A man walks out to the street and catches a taxi just going by.
He gets into the taxi, and the cabby says, “Wow, perfect timing. You’re just like Frank.”
The passenger asks, “Who?”
The cabby explains, “Frank Feldman. He’s a guy who did everything right all the time. Like when I came along just when you needed a cab, things happened like that to Frank Feldman every single time.”
The passenger remarked, “There are always a few clouds over everybody.”
“Not Frank Feldman. He was a terrific athlete. He could have won the Grand Slam at tennis. He could golf with the pros.He sang like an opera baritone and danced like a Broadway star and you should have heard him play the piano. He was an amazing guy.”
The passenger said, “Sounds like he was really something special.”
The cabby replied, “There’s more. He had a memory like a computer. He remembered everybody’s birthday. He knew all about wine, which foods to order and which fork to eat them with. He could fix anything. Not like me. I change a fuse, and the whole street blacks out. But Frank Feldman could do everything right.”
The passenger was amazed, “Wow, what a guy!”
The cabby continued, “He always knew the quickest way to go in traffic and avoid traffic jams. Not like me, I always seem to get stuck in them. But Frank, he never made a mistake, and he really knew how to treat a woman and make her feel good. He would never answer her back even if she was in the wrong; and his clothing was always immaculate, shoes highly polished too. He was the perfect man! He never made a mistake. No one could ever measure up to Frank Feldman.”
Passenger: “How did you meet him?”
Cabby: “I never actually met Frank. He died and I married his wife."
In that London for the day. Look: warm and blue skies! Also look: The ugliness of London's most important station is incomprehensible!
You've posted the wrong image, you wanted to post a picture of St Pancras station.
When I first took my wife to London, we had several transport options but in the end I went with arriving at St. Pancras.
Because of course you would, the place is absolutely stunning as opposed to the concrete monstrosities that pass for stations on either side of it.
Point of Order: King’s Cross is really nice now as well, they’ve junked all the crap at the front, added a modernist canopy which actually works and impresses - it links neatly to St Pancras
Possibly the best station complex in Europe or even the world
Next best terminals in london in order
Paddington Marylebone (it’s kinda cute) London Bridge (also much improved) Liverpool Street Charing X Victoria Waterloo
And way way way way down at the bottom
Euston
Privileged Londoners.
Birmingham New Street is the pits in every sense (literally as well as it's underground). And you end up at Euston as well. It would surely come bottom of any nationwide poll.
Good article, thanks Peter & Cycle. Depressing though - I have this recurring feeling nowadays that we are living during the period that will come to be known as the Fall of the West.
In some ways it's a blessing Mrs P. and I have no children, grandchildren etc. when I think of the prospect today's children are facing.
(Then again - I bet every generation has had similar thoughts at times, so cheer up BenPointer!)
It can be depressing, Ben. I have noticed the change in standards of administration and integrity in my lifetime, particularly in recent.
It is a problem, and it transcends party politics. Tough one for succeeding generations, I agree.
Any thoughts as to when the rot began ?
I have a theory that it was the fall of Soviet communism which began the change as those at the top now thought that history had ended, there were no more threats and they could do as they wanted.
I think it began with the Beveridge report, actually.
It led to, in Jay's words, the belief 'the man in Whitehall really does know best.'
In this they were wrong, because most of them had limited life experience and being trained in an Oxbridge system that prized rhetoric above in depth analysis lacked the intellectual curiosity or personal humility to note their own ignorance and correct it.
But that arrogance is responsible for many disasters. Including the Post Office, indeed, because they thought they knew better than the people working the system and all the evidence to the contrary had to be ruthlessly suppressed.
The tragedy is in many cases they mean well. (Not necessarily at the PO.)
How many of the PO leadership were Oxbridge ?
Paula Vennells was University of Bradford Adam Crozier was Heriot-Watt
Though TBF many of the ministers who, as PtP points, out failed to take sufficient interest in the business they controlled were indeed Oxbridge.
Ed Davey went to Oxford.
You know, people say to me "the LibDems are not ready for government", and I say "look at Ed Davey": he's perfectly capable of fucking up every bit as badly as a Labour or Conservative minister.
You largely have Ed Davey to thank for the fact we have the highest wind power grid contribution in Europe, though.
Few seem to appreciate that this scandal, the blood contamination case, the Andy Malkinson case (and other similar ones), the endless NHS and Police scandals are all symptomatic of a shredded administrative and political class lacking in competence, integrity and either the ability to admit to or willingness to correct mistakes.
I found myself in disagreement with this paragraph.
But only because you forgot to mention education...
Do we need a British ENA, where instead of filling the national administration and top echelons of the civil service with people who have Mickey Mouse degrees such as PPE and Classics from Oxbridge we educate waves of competent students in a suitable mix of economics, law, politics, planning, business studies, sociology and most vitally ethics.
Give a large cadre of students the chance to get a degree that fast tracks them to the civil service or local government where they have been taught about what makes a country tick, what all the parts do, where tax revenue is made and how. Teach them about the benefits system and the justice system so they understand how it “works” and then they can properly think constructively about how it might be improved.
It can then be a badge where, when they are standing for election, they can show they actually have been taught about what they intend to do, a sort of electoral British Kite Mark.
That sounds great - the French system - but government by Enarques (eg Manny Macron) has led France to the brink of a Far Right government
Perhaps that is why Macron scrapped the ENA
Who says my long term goal with a British ENa isn’t to lead us to a far right government?
Only joking.
There were problems with the ENA in that it was quite socially rarefied and had the same domination as Oxbridge in the UK whereas I would want the British one to be a degree course, rather than a place, on offer at multiple universities around the UK to increase the breadth of applicants and product.
If it was solely in London like ENA in Paris then the cost of being a student in London would put off a lot of people whereas if it was on offer in universities in all the main Cities and big towns, and maybe it’s own blind entrance exam, then it could work.
I think the issue with EBA (and other grandes ecoles in France) is not so much the socially rarefied atmosphere but rather the typically French economic structure that harks back to the guilds and closed shops of the middle ages.
Just about every sector in France is protected by either regulatory or qualification barriers to entry. It's as true with plumbers or carpenters or waiters as it is with politicians or CEOs, and is also true of products (think wine appellations).
The aim is quality assurance, and it's certainly true the skilled tradesmen in France have much more formal training and are more closely regulated than their counterparts in the UK. It's much harder to be a cowboy, unless you operate in the grey economy.
That can be positive for the customer but it also brings problems: lack of choice and competition, idees fixes, producer-centric attitudes. A sort of 2-tier system where anyone not formally qualified is seen as little more than a petit bricoleur. All the result of a system that creates regulatory oligopoly.
The Anglo Saxon approach is more free-market and unregulated. But of course unregulated systems create monopolies and oligopolies too through force of money. Hence we get Oxbridge and the Ivy League. Informal closed shops rather than formal ones. But still easier to break into than the French official closed shops.
The US, by that standard, is French rather than Anglo Saxon. For example, you can't cut someone's nails without the right license.
Land of the free. Someone should write a song about that. America is the land of free enterprise except even that is misleading. As you say, everything is licensed, with minor variations between states. But also the sheer size of the place means that local or regional monopolies can prosper, untroubled by competition (even more so in the pre-web era). If you own a furniture warehouse or used car dealership, there's a difference between having your nearest rival 50 miles away and being able to wave at them across the road.
The "it was posher not to have Sky" takes are thoroughly dumb. No, your parents just weren't in to watching live sport.
It also moves towards attacking his parents for being 'snobs' etc which is not on Attack the guy on his record, not this nonsense
It's a pertinent point though, not as an attack line but simply a social comment. Having Sky in the 80s and 90s was definitely non-U. Reminds me of when Ian Hislop said on HIGNFY "in my household we didn't have an ITV button".
With a full ballot prompt, we are seeing the initial effects of tactical voting. Asked the direct question. a plurality say they would"
"Would you or would you not vote for a party that was not your first choice in order to stop a party that you dislike from winning?"
Would - 45% Would not - 43% Don’t know - 12%
45% are prepared to vote for a party which is not their first choice, if it meant denying a party they did not like from winning. We see evidence of this in the voting intention figures too, where 38% of 2019 Lib Dem voters say they intend to vote Labour, as do 9% of Green voters. 6% of Labour 2019 voters say they will vote Green, 5% for the Lib Dems.
It’s time to talk TV (tactical vote, not vests for tarantula’s)
I tried it last night, and intelligent PBers Ben Farooq just took the piss. But as a betting site, the impact of TV on both seats and eventual proportional of vote (PV) once all votes counted, can be huge.
TV normally happens when you are best placed to get the Tory out.
Labour are the biggest TV winners. Any bet on them getting less than 43% PV is a wasted bet once you factor in TV. Labour will get TV from Lib Dem’s, Greens and Reform. Lib Dem’s can get up to 15% PV or more with TV from Labour and the Greens. Greens get TV from no one. They get squeezed. Tories might get a bit of TV from Labour in Scotland? more than Labour get TV from the Tories in Scotland?
I would be amazed if any of these people ever account for their multiple crimes. It is the little people who suffer judicial retribution not those further up the chain
Yes, and this formed a significant part of the correspondence which I cut out, partly for reasons of length but also because I don't want Mike getting sued. Nevertheless I can express a strictly personal opinion on who is likely to be charged. Ms C's concern about delay leading effectively to exoneration is expressed above. I am cynical. She is more so. Yet I still hope to see charges in my lifetime.
In my opinion, and nobody else's, I think charges could very easily be lodged now against Gareth Jenkins, Paula Vennells, Angela van den Bogerd, Alice Perkins and Tim Parker. None of these are little people.
You could with some justification charge the entire Investigation Team, which numbered close on a hundred at one stage. They all deserve it, but it would make more sense to go for their head, John Scott, the former police officer who somehow forgot to mention that part of his career when submitting his CV to the Inquiry. I think he is very likely to get done.
Most of the lawyers, internal and external, should also get done, but they are too numerous to name. They include some very big fish indeed - for example, Brian Altman, and both yesterday's guests at the Inquiry, Tony Robinson and Lord Grabiner.
When I lived in Sussex in the early '90s, I certainly remember a lot of snobbery against Sky satellite dishes. "That new family have moved into the village and are ruining the look of things with that awful Sky dish."
Excellent header; thanks. The repeated comment that I hear is that Britain's 'going to the dogs'. Or words to that effect. Now that may be partly due to my age, but as most of the people with whom I mix are generally optimistic types, I don't think so. Part of it is the ability of the Press to get "News" to everyone very rapidly. It's said that Good News travels fast, but in my experience Bad News travels even faster!
True. Some things are getting worse in meaningful and measurable ways though - NHS and criminal justice system come to mind. And, unusually, the country doesn't really feel better off than in, say, 2010. Individual people often are - career progression etc - but comparable roles are probably not, particularly considering housing costs.
Good article, thanks Peter & Cycle. Depressing though - I have this recurring feeling nowadays that we are living during the period that will come to be known as the Fall of the West.
In some ways it's a blessing Mrs P. and I have no children, grandchildren etc. when I think of the prospect today's children are facing.
(Then again - I bet every generation has had similar thoughts at times, so cheer up BenPointer!)
It can be depressing, Ben. I have noticed the change in standards of administration and integrity in my lifetime, particularly in recent.
It is a problem, and it transcends party politics. Tough one for succeeding generations, I agree.
Any thoughts as to when the rot began ?
I have a theory that it was the fall of Soviet communism which began the change as those at the top now thought that history had ended, there were no more threats and they could do as they wanted.
I think it began with the Beveridge report, actually.
It led to, in Jay's words, the belief 'the man in Whitehall really does know best.'
In this they were wrong, because most of them had limited life experience and being trained in an Oxbridge system that prized rhetoric above in depth analysis lacked the intellectual curiosity or personal humility to note their own ignorance and correct it.
But that arrogance is responsible for many disasters. Including the Post Office, indeed, because they thought they knew better than the people working the system and all the evidence to the contrary had to be ruthlessly suppressed.
The tragedy is in many cases they mean well. (Not necessarily at the PO.)
How many of the PO leadership were Oxbridge ?
Paula Vennells was University of Bradford Adam Crozier was Heriot-Watt
Though TBF many of the ministers who, as PtP points, out failed to take sufficient interest in the business they controlled were indeed Oxbridge.
Ed Davey went to Oxford.
You know, people say to me "the LibDems are not ready for government", and I say "look at Ed Davey": he's perfectly capable of fucking up every bit as badly as a Labour or Conservative minister.
You largely have Ed Davey to thank for the fact we have the highest wind power grid contribution in Europe, though.
In that London for the day. Look: warm and blue skies! Also look: The ugliness of London's most important station is incomprehensible!
You've posted the wrong image, you wanted to post a picture of St Pancras station.
When I first took my wife to London, we had several transport options but in the end I went with arriving at St. Pancras.
Because of course you would, the place is absolutely stunning as opposed to the concrete monstrosities that pass for stations on either side of it.
Point of Order: King’s Cross is really nice now as well, they’ve junked all the crap at the front, added a modernist canopy which actually works and impresses - it links neatly to St Pancras
Possibly the best station complex in Europe or even the world
Next best terminals in london in order
Paddington Marylebone (it’s kinda cute) London Bridge (also much improved) Liverpool Street Charing X Victoria Waterloo
And way way way way down at the bottom
Euston
Are you high?
London Bridge may be "much improved", but it's still a total mess and only someone completely divorced from reality would regard it as better than ... say ... Waterloo.
I love the whole Dickensian steampunk feel of London Bridge and the area around it - Borough market and the shard. That’s part of it
Victoria and Waterloo are boring or dismal in comparison. Also Waterloo is in south london so fuck that
In answer to @Anabobazina I’m not sure I’ve ever even been to fenchurch street. So I dunno. I vaguely remember a function at some poshed up hotel. The great eastern? Something like that?
The "it was posher not to have Sky" takes are thoroughly dumb. No, your parents just weren't in to watching live sport.
It also moves towards attacking his parents for being 'snobs' etc which is not on Attack the guy on his record, not this nonsense
It's a pertinent point though, not as an attack line but simply a social comment. Having Sky in the 80s and 90s was definitely non-U. Reminds me of when Ian Hislop said on HIGNFY "in my household we didn't have an ITV button".
Yep, point taken, although i think there are a lot more factors that come into it. The WC/Sky thing was, I think, also a slightly later phenomena/social comment - a late 90s thing
In that London for the day. Look: warm and blue skies! Also look: The ugliness of London's most important station is incomprehensible!
You've posted the wrong image, you wanted to post a picture of St Pancras station.
When I first took my wife to London, we had several transport options but in the end I went with arriving at St. Pancras.
Because of course you would, the place is absolutely stunning as opposed to the concrete monstrosities that pass for stations on either side of it.
Point of Order: King’s Cross is really nice now as well, they’ve junked all the crap at the front, added a modernist canopy which actually works and impresses - it links neatly to St Pancras
Possibly the best station complex in Europe or even the world
Next best terminals in london in order
Paddington Marylebone (it’s kinda cute) London Bridge (also much improved) Liverpool Street Charing X Victoria Waterloo
And way way way way down at the bottom
Euston
Are you high?
London Bridge may be "much improved", but it's still a total mess and only someone completely divorced from reality would regard it as better than ... say ... Waterloo.
I love the whole Dickensian steampunk feel of London Bridge and the area around it - Borough market and the shard. That’s part of it
Victoria and Waterloo are boring or dismal in comparison. Also Waterloo is in south london so fuck that
In answer to @Anabobazina I’m not sure I’ve ever even been to fenchurch street. So I dunno. I vaguely remember a function at some poshed up hotel. The great eastern? Something like that?
The (repro) Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross The (main, corner) entrance to Waterloo The view of the Shard once you exit London Bridge The cosiness of Marylebone The unexpectedly good experience of the bar on the platform at St. Pancras The sense of anticipation of another Cheltenham Festival at Paddington The sheer everydayness of Fenchurch Street
But Euston best of all with this (previously posted) in front:
Whilst everyone focused on Labour's 38%, Cons 18% and Reform 17% YouGov shares we may have overlooked the Green-LD share of 23% which is an outlier.
I mean it may be right not an outlier but 23% to LibDem-Green is iirc higher than any other poll this parliament by a country mile.
There's something not quite right about that poll
No, this was widely said last evening as soon as it came out even by those who liked what they saw.
Once we get past all the manifesto launches (or lunches) we should get a better idea of where public opinion is - I suspect the weekend polls and the Monday Redfield & Wilton will be informative.
The Secret Barrister made the point that somebody sexually assaulted today is likely to see the trial for that assault take place in 2029.
That's not good for anybody.
So many public services similarly trashed. Can anyone see an answer without additional spending and thus increased tax?
I don't think this is a problem money can solve. The Tories have been hosing money at stuff (particularly the NHS) without any perceptable improvement.
The reality is that we've been living wildly above our means for ages, and that we're now trapped under a mountain of debt created by this; after all the tax rises this Parliament, we're quite close to running a primary surplus, but the debt payments are crippling. There is very little scope to increase the tax take further, although there is scope to rebalance the tax system to be less logical.
It's a mess, the only possible long-term solution is cutting government tax and spending to get growth back, but that is going to involve slaying some very sacred cows.
The only chance of cutting tax and spending is the re election of a Sunak Tory government.
A landslide majority for Starmer Labour will almost certainly see taxes increase and gradually increase spending then further too
Yes, because the Triple Lock has done nothing to increase taxes on workers.
Errr.
Quite
A record high level of taxation on working people
No. direct tax burden has come down on working people since 2010, thanks to Conservatives targeting the rich with direct tax changes and Band Freeze Stealth.
Though Rishi has been taking more tax from the over 65’s than any other politician. He has an appalling record on taxing the over 65’s, but it looks like Sunak has successfully conned the codgers into seeing it otherwise.
The "it was posher not to have Sky" takes are thoroughly dumb. No, your parents just weren't in to watching live sport.
It was a thing where I grew up. When Virgin's predecessor put cable TV in the streets near us I knew several wealthier families who subscribed but who had not had Sky due to not wanting a satellite dish.
In the Yorkshireman* stakes, I remember us having black and white TV in, I guess, late 80s. We got a TV with a remote control by inheriting my gran's in 1993 and the VCR didn't arrive until after 1998 in may parents' house. DVD player in 2004 (I bought it for them).
*actually Essexman
It absolutely was a thing at the time. I remember the old joke, "Q: what do you call the little box that comes with every sky dish?" "A: A council house..."
Same as how really posh families when I was growing up usually had the world's tiniest, oldest telly, often hidden away in the most ramshackle room in the house rather than front and centre in the living room, or fitted into a cabinet so as not to be on display all the time.
The other way to read this answer is that if every family works hard and sacrifices luxuries they can send their kids to Winchester.
And if they don’t, they’re not making their children‘s education “a priority”.
See, that's exactly my childhood.
Plus my father was convinced getting Sky would impact my grades.
Fortunately we got Sky when I aced my GCSEs.
Wait. You had TV? Luxury.
Growing up, we had three TVs.
I've never had sky (apart from a shared house I lived in where, due to some administrative snafu, we had free cable for a couple of years), and I don't think I've missed out on anything really - I'm not a sports fan - other than the Simpsons in the 90s before Channel 4 got it.
Whenever I've flicked through someone's sky when I've been at their house it always seems to be gazillions of channels of garbage. Even the history channels - and I love history - are rubbish.
I can understand why we have the licence fee, because it funds the BBC and everything it does including radio, etc, etc, and I'm happy to pay for it and not have to watch adverts. I know many aren't fans of the BBC and the 'tax', but I am, despite it not being perfect by any means. We don't appreciate how lucky we are to have it, IMHO.
I understand why the commercial channels have adverts - that's the price to pay of watching it 'free'.
But I could never understand why people had to pay for sky, yet still had to wade through tons of adverts. Why would you pay to watch advertising?
Sky always seemed fairly downmarket and disreputable to me, hence the horribly classist joke that went around my primary school in the mid 90s:
Q: What's the name of the wee box at the back of a satellite dish? A: A council house.
I knew of only one friend who had satellite when I was growing up, and clearly remember watching MTV with her for the first time in about 1997 and being absolutely fascinated by how weirdly terrible it was. Moustachioed Belgian VJs playing ancient grunge and hair metal interspersed with clips from Das Berlin Loveparade and ten minute adverts for 6 CD sets of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra playing the hits of The Eagles.
I would be amazed if any of these people ever account for their multiple crimes. It is the little people who suffer judicial retribution not those further up the chain
Yes, and this formed a significant part of the correspondence which I cut out, partly for reasons of length but also because I don't want Mike getting sued. Nevertheless I can express a strictly personal opinion on who is likely to be charged. Ms C's concern about delay leading effectively to exoneration is expressed above. I am cynical. She is more so. Yet I still hope to see charges in my lifetime.
In my opinion, and nobody else's, I think charges could very easily be lodged now against Gareth Jenkins, Paula Vennells, Angela van den Bogerd, Alice Perkins and Tim Parker. None of these are little people.
You could with some justification charge the entire Investigation Team, which numbered close on a hundred at one stage. They all deserve it, but it would make more sense to go for their head, John Scott, the former police officer who somehow forgot to mention that part of his career when submitting his CV to the Inquiry. I think he is very likely to get done.
Most of the lawyers, internal and external, should also get done, but they are too numerous to name. They include some very big fish indeed - for example, Brian Altman, and both yesterday's guests at the Inquiry, Tony Robinson and Lord Grabiner.
Tim Parker and Alice Perkins both went to Oxford University.
Good article, thanks Peter & Cycle. Depressing though - I have this recurring feeling nowadays that we are living during the period that will come to be known as the Fall of the West.
In some ways it's a blessing Mrs P. and I have no children, grandchildren etc. when I think of the prospect today's children are facing.
(Then again - I bet every generation has had similar thoughts at times, so cheer up BenPointer!)
It can be depressing, Ben. I have noticed the change in standards of administration and integrity in my lifetime, particularly in recent.
It is a problem, and it transcends party politics. Tough one for succeeding generations, I agree.
Any thoughts as to when the rot began ?
I have a theory that it was the fall of Soviet communism which began the change as those at the top now thought that history had ended, there were no more threats and they could do as they wanted.
I think it began with the Beveridge report, actually.
It led to, in Jay's words, the belief 'the man in Whitehall really does know best.'
In this they were wrong, because most of them had limited life experience and being trained in an Oxbridge system that prized rhetoric above in depth analysis lacked the intellectual curiosity or personal humility to note their own ignorance and correct it.
But that arrogance is responsible for many disasters. Including the Post Office, indeed, because they thought they knew better than the people working the system and all the evidence to the contrary had to be ruthlessly suppressed.
The tragedy is in many cases they mean well. (Not necessarily at the PO.)
How many of the PO leadership were Oxbridge ?
Paula Vennells was University of Bradford Adam Crozier was Heriot-Watt
Though TBF many of the ministers who, as PtP points, out failed to take sufficient interest in the business they controlled were indeed Oxbridge.
Ed Davey went to Oxford.
You know, people say to me "the LibDems are not ready for government", and I say "look at Ed Davey": he's perfectly capable of fucking up every bit as badly as a Labour or Conservative minister.
You largely have Ed Davey to thank for the fact we have the highest wind power grid contribution in Europe, though.
Errrr: Denmark and Portugal say hello.
They generate a greater percentage of their domestic demand through wind... but that's because they are much smaller countries. Tim is correct in terms of terawatt hours.
Not sure “don’t give Labour a big majority” is the greatest play from the Tories.
Entirely possible if people are worried about a big Labour majority AND want the Tories out that they swing behind other alternatives e.g Lib Dems and REFUK.
In that London for the day. Look: warm and blue skies! Also look: The ugliness of London's most important station is incomprehensible!
You've posted the wrong image, you wanted to post a picture of St Pancras station.
When I first took my wife to London, we had several transport options but in the end I went with arriving at St. Pancras.
Because of course you would, the place is absolutely stunning as opposed to the concrete monstrosities that pass for stations on either side of it.
Point of Order: King’s Cross is really nice now as well, they’ve junked all the crap at the front, added a modernist canopy which actually works and impresses - it links neatly to St Pancras
Possibly the best station complex in Europe or even the world
Next best terminals in london in order
Paddington Marylebone (it’s kinda cute) London Bridge (also much improved) Liverpool Street Charing X Victoria Waterloo
And way way way way down at the bottom
Euston
Are you high?
London Bridge may be "much improved", but it's still a total mess and only someone completely divorced from reality would regard it as better than ... say ... Waterloo.
I love the whole Dickensian steampunk feel of London Bridge and the area around it - Borough market and the shard. That’s part of it
Victoria and Waterloo are boring or dismal in comparison. Also Waterloo is in south london so fuck that
In answer to @Anabobazina I’m not sure I’ve ever even been to fenchurch street. So I dunno. I vaguely remember a function at some poshed up hotel. The great eastern? Something like that?
The "it was posher not to have Sky" takes are thoroughly dumb. No, your parents just weren't in to watching live sport.
It also moves towards attacking his parents for being 'snobs' etc which is not on Attack the guy on his record, not this nonsense
It's a pertinent point though, not as an attack line but simply a social comment. Having Sky in the 80s and 90s was definitely non-U. Reminds me of when Ian Hislop said on HIGNFY "in my household we didn't have an ITV button".
How old is Ian? We didn't have an ITV button either. Families had to choose whether to watch BBC or ITV and you could not change your mind. The reason is there were no buttons on pre-1970s television sets. You had to change channel by turning a dial and it was a right PITA and often might involve moving the aerial too. So mainly you avoided changing channels. My parents chose BBC, my grandparents just up the road watched ITV.
Of course, Ian was making a joke, part of his HIGNFY role as Oxbridge-educated posho as opposed to Paul Merton's working class roots, but there will have been a degree of truth in it. (There's a similar social dynamic, exaggerated for comic effect, with David and Lee on WILTY, come to think of it.)
Good article, thanks Peter & Cycle. Depressing though - I have this recurring feeling nowadays that we are living during the period that will come to be known as the Fall of the West.
In some ways it's a blessing Mrs P. and I have no children, grandchildren etc. when I think of the prospect today's children are facing.
(Then again - I bet every generation has had similar thoughts at times, so cheer up BenPointer!)
It can be depressing, Ben. I have noticed the change in standards of administration and integrity in my lifetime, particularly in recent.
It is a problem, and it transcends party politics. Tough one for succeeding generations, I agree.
Any thoughts as to when the rot began ?
I have a theory that it was the fall of Soviet communism which began the change as those at the top now thought that history had ended, there were no more threats and they could do as they wanted.
I think it began with the Beveridge report, actually.
It led to, in Jay's words, the belief 'the man in Whitehall really does know best.'
In this they were wrong, because most of them had limited life experience and being trained in an Oxbridge system that prized rhetoric above in depth analysis lacked the intellectual curiosity or personal humility to note their own ignorance and correct it.
But that arrogance is responsible for many disasters. Including the Post Office, indeed, because they thought they knew better than the people working the system and all the evidence to the contrary had to be ruthlessly suppressed.
The tragedy is in many cases they mean well. (Not necessarily at the PO.)
How many of the PO leadership were Oxbridge ?
Paula Vennells was University of Bradford Adam Crozier was Heriot-Watt
Though TBF many of the ministers who, as PtP points, out failed to take sufficient interest in the business they controlled were indeed Oxbridge.
The (repro) Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross The (main, corner) entrance to Waterloo The view of the Shard once you exit London Bridge The cosiness of Marylebone The unexpectedly good experience of the bar on the platform at St. Pancras The sense of anticipation of another Cheltenham Festival at Paddington The sheer everydayness of Fenchurch Street
But Euston best of all with this (previously posted) in front:
The only one I know is King's Cross, and arrival there heralds the start of a fun weekend or a busy week meeting people from the London office. A unifying experience for everyone who lives on the glorious ECML.
Not sure “don’t give Labour a big majority” is the greatest play from the Tories.
Entirely possible if people are worried about a big Labour majority AND want the Tories out that they swing behind other alternatives e.g Lib Dems and REFUK.
True but they're talking directly to their core now. It's the get as close to 30% as possible and pray strategy
Good article, thanks Peter & Cycle. Depressing though - I have this recurring feeling nowadays that we are living during the period that will come to be known as the Fall of the West.
In some ways it's a blessing Mrs P. and I have no children, grandchildren etc. when I think of the prospect today's children are facing.
(Then again - I bet every generation has had similar thoughts at times, so cheer up BenPointer!)
It can be depressing, Ben. I have noticed the change in standards of administration and integrity in my lifetime, particularly in recent.
It is a problem, and it transcends party politics. Tough one for succeeding generations, I agree.
Any thoughts as to when the rot began ?
I have a theory that it was the fall of Soviet communism which began the change as those at the top now thought that history had ended, there were no more threats and they could do as they wanted.
I think it began with the Beveridge report, actually.
It led to, in Jay's words, the belief 'the man in Whitehall really does know best.'
In this they were wrong, because most of them had limited life experience and being trained in an Oxbridge system that prized rhetoric above in depth analysis lacked the intellectual curiosity or personal humility to note their own ignorance and correct it.
But that arrogance is responsible for many disasters. Including the Post Office, indeed, because they thought they knew better than the people working the system and all the evidence to the contrary had to be ruthlessly suppressed.
The tragedy is in many cases they mean well. (Not necessarily at the PO.)
How many of the PO leadership were Oxbridge ?
Paula Vennells was University of Bradford Adam Crozier was Heriot-Watt
Though TBF many of the ministers who, as PtP points, out failed to take sufficient interest in the business they controlled were indeed Oxbridge.
Ed Davey went to Oxford.
You know, people say to me "the LibDems are not ready for government", and I say "look at Ed Davey": he's perfectly capable of fucking up every bit as badly as a Labour or Conservative minister.
You largely have Ed Davey to thank for the fact we have the highest wind power grid contribution in Europe, though.
Errrr: Denmark and Portugal say hello.
They generate a greater percentage of their domestic demand through wind... but that's because they are much smaller countries. Tim is correct in terms of terawatt hours.
EDIT: Although I think Germany beats us.
Damn it, you edited your piece after I hit respond.
The (repro) Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross The (main, corner) entrance to Waterloo The view of the Shard once you exit London Bridge The cosiness of Marylebone The unexpectedly good experience of the bar on the platform at St. Pancras The sense of anticipation of another Cheltenham Festival at Paddington The sheer everydayness of Fenchurch Street
But Euston best of all with this (previously posted) in front:
I love Marylebone because it’s cute and small and also 10 minutes from my flat. Or a lovely walk across Regent’s Park. And I can jump on a train and be deep in the Chilterns in 40 minutes. Amazing
I used to do that with my older daughter - we’d go for spontaneous picnics on lovely summer days, before southern England got the climate of anchorage, Alaska
Good article, thanks Peter & Cycle. Depressing though - I have this recurring feeling nowadays that we are living during the period that will come to be known as the Fall of the West.
In some ways it's a blessing Mrs P. and I have no children, grandchildren etc. when I think of the prospect today's children are facing.
(Then again - I bet every generation has had similar thoughts at times, so cheer up BenPointer!)
It can be depressing, Ben. I have noticed the change in standards of administration and integrity in my lifetime, particularly in recent.
It is a problem, and it transcends party politics. Tough one for succeeding generations, I agree.
Any thoughts as to when the rot began ?
I have a theory that it was the fall of Soviet communism which began the change as those at the top now thought that history had ended, there were no more threats and they could do as they wanted.
I think it began with the Beveridge report, actually.
It led to, in Jay's words, the belief 'the man in Whitehall really does know best.'
In this they were wrong, because most of them had limited life experience and being trained in an Oxbridge system that prized rhetoric above in depth analysis lacked the intellectual curiosity or personal humility to note their own ignorance and correct it.
But that arrogance is responsible for many disasters. Including the Post Office, indeed, because they thought they knew better than the people working the system and all the evidence to the contrary had to be ruthlessly suppressed.
The tragedy is in many cases they mean well. (Not necessarily at the PO.)
How many of the PO leadership were Oxbridge ?
Paula Vennells was University of Bradford Adam Crozier was Heriot-Watt
Though TBF many of the ministers who, as PtP points, out failed to take sufficient interest in the business they controlled were indeed Oxbridge.
Excellent header; thanks. The repeated comment that I hear is that Britain's 'going to the dogs'. Or words to that effect. Now that may be partly due to my age, but as most of the people with whom I mix are generally optimistic types, I don't think so. Part of it is the ability of the Press to get "News" to everyone very rapidly. It's said that Good News travels fast, but in my experience Bad News travels even faster!
True. Some things are getting worse in meaningful and measurable ways though - NHS and criminal justice system come to mind. And, unusually, the country doesn't really feel better off than in, say, 2010. Individual people often are - career progression etc - but comparable roles are probably not, particularly considering housing costs.
@OldKingCole You also might like, if you have not read it, Factfulness, which covers the many ways in which the world has improved greatly during e.g. your lifetime. Justly criticised for glossing over the ways in which the world is getting worse, but it's hard to argue with the central message of the successes the world has seen.
In that London for the day. Look: warm and blue skies! Also look: The ugliness of London's most important station is incomprehensible!
You've posted the wrong image, you wanted to post a picture of St Pancras station.
When I first took my wife to London, we had several transport options but in the end I went with arriving at St. Pancras.
Because of course you would, the place is absolutely stunning as opposed to the concrete monstrosities that pass for stations on either side of it.
Point of Order: King’s Cross is really nice now as well, they’ve junked all the crap at the front, added a modernist canopy which actually works and impresses - it links neatly to St Pancras
Possibly the best station complex in Europe or even the world
Next best terminals in london in order
Paddington Marylebone (it’s kinda cute) London Bridge (also much improved) Liverpool Street Charing X Victoria Waterloo
And way way way way down at the bottom
Euston
Are you high?
London Bridge may be "much improved", but it's still a total mess and only someone completely divorced from reality would regard it as better than ... say ... Waterloo.
I love the whole Dickensian steampunk feel of London Bridge and the area around it - Borough market and the shard. That’s part of it
Victoria and Waterloo are boring or dismal in comparison. Also Waterloo is in south london so fuck that
In answer to @Anabobazina I’m not sure I’ve ever even been to fenchurch street. So I dunno. I vaguely remember a function at some poshed up hotel. The great eastern? Something like that?
The area around it is not the station.
You’ll never be a “personality hire”
It's a good thing you don't work in a career where accuracy is a requirement.
My parents rented a new colour TV in the early 80s
They delivered the wrong one by mistake, and so we had CEEFAX, for a whole week until the rental company figured out the mistake
Kids today.
They haven't lived until they've watched a football match on CEEFAX.
I remember watching F1 races on Ceefex in the late ‘80s, seeing the lap chart refresh every couple of minutes and seeing who’d overtaken or retired!
Now we have every session of the whole weekend shown live, plus about six hours of magazine shows and another six hours of support races.
No F1 this weekend, so will be watching the 24h from Le Mans instead.
Does anyone watch anything live on TV any more, apart from sports and the occasional political debate?
Those were the days.
Live TV only happens for sport in this household (and the bit of breaking news).
My kids think I am lying to them when I tell them when I was their age there were about 12 league games shown live per season.
Yet Premier League football is just about the only professional sport where there are still matches that don’t get televised live.
Unless you live abroad, or have an internet. An anomoly that I’m amazed they haven’t yet fixed.
It doesn't need fixing. The blackout isn't going anywhere and rightly so. And ending Premier League 3pm kick offs isn't happening either.
It absolutely needs fixing. In this day and age the idea you can only watch the game live is via piracy just feeds piracy.
Pandora's box has been opened, the blackout doesn't exist anymore, you can't prevent people watching the games live if they have access to the internet - so all it does is make people do so illegally.
The experience of watching a dodgy stream two minutes behind live in French on Congolese telly is rather different to sitting back to watch live in UHD with Kelly Cates.
Excellent header; thanks. The repeated comment that I hear is that Britain's 'going to the dogs'. Or words to that effect. Now that may be partly due to my age, but as most of the people with whom I mix are generally optimistic types, I don't think so. Part of it is the ability of the Press to get "News" to everyone very rapidly. It's said that Good News travels fast, but in my experience Bad News travels even faster!
True. Some things are getting worse in meaningful and measurable ways though - NHS and criminal justice system come to mind. And, unusually, the country doesn't really feel better off than in, say, 2010. Individual people often are - career progression etc - but comparable roles are probably not, particularly considering housing costs.
@OldKingCole You also might like, if you have not read it, Factfulness, which covers the many ways in which the world has improved greatly during e.g. your lifetime. Justly criticised for glossing over the ways in which the world is getting worse, but it's hard to argue with the central message of the successes the world has seen.
The Hans Rosling video on the "population time bomb" is a must see for - say - Sandy Rentool.
The (repro) Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross The (main, corner) entrance to Waterloo The view of the Shard once you exit London Bridge The cosiness of Marylebone The unexpectedly good experience of the bar on the platform at St. Pancras The sense of anticipation of another Cheltenham Festival at Paddington The sheer everydayness of Fenchurch Street
But Euston best of all with this (previously posted) in front:
The only one I know is King's Cross, and arrival there heralds the start of a fun weekend or a busy week meeting people from the London office. A unifying experience for everyone who lives on the glorious ECML.
King's Cross as Leon notes is much improved although they have now made permanent the scam stalls outside selling factory-produced Chelsea buns and sweets, with the odd artisanal but boring cheese stall, and whatnot which is most likely some Albanian gangster front.
Good article, thanks Peter & Cycle. Depressing though - I have this recurring feeling nowadays that we are living during the period that will come to be known as the Fall of the West.
In some ways it's a blessing Mrs P. and I have no children, grandchildren etc. when I think of the prospect today's children are facing.
(Then again - I bet every generation has had similar thoughts at times, so cheer up BenPointer!)
It can be depressing, Ben. I have noticed the change in standards of administration and integrity in my lifetime, particularly in recent.
It is a problem, and it transcends party politics. Tough one for succeeding generations, I agree.
Any thoughts as to when the rot began ?
I have a theory that it was the fall of Soviet communism which began the change as those at the top now thought that history had ended, there were no more threats and they could do as they wanted.
I think it began with the Beveridge report, actually.
It led to, in Jay's words, the belief 'the man in Whitehall really does know best.'
In this they were wrong, because most of them had limited life experience and being trained in an Oxbridge system that prized rhetoric above in depth analysis lacked the intellectual curiosity or personal humility to note their own ignorance and correct it.
But that arrogance is responsible for many disasters. Including the Post Office, indeed, because they thought they knew better than the people working the system and all the evidence to the contrary had to be ruthlessly suppressed.
The tragedy is in many cases they mean well. (Not necessarily at the PO.)
How many of the PO leadership were Oxbridge ?
Paula Vennells was University of Bradford Adam Crozier was Heriot-Watt
Though TBF many of the ministers who, as PtP points, out failed to take sufficient interest in the business they controlled were indeed Oxbridge.
Ed Davey went to Oxford.
You know, people say to me "the LibDems are not ready for government", and I say "look at Ed Davey": he's perfectly capable of fucking up every bit as badly as a Labour or Conservative minister.
You largely have Ed Davey to thank for the fact we have the highest wind power grid contribution in Europe, though.
Errrr: Denmark and Portugal say hello.
They generate a greater percentage of their domestic demand through wind... but that's because they are much smaller countries. Tim is correct in terms of terawatt hours.
EDIT: Although I think Germany beats us.
Damn it, you edited your piece after I hit respond.
Fair dos. I was probably thinking of the offshore wind stats where we're way out in front. The moratorium on onshore has dragged things in recent years.
Few seem to appreciate that this scandal, the blood contamination case, the Andy Malkinson case (and other similar ones), the endless NHS and Police scandals are all symptomatic of a shredded administrative and political class lacking in competence, integrity and either the ability to admit to or willingness to correct mistakes.
I found myself in disagreement with this paragraph.
But only because you forgot to mention education...
Do we need a British ENA, where instead of filling the national administration and top echelons of the civil service with people who have Mickey Mouse degrees such as PPE and Classics from Oxbridge we educate waves of competent students in a suitable mix of economics, law, politics, planning, business studies, sociology and most vitally ethics.
Give a large cadre of students the chance to get a degree that fast tracks them to the civil service or local government where they have been taught about what makes a country tick, what all the parts do, where tax revenue is made and how. Teach them about the benefits system and the justice system so they understand how it “works” and then they can properly think constructively about how it might be improved.
It can then be a badge where, when they are standing for election, they can show they actually have been taught about what they intend to do, a sort of electoral British Kite Mark.
That sounds great - the French system - but government by Enarques (eg Manny Macron) has led France to the brink of a Far Right government
Perhaps that is why Macron scrapped the ENA
Who says my long term goal with a British ENa isn’t to lead us to a far right government?
Only joking.
There were problems with the ENA in that it was quite socially rarefied and had the same domination as Oxbridge in the UK whereas I would want the British one to be a degree course, rather than a place, on offer at multiple universities around the UK to increase the breadth of applicants and product.
If it was solely in London like ENA in Paris then the cost of being a student in London would put off a lot of people whereas if it was on offer in universities in all the main Cities and big towns, and maybe it’s own blind entrance exam, then it could work.
I think the issue with EBA (and other grandes ecoles in France) is not so much the socially rarefied atmosphere but rather the typically French economic structure that harks back to the guilds and closed shops of the middle ages.
Just about every sector in France is protected by either regulatory or qualification barriers to entry. It's as true with plumbers or carpenters or waiters as it is with politicians or CEOs, and is also true of products (think wine appellations).
The aim is quality assurance, and it's certainly true the skilled tradesmen in France have much more formal training and are more closely regulated than their counterparts in the UK. It's much harder to be a cowboy, unless you operate in the grey economy.
That can be positive for the customer but it also brings problems: lack of choice and competition, idees fixes, producer-centric attitudes. A sort of 2-tier system where anyone not formally qualified is seen as little more than a petit bricoleur. All the result of a system that creates regulatory oligopoly.
The Anglo Saxon approach is more free-market and unregulated. But of course unregulated systems create monopolies and oligopolies too through force of money. Hence we get Oxbridge and the Ivy League. Informal closed shops rather than formal ones. But still easier to break into than the French official closed shops.
I am sure Cyclefree prefers the French system, regulate the cowboys out of existence. Plus also then add on jail anybody who has ever made or advised a wrong call in any organisation
I and others are trying to encourage her to write a book which pulls together all the threads that are common to the major scandals with which we have become wearingly familiar - the PO, Infected Blood, Andy Malkinson etc. We tend to think of these as separate, contained in their individual silos with lessons 'being learned' through vertical dissemination of procedural issues, whereas what is needed is horizontal integration of those common themes so that we can see how and why so many of these great scandals have so much in common. Then we may be actually see some progress being made.
It needn't be a lengthy tome if it focuses on the common threads. As far as I am aware, nobody has attempted this to date. Nobody in Government even talks about it.
Anybody on PB who helps to put more wind in her sails will be doing a good thing.
My parents rented a new colour TV in the early 80s
They delivered the wrong one by mistake, and so we had CEEFAX, for a whole week until the rental company figured out the mistake
Kids today.
They haven't lived until they've watched a football match on CEEFAX.
I remember watching F1 races on Ceefex in the late ‘80s, seeing the lap chart refresh every couple of minutes and seeing who’d overtaken or retired!
Now we have every session of the whole weekend shown live, plus about six hours of magazine shows and another six hours of support races.
No F1 this weekend, so will be watching the 24h from Le Mans instead.
Does anyone watch anything live on TV any more, apart from sports and the occasional political debate?
Those were the days.
Live TV only happens for sport in this household (and the bit of breaking news).
My kids think I am lying to them when I tell them when I was their age there were about 12 league games shown live per season.
Yet Premier League football is just about the only professional sport where there are still matches that don’t get televised live.
Unless you live abroad, or have an internet. An anomoly that I’m amazed they haven’t yet fixed.
It doesn't need fixing. The blackout isn't going anywhere and rightly so. And ending Premier League 3pm kick offs isn't happening either.
It absolutely needs fixing. In this day and age the idea you can only watch the game live is via piracy just feeds piracy.
Pandora's box has been opened, the blackout doesn't exist anymore, you can't prevent people watching the games live if they have access to the internet - so all it does is make people do so illegally.
The experience of watching a dodgy stream two minutes behind live in French on Congolese telly is rather different to sitting back to watch live in UHD with Kelly Cates.
Which is why if the authentic live viewing were available for a fee then people will pay for it.
But if the choice is between viewing it illegally or not viewing it at all, then unsurprisingly a significant chunk of the population chooses the former - and why should they not?
Trying to pretend the internet doesn't exist doesn't make it so.
My parents rented a new colour TV in the early 80s
They delivered the wrong one by mistake, and so we had CEEFAX, for a whole week until the rental company figured out the mistake
Kids today.
They haven't lived until they've watched a football match on CEEFAX.
I remember watching F1 races on Ceefex in the late ‘80s, seeing the lap chart refresh every couple of minutes and seeing who’d overtaken or retired!
Now we have every session of the whole weekend shown live, plus about six hours of magazine shows and another six hours of support races.
No F1 this weekend, so will be watching the 24h from Le Mans instead.
Does anyone watch anything live on TV any more, apart from sports and the occasional political debate?
Those were the days.
Live TV only happens for sport in this household (and the bit of breaking news).
My kids think I am lying to them when I tell them when I was their age there were about 12 league games shown live per season.
Yet Premier League football is just about the only professional sport where there are still matches that don’t get televised live.
Unless you live abroad, or have an internet. An anomoly that I’m amazed they haven’t yet fixed.
It doesn't need fixing. The blackout isn't going anywhere and rightly so. And ending Premier League 3pm kick offs isn't happening either.
It absolutely needs fixing. In this day and age the idea you can only watch the game live is via piracy just feeds piracy.
Pandora's box has been opened, the blackout doesn't exist anymore, you can't prevent people watching the games live if they have access to the internet - so all it does is make people do so illegally.
The experience of watching a dodgy stream two minutes behind live in French on Congolese telly is rather different to sitting back to watch live in UHD with Kelly Cates.
All our TV watching at home is now via streaming and it has an amusing effect when we're watching big matches because the pub round the corner screens them live outside. So we'll be watching England tapping the ball around and hear a huge roar coming over the garden wall. Then about 90 seconds later someone slots the ball in the net on our telly.
Starmer goes first with Sky tonight. Means he can rile up the audience so they savage Rishi afterwards whilst he has a cup of tea.
Think the format is:
1. Beth vs Stormer 2. Beth vs Fishy 3. Fishy & Stormer vs The Audience
I thought it was 1. Beff and the toolmakers lad 2. Badly disguised party activists and the Kings Counsel 3. Beff and the guy who didn't stay long enough to get sand in his shoes 4. Angry gammons and trots and the Skyless pauper
So the UK is at the average of seven countries, and the Guardian writes it up as "worse than USA" instead of "better than Japan".
One of my bugbears is stupid rankings, which the media, politicians, charities, think tanks, and gobshites come out with on an almost continous basis.
On the whole they are completely worthless. "Highest for five years", "slowest for 12 months", "record high" none of them mean a damn thing. What matters is how much things have changed, and is is statistically significant, not whether or not something is a tiny bit above or below where it was previously. I don't think I have ever heard a commentator ask whether these sort of rankings show anything meaningful as opposed to ordinary variance that you will see in anything we can measure.
I'm absolutely convinced that these stupid measure actually divert us from bigger picture questions, as it's all too easy to believe that a ranking demonstrates we are doing well or ill, and think that either "job's done" or "something must be done" when you are really observing no meaningful signal.
It is absolutely bonkers that, 3 weeks out, I could really see results as wild as something like 35 LAB / 22 REF / 15 LD / 15 CON, or something like 40 LAB/ 29 CON / 10 REF / 10 LD.
And I have absolutely zero idea which way it will go.
Fascinating election. The eventual runaway Lab seat count may well hide a really interesting realignment of opposition politics.
The (repro) Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross The (main, corner) entrance to Waterloo The view of the Shard once you exit London Bridge The cosiness of Marylebone The unexpectedly good experience of the bar on the platform at St. Pancras The sense of anticipation of another Cheltenham Festival at Paddington The sheer everydayness of Fenchurch Street
But Euston best of all with this (previously posted) in front:
The only one I know is King's Cross, and arrival there heralds the start of a fun weekend or a busy week meeting people from the London office. A unifying experience for everyone who lives on the glorious ECML.
King's Cross as Leon notes is much improved although they have now made permanent the scam stalls outside selling factory-produced Chelsea buns and sweets, with the odd artisanal but boring cheese stall, and whatnot which is most likely some Albanian gangster front.
There's nothing like ordering a piece of cheddar, and ending up with a slice of Albanian gangster.
The "it was posher not to have Sky" takes are thoroughly dumb. No, your parents just weren't in to watching live sport.
At the time, it was the "colour tv" of the 60s. The same as having one of the early big screens (the ones that weighed a tonne and because CRT absolutely huge lump behind, and on wheels). It was a bit of a status symbol. In general, kids who had it showed it is off, those that didn't, wanted their parents to get it.
I am sure for the Guardian reading chatting classes in North London it was seen for the commoner, but wider society it was up there with having a new car regularly.
Obviously Sunak's point is that is parents were making decent money, but they spent it all on his education and not the luxuries in life.
The (repro) Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross The (main, corner) entrance to Waterloo The view of the Shard once you exit London Bridge The cosiness of Marylebone The unexpectedly good experience of the bar on the platform at St. Pancras The sense of anticipation of another Cheltenham Festival at Paddington The sheer everydayness of Fenchurch Street
But Euston best of all with this (previously posted) in front:
I love Marylebone because it’s cute and small and also 10 minutes from my flat. Or a lovely walk across Regent’s Park. And I can jump on a train and be deep in the Chilterns in 40 minutes. Amazing
I used to do that with my older daughter - we’d go for spontaneous picnics on lovely summer days, before southern England got the climate of anchorage, Alaska
It does give the impression of being a private station expressly for the benefit of the denizens of the chilterns.
In that London for the day. Look: warm and blue skies! Also look: The ugliness of London's most important station is incomprehensible!
You've posted the wrong image, you wanted to post a picture of St Pancras station.
When I first took my wife to London, we had several transport options but in the end I went with arriving at St. Pancras.
Because of course you would, the place is absolutely stunning as opposed to the concrete monstrosities that pass for stations on either side of it.
Point of Order: King’s Cross is really nice now as well, they’ve junked all the crap at the front, added a modernist canopy which actually works and impresses - it links neatly to St Pancras
Possibly the best station complex in Europe or even the world
Next best terminals in london in order
Paddington Marylebone (it’s kinda cute) London Bridge (also much improved) Liverpool Street Charing X Victoria Waterloo
And way way way way down at the bottom
Euston
Are you high?
London Bridge may be "much improved", but it's still a total mess and only someone completely divorced from reality would regard it as better than ... say ... Waterloo.
I love the whole Dickensian steampunk feel of London Bridge and the area around it - Borough market and the shard. That’s part of it
Victoria and Waterloo are boring or dismal in comparison. Also Waterloo is in south london so fuck that
In answer to @Anabobazina I’m not sure I’ve ever even been to fenchurch street. So I dunno. I vaguely remember a function at some poshed up hotel. The great eastern? Something like that?
The area around it is not the station.
You’ll never be a “personality hire”
It's a good thing you don't work in a career where accuracy is a requirement.
Are you kidding? In my second job I write about travel and politics for the Gazette. Both are known for forensic detail and scrupulous correctness
The (repro) Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross The (main, corner) entrance to Waterloo The view of the Shard once you exit London Bridge The cosiness of Marylebone The unexpectedly good experience of the bar on the platform at St. Pancras The sense of anticipation of another Cheltenham Festival at Paddington The sheer everydayness of Fenchurch Street
But Euston best of all with this (previously posted) in front:
The only one I know is King's Cross, and arrival there heralds the start of a fun weekend or a busy week meeting people from the London office. A unifying experience for everyone who lives on the glorious ECML.
King's Cross as Leon notes is much improved although they have now made permanent the scam stalls outside selling factory-produced Chelsea buns and sweets, with the odd artisanal but boring cheese stall, and whatnot which is most likely some Albanian gangster front.
There's nothing like ordering a piece of cheddar, and ending up with a slice of Albanian gangster.
Most Albanian gangsters are 102, wear headscarves and talk about visions in the forest
My parents rented a new colour TV in the early 80s
They delivered the wrong one by mistake, and so we had CEEFAX, for a whole week until the rental company figured out the mistake
Kids today.
They haven't lived until they've watched a football match on CEEFAX.
I remember watching F1 races on Ceefex in the late ‘80s, seeing the lap chart refresh every couple of minutes and seeing who’d overtaken or retired!
Now we have every session of the whole weekend shown live, plus about six hours of magazine shows and another six hours of support races.
No F1 this weekend, so will be watching the 24h from Le Mans instead.
Does anyone watch anything live on TV any more, apart from sports and the occasional political debate?
Those were the days.
Live TV only happens for sport in this household (and the bit of breaking news).
My kids think I am lying to them when I tell them when I was their age there were about 12 league games shown live per season.
Yet Premier League football is just about the only professional sport where there are still matches that don’t get televised live.
Unless you live abroad, or have an internet. An anomoly that I’m amazed they haven’t yet fixed.
It doesn't need fixing. The blackout isn't going anywhere and rightly so. And ending Premier League 3pm kick offs isn't happening either.
It absolutely needs fixing. In this day and age the idea you can only watch the game live is via piracy just feeds piracy.
Pandora's box has been opened, the blackout doesn't exist anymore, you can't prevent people watching the games live if they have access to the internet - so all it does is make people do so illegally.
The experience of watching a dodgy stream two minutes behind live in French on Congolese telly is rather different to sitting back to watch live in UHD with Kelly Cates.
Which is why if the authentic live viewing were available for a fee then people will pay for it.
But if the choice is between viewing it illegally or not viewing it at all, then unsurprisingly a significant chunk of the population chooses the former - and why should they not?
Trying to pretend the internet doesn't exist doesn't make it so.
I am agnostic on the blackout but the point is that it is pretty effective. Yes, you can seek out a dodgy stream from The Federated Republic of Micronesia, but it's not equivalent to the viewing experience on Sky Sports Premier League UHD.
The (repro) Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross The (main, corner) entrance to Waterloo The view of the Shard once you exit London Bridge The cosiness of Marylebone The unexpectedly good experience of the bar on the platform at St. Pancras The sense of anticipation of another Cheltenham Festival at Paddington The sheer everydayness of Fenchurch Street
But Euston best of all with this (previously posted) in front:
I love Marylebone because it’s cute and small and also 10 minutes from my flat. Or a lovely walk across Regent’s Park. And I can jump on a train and be deep in the Chilterns in 40 minutes. Amazing
I used to do that with my older daughter - we’d go for spontaneous picnics on lovely summer days, before southern England got the climate of anchorage, Alaska
It does give the impression of being a private station expressly for the benefit of the denizens of the chilterns.
it feels like a station from Enid Blyton. Full of contented families and well behaved middle-class Remainer children buying ginger beer and ice lollies
Guido being subtle as a fucking brick this morning. Publish or shut the fuck up Staines
FWIW I think she's being kept out of the spotlight because Labour know that enough of their voters are frothing anti-semites (which is an issue that no-one in politics wants to address) that them realising he's married to one of their mortal enemies may lose Labour quite a few votes.
Starmer goes first with Sky tonight. Means he can rile up the audience so they savage Rishi afterwards whilst he has a cup of tea.
Think the format is:
1. Beth vs Stormer 2. Beth vs Fishy 3. Fishy & Stormer vs The Audience
I thought it was 1. Beff and the toolmakers lad 2. Badly disguised party activists and the Kings Counsel 3. Beff and the guy who didn't stay long enough to get sand in his shoes 4. Angry gammons and trots and the Skyless pauper
Few seem to appreciate that this scandal, the blood contamination case, the Andy Malkinson case (and other similar ones), the endless NHS and Police scandals are all symptomatic of a shredded administrative and political class lacking in competence, integrity and either the ability to admit to or willingness to correct mistakes.
I found myself in disagreement with this paragraph.
But only because you forgot to mention education...
Do we need a British ENA, where instead of filling the national administration and top echelons of the civil service with people who have Mickey Mouse degrees such as PPE and Classics from Oxbridge we educate waves of competent students in a suitable mix of economics, law, politics, planning, business studies, sociology and most vitally ethics.
Give a large cadre of students the chance to get a degree that fast tracks them to the civil service or local government where they have been taught about what makes a country tick, what all the parts do, where tax revenue is made and how. Teach them about the benefits system and the justice system so they understand how it “works” and then they can properly think constructively about how it might be improved.
It can then be a badge where, when they are standing for election, they can show they actually have been taught about what they intend to do, a sort of electoral British Kite Mark.
That sounds great - the French system - but government by Enarques (eg Manny Macron) has led France to the brink of a Far Right government
Perhaps that is why Macron scrapped the ENA
Who says my long term goal with a British ENa isn’t to lead us to a far right government?
Only joking.
There were problems with the ENA in that it was quite socially rarefied and had the same domination as Oxbridge in the UK whereas I would want the British one to be a degree course, rather than a place, on offer at multiple universities around the UK to increase the breadth of applicants and product.
If it was solely in London like ENA in Paris then the cost of being a student in London would put off a lot of people whereas if it was on offer in universities in all the main Cities and big towns, and maybe it’s own blind entrance exam, then it could work.
I think the issue with EBA (and other grandes ecoles in France) is not so much the socially rarefied atmosphere but rather the typically French economic structure that harks back to the guilds and closed shops of the middle ages.
Just about every sector in France is protected by either regulatory or qualification barriers to entry. It's as true with plumbers or carpenters or waiters as it is with politicians or CEOs, and is also true of products (think wine appellations).
The aim is quality assurance, and it's certainly true the skilled tradesmen in France have much more formal training and are more closely regulated than their counterparts in the UK. It's much harder to be a cowboy, unless you operate in the grey economy.
That can be positive for the customer but it also brings problems: lack of choice and competition, idees fixes, producer-centric attitudes. A sort of 2-tier system where anyone not formally qualified is seen as little more than a petit bricoleur. All the result of a system that creates regulatory oligopoly.
The Anglo Saxon approach is more free-market and unregulated. But of course unregulated systems create monopolies and oligopolies too through force of money. Hence we get Oxbridge and the Ivy League. Informal closed shops rather than formal ones. But still easier to break into than the French official closed shops.
The US, by that standard, is French rather than Anglo Saxon. For example, you can't cut someone's nails without the right license.
Land of the free. Someone should write a song about that. America is the land of free enterprise except even that is misleading. As you say, everything is licensed, with minor variations between states. But also the sheer size of the place means that local or regional monopolies can prosper, untroubled by competition (even more so in the pre-web era). If you own a furniture warehouse or used car dealership, there's a difference between having your nearest rival 50 miles away and being able to wave at them across the road.
Land of the Fee
Car dealerships are a hilarious example of regulatory capture, in the US.
For example, there are laws in multiple states, forbidding manufacturers selling cars direct. When Tesla started selling direct, the arguments back were interesting. I quite liked - "They are refusing to share their profits with us (the car dealers)"
I would be amazed if any of these people ever account for their multiple crimes. It is the little people who suffer judicial retribution not those further up the chain
Yes, and this formed a significant part of the correspondence which I cut out, partly for reasons of length but also because I don't want Mike getting sued. Nevertheless I can express a strictly personal opinion on who is likely to be charged. Ms C's concern about delay leading effectively to exoneration is expressed above. I am cynical. She is more so. Yet I still hope to see charges in my lifetime.
In my opinion, and nobody else's, I think charges could very easily be lodged now against Gareth Jenkins, Paula Vennells, Angela van den Bogerd, Alice Perkins and Tim Parker. None of these are little people.
You could with some justification charge the entire Investigation Team, which numbered close on a hundred at one stage. They all deserve it, but it would make more sense to go for their head, John Scott, the former police officer who somehow forgot to mention that part of his career when submitting his CV to the Inquiry. I think he is very likely to get done.
Most of the lawyers, internal and external, should also get done, but they are too numerous to name. They include some very big fish indeed - for example, Brian Altman, and both yesterday's guests at the Inquiry, Tony Robinson and Lord Grabiner.
Tim Parker and Alice Perkins both went to Oxford University.
My parents rented a new colour TV in the early 80s
They delivered the wrong one by mistake, and so we had CEEFAX, for a whole week until the rental company figured out the mistake
Kids today.
They haven't lived until they've watched a football match on CEEFAX.
I remember watching F1 races on Ceefex in the late ‘80s, seeing the lap chart refresh every couple of minutes and seeing who’d overtaken or retired!
Now we have every session of the whole weekend shown live, plus about six hours of magazine shows and another six hours of support races.
No F1 this weekend, so will be watching the 24h from Le Mans instead.
Does anyone watch anything live on TV any more, apart from sports and the occasional political debate?
Those were the days.
Live TV only happens for sport in this household (and the bit of breaking news).
My kids think I am lying to them when I tell them when I was their age there were about 12 league games shown live per season.
Yet Premier League football is just about the only professional sport where there are still matches that don’t get televised live.
Unless you live abroad, or have an internet. An anomoly that I’m amazed they haven’t yet fixed.
It doesn't need fixing. The blackout isn't going anywhere and rightly so. And ending Premier League 3pm kick offs isn't happening either.
It absolutely needs fixing. In this day and age the idea you can only watch the game live is via piracy just feeds piracy.
Pandora's box has been opened, the blackout doesn't exist anymore, you can't prevent people watching the games live if they have access to the internet - so all it does is make people do so illegally.
The experience of watching a dodgy stream two minutes behind live in French on Congolese telly is rather different to sitting back to watch live in UHD with Kelly Cates.
All our TV watching at home is now via streaming and it has an amusing effect when we're watching big matches because the pub round the corner screens them live outside. So we'll be watching England tapping the ball around and hear a huge roar coming over the garden wall. Then about 90 seconds later someone slots the ball in the net on our telly.
Yes, it absolutely ruins the experience. See also, people WhatsApping /texting when watching on a stream. That's why we have abandoned it at our rugby club and are looking to get cable which is actually live!
Sky man stuck on a heavily delayed, postponed train trying to reach Grimsby.
Oh the optics.
Seriously, the weather, the economic stats, everything are conspiring to make stuff look as grim as possible this month.
Then as I stated earlier all the indications are that it gets warmer and sunnier come the end of June and start of July. Just in time for a surge of optimism about the future. The first weekend of July is almost always warm anyway - it's when we have Brockley Open Studios here and we host a few artists in our garden.
My parents rented a new colour TV in the early 80s
They delivered the wrong one by mistake, and so we had CEEFAX, for a whole week until the rental company figured out the mistake
Kids today.
They haven't lived until they've watched a football match on CEEFAX.
I remember watching F1 races on Ceefex in the late ‘80s, seeing the lap chart refresh every couple of minutes and seeing who’d overtaken or retired!
Now we have every session of the whole weekend shown live, plus about six hours of magazine shows and another six hours of support races.
No F1 this weekend, so will be watching the 24h from Le Mans instead.
Does anyone watch anything live on TV any more, apart from sports and the occasional political debate?
Those were the days.
Live TV only happens for sport in this household (and the bit of breaking news).
My kids think I am lying to them when I tell them when I was their age there were about 12 league games shown live per season.
Yet Premier League football is just about the only professional sport where there are still matches that don’t get televised live.
Unless you live abroad, or have an internet. An anomoly that I’m amazed they haven’t yet fixed.
It doesn't need fixing. The blackout isn't going anywhere and rightly so. And ending Premier League 3pm kick offs isn't happening either.
It absolutely needs fixing. In this day and age the idea you can only watch the game live is via piracy just feeds piracy.
Pandora's box has been opened, the blackout doesn't exist anymore, you can't prevent people watching the games live if they have access to the internet - so all it does is make people do so illegally.
The experience of watching a dodgy stream two minutes behind live in French on Congolese telly is rather different to sitting back to watch live in UHD with Kelly Cates.
Which is why if the authentic live viewing were available for a fee then people will pay for it.
But if the choice is between viewing it illegally or not viewing it at all, then unsurprisingly a significant chunk of the population chooses the former - and why should they not?
Trying to pretend the internet doesn't exist doesn't make it so.
I am agnostic on the blackout but the point is that it is pretty effective. Yes, you can seek out a dodgy stream from The Federated Republic of Micronesia, but it's not equivalent to the viewing experience on Sky Sports Premier League UHD.
Sorry but its not that effective at all. Everyone I know who is seriously interested in football knows how to get around the blackout and can easily do so.
And suggesting rival streams are from Micronesia suggests you don't know what you're talking about either.
Streams are easily accessible in English with English commentary. The only difference is that there's typically a delay, but a delay of seconds trumps a delay of hours.
The blackout is like cash. No point whatsoever anymore, preserved by those with their heads in the sand and trying to pretend that technology doesn't exist.
It is absolutely bonkers that, 3 weeks out, I could really see results as wild as something like 35 LAB / 22 REF / 15 LD / 15 CON, or something like 40 LAB/ 29 CON / 10 REF / 10 LD.
And I have absolutely zero idea which way it will go.
Fascinating election. The eventual runaway Lab seat count may well hide a really interesting realignment of opposition politics.
Yep. And amazing how much it could even if the number of people voting Conservative or Labour is exactly the same as polled at the moment.
I'm working on the basis that the Reform and Green vote will peel away significantly, but not transfer to the Tories/Labour. Using the latest Survation, I think something like:
Labour 46 Conservatives 26 Reform 9 Lib Dem 11 Green 4
But if you apply a 20% complacency adjustment to Labour, things looks very different again.
I'm not sure that's quite true, because US unconventional production has such high decline rates. It therefore acts as a very effective near-term balancing mechanism: falling prices mean that production in the Permian no longer makes economic sense, and drilling stops. This leads to a rapid fall in output, halting further declines.
What it does mean, however, is that Nabors and other US onshore oil services names are probably clear sells.
Aye but a phone poll so not comparable methodologies really, it's a different breed of poll poodle
But that's 'sumably movement from their prior poll, so it can't be dismissed so airily
Their last poll was online though. The point of them running 4 phone polls (every weds am till polling day) is to compare to Online panels as there has been some concern that the pollsters are sharing broadly the same panels and, thus, if they are overtly politically active there may be skew. Phone polling is a kind of control sample
In that London for the day. Look: warm and blue skies! Also look: The ugliness of London's most important station is incomprehensible!
You've posted the wrong image, you wanted to post a picture of St Pancras station.
When I first took my wife to London, we had several transport options but in the end I went with arriving at St. Pancras.
Because of course you would, the place is absolutely stunning as opposed to the concrete monstrosities that pass for stations on either side of it.
Point of Order: King’s Cross is really nice now as well, they’ve junked all the crap at the front, added a modernist canopy which actually works and impresses - it links neatly to St Pancras
Possibly the best station complex in Europe or even the world
Next best terminals in london in order
Paddington Marylebone (it’s kinda cute) London Bridge (also much improved) Liverpool Street Charing X Victoria Waterloo
And way way way way down at the bottom
Euston
Are you high?
London Bridge may be "much improved", but it's still a total mess and only someone completely divorced from reality would regard it as better than ... say ... Waterloo.
I love the whole Dickensian steampunk feel of London Bridge and the area around it - Borough market and the shard. That’s part of it
Victoria and Waterloo are boring or dismal in comparison. Also Waterloo is in south london so fuck that
In answer to @Anabobazina I’m not sure I’ve ever even been to fenchurch street. So I dunno. I vaguely remember a function at some poshed up hotel. The great eastern? Something like that?
The area around it is not the station.
You’ll never be a “personality hire”
It's a good thing you don't work in a career where accuracy is a requirement.
Are you kidding? In my second job I write about travel and politics for the Gazette. Both are known for forensic detail and scrupulous correctness
It's a good thing you don't write about floating brothels.
While we are on the topic of London railways termini, can someone recommend a good spot for a full English at Paddington? I always eat at Searcy's at SP and the Great Northern at KX. Absolutely excellent restaurants. Anything similar at Padders?
In that London for the day. Look: warm and blue skies! Also look: The ugliness of London's most important station is incomprehensible!
You've posted the wrong image, you wanted to post a picture of St Pancras station.
When I first took my wife to London, we had several transport options but in the end I went with arriving at St. Pancras.
Because of course you would, the place is absolutely stunning as opposed to the concrete monstrosities that pass for stations on either side of it.
Point of Order: King’s Cross is really nice now as well, they’ve junked all the crap at the front, added a modernist canopy which actually works and impresses - it links neatly to St Pancras
Possibly the best station complex in Europe or even the world
Next best terminals in london in order
Paddington Marylebone (it’s kinda cute) London Bridge (also much improved) Liverpool Street Charing X Victoria Waterloo
And way way way way down at the bottom
Euston
Are you high?
London Bridge may be "much improved", but it's still a total mess and only someone completely divorced from reality would regard it as better than ... say ... Waterloo.
I love the whole Dickensian steampunk feel of London Bridge and the area around it - Borough market and the shard. That’s part of it
Victoria and Waterloo are boring or dismal in comparison. Also Waterloo is in south london so fuck that
In answer to @Anabobazina I’m not sure I’ve ever even been to fenchurch street. So I dunno. I vaguely remember a function at some poshed up hotel. The great eastern? Something like that?
The area around it is not the station.
Public transport planners might beg to differ.
Waterloo is easier to use - but really feels like it needs a good go with the Jif.
London Bridge is a bit of a tangle, but partly modernised and cleaned up.
Fenchurch Street - memories. Has it been done up? Haven't been round there in years.
What was that bizarre basement bar round the corner - Charlie Wright's International Wine Bar?
Guido being subtle as a fucking brick this morning. Publish or shut the fuck up Staines
FWIW I think she's being kept out of the spotlight because Labour know that enough of their voters are frothing anti-semites (which is an issue that no-one in politics wants to address) that them realising he's married to one of their mortal enemies may lose Labour quite a few votes.
More likely she is being kept out of the spotlight because, by and large, spouses are kept out of the spotlight in this country and we only find out little bits when the politician makes it to Number 10. Who is Grant Shapps married to, or Jeremy Hunt or Ed Davey? No-one knows and almost no-one cares. It is not because dirty tricks are keeping them off the front page.
Not sure “don’t give Labour a big majority” is the greatest play from the Tories.
Entirely possible if people are worried about a big Labour majority AND want the Tories out that they swing behind other alternatives e.g Lib Dems and REFUK.
An awful lot of voters don’t understand politics enough to vote against polls showing landslides. They vote on vibes like, hate Corbyn, get Brexit done, hate Sunak, get worse government of my lifetime out. And the actual maths can take care of itself later. In fact the vibe of Tory’s giving up on fighting halfway through could send more votes to Labour, in the “I voted for the winner” psychology?
And on the same understanding, many voters will vote for Reform thinking Farage will become Leader of the Opposition in Parliament based on their vote. This is where polls showing Farage ahead of Tories must must must not happen - in so many minds they will think “if I now vote for Reform it confirms Nigel as Leader of the Opposition”.
Tories in third, which will be EVERYWHERE even though it’s from just one pollster, is not just a statistical blip, what it could do psychologically in shifting more votes to Reform is huge.
Aye but a phone poll so not comparable methodologies really, it's a different breed of poll poodle
But that's 'sumably movement from their prior poll, so it can't be dismissed so airily
Their last poll was online though. The point of them running 4 phone polls (every weds am till polling day) is to compare to Online panels as there has been some concern that the pollsters are sharing broadly the same panels and, thus, if they are overtly politically active there may be skew. Phone polling is a kind of control sample
Ah, I see, then yes you have a point if they are not comparing like with like
As ever: NEED MORE POLLS
Ideally, with an election this weird and interesting, we should be given a poll every 30-40 minutes, 24 hours a day, unitl the vote. It's like the pollsters don't realise our needs on PB
Not sure “don’t give Labour a big majority” is the greatest play from the Tories.
Entirely possible if people are worried about a big Labour majority AND want the Tories out that they swing behind other alternatives e.g Lib Dems and REFUK.
An awful lot of voters don’t understand politics enough to vote against polls showing landslides. They vote on vibes like, hate Corbyn, get Brexit done, hate Sunak, get worse government of my lifetime out. And the actual maths can take care of itself later. In fact the vibe of Tory’s giving up on fighting halfway through could send more votes to Labour, in the “I voted for the winner” psychology?
And on the same understanding, many voters will vote for Reform thinking Farage will become Leader of the Opposition in Parliament based on their vote. This is where polls showing Farage ahead of Tories must must must not happen - in so many minds they will think “if I now vote for Reform it confirms Nigel as Leader of the Opposition”.
Tories in third, which will be EVERYWHERE even though it’s from just one pollster, is not just a statistical blip, what it could do psychologically in shifting more votes to Reform is huge.
That's great but what are the Tories going to offer ? Based on what Ive seen its more of the same.
The "it was posher not to have Sky" takes are thoroughly dumb. No, your parents just weren't in to watching live sport.
At the time, it was the "colour tv" of the 60s. The same as having one of the early big screens (the ones that weighed a tonne and because CRT absolutely huge lump behind, and on wheels). It was a bit of a status symbol. In general, kids who had it showed it is off, those that didn't, wanted their parents to get it.
I am sure for the Guardian reading chatting classes in North London it was seen for the commoner, but wider society it was up there with having a new car regularly.
Obviously Sunak's point is that is parents were making decent money, but they spent it all on his education and not the luxuries in life.
Sunak's problem is that this approach just smacks of self-righteousness, another form of privilege. Not only am I richer than you, but I am better than you. I don't think it's the winning strategy he thinks it is with most voters.
I'm not sure that's quite true, because US unconventional production has such high decline rates. It therefore acts as a very effective near-term balancing mechanism: falling prices mean that production in the Permian no longer makes economic sense, and drilling stops. This leads to a rapid fall in output, halting further declines.
What it does mean, however, is that Nabors and other US onshore oil services names are probably clear sells.
My final vote guesstimate would probably be that, except the taking 2% from the Greens and giving it to the LibDems.
Survation's methodology is quite interesting. They prompt for constituency, trying to ascertain the tactical voting effect. As it is, their numbers are remarkably similar to other pollsters –– but it's an interesting technique nevertheless.
@MiguelDelaney Can now upgrade this to the customary Avanti line of
"this is a shambles"
That is because often German trains are our own, although iirc Avanti are half-Italian. It's more British infrastructure that has been sold off, so Jeremy Hunt writes subsidy cheques to Rome, Berlin or Amsterdam.
Guido being subtle as a fucking brick this morning. Publish or shut the fuck up Staines
FWIW I think she's being kept out of the spotlight because Labour know that enough of their voters are frothing anti-semites (which is an issue that no-one in politics wants to address) that them realising he's married to one of their mortal enemies may lose Labour quite a few votes.
More likely she is being kept out of the spotlight because, by and large, spouses are kept out of the spotlight in this country and we only find out little bits when the politician makes it to Number 10. Who is Grant Shapps married to, or Jeremy Hunt or Ed Davey? No-one knows and almost no-one cares. It is not because dirty tricks are keeping them off the front page.
Famously, even Jeremy Hunt doesn't know who he's married to.
The "it was posher not to have Sky" takes are thoroughly dumb. No, your parents just weren't in to watching live sport.
At the time, it was the "colour tv" of the 60s. The same as having one of the early big screens (the ones that weighed a tonne and because CRT absolutely huge lump behind, and on wheels). It was a bit of a status symbol. In general, kids who had it showed it is off, those that didn't, wanted their parents to get it.
I am sure for the Guardian reading chatting classes in North London it was seen for the commoner, but wider society it was up there with having a new car regularly.
Obviously Sunak's point is that is parents were making decent money, but they spent it all on his education and not the luxuries in life.
Sunak's problem is that this approach just smacks of self-righteousness, another form of privilege. Not only am I richer than you, but I am better than you. I don't think it's the winning strategy he thinks it is with most voters.
I think you bias is clouding your judgement on this one comment. If he had tried to claim they went without food and water for him to go to a top school, it would have been a lie.
But the point he is making (and has made before) his parents used every spare penny to spend him there and as a result they went without the luxuries that middle class families of the time regularly bought. Sky was one of the big things at the time that people got to say I'm doing alright me.
I grew up similar time to Sunak. We didn't have it, I had to get my mates to VHS the footy for me.
However, if I was a political adviser I wouldn't open that can of worms, as the media are juvenile.
I'm not sure that's quite true, because US unconventional production has such high decline rates. It therefore acts as a very effective near-term balancing mechanism: falling prices mean that production in the Permian no longer makes economic sense, and drilling stops. This leads to a rapid fall in output, halting further declines.
What it does mean, however, is that Nabors and other US onshore oil services names are probably clear sells.
I'll tell the IEA theyre wrong on your behalf
Oh, the IEA are no idiots. But they forget that things are interdependent: more oil = lower prices = lower profits for oil companies = less investment = less oil = higher prices = (rinse and repeat)
Guido being subtle as a fucking brick this morning. Publish or shut the fuck up Staines
FWIW I think she's being kept out of the spotlight because Labour know that enough of their voters are frothing anti-semites (which is an issue that no-one in politics wants to address) that them realising he's married to one of their mortal enemies may lose Labour quite a few votes.
More likely she is being kept out of the spotlight because, by and large, spouses are kept out of the spotlight in this country and we only find out little bits when the politician makes it to Number 10. Who is Grant Shapps married to, or Jeremy Hunt or Ed Davey? No-one knows and almost no-one cares. It is not because dirty tricks are keeping them off the front page.
@Chameleon might be right, however. I have seen some really nasty Corbynite jibes about Starmer's "Zio wife" on TwiX. Ugly ugly stuff
Not sure “don’t give Labour a big majority” is the greatest play from the Tories.
Entirely possible if people are worried about a big Labour majority AND want the Tories out that they swing behind other alternatives e.g Lib Dems and REFUK.
An awful lot of voters don’t understand politics enough to vote against polls showing landslides. They vote on vibes like, hate Corbyn, get Brexit done, hate Sunak, get worse government of my lifetime out. And the actual maths can take care of itself later. In fact the vibe of Tory’s giving up on fighting halfway through could send more votes to Labour, in the “I voted for the winner” psychology?
And on the same understanding, many voters will vote for Reform thinking Farage will become Leader of the Opposition in Parliament based on their vote. This is where polls showing Farage ahead of Tories must must must not happen - in so many minds they will think “if I now vote for Reform it confirms Nigel as Leader of the Opposition”.
Tories in third, which will be EVERYWHERE even though it’s from just one pollster, is not just a statistical blip, what it could do psychologically in shifting more votes to Reform is huge.
That's great but hwat are the Tories going to offer ? Based on what Ive seen its more of the same.
The Conservative offer in this election is about saving the people from a Labour government. From 2010 the Conservatives have saved our country from socialist economics, nanny state, Labours knee jerk woke like ladies toilets full of men. All those good things Conservatives have achieved, like less direct tax burden on working people as the richest pay more, Labour are promising to CHANGE.
My final vote guesstimate would probably be that, except the taking 2% from the Greens and giving it to the LibDems.
Survation's methodology is quite interesting. They prompt for constituency, trying to ascertain the tactical voting effect. As it is, their numbers are remarkably similar to other pollsters –– but it's an interesting technique nevertheless.
More in Common and Savantas polls from now will also ballot prompt
The "it was posher not to have Sky" takes are thoroughly dumb. No, your parents just weren't in to watching live sport.
At the time, it was the "colour tv" of the 60s. The same as having one of the early big screens (the ones that weighed a tonne and because CRT absolutely huge lump behind, and on wheels). It was a bit of a status symbol. In general, kids who had it showed it is off, those that didn't, wanted their parents to get it.
I am sure for the Guardian reading chatting classes in North London it was seen for the commoner, but wider society it was up there with having a new car regularly.
Obviously Sunak's point is that is parents were making decent money, but they spent it all on his education and not the luxuries in life.
Sunak's problem is that this approach just smacks of self-righteousness, another form of privilege. Not only am I richer than you, but I am better than you. I don't think it's the winning strategy he thinks it is with most voters.
It's the Horatio Alger fallacy, or two fallacies. One, you would have had to forego sky TV every year since the norman conquest to save up for a year of Winchester. Two, not everyone and not even every Wykehamist is rewarded with a desk at the vampire squid and a billionaires, not enough to go round. Governing is mainly about governing the - from sunaks pov - failures.
Comments
He gets into the taxi, and the cabby says, “Wow, perfect timing. You’re just like Frank.”
The passenger asks, “Who?”
The cabby explains, “Frank Feldman. He’s a guy who did everything right all the time. Like when I came along just when you needed a cab, things happened like that to Frank Feldman every single time.”
The passenger remarked, “There are always a few clouds over everybody.”
“Not Frank Feldman. He was a terrific athlete. He could have won the Grand Slam at tennis. He could golf with the pros.He sang like an opera baritone and danced like a Broadway star and you should have heard him play the piano. He was an amazing guy.”
The passenger said, “Sounds like he was really something special.”
The cabby replied, “There’s more. He had a memory like a computer. He remembered everybody’s birthday. He knew all about wine, which foods to order and which fork to eat them with. He could fix anything. Not like me. I change a fuse, and the whole street blacks out. But Frank Feldman could do everything right.”
The passenger was amazed, “Wow, what a guy!”
The cabby continued, “He always knew the quickest way to go in traffic and avoid traffic jams. Not like me, I always seem to get stuck in them. But Frank, he never made a mistake, and he really knew how to treat a woman and make her feel good. He would never answer her back even if she was in the wrong; and his clothing was always immaculate, shoes highly polished too. He was the perfect man! He never made a mistake. No one could ever measure up to Frank Feldman.”
Passenger: “How did you meet him?”
Cabby: “I never actually met Frank. He died and I married his wife."
Birmingham New Street is the pits in every sense (literally as well as it's underground). And you end up at Euston as well. It would surely come bottom of any nationwide poll.
I tried it last night, and intelligent PBers Ben Farooq just took the piss. But as a betting site, the impact of TV on both seats and eventual proportional of vote (PV) once all votes counted, can be huge.
TV normally happens when you are best placed to get the Tory out.
Labour are the biggest TV winners. Any bet on them getting less than 43% PV is a wasted bet once you factor in TV. Labour will get TV from Lib Dem’s, Greens and Reform.
Lib Dem’s can get up to 15% PV or more with TV from Labour and the Greens.
Greens get TV from no one. They get squeezed.
Tories might get a bit of TV from Labour in Scotland? more than Labour get TV from the Tories in Scotland?
In my opinion, and nobody else's, I think charges could very easily be lodged now against Gareth Jenkins, Paula Vennells, Angela van den Bogerd, Alice Perkins and Tim Parker. None of these are little people.
You could with some justification charge the entire Investigation Team, which numbered close on a hundred at one stage. They all deserve it, but it would make more sense to go for their head, John Scott, the former police officer who somehow forgot to mention that part of his career when submitting his CV to the Inquiry. I think he is very likely to get done.
Most of the lawyers, internal and external, should also get done, but they are too numerous to name. They include some very big fish indeed - for example, Brian Altman, and both yesterday's guests at the Inquiry, Tony Robinson and Lord Grabiner.
"That new family have moved into the village and are ruining the look of things with that awful Sky dish."
Victoria and Waterloo are boring or dismal in comparison. Also Waterloo is in south london so fuck that
In answer to @Anabobazina I’m not sure I’ve ever even been to fenchurch street. So I dunno. I vaguely remember a function at some poshed up hotel. The great eastern? Something like that?
The (repro) Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross
The (main, corner) entrance to Waterloo
The view of the Shard once you exit London Bridge
The cosiness of Marylebone
The unexpectedly good experience of the bar on the platform at St. Pancras
The sense of anticipation of another Cheltenham Festival at Paddington
The sheer everydayness of Fenchurch Street
But Euston best of all with this (previously posted) in front:
Once we get past all the manifesto launches (or lunches) we should get a better idea of where public opinion is - I suspect the weekend polls and the Monday Redfield & Wilton will be informative.
Though Rishi has been taking more tax from the over 65’s than any other politician. He has an appalling record on taxing the over 65’s, but it looks like Sunak has successfully conned the codgers into seeing it otherwise.
Same as how really posh families when I was growing up usually had the world's tiniest, oldest telly, often hidden away in the most ramshackle room in the house rather than front and centre in the living room, or fitted into a cabinet so as not to be on display all the time.
Q: What's the name of the wee box at the back of a satellite dish?
A: A council house.
I knew of only one friend who had satellite when I was growing up, and clearly remember watching MTV with her for the first time in about 1997 and being absolutely fascinated by how weirdly terrible it was. Moustachioed Belgian VJs playing ancient grunge and hair metal interspersed with clips from Das Berlin Loveparade and ten minute adverts for 6 CD sets of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra playing the hits of The Eagles.
Rishi wasn't exactly missing out on much...
EDIT: Although I think Germany beats us.
Entirely possible if people are worried about a big Labour majority AND want the Tories out that they swing behind other alternatives e.g Lib Dems and REFUK.
Of course, Ian was making a joke, part of his HIGNFY role as Oxbridge-educated posho as opposed to Paul Merton's working class roots, but there will have been a degree of truth in it. (There's a similar social dynamic, exaggerated for comic effect, with David and Lee on WILTY, come to think of it.)
‘It was incredible, but it just ran over. Apologies for keeping you’
@RishiSunak sits down for an interview with @PaulBrandITV last week after leaving D-Day events in France early
In all fairness to Rishi - 80 years ago it also overran a bit.
I used to do that with my older daughter - we’d go for spontaneous picnics on lovely summer days, before southern England got the climate of anchorage, Alaska
1. Beth vs Stormer
2. Beth vs Fishy
3. Fishy & Stormer vs The Audience
It needn't be a lengthy tome if it focuses on the common threads. As far as I am aware, nobody has attempted this to date. Nobody in Government even talks about it.
Anybody on PB who helps to put more wind in her sails will be doing a good thing.
Oh the optics.
But if the choice is between viewing it illegally or not viewing it at all, then unsurprisingly a significant chunk of the population chooses the former - and why should they not?
Trying to pretend the internet doesn't exist doesn't make it so.
1. Beff and the toolmakers lad
2. Badly disguised party activists and the Kings Counsel
3. Beff and the guy who didn't stay long enough to get sand in his shoes
4. Angry gammons and trots and the Skyless pauper
On the whole they are completely worthless. "Highest for five years", "slowest for 12 months", "record high" none of them mean a damn thing. What matters is how much things have changed, and is is statistically significant, not whether or not something is a tiny bit above or below where it was previously. I don't think I have ever heard a commentator ask whether these sort of rankings show anything meaningful as opposed to ordinary variance that you will see in anything we can measure.
I'm absolutely convinced that these stupid measure actually divert us from bigger picture questions, as it's all too easy to believe that a ranking demonstrates we are doing well or ill, and think that either "job's done" or "something must be done" when you are really observing no meaningful signal.
And I have absolutely zero idea which way it will go.
Fascinating election. The eventual runaway Lab seat count may well hide a really interesting realignment of opposition politics.
I am sure for the Guardian reading chatting classes in North London it was seen for the commoner, but wider society it was up there with having a new car regularly.
Obviously Sunak's point is that is parents were making decent money, but they spent it all on his education and not the luxuries in life.
Westminster Voting Intention:
LAB: 41% (-2)
CON: 23% (=)
RFM: 12% (-3)
LDM: 10% (+1)
GRN: 6% (+1)
SNP: 3% (=)
https://x.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1800826773711794638
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/06/12/ftse-100-markets-latest-news-uk-gdp-us-inflation-rates/
Haven't seen any others with a recent drop for Reform,on the other hand.
Car dealerships are a hilarious example of regulatory capture, in the US.
For example, there are laws in multiple states, forbidding manufacturers selling cars direct. When Tesla started selling direct, the arguments back were interesting. I quite liked - "They are refusing to share their profits with us (the car dealers)"
Streaming sports is shit.
Then as I stated earlier all the indications are that it gets warmer and sunnier come the end of June and start of July. Just in time for a surge of optimism about the future. The first weekend of July is almost always warm anyway - it's when we have Brockley Open Studios here and we host a few artists in our garden.
And suggesting rival streams are from Micronesia suggests you don't know what you're talking about either.
Streams are easily accessible in English with English commentary. The only difference is that there's typically a delay, but a delay of seconds trumps a delay of hours.
The blackout is like cash. No point whatsoever anymore, preserved by those with their heads in the sand and trying to pretend that technology doesn't exist.
I'm working on the basis that the Reform and Green vote will peel away significantly, but not transfer to the Tories/Labour. Using the latest Survation, I think something like:
Labour 46
Conservatives 26
Reform 9
Lib Dem 11
Green 4
But if you apply a 20% complacency adjustment to Labour, things looks very different again.
What it does mean, however, is that Nabors and other US onshore oil services names are probably clear sells.
I think there's definitely now evidence of a drop in Labour VI, but net net across the polls it looks like it's churn within the centre-left.
https://x.com/MiguelDelaney/status/1800828191466209539
@MiguelDelaney
Can now upgrade this to the customary Avanti line of
"this is a shambles"
Waterloo is easier to use - but really feels like it needs a good go with the Jif.
London Bridge is a bit of a tangle, but partly modernised and cleaned up.
Fenchurch Street - memories. Has it been done up? Haven't been round there in years.
What was that bizarre basement bar round the corner - Charlie Wright's International Wine Bar?
And on the same understanding, many voters will vote for Reform thinking Farage will become Leader of the Opposition in Parliament based on their vote. This is where polls showing Farage ahead of Tories must must must not happen - in so many minds they will think “if I now vote for Reform it confirms Nigel as Leader of the Opposition”.
Tories in third, which will be EVERYWHERE even though it’s from just one pollster, is not just a statistical blip, what it could do psychologically in shifting more votes to Reform is huge.
As ever: NEED MORE POLLS
Ideally, with an election this weird and interesting, we should be given a poll every 30-40 minutes, 24 hours a day, unitl the vote. It's like the pollsters don't realise our needs on PB
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Edit: Does this mean I can never stand for political office because I made a Nazi gag?
Labour: 456
Tories: 95
LDs: 55
Reform: 3
SNP: 14
Actually that does look quite plausible. Horrific for the Tories but not extinction, quite, some of them may see that as a relief - high two figures!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-45005329
But the point he is making (and has made before) his parents used every spare penny to spend him there and as a result they went without the luxuries that middle class families of the time regularly bought. Sky was one of the big things at the time that people got to say I'm doing alright me.
I grew up similar time to Sunak. We didn't have it, I had to get my mates to VHS the footy for me.
However, if I was a political adviser I wouldn't open that can of worms, as the media are juvenile.