European carmakers led by Volkswagen could be forced to pay hundreds of millions of euros to Chinese electric vehicle rivals to buy carbon credits, as the auto sector tries to avoid potential fines for failing to meet 2025 pollution rules set by Brussels.
What the hell are they drinking in Brussels?
Trying to push the tech before it’s ready, is going to turn over the whole car industry to China.
Germany is about to become like the UK, only making top-end $100k domestic cars, with mass-production all either outsourced or imports.
You don't have to take every tweet that William posts at face value. In reality, the chances that EU car makers will pay anything to Chinese manufactures are approximately zero. While you might argue that the EU's approach towards driving the shift to EVs is flawed, the blame for falling behind the Chinese on EV production lies more with the car companies themselves than with the EU.
No, the blame lies entirely with the EU (and UK) for trying to push a technology that isn’t ready, including the infrastructure.
So the technology is ready for the Chinese but not for the EU and UK? That makes no sense at all.
Yes the Chinese are ahead on the technology.
So European governments have decided to sell out to the Chinese in the name of “Net Zero” rather than support their own domestic industries.
There's a bizarre left/right reversal going on here*, re subsidies/tariffs versus free trade. The new right is quite different to the one I grew up with and so, it seems, is the left. I'm still somewhere in the centre, but some of my formerly left-wing positions now seem right-wing and vice-versa!
*and elsewhere, US, for example
Yes it’s confusing isn’t it? I think the reason is that both wings are having a crisis of self confidence. Small state low tax doesn’t seem to be what people want. On the other hand they don’t want an overbearing bureaucracy either. Both sides are being driven to think outside the box with a consequential loss of coherence.
The neo-liberal era simply did not deliver for the majority of the electorate.
Ideological hokey-cokey is one of the morbid symptoms some dead Italian warned about.
More that, for ideological and convenience reasons, rules were not followed.
Free trade requires removing tariff and subsidy barriers.
It was decided, by quite a number of people, that in the case of China (for example) this should be replaced by stick fingers in ears and screaming LA-LA-LA.
This was convenient for consumers of Chinese goods. Management could out source all that pesky product stuff. CO2 emissions could be cut. No nasty factories to annoy NIMBYs. Ever dropping prices created deflation in a part of the economy to offset rampant property price inflation.
Very convenient, for quite a few people.
Your prose style always assumes some kind of conspiratorial premise.
“It was decided…” etc.
I wonder if there is a grammatical term for this.
It wasn’t a conspiracy - just groupthink. A collective move to “Outsourcing to Chinese manufacturing is good/inevitable.”
Gradually this became one of cornerstones of the policies of Decent People.
Some little time ago, the people behind the Raspberry Pi asked for a review of the tariffs on components vs finished items imported from China. Essentially you pay more on bits than on the finished product. Meaning that manufacturing in China is cheaper.
With some horror, the Foreign Office vetoed changes - “it might upset the Chinese”.
Despicable. These people should be sacked. And that's one of the kinder options that springs to mind.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
A friend of mine is fanatical about the German North coast. Says you could go to Cornwall ... or you could go to Germany and have a holiday in Germany which is half the price and so you can therefore afford to do twice the amount of stuff or stay somewhere twice as good. You still get the sandy dreamy summer coastiness, and you also get to explore a slightly different culture. Not a massive draw for someone who travels on expenses, I suppose.
I met two elderly German lesbians who were very keen on the north German coast, but also seemed a bit worried that it might get discovered and thereby ruined by non-Germans.
Why describe their sexuality? Is it relevant to their opinion of the north German coast?
It adds a little character, don’t you think?
Of course it does; ignore this hairy old twat
Perhaps you shouldn’t have mentioned their age, or nationality either, as that’s not strictly relevant? Like their sexuality?
In which case your anecdote would be
“I met two people who like the north German coast”
Yes, let’s make all of PB like that so we can all die of boredom
I thought death through boredom was the new PB house rule, following on from the banning of actual political matters.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
Visited Bayrischzell, Munich & Schliersee a few years back. Lovely part of the world.
Bavaria is brilliant. Far better than most of the toilets Leon visits. Fancy hotel or not.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
German food is fine if, like me, you like great hunks of flesh for dinner.
I have fond memories of jugged boar in the Prussian restaurant in Berlin. I wonder if it’s still there.
It’s fucking terrible
I still shudder at a Gazette assignment where I did six days luxury cruising down the Rhine
1. The Rhine is actually less attractive than you expect
2. The wine is a bit meh, TBH
3. You soon get bored of castles on the Rhine
4. Not a single decent meal all week, unless you count currywurst (which I do, coz it’s great)
Your mistake maybe was taking that cruise.
You should have gone on foot and occasionally, barge, as Paddy Lee Fermor did in the 30s.
European carmakers led by Volkswagen could be forced to pay hundreds of millions of euros to Chinese electric vehicle rivals to buy carbon credits, as the auto sector tries to avoid potential fines for failing to meet 2025 pollution rules set by Brussels.
What the hell are they drinking in Brussels?
Trying to push the tech before it’s ready, is going to turn over the whole car industry to China.
Germany is about to become like the UK, only making top-end $100k domestic cars, with mass-production all either outsourced or imports.
You don't have to take every tweet that William posts at face value. In reality, the chances that EU car makers will pay anything to Chinese manufactures are approximately zero. While you might argue that the EU's approach towards driving the shift to EVs is flawed, the blame for falling behind the Chinese on EV production lies more with the car companies themselves than with the EU.
No, the blame lies entirely with the EU (and UK) for trying to push a technology that isn’t ready, including the infrastructure.
So the technology is ready for the Chinese but not for the EU and UK? That makes no sense at all.
Yes the Chinese are ahead on the technology.
So European governments have decided to sell out to the Chinese in the name of “Net Zero” rather than support their own domestic industries.
There's a bizarre left/right reversal going on here*, re subsidies/tariffs versus free trade. The new right is quite different to the one I grew up with and so, it seems, is the left. I'm still somewhere in the centre, but some of my formerly left-wing positions now seem right-wing and vice-versa!
*and elsewhere, US, for example
Yes it’s confusing isn’t it? I think the reason is that both wings are having a crisis of self confidence. Small state low tax doesn’t seem to be what people want. On the other hand they don’t want an overbearing bureaucracy either. Both sides are being driven to think outside the box with a consequential loss of coherence.
The neo-liberal era simply did not deliver for the majority of the electorate.
Ideological hokey-cokey is one of the morbid symptoms some dead Italian warned about.
More that, for ideological and convenience reasons, rules were not followed.
Free trade requires removing tariff and subsidy barriers.
It was decided, by quite a number of people, that in the case of China (for example) this should be replaced by stick fingers in ears and screaming LA-LA-LA.
This was convenient for consumers of Chinese goods. Management could out source all that pesky product stuff. CO2 emissions could be cut. No nasty factories to annoy NIMBYs. Ever dropping prices created deflation in a part of the economy to offset rampant property price inflation.
Very convenient, for quite a few people.
Your prose style always assumes some kind of conspiratorial premise.
“It was decided…” etc.
I wonder if there is a grammatical term for this.
It wasn’t a conspiracy - just groupthink. A collective move to “Outsourcing to Chinese manufacturing is good/inevitable.”
Gradually this became one of cornerstones of the policies of Decent People.
Some little time ago, the people behind the Raspberry Pi asked for a review of the tariffs on components vs finished items imported from China. Essentially you pay more on bits than on the finished product. Meaning that manufacturing in China is cheaper.
With some horror, the Foreign Office vetoed changes - “it might upset the Chinese”.
Despicable. These people should be sacked. And that's one of the kinder options that springs to mind.
Sack everyone in government, think tanks, business… sack the consumers for enjoying the cheap imported goods?
Who exactly is left?
Society made a collective mistake. Bit like pricing Greek government debt like German government debt - it wasn’t just a couple of blokes at Goldmans. It was whole swathes of people, across Europe and the world.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
This could make an outstandingly good stand-up routine. Mel Brooks would pay good money for this riff.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
This could make an outstandingly good stand-up routine. Mel Brooks would pay good money for this riff.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
Agree about the food.
On the subject of food I am going to make a whole list of British puddings for friends. I love traditional puddings done well and was going to make a visit to the pudding club, but I'm not sure about it now, so I am going to do it myself to be eaten after long dog walks.
Yesterday was a Stilton and Walnut tart (made with puff pasty and lots of caramelised onions) followed by Damson Crumble and Bread and Butter pudding. Not had bread and butter pudding since my kids were children.
Next I am going for a Treacle pudding (Not to be confused with a syrup pudding. Has to be made with black treacle).
So far I have about 15 on my list.
Anyway back to the next batch of marmalade making.
One of my fantasy occupations is opening a small bistro somewhere in deep France, serving up cunningly disguised British classics with French names.
Shepherds pie (hachis parmentier d'agneau), Lancashire hotpot (marmite d'agneau au gratin), Cornish pasty (pithivier Breton), Welsh Rarebit (well they have that already and call it "Le Welsh"). etc etc. Hot puddings would be harder to disguise - except Le Crumble which is now a French staple - but creme anglaise is easy enough to sell.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
Tbf there's quite a bit of denial about gas chambers in camps that actually did have them.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
German food is fine if, like me, you like great hunks of flesh for dinner.
I have fond memories of jugged boar in the Prussian restaurant in Berlin. I wonder if it’s still there.
It’s fucking terrible
I still shudder at a Gazette assignment where I did six days luxury cruising down the Rhine
1. The Rhine is actually less attractive than you expect
2. The wine is a bit meh, TBH
3. You soon get bored of castles on the Rhine
4. Not a single decent meal all week, unless you count currywurst (which I do, coz it’s great)
Your mistake maybe was taking that cruise.
You should have gone on foot and occasionally, barge, as Paddy Lee Fermor did in the 30s.
I absolutely detest currywurst.
Legacy of the postwar British occupation, I think ?
The best pizza I ever had was in Düsseldorf four decades ago. Fresh baked in stone ovens street food. Do they still do it ?
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
A friend of mine is fanatical about the German North coast. Says you could go to Cornwall ... or you could go to Germany and have a holiday in Germany which is half the price and so you can therefore afford to do twice the amount of stuff or stay somewhere twice as good. You still get the sandy dreamy summer coastiness, and you also get to explore a slightly different culture. Not a massive draw for someone who travels on expenses, I suppose.
We used to visit the Lubeck area a lot. Quite attractive. Doesn't get that many tourists.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
This could make an outstandingly good stand-up routine. Mel Brooks would pay good money for this riff.
They do have the best meme-able bunker scene in a film about the last weeks of a losing dictator though.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
A friend of mine is fanatical about the German North coast. Says you could go to Cornwall ... or you could go to Germany and have a holiday in Germany which is half the price and so you can therefore afford to do twice the amount of stuff or stay somewhere twice as good. You still get the sandy dreamy summer coastiness, and you also get to explore a slightly different culture. Not a massive draw for someone who travels on expenses, I suppose.
My SiL is from Schwelsig-Holstein, so I have been a few times to the Baltic coast, and also to the Friesan islands. More like North Norfolk than Cornwall, in my opinion, with big flat beaches and dunes, and quite dry but windy summers. Quite pleasant and few foreign tourists, but if it wasn't for family reasons I wouldn't go twice.
“Fiona and Dan don't think any future CQC investigation into Leeds could be independent with the trust's former chief executive in charge of the regulator.
Sir Julian Hartley led the trust for 10 years, until January 2023, and was in post when Aliona died. He took over the CQC in December 2024.”
Definitely not a #NU10K revolving door there, not at all.
The leadership conflict of interest is troubling.
On Leeds, it's hard to draw conclusions from the story. LGI is a special case in terms of the babies they take in, so higher mortality doesn't by itself necessarily tell a story. The individual stories have more weight, but sadly I suspect there are horror stories from most maternity wards* at the moment.
You'd need detailed clinical review or, at the very least, modelling with case-mix adjustment to have any idea whether Leeds is anomalous on safety.
*a somewhat troubling fact as we'll be attending one within the next eight weeks
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
I know I shouldn’t laugh, but that’s very good.
There’s a joke about outsourcing to Russia and then North Korea, in there.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
A friend of mine is fanatical about the German North coast. Says you could go to Cornwall ... or you could go to Germany and have a holiday in Germany which is half the price and so you can therefore afford to do twice the amount of stuff or stay somewhere twice as good. You still get the sandy dreamy summer coastiness, and you also get to explore a slightly different culture. Not a massive draw for someone who travels on expenses, I suppose.
My SiL is from Schwelsig-Holstein, so I have been a few times to the Baltic coast, and also to the Friesan islands. More like North Norfolk than Cornwall, in my opinion, with big flat beaches and dunes, and quite dry but windy summers. Quite pleasant and few foreign tourists, but if it wasn't for family reasons I wouldn't go twice.
The lesbians were talking about the Pomeranian coast. Rugen, I think. Been there?
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
Agree about the food.
On the subject of food I am going to make a whole list of British puddings for friends. I love traditional puddings done well and was going to make a visit to the pudding club, but I'm not sure about it now, so I am going to do it myself to be eaten after long dog walks.
Yesterday was a Stilton and Walnut tart (made with puff pasty and lots of caramelised onions) followed by Damson Crumble and Bread and Butter pudding. Not had bread and butter pudding since my kids were children.
Next I am going for a Treacle pudding (Not to be confused with a syrup pudding. Has to be made with black treacle).
So far I have about 15 on my list.
Anyway back to the next batch of marmalade making.
One of my fantasy occupations is opening a small bistro somewhere in deep France, serving up cunningly disguised British classics with French names.
Shepherds pie (hachis parmentier d'agneau), Lancashire hotpot (marmite d'agneau au gratin), Cornish pasty (pithivier Breton), Welsh Rarebit (well they have that already and call it "Le Welsh"). etc etc. Hot puddings would be harder to disguise - except Le Crumble which is now a French staple - but creme anglaise is easy enough to sell.
The French have no especial need of this. Can you open it in New York?
"The UK is a country with the reserves in the North Sea to be self-sufficient in gas for many years to come. Yet oil companies are being stymied in developing new fields due to a nihilistic climate agenda. Nihilistic, in that such obstruction means that the UK is forced to import LNG from far afield – only adding to Scope 3 emissions in the process."
Why on earth is the country embarked on suicidal self inflicted impoverishment?
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
A friend of mine is fanatical about the German North coast. Says you could go to Cornwall ... or you could go to Germany and have a holiday in Germany which is half the price and so you can therefore afford to do twice the amount of stuff or stay somewhere twice as good. You still get the sandy dreamy summer coastiness, and you also get to explore a slightly different culture. Not a massive draw for someone who travels on expenses, I suppose.
My SiL is from Schwelsig-Holstein, so I have been a few times to the Baltic coast, and also to the Friesan islands. More like North Norfolk than Cornwall, in my opinion, with big flat beaches and dunes, and quite dry but windy summers. Quite pleasant and few foreign tourists, but if it wasn't for family reasons I wouldn't go twice.
The lesbians were talking about the Pomeranian coast. Rugen, I think. Been there?
Sopot on the Polish Baltic coast is lovely in high summer. As is the barrier island of the Hel Peninsular. Which has the actual highway to Hel…
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
German food is fine if, like me, you like great hunks of flesh for dinner.
I have fond memories of jugged boar in the Prussian restaurant in Berlin. I wonder if it’s still there.
It’s fucking terrible
I still shudder at a Gazette assignment where I did six days luxury cruising down the Rhine
1. The Rhine is actually less attractive than you expect
2. The wine is a bit meh, TBH
3. You soon get bored of castles on the Rhine
4. Not a single decent meal all week, unless you count currywurst (which I do, coz it’s great)
Your mistake maybe was taking that cruise.
You should have gone on foot and occasionally, barge, as Paddy Lee Fermor did in the 30s.
I absolutely detest currywurst.
Legacy of the postwar British occupation, I think ?
The best pizza I ever had was in Düsseldorf four decades ago. Fresh baked in stone ovens street food. Do they still do it ?
I ate very well in Hamburg in 2023. Particularly good vegan and Vietnamese restaurants, and a lovely city to walk around, with big lakes and parks and a general air of prosperity. Apart from seedy stag parties in St Pauli not a lot of tourists, though I was there really for work.
I disagree. There is a veneer of economic output in places, and not even that in large parts of the country. Hospitality appears to have had a poor Christmas, retail likewise. People are struggling for money and that means they can't spend it in sufficient quantities to keep the economy turning.
Seriously, there's an awful lot of towns and some cities which are visibly broken in places, with a lack of money and ideas to turn it around. When your community is visibly tatty and its getting worse not better, its no wonder people feel gloomy.
Ive referred to it as low grade crappiness. Far too many basic things dont work or work badly, with a general expectation that the government cannot afford to fix things even as they take more from us and talk in grandiose terms that can come to look delusional.
We're rich in global terms, but we're waking up to the fact were poorer than we thought, but not enough to have a plan to turn it atound.
The part that bemuses me most is the idiotic thinking that cuts save money. That we can simply spend less and cut teacher numbers, or cut the social provision for services in poor areas, or cut the number of police officers.
Cut the service and the need doesn't magically disappear. In each of these examples we're then spending MORE mopping up the mess than we have saved. Its utterly stupid, this post-Thatcherite "we can't afford it" mentality where its "who pays" instead of "who benefits". We can't afford not to have enough teachers. We have to pay more for temp staff. You can't cut youth provision in poor areas without paying more to fix the inevitable damage they cause. A complete lack of available police in NE towns so that there's no police at all and petty crime goes off the scale? Madness.
The reason why Reform are connecting with punters is that they are calling out the madness and offering obvious solutions. Such as crack down on crime. I think the right have a view of the left being soft on crime. Go ask WWC people in run down areas what they would like done to thieves and vandals - they don't want soft...
Harsher punishments won't work.
What people actually want is for thieves and vandals not to commit crimes in the first place.
In the absence of a culture where people don't do that just because it's morally the wrong thing (which is what binds most people), then the most effective answer is not a bloody penal code but the likelihood of them being caught, prosecuted and convicted. For all but lifestyle criminals or those who are desperate, that's enough.
Break their arms when caught , that will put them off
Like @Gardenwalker I’m quite partial to German food (Wurst, sauerkraut , wiener Schnitzel, smoked pigs’ trotters etc.)
And, the Bavarian alps are breathtaking.
When I lived in Vienna there were stands everywhere selling that sort of thing. The smell and the sizzle made it hard to resist (esp in the winter months) and I rarely did. I'd say on most days during my time there I'd have a sausage of some sort in the open air.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
I know I shouldn’t laugh, but that’s very good.
Thankyou, kind of you, in the circumstances
The key to the joke is the idea that some visitor would be so "cheesed off" at the lack of gas chambers in Dachau, they would volubly ask for their money back
The Trump discourse will be interesting in the next 4 years because neither of the 2 main parties will be able to speak or post completely openly on it. They'll be held back by diplomacy. So Lib Dem vs Reform becomes a sort of proxy war.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
This could make an outstandingly good stand-up routine. Mel Brooks would pay good money for this riff.
They do have the best meme-able bunker scene in a film about the last weeks of a losing dictator though.
It's interesting to compare the German Production Der Wannsee Konferenz with the BBC/HBO remake, Conspiracy, with Kenneth Branagh.
The latter is certainly better television, more gripping, but the former is, I suspect, closer to the reality. Seedy little men, sharing seedy little jokes, as they plan genocide. Evil is more often banal than it is charismatic.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
The standard of reporting by mainstream media in this country is absolutely appalling! Sadly to my disappointment, not least because it's not as funny, she has been abysmally misquoted and what she said was coherent! At least on this occasion.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
A friend of mine is fanatical about the German North coast. Says you could go to Cornwall ... or you could go to Germany and have a holiday in Germany which is half the price and so you can therefore afford to do twice the amount of stuff or stay somewhere twice as good. You still get the sandy dreamy summer coastiness, and you also get to explore a slightly different culture. Not a massive draw for someone who travels on expenses, I suppose.
My SiL is from Schwelsig-Holstein, so I have been a few times to the Baltic coast, and also to the Friesan islands. More like North Norfolk than Cornwall, in my opinion, with big flat beaches and dunes, and quite dry but windy summers. Quite pleasant and few foreign tourists, but if it wasn't for family reasons I wouldn't go twice.
The lesbians were talking about the Pomeranian coast. Rugen, I think. Been there?
No, North of the Kiel canal.
In Rugen you can stay in a reconditioned Nazi holiday resort, if that is your thing.
The way to deal with the problem of drunken passengers on planes is to ban those particular people from flying again. It is not to implement a blanket ban on everyone else from drinking more than two glasses of beer, wine, etc. Punish the guilty people, not everyone else. Of course, organisations love implementing those type of bans on everyone because it means they don't have to go to the trouble of proving that the troublemakers have actually done what they're accused of. That's too much like hard work for these companies.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
I really like German cities. I think they are what cities should be, and often aren't. Good museums, nice parks, plenty of recreation, working transport systems, shops you might want to buy stuff at etc. There's usually some kind of festival running.
"The UK is a country with the reserves in the North Sea to be self-sufficient in gas for many years to come. Yet oil companies are being stymied in developing new fields due to a nihilistic climate agenda. Nihilistic, in that such obstruction means that the UK is forced to import LNG from far afield – only adding to Scope 3 emissions in the process."
Why on earth is the country embarked on suicidal self inflicted impoverishment?
There will be a bunch of bureaucrats, somewhere, who make a good living out of preventing such projects.
In our economy, there are very many people who make a good living through regulation, imposing obstacles, writing policy papers, bidding for funding and advising others on bidding from funding, as opposed to inventing, and running businesses at a profit.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
Agree about the food.
On the subject of food I am going to make a whole list of British puddings for friends. I love traditional puddings done well and was going to make a visit to the pudding club, but I'm not sure about it now, so I am going to do it myself to be eaten after long dog walks.
Yesterday was a Stilton and Walnut tart (made with puff pasty and lots of caramelised onions) followed by Damson Crumble and Bread and Butter pudding. Not had bread and butter pudding since my kids were children.
Next I am going for a Treacle pudding (Not to be confused with a syrup pudding. Has to be made with black treacle).
So far I have about 15 on my list.
Anyway back to the next batch of marmalade making.
One of my fantasy occupations is opening a small bistro somewhere in deep France, serving up cunningly disguised British classics with French names.
Shepherds pie (hachis parmentier d'agneau), Lancashire hotpot (marmite d'agneau au gratin), Cornish pasty (pithivier Breton), Welsh Rarebit (well they have that already and call it "Le Welsh"). etc etc. Hot puddings would be harder to disguise - except Le Crumble which is now a French staple - but creme anglaise is easy enough to sell.
The French have no especial need of this. Can you open it in New York?
I could, but the shepherd's pie would be $45 before the 30% gratuity.
If Germany had FPTP then it would be a CDU/CSU landslide majority. On that poll they are forecast to win 208 constituencies, the AfD 50 and the SPD just 35 with the Greens on 5 and Left 1.
As Germany has PR though it is likely to mean a hung parliament and another Union and SPD grand coalition government, as has been the case since 2005 with the brief interruption of the 2009-2013 Union and FDP government and the current SPD, FDP and Green government.
The AfD would be clear main Opposition though to the Union and SPD
Like @Gardenwalker I’m quite partial to German food (Wurst, sauerkraut , wiener Schnitzel, smoked pigs’ trotters etc.)
And, the Bavarian alps are breathtaking.
When I lived in Vienna there were stands everywhere selling that sort of thing. The smell and the sizzle made it hard to resist (esp in the winter months) and I rarely did. I'd say on most days during my time there I'd have a sausage of some sort in the open air.
The sausages are genuinely excellent
And the beer is consistently good
So you can have a nice gastronomic time in Germany if you consume only sausages and beer - which doesn't sound hideous, in truth: at least for a weekend
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
A friend of mine is fanatical about the German North coast. Says you could go to Cornwall ... or you could go to Germany and have a holiday in Germany which is half the price and so you can therefore afford to do twice the amount of stuff or stay somewhere twice as good. You still get the sandy dreamy summer coastiness, and you also get to explore a slightly different culture. Not a massive draw for someone who travels on expenses, I suppose.
My SiL is from Schwelsig-Holstein, so I have been a few times to the Baltic coast, and also to the Friesan islands. More like North Norfolk than Cornwall, in my opinion, with big flat beaches and dunes, and quite dry but windy summers. Quite pleasant and few foreign tourists, but if it wasn't for family reasons I wouldn't go twice.
The lesbians were talking about the Pomeranian coast. Rugen, I think. Been there?
No, North of the Kiel canal.
In Rugen you can stay in a reconditioned Nazi holiday resort, if that is your thing.
I've had to drive up that way a couple of times for work, from Hamburg up over the Kiel canal and into the far South of Denmark. Proper back of beyond. Makes Billund seem like a Megalopolis.
Like @Gardenwalker I’m quite partial to German food (Wurst, sauerkraut , wiener Schnitzel, smoked pigs’ trotters etc.)
And, the Bavarian alps are breathtaking.
When I lived in Vienna there were stands everywhere selling that sort of thing. The smell and the sizzle made it hard to resist (esp in the winter months) and I rarely did. I'd say on most days during my time there I'd have a sausage of some sort in the open air.
The sausages are genuinely excellent
And the beer is consistently good
So you can have a nice gastronomic time in Germany if you consume only sausages and beer - which doesn't sound hideous, in truth: at least for a weekend
The coffee, bread and pastries in Hamburg are excellent.
Quite a few of the bakeries are better than their equivalents in France.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
Given it is free to get in , hmmmm
First I came for the gas chambers And I did not see owt Because they did not have any Then I came for a refund And I did not get owt Because I had not paid
Let’s be honest though, she finds herself clarifying her words a lot.
Kemi is a bit of a contradiction. On one hand she likes to play up her creds as this straight-talking, brave, out-of-the-box political disruptor. But then when she comes under scrutiny her fall back is too often that she’s been misrepresented, didn’t really mean it, etc etc.
She needs to decide what she wants to be. As I’ve been said before, in many ways she can be an engaging and interesting politician but engaging in doublethink torpedos her USP.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
Given it is free to get in , hmmmm
@malcolmg I'm going to break the PB rule of a lifetime and admit the above story is largely a lie
In truth, I didn't get so annoyed at the lack of gas chambers in Dachau that I loudly demanded a refund of my entrance fee
"The UK is a country with the reserves in the North Sea to be self-sufficient in gas for many years to come. Yet oil companies are being stymied in developing new fields due to a nihilistic climate agenda. Nihilistic, in that such obstruction means that the UK is forced to import LNG from far afield – only adding to Scope 3 emissions in the process."
Why on earth is the country embarked on suicidal self inflicted impoverishment?
It makes some people feel good. Destroying our own oil/gas industry only to import it from unpleasant regimes in the Middle East is ridiculous.
Like @Gardenwalker I’m quite partial to German food (Wurst, sauerkraut , wiener Schnitzel, smoked pigs’ trotters etc.)
And, the Bavarian alps are breathtaking.
When I lived in Vienna there were stands everywhere selling that sort of thing. The smell and the sizzle made it hard to resist (esp in the winter months) and I rarely did. I'd say on most days during my time there I'd have a sausage of some sort in the open air.
The sausages are genuinely excellent
And the beer is consistently good
So you can have a nice gastronomic time in Germany if you consume only sausages and beer - which doesn't sound hideous, in truth: at least for a weekend
The coffee, bread and pastries in Hamburg are excellent.
Quite a few of the bakeries are better than their equivalents in France.
Scott Manley has upset the SpaceX fanbois with this:
"Given that this is disrupting aircraft downrange, I would be wanting an investigation before I let starship fly again.
I'd want to know what kind of debris risk we're dealing with, starship is big and designed to handle reentry.
Is the explosion the result of a tank failure or the FTS? We might reasonably ask whether trying to destroy such a large object is the best option in an emergency or whether it's safer to let it come down in as few pieces as possible."
(The debris came down in open international airspace, with airliners around)
It was in the FAA defined hazard corridor - in the flight plan. Such corridors are a mandatory part of licensing for all launches. And are released as notifications to pilots.
In fact the notifications going out on airspace restrictions and hazards are the first confirmation of the scheduling of a space launch, usually. The announcement of the launch license itself often comes later.
The FTS is fired according to defined limits (again agreed with the licensing authorities) - there’s no ground button to push. The usual main ones are the vehicle leaving (or heading to leave) the hazard corridor, or loss of control. The FTS is controlled from a separate box on the vehicle that monitors various numbers.
And do you have a *reliable* source for your claim that the FTS fired within defined limits?
I’ll have to dig - but the warning went out on the corridor, by the FAA.
That’s how FTSs work - they all have to follow agreed, defined rules. Its controlled by a separate computer on the vehicle. There isn’t a bloke with a button, on the ground.
AIUI it works *both* ways: a destruct can be called from the ground *or* by the vehicle itself. Usually the Range Safety Officer is responsible for making the call on the ground. From memory, the ground call bypasses much of the logic on the vehicle and directly triggers the FTS via a different route and processors.
For manned flights in the US, the self-destruct sent by the RSO can be delayed to allow the crew time to escape (if possible...)
Like @Gardenwalker I’m quite partial to German food (Wurst, sauerkraut , wiener Schnitzel, smoked pigs’ trotters etc.)
And, the Bavarian alps are breathtaking.
When I lived in Vienna there were stands everywhere selling that sort of thing. The smell and the sizzle made it hard to resist (esp in the winter months) and I rarely did. I'd say on most days during my time there I'd have a sausage of some sort in the open air.
The sausages are genuinely excellent
And the beer is consistently good
So you can have a nice gastronomic time in Germany if you consume only sausages and beer - which doesn't sound hideous, in truth: at least for a weekend
Have an annual trip to Stuttgart for a trade fair; January. Always a treat to load up on pork/beef-based protein and the cleanest beer you can imagine.
A few years back it was moved to the summer. It didn't work at all. Had to eat in Italian and French restaurants the whole time!
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
It has pieces of film equipment that no other country has. A little known fact unless you work in that business. All countries to a greater or lesser extent use German equipment but they always keep a few bits back that only they know about. It is always a great pleasure working with their always new kit and often unique bunch of tricks
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
This could make an outstandingly good stand-up routine. Mel Brooks would pay good money for this riff.
They do have the best meme-able bunker scene in a film about the last weeks of a losing dictator though.
It's interesting to compare the German Production Der Wannsee Konferenz with the BBC/HBO remake, Conspiracy, with Kenneth Branagh.
The latter is certainly better television, more gripping, but the former is, I suspect, closer to the reality. Seedy little men, sharing seedy little jokes, as they plan genocide. Evil is more often banal than it is charismatic.
Two things stand out on that score: Heydrich reportedly expected resistance to his proposals, and instead found only approval - and the language of bureaucracy in the records likely doesn't reflect the reality of the discussion.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_Conference ...At the conclusion of the meeting, Heydrich gave Eichmann firm instructions about what was to appear in the minutes. They were not to be verbatim: Eichmann ensured that nothing too explicit appeared in them. He said at his trial: "How shall I put it – certain over-plain talk and jargon expressions had to be rendered into office language by me."..
As mentioned the other day, much of the West is at the sort of tipping point we saw in 1945 and in 1979.
There needs to be radical change, and the people are going to vote for those offering it.
Starmer is fiddling while Rome burns, rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, or whatever is your preferred metaphor for making only minor changes when major changes are required.
Yes but what are these “major changes” of which you speak? I imagine it’s the tired old mantra of spending cuts which affect the poorest the hardest as public services are reduced or withdrawn and tax cuts which will inevitably only make the richest richer still and accelerate wealth inequality.
It’s not either 1945 or 1979 and the “solutions” then won’t be the solutions now.
In truth nobody has come up with an effective economic model to promote growth since the collapse of the last Ponzi scheme in 2008.
Oh indeed so.
At least the Americans are about to try and do something, even if you disagree with it and dislike the characters involved. It may or may not work, but at least they’re trying.
Meanwhile, European governments are either going nowhere or electing fringe politicians.
It’s going to be a turbulent few years ahead for us all.
Argentina maybe. Trump won't touch Social Security or Medicare.
He will pay for his tax cuts for the 1% of the 1% with ramped up borrowing. It will be inflationary, and quite a sugar rush of growth, at the expense of long term worsening of the American finances.
Trump is very much gunning for the cost of Medicare, and the legislation that forces them to pay list price for drugs while the phama companies take doctors on fancy holidays and advertise on TV.
He did nothing about either Medicare or Social Security in his first term, just ramped up borrowing to give tax cuts to the broligarchy.
Sandpit is rewriting some history here, as Republicans voted against attempts to address that drug pricing he complains of. He also doesn't seem to understand how the healthcare market works in the US.
Medicare accounts for around a fifth of healthcare spending in the US, and Part D - the drugs bit - about a quarter of that fifth. The Biden legislation already addresses 20% of that drugs spend.
That's still a large chunk of change, but it's not going to do more than tickle the funding for Trump's proposed tax cut.
Perhaps we in the UK/EU might not want Medicare drugs to be price capped. Their high prices cover the development costs for poorer economies like ours.
I disagree. There is a veneer of economic output in places, and not even that in large parts of the country. Hospitality appears to have had a poor Christmas, retail likewise. People are struggling for money and that means they can't spend it in sufficient quantities to keep the economy turning.
Seriously, there's an awful lot of towns and some cities which are visibly broken in places, with a lack of money and ideas to turn it around. When your community is visibly tatty and its getting worse not better, its no wonder people feel gloomy.
Ive referred to it as low grade crappiness. Far too many basic things dont work or work badly, with a general expectation that the government cannot afford to fix things even as they take more from us and talk in grandiose terms that can come to look delusional.
We're rich in global terms, but we're waking up to the fact were poorer than we thought, but not enough to have a plan to turn it atound.
The part that bemuses me most is the idiotic thinking that cuts save money. That we can simply spend less and cut teacher numbers, or cut the social provision for services in poor areas, or cut the number of police officers.
Cut the service and the need doesn't magically disappear. In each of these examples we're then spending MORE mopping up the mess than we have saved. Its utterly stupid, this post-Thatcherite "we can't afford it" mentality where its "who pays" instead of "who benefits". We can't afford not to have enough teachers. We have to pay more for temp staff. You can't cut youth provision in poor areas without paying more to fix the inevitable damage they cause. A complete lack of available police in NE towns so that there's no police at all and petty crime goes off the scale? Madness.
The reason why Reform are connecting with punters is that they are calling out the madness and offering obvious solutions. Such as crack down on crime. I think the right have a view of the left being soft on crime. Go ask WWC people in run down areas what they would like done to thieves and vandals - they don't want soft...
Harsher punishments won't work.
What people actually want is for thieves and vandals not to commit crimes in the first place.
In the absence of a culture where people don't do that just because it's morally the wrong thing (which is what binds most people), then the most effective answer is not a bloody penal code but the likelihood of them being caught, prosecuted and convicted. For all but lifestyle criminals or those who are desperate, that's enough.
The crucial understanding is that most theft (for instance) is the result of the activities of a fairly small number of hardened criminals. Lock them all up, and the theft rate will fall dramatically.
If your third burglary conviction lands you with 20 years in the nick, that's 20 years where you won't be committing burglaries.
Forget harsher punishments to be nasty to criminals as a deterant - unfortunately there's little evidence that works. The fix is prison to get them out of society, where they can't commit crime.
I disagree. There is a veneer of economic output in places, and not even that in large parts of the country. Hospitality appears to have had a poor Christmas, retail likewise. People are struggling for money and that means they can't spend it in sufficient quantities to keep the economy turning.
Seriously, there's an awful lot of towns and some cities which are visibly broken in places, with a lack of money and ideas to turn it around. When your community is visibly tatty and its getting worse not better, its no wonder people feel gloomy.
Ive referred to it as low grade crappiness. Far too many basic things dont work or work badly, with a general expectation that the government cannot afford to fix things even as they take more from us and talk in grandiose terms that can come to look delusional.
We're rich in global terms, but we're waking up to the fact were poorer than we thought, but not enough to have a plan to turn it atound.
The part that bemuses me most is the idiotic thinking that cuts save money. That we can simply spend less and cut teacher numbers, or cut the social provision for services in poor areas, or cut the number of police officers.
Cut the service and the need doesn't magically disappear. In each of these examples we're then spending MORE mopping up the mess than we have saved. Its utterly stupid, this post-Thatcherite "we can't afford it" mentality where its "who pays" instead of "who benefits". We can't afford not to have enough teachers. We have to pay more for temp staff. You can't cut youth provision in poor areas without paying more to fix the inevitable damage they cause. A complete lack of available police in NE towns so that there's no police at all and petty crime goes off the scale? Madness.
The reason why Reform are connecting with punters is that they are calling out the madness and offering obvious solutions. Such as crack down on crime. I think the right have a view of the left being soft on crime. Go ask WWC people in run down areas what they would like done to thieves and vandals - they don't want soft...
Harsher punishments won't work.
What people actually want is for thieves and vandals not to commit crimes in the first place.
In the absence of a culture where people don't do that just because it's morally the wrong thing (which is what binds most people), then the most effective answer is not a bloody penal code but the likelihood of them being caught, prosecuted and convicted. For all but lifestyle criminals or those who are desperate, that's enough.
If a burglar is in prison you know they're not committing further burglaries.
He said that at another jail, foreign-recruited prison officers had set up a camp in a wooded area opposite the prison where they were working after discovering that there was no accommodation provided with the job.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
A friend of mine is fanatical about the German North coast. Says you could go to Cornwall ... or you could go to Germany and have a holiday in Germany which is half the price and so you can therefore afford to do twice the amount of stuff or stay somewhere twice as good. You still get the sandy dreamy summer coastiness, and you also get to explore a slightly different culture. Not a massive draw for someone who travels on expenses, I suppose.
My SiL is from Schwelsig-Holstein, so I have been a few times to the Baltic coast, and also to the Friesan islands. More like North Norfolk than Cornwall, in my opinion, with big flat beaches and dunes, and quite dry but windy summers. Quite pleasant and few foreign tourists, but if it wasn't for family reasons I wouldn't go twice.
The lesbians were talking about the Pomeranian coast. Rugen, I think. Been there?
Sopot on the Polish Baltic coast is lovely in high summer. As is the barrier island of the Hel Peninsular. Which has the actual highway to Hel…
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
It has pieces of film equipment that no other country has. A little known fact unless you work in that business. All countries to a greater or lesser extent use German equipment but they always keep a few bits back that only they know about. It is always a great pleasure working with their always new kit and often unique bunch of tricks
German optics are still essential for leading edge chip manufacturing.
Can you give us an example of this unique film kit ?
Fascinating, in my Rangoon Burma hotel room, to watch CNN as they try to cover the Trump inauguration with a semblance of neutrality. You sense their underlying agony, but they are giving it a go
Also, I recommend a trip to Rangoon Burma RIGHT NOW
Don't expect to see any of the country due to the civil war, but if you like excellent 5 star hotels with brilliant food, nice gym, ace pool, for about £40 a night, Rangoon Burma rocks
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
A friend of mine is fanatical about the German North coast. Says you could go to Cornwall ... or you could go to Germany and have a holiday in Germany which is half the price and so you can therefore afford to do twice the amount of stuff or stay somewhere twice as good. You still get the sandy dreamy summer coastiness, and you also get to explore a slightly different culture. Not a massive draw for someone who travels on expenses, I suppose.
My SiL is from Schwelsig-Holstein, so I have been a few times to the Baltic coast, and also to the Friesan islands. More like North Norfolk than Cornwall, in my opinion, with big flat beaches and dunes, and quite dry but windy summers. Quite pleasant and few foreign tourists, but if it wasn't for family reasons I wouldn't go twice.
The lesbians were talking about the Pomeranian coast. Rugen, I think. Been there?
Sopot on the Polish Baltic coast is lovely in high summer. As is the barrier island of the Hel Peninsular. Which has the actual highway to Hel…
As mentioned the other day, much of the West is at the sort of tipping point we saw in 1945 and in 1979.
There needs to be radical change, and the people are going to vote for those offering it.
Starmer is fiddling while Rome burns, rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, or whatever is your preferred metaphor for making only minor changes when major changes are required.
Yes but what are these “major changes” of which you speak? I imagine it’s the tired old mantra of spending cuts which affect the poorest the hardest as public services are reduced or withdrawn and tax cuts which will inevitably only make the richest richer still and accelerate wealth inequality.
It’s not either 1945 or 1979 and the “solutions” then won’t be the solutions now.
In truth nobody has come up with an effective economic model to promote growth since the collapse of the last Ponzi scheme in 2008.
Oh indeed so.
At least the Americans are about to try and do something, even if you disagree with it and dislike the characters involved. It may or may not work, but at least they’re trying.
Meanwhile, European governments are either going nowhere or electing fringe politicians.
It’s going to be a turbulent few years ahead for us all.
Argentina maybe. Trump won't touch Social Security or Medicare.
He will pay for his tax cuts for the 1% of the 1% with ramped up borrowing. It will be inflationary, and quite a sugar rush of growth, at the expense of long term worsening of the American finances.
Trump is very much gunning for the cost of Medicare, and the legislation that forces them to pay list price for drugs while the phama companies take doctors on fancy holidays and advertise on TV.
He did nothing about either Medicare or Social Security in his first term, just ramped up borrowing to give tax cuts to the broligarchy.
Sandpit is rewriting some history here, as Republicans voted against attempts to address that drug pricing he complains of. He also doesn't seem to understand how the healthcare market works in the US.
Medicare accounts for around a fifth of healthcare spending in the US, and Part D - the drugs bit - about a quarter of that fifth. The Biden legislation already addresses 20% of that drugs spend.
That's still a large chunk of change, but it's not going to do more than tickle the funding for Trump's proposed tax cut.
Perhaps we in the UK/EU might not want Medicare drugs to be price capped. Their high prices cover the development costs for poorer economies like ours.
Perhaps, yes. But the market is changing, as it's both much larger - China is now a consumer, for example - and there are many more players (China again, India, S Korea etc) who weren't particularly, or at all significant. a couple of decades ago.
Are any of theatre's great dames other than Judi Dench still left ?
(edit) Apols to Eileen Atkins, who is still with us at 90.
Theatrical Dames still with us: Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Harriet Walter. I hope I haven't jinxed them by mentioning them.
After Maggie Smith passed away the BBC showed a heartwarming doc, Nothing like a dame, a fly on the wall at Atkins, Dench, Plowright and Smith's annual meetup.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
A friend of mine is fanatical about the German North coast. Says you could go to Cornwall ... or you could go to Germany and have a holiday in Germany which is half the price and so you can therefore afford to do twice the amount of stuff or stay somewhere twice as good. You still get the sandy dreamy summer coastiness, and you also get to explore a slightly different culture. Not a massive draw for someone who travels on expenses, I suppose.
My SiL is from Schwelsig-Holstein, so I have been a few times to the Baltic coast, and also to the Friesan islands. More like North Norfolk than Cornwall, in my opinion, with big flat beaches and dunes, and quite dry but windy summers. Quite pleasant and few foreign tourists, but if it wasn't for family reasons I wouldn't go twice.
The lesbians were talking about the Pomeranian coast. Rugen, I think. Been there?
Sopot on the Polish Baltic coast is lovely in high summer. As is the barrier island of the Hel Peninsular. Which has the actual highway to Hel…
And at the posh end:
Hel has a fantastic skydiving dropzone. The runway has water on both sides, and your landing is on the beach right on the end of the peninsula. Get the landing pattern right and you can land barefoot on beautiful soft pale sand. Get it wrong on any of three of the four compass points and you have to dump your kit in the sea and start swimming to land before you drown in Hel.
"The UK is a country with the reserves in the North Sea to be self-sufficient in gas for many years to come. Yet oil companies are being stymied in developing new fields due to a nihilistic climate agenda. Nihilistic, in that such obstruction means that the UK is forced to import LNG from far afield – only adding to Scope 3 emissions in the process."
Why on earth is the country embarked on suicidal self inflicted impoverishment?
Fascinating, in my Rangoon Burma hotel room, to watch CNN as they try to cover the Trump inauguration with a semblance of neutrality. You sense their underlying agony, but they are giving it a go
Also, I recommend a trip to Rangoon Burma RIGHT NOW
Don't expect to see any of the country due to the civil war, but if you like excellent 5 star hotels with brilliant food, nice gym, ace pool, for about £40 a night, Rangoon Burma rocks
Just had a look and the top hotel is £100 a night, everything else cheaper.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
Agree about the food.
On the subject of food I am going to make a whole list of British puddings for friends. I love traditional puddings done well and was going to make a visit to the pudding club, but I'm not sure about it now, so I am going to do it myself to be eaten after long dog walks.
Yesterday was a Stilton and Walnut tart (made with puff pasty and lots of caramelised onions) followed by Damson Crumble and Bread and Butter pudding. Not had bread and butter pudding since my kids were children.
Next I am going for a Treacle pudding (Not to be confused with a syrup pudding. Has to be made with black treacle).
So far I have about 15 on my list.
Anyway back to the next batch of marmalade making.
One of my fantasy occupations is opening a small bistro somewhere in deep France, serving up cunningly disguised British classics with French names.
Shepherds pie (hachis parmentier d'agneau), Lancashire hotpot (marmite d'agneau au gratin), Cornish pasty (pithivier Breton), Welsh Rarebit (well they have that already and call it "Le Welsh"). etc etc. Hot puddings would be harder to disguise - except Le Crumble which is now a French staple - but creme anglaise is easy enough to sell.
My cousin's boyfriend (now husband) is from Normandy. Went round to visit and he promised us an exciting Normandy specialty of hachis Parmentier. It was good, but he was a bit crestfallen when we explained that we were very familiar with mashed potato on top of mince.
Are any of theatre's great dames other than Judi Dench still left ?
(edit) Apols to Eileen Atkins, who is still with us at 90.
Theatrical Dames still with us: Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Harriet Walter. I hope I haven't jinxed them by mentioning them.
After Maggie Smith passed away the BBC showed a heartwarming doc, Nothing like a dame, a fly on the wall at Atkins, Dench, Plowright and Smith's annual meetup.
If Germany had FPTP then it would be a CDU/CSU landslide majority. On that poll they are forecast to win 208 constituencies, the AfD 50 and the SPD just 35 with the Greens on 5 and Left 1.
As Germany has PR though it is likely to mean a hung parliament and another Union and SPD grand coalition government, as has been the case since 2005 with the brief interruption of the 2009-2013 Union and FDP government and the current SPD, FDP and Green government.
The AfD would be clear main Opposition though to the Union and SPD
Another European country holding no truck with the Trump/Musk far right.
He said that at another jail, foreign-recruited prison officers had set up a camp in a wooded area opposite the prison where they were working after discovering that there was no accommodation provided with the job.
Prison officers as well. Open to corrupt offers too. What a way to treat people.
There's a big row because a couple of red states are ignoring the rules around flying flags at half mast because they want to celebrate Trump's inauguration with full mast flagery.
Fascinating, in my Rangoon Burma hotel room, to watch CNN as they try to cover the Trump inauguration with a semblance of neutrality. You sense their underlying agony, but they are giving it a go
Also, I recommend a trip to Rangoon Burma RIGHT NOW
Don't expect to see any of the country due to the civil war, but if you like excellent 5 star hotels with brilliant food, nice gym, ace pool, for about £40 a night, Rangoon Burma rocks
Just had a look and the top hotel is £100 a night, everything else cheaper.
£40 a night is the deal I'm on. Probably the best value hotels in the world, right now? If you ignore the civil war?
I've discovered their hotel dining. They have an excellent western/Indian brasserie, a very nice Japanese restaurant, and a truly wonderful Chinese restaurant. This is clearly a business hotel, aiming for Chinese custom, so they've made sure the Chinese tucker is world class
Absolute feasts for £15
Possibly the best Chinese food I've had anywhere, certainly good enough to be memorable
Making a serious point for the moment (and again taking from "Late Soviet Britain"), the Thatcher/Blair revolution assumed that outsourcing public sector tasks to private companies and overseeing them with regulators would result in better provision. But it just doesn't - at best it produces early gains which are later lost. This is why things are getting progressively worse. Until this fact is internalised and Government realises that if it want something done it has to do it itself, we will always be in this mess.
If Germany had FPTP then it would be a CDU/CSU landslide majority. On that poll they are forecast to win 208 constituencies, the AfD 50 and the SPD just 35 with the Greens on 5 and Left 1.
As Germany has PR though it is likely to mean a hung parliament and another Union and SPD grand coalition government, as has been the case since 2005 with the brief interruption of the 2009-2013 Union and FDP government and the current SPD, FDP and Green government.
The AfD would be clear main Opposition though to the Union and SPD
Another European country holding no truck with the Trump/Musk far right.
Though the far right party is likely to come a clear second. Of course the US is slightly different in the fact that Trump leads a party combining their centre right and establishment Republicans and populist far right now
Scott Manley has upset the SpaceX fanbois with this:
"Given that this is disrupting aircraft downrange, I would be wanting an investigation before I let starship fly again.
I'd want to know what kind of debris risk we're dealing with, starship is big and designed to handle reentry.
Is the explosion the result of a tank failure or the FTS? We might reasonably ask whether trying to destroy such a large object is the best option in an emergency or whether it's safer to let it come down in as few pieces as possible."
(The debris came down in open international airspace, with airliners around)
It was in the FAA defined hazard corridor - in the flight plan. Such corridors are a mandatory part of licensing for all launches. And are released as notifications to pilots.
In fact the notifications going out on airspace restrictions and hazards are the first confirmation of the scheduling of a space launch, usually. The announcement of the launch license itself often comes later.
The FTS is fired according to defined limits (again agreed with the licensing authorities) - there’s no ground button to push. The usual main ones are the vehicle leaving (or heading to leave) the hazard corridor, or loss of control. The FTS is controlled from a separate box on the vehicle that monitors various numbers.
And do you have a *reliable* source for your claim that the FTS fired within defined limits?
I’ll have to dig - but the warning went out on the corridor, by the FAA.
That’s how FTSs work - they all have to follow agreed, defined rules. Its controlled by a separate computer on the vehicle. There isn’t a bloke with a button, on the ground.
AIUI it works *both* ways: a destruct can be called from the ground *or* by the vehicle itself. Usually the Range Safety Officer is responsible for making the call on the ground. From memory, the ground call bypasses much of the logic on the vehicle and directly triggers the FTS via a different route and processors.
For manned flights in the US, the self-destruct sent by the RSO can be delayed to allow the crew time to escape (if possible...)
Scott Manley has upset the SpaceX fanbois with this:
"Given that this is disrupting aircraft downrange, I would be wanting an investigation before I let starship fly again.
I'd want to know what kind of debris risk we're dealing with, starship is big and designed to handle reentry.
Is the explosion the result of a tank failure or the FTS? We might reasonably ask whether trying to destroy such a large object is the best option in an emergency or whether it's safer to let it come down in as few pieces as possible."
(The debris came down in open international airspace, with airliners around)
It was in the FAA defined hazard corridor - in the flight plan. Such corridors are a mandatory part of licensing for all launches. And are released as notifications to pilots.
In fact the notifications going out on airspace restrictions and hazards are the first confirmation of the scheduling of a space launch, usually. The announcement of the launch license itself often comes later.
The FTS is fired according to defined limits (again agreed with the licensing authorities) - there’s no ground button to push. The usual main ones are the vehicle leaving (or heading to leave) the hazard corridor, or loss of control. The FTS is controlled from a separate box on the vehicle that monitors various numbers.
And do you have a *reliable* source for your claim that the FTS fired within defined limits?
I’ll have to dig - but the warning went out on the corridor, by the FAA.
That’s how FTSs work - they all have to follow agreed, defined rules. Its controlled by a separate computer on the vehicle. There isn’t a bloke with a button, on the ground.
AIUI it works *both* ways: a destruct can be called from the ground *or* by the vehicle itself. Usually the Range Safety Officer is responsible for making the call on the ground. From memory, the ground call bypasses much of the logic on the vehicle and directly triggers the FTS via a different route and processors.
For manned flights in the US, the self-destruct sent by the RSO can be delayed to allow the crew time to escape (if possible...)
That’s the old style. The newer is Automated Flight Termination Systems (AFTS).
Even SLS is moving to an AFTS by the Artemis 3. I can’t think of another US booster that doesn’t use it - Vulcan does, New Glenn. All the new entrants are designing it in. Internationally, the Japanese and Arianespace are doing so as well.
Remarkable map, mirroring the Iron Curtain right down to the granular level of Berlin
Which leads to two questions that I'd love to know more about;
1 What's going on? Is it that the east of Germany has been left behind like the north of England? Anyone with zip and pizzazz has gone elsewhere in the country? Whatever is causing the discontent, is there much sign that the AfD medicine will help?
2 What's the story with the two outliers? That splodge of SPD to the south-west of Berlin, and that AfD enclave on the north coast? Kiel?
For me, it shows me how much I adore maps of any kind, and how they still evoke my endless desire to travel
Eg those weird islands at the top, what are they like? I am aware of Sylt but there’s loads of them, and they look freaky and tantalizing
Germany is probably the least visited of all the major European nations, for me and many others. I know the Rhineland, Berlin, Bavaria, I know Cologne and the Ruhr a bit. After that it’s kinda blank
Why on earth do you know the Ruhr? Shopping for flint knapping machine tools?
Few weird assignments in Düsseldorf and the like. Not an attractive part of Europe
In my experience travel in Germany is simultaneously better than you think, but somehow still disappointing
The awful food doesn’t help
I think that captures it. I always enjoy trips to Germany but they are never exciting. Few things in Germany are the best of their kind in the world.
Alsace is a bit better and prettier than the Schwarzwald, Switzerland and Austria do better Alps, Poland and Denmark do the Hanseatic look more comprehensively, Berlin is interesting but there are several more exciting European cities.
One thing it does have that’s right up there is the Mosel river and vineyards. Scenically few places like that other than arguably the Duoro and the Northern Rhone. And further along in Luxembourg.
They haven’t even got the best Nazi death camps, and this is GERMANY
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
Given it is free to get in , hmmmm
@malcolmg I'm going to break the PB rule of a lifetime and admit the above story is largely a lie
In truth, I didn't get so annoyed at the lack of gas chambers in Dachau that I loudly demanded a refund of my entrance fee
I hope you at least demanded a refund on your Dachau snowglobe.
OT. I had lunch in a very popular cafe here in Villefranche which was advertising for staff. What a tragedy that young Brits can't apply. It's a real fun cafe a stones throw from the sea. No snow or freezing temperatures.
"The UK is a country with the reserves in the North Sea to be self-sufficient in gas for many years to come. Yet oil companies are being stymied in developing new fields due to a nihilistic climate agenda. Nihilistic, in that such obstruction means that the UK is forced to import LNG from far afield – only adding to Scope 3 emissions in the process."
Why on earth is the country embarked on suicidal self inflicted impoverishment?
Two words: Ed Miliband. Two adjectives dangerous moron.
OT. I had lunch in a very popular cafe here in Villefranche which was advertising for staff. What a tragedy that young Brits can't apply. It's a real fun cafe a stones throw from the sea. No snow or freezing temperatures.
What’s that joke about economists and decimal places?
Making a serious point for the moment (and again taking from "Late Soviet Britain"), the Thatcher/Blair revolution assumed that outsourcing public sector tasks to private companies and overseeing them with regulators would result in better provision. But it just doesn't - at best it produces early gains which are later lost. This is why things are getting progressively worse. Until this fact is internalised and Government realises that if it want something done it has to do it itself, we will always be in this mess.
I really need to get this book.
I think the key thing here is that government is not just bad at supplying, it can be very bad at procurement too.
The government has set up a series of monopoly providers, who have no sense of public sector ethos, and have eagerly “enshittified” their services, often while sending the profits abroad.
"The UK is a country with the reserves in the North Sea to be self-sufficient in gas for many years to come. Yet oil companies are being stymied in developing new fields due to a nihilistic climate agenda. Nihilistic, in that such obstruction means that the UK is forced to import LNG from far afield – only adding to Scope 3 emissions in the process."
Why on earth is the country embarked on suicidal self inflicted impoverishment?
Two words: Ed Miliband. Two adjectives dangerous moron.
Like it or not we are in Trump world, and a whole host of British fancies now look like grossly self-harming fetishes.
No, this is Politicalbetting.com. We are only interested in Con and Ref. One could argue Labour should come in at number three or even four after the LDs who are quite popular on here.
Comments
"I never have gaffes... I never have to clarify.. Because I think very carefully about what I say"
https://x.com/CreEnglish/status/1880253254187282613?t=hEo1l8pOzZinLvZySGjc3g&s=19
You should have gone on foot and occasionally, barge, as Paddy Lee Fermor did in the 30s.
I absolutely detest currywurst.
Who exactly is left?
Society made a collective mistake. Bit like pricing Greek government debt like German government debt - it wasn’t just a couple of blokes at Goldmans. It was whole swathes of people, across Europe and the world.
And, the Bavarian alps are breathtaking.
I still remember my bitter disappointment when I went to Dachau and I asked to see the gas chambers and they admitted - quite shamefaced, to be fair - that THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY. What kind of Nazi death camp doesn’t have gas chambers, FFS? It’s like a theme part without rides. All they could offer was some pathetic torture chamber
I got so “huffy” I actually asked for a refund, and when they gave me my money back they admitted I wasn’t the first
For a really cracking Nazi death camp you have to go to Poland, it’s ridiculous, the Germans INVENTED them
Shepherds pie (hachis parmentier d'agneau), Lancashire hotpot (marmite d'agneau au gratin), Cornish pasty (pithivier Breton), Welsh Rarebit (well they have that already and call it "Le Welsh"). etc etc. Hot puddings would be harder to disguise - except Le Crumble which is now a French staple - but creme anglaise is easy enough to sell.
The best pizza I ever had was in Düsseldorf four decades ago.
Fresh baked in stone ovens street food. Do they still do it ?
On Leeds, it's hard to draw conclusions from the story. LGI is a special case in terms of the babies they take in, so higher mortality doesn't by itself necessarily tell a story. The individual stories have more weight, but sadly I suspect there are horror stories from most maternity wards* at the moment.
You'd need detailed clinical review or, at the very least, modelling with case-mix adjustment to have any idea whether Leeds is anomalous on safety.
*a somewhat troubling fact as we'll be attending one within the next eight weeks
But no, I won’t.
Can you open it in New York?
"It's to make money while I sleep"
Thanks to our first woman chancellor there will be many on the sunny Cote d'Azur today doing exactly that.....
https://www.fxleaders.com/news/2025/01/17/ftse-hits-new-all-time-high-after-8-months-of-wandering/
"The UK is a country with the reserves in the North Sea to be self-sufficient in gas for many years to come. Yet oil companies are being stymied in developing new fields due to a nihilistic climate agenda. Nihilistic, in that such obstruction means that the UK is forced to import LNG from far afield – only adding to Scope 3 emissions in the process."
Why on earth is the country embarked on suicidal self inflicted impoverishment?
The key to the joke is the idea that some visitor would be so "cheesed off" at the lack of gas chambers in Dachau, they would volubly ask for their money back
https://x.com/EdwardJDavey/status/1880253982725271851
The Trump discourse will be interesting in the next 4 years because neither of the 2 main parties will be able to speak or post completely openly on it. They'll be held back by diplomacy. So Lib Dem vs Reform becomes a sort of proxy war.
The latter is certainly better television, more gripping, but the former is, I suspect, closer to the reality. Seedy little men, sharing seedy little jokes, as they plan genocide. Evil is more often banal than it is charismatic.
Sadly to my disappointment, not least because it's not as funny, she has been abysmally misquoted and what she said was coherent! At least on this occasion.
In Rugen you can stay in a reconditioned Nazi holiday resort, if that is your thing.
https://www.dw.com/en/the-colossus-of-prora-from-nazi-ruin-to-holiday-resort/a-50199173
The way to deal with the problem of drunken passengers on planes is to ban those particular people from flying again. It is not to implement a blanket ban on everyone else from drinking more than two glasses of beer, wine, etc. Punish the guilty people, not everyone else. Of course, organisations love implementing those type of bans on everyone because it means they don't have to go to the trouble of proving that the troublemakers have actually done what they're accused of. That's too much like hard work for these companies.
In our economy, there are very many people who make a good living through regulation, imposing obstacles, writing policy papers, bidding for funding and advising others on bidding from funding, as opposed to inventing, and running businesses at a profit.
As Germany has PR though it is likely to mean a hung parliament and another Union and SPD grand coalition government, as has been the case since 2005 with the brief interruption of the 2009-2013 Union and FDP government and the current SPD, FDP and Green government.
The AfD would be clear main Opposition though to the Union and SPD
And the beer is consistently good
So you can have a nice gastronomic time in Germany if you consume only sausages and beer - which doesn't sound hideous, in truth: at least for a weekend
Quite a few of the bakeries are better than their equivalents in France.
And I did not see owt
Because they did not have any
Then I came for a refund
And I did not get owt
Because I had not paid
Kemi is a bit of a contradiction. On one hand she likes to play up her creds as this straight-talking, brave, out-of-the-box political disruptor. But then when she comes under scrutiny her fall back is too often that she’s been misrepresented, didn’t really mean it, etc etc.
She needs to decide what she wants to be. As I’ve been said before, in many ways she can be an engaging and interesting politician but engaging in doublethink torpedos her USP.
In truth, I didn't get so annoyed at the lack of gas chambers in Dachau that I loudly demanded a refund of my entrance fee
For manned flights in the US, the self-destruct sent by the RSO can be delayed to allow the crew time to escape (if possible...)
A few years back it was moved to the summer. It didn't work at all. Had to eat in Italian and French restaurants the whole time!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_Conference
...At the conclusion of the meeting, Heydrich gave Eichmann firm instructions about what was to appear in the minutes. They were not to be verbatim: Eichmann ensured that nothing too explicit appeared in them. He said at his trial: "How shall I put it – certain over-plain talk and jargon expressions had to be rendered into office language by me."..
If your third burglary conviction lands you with 20 years in the nick, that's 20 years where you won't be committing burglaries.
Forget harsher punishments to be nasty to criminals as a deterant - unfortunately there's little evidence that works. The fix is prison to get them out of society, where they can't commit crime.
We are bringing prison officers in from places like Nigeria. They get cleared. They turn up and no accomodation sorted, some bringing family.
Reportedly some end up sleeping in cars or even a modern day Hooverville in the woods.
Why on earth if they are bringing these people here couldn’t they make sure they help them sort accomodation first.
https://x.com/tonydowson5/status/1880167709071298815?s=61
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdryy33v13ko#comments
He said that at another jail, foreign-recruited prison officers had set up a camp in a wooded area opposite the prison where they were working after discovering that there was no accommodation provided with the job.
Can you give us an example of this unique film kit ?
Also, I recommend a trip to Rangoon Burma RIGHT NOW
Don't expect to see any of the country due to the civil war, but if you like excellent 5 star hotels with brilliant food, nice gym, ace pool, for about £40 a night, Rangoon Burma rocks
But the market is changing, as it's both much larger - China is now a consumer, for example - and there are many more players (China again, India, S Korea etc) who weren't particularly, or at all significant. a couple of decades ago.
https://skydivehel.pl/
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotels-g294191-Yangon_Rangoon_Yangon_Region-Hotels.html
https://x.com/glabsandra/status/1880190323135259006?s=61
It appears he's suddenly very influential.
‘He’s one of the best’: the economist shaping Rachel Reeves’s growth plans
John Van Reenen believes he can help Labour solve the ‘peculiar British problem’ of chronically weak productivity
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/17/economist-shaping-rachel-reeves-growth-plans-john-van-reenen
One possible black mark is that he seems to have had some sort of hand the PFI funding of new hospitals under Blair (he helped write the NHS plan).
There's a big row because a couple of red states are ignoring the rules around flying flags at half mast because they want to celebrate Trump's inauguration with full mast flagery.
The Park Royal
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g294191-d305963-Reviews-PARKROYAL_Yangon-Yangon_Rangoon_Yangon_Region.html
£40 a night is the deal I'm on. Probably the best value hotels in the world, right now? If you ignore the civil war?
I've discovered their hotel dining. They have an excellent western/Indian brasserie, a very nice Japanese restaurant, and a truly wonderful Chinese restaurant. This is clearly a business hotel, aiming for Chinese custom, so they've made sure the Chinese tucker is world class
Absolute feasts for £15
Possibly the best Chinese food I've had anywhere, certainly good enough to be memorable
Even SLS is moving to an AFTS by the Artemis 3. I can’t think of another US booster that doesn’t use it - Vulcan does, New Glenn. All the new entrants are designing it in. Internationally, the Japanese and Arianespace are doing so as well.
NEW THREAD
OT. I had lunch in a very popular cafe here in Villefranche which was advertising for staff. What a tragedy that young Brits can't apply. It's a real fun cafe a stones throw from the sea. No snow or freezing temperatures.
Two adjectives dangerous moron.
I think the key thing here is that government is not just bad at supplying, it can be very bad at procurement too.
The government has set up a series of monopoly providers, who have no sense of public sector ethos, and have eagerly “enshittified” their services, often while sending the profits abroad.