In the US, some (me included) see many Greens as motivated by what can be best understood as religious views. Or, if you want to be mean about it, anti-science superstition.
FAR outnumbered by WAY more "anti-science" climate change deniers. Most especially Republicans.
Note that there is NOT a legitimate national "Green Party" in the USA, and few legitimate state green parties; one of the consequences of our "two party" system.
Further note that many alleged Greens who DO make the ballot, have turned out to be fake candidacies sponsored by Republicans as a means of syphoning votes away from (generally pro-enviro) Democrats.
OR (alleged) shills for Mad Vlad such as 2016 official Green Party POTUS candidate Jill Stein.
If it's "against international law" for the UK government to declare Rwanda a safe third country despite court rulings that suggest otherwise, is it also "against international law" for the Irish government to declare the UK a safe third country despite court rulings?
Can someone answer either yes to both or no to both? Or are there double standards at play where one party can do it and another can't.
Royal Mail suspends fines for letters received with 'counterfeit' barcoded stamps while it develops an app so customers can check themselves if a stamp is real.
I wonder what the historical rates of stamp forgery (in order to use postal services) have been? It's such a shame that the collectability of stamps has been demolished entirely really (by forgeries and the activities of the Royal Mail and others). It was quite fun when I was 12.
It is an odd reversal, and not much noticed. In about 1963 collecting stamps was something we mostly did, as children, and now I never come across it among them. Does it still exist?
Cheap and ubiquitous digital printing did for it.
The stamp collecting company which catered to many a 60s child was bought by a similarly doomed enterprise back in the 1970s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Gibbons#1970s ..In 1979 Gibbons was bought by Letraset for £19 million in an attempt to diversify away from their dry-lettering business, but the acquisition did not go smoothly and, like Flying Flowers later, Letraset found it difficult to integrate Gibbons into its core business.[9] The chairman of Letraset blamed "indiscriminate expansion" and "imprudent" investment decisions for the problems at Gibbons and was quoted in The Times as saying "We significantly overpaid for what we got."..
The US - where debate is more polarised - is going in the opposite direction to the UK on gender identity ideology. UN expert @UNSRVAW says that redefining sex as gender identity in Title IX will increase the risk of male violence against women and girls....
It's a tragedy to see politicians on the left - in this case the Biden administration - collude in the erosion of women's protections against sex discrimination and single-sex spaces
Different countries. The number of elected positions in the US is dramatically larger in the UK (famously, "dog-catcher" is elected) and anti-trans sentiment is focussed via them. And, since wherever there are elections there are parties, it becomes a partisan issue. Information can be gathered via open meetings, hearings, election pitches, etc, and can be tracked and visualised.
In the UK, which has more non-elected state institutions involved in everyday life, such sentiment is reflected in bureaucracy (eg all prospective transitioners funnelled into specialist clinics, which inevitably develop long queues as supply is restricted), which is less visible. Information-gatherers have to resort to FOI requests or guesswork.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
The phrase (with variants) "He couldn't get himself elected dogcatcher" being apocryphal, and more comic say than, "he couldn't get himself elected as [for example] local constable" which IS an elected office in some states.
Aside from that, your first paragraph is pretty much spot on. Though there ARE many offices from sea to shining sea that are officially non-partisan, for example most city council positions (such as in Seattle and other WA cities and towns) and the unicameral Nebraska state legislature.
However, there is quite often (but not necessarily) a partisan dimension to these non-partisan offices.
BTW, yours truly is (currently anyway) an elected "Precinct Committee Officer (aka PCO) for the Democratic Party, a position (along with Republican PCO) that is elected via primary election ballot every two years (including this August). However, only CONTESTED races for PCO (one major party or the other) are actually on the ballot; uncontested PCO candidates are deemed elected, as a way of reducing the clutter on primary ballots AND saving counties money re: ballot printing (no need for separate ballot styles for individual precincts).
The FT article itself is paywalled, but if Tim Harford is representative of their columnists, then it's not worth paying for.
I've studied the history of solar energy and it never once occured to me that people might think that the technology would get cheaper with time by itself without mass production. What a bizarre belief https://twitter.com/MaxJerneck/status/1784594856104399167
Tim Harford is one the best writers out there IMO, and his Radio 4 programme More or Less is pretty good as well. What's the problem with this headline?
The problem is with the quoted excerpt from the article.
(I'm probably being more than a bit unfair to Harford, but it's not a good piece.)
Can't see the article but why would people have views about the situation where solar energy technology continues to be produced but not at increasing scale? How would that happen?
The FT article itself is paywalled, but if Tim Harford is representative of their columnists, then it's not worth paying for.
I've studied the history of solar energy and it never once occured to me that people might think that the technology would get cheaper with time by itself without mass production. What a bizarre belief https://twitter.com/MaxJerneck/status/1784594856104399167
Tim Harford is one the best writers out there IMO, and his Radio 4 programme More or Less is pretty good as well. What's the problem with this headline?
The problem is with the quoted excerpt from the article.
(I'm probably being more than a bit unfair to Harford, but it's not a good piece.)
Can't see the article but why would people have views about the situation where solar energy technology continues to be produced but not at increasing scale? How would that happen?
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
The US - where debate is more polarised - is going in the opposite direction to the UK on gender identity ideology. UN expert @UNSRVAW says that redefining sex as gender identity in Title IX will increase the risk of male violence against women and girls....
It's a tragedy to see politicians on the left - in this case the Biden administration - collude in the erosion of women's protections against sex discrimination and single-sex spaces
Different countries. The number of elected positions in the US is dramatically larger in the UK (famously, "dog-catcher" is elected) and anti-trans sentiment is focussed via them. And, since wherever there are elections there are parties, it becomes a partisan issue. Information can be gathered via open meetings, hearings, election pitches, etc, and can be tracked and visualised.
In the UK, which has more non-elected state institutions involved in everyday life, such sentiment is reflected in bureaucracy (eg all prospective transitioners funnelled into specialist clinics, which inevitably develop long queues as supply is restricted), which is less visible. Information-gatherers have to resort to FOI requests or guesswork.
Fortunately dog-killer, aka Mr Chump's aspirational VP, is not yet elected.
Though now there is conversation about horse-killer as well.
You may scratch Kristi Noem the self-proclaimed dog (and goat) killer from your (and his) Trump VP dance card.
Trump may well appreciate her blood lust, but even he's not crazy enough to risk having her as his 2024 running (-dog) mate.
If it's "against international law" for the UK government to declare Rwanda a safe third country despite court rulings that suggest otherwise, is it also "against international law" for the Irish government to declare the UK a safe third country despite court rulings?
Can someone answer either yes to both or no to both? Or are there double standards at play where one party can do it and another can't.
It seems to me to be precisely the sort of thing that should be left to a court to decide, rather than a legislature, though the legislature might set the standards and criteria by which the courts would judge such questions.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
What devolved powers do they have. The ability to set rates for public car parks at national monuments. Anything else? It is a mickey mouse government thinking they have powers to do this, that, and the other on the world stage but they have no such power hence are reduced to arguing the toss about trans rights and Gaza.
Like a student government that the grown ups indulge and laugh at.
Of course it is. Have you seen the lecterns that the "MSPs" stand behind, as if they're giving lectures? But sometimes even a student Mickey Mouse local council politician can do something right, and HY has shown more guts on Gaza than almost any "grown-up" politician and he deserves credit for this.
Similarly with Leo Varadkar - more guts on Gaza than Starmer and Sunak put together times 100.
Yes they are key decision-makers in the whole Gaza episode. Well done them. And Owen Jones don't forget his guts.
The thing is the opposite is true. It's not exactly a brave decision for a left of centre politician to denounce Israel.
Whether it's the right or wrong position it's been a riskier and gutsier call from Starmer to go against the grain of his tribe and face plenty of abuse for it.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
Edit - "Incorporation" in sense of cities & town & equivalents, versus "unincorporated" areas.
Enjoyable to watch the people who argued that the UK Tory party shouldn't choose the next UK PM without an election, and the Welsh Labour Party shouldn't choose the next Welsh FM without an election, now defending the SNP choosing the next Scottish FM without an election.
I've just reached Sahagún, the official halfway mark, in nine days, two hours and twenty minutes
I’ve been passed many times by Pellegrinos doing the route fast. I still don’t get it.
Sleeping in the afternoon sun, boots airing, wine and sandwiches seeping gently through my torpor.
Not knowing or caring much about anything but the moment. That’s my Camino.
And I have completed four different versions.
It’s your Camino. A fast crossing is an achievement, I wouldn’t begin to deny that, but for me, a slow Camino is full of joy.
Perhaps you could take note of things to revisit on a second pass? Like the monastery of Gregorian chant, I’m definitely finding the time to go there next time.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I was taught in my medieval history A Level that technically the English/British sovereign owns EVERYTHING - certainly in the UK, possibly in the other realms (Canada, Oz etc) and probably the entire universe. And that this state of affairs has prevailed since 1066 and has never officially changed
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I was taught in my medieval history A Level that technically the English/British sovereign owns EVERYTHING - certainly in the UK, possibly in the other realms (Canada, Oz etc) and probably the entire universe. And that this state of affairs has prevailed since 1066 and has never officially changed
We are all feudal subjects of His Maj
Wow - given you clearly went to a proper school, how did you turn out as you did!?
Royal Mail suspends fines for letters received with 'counterfeit' barcoded stamps while it develops an app so customers can check themselves if a stamp is real.
I wonder what the historical rates of stamp forgery (in order to use postal services) have been? It's such a shame that the collectability of stamps has been demolished entirely really (by forgeries and the activities of the Royal Mail and others). It was quite fun when I was 12.
It is an odd reversal, and not much noticed. In about 1963 collecting stamps was something we mostly did, as children, and now I never come across it among them. Does it still exist?
Cheap and ubiquitous digital printing did for it.
The stamp collecting company which catered to many a 60s child was bought by a similarly doomed enterprise back in the 1970s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Gibbons#1970s ..In 1979 Gibbons was bought by Letraset for £19 million in an attempt to diversify away from their dry-lettering business, but the acquisition did not go smoothly and, like Flying Flowers later, Letraset found it difficult to integrate Gibbons into its core business.[9] The chairman of Letraset blamed "indiscriminate expansion" and "imprudent" investment decisions for the problems at Gibbons and was quoted in The Times as saying "We significantly overpaid for what we got."..
I can still remember using Letraset for election leaflets. There was always some letter you ran out of first, leaving the choice of having to think of headlines that didn’t use that letter, or cleverly bastardising other letters or combinations thereof to create the letter you needed. Happy, long lost days, back when Leon was predicting that word processing would lead to mass unemployment.
The US - where debate is more polarised - is going in the opposite direction to the UK on gender identity ideology. UN expert @UNSRVAW says that redefining sex as gender identity in Title IX will increase the risk of male violence against women and girls....
It's a tragedy to see politicians on the left - in this case the Biden administration - collude in the erosion of women's protections against sex discrimination and single-sex spaces
Different countries. The number of elected positions in the US is dramatically larger in the UK (famously, "dog-catcher" is elected) and anti-trans sentiment is focussed via them. And, since wherever there are elections there are parties, it becomes a partisan issue. Information can be gathered via open meetings, hearings, election pitches, etc, and can be tracked and visualised.
In the UK, which has more non-elected state institutions involved in everyday life, such sentiment is reflected in bureaucracy (eg all prospective transitioners funnelled into specialist clinics, which inevitably develop long queues as supply is restricted), which is less visible. Information-gatherers have to resort to FOI requests or guesswork.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
The phrase (with variants) "He couldn't get himself elected dogcatcher" being apocryphal, and more comic say than, "he couldn't get himself elected as [for example] local constable" which IS an elected office in some states.
Aside from that, your first paragraph is pretty much spot on. Though there ARE many offices from sea to shining sea that are officially non-partisan, for example most city council positions (such as in Seattle and other WA cities and towns) and the unicameral Nebraska state legislature.
However, there is quite often (but not necessarily) a partisan dimension to these non-partisan offices.
BTW, yours truly is (currently anyway) an elected "Precinct Committee Officer (aka PCO) for the Democratic Party, a position (along with Republican PCO) that is elected via primary election ballot every two years (including this August). However, only CONTESTED races for PCO (one major party or the other) are actually on the ballot; uncontested PCO candidates are deemed elected, as a way of reducing the clutter on primary ballots AND saving counties money re: ballot printing (no need for separate ballot styles for individual precincts).
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I learn something new every day. So if I rocked up to a place in the middle of nowhere (in an Alaskan wood for example), parked a mobile home, built a small fence and said "this is mine now", that wouldn't have legal force?
Royal Mail suspends fines for letters received with 'counterfeit' barcoded stamps while it develops an app so customers can check themselves if a stamp is real.
I wonder what the historical rates of stamp forgery (in order to use postal services) have been? It's such a shame that the collectability of stamps has been demolished entirely really (by forgeries and the activities of the Royal Mail and others). It was quite fun when I was 12.
It is an odd reversal, and not much noticed. In about 1963 collecting stamps was something we mostly did, as children, and now I never come across it among them. Does it still exist?
Cheap and ubiquitous digital printing did for it.
The stamp collecting company which catered to many a 60s child was bought by a similarly doomed enterprise back in the 1970s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Gibbons#1970s ..In 1979 Gibbons was bought by Letraset for £19 million in an attempt to diversify away from their dry-lettering business, but the acquisition did not go smoothly and, like Flying Flowers later, Letraset found it difficult to integrate Gibbons into its core business.[9] The chairman of Letraset blamed "indiscriminate expansion" and "imprudent" investment decisions for the problems at Gibbons and was quoted in The Times as saying "We significantly overpaid for what we got."..
I can still remember using Letraset for election leaflets. There was always some letter you ran out of first, leaving the choice of having to think of headlines that didn’t use that letter, or cleverly bastardising other letters or combinations thereof to create the letter you needed. Happy, long lost days, back when Leon was predicting that word processing would lead to mass unemployment.
John Bull printing sets! You could forge almost a whole typewritten word with them if you were very careful.
Royal Mail suspends fines for letters received with 'counterfeit' barcoded stamps while it develops an app so customers can check themselves if a stamp is real.
I wonder what the historical rates of stamp forgery (in order to use postal services) have been? It's such a shame that the collectability of stamps has been demolished entirely really (by forgeries and the activities of the Royal Mail and others). It was quite fun when I was 12.
It is an odd reversal, and not much noticed. In about 1963 collecting stamps was something we mostly did, as children, and now I never come across it among them. Does it still exist?
Cheap and ubiquitous digital printing did for it.
The stamp collecting company which catered to many a 60s child was bought by a similarly doomed enterprise back in the 1970s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Gibbons#1970s ..In 1979 Gibbons was bought by Letraset for £19 million in an attempt to diversify away from their dry-lettering business, but the acquisition did not go smoothly and, like Flying Flowers later, Letraset found it difficult to integrate Gibbons into its core business.[9] The chairman of Letraset blamed "indiscriminate expansion" and "imprudent" investment decisions for the problems at Gibbons and was quoted in The Times as saying "We significantly overpaid for what we got."..
I can still remember using Letraset for election leaflets. There was always some letter you ran out of first, leaving the choice of having to think of headlines that didn’t use that letter, or cleverly bastardising other letters or combinations thereof to create the letter you needed. Happy, long lost days, back when Leon was predicting that word processing would lead to mass unemployment.
John Bull printing sets! You could forge almost a whole typewritten word with them if you were very careful.
Royal Mail suspends fines for letters received with 'counterfeit' barcoded stamps while it develops an app so customers can check themselves if a stamp is real.
I wonder what the historical rates of stamp forgery (in order to use postal services) have been? It's such a shame that the collectability of stamps has been demolished entirely really (by forgeries and the activities of the Royal Mail and others). It was quite fun when I was 12.
It is an odd reversal, and not much noticed. In about 1963 collecting stamps was something we mostly did, as children, and now I never come across it among them. Does it still exist?
Cheap and ubiquitous digital printing did for it.
The stamp collecting company which catered to many a 60s child was bought by a similarly doomed enterprise back in the 1970s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Gibbons#1970s ..In 1979 Gibbons was bought by Letraset for £19 million in an attempt to diversify away from their dry-lettering business, but the acquisition did not go smoothly and, like Flying Flowers later, Letraset found it difficult to integrate Gibbons into its core business.[9] The chairman of Letraset blamed "indiscriminate expansion" and "imprudent" investment decisions for the problems at Gibbons and was quoted in The Times as saying "We significantly overpaid for what we got."..
I can still remember using Letraset for election leaflets. There was always some letter you ran out of first, leaving the choice of having to think of headlines that didn’t use that letter, or cleverly bastardising other letters or combinations thereof to create the letter you needed. Happy, long lost days, back when Leon was predicting that word processing would lead to mass unemployment.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I was taught in my medieval history A Level that technically the English/British sovereign owns EVERYTHING - certainly in the UK, possibly in the other realms (Canada, Oz etc) and probably the entire universe. And that this state of affairs has prevailed since 1066 and has never officially changed
We are all feudal subjects of His Maj
I keep forgetting if it's out to the low-tide mark. There are all sorts of variants on where "sea" ends and "land" begins (see also "when does the sun set?").
Thanks to @BlancheLivermore for that reply on my query about boredom and walking. Interesting
Sorry I missed it first time coz I’m busy travelling myself
I just don’t think that’s for me. The endless zen state - I envy someone able to do it for day after day. But I’m crap at it. My mind needs stimulation - to a fault. I think road trips like this might be my favourite kind of travel. An endless parade of newness and total independence
I wake up - do a spot of work, 2 hours on a flint - then I decide where to go next. Which lovely Breton town. Then I drive there and have a kir Breton and post it on here just for @Dura_Ace
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I was taught in my medieval history A Level that technically the English/British sovereign owns EVERYTHING - certainly in the UK, possibly in the other realms (Canada, Oz etc) and probably the entire universe. And that this state of affairs has prevailed since 1066 and has never officially changed
We are all feudal subjects of His Maj
Wow - given you clearly went to a proper school, how did you turn out as you did!?
Yes. Did a Law 101 unit. We are here on sufferance.
Labour 45% (+2) Conservative 22% (+2) Reform UK 14% (–) Liberal Democrat 9% (-3) Green 6% (–) Scottish National Party 3% (–) Other 2% (+1)
Changes +/- 21 April
The Lib Dems might also be quietly heading for oblivion. It seems inconceivable when they have a leader as charismatic as that leader they’ve got. Him. That one. Not the other one. Or is it a woman? Anyway that leader
Labour 45% (+2) Conservative 22% (+2) Reform UK 14% (–) Liberal Democrat 9% (-3) Green 6% (–) Scottish National Party 3% (–) Other 2% (+1)
Changes +/- 21 April
The Lib Dems might also be quietly heading for oblivion. It seems inconceivable when they have a leader as charismatic as that leader they’ve got. Him. That one. Not the other one. Or is it a woman? Anyway that leader
Locals this week. Lib Dem narrative shift incoming.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I was taught in my medieval history A Level that technically the English/British sovereign owns EVERYTHING - certainly in the UK, possibly in the other realms (Canada, Oz etc) and probably the entire universe. And that this state of affairs has prevailed since 1066 and has never officially changed
We are all feudal subjects of His Maj
I keep forgetting if it's out to the low-tide mark. There are all sorts of variants on where "sea" ends and "land" begins (see also "when does the sun set?").
The crown owns between high and low tide mark, as any dog owner faced with a council beach ban on dogs knows. The council ban cannot extend below the high tide line, and the chance of His Maj being worried about a dog walking on his beach is very small.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I was taught in my medieval history A Level that technically the English/British sovereign owns EVERYTHING - certainly in the UK, possibly in the other realms (Canada, Oz etc) and probably the entire universe. And that this state of affairs has prevailed since 1066 and has never officially changed
We are all feudal subjects of His Maj
I keep forgetting if it's out to the low-tide mark. There are all sorts of variants on where "sea" ends and "land" begins (see also "when does the sun set?").
The crown owns between high and low tide mark, as any dog owner faced with a council beach ban on dogs knows. The council ban cannot extend below the high tide line, and the chance of His Maj being worried about a dog walking on his beach is very small.
I see everyone has always backed John Swinney, strong and stable etc.
No-one wants to be FM until after the inevitable GE losses and any further Operation Branchform fun.
I think stopping Forbes from taking over is a big motivation for the coronation as well. Especially as it would likely lead to a Holyrood election the SNP very much don't want right now.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I was taught in my medieval history A Level that technically the English/British sovereign owns EVERYTHING - certainly in the UK, possibly in the other realms (Canada, Oz etc) and probably the entire universe. And that this state of affairs has prevailed since 1066 and has never officially changed
We are all feudal subjects of His Maj
I keep forgetting if it's out to the low-tide mark. There are all sorts of variants on where "sea" ends and "land" begins (see also "when does the sun set?").
The crown owns between high and low tide mark, as any dog owner faced with a council beach ban on dogs knows. The council ban cannot extend below the high tide line, and the chance of His Maj being worried about a dog walking on his beach is very small.
Like pavement parking*, how do you get to the legal bit without committing the offence? Do you parachute your dog in? Carry it? Throw it? Swim in from a boat offshore?
*Not illegal in a lot of places, but driving on the pavement is, IIRC
Although, that said, I did meet a party of Americans while doing the aqueduct walk yesterday, their being American evidenced by a) my hearing them coming from a considerable distance, b) middle aged people wearing gym gear and baseball caps, and c) when they saw me I was greeted with a cheerful “buenos días!”, which marked them out as superior Americans, for being able to give a foreign language a try, if not the one for the country they were actually currently in.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I learn something new every day. So if I rocked up to a place in the middle of nowhere (in an Alaskan wood for example), parked a mobile home, built a small fence and said "this is mine now", that wouldn't have legal force?
Correct.
"Homesteading ended on all federal lands on October 21, 1986. The State of Alaska currently [as of 2016] has no homesteading program for its lands."
However, you MIGHT (emphasis on conditional) be able to exercise doctrine of "adverse possession" aka "squatter's rights" on PRIVATELY-owned land.
Note that this has become a political issue/football for many GOPer politicos & pundits, including Ron DeSantis. However, this applies almost entirely to "urban" squatters who are NOT using actual legal doctrine of adverse possession.
Personal story - years ago my aunt & uncle lived next to a small house in Pennsylvania, on land that had been acquired via adverse possession; the Keystone State (at least then) having one of the shortest periods (seven years) for establishing legal title via adverse possession.
The key point being, that they guy concerned exercised his "squatters rights" on a small sliver of land that was NOT directly accessible (due to a high bluff) from the rest of the property. Where he built a house, registered it with the local county, paid taxes, received mail, etc. quite publicly . . . without the landowners making any protest - which would have immediately terminated any "squatters rights".
Then, once seven years elapsed, the guy went and registered his claim in local courts. Which upheld his title.
Moral of the story: IF you own property, best check your boundaries on a regular basis!
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I was taught in my medieval history A Level that technically the English/British sovereign owns EVERYTHING - certainly in the UK, possibly in the other realms (Canada, Oz etc) and probably the entire universe. And that this state of affairs has prevailed since 1066 and has never officially changed
We are all feudal subjects of His Maj
Wow - given you clearly went to a proper school, how did you turn out as you did!?
Yes. Did a Law 101 unit. We are here on sufferance.
is it really going to go salmond, swinney, sturgeon, salmond, sturgeon, yousaf swinney? what does it say about the quality of the party’s representatives if the SNP’s seven Holyrood leaders are drawn from a pool of four people.
There was no Sturgeon between Swinney and Salmond #2. According to Wikipedia , anyway.
According to fact also, McColm’s supposed to know this shit. Mind you he now seems to be writing for the Speccie, so..
Back from a "gradually get fit" 20km mile bike ride, up one of our 'needs improvement' multiuse trails * - down the Maun valley and past the Mansfield Petanque Club no less (bowlers ejected a couple of decades ago).
There were at least 3-dozen presumed Francophiles in attendance; don't tell Leeanderthal.
* Notts trails are - like Yousaf - useless. You can tell where the Derbyshire border is by the reduced quantities of mud and anti-wheelchair barriers.
Such is their concern about the impact on wider borrowing costs for the UK, even beyond utilities and infrastructure, that they believe Thames should be renationalised before the general election.
Officials in the Treasury and the UK’s Debt Management Office fear that, unless the UK’s biggest water company is renationalised as soon as possible, “prolonged uncertainty” about its fate could “damage confidence in UK plc at a sensitive time”, with elections in the UK and the US later this year.
Thames Water’s extra £1.1bn will do little to steady the sinking ship Read more Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed details of government contingency plans, known as Project Timber, to renationalise Thames via a special administration. This could lead to the bulk of its £15bn of debt being moved on to the government’s balance sheet. Thames’ investors have refused to pump more money into the struggling company amid a standoff with the water regulator Ofwat.
Some lenders to its core operating company could lose up to 40% of their money under the plans, a move that officials believe marks a careful balance between managing public outrage at the water company’s many failures and the need to sustain investor confidence in the UK..
..Whitehall officials expect any restructuring that involves investors losing money in Thames’ water operating company to trigger legal action against the government and Ofwat. Still, officials view a swift renationalisation that forces lenders to bear losses as preferable to a long, drawn out debate over the fate of Thames that weighs on the UK’s needs to raise capital for infrastructure projects and for its general debt issuance.
The Debt Management Office (DMO), an arm of the Treasury, is responsible for issuing new UK debt. In response to figures last week showing that Hunt will probably need to borrow more than originally hoped, the body announced it would increase sales of UK gilts this year by an extra £12.4bn. This takes the total expected sale of UK government debt this year to £277.7bn.
The government declined to comment on questions about the Treasury and DMO’s concerns.
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Given water companies are commercial entities, it would be inappropriate for government to comment specifically on Thames Water.”
In a potential signal of the debt challenges the UK faces, a recent sale of new debt recorded the highest borrowing costs for a 30-year term bond sold via a syndication – a group of lenders – since 2005, when records began.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I learn something new every day. So if I rocked up to a place in the middle of nowhere (in an Alaskan wood for example), parked a mobile home, built a small fence and said "this is mine now", that wouldn't have legal force?
Correct.
"Homesteading ended on all federal lands on October 21, 1986. The State of Alaska currently [as of 2016] has no homesteading program for its lands."
However, you MIGHT (emphasis on conditional) be able to exercise doctrine of "adverse possession" aka "squatter's rights" on PRIVATELY-owned land.
Note that this has become a political issue/football for many GOPer politicos & pundits, including Ron DeSantis. However, this applies almost entirely to "urban" squatters who are NOT using actual legal doctrine of adverse possession.
Personal story - years ago my aunt & uncle lived next to a small house in Pennsylvania, on land that had been acquired via adverse possession; the Keystone State (at least then) having one of the shortest periods (seven years) for establishing legal title via adverse possession.
The key point being, that they guy concerned exercised his "squatters rights" on a small sliver of land that was NOT directly accessible (due to a high bluff) from the rest of the property. Where he built a house, registered it with the local county, paid taxes, received mail, etc. quite publicly . . . without the landowners making any protest - which would have immediately terminated any "squatters rights".
Then, once seven years elapsed, the guy went and registered his claim in local courts. Which upheld his title.
Moral of the story: IF you own property, best check your boundaries on a regular basis!
Can you still get a free buffalo by writing to the Department of the Interior?
i am a bit concerned that John Swinney is being presented as the wise old head who is to keep Forbes away from the reins of power.
Firstly, he was born is 1964 so he is the best part of 3 years younger than me. He won't be old enough to stand for US President for at least another decade.
Secondly, and even more seriously, describing him as wise is a gross breach of the Trades Description Act. He is the man who signed off for the ferry contract contrary to Civil Service advice, who took years to work out what to do when the Supreme Court told him that incorporation of the UN Convention on rights of the child was beyond the competence of the Scottish Parliament and was, let's be charitable, somewhat less than fully candid with the Scottish Parliament about his decision not to use tax raising powers, the deficit on the teacher's pension and sundry other matters as Finance Minister. He was and is the kind of guy you keep around so that Humza Yousef feels adequate and even competent.
This isn't scraping the bottom of the barrel, it is the promotion of barnacles that should have found a home on a Scottish ferry about 6 years ago but have never had the opportunity to get in place.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I was taught in my medieval history A Level that technically the English/British sovereign owns EVERYTHING - certainly in the UK, possibly in the other realms (Canada, Oz etc) and probably the entire universe. And that this state of affairs has prevailed since 1066 and has never officially changed
We are all feudal subjects of His Maj
I keep forgetting if it's out to the low-tide mark. There are all sorts of variants on where "sea" ends and "land" begins (see also "when does the sun set?").
The crown owns between high and low tide mark, as any dog owner faced with a council beach ban on dogs knows. The council ban cannot extend below the high tide line, and the chance of His Maj being worried about a dog walking on his beach is very small.
When the state of Virginia ceded title to lands it claimed (under royal charter) north & west of the Ohio River to the infant federal government, it retained jurisdiction to the high water mark on the other side of the river.
Meaning that today, the successor states of West Virginia and Kentucky still retain same jurisdiction viz-a-viz states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois which were part of the original US "Northwest Territory".
Thus when a bridge is built across the Ohio River, WV & KY must pay the cost (today with considerable aid from feds) for construction of everything EXCEPT the approch(es) on the other side.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I learn something new every day. So if I rocked up to a place in the middle of nowhere (in an Alaskan wood for example), parked a mobile home, built a small fence and said "this is mine now", that wouldn't have legal force?
Correct.
"Homesteading ended on all federal lands on October 21, 1986. The State of Alaska currently [as of 2016] has no homesteading program for its lands."
However, you MIGHT (emphasis on conditional) be able to exercise doctrine of "adverse possession" aka "squatter's rights" on PRIVATELY-owned land.
Note that this has become a political issue/football for many GOPer politicos & pundits, including Ron DeSantis. However, this applies almost entirely to "urban" squatters who are NOT using actual legal doctrine of adverse possession.
Personal story - years ago my aunt & uncle lived next to a small house in Pennsylvania, on land that had been acquired via adverse possession; the Keystone State (at least then) having one of the shortest periods (seven years) for establishing legal title via adverse possession.
The key point being, that they guy concerned exercised his "squatters rights" on a small sliver of land that was NOT directly accessible (due to a high bluff) from the rest of the property. Where he built a house, registered it with the local county, paid taxes, received mail, etc. quite publicly . . . without the landowners making any protest - which would have immediately terminated any "squatters rights".
Then, once seven years elapsed, the guy went and registered his claim in local courts. Which upheld his title.
Moral of the story: IF you own property, best check your boundaries on a regular basis!
Can you still get a free buffalo by writing to the Department of the Interior?
Royal Mail suspends fines for letters received with 'counterfeit' barcoded stamps while it develops an app so customers can check themselves if a stamp is real.
I wonder what the historical rates of stamp forgery (in order to use postal services) have been? It's such a shame that the collectability of stamps has been demolished entirely really (by forgeries and the activities of the Royal Mail and others). It was quite fun when I was 12.
It is an odd reversal, and not much noticed. In about 1963 collecting stamps was something we mostly did, as children, and now I never come across it among them. Does it still exist?
Cheap and ubiquitous digital printing did for it.
The stamp collecting company which catered to many a 60s child was bought by a similarly doomed enterprise back in the 1970s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Gibbons#1970s ..In 1979 Gibbons was bought by Letraset for £19 million in an attempt to diversify away from their dry-lettering business, but the acquisition did not go smoothly and, like Flying Flowers later, Letraset found it difficult to integrate Gibbons into its core business.[9] The chairman of Letraset blamed "indiscriminate expansion" and "imprudent" investment decisions for the problems at Gibbons and was quoted in The Times as saying "We significantly overpaid for what we got."..
There's a huge stamp collection on the LHS in wall slides as you enter the British Library proper. Well worth a browse.
I’m getting quite noticeable noom from this one. The way it softly, greenly detonates with light, as if lit from within, the springtime life inside. And right above that medieval gate
i am a bit concerned that John Swinney is being presented as the wise old head who is to keep Forbes away from the reins of power.
Firstly, he was born is 1964 so he is the best part of 3 years younger than me. He won't be old enough to stand for US President for at least another decade.
Secondly, and even more seriously, describing him as wise is a gross breach of the Trades Description Act. He is the man who signed off for the ferry contract contrary to Civil Service advice, who took years to work out what to do when the Supreme Court told him that incorporation of the UN Convention on rights of the child was beyond the competence of the Scottish Parliament and was, let's be charitable, somewhat less than fully candid with the Scottish Parliament about his decision not to use tax raising powers, the deficit on the teacher's pension and sundry other matters as Finance Minister. He was and is the kind of guy you keep around so that Humza Yousef feels adequate and even competent.
This isn't scraping the bottom of the barrel, it is the promotion of barnacles that should have found a home on a Scottish ferry about 6 years ago but have never had the opportunity to get in place.
Yes and lost the paperwork so they could blame the other one that got sacked for other criminal activities that the SNP seem fond of.
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I was taught in my medieval history A Level that technically the English/British sovereign owns EVERYTHING - certainly in the UK, possibly in the other realms (Canada, Oz etc) and probably the entire universe. And that this state of affairs has prevailed since 1066 and has never officially changed
We are all feudal subjects of His Maj
I keep forgetting if it's out to the low-tide mark. There are all sorts of variants on where "sea" ends and "land" begins (see also "when does the sun set?").
The crown owns between high and low tide mark, as any dog owner faced with a council beach ban on dogs knows. The council ban cannot extend below the high tide line, and the chance of His Maj being worried about a dog walking on his beach is very small.
Like pavement parking*, how do you get to the legal bit without committing the offence? Do you parachute your dog in? Carry it? Throw it? Swim in from a boat offshore?
*Not illegal in a lot of places, but driving on the pavement is, IIRC
I'd be interested whether "but ... but ... but this is below the high tide line" works with apparatchiks enforcing PSPOs.
I'm always interested in Councils doing unlawful things under cover of "so take us to the High Court then!"
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I was taught in my medieval history A Level that technically the English/British sovereign owns EVERYTHING - certainly in the UK, possibly in the other realms (Canada, Oz etc) and probably the entire universe. And that this state of affairs has prevailed since 1066 and has never officially changed
"Under our legal system, the Monarch (currently King Charles III), as head of state, owns the superior interest in all land in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In most cases, this is usually irrelevant but it can become relevant if a freehold property becomes ownerless. If this happens, freehold land may, in some circumstances, fall to the monarch as the owner of the superior interest. This process is called 'escheat'."
^ Not in Scotland.
The web address crownestate.co.uk sounds similar to the institution in the USSR that was named after Lenin twice - something like "The Lenin University Honouring V I Lenin".
PB putrid pundit alert - IIRC there is NO jurisdiction in the USA where "dogcatcher" is currently an elected office.
Dammit! That was one of my favourite fact about the United States!
I am vexed
Please tell me you still have unincorporated areas?
Plenty. Indeed, most of the land mass of the USA is comprised of turf (mostly rural but NOT always) that is NOT part of any city or town.
However, note that every state has COUNTY governments (Parishes in Louisiana, and Boroughs in Alaska) that provide local government jurisdiction & services (of varying degrees) for residents of unincorporated areas.
Further note that, in USA, there are fifty different ways (at least) of organizing (in one sense anyway) local government.
Good to know. I think the US concept of land ownership is different to the UK: there is no part of the UK that isn't owned by somebody, with the Crown literally owning those bits that aren't owned.
In USA "incorporation" has ZERO to do with land ownership. Rather, it is strictly about governmental jurisdiction & governance.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
I was taught in my medieval history A Level that technically the English/British sovereign owns EVERYTHING - certainly in the UK, possibly in the other realms (Canada, Oz etc) and probably the entire universe. And that this state of affairs has prevailed since 1066 and has never officially changed
We are all feudal subjects of His Maj
This applies to land rather than stuff. It'll do as a system, as tenure of land has to embrace two great principles: overlapping and tiered rights and obligations, which have to find a foundation, for which the crown will do; and the fact that someone has to own and take responsibility for that which no-one else does - land being essentially indestructible. The crown will do as well as anything for that responsibility.
If it's "against international law" for the UK government to declare Rwanda a safe third country despite court rulings that suggest otherwise, is it also "against international law" for the Irish government to declare the UK a safe third country despite court rulings?
Can someone answer either yes to both or no to both? Or are there double standards at play where one party can do it and another can't.
IANAL, but I don't think we know whether either is against international law until the specific question has been tested in court. The two cases are clearly similar, but they are not exact, so they won't necessarily yield the same answer.
Totally off topic, but I’ve just been into a pub I spent large chunks off my misspent dissolute youth in. Haven’t been there much for the past few years but it’s under new management so thought I’d drop in as I passed. £2.30 for a pint of John Smiths! Beautiful.
And I saw an old friend I haven’t seen for ages. If it wasn’t a school night, I wasn’t driving and I didn’t have to go into that Leeds tomorrow I would’ve got battered.
Totally off topic, but I’ve just been into a pub I spent large chunks off my misspent dissolute youth in. Haven’t been there much for the past few years but it’s under new management so thought I’d drop in as I passed. £2.30 for a pint of John Smiths! Beautiful.
And I saw an old friend I haven’t seen for ages. If it wasn’t a school night, I wasn’t driving and I didn’t have to go into that Leeds tomorrow I would’ve got battered.
I’m getting quite noticeable noom from this one. The way it softly, greenly detonates with light, as if lit from within, the springtime life inside. And right above that medieval gate
Russian propagandists Anton Krasovskiy and Akim Apachev are casually discussing how many Ukrainians need to be killed. Their estimates range from 50,000 to 2 million.
Who do the SNP have who can recover their fortunes? Anyone obvious? The fact they found a Humza isn't promising - very reminiscent of the Cons and La Truss.
I don’t think there is anyone. Like the Tories in Westminster they need to go into opposition now for a bit. Some time away might actually help them, particularly if Labour lead the UK and Scottish governments - they stand a good chance of capitalising when they come unstuck.
People seem to really rate Forbes on here. I think she’s OK, I just don’t think she’s going to do anything to help them right now, she will just start a big debate in the party over social policy and there’ll be a risk that they lose support on the left to the Greens and Labour… she also can’t command a majority.
Would Forbes 'start a big debate' or would she be more likely to end some of the worst gender policies, stay quiet on social issues to a large extent, tolerate a wide range of views within the party, and try to concentrate on things like the economy? What you really mean is her ideological opponents will be furious and not let it lie. That could be true, but if so, the Greens are there to give them a political home.
It would be truly bonkers to consider anyone but Forbes at this point - accordingly we now see Swinney being talked up...
Comments
Note that there is NOT a legitimate national "Green Party" in the USA, and few legitimate state green parties; one of the consequences of our "two party" system.
Further note that many alleged Greens who DO make the ballot, have turned out to be fake candidacies sponsored by Republicans as a means of syphoning votes away from (generally pro-enviro) Democrats.
OR (alleged) shills for Mad Vlad such as 2016 official Green Party POTUS candidate Jill Stein.
Can someone answer either yes to both or no to both? Or are there double standards at play where one party can do it and another can't.
The stamp collecting company which catered to many a 60s child was bought by a similarly doomed enterprise back in the 1970s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Gibbons#1970s
..In 1979 Gibbons was bought by Letraset for £19 million in an attempt to diversify away from their dry-lettering business, but the acquisition did not go smoothly and, like Flying Flowers later, Letraset found it difficult to integrate Gibbons into its core business.[9] The chairman of Letraset blamed "indiscriminate expansion" and "imprudent" investment decisions for the problems at Gibbons and was quoted in The Times as saying "We significantly overpaid for what we got."..
John Swinney is the best choice to be Scotland’s First Minister & @theSNP leader. I will be strongly supporting him if, as I hope, he chooses to run. 🏴
https://x.com/JennyGilruth/status/1784953733228433439
Trump may well appreciate her blood lust, but even he's not crazy enough to risk having her as his 2024 running (-dog) mate.
So, yes, definitely wrong in both cases.
Everything from sea to shining sea (ditto Alaska & Hawai'i) is owned by somebody or something. With our Public Lands owned by federal government being equivalent to your Crown Lands. Plus land owned by state and local governments, and Indian reservations and other Native American "trust" lands.
Whether it's the right or wrong position it's been a riskier and gutsier call from Starmer to go against the grain of his tribe and face plenty of abuse for it.
https://x.com/dhothersall/status/1784911947739058269
Sleeping in the afternoon sun, boots airing, wine and sandwiches seeping gently through my torpor.
Not knowing or caring much about anything but the moment. That’s my Camino.
And I have completed four different versions.
It’s your Camino. A fast crossing is an achievement, I wouldn’t begin to deny that, but for me, a slow Camino is full of joy.
Perhaps you could take note of things to revisit on a second pass? Like the monastery of Gregorian chant, I’m definitely finding the time to go there next time.
Buon Camino.
We are all feudal subjects of His Maj
Labour leads by 23%.
Westminster VI (28 April):
Labour 45% (+2)
Conservative 22% (+2)
Reform UK 14% (–)
Liberal Democrat 9% (-3)
Green 6% (–)
Scottish National Party 3% (–)
Other 2% (+1)
Changes +/- 21 April
However, as per the story, the Duxbury Dog-Catcher's election was invalid (technically) under Vermont state law.
Now we know what all that barking from the great Green Mountain State was protesting! As the doggies were voting with their . . . paws.
No-one wants to be FM until after the inevitable GE losses and any further Operation Branchform fun.
Starmer leads Sunak by 14%.
Sunak's % only 1 point above his lowest ever.
At this moment, which of the following do Britons think would be the better Prime Minister for the UK? (28 April)
Keir Starmer 42% (+1)
Rishi Sunak 28% (–)
Changes +/- 21 April
Sorry I missed it first time coz I’m busy travelling myself
I just don’t think that’s for me. The endless zen state - I envy someone able to do it for day after day. But I’m crap at it. My mind needs stimulation - to a fault. I think road trips like this might be my favourite kind of travel. An endless parade of newness and total independence
I wake up - do a spot of work, 2 hours on a flint - then I decide where to go next. Which lovely Breton town. Then I drive there and have a kir Breton and post it on here just for @Dura_Ace
Salut!
*Not illegal in a lot of places, but driving on the pavement is, IIRC
Although, that said, I did meet a party of Americans while doing the aqueduct walk yesterday, their being American evidenced by a) my hearing them coming from a considerable distance, b) middle aged people wearing gym gear and baseball caps, and c) when they saw me I was greeted with a cheerful “buenos días!”, which marked them out as superior Americans, for being able to give a foreign language a try, if not the one for the country they were actually currently in.
"Homesteading ended on all federal lands on October 21, 1986. The State of Alaska currently [as of 2016] has no homesteading program for its lands."
https://www.blm.gov/sites/default/files/documents/files/PublicRoom_Alaska_Homesteading_Brochure_2016.pdf
However, you MIGHT (emphasis on conditional) be able to exercise doctrine of "adverse possession" aka "squatter's rights" on PRIVATELY-owned land.
Note that this has become a political issue/football for many GOPer politicos & pundits, including Ron DeSantis. However, this applies almost entirely to "urban" squatters who are NOT using actual legal doctrine of adverse possession.
Personal story - years ago my aunt & uncle lived next to a small house in Pennsylvania, on land that had been acquired via adverse possession; the Keystone State (at least then) having one of the shortest periods (seven years) for establishing legal title via adverse possession.
The key point being, that they guy concerned exercised his "squatters rights" on a small sliver of land that was NOT directly accessible (due to a high bluff) from the rest of the property. Where he built a house, registered it with the local county, paid taxes, received mail, etc. quite publicly . . . without the landowners making any protest - which would have immediately terminated any "squatters rights".
Then, once seven years elapsed, the guy went and registered his claim in local courts. Which upheld his title.
Moral of the story: IF you own property, best check your boundaries on a regular basis!
Mind you he now seems to be writing for the Speccie, so..
Lol.
There were at least 3-dozen presumed Francophiles in attendance; don't tell Leeanderthal.
* Notts trails are - like Yousaf - useless. You can tell where the Derbyshire border is by the reduced quantities of mud and anti-wheelchair barriers.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/28/thames-water-collapse-borrowing-whitehall-uk-finances-bonds-liz-truss
Senior Whitehall officials fear Thames Water’s financial collapse could trigger a rise in government borrowing costs not seen since the chaos of the Liz Truss mini-budget, the Guardian can reveal.
Such is their concern about the impact on wider borrowing costs for the UK, even beyond utilities and infrastructure, that they believe Thames should be renationalised before the general election.
Officials in the Treasury and the UK’s Debt Management Office fear that, unless the UK’s biggest water company is renationalised as soon as possible, “prolonged uncertainty” about its fate could “damage confidence in UK plc at a sensitive time”, with elections in the UK and the US later this year.
Thames Water’s extra £1.1bn will do little to steady the sinking ship
Read more
Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed details of government contingency plans, known as Project Timber, to renationalise Thames via a special administration. This could lead to the bulk of its £15bn of debt being moved on to the government’s balance sheet. Thames’ investors have refused to pump more money into the struggling company amid a standoff with the water regulator Ofwat.
Some lenders to its core operating company could lose up to 40% of their money under the plans, a move that officials believe marks a careful balance between managing public outrage at the water company’s many failures and the need to sustain investor confidence in the UK..
..Whitehall officials expect any restructuring that involves investors losing money in Thames’ water operating company to trigger legal action against the government and Ofwat. Still, officials view a swift renationalisation that forces lenders to bear losses as preferable to a long, drawn out debate over the fate of Thames that weighs on the UK’s needs to raise capital for infrastructure projects and for its general debt issuance.
The Debt Management Office (DMO), an arm of the Treasury, is responsible for issuing new UK debt. In response to figures last week showing that Hunt will probably need to borrow more than originally hoped, the body announced it would increase sales of UK gilts this year by an extra £12.4bn. This takes the total expected sale of UK government debt this year to £277.7bn.
The government declined to comment on questions about the Treasury and DMO’s concerns.
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Given water companies are commercial entities, it would be inappropriate for government to comment specifically on Thames Water.”
In a potential signal of the debt challenges the UK faces, a recent sale of new debt recorded the highest borrowing costs for a 30-year term bond sold via a syndication – a group of lenders – since 2005, when records began.
More realistically on those figures Con could end up on 30-31% with Ref down to 5-6%.
Firstly, he was born is 1964 so he is the best part of 3 years younger than me. He won't be old enough to stand for US President for at least another decade.
Secondly, and even more seriously, describing him as wise is a gross breach of the Trades Description Act. He is the man who signed off for the ferry contract contrary to Civil Service advice, who took years to work out what to do when the Supreme Court told him that incorporation of the UN Convention on rights of the child was beyond the competence of the Scottish Parliament and was, let's be charitable, somewhat less than fully candid with the Scottish Parliament about his decision not to use tax raising powers, the deficit on the teacher's pension and sundry other matters as Finance Minister. He was and is the kind of guy you keep around so that Humza Yousef feels adequate and even competent.
This isn't scraping the bottom of the barrel, it is the promotion of barnacles that should have found a home on a Scottish ferry about 6 years ago but have never had the opportunity to get in place.
Meaning that today, the successor states of West Virginia and Kentucky still retain same jurisdiction viz-a-viz states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois which were part of the original US "Northwest Territory".
Thus when a bridge is built across the Ohio River, WV & KY must pay the cost (today with considerable aid from feds) for construction of everything EXCEPT the approch(es) on the other side.
PS Has anyone told them that Alba is Latin for "White"?
I’m getting quite noticeable noom from this one. The way it softly, greenly detonates with light, as if lit from within, the springtime life inside. And right above that medieval gate
I'm always interested in Councils doing unlawful things under cover of "so take us to the High Court then!"
"Under our legal system, the Monarch (currently King Charles III), as head of state, owns the superior interest in all land in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In most cases, this is usually irrelevant but it can become relevant if a freehold property becomes ownerless. If this happens, freehold land may, in some circumstances, fall to the monarch as the owner of the superior interest. This process is called 'escheat'."
^ Not in Scotland.
The web address crownestate.co.uk sounds similar to the institution in the USSR that was named after Lenin twice - something like "The Lenin University Honouring V I Lenin".
You factored in Rishi’s deal to let Farage stand as a Conservative?
And the green top with the zip front suits her.
I won’t allow a bad word said about her
It’s on Sunak’s list after selling grandmother, next to Faustian pact with the devil.
Labours front bench are fringing on the ridiculous.
And I saw an old friend I haven’t seen for ages. If it wasn’t a school night, I wasn’t driving and I didn’t have to go into that Leeds tomorrow I would’ve got battered.
It also has a weird story to do with Pontius Pilate who was allegedly born in the village.
Although on reflection the complete lack of hair is another reason not to support Swinney.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/29/cj-sansom-author-of-the-shardlake-novels-dies-aged-71
Dominion is one of my favourite alt-history novels.
NEW THREAD
Russian propagandists Anton Krasovskiy and Akim Apachev are casually discussing how many Ukrainians need to be killed. Their estimates range from 50,000 to 2 million.
https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1656917992041508866
It would be truly bonkers to consider anyone but Forbes at this point - accordingly we now see Swinney being talked up...