Good, I didn’t need any support when I got As in A Level Maths and Further Maths, and this was when A Levels were very difficult.
The youth of today are far too mollycoddled.
From memory a level maths today contains things that were first / second year degree when I went to Uni
Long time ago now, but my A level Physics had things being taken out (we were shown a 8 page book of things that had been removed). I'd be surprised if A level maths has bucked that trend in that way.
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
That’s a bit racist
I love it. I love the shamanic “outsider art” aesthetic
For me the figures - at once naive and deliberate - evoke the primitivist urgency of CoBrA artists or the fragmented narratives of Aboriginal dot paintings, their surreal distortions suggesting an alternative epistemology, a cosmology unmoored from Western linearity. The animals, spectral yet concrete? - they possess a totemic authority: elephants rendered in a near-psychedelic incompleteness, a spotted stag crowned with antlers that defy taxonomy. They’re lovely. But are they vegan? I dare say they might be
Then there’s rhe chromatic field - that red of such purity that it transcends mere pigment - it’s like a visual amplifier, both sacral and visceral, an arterial current binding the disparate elements. The embroidered tableaux oscillate between ritual and the quotidian: a peacock with imperial gravitas, a bowman in mid-sacrament, and a gong suspended in an enigma of sport or ceremony. The humanoid figures, with their elongated faces and spectral expressions, resist anthropocentric familiarity, emerging instead as liminal beings, intermediaries between the real and the ineffable. Also they remind me of @kinabalu when he’s unable to grasp a point
Is this a cultural document, an oneiric map, or a piece of noomy détournement? It is all and none - a relic of a narrative forever in motion, refusing resolution
It is PB hand woven in cotton, in the remote valleys of Kachin Myanmar
How did you get that passed the AI Checker?
You may have missed the fact that my second job - after flint knapping - is writing
On growth, Labour lost the 'benefit of the doubt' with their utterly inept first six months.
What are they proposing? Exactly what you'd expect from them - absolutely nothing new that hasn't been discussed for years, or isn't already happening.
Lots of new reservoirs - many of these have been in the pipeline for years and are at various planning stages. Oxford to Cambridge - years of talking. New runways - decades. Of course, many Labour MPs (including Starmer) have been at the heart of stopping all of these projects over the years.
When they had the actual chance to do something, like with tech and AI, they stopped the investment because of politics, Sunak proposed it.
Let's also not forget that the budget (and Rayner's crap) itself will have increased the cost for all of these growth potentials.
More evidence that they came into power, after 14 years away, without a single original thought or policy.
The contrast with Trump is incredible, and not in a good way for Labour. Trump came in ready from day one minute one, with a detailed plan of what we he was gonna do from the very get go. And wow, he's doing it. Even if you despise him and his brillaint ideas, he's enacting them with ruthless speed and brutal efficiency
Labour look like they accidentally wandered in to power, and then started browsing the shelves to see if there are any scotch eggs
THEY HAD FOURTEEN YEARS TO PREPARE
Well Labour did present themselves as a govt in waiting, ready to go for the start. Obviously they weren't and many people, myself included, were mugged off by them on that. However I think they can turn it around as plenty of their former voters are DK/WNV rather than straight switchers.
Irrespective of what people think of Trump he has clearly hit the ground running and has an agenda and is implementing it. A few upset liberals, like the crying actress Selena Gomez in a now deleted video, won't bother them a bit either. Trump has a mandate and is on with it.
Labours problem was the ming vase approach. Ruling out stuff they really need to do such as the triple lock being reformed. Trump, OTOH, said what he would do rather than what he wouldn't.
Labour have now handily provided us with a metric by which to judge them. The third runway at Heathrow. It may be spurious or wrong-headed, but they've come straight out and said "We desperately need growth, this will provide that growth, we are going to do it". Presumably they are going io legislate to remove all remaining LHR3 obstacles, legal and otherwise, they certainly have a big enough majority to do this
So, if we see shovels at work near Hounslow in the next two years we will know they are serious. If it doesn't happen, then we know they are pathetic liars. My bet is on the second, I sincerely hope they surprise me
I have no doubt their intentions are good and their delivery will be mired by legal campaigns like the one from the crank I posted a twitter thread about the other day who stymies any development with legal objections.
But they have a big enough majority to smash through any objections. They've got 400 MPs FFS. We've also had endless inquiries and endless surveys and no more needs to be done, on that front
This is why it is such a good test of their real intent. There is nothing stopping them saying Action This Day - and seeing it done. They have the power to force this through. I'm not remotely optimistic but I am prepared to give them this one last chance
"Trump came in ready from day one minute one, with a detailed plan"
A plan he repeatedly denied had anything to do with him or his policies during the actual campaign.
His "plan" is simply to dominate the news and titillate himself.
Robert Jenrick must be feeling quietly confident that he'll be Tory leader within a year or two. Badenoch needs to improve fairly quickly.
She's got the toughest job in politics and she's doing fine (for now)
Kemi is doing badly but as posted earlier in this thread, Jenrick is just as bad, if not worse. Here is that 30-second clip showing him being read the riot act yesterday. https://x.com/PeterStefanovi2/status/1884273412534894738
Looking at his smirky face I can’t decide if he doesn’t care, because he thinks his target audience will forget the last 14 years, or he’s genuinely convinced himself he wasn’t in government 6 months ago.
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
That’s a bit racist
I love it. I love the shamanic “outsider art” aesthetic
For me the figures - at once naive and deliberate - evoke the primitivist urgency of CoBrA artists or the fragmented narratives of Aboriginal dot paintings, their surreal distortions suggesting an alternative epistemology, a cosmology unmoored from Western linearity. The animals, spectral yet concrete? - they possess a totemic authority: elephants rendered in a near-psychedelic incompleteness, a spotted stag crowned with antlers that defy taxonomy. They’re lovely. But are they vegan? I dare say they might be
Then there’s rhe chromatic field - that red of such purity that it transcends mere pigment - it’s like a visual amplifier, both sacral and visceral, an arterial current binding the disparate elements. The embroidered tableaux oscillate between ritual and the quotidian: a peacock with imperial gravitas, a bowman in mid-sacrament, and a gong suspended in an enigma of sport or ceremony. The humanoid figures, with their elongated faces and spectral expressions, resist anthropocentric familiarity, emerging instead as liminal beings, intermediaries between the real and the ineffable. Also they remind me of @kinabalu when he’s unable to grasp a point
Is this a cultural document, an oneiric map, or a piece of noomy détournement? It is all and none - a relic of a narrative forever in motion, refusing resolution
It is PB hand woven in cotton, in the remote valleys of Kachin Myanmar
How did you get that passed the AI Checker?
You may have missed the fact that my second job - after flint knapping - is writing
I thought your first job was posting on PB, certainly from the number of posts in a limited time span...
With all this Heathrow stuff going on, from the perspective of the grim north - where for most people air travel is about cheap flights from Liverpool etc - it still sounds very southern. I am wondering where is the plan for trains from Liverpool to Hull, buses that aren't pre war, dualling the A1 from London -Edinburgh (guess which bit is missing), and even west coast side Liverpool/Manchester) to Edinburgh.
When the Heathrow 3rd runways opens there will be five flights from Liverpool to London before 9am, and vice-versa.
Yes there is a missed opprtunity to run E-W rail in the North, from Liverpool to Hull.
The fact there would be that kind of demand, for a train journey of only 2 hours, demonstrates just how much we needed HS2 to open up some capacity (not speed FFS).
3rd runway at Heathrow to enable people to fly to Liverpool? Not a serious country.
You’re right but equally at the moment if I want to fly to someone that isn’t incredibly mainstream I have no choice but to fly via Amsterdam.
Yes I could go to Newcastle and go via CDG but just nope either way you can’t go via Heathrow which would be what most people expect
So those 3 flights from Liverpool will be 1 plane for onward connections and 2 for people to get to London cheaper than the train - with train prices set insanely high to limit demand on already full services
Of course if they had sensibly branched HS2 out to Heathrow we could actually reduce emissions as more people in the North and Midlands would take the train to connect with Heathrow flights instead of flying to Schiphol.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Today's cash transactions for 6 Seville oranges, a few quid to a charity collection, the purchase of a pint of milk and a Twirl and paying a small bill is taking on a sinister aspect. When do HMRC/Police/MI6/MI5/Prevent Scheme call round for a serious chat?
Badenoch absolutely dreadful at PMQs. Starmer actually (unusually) answered her first question, so she asked it twice more. Time for Honest Bob?
Davy was effective.
I thought she did rather well?
I thought Starmer won with the line "We know she's not a lawyer, she's clearly not a leader, but if she keeps on like this, she is going to be the next lettuce."
Plus it wasn’t a good look for Badenoch when the Speaker had to tell her off,
So, now that Starmer thinks it is perfectly fine to call Badenoch a 'lettuce' at PMQs and people on here like it, are we all OK with 'Rachel from Accounts'?
'lettuce' is gender neutral, I think? but it's a bit of a tired joke by now that doesn't seem to make any sense in this context - hasn't Badenoch already lasted longer a lettuce? Or is he predicting that she will become PM but only for a few days? I don't get it.
I wouldn't use 'Rachel from Accounts' myself, and as you're asking my advice: steer clear of it if you want to avoid any appearance of being an arse.
I'm happy to give people the benefit of the doubt if they do use it, though it does leave a bit of an off smell.
This stuff is really really pathetic. Labour are in power. They will get mocked and insulted. What did they honestly expect??
Just proffering honest advice when asked. Sorry to see it triggered you though - maybe have a bit of lie down with your artisanal throw you'll be right as rain in no time!
PMQs – note the idea to build datacentres in naturally cold areas has long been floated on pb.
That works for the big global superscaler cloud applications that do stuff in the background, and lots of them are already in cold countries with cheap renewable energy, but a lot of data centres need to be close to the main markets to minimise latency, hence most are in the Thames valley and more widely around the FLAPD hubs.
Latency is generally less of a concern than it used to be simply because data transfer and processing have become much faster, but in any case, the main market for the government of Scotland and its people is Scotland.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
When I go round to the corner shop for £2 of milk they don’t want me paying via card as there is 30p transaction fee due to them being fleeced by the card machine provider
Strangely enough unless you are sending £20+ they want cash
Badenoch absolutely dreadful at PMQs. Starmer actually (unusually) answered her first question, so she asked it twice more. Time for Honest Bob?
Davy was effective.
I thought she did rather well?
I thought Starmer won with the line "We know she's not a lawyer, she's clearly not a leader, but if she keeps on like this, she is going to be the next lettuce."
Plus it wasn’t a good look for Badenoch when the Speaker had to tell her off,
So, now that Starmer thinks it is perfectly fine to call Badenoch a 'lettuce' at PMQs and people on here like it, are we all OK with 'Rachel from Accounts'?
'lettuce' is gender neutral, I think? but it's a bit of a tired joke by now that doesn't seem to make any sense in this context - hasn't Badenoch already lasted longer a lettuce? Or is he predicting that she will become PM but only for a few days? I don't get it.
I wouldn't use 'Rachel from Accounts' myself, and as you're asking my advice: steer clear of it if you want to avoid any appearance of being an arse.
I'm happy to give people the benefit of the doubt if they do use it, though it does leave a bit of an off smell.
This is well expressed. People using it will fall into 2 groups: (1) Don't recognise that it's sexist. (2) Know full well it's sexist but don't care because they are.
It can be hard to tell the difference (although not *that* hard in some cases) therefore it's only fair to go with benefit of the doubt.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
'I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Wow. Any particular data to back up this 99% of all cash transactions are dodgy statistic? I will think on this next time I buy a pint, or do some top up shopping and consider what criminality I am supporting.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
When I go round to the corner shop for £2 of milk they don’t want me paying via card as there is 30p transaction fee due to them being fleeced by the card machine provider
Strangely enough unless you are sending £20+ they want cash
Plenty of payment providers who charge only on a % basis these days with no transaction fee.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
Going a bit far - but there is good evidence that using cash helps people budget.
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
Being soaked in the tears of the 8 year old slave who made it counters any Woke entirely.
It wasn’t a slave. Kachin Burma has a long noble tradition of hand woven cotton
“Kachin textiles are not merely aesthetic but play an essential role in social and ceremonial life. Traditionally, they are worn during weddings, festivals (Manau celebrations), and rites of passage. Men wear intricately woven longyis (sarongs), while women wear htameins (skirts) paired with elaborately embroidered jackets and headdresses. Warriors and leaders historically wore finely woven garments as symbols of status
Kachin textiles are renowned and highly prized by collectors for their bold geometric patterns, intricate embroidery, and bright contrasting colors. Common motifs include:
Zigzags & diamonds: Representing mountains and rivers, key features of Kachin landscapes.
Animal symbols: Elephants, deer, birds, and mythical creatures, often linked to animist beliefs.
Tribal patterns: Each Kachin sub-group (such as the Jinghpaw, Rawang, or Lisu) has distinct designs that indicate regional or clan identity.”
$105! Bargain. I utterly adore it
Is that your hotel room. I would be seriously concerned if you made your bed up every day like that in NW1.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
It's so easy to spend money without even bothering to notice how much you're spending with electronic methods.
Didn't he flounce over the merest hint of criticism of Labour to not return ?
Rogerdamus also.
Others have taken breaks and returned.
That’s a shame. I enjoy his commentary. Also I never saw him as especially snowflakey - so it’s a surprise? Maybe he had other reasons
It’s a bad sign for Labour that their supporters are so fragile they can’t take a few weeks of mild abuse
Imagine how they'd feel if they had the likes of Led By Donkeys, who were supposedly there to hold truth to power but now seem to stalk Nigel Farage, on the case of the govt too with all manner of banal stunts that they think are edgy and cleverl
PMQs – note the idea to build datacentres in naturally cold areas has long been floated on pb.
That works for the big global superscaler cloud applications that do stuff in the background, and lots of them are already in cold countries with cheap renewable energy, but a lot of data centres need to be close to the main markets to minimise latency, hence most are in the Thames valley and more widely around the FLAPD hubs.
Latency is generally less of a concern than it used to be simply because data transfer and processing have become much faster, but in any case, the main market for the government of Scotland and its people is Scotland.
Latency is still an issue but there will be bigger priorities above latency. For AI the question will be guaranteed power first everything else secondary
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
More and more people are going back to cash as envelope-stuffing and other means of saving money are promoted on social media. Likewise cutting up cards (metaphorically or literally) to climb out of debt.
"Let's work something out" — Florida Trump supporter begs president to "let me keep my wife" after ICE deports her back to Venezuela
It's curious how it is so much easier to see 10 million people you don't know deported than one person you do. Not only wives but neighbours, families your children know from school. It's possible that this is a rock on which this slightly fascist tendency will founder.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
Just go the whole hog and fucking move into Beamish.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
Given stories like this from Canada is it any wonder there are conspiracy theories of the move away from cash ?
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
Being soaked in the tears of the 8 year old slave who made it counters any Woke entirely.
It wasn’t a slave. Kachin Burma has a long noble tradition of hand woven cotton
“Kachin textiles are not merely aesthetic but play an essential role in social and ceremonial life. Traditionally, they are worn during weddings, festivals (Manau celebrations), and rites of passage. Men wear intricately woven longyis (sarongs), while women wear htameins (skirts) paired with elaborately embroidered jackets and headdresses. Warriors and leaders historically wore finely woven garments as symbols of status
Kachin textiles are renowned and highly prized by collectors for their bold geometric patterns, intricate embroidery, and bright contrasting colors. Common motifs include:
Zigzags & diamonds: Representing mountains and rivers, key features of Kachin landscapes.
Animal symbols: Elephants, deer, birds, and mythical creatures, often linked to animist beliefs.
Tribal patterns: Each Kachin sub-group (such as the Jinghpaw, Rawang, or Lisu) has distinct designs that indicate regional or clan identity.”
$105! Bargain. I utterly adore it
Is that your hotel room. I would be seriously concerned if you made your bed up every day like that in NW1.
HW1 is a bit suburban, n'est-ce pas?
I spent several years living in EC2.
EC2 is sweet
It’s my proud boast that I have lived in nearly all the “1s”
Robert Jenrick must be feeling quietly confident that he'll be Tory leader within a year or two. Badenoch needs to improve fairly quickly.
She's got the toughest job in politics and she's doing fine (for now)
Kemi is doing badly but as posted earlier in this thread, Jenrick is just as bad, if not worse. Here is that 30-second clip showing him being read the riot act yesterday. https://x.com/PeterStefanovi2/status/1884273412534894738
On what basis is she doing badly? She's only been LOTO for 3 months and she's (mostly) made the right calls in that time and week by week consistently picks the correct issues for PMQ's and sometimes manages to beat SKS (which is a tall order given his experience, his majority and he has right to reply and the final say in any contest)
Granted she hasn't has any cut through yet with the public but that's mostly because the public have "tuned out" of listening to anything the Conservatives have to say - That will change but it might take a couple of years.
If people are still not listening to the Tories in 2027, then it may be time to revise my opinion but for now I still say Kemi is doing fine for a LOTO at this particular moment in the political cycle.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
It's so easy to spend money without even bothering to notice how much you're spending with electronic methods.
It's a point Rory Sutherland makes. Suppose you had to pay for holidays and stuff in used five pound notes, you would think a little longer.
"Let's work something out" — Florida Trump supporter begs president to "let me keep my wife" after ICE deports her back to Venezuela
It's curious how it is so much easier to see 10 million people you don't know deported than one person you do. Not only wives but neighbours, families your children know from school. It's possible that this is a rock on which this slightly fascist tendency will founder.
No, and it is as much about deterrence as well.
Removing people who have no right to remain, well, Labour are happily doing that at the moment and trumpeting their success relative to the inept Tories. Hardly call labour slightly fascistic.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
Pretty much every single supermarket I go to has people waiting for the 'cash and card' checkout because they have cash and only the 'card only' ones are available. I'm always surprised by the number of people who can't or won't pay by card. Not necessarily older than me, either.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
Get yourself an app or online account.
Then get a credit card and you can get rewarded and protected for using your card.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
Pretty much every single supermarket I go to has people waiting for the 'cash and card' checkout because they have cash and only the 'card only' ones are available. I'm always surprised by the number of people who can't or won't pay by card. Not necessarily older than me, either.
Many people need to watch their budget and the easiest way to do that is cash.
Credit / Debit cards are great for people who are organized but utterly painful for people who aren’t organized or need to watch what they spend
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
Or limited IT skills full stop.
I was once stopped in the street by a young person who wanted me to get her some money from the ATM machine with her card, using the pass code she'd written on a scrap of paper. She was pretty obviously from the local residential community for people who would have limited skills in such areas.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
Just go the whole hog and fucking move into Beamish.
I love the Auto workshop at Beamish in the 1913 part, as well as the old buses.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
"Let's work something out" — Florida Trump supporter begs president to "let me keep my wife" after ICE deports her back to Venezuela
It's curious how it is so much easier to see 10 million people you don't know deported than one person you do. Not only wives but neighbours, families your children know from school. It's possible that this is a rock on which this slightly fascist tendency will founder.
Yes, the popularity of these types of policies depends on dehumanisation.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
From my day job.
I get to see information that the public do not.
Point taken, but still. Take it on faith? Are we going to be worshipping you next?
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
From my day job.
I get to see information that the public do not.
"99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality."
of course that's bollocks. if you're so sad that you want to pretend you've got access to secret information to impress us, you should at least make it slightly plausible.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
Or limited IT skills full stop.
I was once stopped in the street by a young person who wanted me to get her some money from the ATM machine with her card, using the pass code she'd written on a scrap of paper. She was pretty obviously from the local residential community for people who would have limited skills in such areas.
It's nice to see that some people will take the time to help Kemi.
"Let's work something out" — Florida Trump supporter begs president to "let me keep my wife" after ICE deports her back to Venezuela
It's curious how it is so much easier to see 10 million people you don't know deported than one person you do. Not only wives but neighbours, families your children know from school. It's possible that this is a rock on which this slightly fascist tendency will founder.
Yes, the popularity of these types of policies depends on dehumanisation.
That’s the whole problem with immigration - people don’t want immigrants but like the ones they know like Mahmud who arrived 2 years ago (and helps tidy the street say).
The immigrants people want to go are 99% of the time the faceless ones they don’t know
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
That’s a bit racist
I love it. I love the shamanic “outsider art” aesthetic
For me the figures - at once naive and deliberate - evoke the primitivist urgency of CoBrA artists or the fragmented narratives of Aboriginal dot paintings, their surreal distortions suggesting an alternative epistemology, a cosmology unmoored from Western linearity. The animals, spectral yet concrete? - they possess a totemic authority: elephants rendered in a near-psychedelic incompleteness, a spotted stag crowned with antlers that defy taxonomy. They’re lovely. But are they vegan? I dare say they might be
Then there’s rhe chromatic field - that red of such purity that it transcends mere pigment - it’s like a visual amplifier, both sacral and visceral, an arterial current binding the disparate elements. The embroidered tableaux oscillate between ritual and the quotidian: a peacock with imperial gravitas, a bowman in mid-sacrament, and a gong suspended in an enigma of sport or ceremony. The humanoid figures, with their elongated faces and spectral expressions, resist anthropocentric familiarity, emerging instead as liminal beings, intermediaries between the real and the ineffable. Also they remind me of @kinabalu when he’s unable to grasp a point
Is this a cultural document, an oneiric map, or a piece of noomy détournement? It is all and none - a relic of a narrative forever in motion, refusing resolution
It is PB hand woven in cotton, in the remote valleys of Kachin Myanmar
How did you get that passed the AI Checker?
You may have missed the fact that my second job - after flint knapping - is writing
An honest mistake, given that the bilge you post on here offers few clues.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
Or limited IT skills full stop.
I was once stopped in the street by a young person who wanted me to get her some money from the ATM machine with her card, using the pass code she'd written on a scrap of paper. She was pretty obviously from the local residential community for people who would have limited skills in such areas.
It's nice to see that some people will take the time to help Kemi.
I didn't.
(ATMs have cameras. And the moment I was known to have someone else's code ....)
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
Being soaked in the tears of the 8 year old slave who made it counters any Woke entirely.
It wasn’t a slave. Kachin Burma has a long noble tradition of hand woven cotton
“Kachin textiles are not merely aesthetic but play an essential role in social and ceremonial life. Traditionally, they are worn during weddings, festivals (Manau celebrations), and rites of passage. Men wear intricately woven longyis (sarongs), while women wear htameins (skirts) paired with elaborately embroidered jackets and headdresses. Warriors and leaders historically wore finely woven garments as symbols of status
Kachin textiles are renowned and highly prized by collectors for their bold geometric patterns, intricate embroidery, and bright contrasting colors. Common motifs include:
Zigzags & diamonds: Representing mountains and rivers, key features of Kachin landscapes.
Animal symbols: Elephants, deer, birds, and mythical creatures, often linked to animist beliefs.
Tribal patterns: Each Kachin sub-group (such as the Jinghpaw, Rawang, or Lisu) has distinct designs that indicate regional or clan identity.”
$105! Bargain. I utterly adore it
Is that your hotel room. I would be seriously concerned if you made your bed up every day like that in NW1.
HW1 is a bit suburban, n'est-ce pas?
I spent several years living in EC2.
EC2 is sweet
It’s my proud boast that I have lived in nearly all the “1s”
W1. SW1, EC1, N1, WC1, E1 and now NW1
Only one missing is SE1. But I’ll cope
A pedant notes: there are postcodes outside London too.
But that is quite remarkable. The average first number in my postcode is 13 1/8. If it's weighted by the length of time I've spent there it's 16.7. And that's someone who's lived somewhere fairly urban all his life (though my 1 "1" was DL1, so my least metropolitan address).
You must have a remarkably low average postcode score.
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
That looks a bit woke.
Trouserless bloke with a cudgel chasing three girls?
Burmese refer to Westerners as "the trousers people" as near universally male and female wear sarongs, except the military. There is a gender difference in how it is tied, and social class by length. Peasants wear shorter sarongs so they don't get muddy in the paddy fields etc.
So those girls being chased may well be three peasants being chased by a soldier, the Kachin being one of the ethnic groups at war with the government.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
Just go the whole hog and fucking move into Beamish.
I think the cashpoints in the 1820s still used CRTs, and only worked if the rubber band was wound up.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
From my day job.
I get to see information that the public do not.
Point taken, but still. Take it on faith? Are we going to be worshipping you next?
Wait, you’re not already worshipping me over these last few years?
yes, but he wont scrap them will he ? He'll make bleaty noises and then approve more laws and restrictions.
I’ll believe he’s taking growth seriously when Ed Miliband gets fired and all the overdue infrastructure projects have spades in the ground.
Including all those overdue infrastructure projects being pushed forward by Ed Miliband’s department?
Which minister has initiated by far the biggest volume of infrastructure investment since the election? Ed Miliband.
“We need to build infrastructure!” “Oh, no not THAT sort of infrastructure.”
Sorry, perhaps we should specify 'necessary and useful infrastructure'.
I know we’re all Trumpists now but there remain a few people in the country for whom, for example, government fast tracking for offshore wind farms is necessary and useful.
“I want infrastructure, but not in my ideological back yard”.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
From my day job.
I get to see information that the public do not.
Point taken, but still. Take it on faith? Are we going to be worshipping you next?
Wait, you’re not already worshipping me over these last few years?
Hmm, you certainly don't have feet of clay, so perhaps I should reconsider.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
From my day job.
I get to see information that the public do not.
Point taken, but still. Take it on faith? Are we going to be worshipping you next?
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
Just go the whole hog and fucking move into Beamish.
I think the cashpoints in the 1820s still used CRTs, and only worked if the rubber band was wound up.
Nah, they were getting really excited about the new steam engines with mechanical processing. Mr Babbage and all that.
Robert Jenrick must be feeling quietly confident that he'll be Tory leader within a year or two. Badenoch needs to improve fairly quickly.
She's got the toughest job in politics and she's doing fine (for now)
Kemi is doing badly but as posted earlier in this thread, Jenrick is just as bad, if not worse. Here is that 30-second clip showing him being read the riot act yesterday. https://x.com/PeterStefanovi2/status/1884273412534894738
On what basis is she doing badly? She's only been LOTO for 3 months and she's (mostly) made the right calls in that time and week by week consistently picks the correct issues for PMQ's and sometimes manages to beat SKS (which is a tall order given his experience, his majority and he has right to reply and the final say in any contest)
Granted she hasn't has any cut through yet with the public but that's mostly because the public have "tuned out" of listening to anything the Conservatives have to say - That will change but it might take a couple of years.
If people are still not listening to the Tories in 2027, then it may be time to revise my opinion but for now I still say Kemi is doing fine for a LOTO at this particular moment in the political cycle.
I admire your enthusiasm but if the Conservatives are trailing even with such a bad Labour government, the only way is out.
Didn't he flounce over the merest hint of criticism of Labour to not return ?
Rogerdamus also.
Others have taken breaks and returned.
That’s a shame. I enjoy his commentary. Also I never saw him as especially snowflakey - so it’s a surprise? Maybe he had other reasons
It’s a bad sign for Labour that their supporters are so fragile they can’t take a few weeks of mild abuse
Anabobazina has posted either not much or not at all since Nov 5th. So I tentatively deduce it might be disgust at Donald Trump's election leading to a lessening of political libido. In which case it says much about him, all of it good. I'm a bit disappointed that I'm still pumping away as much as ever.
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
That’s a bit racist
I love it. I love the shamanic “outsider art” aesthetic
For me the figures - at once naive and deliberate - evoke the primitivist urgency of CoBrA artists or the fragmented narratives of Aboriginal dot paintings, their surreal distortions suggesting an alternative epistemology, a cosmology unmoored from Western linearity. The animals, spectral yet concrete? - they possess a totemic authority: elephants rendered in a near-psychedelic incompleteness, a spotted stag crowned with antlers that defy taxonomy. They’re lovely. But are they vegan? I dare say they might be
Then there’s rhe chromatic field - that red of such purity that it transcends mere pigment - it’s like a visual amplifier, both sacral and visceral, an arterial current binding the disparate elements. The embroidered tableaux oscillate between ritual and the quotidian: a peacock with imperial gravitas, a bowman in mid-sacrament, and a gong suspended in an enigma of sport or ceremony. The humanoid figures, with their elongated faces and spectral expressions, resist anthropocentric familiarity, emerging instead as liminal beings, intermediaries between the real and the ineffable. Also they remind me of @kinabalu when he’s unable to grasp a point
Is this a cultural document, an oneiric map, or a piece of noomy détournement? It is all and none - a relic of a narrative forever in motion, refusing resolution
It is PB hand woven in cotton, in the remote valleys of Kachin Myanmar
How did you get that passed the AI Checker?
You may have missed the fact that my second job - after flint knapping - is writing
An honest mistake, given that the bilge you post on here offers few clues.
To be fair there is demand for dystopic fantasy fiction writing. It's when it pretends to be reportage that the problem arises.
I've been reading up a little, and reflecting, on Bishop Budde vs President Chump.
And my photo quota is the Darth Vader grotesque from the National Cathedral in Washington DC. An interesting exercise in soft power marketing, btw - they just asserted the civil role, and everyone else accepted it. There's no official designation as such.
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
That’s a bit racist
I love it. I love the shamanic “outsider art” aesthetic
For me the figures - at once naive and deliberate - evoke the primitivist urgency of CoBrA artists or the fragmented narratives of Aboriginal dot paintings, their surreal distortions suggesting an alternative epistemology, a cosmology unmoored from Western linearity. The animals, spectral yet concrete? - they possess a totemic authority: elephants rendered in a near-psychedelic incompleteness, a spotted stag crowned with antlers that defy taxonomy. They’re lovely. But are they vegan? I dare say they might be
Then there’s rhe chromatic field - that red of such purity that it transcends mere pigment - it’s like a visual amplifier, both sacral and visceral, an arterial current binding the disparate elements. The embroidered tableaux oscillate between ritual and the quotidian: a peacock with imperial gravitas, a bowman in mid-sacrament, and a gong suspended in an enigma of sport or ceremony. The humanoid figures, with their elongated faces and spectral expressions, resist anthropocentric familiarity, emerging instead as liminal beings, intermediaries between the real and the ineffable. Also they remind me of @kinabalu when he’s unable to grasp a point
Is this a cultural document, an oneiric map, or a piece of noomy détournement? It is all and none - a relic of a narrative forever in motion, refusing resolution
It is PB hand woven in cotton, in the remote valleys of Kachin Myanmar
How did you get that passed the AI Checker?
You may have missed the fact that my second job - after flint knapping - is writing
An honest mistake, given that the bilge you post on here offers few clues.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
Pretty much every single supermarket I go to has people waiting for the 'cash and card' checkout because they have cash and only the 'card only' ones are available. I'm always surprised by the number of people who can't or won't pay by card. Not necessarily older than me, either.
I pay by cash at Tesco if a few items if it comes to something like £11.23 but by card if it is like £9.50 or ,£19.20. This is because I need pound coins for tips for the delivery from Sainsubury and charity days at my children's schools. The banks are all closed and the post office has a massive queue.
Just read that Bercow apparently starred in an American version of The Traitors. Did anyone see it?
According to The Rest is Entertainment Bercow was not very good because the Americans did not know who he was and his catchphrases did not resonate. Otoh, he probably received a cheque large enough to appear on TSE's print-outs.
Didn't he flounce over the merest hint of criticism of Labour to not return ?
Rogerdamus also.
Others have taken breaks and returned.
That’s a shame. I enjoy his commentary. Also I never saw him as especially snowflakey - so it’s a surprise? Maybe he had other reasons
It’s a bad sign for Labour that their supporters are so fragile they can’t take a few weeks of mild abuse
Imagine how they'd feel if they had the likes of Led By Donkeys, who were supposedly there to hold truth to power but now seem to stalk Nigel Farage, on the case of the govt too with all manner of banal stunts that they think are edgy and cleverl
I complained about Rachel from accounts yesterday. No longer. Far worse is what Teesside Tories have done. They called a pointless vote of Stockton Borough Council to call for a national grooming gangs enquiry. And are now promoting Facebook ads on community forums calling out Labour councillors who voted against.
In the comments - on Stockton Conservatives Facebook page - are people saying councillors are involved in grooming, are nonces, are rape gang supporters, should be abused in the street, should have people at their houses to shout at them.
Stockton Conservatives have decided to whip up a literal mob, with at least 3 female councillors having people banging on their front door shouting abuse, and one spat at in the street.
When one of their MPs was murdered they rightly were horrified. Now? Lets have Labour councillors targeted for votes. And the mind-numbingly stupid thing is that it will lose them votes. Because its highlighting the grooming gangs scandal which they themselves ignored and covered up. Create weaponised rage and all they're doing is handing more votes over to Reform.
Not sure whether today's Tories are stupid as well as trying dangerous as they try to get people attacked in their homes, but its going to backfire.
Just read that Bercow apparently starred in an American version of The Traitors. Did anyone see it?
According to The Rest is Entertainment Bercow was not very good because the Americans did not know who he was and his catchphrases did not resonate. Otoh, he probably received a cheque large enough to appear on TSE's print-outs.
Didn't he flounce over the merest hint of criticism of Labour to not return ?
Rogerdamus also.
Others have taken breaks and returned.
That’s a shame. I enjoy his commentary. Also I never saw him as especially snowflakey - so it’s a surprise? Maybe he had other reasons
It’s a bad sign for Labour that their supporters are so fragile they can’t take a few weeks of mild abuse
Anabobazina has posted either not much or not at all since Nov 5th. So I tentatively deduce it might be disgust at Donald Trump's election leading to a lessening of political libido. In which case it says much about him, all of it good. I'm a bit disappointed that I'm still pumping away as much as ever.
Me too. I deserve a slap for my lack of self discipline.
What am I doing in a Trumpian RefCon echo chamber anyway?
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
Being soaked in the tears of the 8 year old slave who made it counters any Woke entirely.
It wasn’t a slave. Kachin Burma has a long noble tradition of hand woven cotton
“Kachin textiles are not merely aesthetic but play an essential role in social and ceremonial life. Traditionally, they are worn during weddings, festivals (Manau celebrations), and rites of passage. Men wear intricately woven longyis (sarongs), while women wear htameins (skirts) paired with elaborately embroidered jackets and headdresses. Warriors and leaders historically wore finely woven garments as symbols of status
Kachin textiles are renowned and highly prized by collectors for their bold geometric patterns, intricate embroidery, and bright contrasting colors. Common motifs include:
Zigzags & diamonds: Representing mountains and rivers, key features of Kachin landscapes.
Animal symbols: Elephants, deer, birds, and mythical creatures, often linked to animist beliefs.
Tribal patterns: Each Kachin sub-group (such as the Jinghpaw, Rawang, or Lisu) has distinct designs that indicate regional or clan identity.”
$105! Bargain. I utterly adore it
Is that your hotel room. I would be seriously concerned if you made your bed up every day like that in NW1.
HW1 is a bit suburban, n'est-ce pas?
I spent several years living in EC2.
EC2 is sweet
It’s my proud boast that I have lived in nearly all the “1s”
W1. SW1, EC1, N1, WC1, E1 and now NW1
Only one missing is SE1. But I’ll cope
A pedant notes: there are postcodes outside London too.
But that is quite remarkable. The average first number in my postcode is 13 1/8. If it's weighted by the length of time I've spent there it's 16.7. And that's someone who's lived somewhere fairly urban all his life (though my 1 "1" was DL1, so my least metropolitan address).
You must have a remarkably low average postcode score.
Actually this is true
The only other places I have lived in the UK are Hereford - HR4 - and Truro - TR1 - TR1!!
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
If you use cash you are on the side of the criminals and tax dodgers as well as making the lives harder for legitimate businesses.
Every week I go to the cash point and take out a fixed amount of cash. It helps me budget during the week. I also get the slip that tells me how much money I have and enter that in a spreadsheet. I have been doing that for more decades than I like to think.
Going a bit far - but there is good evidence that using cash helps people budget.
The main "cash only" establishment near me is a Chinese takeaway. People would budget even better if they didn't spend on takeaways.
Didn't he flounce over the merest hint of criticism of Labour to not return ?
Rogerdamus also.
Others have taken breaks and returned.
That’s a shame. I enjoy his commentary. Also I never saw him as especially snowflakey - so it’s a surprise? Maybe he had other reasons
It’s a bad sign for Labour that their supporters are so fragile they can’t take a few weeks of mild abuse
Anabobazina has posted either not much or not at all since Nov 5th. So I tentatively deduce it might be disgust at Donald Trump's election leading to a lessening of political libido. In which case it says much about him, all of it good. I'm a bit disappointed that I'm still pumping away as much as ever.
If you feel you have to stop posting, let's hope you keep "tracking" 🙏
I complained about Rachel from accounts yesterday. No longer. Far worse is what Teesside Tories have done. They called a pointless vote of Stockton Borough Council to call for a national grooming gangs enquiry. And are now promoting Facebook ads on community forums calling out Labour councillors who voted against.
In the comments - on Stockton Conservatives Facebook page - are people saying councillors are involved in grooming, are nonces, are rape gang supporters, should be abused in the street, should have people at their houses to shout at them.
Stockton Conservatives have decided to whip up a literal mob, with at least 3 female councillors having people banging on their front door shouting abuse, and one spat at in the street.
That's like the Rebecca Brooks "find your local paedo" playbook from the late 1990s tabloids.
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
Being soaked in the tears of the 8 year old slave who made it counters any Woke entirely.
It wasn’t a slave. Kachin Burma has a long noble tradition of hand woven cotton
“Kachin textiles are not merely aesthetic but play an essential role in social and ceremonial life. Traditionally, they are worn during weddings, festivals (Manau celebrations), and rites of passage. Men wear intricately woven longyis (sarongs), while women wear htameins (skirts) paired with elaborately embroidered jackets and headdresses. Warriors and leaders historically wore finely woven garments as symbols of status
Kachin textiles are renowned and highly prized by collectors for their bold geometric patterns, intricate embroidery, and bright contrasting colors. Common motifs include:
Zigzags & diamonds: Representing mountains and rivers, key features of Kachin landscapes.
Animal symbols: Elephants, deer, birds, and mythical creatures, often linked to animist beliefs.
Tribal patterns: Each Kachin sub-group (such as the Jinghpaw, Rawang, or Lisu) has distinct designs that indicate regional or clan identity.”
$105! Bargain. I utterly adore it
Is that your hotel room. I would be seriously concerned if you made your bed up every day like that in NW1.
HW1 is a bit suburban, n'est-ce pas?
I spent several years living in EC2.
EC2 is sweet
It’s my proud boast that I have lived in nearly all the “1s”
W1. SW1, EC1, N1, WC1, E1 and now NW1
Only one missing is SE1. But I’ll cope
A pedant notes: there are postcodes outside London too.
But that is quite remarkable. The average first number in my postcode is 13 1/8. If it's weighted by the length of time I've spent there it's 16.7. And that's someone who's lived somewhere fairly urban all his life (though my 1 "1" was DL1, so my least metropolitan address).
You must have a remarkably low average postcode score.
Actually this is true
The only other places I have lived in the UK are Hereford - HR4 - and Truro - TR1 - TR1!!
So, that’s 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 1
I think this just suggests you don't want to live in the countryside.
Didn't he flounce over the merest hint of criticism of Labour to not return ?
Rogerdamus also.
Others have taken breaks and returned.
That’s a shame. I enjoy his commentary. Also I never saw him as especially snowflakey - so it’s a surprise? Maybe he had other reasons
It’s a bad sign for Labour that their supporters are so fragile they can’t take a few weeks of mild abuse
Anabobazina has posted either not much or not at all since Nov 5th. So I tentatively deduce it might be disgust at Donald Trump's election leading to a lessening of political libido. In which case it says much about him, all of it good. I'm a bit disappointed that I'm still pumping away as much as ever.
Me too. I deserve a slap for my lack of self discipline.
What am I doing in a Trumpian RefCon echo chamber anyway?
It's sheer masochism. But it's also truly important work. That's what I tell myself anyway.
Given my day job, I can confidently say that 99% of all cash transactions are something to do with dodging taxes, drugs, and/or wider criminality.
Bollox. Where do most cash transactions take place - in supermarkets. It's people, often older, who don't trust electronic money or others who have limited financial skills and can budget better with physical money.
Pretty much every single supermarket I go to has people waiting for the 'cash and card' checkout because they have cash and only the 'card only' ones are available. I'm always surprised by the number of people who can't or won't pay by card. Not necessarily older than me, either.
Many people need to watch their budget and the easiest way to do that is cash.
Credit / Debit cards are great for people who are organized but utterly painful for people who aren’t organized or need to watch what they spend
The other thing is that the grey cash economy has downstream impacts on cash usage. So people being paid cash in hand to evade PAYE or VAT will then need to spend it - at the supermarket or elsewhere. That’s essentially micro-laundering.
Didn't he flounce over the merest hint of criticism of Labour to not return ?
Rogerdamus also.
Others have taken breaks and returned.
That’s a shame. I enjoy his commentary. Also I never saw him as especially snowflakey - so it’s a surprise? Maybe he had other reasons
It’s a bad sign for Labour that their supporters are so fragile they can’t take a few weeks of mild abuse
Anabobazina has posted either not much or not at all since Nov 5th. So I tentatively deduce it might be disgust at Donald Trump's election leading to a lessening of political libido. In which case it says much about him, all of it good. I'm a bit disappointed that I'm still pumping away as much as ever.
If you feel you have to stop posting, let's hope you keep "tracking" 🙏
He strikes me as a nutter who should be nowhere near government. However, the entire Democrat agenda against him - I am watching CNN - is based on “respecting science”. This is from the party that has spent years perverting and lying about science to disguise their culpability in Wuhan and also to protect extremely dodgy scientists from proper scrutiny
This is why it is really really bad to lie about important things, because it comes back to bite you. Cf Biden and pardons
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid“
He strikes me as a nutter who should be nowhere near government. However, the entire Democrat agenda against him - I am watching CNN - is based on “respecting science”. This is from the party that has spent years perverting and lying about science to disguise their culpability in Wuhan and also to protect extremely dodgy scientists from proper scrutiny
This is why it is really really bad to lie about important things, because it comes back to bite you. Cf Biden and pardons
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid“
He is also of course the late Bobby Kennedy's son and the late President John F Kennedy's nephew. If it wasn't for his pro Trump and anti Vax views he would still be Democrat royalty
He strikes me as a nutter who should be nowhere near government. However, the entire Democrat agenda against him - I am watching CNN - is based on “respecting science”. This is from the party that has spent years perverting and lying about science to disguise their culpability in Wuhan and also to protect extremely dodgy scientists from proper scrutiny
This is why it is really really bad to lie about important things, because it comes back to bite you. Cf Biden and pardons
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid“
He is also of course the late Bobby Kennedy's son and the late President John F Kennedy's nephew. If it wasn't for his pro Trump and anti Vax views he would still be Democrat royalty
His female relative who is attacking him seems as nasty and weird as him
What a strange, doomed family. I blame it all (genuinely) on the evil Anglophobe quasi-Nazi IRA-loving patriarch
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
Being soaked in the tears of the 8 year old slave who made it counters any Woke entirely.
It wasn’t a slave. Kachin Burma has a long noble tradition of hand woven cotton
“Kachin textiles are not merely aesthetic but play an essential role in social and ceremonial life. Traditionally, they are worn during weddings, festivals (Manau celebrations), and rites of passage. Men wear intricately woven longyis (sarongs), while women wear htameins (skirts) paired with elaborately embroidered jackets and headdresses. Warriors and leaders historically wore finely woven garments as symbols of status
Kachin textiles are renowned and highly prized by collectors for their bold geometric patterns, intricate embroidery, and bright contrasting colors. Common motifs include:
Zigzags & diamonds: Representing mountains and rivers, key features of Kachin landscapes.
Animal symbols: Elephants, deer, birds, and mythical creatures, often linked to animist beliefs.
Tribal patterns: Each Kachin sub-group (such as the Jinghpaw, Rawang, or Lisu) has distinct designs that indicate regional or clan identity.”
$105! Bargain. I utterly adore it
Is that your hotel room. I would be seriously concerned if you made your bed up every day like that in NW1.
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
That’s a bit racist
I love it. I love the shamanic “outsider art” aesthetic
For me the figures - at once naive and deliberate - evoke the primitivist urgency of CoBrA artists or the fragmented narratives of Aboriginal dot paintings, their surreal distortions suggesting an alternative epistemology, a cosmology unmoored from Western linearity. The animals, spectral yet concrete? - they possess a totemic authority: elephants rendered in a near-psychedelic incompleteness, a spotted stag crowned with antlers that defy taxonomy. They’re lovely. But are they vegan? I dare say they might be
Then there’s rhe chromatic field - that red of such purity that it transcends mere pigment - it’s like a visual amplifier, both sacral and visceral, an arterial current binding the disparate elements. The embroidered tableaux oscillate between ritual and the quotidian: a peacock with imperial gravitas, a bowman in mid-sacrament, and a gong suspended in an enigma of sport or ceremony. The humanoid figures, with their elongated faces and spectral expressions, resist anthropocentric familiarity, emerging instead as liminal beings, intermediaries between the real and the ineffable. Also they remind me of @kinabalu when he’s unable to grasp a point
Is this a cultural document, an oneiric map, or a piece of noomy détournement? It is all and none - a relic of a narrative forever in motion, refusing resolution
It is PB hand woven in cotton, in the remote valleys of Kachin Myanmar
How did you get that passed the AI Checker?
You may have missed the fact that my second job - after flint knapping - is writing
An honest mistake, given that the bilge you post on here offers few clues.
Lol. There have been some good put downs on here before, but that one is definitely in one of the higher leagues.
He strikes me as a nutter who should be nowhere near government. However, the entire Democrat agenda against him - I am watching CNN - is based on “respecting science”. This is from the party that has spent years perverting and lying about science to disguise their culpability in Wuhan and also to protect extremely dodgy scientists from proper scrutiny
This is why it is really really bad to lie about important things, because it comes back to bite you. Cf Biden and pardons
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid“
He is an idiot but has the right ideas on reducing obesity, probably by mistake.
Robert Jenrick must be feeling quietly confident that he'll be Tory leader within a year or two. Badenoch needs to improve fairly quickly.
No he won't, he lost the members vote to Kemi clearly and lost the Tory MPs vote too.
I remain of the view she stays leader until the next GE but if Tory MPs do do an IDS and remove her I suspect it would be Mel Stride or Chris Philp who are the Michael Howard figures who replace her (Howard was IDS' Shadow Chancellor remember, Jenrick is too much of a David Davis rebel now)
He strikes me as a nutter who should be nowhere near government. However, the entire Democrat agenda against him - I am watching CNN - is based on “respecting science”. This is from the party that has spent years perverting and lying about science to disguise their culpability in Wuhan and also to protect extremely dodgy scientists from proper scrutiny
This is why it is really really bad to lie about important things, because it comes back to bite you. Cf Biden and pardons
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid“
He is an idiot but has the right ideas on reducing obesity, probably by mistake.
Winston S. Churchill — ‘The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.’
What’s happened to me. I used to do drugs and be bad
Now I have become the sort of person that buys artisanal handwoven throws
It’s from Kachin. $105
I was going to say how rubbish it is, but it's actually not a bad effort for the 8-year-old who probably made it.
Being soaked in the tears of the 8 year old slave who made it counters any Woke entirely.
It wasn’t a slave. Kachin Burma has a long noble tradition of hand woven cotton
“Kachin textiles are not merely aesthetic but play an essential role in social and ceremonial life. Traditionally, they are worn during weddings, festivals (Manau celebrations), and rites of passage. Men wear intricately woven longyis (sarongs), while women wear htameins (skirts) paired with elaborately embroidered jackets and headdresses. Warriors and leaders historically wore finely woven garments as symbols of status
Kachin textiles are renowned and highly prized by collectors for their bold geometric patterns, intricate embroidery, and bright contrasting colors. Common motifs include:
Zigzags & diamonds: Representing mountains and rivers, key features of Kachin landscapes.
Animal symbols: Elephants, deer, birds, and mythical creatures, often linked to animist beliefs.
Tribal patterns: Each Kachin sub-group (such as the Jinghpaw, Rawang, or Lisu) has distinct designs that indicate regional or clan identity.”
$105! Bargain. I utterly adore it
Is that your hotel room. I would be seriously concerned if you made your bed up every day like that in NW1.
HW1 is a bit suburban, n'est-ce pas?
I spent several years living in EC2.
EC2 is sweet
It’s my proud boast that I have lived in nearly all the “1s”
W1. SW1, EC1, N1, WC1, E1 and now NW1
Only one missing is SE1. But I’ll cope
A pedant notes: there are postcodes outside London too.
But that is quite remarkable. The average first number in my postcode is 13 1/8. If it's weighted by the length of time I've spent there it's 16.7. And that's someone who's lived somewhere fairly urban all his life (though my 1 "1" was DL1, so my least metropolitan address).
You must have a remarkably low average postcode score.
Actually this is true
The only other places I have lived in the UK are Hereford - HR4 - and Truro - TR1 - TR1!!
So, that’s 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 1
Hence your ignorance of the country beyond your chosen urban redoubts.
Robert Jenrick must be feeling quietly confident that he'll be Tory leader within a year or two. Badenoch needs to improve fairly quickly.
She's got the toughest job in politics and she's doing fine (for now)
Kemi is doing badly but as posted earlier in this thread, Jenrick is just as bad, if not worse. Here is that 30-second clip showing him being read the riot act yesterday. https://x.com/PeterStefanovi2/status/1884273412534894738
On what basis is she doing badly? She's only been LOTO for 3 months and she's (mostly) made the right calls in that time and week by week consistently picks the correct issues for PMQ's and sometimes manages to beat SKS (which is a tall order given his experience, his majority and he has right to reply and the final say in any contest)
Granted she hasn't has any cut through yet with the public but that's mostly because the public have "tuned out" of listening to anything the Conservatives have to say - That will change but it might take a couple of years.
If people are still not listening to the Tories in 2027, then it may be time to revise my opinion but for now I still say Kemi is doing fine for a LOTO at this particular moment in the political cycle.
I admire your enthusiasm but if the Conservatives are trailing even with such a bad Labour government, the only way is out.
Trump set to sign order instructing federal agencies to "combat antisemitism," which may include deporting anti-Jewish activists.
Loves his "executive orders", doesn't he? I'm guessing his next one will reduce grocery prices and then straight after that, barely a pause, he'll sign one that makes Russia pull out of Ukraine.
Comments
Rogerdamus also.
Others have taken breaks and returned.
"Let's work something out" — Florida Trump supporter begs president to "let me keep my wife" after ICE deports her back to Venezuela
It’s a bad sign for Labour that their supporters are so fragile they can’t take a few weeks of mild abuse
Strangely enough unless you are sending £20+ they want cash
It can be hard to tell the difference (although not *that* hard in some cases) therefore it's only fair to go with benefit of the doubt.
That is what I will do. Unless unduly provoked.
I spent several years living in EC2.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/world/americas/canada-protest-finances.html
It’s my proud boast that I have lived in nearly all the “1s”
W1. SW1, EC1, N1, WC1, E1 and now NW1
Only one missing is SE1. But I’ll cope
Granted she hasn't has any cut through yet with the public but that's mostly because the public have "tuned out" of listening to anything the Conservatives have to say - That will change but it might take a couple of years.
If people are still not listening to the Tories in 2027, then it may be time to revise my opinion but for now I still say Kemi is doing fine for a LOTO at this particular moment in the political cycle.
Removing people who have no right to remain, well, Labour are happily doing that at the moment and trumpeting their success relative to the inept Tories. Hardly call labour slightly fascistic.
I get to see information that the public do not.
Then get a credit card and you can get rewarded and protected for using your card.
Credit / Debit cards are great for people who are organized but utterly painful for people who aren’t organized or need to watch what they spend
I was once stopped in the street by a young person who wanted me to get her some money from the ATM machine with her card, using the pass code she'd written on a scrap of paper. She was pretty obviously from the local residential community for people who would have limited skills in such areas.
Proper good old Engineering.
of course that's bollocks. if you're so sad that you want to pretend you've got access to secret information to impress us, you should at least make it slightly plausible.
The immigrants people want to go are 99% of the time the faceless ones they don’t know
(ATMs have cameras. And the moment I was known to have someone else's code ....)
But that is quite remarkable. The average first number in my postcode is 13 1/8. If it's weighted by the length of time I've spent there it's 16.7. And that's someone who's lived somewhere fairly urban all his life (though my 1 "1" was DL1, so my least metropolitan address).
You must have a remarkably low average postcode score.
So those girls being chased may well be three peasants being chased by a soldier, the Kachin being one of the ethnic groups at war with the government.
Edit: Or at least they are very well hidden.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/nov/16/kemi-badenochs-first-approval-ratings-as-tory-leader-worse-than-sunaks-and-johnsons
And my photo quota is the Darth Vader grotesque from the National Cathedral in Washington DC. An interesting exercise in soft power marketing, btw - they just asserted the civil role, and everyone else accepted it. There's no official designation as such.
In the comments - on Stockton Conservatives Facebook page - are people saying councillors are involved in grooming, are nonces, are rape gang supporters, should be abused in the street, should have people at their houses to shout at them.
Stockton Conservatives have decided to whip up a literal mob, with at least 3 female councillors having people banging on their front door shouting abuse, and one spat at in the street.
When one of their MPs was murdered they rightly were horrified. Now? Lets have Labour councillors targeted for votes. And the mind-numbingly stupid thing is that it will lose them votes. Because its highlighting the grooming gangs scandal which they themselves ignored and covered up. Create weaponised rage and all they're doing is handing more votes over to Reform.
Not sure whether today's Tories are stupid as well as trying dangerous as they try to get people attacked in their homes, but its going to backfire.
*innocent face* seems appropriate.
What am I doing in a Trumpian RefCon echo chamber anyway?
The only other places I have lived in the UK are Hereford - HR4 - and Truro - TR1 - TR1!!
So, that’s 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 1
Trump set to sign order instructing federal agencies to "combat antisemitism," which may include deporting anti-Jewish activists.
He strikes me as a nutter who should be nowhere near government. However, the entire Democrat agenda against him - I am watching CNN - is based on “respecting science”. This is from the party that has spent years perverting and lying about science to disguise their culpability in Wuhan and also to protect extremely dodgy scientists from proper scrutiny
This is why it is really really bad to lie about important things, because it comes back to bite you. Cf Biden and pardons
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid“
What a strange, doomed family. I blame it all (genuinely) on the evil Anglophobe quasi-Nazi IRA-loving patriarch
Bercow was presented as rather well-liked by his fellow players.
Margin of error changes in latest
@moreincommonuk.bsky.social
poll mean again it's a virtual 3-way tie between Labour, Reform & Conservatives
🌹LAB 25% (+1)
➡️ REF UK 25% (nc)
🌳CON 24% (-1)
🔶 LIB DEM 13% ( +1)
🌍 GREEN 7% (nc)
🟡 SNP 2% (-1)
N = 2,009 Dates: 24 - 27 Jan, Change w 20 Jan
https://bsky.app/profile/luketryl.bsky.social/post/3lgui72kquc2f
I remain of the view she stays leader until the next GE but if Tory MPs do do an IDS and remove her I suspect it would be Mel Stride or Chris Philp who are the Michael Howard figures who replace her (Howard was IDS' Shadow Chancellor remember, Jenrick is too much of a David Davis rebel now)
Added to that Con have the complication of Farage and it's almost a perfect storm for Con/Kemi in the first year or this Parliament.