Ukraine has claimed to have hit over 700 pieces of Russian artillery in a little more than a fortnight. Massive stockpiles from the Soviet era are being obliterated, now within Russia itself - with no prospect of replacement any time soon.
Russia's warfare is predicated on long-range demolition. It's glide bombs have been very impressive in replacing artillery in this role. But with several more Patriot systems arriving in Ukraine, Russian jets are going to be far too vulnerable to deliver them.
Russia's advance around Kharkiv seemed to have stalled. Indeed, recent reports suggest Russia is now losing ground. Putin's strategy of using up his men and finite machinery to force Ukraine to a settlement looks to be at risk of failure - and facing better quality weaponry, may suffer long term reversals. The arrival of F-16s and Mirage jets are going to make Crimea one giant pinata of Russian troops. The Kerch Straits supply ferries have already been hit and damaged; the Kerch Bridge is now in range of missiles.
If Ukraine can make Crimea a killing fields for Russian troops stationed there, there is over the next year or so the route for a final settlement: Ukraine cedes lands in the east, whilst getting the return of Crimea. That would be a blow from which Putin would not survive - literally.
I’m on my way to Kyiv. Literally. I’ll hand on the good news
Edit to add: I agree with you on the military outlook. Seems Russia cannot win this any more than Ukraine can win it - in the usual sense of taking all the land back/conquering the country. It’s a muddy, bloody impasse, and my impressions of Ukraine on this trip are of a people ground down and weary but absolutely not giving in, quite the opposite. They are quietly proud of their stoic endurance - and they should be
Fascinating time to be there. Would love to visit, but the Good Lady Wife would veto it any time soon.
It really isn’t that dangerous
I’ve been trying to quantify it and - this is sheer guesswork - I reckon it’s about as dangerous as a big Latin American city. Exercise care. Don’t be idiotic. 99.9% you’ll be fine. Sure if you go right to the front line it’s seriously dangerous but that’s like walking into the worst favela at night wearing two Rolex watches. Why would you do that?
What is different maybe is the sense you might get killed out of the blue. Putin really is hurling missiles and drones at Odessa (and elsewhere) - a chunk of one fell in my street as I watched. But no one was hurt
And yes the bombardments are freaky - but you get used to them. You should come. Also really cheap hotels and pretty good food and it’s possibly the most interesting place in the world right now
Got to respect Harriet Harman, after 41 years an MP she would be entitled to sit back and relax this election but she's off and campaigning hard. That's seriously admirable.
Ukraine has claimed to have hit over 700 pieces of Russian artillery in a little more than a fortnight. Massive stockpiles from the Soviet era are being obliterated, now within Russia itself - with no prospect of replacement any time soon.
Russia's warfare is predicated on long-range demolition. It's glide bombs have been very impressive in replacing artillery in this role. But with several more Patriot systems arriving in Ukraine, Russian jets are going to be far too vulnerable to deliver them.
Russia's advance around Kharkiv seemed to have stalled. Indeed, recent reports suggest Russia is now losing ground. Putin's strategy of using up his men and finite machinery to force Ukraine to a settlement looks to be at risk of failure - and facing better quality weaponry, may suffer long term reversals. The arrival of F-16s and Mirage jets are going to make Crimea one giant pinata of Russian troops. The Kerch Straits supply ferries have already been hit and damaged; the Kerch Bridge is now in range of missiles.
If Ukraine can make Crimea a killing fields for Russian troops stationed there, there is over the next year or so the route for a final settlement: Ukraine cedes lands in the east, whilst getting the return of Crimea. That would be a blow from which Putin would not survive - literally.
I’m on my way to Kyiv. Literally. I’ll hand on the good news
Edit to add: I agree with you on the military outlook. Seems Russia cannot win this any more than Ukraine can win it - in the usual sense of taking all the land back/conquering the country. It’s a muddy, bloody impasse, and my impressions of Ukraine on this trip are of a people ground down and weary but absolutely not giving in, quite the opposite. They are quietly proud of their stoic endurance - and they should be
Fascinating time to be there. Would love to visit, but the Good Lady Wife would veto it any time soon.
It really isn’t that dangerous
I’ve been trying to quantify it and - this is sheer guesswork - I reckon it’s about as dangerous as a big Latin American city. Exercise care. Don’t be idiotic. 99.9% you’ll be fine. Sure if you go right to the front line it’s seriously dangerous but that’s like walking into the worst favela at night wearing two Rolex watches. Why would you do that?
What is different maybe is the sense you might get killed out of the blue. Putin really is hurling missiles and drones at Odessa (and elsewhere) - a chunk of one fell in my street as I watched. But no one was hurt
And yes the bombardments are freaky - but you get used to them. You should come. Also really cheap hotels and pretty good food and it’s possibly the most interesting place in the world right now
Kiev is fine, way safer than Odessa and with nicer hotels.
Some chaps on here are a teensy weensy bit infatuated with @Heathener
Bang to rights. I am fairly convinced she is a superb comic creation - and I admire the handiwork. The absurd contradictions are magnificent - “I take the Saturday Telegraph” being the most recent
If she’s not a comic sockpupppet she’s a wild eccentric prone to fantasy, either way she adds to the gaiety of PB
“I take the Saturday Telegraph” has echos of "I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter."
Penny Mordaunt is hectoring and constantly interrupting. Really hope she loses her seat. Ghastly woman.
Less of the misogyny please, referring to her sex as a derogatory point is beneath you. You could have said “ghastly person” but ghastly woman is so loaded with some retro sexist memories of “to the manor born” and all that.
I like how all the OnlyFans references were ok but "ghastly woman" was somehow noteworthy
I was being ever so serious. Heathener is suitably strong, apparently accomplished and confident to give it out and take it back - it would probs be more sexist to think anyone had to rein it in because she’s a she.
Yeah I don’t have a problem with you calling it out. But what is to the manor born?
Really? Penelope Kieth, Richard Bowles? Huge in the late 1970s.
I don’t know who they are. Before my time.
The 1970’s are half a century ago
I know the phrase ‘to the manner born’
Do you only know about things that have happened in your lifetime?
Most people know things that happened in their lifetime better, yes.
I know To the Manor Born as it was still getting repeated in the 90s when I was a teen, but I wouldn't expect anyone younger than me to know it.
It's sometimes shown on BBC2 on Tuesday evenings along with Yes Minister.
I don’t have a tv and haven’t watched anything on tv for c. 10 years.
I only ever use my MacBook and iPhone. Stream or rip everything. I agree with Mrs @BartholomewRoberts about TikTok for music. I love it for that.
p.s. what is a “radio”? (Ok that last bit is a joke but seriously wtf is a radio these days?). Can you even buy them?
I listen to the radio quite a bit, particularly Radio 4, 5Live, 6Music and Radio Leicester.
Radio is one thing that I miss most from Britain when abroad.
You can get radio 4 (and presumably other stations) on bbc sounds
@Peston Boris Johnson today calls Starmer “Sir Keir Schnorrer” (see attached). “Schnorrer” is the Yiddish word for beggar and scrounger. It is pretty offensive. It was part of the lingua franca of my grandparents and of my childhood. I find it unsettling to see Johnson appropriating it to describe someone whose wife is Jewish - and especially when he says “if Schnorrer gets in, he will immediately begin the process of robbing this country of its new-found independence and make the UK the punk of the EU”. What do you think? Am I being over sensitive?
More significant is that the entire piece is a defence of his precious Brexit. Which the country has decided was a mistake. And desperately doesn't want to talk about having wasted a decade or more on it whilst ignoring the fabric of the nation collapsing. He can't switch gears. He's a man of a different age. Desperately out of touch with the times.
It was striking how unpopular Brexit was with the carefully balanced audience last night.
Carefully balanced by party representation does not mean carefully balanced by Leave/Remain.
I worry for the Reform Remainers.
And yet our polity is full of such improbabilities.
Ukraine has claimed to have hit over 700 pieces of Russian artillery in a little more than a fortnight. Massive stockpiles from the Soviet era are being obliterated, now within Russia itself - with no prospect of replacement any time soon.
Russia's warfare is predicated on long-range demolition. It's glide bombs have been very impressive in replacing artillery in this role. But with several more Patriot systems arriving in Ukraine, Russian jets are going to be far too vulnerable to deliver them.
Russia's advance around Kharkiv seemed to have stalled. Indeed, recent reports suggest Russia is now losing ground. Putin's strategy of using up his men and finite machinery to force Ukraine to a settlement looks to be at risk of failure - and facing better quality weaponry, may suffer long term reversals. The arrival of F-16s and Mirage jets are going to make Crimea one giant pinata of Russian troops. The Kerch Straits supply ferries have already been hit and damaged; the Kerch Bridge is now in range of missiles.
If Ukraine can make Crimea a killing fields for Russian troops stationed there, there is over the next year or so the route for a final settlement: Ukraine cedes lands in the east, whilst getting the return of Crimea. That would be a blow from which Putin would not survive - literally.
I’m on my way to Kyiv. Literally. I’ll hand on the good news
Edit to add: I agree with you on the military outlook. Seems Russia cannot win this any more than Ukraine can win it - in the usual sense of taking all the land back/conquering the country. It’s a muddy, bloody impasse, and my impressions of Ukraine on this trip are of a people ground down and weary but absolutely not giving in, quite the opposite. They are quietly proud of their stoic endurance - and they should be
Fascinating time to be there. Would love to visit, but the Good Lady Wife would veto it any time soon.
It really isn’t that dangerous
I’ve been trying to quantify it and - this is sheer guesswork - I reckon it’s about as dangerous as a big Latin American city. Exercise care. Don’t be idiotic. 99.9% you’ll be fine. Sure if you go right to the front line it’s seriously dangerous but that’s like walking into the worst favela at night wearing two Rolex watches. Why would you do that?
What is different maybe is the sense you might get killed out of the blue. Putin really is hurling missiles and drones at Odessa (and elsewhere) - a chunk of one fell in my street as I watched. But no one was hurt
And yes the bombardments are freaky - but you get used to them. You should come. Also really cheap hotels and pretty good food and it’s possibly the most interesting place in the world right now
Kiev is fine, way safer than Odessa and with nicer hotels.
I love Odessa but I’ve been here five days now - enough. I want to see the capital
Then probably Lviv for a couple of days - and away via Poland
Tonight's opinium will probably be fieldwork Weds to Fri so unless a sneaky other gets in, the first full post apology for being rubbish polls will be Mondays Redfield and Deltapoll and I think MiC are running another on a new methodology (tinkering with DKs etc)
Ukraine has claimed to have hit over 700 pieces of Russian artillery in a little more than a fortnight. Massive stockpiles from the Soviet era are being obliterated, now within Russia itself - with no prospect of replacement any time soon.
Russia's warfare is predicated on long-range demolition. It's glide bombs have been very impressive in replacing artillery in this role. But with several more Patriot systems arriving in Ukraine, Russian jets are going to be far too vulnerable to deliver them.
Russia's advance around Kharkiv seemed to have stalled. Indeed, recent reports suggest Russia is now losing ground. Putin's strategy of using up his men and finite machinery to force Ukraine to a settlement looks to be at risk of failure - and facing better quality weaponry, may suffer long term reversals. The arrival of F-16s and Mirage jets are going to make Crimea one giant pinata of Russian troops. The Kerch Straits supply ferries have already been hit and damaged; the Kerch Bridge is now in range of missiles.
If Ukraine can make Crimea a killing fields for Russian troops stationed there, there is over the next year or so the route for a final settlement: Ukraine cedes lands in the east, whilst getting the return of Crimea. That would be a blow from which Putin would not survive - literally.
Which is why such a peace seems rather unlikely.
Maybe. Not so much fun being an oligarch in Russia as it was before the SMO. A Russian economy on a war footing means far more oversight than they like. Deliveries are checked, costings questioned. And that is before your manufacturing plants in the west of the country get taken out by drones, before the refineries burn. When Russia's marquee brands are reporting massive losses -
- then the ability to take a slice of the pie has greatly dwindled. That is a state of affairs that cannot continue. How can you have a functioning kleptocracy when there is nothing left to steal? Which is why Putin is now more vulnerable than ever before.
Some chaps on here are a teensy weensy bit infatuated with @Heathener
Bang to rights. I am fairly convinced she is a superb comic creation - and I admire the handiwork. The absurd contradictions are magnificent - “I take the Saturday Telegraph” being the most recent
If she’s not a comic sockpupppet she’s a wild eccentric prone to fantasy, either way she adds to the gaiety of PB
She's another of your accounts and we all know it.
Looking from the outside in government finances something doesn't seem to add up. We're under one of the highest tax burdens in peacetime but don't seem to get very much for our money. It feels like Labour are hoping that they will be able to spend the same money much more efficiently and be able to square that circle.
Maybe a super majority for Starmer will allow the Labour government to make radical changes? Blair's often said that he rather wasted the majorities he had in the 1st and 2nd term and it was only in the 3rd term that the transformation of public services started. Hopefully Starmer will have listened to that.
The higher tax burden is driven entirely by two components: ageing (health and pensions) and debt servicing. The latter reflects higher debt levels after Covid and the financial crisis, plus higher interest rates. Every other spending category, by and large, is flat or going down. Hence the feeling as working people that we're highly taxed and aren't getting much for it.
The lack of understanding among not just the public but the media too about the role of demographics in Western economic performance is a big problem.
We’ve been teaching about the challenges of ageing populations in school geography since the 90s, but somehow it’s not sunk in. We even had a live case study in Japan for a similar amount of time.
The dependency ratio in most Western countries is going inexorably upwards. There are more people needing state spending in old age, and fewer people of working age to pay for it. Britain, France and the US are not hit as hard as most but we’re still seeing the same trend. It means much more tax for the same outcomes.
It almost certainly means a shift to wealth and property taxation at some stage.
Older voters constitute most of the burden on the state and hold most of the wealth, which they furiously resent being touched.
"But I paid my taxes!" will be written on the tombstone of the Western democracies.
I'd almost say the problem is the other way around. What we have now is normal. But the boom of the post war period, driven by an unusually benign dependency ratio, gave an illusion of how generous the state could be.
I think that a fair point.
It's also pretty clear that a young economy is one with a lot of young workers. The roots of Japan and Italy's economic decline is demographics, and those demographics are hitting other parts of Europe including us now. They are impacting Korea, Taiwan etc too.
Having 25% of the population retired is a massive drain on an economy in terms of both workforce (increasingly needed in low productivity sectors of health and social care) and money going to pensions, benefits and health care. It doesn't really matter if the money and workforce are being directed by government or private provision, the opportunity cost for productive work is gone either way.
Make the buggers work. Always said my Grandad’s Parkinson’s could have made him an excellent barman for a cocktail club.
Ukraine has claimed to have hit over 700 pieces of Russian artillery in a little more than a fortnight. Massive stockpiles from the Soviet era are being obliterated, now within Russia itself - with no prospect of replacement any time soon.
Russia's warfare is predicated on long-range demolition. It's glide bombs have been very impressive in replacing artillery in this role. But with several more Patriot systems arriving in Ukraine, Russian jets are going to be far too vulnerable to deliver them.
Russia's advance around Kharkiv seemed to have stalled. Indeed, recent reports suggest Russia is now losing ground. Putin's strategy of using up his men and finite machinery to force Ukraine to a settlement looks to be at risk of failure - and facing better quality weaponry, may suffer long term reversals. The arrival of F-16s and Mirage jets are going to make Crimea one giant pinata of Russian troops. The Kerch Straits supply ferries have already been hit and damaged; the Kerch Bridge is now in range of missiles.
If Ukraine can make Crimea a killing fields for Russian troops stationed there, there is over the next year or so the route for a final settlement: Ukraine cedes lands in the east, whilst getting the return of Crimea. That would be a blow from which Putin would not survive - literally.
I’m on my way to Kyiv. Literally. I’ll hand on the good news
Edit to add: I agree with you on the military outlook. Seems Russia cannot win this any more than Ukraine can win it - in the usual sense of taking all the land back/conquering the country. It’s a muddy, bloody impasse, and my impressions of Ukraine on this trip are of a people ground down and weary but absolutely not giving in, quite the opposite. They are quietly proud of their stoic endurance - and they should be
Fascinating time to be there. Would love to visit, but the Good Lady Wife would veto it any time soon.
It really isn’t that dangerous
I’ve been trying to quantify it and - this is sheer guesswork - I reckon it’s about as dangerous as a big Latin American city. Exercise care. Don’t be idiotic. 99.9% you’ll be fine. Sure if you go right to the front line it’s seriously dangerous but that’s like walking into the worst favela at night wearing two Rolex watches. Why would you do that?
What is different maybe is the sense you might get killed out of the blue. Putin really is hurling missiles and drones at Odessa (and elsewhere) - a chunk of one fell in my street as I watched. But no one was hurt
And yes the bombardments are freaky - but you get used to them. You should come. Also really cheap hotels and pretty good food and it’s possibly the most interesting place in the world right now
Kiev is fine, way safer than Odessa and with nicer hotels.
I love Odessa but I’ve been here five days now - enough. I want to see the capital
Then probably Lviv for a couple of days - and away via Poland
Lviv is nice as well, there’s a couple of days’ worth of stuff to do there. Take a night train between the two cities, as I did last year. Costs something ridiculous like $20 for a private sleeper cabin, but you need to remember to buy your vodka beforehand as there’s no bar on the train.
Looking from the outside in government finances something doesn't seem to add up. We're under one of the highest tax burdens in peacetime but don't seem to get very much for our money. It feels like Labour are hoping that they will be able to spend the same money much more efficiently and be able to square that circle.
Maybe a super majority for Starmer will allow the Labour government to make radical changes? Blair's often said that he rather wasted the majorities he had in the 1st and 2nd term and it was only in the 3rd term that the transformation of public services started. Hopefully Starmer will have listened to that.
The higher tax burden is driven entirely by two components: ageing (health and pensions) and debt servicing. The latter reflects higher debt levels after Covid and the financial crisis, plus higher interest rates. Every other spending category, by and large, is flat or going down. Hence the feeling as working people that we're highly taxed and aren't getting much for it.
The lack of understanding among not just the public but the media too about the role of demographics in Western economic performance is a big problem.
We’ve been teaching about the challenges of ageing populations in school geography since the 90s, but somehow it’s not sunk in. We even had a live case study in Japan for a similar amount of time.
The dependency ratio in most Western countries is going inexorably upwards. There are more people needing state spending in old age, and fewer people of working age to pay for it. Britain, France and the US are not hit as hard as most but we’re still seeing the same trend. It means much more tax for the same outcomes.
It almost certainly means a shift to wealth and property taxation at some stage.
Older voters constitute most of the burden on the state and hold most of the wealth, which they furiously resent being touched.
"But I paid my taxes!" will be written on the tombstone of the Western democracies.
I'd almost say the problem is the other way around. What we have now is normal. But the boom of the post war period, driven by an unusually benign dependency ratio, gave an illusion of how generous the state could be.
I think that a fair point.
It's also pretty clear that a young economy is one with a lot of young workers. The roots of Japan and Italy's economic decline is demographics, and those demographics are hitting other parts of Europe including us now. They are impacting Korea, Taiwan etc too.
Having 25% of the population retired is a massive drain on an economy in terms of both workforce (increasingly needed in low productivity sectors of health and social care) and money going to pensions, benefits and health care. It doesn't really matter if the money and workforce are being directed by government or private provision, the opportunity cost for productive work is gone either way.
Make the buggers work. Always said my Grandad’s Parkinson’s could have made him an excellent barman for a cocktail club.
Some chaps on here are a teensy weensy bit infatuated with @Heathener
Bang to rights. I am fairly convinced she is a superb comic creation - and I admire the handiwork. The absurd contradictions are magnificent - “I take the Saturday Telegraph” being the most recent
If she’s not a comic sockpupppet she’s a wild eccentric prone to fantasy, either way she adds to the gaiety of PB
She's another of your accounts and we all know it.
Mr Battery, Correct Horse, Esquire - she really isn’t. I have a primary career knapping flints. I have a secondary career writing travel, politics, art, technology for the Gazette. I also travel the world intensely - that takes a lot of time and management (try it). I maintain a variety of friendships and keep abreast of news in several key areas. I speak to my kids. And family
The idea I ALSO have leisure in which to construct a complex sockpuppet on PB is delusional. I wish I had the time! But if I did have the time I wouldn’t waste it doing THAT
Ukraine has claimed to have hit over 700 pieces of Russian artillery in a little more than a fortnight. Massive stockpiles from the Soviet era are being obliterated, now within Russia itself - with no prospect of replacement any time soon.
Russia's warfare is predicated on long-range demolition. It's glide bombs have been very impressive in replacing artillery in this role. But with several more Patriot systems arriving in Ukraine, Russian jets are going to be far too vulnerable to deliver them.
Russia's advance around Kharkiv seemed to have stalled. Indeed, recent reports suggest Russia is now losing ground. Putin's strategy of using up his men and finite machinery to force Ukraine to a settlement looks to be at risk of failure - and facing better quality weaponry, may suffer long term reversals. The arrival of F-16s and Mirage jets are going to make Crimea one giant pinata of Russian troops. The Kerch Straits supply ferries have already been hit and damaged; the Kerch Bridge is now in range of missiles.
If Ukraine can make Crimea a killing fields for Russian troops stationed there, there is over the next year or so the route for a final settlement: Ukraine cedes lands in the east, whilst getting the return of Crimea. That would be a blow from which Putin would not survive - literally.
I’m on my way to Kyiv. Literally. I’ll hand on the good news
Edit to add: I agree with you on the military outlook. Seems Russia cannot win this any more than Ukraine can win it - in the usual sense of taking all the land back/conquering the country. It’s a muddy, bloody impasse, and my impressions of Ukraine on this trip are of a people ground down and weary but absolutely not giving in, quite the opposite. They are quietly proud of their stoic endurance - and they should be
Fascinating time to be there. Would love to visit, but the Good Lady Wife would veto it any time soon.
It really isn’t that dangerous
I’ve been trying to quantify it and - this is sheer guesswork - I reckon it’s about as dangerous as a big Latin American city. Exercise care. Don’t be idiotic. 99.9% you’ll be fine. Sure if you go right to the front line it’s seriously dangerous but that’s like walking into the worst favela at night wearing two Rolex watches. Why would you do that?
What is different maybe is the sense you might get killed out of the blue. Putin really is hurling missiles and drones at Odessa (and elsewhere) - a chunk of one fell in my street as I watched. But no one was hurt
And yes the bombardments are freaky - but you get used to them. You should come. Also really cheap hotels and pretty good food and it’s possibly the most interesting place in the world right now
Fair enough. Probably no worse than going into Algiers in the middle of their civil war.
But then I did wear a bullet proof vest to go the 10 yards from the plane to the bomb-proof cars, with Algerian special forces cars front and rear in the manic drive into Fort SOFITEL. And accompanied by my close protection guy who was part of the Bravo Two-Zero patrol...
This is the reality that confronts the state sector. Vat on private schools doesn't even have a remote bearing on it. And it's getting worse, not better.
Much the same could be said for transport. I've no doubt it's similar in health.
It can't be said for social care and social services because things are worse there.
Let me know if any party shows signs of at least appreciating the scale of the challenge. It might persuade me to vote for them.
The reality is every department of Government is in dire financial difficulty. All the parties of the centre and centre left need to come clean on taxation. In fairness only Reform are telling the truth that by cutting taxes they will have to decimate services.
I am not sure some of those voting Farage have the same Trumpian view of for example healthcare provision that he does.
To face the challenges of the times - ageing population, health care, social care - the rising demands on defence spending - climate change - not to mention the need to control big industry, big tech and AI, big money - all point towards bigger government, both nationally and through international co-operation. As demonstrated during the aftermath of financial crisis and through covid. The small government, privatisation, monetarist agenda is now discredited, as the Truss fiasco underlined.
It was interesting to catch a glimpse of Rayner and Mordaunt having a friendly word afterwards. I know they are both there to do a job, but why the performative anger when they are in reality more friendly towards each other.
One, because a debate is in part a performance, and two, maybe they did get genuinely angry during a heated moment but are capable of letting go of it once the moment passes.
Politicians are people, not automatons, they may train themselves and have strategies to employ but they won't be able to control themselves 100%. Has anyone here never gotten mad at a friend or loved one and quickly dialed it back once it was released?
And as i asked Sandpit, if it's thought they were basically acting, why assume the angry part was false rather than the friendly bit being false? The debate was over but a fake smile and friendliness is impossible?
Simplest explanation? They don't agree on many things but are not weirdos.
I have passionate arguments with friends - including about politics - which can get quite heated. We are still good friends. Its a sign of maturity, not hypocrisy. Friends are incredibly valuable and the best kind last for life; politics comes and goes
The fact Millennials refuse to be friends with anyone they disagree with is a bleak signal of their stupidity, not their noble purity
Wise words
I am just wondering if this is actually a generational thing, or is it more something to do with polarisation caused by internet use? I would also comment that most people I know in the real world don't really have fixed left or right political views. It is only a small (and declining) number who participate in the 'performance of reaction' which I think people are getting increasingly wise to.
I work in a mixed multicultural workplace with staff from age 18 to 75, probably 75% female. I don't know anything about the political views of the vast majority of them, and I don't think there is any real difference between the ages in terms of work ethic, or inclination to take offence.
I work in a very similar environment. I think there are very obvious generational differences but they are complex so generalising is difficult. One thing is one team have people in their 50's running a 'command and control' management system and people in their 20's doing the work seem to be fine with it.
One thing I would observe is that the attempts to roll out 'diversity equity and inclusion' initiatives by the (largely white, male) senior management are completely ignored by the mass of workers.
DEI is purely performative and doesn't really mean anything.
I read a management book which noted such things have been around for decades in one form or another yet things often seem unchanged or worse.
Their suggestion, and in fairness I don't know if it was backed up with evidence, was it works much better when genuinely voluntary, as people are usually happy to engage then, but make it mandatory and they switch off as it's a box tick or a lecture. And that can be counterproductive and cause resentment.
I did a session recently which was quite good as things go, felt like a genuine conversation and didnt do a common thing of dismissing any concerns, but they messed up by including an external video which was literally an anti-capitalist screen which barely even related to DEI.
Just so: there's definitely something in listening to other people with different experiences.
Why does it need to be ruined by a lecturing that you should feel a sense of shame for who you are too?
Since England has lost religion we no longer get God botherers just plain botherers.
56% of the population of England and Wales are still Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist or Jewish on the last census
Much of this is only very nominal. Especially when you remember that only one person in the family usually fills out the census form.
Most of the Christian responses will be cultural. Nominal C of E, never go near a church except for weddings and funerals. We inhabit one of the most irreligious polities on the face of the Earth.
Scotland still more so.
And the weddings and funerals in the C of E bit are only because English residents get a free subscription, so to speak, because it's the state cult.
I find the "count Christians by the number of people who go to church one" interesting, There are layers to the affiliation - committed, community, cultural and so on. I don't see why such are in some way 'invalid'.
There have been modern movements since at least the 1950s, and perhaps the 1930s or earlier, exploring concepts such as "the church outside the Church" and "secular faith". Iona and similar communities are in some way practical expressions of such movements. Writers from that earlier modernist period would be people such as Bishop John Robinson ("Honest to God") and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ("The Phenomenon of Man", "The Divine Milieu").
It's exactly the game the Humanist Association were playing when they managed to nobble .. er .. amend the census question. They have always claimed "we represent all the nonreligious in the population", when having just a few thousand "members" themselves.
They also play games with nebulous surveys - there was a funny one that was nailed by a philosopher a few years ago. It could have been filled in my any priest or bishop I have ever known and they would come out as "humanist".
Which is itself ironic because the word comes from humanist theologians such as Erasmus.
Yes. Two points. The decline in cultural Christianity is in many ways more alarming than the decline in actual attendance; and of course hard to measure.
And a question for non theist humanists: If humanism of the non theist sort is remotely plausible, why do humans, revered by humanists, do such terrible things.
Christians do this by 'fall and redemption'. It is not often noticed that the famous 'problem of evil' is tougher for humanists than it is (though it's tough) for theists.
I don’t follow? I am an atheist (well, deeply sceptical agnostic I suppose) and I try to do the right things because I choose to, and because society has to work together if it wants the human race to stick around and advance.
Some people make another choice, and do “evil” things, and for the good of society (and me) we must deal with them (some are also mentally ill obviously).
Taking God out of it actually makes this judgement easier. I don’t need to care what he thinks.
Ukraine has claimed to have hit over 700 pieces of Russian artillery in a little more than a fortnight. Massive stockpiles from the Soviet era are being obliterated, now within Russia itself - with no prospect of replacement any time soon.
Russia's warfare is predicated on long-range demolition. It's glide bombs have been very impressive in replacing artillery in this role. But with several more Patriot systems arriving in Ukraine, Russian jets are going to be far too vulnerable to deliver them.
Russia's advance around Kharkiv seemed to have stalled. Indeed, recent reports suggest Russia is now losing ground. Putin's strategy of using up his men and finite machinery to force Ukraine to a settlement looks to be at risk of failure - and facing better quality weaponry, may suffer long term reversals. The arrival of F-16s and Mirage jets are going to make Crimea one giant pinata of Russian troops. The Kerch Straits supply ferries have already been hit and damaged; the Kerch Bridge is now in range of missiles.
If Ukraine can make Crimea a killing fields for Russian troops stationed there, there is over the next year or so the route for a final settlement: Ukraine cedes lands in the east, whilst getting the return of Crimea. That would be a blow from which Putin would not survive - literally.
I’m on my way to Kyiv. Literally. I’ll hand on the good news
Edit to add: I agree with you on the military outlook. Seems Russia cannot win this any more than Ukraine can win it - in the usual sense of taking all the land back/conquering the country. It’s a muddy, bloody impasse, and my impressions of Ukraine on this trip are of a people ground down and weary but absolutely not giving in, quite the opposite. They are quietly proud of their stoic endurance - and they should be
Fascinating time to be there. Would love to visit, but the Good Lady Wife would veto it any time soon.
It really isn’t that dangerous
I’ve been trying to quantify it and - this is sheer guesswork - I reckon it’s about as dangerous as a big Latin American city. Exercise care. Don’t be idiotic. 99.9% you’ll be fine. Sure if you go right to the front line it’s seriously dangerous but that’s like walking into the worst favela at night wearing two Rolex watches. Why would you do that?
What is different maybe is the sense you might get killed out of the blue. Putin really is hurling missiles and drones at Odessa (and elsewhere) - a chunk of one fell in my street as I watched. But no one was hurt
And yes the bombardments are freaky - but you get used to them. You should come. Also really cheap hotels and pretty good food and it’s possibly the most interesting place in the world right now
Kiev is fine, way safer than Odessa and with nicer hotels.
I love Odessa but I’ve been here five days now - enough. I want to see the capital
Then probably Lviv for a couple of days - and away via Poland
Lviv is nice as well, there’s a couple of days’ worth of stuff to do there. Take a night train between the two cities, as I did last year. Costs something ridiculous like $20 for a private sleeper cabin, but you need to remember to buy your vodka beforehand as there’s no bar on the train.
Southgate the most overrated manager there's ever been.
He’s going to throw away another magnificently gifted squad
We were warned in World Cup SF v Croatia when we threw away a lead
We had confirmation in Euro 2020 final v Italy when we threw away a lead
England will win nothing with Southgate
We were shite last night.
Southgate played two holding defensive midfielders, played Stones as a CB when he's been in midfield all season, Foden central where he rarely plays, Trippier out of position, Kane was so deep he even picked up the ball from defence. There were players getting in each other's way and at several points especially second half the whole team was in a narrow tunnel down the left. No width at all and a massive gap between defence and attack. It was a total dog's breakfast.
At this rate we will have a load of star individuals who are a terrible team. Bit like Chelsea.
Some chaps on here are a teensy weensy bit infatuated with @Heathener
Bang to rights. I am fairly convinced she is a superb comic creation - and I admire the handiwork. The absurd contradictions are magnificent - “I take the Saturday Telegraph” being the most recent
If she’s not a comic sockpupppet she’s a wild eccentric prone to fantasy, either way she adds to the gaiety of PB
She's another of your accounts and we all know it.
Mr Battery, Correct Horse, Esquire - she really isn’t. I have a primary career knapping flints. I have a secondary career writing travel, politics, art, technology for the Gazette. I also travel the world intensely - that takes a lot of time and management (try it). I maintain a variety of friendships and keep abreast of news in several key areas. I speak to my kids. And family
The idea I ALSO have leisure in which to construct a complex sockpuppet on PB is delusional. I wish I had the time! But if I did have the time I wouldn’t waste it doing THAT
I don't think anyone has ever accused of having a sockpuppet.
Conservative candidates and aides have looked on aghast at the missteps of Rishi Sunak’s campaign over the last fortnight.
Anger has been building over Sunak allies being parachuted into safe seats, including the party chair, Richard Holden, the lack of preparation for the snap campaign within Conservative party headquarters (CCHQ) and the avoidable row over Frank Hester’s donations.
But nothing has come close to the fury within the party over the prime minister’s decision to skip part of the D-day ceremony in France, leaving the stage clear for Keir Starmer to show leadership and patriotism, as well as for Nigel Farage.
Ultimately, the choice was the prime minister’s: to come home for an ITV interview or stay to honour veterans and the fallen. However, many candidates are apoplectic with rage at the strategists who allowed such a misstep to take place, questioning the quality at the heart of the Conservative party campaign.
“The spads and clown advisers who are making these decisions will never work on so much as a Tory councillor’s campaign again in their lifetime,” said one irate Conservative source.
Conservative candidates and aides have looked on aghast at the missteps of Rishi Sunak’s campaign over the last fortnight.
Anger has been building over Sunak allies being parachuted into safe seats, including the party chair, Richard Holden, the lack of preparation for the snap campaign within Conservative party headquarters (CCHQ) and the avoidable row over Frank Hester’s donations.
But nothing has come close to the fury within the party over the prime minister’s decision to skip part of the D-day ceremony in France, leaving the stage clear for Keir Starmer to show leadership and patriotism, as well as for Nigel Farage.
Ultimately, the choice was the prime minister’s: to come home for an ITV interview or stay to honour veterans and the fallen. However, many candidates are apoplectic with rage at the strategists who allowed such a misstep to take place, questioning the quality at the heart of the Conservative party campaign.
“The spads and clown advisers who are making these decisions will never work on so much as a Tory councillor’s campaign again in their lifetime,” said one irate Conservative source.
@Peston Boris Johnson today calls Starmer “Sir Keir Schnorrer” (see attached). “Schnorrer” is the Yiddish word for beggar and scrounger. It is pretty offensive. It was part of the lingua franca of my grandparents and of my childhood. I find it unsettling to see Johnson appropriating it to describe someone whose wife is Jewish - and especially when he says “if Schnorrer gets in, he will immediately begin the process of robbing this country of its new-found independence and make the UK the punk of the EU”. What do you think? Am I being over sensitive?
More significant is that the entire piece is a defence of his precious Brexit. Which the country has decided was a mistake. And desperately doesn't want to talk about having wasted a decade or more on it whilst ignoring the fabric of the nation collapsing. He can't switch gears. He's a man of a different age. Desperately out of touch with the times.
It was striking how unpopular Brexit was with the carefully balanced audience last night.
Carefully balanced by party representation does not mean carefully balanced by Leave/Remain.
2019 was the Bbrexit referendum, but now Brexit only gets Remainers fired up for revenge.
Reform have moved on to immigration generally and don't seem bothered by Brexit much now. It's an embarrassment even to them.
I think you misjudge this. I can only speak for myself (and I doubt I am like most Reform voters as immigration wasn’t my reason for voting Leave) but I don’t feel the need to talk about Brexit much because we got it, and there’s no real prospect of it being lost. Bits could get temporarily changed, but that’s democracy, and the point is we could now vote to change them back in the future.
Appreciate this might've been asked, but is the candidate standing by party by totals published anywhere yet please?
On another note, looking at Bootle, it seems Reform got in at the last minute so we've the 'big five' parties standing as always; and a local lad for Galloway's lot is also standing.
The Conservative party is a complete paper 'not even bothering' candidate. She's a councillor in Kingston upon Thamas and hasn't even bothered updating her page to reflect she's standing. The chap in 2019 who ran at least came to the seat and spent a few days around here campaigning. I suspect our 2024 Conservative candidate won't even do that.
Conservative candidates and aides have looked on aghast at the missteps of Rishi Sunak’s campaign over the last fortnight.
Anger has been building over Sunak allies being parachuted into safe seats, including the party chair, Richard Holden, the lack of preparation for the snap campaign within Conservative party headquarters (CCHQ) and the avoidable row over Frank Hester’s donations.
But nothing has come close to the fury within the party over the prime minister’s decision to skip part of the D-day ceremony in France, leaving the stage clear for Keir Starmer to show leadership and patriotism, as well as for Nigel Farage.
Ultimately, the choice was the prime minister’s: to come home for an ITV interview or stay to honour veterans and the fallen. However, many candidates are apoplectic with rage at the strategists who allowed such a misstep to take place, questioning the quality at the heart of the Conservative party campaign.
“The spads and clown advisers who are making these decisions will never work on so much as a Tory councillor’s campaign again in their lifetime,” said one irate Conservative source.
Looking from the outside in government finances something doesn't seem to add up. We're under one of the highest tax burdens in peacetime but don't seem to get very much for our money. It feels like Labour are hoping that they will be able to spend the same money much more efficiently and be able to square that circle.
Maybe a super majority for Starmer will allow the Labour government to make radical changes? Blair's often said that he rather wasted the majorities he had in the 1st and 2nd term and it was only in the 3rd term that the transformation of public services started. Hopefully Starmer will have listened to that.
The higher tax burden is driven entirely by two components: ageing (health and pensions) and debt servicing. The latter reflects higher debt levels after Covid and the financial crisis, plus higher interest rates. Every other spending category, by and large, is flat or going down. Hence the feeling as working people that we're highly taxed and aren't getting much for it.
The lack of understanding among not just the public but the media too about the role of demographics in Western economic performance is a big problem.
We’ve been teaching about the challenges of ageing populations in school geography since the 90s, but somehow it’s not sunk in. We even had a live case study in Japan for a similar amount of time.
The dependency ratio in most Western countries is going inexorably upwards. There are more people needing state spending in old age, and fewer people of working age to pay for it. Britain, France and the US are not hit as hard as most but we’re still seeing the same trend. It means much more tax for the same outcomes.
It almost certainly means a shift to wealth and property taxation at some stage.
Older voters constitute most of the burden on the state and hold most of the wealth, which they furiously resent being touched.
"But I paid my taxes!" will be written on the tombstone of the Western democracies.
I'd almost say the problem is the other way around. What we have now is normal. But the boom of the post war period, driven by an unusually benign dependency ratio, gave an illusion of how generous the state could be.
No, this is a new problem. Go back pre-1945 and the elderly burden didn't exist because, quite beside the fact that the modern welfare state hadn't been invented, life expectancy was lower and a lower proportion of the population was retired.
It's also essentially insoluble. Imagine a situation post election in which, somehow, Labour and a battered Tory opposition could reach an agreement that we can't keep an ageing population comfortable without substantial new taxation of older people's assets. The Lib Dems would denounce this as a terrible injustice and gallop to a landslide victory in 2029. And this, more and more of the remaining wealth is accrued by or spent upon the most unproductive assets (houses) and the most unproductive people (the old,) and it's impossible to stop the trend because the beneficiaries have so many votes. We are stuck.
Ukraine has claimed to have hit over 700 pieces of Russian artillery in a little more than a fortnight. Massive stockpiles from the Soviet era are being obliterated, now within Russia itself - with no prospect of replacement any time soon.
Russia's warfare is predicated on long-range demolition. It's glide bombs have been very impressive in replacing artillery in this role. But with several more Patriot systems arriving in Ukraine, Russian jets are going to be far too vulnerable to deliver them.
Russia's advance around Kharkiv seemed to have stalled. Indeed, recent reports suggest Russia is now losing ground. Putin's strategy of using up his men and finite machinery to force Ukraine to a settlement looks to be at risk of failure - and facing better quality weaponry, may suffer long term reversals. The arrival of F-16s and Mirage jets are going to make Crimea one giant pinata of Russian troops. The Kerch Straits supply ferries have already been hit and damaged; the Kerch Bridge is now in range of missiles.
If Ukraine can make Crimea a killing fields for Russian troops stationed there, there is over the next year or so the route for a final settlement: Ukraine cedes lands in the east, whilst getting the return of Crimea. That would be a blow from which Putin would not survive - literally.
I’m on my way to Kyiv. Literally. I’ll hand on the good news
Edit to add: I agree with you on the military outlook. Seems Russia cannot win this any more than Ukraine can win it - in the usual sense of taking all the land back/conquering the country. It’s a muddy, bloody impasse, and my impressions of Ukraine on this trip are of a people ground down and weary but absolutely not giving in, quite the opposite. They are quietly proud of their stoic endurance - and they should be
Fascinating time to be there. Would love to visit, but the Good Lady Wife would veto it any time soon.
It really isn’t that dangerous
I’ve been trying to quantify it and - this is sheer guesswork - I reckon it’s about as dangerous as a big Latin American city. Exercise care. Don’t be idiotic. 99.9% you’ll be fine. Sure if you go right to the front line it’s seriously dangerous but that’s like walking into the worst favela at night wearing two Rolex watches. Why would you do that?
What is different maybe is the sense you might get killed out of the blue. Putin really is hurling missiles and drones at Odessa (and elsewhere) - a chunk of one fell in my street as I watched. But no one was hurt
And yes the bombardments are freaky - but you get used to them. You should come. Also really cheap hotels and pretty good food and it’s possibly the most interesting place in the world right now
Kiev is fine, way safer than Odessa and with nicer hotels.
I love Odessa but I’ve been here five days now - enough. I want to see the capital
Then probably Lviv for a couple of days - and away via Poland
Lviv is nice as well, there’s a couple of days’ worth of stuff to do there. Take a night train between the two cities, as I did last year. Costs something ridiculous like $20 for a private sleeper cabin, but you need to remember to buy your vodka beforehand as there’s no bar on the train.
I did Lviv last year. Stunning city!
Lviv is much more of an Eastern European city, narrow streets and nice ancient squares, a bit like Krakow, whereas Kiev is more of a Soviet city, wide boulevards and new buildings, a bit like Moscow.
It was interesting to catch a glimpse of Rayner and Mordaunt having a friendly word afterwards. I know they are both there to do a job, but why the performative anger when they are in reality more friendly towards each other.
One, because a debate is in part a performance, and two, maybe they did get genuinely angry during a heated moment but are capable of letting go of it once the moment passes.
Politicians are people, not automatons, they may train themselves and have strategies to employ but they won't be able to control themselves 100%. Has anyone here never gotten mad at a friend or loved one and quickly dialed it back once it was released?
And as i asked Sandpit, if it's thought they were basically acting, why assume the angry part was false rather than the friendly bit being false? The debate was over but a fake smile and friendliness is impossible?
Simplest explanation? They don't agree on many things but are not weirdos.
I have passionate arguments with friends - including about politics - which can get quite heated. We are still good friends. Its a sign of maturity, not hypocrisy. Friends are incredibly valuable and the best kind last for life; politics comes and goes
The fact Millennials refuse to be friends with anyone they disagree with is a bleak signal of their stupidity, not their noble purity
Wise words
I am just wondering if this is actually a generational thing, or is it more something to do with polarisation caused by internet use? I would also comment that most people I know in the real world don't really have fixed left or right political views. It is only a small (and declining) number who participate in the 'performance of reaction' which I think people are getting increasingly wise to.
I work in a mixed multicultural workplace with staff from age 18 to 75, probably 75% female. I don't know anything about the political views of the vast majority of them, and I don't think there is any real difference between the ages in terms of work ethic, or inclination to take offence.
I work in a very similar environment. I think there are very obvious generational differences but they are complex so generalising is difficult. One thing is one team have people in their 50's running a 'command and control' management system and people in their 20's doing the work seem to be fine with it.
One thing I would observe is that the attempts to roll out 'diversity equity and inclusion' initiatives by the (largely white, male) senior management are completely ignored by the mass of workers.
DEI is purely performative and doesn't really mean anything.
Yeah, yeah, yeah...
Speaking as somebody who suffered (insidious, usually unintentional) discrimination in the past, I'm all for it DEI.
Casino Royale is, I’m afraid, a rather nasty piece of work.
Look at his constant bullying of me, including his regular ‘EVERYONE hates you’.
No wonder he doesn’t like DEI.
He says I’m 'full of shit' but I’ve never encountered a more unpleasant individual online, as others have also experienced on here.
If I were a pb tory I’d be msging him to dial it down. He’s confirming what a lot of us know, that The Nasty Party are in full control of the Conservatives. Pity them because they won’t ever win power in this country with his like.
Heathener, if you were a rabid right-winger the PB faithful would be lapping up your every word, cf @Leon .
Your problem is not your colourful backstory but the colour of your rosette. You are also quite hubristic which makes them angry. Only they are allowed to say "suck it up Remainer losers", "Captain Hindsight can never win an election" and "Boris will be a four term Churchillian PM, he got all the big calls right".
How come I don't have a problem (usually) with you, Ben, Gallowgate, OLB, OKC or Jonathan then? And even Horse has ironed himself out recently?
There a handful of Left-wing posters I do, but not the sensible ones.
Come off it Casino, if you could be arsed you'd hate the ground I walked on. Your previous response to a serious post I made about VAT on schools was peppered with "f" bombs
It's personal to me, and you said you couldn't care less.
You got what you deserved.
At it again with someone else now.
You’re a truly terrible advert for the Conservative Party. I doubt you will listen to this but you really are.
My favourite recent CR comment was "This violence and abuse of our politicians has got to stop" in reference to the assault of the Danish PM.
After saying about Sir Keir:
"I'd walk through blood to stop the man. He has deeply angered me and ripped the heart out of one of the core pillars of our local community. He is dirt."
I honestly think CR is trolling us. He has to be a parody.
"Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was aware of Russia's intention to reduce gas supply to blackmail Europe to speed up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline launch but concealed the information, German media outlet Handelsblatt reported on June 6, citing classified documents it had obtained." https://kyivindependent.com/handelsblatt-merkel-russia-gas/
Some chaps on here are a teensy weensy bit infatuated with @Heathener
Bang to rights. I am fairly convinced she is a superb comic creation - and I admire the handiwork. The absurd contradictions are magnificent - “I take the Saturday Telegraph” being the most recent
If she’s not a comic sockpupppet she’s a wild eccentric prone to fantasy, either way she adds to the gaiety of PB
Patrick O'Flynn in the Spectator is piling-on, it's almost making me feel sorry for my fellow Sotonian.
Everyone is finally noticing that Rishi Sunak is rubbish at politics.
Given the scale of his faux pas in bailing out of D-Day commemorations early to get back on the campaign trail, it is hard not to. As a longstanding member of the ‘Rishi is Rubbish’ club, I find it difficult not to feel the kind of proprietorial irritation that fans of cult rock bands suffer when their heroes become mainstream.
Conservative candidates and aides have looked on aghast at the missteps of Rishi Sunak’s campaign over the last fortnight.
Anger has been building over Sunak allies being parachuted into safe seats, including the party chair, Richard Holden, the lack of preparation for the snap campaign within Conservative party headquarters (CCHQ) and the avoidable row over Frank Hester’s donations.
But nothing has come close to the fury within the party over the prime minister’s decision to skip part of the D-day ceremony in France, leaving the stage clear for Keir Starmer to show leadership and patriotism, as well as for Nigel Farage.
Ultimately, the choice was the prime minister’s: to come home for an ITV interview or stay to honour veterans and the fallen. However, many candidates are apoplectic with rage at the strategists who allowed such a misstep to take place, questioning the quality at the heart of the Conservative party campaign.
“The spads and clown advisers who are making these decisions will never work on so much as a Tory councillor’s campaign again in their lifetime,” said one irate Conservative source.
As some of us said 48 hours ago, would Boris Johnson or Liz Truss have departed such a significant and poignant event early?
Hell no, they’d have been there until there wasn’t another hand to shake, and not another photo to be taken.
I would expect the head boy of a presumably conventional presumably C of E public school to have public ritual (founders day and speech day and stuff) in his DNA. Which makes it all the stranger.
Done right, diversity and inclusion training is about getting people to see things from others' point of view, something people are not good at on the whole.
An example from @MattW on this board is barriers on footpaths. Get colleagues to think who will be using this path? If you were in a wheelchair what would you want? You get a much better outcome for those users than with any number of regulations and policies.
My employer is serious about DEI, does it well, and I think it shows up in somewhat better outcomes for customers and a better work environment.
ROFL the last thing "Diversity" is about is diversity. It's about stifling conformity.
@Peston Boris Johnson today calls Starmer “Sir Keir Schnorrer” (see attached). “Schnorrer” is the Yiddish word for beggar and scrounger. It is pretty offensive. It was part of the lingua franca of my grandparents and of my childhood. I find it unsettling to see Johnson appropriating it to describe someone whose wife is Jewish - and especially when he says “if Schnorrer gets in, he will immediately begin the process of robbing this country of its new-found independence and make the UK the punk of the EU”. What do you think? Am I being over sensitive?
Some chaps on here are a teensy weensy bit infatuated with @Heathener
Bang to rights. I am fairly convinced she is a superb comic creation - and I admire the handiwork. The absurd contradictions are magnificent - “I take the Saturday Telegraph” being the most recent
If she’s not a comic sockpupppet she’s a wild eccentric prone to fantasy, either way she adds to the gaiety of PB
Fact checked.
Is anything you post on pb ever correct?
Horrifying. Those shoes need to be polished, and put on shoe trees, and I really hope you don’t keep leather shoes under a radiator in winter months?!
Weak sauce all round I thought. I don’t think Mordaunt even believed what she was saying about £2000 of taxes. The Lib Dems got owned. And Farage seems to have had some good coaching.
Not seen it. I’ve not seen any comment to tell me it’s worth watching either.
Appreciate this might've been asked, but is the candidate standing by party by totals published anywhere yet please?
On another note, looking at Bootle, it seems Reform got in at the last minute so we've the 'big five' parties standing as always; and a local lad for Galloway's lot is also standing.
The Conservative party is a complete paper 'not even bothering' candidate. She's a councillor in Kingston upon Thamas and hasn't even bothered updating her page to reflect she's standing. The chap in 2019 who ran at least came to the seat and spent a few days around here campaigning. I suspect our 2024 Conservative candidate won't even do that.
Some chaps on here are a teensy weensy bit infatuated with @Heathener
Bang to rights. I am fairly convinced she is a superb comic creation - and I admire the handiwork. The absurd contradictions are magnificent - “I take the Saturday Telegraph” being the most recent
If she’s not a comic sockpupppet she’s a wild eccentric prone to fantasy, either way she adds to the gaiety of PB
"Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was aware of Russia's intention to reduce gas supply to blackmail Europe to speed up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline launch but concealed the information, German media outlet Handelsblatt reported on June 6, citing classified documents it had obtained." https://kyivindependent.com/handelsblatt-merkel-russia-gas/
Perhaps the worst political decision in Europe since 1939?
What on Earth was Merkel thinking, to close all of their nuclear capacity with nothing to replace it, leaving Europe’s industrial powerhouse as Putin’s bitch? Now for the inevitable deep recession, and PMI of 40 reported last week, with the Chinese threatening their car industry hard.
It was interesting to catch a glimpse of Rayner and Mordaunt having a friendly word afterwards. I know they are both there to do a job, but why the performative anger when they are in reality more friendly towards each other.
One, because a debate is in part a performance, and two, maybe they did get genuinely angry during a heated moment but are capable of letting go of it once the moment passes.
Politicians are people, not automatons, they may train themselves and have strategies to employ but they won't be able to control themselves 100%. Has anyone here never gotten mad at a friend or loved one and quickly dialed it back once it was released?
And as i asked Sandpit, if it's thought they were basically acting, why assume the angry part was false rather than the friendly bit being false? The debate was over but a fake smile and friendliness is impossible?
Simplest explanation? They don't agree on many things but are not weirdos.
I have passionate arguments with friends - including about politics - which can get quite heated. We are still good friends. Its a sign of maturity, not hypocrisy. Friends are incredibly valuable and the best kind last for life; politics comes and goes
The fact Millennials refuse to be friends with anyone they disagree with is a bleak signal of their stupidity, not their noble purity
Wise words
I am just wondering if this is actually a generational thing, or is it more something to do with polarisation caused by internet use? I would also comment that most people I know in the real world don't really have fixed left or right political views. It is only a small (and declining) number who participate in the 'performance of reaction' which I think people are getting increasingly wise to.
I work in a mixed multicultural workplace with staff from age 18 to 75, probably 75% female. I don't know anything about the political views of the vast majority of them, and I don't think there is any real difference between the ages in terms of work ethic, or inclination to take offence.
I work in a very similar environment. I think there are very obvious generational differences but they are complex so generalising is difficult. One thing is one team have people in their 50's running a 'command and control' management system and people in their 20's doing the work seem to be fine with it.
One thing I would observe is that the attempts to roll out 'diversity equity and inclusion' initiatives by the (largely white, male) senior management are completely ignored by the mass of workers.
DEI is purely performative and doesn't really mean anything.
Yeah, yeah, yeah...
Speaking as somebody who suffered (insidious, usually unintentional) discrimination in the past, I'm all for it DEI.
Casino Royale is, I’m afraid, a rather nasty piece of work.
Look at his constant bullying of me, including his regular ‘EVERYONE hates you’.
No wonder he doesn’t like DEI.
He says I’m 'full of shit' but I’ve never encountered a more unpleasant individual online, as others have also experienced on here.
If I were a pb tory I’d be msging him to dial it down. He’s confirming what a lot of us know, that The Nasty Party are in full control of the Conservatives. Pity them because they won’t ever win power in this country with his like.
Heathener, if you were a rabid right-winger the PB faithful would be lapping up your every word, cf @Leon .
Your problem is not your colourful backstory but the colour of your rosette. You are also quite hubristic which makes them angry. Only they are allowed to say "suck it up Remainer losers", "Captain Hindsight can never win an election" and "Boris will be a four term Churchillian PM, he got all the big calls right".
How come I don't have a problem (usually) with you, Ben, Gallowgate, OLB, OKC or Jonathan then? And even Horse has ironed himself out recently?
There a handful of Left-wing posters I do, but not the sensible ones.
Come off it Casino, if you could be arsed you'd hate the ground I walked on. Your previous response to a serious post I made about VAT on schools was peppered with "f" bombs
It's personal to me, and you said you couldn't care less.
You got what you deserved.
Just to let you know Casino, I haven't flagged you.
Without wishing to go over old ground and open up wounds, my point was Labour are not currently in Government and VAT has not been exacted upon private schools.
Probable future actions are priced in
I’d note that many of those claiming that potential VAT couldn’t have had an effect if schools, also claimed that a non-enacted change in policy on dependents caused foreign university admissions to collapse.
Of course, they want to defend their own sides policies whilst attacking the other.
Ukraine has claimed to have hit over 700 pieces of Russian artillery in a little more than a fortnight. Massive stockpiles from the Soviet era are being obliterated, now within Russia itself - with no prospect of replacement any time soon.
Russia's warfare is predicated on long-range demolition. It's glide bombs have been very impressive in replacing artillery in this role. But with several more Patriot systems arriving in Ukraine, Russian jets are going to be far too vulnerable to deliver them.
Russia's advance around Kharkiv seemed to have stalled. Indeed, recent reports suggest Russia is now losing ground. Putin's strategy of using up his men and finite machinery to force Ukraine to a settlement looks to be at risk of failure - and facing better quality weaponry, may suffer long term reversals. The arrival of F-16s and Mirage jets are going to make Crimea one giant pinata of Russian troops. The Kerch Straits supply ferries have already been hit and damaged; the Kerch Bridge is now in range of missiles.
If Ukraine can make Crimea a killing fields for Russian troops stationed there, there is over the next year or so the route for a final settlement: Ukraine cedes lands in the east, whilst getting the return of Crimea. That would be a blow from which Putin would not survive - literally.
I’m on my way to Kyiv. Literally. I’ll hand on the good news
Edit to add: I agree with you on the military outlook. Seems Russia cannot win this any more than Ukraine can win it - in the usual sense of taking all the land back/conquering the country. It’s a muddy, bloody impasse, and my impressions of Ukraine on this trip are of a people ground down and weary but absolutely not giving in, quite the opposite. They are quietly proud of their stoic endurance - and they should be
Fascinating time to be there. Would love to visit, but the Good Lady Wife would veto it any time soon.
It really isn’t that dangerous
I’ve been trying to quantify it and - this is sheer guesswork - I reckon it’s about as dangerous as a big Latin American city. Exercise care. Don’t be idiotic. 99.9% you’ll be fine. Sure if you go right to the front line it’s seriously dangerous but that’s like walking into the worst favela at night wearing two Rolex watches. Why would you do that?
What is different maybe is the sense you might get killed out of the blue. Putin really is hurling missiles and drones at Odessa (and elsewhere) - a chunk of one fell in my street as I watched. But no one was hurt
And yes the bombardments are freaky - but you get used to them. You should come. Also really cheap hotels and pretty good food and it’s possibly the most interesting place in the world right now
Kiev is fine, way safer than Odessa and with nicer hotels.
I love Odessa but I’ve been here five days now - enough. I want to see the capital
Then probably Lviv for a couple of days - and away via Poland
Lviv is nice as well, there’s a couple of days’ worth of stuff to do there. Take a night train between the two cities, as I did last year. Costs something ridiculous like $20 for a private sleeper cabin, but you need to remember to buy your vodka beforehand as there’s no bar on the train.
It was interesting to catch a glimpse of Rayner and Mordaunt having a friendly word afterwards. I know they are both there to do a job, but why the performative anger when they are in reality more friendly towards each other.
One, because a debate is in part a performance, and two, maybe they did get genuinely angry during a heated moment but are capable of letting go of it once the moment passes.
Politicians are people, not automatons, they may train themselves and have strategies to employ but they won't be able to control themselves 100%. Has anyone here never gotten mad at a friend or loved one and quickly dialed it back once it was released?
And as i asked Sandpit, if it's thought they were basically acting, why assume the angry part was false rather than the friendly bit being false? The debate was over but a fake smile and friendliness is impossible?
Simplest explanation? They don't agree on many things but are not weirdos.
I have passionate arguments with friends - including about politics - which can get quite heated. We are still good friends. Its a sign of maturity, not hypocrisy. Friends are incredibly valuable and the best kind last for life; politics comes and goes
The fact Millennials refuse to be friends with anyone they disagree with is a bleak signal of their stupidity, not their noble purity
Wise words
I am just wondering if this is actually a generational thing, or is it more something to do with polarisation caused by internet use? I would also comment that most people I know in the real world don't really have fixed left or right political views. It is only a small (and declining) number who participate in the 'performance of reaction' which I think people are getting increasingly wise to.
I work in a mixed multicultural workplace with staff from age 18 to 75, probably 75% female. I don't know anything about the political views of the vast majority of them, and I don't think there is any real difference between the ages in terms of work ethic, or inclination to take offence.
I work in a very similar environment. I think there are very obvious generational differences but they are complex so generalising is difficult. One thing is one team have people in their 50's running a 'command and control' management system and people in their 20's doing the work seem to be fine with it.
One thing I would observe is that the attempts to roll out 'diversity equity and inclusion' initiatives by the (largely white, male) senior management are completely ignored by the mass of workers.
DEI is purely performative and doesn't really mean anything.
I read a management book which noted such things have been around for decades in one form or another yet things often seem unchanged or worse.
Their suggestion, and in fairness I don't know if it was backed up with evidence, was it works much better when genuinely voluntary, as people are usually happy to engage then, but make it mandatory and they switch off as it's a box tick or a lecture. And that can be counterproductive and cause resentment.
I did a session recently which was quite good as things go, felt like a genuine conversation and didnt do a common thing of dismissing any concerns, but they messed up by including an external video which was literally an anti-capitalist screen which barely even related to DEI.
Just so: there's definitely something in listening to other people with different experiences.
Why does it need to be ruined by a lecturing that you should feel a sense of shame for who you are too?
Since England has lost religion we no longer get God botherers just plain botherers.
56% of the population of England and Wales are still Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist or Jewish on the last census
Much of this is only very nominal. Especially when you remember that only one person in the family usually fills out the census form.
Most of the Christian responses will be cultural. Nominal C of E, never go near a church except for weddings and funerals. We inhabit one of the most irreligious polities on the face of the Earth.
Scotland still more so.
And the weddings and funerals in the C of E bit are only because English residents get a free subscription, so to speak, because it's the state cult.
I find the "count Christians by the number of people who go to church one" interesting, There are layers to the affiliation - committed, community, cultural and so on. I don't see why such are in some way 'invalid'.
There have been modern movements since at least the 1950s, and perhaps the 1930s or earlier, exploring concepts such as "the church outside the Church" and "secular faith". Iona and similar communities are in some way practical expressions of such movements. Writers from that earlier modernist period would be people such as Bishop John Robinson ("Honest to God") and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ("The Phenomenon of Man", "The Divine Milieu").
It's exactly the game the Humanist Association were playing when they managed to nobble .. er .. amend the census question. They have always claimed "we represent all the nonreligious in the population", when having just a few thousand "members" themselves.
They also play games with nebulous surveys - there was a funny one that was nailed by a philosopher a few years ago. It could have been filled in my any priest or bishop I have ever known and they would come out as "humanist".
Which is itself ironic because the word comes from humanist theologians such as Erasmus.
Yes. Two points. The decline in cultural Christianity is in many ways more alarming than the decline in actual attendance; and of course hard to measure.
And a question for non theist humanists: If humanism of the non theist sort is remotely plausible, why do humans, revered by humanists, do such terrible things.
Christians do this by 'fall and redemption'. It is not often noticed that the famous 'problem of evil' is tougher for humanists than it is (though it's tough) for theists.
I think that human nature is in general, pretty unpleasant, and goodness is something one has to work hard at, in order to achieve it.
Penny Mordaunt is hectoring and constantly interrupting. Really hope she loses her seat. Ghastly woman.
Less of the misogyny please, referring to her sex as a derogatory point is beneath you. You could have said “ghastly person” but ghastly woman is so loaded with some retro sexist memories of “to the manor born” and all that.
I like how all the OnlyFans references were ok but "ghastly woman" was somehow noteworthy
I was being ever so serious. Heathener is suitably strong, apparently accomplished and confident to give it out and take it back - it would probs be more sexist to think anyone had to rein it in because she’s a she.
Yeah I don’t have a problem with you calling it out. But what is to the manor born?
Really? Penelope Kieth, Richard Bowles? Huge in the late 1970s.
Peter Bowles was in TTMB with Penelope Richard Briars was in the Good Life with Penelope
I know! Schoolboy error from me. Trying to wind up Heathener who is somehow about 70 and 17 at the same time. It’s not like To The Manor Born is an obscure TV series. It’s one from the classics of the age, and as has been said, both stands up well AND is an interesting social/historical commentary.
Funnily enough most people who know me in real life, as opposed to on here, mark me as typical GenZ in outlook and views. Which I take as a compliment.
A humourless low-IQ trans-activist dork who never has sex?
I'm more impressed by a Gen Zer who first got into politics around the time of John Smith. A rare demographic indeed
Pay better attention. ‘Most people think I’m GenZ in outlook and views’
I was born right at the end of Gen X.
Just responding to Casino Royale being silly about my youth and constantly denigrating me for ‘being a child’, which Alanbrooke did too.
The right wingers are taking over this forum: Leon, Casino Royale, Alanbrooke. Not just ‘right wingers’ but nasty ones.
I am afraid that this is not a forum that is any longer attractive for:
1. women 2. younger voters i.e. anyone under 60
Mike Smithson kept this place in check but it is sinking fast. But that’s because you older right wingers are dazed and confused right now, bewildered at the way the country has changed.
I told you over 2 years ago that Labour were going to win a landslide, to widespread ridicule.
Conservative candidates and aides have looked on aghast at the missteps of Rishi Sunak’s campaign over the last fortnight.
Anger has been building over Sunak allies being parachuted into safe seats, including the party chair, Richard Holden, the lack of preparation for the snap campaign within Conservative party headquarters (CCHQ) and the avoidable row over Frank Hester’s donations.
But nothing has come close to the fury within the party over the prime minister’s decision to skip part of the D-day ceremony in France, leaving the stage clear for Keir Starmer to show leadership and patriotism, as well as for Nigel Farage.
Ultimately, the choice was the prime minister’s: to come home for an ITV interview or stay to honour veterans and the fallen. However, many candidates are apoplectic with rage at the strategists who allowed such a misstep to take place, questioning the quality at the heart of the Conservative party campaign.
“The spads and clown advisers who are making these decisions will never work on so much as a Tory councillor’s campaign again in their lifetime,” said one irate Conservative source.
As some of us said 48 hours ago, would Boris Johnson or Liz Truss have departed such a significant and poignant event early?
Hell no, they’d have been there until there wasn’t another hand to shake, and not another photo to be taken.
I would expect the head boy of a presumably conventional presumably C of E public school to have public ritual (founders day and speech day and stuff) in his DNA. Which makes it all the stranger.
Yes, anyone who’s been to a school with history would know all about the sacred days of ritual. Memorial days most definitely included.
"Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was aware of Russia's intention to reduce gas supply to blackmail Europe to speed up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline launch but concealed the information, German media outlet Handelsblatt reported on June 6, citing classified documents it had obtained." https://kyivindependent.com/handelsblatt-merkel-russia-gas/
Perhaps the worst political decision in Europe since 1939?
What on Earth was Merkel thinking, to close all of their nuclear capacity with nothing to replace it, leaving Europe’s industrial powerhouse as Putin’s bitch? Now for the inevitable deep recession, and PMI of 40 reported last week, with the Chinese threatening their car industry hard.
If you think our politicians are bad, (they are), look at those running Germany over the past 25 years. The talent pool ran out with Kohl.
The only person ever to get excited at going to Basingstoke?
Finale to Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore:
Prompted by a keen desire to evoke All the blessed calm of matrimony’s yoke, We shall toddle off tomorrow, From this scene of sin and sorrow, For to settle in the town of Basingstoke!
Conservative candidates and aides have looked on aghast at the missteps of Rishi Sunak’s campaign over the last fortnight.
Anger has been building over Sunak allies being parachuted into safe seats, including the party chair, Richard Holden, the lack of preparation for the snap campaign within Conservative party headquarters (CCHQ) and the avoidable row over Frank Hester’s donations.
But nothing has come close to the fury within the party over the prime minister’s decision to skip part of the D-day ceremony in France, leaving the stage clear for Keir Starmer to show leadership and patriotism, as well as for Nigel Farage.
Ultimately, the choice was the prime minister’s: to come home for an ITV interview or stay to honour veterans and the fallen. However, many candidates are apoplectic with rage at the strategists who allowed such a misstep to take place, questioning the quality at the heart of the Conservative party campaign.
“The spads and clown advisers who are making these decisions will never work on so much as a Tory councillor’s campaign again in their lifetime,” said one irate Conservative source.
As some of us said 48 hours ago, would Boris Johnson or Liz Truss have departed such a significant and poignant event early?
Hell no, they’d have been there until there wasn’t another hand to shake, and not another photo to be taken.
I would expect the head boy of a presumably conventional presumably C of E public school to have public ritual (founders day and speech day and stuff) in his DNA. Which makes it all the stranger.
Good morning everyone.
I’ve made the point before, and it was reiterated on the BBC earlier today. These events are scripted; everyone knows who is going to be where and when. Did Sunak depart from the script or had he, and his minders, always intended that he leave early. I think we should be told. Otherwise the suspicion must be that he’s someone who changes plans at the last moment for what he perceives to be personally advantageous reasons.
"Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was aware of Russia's intention to reduce gas supply to blackmail Europe to speed up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline launch but concealed the information, German media outlet Handelsblatt reported on June 6, citing classified documents it had obtained." https://kyivindependent.com/handelsblatt-merkel-russia-gas/
That’s on the scale of being aware water was wet.
The whole point of Nord Stream 2 was to lock in cheap gas in Western Europe and bypass the Eastern European countries that Putin wished to bully.
It seems pretty clear to me now that Lord Cameron is/has been running the Government from the Number 10 side (accepting that we don't have a political Government at the moment), with Sunak as this flaky Manchurian candidate figure. Nobody even elected the noble Lord to a seat, let alone to the Tory Party leadership, so what's that all about?
Some chaps on here are a teensy weensy bit infatuated with @Heathener
Bang to rights. I am fairly convinced she is a superb comic creation - and I admire the handiwork. The absurd contradictions are magnificent - “I take the Saturday Telegraph” being the most recent
If she’s not a comic sockpupppet she’s a wild eccentric prone to fantasy, either way she adds to the gaiety of PB
Fact checked.
Is anything you post on pb ever correct?
I am going to get that photo analysed by experts. Fascinating
Penny Mordaunt is hectoring and constantly interrupting. Really hope she loses her seat. Ghastly woman.
Less of the misogyny please, referring to her sex as a derogatory point is beneath you. You could have said “ghastly person” but ghastly woman is so loaded with some retro sexist memories of “to the manor born” and all that.
I like how all the OnlyFans references were ok but "ghastly woman" was somehow noteworthy
I was being ever so serious. Heathener is suitably strong, apparently accomplished and confident to give it out and take it back - it would probs be more sexist to think anyone had to rein it in because she’s a she.
Yeah I don’t have a problem with you calling it out. But what is to the manor born?
Really? Penelope Kieth, Richard Bowles? Huge in the late 1970s.
Peter Bowles was in TTMB with Penelope Richard Briars was in the Good Life with Penelope
I know! Schoolboy error from me. Trying to wind up Heathener who is somehow about 70 and 17 at the same time. It’s not like To The Manor Born is an obscure TV series. It’s one from the classics of the age, and as has been said, both stands up well AND is an interesting social/historical commentary.
Funnily enough most people who know me in real life, as opposed to on here, mark me as typical GenZ in outlook and views. Which I take as a compliment.
A humourless low-IQ trans-activist dork who never has sex?
I'm more impressed by a Gen Zer who first got into politics around the time of John Smith. A rare demographic indeed
Pay better attention. ‘Most people think I’m GenZ in outlook and views’
I was born right at the end of Gen X.
Just responding to Casino Royale being silly about my youth and constantly denigrating me for ‘being a child’, which Alanbrooke did too.
The right wingers are taking over this forum: Leon, Casino Royale, Alanbrooke. Not just ‘right wingers’ but nasty ones.
I am afraid that this is not a forum that is any longer attractive for:
1. women 2. younger voters i.e. anyone under 60
Mike Smithson kept this place in check but it is sinking fast. But that’s because you older right wingers are dazed and confused right now, bewildered at the way the country has changed.
I told you over 2 years ago that Labour were going to win a landslide, to widespread ridicule.
She who laughs last … and I am.
Fair play. I was born 2/3 of the way through Gen X and feel I’m regarded as part of the feckless naive lazy youth demographic by this Govt and, by extension, the majority of posters on this board. “We want people who pay tax…no, not people like you who pay tax…proper taxpayers.”
Done right, diversity and inclusion training is about getting people to see things from others' point of view, something people are not good at on the whole.
An example from @MattW on this board is barriers on footpaths. Get colleagues to think who will be using this path? If you were in a wheelchair what would you want? You get a much better outcome for those users than with any number of regulations and policies.
My employer is serious about DEI, does it well, and I think it shows up in somewhat better outcomes for customers and a better work environment.
ROFL the last thing "Diversity" is about is diversity. It's about stifling conformity.
As I said, diversity training done right, and FWIW my employer does it well, is about dealing with a diversity that already exists. It's about understanding what other people want and feel, who are different from yourself in some way.
I should add, given DEI is about seeing things from others' point of view, those most dismissive of it are probably those least able to see things from others' point of view and need the training the most.
It seems pretty clear to me now that Lord Cameron is/has been running the Government from the Number 10 side (accepting that we don't have a political Government at the moment), with Sunak as this flaky Manchurian candidate figure. Nobody even elected the noble Lord to a seat, let alone to the Tory Party leadership, so what's that all about?
Technically your lest point is inaccurate. They did, just not recently.
Southgate the most overrated manager there's ever been.
He’s going to throw away another magnificently gifted squad
We were warned in World Cup SF v Croatia when we threw away a lead
We had confirmation in Euro 2020 final v Italy when we threw away a lead
England will win nothing with Southgate
We've won nothing with any manager except Alf Ramsey but Southgate has brought us closer than anybody. Under him we've come as close as you possibly can without doing it. A lick of paint on a goalpost. That close.
This time? Well with a Euros or a World Cup all teams (including us) are more likely to come up short than lift the trophy. The question to ask therefore is not will we win? it's are we a strong contender? The answer is yes. Of course we are.
I'm not worried about that meaningless Iceland game. It was fine. Indeed I'd have been a tad concerned if we'd have put in the sort of stonking performance that you want to be building up to in the latter stages of the tournament when it counts.
The odds of 4.5 are not generous, this is true, but stuff that - I have a good feeling about it and I'm on for £50.
Some chaps on here are a teensy weensy bit infatuated with @Heathener
Bang to rights. I am fairly convinced she is a superb comic creation - and I admire the handiwork. The absurd contradictions are magnificent - “I take the Saturday Telegraph” being the most recent
If she’s not a comic sockpupppet she’s a wild eccentric prone to fantasy, either way she adds to the gaiety of PB
Fact checked.
Is anything you post on pb ever correct?
Horrifying. Those shoes need to be polished, and put on shoe trees, and I really hope you don’t keep leather shoes under a radiator in winter months?!
Well that's probably true, but you could replace 'Southgate' with almost any manager past and present, England or not, and it'd still be true. The fact England haven't won anything since 1966 really isn't just the fault of the managers.
England just aren't good enough, and probably never will be. On good years, we're semi-finalists. On poor years we don't even qualify.
Southgate the most overrated manager there's ever been.
He’s going to throw away another magnificently gifted squad
We were warned in World Cup SF v Croatia when we threw away a lead
We had confirmation in Euro 2020 final v Italy when we threw away a lead
England will win nothing with Southgate
I despise Man City, but no Grealish even as an impact sub is madness. Southgate has said for a number of years he doesn't rate fan favourite Grealish, but perseveres with some donkeys.
Some chaps on here are a teensy weensy bit infatuated with @Heathener
Bang to rights. I am fairly convinced she is a superb comic creation - and I admire the handiwork. The absurd contradictions are magnificent - “I take the Saturday Telegraph” being the most recent
If she’s not a comic sockpupppet she’s a wild eccentric prone to fantasy, either way she adds to the gaiety of PB
Fact checked.
Is anything you post on pb ever correct?
What are Leon's boots doing in your hallway? I thought he was in Ukraine.
"Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was aware of Russia's intention to reduce gas supply to blackmail Europe to speed up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline launch but concealed the information, German media outlet Handelsblatt reported on June 6, citing classified documents it had obtained." https://kyivindependent.com/handelsblatt-merkel-russia-gas/
Perhaps the worst political decision in Europe since 1939?
What on Earth was Merkel thinking, to close all of their nuclear capacity with nothing to replace it, leaving Europe’s industrial powerhouse as Putin’s bitch? Now for the inevitable deep recession, and PMI of 40 reported last week, with the Chinese threatening their car industry hard.
Perhaps GDR Merkel knew exactly what she was doing with that decision.
Penny Mordaunt is hectoring and constantly interrupting. Really hope she loses her seat. Ghastly woman.
Less of the misogyny please, referring to her sex as a derogatory point is beneath you. You could have said “ghastly person” but ghastly woman is so loaded with some retro sexist memories of “to the manor born” and all that.
I like how all the OnlyFans references were ok but "ghastly woman" was somehow noteworthy
I was being ever so serious. Heathener is suitably strong, apparently accomplished and confident to give it out and take it back - it would probs be more sexist to think anyone had to rein it in because she’s a she.
Yeah I don’t have a problem with you calling it out. But what is to the manor born?
Really? Penelope Kieth, Richard Bowles? Huge in the late 1970s.
Peter Bowles was in TTMB with Penelope Richard Briars was in the Good Life with Penelope
I know! Schoolboy error from me. Trying to wind up Heathener who is somehow about 70 and 17 at the same time. It’s not like To The Manor Born is an obscure TV series. It’s one from the classics of the age, and as has been said, both stands up well AND is an interesting social/historical commentary.
Funnily enough most people who know me in real life, as opposed to on here, mark me as typical GenZ in outlook and views. Which I take as a compliment.
A humourless low-IQ trans-activist dork who never has sex?
I'm more impressed by a Gen Zer who first got into politics around the time of John Smith. A rare demographic indeed
Pay better attention. ‘Most people think I’m GenZ in outlook and views’
I was born right at the end of Gen X.
Just responding to Casino Royale being silly about my youth and constantly denigrating me for ‘being a child’, which Alanbrooke did too.
The right wingers are taking over this forum: Leon, Casino Royale, Alanbrooke. Not just ‘right wingers’ but nasty ones.
I am afraid that this is not a forum that is any longer attractive for:
1. women 2. younger voters i.e. anyone under 60
Mike Smithson kept this place in check but it is sinking fast. But that’s because you older right wingers are dazed and confused right now, bewildered at the way the country has changed.
I told you over 2 years ago that Labour were going to win a landslide, to widespread ridicule.
She who laughs last … and I am.
Solidarity as a fellow younger poster, I haven’t been around here that long and have certainly seen fewer elections than most but I find your contributions great and overall there’s a lot of good eggs on here that keep me coming back, even though others are a bit spammy and sometimes just attack people arbitrarily.
Comments
I’ve been trying to quantify it and - this is sheer guesswork - I reckon it’s about as dangerous as a big Latin American city. Exercise care. Don’t be idiotic. 99.9% you’ll be fine. Sure if you go right to the front line it’s seriously dangerous but that’s like walking into the worst favela at night wearing two Rolex watches. Why would you do that?
What is different maybe is the sense you might get killed out of the blue. Putin really is hurling missiles and drones at Odessa (and elsewhere) - a chunk of one fell in my street as I watched. But no one was hurt
And yes the bombardments are freaky - but you get used to them. You should come. Also really cheap hotels and pretty good food and it’s possibly the most interesting place in the world right now
Conservative: 631
Labour: 631
Lib Dem: 630
Reform UK: 609
Green (E&W): 573
Independent: 461
Workers: 153
SDP: 123
SNP: 57
Scottish Greens: 44
TUSC: 40
Heritage: 32
Plaid Cymru: 32
https://x.com/democlub/status/1799227297888657643?t=OONcqsrOVxv8ui_ZsnpOOA&s=19
It does look a pretty full slate, some missing in Scotland it seems.
Southgate the most overrated manager there's ever been.
I've had a lovely walk in to work today. Constable loved it here. Have a nice day, everyone, play nicely!
Then probably Lviv for a couple of days - and away via Poland
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russias-gazprom-swings-into-69-billion-net-loss-2023-2024-05-02/#:~:text=MOSCOW, May 2 (Reuters),once its main sales market.
- then the ability to take a slice of the pie has greatly dwindled. That is a state of affairs that cannot continue. How can you have a functioning kleptocracy when there is nothing left to steal? Which is why Putin is now more vulnerable than ever before.
Or do they have a candidate in Chorley or NI?
We had confirmation in Euro 2020 final v Italy when we threw away a lead
England will win nothing with Southgate
https://x.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1799367043072053591
The idea I ALSO have leisure in which to construct a complex sockpuppet on PB is delusional. I wish I had the time! But if I did have the time I wouldn’t waste it doing THAT
But then I did wear a bullet proof vest to go the 10 yards from the plane to the bomb-proof cars, with Algerian special forces cars front and rear in the manic drive into Fort SOFITEL. And accompanied by my close protection guy who was part of the Bravo Two-Zero patrol...
Not that Wifey was relaxed about that either!
Some people make another choice, and do “evil” things, and for the good of society (and me) we must deal with them (some are also mentally ill obviously).
Taking God out of it actually makes this judgement easier. I don’t need to care what he thinks.
Southgate played two holding defensive midfielders, played Stones as a CB when he's been in midfield all season, Foden central where he rarely plays, Trippier out of position, Kane was so deep he even picked up the ball from defence. There were players getting in each other's way and at several points especially second half the whole team was in a narrow tunnel down the left. No width at all and a massive gap between defence and attack. It was a total dog's breakfast.
At this rate we will have a load of star individuals who are a terrible team. Bit like Chelsea.
But I agree with your main point
Anger has been building over Sunak allies being parachuted into safe seats, including the party chair, Richard Holden, the lack of preparation for the snap campaign within Conservative party headquarters (CCHQ) and the avoidable row over Frank Hester’s donations.
But nothing has come close to the fury within the party over the prime minister’s decision to skip part of the D-day ceremony in France, leaving the stage clear for Keir Starmer to show leadership and patriotism, as well as for Nigel Farage.
Ultimately, the choice was the prime minister’s: to come home for an ITV interview or stay to honour veterans and the fallen. However, many candidates are apoplectic with rage at the strategists who allowed such a misstep to take place, questioning the quality at the heart of the Conservative party campaign.
“The spads and clown advisers who are making these decisions will never work on so much as a Tory councillor’s campaign again in their lifetime,” said one irate Conservative source.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/07/d-day-was-the-final-straw-sunaks-blunders-ignite-tory-party-fury
I’m just not allowed to talk about it. Sorry
Hell no, they’d have been there until there wasn’t another hand to shake, and not another photo to be taken.
It’s just part of the furniture now.
On another note, looking at Bootle, it seems Reform got in at the last minute so we've the 'big five' parties standing as always; and a local lad for Galloway's lot is also standing.
The Conservative party is a complete paper 'not even bothering' candidate. She's a councillor in Kingston upon Thamas and hasn't even bothered updating her page to reflect she's standing.
The chap in 2019 who ran at least came to the seat and spent a few days around here campaigning. I suspect our 2024 Conservative candidate won't even do that.
It's also essentially insoluble. Imagine a situation post election in which, somehow, Labour and a battered Tory opposition could reach an agreement that we can't keep an ageing population comfortable without substantial new taxation of older people's assets. The Lib Dems would denounce this as a terrible injustice and gallop to a landslide victory in 2029. And this, more and more of the remaining wealth is accrued by or spent upon the most unproductive assets (houses) and the most unproductive people (the old,) and it's impossible to stop the trend because the beneficiaries have so many votes. We are stuck.
https://kyivindependent.com/handelsblatt-merkel-russia-gas/
Fact checked.
Is anything you post on pb ever correct?
Given the scale of his faux pas in bailing out of D-Day commemorations early to get back on the campaign trail, it is hard not to. As a longstanding member of the ‘Rishi is Rubbish’ club, I find it difficult not to feel the kind of proprietorial irritation that fans of cult rock bands suffer when their heroes become mainstream.
I like that last sentence; it is a paradox.
1 - Do you mean an adjective: "stifling conformity" ie conformity which stifles.
2 - Or do you mean a verb: "stifling conformity" ie lets stifle conformity by enabling diversity.
I'm with option 2. Option 1 is the reverse of the objective.
"DIVERSITY !!!" vs "diversity"?
What on Earth was Merkel thinking, to close all of their nuclear capacity with nothing to replace it, leaving Europe’s industrial powerhouse as Putin’s bitch? Now for the inevitable deep recession, and PMI of 40 reported last week, with the Chinese threatening their car industry hard.
I was born right at the end of Gen X.
Just responding to Casino Royale being silly about my youth and constantly denigrating me for ‘being a child’, which Alanbrooke did too.
The right wingers are taking over this forum: Leon, Casino Royale, Alanbrooke. Not just ‘right wingers’ but nasty ones.
I am afraid that this is not a forum that is any longer attractive for:
1. women
2. younger voters i.e. anyone under 60
Mike Smithson kept this place in check but it is sinking fast. But that’s because you older right wingers are dazed and confused right now, bewildered at the way the country has changed.
I told you over 2 years ago that Labour were going to win a landslide, to widespread ridicule.
She who laughs last … and I am.
NEW THREAD
Prompted by a keen desire to evoke
All the blessed calm of matrimony’s yoke,
We shall toddle off tomorrow,
From this scene of sin and sorrow,
For to settle in the town of Basingstoke!
I’ve made the point before, and it was reiterated on the BBC earlier today. These events are scripted; everyone knows who is going to be where and when. Did Sunak depart from the script or had he, and his minders, always intended that he leave early.
I think we should be told. Otherwise the suspicion must be that he’s someone who changes plans at the last moment for what he perceives to be personally advantageous reasons.
The whole point of Nord Stream 2 was to lock in cheap gas in Western Europe and bypass the Eastern European countries that Putin wished to bully.
I should add, given DEI is about seeing things from others' point of view, those most dismissive of it are probably those least able to see things from others' point of view and need the training the most.
This time? Well with a Euros or a World Cup all teams (including us) are more likely to come up short than lift the trophy. The question to ask therefore is not will we win? it's are we a strong contender? The answer is yes. Of course we are.
I'm not worried about that meaningless Iceland game. It was fine. Indeed I'd have been a tad concerned if we'd have put in the sort of stonking performance that you want to be building up to in the latter stages of the tournament when it counts.
The odds of 4.5 are not generous, this is true, but stuff that - I have a good feeling about it and I'm on for £50.
England just aren't good enough, and probably never will be.
On good years, we're semi-finalists.
On poor years we don't even qualify.
Nothing really has changed there.
Edit - just seen kinabalu above. We agree!
I think that’s missing one.
England 543 and Wales 32
Scotland and NI is not my area.
Has this been done?
Conservatives miss out Rotherham.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c877068x382o