That is your interpretation and not representative of the behind the paywall article.
I think you might be a little too high on Trump's supply.
It’s an accurate description.
The Danes are now in crisis mode,” said one person briefed on the call. Another said: “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.” A former Danish official added: “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”
When can we start photoshopping JD the VP into the "are we the baddies?" meme?
They are going to make an offer the Danes can’t refuse.
A dozen open sandwiches at Copenhagen prices in return for Greenland? Bargain!
That is your interpretation and not representative of the behind the paywall article.
I think you might be a little too high on Trump's supply.
It’s an accurate description.
The Danes are now in crisis mode,” said one person briefed on the call. Another said: “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.” A former Danish official added: “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”
When can we start photoshopping JD the VP into the "are we the baddies?" meme?
They are going to make an offer the Danes can’t refuse.
Between Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal it's getting to be a bit insulting Trump hasn't made any overtures to subsume us yet.
There was some talk he could buy the Chagos islands from Mauritius if Starmer's deal goes through.
I always like Chinese New Year. It feels a very good time for New Year - there is an optimism engendered by returning sunlight which just isn't there on Jan 1st.
That is your interpretation and not representative of the behind the paywall article.
I think you might be a little too high on Trump's supply.
It’s an accurate description.
The Danes are now in crisis mode,” said one person briefed on the call. Another said: “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.” A former Danish official added: “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”
When can we start photoshopping JD the VP into the "are we the baddies?" meme?
They are going to make an offer the Danes can’t refuse.
Between Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal it's getting to be a bit insulting Trump hasn't made any overtures to subsume us yet.
He'll just slowly take over, one golf course at a time.
That is your interpretation and not representative of the behind the paywall article.
I think you might be a little too high on Trump's supply.
It’s an accurate description.
The Danes are now in crisis mode,” said one person briefed on the call. Another said: “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.” A former Danish official added: “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”
When can we start photoshopping JD the VP into the "are we the baddies?" meme?
They are going to make an offer the Danes can’t refuse.
Between Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal it's getting to be a bit insulting Trump hasn't made any overtures to subsume us yet.
I blame Starmer.
The Leader of the Free World and Starmer are yet to speak. The Donald and Musk hate Starmer Labour. I suspect Trump would have spoken to PM Yaxley-Lennon on day one.
Whenever politicians do this it's usually an attempt to shore up their own declining support.
Nah, the Royals are rather unpopular.
The most recent royal visit to Belize was in 2022 when the Prince and Princess of Wales, then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, had to drop one of their engagements in the country in response to a protest.
There are protests against royals in the UK too, but by no stretch of the imagination are they unpopular here. This is the same kind of logic that took a few thousand people screaming Corbyn's name as evidence he'd be the next PM.
The thing is, if you replace the monarchy with a presidency I'd not want one like the US with a political president. I'd want one doing a similar job in an apolitical position. at that point it's simpler to keep the status quo
Becoming a Republic will unify the country, its proponents say. If JK Rowling beats Gary Lineker 52%-48% for the role of President, I doubt that.
Tulsi Gabbard growing less likely to be confirmed. I'd forgotten this one.
As we remember Japan’s aggression in the Pacific, we need to ask ourselves this question: is the remilitarization of Japan, which is presently underway, truly a good idea? We need to be careful that shortsighted, self-serving leaders do not end up bringing us again face-to-face with a remilitarized Japan. #PearlHarbor82.. https://x.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1732690475482755422
You know, I can think of positive things to say about almost every human being: yes, even Trump, @kle4 and RFK Jr.
Tulsi Gabbard, though, I'm really struggling. Can anyone think of a single positive characteristic?
You know, it's one thing offering a fair price and having a negotiation with Denmark over Greenland (assuming the Greenlanders agree).
It's another thing entirely when you threaten retaliatory tariffs if fellow NATO member Denmark does not accede to your request.
Whilst I absolutely adore you and all your works, particularly those that involve publishing articles, isn't it a little late to notice that Trump is a nasty c[not that word -Ed]? It's not like he hid it.
'POLLING experts have given their verdict on the state of Scottish politics after a series of by-elections provided "real data" on what voters are thinking.
The numbers from the votes confirm what the polls are showing: The SNP are rising, Labour are slipping, and Reform UK are an electoral force north of the Border, experts told the National.'
Whenever politicians do this it's usually an attempt to shore up their own declining support.
Nah, the Royals are rather unpopular.
The most recent royal visit to Belize was in 2022 when the Prince and Princess of Wales, then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, had to drop one of their engagements in the country in response to a protest.
There are protests against royals in the UK too, but by no stretch of the imagination are they unpopular here. This is the same kind of logic that took a few thousand people screaming Corbyn's name as evidence he'd be the next PM.
PM Corbyn certainly convinced a lot of PB Tories to vote for *checks notes* Boris Johnson. They seem to think their logic was impeccable.
You know, it's one thing offering a fair price and having a negotiation with Denmark over Greenland (assuming the Greenlanders agree).
It's another thing entirely when you threaten retaliatory tariffs if fellow NATO member Denmark does not accede to your request.
The irony is Denmark neither expects nor wants to hang onto Greenland and Greenlanders are probably open to some kind of US overlordship if the right deal can be struck. But what you say. You can't get to a decent mutual arrangement by threats.
Tulsi Gabbard growing less likely to be confirmed. I'd forgotten this one.
As we remember Japan’s aggression in the Pacific, we need to ask ourselves this question: is the remilitarization of Japan, which is presently underway, truly a good idea? We need to be careful that shortsighted, self-serving leaders do not end up bringing us again face-to-face with a remilitarized Japan. #PearlHarbor82.. https://x.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1732690475482755422
You know, I can think of positive things to say about almost every human being: yes, even Trump, @kle4 and RFK Jr.
Tulsi Gabbard, though, I'm really struggling. Can anyone think of a single positive characteristic?
Is there a market on when Rudakubana is transferred to Ashworth or Rampton?
And is this another failure of Care in the Community which saw most psychiatric hospitals sold off for luxury flats? Might Rudakubana have been sectioned when turned down by Prevent as not a terrorist?
NHS mental health care amounts to almost nothing.
That's an exaggeration but mental health does suffer from the same care lottery issue as the rest of the health service. Some conditions are well dealt with, in other areas the system is buckling and there are long waiting lists, and in still more (dentistry being an obvious example) it has virtually ceased to exist.
The root cause of the problem is, of course, the weight of demand running so far ahead of the resources available. Half the population has no money left to give in tax to plug the holes and the other half resents being asked for it. Folk, unsurprisingly, want 1,001 different benefits from the state but everyone thinks it should be someone else's job to pay for them.
This means that Government is mostly unable or unwilling either to remove benefits and services, or to fund them adequately. Instead of getting all of the things we want done well, or at least some done well and others not done at all, we therefore get a whole lot of stuff done on the cheap and, therefore, badly.
We know the story well. Pretty well everything done by Government, save perhaps for the state pension with the infamous triple lock, is crap. Enormous waits for elective surgery. Leaky, ancient, hazardous schools and hospitals, kept limping on rather than being replaced. Roads full of potholes. Bins collected once every three weeks. Poorly funded councils pissing most of their money up the wall on social care services and special needs kids (and still failing to meet demand) whilst everything from museums to libraries to leisure centres get shut down or palmed off to community groups. Barely functional policing, courts that take years to deliver justice, dilapidated and brutal jails. And all we're getting from Labour is, basically, just about enough extra money to try to stop the hospitals from totally collapsing, whilst most other areas are subject to deliberate procrastination (e.g. social care) or yet more austerity.
Ultimately you get what you pay for. But nobody wants to pay for stuff. So on we all go, circling the plughole.
Hardly, they would just be getting more influence from Trump, China or in their case Lord Ashcroft.
Though they will be staying in the Commonwealth either way
It's OK, let them go. Most people in Belize see Spanish as their first language (57%), as opposed to the King's (just 6%), or even the local English Creole (37%).
Belize has been independent since 1981, they still chose to keep the monarch as their head of state
I haven't included them in my (hypothetical) Anglospheric Federation.
8 see you've survived your trip to Ashington!
Yes, and that morning I even did the York avoider (Holgate Jn to Skelton Jn) courtesy of the 1045 Lumo train ex-Kings Cross!
Brave of you. If the weather had swerved south, you might still be in Newcastle till tomorrow afternoon. And then not even gone to KX but had to go by Bedford, perhaps by bus from Peterboro, seeing as KX is closed this weekend.
Whenever politicians do this it's usually an attempt to shore up their own declining support.
Nah, the Royals are rather unpopular.
The most recent royal visit to Belize was in 2022 when the Prince and Princess of Wales, then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, had to drop one of their engagements in the country in response to a protest.
Plurality of support for monarchy in the latest survey there 48 to 43. Another sound country who see how silly and old fashioned republics are.
Not even a majority ... are you sure you're not HYUFD running a second name?
You know, it's one thing offering a fair price and having a negotiation with Denmark over Greenland (assuming the Greenlanders agree).
It's another thing entirely when you threaten retaliatory tariffs if fellow NATO member Denmark does not accede to your request.
Whilst I absolutely adore you and all your works, particularly those that involve publishing articles, isn't it a little late to notice that Trump is a nasty c[not that word -Ed]? It's not like he hid it.
He's wanting dominion over part of Denmark, so I guess the appropriate word is Cnut. Does that make his vice, JDV, Harthacnut?
'POLLING experts have given their verdict on the state of Scottish politics after a series of by-elections provided "real data" on what voters are thinking.
The numbers from the votes confirm what the polls are showing: The SNP are rising, Labour are slipping, and Reform UK are an electoral force north of the Border, experts told the National.'
My main assumption is that the SCons must be absolutely bricking it. There must be more defections in the pipeline.
My back garden fence blown down, been severe winds all day and still not great. Not going out to check how bad it is , can wait till tomorrow.
We were lucky - at least where we were: very localised, I'm sure. It was just about OK to go out and look before dusk.
One fence panel blown out but it was gash and due for replacement anyway. Though a neighbour had a ridge tile or two pop out, and they bounced down in the re-entrant angle with an extension, smashing more en route.
Is there a market on when Rudakubana is transferred to Ashworth or Rampton?
And is this another failure of Care in the Community which saw most psychiatric hospitals sold off for luxury flats? Might Rudakubana have been sectioned when turned down by Prevent as not a terrorist?
NHS mental health care amounts to almost nothing.
That's an exaggeration but mental health does suffer from the same care lottery issue as the rest of the health service. Some conditions are well dealt with, in other areas the system is buckling and there are long waiting lists, and in still more (dentistry being an obvious example) it has virtually ceased to exist.
The root cause of the problem is, of course, the weight of demand running so far ahead of the resources available. Half the population has no money left to give in tax to plug the holes and the other half resents being asked for it. Folk, unsurprisingly, want 1,001 different benefits from the state but everyone thinks it should be someone else's job to pay for them.
This means that Government is mostly unable or unwilling either to remove benefits and services, or to fund them adequately. Instead of getting all of the things we want done well, or at least some done well and others not done at all, we therefore get a whole lot of stuff done on the cheap and, therefore, badly.
We know the story well. Pretty well everything done by Government, save perhaps for the state pension with the infamous triple lock, is crap. Enormous waits for elective surgery. Leaky, ancient, hazardous schools and hospitals, kept limping on rather than being replaced. Roads full of potholes. Bins collected once every three weeks. Poorly funded councils pissing most of their money up the wall on social care services and special needs kids (and still failing to meet demand) whilst everything from museums to libraries to leisure centres get shut down or palmed off to community groups. Barely functional policing, courts that take years to deliver justice, dilapidated and brutal jails. And all we're getting from Labour is, basically, just about enough extra money to try to stop the hospitals from totally collapsing, whilst most other areas are subject to deliberate procrastination (e.g. social care) or yet more austerity.
Ultimately you get what you pay for. But nobody wants to pay for stuff. So on we all go, circling the plughole.
I'm frankly not persuaded that we are getting what we pay for. That is really the problem. The public sector seems to want ever more resource to provide an ever poorer service.
'POLLING experts have given their verdict on the state of Scottish politics after a series of by-elections provided "real data" on what voters are thinking.
The numbers from the votes confirm what the polls are showing: The SNP are rising, Labour are slipping, and Reform UK are an electoral force north of the Border, experts told the National.'
My main assumption is that the SCons must be absolutely bricking it. There must be more defections in the pipeline.
For some reason I'm reminded of my first rabbit dissection at school, and seeing all the turds neatly arrayed in the bowel, ready to pop out. It may have been the rabbit's intended breakfast (they recycle their microbially digested cellulose that way), but fine fare for a Scon breakfast it isn't. Yet that is what is on the menu.
And to think people denied the existence of exorbitant privilege.
Also, consider the income tax differences between Scotland and England. The Tory government rushed to compensate orficers etc. for the dreadful fate of being sent to Scotland. But did they compensate the less well paid squaddies for being sent to Catterick, Bovington, etc.?
That is your interpretation and not representative of the behind the paywall article.
I think you might be a little too high on Trump's supply.
It’s an accurate description.
The Danes are now in crisis mode,” said one person briefed on the call. Another said: “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.” A former Danish official added: “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”
Aren't Denmark in the EU?
Of course, and this is potentially a very interesting test of what the EU means. As an EU member, Denmark can't (SFAICS) decide its own trade/tariff policy towards USA, that being a wholly EU competence. But the USA doesn't have to do the reverse. Or does it? So if the USA picks on Denmark, does the EU show united solidarity in support?
Hardly, they would just be getting more influence from Trump, China or in their case Lord Ashcroft.
Though they will be staying in the Commonwealth either way
It's OK, let them go. Most people in Belize see Spanish as their first language (57%), as opposed to the King's (just 6%), or even the local English Creole (37%).
Belize has been independent since 1981, they still chose to keep the monarch as their head of state
I haven't included them in my (hypothetical) Anglospheric Federation.
8 see you've survived your trip to Ashington!
Yes, and that morning I even did the York avoider (Holgate Jn to Skelton Jn) courtesy of the 1045 Lumo train ex-Kings Cross!
Brave of you. If the weather had swerved south, you might still be in Newcastle till tomorrow afternoon. And then not even gone to KX but had to go by Bedford, perhaps by bus from Peterboro, seeing as KX is closed this weekend.
#intrepidexplorer#
Sorry, should have made clear it was Wednesday morning!
That is your interpretation and not representative of the behind the paywall article.
I think you might be a little too high on Trump's supply.
It’s an accurate description.
The Danes are now in crisis mode,” said one person briefed on the call. Another said: “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.” A former Danish official added: “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”
Aren't Denmark in the EU?
Of course, and this is potentially a very interesting test of what the EU means. As an EU member, Denmark can't (SFAICS) decide its own trade/tariff policy towards USA, that being a wholly EU competence. But the USA doesn't have to do the reverse. Or does it? So if the USA picks on Denmark, does the EU show united solidarity in support?
Biden's chip restrictions earlier this month have already split the EU into trade 'haves' and 'have nots'.
I always like Chinese New Year. It feels a very good time for New Year - there is an optimism engendered by returning sunlight which just isn't there on Jan 1st.
Late January is an under-remarked turning point in the seasons.
The fete de la Saint-Vincent tournante takes place each January. This year it’s tomorrow and Sunday.
St Vincent is the patron saint of wine and vignerons. The festival moves between villages in the region each year. For 2025 it’s in a village close to Beaune called Ladoix Serrigny.
Now is the time of year when the sap begins to rise again in the vines. Even in the dead of winter the plant world is on the move. By early February it’s coursing up through them and pruning cuts bleed copious sap.
That is your interpretation and not representative of the behind the paywall article.
I think you might be a little too high on Trump's supply.
It’s an accurate description.
The Danes are now in crisis mode,” said one person briefed on the call. Another said: “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.” A former Danish official added: “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”
Aren't Denmark in the EU?
Of course, and this is potentially a very interesting test of what the EU means. As an EU member, Denmark can't (SFAICS) decide its own trade/tariff policy towards USA, that being a wholly EU competence. But the USA doesn't have to do the reverse. Or does it? So if the USA picks on Denmark, does the EU show united solidarity in support?
Biden's chip restrictions earlier this month have already split the EU into trade 'haves' and 'have nots'.
Isn't everyone in Europe affected to some degree? (That is, if you are a semiconductor company with US operations that has Chinese clients. Which really means ST Micro, Infineon and - indirectly - ASML.)
That is your interpretation and not representative of the behind the paywall article.
I think you might be a little too high on Trump's supply.
It’s an accurate description.
The Danes are now in crisis mode,” said one person briefed on the call. Another said: “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.” A former Danish official added: “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”
Aren't Denmark in the EU?
Of course, and this is potentially a very interesting test of what the EU means. As an EU member, Denmark can't (SFAICS) decide its own trade/tariff policy towards USA, that being a wholly EU competence. But the USA doesn't have to do the reverse. Or does it? So if the USA picks on Denmark, does the EU show united solidarity in support?
Biden's chip restrictions earlier this month have already split the EU into trade 'haves' and 'have nots'.
Isn't everyone in Europe affected to some degree? (That is, if you are a semiconductor company with US operations that has Chinese clients. Which really means ST Micro, Infineon and - indirectly - ASML.)
The tier 2 EU nations are going to have a hard cap on how many GPU/AI targeted chips they can buy. They're also going to be allowed to have a max of 25% of the total GPU/AI chips that the tier 1 nations purchase sited there - but only up to a max of 7 percentage points of those purchases per tier 2 nation. The EU are not happy.
I believe lovely Labour-friendly Sainsbury's was being trumpeted for their staff bonuses the other week - evidence of the rude health of the economy in the face of the naysayers:
Is there a market on when Rudakubana is transferred to Ashworth or Rampton?
And is this another failure of Care in the Community which saw most psychiatric hospitals sold off for luxury flats? Might Rudakubana have been sectioned when turned down by Prevent as not a terrorist?
NHS mental health care amounts to almost nothing.
That's an exaggeration but mental health does suffer from the same care lottery issue as the rest of the health service. Some conditions are well dealt with, in other areas the system is buckling and there are long waiting lists, and in still more (dentistry being an obvious example) it has virtually ceased to exist.
The root cause of the problem is, of course, the weight of demand running so far ahead of the resources available. Half the population has no money left to give in tax to plug the holes and the other half resents being asked for it. Folk, unsurprisingly, want 1,001 different benefits from the state but everyone thinks it should be someone else's job to pay for them.
This means that Government is mostly unable or unwilling either to remove benefits and services, or to fund them adequately. Instead of getting all of the things we want done well, or at least some done well and others not done at all, we therefore get a whole lot of stuff done on the cheap and, therefore, badly.
We know the story well. Pretty well everything done by Government, save perhaps for the state pension with the infamous triple lock, is crap. Enormous waits for elective surgery. Leaky, ancient, hazardous schools and hospitals, kept limping on rather than being replaced. Roads full of potholes. Bins collected once every three weeks. Poorly funded councils pissing most of their money up the wall on social care services and special needs kids (and still failing to meet demand) whilst everything from museums to libraries to leisure centres get shut down or palmed off to community groups. Barely functional policing, courts that take years to deliver justice, dilapidated and brutal jails. And all we're getting from Labour is, basically, just about enough extra money to try to stop the hospitals from totally collapsing, whilst most other areas are subject to deliberate procrastination (e.g. social care) or yet more austerity.
Ultimately you get what you pay for. But nobody wants to pay for stuff. So on we all go, circling the plughole.
I'm frankly not persuaded that we are getting what we pay for. That is really the problem. The public sector seems to want ever more resource to provide an ever poorer service.
"[Hospital] said, however, that by February 2023 he had stopped engaging with mental health teams entirely." (Telegraph)
This seems exactly like the Nottingham case. Patient disengages and then zippo nothing happens.
In Nottingham case the person in question stopped taking medication. Who knows in this case?
iirc Notts is also having a public inquiry.
They are piling up.
NHS mental health is running on empty. Underfunded for decades and now we are paying the price.
Is there a market on when Rudakubana is transferred to Ashworth or Rampton?
And is this another failure of Care in the Community which saw most psychiatric hospitals sold off for luxury flats? Might Rudakubana have been sectioned when turned down by Prevent as not a terrorist?
NHS mental health care amounts to almost nothing.
That's an exaggeration but mental health does suffer from the same care lottery issue as the rest of the health service. Some conditions are well dealt with, in other areas the system is buckling and there are long waiting lists, and in still more (dentistry being an obvious example) it has virtually ceased to exist.
The root cause of the problem is, of course, the weight of demand running so far ahead of the resources available. Half the population has no money left to give in tax to plug the holes and the other half resents being asked for it. Folk, unsurprisingly, want 1,001 different benefits from the state but everyone thinks it should be someone else's job to pay for them.
This means that Government is mostly unable or unwilling either to remove benefits and services, or to fund them adequately. Instead of getting all of the things we want done well, or at least some done well and others not done at all, we therefore get a whole lot of stuff done on the cheap and, therefore, badly.
We know the story well. Pretty well everything done by Government, save perhaps for the state pension with the infamous triple lock, is crap. Enormous waits for elective surgery. Leaky, ancient, hazardous schools and hospitals, kept limping on rather than being replaced. Roads full of potholes. Bins collected once every three weeks. Poorly funded councils pissing most of their money up the wall on social care services and special needs kids (and still failing to meet demand) whilst everything from museums to libraries to leisure centres get shut down or palmed off to community groups. Barely functional policing, courts that take years to deliver justice, dilapidated and brutal jails. And all we're getting from Labour is, basically, just about enough extra money to try to stop the hospitals from totally collapsing, whilst most other areas are subject to deliberate procrastination (e.g. social care) or yet more austerity.
Ultimately you get what you pay for. But nobody wants to pay for stuff. So on we all go, circling the plughole.
I'm frankly not persuaded that we are getting what we pay for. That is really the problem. The public sector seems to want ever more resource to provide an ever poorer service.
That's what happens when you don't invest. I've shared this before but it's the best example you can find anywhere - contrast figure 1 with figure 9.
I wonder if we'll get crossover between the Lib Dems and Labour at some point this year. Third could be the best Labour can hope for.
I have found Labour's polling surprisingly sticky. It has been tracking inexorably down, but not in the same way as Starmer's approval rating. I wouldn't know why that would be. Could be something in the re-allocation of don't knows? I know our own view is skewed by our media diet, and I am a right wing media consumer, but I don't think there's much of a Guardian/Mirror/The Rest is Politics alternative narrative bubble where everyone thinks it's going brilliantly well.
I am expecting Labour's losses to continue, and for them to fall behind Reform and the Tories in most polls. I think Ref, Cons, Lab in that order will solidify.
I was worried (politically) about the forthcoming Crime and Justice bill having some good popular measures in it. But judging from the recent bollocks about kitchen knives from Amazon, it'll just be more snooping on the law-abiding. It's just not in Labour to turn this around - their instincts oppose everything that they need to do.
Yes, I agree that Labour's vote share is holding up quite well. Also the big shift is to DK/WNV. I also think this is mostly down to Starmer and Reeves having to managed after the Tory scorched earth policy of the last few years, coupled with major negative charisma. These people are recoverable, as are some who have gone to Green and even Reform.
The obvious thing for Labour is for Starmer to retire in 2028, being replaced by a new more charismatic leader, giveaway budget in October 28 and a May election in 2029.
'POLLING experts have given their verdict on the state of Scottish politics after a series of by-elections provided "real data" on what voters are thinking.
The numbers from the votes confirm what the polls are showing: The SNP are rising, Labour are slipping, and Reform UK are an electoral force north of the Border, experts told the National.'
My main assumption is that the SCons must be absolutely bricking it. There must be more defections in the pipeline.
My back garden fence blown down, been severe winds all day and still not great. Not going out to check how bad it is , can wait till tomorrow.
We were lucky - at least where we were: very localised, I'm sure. It was just about OK to go out and look before dusk.
One fence panel blown out but it was gash and due for replacement anyway. Though a neighbour had a ridge tile or two pop out, and they bounced down in the re-entrant angle with an extension, smashing more en route.
I haven't ventured out but I heard a crash and saw the chimney cowling on the garden path
That is your interpretation and not representative of the behind the paywall article.
I think you might be a little too high on Trump's supply.
It’s an accurate description.
The Danes are now in crisis mode,” said one person briefed on the call. Another said: “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.” A former Danish official added: “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”
When can we start photoshopping JD the VP into the "are we the baddies?" meme?
They are going to make an offer the Danes can’t refuse.
Between Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal it's getting to be a bit insulting Trump hasn't made any overtures to subsume us yet.
I wonder if we'll get crossover between the Lib Dems and Labour at some point this year. Third could be the best Labour can hope for.
I have found Labour's polling surprisingly sticky. It has been tracking inexorably down, but not in the same way as Starmer's approval rating. I wouldn't know why that would be. Could be something in the re-allocation of don't knows? I know our own view is skewed by our media diet, and I am a right wing media consumer, but I don't think there's much of a Guardian/Mirror/The Rest is Politics alternative narrative bubble where everyone thinks it's going brilliantly well.
I am expecting Labour's losses to continue, and for them to fall behind Reform and the Tories in most polls. I think Ref, Cons, Lab in that order will solidify.
I was worried (politically) about the forthcoming Crime and Justice bill having some good popular measures in it. But judging from the recent bollocks about kitchen knives from Amazon, it'll just be more snooping on the law-abiding. It's just not in Labour to turn this around - their instincts oppose everything that they need to do.
Yes, I agree that Labour's vote share is holding up quite well. Also the big shift is to DK/WNV. I also think this is mostly down to Starmer and Reeves having to managed after the Tory scorched earth policy of the last few years, coupled with major negative charisma. These people are recoverable, as are some who have gone to Green and even Reform.
The obvious thing for Labour is for Starmer to retire in 2028, being replaced by a new more charismatic leader, giveaway budget in October 28 and a May election in 2029.
'POLLING experts have given their verdict on the state of Scottish politics after a series of by-elections provided "real data" on what voters are thinking.
The numbers from the votes confirm what the polls are showing: The SNP are rising, Labour are slipping, and Reform UK are an electoral force north of the Border, experts told the National.'
My main assumption is that the SCons must be absolutely bricking it. There must be more defections in the pipeline.
For some reason I'm reminded of my first rabbit dissection at school, and seeing all the turds neatly arrayed in the bowel, ready to pop out. It may have been the rabbit's intended breakfast (they recycle their microbially digested cellulose that way), but fine fare for a Scon breakfast it isn't. Yet that is what is on the menu.
"What did you learn at PB today viewcode?" "I learned that the SCons are comparable to rabbits eating their own turds"
That is your interpretation and not representative of the behind the paywall article.
I think you might be a little too high on Trump's supply.
It’s an accurate description.
The Danes are now in crisis mode,” said one person briefed on the call. Another said: “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.” A former Danish official added: “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”
When can we start photoshopping JD the VP into the "are we the baddies?" meme?
They are going to make an offer the Danes can’t refuse.
Between Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal it's getting to be a bit insulting Trump hasn't made any overtures to subsume us yet.
We're more trouble than we're worth.
Ask the EU.
From Trump's perspective there's also a perfectly simple solution to the Irish question. Why has it taken him so long?
That is your interpretation and not representative of the behind the paywall article.
I think you might be a little too high on Trump's supply.
It’s an accurate description.
The Danes are now in crisis mode,” said one person briefed on the call. Another said: “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.” A former Danish official added: “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”
Aren't Denmark in the EU?
Of course, and this is potentially a very interesting test of what the EU means. As an EU member, Denmark can't (SFAICS) decide its own trade/tariff policy towards USA, that being a wholly EU competence. But the USA doesn't have to do the reverse. Or does it? So if the USA picks on Denmark, does the EU show united solidarity in support?
Denmark sends its goods to Sweden, re-badges them as Swedish and then sells them to America.
That is your interpretation and not representative of the behind the paywall article.
I think you might be a little too high on Trump's supply.
It’s an accurate description.
The Danes are now in crisis mode,” said one person briefed on the call. Another said: “The Danes are utterly freaked out by this.” A former Danish official added: “It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”
Aren't Denmark in the EU?
Of course, and this is potentially a very interesting test of what the EU means. As an EU member, Denmark can't (SFAICS) decide its own trade/tariff policy towards USA, that being a wholly EU competence. But the USA doesn't have to do the reverse. Or does it? So if the USA picks on Denmark, does the EU show united solidarity in support?
Presumably it would be like the EU deciding to adopt a particular trade policy towards, say, California. Would that work?
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
I imagine a huge proportion of Novo Noridsk’s profits - and thus a large proportion of Denmark’s GDP - comes from the USA
So a threatened Trump tariff could be very serious for them. Hence their “crisis” mode, presumably
Also the idea that “Denmark doesn’t care about Greenland” is total bollocks which could only be spoken by someone who has been to neither country
Denmark’s continued ownership of Greenland and the Faroes is intimately bound up with their self image as this hardy northern nation with a vast wilderness to protect and exploit. It really matters to them. Last vestige of the Viking past
Without it they become a flat suburb of Hamburg with Lego and some mossy food on tasting menus
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
I imagine a huge proportion of Novo Noridsk’s profits - and thus a large proportion of Denmark’s GDP - comes from the USA
So a threatened Trump tariff could be very serious for them. Hence their “crisis” mode, presumably
Also the idea that “Denmark doesn’t care about Greenland” is total bollocks which could only be spoken by someone who has been to neither country
Denmark’s continued ownership of Greenland and the Faroes is intimately bound up with their self image as this hardy northern nation with a vast wilderness to protect and exploit. It really matters to them. Last vestige of the Viking past
Without it they become a flat suburb of Hamburg with Lego and some mossy food on tasting menus
Mind you if Trump delivers on his proposed tariffs on the EU (including Denmark of course), China, Mexico and Canada they will all impose tariffs on US imports as well
I imagine a huge proportion of Novo Noridsk’s profits - and thus a large proportion of Denmark’s GDP - comes from the USA
So a threatened Trump tariff could be very serious for them. Hence their “crisis” mode, presumably
Also the idea that “Denmark doesn’t care about Greenland” is total bollocks which could only be spoken by someone who has been to neither country
Denmark’s continued ownership of Greenland and the Faroes is intimately bound up with their self image as this hardy northern nation with a vast wilderness to protect and exploit. It really matters to them. Last vestige of the Viking past
Without it they become a flat suburb of Hamburg with Lego and some mossy food on tasting menus
I can hardly believe that after more than thirty years I still remember Legoland. It's the sort of place you'd expect to forget overnight. It's like The Truman Show combined with The Prisoner combined with IKEA.
Meanwhile there's screaming coming from Traitors at the end of the corridor. Please make it stop.
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
I’ve woken up in the middle of the tigerish Burmese night to the most hilarious thread in PB history
Trump is actually seizing Greenland and Denmark is chucking a mental
Reform are leading in the polls and Labour are down to 22%, six months after a landslide win (“vote share holding up quite well” - @Foxy)
And
The next Chancellor of Germany is calling time on Schengen
Did I miss anything?
Go back to sleep. You'll be fine in the morning.
Something to calm you all down. Rural Burma today
I feel an affinity, my grandmother was born in Rangoon, British East India.
She would be pleased to hear that the locals all call it “Rangoon” (to thumb a nose at the regime, I suspect). They are quite Anglophile, as well
I guess 75 years of hapless, Starmerite bad governance could make anyone nostalgic for the bad old days of Empire… when Burma supplied HALF of the world’s rice
Is there a market on when Rudakubana is transferred to Ashworth or Rampton?
And is this another failure of Care in the Community which saw most psychiatric hospitals sold off for luxury flats? Might Rudakubana have been sectioned when turned down by Prevent as not a terrorist?
NHS mental health care amounts to almost nothing.
That's an exaggeration but mental health does suffer from the same care lottery issue as the rest of the health service. Some conditions are well dealt with, in other areas the system is buckling and there are long waiting lists, and in still more (dentistry being an obvious example) it has virtually ceased to exist.
The root cause of the problem is, of course, the weight of demand running so far ahead of the resources available. Half the population has no money left to give in tax to plug the holes and the other half resents being asked for it. Folk, unsurprisingly, want 1,001 different benefits from the state but everyone thinks it should be someone else's job to pay for them.
This means that Government is mostly unable or unwilling either to remove benefits and services, or to fund them adequately. Instead of getting all of the things we want done well, or at least some done well and others not done at all, we therefore get a whole lot of stuff done on the cheap and, therefore, badly.
We know the story well. Pretty well everything done by Government, save perhaps for the state pension with the infamous triple lock, is crap. Enormous waits for elective surgery. Leaky, ancient, hazardous schools and hospitals, kept limping on rather than being replaced. Roads full of potholes. Bins collected once every three weeks. Poorly funded councils pissing most of their money up the wall on social care services and special needs kids (and still failing to meet demand) whilst everything from museums to libraries to leisure centres get shut down or palmed off to community groups. Barely functional policing, courts that take years to deliver justice, dilapidated and brutal jails. And all we're getting from Labour is, basically, just about enough extra money to try to stop the hospitals from totally collapsing, whilst most other areas are subject to deliberate procrastination (e.g. social care) or yet more austerity.
Ultimately you get what you pay for. But nobody wants to pay for stuff. So on we all go, circling the plughole.
well I disagree on afew points , given my experience with an extended family member the service is dir e, only way to get help is to them arrested. State pensions despit ethe famed triple lock ar estill dire and by far the worst in teh developed world, the rest you are spot on. Waste and grifting everywhere.
Maybe he should get back to his day job(s) and stop trying to overthrow european governments?
Judging by Elon's behaviour I think it quite likely that the people who work for him would rather he doesn't come back to work and sticks to politics. If he's erratic as this at work he'd be a nightmare to deal with.
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
I imagine a huge proportion of Novo Noridsk’s profits - and thus a large proportion of Denmark’s GDP - comes from the USA
So a threatened Trump tariff could be very serious for them. Hence their “crisis” mode, presumably
Also the idea that “Denmark doesn’t care about Greenland” is total bollocks which could only be spoken by someone who has been to neither country
Denmark’s continued ownership of Greenland and the Faroes is intimately bound up with their self image as this hardy northern nation with a vast wilderness to protect and exploit. It really matters to them. Last vestige of the Viking past
Without it they become a flat suburb of Hamburg with Lego and some mossy food on tasting menus
Mind you if Trump delivers on his proposed tariffs on the EU (including Denmark of course), China, Mexico and Canada they will all impose tariffs on US imports as well
I’m pretty sure all of Novo’s Ozempic doses for the North American market will already be manufactured there, probably including the API. Lego too.
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
At least he's honest about the situation. Doesn't try to pretend things are okay when they aren't.
He is. But has he got the honesty and self-awareness to realise that at least half the problems are of his own making, with various innovations that have made TwiX WORSE
I imagine a huge proportion of Novo Noridsk’s profits - and thus a large proportion of Denmark’s GDP - comes from the USA
So a threatened Trump tariff could be very serious for them. Hence their “crisis” mode, presumably
Also the idea that “Denmark doesn’t care about Greenland” is total bollocks which could only be spoken by someone who has been to neither country
Denmark’s continued ownership of Greenland and the Faroes is intimately bound up with their self image as this hardy northern nation with a vast wilderness to protect and exploit. It really matters to them. Last vestige of the Viking past
Without it they become a flat suburb of Hamburg with Lego and some mossy food on tasting menus
Mind you if Trump delivers on his proposed tariffs on the EU (including Denmark of course), China, Mexico and Canada they will all impose tariffs on US imports as well
I’m pretty sure all of Novo’s Ozempic doses for the North American market will already be manufactured there, probably including the API. Lego too.
That’s worse as it means Trump can seize their factories. I wish I was joking
In 1917, our Septic friends purchased the western half of the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million (say $600 million in today's money). These are the group now known as the US Virgin Islands.
Part of that deal was also that the USA recognised full Danish Sovereignty over Greenland.
The really idiotic thing is that the USA is allowed military bases in Greenland already.
I think that Trump understands geopolitics from playing the boardgame Risk. He will want Kamchatka next.
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
At least he's honest about the situation. Doesn't try to pretend things are okay when they aren't.
He is. But has he got the honesty and self-awareness to realise that at least half the problems are of his own making, with various innovations that have made TwiX WORSE
The question is whether Elon's X woes are just face-saving cover for returning to the day job following reports he is being frozen out of the White House by the President's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, as reported earlier in this thread.
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
I imagine a huge proportion of Novo Noridsk’s profits - and thus a large proportion of Denmark’s GDP - comes from the USA
So a threatened Trump tariff could be very serious for them. Hence their “crisis” mode, presumably
Also the idea that “Denmark doesn’t care about Greenland” is total bollocks which could only be spoken by someone who has been to neither country
Denmark’s continued ownership of Greenland and the Faroes is intimately bound up with their self image as this hardy northern nation with a vast wilderness to protect and exploit. It really matters to them. Last vestige of the Viking past
Without it they become a flat suburb of Hamburg with Lego and some mossy food on tasting menus
Mind you if Trump delivers on his proposed tariffs on the EU (including Denmark of course), China, Mexico and Canada they will all impose tariffs on US imports as well
I’m pretty sure all of Novo’s Ozempic doses for the North American market will already be manufactured there, probably including the API. Lego too.
That’s worse as it means Trump can seize their factories. I wish I was joking
They should sneak in an active ingredient that reverses the effect and makes Americans even fatter.
In 1917, our Septic friends purchased the western half of the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million (say $600 million in today's money). These are the group now known as the US Virgin Islands.
Part of that deal was also that the USA recognised full Danish Sovereignty over Greenland.
The really idiotic thing is that the USA is allowed military bases in Greenland already.
I think that Trump understands geopolitics from playing the boardgame Risk. He will want Kamchatka next.
Between 1941 and 1945, Greenland was actually occupied by the USA.
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
At least he's honest about the situation. Doesn't try to pretend things are okay when they aren't.
He is. But has he got the honesty and self-awareness to realise that at least half the problems are of his own making, with various innovations that have made TwiX WORSE
The question is whether Elon's X woes are just face-saving cover for returning to the day job following reports he is being frozen out of the White House by the President's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, as reported earlier in this thread.
Incredible. Wiles freezes Musk out after days and days of 'co-president' coverage and nonsense jumping up and down?
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
Someone at the Met Office had fun drawing the amber weather warning over northern Scotland, Orkneys and Shetland - an unmistakable shape of a cock and balls....
Comments
If JK Rowling beats Gary Lineker 52%-48% for the role of President, I doubt that.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/24/reform-top-national-polls-first-time-southport-sentencing/
https://www.thenational.scot/news/24884131.polling-experts-new-scottish-council-by-elections-tell-us/?ref=eb&nid=1948&block=article_block_a&u=f140ec39d500193051a33e140c12bd95&date=240125
'POLLING experts have given their verdict on the state of Scottish politics after a series of by-elections provided "real data" on what voters are thinking.
The numbers from the votes confirm what the polls are showing: The SNP are rising, Labour are slipping, and Reform UK are an electoral force north of the Border, experts told the National.'
The root cause of the problem is, of course, the weight of demand running so far ahead of the resources available. Half the population has no money left to give in tax to plug the holes and the other half resents being asked for it. Folk, unsurprisingly, want 1,001 different benefits from the state but everyone thinks it should be someone else's job to pay for them.
This means that Government is mostly unable or unwilling either to remove benefits and services, or to fund them adequately. Instead of getting all of the things we want done well, or at least some done well and others not done at all, we therefore get a whole lot of stuff done on the cheap and, therefore, badly.
We know the story well. Pretty well everything done by Government, save perhaps for the state pension with the infamous triple lock, is crap. Enormous waits for elective surgery. Leaky, ancient, hazardous schools and hospitals, kept limping on rather than being replaced. Roads full of potholes. Bins collected once every three weeks. Poorly funded councils pissing most of their money up the wall on social care services and special needs kids (and still failing to meet demand) whilst everything from museums to libraries to leisure centres get shut down or palmed off to community groups. Barely functional policing, courts that take years to deliver justice, dilapidated and brutal jails. And all we're getting from Labour is, basically, just about enough extra money to try to stop the hospitals from totally collapsing, whilst most other areas are subject to deliberate procrastination (e.g. social care) or yet more austerity.
Ultimately you get what you pay for. But nobody wants to pay for stuff. So on we all go, circling the plughole.
#intrepidexplorer#
One fence panel blown out but it was gash and due for replacement anyway. Though a neighbour had a ridge tile or two pop out, and they bounced down in the re-entrant angle with an extension, smashing more en route.
Reader, they did not.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/5097589#Comment_5097589
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=ashington+sunil060902&title=Special:MediaSearch&go=Go&type=image
The fete de la Saint-Vincent tournante takes place each January. This year it’s tomorrow and Sunday.
St Vincent is the patron saint of wine and vignerons. The festival moves between villages in the region each year. For 2025 it’s in a village close to Beaune called Ladoix Serrigny.
Now is the time of year when the sap begins to rise again in the vines. Even in the dead of winter the plant world is on the move. By early February it’s coursing up through them and pruning cuts bleed copious sap.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/24/state-department-foreign-aid-pause-00200510
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/two-big-problems-with-the-sainsburys-job-cuts/
This seems exactly like the Nottingham case. Patient disengages and then zippo nothing happens.
In Nottingham case the person in question stopped taking medication. Who knows in this case?
iirc Notts is also having a public inquiry.
They are piling up.
NHS mental health is running on empty. Underfunded for decades and now we are paying the price.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthcaresystem/bulletins/ukhealthaccounts/2022and2023
The White House
@WhiteHouse
·
21m
President Trump Delivers More in 100 Hours Than Any President in 100 Days 🇺🇸
https://x.com/WhiteHouse
https://www.ft.com/content/ace02a6f-3307-43f8-aac3-16b6646b60f6?accessToken=zwAGLHt4t1QAkdOs4CpvMwdD-NOqwxa2ZGtg9g.MEUCIGPe3EC0DAYDyzOEMK_TcOIIBFWSPtvGubC0kjcO-ywQAiEA6rUHj8a09U15cKyUdGUjkTjqFYhITjSGKvgAZCuHu_w&sharetype=gift&token=b117ed17-21f6-4ea1-a7bb-06443070b914
NARRATOR: Labour are down to 22%
George Mann
@sgfmann
·
5m
The Times: Reeves - Britain needs a dose of Trump positivity #TomorrowsPapersToday
Ask the EU.
Trump is actually seizing Greenland and Denmark is chucking a mental
Reform are leading in the polls and Labour are down to 22%, six months after a landslide win (“vote share holding up quite well” - @Foxy)
And
The next Chancellor of Germany is calling time on Schengen
Did I miss anything?
"I learned that the SCons are comparable to rabbits eating their own turds"
Every day on PB is a school day...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_United_Kingdom_general_election
I yearn for the honest simplicity of It's a Knockout.
In email to X staff, Musk says "user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even"; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X (Wall Street Journal)
https://bsky.app/profile/techmeme.com/post/3lgjbldyxgo2h
'Because the management is shit.'
So a threatened Trump tariff could be very serious for them. Hence their “crisis” mode, presumably
Also the idea that “Denmark doesn’t care about Greenland” is total bollocks which could only be spoken by someone who has been to neither country
Denmark’s continued ownership of Greenland and the Faroes is intimately bound up with their self image as this hardy northern nation with a vast wilderness to protect and exploit. It really matters to them. Last vestige of the Viking past
Without it they become a flat suburb of Hamburg with Lego and some mossy food on tasting menus
Notably right arms.
Meanwhile there's screaming coming from Traitors at the end of the corridor. Please make it stop.
Tesla also in shit.
Maybe he should get back to his day job(s) and stop trying to overthrow european governments?
I guess 75 years of hapless, Starmerite bad governance could make anyone nostalgic for the bad old days of Empire… when Burma supplied HALF of the world’s rice
Either is a legit aspiration, but he can’t have both
The really idiotic thing is that the USA is allowed military bases in Greenland already.
I think that Trump understands geopolitics from playing the boardgame Risk. He will want Kamchatka next.
I am shocked, I tell you, shocked.
I just said “legitimate”