinard, and Dinan. La B is like the south of France without the wankers.
It’s still worth seeing just as a box ticker and because of its scale - I guess - but don’t expect to be emotionally moved. Tres suburban
Context is all for megaliths. Here is a stone row I found in Ireland and it nearly made me cry
That’s the Uragh configuration. Magnificent. Four lonely stones staring at a forlorn and poetic lough
I wonder if the relative bleakness of the British Isles makes them better for megaliths. Much of France is “nice”. Much of Brittany is “nice”. You don’t want fucking niceness in a Neolithic monument. You want the sense some Druid might turn you into amber and tear out your spleen to make a purse for angel’s teeth
Looks like the hearing on whether Trump had breached the gag order went as badly as it could have for Trump. His counsel was told that they were losing all credibility with the court, the defence were not able to identify any post that Trump's posts were supposedly responding to and the Judge was not willing to accept a submission that reposting a post was not a breach of the order.
Trump's response to all this? Well, to tweet from the Court House that the Judge should recuse himself of course. He is truly the client from hell.
The Judge has reserved judgment on the contempt but it looks inevitable that Trump will be in breach on multiple occasions. And then there is today's genius move. The prospects of Trump getting through this trial whilst on bail must surely be diminishing.
Judges will be smart to find ways of NOT granting Donald Trump his current heart's desire - to be locked up as a "martyr" for MAGA.
It's an unenviable position - he is baiting courts to lock him up, so he can be even more a martyr to his base and hopefully get some independents think he is being hard done by, so judges are trying not to rise to the baiting.
But by not doing so they are treating him more favourably than they would other criminal defendents, even some famous ones (see Sam Bankman-Fried, who was remanded in custody ahead of trial for milder acts). He still benefits by proving blustering and moaning works to get him an easier time.
Re: your 2nd paragrah
1. Personally do NOT give a blind fiddler's final farewell fuck; note that prior to trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, Donald Trump ALWAYS got an easier time from courts that John or Jane Doe.
2. As for Bankman-Fraud (sp?) well he had advantages that DJT did not namely not one but TWO parents who are Stanford (Junior) Law School professor; thus he had LESS excuse for not knowing potential legal consequences of HIS gross criminality.
Damn. Just lost a whole day's profit by fat-fingering an extra digit to the stake on a losing bet.
What do you mainly bet on?
Horses.
Ah ok. A view on Troy v Rosalion in the 2G?
I do not really have one but...
When Ballydoyle/Coolmore have a really good one, they tell you, and they've told everyone about City of Troy. I would be slightly cautious though that sometimes the Guineas can be a draw race (code for I missed the price and he is odds-on). Of course, Hannon is hopeful too about Rosallion. Sorry.
ETA I did tip one horse and one winner on pb, in a race sponsored by then PBer antifrank. Temperamentally though, I cannot tip as I hate to lose other people's money so end up qualifying every statement.
She could be amusing as LoTo, as long as she was nowhere near the levers of power.
The Cons look like they might take a loony turn in opposition - better that they do it with someone in no danger of getting them elected, learn the hard lessons (maybe, this time) and then choose someone competent.
That would be a great theory, if the advent of Sunak and Hunt hadn't put the myth of managerial 'dull competence' being the answer to anything to bed for good.
I don't consider Sunak competent.
(I also wouldn't consider Hunt a good leader, although he might have been among the better choices in a bad field)
That's because he isn't competent. Nor was Cameron, though obviously he was better than Sunak. You don't have to actually be competent to attract the ardour of the dull competence lovers, you have to be a statist, managerialist, technocrat, fond of 'modernising the party', with a blue rosette and a plummy accent but the sandal-wearing soul of a Lib-Dem. They are the types of people 'one needs to win elections' according to your theory, except of course when they don't.
James o Brien was pretty scathing of Cameron in his recent book. Lets face it if Cameron hadnt gone to Eton he would likely be working in a provincial estate agents office.
The name that matters there is Kate Forbes. That is a declaration of war.
I find it interesting that her approach to winning the leadership is to be pretty confrontational. The SNP, since Sturgeon took over, has been wedded to a weird kind of authoritarian progressivism. Forbes is signalling she will have none of it and would kick the table over given a chance. There must be quite a hunt on in the SNP establishment for a credible Yousaf successor wedded to their orthodoxies. But is there one?
Bit disappointed by today, but I did climb about 1200 metres which makes it rather harder work! And I'm not far behind my 40 km per day target
Jeez that’s a lot of walking. I thought my 10 miles around Paris to see if it is in mortal decay (spoiler: see next week’s Gazette) was impressive
Serious question: have you done training for this? I guess your job IS training
You must love walking to do it for work and for fun!
I asked you if you were doing an article on "Paris to the dogs" and you flat out denied it.
Once trust has gone it's hard to get it back.
No I became inspired to write it after I’d experienced it
You thought I’d come pre-armed with an opinion. I really hadn’t. Indeed if you read my comments that day I started with an honest desire to compare the cities - london and Paris - why would I lie about that on here? Pointless
I arrived at gare du nord and it was tatty. But it always is. It was only when I went onwards that I kept finding surprising grot and then real menace
And then about hour 5 I did think: yes this is an article - but only when I’d accumulated sufficient evidence (otherwise the piece would not work)
Ok plausible, I suppose. It wouldn't have been lying anyway. More just inhabiting the part. Which we all do to varying degrees.
I readily confess I seek out stories. But I don’t invent them from broad cloth let alone go somewhere intent on proving a contentious opinion. That’s not how it works, it would be like you the accountant starting with a taxable sum of annual income then afterwards trying to get the real income to fit that. You’d either end up lying or looking a fool and you’d soon lose your job
And remember, I am LITERALLY the “Jay Rayner of Place”
Well you do get bent accountants (even chartered) but ethical standards are higher there than in journalism. So I don't know. Fact is, you will know that only certain 'takes' get published so there'll be pressure to come up with one of those. Way of the world. Don't expect you to fight it. Bills to pay etc.
Brittany is great fun. I can see why you’d come here on holiday if you’re prepared to risk shit weather (I wouldn’t, if it was my only family holiday - it’s also quite pricey)
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
I have spent millions of days there over my life - haven’t done the part you are in. I Mostly go to Dinan, Dinard and St Malo in the north and La Baule in the south (it’s technically Loire Atlantique now but very much considered Breton).
Dinan is a beautiful medieval river port, Dinard is a very relaxed but actually v preppy/wealthy beach town which is packed with upper class frenchies in the summer, St Malo you probs know anyway and La Baule is very smart beach resort, very few Brits etc, wealthy French for the beaches and casino. Love them all whatever the weather tbh.
I don’t know them at all so Oooh
How exciting to have a whole new region of France to discover! I feel like I’m starting an unexpected and highly regarded new season of the Sopranos
I also need to get my arse to Carnac and might do it this summer as it looks bloody impressive - you will love it, bazillions of big carved stones.
Also if you are into spas they are big into their thalassotherapy spas on the coast in Brittany.
Small stones in Carnac, but many, many acres of them
It’s disappointing isn’t it? I got zero vibes from Carnac and I was super receptive
Try the Outer Hebrides. Or at any rate the Uists. There are prehistoric monuments dotted around but you need to tramp across the moors with compass and OS map to find them. Very rewarding when you do. Last time I did that the only company I had was a golden eagle. Its a remarkable landscape.
Jimmy Walker was VERY charming (far more so than BoJo) which was his major asset to Tammany Hall. Also lazy, letcherous, sloppy (though not in Johnson's league) and brought down by his own wretched excesses.
However, Walker showed WAY more personal courage, character and . . . wait for it . . . honesty (sorta) dealing with HIS downfall, than Johnson has done dealing with his.
Unless you think flying from Santo Domingo to Caracas for "let's make a deal" BoJo-style, is a profile in courage, character and/or honesty?
Damn. Just lost a whole day's profit by fat-fingering an extra digit to the stake on a losing bet.
What do you mainly bet on?
Horses.
Ah ok. A view on Troy v Rosalion in the 2G?
I do not really have one but...
When Ballydoyle/Coolmore have a really good one, they tell you, and they've told everyone about City of Troy. I would be slightly cautious though that sometimes the Guineas can be a draw race (code for I missed the price and he is odds-on). Of course, Hannon is hopeful too about Rosallion. Sorry.
ETA I did tip one horse and one winner on pb, in a race sponsored by then PBer antifrank. Temperamentally though, I cannot tip as I hate to lose other people's money so end up qualifying every statement.
I'm on both antepost so I'm hoping they both live up to the hype and duel it out way clear of the rest.
Coolmore do sometimes overhype as well. Eg Paddington.
BREAKING 210 migrants have arrived in four small boats today in Dover, reports @markwhiteTV for @GBNEWS, with two more small boats on the way right now, containing as many as 100 more migrants.
So, a Rwanda full in one day. Where are they going to send tomorrow's boats?
From the news on BBC this morning - a boat launched, was turned around by the French, came back to shore, picked up more and then launched again (no French vessel in sight). Clearly if we want to stop desperate people risking their lives crossing the channel we need to beef up the patrols (pay the French more?) but also provide a realistic route that people can claim asylum into the UK from places that these people are from. I don't think Northern France is the right place - we need to have arrangements much closer to the countries people are fleeing.
But ultimately, the real issue is that in the UK we are extremely lucky. Most of us live a life far beyond what most of the planet can ever hope to. The way to end the migrant issue is to raise the standard of living everywhere else. Much of Africa is stunning, yet also can be desperately poor. The disparity between the life of Turbotubbs in SW Wiltshire and someone from many African states is what is driving the issue.
Oodles of cash has been sent to Africa as long as I can remember and it makes little difference, the corruption is unbridled and they seem to like shooting , raping and pillaging far too much.
There's a wonderful book on economic growth in third world countries, that starts with the awesome line: there's only one thing worse than aid to the people of developing economies, and that's the discovery of oil.
But that doesn't mean there isn't stuff you can do that can make a real difference, such as free trade and support of democratic systems and the rule of law.
Statistically, having been colonised by the Portuguese, Spanish, Belgians, French or British is probably worse than either of those things.
It's not as though S Korea and Taiwan never received foreign aid when they were developing counties...
She could be amusing as LoTo, as long as she was nowhere near the levers of power.
The Cons look like they might take a loony turn in opposition - better that they do it with someone in no danger of getting them elected, learn the hard lessons (maybe, this time) and then choose someone competent.
That would be a great theory, if the advent of Sunak and Hunt hadn't put the myth of managerial 'dull competence' being the answer to anything to bed for good.
I don't consider Sunak competent.
(I also wouldn't consider Hunt a good leader, although he might have been among the better choices in a bad field)
That's because he isn't competent. Nor was Cameron, though obviously he was better than Sunak. You don't have to actually be competent to attract the ardour of the dull competence lovers, you have to be a statist, managerialist, technocrat, fond of 'modernising the party', with a blue rosette and a plummy accent but the sandal-wearing soul of a Lib-Dem. They are the types of people 'one needs to win elections' according to your theory, except of course when they don't.
James o Brien was pretty scathing of Cameron in his recent book. Lets face it if Cameron hadnt gone to Eton he would likely be working in a provincial estate agents office.
Bit disappointed by today, but I did climb about 1200 metres which makes it rather harder work! And I'm not far behind my 40 km per day target
Jeez that’s a lot of walking. I thought my 10 miles around Paris to see if it is in mortal decay (spoiler: see next week’s Gazette) was impressive
Serious question: have you done training for this? I guess your job IS training
You must love walking to do it for work and for fun!
I asked you if you were doing an article on "Paris to the dogs" and you flat out denied it.
Once trust has gone it's hard to get it back.
No I became inspired to write it after I’d experienced it
You thought I’d come pre-armed with an opinion. I really hadn’t. Indeed if you read my comments that day I started with an honest desire to compare the cities - london and Paris - why would I lie about that on here? Pointless
I arrived at gare du nord and it was tatty. But it always is. It was only when I went onwards that I kept finding surprising grot and then real menace
And then about hour 5 I did think: yes this is an article - but only when I’d accumulated sufficient evidence (otherwise the piece would not work)
Ok plausible, I suppose. It wouldn't have been lying anyway. More just inhabiting the part. Which we all do to varying degrees.
I readily confess I seek out stories. But I don’t invent them from broad cloth let alone go somewhere intent on proving a contentious opinion. That’s not how it works, it would be like you the accountant starting with a taxable sum of annual income then afterwards trying to get the real income to fit that. You’d either end up lying or looking a fool and you’d soon lose your job
And remember, I am LITERALLY the “Jay Rayner of Place”
Well you do get bent accountants (even chartered) but ethical standards are higher there than in journalism. So I don't know. Fact is, you will know that only certain 'takes' get published so there'll be pressure to come up with one of those. Way of the world. Don't expect you to fight it. Bills to pay etc.
That prompts me to remember this story.
https://www.honest-broker.com/p/what-is-really-inside-the-briefcase ..I’m reminded of a favorite passage in a David Foster Wallace story, when a burnt-out young man—he describes himself as a wastoid—is shaken out of his complacency by (of all people) an accounting professor.
This teacher berates his students, demanding that they aspire to heroism—but “not heroism as you might know it from films or the tales of childhood. . . . The truth is that the heroism of your childhood entertainments was not true valor. It was theater.”
Grown-ups, he continues, must learn what real heroism is. The professor goes on to define it—in a way that both unsettled and inspired me when I first read it:
“Welcome to the world of reality—there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand? Here is the truth—actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. . . . True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care—with no one there to see and cheer. This is the world.”
The ‘wastoid protagonist eventually finds fulfillment as a Certified Public Account working for the IRS...
Comments
(first hearing that as a kid, I wondered why the rain fell mainly on the [aero]planes - seemed unlikely given the relative surface area of aeroplanes compared to Spain)
In that comparison the Basque country is Georgia: almost identical geographical setting and coincidentally a unique self-contained ancient culture with weird language that has somehow survived the empires that surround it.
Better off 14%
Worse off 46%
About the same 34%
So Labour has the lead.
*stop laughing at the back!
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/sumption-rwanda-bill-breaches-two-172604917.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001yj19
Gordon Brown viewed Rupert Murdoch as a friend ?
Freud makes the sound point that the media only has power over politicians if they get too close to it. And they should not do so.
Victoria Spartz took the GOP mantle on aiding Kyiv back in the spring. Now, her fellow lawmakers worry she’s undermining the effort.
House Republicans gave Ukraine-born Rep. Victoria Spartz a coveted platform to speak out against Russia’s war. They’re coming to regret that.
Spartz (R-Ind.), who has traveled to Ukraine a half-dozen times since the war began and spoken passionately about the conflict, shocked lawmakers in both parties recently with her intense criticisms of the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and his confidants. She drew a rare rebuke last weekend from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, which accused her of “trying to earn extra political capital on baseless speculation.”
Inside the House GOP Conference, there’s a widespread fear that her posture is damaging U.S.-Ukraine relations at the worst possible time — and that she’s being played by forces that aim to weaken the Western alliance. GOP national-security hawks also worry that the MAGA wing of their party, where there’s already resistance to supporting Ukraine, will point to Spartz’s comments as justification. . . .
The 43-year-old’s Zelenskyy-gadfly persona this summer marks a sharp turnaround from her message on March 1, when she made an impassioned and tearful plea for the Biden administration to respond more forcefully to the crisis unfolding in her motherland. As Spartz described the struggle of some family members to survive bloody Russian assaults, House GOP leaders and dozens of rank-and-file members stood behind her, dressed in blue and yellow to match Ukraine’s flag, nodding in agreement.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/15/republicans-spartz-ukraine-zelenskyy-00045949
SSI - What Politico article does NOT mention, is fact that Rep(tile) Victoria Spartz is up for renomination in May 7 Indiana GOP primary, versus a full-throated MAGA-maniac Putin-pimper.
So naturally (for her anyway) she'd decided if you might NOT beat 'em, best join 'em.
Reminds me for some reason of PB's most prominent UKR flag-waver AND Trump-fluffer.
The Camino can be very cheering. I’ve had wrinkly peasant folk foist bunches of grapes on me while walking in the morning sunshine.
And there’s a fountain of free wine.
(Iirc, a Canadian company, Vermilion, owns almost all the rights. I wouldn't be rushing to invest.)
I mean, implemented in a way that didn't impoverish the population.
A bit hairy going round Cape Ortugal as we had too much sail up and wind much stronger than forecast.
Apropos of nothing Autarky is dogfood.
https://www.autarkyfoods.com/
The problem is the state tries to do too much, and so consistently has to borrow.
But by not doing so they are treating him more favourably than they would other criminal defendents, even some famous ones (see Sam Bankman-Fried, who was remanded in custody ahead of trial for milder acts). He still benefits by proving blustering and moaning works to get him an easier time.
Better: 27%
Worse: 32%
The same: 29%
via @RedfieldWilton
Very low expectations which I expect is a good thing for zSKS Kabour
Day. Steps. Km
1 . 58058 . 39.82
2 . 60336 . 41.38
3 . 58797 . 40.32
4 . 48629 . 33.55
Total . 225820. 155.07
Bit disappointed by today, but I did climb about 1200 metres which makes it rather harder work! And I'm not far behind my 40 km per day target
Serious question: have you done training for this? I guess your job IS training
You must love walking to do it for work and for fun!
Observations: it can be very bleak. Rundown towns with dying industries. Rows of post covid shuttered shops (as bad as British towns for sure)
Bretons are short dark and hairy. Not tall red haired blonde Celts. But which is the true Celtic type?!
Cornouaille really is like Cornwall. Maybe not as intensely pretty in its best spots, but with a greater sense of space and urbanity
Three out of six are lawyers.
Six SNP MSPs rebel by abstaining on the Scottish Government's wide-ranging Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform Bill (juryless trials etc)
Annabelle Ewing
Fergus Ewing
Kate Forbes
Christine Grahame
Ivan McKee
Michelle Thomson
https://twitter.com/sensiblestu/status/1782820318416941560
Once trust has gone it's hard to get it back.
You thought I’d come pre-armed with an opinion. I really hadn’t. Indeed if you read my comments that day I started with an honest desire to compare the cities - london and Paris - why would I lie about that on here? Pointless
I arrived at gare du nord and it was tatty. But it always is. It was only when I went onwards that I kept finding surprising grot and then real menace
And then about hour 5 I did think: yes this is an article - but only when I’d accumulated sufficient evidence (otherwise the piece would not work)
Similarly, time after time it is discovered that 'cuts' actually means slightly reduced increases in expenditure.
Dinan is a beautiful medieval river port, Dinard is a very relaxed but actually v preppy/wealthy beach town which is packed with upper class frenchies in the summer, St Malo you probs know anyway and La Baule is very smart beach resort, very few Brits etc, wealthy French for the beaches and casino. Love them all whatever the weather tbh.
Hyperbole? Never heard of it.
How exciting to have a whole new region of France to discover! I feel like I’m starting an unexpected and highly regarded new season of the Sopranos
Also if you are into spas they are big into their thalassotherapy spas on the coast in Brittany.
NEW: FM @HumzaYousaf “utterly furious” UK Gov hasn’t extended legislation to pardon sub-postmasters to Scotland - accuses ministers of using Horizon victims as “political pawns”.
“Outrageous…unfair…unacceptable”
https://twitter.com/AlanJZycinski/status/1782774012822659414
I don't love the walking itself; at work it's just work, but I love walking through a country - I don't think there's a better way for me to experience it
I loved my tour of Brittany last year, my walk from Girona to Perpignan the year before, and I think I'm going to do this kind of walking holiday from now on. Until I can't
I'm considering the Pyrenean route next year, from where I hopefully finish in a few weeks, Saint Jean Pied de Port, on to Perpignan then Montpellier, to start joining bits together
Carnac is weirdly crap. I dunno why but it is and I love megaliths. There is no spirituality. Think of Callanish or Avebury or Grey Wethers - they all have an intensity
Carnac feels like megaliths by committee. It doesn’t help that it is surrounded by housing in that sprawling French way (ie pleasant but boring)
I am actually on the hunt for resonant Breton megaliths for my article so if you know any please tell! I hear there might be some at the end of the crozon peninsula
(had to edit that because I'd missed out the final full stop)
And remember, I am LITERALLY the “Jay Rayner of Place”
I saw it and understood Obelix
Context is all for megaliths. Here is a stone row I found in Ireland and it nearly made me cry
That’s the Uragh configuration. Magnificent. Four lonely stones staring at a forlorn and poetic lough
I wonder if the relative bleakness of the British Isles makes them better for megaliths. Much of France is “nice”. Much of Brittany is “nice”. You don’t want fucking niceness in a Neolithic monument. You want the sense some Druid might turn you into amber and tear out your spleen to make a purse for angel’s teeth
Sunak can't be bothered, or isn't capable, of giving us even that.
1. Personally do NOT give a blind fiddler's final farewell fuck; note that prior to trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, Donald Trump ALWAYS got an easier time from courts that John or Jane Doe.
2. As for Bankman-Fraud (sp?) well he had advantages that DJT did not namely not one but TWO parents who are Stanford (Junior) Law School professor; thus he had LESS excuse for not knowing potential legal consequences of HIS gross criminality.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-68848464
When Ballydoyle/Coolmore have a really good one, they tell you, and they've told everyone about City of Troy. I would be slightly cautious though that sometimes the Guineas can be a draw race (code for I missed the price and he is odds-on). Of course, Hannon is hopeful too about Rosallion. Sorry.
ETA I did tip one horse and one winner on pb, in a race sponsored by then PBer antifrank. Temperamentally though, I cannot tip as I hate to lose other people's money so end up qualifying every statement.
There must be quite a hunt on in the SNP establishment for a credible Yousaf successor wedded to their orthodoxies. But is there one?
Who was portrayed by Bob Hope in the pseudo-bio-pic "Beau James".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFkdb8OiHwQ
Jimmy Walker was VERY charming (far more so than BoJo) which was his major asset to Tammany Hall. Also lazy, letcherous, sloppy (though not in Johnson's league) and brought down by his own wretched excesses.
However, Walker showed WAY more personal courage, character and . . . wait for it . . . honesty (sorta) dealing with HIS downfall, than Johnson has done dealing with his.
Unless you think flying from Santo Domingo to Caracas for "let's make a deal" BoJo-style, is a profile in courage, character and/or honesty?
Coolmore do sometimes overhype as well. Eg Paddington.
It's not as though S Korea and Taiwan never received foreign aid when they were developing counties...
https://www.honest-broker.com/p/what-is-really-inside-the-briefcase
..I’m reminded of a favorite passage in a David Foster Wallace story, when a burnt-out young man—he describes himself as a wastoid—is shaken out of his complacency by (of all people) an accounting professor.
This teacher berates his students, demanding that they aspire to heroism—but “not heroism as you might know it from films or the tales of childhood. . . . The truth is that the heroism of your childhood entertainments was not true valor. It was theater.”
Grown-ups, he continues, must learn what real heroism is. The professor goes on to define it—in a way that both unsettled and inspired me when I first read it:
“Welcome to the world of reality—there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand? Here is the truth—actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. . . . True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care—with no one there to see and cheer. This is the world.”
The ‘wastoid protagonist eventually finds fulfillment as a Certified Public Account working for the IRS...