Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

This poll is barking – politicalbetting.com

1235

Comments

  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 8,942

    Most reports now have 2 deaths in Magdeburg and 68 injured, including 15 seriously.

    I'm surprised it was even possible. Our Christmas market is surrounded by anti-vehicle barriers of various sorts, as well as the pedestrianised sections of the Royal Mile.

    Given the history of this kind of thing in Germany I'd have thought they'd take it even more seriously. Still haven't learnt the lessons from the Nice attack.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 13,213
    Leon said:

    TimS said:

    Maybe one of our successful businessmen, Jim Ratcliffe say, should chime in with partisan political recommendations every time there’s a mass shooting with equivalent mortality in America. He might get a bit tired of it after a few days though,

    Musk is a lot smarter than you, my friend, and a lot smarter than "Jim Ratcliffe"

    He can see where we're headed. But you need an IQ of 134.7 - just slightly whoosh for you - and an open mind (no chance of that, with you)

    However, he is wrong on the AfD
    Musk can see what his own mental world tells him to see. I’m sure he’s very smart and doubtless “smarter” that you or me, but that doesn’t make him a soothsayer. And certainly not a Germany or Islamism expert. Some very smart people have gone down some very weird rabbit holes throughout history.

    Has he ever commented on mass shootings in the US? I expect probably only certain types of mass shooting.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,578
    edited December 20

    Nigelb said:

    On Tuesday Night, Christians gathered in the Syrian City of Homs for the Annual Lighting of the Christmas Tree, featuring Music from Pitbull, Fireworks, and Free Syrian Flags.
    https://x.com/sentdefender/status/1870184575395123300

    I have lots of fears, and more than a little hope, for Syria over the next few years. I have no idea what way it's going to go.
    Previously only oppression and chaos was on the table. Maybe that is still very likely, but for now at least it appears they have some hope at least for some respite. Here's hoping they get it, it won't be easy.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 63,609
    edited December 20
    Leon said:

    TimS said:

    Maybe one of our successful businessmen, Jim Ratcliffe say, should chime in with partisan political recommendations every time there’s a mass shooting with equivalent mortality in America. He might get a bit tired of it after a few days though,

    Musk is a lot smarter than you, my friend, and a lot smarter than "Jim Ratcliffe"

    He can see where we're headed. But you need an IQ of 134.7 - just slightly whoosh for you - and an open mind (no chance of that, with you)

    However, he is wrong on the AfD
    Actually Jim Ratcliffe is reported to have turned his back on Starmer and is backing Trump

    https://fortune.com/europe/2024/12/17/sir-jim-ratcliffe-ineos-uk-too-negative-chemicals-group-opts-pump-3-billion-trumps-us/
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    Guardian reported the likely perpetrator as a Saudi citizen.

    …said to have arrived in Germany in 2006 and worked as a doctor...
    Predating the mass migrations promoted by the destabilisations of Syria and Libya.

    Doesn’t fit anyone’s narrative.
    It vindicates the people who were against migration from the beginning.
    2006 had literally the lowest numbers for immigration into Germany over the last three decades.
    My God, what a sensational point
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,928
    HMRC certainly has big backlogs and it is something staff are well aware of. Has the department lost its discipline? Possibly but I don't have enough evidence to confirm it. Wasn't a well known entrepreneur saying recently that covid had done something to our work ethic?

    There is a lot of fraud that has to be dealt with though too.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,578
    TimS said:

    Leon said:

    TimS said:

    Maybe one of our successful businessmen, Jim Ratcliffe say, should chime in with partisan political recommendations every time there’s a mass shooting with equivalent mortality in America. He might get a bit tired of it after a few days though,

    Musk is a lot smarter than you, my friend, and a lot smarter than "Jim Ratcliffe"

    He can see where we're headed. But you need an IQ of 134.7 - just slightly whoosh for you - and an open mind (no chance of that, with you)

    However, he is wrong on the AfD
    Musk can see what his own mental world tells him to see. I’m sure he’s very smart and doubtless “smarter” that you or me, but that doesn’t make him a soothsayer. And certainly not a Germany or Islamism expert. Some very smart people have gone down some very weird rabbit holes throughout history.

    Has he ever commented on mass shootings in the US? I expect probably only certain types of mass shooting.
    I get Musk is smart, but we all know sometimes very smart people can still say and do really stupid things, it's practically what twitter was invented to demonstate to us. Surely the owner of the site knows that better than anyone?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,082
    Eabhal said:

    Most reports now have 2 deaths in Magdeburg and 68 injured, including 15 seriously.

    I'm surprised it was even possible. Our Christmas market is surrounded by anti-vehicle barriers of various sorts, as well as the pedestrianised sections of the Royal Mile.

    Given the history of this kind of thing in Germany I'd have thought they'd take it even more seriously. Still haven't learnt the lessons from the Nice attack.
    From visiting Christmas Markets in Hamburg - over several years - some bollards, but the smaller ones weren’t 100% protected.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 13,213

    Leon said:

    TimS said:

    Maybe one of our successful businessmen, Jim Ratcliffe say, should chime in with partisan political recommendations every time there’s a mass shooting with equivalent mortality in America. He might get a bit tired of it after a few days though,

    Musk is a lot smarter than you, my friend, and a lot smarter than "Jim Ratcliffe"

    He can see where we're headed. But you need an IQ of 134.7 - just slightly whoosh for you - and an open mind (no chance of that, with you)

    However, he is wrong on the AfD
    Actually Jim Ratcliffe is reported to have turned his back on Starmer and is backing Trump

    https://fortune.com/europe/2024/12/17/sir-jim-ratcliffe-ineos-uk-too-negative-chemicals-group-opts-pump-3-billion-trumps-
    us/
    There’s a reason I used Jim Ratcliffe as an example. He’s a Brexiteer and outspoken, if not quite Musk like. He’s also, by all accounts and despite Leon’s assumptions, an extremely smart man.

    But give your head a wobble. He is moaning about European (including UK) environmental rules and investing in the USA based on its regulatory and tax framework - which as of today is under the Biden administration. His CEO says nothing about Trump: that’s Fortune magazine brownnosing with its editorial like the rest of the US media.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    TimS said:

    Leon said:

    TimS said:

    Maybe one of our successful businessmen, Jim Ratcliffe say, should chime in with partisan political recommendations every time there’s a mass shooting with equivalent mortality in America. He might get a bit tired of it after a few days though,

    Musk is a lot smarter than you, my friend, and a lot smarter than "Jim Ratcliffe"

    He can see where we're headed. But you need an IQ of 134.7 - just slightly whoosh for you - and an open mind (no chance of that, with you)

    However, he is wrong on the AfD
    Musk can see what his own mental world tells him to see. I’m sure he’s very smart and doubtless “smarter” that you or me, but that doesn’t make him a soothsayer. And certainly not a Germany or Islamism expert. Some very smart people have gone down some very weird rabbit holes throughout history.

    Has he ever commented on mass shootings in the US? I expect probably only certain types of mass shooting.
    He is - to quote a very wise PBer (I forget who) a "visionary". THAT is his ability, plus an intense work ethic and some wildly good STEM skills

    He can imagine and extrapolate. And he is correctly extrapolating that Europe is clearly headed for Far Right governments that won't just restrain immigration, they will literally deport millions. And eventually with force. And the Med and the Channel will be defended with guns which will actually shoot. It is inevitable.... if things proceed as they do - ie left or fake left governments pretending everything is OK and locking up anyone who disagrees

    BUT I differ with Musk on the cure. Denmark shows there is a different and better route than the AfD. You have to admit the migration problem, be honest with the data (crime and rape ARE an issue) but then you can forcefully assimilate while offering generous welfare to those willing to stay and accept western liberal feminist norms, on those grounds. But at the same time you have to bulldoze ghettoes and kick out those who won't accept this. No burqas, no niqabs, no minarets, no call to prayer, Europe is not Islamic
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,172
    Leon said:

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    Guardian reported the likely perpetrator as a Saudi citizen.

    …said to have arrived in Germany in 2006 and worked as a doctor...
    Predating the mass migrations promoted by the destabilisations of Syria and Libya.

    Doesn’t fit anyone’s narrative.
    It vindicates the people who were against migration from the beginning.
    2006 had literally the lowest numbers for immigration into Germany over the last three decades.
    My God, what a sensational point
    It’s not.
    Just noting that william’s take is not a great one.

    You seem anxious to draw a political conclusion from this event; I’m less inclined.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 13,213
    kle4 said:

    TimS said:

    Leon said:

    TimS said:

    Maybe one of our successful businessmen, Jim Ratcliffe say, should chime in with partisan political recommendations every time there’s a mass shooting with equivalent mortality in America. He might get a bit tired of it after a few days though,

    Musk is a lot smarter than you, my friend, and a lot smarter than "Jim Ratcliffe"

    He can see where we're headed. But you need an IQ of 134.7 - just slightly whoosh for you - and an open mind (no chance of that, with you)

    However, he is wrong on the AfD
    Musk can see what his own mental world tells him to see. I’m sure he’s very smart and doubtless “smarter” that you or me, but that doesn’t make him a soothsayer. And certainly not a Germany or Islamism expert. Some very smart people have gone down some very weird rabbit holes throughout history.

    Has he ever commented on mass shootings in the US? I expect probably only certain types of mass shooting.
    I get Musk is smart, but we all know sometimes very smart people can still say and do really stupid things, it's practically what twitter was invented to demonstate to us. Surely the owner of the site knows that better than anyone?
    He’s high on his own supply and getting a messiah complex. It’ll end in tears, for him or for the rest of us.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,945
    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,471
    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,471

    Eabhal said:

    Most reports now have 2 deaths in Magdeburg and 68 injured, including 15 seriously.

    I'm surprised it was even possible. Our Christmas market is surrounded by anti-vehicle barriers of various sorts, as well as the pedestrianised sections of the Royal Mile.

    Given the history of this kind of thing in Germany I'd have thought they'd take it even more seriously. Still haven't learnt the lessons from the Nice attack.
    From visiting Christmas Markets in Hamburg - over several years - some bollards, but the smaller ones weren’t 100% protected.
    The Christmas market in Heidelberg I was at last year was spread across the whole of town.
  • FossFoss Posts: 1,030
    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    Occasionally YouTube will offer me an episode of the six o’clock news from the 80s or 90s and they seem to be just as bleak as today.

    I think we’re built to move on from the bad stuff and forget it before we go quite mad.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,895

    Not much Christmas spirit on PB tonight!

    Let me try: a merry Christmas to all PBers!

    A Merry Christmas to you too.

    Tomorrow I collect the Christmas ham from the market. We may go somewhere we can see the solstice sunset from the car, safe from the ten degrees of wind chill.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,682
    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    I strongly suspect that the advent of global news coverage has not been great for perceptions of the state of the world. News, by its nature, tends to be bad. Floods, murders, terrorism, war rather than love, peace, good weather. Add in the 24 hour news culture ( as an example BigG has sky news on all the time, and I don’t think that’s uncommon) and now social media and you can come to see everything in a very negative light.
    I think it’s skewed our perceptions around climate change too. Every natural disaster worldwide is now headline news in a way that it wasn’t 20-30 years ago and this adds to the narrative that the climate is rapidly worsening. Climate change is very real, but eff3cts are frequently exaggerated (mainly by the media).

    Perhaps sometimes it’s good to turn off.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,990
    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    We are in a dark place because we let radical islam win. A dark place for secular liberalism. Probably darker still for moderate moslems who will be pressured to take sides.

    We let radical islam win when we let them pronounce fatwa on rushdie and burn his books in the street.

    We let radical islam win when our papers cowered from showing images that might upset them, charlie hebdo alone did so and paid the price

    We let radical islam win when we let teachers be hounded from schools and forced into hiding over teaching legal lessons

    We let radical islam win when an mp can stand up in parliament and demand a blasphemy law.

    Sorry we didn't let radical islam win...it was you fuckwit centrist dads that did
  • RattersRatters Posts: 1,111
    edited December 20
    Awful news out of Germany. Here's hoping as many of the injured as possible make it through.

    I was in Germany less than a month ago with work and visited a Christmas market there. Great atmosphere. Great food. Great drink. How people can be so full of hate that they want to maim and murder people enjoying life like that is beyond me.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,378
    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    The internet has enabled us to know the greatest ideals and worst actions of all the other people on Earth. And we have discovered that they are f*****g nutters. That's why we are all on edge.
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 3,987
    Pagan2 said:

    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    We are in a dark place because we let radical islam win. A dark place for secular liberalism. Probably darker still for moderate moslems who will be pressured to take sides.

    We let radical islam win when we let them pronounce fatwa on rushdie and burn his books in the street.

    We let radical islam win when our papers cowered from showing images that might upset them, charlie hebdo alone did so and paid the price

    We let radical islam win when we let teachers be hounded from schools and forced into hiding over teaching legal lessons

    We let radical islam win when an mp can stand up in parliament and demand a blasphemy law.

    Sorry we didn't let radical islam win...it was you fuckwit centrist dads that did
    Still, we have an AI that can make cute pictures of a cat wearing a top hat. Swings and roundabouts.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,990
    ohnotnow said:

    Pagan2 said:

    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    We are in a dark place because we let radical islam win. A dark place for secular liberalism. Probably darker still for moderate moslems who will be pressured to take sides.

    We let radical islam win when we let them pronounce fatwa on rushdie and burn his books in the street.

    We let radical islam win when our papers cowered from showing images that might upset them, charlie hebdo alone did so and paid the price

    We let radical islam win when we let teachers be hounded from schools and forced into hiding over teaching legal lessons

    We let radical islam win when an mp can stand up in parliament and demand a blasphemy law.

    Sorry we didn't let radical islam win...it was you fuckwit centrist dads that did
    Still, we have an AI that can make cute pictures of a cat wearing a top hat. Swings and roundabouts.
    Not convinced that is sufficient compensation and as I said the main losers will be the moderate moslems. They will be viewed with suspicion from one side, told to choose side by the other. The more the former happens the more will feel the need to take a side.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    edited December 20
    Pagan2 said:

    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    We are in a dark place because we let radical islam win. A dark place for secular liberalism. Probably darker still for moderate moslems who will be pressured to take sides.

    We let radical islam win when we let them pronounce fatwa on rushdie and burn his books in the street.

    We let radical islam win when our papers cowered from showing images that might upset them, charlie hebdo alone did so and paid the price

    We let radical islam win when we let teachers be hounded from schools and forced into hiding over teaching legal lessons

    We let radical islam win when an mp can stand up in parliament and demand a blasphemy law.

    Sorry we didn't let radical islam win...it was you fuckwit centrist dads that did
    Completely and utterly right. As we expel violent jihadism, the left (and right) that enabled this, must pay. Never again
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    Ratters said:

    Awful news out of Germany. Here's hoping as many of the injured as possible make it through.

    I was in Germany less than a month ago with work and visited a Christmas market there. Great atmosphere. Great food. Great drink. How people can be so full of hate that they want to maim and murder people enjoying life like that is beyond me.

    HAVE A FUCKING GUESS
  • xyzxyzxyzxyzxyzxyz Posts: 76
    edited December 20
    Leon said:

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    Guardian reported the likely perpetrator as a Saudi citizen.

    …said to have arrived in Germany in 2006 and worked as a doctor...
    Predating the mass migrations promoted by the destabilisations of Syria and Libya.

    Doesn’t fit anyone’s narrative.
    It vindicates the people who were against migration from the beginning.
    2006 had literally the lowest numbers for immigration into Germany over the last three decades.
    My God, what a sensational point
    So you voted Labour and are now emigrating because you don’t like their immigration policy? Vote for what you believe in.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,945
    Odd sort of doctor who decides to drive into a Christmas market.

    "The suspect had been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 23 miles (36 kilometres) south of Magdeburg, according to officials."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/20/germany-magdeburg-christmas-market/
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,807

    Abbott is clearly fulfilling the sour, catty Ted Heath role in this parliament. She’s even got the same spot in the Commons.
    What's everyone else's excuse for disliking him?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,990
    Andy_JS said:

    Odd sort of doctor who decides to drive into a Christmas market.

    "The suspect had been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 23 miles (36 kilometres) south of Magdeburg, according to officials."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/20/germany-magdeburg-christmas-market/

    Hardly the first medical doctor performing terrorism in the last 20 years
  • RogerRoger Posts: 19,970
    GIN1138 said:

    Wham are Christmas number one for a second time
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9dp6y31qppo

    Probably the same next year thanks to Spotify playlists!

    ETA you can see the playlist factor here (image from above page).


    I remember 1994 and Mariah frolicking around in the snow... What a time for a 17 year old lad to be alive! 😂
    Two friends of mine in that cast list. What a depressing 40 mins watching it back.
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 3,987

    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    I strongly suspect that the advent of global news coverage has not been great for perceptions of the state of the world. News, by its nature, tends to be bad. Floods, murders, terrorism, war rather than love, peace, good weather. Add in the 24 hour news culture ( as an example BigG has sky news on all the time, and I don’t think that’s uncommon) and now social media and you can come to see everything in a very negative light.
    I think it’s skewed our perceptions around climate change too. Every natural disaster worldwide is now headline news in a way that it wasn’t 20-30 years ago and this adds to the narrative that the climate is rapidly worsening. Climate change is very real, but eff3cts are frequently exaggerated (mainly by the media).

    Perhaps sometimes it’s good to turn off.
    I'm not sure if it's generational, age, whatever. But growing up watching things like Threads, Edge of Darkness etc. Becoming aware of Watkins version of Culloden, various other events, plays, shows. Remembering the grim news of nuclear bomb 'tests' while having Faslane a 15 minute walk away. Republican/Provo bombs and kneecapping's every other week. A once-a-year nutter doesn't seem quite so bad (if still deeply, deeply awful).

    We've plenty of 'grim' to be going on with at present. Hell, I even read an article in the Spectator a while ago about a less than perfect glass of white wine.

    But the need to feed the news cycle really does seem to add petrol to the embers. I remember thinking when BBC News launched - "At last! Space to really dive deep into the issues! Explore the background, history, meaning of events!"...

    ...

    And here we are, with 24hr rolling "[BREAKING] Sources have told me tittle tattle about minister A pronouncing it tomah-toe, but minister B using tom-ay-toe!"

  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,990
    Pagan2 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Odd sort of doctor who decides to drive into a Christmas market.

    "The suspect had been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 23 miles (36 kilometres) south of Magdeburg, according to officials."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/20/germany-magdeburg-christmas-market/

    Hardly the first medical doctor performing terrorism in the last 20 years
    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1910631/
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,877
    edited December 20
    TimS said:

    Musk calls for Scholz to resign !!!!

    So what?
    Not sure his intervention helps to be fair
    He’s one of those ego journeys that people sometimes go on where they start to believe their own hype until they totally piss someone even more powerful off. The slight frisson here is that question mark in all of our heads as to whether there is actually someone more powerful, or is he it?

    Meanwhile I’m back in France on my way to Bourgogne and staying overnight in the land of the Chtis. And more than ever this region is becoming little England.

    One of the cute quirks of France is that its frontier lands combine Frenchness with a touch of the neighbouring culture. So French Catalonia and the Cote Basque are a bit Basque and Catalan, the coast Eastwards from Nice to Menton is a bit Italian, Savoie is quite Swiss, Alsace is very German (obviously) and Flanders is rather Belgian. The far North is increasingly British.

    Exhibits this evening:

    - This, in a local chain restaurant:



    That’s right folks, they’re advertising authentic British cheddar, not with their “Le Welsh” but with their Chicken salad.
    - the whole of St Quentin, a town with a hollowed out and windswept centre, with a Subway outlet and litter blowing like tumbleweed in the streets, and most of the action happening in suburban chain restaurants including the place we ended up eating (by the way, decent mid range chains are the saviours of French restauration, as they have been in Britain. They will drive people away from lazy mediocre places and force up quality in privately owned restaurants).
    - Youths hanging out with large beers, in the rain, outside a pub whose beer smell you could pick up from many metres away
    - A group of hooded kids, some in baseball caps, gathered around a souped up Renault that had been covered in Christmas fairy lights and was revving.
    - Branches of B&M bargains.

    It made me strangely proud.
    That interests me - what exactly is a decent, mid range restaurant chain in the UK? Can you name say 6 or 8 such chains? And how do you define the price point - in London and in the provinces?

    Are we saying £20-30 per head for 3 (or perhaps 2) courses, or £40-50? (Without wine).

    20 years when I was living off Chiswick High Road I would reach for names like Zizzi, iTs Italian, at a £13-20 price level, and several others at somewhat higher prices. And I would expect to get something more interesting at local independents if I knew the area.

    Now I think the best mid-range attractive chain, according to me, I can come up with, is probably Bill's Restaurant. Otherwise, what about Carluccio or Gaucho? I'm tempted to add Wagamama, which is reliable but samey, and a place where you - or at least I - can suddenly spend an extra 50% before I notice.

    I'd like to hear some more suggestions.

  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,990
    ohnotnow said:

    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    I strongly suspect that the advent of global news coverage has not been great for perceptions of the state of the world. News, by its nature, tends to be bad. Floods, murders, terrorism, war rather than love, peace, good weather. Add in the 24 hour news culture ( as an example BigG has sky news on all the time, and I don’t think that’s uncommon) and now social media and you can come to see everything in a very negative light.
    I think it’s skewed our perceptions around climate change too. Every natural disaster worldwide is now headline news in a way that it wasn’t 20-30 years ago and this adds to the narrative that the climate is rapidly worsening. Climate change is very real, but eff3cts are frequently exaggerated (mainly by the media).

    Perhaps sometimes it’s good to turn off.
    I'm not sure if it's generational, age, whatever. But growing up watching things like Threads, Edge of Darkness etc. Becoming aware of Watkins version of Culloden, various other events, plays, shows. Remembering the grim news of nuclear bomb 'tests' while having Faslane a 15 minute walk away. Republican/Provo bombs and kneecapping's every other week. A once-a-year nutter doesn't seem quite so bad (if still deeply, deeply awful).

    We've plenty of 'grim' to be going on with at present. Hell, I even read an article in the Spectator a while ago about a less than perfect glass of white wine.

    But the need to feed the news cycle really does seem to add petrol to the embers. I remember thinking when BBC News launched - "At last! Space to really dive deep into the issues! Explore the background, history, meaning of events!"...

    ...

    And here we are, with 24hr rolling "[BREAKING] Sources have told me tittle tattle about minister A pronouncing it tomah-toe, but minister B using tom-ay-toe!"

    I grew up in the same era, the bomb and the cold war never really bothered me. Life changing because of terrorism however though in those days was ira/plo/bader meinhoff etc.

    In those days is we didn't give into them however whereas what worries me these days radical islam seems to push people into concessions. Who these days for example will show a cartoon of allah or teach a mixed class of kids something some parents will object too
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,682
    Pagan2 said:

    ohnotnow said:

    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    I strongly suspect that the advent of global news coverage has not been great for perceptions of the state of the world. News, by its nature, tends to be bad. Floods, murders, terrorism, war rather than love, peace, good weather. Add in the 24 hour news culture ( as an example BigG has sky news on all the time, and I don’t think that’s uncommon) and now social media and you can come to see everything in a very negative light.
    I think it’s skewed our perceptions around climate change too. Every natural disaster worldwide is now headline news in a way that it wasn’t 20-30 years ago and this adds to the narrative that the climate is rapidly worsening. Climate change is very real, but eff3cts are frequently exaggerated (mainly by the media).

    Perhaps sometimes it’s good to turn off.
    I'm not sure if it's generational, age, whatever. But growing up watching things like Threads, Edge of Darkness etc. Becoming aware of Watkins version of Culloden, various other events, plays, shows. Remembering the grim news of nuclear bomb 'tests' while having Faslane a 15 minute walk away. Republican/Provo bombs and kneecapping's every other week. A once-a-year nutter doesn't seem quite so bad (if still deeply, deeply awful).

    We've plenty of 'grim' to be going on with at present. Hell, I even read an article in the Spectator a while ago about a less than perfect glass of white wine.

    But the need to feed the news cycle really does seem to add petrol to the embers. I remember thinking when BBC News launched - "At last! Space to really dive deep into the issues! Explore the background, history, meaning of events!"...

    ...

    And here we are, with 24hr rolling "[BREAKING] Sources have told me tittle tattle about minister A pronouncing it tomah-toe, but minister B using tom-ay-toe!"

    I grew up in the same era, the bomb and the cold war never really bothered me. Life changing because of terrorism however though in those days was ira/plo/bader meinhoff etc.

    In those days is we didn't give into them however whereas what worries me these days radical islam seems to push people into concessions. Who these days for example will show a cartoon of allah or teach a mixed class of kids something some parents will object too
    Kids who grew up during the 70’s are part of waht Fortean Times calls the haunted generation. Lots of odd TV show and the background world situation that you both describe.
    It’s a good phrase.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,515
    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    Boring
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,990
    edited December 20
    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    If there were lots of german immigrants and certain german clubs started preaching nazi philosophy and advocating violent action against non aryans I expect those clubs shut down hard and those promulgating that hate filled philosophy out of the country pronto.

    We know mosques and imam's (largely saudi funded. finisbury park mosque eg) that fit the same bill yet we do bugger all.

    I suspect the guardian and the metropolitan liberals would be all in favour of action against the first but aghast at the same actions against the second
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,378
    edited December 20
    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    Here is a real time counter of the increase in Bluesky's members.

    https://bcounter.nat.vg/
    https://www.fastcompany.com/91230935/the-website-tracks-how-fast-bluesky-is-growing-in-near-real-time

    Currently 25,535,787 people. Rising by about 2 people every 3 seconds.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,807
    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    If there were lots of german immigrants and certain german clubs started preaching nazi philosophy and advocating violent action against non aryans I expect those clubs shut down hard and those promulgating that hate filled philosophy out of the country pronto.

    We know mosques and imam's (largely saudi funded. finisbury park mosque eg) that fit the same bill yet we do bugger all.

    I suspect the guardian and the metropolitan liberals would be all in favour of action against the first but aghast and the same actions against the second
    And we do not class Saudi Arabia as an enemy of our country, despite their involvement in fomenting these disgusting ideologies and endangering our security.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,608
    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    There's lots of money to be made by only showing people only what they want to see.

    A lot more money, in fact, than showing people things that discomfort them.

    Bluesky is Fox News for the Left. And Fox News made a lot of money.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,945
    viewcode said:

    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    Here is a real time counter of the increase in Bluesky's members.

    https://bcounter.nat.vg/
    https://www.fastcompany.com/91230935/the-website-tracks-how-fast-bluesky-is-growing-in-near-real-time

    Currently 25,535,787 people. Rising by about 2 people every 3 seconds.
    Sheer numbers doesn't prove much. 75 million people voted for Harris but she lost anyway.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,990
    viewcode said:

    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    Here is a real time counter of the increase in Bluesky's members.

    https://bcounter.nat.vg/
    https://www.fastcompany.com/91230935/the-website-tracks-how-fast-bluesky-is-growing-in-near-real-time

    Currently 25,535,787 people. Rising by about 2 people every 3 seconds.
    Why would anyone care....anyone who listens to the twitter , facebook, bluesky, tiktok etc thought train and thinks "This is want the majority of the country thinks" is an idiot....Most sane people have better things to do with their time
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 52,268
    The perpetrator seems to have been a nutter who was accusing Germany of persecuting the Saudi opposition. This is his Twitter account where he’s promising in Arabic to slaughter Germans:

    https://x.com/drtalebjawad/status/1823444631519891872
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 3,987
    Pagan2 said:

    ohnotnow said:

    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    I strongly suspect that the advent of global news coverage has not been great for perceptions of the state of the world. News, by its nature, tends to be bad. Floods, murders, terrorism, war rather than love, peace, good weather. Add in the 24 hour news culture ( as an example BigG has sky news on all the time, and I don’t think that’s uncommon) and now social media and you can come to see everything in a very negative light.
    I think it’s skewed our perceptions around climate change too. Every natural disaster worldwide is now headline news in a way that it wasn’t 20-30 years ago and this adds to the narrative that the climate is rapidly worsening. Climate change is very real, but eff3cts are frequently exaggerated (mainly by the media).

    Perhaps sometimes it’s good to turn off.
    I'm not sure if it's generational, age, whatever. But growing up watching things like Threads, Edge of Darkness etc. Becoming aware of Watkins version of Culloden, various other events, plays, shows. Remembering the grim news of nuclear bomb 'tests' while having Faslane a 15 minute walk away. Republican/Provo bombs and kneecapping's every other week. A once-a-year nutter doesn't seem quite so bad (if still deeply, deeply awful).

    We've plenty of 'grim' to be going on with at present. Hell, I even read an article in the Spectator a while ago about a less than perfect glass of white wine.

    But the need to feed the news cycle really does seem to add petrol to the embers. I remember thinking when BBC News launched - "At last! Space to really dive deep into the issues! Explore the background, history, meaning of events!"...

    ...

    And here we are, with 24hr rolling "[BREAKING] Sources have told me tittle tattle about minister A pronouncing it tomah-toe, but minister B using tom-ay-toe!"

    I grew up in the same era, the bomb and the cold war never really bothered me. Life changing because of terrorism however though in those days was ira/plo/bader meinhoff etc.

    In those days is we didn't give into them however whereas what worries me these days radical islam seems to push people into concessions. Who these days for example will show a cartoon of allah or teach a mixed class of kids something some parents will object too
    Not quite sure that holds. There is certainly a horrible weakness about standing up to religious zealots, but I remember kids being kicked out of school for cartoons of the pope, cartoons of hitler, drawing swastikas or hammer&sickle's. I was myself barred from school for scratching my nose 99 times(?) in solidarity with Bobby Sands et al.

    I remember my parents saying they were kicked out of School for talking in Scots, never mind a touch of Gaelic.

    I remember a kid in my class being kicked all the way home, day after day, because he'd come out as gay. He eventually took to blatant shoplifting (I guess as some sort of protection mechanism). Then hung himself in jail after being beaten to f*ck.

    Maybe we're on the pendulum swing of tolerance - about to start in the other direction after a reaction to the intolerance in the other direction.

    In any case - grim nutters doing grim things are on us today. And that is, once again, a dreadful stain on the record of humanity.
  • The perpetrator seems to have been a nutter who was accusing Germany of persecuting the Saudi opposition. This is his Twitter account where he’s promising in Arabic to slaughter Germans:

    https://x.com/drtalebjawad/status/1823444631519891872

    "Unable to fetch translation"
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    viewcode said:

    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    Here is a real time counter of the increase in Bluesky's members.

    https://bcounter.nat.vg/
    https://www.fastcompany.com/91230935/the-website-tracks-how-fast-bluesky-is-growing-in-near-real-time

    Currently 25,535,787 people. Rising by about 2 people every 3 seconds.
    Oh it will do fine as a new guardian for the left. If it can find a way to pay for itself, and its moderation. Not clear how

    But if it does it will succeed and become.. a woke left social media ghetto. What’s the point?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,990

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    If there were lots of german immigrants and certain german clubs started preaching nazi philosophy and advocating violent action against non aryans I expect those clubs shut down hard and those promulgating that hate filled philosophy out of the country pronto.

    We know mosques and imam's (largely saudi funded. finisbury park mosque eg) that fit the same bill yet we do bugger all.

    I suspect the guardian and the metropolitan liberals would be all in favour of action against the first but aghast and the same actions against the second
    And we do not class Saudi Arabia as an enemy of our country, despite their involvement in fomenting these disgusting ideologies and endangering our security.
    To be fair I can't comment as I don't know whether the funding is government sanctioned or just rich individuals within saudi arabia of which there are many funding it. If the former yes we should be giving the saudi government a stiff talking to , if however its the saudi musk alikes then might not do any good
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,945

    The perpetrator seems to have been a nutter who was accusing Germany of persecuting the Saudi opposition. This is his Twitter account where he’s promising in Arabic to slaughter Germans:

    https://x.com/drtalebjawad/status/1823444631519891872

    Are we sure this is him?
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 52,268
    He also appeared in a BBC programme where he spoke about his work as an activist helping “ex-Muslims” get to Europe:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07g2vrp
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,990
    ohnotnow said:

    Pagan2 said:

    ohnotnow said:

    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    I strongly suspect that the advent of global news coverage has not been great for perceptions of the state of the world. News, by its nature, tends to be bad. Floods, murders, terrorism, war rather than love, peace, good weather. Add in the 24 hour news culture ( as an example BigG has sky news on all the time, and I don’t think that’s uncommon) and now social media and you can come to see everything in a very negative light.
    I think it’s skewed our perceptions around climate change too. Every natural disaster worldwide is now headline news in a way that it wasn’t 20-30 years ago and this adds to the narrative that the climate is rapidly worsening. Climate change is very real, but eff3cts are frequently exaggerated (mainly by the media).

    Perhaps sometimes it’s good to turn off.
    I'm not sure if it's generational, age, whatever. But growing up watching things like Threads, Edge of Darkness etc. Becoming aware of Watkins version of Culloden, various other events, plays, shows. Remembering the grim news of nuclear bomb 'tests' while having Faslane a 15 minute walk away. Republican/Provo bombs and kneecapping's every other week. A once-a-year nutter doesn't seem quite so bad (if still deeply, deeply awful).

    We've plenty of 'grim' to be going on with at present. Hell, I even read an article in the Spectator a while ago about a less than perfect glass of white wine.

    But the need to feed the news cycle really does seem to add petrol to the embers. I remember thinking when BBC News launched - "At last! Space to really dive deep into the issues! Explore the background, history, meaning of events!"...

    ...

    And here we are, with 24hr rolling "[BREAKING] Sources have told me tittle tattle about minister A pronouncing it tomah-toe, but minister B using tom-ay-toe!"

    I grew up in the same era, the bomb and the cold war never really bothered me. Life changing because of terrorism however though in those days was ira/plo/bader meinhoff etc.

    In those days is we didn't give into them however whereas what worries me these days radical islam seems to push people into concessions. Who these days for example will show a cartoon of allah or teach a mixed class of kids something some parents will object too
    Not quite sure that holds. There is certainly a horrible weakness about standing up to religious zealots, but I remember kids being kicked out of school for cartoons of the pope, cartoons of hitler, drawing swastikas or hammer&sickle's. I was myself barred from school for scratching my nose 99 times(?) in solidarity with Bobby Sands et al.

    I remember my parents saying they were kicked out of School for talking in Scots, never mind a touch of Gaelic.

    I remember a kid in my class being kicked all the way home, day after day, because he'd come out as gay. He eventually took to blatant shoplifting (I guess as some sort of protection mechanism). Then hung himself in jail after being beaten to f*ck.

    Maybe we're on the pendulum swing of tolerance - about to start in the other direction after a reaction to the intolerance in the other direction.

    In any case - grim nutters doing grim things are on us today. And that is, once again, a dreadful stain on the record of humanity.
    You notice the difference there, wasn't the state and everyone else adapting to your views (yes the state was wrong) it was the state forcing you to adapt to the general view of the state.

    Now its the other way....radical islam says jump....the state says how high sir...oh you don't like our free speech...let us turn a blind eye while you enforce your views

    See the difference?
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 52,268
    Andy_JS said:

    The perpetrator seems to have been a nutter who was accusing Germany of persecuting the Saudi opposition. This is his Twitter account where he’s promising in Arabic to slaughter Germans:

    https://x.com/drtalebjawad/status/1823444631519891872

    Are we sure this is him?
    https://x.com/derjamesjackson/status/1870251193089335704

    Breaking: The suspected Magdeburg attacker anti-Muslim activist Taleb A published this video shortly after his car drove into a Christmas market
    “The government itself is the criminal… I consider the German nation, German citizens responsible for what I’m facing”
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,945
    edited December 20
    "The website helping ex-Muslims flee the Gulf

    Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen lives in Germany now – but there was once a time where he lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, and was incapable of safely expressing his atheism.

    After successfully seeking asylum in Germany, he decided to set up the website wearesaudis.net to create an information resource for others to do the same."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07g2vrp
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    My sister is planning to have kebabs on the Christmas menu. May have to remove
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,378
    edited December 20
    Leon said:

    viewcode said:

    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    Here is a real time counter of the increase in Bluesky's members.

    https://bcounter.nat.vg/
    https://www.fastcompany.com/91230935/the-website-tracks-how-fast-bluesky-is-growing-in-near-real-time

    Currently 25,535,787 people. Rising by about 2 people every 3 seconds.
    Oh it will do fine as a new guardian for the left. If it can find a way to pay for itself, and its moderation. Not clear how

    But if it does it will succeed and become.. a woke left social media ghetto. What’s the point?
    "Point"? It enables people to communicate with people who like them and are like them. They are a tribe.

    We are used to nation states and lines on a map. But that's not the only way to organise a society. Bluesky, like Xitter, is a transnational tribe that isn't constrained by nationality or borders. You wanted the Anglosphere. You got it. What were you expecting?
  • At 7 o'clock tonight my daughter walked through the door having just flown back from a German Christmas market visit with her boyfriend.

    I'd just finished cooking the tea and we all watched a movie (Carry On - terrorist Christmas movie - new Die Hard?). At 10pm my 87 mother in law (with dementia) rings to ask if my daughter is OK as she has watched the news. We'd been too busy chatting and watching the film to see the news.

    Before going, I had thought about warning her about the risks and previous attacks. Decided against it, as you can't live like that. After the event, my wife said she wouldn't have let them go if she knew (she doesn't follow the news much - can't blame her).

    I despise the likes of Dan Hodges and the politicians who will try and wash away the reasons behind these continual attacks. If my daughter had been caught up in this, I'd have made it my single purpose in life to raise them.

  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,990
    Andy_JS said:

    "The website helping ex-Muslims flee the Gulf

    Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen lives in Germany now – but there was once a time where he lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, and was incapable of safely expressing his atheism.

    After successfully seeking asylum in Germany, he decided to set up the website wearesaudis.net to create an information resource for others to do the same."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07g2vrp

    As far as I can see no official naming of the attacker as yet....might be him or might not but wouldnt bank on a tweet to name him
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 4,835
    Andy_JS said:

    "The website helping ex-Muslims flee the Gulf

    Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen lives in Germany now – but there was once a time where he lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, and was incapable of safely expressing his atheism.

    After successfully seeking asylum in Germany, he decided to set up the website wearesaudis.net to create an information resource for others to do the same."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07g2vrp

    An atheist? Knew it. My prejudices turn on a dime. Not a vegan also?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    edited December 20

    Andy_JS said:

    The perpetrator seems to have been a nutter who was accusing Germany of persecuting the Saudi opposition. This is his Twitter account where he’s promising in Arabic to slaughter Germans:

    https://x.com/drtalebjawad/status/1823444631519891872

    Are we sure this is him?
    https://x.com/derjamesjackson/status/1870251193089335704

    Breaking: The suspected Magdeburg attacker anti-Muslim activist Taleb A published this video shortly after his car drove into a Christmas market
    “The government itself is the criminal… I consider the German nation, German citizens responsible for what I’m facing”
    Good way to express his anti-Islamism. Drive a fast BMW into a crowded German Christmas market and mow down dozens of blonde little German girls buying Christmas apples. That will show them in Jeddah
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 52,268
    Pagan2 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "The website helping ex-Muslims flee the Gulf

    Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen lives in Germany now – but there was once a time where he lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, and was incapable of safely expressing his atheism.

    After successfully seeking asylum in Germany, he decided to set up the website wearesaudis.net to create an information resource for others to do the same."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07g2vrp

    As far as I can see no official naming of the attacker as yet....might be him or might not but wouldnt bank on a tweet to name him
    Die Welt have basically confirmed his identity:

    https://x.com/freddy2805/status/1870251232180289586
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 3,987
    Pagan2 said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Pagan2 said:

    ohnotnow said:

    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    I strongly suspect that the advent of global news coverage has not been great for perceptions of the state of the world. News, by its nature, tends to be bad. Floods, murders, terrorism, war rather than love, peace, good weather. Add in the 24 hour news culture ( as an example BigG has sky news on all the time, and I don’t think that’s uncommon) and now social media and you can come to see everything in a very negative light.
    I think it’s skewed our perceptions around climate change too. Every natural disaster worldwide is now headline news in a way that it wasn’t 20-30 years ago and this adds to the narrative that the climate is rapidly worsening. Climate change is very real, but eff3cts are frequently exaggerated (mainly by the media).

    Perhaps sometimes it’s good to turn off.
    I'm not sure if it's generational, age, whatever. But growing up watching things like Threads, Edge of Darkness etc. Becoming aware of Watkins version of Culloden, various other events, plays, shows. Remembering the grim news of nuclear bomb 'tests' while having Faslane a 15 minute walk away. Republican/Provo bombs and kneecapping's every other week. A once-a-year nutter doesn't seem quite so bad (if still deeply, deeply awful).

    We've plenty of 'grim' to be going on with at present. Hell, I even read an article in the Spectator a while ago about a less than perfect glass of white wine.

    But the need to feed the news cycle really does seem to add petrol to the embers. I remember thinking when BBC News launched - "At last! Space to really dive deep into the issues! Explore the background, history, meaning of events!"...

    ...

    And here we are, with 24hr rolling "[BREAKING] Sources have told me tittle tattle about minister A pronouncing it tomah-toe, but minister B using tom-ay-toe!"

    I grew up in the same era, the bomb and the cold war never really bothered me. Life changing because of terrorism however though in those days was ira/plo/bader meinhoff etc.

    In those days is we didn't give into them however whereas what worries me these days radical islam seems to push people into concessions. Who these days for example will show a cartoon of allah or teach a mixed class of kids something some parents will object too
    Not quite sure that holds. There is certainly a horrible weakness about standing up to religious zealots, but I remember kids being kicked out of school for cartoons of the pope, cartoons of hitler, drawing swastikas or hammer&sickle's. I was myself barred from school for scratching my nose 99 times(?) in solidarity with Bobby Sands et al.

    I remember my parents saying they were kicked out of School for talking in Scots, never mind a touch of Gaelic.

    I remember a kid in my class being kicked all the way home, day after day, because he'd come out as gay. He eventually took to blatant shoplifting (I guess as some sort of protection mechanism). Then hung himself in jail after being beaten to f*ck.

    Maybe we're on the pendulum swing of tolerance - about to start in the other direction after a reaction to the intolerance in the other direction.

    In any case - grim nutters doing grim things are on us today. And that is, once again, a dreadful stain on the record of humanity.
    You notice the difference there, wasn't the state and everyone else adapting to your views (yes the state was wrong) it was the state forcing you to adapt to the general view of the state.

    Now its the other way....radical islam says jump....the state says how high sir...oh you don't like our free speech...let us turn a blind eye while you enforce your views

    See the difference?
    I can't quite parse your reply.

    But in no way am I saying appeasing radical islam/whatever is ok. But that the state has taken a view (wrongly or not) and enforced it with law/regulation has been a grim reality for a long time. Good luck wearing a "The Pope's My Bestie!" badge at various points in our history.

    I've had arguments with left-wing friends who try and justify (simultaneously) absolute equality between sexes, genders, sexualities - and absolute segregation in extreme religious groups between men and women (there are obviously no gays in such groups...).

    It's all dreadful and needs addressed. Not sure who's going to do it without just being another form of intolerance though. It needs some skill, and I'm not seeing an abundance of that just now.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,877

    MattW said:

    Carnyx said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    Leon said:

    BBC report:

    “A car has crashed into a crowd at a Christmas market in east Germany, local media report.

    “A least one person has been killed and several injured in the incident in Magdeburg, according to German public broadcaster MDR.”

    Watch the video. At your moral peril

    If only one person has died it is a genuine Christmas miracle; I fear that has not happened
    A cursory glance at "the video" shows it has already been sped up to make it look more dramatic.

    Given there have been previous similar incidents across Europe, I wouldn't be so sure this is footage from this particular event.
    What are you talking about? Are you claming this event is "faked"??
    No. I'm just pointing out that the video doing the rounds has 1) been altered 2) might not be of the same event.

    It's a bit pathetic of you to suggest that my cautious take on this means I am some sort of terrorist attack denier. Indeed, my take relies on the fact there have been so many similar attacks in the past.
    Bin lorries.
    Bin lorries.
    EV acceleration? I’ve seen some videos where an EV launched off a slope and ended up flying like a missile through the air. If that ended in a crowd….
    There was a famous one at a Canadian checkpoint last year - though I don't think that was an EV (hybrid, perhaps?). Many people suspected it was terrorism. It was not.

    That sad crash was caught on video, and it is notable how fae the car 'flew' through the air before impact.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/23/us-canada-border-vehicle-crash-explosion
    I posted one - not sure if electric - that went through a gym wall at basically 2nd floor height, after hitting a roundabout.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlSYf99riAg
    I remember seeing that one, and the view from inside the gym showing where the car ended up.

    But is that the sort of thing we're seeing with this car's behaviour?

    It'd be interesting to know what the make of car was: apparently they never got to the bottom of what caused the crash at the Canadian border I linked to above (which many called a terrorist incident). But allegedly the couple complained that the car's accelerator had previously got stuck, and Bentley had recently had a recall for stuck accelerators...
    The one I posted was a footballer, over the DD limit, at 140 kph.

    Report:
    https://www.belganewsagency.eu/suspended-sentence-for-footballer-who-crashed-car-into-sports-hall-after-drinking
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    viewcode said:

    Leon said:

    viewcode said:

    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    Here is a real time counter of the increase in Bluesky's members.

    https://bcounter.nat.vg/
    https://www.fastcompany.com/91230935/the-website-tracks-how-fast-bluesky-is-growing-in-near-real-time

    Currently 25,535,787 people. Rising by about 2 people every 3 seconds.
    Oh it will do fine as a new guardian for the left. If it can find a way to pay for itself, and its moderation. Not clear how

    But if it does it will succeed and become.. a woke left social media ghetto. What’s the point?
    "Point"? It enables people to communicate with people who like them and are like them. They are a tribe.

    We are used to nation states and lines on a map. But that's not the only way to organise a society. Bluesky, like Xitter, is a transnational tribe that isn't constrained by nationality or borders. You wanted the Anglosphere. You got it. What were you expecting?
    The problem is the left is dull, worthy, humourless and earnest. Take yourself as an example. Bluesky will reflect that. And so it will be a boring echo chamber.

    Is that a good thing for the world? Fair enough, if that’s what you desire
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,990
    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    The perpetrator seems to have been a nutter who was accusing Germany of persecuting the Saudi opposition. This is his Twitter account where he’s promising in Arabic to slaughter Germans:

    https://x.com/drtalebjawad/status/1823444631519891872

    Are we sure this is him?
    https://x.com/derjamesjackson/status/1870251193089335704

    Breaking: The suspected Magdeburg attacker anti-Muslim activist Taleb A published this video shortly after his car drove into a Christmas market
    “The government itself is the criminal… I consider the German nation, German citizens responsible for what I’m facing”
    Good way to express his anti-Islamism. Drive a fast BMW into a crowded German Christmas market and mow down dozens of blonde little German girls buying Christmas apples. That will show them in Jeddah
    The translation of the drtaleb tweet is

    "First: I assure you that if Germany wants war, we will have it. If Germany wants to kill us, we will slaughter them, die, or go to prison with pride. Because we have exhausted all peaceful means, we have encountered nothing but more crimes against us from the police, state security, the prosecution, the judiciary, and the (federal) Ministry of Interior. Peace is of no use to them."

    Not convinced that is a non radical islamist talking
  • carnforth said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "The website helping ex-Muslims flee the Gulf

    Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen lives in Germany now – but there was once a time where he lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, and was incapable of safely expressing his atheism.

    After successfully seeking asylum in Germany, he decided to set up the website wearesaudis.net to create an information resource for others to do the same."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07g2vrp

    An atheist? Knew it. My prejudices turn on a dime. Not a vegan also?
    Maybe he liked venison.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    The perpetrator seems to have been a nutter who was accusing Germany of persecuting the Saudi opposition. This is his Twitter account where he’s promising in Arabic to slaughter Germans:

    https://x.com/drtalebjawad/status/1823444631519891872

    Are we sure this is him?
    https://x.com/derjamesjackson/status/1870251193089335704

    Breaking: The suspected Magdeburg attacker anti-Muslim activist Taleb A published this video shortly after his car drove into a Christmas market
    “The government itself is the criminal… I consider the German nation, German citizens responsible for what I’m facing”
    Good way to express his anti-Islamism. Drive a fast BMW into a crowded German Christmas market and mow down dozens of blonde little German girls buying Christmas apples. That will show them in Jeddah
    The translation of the drtaleb tweet is

    "First: I assure you that if Germany wants war, we will have it. If Germany wants to kill us, we will slaughter them, die, or go to prison with pride. Because we have exhausted all peaceful means, we have encountered nothing but more crimes against us from the police, state security, the prosecution, the judiciary, and the (federal) Ministry of Interior. Peace is of no use to them."

    Not convinced that is a non radical islamist talking
    Just another quasi-Islamist nutter. They are all infected
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,990
    ohnotnow said:

    Pagan2 said:

    ohnotnow said:

    Pagan2 said:

    ohnotnow said:

    dixiedean said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Just looked at the news for the first time today. Wish I hadn't.

    I have that feeling most every day.
    Was it always this bleak and we simply weren't aware?
    Or are we in an actual and metaphorical dark place?
    Had a number of folk certain it never went dark this early.
    Or maybe it is death's shadow?
    I strongly suspect that the advent of global news coverage has not been great for perceptions of the state of the world. News, by its nature, tends to be bad. Floods, murders, terrorism, war rather than love, peace, good weather. Add in the 24 hour news culture ( as an example BigG has sky news on all the time, and I don’t think that’s uncommon) and now social media and you can come to see everything in a very negative light.
    I think it’s skewed our perceptions around climate change too. Every natural disaster worldwide is now headline news in a way that it wasn’t 20-30 years ago and this adds to the narrative that the climate is rapidly worsening. Climate change is very real, but eff3cts are frequently exaggerated (mainly by the media).

    Perhaps sometimes it’s good to turn off.
    I'm not sure if it's generational, age, whatever. But growing up watching things like Threads, Edge of Darkness etc. Becoming aware of Watkins version of Culloden, various other events, plays, shows. Remembering the grim news of nuclear bomb 'tests' while having Faslane a 15 minute walk away. Republican/Provo bombs and kneecapping's every other week. A once-a-year nutter doesn't seem quite so bad (if still deeply, deeply awful).

    We've plenty of 'grim' to be going on with at present. Hell, I even read an article in the Spectator a while ago about a less than perfect glass of white wine.

    But the need to feed the news cycle really does seem to add petrol to the embers. I remember thinking when BBC News launched - "At last! Space to really dive deep into the issues! Explore the background, history, meaning of events!"...

    ...

    And here we are, with 24hr rolling "[BREAKING] Sources have told me tittle tattle about minister A pronouncing it tomah-toe, but minister B using tom-ay-toe!"

    I grew up in the same era, the bomb and the cold war never really bothered me. Life changing because of terrorism however though in those days was ira/plo/bader meinhoff etc.

    In those days is we didn't give into them however whereas what worries me these days radical islam seems to push people into concessions. Who these days for example will show a cartoon of allah or teach a mixed class of kids something some parents will object too
    Not quite sure that holds. There is certainly a horrible weakness about standing up to religious zealots, but I remember kids being kicked out of school for cartoons of the pope, cartoons of hitler, drawing swastikas or hammer&sickle's. I was myself barred from school for scratching my nose 99 times(?) in solidarity with Bobby Sands et al.

    I remember my parents saying they were kicked out of School for talking in Scots, never mind a touch of Gaelic.

    I remember a kid in my class being kicked all the way home, day after day, because he'd come out as gay. He eventually took to blatant shoplifting (I guess as some sort of protection mechanism). Then hung himself in jail after being beaten to f*ck.

    Maybe we're on the pendulum swing of tolerance - about to start in the other direction after a reaction to the intolerance in the other direction.

    In any case - grim nutters doing grim things are on us today. And that is, once again, a dreadful stain on the record of humanity.
    You notice the difference there, wasn't the state and everyone else adapting to your views (yes the state was wrong) it was the state forcing you to adapt to the general view of the state.

    Now its the other way....radical islam says jump....the state says how high sir...oh you don't like our free speech...let us turn a blind eye while you enforce your views

    See the difference?
    I can't quite parse your reply.

    But in no way am I saying appeasing radical islam/whatever is ok. But that the state has taken a view (wrongly or not) and enforced it with law/regulation has been a grim reality for a long time. Good luck wearing a "The Pope's My Bestie!" badge at various points in our history.

    I've had arguments with left-wing friends who try and justify (simultaneously) absolute equality between sexes, genders, sexualities - and absolute segregation in extreme religious groups between men and women (there are obviously no gays in such groups...).

    It's all dreadful and needs addressed. Not sure who's going to do it without just being another form of intolerance though. It needs some skill, and I'm not seeing an abundance of that just now.
    I am saying you had to conform to the views of the country you live in those cases not them conform to yours

    Now radical islam expects the state to bend to their views and they are doing so

    Is that explanatory enough?

    You notice those kids you mentioned by the way did not have to go into hiding for fear of their lives along with their families unlike the teacher recently. Nor did someone invade the classroom and shoot them dead for daring to draw a hammer and sickle or swastika. Was the intolerance wrong. Yes definitely but it was on a whole different level
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,496
    This will be hilarious

    “Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine.”
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,082

    carnforth said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "The website helping ex-Muslims flee the Gulf

    Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen lives in Germany now – but there was once a time where he lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, and was incapable of safely expressing his atheism.

    After successfully seeking asylum in Germany, he decided to set up the website wearesaudis.net to create an information resource for others to do the same."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07g2vrp

    An atheist? Knew it. My prejudices turn on a dime. Not a vegan also?
    Maybe he liked venison.
    Venison bacon?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,877
    Leon said:

    This will be hilarious

    “Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine.”

    Sounds like Mr Cocktail Sausage boasting about the size of his equipment.

    The USA has spent about 2.9% of GDP on defence this year.

    Given that Chump is slashing US Govt spending, where's the $650 billion to take it up to 5% coming from?
  • StereodogStereodog Posts: 726
    Leon said:

    This will be hilarious

    “Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine.”

    Yeah but that's classic ask for 5% and settle for 2.5% stuff
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,895
    Leon said:

    This will be hilarious

    “Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine.”

    Yes, I saw that.

    US defence spending is 3.4% of GDP (2023), lower than Poland (3.8%).
  • bigglesbiggles Posts: 6,198
    Why are so many of you failing to use full stops? Moderators, please can you dispense some warnings?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,877
    I'm wondering how long it will be before Gloria de Piero leaves GB News - they seem to be going for a completely craniotomised staff team, and have cut back on muliple staff for being "too woke".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZTBDnj0Cgc
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,378
    ...

    (I am restoring the balance of full stops)
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,945
    biggles said:

    Why are so many of you failing to use full stops? Moderators, please can you dispense some warnings?

    Haven't you heard that some people are offended by punctuation? That's why people often don't put question marks at the end of questions, in case it comes over too aggressive.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,877
    viewcode said:

    ...

    (I am restoring the balance of full stops)

    I'm offended.

    Those are all upside down.
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,378
    MattW said:

    viewcode said:

    ...

    (I am restoring the balance of full stops)

    I'm offended.

    Those are all upside down.
    Try these ones

    ...
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,945
    "A man who attacked and killed his 71-year-old neighbour has been sentenced to life at Swansea Crown Court for murder. Brian Whitelock, 57, attacked Wendy Buckney with a kitchen knife, a broken table leg and wooden shelving during a sustained assault in her own home. The pensioner was discovered, naked and covered in blood, in the living room of her home in Clydach, near Swansea, on August 23 2022.

    The court previously heard how Whitelock had also been jailed for life in 2001 for murder and manslaughter but was released from prison in 2018."

    https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2024-12-20/man-who-killed-71-year-old-neighbour-with-kitchen-knife-jailed
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,082
    viewcode said:

    MattW said:

    viewcode said:

    ...

    (I am restoring the balance of full stops)

    I'm offended.

    Those are all upside down.
    Try these ones

    ...
    Proximo: Those full stops you sold me, they won't mate. They just walk around, eating, and not mating. You sold me... queer full stops. I want my money back.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,668
    Nigelb said:

    Talking of Trump, he has promised to primary every Republican who voted against the continuing resolution.
    2026 should be fun.

    The Republican no votes on the CR:

    Bean (FL)
    Biggs
    Brecheen
    Burchett
    Burlison
    Cammack
    Cloud
    Clyde
    Crane
    Curtis
    Duncan
    Fulcher
    Good (VA)
    Gosar
    Harris
    Hunt
    Lamborn
    Lesko
    Lopez
    Luttrell
    Масе
    Massie
    McCormick
    Mills
    Mooney
    Moore (UT)
    Moran
    Norman
    Ogles
    Perry
    Posey
    Rosendale
    ROY
    Schweikert
    Self
    Spartz
    Tiffany
    Van Duyne

    What's remarkable about that list is how Anglo it is.
  • FOI Tribunal orders release of Owen and Kempsell peerage citations
    ...
    The public can now expect to find out the reasons Boris Johnson officially provided for nominating Charlotte Owen and Ross Kempsell to the House of Lords

    https://rosenbaum.org.uk/foi-tribunal-orders-release-of-owen-and-kempsell-peerage-citations/

    What we want to know is why Boris nominated them. What we shall find out is how Boris justified nominating them.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,668

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    If there were lots of german immigrants and certain german clubs started preaching nazi philosophy and advocating violent action against non aryans I expect those clubs shut down hard and those promulgating that hate filled philosophy out of the country pronto.

    We know mosques and imam's (largely saudi funded. finisbury park mosque eg) that fit the same bill yet we do bugger all.

    I suspect the guardian and the metropolitan liberals would be all in favour of action against the first but aghast and the same actions against the second
    And we do not class Saudi Arabia as an enemy of our country, despite their involvement in fomenting these disgusting ideologies and endangering our security.
    They've got oil.

    In 30 years no-one will talk to them.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,668
    Stereodog said:

    Leon said:

    This will be hilarious

    “Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine.”

    Yeah but that's classic ask for 5% and settle for 2.5% stuff
    Art of the Deal, isn't it? Probably the same applies to arming Ukraine to force Putin to the table.

    I hope all those pb.com regulars who posted utter histrionics about how Trump would immediately cut off all support for Ukraine are going to admit they got it wrong.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,668
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Nearly finished a week of doing my taxes. Just a couple of hours needed now, after Christmas

    What gets me REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY QUITE RESENTFUL is the fact that: if I am a day late filing my returns, I get INSTANTLY fined. But HMRC, all working from home, are now taking A YEAR to process Tax Exemption forms, despite multiple calls, and feeble promises, thereby costing me serious money

    Utter state of this country

    I'm not joking. A YEAR. AT LEAST

    To process one form
    Bureacracies tend to be more concerned with adherence to their own rules by others than their own compliance with standards, rules, or the law.
    It's making me quite irritable. I spoke to my Knapping Foreign Tax Accountant today, and she said the only tax authority in the world that is as fucked up as the UK's is....Germany's

    And it just so happens that my much-needed tax form is for exemption from tax by.... Germany

    She said "the whole thing could take easily two years, or more"

    I've already waited one year for the UK - AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T DELIVERED - and even when I get the form, perhaps when I am dead, I have to wait at least another year for the fucking krauts to be as shite as the British

    It is emblematic of the two sick men of Europe. Germany and the UK
    We sent a form to reclaim some German VAT (MwSt) (Well our German accountants did) a few weeks back. I reckon it'll be at least a couple of years we're out of pocket (If we're lucky) on it
    Fucking maddening. I reckon HMRC's pitiful chaos - along with that of Germany's - is costing me thousands. Maybe tens of thousands if for some reason I keel over in the interim

    WTF am I meant to do? My government no longer serves its purpose, it cannot run an efficient state. And yet when I vote for the other lot, they are just as bad, indeed significantly worse

    For this reason alone I will vote Reform, to terrify the shit out of ALL the Establishment. I want them frightened for their jobs and I want half of them sacked
    still waiting for a refund from HMRC from April - all it says is "pending" -apparently referred to a special department despite them accepting evidence of the pension contributions that caused the refund. Can you get to talk to that department -nah of course not - the only conversation you will have (after about 30 minutes of infuriating nannying messages about finding out online any query ) is with yourself saying "Fing hell" when it then cuts you off
    They're all at home. When I call them I can literally hear their fucking pets and kids kicking off, and then they say "Oh I can't find the file, let me get back to you in a few days"

    Well maybe you can't find it because you are sitting on your obese butt in your fucking house in Newent, you pathetic lazy bint

    I have honestly had HMRC twats say to me, "We understand we have failed you, we are now expediting your case"

    EXPEDITING

    And then - nothing. She goes and has another biscuit. If I ran my life like this I'd be out of work in weeks

    It is utterly pathetic. Get them back in the office and halve their pay with the threat of instant dismissal and replacement by a keen, eager, articulate robot
    I don't get the antipathy to working from home that many on the Right have. My wife works from home full time as a commercial lawyer for a major healthcare company, and works her arse off - often late into the night; when I work from home (2 days a week) I am at my desk dawn to dusk.

    Don't ascribe to bad management or a bad company/corporate culture the location of where someone is working.

    If they fuck about at home they'd fuck about in the office.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,668
    On the BBC, I suspect they'll move from public service broadcasting to public service programmes.

    There's definitely a space for them making educational, cultural and factual/investigative works that wouldn't commercially happen. But being a master of all they survey across multiple TV channels and radio stations all over the UK?

    Those days are gone.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,668

    kle4 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    A vote-winning policy from Reform:

    https://x.com/rupertlowe10/status/1870156993463247262

    Look at these threats from the BBC mafia - expect the thugs on Christmas Day!

    When we win in 2029, the licence fee is gone on day one.


    image

    That is seriously clever politics
    Reform abolishing the licence fee might be clever politics. Reform axing Eastenders and Strictly is a less obvious vote-winner.
    People won't see it that way, will they? Reform will say It's up to the Beeb to fund itself, with ads or streaming and thus it's up to the Beeb if Enders or Strictly endure, and of course if the Beeb lets them go C4 or ITV can buy them and do them, anyway, as with Bake Off

    The argument that the BBC is some precious mass broadcaster is over, and the Beeb lost. Young people barely watch it

    This makes me sad. It's a great British soft power institution. I want it to survive and thrive. But it needs to adapt and fast, and frightening old ladies on Xmas Day is not a great look
    Focus on news and flog off the entertainment stuff may be the only way - it's easier to justify money for the former.
    Make it a subscription service, take it out of government control and form it into a mutual, owned by the subscribers. They could actually charge a market fee then and make some decent TV. And I'd have no problem with adverts.
    My long-standing view is that, from my perspective, the BBC licence fee is well worth it. I get more than my money's worth. But I understand that not everyone agrees, and that the media world that the BBC competes in is changing rapidly.

    The inability of the BBC and successive governments to understand these changes over the last three decades has doomed it. The one thing that I thought was still worth the BBC licence fee alone - documentaries - are increasingly being found on YouTube and elsewhere, in very professional forms. 'Amateur' production levels are getting increasingly professional.

    As a minor example, I'd give Part Time Explorer:

    https://www.youtube.com/@PartTimeExplorer
    Yes, and it's just become a bit crap. BBC News is very heavily staffed but they are often slow on big news stories and focus on repeated banalities and talking heads (who don't seem to know much) rather than facts, analysis and insights.

    And don't get me started on the BBC News website, which is like some interns trying to do The Guardian.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,668
    Just me that can't sleep then?

    Maybe I'll try going back to bed.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,668
    Oh God, he's negotiating again and trying to ram this deal through before Trump takes office.

    WTF is wrong with him?

    https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/uk-poised-to-finalise-chagos-islands-deal-before-trump-regains-power-h0wwlc0jg
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,972

    Stereodog said:

    Leon said:

    This will be hilarious

    “Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine.”

    Yeah but that's classic ask for 5% and settle for 2.5% stuff
    Art of the Deal, isn't it? Probably the same applies to arming Ukraine to force Putin to the table.

    I hope all those pb.com regulars who posted utter histrionics about how Trump would immediately cut off all support for Ukraine are going to admit they got it wrong.
    LOL good luck waiting for those apologies. Some of us called this a year ago, that the words would change but the actions would look awfully similar.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,433
    Sandpit said:

    Stereodog said:

    Leon said:

    This will be hilarious

    “Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine.”

    Yeah but that's classic ask for 5% and settle for 2.5% stuff
    Art of the Deal, isn't it? Probably the same applies to arming Ukraine to force Putin to the table.

    I hope all those pb.com regulars who posted utter histrionics about how Trump would immediately cut off all support for Ukraine are going to admit they got it wrong.
    LOL good luck waiting for those apologies. Some of us called this a year ago, that the words would change but the actions would look awfully similar.
    Perhaps just wait to see what Trump and the GOP do before proclaiming "I was right!".

    And remember, *your* side delayed aid to Ukraine for months, costing Ukraine land and people.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,972
    US House finally passes a spending bill. Senate expected to pass the same bill and Biden to sign it overnight, in order to avoid a government shutdown.

    https://nypost.com/2024/12/20/us-news/house-republicans-greenlight-short-term-spending-package-that-will-need-dem-support-just-hours-before-government-is-set-to-shut-down/
  • stodgestodge Posts: 13,984
    Evening all from New Zealand :)

    We had a power cut for two hours this afternoon in Hawkes Bay following a lightning strike on a transformer. It’s fascinating to see how organised the retirement village where the mother-in-law resides was.

    About 20 minutes into the power cut a member of the reception team knocked on the door, asked if we were all right and needed anything and told us hot food and hot drinks as well as wi-fi were available at the main house thanks to the generator. They had an emergency protocol which they had improved after Cyclone Gabrielle in February.

    The mother-in-law is well prepared with torches and a portable gas stove and this is apparently normal for most Kiwi households given the potential of earthquakes and cyclones. It’s a level of preparation most UK families wouldn’t have.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,112
    stodge said:

    Evening all from New Zealand :)

    We had a power cut for two hours this afternoon in Hawkes Bay following a lightning strike on a transformer. It’s fascinating to see how organised the retirement village where the mother-in-law resides was.

    About 20 minutes into the power cut a member of the reception team knocked on the door, asked if we were all right and needed anything and told us hot food and hot drinks as well as wi-fi were available at the main house thanks to the generator. They had an emergency protocol which they had improved after Cyclone Gabrielle in February.

    The mother-in-law is well prepared with torches and a portable gas stove and this is apparently normal for most Kiwi households given the potential of earthquakes and cyclones. It’s a level of preparation most UK families wouldn’t have.

    Dunedin popped up in the Guardian today. It seems to tolerate it's sealing well:

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/21/living-with-lions-the-new-zealand-city-where-humans-and-sea-lions-co-exist?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

    I remember it as a lovely and rather eccentric small city.
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,945
    Good morning, everyone.

    Just started to rain. Luckily, already taken the dog for her early morning walk.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,112
    Sandpit said:

    Stereodog said:

    Leon said:

    This will be hilarious

    “Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming US president will demand Nato member states increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine.”

    Yeah but that's classic ask for 5% and settle for 2.5% stuff
    Art of the Deal, isn't it? Probably the same applies to arming Ukraine to force Putin to the table.

    I hope all those pb.com regulars who posted utter histrionics about how Trump would immediately cut off all support for Ukraine are going to admit they got it wrong.
    LOL good luck waiting for those apologies. Some of us called this a year ago, that the words would change but the actions would look awfully similar.
    Here's Trump just 12 days ago saying Ukraine should "probably" expect less aid, before launching into his usual confused ramble.

    https://youtu.be/E-R7Gi-uLiY?feature=shared

    I don't think anyone apology is due. Trump is wildly inconsistent, lies constantly, contradicts himself but repeatedly has said he will cut aid to Ukraine.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,112
    So no Federal shutdown, but no raising of the debt ceiling.

    It doesn't make sense that a President who claims to want to slash spending also wants to remove the limit on borrowing. It sounds to me that he wants his tax cuts for billionaires to be funded by massive borrowing, like Trussenomics writ large. There can be no other logical reason.

    Trump 45 ramped up borrowing well before covid appeared. Looks like he wants to do the same again.
  • On the Licence Fee issue. Seems it's all up for discussion soon, so expect the media to be hosting a lot of talking heads in 2025. As regards actual prosecutions there are a few but are pointless for the BBC. Any fines go to the court and not the BBC. Were they to switch to civil penalties like parking charges, they'd make a mint - and could leave a lot of people with CCJ's if they were enforced at County Court rather than Magistrates.

    https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06860/
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,972
    Leon said:

    viewcode said:

    Leon said:

    Inter alia, Magdeburg shows why Bluesky will not succeed. It’s a woke ghetto. Do a search on “Magdeburg” and it’s a bunch of twats saying “oh this might fuel the right” or “oh isn’t this awful anyway roast carp” or “oh musk did this”

    Absurd. FAIL

    Here is a real time counter of the increase in Bluesky's members.

    https://bcounter.nat.vg/
    https://www.fastcompany.com/91230935/the-website-tracks-how-fast-bluesky-is-growing-in-near-real-time

    Currently 25,535,787 people. Rising by about 2 people every 3 seconds.
    Oh it will do fine as a new guardian for the left. If it can find a way to pay for itself, and its moderation. Not clear how

    But if it does it will succeed and become.. a woke left social media ghetto. What’s the point?
    The big spike in signups after the Us election has subsided and it is back to where it was. All of the melts who floucned coz Musk have flounced.

    It may succeed. Remains to be seen. I’m quite happy to stay on twitter and just follow my following tab.
Sign In or Register to comment.