Chances are, the second administration will be a clusterfuck.
A man consumed by grudges both large and petty.
He should have a lot of people commit crimes on his behalf too - I know he's immune from most crimes anyway as President, but he might as well make use of the absurd pardon powers Presidents have as well.
I reckon the intention from Trump 2.0 team is to scare pollsters out of the business.
It is will so much easier to 'fix' 2028 election if there is no polling indicating he is losing.
He’s term limited, and ineligible to run in 2028.
And no, he’s not going to change the constitution in the next four years.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
Chances are, the second administration will be a clusterfuck.
A man consumed by grudges both large and petty.
He should have a lot of people commit crimes on his behalf too - I know he's immune from most crimes anyway as President, but he might as well make use of the absurd pardon powers Presidents have as well.
I reckon the intention from Trump 2.0 team is to scare pollsters out of the business.
It is will so much easier to 'fix' 2028 election if there is no polling indicating he is losing.
He’s term limited, and ineligible to run in 2028.
And no, he’s not going to change the constitution in the next four years.
Been watching Paula Vennells' Solicitor putting the case for at at the close of the PO Inquiry. She couldn't have looked more uncomfortable if she had been representing Satan.
I guess this is something you briefs have to learn to deal with...or does it come naturally?
You learn you cannot polish a turd but that you can add glitter to it.
Semantics are your friend.
I remember spinning for a client and my argument was that ‘they are so good hearted that they couldn’t conceive that some people are bad people out there as they assumed everybody was as nice as them’ when they didn’t ask some questions about some blatant fraud going on under their watch.
Of course you can polish a turd, did you never watch Mythbusters?
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
I used to live in Heaton, in between Byker and Walker, and I don't remember anyone claiming that any of those areas were anything other than Newcastle. North Shields, Tynemouth and Whitley Bay maybe, but the inland suburbs to the east of the town centre no. Gateshead though certainly persisted in the fiction that it wasn't part of Newcastle, a fine example of the kind of boneheaded parochialism at which the north of England excels.
The fact you claim to have lived in Heaton tells me an awful lot…
Gateshead’s argument with plenty of justification was that it’s completely ignored when Newcastle gets involved.
I was surprised that the North Wast mayoral council ever got accepted - Gateshead has a chip on its shoulder and I fair number of valid reasons for having it
Been watching Paula Vennells' Solicitor putting the case for at at the close of the PO Inquiry. She couldn't have looked more uncomfortable if she had been representing Satan.
I guess this is something you briefs have to learn to deal with...or does it come naturally?
You learn you cannot polish a turd but that you can add glitter to it.
Semantics are your friend.
I remember spinning for a client and my argument was that ‘they are so good hearted that they couldn’t conceive that some people are bad people out there as they assumed everybody was as nice as them’ when they didn’t ask some questions about some blatant fraud going on under their watch.
Our dog, who is an accomplished thief, but not very selective, ate the tin foil that had previously wrapped a piece of cake. He pooed sparkling poo for several days.
He spends a lot of time at the vet and absolutely loves going to see them, unlike most dogs, even though half the time they are inducing him to vomit.
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
Seems to have been a total shitshow all around. The practical benefits (regardless of any supposed moral benefits) do not appear to be materialising given that type of reaction.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
I think that's Nottingham Urban Area, which is a fairly bizarre methodology.
Why is it bizarre? It's the Greater Nottingham area. Maybe the odd edge case settlement is 14 miles away, most of it is nothing like far away. And so what?
Old Denby, for example, is not the "Greater Nottingham Area". Nor is Heanor. Nor is Ripley.
Drawing it out that far is beyond absurd.
There will always be tiny edge cases. They are counted by the ONS. Wikipedia says this: "The Heanor/Ripley and West Hallam north-western extensions have a somewhat tenuous linkage through to the core of Nottingham City largely due to ribbon development."
Probably a good argument to exclude them, but the basic principle makes good sense.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
I do likewise. South East London, then near Lewisham or near Greenwich. If I say I'm from Brockley people often reply "That's in Kent isn't it?" I then have to reply no you're thinking of Bromley. Then they say "Oh I know, that's where the Lido is".
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
I used to live in Heaton, in between Byker and Walker, and I don't remember anyone claiming that any of those areas were anything other than Newcastle. North Shields, Tynemouth and Whitley Bay maybe, but the inland suburbs to the east of the town centre no. Gateshead though certainly persisted in the fiction that it wasn't part of Newcastle, a fine example of the kind of boneheaded parochialism at which the north of England excels.
The fact you claim to have lived in Heaton tells me an awful lot…
Gateshead’s argument with plenty of justification was that it’s completely ignored when Newcastle gets involved.
I was surprised that the North Wast mayoral council ever got accepted - Gateshead has a chip on its shoulder and I fair number of valid reasons for having it
Gateshead Quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle City Centre and the whole area is an important and integral part of the functioning city. They should have been merged decades ago, along with the two pointless authorities towards the coast.
Chances are, the second administration will be a clusterfuck.
A man consumed by grudges both large and petty.
He should have a lot of people commit crimes on his behalf too - I know he's immune from most crimes anyway as President, but he might as well make use of the absurd pardon powers Presidents have as well.
Number of pardons issued by recent presidents:
Joe Biden - 8027 Donald Trump - 237 Barack Obama - 1927
A lot of talk about how Labour boxed themselves in with the tax pledges, but looking at the results it seems that they probably needed to. Yes, the majority is big but it's based on winning just 33% of the vote. Not making those big tax pledges would have resulted far fewer Tory to Labour switchers and driven Tory no shows to the polling booth. We could have seen a 30-27 result in the end which wouldn't have even been a majority let alone the huge one they got.
Labour's majority is built on sand and I think without those big tax pledges they would be in minority government or in a coalition with the Lib Dems.
Labour would be better off in a coalition - instead they are going to have 100 MPs who discover they have no promotion to look forward to, are only going to be MPs for 5 years and will start sooner rather than later to create problems
Starmer or the next Labour leader could follow Cameron's lead at the next GE and promise an in/out EU referendum.
WIll he set out the terms? Locked into the Euro too? What are the annual joining fees? Stuff like that...
They will have to agree to whatever the EU needs to allow us back.
I am not sure Starmer is your man for international negotiations. Remember when he waved that piece of paper on the steps of the De Havilland at Heston Aerodrome having conceded Sudetenland?
One is unfortunate. Two is coincidence. Three is... Evidence of an economy collapsing under the strains of war and sanctions? Enemy action? Meteorological justice? Still coincidence?
A lot of talk about how Labour boxed themselves in with the tax pledges, but looking at the results it seems that they probably needed to. Yes, the majority is big but it's based on winning just 33% of the vote. Not making those big tax pledges would have resulted far fewer Tory to Labour switchers and driven Tory no shows to the polling booth. We could have seen a 30-27 result in the end which wouldn't have even been a majority let alone the huge one they got.
Labour's majority is built on sand and I think without those big tax pledges they would be in minority government or in a coalition with the Lib Dems.
Labour would be better off in a coalition - instead they are going to have 100 MPs who discover they have no promotion to look forward to, are only going to be MPs for 5 years and will start sooner rather than later to create problems
Starmer or the next Labour leader could follow Cameron's lead at the next GE and promise an in/out EU referendum.
WIll he set out the terms? Locked into the Euro too? What are the annual joining fees? Stuff like that...
They will have to agree to whatever the EU needs to allow us back.
I am not sure Starmer is your man for international negotiations. Remember when he waved that piece of paper on the steps of the De Havilland at Heston Aerodrome having conceded Sudetenland?
Wasn't a de Havilland. It was a Lockheed 14.
Edit: apols, but one must be accurate in such things.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
I do likewise. South East London, then near Lewisham or near Greenwich. If I say I'm from Brockley people often reply "That's in Kent isn't it?" I then have to reply no you're thinking of Bromley. Then they say "Oh I know, that's where the Lido is".
Bromley's not in Kent either. It's been part of London since the 1960s.
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
Seems to have been a total shitshow all around. The practical benefits (regardless of any supposed moral benefits) do not appear to be materialising given that type of reaction.
Keir Starmer’s government: so utterly shit they can’t even betray the nation despite offering massive financial inducements to our enemies
It’s like we’re governed by a drunken Kim Philby, but he keeps leaking our top secret information to some bemused garage attendants in Barcelona, while wearing nothing but a purple beret and a tartan penis gourd
A lot of talk about how Labour boxed themselves in with the tax pledges, but looking at the results it seems that they probably needed to. Yes, the majority is big but it's based on winning just 33% of the vote. Not making those big tax pledges would have resulted far fewer Tory to Labour switchers and driven Tory no shows to the polling booth. We could have seen a 30-27 result in the end which wouldn't have even been a majority let alone the huge one they got.
Labour's majority is built on sand and I think without those big tax pledges they would be in minority government or in a coalition with the Lib Dems.
Labour would be better off in a coalition - instead they are going to have 100 MPs who discover they have no promotion to look forward to, are only going to be MPs for 5 years and will start sooner rather than later to create problems
Starmer or the next Labour leader could follow Cameron's lead at the next GE and promise an in/out EU referendum.
WIll he set out the terms? Locked into the Euro too? What are the annual joining fees? Stuff like that...
They will have to agree to whatever the EU needs to allow us back.
I am not sure Starmer is your man for international negotiations. Remember when he waved that piece of paper on the steps of the De Havilland at Heston Aerodrome having conceded Sudetenland?
Wasn't a de Havilland. It was a Lockheed 14.
Thanks for that. I am not an aviation expert. However I know a surrender monkey when I see one.
Chances are, the second administration will be a clusterfuck.
A man consumed by grudges both large and petty.
He should have a lot of people commit crimes on his behalf too - I know he's immune from most crimes anyway as President, but he might as well make use of the absurd pardon powers Presidents have as well.
I reckon the intention from Trump 2.0 team is to scare pollsters out of the business.
It is will so much easier to 'fix' 2028 election if there is no polling indicating he is losing.
He’s term limited, and ineligible to run in 2028.
And no, he’s not going to change the constitution in the next four years.
So birthright citizenship stays, then.
That’s likely to end up as a Supreme Court decision, with the language in question originally used to describe freed slaves rather than anyone whose mother turns up in the country at eight months’ gestation. Probably not too controversial to long as Trump doesn’t try and apply the change retrospectively, which would be removing rights from people who are legally Americans.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
You choose the most desirable of New Cross, Lewisham, Brockley or Nunhead. I assume Brockley?
That's how it's done. How else do you think West Dulwich expanded so far that there's no East Norwood between West Norwood and West Dulwich?
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
I don't have a particular opinion on the Chagos Islands, but that kind of attitude (negotiate a deal then try for a better one after) deserves to result in the entire thing being teared up and filed in the long grass for some future PM, if they so wish to take it up.
Starmer would be wise to drop it given his tanking popularity and only downside from a deal.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
I do likewise. South East London, then near Lewisham or near Greenwich. If I say I'm from Brockley people often reply "That's in Kent isn't it?" I then have to reply no you're thinking of Bromley. Then they say "Oh I know, that's where the Lido is".
Bromley's not in Kent either. It's been part of London since the 1960s.
One is unfortunate. Two is coincidence. Three is... Evidence of an economy collapsing under the strains of war and sanctions? Enemy action? Meteorological justice? Still coincidence?
Shitty people not caring about practicalities.
Back in the Goode Olde Days, the rate at which merchant ships just vanished was quite high. The East India Company (who did give shit) lost about 5%. The ones who didn’t….
If you send a shit bucket 5 times before it sinks, and voyage 1 pays for the ship, then the next 4 are profit. Don’t bother maintaining the ship. Just buy another shit bucket.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
I think that's Nottingham Urban Area, which is a fairly bizarre methodology.
Why is it bizarre? It's the Greater Nottingham area. Maybe the odd edge case settlement is 14 miles away, most of it is nothing like far away. And so what?
Old Denby, for example, is not the "Greater Nottingham Area". Nor is Heanor. Nor is Ripley.
Drawing it out that far is beyond absurd.
There will always be tiny edge cases. They are counted by the ONS. Wikipedia says this: "The Heanor/Ripley and West Hallam north-western extensions have a somewhat tenuous linkage through to the core of Nottingham City largely due to ribbon development."
Probably a good argument to exclude them, but the basic principle makes good sense.
As I said - it's a bizarre methodology.
Ripley is the same distance from Nottingham as Southwell or Loughborough.
The lines drawn do the same thing wrt the division between Nottingham and Derby in a different way.
Things such as Beeston, Carlton, Strelley, Arnold *maybe* parts of Hucknall are defensible.
But to pull in towns which are separate with their own town centres, distinct histories going back 1000 years and no linkage other than a row of houses down the road with gaps less than 400m or whatever it is is just weird.
It's making Bishops Stortford and Guildford part of Greater London. By comparison Watford, Windsor, Welwyn Garden City and perhaps Crawley ARE perhaps genuinely part of Greater London.
An equally import matter is where people look towards. People from Ripley look to Derby or Matlock, not Nottingham - both of those are much closer too.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
You choose the most desirable of New Cross, Lewisham, Brockley or Nunhead. I assume Brockley?
That's how it's done. How else do you think West Dulwich expanded so far that there's no East Norwood between West Norwood and West Dulwich?
These things change, though. The Estate Agent definition of Peckham has extended a lot in the last few years. Also, the fact is we just aren't in Brockley, so I would feel dishonest claiming we are. New Cross is probably the one I'd go for, as you can tell from my pseudonym. On the basis of postcode it is the most accurate.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
I used to live in Heaton, in between Byker and Walker, and I don't remember anyone claiming that any of those areas were anything other than Newcastle. North Shields, Tynemouth and Whitley Bay maybe, but the inland suburbs to the east of the town centre no. Gateshead though certainly persisted in the fiction that it wasn't part of Newcastle, a fine example of the kind of boneheaded parochialism at which the north of England excels.
The fact you claim to have lived in Heaton tells me an awful lot…
Gateshead’s argument with plenty of justification was that it’s completely ignored when Newcastle gets involved.
I was surprised that the North Wast mayoral council ever got accepted - Gateshead has a chip on its shoulder and I fair number of valid reasons for having it
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
Seems to have been a total shitshow all around. The practical benefits (regardless of any supposed moral benefits) do not appear to be materialising given that type of reaction.
The only benefit I can see is the ability to point out to Trump that we're spending a lot of money securing a strategic airbase for the US. Sort of thing he likes.
Chances are, the second administration will be a clusterfuck.
A man consumed by grudges both large and petty.
He should have a lot of people commit crimes on his behalf too - I know he's immune from most crimes anyway as President, but he might as well make use of the absurd pardon powers Presidents have as well.
I reckon the intention from Trump 2.0 team is to scare pollsters out of the business.
It is will so much easier to 'fix' 2028 election if there is no polling indicating he is losing.
He’s term limited, and ineligible to run in 2028.
And no, he’s not going to change the constitution in the next four years.
So birthright citizenship stays, then.
That’s likely to end up as a Supreme Court decision, with the language in question originally used to describe freed slaves rather than anyone whose mother turns up in the country at eight months’ gestation. Probably not too controversial to long as Trump doesn’t try and apply the change retrospectively, which would be removing rights from people who are legally Americans.
No, that's absolute bollocks.
Birthright citizenship in the US long predates the 14th amendment. It is as old as the US itself. Even the conservative morons on the SC would struggle to get around that.
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
I don't have a particular opinion on the Chagos Islands, but that kind of attitude (negotiate a deal then try for a better one after) deserves to result in the entire thing being teared up and filed in the long grass for some future PM, if they so wish to take it up.
Starmer would be wise to drop it given his tanking popularity and only downside from a deal.
I agree. Britain negotiated a deal in good faith. The deal gave Mauritius what it wanted - sovereignty. Mauritius have now disowned the deal. Well, what else can Britain do?
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
I don't have a particular opinion on the Chagos Islands, but that kind of attitude (negotiate a deal then try for a better one after) deserves to result in the entire thing being teared up and filed in the long grass for some future PM, if they so wish to take it up.
Starmer would be wise to drop it given his tanking popularity and only downside from a deal.
I agree. Britain negotiated a deal in good faith. The deal gave Mauritius what it wanted - sovereignty. Mauritius have now disowned the deal. Well, what else can Britain do?
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
I do likewise. South East London, then near Lewisham or near Greenwich. If I say I'm from Brockley people often reply "That's in Kent isn't it?" I then have to reply no you're thinking of Bromley. Then they say "Oh I know, that's where the Lido is".
Bromley's not in Kent either. It's been part of London since the 1960s.
And yet many in Bromley still insist otherwise!
They've got green street signs and all. And a BR postcode. And they vote Tory.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
You choose the most desirable of New Cross, Lewisham, Brockley or Nunhead. I assume Brockley?
That's how it's done. How else do you think West Dulwich expanded so far that there's no East Norwood between West Norwood and West Dulwich?
These things change, though. The Estate Agent definition of Peckham has extended a lot in the last few years. Also, the fact is we just aren't in Brockley, so I would feel dishonest claiming we are. New Cross is probably the one I'd go for, as you can tell from my pseudonym. On the basis of postcode it is the most accurate.
Many PBers may of course assume you live in New York.
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
For someone who prides himself on being a tough negotiator Trump certainly doesn't seem to be acting very tough towards Russia.
I'm not convinced, yet, that he's actually on Russia's side here but I think some in his camp actively are. Not just neutral.
In the end everyone will work from bed. It’s the ultimate endpoint
*plumps up pillows*
Leon behind the curve again. I was on a project team with a Californian in 2018 who frequently joined project calls from bed. The low light level performance of her phone camera was poor.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
You choose the most desirable of New Cross, Lewisham, Brockley or Nunhead. I assume Brockley?
That's how it's done. How else do you think West Dulwich expanded so far that there's no East Norwood between West Norwood and West Dulwich?
These things change, though. The Estate Agent definition of Peckham has extended a lot in the last few years. Also, the fact is we just aren't in Brockley, so I would feel dishonest claiming we are. New Cross is probably the one I'd go for, as you can tell from my pseudonym. On the basis of postcode it is the most accurate.
It will be interesting to see how many other PBers get that pretty obscure early ‘90s music reference pseudonym!
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
I don't have a particular opinion on the Chagos Islands, but that kind of attitude (negotiate a deal then try for a better one after) deserves to result in the entire thing being teared up and filed in the long grass for some future PM, if they so wish to take it up.
Starmer would be wise to drop it given his tanking popularity and only downside from a deal.
I agree. Britain negotiated a deal in good faith. The deal gave Mauritius what it wanted - sovereignty. Mauritius have now disowned the deal. Well, what else can Britain do?
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
I don't have a particular opinion on the Chagos Islands, but that kind of attitude (negotiate a deal then try for a better one after) deserves to result in the entire thing being teared up and filed in the long grass for some future PM, if they so wish to take it up.
Starmer would be wise to drop it given his tanking popularity and only downside from a deal.
I agree. Britain negotiated a deal in good faith. The deal gave Mauritius what it wanted - sovereignty. Mauritius have now disowned the deal. Well, what else can Britain do?
Chances are, the second administration will be a clusterfuck.
A man consumed by grudges both large and petty.
He should have a lot of people commit crimes on his behalf too - I know he's immune from most crimes anyway as President, but he might as well make use of the absurd pardon powers Presidents have as well.
Number of pardons issued by recent presidents:
Joe Biden - 8027 Donald Trump - 237 Barack Obama - 1927
It's a Trumpist talking point, trying to justify Trump's plan to pardon his pet insurrectionists, Parliament Stormers and criminal associates.
Many of them aren't pardons anyway.
If I have it right, 6500 of the Biden pardons them are from 2022 or 2023 people for minor drug offenders (eg cannabis). And the current batch of 1500 are not even pardons in the main - they are clemency for non-violent offenders now on home detention ie their version of release on license.
The elephants in the room are that the USA has created a huge shit-heap of overdone punishments with things like "three strikes and you're out", which needs to be cleared out, whilst the Presidential Pardon structure is itself an inherently corrupt get-out-of-jail free card for serious criminals who happen to have given money to, or worked for, a President.
People making the comparison aren't even mentioning the 200k pardons issued by Jimmy Carter to draft dodgers.
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
For someone who prides himself on being a tough negotiator Trump certainly doesn't seem to be acting very tough towards Russia.
I'm not convinced, yet, that he's actually on Russia's side here but I think some in his camp actively are. Not just neutral.
Big fan of Orban, of course. Who is 100% a Putin shill.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
You choose the most desirable of New Cross, Lewisham, Brockley or Nunhead. I assume Brockley?
That's how it's done. How else do you think West Dulwich expanded so far that there's no East Norwood between West Norwood and West Dulwich?
These things change, though. The Estate Agent definition of Peckham has extended a lot in the last few years. Also, the fact is we just aren't in Brockley, so I would feel dishonest claiming we are. New Cross is probably the one I'd go for, as you can tell from my pseudonym. On the basis of postcode it is the most accurate.
It will be interesting to see how many other PBers get that pretty obscure early ‘90s music reference pseudonym!
Did anyone think it was from anything other than “The only living boy in New Cross”?
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
It was caused by Ukraine's Kursk incursion which activated the mutual defence treaty between Russia and North Korea.
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
It was caused by Ukraine's Kursk incursion which activated the mutual defence treaty between Russia and North Korea.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
I think that's Nottingham Urban Area, which is a fairly bizarre methodology.
Why is it bizarre? It's the Greater Nottingham area. Maybe the odd edge case settlement is 14 miles away, most of it is nothing like far away. And so what?
Old Denby, for example, is not the "Greater Nottingham Area". Nor is Heanor. Nor is Ripley.
Drawing it out that far is beyond absurd.
There will always be tiny edge cases. They are counted by the ONS. Wikipedia says this: "The Heanor/Ripley and West Hallam north-western extensions have a somewhat tenuous linkage through to the core of Nottingham City largely due to ribbon development."
Probably a good argument to exclude them, but the basic principle makes good sense.
It's a chunk of a "tiny edge case" - Ripley and Heanor have 40,000 people between them.
If the chinless wonders of Whitehall think they can draw lines across the country as their grandads did around the ME, then they've got another thing coming.
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
It was caused by Ukraine's Kursk incursion which activated the mutual defence treaty between Russia and North Korea.
Blimey, you are deep in the tank.
It's a factual statement. You can be opposed to Russia without having to live in a fantasy world.
Really interesting piece on how to do public works properly - cheap and quick, getting the public on board, and shoving the inquiry industry out of the way.
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
Seems to have been a total shitshow all around. The practical benefits (regardless of any supposed moral benefits) do not appear to be materialising given that type of reaction.
Keir Starmer’s government: so utterly shit they can’t even betray the nation despite offering massive financial inducements to our enemies
It’s like we’re governed by a drunken Kim Philby, but he keeps leaking our top secret information to some bemused garage attendants in Barcelona, while wearing nothing but a purple beret and a tartan penis gourd
No, it's far more like when Dylan went electric. But keep trying ...
Just been to my daughter's primary school carol concert. I was somewhat ambivalent towards it. Obviously seeing my daughter singing was nice. But it did not leave me feeling Christmassy.
I'm fairly grumpy about enforced Christianity, but I'm prepared to make compromises at Christmas. I find it weird to celebrate the Northern European midwinter with imagery from the Middle East, but actually the whole cycle of a carol concert - a huge gothic church outside which the skies are dark and the night is cold; Once in Royal David's City (with the first verse sung by a solo soprano) through to Hark the Herald Angels Sing; interspersed with readings from the gospel of St, Matthew (I think?), King James edition does feel suitably Christmas. I like it. I like the music and the poetry of the language. I like the familiarity of the ritual. I like the fact that this has been an English Christmas for 400 years.
But this primary school carol concert was not that. It was Away in a Manger (fine, but speed up) plus eight songs I did not know but which felt like they had been produced by ChatGPT given the prompt "please produce a turgid, anodyne Christmas song about how wonderful Jesus/God is." It was baffling that anyone could have written any of these pieces and thought them a worthwhile addition to the cannon. Some of them had a sax solo. And it also felt slightly uncomfortable. I don't think one child in 20 at that school has the sort of positive feelings about God or Jesus that the songs feebly attempted to encourage. It's not a CofE school. 30% of the school is Asian or North African. I don't want to come across all woke, but it was hard to see what function this was fulfilling.
I'm not saying there can't be religion in a school Christmas performance, but it can't be all there is. You also need tradition, or humour, or musical excellence, or, well, something to make it worthwhile.
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
I don't have a particular opinion on the Chagos Islands, but that kind of attitude (negotiate a deal then try for a better one after) deserves to result in the entire thing being teared up and filed in the long grass for some future PM, if they so wish to take it up.
Starmer would be wise to drop it given his tanking popularity and only downside from a deal.
I agree. Britain negotiated a deal in good faith. The deal gave Mauritius what it wanted - sovereignty. Mauritius have now disowned the deal. Well, what else can Britain do?
Starmer will bend over further.
With Trump not wanting it, and apparently the new Mauritius PM not wanting the deal he should indeed simply bin it.
It'll be a good test to see whether he does or (As you and I expect) his learned silk friends versed in the verisimilitude of international law may persuade Keir that just perhaps we did not give enough away and should dig yet deeper...
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
I used to live in Heaton, in between Byker and Walker, and I don't remember anyone claiming that any of those areas were anything other than Newcastle. North Shields, Tynemouth and Whitley Bay maybe, but the inland suburbs to the east of the town centre no. Gateshead though certainly persisted in the fiction that it wasn't part of Newcastle, a fine example of the kind of boneheaded parochialism at which the north of England excels.
The fact you claim to have lived in Heaton tells me an awful lot…
Gateshead’s argument with plenty of justification was that it’s completely ignored when Newcastle gets involved.
I was surprised that the North Wast mayoral council ever got accepted - Gateshead has a chip on its shoulder and I fair number of valid reasons for having it
How, man? What's wrong with Heaton, like?
It’s Howay Man. I’m doubting you’ve ever even visited the toon
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
Seems to have been a total shitshow all around. The practical benefits (regardless of any supposed moral benefits) do not appear to be materialising given that type of reaction.
Keir Starmer’s government: so utterly shit they can’t even betray the nation despite offering massive financial inducements to our enemies
It’s like we’re governed by a drunken Kim Philby, but he keeps leaking our top secret information to some bemused garage attendants in Barcelona, while wearing nothing but a purple beret and a tartan penis gourd
No, it's far more like when Dylan went electric. But keep trying ...
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
It was caused by Ukraine's Kursk incursion which activated the mutual defence treaty between Russia and North Korea.
Blimey, you are deep in the tank.
It's a factual statement. You can be opposed to Russia without having to live in a fantasy world.
The timeline seems to be
August Ukraine invades Kursk October North Koreans start to arrive October / November Us missiles allowed
So I think everyone on here is correct to some extent or other
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
You choose the most desirable of New Cross, Lewisham, Brockley or Nunhead. I assume Brockley?
That's how it's done. How else do you think West Dulwich expanded so far that there's no East Norwood between West Norwood and West Dulwich?
These things change, though. The Estate Agent definition of Peckham has extended a lot in the last few years. Also, the fact is we just aren't in Brockley, so I would feel dishonest claiming we are. New Cross is probably the one I'd go for, as you can tell from my pseudonym. On the basis of postcode it is the most accurate.
You can't be that far from Deptford - one of the many SOTR places I lived before making the big move north in 1993.
Just been to my daughter's primary school carol concert. I was somewhat ambivalent towards it. Obviously seeing my daughter singing was nice. But it did not leave me feeling Christmassy.
I'm fairly grumpy about enforced Christianity, but I'm prepared to make compromises at Christmas. I find it weird to celebrate the Northern European midwinter with imagery from the Middle East, but actually the whole cycle of a carol concert - a huge gothic church outside which the skies are dark and the night is cold; Once in Royal David's City (with the first verse sung by a solo soprano) through to Hark the Herald Angels Sing; interspersed with readings from the gospel of St, Matthew (I think?), King James edition does feel suitably Christmas. I like it. I like the music and the poetry of the language. I like the familiarity of the ritual. I like the fact that this has been an English Christmas for 400 years.
But this primary school carol concert was not that. It was Away in a Manger (fine, but speed up) plus eight songs I did not know but which felt like they had been produced by ChatGPT given the prompt "please produce a turgid, anodyne Christmas song about how wonderful Jesus/God is." It was baffling that anyone could have written any of these pieces and thought them a worthwhile addition to the cannon. Some of them had a sax solo. And it also felt slightly uncomfortable. I don't think one child in 20 at that school has the sort of positive feelings about God or Jesus that the songs feebly attempted to encourage. It's not a CofE school. 30% of the school is Asian or North African. I don't want to come across all woke, but it was hard to see what function this was fulfilling.
I'm not saying there can't be religion in a school Christmas performance, but it can't be all there is. You also need tradition, or humour, or musical excellence, or, well, something to make it worthwhile.
That does sound bad. It's a shame, as a good primary school carol concert can be a wonderfully life-affiming and Christmasy experience. Our youngest is in year 7 now but the primary school Christmas concert, a lovely mix of tradition and more modern elements, used to be a highlight of the year. On Sunday we went to the carol service at our local church as our two younger children were accompanying the carols on cello and trumpet. I'm pretty much an atheist but I find the Christmas story of the little baby in the manger come to save mankind extremely compelling.
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
Seems to have been a total shitshow all around. The practical benefits (regardless of any supposed moral benefits) do not appear to be materialising given that type of reaction.
Keir Starmer’s government: so utterly shit they can’t even betray the nation despite offering massive financial inducements to our enemies
It’s like we’re governed by a drunken Kim Philby, but he keeps leaking our top secret information to some bemused garage attendants in Barcelona, while wearing nothing but a purple beret and a tartan penis gourd
No, it's far more like when Dylan went electric. But keep trying ...
In what way?
As in doing something that took the public, even his biggest fans, a while to cotton onto and appreciate.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
You choose the most desirable of New Cross, Lewisham, Brockley or Nunhead. I assume Brockley?
That's how it's done. How else do you think West Dulwich expanded so far that there's no East Norwood between West Norwood and West Dulwich?
These things change, though. The Estate Agent definition of Peckham has extended a lot in the last few years. Also, the fact is we just aren't in Brockley, so I would feel dishonest claiming we are. New Cross is probably the one I'd go for, as you can tell from my pseudonym. On the basis of postcode it is the most accurate.
You can't be that far from Deptford - one of the many SOTR places I lived before making the big move north in 1993.
Indeed. My kids used to go swimming in the leisure centre there and we still use the library and visit its various shops, eateries and hostelries. A great neighbourhood.
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
Seems to have been a total shitshow all around. The practical benefits (regardless of any supposed moral benefits) do not appear to be materialising given that type of reaction.
Keir Starmer’s government: so utterly shit they can’t even betray the nation despite offering massive financial inducements to our enemies
It’s like we’re governed by a drunken Kim Philby, but he keeps leaking our top secret information to some bemused garage attendants in Barcelona, while wearing nothing but a purple beret and a tartan penis gourd
No, it's far more like when Dylan went electric. But keep trying ...
In what way?
As in doing something that took the public, even his biggest fans, a while to cotton onto and appreciate.
Mm, indeed. Will be interesting to see how long it takes the public to come round to appreciating the strategic and environmental benefits that Starmer must think will come from giving the Chagos to the Chinese. The benefits elude me, but I'll give it time.
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
For someone who prides himself on being a tough negotiator Trump certainly doesn't seem to be acting very tough towards Russia.
I'm not convinced, yet, that he's actually on Russia's side here but I think some in his camp actively are. Not just neutral.
My impression is that Trump considers himself a big tough guy negotiator whose peer group consist of Putin and Xi and...well that's about it. What anyone else thinks is immaterial. The danger is he buys into the "spheres of influence" concept which would be v bad news for Ukraine. Let's hope not. But I find it hard to credit that someone like Trump has much interest in concepts like the right of self determination to anyone but himself.
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
It was caused by Ukraine's Kursk incursion which activated the mutual defence treaty between Russia and North Korea.
Blimey, you are deep in the tank.
It's a factual statement. You can be opposed to Russia without having to live in a fantasy world.
The timeline seems to be
August Ukraine invades Kursk October North Koreans start to arrive October / November Us missiles allowed
So I think everyone on here is correct to some extent or other
The Russia / NorK defence pact seems to only date from June of this year, and was ratified in October.
All a rather convenient excuse blanket for the NorKs sending troops to Ukraine as Putin had run out of his own willing people.
Those NorKs don’t seem to be doing well in Kursk so far, being mostly untrained and ill-equipped cannon fodder against the Ukranian army.
Just been to my daughter's primary school carol concert. I was somewhat ambivalent towards it. Obviously seeing my daughter singing was nice. But it did not leave me feeling Christmassy.
I'm fairly grumpy about enforced Christianity, but I'm prepared to make compromises at Christmas. I find it weird to celebrate the Northern European midwinter with imagery from the Middle East, but actually the whole cycle of a carol concert - a huge gothic church outside which the skies are dark and the night is cold; Once in Royal David's City (with the first verse sung by a solo soprano) through to Hark the Herald Angels Sing; interspersed with readings from the gospel of St, Matthew (I think?), King James edition does feel suitably Christmas. I like it. I like the music and the poetry of the language. I like the familiarity of the ritual. I like the fact that this has been an English Christmas for 400 years.
But this primary school carol concert was not that. It was Away in a Manger (fine, but speed up) plus eight songs I did not know but which felt like they had been produced by ChatGPT given the prompt "please produce a turgid, anodyne Christmas song about how wonderful Jesus/God is." It was baffling that anyone could have written any of these pieces and thought them a worthwhile addition to the cannon. Some of them had a sax solo. And it also felt slightly uncomfortable. I don't think one child in 20 at that school has the sort of positive feelings about God or Jesus that the songs feebly attempted to encourage. It's not a CofE school. 30% of the school is Asian or North African. I don't want to come across all woke, but it was hard to see what function this was fulfilling.
I'm not saying there can't be religion in a school Christmas performance, but it can't be all there is. You also need tradition, or humour, or musical excellence, or, well, something to make it worthwhile.
What were the songs, out of interest? (Two or three titles would be enough.)
Schools with no basis in it trying to perform religion sometimes does not work well - it can be a kind of dad-dancing, like an English person trying to talk French, which they stopped learning at age 12, from memory, 30 years later.
Equally it can sometimes be a carol concert not meeting befuddled audience expectations.
(That's the skeptical side, it can also be good - or others have a different set of expectations and experiences.)
Tricky stuff . Have you gone a-wassailing yet, this year?
The gorgeous Nick Ferrari rinses Starmer. "Why are you not spending 3% of GDP on defence you surrender monkey*? "What does it feel like to be the most unpopular Prime Minister ever**?" Tomorrow on LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast.
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
It was caused by Ukraine's Kursk incursion which activated the mutual defence treaty between Russia and North Korea.
Blimey, you are deep in the tank.
It's a factual statement. You can be opposed to Russia without having to live in a fantasy world.
As North Korea is one of about 2 countries that recognise the Russian annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, your excuse is illogical. Please try harder with your pro-Trump-Putin bollocks.
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
It was caused by Ukraine's Kursk incursion which activated the mutual defence treaty between Russia and North Korea.
Blimey, you are deep in the tank.
It's a factual statement. You can be opposed to Russia without having to live in a fantasy world.
The timeline seems to be
August Ukraine invades Kursk October North Koreans start to arrive October / November Us missiles allowed
So I think everyone on here is correct to some extent or other
The Russia / NorK defence pact seems to only date from June of this year, and was ratified in October.
All a rather convenient excuse blanket for the NorKs sending troops to Ukraine as Putin had run out of his own willing people.
Those NorKs don’t seem to be doing well in Kursk so far, being mostly untrained and ill-equipped cannon fodder against the Ukranian army.
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
For someone who prides himself on being a tough negotiator Trump certainly doesn't seem to be acting very tough towards Russia.
I'm not convinced, yet, that he's actually on Russia's side here but I think some in his camp actively are. Not just neutral.
He's on nobody's side but his own. Regardless of the geopolitical calculus, the strategy and tactics, the precise amount of aid, the red lines, the risk appetite, every US president we've ever known would have instinctively felt that the defence of a sovereign democratic European nation attacked and invaded by Putin's Russia was a righteous cause. They would have been on Ukraine's side. This is not the case with this one. He sees no right or wrong in the conflict. There's no moral weighting to the thinking at all. That's a massive change as of Nov 5th and it bodes ill for Ukraine.
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
It was caused by Ukraine's Kursk incursion which activated the mutual defence treaty between Russia and North Korea.
Blimey, you are deep in the tank.
It's a factual statement. You can be opposed to Russia without having to live in a fantasy world.
The timeline seems to be
August Ukraine invades Kursk October North Koreans start to arrive October / November Us missiles allowed
So I think everyone on here is correct to some extent or other
The Russia / NorK defence pact seems to only date from June of this year, and was ratified in October.
All a rather convenient excuse blanket for the NorKs sending troops to Ukraine as Putin had run out of his own willing people.
Those NorKs don’t seem to be doing well in Kursk so far, being mostly untrained and ill-equipped cannon fodder against the Ukranian army.
Supposedly they are North Korean special forces.
As in, they’re the graduates of the local ‘special school’?
Walking in large groups across open fields doesn’t seem like a particularly good strategy when the opposing army has drones, tanks, and snipers, all well within range.
Even worse, it appears that the Russians have been told to disguise the fact that the NorKs are with them, which appears to extend to cremating the bodies in the field to prevent the other side seeing that the bodies are Asian.
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
Seems to have been a total shitshow all around. The practical benefits (regardless of any supposed moral benefits) do not appear to be materialising given that type of reaction.
Keir Starmer’s government: so utterly shit they can’t even betray the nation despite offering massive financial inducements to our enemies
It’s like we’re governed by a drunken Kim Philby, but he keeps leaking our top secret information to some bemused garage attendants in Barcelona, while wearing nothing but a purple beret and a tartan penis gourd
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
Seems to have been a total shitshow all around. The practical benefits (regardless of any supposed moral benefits) do not appear to be materialising given that type of reaction.
Keir Starmer’s government: so utterly shit they can’t even betray the nation despite offering massive financial inducements to our enemies
It’s like we’re governed by a drunken Kim Philby, but he keeps leaking our top secret information to some bemused garage attendants in Barcelona, while wearing nothing but a purple beret and a tartan penis gourd
No, it's far more like when Dylan went electric. But keep trying ...
In what way?
As in doing something that took the public, even his biggest fans, a while to cotton onto and appreciate.
Mm, indeed. Will be interesting to see how long it takes the public to come round to appreciating the strategic and environmental benefits that Starmer must think will come from giving the Chagos to the Chinese. The benefits elude me, but I'll give it time.
You're forgetting the long leaseback of the base. That's exactly like those folkies who heard only a "godawful racket" when he plugged in and got going, missing the power of the riffs, the new edge in the lyrics, and the underlying melodics which were as strong as ever (if not more so).
Really disappointed with Starmer and Labour. The chagos stuff just seems like a never ending cycle of poor decision making. Waiting for the inevitable VAT issues in the new year as well, as the government have been woeful in guidance and implementation (not helped by the mid academic year decision)
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
It was caused by Ukraine's Kursk incursion which activated the mutual defence treaty between Russia and North Korea.
Blimey, you are deep in the tank.
It's a factual statement. You can be opposed to Russia without having to live in a fantasy world.
As a response to my comment about Trump's mistake, it's a complete non sequitur.
Restock council homes with a massive govt building plan also including significant training and apprenticeships so we have enough builders and trades for the next couple of decades rather than the shortage of the last decade.
But that does not address affordability of these homes by the providers
Govt can afford them. It can borrow cheaper than companies or housing trusts and in the medium term starts to save money by providing accommodation itself rather than paying landlords housing benefit.
It is so simple and obvious you wonder why none of these donkeys can grasp it.
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
For someone who prides himself on being a tough negotiator Trump certainly doesn't seem to be acting very tough towards Russia.
I'm not convinced, yet, that he's actually on Russia's side here but I think some in his camp actively are. Not just neutral.
He's on nobody's side but his own. Regardless of the geopolitical calculus, the strategy and tactics, the precise amount of aid, the red lines, the risk appetite, every US president we've ever known would have instinctively felt that the defence of a sovereign democratic European nation attacked and invaded by Putin's Russia was a righteous cause. They would have been on Ukraine's side. This is not the case with this one. He sees no right or wrong in the conflict. There's no moral weighting to the thinking at all. That's a massive change as of Nov 5th and it bodes ill for Ukraine.
Believing something is a righteous cause and doing the right thing do not always go together. Biden's 'righteous' support of Ukraine has meant forcing them to fight with one hand tied behind their backs. You can justify a lot of bad things in the name of righteousness.
Just been to my daughter's primary school carol concert. I was somewhat ambivalent towards it. Obviously seeing my daughter singing was nice. But it did not leave me feeling Christmassy.
I'm fairly grumpy about enforced Christianity, but I'm prepared to make compromises at Christmas. I find it weird to celebrate the Northern European midwinter with imagery from the Middle East, but actually the whole cycle of a carol concert - a huge gothic church outside which the skies are dark and the night is cold; Once in Royal David's City (with the first verse sung by a solo soprano) through to Hark the Herald Angels Sing; interspersed with readings from the gospel of St, Matthew (I think?), King James edition does feel suitably Christmas. I like it. I like the music and the poetry of the language. I like the familiarity of the ritual. I like the fact that this has been an English Christmas for 400 years.
But this primary school carol concert was not that. It was Away in a Manger (fine, but speed up) plus eight songs I did not know but which felt like they had been produced by ChatGPT given the prompt "please produce a turgid, anodyne Christmas song about how wonderful Jesus/God is." It was baffling that anyone could have written any of these pieces and thought them a worthwhile addition to the cannon. Some of them had a sax solo. And it also felt slightly uncomfortable. I don't think one child in 20 at that school has the sort of positive feelings about God or Jesus that the songs feebly attempted to encourage. It's not a CofE school. 30% of the school is Asian or North African. I don't want to come across all woke, but it was hard to see what function this was fulfilling.
I'm not saying there can't be religion in a school Christmas performance, but it can't be all there is. You also need tradition, or humour, or musical excellence, or, well, something to make it worthwhile.
Sounds suspiciously like a box ticking exercise by a woke head teacher who is convinced that a traditional carol service will upset any non christians (or the DoE).
Really interesting piece on how to do public works properly - cheap and quick, getting the public on board, and shoving the inquiry industry out of the way.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
I think that's Nottingham Urban Area, which is a fairly bizarre methodology.
Why is it bizarre? It's the Greater Nottingham area. Maybe the odd edge case settlement is 14 miles away, most of it is nothing like far away. And so what?
Old Denby, for example, is not the "Greater Nottingham Area". Nor is Heanor. Nor is Ripley.
Drawing it out that far is beyond absurd.
There will always be tiny edge cases. They are counted by the ONS. Wikipedia says this: "The Heanor/Ripley and West Hallam north-western extensions have a somewhat tenuous linkage through to the core of Nottingham City largely due to ribbon development."
Probably a good argument to exclude them, but the basic principle makes good sense.
As I said - it's a bizarre methodology.
Ripley is the same distance from Nottingham as Southwell or Loughborough.
The lines drawn do the same thing wrt the division between Nottingham and Derby in a different way.
Things such as Beeston, Carlton, Strelley, Arnold *maybe* parts of Hucknall are defensible.
But to pull in towns which are separate with their own town centres, distinct histories going back 1000 years and no linkage other than a row of houses down the road with gaps less than 400m or whatever it is is just weird.
It's making Bishops Stortford and Guildford part of Greater London. By comparison Watford, Windsor, Welwyn Garden City and perhaps Crawley ARE perhaps genuinely part of Greater London.
An equally import matter is where people look towards. People from Ripley look to Derby or Matlock, not Nottingham - both of those are much closer too.
As I said earlier, there’s probably a reasonable case for excluding the handful of tiny edge cases you cite. But the general concept is sound.
Really disappointed with Starmer and Labour. The chagos stuff just seems like a never ending cycle of poor decision making. Waiting for the inevitable VAT issues in the new year as well, as the government have been woeful in guidance and implementation (not helped by the mid academic year decision)
Maybe it’s just the gloomy weather, but .. meh
It could just be that, not knowing enough, or being interested in, the Chagos Islands, the Government have left the decision to the mandarins in the Foreign Office, who have stuck to their default policy of undermining the UK.
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
I think that's Nottingham Urban Area, which is a fairly bizarre methodology.
Why is it bizarre? It's the Greater Nottingham area. Maybe the odd edge case settlement is 14 miles away, most of it is nothing like far away. And so what?
Old Denby, for example, is not the "Greater Nottingham Area". Nor is Heanor. Nor is Ripley.
Drawing it out that far is beyond absurd.
There will always be tiny edge cases. They are counted by the ONS. Wikipedia says this: "The Heanor/Ripley and West Hallam north-western extensions have a somewhat tenuous linkage through to the core of Nottingham City largely due to ribbon development."
Probably a good argument to exclude them, but the basic principle makes good sense.
It's a chunk of a "tiny edge case" - Ripley and Heanor have 40,000 people between them.
If the chinless wonders of Whitehall think they can draw lines across the country as their grandads did around the ME, then they've got another thing coming.
But imo Starmer is better than that.
Again, I’ve twice already said that there’s a reasonable case for excluding them. Now three times!! It is the ONS that included them - not me or indeed @Pulpstar for that matter!
Good to see local government (potentially) being sorted out. It’s an abject mess in most places. Two-tier councils are pointless, and cities like Nottingham and Manchester have ludicrously tight boundaries that make no geographical sense and should have been expanded decades ago.
JFDI.
That scraping noise is the West Bridgford Maquis sharpening the inherited Victorinox Oyster Shuckers they have left over from 1972...
The official 'City of Nottingham' is a geographical nonsense. Its borders should be expanded to encapsulate the likes of Bridgford, Gedling even Long Eaton, Ilkeston etc which are technically in Derbyshire but part of Greater Nottingham. Should have been done decades ago.
Similar situation in Manchester and Newcastle – where parts of what is effectively the city centre are in another council area.
JFDI.
Bollocks to that. Gateshead is, and always will be, in County Durham.
Not part of Newcastle, or in any way associated with that minor county on the other side of the river.
Wrong. It's not been in County Durham for 50 years. Only contrary old-timers think that. Gateshead quayside is part and parcel of Newcastle city centre. Merge them, along with North and South Tyneside, which are equally nonsensical constructs. Should have happened decades ago.
If you called it Tyneside or Tynebank or something you would probably get away with it, not if you called it Greater Newcastle or South Northumberland
It can be called Newcastle & Tyneside, if only to satisfy a miserable handful of parochial contrary old-timers. I have family from Gateshead. Everywhere they go, they (quite reasonably) say they are from Newcastle.
Presumably people like Sandy still insist Brixton is in Surrey and Tottenham is in Hertfordshire?
In Nottingham case voters in wards in Broxtowe/Bridgford who are in financially functioning district councils whose 2nd tier is the County will be transferred to a bankrupt city under these plans.
Madness.
Their services will be woeful compared to where they now live. Libraries shut, bin collections moved to once a month and all the rest.
Nope. Those residents are part and parcel of a functioning city – they should pay their way towards it, not reside in a make-believe tax haven outside its bonkers official boundaries.
Good luck selling that message to the voters...
Sounds like they plan not to hold elections so we can't make our views known at ballot box.
This lot seem absolutely determined to make the way clear for Farage and Reform.
When you've lost them, voters are very patient when waiting to tell parties they have lost their confidence. It was clear they wanted the Tories out. Sunak waiting a further six months would likeliest have just pissed off more of them. However long you play it, there is no happy outcome. Maybe too soon to say that of Starmer, but the signs aren't good.
Nottingham's population is 768,638, according to the ONS.
Yet Nottingham City Council's population is only 323,632.
So only 42% of the city's population is captured by the council area –– that is clearly insane and should have been fixed decades ago.
P.S. It's not just Nottingham that has this problem – similar issues exist in Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester etc.
Glasgow too.
I’m not sure about Newcastle. Going East from Newcastle you go Byker, Walker, Wallsend and then North Shields, Tynemouth / Whitley Bay all of which have their own (none Newcastle) identity.
Going North it’s Newcastle until Ponteland, going south it’s immediately Gateshead.
And going West it’s Newcastle all the way to open countryside
The "they have their own identity" thing is massively overegged. Do you think people from Wimbledon or Ealing are Londoners?
That's always overegged. Especially as the other common trope is that most areas do not have enough unique identity thesedays.
The simple truth is that they are Londoners and will mostly say they are from London when meeting people. They might specify which part of London, just as someone from Gateshead often says they are from Newcastle when they are on holiday but might then specify which bit if/when asked.
And councils are about sensible urban planning not spurious parochial claims.
As a Londoner, my assumption was that Londoners would tell non-Londoners they were from London, but if talking to another Londoner, they'd specify the district.
But I had a London immigrant tell me that I was wrong, and proper Londoners always told people what part of London they were from. As if a Cork man is likely to know the difference between Clapham and West Norwood.
My problem is that unless I go ultra specific it is not obvious how I should describe where I live. The specific choice would be Telegraph Hill, but nobody has heard of Telegraph Hill. We are a New Cross postcode, but we're not really in New Cross. We are in the LB of Lewisham, but not really in Lewisham. We are close to Brockley but that's a different postcode and the other side of the hill. We are close to Nunhead but that's in a different borough. I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
You choose the most desirable of New Cross, Lewisham, Brockley or Nunhead. I assume Brockley?
That's how it's done. How else do you think West Dulwich expanded so far that there's no East Norwood between West Norwood and West Dulwich?
These things change, though. The Estate Agent definition of Peckham has extended a lot in the last few years. Also, the fact is we just aren't in Brockley, so I would feel dishonest claiming we are. New Cross is probably the one I'd go for, as you can tell from my pseudonym. On the basis of postcode it is the most accurate.
The Only Living Boy in New Cross... I like it.
"Tom, get your plane right on time I know your part'll go fine"
The gorgeous Nick Ferrari rinses Starmer. "Why are you not spending 3% of GDP on defence you surrender monkey*? "What does it feel like to be the most unpopular Prime Minister ever**?" Tomorrow on LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast.
*My precis.
** Nick's actual question.
Says the Tory stoigevwho said bugger all when Tories inherited 2.5% GDP spending on 2010 and reduced it to 2% for a decade and no where bear 2.5% since 2020.
Really disappointed with Starmer and Labour. The chagos stuff just seems like a never ending cycle of poor decision making. Waiting for the inevitable VAT issues in the new year as well, as the government have been woeful in guidance and implementation (not helped by the mid academic year decision)
Maybe it’s just the gloomy weather, but .. meh
It could just be that, not knowing enough, or being interested in, the Chagos Islands, the Government have left the decision to the mandarins in the Foreign Office, who have stuck to their default policy of undermining the UK.
Why this heartbreak? I couldn't give a fig about the chagos. They are hangovers from empire times.
The gorgeous Nick Ferrari rinses Starmer. "Why are you not spending 3% of GDP on defence you surrender monkey*? "What does it feel like to be the most unpopular Prime Minister ever**?" Tomorrow on LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast.
*My precis.
** Nick's actual question.
Says the Tory stoigevwho said bugger all when Tories inherited 2.5% GDP spending on 2010 and reduced it to 2% for a decade and no where bear 2.5% since 2020.
I was fighting your corner earlier, but is this post written in code?
Just been to my daughter's primary school carol concert. I was somewhat ambivalent towards it. Obviously seeing my daughter singing was nice. But it did not leave me feeling Christmassy.
I'm fairly grumpy about enforced Christianity, but I'm prepared to make compromises at Christmas. I find it weird to celebrate the Northern European midwinter with imagery from the Middle East, but actually the whole cycle of a carol concert - a huge gothic church outside which the skies are dark and the night is cold; Once in Royal David's City (with the first verse sung by a solo soprano) through to Hark the Herald Angels Sing; interspersed with readings from the gospel of St, Matthew (I think?), King James edition does feel suitably Christmas. I like it. I like the music and the poetry of the language. I like the familiarity of the ritual. I like the fact that this has been an English Christmas for 400 years.
But this primary school carol concert was not that. It was Away in a Manger (fine, but speed up) plus eight songs I did not know but which felt like they had been produced by ChatGPT given the prompt "please produce a turgid, anodyne Christmas song about how wonderful Jesus/God is." It was baffling that anyone could have written any of these pieces and thought them a worthwhile addition to the cannon. Some of them had a sax solo. And it also felt slightly uncomfortable. I don't think one child in 20 at that school has the sort of positive feelings about God or Jesus that the songs feebly attempted to encourage. It's not a CofE school. 30% of the school is Asian or North African. I don't want to come across all woke, but it was hard to see what function this was fulfilling.
I'm not saying there can't be religion in a school Christmas performance, but it can't be all there is. You also need tradition, or humour, or musical excellence, or, well, something to make it worthwhile.
I loathed nativities when my son was at primary for this season. The ‘music’ was computer generated religious clap trap downloaded from some dark corner of the web, unrelentingly awful both lyrically and musically.
What is wrong with carols? Many are very good, stirring tunes, even for us atheists. As it is my son is now at secondary school, where the concert is a largely well performed mix of pop and rock songs, interspersed with carols and festive recitals.
I hope this was just another attack on Biden, rather than signalling Trump's intentions towards Ukraine. Probably a forlorn hope.
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war... https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
For someone who prides himself on being a tough negotiator Trump certainly doesn't seem to be acting very tough towards Russia.
I'm not convinced, yet, that he's actually on Russia's side here but I think some in his camp actively are. Not just neutral.
He's on nobody's side but his own. Regardless of the geopolitical calculus, the strategy and tactics, the precise amount of aid, the red lines, the risk appetite, every US president we've ever known would have instinctively felt that the defence of a sovereign democratic European nation attacked and invaded by Putin's Russia was a righteous cause. They would have been on Ukraine's side. This is not the case with this one. He sees no right or wrong in the conflict. There's no moral weighting to the thinking at all. That's a massive change as of Nov 5th and it bodes ill for Ukraine.
Believing something is a righteous cause and doing the right thing do not always go together. Biden's 'righteous' support of Ukraine has meant forcing them to fight with one hand tied behind their backs. You can justify a lot of bad things in the name of righteousness.
Yes to your general point (rather than that specific jaundiced take on Biden's record) but it's no rebuttal to what I'm saying, which is that if your heart's not in something you're less likely to pursue it - the 'it' here being helping Ukraine defend itself against Putin. That's undeniable, I think. It's a fact of life. Ukraine's prospects took a hit on Nov 5th. Things might yet work out for them but it's less likely now.
Just been to my daughter's primary school carol concert. I was somewhat ambivalent towards it. Obviously seeing my daughter singing was nice. But it did not leave me feeling Christmassy.
I'm fairly grumpy about enforced Christianity, but I'm prepared to make compromises at Christmas. I find it weird to celebrate the Northern European midwinter with imagery from the Middle East, but actually the whole cycle of a carol concert - a huge gothic church outside which the skies are dark and the night is cold; Once in Royal David's City (with the first verse sung by a solo soprano) through to Hark the Herald Angels Sing; interspersed with readings from the gospel of St, Matthew (I think?), King James edition does feel suitably Christmas. I like it. I like the music and the poetry of the language. I like the familiarity of the ritual. I like the fact that this has been an English Christmas for 400 years.
But this primary school carol concert was not that. It was Away in a Manger (fine, but speed up) plus eight songs I did not know but which felt like they had been produced by ChatGPT given the prompt "please produce a turgid, anodyne Christmas song about how wonderful Jesus/God is." It was baffling that anyone could have written any of these pieces and thought them a worthwhile addition to the cannon. Some of them had a sax solo. And it also felt slightly uncomfortable. I don't think one child in 20 at that school has the sort of positive feelings about God or Jesus that the songs feebly attempted to encourage. It's not a CofE school. 30% of the school is Asian or North African. I don't want to come across all woke, but it was hard to see what function this was fulfilling.
I'm not saying there can't be religion in a school Christmas performance, but it can't be all there is. You also need tradition, or humour, or musical excellence, or, well, something to make it worthwhile.
Sounds suspiciously like a box ticking exercise by a woke head teacher who is convinced that a traditional carol service will upset any non christians (or the DoE).
Funnily enough, here in Muslimsville, there’s loads of carol concerts. A group of schools even got together and hired out a big local theatre for their orchestra to perform.
It’s not Muslims or Jews or Hindus that are offended by Christmas, it’s the activist atheist left.
The gorgeous Nick Ferrari rinses Starmer. "Why are you not spending 3% of GDP on defence you surrender monkey*? "What does it feel like to be the most unpopular Prime Minister ever**?" Tomorrow on LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast.
*My precis.
** Nick's actual question.
Says the Tory stoigevwho said bugger all when Tories inherited 2.5% GDP spending on 2010 and reduced it to 2% for a decade and no where bear 2.5% since 2020.
I was fighting your corner earlier, but is this post written in code?
They mean Nick Ferrari is the Tory stoigey, MP, not you.
Comments
And no, he’s not going to change the constitution in the next four years.
I usually just say South East London and only go into more detail if requested. I wouldn't simply say "London" though, as I don't want anyone thinking I live in Clapham or, even worse, north of the River.
Breaking: The new Mauritius PM says the Chagos Islands deal struck by Keir Starmer isn’t good enough and he wants to reopen talks
He rejects current terms as they “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect”
Blow for Starmer as delay risks Trump blocking deal
Gateshead’s argument with plenty of justification was that it’s completely ignored when Newcastle gets involved.
I was surprised that the North Wast mayoral council ever got accepted - Gateshead has a chip on its shoulder and I fair number of valid reasons for having it
He spends a lot of time at the vet and absolutely loves going to see them, unlike most dogs, even though half the time they are inducing him to vomit.
Probably a good argument to exclude them, but the basic principle makes good sense.
I am not sure Starmer is your man for international negotiations. Remember when he waved that piece of paper on the steps of the De Havilland at Heston Aerodrome having conceded Sudetenland?
Two is coincidence.
Three is...
Evidence of an economy collapsing under the strains of war and sanctions?
Enemy action?
Meteorological justice?
Still coincidence?
Edit: apols, but one must be accurate in such things.
It’s like we’re governed by a drunken Kim Philby, but he keeps leaking our top secret information to some bemused garage attendants in Barcelona, while wearing nothing but a purple beret and a tartan penis gourd
*plumps up pillows*
That's how it's done. How else do you think West Dulwich expanded so far that there's no East Norwood between West Norwood and West Dulwich?
Starmer would be wise to drop it given his tanking popularity and only downside from a deal.
Back in the Goode Olde Days, the rate at which merchant ships just vanished was quite high. The East India Company (who did give shit) lost about 5%. The ones who didn’t….
If you send a shit bucket 5 times before it sinks, and voyage 1 pays for the ship, then the next 4 are profit. Don’t bother maintaining the ship. Just buy another shit bucket.
Ripley is the same distance from Nottingham as Southwell or Loughborough.
The lines drawn do the same thing wrt the division between Nottingham and Derby in a different way.
Things such as Beeston, Carlton, Strelley, Arnold *maybe* parts of Hucknall are defensible.
But to pull in towns which are separate with their own town centres, distinct histories going back 1000 years and no linkage other than a row of houses down the road with gaps less than 400m or whatever it is is just weird.
It's making Bishops Stortford and Guildford part of Greater London. By comparison Watford, Windsor, Welwyn Garden City and perhaps Crawley ARE perhaps genuinely part of Greater London.
An equally import matter is where people look towards. People from Ripley look to Derby or Matlock, not Nottingham - both of those are much closer too.
Sort of thing he likes.
Not a huge benefit, of course.
Birthright citizenship in the US long predates the 14th amendment. It is as old as the US itself.
Even the conservative morons on the SC would struggle to get around that.
Talking of bedside manners, I have just learned Lucy Letby was an alumni of Aylestone School. What is it with alumni from that place?
Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier. In fact, part of the Biden admin’s reasoning was the North Koreans’ foray into the war...
https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1868707995804369281
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/17/sara-sharif-sentencing-urfan-sharif-murder/
What a horrible case, she had over 70 separate injuries on her body.
I'm not convinced, yet, that he's actually on Russia's side here but I think some in his camp actively are. Not just neutral.
Actuate Therapeutics Announces Positive Interim Phase 2 Data of Elraglusib in First Line Treatment of Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/12/17/2998209/0/en/Actuate-Therapeutics-Announces-Positive-Interim-Phase-2-Data-of-Elraglusib-in-First-Line-Treatment-of-Metastatic-Pancreatic-Cancer.html
Many of them aren't pardons anyway.
If I have it right, 6500 of the Biden pardons them are from 2022 or 2023 people for minor drug offenders (eg cannabis). And the current batch of 1500 are not even pardons in the main - they are clemency for non-violent offenders now on home detention ie their version of release on license.
The elephants in the room are that the USA has created a huge shit-heap of overdone punishments with things like "three strikes and you're out", which needs to be cleared out, whilst the Presidential Pardon structure is itself an inherently corrupt get-out-of-jail free card for serious criminals who happen to have given money to, or worked for, a President.
People making the comparison aren't even mentioning the 200k pardons issued by Jimmy Carter to draft dodgers.
Who is 100% a Putin shill.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx27932exg7o
If the chinless wonders of Whitehall think they can draw lines across the country as their grandads did around the ME, then they've got another thing coming.
But imo Starmer is better than that.
The expansion of the Madrid metro system.
https://worksinprogress.co/issue/how-madrid-built-its-metro-cheaply/
Just been to my daughter's primary school carol concert. I was somewhat ambivalent towards it. Obviously seeing my daughter singing was nice. But it did not leave me feeling Christmassy.
I'm fairly grumpy about enforced Christianity, but I'm prepared to make compromises at Christmas. I find it weird to celebrate the Northern European midwinter with imagery from the Middle East, but actually the whole cycle of a carol concert - a huge gothic church outside which the skies are dark and the night is cold; Once in Royal David's City (with the first verse sung by a solo soprano) through to Hark the Herald Angels Sing; interspersed with readings from the gospel of St, Matthew (I think?), King James edition does feel suitably Christmas. I like it. I like the music and the poetry of the language. I like the familiarity of the ritual. I like the fact that this has been an English Christmas for 400 years.
But this primary school carol concert was not that. It was Away in a Manger (fine, but speed up) plus eight songs I did not know but which felt like they had been produced by ChatGPT given the prompt "please produce a turgid, anodyne Christmas song about how wonderful Jesus/God is." It was baffling that anyone could have written any of these pieces and thought them a worthwhile addition to the cannon. Some of them had a sax solo. And it also felt slightly uncomfortable. I don't think one child in 20 at that school has the sort of positive feelings about God or Jesus that the songs feebly attempted to encourage. It's not a CofE school. 30% of the school is Asian or North African. I don't want to come across all woke, but it was hard to see what function this was fulfilling.
I'm not saying there can't be religion in a school Christmas performance, but it can't be all there is. You also need tradition, or humour, or musical excellence, or, well, something to make it worthwhile.
It'll be a good test to see whether he does or (As you and I expect) his learned silk friends versed in the verisimilitude of international law may persuade Keir that just perhaps we did not give enough away and should dig yet deeper...
Maybe he'll surprise on the upside.
Someone in PR is going to get a decent bonus for that piece of work
August Ukraine invades Kursk
October North Koreans start to arrive
October / November Us missiles allowed
So I think everyone on here is correct to some extent or other
On Sunday we went to the carol service at our local church as our two younger children were accompanying the carols on cello and trumpet. I'm pretty much an atheist but I find the Christmas story of the little baby in the manger come to save mankind extremely compelling.
All a rather convenient excuse blanket for the NorKs sending troops to Ukraine as Putin had run out of his own willing people.
Those NorKs don’t seem to be doing well in Kursk so far, being mostly untrained and ill-equipped cannon fodder against the Ukranian army.
Schools with no basis in it trying to perform religion sometimes does not work well - it can be a kind of dad-dancing, like an English person trying to talk French, which they stopped learning at age 12, from memory, 30 years later.
Equally it can sometimes be a carol concert not meeting befuddled audience expectations.
(That's the skeptical side, it can also be good - or others have a different set of expectations and experiences.)
Tricky stuff
*My precis.
** Nick's actual question.
https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1868966710344134838.
Walking in large groups across open fields doesn’t seem like a particularly good strategy when the opposing army has drones, tanks, and snipers, all well within range.
Even worse, it appears that the Russians have been told to disguise the fact that the NorKs are with them, which appears to extend to cremating the bodies in the field to prevent the other side seeing that the bodies are Asian.
Maybe it’s just the gloomy weather, but .. meh
Similarly, Europe has shown that tram systems can be built much cheaper than we've managed.
"Tom, get your plane right on time
I know your part'll go fine"
What is wrong with carols? Many are very good, stirring tunes, even for us atheists. As it is my son is now at secondary school, where the concert is a largely well performed mix of pop and rock songs, interspersed with carols and festive recitals.
It’s brilliant.
It’s not Muslims or Jews or Hindus that are offended by Christmas, it’s the activist atheist left.