Politicalwire posts the following Morning Consult poll
Should Biden stand down? Yes - 60%
Who will you vote for? - Biden 45%, Trump 44%
If that poll is followed by others similar then Biden is going nowhere. I remember Chirac v LePen (senior) when the narrative was, 'I'll vote for the crook to beat the nazi.' In his case how many will decide even a doddery Biden is the less dangerous option?
I want to cut the grass but it's too wet obviously so checked the weather forecast. Rain and highs of 16 consistently for the next seven days.
Joy.
It’s lovely down here
Same here.
Contrarians must get contrarian weather.
Lovely up here. Sunny with enough cloud not to be nasty. Have been down to the pond to inspect the amphibian exodus but obviously a bit too warm in the drying breeze to suit the little froglets and toadlets much.
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Why Apple Music is highly profitable as is Amazon Music. And a triopoly is better than a Duopoly so no Government would allow the merger...
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Spotify have a big problem. The record companies have now decided that streaming is the only game in town, and willing to licence their catalogues to any service who can pay. So there is no exclusivity, no massive individual reason to choose Spotify over Apple Music.
That is why they went for the exclusive podcast route, but it seems to have failed.
As a result all the music streaming services are basically the same price, same catalogue. The problem for Spotify is an Apple or Amazon can wait them out. Spotify had first mover advantage, but Apple can slow draw customers away with their bundled offers and they don't need to make money on music streaming anytime soon.
Why do they get into such a wankfest over this every year?
The average viewer of a 24 hour news channel couldn't give a feck about a bunch of twats living in squalor for a week, and listening to bands they have never heard of.
And paying thousands of pound in order to do so.
I can fully accept the BBC wanting to televise the event so that music fans can watch.
A big debate on Twitter - often amongst Democrats - about Biden’s alleged dementia. As they are discussing it - and using the D word - surely we can
Lots of them are desperate for him to step aside. One argument they are making is that dementia is not just about mumbling and slowing, which can indeed be handled by good advisors taking over most tasks. Some dementias turn you paranoid, angry, aggressive - they can make you hallucinate
Someone in that state simply cannot be POTUS. Not anywhere near it. Logically, Biden either has to prove he’s not got dementia or he has to go. If he doesn’t do either of these he is absolutely going to lose as Americans absorb this logic
But Biden has not shown any of those symptoms.
Trump however...
(No doubt something is wrong with Biden but there are plenty of other options. My partner reckons she knows what it is, and she works in old age psych)
So what is it?
Parkinson's (but with no tremor), but they aren't giving him the full whack of medication because the side effects would be too obvious. Would explain the on/off days.
That's an interesting theory.
It raises the equation of how they spin the next off day that he has. 'A cold' doesn't really work.
I've been corrected - if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours.
So that would mean many more "off" hours during the election campaign. It does all feel a bit desperate tbh. Time for an Address to the Nation. We could even provide a diplomatic carrot and offer a holiday at Balmoral if he goes soon.
"if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours."
It varies from person to person to be honest.
But if he does have PD and the Dems are hiding this and this is later found out during the campaign then Trump can start loading his removal van with the gold golf clubs or whatever and head straight to the WH.
Later stages of PD can often include hallucinations, wild delusions and major memory issues.
Yes. Look at that man with wild delusions, paranoia, and total loss of memory, plus insane hallucinations! He’s the ideal person to have control over America’s nukes!
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Why Apple Music is highly profitable as is Amazon Music. And a triopoly is better than a Duopoly so no Government would allow the merger...
Do we know Apple Music is profitable? They don't release the numbers - but they unlike Spotify can be subsidised by selling hardware like most of Apple's services.
For customers mainly.
Amazon Music has sod all customers unless you include Prime which is more "by accident" although very clever.
3 postal votes in our household. Applied ages ago because all of us travel regularly for work.
As of this morning - - no postal votes have arrived even though the letters informing us we would get them said they'd be sent out on the 19th. - The council is only contactable on Monday. - So need to ask for a replacement and hope that they arrive in time for us to post them back and that the post will deliver them back in time. - One of us will likely be unable to use it anyway because work commitments make them unlikely to be able to return in time to fill it in (which would not have happened if they'd arrived on time). - If the post does not work, all 3 of us lose the vote. - Despite having the vote, we can't vote in person even if we're here on the 4th and our postal votes have not arrived. - Our constituency is a marginal one. Not that any of the creeps vying for our vote have bothered canvassing.
We want to vote because services are crap and we'd like that to change but precisely because one vital service was flogged off to spivs and the other is incompetent there is a significant risk we won't be able to.
A big debate on Twitter - often amongst Democrats - about Biden’s alleged dementia. As they are discussing it - and using the D word - surely we can
Lots of them are desperate for him to step aside. One argument they are making is that dementia is not just about mumbling and slowing, which can indeed be handled by good advisors taking over most tasks. Some dementias turn you paranoid, angry, aggressive - they can make you hallucinate
Someone in that state simply cannot be POTUS. Not anywhere near it. Logically, Biden either has to prove he’s not got dementia or he has to go. If he doesn’t do either of these he is absolutely going to lose as Americans absorb this logic
But Biden has not shown any of those symptoms.
Trump however...
(No doubt something is wrong with Biden but there are plenty of other options. My partner reckons she knows what it is, and she works in old age psych)
So what is it?
Parkinson's (but with no tremor), but they aren't giving him the full whack of medication because the side effects would be too obvious. Would explain the on/off days.
That's an interesting theory.
It raises the equation of how they spin the next off day that he has. 'A cold' doesn't really work.
I've been corrected - if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours.
So that would mean many more "off" hours during the election campaign. It does all feel a bit desperate tbh. Time for an Address to the Nation. We could even provide a diplomatic carrot and offer a holiday at Balmoral if he goes soon.
"if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours."
It varies from person to person to be honest.
But if he does have PD and the Dems are hiding this and this is later found out during the campaign then Trump can start loading his removal van with the gold golf clubs or whatever and head straight to the WH.
Later stages of PD can often include hallucinations, wild delusions and major memory issues.
When I did my coastal walk, another guy was doing it in the other direction. He was Tom Isaacs, and he had early-onset Parkinsons, diagnosed at the age of 26. He had to take a cocktail of drugs every morning, and some days they did not work. He described having a scheduled meeting with one local worthy one morning (Tom's walk was raising money for Parkinsons research), but the drugs had not yet kicked in. A supporter had to help him walk to the meeting, and apparently the worthy thought it was all a con: if he could not walk to the meeting, how could he be walking the coast?
Tom was an amazing chap. I was in awe.
Parkinsons is a nasty little bugger. Early onset Parkinsons is tragic.
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Why Apple Music is highly profitable as is Amazon Music. And a triopoly is better than a Duopoly so no Government would allow the merger...
Do we know Apple Music is profitable? They don't release the numbers - but they unlike Spotify can be subsidised by selling hardware like most of Apple's services.
That focus group compared to the one in 2019 is really interesting.
I'm not sure I'd even go as far as saying "no enthusiasm" for SKS, actually to me it came across more like "he's dull but I want dull" and in the contrast to "loveable buffoon" they got in 2019, that's an asset SKS has. Polling of SKS's own ratings supports this.
I do think SKS was the best leader Labour could have chosen. He is underrated as a politician, he's got something and it appealed in some way to all of the voters they spoke to - or didn't repel anyone. I do wonder if for this reason the Tories will struggle against him if they go even more extreme.
This focus group has underlined my confidence that the Tories may well be out for a decade. They've lost these voters for good.
Lost them for good? Why do you think they are different to the people who voted the Tories out in 1997 but voted Cameron in? Why are they different from the people who kicked out Brown, didn’t like how Milliband ate his sarnies, were terrified of Labour under Corbyn, but are ok with Starmer?
Well, speaking as one who voted Blair in 1997, voted Cameron in 2010, didn't vote Miliband in 2015, and am OK with Starmer (though not voting for him), the reason is that the Conservatives are not the party of 2010. They show no signs at all of going back to One Nation, socially liberal, Internationalist and environmentalist values. They look like they are going to sink further into reactionary, nativist autarky. So why on earth would I return to voting for them?
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Spotify have a big problem. The record companies have now decided that streaming is the only game in town, and willing to licence their catalogues to any service who can pay. So there is no exclusivity, no massive individual reason to choose Spotify over Apple Music.
That is why they went for the exclusive podcast route, but it seems to have failed.
As a result all the music streaming services are basically the same price, same catalogue. The problem for Spotify is an Apple or Amazon can wait them out. Spotify had first mover advantage, but Apple can slow draw customers away with their bundled offers and they don't need to make money on music streaming anytime soon.
I had a friend who worked at Spotify during the podcasting bit. It was an absolute disaster, they lost millions and millions and millions on it.
Spotify is still better cross-platform and has Connect which is still un-copied (I understood that it's some patent issue) but Apple has a captive platform with the iPhone. They do have an Android app but that's not pre-installed.
Spotify were going to charge extra for Lossless and then Apple pugged the rug from underneath them - Spotify's version is still unreleased so they were clearly caught off-guard.
Spotify like Google is one of the few things I know people actively download on an iPhone so I think they will have an advantage for some time. But I do agree Apple can wait.
I use Apple Music and find it objectively superior to Spotify.
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Spotify have a big problem. The record companies have now decided that streaming is the only game in town, and willing to licence their catalogues to any service who can pay. So there is no exclusivity, no massive individual reason to choose Spotify over Apple Music.
That is why they went for the exclusive podcast route, but it seems to have failed.
As a result all the music streaming services are basically the same price, same catalogue. The problem for Spotify is an Apple or Amazon can wait them out. Spotify had first mover advantage, but Apple can slow draw customers away with their bundled offers and they don't need to make money on music streaming anytime soon.
I’m not sure how Spotify’s thinking went, when they decided to let Rogan go back everywhere and try to monetise it, rather than keeping him as an exclusive on their platform.
I can only guess that they thought he was unlikey to draw a lot more additional subscribers, and so his value was more marginal than when he first signed, but they had to keep paying him otherwise he’d have gone for another exclusive somewhere else.
Pretty much every other exclusive podcast they signed went nowhere, and cost them a fortune.
On topic, I've had more Reform ads on Facebook than from the Conservatives.
And they don't come for free.
Are they targeted at people like you? I've not seen any.
I've only been getting Green and Labour ones on FB.
I have been getting Reform ones while shopping for some new binoculars* online and keeping up with football gossip in the Leicester Mercury. It's about the only political advertising that I have seen.
*I am toying with some image stabilised ones for birdwatching, the Canon 12x36 is perhaps, or something similar. Anyone on PB with any thoughts?
Binocular owners and buyers are a key demographic for Reform, obviously. Only with binoculars can you fully enjoy standing on the cliffs of Dover watching those small boats in the distance.
And examining the neighbours' gardens and looking into the windows of the Wendy Houses to look for immigrant barracks.
The Mail’s editorial comment is saying what many of us thought it would. Don’t allow a “Starmageddon”, seriously don't vote reform, the Tories have actually done well under the circumstances. Labour will win but vote Tory to ensure a proper opposition to stop the worst of Starmer is a summary.
The Sun will likely say exactly the same and I’m guessing the Times, Telegraph and Express too. “Its lost but you need to still vote Tory to rein in Labour”.
Interesting that those Tory Papers so openly admit their current irrelevance. Be interesting to see which of them are no longer around in their current form when the next election happens
Telegraph and Mail are profitable for starters, successfully moving to subscription model. Times is profitable as well.
I would say the biggest liability is Reach group i.e. Mirror. Mirror is irrelevant, and they bought all those regional newspapers that are failing.
The raverage age of the readership of the Telegraph must be close to 100. Its rumoured Sheikh Mansour wants to turn it into a City fanzine
I thought it was stuffed and has definitely gone downhill, but when we have discussed this previously have on here, have been reliably informed their move to paywall has gone surprisingly well and making money. 100 year olds don't generally know how to use ipads, so i think they have attracted those over who a tad younger than than that are capable of ipad usage.
In all seriousness It had quite a good film critic which worked for me and those who subscribed found something they wanted. The subscription was also cheap and easy to cancel and was sent online so the mechanics plus the price worked. Oddly enough I find the Guardian the most irritating. I just send an arbitrary amount of money at different times as requested but it still manages to behave like a market trader and do a big selling job before I can read anything
Its because the Guardian still struggling to make it all work in the modern landscape. Apparently they get a good chunk of their readership from online via US audience. For whatever reason they don't want to or aren't confident to go the full pay wall route, so they have gone the begging letter approach instead. If I was them, I would bite the bullet and go pay wall. Its works for Times, the NYT, the Athletic. People are willing to pay £5-10 a month for really good content.
I presume at some point we will get a Netflix / Spotify service for written content.
There’s also a lot of independents making serious bank from Substack.
Yes, some of those people are making far more than they ever would as a journalist with a mainstream publication.
I think the landscape is if you have expert knowledge and you can provide it in a format that is interesting and entertaining, people will pay. You aren't trying to target a market of millions like a old school newspaper, you are trying to target the 1,000s or 10,000s that are really interested in whatever niche it is you know about.
I have an American friend with a substack. I thought he was making beer money but we recently had a proper chat about it and he revealed he is making six figures. Incredible!
He’s only got about 2000 subscribers but they are willing to pay $5-10 a month
I’m very tempted to have a go. It would mean I quit PB. I can hear the moans of despair already
You should give it a go. I'm pretty sure you'd find at least that many punters.
I am generous enough to forego the pleasure of your gratis musings. Though not without a small pang.
Thanks. I think
I’ve actually been considering it for a while but sheer laziness and inertia have restrained me
But this guy making $150,000 a year doing three-four articles a month. wtf. He’s good at his job and he has a niche but I’ve got a feeling I could do as well as that - if I ever get off my fat butt
I’ve another friend doing the same in the UK. He’s more coy about his income but he will say “I’m making way more than I ever did as a normal journalist”
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Spotify have a big problem. The record companies have now decided that streaming is the only game in town, and willing to licence their catalogues to any service who can pay. So there is no exclusivity, no massive individual reason to choose Spotify over Apple Music.
That is why they went for the exclusive podcast route, but it seems to have failed.
As a result all the music streaming services are basically the same price, same catalogue. The problem for Spotify is an Apple or Amazon can wait them out. Spotify had first mover advantage, but Apple can slow draw customers away with their bundled offers and they don't need to make money on music streaming anytime soon.
I’m not sure how Spotify’s thinking went, when they decided to let Rogan go back everywhere and try to monetise it, rather than keeping him as an exclusive on their platform.
I can only guess that they thought he was unlikey to draw a lot more additional subscribers, and so his value was more marginal than when he first signed, but they had to keep paying him otherwise he’d have gone for another exclusive somewhere else.
Pretty much every other exclusive podcast they signed went nowhere, and cost them a fortune.
Surely it was just trying to recoup any money they'd lost.
Why do they get into such a wankfest over this every year?
The average viewer of a 24 hour news channel couldn't give a feck about a bunch of twats living in squalor for a week, and listening to bands they have never heard of.
And paying thousands of pound in order to do so.
I can fully accept the BBC wanting to televise the event so that music fans can watch.
But it is not news.
The news channels are not Smash Hits magazine.
Yes, I have no probs with them providing streaming and commentary on iPlayer and Radio 1/radio 6. It’s the multiple cross promotional and back-scratching efforts that grate.
If you were a rival festival you would understandably be a bit miffed that Glastonbury gets wall to wall coverage and publicity and attention from the national broadcaster and that a multitude of the BBC’s on air staff and honchos go and stay there and will be talking on their shows or tweeting about it to everyone.
Re Yougov, several polls have placed Labour under 40%, recently.
5 of the 18 pollsters most recent poll has them under 40 with the range 36 to 42 currently
I hope all 18 pollsters will let us know which is to be their final definitive poll. PB needs a new GOLD STANDARD since Comm Res was taken over by Sevanta
Supporters of Reform on here. Assuming you want your “party” to control the executive and legislature does not the simple statement in the below link worry you about the democratic credentials of your man?
If a man controls a “party” (in this case a limited company of said man who owns 8 out of its 13 shares) which has a majority in the Commons I would imagine that the principle of pleasing the leader is becomes the imperative.
No I want them to get a toehold of a few MPs so that when Labour run into the sand and end up as unpopular as the Tories are now we will have an actually conservative party (which is far broader than Reform), shorn of libdem fifth columnists calling themselves centrists, willing to make the necessary reforms that Brexit now empowers Parliament to do.
1) Repeal ECHR membership.
2) Repeal Climate Change Act.
3) Repeal Equality Act and replace with bill of Rights (which will include measures to stop discrimination for whatever reason through measures similar to the common carrier legislation on Railways that stopped them refusing customers and stopped them charging different customers different amounts. (the common carrier legislation was the worlds first anti discrimination legislation)).
4) Abolish hate crime legislation and instead increase sentences on (non hate aggravated) offences to the levels of aggravated offences under hate crime legislation, with judges able to reduce them if mitigation applies.
5) Replace welfare system with contributory based welfare system. Min 5 years full NI contribtutions to get cover (unless child of contributor turning 18 in which case cover through parents for first five years). Transition period applies to avoid existing over 18 residents losing cover in first five years.
6) No NHS cover until 5 years full NI contributions unless cover through parents having such cover. Transition period as above.
7) All restrictions on migration dropped, however no enitlement to any state aid whatsoever for first five years.
If they do too well and get dozens of MPs it will be a disaster as all sorts of unsuitable people will get elected. This is a long game.
But stage 1 is a toehold and the Tories going the way of the Liberals in the 1920s.
5 and 6 should have been done in 2005 before the Eastern European countries were given access to freedom of movement.
But I would love to see how you could get any party to agree to point 7....
Sort out 5 and 6 and the problem goes away.
5 and 6 have already been sorted by Brexit. Now when you come to the UK regardless of whether you bring your wife and chidren you aren't getting benefits for a long time..
Other than housing etc (and all sorts of other things if you turn up on a boat illegally)
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Spotify have a big problem. The record companies have now decided that streaming is the only game in town, and willing to licence their catalogues to any service who can pay. So there is no exclusivity, no massive individual reason to choose Spotify over Apple Music.
That is why they went for the exclusive podcast route, but it seems to have failed.
As a result all the music streaming services are basically the same price, same catalogue. The problem for Spotify is an Apple or Amazon can wait them out. Spotify had first mover advantage, but Apple can slow draw customers away with their bundled offers and they don't need to make money on music streaming anytime soon.
I’m not sure how Spotify’s thinking went, when they decided to let Rogan go back everywhere and try to monetise it, rather than keeping him as an exclusive on their platform.
I can only guess that they thought he was unlikey to draw a lot more additional subscribers, and so his value was more marginal than when he first signed, but they had to keep paying him otherwise he’d have gone for another exclusive somewhere else.
Pretty much every other exclusive podcast they signed went nowhere, and cost them a fortune.
They went crazy on signing podcaster to exclusive deals at massive valuations. But THE biggest of all of them, they ditch the exclusivity on, it doesn't make any sense.
They are claiming now podcasts now make them money,
Why do they get into such a wankfest over this every year?
The average viewer of a 24 hour news channel couldn't give a feck about a bunch of twats living in squalor for a week, and listening to bands they have never heard of.
And paying thousands of pound in order to do so.
I can fully accept the BBC wanting to televise the event so that music fans can watch.
But it is not news.
The news channels are not Smash Hits magazine.
I think it's fair enough to cover it in the same way the football gets covered.
I think the problem with Glastonbury is the same problem the Hay Festival has for books suffers from. It is so big, so important, that it attracts the media in such a way that it dwarfs everything else in their attention. Music festivals don't interest me, but there are lots of book festivals around, and Hay seems to swallow up all the PR. It's about saying you've 'done' Glasto or Hay, rather than getting anything out of the festival. Everything else gets ignored.
I'd rather go to a smaller festival than Hay and actually get to talk to people.
Politicalwire posts the following Morning Consult poll
Should Biden stand down? Yes - 60%
Who will you vote for? - Biden 45%, Trump 44%
If that poll is followed by others similar then Biden is going nowhere. I remember Chirac v LePen (senior) when the narrative was, 'I'll vote for the crook to beat the nazi.' In his case how many will decide even a doddery Biden is the less dangerous option?
BTW I think Biden should stand down.
Yes the polls are crucial
There was one last night, however, which was much much worse for Biden. Showed a 10 point post debate swing to Trump IIRC
Which to believe?
And what if Biden gets much worse still in the coming months? It seems quite likely. He’s certainly not going to get BETTER
A big debate on Twitter - often amongst Democrats - about Biden’s alleged dementia. As they are discussing it - and using the D word - surely we can
Lots of them are desperate for him to step aside. One argument they are making is that dementia is not just about mumbling and slowing, which can indeed be handled by good advisors taking over most tasks. Some dementias turn you paranoid, angry, aggressive - they can make you hallucinate
Someone in that state simply cannot be POTUS. Not anywhere near it. Logically, Biden either has to prove he’s not got dementia or he has to go. If he doesn’t do either of these he is absolutely going to lose as Americans absorb this logic
But Biden has not shown any of those symptoms.
Trump however...
(No doubt something is wrong with Biden but there are plenty of other options. My partner reckons she knows what it is, and she works in old age psych)
So what is it?
Parkinson's (but with no tremor), but they aren't giving him the full whack of medication because the side effects would be too obvious. Would explain the on/off days.
That's an interesting theory.
It raises the equation of how they spin the next off day that he has. 'A cold' doesn't really work.
I've been corrected - if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours.
So that would mean many more "off" hours during the election campaign. It does all feel a bit desperate tbh. Time for an Address to the Nation. We could even provide a diplomatic carrot and offer a holiday at Balmoral if he goes soon.
"if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours."
It varies from person to person to be honest.
But if he does have PD and the Dems are hiding this and this is later found out during the campaign then Trump can start loading his removal van with the gold golf clubs or whatever and head straight to the WH.
Later stages of PD can often include hallucinations, wild delusions and major memory issues.
Yes. Look at that man with wild delusions, paranoia, and total loss of memory, plus insane hallucinations! He’s the ideal person to have control over America’s nukes!
The whole situation is a highly dangerous mess. Neither is fit to be president.
Re Yougov, several polls have placed Labour under 40%, recently.
5 of the 18 pollsters most recent poll has them under 40 with the range 36 to 42 currently
I hope all 18 pollsters will let us know which is to be their final definitive poll. PB needs a new GOLD STANDARD since Comm Res was taken over by Sevanta
Why do they get into such a wankfest over this every year?
The average viewer of a 24 hour news channel couldn't give a feck about a bunch of twats living in squalor for a week, and listening to bands they have never heard of.
Another PBer who gets weirdly triggered by Glastonbury. It is the world’s biggest music festival. It is newsworthy.
It’s not in the top ten of biggest music festivals and not even the biggest in UK.
The BBC gets weird fixations on certain things (Glasto, Dr Who the two most egregious) whereby they think that 90% of the country shares their enthusiasm, rather than the more likely 2-5% of middle class white males. I'm not sure if it is because they think it will bring a vibrant young audience to the channel and make it "relevant", or whether it's because the aged old white blokes in charge of the Beeb are reliving their youth.
Why do they get into such a wankfest over this every year?
The average viewer of a 24 hour news channel couldn't give a feck about a bunch of twats living in squalor for a week, and listening to bands they have never heard of.
Another PBer who gets weirdly triggered by Glastonbury. It is the world’s biggest music festival. It is newsworthy.
And a big success story for the UK, surely?
Indeed. Covering major live events is something the BBC should do more of, not less. Its thin sports output is an embarrassment these days, its political coverage increasingly poor. It does well at Glastonbury - a rare gem!
Anyone interested in Glastonbury will be watching the coverage on another channel. Not watching the news channel in the hope of a snippet from a reporter in a field.
The Mail’s editorial comment is saying what many of us thought it would. Don’t allow a “Starmageddon”, seriously don't vote reform, the Tories have actually done well under the circumstances. Labour will win but vote Tory to ensure a proper opposition to stop the worst of Starmer is a summary.
The Sun will likely say exactly the same and I’m guessing the Times, Telegraph and Express too. “Its lost but you need to still vote Tory to rein in Labour”.
Interesting that those Tory Papers so openly admit their current irrelevance. Be interesting to see which of them are no longer around in their current form when the next election happens
Telegraph and Mail are profitable for starters, successfully moving to subscription model. Times is profitable as well.
I would say the biggest liability is Reach group i.e. Mirror. Mirror is irrelevant, and they bought all those regional newspapers that are failing.
The raverage age of the readership of the Telegraph must be close to 100. Its rumoured Sheikh Mansour wants to turn it into a City fanzine
I thought it was stuffed and has definitely gone downhill, but when we have discussed this previously have on here, have been reliably informed their move to paywall has gone surprisingly well and making money. 100 year olds don't generally know how to use ipads, so i think they have attracted those over who a tad younger than than that are capable of ipad usage.
In all seriousness It had quite a good film critic which worked for me and those who subscribed found something they wanted. The subscription was also cheap and easy to cancel and was sent online so the mechanics plus the price worked. Oddly enough I find the Guardian the most irritating. I just send an arbitrary amount of money at different times as requested but it still manages to behave like a market trader and do a big selling job before I can read anything
Its because the Guardian still struggling to make it all work in the modern landscape. Apparently they get a good chunk of their readership from online via US audience. For whatever reason they don't want to or aren't confident to go the full pay wall route, so they have gone the begging letter approach instead. If I was them, I would bite the bullet and go pay wall. Its works for Times, the NYT, the Athletic. People are willing to pay £5-10 a month for really good content.
I presume at some point we will get a Netflix / Spotify service for written content.
I assume with the Guardian, being owned by a Trust, that readership, and open access, is prized more highly than at a newspaper with an owner. So long as they're not going bust, and have the money to spend on journalism, they would want as many people to be able to read as possible, and for people who can't afford to pay, to still access the site.
They do also have paid access, which avoids the begging letter route.
As for Netflix/Spotify, wouldn't Readly and PressReader be those services?
I actually hadn't heard of Readly. But they are all the traditional magazines. I was thinking something bigger. Spotify is now basically an open platform for artists to upload their music to. At the moment we have numerous different bits and pieces, substack, newspapers, traditional magazines, new expert written content like an Athletic.
The reason everybody has Spotify or the couple of other services is it is now basically all music ever all in one place.
All music is big, but all writing is a lot bigger.
All TV and film would have been nice too, but I now have half a dozen services, which added together don't give me anything like the access to films that the old dvd by post system had.
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more. And as I say, this "expert" or "niche" thing is big. I think it is why some traditional magazines are still able to stand on their own, because they are seen as the expert, where as others are struggling / dying. I guess a good example is tech magazines or games, they are all struggling, because the magazines are basically trash. But people are more interested than ever and you get the mega YouTube sites for tech or games.
Readly does have a few newspapers - but it's pretty limited. Press Reader has most newspapers, but is nearly £30.
I would quite like to have a one payment for most content, but where it's already digital it's a bit trickier - If you can already paywall your content and have a readership, then putting it into a consolidated package is likely to lose you money.
A lot of the smaller/medium sized artists that weren't making much through Spotify, have now moved on to sites like Patreon.
The Mail’s editorial comment is saying what many of us thought it would. Don’t allow a “Starmageddon”, seriously don't vote reform, the Tories have actually done well under the circumstances. Labour will win but vote Tory to ensure a proper opposition to stop the worst of Starmer is a summary.
The Sun will likely say exactly the same and I’m guessing the Times, Telegraph and Express too. “Its lost but you need to still vote Tory to rein in Labour”.
Interesting that those Tory Papers so openly admit their current irrelevance. Be interesting to see which of them are no longer around in their current form when the next election happens
Telegraph and Mail are profitable for starters, successfully moving to subscription model. Times is profitable as well.
I would say the biggest liability is Reach group i.e. Mirror. Mirror is irrelevant, and they bought all those regional newspapers that are failing.
The raverage age of the readership of the Telegraph must be close to 100. Its rumoured Sheikh Mansour wants to turn it into a City fanzine
I thought it was stuffed and has definitely gone downhill, but when we have discussed this previously have on here, have been reliably informed their move to paywall has gone surprisingly well and making money. 100 year olds don't generally know how to use ipads, so i think they have attracted those over who a tad younger than than that are capable of ipad usage.
In all seriousness It had quite a good film critic which worked for me and those who subscribed found something they wanted. The subscription was also cheap and easy to cancel and was sent online so the mechanics plus the price worked. Oddly enough I find the Guardian the most irritating. I just send an arbitrary amount of money at different times as requested but it still manages to behave like a market trader and do a big selling job before I can read anything
Its because the Guardian still struggling to make it all work in the modern landscape. Apparently they get a good chunk of their readership from online via US audience. For whatever reason they don't want to or aren't confident to go the full pay wall route, so they have gone the begging letter approach instead. If I was them, I would bite the bullet and go pay wall. Its works for Times, the NYT, the Athletic. People are willing to pay £5-10 a month for really good content.
I presume at some point we will get a Netflix / Spotify service for written content.
There’s also a lot of independents making serious bank from Substack.
Yes, some of those people are making far more than they ever would as a journalist with a mainstream publication.
I think the landscape is if you have expert knowledge and you can provide it in a format that is interesting and entertaining, people will pay. You aren't trying to target a market of millions like a old school newspaper, you are trying to target the 1,000s or 10,000s that are really interested in whatever niche it is you know about.
I have an American friend with a substack. I thought he was making beer money but we recently had a proper chat about it and he revealed he is making six figures. Incredible!
He’s only got about 2000 subscribers but they are willing to pay $5-10 a month
I’m very tempted to have a go. It would mean I quit PB. I can hear the moans of despair already
You should give it a go. I'm pretty sure you'd find at least that many punters.
I am generous enough to forego the pleasure of your gratis musings. Though not without a small pang.
Thanks. I think
I’ve actually been considering it for a while but sheer laziness and inertia have restrained me
But this guy making $150,000 a year doing three-four articles a month. wtf. He’s good at his job and he has a niche but I’ve got a feeling I could do as well as that - if I ever get off my fat butt
I’ve another friend doing the same in the UK. He’s more coy about his income but he will say “I’m making way more than I ever did as a normal journalist”
You missed the chance to be author turned withering critic of overly woke tv / movies...that Critical Drinker guy have managed to go from middling author of action novels found in airport bookshops to making masses ripping the shit out of how crap most modern tv and movies are.
Supporters of Reform on here. Assuming you want your “party” to control the executive and legislature does not the simple statement in the below link worry you about the democratic credentials of your man?
If a man controls a “party” (in this case a limited company of said man who owns 8 out of its 13 shares) which has a majority in the Commons I would imagine that the principle of pleasing the leader is becomes the imperative.
No I want them to get a toehold of a few MPs so that when Labour run into the sand and end up as unpopular as the Tories are now we will have an actually conservative party (which is far broader than Reform), shorn of libdem fifth columnists calling themselves centrists, willing to make the necessary reforms that Brexit now empowers Parliament to do.
1) Repeal ECHR membership.
2) Repeal Climate Change Act.
3) Repeal Equality Act and replace with bill of Rights (which will include measures to stop discrimination for whatever reason through measures similar to the common carrier legislation on Railways that stopped them refusing customers and stopped them charging different customers different amounts. (the common carrier legislation was the worlds first anti discrimination legislation)).
4) Abolish hate crime legislation and instead increase sentences on (non hate aggravated) offences to the levels of aggravated offences under hate crime legislation, with judges able to reduce them if mitigation applies.
5) Replace welfare system with contributory based welfare system. Min 5 years full NI contribtutions to get cover (unless child of contributor turning 18 in which case cover through parents for first five years). Transition period applies to avoid existing over 18 residents losing cover in first five years.
6) No NHS cover until 5 years full NI contributions unless cover through parents having such cover. Transition period as above.
7) All restrictions on migration dropped, however no enitlement to any state aid whatsoever for first five years.
If they do too well and get dozens of MPs it will be a disaster as all sorts of unsuitable people will get elected. This is a long game.
But stage 1 is a toehold and the Tories going the way of the Liberals in the 1920s.
5 and 6 should have been done in 2005 before the Eastern European countries were given access to freedom of movement.
But I would love to see how you could get any party to agree to point 7....
Sort out 5 and 6 and the problem goes away.
5 and 6 have already been sorted by Brexit. Now when you come to the UK regardless of whether you bring your wife and chidren you aren't getting benefits for a long time..
Other than housing etc (and all sorts of other things if you turn up on a boat illegally)
You've changed the goal posts there - none of your original items mentioned housing or illegal migrants..
Supporters of Reform on here. Assuming you want your “party” to control the executive and legislature does not the simple statement in the below link worry you about the democratic credentials of your man?
If a man controls a “party” (in this case a limited company of said man who owns 8 out of its 13 shares) which has a majority in the Commons I would imagine that the principle of pleasing the leader is becomes the imperative.
No I want them to get a toehold of a few MPs so that when Labour run into the sand and end up as unpopular as the Tories are now we will have an actually conservative party (which is far broader than Reform), shorn of libdem fifth columnists calling themselves centrists, willing to make the necessary reforms that Brexit now empowers Parliament to do.
1) Repeal ECHR membership.
2) Repeal Climate Change Act.
3) Repeal Equality Act and replace with bill of Rights (which will include measures to stop discrimination for whatever reason through measures similar to the common carrier legislation on Railways that stopped them refusing customers and stopped them charging different customers different amounts. (the common carrier legislation was the worlds first anti discrimination legislation)).
4) Abolish hate crime legislation and instead increase sentences on (non hate aggravated) offences to the levels of aggravated offences under hate crime legislation, with judges able to reduce them if mitigation applies.
5) Replace welfare system with contributory based welfare system. Min 5 years full NI contribtutions to get cover (unless child of contributor turning 18 in which case cover through parents for first five years). Transition period applies to avoid existing over 18 residents losing cover in first five years.
6) No NHS cover until 5 years full NI contributions unless cover through parents having such cover. Transition period as above.
7) All restrictions on migration dropped, however no enitlement to any state aid whatsoever for first five years.
If they do too well and get dozens of MPs it will be a disaster as all sorts of unsuitable people will get elected. This is a long game.
But stage 1 is a toehold and the Tories going the way of the Liberals in the 1920s.
Supporters of Reform on here. Assuming you want your “party” to control the executive and legislature does not the simple statement in the below link worry you about the democratic credentials of your man?
If a man controls a “party” (in this case a limited company of said man who owns 8 out of its 13 shares) which has a majority in the Commons I would imagine that the principle of pleasing the leader is becomes the imperative.
No I want them to get a toehold of a few MPs so that when Labour run into the sand and end up as unpopular as the Tories are now we will have an actually conservative party (which is far broader than Reform), shorn of libdem fifth columnists calling themselves centrists, willing to make the necessary reforms that Brexit now empowers Parliament to do.
1) Repeal ECHR membership.
2) Repeal Climate Change Act.
3) Repeal Equality Act and replace with bill of Rights (which will include measures to stop discrimination for whatever reason through measures similar to the common carrier legislation on Railways that stopped them refusing customers and stopped them charging different customers different amounts. (the common carrier legislation was the worlds first anti discrimination legislation)).
4) Abolish hate crime legislation and instead increase sentences on (non hate aggravated) offences to the levels of aggravated offences under hate crime legislation, with judges able to reduce them if mitigation applies.
5) Replace welfare system with contributory based welfare system. Min 5 years full NI contribtutions to get cover (unless child of contributor turning 18 in which case cover through parents for first five years). Transition period applies to avoid existing over 18 residents losing cover in first five years.
6) No NHS cover until 5 years full NI contributions unless cover through parents having such cover. Transition period as above.
7) All restrictions on migration dropped, however no enitlement to any state aid whatsoever for first five years.
If they do too well and get dozens of MPs it will be a disaster as all sorts of unsuitable people will get elected. This is a long game.
But stage 1 is a toehold and the Tories going the way of the Liberals in the 1920s.
But folk are concerned that full time work doesn't pay their bills. And that they can't get a doctor's appointment. Or a dentist at all. This explains the coming election result.
And five years of Labour will barely move the dial on those issues.
Not that Reform will consequently prosper. They are "none of the above" led by a dodgy Putin-enamoured racist gobshite, skin stretched tight over ego but little else. Their fate is to become part of "above".
Why do they get into such a wankfest over this every year?
The average viewer of a 24 hour news channel couldn't give a feck about a bunch of twats living in squalor for a week, and listening to bands they have never heard of.
Another PBer who gets weirdly triggered by Glastonbury. It is the world’s biggest music festival. It is newsworthy.
It’s not in the top ten of biggest music festivals and not even the biggest in UK.
The BBC gets weird fixations on certain things (Glasto, Dr Who the two most egregious) whereby they think that 90% of the country shares their enthusiasm, rather than the more likely 2-5% of middle class white males. I'm not sure if it is because they think it will bring a vibrant young audience to the channel and make it "relevant", or whether it's because the aged old white blokes in charge of the Beeb are reliving their youth.
And then you will have the presenters like Mishal Husain having to find some nervous enthusiasm when the Glastonbury segment comes up on “Today” where she sort of knows she supposed to be really into it and enthusiastic but isn’t really sure why as she’s not going to be watching it at all and will be having a nice day with the family and dinner with friends, maybe a bit of Goldfrapp on in the background.
Why do they get into such a wankfest over this every year?
The average viewer of a 24 hour news channel couldn't give a feck about a bunch of twats living in squalor for a week, and listening to bands they have never heard of.
Another PBer who gets weirdly triggered by Glastonbury. It is the world’s biggest music festival. It is newsworthy.
It’s not in the top ten of biggest music festivals and not even the biggest in UK.
The BBC gets weird fixations on certain things (Glasto, Dr Who the two most egregious) whereby they think that 90% of the country shares their enthusiasm, rather than the more likely 2-5% of middle class white males. I'm not sure if it is because they think it will bring a vibrant young audience to the channel and make it "relevant", or whether it's because the aged old white blokes in charge of the Beeb are reliving their youth.
Whilst it’s not always the case, a good thing to look for when they go nuts about an event or programme is whether the BBC have the rights to the coverage or make the programme.
They are shameless cross promoters and love setting the agenda around their own programming.
On topic, I've had more Reform ads on Facebook than from the Conservatives.
And they don't come for free.
Are they targeted at people like you? I've not seen any.
I've only been getting Green and Labour ones on FB.
I have been getting Reform ones while shopping for some new binoculars* online and keeping up with football gossip in the Leicester Mercury. It's about the only political advertising that I have seen.
*I am toying with some image stabilised ones for birdwatching, the Canon 12x36 is perhaps, or something similar. Anyone on PB with any thoughts?
Binocular owners and buyers are a key demographic for Reform, obviously. Only with binoculars can you fully enjoy standing on the cliffs of Dover watching those small boats in the distance.
And examining the neighbours' gardens and looking into the windows of the Wendy Houses to look for immigrant barracks.
Sheds with beds. You see plenty of them on final approach into Heathrow.
A big debate on Twitter - often amongst Democrats - about Biden’s alleged dementia. As they are discussing it - and using the D word - surely we can
Lots of them are desperate for him to step aside. One argument they are making is that dementia is not just about mumbling and slowing, which can indeed be handled by good advisors taking over most tasks. Some dementias turn you paranoid, angry, aggressive - they can make you hallucinate
Someone in that state simply cannot be POTUS. Not anywhere near it. Logically, Biden either has to prove he’s not got dementia or he has to go. If he doesn’t do either of these he is absolutely going to lose as Americans absorb this logic
But Biden has not shown any of those symptoms.
Trump however...
(No doubt something is wrong with Biden but there are plenty of other options. My partner reckons she knows what it is, and she works in old age psych)
So what is it?
Parkinson's (but with no tremor), but they aren't giving him the full whack of medication because the side effects would be too obvious. Would explain the on/off days.
That's an interesting theory.
It raises the equation of how they spin the next off day that he has. 'A cold' doesn't really work.
I've been corrected - if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours.
So that would mean many more "off" hours during the election campaign. It does all feel a bit desperate tbh. Time for an Address to the Nation. We could even provide a diplomatic carrot and offer a holiday at Balmoral if he goes soon.
"if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours."
It varies from person to person to be honest.
But if he does have PD and the Dems are hiding this and this is later found out during the campaign then Trump can start loading his removal van with the gold golf clubs or whatever and head straight to the WH.
Later stages of PD can often include hallucinations, wild delusions and major memory issues.
When I did my coastal walk, another guy was doing it in the other direction. He was Tom Isaacs, and he had early-onset Parkinsons, diagnosed at the age of 26. He had to take a cocktail of drugs every morning, and some days they did not work. He described having a scheduled meeting with one local worthy one morning (Tom's walk was raising money for Parkinsons research), but the drugs had not yet kicked in. A supporter had to help him walk to the meeting, and apparently the worthy thought it was all a con: if he could not walk to the meeting, how could he be walking the coast?
Tom was an amazing chap. I was in awe.
Parkinsons is a nasty little bugger. Early onset Parkinsons is tragic.
That variability is a fairly normal experience for disabled people.
An example I think I quoted here was someone with Fibromyalgia looking for a recent Sunday half day cycling route of 35 miles, who is unable to lift her cycle up 2 steps without a lot of pain, or often walk far at all.
And it all varies day by day. One problem she may get will be with the lack of expertise in the Benefit processes. The poorly skilled assessor will go something like "but you can ride a bike so you must be fine right cross, so you have no entitlement". That happens repeatedly with people known to me, so a lot of them keep quiet quiet as they know they may be punished for it.
That kind of subtlety is beyond (whether actually or conveniently) the comprehension of the likes of Reform and the current senior generation of Loboto-Tories.
I'll get a similar variable ability next time my Hairy Cell Leukemia kicks off, but that will be years away and will knock me over completely (ie in bed most of the day due to no energy due to inability of blood to carry it) for a couple of months until re-treated.
Why do they get into such a wankfest over this every year?
The average viewer of a 24 hour news channel couldn't give a feck about a bunch of twats living in squalor for a week, and listening to bands they have never heard of.
Another PBer who gets weirdly triggered by Glastonbury. It is the world’s biggest music festival. It is newsworthy.
It’s not in the top ten of biggest music festivals and not even the biggest in UK.
The BBC gets weird fixations on certain things (Glasto, Dr Who the two most egregious) whereby they think that 90% of the country shares their enthusiasm, rather than the more likely 2-5% of middle class white males. I'm not sure if it is because they think it will bring a vibrant young audience to the channel and make it "relevant", or whether it's because the aged old white blokes in charge of the Beeb are reliving their youth.
Whilst it’s not always the case, a good thing to look for when they go nuts about an event or programme is whether the BBC have the rights to the coverage or make the programme.
They are shameless cross promoters and love setting the agenda around their own programming.
Really they are only doing what most media will do e.g. ITV don't miss an opportunity to plug Britain Got Talent or I'm a Celeb or Sky with any big sporting event they have the righrs to.
She risks making herself look like the villain instead of his staunchest supporter. The fact that she looks very good for her age makes the contast with Joe here even more stark:
That focus group compared to the one in 2019 is really interesting.
I'm not sure I'd even go as far as saying "no enthusiasm" for SKS, actually to me it came across more like "he's dull but I want dull" and in the contrast to "loveable buffoon" they got in 2019, that's an asset SKS has. Polling of SKS's own ratings supports this.
I do think SKS was the best leader Labour could have chosen. He is underrated as a politician, he's got something and it appealed in some way to all of the voters they spoke to - or didn't repel anyone. I do wonder if for this reason the Tories will struggle against him if they go even more extreme.
This focus group has underlined my confidence that the Tories may well be out for a decade. They've lost these voters for good.
Lost them for good? Why do you think they are different to the people who voted the Tories out in 1997 but voted Cameron in? Why are they different from the people who kicked out Brown, didn’t like how Milliband ate his sarnies, were terrified of Labour under Corbyn, but are ok with Starmer?
Well, speaking as one who voted Blair in 1997, voted Cameron in 2010, didn't vote Miliband in 2015, and am OK with Starmer (though not voting for him), the reason is that the Conservatives are not the party of 2010. They show no signs at all of going back to One Nation, socially liberal, Internationalist and environmentalist values. They look like they are going to sink further into reactionary, nativist autarky. So why on earth would I return to voting for them?
But you’re making exactly my point. In the end they, or their centre right successors, will find a popular platform.
It’s a bit easier for them now as well because Europe is a non-debate. It will soon become apparent that rejoining, or entering the single market, are non-starters and a consensus will emerge. No need to bang on about it.
3 postal votes in our household. Applied ages ago because all of us travel regularly for work.
As of this morning - - no postal votes have arrived even though the letters informing us we would get them said they'd be sent out on the 19th. - The council is only contactable on Monday. - So need to ask for a replacement and hope that they arrive in time for us to post them back and that the post will deliver them back in time. - One of us will likely be unable to use it anyway because work commitments make them unlikely to be able to return in time to fill it in (which would not have happened if they'd arrived on time). - If the post does not work, all 3 of us lose the vote. - Despite having the vote, we can't vote in person even if we're here on the 4th and our postal votes have not arrived. - Our constituency is a marginal one. Not that any of the creeps vying for our vote have bothered canvassing.
We want to vote because services are crap and we'd like that to change but precisely because one vital service was flogged off to spivs and the other is incompetent there is a significant risk we won't be able to.
Can you request a proxy vote for any that cannot vote in person themselves?
The Mail’s editorial comment is saying what many of us thought it would. Don’t allow a “Starmageddon”, seriously don't vote reform, the Tories have actually done well under the circumstances. Labour will win but vote Tory to ensure a proper opposition to stop the worst of Starmer is a summary.
The Sun will likely say exactly the same and I’m guessing the Times, Telegraph and Express too. “Its lost but you need to still vote Tory to rein in Labour”.
Interesting that those Tory Papers so openly admit their current irrelevance. Be interesting to see which of them are no longer around in their current form when the next election happens
Telegraph and Mail are profitable for starters, successfully moving to subscription model. Times is profitable as well.
I would say the biggest liability is Reach group i.e. Mirror. Mirror is irrelevant, and they bought all those regional newspapers that are failing.
The raverage age of the readership of the Telegraph must be close to 100. Its rumoured Sheikh Mansour wants to turn it into a City fanzine
I thought it was stuffed and has definitely gone downhill, but when we have discussed this previously have on here, have been reliably informed their move to paywall has gone surprisingly well and making money. 100 year olds don't generally know how to use ipads, so i think they have attracted those over who a tad younger than than that are capable of ipad usage.
In all seriousness It had quite a good film critic which worked for me and those who subscribed found something they wanted. The subscription was also cheap and easy to cancel and was sent online so the mechanics plus the price worked. Oddly enough I find the Guardian the most irritating. I just send an arbitrary amount of money at different times as requested but it still manages to behave like a market trader and do a big selling job before I can read anything
Its because the Guardian still struggling to make it all work in the modern landscape. Apparently they get a good chunk of their readership from online via US audience. For whatever reason they don't want to or aren't confident to go the full pay wall route, so they have gone the begging letter approach instead. If I was them, I would bite the bullet and go pay wall. Its works for Times, the NYT, the Athletic. People are willing to pay £5-10 a month for really good content.
I presume at some point we will get a Netflix / Spotify service for written content.
I assume with the Guardian, being owned by a Trust, that readership, and open access, is prized more highly than at a newspaper with an owner. So long as they're not going bust, and have the money to spend on journalism, they would want as many people to be able to read as possible, and for people who can't afford to pay, to still access the site.
They do also have paid access, which avoids the begging letter route.
As for Netflix/Spotify, wouldn't Readly and PressReader be those services?
I actually hadn't heard of Readly. But they are all the traditional magazines. I was thinking something bigger. Spotify is now basically an open platform for artists to upload their music to. At the moment we have numerous different bits and pieces, substack, newspapers, traditional magazines, new expert written content like an Athletic.
The reason everybody has Spotify or the couple of other services is it is now basically all music ever all in one place.
All music is big, but all writing is a lot bigger.
All TV and film would have been nice too, but I now have half a dozen services, which added together don't give me anything like the access to films that the old dvd by post system had.
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more. And as I say, this "expert" or "niche" thing is big. I think it is why some traditional magazines are still able to stand on their own, because they are seen as the expert, where as others are struggling / dying. I guess a good example is tech magazines or games, they are all struggling, because the magazines are basically trash. But people are more interested than ever and you get the mega YouTube sites for tech or games.
Readly does have a few newspapers - but it's pretty limited. Press Reader has most newspapers, but is nearly £30.
I would quite like to have a one payment for most content, but where it's already digital it's a bit trickier - If you can already paywall your content and have a readership, then putting it into a consolidated package is likely to lose you money.
A lot of the smaller/medium sized artists that weren't making much through Spotify, have now moved on to sites like Patreon.
Just imagining how Mr T would do with the Youtube prissiness-censor if he tried there .
Why do they get into such a wankfest over this every year?
The average viewer of a 24 hour news channel couldn't give a feck about a bunch of twats living in squalor for a week, and listening to bands they have never heard of.
Another PBer who gets weirdly triggered by Glastonbury. It is the world’s biggest music festival. It is newsworthy.
It’s not in the top ten of biggest music festivals and not even the biggest in UK.
The BBC gets weird fixations on certain things (Glasto, Dr Who the two most egregious) whereby they think that 90% of the country shares their enthusiasm, rather than the more likely 2-5% of middle class white males. I'm not sure if it is because they think it will bring a vibrant young audience to the channel and make it "relevant", or whether it's because the aged old white blokes in charge of the Beeb are reliving their youth.
Whilst it’s not always the case, a good thing to look for when they go nuts about an event or programme is whether the BBC have the rights to the coverage or make the programme.
They are shameless cross promoters and love setting the agenda around their own programming.
Really they are only doing what most media will do e.g. ITV don't miss an opportunity to plug Britain Got Talent or I'm a Celeb or Sky with any big sporting event they have the righrs to.
True. I think it is more noticeable at the Beeb largely because their news output tended to refrain from this a little, historically, whereas now they’ve gone all-in.
She risks making herself look like the villain instead of his staunchest supporter. The fact that she looks very good for her age makes the contast with Joe here even more stark:
3 postal votes in our household. Applied ages ago because all of us travel regularly for work.
As of this morning - - no postal votes have arrived even though the letters informing us we would get them said they'd be sent out on the 19th. - The council is only contactable on Monday. - So need to ask for a replacement and hope that they arrive in time for us to post them back and that the post will deliver them back in time. - One of us will likely be unable to use it anyway because work commitments make them unlikely to be able to return in time to fill it in (which would not have happened if they'd arrived on time). - If the post does not work, all 3 of us lose the vote. - Despite having the vote, we can't vote in person even if we're here on the 4th and our postal votes have not arrived. - Our constituency is a marginal one. Not that any of the creeps vying for our vote have bothered canvassing.
We want to vote because services are crap and we'd like that to change but precisely because one vital service was flogged off to spivs and the other is incompetent there is a significant risk we won't be able to.
Can you request a proxy vote for any that cannot vote in person themselves?
There is provision for emergency proxy voting on the back of the polling card.
An absolute killer for Biden campaign, social media is absolutely awash with memes all using Biden looking totally confused / lost. I bet it is having big cut through like Ed's Bacon Sandwich or Sunak not having Sky.
A big debate on Twitter - often amongst Democrats - about Biden’s alleged dementia. As they are discussing it - and using the D word - surely we can
Lots of them are desperate for him to step aside. One argument they are making is that dementia is not just about mumbling and slowing, which can indeed be handled by good advisors taking over most tasks. Some dementias turn you paranoid, angry, aggressive - they can make you hallucinate
Someone in that state simply cannot be POTUS. Not anywhere near it. Logically, Biden either has to prove he’s not got dementia or he has to go. If he doesn’t do either of these he is absolutely going to lose as Americans absorb this logic
But Biden has not shown any of those symptoms.
Trump however...
(No doubt something is wrong with Biden but there are plenty of other options. My partner reckons she knows what it is, and she works in old age psych)
So what is it?
Parkinson's (but with no tremor), but they aren't giving him the full whack of medication because the side effects would be too obvious. Would explain the on/off days.
That's an interesting theory.
It raises the equation of how they spin the next off day that he has. 'A cold' doesn't really work.
I've been corrected - if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours.
So that would mean many more "off" hours during the election campaign. It does all feel a bit desperate tbh. Time for an Address to the Nation. We could even provide a diplomatic carrot and offer a holiday at Balmoral if he goes soon.
"if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours."
It varies from person to person to be honest.
But if he does have PD and the Dems are hiding this and this is later found out during the campaign then Trump can start loading his removal van with the gold golf clubs or whatever and head straight to the WH.
Later stages of PD can often include hallucinations, wild delusions and major memory issues.
When I did my coastal walk, another guy was doing it in the other direction. He was Tom Isaacs, and he had early-onset Parkinsons, diagnosed at the age of 26. He had to take a cocktail of drugs every morning, and some days they did not work. He described having a scheduled meeting with one local worthy one morning (Tom's walk was raising money for Parkinsons research), but the drugs had not yet kicked in. A supporter had to help him walk to the meeting, and apparently the worthy thought it was all a con: if he could not walk to the meeting, how could he be walking the coast?
Tom was an amazing chap. I was in awe.
Parkinsons is a nasty little bugger. Early onset Parkinsons is tragic.
That variability is a fairly normal experience for disabled people.
An example I think I quoted here was someone with Fibromyalgia looking for a recent Sunday half day cycling route of 35 miles, who is unable to lift her cycle up 2 steps without a lot of pain, or often walk far at all.
And it all varies day by day. One problem she may get will be with the lack of expertise in the Benefit processes. The poorly skilled assessor will go something like "but you can ride a bike so you must be fine right cross, so you have no entitlement". That happens repeatedly with people known to me, so a lot of them keep quiet quiet as they know they may be punished for it.
That kind of subtlety is beyond (whether actually or conveniently) the comprehension of the likes of Reform and the current senior generation of Loboto-Tories.
I'll get a similar variable ability next time my Hairy Cell Leukemia kicks off, but that will be years away and will knock me over completely (ie in bed most of the day due to no energy due to inability of blood to carry it) for a couple of months until re-treated.
I imagine that's quite common. Partly sighted people might do disproportionately badly in poor lighting or when tired; deaf people's lipreading likewise, or in a noisy/large group. JUst being able to deal with one assessor on the other side of the desk doesn't give a full assessment.
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Spotify have a big problem. The record companies have now decided that streaming is the only game in town, and willing to licence their catalogues to any service who can pay. So there is no exclusivity, no massive individual reason to choose Spotify over Apple Music.
That is why they went for the exclusive podcast route, but it seems to have failed.
As a result all the music streaming services are basically the same price, same catalogue. The problem for Spotify is an Apple or Amazon can wait them out. Spotify had first mover advantage, but Apple can slow draw customers away with their bundled offers and they don't need to make money on music streaming anytime soon.
I’m not sure how Spotify’s thinking went, when they decided to let Rogan go back everywhere and try to monetise it, rather than keeping him as an exclusive on their platform.
I can only guess that they thought he was unlikey to draw a lot more additional subscribers, and so his value was more marginal than when he first signed, but they had to keep paying him otherwise he’d have gone for another exclusive somewhere else.
Pretty much every other exclusive podcast they signed went nowhere, and cost them a fortune.
They went crazy on signing podcaster to exclusive deals at massive valuations. But THE biggest of all of them, they ditch the exclusivity on, it doesn't make any sense.
They are claiming now podcasts now make them money,
They’re making money because they’ve dropped most of the silly exclusives they signed, for new development podcasts by people with little relevant experience. Who thought that Michelle Obama, or Mrs Sussex, would attract a large audience from nowhere? Rogan was worth the massive paycheck because he bought a massive audience with him.
A big debate on Twitter - often amongst Democrats - about Biden’s alleged dementia. As they are discussing it - and using the D word - surely we can
Lots of them are desperate for him to step aside. One argument they are making is that dementia is not just about mumbling and slowing, which can indeed be handled by good advisors taking over most tasks. Some dementias turn you paranoid, angry, aggressive - they can make you hallucinate
Someone in that state simply cannot be POTUS. Not anywhere near it. Logically, Biden either has to prove he’s not got dementia or he has to go. If he doesn’t do either of these he is absolutely going to lose as Americans absorb this logic
But Biden has not shown any of those symptoms.
Trump however...
(No doubt something is wrong with Biden but there are plenty of other options. My partner reckons she knows what it is, and she works in old age psych)
So what is it?
Parkinson's (but with no tremor), but they aren't giving him the full whack of medication because the side effects would be too obvious. Would explain the on/off days.
That's an interesting theory.
It raises the equation of how they spin the next off day that he has. 'A cold' doesn't really work.
I've been corrected - if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours.
So that would mean many more "off" hours during the election campaign. It does all feel a bit desperate tbh. Time for an Address to the Nation. We could even provide a diplomatic carrot and offer a holiday at Balmoral if he goes soon.
"if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours."
It varies from person to person to be honest.
But if he does have PD and the Dems are hiding this and this is later found out during the campaign then Trump can start loading his removal van with the gold golf clubs or whatever and head straight to the WH.
Later stages of PD can often include hallucinations, wild delusions and major memory issues.
Yes. Look at that man with wild delusions, paranoia, and total loss of memory, plus insane hallucinations! He’s the ideal person to have control over America’s nukes!
Agreed. It's bizarre the Republicans have put him forward again.
Politicalwire posts the following Morning Consult poll
Should Biden stand down? Yes - 60%
Who will you vote for? - Biden 45%, Trump 44%
If that poll is followed by others similar then Biden is going nowhere. I remember Chirac v LePen (senior) when the narrative was, 'I'll vote for the crook to beat the nazi.' In his case how many will decide even a doddery Biden is the less dangerous option?
BTW I think Biden should stand down.
Also what would the answers be for:
Stand down and be replaced by Kamala Harris? Stand down and be replaced by Gavin Newsom?
I suspect that 60 will drop below 50 once you put in any specific name, bar the one person who absolutely does not want to do the job, and her husband who is ineligible.
Massive amounts of recently acquired advanced Chinese military equipment and weapons technology were foundin Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces, according to Guermantes Lailari, a Scholar at National Chengchi University in Taiwan and retired U.S. Air Force Officer. Chinese tunnel warfare specialists helped design and build the Hamas tunnels. Lailari also told me that two tunnel engineers from China's People's Liberation Army were discovered by the IDF, meaning that China helped Hamas significantly in its construction of the massive tunnel networks under the Gaza Strip. (The engineers were returned to China after pressure on Israel.)
A big debate on Twitter - often amongst Democrats - about Biden’s alleged dementia. As they are discussing it - and using the D word - surely we can
Lots of them are desperate for him to step aside. One argument they are making is that dementia is not just about mumbling and slowing, which can indeed be handled by good advisors taking over most tasks. Some dementias turn you paranoid, angry, aggressive - they can make you hallucinate
Someone in that state simply cannot be POTUS. Not anywhere near it. Logically, Biden either has to prove he’s not got dementia or he has to go. If he doesn’t do either of these he is absolutely going to lose as Americans absorb this logic
But Biden has not shown any of those symptoms.
Trump however...
(No doubt something is wrong with Biden but there are plenty of other options. My partner reckons she knows what it is, and she works in old age psych)
So what is it?
Parkinson's (but with no tremor), but they aren't giving him the full whack of medication because the side effects would be too obvious. Would explain the on/off days.
That's an interesting theory.
It raises the equation of how they spin the next off day that he has. 'A cold' doesn't really work.
I've been corrected - if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours.
So that would mean many more "off" hours during the election campaign. It does all feel a bit desperate tbh. Time for an Address to the Nation. We could even provide a diplomatic carrot and offer a holiday at Balmoral if he goes soon.
"if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours."
It varies from person to person to be honest.
But if he does have PD and the Dems are hiding this and this is later found out during the campaign then Trump can start loading his removal van with the gold golf clubs or whatever and head straight to the WH.
Later stages of PD can often include hallucinations, wild delusions and major memory issues.
Yes. Look at that man with wild delusions, paranoia, and total loss of memory, plus insane hallucinations! He’s the ideal person to have control over America’s nukes!
Agreed. It's bizarre the Republicans have put him forward again.
Oh, sorry, you didn't mean Trump?
The very very dangerous problem america and the world faces in a nutshell.
An absolute killer for Biden campaign, social media is absolutely awash with memes all using Biden looking totally confused / lost. I bet it is having big cut through like Ed's Bacon Sandwich or Sunak not having Sky.
He did remember to stay until the end of D Day ceremonies though.
She risks making herself look like the villain instead of his staunchest supporter. The fact that she looks very good for her age makes the contast with Joe here even more stark:
An absolute killer for Biden campaign, social media is absolutely awash with memes all using Biden looking totally confused / lost. I bet it is having big cut through like Ed's Bacon Sandwich or Sunak not having Sky.
He did remember to stay until the end of D Day ceremonies though.
From talking to normies, it was the memes about Sky was the thing people kept talking about / sharing.
The Tories are really excelling in their geographical micro targeting during this campaign.
I just got a leaflet through the letter box. The second one. Here in Lewisham North (notional Lab maj 32k).
It warns me about a host of things Starmer will do. The usual mixture of grains of truth and outright lies (“banning flexible work entirely”), with the direst warning being this:
They will introduce a nationwide ULEZ scheme and pay-per-mile road charging, “Just like in Labour London”.
Heaven forbid that we, here in Lewisham North, in the London borough of Lewisham, ULEZ zone since 2019, might be faced with a ULEZ!
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Spotify have a big problem. The record companies have now decided that streaming is the only game in town, and willing to licence their catalogues to any service who can pay. So there is no exclusivity, no massive individual reason to choose Spotify over Apple Music.
That is why they went for the exclusive podcast route, but it seems to have failed.
As a result all the music streaming services are basically the same price, same catalogue. The problem for Spotify is an Apple or Amazon can wait them out. Spotify had first mover advantage, but Apple can slow draw customers away with their bundled offers and they don't need to make money on music streaming anytime soon.
I've just read an article saying that cassette tapes are making a comeback.
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Spotify have a big problem. The record companies have now decided that streaming is the only game in town, and willing to licence their catalogues to any service who can pay. So there is no exclusivity, no massive individual reason to choose Spotify over Apple Music.
That is why they went for the exclusive podcast route, but it seems to have failed.
As a result all the music streaming services are basically the same price, same catalogue. The problem for Spotify is an Apple or Amazon can wait them out. Spotify had first mover advantage, but Apple can slow draw customers away with their bundled offers and they don't need to make money on music streaming anytime soon.
I've just read an article saying that cassette tapes are making a comeback.
Interesting watching Fiona Bruce with Farage and the leader of the Greens last night....... An excellent audience. As good as I've seen. Extremely well informed and articulate It was quite life affirming to see how much they loathed farage and how little they tolerated his confected bullshit
Though the audience will have been selected to represent different views I doubt they tried to balance their ages so Farages older cohort in all likelihood wouldn't have been able to make it. Not a single clap for him in half an hour
I listened to that, and I think it benefited from them being the smaller parties.
Good questions, though there was a bit of a tendency to make crude points against Farage rather than him getting disembowelled with a scalpel. Fiona Bruce did well by making him address these case of racist etc comments from three of his named candidates who were still in good standing.
The opportunity to skewer Farage for his "put up job" narrative not matching his closest and most trusted advisers demonstrating on the C4 report that they are bigots was missed.
The Green Leader (Ramsey?) treated it a bit too much like a political speech at a political rally rather than an intimate Q&A with a small audience, and was a bit boilerplate rather than addressing the questioner. But generally OK.
Natalie Bennett in the spin room was excellent.
I also enjoyed the Nick Robinson Ed Davey half hour last night. Quite civilised / inquisitorial and Ed Davey came across very well. Not at all like R4 Today.
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Spotify have a big problem. The record companies have now decided that streaming is the only game in town, and willing to licence their catalogues to any service who can pay. So there is no exclusivity, no massive individual reason to choose Spotify over Apple Music.
That is why they went for the exclusive podcast route, but it seems to have failed.
As a result all the music streaming services are basically the same price, same catalogue. The problem for Spotify is an Apple or Amazon can wait them out. Spotify had first mover advantage, but Apple can slow draw customers away with their bundled offers and they don't need to make money on music streaming anytime soon.
I've just read an article saying that cassette tapes are making a comeback.
Tape backups for data are still absolutely huge market.
Massive amounts of recently acquired advanced Chinese military equipment and weapons technology were foundin Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces, according to Guermantes Lailari, a Scholar at National Chengchi University in Taiwan and retired U.S. Air Force Officer. Chinese tunnel warfare specialists helped design and build the Hamas tunnels. Lailari also told me that two tunnel engineers from China's People's Liberation Army were discovered by the IDF, meaning that China helped Hamas significantly in its construction of the massive tunnel networks under the Gaza Strip. (The engineers were returned to China after pressure on Israel.)
Where does this idea Nigel Farage answers questions come from? He's just as slippery as Johnson.
I was just wondering: do you believe the racist campaigner in Clacton was a genuine Reform member? Because I don't, he was too much of a caricature.
Both are plausible. My best guess is 80% chance his own actions, 20% a set up. The problem is if it was a setup some chance we find out, if it wasn't that can't be proved conclusively.
The Tories are really excelling in their geographical micro targeting during this campaign.
I just got a leaflet through the letter box. The second one. Here in Lewisham North (notional Lab maj 32k).
It warns me about a host of things Starmer will do. The usual mixture of grains of truth and outright lies (“banning flexible work entirely”), with the direct warming being this:
They will introduce a nationwide ULEZ scheme and pay-per-mile road charging, “Just like in Labour London”.
Heaven forbid that we, here in Lewisham North, in the London borough of Lewisham, ULEZ zone since 2019, might be faced with a ULEZ!
The 27 different streaming services won't last. They will consolidate.
Maybe I was being a bit OTT with the all writing ever. I mean more it becomes a central go to hub for a lot of different areas. The Readly site appears to be more we have done a deal with the couple of big magazine publishers to show their content digitally. Which yes is what Spotify does, but it also does more.
I still think Amazon or Apple will end up buying Spotify at some point.
Spotify have a big problem. The record companies have now decided that streaming is the only game in town, and willing to licence their catalogues to any service who can pay. So there is no exclusivity, no massive individual reason to choose Spotify over Apple Music.
That is why they went for the exclusive podcast route, but it seems to have failed.
As a result all the music streaming services are basically the same price, same catalogue. The problem for Spotify is an Apple or Amazon can wait them out. Spotify had first mover advantage, but Apple can slow draw customers away with their bundled offers and they don't need to make money on music streaming anytime soon.
I've just read an article saying that cassette tapes are making a comeback.
She risks making herself look like the villain instead of his staunchest supporter. The fact that she looks very good for her age makes the contast with Joe here even more stark:
The Tories are really excelling in their geographical micro targeting during this campaign.
I just got a leaflet through the letter box. The second one. Here in Lewisham North (notional Lab maj 32k).
It warns me about a host of things Starmer will do. The usual mixture of grains of truth and outright lies (“banning flexible work entirely”), with the direct warming being this:
They will introduce a nationwide ULEZ scheme and pay-per-mile road charging, “Just like in Labour London”.
Heaven forbid that we, here in Lewisham North, in the London borough of Lewisham, ULEZ zone since 2019, might be faced with a ULEZ!
Do a shit everywhere, somewhere will be porcelain
But the bizarre thing is the other side has pictures of the Lewisham North Tory candidate. So it’s not a generic national mailing, it’s been adapted for the local area!
The Tories are really excelling in their geographical micro targeting during this campaign.
I just got a leaflet through the letter box. The second one. Here in Lewisham North (notional Lab maj 32k).
It warns me about a host of things Starmer will do. The usual mixture of grains of truth and outright lies (“banning flexible work entirely”), with the direst warning being this:
They will introduce a nationwide ULEZ scheme and pay-per-mile road charging, “Just like in Labour London”.
Heaven forbid that we, here in Lewisham North, in the London borough of Lewisham, ULEZ zone since 2019, might be faced with a ULEZ!
Are they still doing ULEZ? They've lost the argument.
The Tories are really excelling in their geographical micro targeting during this campaign.
I just got a leaflet through the letter box. The second one. Here in Lewisham North (notional Lab maj 32k).
It warns me about a host of things Starmer will do. The usual mixture of grains of truth and outright lies (“banning flexible work entirely”), with the direct warming being this:
They will introduce a nationwide ULEZ scheme and pay-per-mile road charging, “Just like in Labour London”.
Heaven forbid that we, here in Lewisham North, in the London borough of Lewisham, ULEZ zone since 2019, might be faced with a ULEZ!
Do a shit everywhere, somewhere will be porcelain
But the bizarre thing is the other side has pictures of the Lewisham North Tory candidate. So it’s not a generic national mailing, it’s been adapted for the local area!
An absolute killer for Biden campaign, social media is absolutely awash with memes all using Biden looking totally confused / lost. I bet it is having big cut through like Ed's Bacon Sandwich or Sunak not having Sky.
Massive amounts of recently acquired advanced Chinese military equipment and weapons technology were foundin Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces, according to Guermantes Lailari, a Scholar at National Chengchi University in Taiwan and retired U.S. Air Force Officer. Chinese tunnel warfare specialists helped design and build the Hamas tunnels. Lailari also told me that two tunnel engineers from China's People's Liberation Army were discovered by the IDF, meaning that China helped Hamas significantly in its construction of the massive tunnel networks under the Gaza Strip. (The engineers were returned to China after pressure on Israel.)
First mail shot delivery: Green, Cons & Reform all nicely contained within the Commie half fold leaflet. Nothing from Lab which is mystifying as this seat must be a prime target for them. Complacency?
Still not seen a single window display for any party.
The Tories are really excelling in their geographical micro targeting during this campaign.
I just got a leaflet through the letter box. The second one. Here in Lewisham North (notional Lab maj 32k).
It warns me about a host of things Starmer will do. The usual mixture of grains of truth and outright lies (“banning flexible work entirely”), with the direct warming being this:
They will introduce a nationwide ULEZ scheme and pay-per-mile road charging, “Just like in Labour London”.
Heaven forbid that we, here in Lewisham North, in the London borough of Lewisham, ULEZ zone since 2019, might be faced with a ULEZ!
Do a shit everywhere, somewhere will be porcelain
But the bizarre thing is the other side has pictures of the Lewisham North Tory candidate. So it’s not a generic national mailing, it’s been adapted for the local area!
Lol, they are special people
It is the worst campaign that has been waged by a major party in the history of British democracy.
The Tories are really excelling in their geographical micro targeting during this campaign.
I just got a leaflet through the letter box. The second one. Here in Lewisham North (notional Lab maj 32k).
It warns me about a host of things Starmer will do. The usual mixture of grains of truth and outright lies (“banning flexible work entirely”), with the direst warning being this:
They will introduce a nationwide ULEZ scheme and pay-per-mile road charging, “Just like in Labour London”.
Heaven forbid that we, here in Lewisham North, in the London borough of Lewisham, ULEZ zone since 2019, might be faced with a ULEZ!
On the other hand, as I walked out of Peckham Rye station yesterday, campaigners were handing out anti-Reform leaflets. I thought - this is a waste of time, no-one around here is going to vote for them anyway. You need to be leafleting elsewhere.
Interesting watching Fiona Bruce with Farage and the leader of the Greens last night....... An excellent audience. As good as I've seen. Extremely well informed and articulate It was quite life affirming to see how much they loathed farage and how little they tolerated his confected bullshit
Though the audience will have been selected to represent different views I doubt they tried to balance their ages so Farages older cohort in all likelihood wouldn't have been able to make it. Not a single clap for him in half an hour
I listened to that, and I think it benefited from them being the smaller parties.
Good questions, though there was a bit of a tendency to make crude points against Farage rather than him getting disembowelled with a scalpel. Fiona Bruce did well by making him address these case of racist etc comments from three of his named candidates who were still in good standing.
The opportunity to skewer Farage for his "put up job" narrative not matching his closest and most trusted advisers demonstrating on the C4 report that they are bigots was missed.
The Green Leader (Ramsey?) treated it a bit too much like a political speech at a political rally rather than an intimate Q&A with a small audience, and was a bit boilerplate rather than addressing the questioner. But generally OK.
Natalie Bennett in the spin room was excellent.
I also enjoyed the Nick Robinson Ed Davey half hour last night. Quite civilised / inquisitorial and Ed Davey came across very well. Not at all like R4 Today.
Going to be fascinating watching the tory party split over whether to let Farage join them or not.
Presumably him coming on board will mean policies like using the navy to drag small boats back onto french beaches will have to become tory policy?
The Tories are really excelling in their geographical micro targeting during this campaign.
I just got a leaflet through the letter box. The second one. Here in Lewisham North (notional Lab maj 32k).
It warns me about a host of things Starmer will do. The usual mixture of grains of truth and outright lies (“banning flexible work entirely”), with the direct warming being this:
They will introduce a nationwide ULEZ scheme and pay-per-mile road charging, “Just like in Labour London”.
Heaven forbid that we, here in Lewisham North, in the London borough of Lewisham, ULEZ zone since 2019, might be faced with a ULEZ!
Do a shit everywhere, somewhere will be porcelain
But the bizarre thing is the other side has pictures of the Lewisham North Tory candidate. So it’s not a generic national mailing, it’s been adapted for the local area!
Lol, they are special people
It is the worst campaign that has been waged by a major party in the history of British democracy.
Supporters of Reform on here. Assuming you want your “party” to control the executive and legislature does not the simple statement in the below link worry you about the democratic credentials of your man?
If a man controls a “party” (in this case a limited company of said man who owns 8 out of its 13 shares) which has a majority in the Commons I would imagine that the principle of pleasing the leader is becomes the imperative.
No I want them to get a toehold of a few MPs so that when Labour run into the sand and end up as unpopular as the Tories are now we will have an actually conservative party (which is far broader than Reform), shorn of libdem fifth columnists calling themselves centrists, willing to make the necessary reforms that Brexit now empowers Parliament to do.
1) Repeal ECHR membership.
2) Repeal Climate Change Act.
3) Repeal Equality Act and replace with bill of Rights (which will include measures to stop discrimination for whatever reason through measures similar to the common carrier legislation on Railways that stopped them refusing customers and stopped them charging different customers different amounts. (the common carrier legislation was the worlds first anti discrimination legislation)).
4) Abolish hate crime legislation and instead increase sentences on (non hate aggravated) offences to the levels of aggravated offences under hate crime legislation, with judges able to reduce them if mitigation applies.
5) Replace welfare system with contributory based welfare system. Min 5 years full NI contribtutions to get cover (unless child of contributor turning 18 in which case cover through parents for first five years). Transition period applies to avoid existing over 18 residents losing cover in first five years.
6) No NHS cover until 5 years full NI contributions unless cover through parents having such cover. Transition period as above.
7) All restrictions on migration dropped, however no enitlement to any state aid whatsoever for first five years.
If they do too well and get dozens of MPs it will be a disaster as all sorts of unsuitable people will get elected. This is a long game.
But stage 1 is a toehold and the Tories going the way of the Liberals in the 1920s.
In one way I have no issue if the Conservative Party does go down this route. But I am telling you that if you do you will never hold power in this country. Your time in the wilderness will be as long as you headbang these nutty ideas. They are stark raving bonkers.
I partly expect the Party do do just this.
But I’m calling on all moderate, sensible, Conservatives on here not to let your Party do this. You need to be back vying for power once again and that means listening to moderates not these headbangers.
A big debate on Twitter - often amongst Democrats - about Biden’s alleged dementia. As they are discussing it - and using the D word - surely we can
Lots of them are desperate for him to step aside. One argument they are making is that dementia is not just about mumbling and slowing, which can indeed be handled by good advisors taking over most tasks. Some dementias turn you paranoid, angry, aggressive - they can make you hallucinate
Someone in that state simply cannot be POTUS. Not anywhere near it. Logically, Biden either has to prove he’s not got dementia or he has to go. If he doesn’t do either of these he is absolutely going to lose as Americans absorb this logic
But Biden has not shown any of those symptoms.
Trump however...
(No doubt something is wrong with Biden but there are plenty of other options. My partner reckons she knows what it is, and she works in old age psych)
So what is it?
Parkinson's (but with no tremor), but they aren't giving him the full whack of medication because the side effects would be too obvious. Would explain the on/off days.
That's an interesting theory.
It raises the equation of how they spin the next off day that he has. 'A cold' doesn't really work.
I've been corrected - if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours.
So that would mean many more "off" hours during the election campaign. It does all feel a bit desperate tbh. Time for an Address to the Nation. We could even provide a diplomatic carrot and offer a holiday at Balmoral if he goes soon.
"if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours."
It varies from person to person to be honest.
But if he does have PD and the Dems are hiding this and this is later found out during the campaign then Trump can start loading his removal van with the gold golf clubs or whatever and head straight to the WH.
Later stages of PD can often include hallucinations, wild delusions and major memory issues.
Yes. Look at that man with wild delusions, paranoia, and total loss of memory, plus insane hallucinations! He’s the ideal person to have control over America’s nukes!
You mean Trump?
People are speculating that Biden may have wild delusions and insane hallucinations etc when we know for a fact that Donald Inject Bleach Trump does!
A big debate on Twitter - often amongst Democrats - about Biden’s alleged dementia. As they are discussing it - and using the D word - surely we can
Lots of them are desperate for him to step aside. One argument they are making is that dementia is not just about mumbling and slowing, which can indeed be handled by good advisors taking over most tasks. Some dementias turn you paranoid, angry, aggressive - they can make you hallucinate
Someone in that state simply cannot be POTUS. Not anywhere near it. Logically, Biden either has to prove he’s not got dementia or he has to go. If he doesn’t do either of these he is absolutely going to lose as Americans absorb this logic
But Biden has not shown any of those symptoms.
Trump however...
(No doubt something is wrong with Biden but there are plenty of other options. My partner reckons she knows what it is, and she works in old age psych)
So what is it?
Parkinson's (but with no tremor), but they aren't giving him the full whack of medication because the side effects would be too obvious. Would explain the on/off days.
That's an interesting theory.
It raises the equation of how they spin the next off day that he has. 'A cold' doesn't really work.
I've been corrected - if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours.
So that would mean many more "off" hours during the election campaign. It does all feel a bit desperate tbh. Time for an Address to the Nation. We could even provide a diplomatic carrot and offer a holiday at Balmoral if he goes soon.
"if Parkinson's, the medication gives you on/off hours."
It varies from person to person to be honest.
But if he does have PD and the Dems are hiding this and this is later found out during the campaign then Trump can start loading his removal van with the gold golf clubs or whatever and head straight to the WH.
Later stages of PD can often include hallucinations, wild delusions and major memory issues.
Yes. Look at that man with wild delusions, paranoia, and total loss of memory, plus insane hallucinations! He’s the ideal person to have control over America’s nukes!
Yes, that's a good summary of part of the case against Trump.
The Tories are really excelling in their geographical micro targeting during this campaign.
I just got a leaflet through the letter box. The second one. Here in Lewisham North (notional Lab maj 32k).
It warns me about a host of things Starmer will do. The usual mixture of grains of truth and outright lies (“banning flexible work entirely”), with the direct warming being this:
They will introduce a nationwide ULEZ scheme and pay-per-mile road charging, “Just like in Labour London”.
Heaven forbid that we, here in Lewisham North, in the London borough of Lewisham, ULEZ zone since 2019, might be faced with a ULEZ!
Do a shit everywhere, somewhere will be porcelain
But the bizarre thing is the other side has pictures of the Lewisham North Tory candidate. So it’s not a generic national mailing, it’s been adapted for the local area!
Lol, they are special people
It is the worst campaign that has been waged by a major party in the history of British democracy.
Worse than Labour '83?
There are various ways of being awful. What's striking about this campaign is how hopeless it is... There doesn't seem to be any hope, any sense (however deluded) that it might turn out OK for the Conservatives.
Supporters of Reform on here. Assuming you want your “party” to control the executive and legislature does not the simple statement in the below link worry you about the democratic credentials of your man?
If a man controls a “party” (in this case a limited company of said man who owns 8 out of its 13 shares) which has a majority in the Commons I would imagine that the principle of pleasing the leader is becomes the imperative.
No I want them to get a toehold of a few MPs so that when Labour run into the sand and end up as unpopular as the Tories are now we will have an actually conservative party (which is far broader than Reform), shorn of libdem fifth columnists calling themselves centrists, willing to make the necessary reforms that Brexit now empowers Parliament to do.
1) Repeal ECHR membership.
2) Repeal Climate Change Act.
3) Repeal Equality Act and replace with bill of Rights (which will include measures to stop discrimination for whatever reason through measures similar to the common carrier legislation on Railways that stopped them refusing customers and stopped them charging different customers different amounts. (the common carrier legislation was the worlds first anti discrimination legislation)).
4) Abolish hate crime legislation and instead increase sentences on (non hate aggravated) offences to the levels of aggravated offences under hate crime legislation, with judges able to reduce them if mitigation applies.
5) Replace welfare system with contributory based welfare system. Min 5 years full NI contribtutions to get cover (unless child of contributor turning 18 in which case cover through parents for first five years). Transition period applies to avoid existing over 18 residents losing cover in first five years.
6) No NHS cover until 5 years full NI contributions unless cover through parents having such cover. Transition period as above.
7) All restrictions on migration dropped, however no enitlement to any state aid whatsoever for first five years.
If they do too well and get dozens of MPs it will be a disaster as all sorts of unsuitable people will get elected. This is a long game.
But stage 1 is a toehold and the Tories going the way of the Liberals in the 1920s.
In one way I have no issue if the Conservative Party does go down this route. But I am telling you that if you do you will never hold power in this country. Your time in the wilderness will be as long as you headbang this nutty ideas. They are stark raving bonkers.
I partly expect the Party do do just this.
But I’m calling on all moderate, sensible, Conservatives on here not to let your Party do this. You need to be back vying for power once again and that means listening to moderates not these headbangers.
In ten years time the Tory party will be drinking cheap cider out of a plastic bottle in a paper bag by the war memorial whilst people wander past muttering 'didn't they used to be somebody?'
Comments
Should Biden stand down? Yes - 60%
Who will you vote for? - Biden 45%, Trump 44%
If that poll is followed by others similar then Biden is going nowhere. I remember Chirac v LePen (senior) when the narrative was, 'I'll vote for the crook to beat the nazi.' In his case how many will decide even a doddery Biden is the less dangerous option?
BTW I think Biden should stand down.
That is why they went for the exclusive podcast route, but it seems to have failed.
As a result all the music streaming services are basically the same price, same catalogue. The problem for Spotify is an Apple or Amazon can wait them out. Spotify had first mover advantage, but Apple can slow draw customers away with their bundled offers and they don't need to make money on music streaming anytime soon.
But it is not news.
The news channels are not Smash Hits magazine.
For customers mainly.
Amazon Music has sod all customers unless you include Prime which is more "by accident" although very clever.
As of this morning -
- no postal votes have arrived even though the letters informing us we would get them said they'd be sent out on the 19th.
- The council is only contactable on Monday.
- So need to ask for a replacement and hope that they arrive in time for us to post them back and that the post will deliver them back in time.
- One of us will likely be unable to use it anyway because work commitments make them unlikely to be able to return in time to fill it in (which would not have happened if they'd arrived on time).
- If the post does not work, all 3 of us lose the vote.
- Despite having the vote, we can't vote in person even if we're here on the 4th and our postal votes have not arrived.
- Our constituency is a marginal one. Not that any of the creeps vying for our vote have bothered canvassing.
We want to vote because services are crap and we'd like that to change but precisely because one vital service was flogged off to spivs and the other is incompetent there is a significant risk we won't be able to.
Tom was an amazing chap. I was in awe.
Parkinsons is a nasty little bugger. Early onset Parkinsons is tragic.
Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Isaacs_(fundraiser)
Spotify is still better cross-platform and has Connect which is still un-copied (I understood that it's some patent issue) but Apple has a captive platform with the iPhone. They do have an Android app but that's not pre-installed.
Spotify were going to charge extra for Lossless and then Apple pugged the rug from underneath them - Spotify's version is still unreleased so they were clearly caught off-guard.
Spotify like Google is one of the few things I know people actively download on an iPhone so I think they will have an advantage for some time. But I do agree Apple can wait.
I use Apple Music and find it objectively superior to Spotify.
I can only guess that they thought he was unlikey to draw a lot more additional subscribers, and so his value was more marginal than when he first signed, but they had to keep paying him otherwise he’d have gone for another exclusive somewhere else.
Pretty much every other exclusive podcast they signed went nowhere, and cost them a fortune.
I’ve actually been considering it for a while but sheer laziness and inertia have restrained me
But this guy making $150,000 a year doing three-four articles a month. wtf. He’s good at his job and he has a niche but I’ve got a feeling I could do as well as that - if I ever get off my fat butt
I’ve another friend doing the same in the UK. He’s more coy about his income but he will say “I’m making way more than I ever did as a normal journalist”
If you were a rival festival you would understandably be a bit miffed that Glastonbury gets wall to wall coverage and publicity and attention from the national broadcaster and that a multitude of the BBC’s on air staff and honchos go and stay there and will be talking on their shows or tweeting about it to everyone.
They are claiming now podcasts now make them money,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68884501
I'd rather go to a smaller festival than Hay and actually get to talk to people.
There was one last night, however, which was much much worse for Biden. Showed a 10 point post debate swing to Trump IIRC
Which to believe?
And what if Biden gets much worse still in the coming months? It seems quite likely. He’s certainly not going to get BETTER
I would quite like to have a one payment for most content, but where it's already digital it's a bit trickier - If you can already paywall your content and have a readership, then putting it into a consolidated package is likely to lose you money.
A lot of the smaller/medium sized artists that weren't making much through Spotify, have now moved on to sites like Patreon.
Oh, wait... that's non-doms, my mistake.
https://x.com/JAHeale/status/1806238748536922386
Not that Reform will consequently prosper. They are "none of the above" led by a dodgy Putin-enamoured racist gobshite, skin stretched tight over ego but little else. Their fate is to become part of "above".
They are shameless cross promoters and love setting the agenda around their own programming.
An example I think I quoted here was someone with Fibromyalgia looking for a recent Sunday half day cycling route of 35 miles, who is unable to lift her cycle up 2 steps without a lot of pain, or often walk far at all.
And it all varies day by day. One problem she may get will be with the lack of expertise in the Benefit processes. The poorly skilled assessor will go something like "but you can ride a bike so you must be fine right cross, so you have no entitlement". That happens repeatedly with people known to me, so a lot of them keep quiet quiet as they know they may be punished for it.
That kind of subtlety is beyond (whether actually or conveniently) the comprehension of the likes of Reform and the current senior generation of Loboto-Tories.
I'll get a similar variable ability next time my Hairy Cell Leukemia kicks off, but that will be years away and will knock me over completely (ie in bed most of the day due to no energy due to inability of blood to carry it) for a couple of months until re-treated.
https://x.com/rncresearch/status/1806737770070626640
It’s a bit easier for them now as well because Europe is a non-debate. It will soon become apparent that rejoining, or entering the single market, are non-starters and a consensus will emerge. No need to bang on about it.
Oh, sorry, you didn't mean Trump?
Stand down and be replaced by Kamala Harris?
Stand down and be replaced by Gavin Newsom?
I suspect that 60 will drop below 50 once you put in any specific name, bar the one person who absolutely does not want to do the job, and her husband who is ineligible.
https://x.com/mattcartoonist/status/1806729595523055734
Massive amounts of recently acquired advanced Chinese military equipment and weapons technology were foundin Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces, according to Guermantes Lailari, a Scholar at National Chengchi University in Taiwan and retired U.S. Air Force Officer. Chinese tunnel warfare specialists helped design and build the Hamas tunnels. Lailari also told me that two tunnel engineers from China's People's Liberation Army were discovered by the IDF, meaning that China helped Hamas significantly in its construction of the massive tunnel networks under the Gaza Strip. (The engineers were returned to China after pressure on Israel.)
https://www.newsweek.com/china-waging-proxy-war-israel-opinion-1910156
Tories admit Libdems will wins dozens of seats from them, on the door step they go hours at a time without meeting a Tory voter.
GOTV is matching the polls.
I just got a leaflet through the letter box. The second one. Here in Lewisham North (notional Lab maj 32k).
It warns me about a host of things Starmer will do. The usual mixture of grains of truth and outright lies (“banning flexible work entirely”), with the direst warning being this:
They will introduce a nationwide ULEZ scheme and pay-per-mile road charging, “Just like in Labour London”.
Heaven forbid that we, here in Lewisham North, in the London borough of Lewisham, ULEZ zone since 2019, might be faced with a ULEZ!
Good questions, though there was a bit of a tendency to make crude points against Farage rather than him getting disembowelled with a scalpel. Fiona Bruce did well by making him address these case of racist etc comments from three of his named candidates who were still in good standing.
The opportunity to skewer Farage for his "put up job" narrative not matching his closest and most trusted advisers demonstrating on the C4 report that they are bigots was missed.
The Green Leader (Ramsey?) treated it a bit too much like a political speech at a political rally rather than an intimate Q&A with a small audience, and was a bit boilerplate rather than addressing the questioner. But generally OK.
Natalie Bennett in the spin room was excellent.
I also enjoyed the Nick Robinson Ed Davey half hour last night. Quite civilised / inquisitorial and Ed Davey came across very well. Not at all like R4 Today.
It’s still surprising, to me anyway, that nothing Chinese has yet been captured in Ukraine.
https://edition.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/10/17/aol.discs/index.html
I’m in Carshalton tomorrow with the youngest doing some leafleting.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/wilson-may-have-had-alzheimer-s-when-he-resigned-1009829.html
Also, this was all obvious in 2019 but Corbyn masked it. Much the same as it was clear Labour were going down in 2017 but May masked that.
Still not seen a single window display for any party.
Presumably him coming on board will mean policies like using the navy to drag small boats back onto french beaches will have to become tory policy?
Pros & Cons ?
I partly expect the Party do do just this.
But I’m calling on all moderate, sensible, Conservatives on here not to let your Party do this. You need to be back vying for power once again and that means listening to moderates not these headbangers.
Come back.
@TSE @MarqueeMark @BartholomewRoberts
People are speculating that Biden may have wild delusions and insane hallucinations etc when we know for a fact that Donald Inject Bleach Trump does!
But it doesn't solve the Biden conundrum.
https://x.com/conservatives/status/1807004587401851376
Delighted to do so.
There are various ways of being awful. What's striking about this campaign is how hopeless it is... There doesn't seem to be any hope, any sense (however deluded) that it might turn out OK for the Conservatives.