Regarding the sudden interest from the US in European politics, I missed this from yesterday. Is Vance a liar, or just ignorant ?
I’m not endorsing a party in the German elections, as it’s not my country and we hope to have good relations with all Germans. But this is an interesting piece.
Also interesting; American media slanders AfD as Nazi-lite, But AfD is most popular in the same areas of Germany that were most resistant to the Nazis. https://x.com/JDVance/status/1874894133862769149
Almost certainly ignorant. I mean, quite a lot has happened in Germany since the early 1930s, including a complete replacement of the electorate.
His facts are wrong too but I'd assume he's just repeating what someone's told him.
FWIW, the area most resistant to the Nazis in 1932/3 was the Rhineland (Bavaria also kept them off top spot but only through allied or similar regional parties). AfD's strength now is in former E Germany.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
The thing that Nigel and (prime) Donald have/had mastery of is knowing where to stop. The shock jock art of knowing how to be outrageous, but not too outrageous. The right wing media space is littered with the corpses of wannabes who kept going when they shouldn't have.
Nigel has that skill; I'm not sure that Kemi or Bobby do. Which is only one of their problems.
Musk, from his feed today, certainly doesn’t seem to have mastered the skill of where to stop
At some point the Tesla shareholders are going to want to see him spending more time on his businesses, and less time shitposting driving engagement on Twitter. They need to react to the new Chinese competition, and lobbying Trump to introduce US tariffs on them isn’t going to be sufficient.
Around 40% of Tesla's lobal sales are in China. A Chinese response to US tariffs will be very painful for Musk. Perhaps that's why he is taking so many drugs currently!
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
The thing that Nigel and (prime) Donald have/had mastery of is knowing where to stop. The shock jock art of knowing how to be outrageous, but not too outrageous. The right wing media space is littered with the corpses of wannabes who kept going when they shouldn't have.
Nigel has that skill; I'm not sure that Kemi or Bobby do. Which is only one of their problems.
Musk, from his feed today, certainly doesn’t seem to have mastered the skill of where to stop
He’s Asperger’s - self confessed - and he has many classic traits. One of them is a tin ear, saying the wrong thing, going way too far and not reading the room. This could be another example, he is certainly ranting
However this is not just Musk. This issue has exploded on social media partly because so many people in the USA, EU, elsewhere were honestly unaware of the existence and epic scale of the grooming gang scandal - and they are stupefied and outraged and bewildered how Britain has, apparently, reacted with an apathetic shrug. People - not Musk - are comparing it to war crimes
The origin of the explosion was the release on social media of some of the most horrifying evidence in one particular case
In fairness, what has been disclosed in respect of these prosecutions and the various reports on the matter is a subject of national and indeed international shame.
Yep, I wish England all the best in coming to terms with this ‘Chernobyl’* of national shame and unhappy self examination.
*no prizes for guessing which PBer hyperbolised this metaphor into existence.
As I look forward to starting another year prosecuting in our High Court where more than 80% of all offenders and trials will be of sex offenders I would suggest that you cut back on the smugness just a tad. The number of cases I have dealt with where the local authority, schools and social workers are notable only for their absence is depressingly high.
Not sure a like is the right response. But thank you for the good work.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
The thing that Nigel and (prime) Donald have/had mastery of is knowing where to stop. The shock jock art of knowing how to be outrageous, but not too outrageous. The right wing media space is littered with the corpses of wannabes who kept going when they shouldn't have.
Nigel has that skill; I'm not sure that Kemi or Bobby do. Which is only one of their problems.
Musk, from his feed today, certainly doesn’t seem to have mastered the skill of where to stop
At some point the Tesla shareholders are going to want to see him spending more time on his businesses, and less time shitposting driving engagement on Twitter. They need to react to the new Chinese competition, and lobbying Trump to introduce US tariffs on them isn’t going to be sufficient.
Around 40% of Tesla's lobal sales are in China. A Chinese response to US tariffs will be very painful for Musk. Perhaps that's why he is taking so many drugs currently!
Mostly cars they make in China, I would think. Depends how many parts come from abroad.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
The thing that Nigel and (prime) Donald have/had mastery of is knowing where to stop. The shock jock art of knowing how to be outrageous, but not too outrageous. The right wing media space is littered with the corpses of wannabes who kept going when they shouldn't have.
Nigel has that skill; I'm not sure that Kemi or Bobby do. Which is only one of their problems.
Musk, from his feed today, certainly doesn’t seem to have mastered the skill of where to stop
At some point the Tesla shareholders are going to want to see him spending more time on his businesses, and less time shitposting driving engagement on Twitter. They need to react to the new Chinese competition, and lobbying Trump to introduce US tariffs on them isn’t going to be sufficient.
Around 40% of Tesla's lobal sales are in China. A Chinese response to US tariffs will be very painful for Musk. Perhaps that's why he is taking so many drugs currently!
Mostly cars they make in China, I would think. Depends how many parts come from abroad.
The issue is getting the money from there to the US, post-sanctions.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
The thing that Nigel and (prime) Donald have/had mastery of is knowing where to stop. The shock jock art of knowing how to be outrageous, but not too outrageous. The right wing media space is littered with the corpses of wannabes who kept going when they shouldn't have.
Nigel has that skill; I'm not sure that Kemi or Bobby do. Which is only one of their problems.
Musk, from his feed today, certainly doesn’t seem to have mastered the skill of where to stop
He’s Asperger’s - self confessed - and he has many classic traits. One of them is a tin ear, saying the wrong thing, going way too far and not reading the room. This could be another example, he is certainly ranting
However this is not just Musk. This issue has exploded on social media partly because so many people in the USA, EU, elsewhere were honestly unaware of the existence and epic scale of the grooming gang scandal - and they are stupefied and outraged and bewildered how Britain has, apparently, reacted with an apathetic shrug. People - not Musk - are comparing it to war crimes
The origin of the explosion was the release on social media of some of the most horrifying evidence in one particular case
In fairness, what has been disclosed in respect of these prosecutions and the various reports on the matter is a subject of national and indeed international shame.
It really really is. Which is why we DO need some kind of inquiry. But it has to be different to all the others, which were various mixtures of half-arsed can-kicking, whitewashing or “what can you do”
We need more of a national catharsis. This is like Britain’s Chernobyl and we need to address it. Somehow
No.
We don't need to learn lessons. We don't need to move forward. We don't need racism, pogroms or any other damn stupid thing.
1) We need to prosecute absolutely everyone on the basis of "do the crime, do the time" - this is being done 2) The enablers (police, social services etc) of the crimes hide behind procedure and the destruction of evidence. Fine. Put them all on the relevant sex offenders registry. All the Home Sec needs to do is sign at the bottom of a list of names. No recourse to the courts.
2) will ensure that no-one covers up an allegation for a generation. Then we will probably need to repeat.
What, you want to put thousands of coppers, politicians, councillors, civil servants… on a sex offenders registry. Just like that. And this will sort it out?
No, what we need is a truly independent inquiry - taken away from the Home Office, police, councils, government. Put someone like Maggie Oliver in charge, and give her wide ranging powers. She’s one of the brave and original whistleblowers
Honestly the spectacle Britain is presenting on social media right now is shameful and grotesque. It’s not just Musk - it’s people in Italy and France and Australia and everywhere staring in horrified amazement at what happened. In our country
What, you want to put thousands of coppers, politicians, councillors, civil servants… on a sex offenders registry. Just like that. And this will sort it out?
Yes. Because, suddenly, a way to punish the actually guilty will appear.
Especially, since one effect of being put on such registers is that they will risk having their own children taken into care.
No, the result of threatening people to secure a conviction is that someone gets punished, and probably not the guilty.
When it comes to inquiries not being forgotten, I would pass a law stating that the government has to respond within a month of the report's publication, stating how they are moving forwards with every single recommendation within the report, and a date for completion.
They might say: "We disagree with this recommendation," or "this recommendation is already covered by xyz". But at least then it will be clear what the government thinks, and progress can at least be tracked, and we can see if it is going down /dev/null
Rory and Al were recently musing on TRIP about the recommendations of public inquiries. Seems that they're completely ignored more often than they're implemented.
Select Committees regularly do sessions looking at last recommendations and what if anything the government has done about them. It would be a useful piece of work for someone (Parliament or another inquiry) to look at all of the recommendations from public inquiries in the past few decades and investigate what has changed as a result of them.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
The thing that Nigel and (prime) Donald have/had mastery of is knowing where to stop. The shock jock art of knowing how to be outrageous, but not too outrageous. The right wing media space is littered with the corpses of wannabes who kept going when they shouldn't have.
Nigel has that skill; I'm not sure that Kemi or Bobby do. Which is only one of their problems.
Musk, from his feed today, certainly doesn’t seem to have mastered the skill of where to stop
He’s Asperger’s - self confessed - and he has many classic traits. One of them is a tin ear, saying the wrong thing, going way too far and not reading the room. This could be another example, he is certainly ranting
However this is not just Musk. This issue has exploded on social media partly because so many people in the USA, EU, elsewhere were honestly unaware of the existence and epic scale of the grooming gang scandal - and they are stupefied and outraged and bewildered how Britain has, apparently, reacted with an apathetic shrug. People - not Musk - are comparing it to war crimes
The origin of the explosion was the release on social media of some of the most horrifying evidence in one particular case
In fairness, what has been disclosed in respect of these prosecutions and the various reports on the matter is a subject of national and indeed international shame.
Yep, I wish England all the best in coming to terms with this ‘Chernobyl’* of national shame and unhappy self examination.
*no prizes for guessing which PBer hyperbolised this metaphor into existence.
As I look forward to starting another year prosecuting in our High Court where more than 80% of all offenders and trials will be of sex offenders I would suggest that you cut back on the smugness just a tad. The number of cases I have dealt with where the local authority, schools and social workers are notable only for their absence is depressingly high.
And of course grooming gangs are hardly unknown north of Hadrian’s
I suspect there are others in Scotland, unknown or sub judice. As Sarah Champion (Labour MP for Rotherham) lucidly put it: “this is happening everywhere in the UK, if you look for it, you will find it”
I’ve heard distressing reports from Cornwall. And quite recent
When it comes to inquiries not being forgotten, I would pass a law stating that the government has to respond within a month of the report's publication, stating how they are moving forwards with every single recommendation within the report, and a date for completion.
They might say: "We disagree with this recommendation," or "this recommendation is already covered by xyz". But at least then it will be clear what the government thinks, and progress can at least be tracked, and we can see if it is going down /dev/null
Rory and Al were recently musing on TRIP about the recommendations of public inquiries. Seems that they're completely ignored more often than they're implemented.
Select Committees regularly do sessions looking at last recommendations and what if anything the government has done about them. It would be a useful piece of work for someone (Parliament or another inquiry) to look at all of the recommendations from public inquiries in the past few decades and investigate what has changed as a result of them.
An excellent thread header and much food for thought.
I am tempted to suggest that in education, there ought to be an objectively “correct” answer to getting the system right that delivers the best outcomes (if we accept that one of those outcomes is critical thinking and exposure to a range of views, and not culture war style indoctrination into only one).
It is just possible that teachers are better placed to find that solution than politicians or civil servants miles away from the job.
One thing that would make everything much easier is if we could, as a nation, take time to decide what we wanted from our education system rather than endlessly meddling with it.
That may or may not lead to what you suggest, but at least it would eliminate much of the one-size-doesn’t-quite-do-anything right muddle we have now.
But that would mean that vast numbers of Proper Generalist Managers and Consultants would have nothing to do. Without 600 page reports full of bullshit, their lives would have no meaning.
They might go all MAGA, or something.
No, because there is no right answer to the question. Why do our schoolchildren need to know how Oxbow lakes are formed? Past primary-level 3Rs, we have made some almost arbitrary choices. Most subjects taught only really matter to specialists and might just as easily be left for university.
Why physics, chemistry and biology rather than, say, geology, engineering and computer science? Why history instead of sociology? Look at modern languages, where German has been displaced by Spanish. Or the on-off nature of Classics.
And while we are here, let us remember teachers are not experts in learning: psychologists are.
I thought it was Tory councillors from Epping who tend to have the most expertise on learning? (All obtained genetically of course).
And for people harping on about ‘we need a political consensus’, two things: (a) no, not with a bloody three figure majority you don’t (b) there already was a consensus around Dilnot This new review is just classic can-kicking.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
I get you but I'm not quite there (yet). Trump has no redeeming features, not a single one, and that is pretty special. Least Musk does his cars and rockets.
Trump's redeeming features, within context, are that he's an obese late-Septugenarian who's intellectually lazy. If the world fed him a constant diet of hamburgers, porn actresses and media reviews - whether real or faked - he'd be no threat to the world. The main reason he wants to be president now, apart from the glamour and adulation, is immunity.
By contrast, Musk not only wants to do actually stuff but has shown extraordinary ability to. Whether that ability is a transferable skill into politics is another matter.
We'll find out soon enough. But he can't be taking his freelance Trump Admin role all that seriously if he's spending time getting involved in UK political spats.
On the other hand, Elon has just praised Kemi Badenoch (for her inquiry call). So maybe the Tories will get the £100m. It certainly won’t be Starmer
Musk’s fascination with British politics seems to be quite genuine, if somewhat unhinged. He sometimes tweets more about UK politics than US politics
He could fund a Government of ALL the talents. Badenoch, Farage, Baroness Truss and Lord SYL.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
The thing that Nigel and (prime) Donald have/had mastery of is knowing where to stop. The shock jock art of knowing how to be outrageous, but not too outrageous. The right wing media space is littered with the corpses of wannabes who kept going when they shouldn't have.
Nigel has that skill; I'm not sure that Kemi or Bobby do. Which is only one of their problems.
Musk, from his feed today, certainly doesn’t seem to have mastered the skill of where to stop
At some point the Tesla shareholders are going to want to see him spending more time on his businesses, and less time shitposting driving engagement on Twitter. They need to react to the new Chinese competition, and lobbying Trump to introduce US tariffs on them isn’t going to be sufficient.
Around 40% of Tesla's lobal sales are in China. A Chinese response to US tariffs will be very painful for Musk. Perhaps that's why he is taking so many drugs currently!
I saw they got outsold by BYD in China for the first time in 2024. The product line up is very stale now.
Out of interest, did anyone anywhere call for a public inquiry into the 'grooming gangs' before this week? I could be wrong but I've no recollection of it ever being mentioned. That's odd considering it's now being regarded as a panacea. Was there some sort of weird mass myopia at play?
Multiple enquires at various scales, over the years. @Cyclefree can probably give you a list that will exceed the max length of a PB post.
I can sum them up for you
1) Bad stuff happened 2) People did nothing for a hard to define set of reasons. 3) Not enough evidence for the people at (2) to even be spoken to harshly. Except some junior people who were following instructions.
That is not what the various inquiries said. They made multiple concrete recommendations. They provided a bunch of answers.
What the inquiries didn’t say, however, is that it’s all the fault of Muslims. Some will keep calling for inquiries until they get that answer.
I can't agree with that - we've had some criminal convictions which is incredibly overdue but welcome. At the moment it does look like it's 'all the fault of the Muslims' - what we're missing is any recognition of and restitution for the enabling of the abuse by the authorities who had a duty of care to the victims.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
I get you but I'm not quite there (yet). Trump has no redeeming features, not a single one, and that is pretty special. Least Musk does his cars and rockets.
Trump's redeeming features, within context, are that he's an obese late-Septugenarian who's intellectually lazy. If the world fed him a constant diet of hamburgers, porn actresses and media reviews - whether real or faked - he'd be no threat to the world. The main reason he wants to be president now, apart from the glamour and adulation, is immunity.
By contrast, Musk not only wants to do actually stuff but has shown extraordinary ability to. Whether that ability is a transferable skill into politics is another matter.
We'll find out soon enough. But he can't be taking his freelance Trump Admin role all that seriously if he's spending time getting involved in UK political spats.
On the other hand, Elon has just praised Kemi Badenoch (for her inquiry call). So maybe the Tories will get the £100m. It certainly won’t be Starmer
Musk’s fascination with British politics seems to be quite genuine, if somewhat unhinged. He sometimes tweets more about UK politics than US politics
The way Musk is going I would not be surprised if Starmer does end up getting some money from him. Jess Philips too.
He (Musk) reposted a tweet which called for HMK to dissolve government and call a GE. I'm not sure he's quite thought through the implications of a so-called champion of free speech and democracy calling for the constitutional monarch to dissolve a democratically elected government.
Edit: that said I'd rather a world with Musk than without him.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
I get you but I'm not quite there (yet). Trump has no redeeming features, not a single one, and that is pretty special. Least Musk does his cars and rockets.
Trump's redeeming features, within context, are that he's an obese late-Septugenarian who's intellectually lazy. If the world fed him a constant diet of hamburgers, porn actresses and media reviews - whether real or faked - he'd be no threat to the world. The main reason he wants to be president now, apart from the glamour and adulation, is immunity.
By contrast, Musk not only wants to do actually stuff but has shown extraordinary ability to. Whether that ability is a transferable skill into politics is another matter.
We'll find out soon enough. But he can't be taking his freelance Trump Admin role all that seriously if he's spending time getting involved in UK political spats.
On the other hand, Elon has just praised Kemi Badenoch (for her inquiry call). So maybe the Tories will get the £100m. It certainly won’t be Starmer
Musk’s fascination with British politics seems to be quite genuine, if somewhat unhinged. He sometimes tweets more about UK politics than US politics
To be fair, we are quite fascinated with American politics.
Given the common language and the Internet it shouldn't be too surprising that people spending too long online end of interested in the other nations politics.
Plus British politics has always been more interesting to Americans (because of language/history) than any other nation. See how many references there are to British politics and society in We Didn't Start The Fire for example.
British media is OVERLY fascinated with American politics. It’s boring
Considering that American politics and economics seriously affects Britain, I don't think it's overly anything.
America sneezes and Europe catches a cold is as true as its ever been.
But we take relatively trivial events from the USA and make them headline news in the UK. It’s pathological and dull
Of which a perfect example in yesterday's BBC bulletins. The street terrorism in New Orleans was top story and was given 8 minutes on the 8am report (plus later interviews, correspondent reports and what passes for analysis). The murders of a similar number of people in Montenegro was given 20 seconds, with no on-the-ground reporter. The flooding across large parts of northern England - a domestic story affecting millions, albeit mostly at a low level of traffic disruption) wasn't mentioned at all.
That's not an England v America issue though, if the flooding had occurred over large parts of southern England it would have been the lead story.
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
Or, without the hyperbole: wages, unemployment and prices will all go up a bit.
Though given that one of the current issues is the need to import so many workers, maybe reducing the demand for workers is a necessary thing.
We really do need to find the sweet spot where companies (and the civil service) are happy to invest in productivity improvements instead of throwing more people at an issue
Are airlines the only industry that makes extensive use of training bonds?
The company pays your training bill on condition that you stay for x period afterwards. If you leave early of your own accord then you owe them a pro-rata outstanding based on the agreed time period remaining.
No,
Engineering companies do. I had one when I was younger and I know others who have been sponsored to study and had to,sign to,that effect
Hmm. I was sponsored through University by an Engineering Company, on a thin sandwich course.
The word from the company was that they had more than made their investment back just from the work done by the sponsored students in the industrial periods. Plus they got the chance to keep a dozen students per year on our site who would not need the traditional 12 month run-in period to become a positive, since we had all already been in about 15 departments and were ingrained with the culture and practice.
It's circumstances and cases I think. I can see that an airline pilot would be substantially greater for both risk and return.
What the airlines normally sponsor is a ‘type rating’, that qualifies a pilot to fly a specific type of aircraft (B737, A320 etc). This costs something like £30k, even though it’s almost all in the classroom and simulator, with the work in the real plane allowed to be done under supervision on commercial flights.
They want you to stay typically for three years in exchange for this.
Sadly the days of airlines sponsoring flight training from scratch are mostly in the past. BA did until a few years ago offer 100 annual commercial licence (c.£150k) scholarships - which typically attracted 25,000 applications, many of whom had family contacts and already a private pilots’ licence, so good luck with that!
See the hideous "pay to fly" stuff some of the lower cost airlines are using.
Yes, your pilot may have a mortgage worth of money he's invested in learning to fly, and actual pay that doesn't cover that (really). He's somewhat stressed about it. What could go wrong?
Worse than that, the £150k he’s in debt is secured on his parents’ house, while he sleeps in a van in the airport car park. Know that the guy in the front right seat of your Ryanair flight is basically paying for the privilege.
Yes, the LoCo model is utterly screwed, the problem is that it’s still seen as a glamourous job, and to be fair by the time they’re 35 most pilots going in at 21 will be on close to six figures, but the ramp up to that is horrific.
I know loads of pilots who gave up on the airline route, and have so much more fun doing advanced flight training, crop spraying, parachuting, glider towing etc, albeit without the six-figure salaries.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
I get you but I'm not quite there (yet). Trump has no redeeming features, not a single one, and that is pretty special. Least Musk does his cars and rockets.
Trump's redeeming features, within context, are that he's an obese late-Septugenarian who's intellectually lazy. If the world fed him a constant diet of hamburgers, porn actresses and media reviews - whether real or faked - he'd be no threat to the world. The main reason he wants to be president now, apart from the glamour and adulation, is immunity.
By contrast, Musk not only wants to do actually stuff but has shown extraordinary ability to. Whether that ability is a transferable skill into politics is another matter.
We'll find out soon enough. But he can't be taking his freelance Trump Admin role all that seriously if he's spending time getting involved in UK political spats.
On the other hand, Elon has just praised Kemi Badenoch (for her inquiry call). So maybe the Tories will get the £100m. It certainly won’t be Starmer
Musk’s fascination with British politics seems to be quite genuine, if somewhat unhinged. He sometimes tweets more about UK politics than US politics
The way Musk is going I would not be surprised if Starmer does end up getting some money from him. Jess Philips too.
He (Musk) reposted a tweet which called for HMK to dissolve government and call a GE. I'm not sure he's quite thought through the implications of a so-called champion of free speech and democracy calling for the constitutional monarch to dissolve a democratically elected government.
Edit: that said I'd rather a world with Musk than without him.
Why? His negatives have outweighed his positives for many years now.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
I get you but I'm not quite there (yet). Trump has no redeeming features, not a single one, and that is pretty special. Least Musk does his cars and rockets.
Trump's redeeming features, within context, are that he's an obese late-Septugenarian who's intellectually lazy. If the world fed him a constant diet of hamburgers, porn actresses and media reviews - whether real or faked - he'd be no threat to the world. The main reason he wants to be president now, apart from the glamour and adulation, is immunity.
By contrast, Musk not only wants to do actually stuff but has shown extraordinary ability to. Whether that ability is a transferable skill into politics is another matter.
We'll find out soon enough. But he can't be taking his freelance Trump Admin role all that seriously if he's spending time getting involved in UK political spats.
On the other hand, Elon has just praised Kemi Badenoch (for her inquiry call). So maybe the Tories will get the £100m. It certainly won’t be Starmer
Musk’s fascination with British politics seems to be quite genuine, if somewhat unhinged. He sometimes tweets more about UK politics than US politics
The way Musk is going I would not be surprised if Starmer does end up getting some money from him. Jess Philips too.
He (Musk) reposted a tweet which called for HMK to dissolve government and call a GE. I'm not sure he's quite thought through the implications of a so-called champion of free speech and democracy calling for the constitutional monarch to dissolve a democratically elected government.
Edit: that said I'd rather a world with Musk than without him.
A world with Musk is already frighteningly dark and dystopian.
He is a deranged narcissist
If he was A Muslim Mullah he'd have a bounty on his head.
If he was Russian, Chinese, North Korean, Cambodian, Iranian he'd be wanted and unable to travel freely.
Those who excuse him or are happy to allow him to grow increasingly deranged had better hope that Trump ensures he has no access to nuclear weaponry
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
I would like to point out that economic and social liberalism doesnt really satisfy human needs which is why people are looking to the far right. People thirst for a deeper meaning in life and if the far right provies it so be it.
Interesting. On the whole people in our culture don't look to what governments represent (eg economic and social liberalism) to deal with deeper needs and meanings. They look to family, partners, community, friendships, vocations, interests, religions/philosophies/spiritualities, arts, sports etc, and in this we are not wrong.
But it is not irrational that voters voted and vote for a society which combines prosperity with welfare, with both liberalism and the limitations an intervening state imposes on our liberal freedoms.
Within that net deeper things can still be followed.
FPT: I have long suspected that nearly all of Jeffrey Epstein's victims did not have fathers in their lives to protect them. If any major news organization investigated that question, I missed their findings.
Gislane Maxwell is in prison for procuring dozens of young women women for men, basically running a brothel. Yet we still don’t know the identities of any of the men involved in this sex trafficking operation, who were her customers.
IIRC there was an article I read some years ago that the girls were of awfully similar backgrounds to those in the UK abuse cases, either in what the state euphemistically calls ‘care’, or living with people who either didn’t care for them at all or actively encouraged the activity.
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
The MAGA crew are right about one thing. We either need to chuck our lot in with europe or the USA (Probably Europe as it's closer for trading). At the moment the UK is neither here nor there.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
I get you but I'm not quite there (yet). Trump has no redeeming features, not a single one, and that is pretty special. Least Musk does his cars and rockets.
Trump's redeeming features, within context, are that he's an obese late-Septugenarian who's intellectually lazy. If the world fed him a constant diet of hamburgers, porn actresses and media reviews - whether real or faked - he'd be no threat to the world. The main reason he wants to be president now, apart from the glamour and adulation, is immunity.
By contrast, Musk not only wants to do actually stuff but has shown extraordinary ability to. Whether that ability is a transferable skill into politics is another matter.
We'll find out soon enough. But he can't be taking his freelance Trump Admin role all that seriously if he's spending time getting involved in UK political spats.
On the other hand, Elon has just praised Kemi Badenoch (for her inquiry call). So maybe the Tories will get the £100m. It certainly won’t be Starmer
Musk’s fascination with British politics seems to be quite genuine, if somewhat unhinged. He sometimes tweets more about UK politics than US politics
To be fair, we are quite fascinated with American politics.
Given the common language and the Internet it shouldn't be too surprising that people spending too long online end of interested in the other nations politics.
Plus British politics has always been more interesting to Americans (because of language/history) than any other nation. See how many references there are to British politics and society in We Didn't Start The Fire for example.
British media is OVERLY fascinated with American politics. It’s boring
Considering that American politics and economics seriously affects Britain, I don't think it's overly anything.
America sneezes and Europe catches a cold is as true as its ever been.
But we take relatively trivial events from the USA and make them headline news in the UK. It’s pathological and dull
Of which a perfect example in yesterday's BBC bulletins. The street terrorism in New Orleans was top story and was given 8 minutes on the 8am report (plus later interviews, correspondent reports and what passes for analysis). The murders of a similar number of people in Montenegro was given 20 seconds, with no on-the-ground reporter. The flooding across large parts of northern England - a domestic story affecting millions, albeit mostly at a low level of traffic disruption) wasn't mentioned at all.
We are still in the holiday period. As I've long complained at off-peak times like weekends, we are spoonfed American domestic news because when the senior bods are away, the news is left to night shift newbies mindlessly following American news channels.
Talking of the Telegraph this headline poses the real question
Why Musks love in with Tommy Robinson presents a problem for Farage
Yup. I've thought that as well. All of the LABOUR ARE EVIL posts on there, WE NEED REFORM. And then a rapid pivot to FREE TOMMY ROBINSON complete with SYL looking less thuggish with a Lion and a smart suit superimposed over a flag and the white cliffs of Dover.
Why does SYL hold such a thrall over some people? Because (a) there is a kernel of truth in his analysis before he pivoting off into "and the solution is deport the muslims", and (b) his presentation is just slick enough to enthral morons.
Farage knows that offering up kernels of truth and then pivoting off into "lets abolish the NHS" will win a lot of votes. But he also knows that SYL and the other hardcore racists will lose him votes. And yet his boss President Musk just wants to agitate. How do you tell the new boss that he needs to be nuanced, when his movement is about rile up the mob and watch them tear it all down?
It wouldn't be surprised if Musk continues to pick out individual MPs he hates some Thomas Mair character might act on it. It has happened before. This is one of the reasons I believe Badenoch is unwise to jump onto every passing Musk bandwagon. How long before she starts demanding to "free the Yaxley-Lennon one"?
Even on here, as I have previously noted, people I thought of as fairly sober but solidly right wrong posters, those who now go on every single day about how crap Labour are in every tiniest respect, jumped in very willingly during the riots with two tier Keir and more than that direct echoing of the lies of actual neo-Nazis to politically point score. After the first 5 weeks of going on about how crap Labour were in every tiniest respect before they'd actually done anything.
Now PB Tories are a rump of what they once were, but as a grouping most of them now mirror the Corbynites - their hatred of Labour is so blind, so total, that they deserve to be on Prevent's Brownshirt watch - not active neo-Nazis or anything like today but, come the brownshirt revolution, quite susceptible to falling into line.
So, perhaps with these analytics, Musk is right and Farage is wrong -the basic rump right are already so far down the rabbit hole that his message will hit home.
Terrible though Muslim bombers and this generation of care home abusers are, the Momentum of Labour haters led by Republican expulsionists is the clearest, most present danger to ripping asunder the fabric of British society and to my own and my family's life because they seek to become once more the establishment. They seek damage in a way that no dodgy Labour tax rise can hope to replicate.
Yes, the greatest threat to British society now is not Muslim suicide bombers but PB Tories.
I try not to be a Tory hater, I have little trick with the Fatchtarati, and I am massively saddened to come to the point where I'm concluding this
Would you care to name just who these so called PB Tories are who should be on a prevent brownshirt watch
If Starmer and Labour had shown competence and integrity from day 1 we would not be talking about Musk or the hard right
Hi Big_G.
I am giving my response some thought, so don't be offended if I'm responding to others around you, but it may be later before I sit and write what I wish to say down.
We finished The Day of the Jackal today and I think it's the best spy/assassin series I've seen in ages. Eddie Redmayne has staked a big claim to 007, he was brilliantly believable throughout the whole show. In terms of spy alone it's probably a smidge below Slow Horses, but I think that's an all time great.
I initially thought he'd be a 007 candidate too, but I think he's too slight and his body language is off. Compare his watermelon scene to Edward Fox's
Redmayne, despite his age (42) still has the body language of a younger man with bits flapping. Fox was 36 when he filmed the original but his body language was mature: stiffer and more precise, a vice to Redmayne's reed. Although I think Redmayne has the potential to be a better Bond than Aaron-Taylor Johnson, he will really have to put more muscle on and work on his body movement.
That's really interesting - thank-you.
Has increasing the run length by a factor of 3-5 made it more flabby, or introduced too much padding, in your view?
Unknown: I don't have a telly, I just watch clips on YouTube. I really liked the trailers and noted the increasingly-rave reviews so I occasionally watch bits. I like it but, as previously noted, I am a bit disappointed.
Talking of the Telegraph this headline poses the real question
Why Musks love in with Tommy Robinson presents a problem for Farage
Yup. I've thought that as well. All of the LABOUR ARE EVIL posts on there, WE NEED REFORM. And then a rapid pivot to FREE TOMMY ROBINSON complete with SYL looking less thuggish with a Lion and a smart suit superimposed over a flag and the white cliffs of Dover.
Why does SYL hold such a thrall over some people? Because (a) there is a kernel of truth in his analysis before he pivoting off into "and the solution is deport the muslims", and (b) his presentation is just slick enough to enthral morons.
Farage knows that offering up kernels of truth and then pivoting off into "lets abolish the NHS" will win a lot of votes. But he also knows that SYL and the other hardcore racists will lose him votes. And yet his boss President Musk just wants to agitate. How do you tell the new boss that he needs to be nuanced, when his movement is about rile up the mob and watch them tear it all down?
It wouldn't be surprised if Musk continues to pick out individual MPs he hates some Thomas Mair character might act on it. It has happened before. This is one of the reasons I believe Badenoch is unwise to jump onto every passing Musk bandwagon. How long before she starts demanding to "free the Yaxley-Lennon one"?
Even on here, as I have previously noted, people I thought of as fairly sober but solidly right wrong posters, those who now go on every single day about how crap Labour are in every tiniest respect, jumped in very willingly during the riots with two tier Keir and more than that direct echoing of the lies of actual neo-Nazis to politically point score. After the first 5 weeks of going on about how crap Labour were in every tiniest respect before they'd actually done anything.
Now PB Tories are a rump of what they once were, but as a grouping most of them now mirror the Corbynites - their hatred of Labour is so blind, so total, that they deserve to be on Prevent's Brownshirt watch - not active neo-Nazis or anything like today but, come the brownshirt revolution, quite susceptible to falling into line.
So, perhaps with these analytics, Musk is right and Farage is wrong -the basic rump right are already so far down the rabbit hole that his message will hit home.
Terrible though Muslim bombers and this generation of care home abusers are, the Momentum of Labour haters led by Republican expulsionists is the clearest, most present danger to ripping asunder the fabric of British society and to my own and my family's life because they seek to become once more the establishment. They seek damage in a way that no dodgy Labour tax rise can hope to replicate.
Yes, the greatest threat to British society now is not Muslim suicide bombers but PB Tories.
I try not to be a Tory hater, I have little trick with the Fatchtarati, and I am massively saddened to come to the point where I'm concluding this.
That's a bizarre view to take - the democratic Opposition is the problem.
That is, by the way, exactly how the MAGA crowd get to "We must nullify elections to protect Democracy".
It's a strong view for sure.
But the general principle that the in group going off the rails is far, far more dangerous than a small proportion of minority random extremists trying to cause havoc is one to which I hold. The world invited in by Leon and more illustrious writers terrifies me far more than taking my chances in a city centre Christmas market. And seeing even passing signs of it getting currency in supporters not of SYL or even Farage, but in the mainstream opposition is slightly chilling, especially with the prospect of 4 years of shit stirring to come from the US.
I did seriously consider the Leon challenge of, if you think Trump is that bad why not support nobbling / assassinating him. I've come to a fatalist conclusion, no precognition, by the time you know that he is bad enough to justify that it will inevitably be too late. You just have to trust that the collective memory of liberal democracy is enough to pull back after bad things happen. In democracy, there are rules to be followed, but the efforts to disqualify him as an insurrectionist failed because the institutional and democratic will to disqualify him wasn't strong enough. So, no MAGA style "protection of democracy" from me, we must go where we must go, whether in the US or the UK.
Your argument seems to be that it's an either/or: that the current world of periodic atrocities across the western world perpetuated by Islamic terrorists, peppered by background grimness exemplified by Rochdale and rape parties in Cologne and the like, is the price we must pay because the alternative is that someone like Trump or worse takes over. Is that right?
If so, my reaction would be that it doesn't have to be either/or. Ideally, the current mainstream parties would try to do something about the current unpleasantness. If we end up with Trumps and mini-Trumps and worse throughout the western world, it will be because the mainstream parties have given up trying to address these issues, and voters see no alternative.
Of course, I do agree with you that I would rather have even this current government which, rubbish though it is, is largely obeying democratic norms, than a Trump-like one. But come on, western establishments - just try to give the impression that you're on your populations' sides.
I don't think the argument made by the side you are arguing against, except in a very few cases, is that "we must have Trumps and mini-Trumps". It's that the level of establishment complacency is so astonishingly large, the denial of the problems we face is so great, that it's unsurprising that the non-establishment parties are attracting more interest.
Indeed. For example in cities like bradford once muslims have bought up most of the housing stock in an area they will give lowball cash offers to the remaining white residents saying take it or leave it. You dont see that on the news.
Hello.
A plane crashes on the Ukraine/Republic of China border. Which side do you bury the survivors?
Ive never seen anyone link bradford to ukraine before but hey ho.
It’s a different starting point to other trolls but it’s still not a story or anything beyond racist tripe. And that post tells me you are a racist with a very short posting lifecycle
Its actually true. I have friends in bradford who can confirm. The fact you dismiss it shows you know nothing of this country.
Can you give me an example where has his happened in Bradford - ie the low ball offers. I lived in the middle of Bradford for a number of years, so I am interested.
When it comes to inquiries not being forgotten, I would pass a law stating that the government has to respond within a month of the report's publication, stating how they are moving forwards with every single recommendation within the report, and a date for completion.
They might say: "We disagree with this recommendation," or "this recommendation is already covered by xyz". But at least then it will be clear what the government thinks, and progress can at least be tracked, and we can see if it is going down /dev/null
Rory and Al were recently musing on TRIP about the recommendations of public inquiries. Seems that they're completely ignored more often than they're implemented.
Select Committees regularly do sessions looking at last recommendations and what if anything the government has done about them. It would be a useful piece of work for someone (Parliament or another inquiry) to look at all of the recommendations from public inquiries in the past few decades and investigate what has changed as a result of them.
That's what university humanities departments and their PhDs are for.
Regarding the sudden interest from the US in European politics, I missed this from yesterday. Is Vance a liar, or just ignorant ?
I’m not endorsing a party in the German elections, as it’s not my country and we hope to have good relations with all Germans. But this is an interesting piece.
Also interesting; American media slanders AfD as Nazi-lite, But AfD is most popular in the same areas of Germany that were most resistant to the Nazis. https://x.com/JDVance/status/1874894133862769149
Almost certainly ignorant. I mean, quite a lot has happened in Germany since the early 1930s, including a complete replacement of the electorate.
His facts are wrong too but I'd assume he's just repeating what someone's told him.
FWIW, the area most resistant to the Nazis in 1932/3 was the Rhineland (Bavaria also kept them off top spot but only through allied or similar regional parties). AfD's strength now is in former E Germany.
Prussia also hammered away at the Nazis - the Political Police there bought cases against them all the time. Though they did change slightly after 1933.....
Talking of the Telegraph this headline poses the real question
Why Musks love in with Tommy Robinson presents a problem for Farage
Yup. I've thought that as well. All of the LABOUR ARE EVIL posts on there, WE NEED REFORM. And then a rapid pivot to FREE TOMMY ROBINSON complete with SYL looking less thuggish with a Lion and a smart suit superimposed over a flag and the white cliffs of Dover.
Why does SYL hold such a thrall over some people? Because (a) there is a kernel of truth in his analysis before he pivoting off into "and the solution is deport the muslims", and (b) his presentation is just slick enough to enthral morons.
Farage knows that offering up kernels of truth and then pivoting off into "lets abolish the NHS" will win a lot of votes. But he also knows that SYL and the other hardcore racists will lose him votes. And yet his boss President Musk just wants to agitate. How do you tell the new boss that he needs to be nuanced, when his movement is about rile up the mob and watch them tear it all down?
It wouldn't be surprised if Musk continues to pick out individual MPs he hates some Thomas Mair character might act on it. It has happened before. This is one of the reasons I believe Badenoch is unwise to jump onto every passing Musk bandwagon. How long before she starts demanding to "free the Yaxley-Lennon one"?
Even on here, as I have previously noted, people I thought of as fairly sober but solidly right wrong posters, those who now go on every single day about how crap Labour are in every tiniest respect, jumped in very willingly during the riots with two tier Keir and more than that direct echoing of the lies of actual neo-Nazis to politically point score. After the first 5 weeks of going on about how crap Labour were in every tiniest respect before they'd actually done anything.
Now PB Tories are a rump of what they once were, but as a grouping most of them now mirror the Corbynites - their hatred of Labour is so blind, so total, that they deserve to be on Prevent's Brownshirt watch - not active neo-Nazis or anything like today but, come the brownshirt revolution, quite susceptible to falling into line.
So, perhaps with these analytics, Musk is right and Farage is wrong -the basic rump right are already so far down the rabbit hole that his message will hit home.
Terrible though Muslim bombers and this generation of care home abusers are, the Momentum of Labour haters led by Republican expulsionists is the clearest, most present danger to ripping asunder the fabric of British society and to my own and my family's life because they seek to become once more the establishment. They seek damage in a way that no dodgy Labour tax rise can hope to replicate.
Yes, the greatest threat to British society now is not Muslim suicide bombers but PB Tories.
I try not to be a Tory hater, I have little trick with the Fatchtarati, and I am massively saddened to come to the point where I'm concluding this.
That's a bizarre view to take - the democratic Opposition is the problem.
That is, by the way, exactly how the MAGA crowd get to "We must nullify elections to protect Democracy".
It's a strong view for sure.
But the general principle that the in group going off the rails is far, far more dangerous than a small proportion of minority random extremists trying to cause havoc is one to which I hold. The world invited in by Leon and more illustrious writers terrifies me far more than taking my chances in a city centre Christmas market. And seeing even passing signs of it getting currency in supporters not of SYL or even Farage, but in the mainstream opposition is slightly chilling, especially with the prospect of 4 years of shit stirring to come from the US.
I did seriously consider the Leon challenge of, if you think Trump is that bad why not support nobbling / assassinating him. I've come to a fatalist conclusion, no precognition, by the time you know that he is bad enough to justify that it will inevitably be too late. You just have to trust that the collective memory of liberal democracy is enough to pull back after bad things happen. In democracy, there are rules to be followed, but the efforts to disqualify him as an insurrectionist failed because the institutional and democratic will to disqualify him wasn't strong enough. So, no MAGA style "protection of democracy" from me, we must go where we must go, whether in the US or the UK.
Your argument seems to be that it's an either/or: that the current world of periodic atrocities across the western world perpetuated by Islamic terrorists, peppered by background grimness exemplified by Rochdale and rape parties in Cologne and the like, is the price we must pay because the alternative is that someone like Trump or worse takes over. Is that right?
If so, my reaction would be that it doesn't have to be either/or. Ideally, the current mainstream parties would try to do something about the current unpleasantness. If we end up with Trumps and mini-Trumps and worse throughout the western world, it will be because the mainstream parties have given up trying to address these issues, and voters see no alternative.
Of course, I do agree with you that I would rather have even this current government which, rubbish though it is, is largely obeying democratic norms, than a Trump-like one. But come on, western establishments - just try to give the impression that you're on your populations' sides.
I don't think the argument made by the side you are arguing against, except in a very few cases, is that "we must have Trumps and mini-Trumps". It's that the level of establishment complacency is so astonishingly large, the denial of the problems we face is so great, that it's unsurprising that the non-establishment parties are attracting more interest.
Indeed. For example in cities like bradford once muslims have bought up most of the housing stock in an area they will give lowball cash offers to the remaining white residents saying take it or leave it. You dont see that on the news.
Hello.
A plane crashes on the Ukraine/Republic of China border. Which side do you bury the survivors?
Ive never seen anyone link bradford to ukraine before but hey ho.
It’s a different starting point to other trolls but it’s still not a story or anything beyond racist tripe. And that post tells me you are a racist with a very short posting lifecycle
Its actually true. I have friends in bradford who can confirm. The fact you dismiss it shows you know nothing of this country.
Can you give me an example where has his happened in Bradford - ie the low ball offers. I lived in the middle of Bradford for a number of years, so I am interested.
He can't, as he's been banned.
However, as someone who lived for some years on the culturally mixed edge of Bradford, and indeed represented a mixed ward on the Council, I strongly suspect his comment is bollocks. To the extent that it might have happened, it'll be individuals chancing their luck.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
The thing that Nigel and (prime) Donald have/had mastery of is knowing where to stop. The shock jock art of knowing how to be outrageous, but not too outrageous. The right wing media space is littered with the corpses of wannabes who kept going when they shouldn't have.
Nigel has that skill; I'm not sure that Kemi or Bobby do. Which is only one of their problems.
Musk, from his feed today, certainly doesn’t seem to have mastered the skill of where to stop
He's getting quite a long way down some weird, minor rabbit holes, isn't he?
I think people underappreciate the extent to which the British diaspora still feels connected to Britain, and that it actively pains many to see their homeland fail.
To me, it's apparent Elon Musk doesn't just hate Starmer. He loves England, and that's why he's so furious.
I think people underappreciate the extent to which the British diaspora still feels connected to Britain, and that it actively pains many to see their homeland fail.
To me, it's apparent Elon Musk doesn't just hate Starmer. He loves England, and that's why he's so furious.
Is he also part of the German white nationalist diaspora?
I think people underappreciate the extent to which the British diaspora still feels connected to Britain, and that it actively pains many to see their homeland fail.
To me, it's apparent Elon Musk doesn't just hate Starmer. He loves England, and that's why he's so furious.
Is he also part of the German white nationalist diaspora?
I think people underappreciate the extent to which the British diaspora still feels connected to Britain, and that it actively pains many to see their homeland fail.
To me, it's apparent Elon Musk doesn't just hate Starmer. He loves England, and that's why he's so furious.
Is he also part of the German white nationalist diaspora?
“German white nationalist” is either self-contradictory or tautological.
I think people underappreciate the extent to which the British diaspora still feels connected to Britain, and that it actively pains many to see their homeland fail.
To me, it's apparent Elon Musk doesn't just hate Starmer. He loves England, and that's why he's so furious.
As a South African, a Canadian or an American?
I think Theresa May might be pondering a certain phrase of hers…
Talking of the Telegraph this headline poses the real question
Why Musks love in with Tommy Robinson presents a problem for Farage
Yup. I've thought that as well. All of the LABOUR ARE EVIL posts on there, WE NEED REFORM. And then a rapid pivot to FREE TOMMY ROBINSON complete with SYL looking less thuggish with a Lion and a smart suit superimposed over a flag and the white cliffs of Dover.
Why does SYL hold such a thrall over some people? Because (a) there is a kernel of truth in his analysis before he pivoting off into "and the solution is deport the muslims", and (b) his presentation is just slick enough to enthral morons.
Farage knows that offering up kernels of truth and then pivoting off into "lets abolish the NHS" will win a lot of votes. But he also knows that SYL and the other hardcore racists will lose him votes. And yet his boss President Musk just wants to agitate. How do you tell the new boss that he needs to be nuanced, when his movement is about rile up the mob and watch them tear it all down?
It wouldn't be surprised if Musk continues to pick out individual MPs he hates some Thomas Mair character might act on it. It has happened before. This is one of the reasons I believe Badenoch is unwise to jump onto every passing Musk bandwagon. How long before she starts demanding to "free the Yaxley-Lennon one"?
Even on here, as I have previously noted, people I thought of as fairly sober but solidly right wrong posters, those who now go on every single day about how crap Labour are in every tiniest respect, jumped in very willingly during the riots with two tier Keir and more than that direct echoing of the lies of actual neo-Nazis to politically point score. After the first 5 weeks of going on about how crap Labour were in every tiniest respect before they'd actually done anything.
Now PB Tories are a rump of what they once were, but as a grouping most of them now mirror the Corbynites - their hatred of Labour is so blind, so total, that they deserve to be on Prevent's Brownshirt watch - not active neo-Nazis or anything like today but, come the brownshirt revolution, quite susceptible to falling into line.
So, perhaps with these analytics, Musk is right and Farage is wrong -the basic rump right are already so far down the rabbit hole that his message will hit home.
Terrible though Muslim bombers and this generation of care home abusers are, the Momentum of Labour haters led by Republican expulsionists is the clearest, most present danger to ripping asunder the fabric of British society and to my own and my family's life because they seek to become once more the establishment. They seek damage in a way that no dodgy Labour tax rise can hope to replicate.
Yes, the greatest threat to British society now is not Muslim suicide bombers but PB Tories.
I try not to be a Tory hater, I have little trick with the Fatchtarati, and I am massively saddened to come to the point where I'm concluding this.
That's a bizarre view to take - the democratic Opposition is the problem.
That is, by the way, exactly how the MAGA crowd get to "We must nullify elections to protect Democracy".
It's a strong view for sure.
But the general principle that the in group going off the rails is far, far more dangerous than a small proportion of minority random extremists trying to cause havoc is one to which I hold. The world invited in by Leon and more illustrious writers terrifies me far more than taking my chances in a city centre Christmas market. And seeing even passing signs of it getting currency in supporters not of SYL or even Farage, but in the mainstream opposition is slightly chilling, especially with the prospect of 4 years of shit stirring to come from the US.
I did seriously consider the Leon challenge of, if you think Trump is that bad why not support nobbling / assassinating him. I've come to a fatalist conclusion, no precognition, by the time you know that he is bad enough to justify that it will inevitably be too late. You just have to trust that the collective memory of liberal democracy is enough to pull back after bad things happen. In democracy, there are rules to be followed, but the efforts to disqualify him as an insurrectionist failed because the institutional and democratic will to disqualify him wasn't strong enough. So, no MAGA style "protection of democracy" from me, we must go where we must go, whether in the US or the UK.
Your argument seems to be that it's an either/or: that the current world of periodic atrocities across the western world perpetuated by Islamic terrorists, peppered by background grimness exemplified by Rochdale and rape parties in Cologne and the like, is the price we must pay because the alternative is that someone like Trump or worse takes over. Is that right?
If so, my reaction would be that it doesn't have to be either/or. Ideally, the current mainstream parties would try to do something about the current unpleasantness. If we end up with Trumps and mini-Trumps and worse throughout the western world, it will be because the mainstream parties have given up trying to address these issues, and voters see no alternative.
Of course, I do agree with you that I would rather have even this current government which, rubbish though it is, is largely obeying democratic norms, than a Trump-like one. But come on, western establishments - just try to give the impression that you're on your populations' sides.
I don't think the argument made by the side you are arguing against, except in a very few cases, is that "we must have Trumps and mini-Trumps". It's that the level of establishment complacency is so astonishingly large, the denial of the problems we face is so great, that it's unsurprising that the non-establishment parties are attracting more interest.
Indeed. For example in cities like bradford once muslims have bought up most of the housing stock in an area they will give lowball cash offers to the remaining white residents saying take it or leave it. You dont see that on the news.
Hello.
A plane crashes on the Ukraine/Republic of China border. Which side do you bury the survivors?
Ive never seen anyone link bradford to ukraine before but hey ho.
It’s a different starting point to other trolls but it’s still not a story or anything beyond racist tripe. And that post tells me you are a racist with a very short posting lifecycle
Its actually true. I have friends in bradford who can confirm. The fact you dismiss it shows you know nothing of this country.
Can you give me an example where has his happened in Bradford - ie the low ball offers. I lived in the middle of Bradford for a number of years, so I am interested.
He can't, as he's been banned.
However, as someone who lived for some years on the culturally mixed edge of Bradford, and indeed represented a mixed ward on the Council, I strongly suspect his comment is bollocks. To the extent that it might have happened, it'll be individuals chancing their luck.
Which I pointed out of the time.
Plus you need to remember you can’t put things down to malice when it’s just as likely to be people trying it on.
I think people underappreciate the extent to which the British diaspora still feels connected to Britain, and that it actively pains many to see their homeland fail.
To me, it's apparent Elon Musk doesn't just hate Starmer. He loves England, and that's why he's so furious.
As I've said before. what's your evidence that he 'loved' England before last year? He hasn't exactly been keen to invest in us.
Compare to Trump, who I would say does like the UK in that way.
Talking of the Telegraph this headline poses the real question
Why Musks love in with Tommy Robinson presents a problem for Farage
Yup. I've thought that as well. All of the LABOUR ARE EVIL posts on there, WE NEED REFORM. And then a rapid pivot to FREE TOMMY ROBINSON complete with SYL looking less thuggish with a Lion and a smart suit superimposed over a flag and the white cliffs of Dover.
Why does SYL hold such a thrall over some people? Because (a) there is a kernel of truth in his analysis before he pivoting off into "and the solution is deport the muslims", and (b) his presentation is just slick enough to enthral morons.
Farage knows that offering up kernels of truth and then pivoting off into "lets abolish the NHS" will win a lot of votes. But he also knows that SYL and the other hardcore racists will lose him votes. And yet his boss President Musk just wants to agitate. How do you tell the new boss that he needs to be nuanced, when his movement is about rile up the mob and watch them tear it all down?
It wouldn't be surprised if Musk continues to pick out individual MPs he hates some Thomas Mair character might act on it. It has happened before. This is one of the reasons I believe Badenoch is unwise to jump onto every passing Musk bandwagon. How long before she starts demanding to "free the Yaxley-Lennon one"?
Even on here, as I have previously noted, people I thought of as fairly sober but solidly right wrong posters, those who now go on every single day about how crap Labour are in every tiniest respect, jumped in very willingly during the riots with two tier Keir and more than that direct echoing of the lies of actual neo-Nazis to politically point score. After the first 5 weeks of going on about how crap Labour were in every tiniest respect before they'd actually done anything.
Now PB Tories are a rump of what they once were, but as a grouping most of them now mirror the Corbynites - their hatred of Labour is so blind, so total, that they deserve to be on Prevent's Brownshirt watch - not active neo-Nazis or anything like today but, come the brownshirt revolution, quite susceptible to falling into line.
So, perhaps with these analytics, Musk is right and Farage is wrong -the basic rump right are already so far down the rabbit hole that his message will hit home.
Terrible though Muslim bombers and this generation of care home abusers are, the Momentum of Labour haters led by Republican expulsionists is the clearest, most present danger to ripping asunder the fabric of British society and to my own and my family's life because they seek to become once more the establishment. They seek damage in a way that no dodgy Labour tax rise can hope to replicate.
Yes, the greatest threat to British society now is not Muslim suicide bombers but PB Tories.
I try not to be a Tory hater, I have little trick with the Fatchtarati, and I am massively saddened to come to the point where I'm concluding this
Would you care to name just who these so called PB Tories are who should be on a prevent brownshirt watch
If Starmer and Labour had shown competence and integrity from day 1 we would not be talking about Musk or the hard right
Hi Big_G.
I am giving my response some thought, so don't be offended if I'm responding to others around you, but it may be later before I sit and write what I wish to say down.
No problem, but as a one nation conservative on this forum I am really concerned that anyone would even mention prevent brownshirt watch as I abhor anything and everything to do with the hard right and indeed Farage and Reform as do many conservatives including some posting on here
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
The thing that Nigel and (prime) Donald have/had mastery of is knowing where to stop. The shock jock art of knowing how to be outrageous, but not too outrageous. The right wing media space is littered with the corpses of wannabes who kept going when they shouldn't have.
Nigel has that skill; I'm not sure that Kemi or Bobby do. Which is only one of their problems.
Musk, from his feed today, certainly doesn’t seem to have mastered the skill of where to stop
He's getting quite a long way down some weird, minor rabbit holes, isn't he?
And making them into massive emerald mines. Which he'll then claim he has no involvement with.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
The thing that Nigel and (prime) Donald have/had mastery of is knowing where to stop. The shock jock art of knowing how to be outrageous, but not too outrageous. The right wing media space is littered with the corpses of wannabes who kept going when they shouldn't have.
Nigel has that skill; I'm not sure that Kemi or Bobby do. Which is only one of their problems.
Musk, from his feed today, certainly doesn’t seem to have mastered the skill of where to stop
He’s Asperger’s - self confessed - and he has many classic traits. One of them is a tin ear, saying the wrong thing, going way too far and not reading the room. This could be another example, he is certainly ranting
However this is not just Musk. This issue has exploded on social media partly because so many people in the USA, EU, elsewhere were honestly unaware of the existence and epic scale of the grooming gang scandal - and they are stupefied and outraged and bewildered how Britain has, apparently, reacted with an apathetic shrug. People - not Musk - are comparing it to war crimes
The origin of the explosion was the release on social media of some of the most horrifying evidence in one particular case
In fairness, what has been disclosed in respect of these prosecutions and the various reports on the matter is a subject of national and indeed international shame.
Yep, I wish England all the best in coming to terms with this ‘Chernobyl’* of national shame and unhappy self examination.
*no prizes for guessing which PBer hyperbolised this metaphor into existence.
As I look forward to starting another year prosecuting in our High Court where more than 80% of all offenders and trials will be of sex offenders I would suggest that you cut back on the smugness just a tad. The number of cases I have dealt with where the local authority, schools and social workers are notable only for their absence is depressingly high.
Sorry, I should take a page out of the non-smug PB book which assiduously resists expressing very strong opinions about the goings on in other nations.
Only a moron would think that predatory sexual violence by men isn’t a general stain on the human race, however I feel I’m entitled to a weary sigh over yet another chapter in the endless saga of English self examination.
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
I think people underappreciate the extent to which the British diaspora still feels connected to Britain, and that it actively pains many to see their homeland fail.
To me, it's apparent Elon Musk doesn't just hate Starmer. He loves England, and that's why he's so furious.
Is he also part of the German white nationalist diaspora?
“German white nationalist” is either self-contradictory or tautological.
The point being, a far simpler explanation requiring fewer assumptions is that Musk always supports the most extreme right-wing party that can win.
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
Or, without the hyperbole: wages, unemployment and prices will all go up a bit.
Though given that one of the current issues is the need to import so many workers, maybe reducing the demand for workers is a necessary thing.
We really do need to find the sweet spot where companies (and the civil service) are happy to invest in productivity improvements instead of throwing more people at an issue
Are airlines the only industry that makes extensive use of training bonds?
The company pays your training bill on condition that you stay for x period afterwards. If you leave early of your own accord then you owe them a pro-rata outstanding based on the agreed time period remaining.
No,
Engineering companies do. I had one when I was younger and I know others who have been sponsored to study and had to,sign to,that effect
Hmm. I was sponsored through University by an Engineering Company, on a thin sandwich course.
The word from the company was that they had more than made their investment back just from the work done by the sponsored students in the industrial periods. Plus they got the chance to keep a dozen students per year on our site who would not need the traditional 12 month run-in period to become a positive, since we had all already been in about 15 departments and were ingrained with the culture and practice.
It's circumstances and cases I think. I can see that an airline pilot would be substantially greater for both risk and return.
What the airlines normally sponsor is a ‘type rating’, that qualifies a pilot to fly a specific type of aircraft (B737, A320 etc). This costs something like £30k, even though it’s almost all in the classroom and simulator, with the work in the real plane allowed to be done under supervision on commercial flights.
They want you to stay typically for three years in exchange for this.
Sadly the days of airlines sponsoring flight training from scratch are mostly in the past. BA did until a few years ago offer 100 annual commercial licence (c.£150k) scholarships - which typically attracted 25,000 applications, many of whom had family contacts and already a private pilots’ licence, so good luck with that!
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
Click on "All". It's kind of depressing. 1 GBP=2.4 USD in 1980. It's halved since then.
In 2008, the last time it was 1GBP = 2USD, the newspapers were full of stories about how difficult exporters were finding it. I started my business in 2008, and we sell in USD - it's that sort of market. Selling $1000 of services would get us £500. Now it gets us £800.
Of course, for other groups of people it can be the opposite.
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
Or, without the hyperbole: wages, unemployment and prices will all go up a bit.
Though given that one of the current issues is the need to import so many workers, maybe reducing the demand for workers is a necessary thing.
We really do need to find the sweet spot where companies (and the civil service) are happy to invest in productivity improvements instead of throwing more people at an issue
Are airlines the only industry that makes extensive use of training bonds?
The company pays your training bill on condition that you stay for x period afterwards. If you leave early of your own accord then you owe them a pro-rata outstanding based on the agreed time period remaining.
No,
Engineering companies do. I had one when I was younger and I know others who have been sponsored to study and had to,sign to,that effect
Hmm. I was sponsored through University by an Engineering Company, on a thin sandwich course.
The word from the company was that they had more than made their investment back just from the work done by the sponsored students in the industrial periods. Plus they got the chance to keep a dozen students per year on our site who would not need the traditional 12 month run-in period to become a positive, since we had all already been in about 15 departments and were ingrained with the culture and practice.
It's circumstances and cases I think. I can see that an airline pilot would be substantially greater for both risk and return.
What the airlines normally sponsor is a ‘type rating’, that qualifies a pilot to fly a specific type of aircraft (B737, A320 etc). This costs something like £30k, even though it’s almost all in the classroom and simulator, with the work in the real plane allowed to be done under supervision on commercial flights.
They want you to stay typically for three years in exchange for this.
Sadly the days of airlines sponsoring flight training from scratch are mostly in the past. BA did until a few years ago offer 100 annual commercial licence (c.£150k) scholarships - which typically attracted 25,000 applications, many of whom had family contacts and already a private pilots’ licence, so good luck with that!
They’re obviously short of qualified pilot applicants this year, or perhaps the “from all backgrounds” is an attempt to boost the DEI score as anyone whose parents can’t get a £150k loan is currently excluded from entry into their trade.
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
Click on "All". It's kind of depressing. 1 GBP=2.4 USD in 1980. It's halved since then.
In 2008, the last time it was 1GBP = 2USD, the newspapers were full of stories about how difficult exporters were finding it. I started my business in 2008, and we sell in USD - it's that sort of market. Selling $1000 of services would get us £500. Now it gets us £800.
Of course, for other groups of people it can be the opposite.
Yes, the exchange rate is not a national virility symbol.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
I get you but I'm not quite there (yet). Trump has no redeeming features, not a single one, and that is pretty special. Least Musk does his cars and rockets.
Trump's redeeming features, within context, are that he's an obese late-Septugenarian who's intellectually lazy. If the world fed him a constant diet of hamburgers, porn actresses and media reviews - whether real or faked - he'd be no threat to the world. The main reason he wants to be president now, apart from the glamour and adulation, is immunity.
By contrast, Musk not only wants to do actually stuff but has shown extraordinary ability to. Whether that ability is a transferable skill into politics is another matter.
We'll find out soon enough. But he can't be taking his freelance Trump Admin role all that seriously if he's spending time getting involved in UK political spats.
On the other hand, Elon has just praised Kemi Badenoch (for her inquiry call). So maybe the Tories will get the £100m. It certainly won’t be Starmer
Musk’s fascination with British politics seems to be quite genuine, if somewhat unhinged. He sometimes tweets more about UK politics than US politics
The way Musk is going I would not be surprised if Starmer does end up getting some money from him. Jess Philips too.
He (Musk) reposted a tweet which called for HMK to dissolve government and call a GE. I'm not sure he's quite thought through the implications of a so-called champion of free speech and democracy calling for the constitutional monarch to dissolve a democratically elected government.
Edit: that said I'd rather a world with Musk than without him.
A world with Musk is already frighteningly dark and dystopian.
He is a deranged narcissist
If he was A Muslim Mullah he'd have a bounty on his head.
If he was Russian, Chinese, North Korean, Cambodian, Iranian he'd be wanted and unable to travel freely.
Those who excuse him or are happy to allow him to grow increasingly deranged had better hope that Trump ensures he has no access to nuclear weaponry
There are a lot of people who shouldn't have access to nuclear weaponry.
$20 for someone owning a siri device between 2014 and 2019 (In the US only I presume) and $30M for the lawyers lol.
Lawyers are the best people. They deserve to keep all the money.
Certainly more deserving that people who were surprised that an interactive device designed to be triggered by your voice might have to listen to that voice. I mean Jeez.
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
Click on "All". It's kind of depressing. 1 GBP=2.4 USD in 1980. It's halved since then.
In 2008, the last time it was 1GBP = 2USD, the newspapers were full of stories about how difficult exporters were finding it. I started my business in 2008, and we sell in USD - it's that sort of market. Selling $1000 of services would get us £500. Now it gets us £800.
Of course, for other groups of people it can be the opposite.
I remember waving a 50p coin in front of some American colleagues and informing them that it was a dollar.
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
Or, without the hyperbole: wages, unemployment and prices will all go up a bit.
Though given that one of the current issues is the need to import so many workers, maybe reducing the demand for workers is a necessary thing.
We really do need to find the sweet spot where companies (and the civil service) are happy to invest in productivity improvements instead of throwing more people at an issue
Are airlines the only industry that makes extensive use of training bonds?
The company pays your training bill on condition that you stay for x period afterwards. If you leave early of your own accord then you owe them a pro-rata outstanding based on the agreed time period remaining.
No,
Engineering companies do. I had one when I was younger and I know others who have been sponsored to study and had to,sign to,that effect
Hmm. I was sponsored through University by an Engineering Company, on a thin sandwich course.
The word from the company was that they had more than made their investment back just from the work done by the sponsored students in the industrial periods. Plus they got the chance to keep a dozen students per year on our site who would not need the traditional 12 month run-in period to become a positive, since we had all already been in about 15 departments and were ingrained with the culture and practice.
It's circumstances and cases I think. I can see that an airline pilot would be substantially greater for both risk and return.
What the airlines normally sponsor is a ‘type rating’, that qualifies a pilot to fly a specific type of aircraft (B737, A320 etc). This costs something like £30k, even though it’s almost all in the classroom and simulator, with the work in the real plane allowed to be done under supervision on commercial flights.
They want you to stay typically for three years in exchange for this.
Sadly the days of airlines sponsoring flight training from scratch are mostly in the past. BA did until a few years ago offer 100 annual commercial licence (c.£150k) scholarships - which typically attracted 25,000 applications, many of whom had family contacts and already a private pilots’ licence, so good luck with that!
They’re obviously short of qualified pilot applicants this year, or perhaps the “from all backgrounds” is an attempt to boost the DEI score as anyone whose parents can’t get a £150k loan is currently excluded from entry into their trade.
Is 47 too old to apply..?
BA did the fire-and-rehire-on-a-lower-wage thing during the pandemic.
They lost a whole bunch of qualified people. One was the fiancé of family friend - was qualified on a large number of types, senior etc.
A short time later they were begging him to come back - seemed that they had overdone it....
Someone take his phone off him until he’s sobered up.
You'd think Farage had warned him against. Unless the Farage/Robinson firewall is going to be breached...
Er, why? Nigel Farage has afaik met Musk once and there is no formal connection between the two.
I suppose the problem is that Nigel might find it tricky to accept Elon's millions without endorsing Tommy into the bargain. He could go with 'Elon is allowed to be friends with whoever he likes; doesn't make them my friends too.' However, I'm sure Nigel, like Donald, is keen to build a coalition that could even include small-c Muslims. Tommy's presence could put the kibosh on that.
If people wonder why I am a good Muslim and why I don’t drink, it’s stuff like this.
Ex-Freshfields partner groped colleague before vomiting on himself - SDT judgment
The SDT has published its judgment suspending a former Freshfields partner who groped a colleague while incredibly drunk following a Christmas party in 2017.
The incident occurred just a few months after Nicholas Williams, now 44, was made a partner, having worked his way up from a trainee position in the firm's dispute resolution practice.
By the time the party at a partner's house wound up in the early hours of 21 December, Williams was “so intoxicated that he could barely stand up”.
'Person Z', who was a friend and worked in a more junior role in his team, decided to escort Williams home to make sure he arrrived safely.
Person Z said that in the taxi back, Willams put his arm round her and felt her breast over her clothes, moving his hand back after she shifted her position and told him to stop.
When they were dropped off, Williams “leaned over and then fell on Person Z”, and tried to touch her breast over her clothes with one hand and feel up her skirt with the other. Person Z told him, “No, absolutely not”, and pushed him backwards.
She then tried to get Williams to tell her which house was his as she "just wanted to get home", but he “staggered over to the other side of the street”, “slumped over”, and lay down on a piece of cardboard.
When he finally got up, he fell against Person Z, “pinning her against a wall”, and touched her again while he “attempted to kiss her on the mouth”.
Person Z said she arranged for a second taxi to take them to her home where her partner could help, because she didn’t want to leave Williams in a vulnerable state on the street.
Upon arrival, Williams “vomited all over himself, on a tree and on her shoes”. The junior solicitor and her partner offered to let him stay the night, but he insisted on getting home and Person Z was “eventually” able to accompany him back to his house in a third taxi.
Williams, who resigned from Freshfields in 2019 when the incident was investigated, told the SDT he had no memory of the event due to his “extreme intoxication”, and accepted the allegations on the basis of Person Z’s account.
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
Someone take his phone off him until he’s sobered up.
You'd think Farage had warned him against. Unless the Farage/Robinson firewall is going to be breached...
Er, why? Nigel Farage has afaik met Musk once and there is no formal connection between the two.
I suppose the problem is that Nigel might find it tricky to accept Elon's millions without endorsing Tommy into the bargain. He could go with 'Elon is allowed to be friends with whoever he likes; doesn't make them my friends too.' However, I'm sure Nigel, like Donald, is keen to build a coalition that could even include small-c Muslims. Tommy's presence could put the kibosh on that.
If the government isn't careful then Tommy Robinson will start to be seen internationally as the British Alexey Navalny (who also had a background in far-right street politics).
Out of interest, did anyone anywhere call for a public inquiry into the 'grooming gangs' before this week? I could be wrong but I've no recollection of it ever being mentioned. That's odd considering it's now being regarded as a panacea. Was there some sort of weird mass myopia at play?
Multiple enquires at various scales, over the years. @Cyclefree can probably give you a list that will exceed the max length of a PB post.
I can sum them up for you
1) Bad stuff happened 2) People did nothing for a hard to define set of reasons. 3) Not enough evidence for the people at (2) to even be spoken to harshly. Except some junior people who were following instructions.
That is not what the various inquiries said. They made multiple concrete recommendations. They provided a bunch of answers.
What the inquiries didn’t say, however, is that it’s all the fault of Muslims. Some will keep calling for inquiries until they get that answer.
I can't agree with that - we've had some criminal convictions which is incredibly overdue but welcome. At the moment it does look like it's 'all the fault of the Muslims' - what we're missing is any recognition of and restitution for the enabling of the abuse by the authorities who had a duty of care to the victims.
This also from 2024: "There were almost 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse in more than 300 schools run by religious orders in Ireland, according to a report commissioned by the Irish government." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c207ypx22ego
The beginning of 2024 saw seven convicted in Scotland ("Iain Owens, 45, Elaine Lannery, 39, Lesley Williams, 42, Paul Brannan, 40, Scott Forbes, 50, Barry Watson and John Clark, both 47") in what was described as being "the largest prosecution of a child abuse ring in Scotland." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-67924138
To tackle these problems requires us to recognise that abuse is widespread.
$20 for someone owning a siri device between 2014 and 2019 (In the US only I presume) and $30M for the lawyers lol.
Lawyers are the best people. They deserve to keep all the money.
Certainly more deserving that people who were surprised that an interactive device designed to be triggered by your voice might have to listen to that voice. I mean Jeez.
When I dealt with my mother's estate, I had to sort out her compensation claim for the infamous RBS share issue - initially all the wrong way, from my family to the lawyers, with a regressive relationship between subscription and potential compensation. I carried on with the subs, with some misgivings, especially when there seemed to be 2-3 lots of lawyers in the feeding frenzy, quite apart from RBS's own barristers and solicitors and the court fees.
In the end - almost a decade later - the estate got quite a bit more compo than I had put into it, and it wasn't a life-changing amount either way, but I was never very sure what percentage of my mother's compo had vanished. And, by complete coincidence, I was reading Bleak House at the time of doing the executry, so I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't 100%.
If people wonder why I am a good Muslim and why I don’t drink, it’s stuff like this.
Ex-Freshfields partner groped colleague before vomiting on himself - SDT judgment
The SDT has published its judgment suspending a former Freshfields partner who groped a colleague while incredibly drunk following a Christmas party in 2017.
The incident occurred just a few months after Nicholas Williams, now 44, was made a partner, having worked his way up from a trainee position in the firm's dispute resolution practice.
By the time the party at a partner's house wound up in the early hours of 21 December, Williams was “so intoxicated that he could barely stand up”.
'Person Z', who was a friend and worked in a more junior role in his team, decided to escort Williams home to make sure he arrrived safely.
Person Z said that in the taxi back, Willams put his arm round her and felt her breast over her clothes, moving his hand back after she shifted her position and told him to stop.
When they were dropped off, Williams “leaned over and then fell on Person Z”, and tried to touch her breast over her clothes with one hand and feel up her skirt with the other. Person Z told him, “No, absolutely not”, and pushed him backwards.
She then tried to get Williams to tell her which house was his as she "just wanted to get home", but he “staggered over to the other side of the street”, “slumped over”, and lay down on a piece of cardboard.
When he finally got up, he fell against Person Z, “pinning her against a wall”, and touched her again while he “attempted to kiss her on the mouth”.
Person Z said she arranged for a second taxi to take them to her home where her partner could help, because she didn’t want to leave Williams in a vulnerable state on the street.
Upon arrival, Williams “vomited all over himself, on a tree and on her shoes”. The junior solicitor and her partner offered to let him stay the night, but he insisted on getting home and Person Z was “eventually” able to accompany him back to his house in a third taxi.
Williams, who resigned from Freshfields in 2019 when the incident was investigated, told the SDT he had no memory of the event due to his “extreme intoxication”, and accepted the allegations on the basis of Person Z’s account.
If people wonder why I am a good Muslim and why I don’t drink, it’s stuff like this.
Ex-Freshfields partner groped colleague before vomiting on himself - SDT judgment
The SDT has published its judgment suspending a former Freshfields partner who groped a colleague while incredibly drunk following a Christmas party in 2017.
The incident occurred just a few months after Nicholas Williams, now 44, was made a partner, having worked his way up from a trainee position in the firm's dispute resolution practice.
By the time the party at a partner's house wound up in the early hours of 21 December, Williams was “so intoxicated that he could barely stand up”.
'Person Z', who was a friend and worked in a more junior role in his team, decided to escort Williams home to make sure he arrrived safely.
Person Z said that in the taxi back, Willams put his arm round her and felt her breast over her clothes, moving his hand back after she shifted her position and told him to stop.
When they were dropped off, Williams “leaned over and then fell on Person Z”, and tried to touch her breast over her clothes with one hand and feel up her skirt with the other. Person Z told him, “No, absolutely not”, and pushed him backwards.
She then tried to get Williams to tell her which house was his as she "just wanted to get home", but he “staggered over to the other side of the street”, “slumped over”, and lay down on a piece of cardboard.
When he finally got up, he fell against Person Z, “pinning her against a wall”, and touched her again while he “attempted to kiss her on the mouth”.
Person Z said she arranged for a second taxi to take them to her home where her partner could help, because she didn’t want to leave Williams in a vulnerable state on the street.
Upon arrival, Williams “vomited all over himself, on a tree and on her shoes”. The junior solicitor and her partner offered to let him stay the night, but he insisted on getting home and Person Z was “eventually” able to accompany him back to his house in a third taxi.
Williams, who resigned from Freshfields in 2019 when the incident was investigated, told the SDT he had no memory of the event due to his “extreme intoxication”, and accepted the allegations on the basis of Person Z’s account.
It says 2019, so two years (well, probably one and a bit given the timing). But the disciplinary process seems remarkably testudinal. Edit: especially for something not contested.
If people wonder why I am a good Muslim and why I don’t drink, it’s stuff like this.
Ex-Freshfields partner groped colleague before vomiting on himself - SDT judgment
The SDT has published its judgment suspending a former Freshfields partner who groped a colleague while incredibly drunk following a Christmas party in 2017.
The incident occurred just a few months after Nicholas Williams, now 44, was made a partner, having worked his way up from a trainee position in the firm's dispute resolution practice.
By the time the party at a partner's house wound up in the early hours of 21 December, Williams was “so intoxicated that he could barely stand up”.
'Person Z', who was a friend and worked in a more junior role in his team, decided to escort Williams home to make sure he arrrived safely.
Person Z said that in the taxi back, Willams put his arm round her and felt her breast over her clothes, moving his hand back after she shifted her position and told him to stop.
When they were dropped off, Williams “leaned over and then fell on Person Z”, and tried to touch her breast over her clothes with one hand and feel up her skirt with the other. Person Z told him, “No, absolutely not”, and pushed him backwards.
She then tried to get Williams to tell her which house was his as she "just wanted to get home", but he “staggered over to the other side of the street”, “slumped over”, and lay down on a piece of cardboard.
When he finally got up, he fell against Person Z, “pinning her against a wall”, and touched her again while he “attempted to kiss her on the mouth”.
Person Z said she arranged for a second taxi to take them to her home where her partner could help, because she didn’t want to leave Williams in a vulnerable state on the street.
Upon arrival, Williams “vomited all over himself, on a tree and on her shoes”. The junior solicitor and her partner offered to let him stay the night, but he insisted on getting home and Person Z was “eventually” able to accompany him back to his house in a third taxi.
Williams, who resigned from Freshfields in 2019 when the incident was investigated, told the SDT he had no memory of the event due to his “extreme intoxication”, and accepted the allegations on the basis of Person Z’s account.
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
I get you but I'm not quite there (yet). Trump has no redeeming features, not a single one, and that is pretty special. Least Musk does his cars and rockets.
Trump's redeeming features, within context, are that he's an obese late-Septugenarian who's intellectually lazy. If the world fed him a constant diet of hamburgers, porn actresses and media reviews - whether real or faked - he'd be no threat to the world. The main reason he wants to be president now, apart from the glamour and adulation, is immunity.
By contrast, Musk not only wants to do actually stuff but has shown extraordinary ability to. Whether that ability is a transferable skill into politics is another matter.
We'll find out soon enough. But he can't be taking his freelance Trump Admin role all that seriously if he's spending time getting involved in UK political spats.
On the other hand, Elon has just praised Kemi Badenoch (for her inquiry call). So maybe the Tories will get the £100m. It certainly won’t be Starmer
Musk’s fascination with British politics seems to be quite genuine, if somewhat unhinged. He sometimes tweets more about UK politics than US politics
The way Musk is going I would not be surprised if Starmer does end up getting some money from him. Jess Philips too.
He (Musk) reposted a tweet which called for HMK to dissolve government and call a GE. I'm not sure he's quite thought through the implications of a so-called champion of free speech and democracy calling for the constitutional monarch to dissolve a democratically elected government.
Edit: that said I'd rather a world with Musk than without him.
A world with Musk is already frighteningly dark and dystopian.
He is a deranged narcissist
If he was A Muslim Mullah he'd have a bounty on his head.
If he was Russian, Chinese, North Korean, Cambodian, Iranian he'd be wanted and unable to travel freely.
Those who excuse him or are happy to allow him to grow increasingly deranged had better hope that Trump ensures he has no access to nuclear weaponry
There are a lot of people who shouldn't have access to nuclear weaponry.
And he might be a deranged narcissist. So what.
Never any full stops at the end of She corn's posts.
Re. Social care review, it’s just a typical response that the system chucks out. There is no appetite to confront the challenges, just endless reviews.
Not really a sign that the UKs political system is functioning well, to be honest. All we seem to do now it tinker around the edges
If people wonder why I am a good Muslim and why I don’t drink, it’s stuff like this.
Ex-Freshfields partner groped colleague before vomiting on himself - SDT judgment
The SDT has published its judgment suspending a former Freshfields partner who groped a colleague while incredibly drunk following a Christmas party in 2017.
The incident occurred just a few months after Nicholas Williams, now 44, was made a partner, having worked his way up from a trainee position in the firm's dispute resolution practice.
By the time the party at a partner's house wound up in the early hours of 21 December, Williams was “so intoxicated that he could barely stand up”.
'Person Z', who was a friend and worked in a more junior role in his team, decided to escort Williams home to make sure he arrrived safely.
Person Z said that in the taxi back, Willams put his arm round her and felt her breast over her clothes, moving his hand back after she shifted her position and told him to stop.
When they were dropped off, Williams “leaned over and then fell on Person Z”, and tried to touch her breast over her clothes with one hand and feel up her skirt with the other. Person Z told him, “No, absolutely not”, and pushed him backwards.
She then tried to get Williams to tell her which house was his as she "just wanted to get home", but he “staggered over to the other side of the street”, “slumped over”, and lay down on a piece of cardboard.
When he finally got up, he fell against Person Z, “pinning her against a wall”, and touched her again while he “attempted to kiss her on the mouth”.
Person Z said she arranged for a second taxi to take them to her home where her partner could help, because she didn’t want to leave Williams in a vulnerable state on the street.
Upon arrival, Williams “vomited all over himself, on a tree and on her shoes”. The junior solicitor and her partner offered to let him stay the night, but he insisted on getting home and Person Z was “eventually” able to accompany him back to his house in a third taxi.
Williams, who resigned from Freshfields in 2019 when the incident was investigated, told the SDT he had no memory of the event due to his “extreme intoxication”, and accepted the allegations on the basis of Person Z’s account.
Regarding the sudden interest from the US in European politics, I missed this from yesterday. Is Vance a liar, or just ignorant ?
I’m not endorsing a party in the German elections, as it’s not my country and we hope to have good relations with all Germans. But this is an interesting piece.
Also interesting; American media slanders AfD as Nazi-lite, But AfD is most popular in the same areas of Germany that were most resistant to the Nazis. https://x.com/JDVance/status/1874894133862769149
I'm going with "people believe things that reinforce their existing worldviews without doing any research".
When the big bust up between Elon and Donald happens I'll probably side with Donald. Who wouldn't? It's got that bad.
The thing that Nigel and (prime) Donald have/had mastery of is knowing where to stop. The shock jock art of knowing how to be outrageous, but not too outrageous. The right wing media space is littered with the corpses of wannabes who kept going when they shouldn't have.
Nigel has that skill; I'm not sure that Kemi or Bobby do. Which is only one of their problems.
Musk, from his feed today, certainly doesn’t seem to have mastered the skill of where to stop
At some point the Tesla shareholders are going to want to see him spending more time on his businesses, and less time shitposting driving engagement on Twitter. They need to react to the new Chinese competition, and lobbying Trump to introduce US tariffs on them isn’t going to be sufficient.
Around 40% of Tesla's lobal sales are in China. A Chinese response to US tariffs will be very painful for Musk. Perhaps that's why he is taking so many drugs currently!
I saw they got outsold by BYD in China for the first time in 2024. The product line up is very stale now.
Well yes: they were first to market with what was then an amazing product.
But they haven't updated their existing product lineup much, preferring to launch the Cybertruck.
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
Or, without the hyperbole: wages, unemployment and prices will all go up a bit.
Though given that one of the current issues is the need to import so many workers, maybe reducing the demand for workers is a necessary thing.
We really do need to find the sweet spot where companies (and the civil service) are happy to invest in productivity improvements instead of throwing more people at an issue
Are airlines the only industry that makes extensive use of training bonds?
The company pays your training bill on condition that you stay for x period afterwards. If you leave early of your own accord then you owe them a pro-rata outstanding based on the agreed time period remaining.
No,
Engineering companies do. I had one when I was younger and I know others who have been sponsored to study and had to,sign to,that effect
Hmm. I was sponsored through University by an Engineering Company, on a thin sandwich course.
The word from the company was that they had more than made their investment back just from the work done by the sponsored students in the industrial periods. Plus they got the chance to keep a dozen students per year on our site who would not need the traditional 12 month run-in period to become a positive, since we had all already been in about 15 departments and were ingrained with the culture and practice.
It's circumstances and cases I think. I can see that an airline pilot would be substantially greater for both risk and return.
What the airlines normally sponsor is a ‘type rating’, that qualifies a pilot to fly a specific type of aircraft (B737, A320 etc). This costs something like £30k, even though it’s almost all in the classroom and simulator, with the work in the real plane allowed to be done under supervision on commercial flights.
They want you to stay typically for three years in exchange for this.
Sadly the days of airlines sponsoring flight training from scratch are mostly in the past. BA did until a few years ago offer 100 annual commercial licence (c.£150k) scholarships - which typically attracted 25,000 applications, many of whom had family contacts and already a private pilots’ licence, so good luck with that!
They’re obviously short of qualified pilot applicants this year, or perhaps the “from all backgrounds” is an attempt to boost the DEI score as anyone whose parents can’t get a £150k loan is currently excluded from entry into their trade.
Is 47 too old to apply..?
BA did the fire-and-rehire-on-a-lower-wage thing during the pandemic.
They lost a whole bunch of qualified people. One was the fiancé of family friend - was qualified on a large number of types, senior etc.
A short time later they were begging him to come back - seemed that they had overdone it....
A lot of airlines did that, although I thought that the BA fire and rehire issue was mostly around cabin crew rather than pilots? An awful lot of very senior captains and trainers took early retirement from BA during the pandemic though, which leaves a nightmare gap behind them.
If people wonder why I am a good Muslim and why I don’t drink, it’s stuff like this.
Ex-Freshfields partner groped colleague before vomiting on himself - SDT judgment
The SDT has published its judgment suspending a former Freshfields partner who groped a colleague while incredibly drunk following a Christmas party in 2017.
The incident occurred just a few months after Nicholas Williams, now 44, was made a partner, having worked his way up from a trainee position in the firm's dispute resolution practice.
By the time the party at a partner's house wound up in the early hours of 21 December, Williams was “so intoxicated that he could barely stand up”.
'Person Z', who was a friend and worked in a more junior role in his team, decided to escort Williams home to make sure he arrrived safely.
Person Z said that in the taxi back, Willams put his arm round her and felt her breast over her clothes, moving his hand back after she shifted her position and told him to stop.
When they were dropped off, Williams “leaned over and then fell on Person Z”, and tried to touch her breast over her clothes with one hand and feel up her skirt with the other. Person Z told him, “No, absolutely not”, and pushed him backwards.
She then tried to get Williams to tell her which house was his as she "just wanted to get home", but he “staggered over to the other side of the street”, “slumped over”, and lay down on a piece of cardboard.
When he finally got up, he fell against Person Z, “pinning her against a wall”, and touched her again while he “attempted to kiss her on the mouth”.
Person Z said she arranged for a second taxi to take them to her home where her partner could help, because she didn’t want to leave Williams in a vulnerable state on the street.
Upon arrival, Williams “vomited all over himself, on a tree and on her shoes”. The junior solicitor and her partner offered to let him stay the night, but he insisted on getting home and Person Z was “eventually” able to accompany him back to his house in a third taxi.
Williams, who resigned from Freshfields in 2019 when the incident was investigated, told the SDT he had no memory of the event due to his “extreme intoxication”, and accepted the allegations on the basis of Person Z’s account.
Some of the comments under the article illustrate why it took seven years. Full on victim blaming...
Some pretty disgusting comments there, frankly.
Some that also seem to be unaware of the law, which is a bit worrying if they are solicitors. As one person tartly reminded those suggesting as he was drunk he should be cut some slack, that’s an aggravating factor not a mitigating one.
Regarding the sudden interest from the US in European politics, I missed this from yesterday. Is Vance a liar, or just ignorant ?
I’m not endorsing a party in the German elections, as it’s not my country and we hope to have good relations with all Germans. But this is an interesting piece.
Also interesting; American media slanders AfD as Nazi-lite, But AfD is most popular in the same areas of Germany that were most resistant to the Nazis. https://x.com/JDVance/status/1874894133862769149
I'm going with "people believe things that reinforce their existing worldviews without doing any research".
A trait that is all to common here too.
This is a supposedly intelligent Vice President, though.
Re. Social care review, it’s just a typical response that the system chucks out. There is no appetite to confront the challenges, just endless reviews.
Not really a sign that the UKs political system is functioning well, to be honest. All we seem to do now it tinker around the edges
I've been involved, on way and another, with social care for a long time, and now, in my 80's I'm experiencing it. I posted this morning that one of the problems is that the people who are involved aren't, as a rule, the decision-makers. And I got some agreement. It's quite noticeable that the people at the 'sharp end', certainly that I've experienced, are generally kind and sympathetic when client-facing. It's the system which is unhelpful.
The cost of employing someone on the minimum wage rises by £2,367 this year
All thanks to Reeves disastrous budget.
This will have a dramatic impact on the jobs market and wages. The money has to come from somewhere. Corbynites just cry ‘take it from profits’. Why should they ?
Click on "All". It's kind of depressing. 1 GBP=2.4 USD in 1980. It's halved since then.
And it touched parity in 1986 I think?
Almost. Not quite.
The £1=$2.40 was a consequence of North Sea Oil and the oil price at the time (and also, incidentally, devastating for exports). Not long before, in the late 1970s, Sterling had been at about $1.60. On the eve of the Brexit vote, it was about $1.50 .
In any case, in the long term, one currency's relative value against another will be predominantly determined by relative purchasing power. There's nothing particularly 'good' about an appreciating currency other than that it means you're not suffering from excessive inflation.
Someone take his phone off him until he’s sobered up.
You'd think Farage had warned him against. Unless the Farage/Robinson firewall is going to be breached...
Er, why? Nigel Farage has afaik met Musk once and there is no formal connection between the two.
I suppose the problem is that Nigel might find it tricky to accept Elon's millions without endorsing Tommy into the bargain. He could go with 'Elon is allowed to be friends with whoever he likes; doesn't make them my friends too.' However, I'm sure Nigel, like Donald, is keen to build a coalition that could even include small-c Muslims. Tommy's presence could put the kibosh on that.
If the government isn't careful then Tommy Robinson will start to be seen internationally as the British Alexey Navalny (who also had a background in far-right street politics).
So Tommy Robinson is a cretinous thug who should never be let free but it's the Governments fault?
Out of interest, did anyone anywhere call for a public inquiry into the 'grooming gangs' before this week? I could be wrong but I've no recollection of it ever being mentioned. That's odd considering it's now being regarded as a panacea. Was there some sort of weird mass myopia at play?
Multiple enquires at various scales, over the years. @Cyclefree can probably give you a list that will exceed the max length of a PB post.
I can sum them up for you
1) Bad stuff happened 2) People did nothing for a hard to define set of reasons. 3) Not enough evidence for the people at (2) to even be spoken to harshly. Except some junior people who were following instructions.
That is not what the various inquiries said. They made multiple concrete recommendations. They provided a bunch of answers.
What the inquiries didn’t say, however, is that it’s all the fault of Muslims. Some will keep calling for inquiries until they get that answer.
I can't agree with that - we've had some criminal convictions which is incredibly overdue but welcome. At the moment it does look like it's 'all the fault of the Muslims' - what we're missing is any recognition of and restitution for the enabling of the abuse by the authorities who had a duty of care to the victims.
This also from 2024: "There were almost 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse in more than 300 schools run by religious orders in Ireland, according to a report commissioned by the Irish government." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c207ypx22ego
The beginning of 2024 saw seven convicted in Scotland ("Iain Owens, 45, Elaine Lannery, 39, Lesley Williams, 42, Paul Brannan, 40, Scott Forbes, 50, Barry Watson and John Clark, both 47") in what was described as being "the largest prosecution of a child abuse ring in Scotland." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-67924138
To tackle these problems requires us to recognise that abuse is widespread.
You're not listening. I do not *desire* an enquiry that finds that such behaviour is a problem unique to certain communities. Others may, I don't. What I DO want is an enquiry that brings to light the full enormity (in the traditional sense of the word) of the enabling behaviour on the part of our authorities. No individual who had a part to play in turning a blind eye, punishing whistle-blowers, and preventing these abuses from coming to light should be employed in any responsible position for safeguarding for a start. More severe penalties than that may also be required. And that must be followed by reform of the police service to ensure nothing of the kind can ever happen again. That is not going to happen with local councils doing piecemeal enquiries, it is a national issue that requires a national enquiry.
Apparently Labour have set up a taskforce/quango every week since being in power. Yet here is a national scandal of grotesque abuse being enabled by the state, and it wants councils to sort it. It won't wash.
Comments
His facts are wrong too but I'd assume he's just repeating what someone's told him.
FWIW, the area most resistant to the Nazis in 1932/3 was the Rhineland (Bavaria also kept them off top spot but only through allied or similar regional parties). AfD's strength now is in former E Germany.
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/5215881/police-scotland-glasgow-grooming-gang-secret/
I suspect there are others in Scotland, unknown or sub judice. As Sarah Champion (Labour MP for Rotherham) lucidly put it: “this is happening everywhere in the UK, if you look for it, you will find it”
I’ve heard distressing reports from Cornwall. And quite recent
That’s Kafkaesque.
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social
And for people harping on about ‘we need a political consensus’, two things:
(a) no, not with a bloody three figure majority you don’t
(b) there already was a consensus around Dilnot
This new review is just classic can-kicking.
https://bsky.app/profile/benansell.bsky.social/post/3letapwobms2y
Edit: that said I'd rather a world with Musk than without him.
Yes, the LoCo model is utterly screwed, the problem is that it’s still seen as a glamourous job, and to be fair by the time they’re 35 most pilots going in at 21 will be on close to six figures, but the ramp up to that is horrific.
I know loads of pilots who gave up on the airline route, and have so much more fun doing advanced flight training, crop spraying, parachuting, glider towing etc, albeit without the six-figure salaries.
(Not that I wish ill on him.)
He is a deranged narcissist
If he was A Muslim Mullah he'd have a bounty on his head.
If he was Russian, Chinese, North Korean, Cambodian, Iranian he'd be wanted and unable to travel freely.
Those who excuse him or are happy to allow him to grow increasingly deranged had better hope that Trump ensures he has no access to nuclear weaponry
https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=USD&view=10Y
But it is not irrational that voters voted and vote for a society which combines prosperity with welfare, with both liberalism and the limitations an intervening state imposes on our liberal freedoms.
Within that net deeper things can still be followed.
IIRC there was an article I read some years ago that the girls were of awfully similar backgrounds to those in the UK abuse cases, either in what the state euphemistically calls ‘care’, or living with people who either didn’t care for them at all or actively encouraged the activity.
I am giving my response some thought, so don't be offended if I'm responding to others around you, but it may be later before I sit and write what I wish to say down.
However, as someone who lived for some years on the culturally mixed edge of Bradford, and indeed represented a mixed ward on the Council, I strongly suspect his comment is bollocks. To the extent that it might have happened, it'll be individuals chancing their luck.
I think people underappreciate the extent to which the British diaspora still feels connected to Britain, and that it actively pains many to see their homeland fail.
To me, it's apparent Elon Musk doesn't just hate Starmer. He loves England, and that's why he's so furious.
He's essentislly a South African-American.
I think Theresa May might be pondering a certain phrase of hers…
Plus you need to remember you can’t put things down to malice when it’s just as likely to be people trying it on.
Compare to Trump, who I would say does like the UK in that way.
Only a moron would think that predatory sexual violence by men isn’t a general stain on the human race, however I feel I’m entitled to a weary sigh over yet another chapter in the endless saga of English self examination.
Apple to pay $95m to settle Siri 'listening' lawsuit
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4rvr495rgo
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-21148282
https://www.exchange-rates.org/exchange-rate-history/gbp-eur-2013-01-22
https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/bank-of-england-spot/historical-spot-exchange-rates/gbp/gbp-to-usd-2025
Click on "All". It's kind of depressing. 1 GBP=2.4 USD in 1980. It's halved since then.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1875153589318115775
Someone take his phone off him until he’s sobered up.
https://mediacentre.britishairways.com/news/23072024/new-21-million-fund-from-british-airways-to-put-200-aspiring-pilots-from-all-backgrounds-through-training
Of course, for other groups of people it can be the opposite.
27th may 2015 £1 was worth €1.41
They’re obviously short of qualified pilot applicants this year, or perhaps the “from all backgrounds” is an attempt to boost the DEI score as anyone whose parents can’t get a £150k loan is currently excluded from entry into their trade.
Is 47 too old to apply..?
And he might be a deranged narcissist. So what.
Farage is 1,000x more politically astute than Musk. He knows he can't cross the line to having outright racists on his team.
They lost a whole bunch of qualified people. One was the fiancé of family friend - was qualified on a large number of types, senior etc.
A short time later they were begging him to come back - seemed that they had overdone it....
Ex-Freshfields partner groped colleague before vomiting on himself - SDT judgment
The SDT has published its judgment suspending a former Freshfields partner who groped a colleague while incredibly drunk following a Christmas party in 2017.
The incident occurred just a few months after Nicholas Williams, now 44, was made a partner, having worked his way up from a trainee position in the firm's dispute resolution practice.
By the time the party at a partner's house wound up in the early hours of 21 December, Williams was “so intoxicated that he could barely stand up”.
'Person Z', who was a friend and worked in a more junior role in his team, decided to escort Williams home to make sure he arrrived safely.
Person Z said that in the taxi back, Willams put his arm round her and felt her breast over her clothes, moving his hand back after she shifted her position and told him to stop.
When they were dropped off, Williams “leaned over and then fell on Person Z”, and tried to touch her breast over her clothes with one hand and feel up her skirt with the other. Person Z told him, “No, absolutely not”, and pushed him backwards.
She then tried to get Williams to tell her which house was his as she "just wanted to get home", but he “staggered over to the other side of the street”, “slumped over”, and lay down on a piece of cardboard.
When he finally got up, he fell against Person Z, “pinning her against a wall”, and touched her again while he “attempted to kiss her on the mouth”.
Person Z said she arranged for a second taxi to take them to her home where her partner could help, because she didn’t want to leave Williams in a vulnerable state on the street.
Upon arrival, Williams “vomited all over himself, on a tree and on her shoes”. The junior solicitor and her partner offered to let him stay the night, but he insisted on getting home and Person Z was “eventually” able to accompany him back to his house in a third taxi.
Williams, who resigned from Freshfields in 2019 when the incident was investigated, told the SDT he had no memory of the event due to his “extreme intoxication”, and accepted the allegations on the basis of Person Z’s account.
https://www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/ex-freshfields-partner-groped-colleague-vomiting-himself-sdt-judgment
I would note that highest figure in the Church of England (apart from the King) recently resigned after covering up sexual abuse: https://news.sky.com/story/archbishop-of-canterbury-justin-welby-resigns-after-report-into-sexual-abuse-of-children-13252688
In the UK, the Catholic Church recently apologised, again, for covering up sexual abuse: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2e400rzygzo Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in Belgium was criticised for having covered up hundreds of cases: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx25gvlgnqgo
This also from 2024: "There were almost 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse in more than 300 schools run by religious orders in Ireland, according to a report commissioned by the Irish government." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c207ypx22ego
More came to light recently about a council-run home in Ayrshire. 2 men are now in prison and 10 new arrests were made: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce31ly0zj2no There was a June report about how abuse continued for decades at Gordonstoun: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clddq94w27no
The beginning of 2024 saw seven convicted in Scotland ("Iain Owens, 45, Elaine Lannery, 39, Lesley Williams, 42, Paul Brannan, 40, Scott Forbes, 50, Barry Watson and John Clark, both 47") in what was described as being "the largest prosecution of a child abuse ring in Scotland." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-67924138
To tackle these problems requires us to recognise that abuse is widespread.
In the end - almost a decade later - the estate got quite a bit more compo than I had put into it, and it wasn't a life-changing amount either way, but I was never very sure what percentage of my mother's compo had vanished. And, by complete coincidence, I was reading Bleak House at the time of doing the executry, so I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't 100%.
bbc news
Am I missing a joke or a sly observation in that cartoon? It just looks like some not very good caricatures of public figures playing darts
Not really a sign that the UKs political system is functioning well, to be honest. All we seem to do now it tinker around the edges
A trait that is all to common here too.
But they haven't updated their existing product lineup much, preferring to launch the Cybertruck.
Some that also seem to be unaware of the law, which is a bit worrying if they are solicitors. As one person tartly reminded those suggesting as he was drunk he should be cut some slack, that’s an aggravating factor not a mitigating one.
Third century in nine matches as captain, averaging 61 with the bat in those matches.
I posted this morning that one of the problems is that the people who are involved aren't, as a rule, the decision-makers. And I got some agreement.
It's quite noticeable that the people at the 'sharp end', certainly that I've experienced, are generally kind and sympathetic when client-facing. It's the system which is unhelpful.
@ABaerbock & @jnbarrot visit #Damascus.
They said the EU won't lift sanctions & find reconstruction until a truly diverse & representative political structure is formed.
https://x.com/Charles_Lister/status/1875201155032375369
The £1=$2.40 was a consequence of North Sea Oil and the oil price at the time (and also, incidentally, devastating for exports). Not long before, in the late 1970s, Sterling had been at about $1.60. On the eve of the Brexit vote, it was about $1.50 .
In any case, in the long term, one currency's relative value against another will be predominantly determined by relative purchasing power. There's nothing particularly 'good' about an appreciating currency other than that it means you're not suffering from excessive inflation.
No he is a fascist thug......
Apparently Labour have set up a taskforce/quango every week since being in power. Yet here is a national scandal of grotesque abuse being enabled by the state, and it wants councils to sort it. It won't wash.