OK given that it's a lazy, sunny Monday afternoon and I am just waiting for gin o'clock with a mate
Here's the OFFICIAL LEON LIST of the top ten THINGS to see in ALL THE WORLD
1. Gobekli Tepe and the Tas Tepeler 2. The City of London 3. Angkor Wat 4. Paris 5. Venice 6. The Antartcic Peninsula 7. The Old City of Jerusalem and the abutting Valley of the Shadow of Death 8. The National Parks of south Utah 9. Kyoto 10. The Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea of North Russia
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
Lots & lots of buildings pockmarked by bullets from 1945, so a fair bit.
And quite a few old buildings with a new corner in a different style from where the original corner got bombed.
I really like Berlin, with all it's lakes, parks, and fascinating history. The Nazi stuff was pretty much eradicated, with not even a marker to show where the bunker was. Some great museums too, especially the Topography of Terror (on the rise of the Nazis in Berlin) and on Museum Island. Great nightlife too, with a fair whiff of the Caberet era.
There's a lot still being constructed but well worth a visit. 250 000 Beliners turned out yesterday to March against AfD. They know where it all leads.
You’ve got to admire the principled attitude towards the Führerbunker, completely eradicating what would almost certainly be the most visited museum in the world. As it is it must be the world’s most visited car park. I see Berlin as a tangible, living fable: an aspiring imperial capital until it was shattered by 1918, the vital, exhilarating cultural experiment of Weimar shattered by the Nazis, the dark surrender to the worst of human nature ending in a shattered, divided city. It’s Homeric and puts Berlin right up there in terms of world significance.
I read Anthony Beevor's BERLIN on my first visit to Berlin
Fuck me, quite an experience. Reading of those intense horrors in the final days, then you look up and see the streets and parks described
Shockingly, that's a book I've read too. Aye, pretty grim. Also much Western naivety when faced with an aggressive Russia.
Good morning, everyone.
Great book
His STALINGRAD is, of course, even better. Possibly the best book of military history ever written, and there are a LOT of mighty rivals for that crown
The Ukrainians made a mess of one refinery the other day that supplies 5% of Russia's refined oil. All for the cost of a couple of million quid in basic drones. Not even their good stuff. Just ex-sports planes. As warfare goes, losing a significant part of your economy in exchange for some (heavily mined) fields and the remains of half a concrete factory is indeed a very special military operation.
Putin can't stop. But the price of not stopping is smashing about the only thing that creates value in the Russian economy. Russia will run out of money. The war economy is making products that have proven to be useless in Ukraine, so no-one will pay more than a string of sea-shells for them.
Then the only thing it will have is vodka.
I'd love that to be correct, and it may be if the war lingers on for another year or three.
But don't underestimate the desire for some to get back to the old normal. It's in the interests of some in the west to get the refineries working, the oil and gas flowing west, and for Russia to come out of the cold. These lovely people might be the saviours of Russia.
Outdoor-loving felines would also be kept indoors by their owners under the scheme.
The only exception would be if dedicated owners build outdoor enclosures for their pets.
One bizarre solution was also that cats could be taken for walks on a LEAD.
They have also suggested that all cats in vulnerable wildlife areas should be forced to be neutered.
We must protect the wild haggises.
I've seen cats on leads before - friend had a pedigree retired queen (stop sniggering at the back Perkins) and lived near a busy road The poor pussy (I said no sniggering!) often used to get its exercise round the garden on a lead. Always looked a bit sad.
There were suggestions over the weekend that the senior management got marched out of the building after refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump’s team. It sounds like the plan is to merge USAID back into the State Department, starting with a zero-based budget.
'there were suggestions' is another tell from you that what follows is bollocks.
Unless 'refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump's team' =
Two senior officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been suspended after they tried to stop members of Elon Musk's efficiency team from accessing secure systems, according to reports.
Sky News' US partner NBC News spoke to three sources who said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team wanted to access some files that were beyond their security level.
“What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”
Congress does have powers to intervene. The GOP are simply choosing not to exercise them.
Similarly on tariffs: Congress has the power to immediately overturn tariffs imposed by the executive on "national security" grounds, if they so choose.
Trump is doing so many things at the same time it would be umpossible to block everything and I think that’s the point here
They aren't even trying is the point.
To be fair, an awful lot of this is being sprung on the world at weekends, when the normal response mechanisms don't really work. The interesting thing is what gets slowed or reversed during the week to come.
When a burglar breaks into somewhere they're not allowed to go, it's a crime. What is it when one of Musk's Dogey Interns does it?
"Markets are retreating sharply today because investors had not expected a robust response from the countries hit by new US tariffs."
What did they expect exactly?
How wilfully thick can some brilliant people be?
Markets haven't actually moved much. 2-3% below recent all time highs. I suspect the majority view is that the tariffs wont be in place for long, or we should have seen a bigger reaction.
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
Lots & lots of buildings pockmarked by bullets from 1945, so a fair bit.
And quite a few old buildings with a new corner in a different style from where the original corner got bombed.
I really like Berlin, with all it's lakes, parks, and fascinating history. The Nazi stuff was pretty much eradicated, with not even a marker to show where the bunker was. Some great museums too, especially the Topography of Terror (on the rise of the Nazis in Berlin) and on Museum Island. Great nightlife too, with a fair whiff of the Caberet era.
There's a lot still being constructed but well worth a visit. 250 000 Beliners turned out yesterday to March against AfD. They know where it all leads.
You’ve got to admire the principled attitude towards the Führerbunker, completely eradicating what would almost certainly be the most visited museum in the world. As it is it must be the world’s most visited car park. I see Berlin as a tangible, living fable: an aspiring imperial capital until it was shattered by 1918, the vital, exhilarating cultural experiment of Weimar shattered by the Nazis, the dark surrender to the worst of human nature ending in a shattered, divided city. It’s Homeric and puts Berlin right up there in terms of world significance.
I read Anthony Beevor's BERLIN on my first visit to Berlin
Fuck me, quite an experience. Reading of those intense horrors in the final days, then you look up and see the streets and parks described
Shockingly, that's a book I've read too. Aye, pretty grim. Also much Western naivety when faced with an aggressive Russia.
Good morning, everyone.
Great book
His STALINGRAD is, of course, even better. Possibly the best book of military history ever written, and there are a LOT of mighty rivals for that crown
It's very engaging but also pretty grim. Reminds me of Stalin, the Court of the Red Tsar, by Simon Sebag Montefiore, in that way.
The Ukrainians made a mess of one refinery the other day that supplies 5% of Russia's refined oil. All for the cost of a couple of million quid in basic drones. Not even their good stuff. Just ex-sports planes. As warfare goes, losing a significant part of your economy in exchange for some (heavily mined) fields and the remains of half a concrete factory is indeed a very special military operation.
Putin can't stop. But the price of not stopping is smashing about the only thing that creates value in the Russian economy. Russia will run out of money. The war economy is making products that have proven to be useless in Ukraine, so no-one will pay more than a string of sea-shells for them.
Then the only thing it will have is vodka.
And we all know you can’t run an economy on vodka!
They’re now at the point where not only is there no export market for their O&G output, but they’re stuggling to get fuel supply lines in place for their war effort.
Looks like the NorKs have given up defending Kursk as well, Mr Kim didn’t exactly expect his troops to be sent into a meat grinder.
There’s more and more articles and videos about the Russian economy being on the verge of collapse, fingers crossed it comes around some day soon.
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
Does Starmer realise what leverage he has over the EU, with fishing rights?
We have the whip-hand here, which makes a change. The EU is desperate for a good deal, maintaining their fleets in British waters, and they're not hiding it very well
We need to extract a hefty pound of trading flesh, in return
Starmer will probably offer to pay them to take our fish.
"Markets are retreating sharply today because investors had not expected a robust response from the countries hit by new US tariffs."
What did they expect exactly?
How wilfully thick can some brilliant people be?
Remember the amateur attempts are "roll your own polls" that some hedge fundies tried for the 2019 UK election? A complete fuckup dreamt up by a collection of PhDs....
Herman Kahn recalled, in his memoirs, that he was giving a presentation on a strategic scenario. He had described the first move - a Soviet one. The probable US response, and third party responses. Then the Soviet and third party response to that. He had got to the third or fourth round of this and realised that people were staring at him as if he was some kind of prophet. The idea of reaction to a reaction to reaction was something that they hadn't really thought about. And these were serious political types.
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
It rather looks like that *is* what is happening. In a number of countries.
"Markets are retreating sharply today because investors had not expected a robust response from the countries hit by new US tariffs."
What did they expect exactly?
How wilfully thick can some brilliant people be?
Isn't the best economic response to tariffs actually to simply do nothing though ?
Now obviously, for the most part that's not going to happen but you don't necessarily want subject your own consumers to inflation if you've say got an import heavy country.
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
Not sustainable as just ensures everytime they are on tv that is all they will be asked, modern interviewers love nothing better than a politician unwilling to answer. They seem to have the comms in hand with Starmer, Lammy and Mandelson willing cucks to avoid upsetting the toddler bully. Hopefully they are privately pivoting to much stronger defence and trade links with the rest of the modern world. Combined that may sadly be about as good as we can do.
There were suggestions over the weekend that the senior management got marched out of the building after refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump’s team. It sounds like the plan is to merge USAID back into the State Department, starting with a zero-based budget.
'there were suggestions' is another tell from you that what follows is bollocks.
Unless 'refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump's team' =
Two senior officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been suspended after they tried to stop members of Elon Musk's efficiency team from accessing secure systems, according to reports.
Sky News' US partner NBC News spoke to three sources who said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team wanted to access some files that were beyond their security level.
“What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”
Congress does have powers to intervene. The GOP are simply choosing not to exercise them.
Similarly on tariffs: Congress has the power to immediately overturn tariffs imposed by the executive on "national security" grounds, if they so choose.
Trump is doing so many things at the same time it would be umpossible to block everything and I think that’s the point here
They aren't even trying is the point.
To be fair, an awful lot of this is being sprung on the world at weekends, when the normal response mechanisms don't really work. The interesting thing is what gets slowed or reversed during the week to come.
When a burglar breaks into somewhere they're not allowed to go, it's a crime. What is it when one of Musk's Dogey Interns does it?
Seems to me they have zero sense of consequences. Is Elon Musk planning to be on his way to Mars by the time of the next election? Or is he comfortable with spending the rest of his life in gaol? What about all their minions? US politics had already become far too ready to resort to lawfare and this is adding fuel to the fire.
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
Lots & lots of buildings pockmarked by bullets from 1945, so a fair bit.
And quite a few old buildings with a new corner in a different style from where the original corner got bombed.
I really like Berlin, with all it's lakes, parks, and fascinating history. The Nazi stuff was pretty much eradicated, with not even a marker to show where the bunker was. Some great museums too, especially the Topography of Terror (on the rise of the Nazis in Berlin) and on Museum Island. Great nightlife too, with a fair whiff of the Caberet era.
There's a lot still being constructed but well worth a visit. 250 000 Beliners turned out yesterday to March against AfD. They know where it all leads.
You’ve got to admire the principled attitude towards the Führerbunker, completely eradicating what would almost certainly be the most visited museum in the world. As it is it must be the world’s most visited car park. I see Berlin as a tangible, living fable: an aspiring imperial capital until it was shattered by 1918, the vital, exhilarating cultural experiment of Weimar shattered by the Nazis, the dark surrender to the worst of human nature ending in a shattered, divided city. It’s Homeric and puts Berlin right up there in terms of world significance.
I read Anthony Beevor's BERLIN on my first visit to Berlin
Fuck me, quite an experience. Reading of those intense horrors in the final days, then you look up and see the streets and parks described
Much better than any of his other books, although Stalingrad gets an honourable mention.
In his Arnhem he actually gets a few things wrong, which disappointed me.
OK given that it's a lazy, sunny Monday afternoon and I am just waiting for gin o'clock with a mate
Here's the OFFICIAL LEON LIST of the top ten THINGS to see in ALL THE WORLD
1. Gobekli Tepe and the Tas Tepeler 2. The City of London 3. Angkor Wat 4. Paris 5. Venice 6. The Antartcic Peninsula 7. The Old City of Jerusalem and the abutting Valley of the Shadow of Death 8. The National Parks of south Utah 9. Kyoto 10. The Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea of North Russia
@leon as someone wanting to plan more trips and not impressed with some I have done can you give reasons for some of your picks. Ignore 2,4,5.
Having visited Death Valley last year and being impressed, why Utah ahead of Death Valley. What is special about it?
PS just looked at some pictures of Utah - interesting.
At the moment a lot of Democrat voters are pissed off with the Democrat party because they screwed up so badly allowing Trump to win. A feeling I share.
Is that the reason though? Or is this your confirmation bias talking?
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
Not sustainable as just ensures everytime they are on tv that is all they will be asked, modern interviewers love nothing better than a politician unwilling to answer. They seem to have the comms in hand with Starmer, Lammy and Mandelson willing cucks to avoid upsetting the toddler bully. Hopefully they are privately pivoting to much stronger defence and trade links with the rest of the modern world. Combined that may sadly be about as good as we can do.
Of course, but they should be willing to answer: "We are responding to President Trump through the normal diplomatic channels, and we'll let you know as soon as we have any announcement to make".
The Ukrainians made a mess of one refinery the other day that supplies 5% of Russia's refined oil. All for the cost of a couple of million quid in basic drones. Not even their good stuff. Just ex-sports planes. As warfare goes, losing a significant part of your economy in exchange for some (heavily mined) fields and the remains of half a concrete factory is indeed a very special military operation.
Putin can't stop. But the price of not stopping is smashing about the only thing that creates value in the Russian economy. Russia will run out of money. The war economy is making products that have proven to be useless in Ukraine, so no-one will pay more than a string of sea-shells for them.
Then the only thing it will have is vodka.
It looks increasingly as if Russia no longer has enough air defence to prevent Ukraine from striking inside Russia at will.
Ukraine claims to be manufacturing 30,000 of these “Cessna with a 250kg bomb” drones a year. What happens to the Russian economy when every major oil refinery and storage facility is being hit multiple times a month?
Yes the Russian air defences appear to be totally useless at protecting these key military and industrial facilities.
Last week, the Russian TV was happily posting photos of a ‘decoy missile’ they had managed to shoot down. Well, err, yeah, that’s the whole point of them! They’re designed to be a cheap missile with a lot of fuel and no warhead, that looks as big as a plane on radar specifically to draw enemy fire ahead of the actual missiles.
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
Lots & lots of buildings pockmarked by bullets from 1945, so a fair bit.
And quite a few old buildings with a new corner in a different style from where the original corner got bombed.
I really like Berlin, with all it's lakes, parks, and fascinating history. The Nazi stuff was pretty much eradicated, with not even a marker to show where the bunker was. Some great museums too, especially the Topography of Terror (on the rise of the Nazis in Berlin) and on Museum Island. Great nightlife too, with a fair whiff of the Caberet era.
There's a lot still being constructed but well worth a visit. 250 000 Beliners turned out yesterday to March against AfD. They know where it all leads.
You’ve got to admire the principled attitude towards the Führerbunker, completely eradicating what would almost certainly be the most visited museum in the world. As it is it must be the world’s most visited car park. I see Berlin as a tangible, living fable: an aspiring imperial capital until it was shattered by 1918, the vital, exhilarating cultural experiment of Weimar shattered by the Nazis, the dark surrender to the worst of human nature ending in a shattered, divided city. It’s Homeric and puts Berlin right up there in terms of world significance.
I read Anthony Beevor's BERLIN on my first visit to Berlin
Fuck me, quite an experience. Reading of those intense horrors in the final days, then you look up and see the streets and parks described
Much better than any of his other books, although Stalingrad gets an honourable mention.
In his Arnhem he actually gets a few things wrong, which disappointed me.
He and his wife live in Pett Bottom. You can see their house from my vineyard. He’s on the local WhatsApp group and occasionally posts (usually about things like fallen trees or objecting to planning applications.)
At the moment a lot of Democrat voters are pissed off with the Democrat party because they screwed up so badly allowing Trump to win. A feeling I share.
If the figures haven't changed in 6 months then they are in trouble.
I think that the Democrats are an institution. The people leading them, less so.
Given that Trump is making a spectacular mess, I get the impression that people are standing back, rather than wasting time trying to (futilely) stop him.
"Markets are retreating sharply today because investors had not expected a robust response from the countries hit by new US tariffs."
What did they expect exactly?
How wilfully thick can some brilliant people be?
Isn't the best economic response to tariffs actually to simply do nothing though ?
Now obviously, for the most part that's not going to happen but you don't necessarily want subject your own consumers to inflation if you've say got an import heavy country.
That depends on what you import, from who and how easily they can be substituted.
As an example the UK could impose a £100 tariff on every bottle of US wine.
It would stop all importation of wine from the USA but have trivial effect on consumers as they would instead buy wine from a different origin.
There were suggestions over the weekend that the senior management got marched out of the building after refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump’s team. It sounds like the plan is to merge USAID back into the State Department, starting with a zero-based budget.
'there were suggestions' is another tell from you that what follows is bollocks.
Unless 'refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump's team' =
Two senior officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been suspended after they tried to stop members of Elon Musk's efficiency team from accessing secure systems, according to reports.
Sky News' US partner NBC News spoke to three sources who said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team wanted to access some files that were beyond their security level.
“What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”
Congress does have powers to intervene. The GOP are simply choosing not to exercise them.
Similarly on tariffs: Congress has the power to immediately overturn tariffs imposed by the executive on "national security" grounds, if they so choose.
Trump is doing so many things at the same time it would be umpossible to block everything and I think that’s the point here
They aren't even trying is the point.
No one seems to be trying, anywhere, which is what is odd.
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
Lots & lots of buildings pockmarked by bullets from 1945, so a fair bit.
And quite a few old buildings with a new corner in a different style from where the original corner got bombed.
I really like Berlin, with all it's lakes, parks, and fascinating history. The Nazi stuff was pretty much eradicated, with not even a marker to show where the bunker was. Some great museums too, especially the Topography of Terror (on the rise of the Nazis in Berlin) and on Museum Island. Great nightlife too, with a fair whiff of the Caberet era.
There's a lot still being constructed but well worth a visit. 250 000 Beliners turned out yesterday to March against AfD. They know where it all leads.
You’ve got to admire the principled attitude towards the Führerbunker, completely eradicating what would almost certainly be the most visited museum in the world. As it is it must be the world’s most visited car park. I see Berlin as a tangible, living fable: an aspiring imperial capital until it was shattered by 1918, the vital, exhilarating cultural experiment of Weimar shattered by the Nazis, the dark surrender to the worst of human nature ending in a shattered, divided city. It’s Homeric and puts Berlin right up there in terms of world significance.
I read Anthony Beevor's BERLIN on my first visit to Berlin
Fuck me, quite an experience. Reading of those intense horrors in the final days, then you look up and see the streets and parks described
Much better than any of his other books, although Stalingrad gets an honourable mention.
In his Arnhem he actually gets a few things wrong, which disappointed me.
He and his wife live in Pett Bottom. You can see their house from my vineyard. He’s on the local WhatsApp group and occasionally posts (usually about things like fallen trees or objecting to planning applications.)
OK given that it's a lazy, sunny Monday afternoon and I am just waiting for gin o'clock with a mate
Here's the OFFICIAL LEON LIST of the top ten THINGS to see in ALL THE WORLD
1. Gobekli Tepe and the Tas Tepeler 2. The City of London 3. Angkor Wat 4. Paris 5. Venice 6. The Antartcic Peninsula 7. The Old City of Jerusalem and the abutting Valley of the Shadow of Death 8. The National Parks of south Utah 9. Kyoto 10. The Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea of North Russia
@leon as someone wanting to plan more trips and not impressed with some I have done can you give reasons for some of your picks. Ignore 2,4,5.
Having visited Death Valley last year and being impressed, why Utah ahead of Death Valley. What is special about it?
PS just looked at some pictures of Utah - interesting.
Utah is way better than Death Valley (which I like), and way way better than Grand Canyon (yawn)
It has five - FIVE - National Parks all in a row - Arches. Canyonlands, Bryce, Zion and Capitol Reef
Taken together and seen in one go they are possibly - probably - the grandest landscapes on earth, with the exception of Antarctica, and all in a relatively small area. Even outside the parks you have sublime scenery. The red rocks of Moab!
South Utah is phenomenal. Go, if you ever get the chance
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
Starmer is playing Trump pretty well so far. But I suspect we can’t hide under the radar forever, and there will come a crunch point.
There were suggestions over the weekend that the senior management got marched out of the building after refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump’s team. It sounds like the plan is to merge USAID back into the State Department, starting with a zero-based budget.
'there were suggestions' is another tell from you that what follows is bollocks.
Unless 'refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump's team' =
Two senior officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been suspended after they tried to stop members of Elon Musk's efficiency team from accessing secure systems, according to reports.
Sky News' US partner NBC News spoke to three sources who said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team wanted to access some files that were beyond their security level.
“What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”
Congress does have powers to intervene. The GOP are simply choosing not to exercise them.
Similarly on tariffs: Congress has the power to immediately overturn tariffs imposed by the executive on "national security" grounds, if they so choose.
Trump is doing so many things at the same time it would be umpossible to block everything and I think that’s the point here
They aren't even trying is the point.
To be fair, an awful lot of this is being sprung on the world at weekends, when the normal response mechanisms don't really work. The interesting thing is what gets slowed or reversed during the week to come.
When a burglar breaks into somewhere they're not allowed to go, it's a crime. What is it when one of Musk's Dogey Interns does it?
Seems to me they have zero sense of consequences. Is Elon Musk planning to be on his way to Mars by the time of the next election? Or is he comfortable with spending the rest of his life in gaol? What about all their minions? US politics had already become far too ready to resort to lawfare and this is adding fuel to the fire.
Good morning, everyone.
This is hardly "lawfare", though. It's blatantly outside the law.
Ignore it, and the existing constitution becomes more akin to those of Hungary/Turkey/Russia. A largely empty document.
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
Lots & lots of buildings pockmarked by bullets from 1945, so a fair bit.
And quite a few old buildings with a new corner in a different style from where the original corner got bombed.
I really like Berlin, with all it's lakes, parks, and fascinating history. The Nazi stuff was pretty much eradicated, with not even a marker to show where the bunker was. Some great museums too, especially the Topography of Terror (on the rise of the Nazis in Berlin) and on Museum Island. Great nightlife too, with a fair whiff of the Caberet era.
There's a lot still being constructed but well worth a visit. 250 000 Beliners turned out yesterday to March against AfD. They know where it all leads.
You’ve got to admire the principled attitude towards the Führerbunker, completely eradicating what would almost certainly be the most visited museum in the world. As it is it must be the world’s most visited car park. I see Berlin as a tangible, living fable: an aspiring imperial capital until it was shattered by 1918, the vital, exhilarating cultural experiment of Weimar shattered by the Nazis, the dark surrender to the worst of human nature ending in a shattered, divided city. It’s Homeric and puts Berlin right up there in terms of world significance.
I read Anthony Beevor's BERLIN on my first visit to Berlin
Fuck me, quite an experience. Reading of those intense horrors in the final days, then you look up and see the streets and parks described
Much better than any of his other books, although Stalingrad gets an honourable mention.
In his Arnhem he actually gets a few things wrong, which disappointed me.
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
I have a very soft spot for Berlin. It embodies the history of the 20th Century, all in one place. All the faultlines, the ideologies, the hope and despair.
I do think it was perhaps at its most compelling around the mid noughties, funnily enough around the time that Merkel was taking office or had just bedded in. Some of the past was even more present (e.g the ugly East German parliament building was still standing, though I think was already slated for demolition) but there was perhaps a dynamism and energy in the air with the new architecture of government, the rebuilt Reichstag building etc, which gave it the feeling of a city in optimistic transition - moving from the shadows of the past into the exciting new European future where Germany would take the lead. The city is still great, but perhaps seeing it in that optimistic, transitional moment was the most special
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
Depends what you want/like. Berlin has an international feel (unlike other German cities) a feeling of space (lots of wide streets), some agreeably grungey neighborhoods, and interesting historical stuff - the various holocaust memorials are worth mentioning. Of course you can't compare it with Rome (and in what crazy world is Rome not a top tier European city?), but I think a comparison with Vienna is interesting - both former imperial capitals (and both much smaller than London), but with very different things to offer.
There's a top tier of world cities, but it is tiny. New York, London, Paris.... and then any others? Not sure. Singapore? Dubai? Nope. Not enough culture. Tokyo a bit too Japanese. Sydney nah. Hong Kong was getting there, not now. Rome isn't in this tier because to be a world city you need power, size and tech/financial heft
Rome is at the top of the second tier
Shanghai is probably the likeliest to make the grade to world city, and maybe soon
But to be in the rarefied second tier you need a lot of history (hence Rome, Athens), amazing culture and architecture (Vienna, Barcelona). I'd put Moscow and St Petersburg in this second tier, as well, and Istanbul
Berlin doesn't quite match those cities, to my mind
Top of the third tier is about right for the Prussian capital
"Berlin as a travel destination" was what you wrote at the top of this thread. It's a rare pervert who needs "power, size and tech/financial heft" to enjoy their city break.
Rome is absolutely a top tier city as a travel destination for anyone who isn't a weirdo.
We kinda moved on to cities as cities, their world status
But even as a top city destination, Berlin doesn't cut it
What are the ten must see cities in Europe?
London Paris Rome Barcelona Athens Vienna Venice Istanbul Moscow St Petersburg
Sorry, Berlin doesn't make it
It's in the next ten, isn't it?
Prague Amsterdam Madrid Naples Lisbon Dublin Berlin Kyiv Edinburgh Florence
If Tbilisi is allowed I'd swap it for Dublin
Thirty years ago I would have agreed abut Barcelona, but these days it is a very pale shadow of what it was. There are at least a dozen more interesting cities to visit in Spain::
Madrid Valencia Seville Grenada Bilbao San Sebastian Salamanca Leon Zamora Toledo La Corunna Cadiz
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
Depends what you want/like. Berlin has an international feel (unlike other German cities) a feeling of space (lots of wide streets), some agreeably grungey neighborhoods, and interesting historical stuff - the various holocaust memorials are worth mentioning. Of course you can't compare it with Rome (and in what crazy world is Rome not a top tier European city?), but I think a comparison with Vienna is interesting - both former imperial capitals (and both much smaller than London), but with very different things to offer.
"Depends what you want/like" needs to be front of mind in all the travel advice. Berlin is (among other things) an impressive memorial to history (not only though primarily the holocaust and WW2), but for my taste a bit weighed down by it. Vienna is amazing for music and art, but not a place where most of us would choose to live, while Copenhagen is arguably exactly the opposite.
OK given that it's a lazy, sunny Monday afternoon and I am just waiting for gin o'clock with a mate
Here's the OFFICIAL LEON LIST of the top ten THINGS to see in ALL THE WORLD
1. Gobekli Tepe and the Tas Tepeler 2. The City of London 3. Angkor Wat 4. Paris 5. Venice 6. The Antartcic Peninsula 7. The Old City of Jerusalem and the abutting Valley of the Shadow of Death 8. The National Parks of south Utah 9. Kyoto 10. The Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea of North Russia
@leon as someone wanting to plan more trips and not impressed with some I have done can you give reasons for some of your picks. Ignore 2,4,5.
Having visited Death Valley last year and being impressed, why Utah ahead of Death Valley. What is special about it?
PS just looked at some pictures of Utah - interesting.
Good morning fellow pb-ers! Quite promising, weather-wise this morning. Here, anyway.
On topic, I'v been to Angkor Wat. One needs to get there early in the morning, although the tourist crowds are wising up to that. And be there at sunset.
Not going to Jerusalem, and it's 'neighbour' Petra are among my regrets, along with never seeing Antartica. Or Patagonia!
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
OK given that it's a lazy, sunny Monday afternoon and I am just waiting for gin o'clock with a mate
Here's the OFFICIAL LEON LIST of the top ten THINGS to see in ALL THE WORLD
1. Gobekli Tepe and the Tas Tepeler 2. The City of London 3. Angkor Wat 4. Paris 5. Venice 6. The Antartcic Peninsula 7. The Old City of Jerusalem and the abutting Valley of the Shadow of Death 8. The National Parks of south Utah 9. Kyoto 10. The Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea of North Russia
@leon as someone wanting to plan more trips and not impressed with some I have done can you give reasons for some of your picks. Ignore 2,4,5.
Having visited Death Valley last year and being impressed, why Utah ahead of Death Valley. What is special about it?
PS just looked at some pictures of Utah - interesting.
Utah is a very lovely place.
I follow this guy on YouTube, he has one of the best jobs in the world. He’s a breakdown truck driver in and around the national parks in Utah. Spends his days pulling tourists out of the sand and rescuing dead off-road vehicles from the middle of nowhere. Epic backdrops to most of his videos, which explains why he has nearly 2m subscribers. http://www.youtube.com/@MattsOffRoadRecovery
"Markets are retreating sharply today because investors had not expected a robust response from the countries hit by new US tariffs."
What did they expect exactly?
How wilfully thick can some brilliant people be?
Most financial market meltdowns and crises have been caused by brilliant people being wilfully thick, including Nobel prize winners. (The people running my pension and savings accounts are not much better.)
At the moment a lot of Democrat voters are pissed off with the Democrat party because they screwed up so badly allowing Trump to win. A feeling I share.
If the figures haven't changed in 6 months then they are in trouble.
I think that the Democrats are an institution. The people leading them, less so.
Given that Trump is making a spectacular mess, I get the impression that people are standing back, rather than wasting time trying to (futilely) stop him.
Who actually is leading the Democrats at the moment?
There's partisan advantage two years down the line (the Dems can pick a candidate to oppose whatever the reality they end up facing), but it's a weakness right now.
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
I have a very soft spot for Berlin. It embodies the history of the 20th Century, all in one place. All the faultlines, the ideologies, the hope and despair.
I do think it was perhaps at its most compelling around the mid noughties, funnily enough around the time that Merkel was taking office or had just bedded in. Some of the past was even more present (e.g the ugly East German parliament building was still standing, though I think was already slated for demolition) but there was perhaps a dynamism and energy in the air with the new architecture of government, the rebuilt Reichstag building etc, which gave it the feeling of a city in optimistic transition - moving from the shadows of the past into the exciting new European future where Germany would take the lead. The city is still great, but perhaps seeing it in that optimistic, transitional moment was the most special
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
Depends what you want/like. Berlin has an international feel (unlike other German cities) a feeling of space (lots of wide streets), some agreeably grungey neighborhoods, and interesting historical stuff - the various holocaust memorials are worth mentioning. Of course you can't compare it with Rome (and in what crazy world is Rome not a top tier European city?), but I think a comparison with Vienna is interesting - both former imperial capitals (and both much smaller than London), but with very different things to offer.
There's a top tier of world cities, but it is tiny. New York, London, Paris.... and then any others? Not sure. Singapore? Dubai? Nope. Not enough culture. Tokyo a bit too Japanese. Sydney nah. Hong Kong was getting there, not now. Rome isn't in this tier because to be a world city you need power, size and tech/financial heft
Rome is at the top of the second tier
Shanghai is probably the likeliest to make the grade to world city, and maybe soon
But to be in the rarefied second tier you need a lot of history (hence Rome, Athens), amazing culture and architecture (Vienna, Barcelona). I'd put Moscow and St Petersburg in this second tier, as well, and Istanbul
Berlin doesn't quite match those cities, to my mind
Top of the third tier is about right for the Prussian capital
"Berlin as a travel destination" was what you wrote at the top of this thread. It's a rare pervert who needs "power, size and tech/financial heft" to enjoy their city break.
Rome is absolutely a top tier city as a travel destination for anyone who isn't a weirdo.
We kinda moved on to cities as cities, their world status
But even as a top city destination, Berlin doesn't cut it
What are the ten must see cities in Europe?
London Paris Rome Barcelona Athens Vienna Venice Istanbul Moscow St Petersburg
Sorry, Berlin doesn't make it
It's in the next ten, isn't it?
Prague Amsterdam Madrid Naples Lisbon Dublin Berlin Kyiv Edinburgh Florence
If Tbilisi is allowed I'd swap it for Dublin
Thirty years ago I would have agreed abut Barcelona, but these days it is a very pale shadow of what it was. There are at least a dozen more interesting cities to visit in Spain::
Madrid Valencia Seville Grenada Bilbao San Sebastian Salamanca Leon Zamora Toledo La Corunna Cadiz
I confess I haven't been to Barcelona since pre Covid, maybe even a decade
Is it really that crap now? Over tourism? Migration? Airbnbs? What? what's happened to it?
It must be pretty sad if it's now below Bilbao and Cadiz, which are interesting towns but in the past nowhere near Barca
I see various Canadian provinces have already stopped stocking US alcohol.
I can see the 'boycott USA' gaining traction over there. You have a President imposing tariffs on you for no reason, threateningly calling ok you to become the 51st state.
USD strengthening too, which makes US exports even less competitive on top of retaliatory tariffs. Great way to improve a trade deficit.
The Democrats just need to hold steady and call out Trump for making things more expensive for ordinary Americans. Because that is the inevitable result on his trade policy.
I suspect boycott USA might be going a bit far in the UK. Boycott Tesla though I can definitely imagine.
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
Lots & lots of buildings pockmarked by bullets from 1945, so a fair bit.
And quite a few old buildings with a new corner in a different style from where the original corner got bombed.
I really like Berlin, with all it's lakes, parks, and fascinating history. The Nazi stuff was pretty much eradicated, with not even a marker to show where the bunker was. Some great museums too, especially the Topography of Terror (on the rise of the Nazis in Berlin) and on Museum Island. Great nightlife too, with a fair whiff of the Caberet era.
There's a lot still being constructed but well worth a visit. 250 000 Beliners turned out yesterday to March against AfD. They know where it all leads.
You’ve got to admire the principled attitude towards the Führerbunker, completely eradicating what would almost certainly be the most visited museum in the world. As it is it must be the world’s most visited car park. I see Berlin as a tangible, living fable: an aspiring imperial capital until it was shattered by 1918, the vital, exhilarating cultural experiment of Weimar shattered by the Nazis, the dark surrender to the worst of human nature ending in a shattered, divided city. It’s Homeric and puts Berlin right up there in terms of world significance.
I read Anthony Beevor's BERLIN on my first visit to Berlin
Fuck me, quite an experience. Reading of those intense horrors in the final days, then you look up and see the streets and parks described
Much better than any of his other books, although Stalingrad gets an honourable mention.
In his Arnhem he actually gets a few things wrong, which disappointed me.
He and his wife live in Pett Bottom. You can see their house from my vineyard. He’s on the local WhatsApp group and occasionally posts (usually about things like fallen trees or objecting to planning applications.)
I see various Canadian provinces have already stopped stocking US alcohol.
I can see the 'boycott USA' gaining traction over there. You have a President imposing tariffs on you for no reason, threateningly calling ok you to become the 51st state.
USD strengthening too, which makes US exports even less competitive on top of retaliatory tariffs. Great way to improve a trade deficit.
The Democrats just need to hold steady and call out Trump for making things more expensive for ordinary Americans. Because that is the inevitable result on his trade policy.
I suspect boycott USA might be going a bit far in the UK. Boycott Tesla though I can definitely imagine.
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
That would be very sensible.
And could be extended to other issues as well.
The problem with that approach is that people who comment lead the news agenda (they can't just say "nobody said anything interesting today"), so an absence of comment yields the field entirely to loonies who you can't influence effectively. Boring non-committal comment is somewhat better if you can't foind anything interesting to say.
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
I have a very soft spot for Berlin. It embodies the history of the 20th Century, all in one place. All the faultlines, the ideologies, the hope and despair.
I do think it was perhaps at its most compelling around the mid noughties, funnily enough around the time that Merkel was taking office or had just bedded in. Some of the past was even more present (e.g the ugly East German parliament building was still standing, though I think was already slated for demolition) but there was perhaps a dynamism and energy in the air with the new architecture of government, the rebuilt Reichstag building etc, which gave it the feeling of a city in optimistic transition - moving from the shadows of the past into the exciting new European future where Germany would take the lead. The city is still great, but perhaps seeing it in that optimistic, transitional moment was the most special
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
Depends what you want/like. Berlin has an international feel (unlike other German cities) a feeling of space (lots of wide streets), some agreeably grungey neighborhoods, and interesting historical stuff - the various holocaust memorials are worth mentioning. Of course you can't compare it with Rome (and in what crazy world is Rome not a top tier European city?), but I think a comparison with Vienna is interesting - both former imperial capitals (and both much smaller than London), but with very different things to offer.
There's a top tier of world cities, but it is tiny. New York, London, Paris.... and then any others? Not sure. Singapore? Dubai? Nope. Not enough culture. Tokyo a bit too Japanese. Sydney nah. Hong Kong was getting there, not now. Rome isn't in this tier because to be a world city you need power, size and tech/financial heft
Rome is at the top of the second tier
Shanghai is probably the likeliest to make the grade to world city, and maybe soon
But to be in the rarefied second tier you need a lot of history (hence Rome, Athens), amazing culture and architecture (Vienna, Barcelona). I'd put Moscow and St Petersburg in this second tier, as well, and Istanbul
Berlin doesn't quite match those cities, to my mind
Top of the third tier is about right for the Prussian capital
"Berlin as a travel destination" was what you wrote at the top of this thread. It's a rare pervert who needs "power, size and tech/financial heft" to enjoy their city break.
Rome is absolutely a top tier city as a travel destination for anyone who isn't a weirdo.
We kinda moved on to cities as cities, their world status
But even as a top city destination, Berlin doesn't cut it
What are the ten must see cities in Europe?
London Paris Rome Barcelona Athens Vienna Venice Istanbul Moscow St Petersburg
Sorry, Berlin doesn't make it
It's in the next ten, isn't it?
Prague Amsterdam Madrid Naples Lisbon Dublin Berlin Kyiv Edinburgh Florence
If Tbilisi is allowed I'd swap it for Dublin
Thirty years ago I would have agreed abut Barcelona, but these days it is a very pale shadow of what it was. There are at least a dozen more interesting cities to visit in Spain::
Madrid Valencia Seville Grenada Bilbao San Sebastian Salamanca Leon Zamora Toledo La Corunna Cadiz
I confess I haven't been to Barcelona since pre Covid, maybe even a decade
Is it really that crap now? Over tourism? Migration? Airbnbs? What? what's happened to it?
It must be pretty sad if it's now below Bilbao and Cadiz, which are interesting towns but in the past nowhere near Barca
Massive, ridiculous over-tourism combined with three decades of inward looking, narrow-minded, exclusionary Catalan nationalism. It's nothing like the city it was. The dynamism, the joy, the snark and the life have been entirely sucked out of it. It's such a huge shame. Bilbao is an ugly place but is lived in and it is dynamic. It has an authenticity that a city needs and Barcelona has thrown away.
There were suggestions over the weekend that the senior management got marched out of the building after refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump’s team. It sounds like the plan is to merge USAID back into the State Department, starting with a zero-based budget.
'there were suggestions' is another tell from you that what follows is bollocks.
Unless 'refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump's team' =
Two senior officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been suspended after they tried to stop members of Elon Musk's efficiency team from accessing secure systems, according to reports.
Sky News' US partner NBC News spoke to three sources who said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team wanted to access some files that were beyond their security level.
“What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”
Congress does have powers to intervene. The GOP are simply choosing not to exercise them.
Similarly on tariffs: Congress has the power to immediately overturn tariffs imposed by the executive on "national security" grounds, if they so choose.
Trump is doing so many things at the same time it would be umpossible to block everything and I think that’s the point here
They aren't even trying is the point.
To be fair, an awful lot of this is being sprung on the world at weekends, when the normal response mechanisms don't really work. The interesting thing is what gets slowed or reversed during the week to come.
When a burglar breaks into somewhere they're not allowed to go, it's a crime. What is it when one of Musk's Dogey Interns does it?
Seems to me they have zero sense of consequences. Is Elon Musk planning to be on his way to Mars by the time of the next election? Or is he comfortable with spending the rest of his life in gaol? What about all their minions? US politics had already become far too ready to resort to lawfare and this is adding fuel to the fire.
Good morning, everyone.
And to you.
It's a curious pattern of techbro politics- we saw the same when Cummings tried it here. The assumption that the game ends after your brilliant move, and that the other player(s) don't get to respond.
Sky business report referring to Trump’s comments last night on applying tariffs on the EU and UK said it is likely UK will avoid the tariffs as we are not in the EU
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
Lots & lots of buildings pockmarked by bullets from 1945, so a fair bit.
And quite a few old buildings with a new corner in a different style from where the original corner got bombed.
I really like Berlin, with all it's lakes, parks, and fascinating history. The Nazi stuff was pretty much eradicated, with not even a marker to show where the bunker was. Some great museums too, especially the Topography of Terror (on the rise of the Nazis in Berlin) and on Museum Island. Great nightlife too, with a fair whiff of the Caberet era.
There's a lot still being constructed but well worth a visit. 250 000 Beliners turned out yesterday to March against AfD. They know where it all leads.
You’ve got to admire the principled attitude towards the Führerbunker, completely eradicating what would almost certainly be the most visited museum in the world. As it is it must be the world’s most visited car park. I see Berlin as a tangible, living fable: an aspiring imperial capital until it was shattered by 1918, the vital, exhilarating cultural experiment of Weimar shattered by the Nazis, the dark surrender to the worst of human nature ending in a shattered, divided city. It’s Homeric and puts Berlin right up there in terms of world significance.
I read Anthony Beevor's BERLIN on my first visit to Berlin
Fuck me, quite an experience. Reading of those intense horrors in the final days, then you look up and see the streets and parks described
Much better than any of his other books, although Stalingrad gets an honourable mention.
In his Arnhem he actually gets a few things wrong, which disappointed me.
He and his wife live in Pett Bottom. You can see their house from my vineyard. He’s on the local WhatsApp group and occasionally posts (usually about things like fallen trees or objecting to planning applications.)
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
Starmer is playing Trump pretty well so far. But I suspect we can’t hide under the radar forever, and there will come a crunch point.
There will and it is an extremely dangerous one for Starmer. If he chooses the US over the EU when the time comes, as it will, he will almost certainly face a major Parliamentary rebellion and a challenge to his leadership, which he would probably lose.
Sky business report referring to Trump’s comments last night on applying tariffs on the EU and UK said it is likely UK will avoid the tariffs as we are not in the EU
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
Starmer is playing Trump pretty well so far. But I suspect we can’t hide under the radar forever, and there will come a crunch point.
There will and it is an extremely dangerous one for Starmer. If he chooses the US over the EU when the time comes, as it will, he will almost certainly face a major Parliamentary rebellion and a challenge to his leadership, which he would probably lose.
Making either choice would be foolish and Starmer needs to stay neutral no matter how difficult
OK given that it's a lazy, sunny Monday afternoon and I am just waiting for gin o'clock with a mate
Here's the OFFICIAL LEON LIST of the top ten THINGS to see in ALL THE WORLD
1. Gobekli Tepe and the Tas Tepeler 2. The City of London 3. Angkor Wat 4. Paris 5. Venice 6. The Antartcic Peninsula 7. The Old City of Jerusalem and the abutting Valley of the Shadow of Death 8. The National Parks of south Utah 9. Kyoto 10. The Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea of North Russia
@leon as someone wanting to plan more trips and not impressed with some I have done can you give reasons for some of your picks. Ignore 2,4,5.
Having visited Death Valley last year and being impressed, why Utah ahead of Death Valley. What is special about it?
PS just looked at some pictures of Utah - interesting.
Utah is a very lovely place.
I follow this guy on YouTube, he has one of the best jobs in the world. He’s a breakdown truck driver in and around the national parks in Utah. Spends his days pulling tourists out of the sand and rescuing dead off-road vehicles from the middle of nowhere. Epic backdrops to most of his videos, which explains why he has nearly 2m subscribers. http://www.youtube.com/@MattsOffRoadRecovery
Utah was the last place to be mapped in the continental USA/lower 48 states
It was terra incognita until the late 19th century, which is quite amazing:
"The last blank spot on U.S. maps - specifically in the area of the Uinta Mountains and the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah - was finally filled in by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 1879, concluding the first comprehensive mapping of the lower 48 states."
Even now it is VERY easy to get lost and meet a grisly end in the wilds of Utah. Nearly happened to me once, I went down a canyon, like I was going for a walk in Holland Park, then turned a few corners, then realised I was utterly lost. all the canyons look the same. Zero phone signal
People die doing that shit. I got lucky when I nearly stepped on a rattlesnake, reeled back in fear, and as I reeled back I recognised a bunch of unusual trees on a cliff, and I recognised my way out
True story
Go to Utah if you want a true sense of wild, frontier America, with lots of sun
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
Starmer is playing Trump pretty well so far. But I suspect we can’t hide under the radar forever, and there will come a crunch point.
There will and it is an extremely dangerous one for Starmer. If he chooses the US over the EU when the time comes, as it will, he will almost certainly face a major Parliamentary rebellion and a challenge to his leadership, which he would probably lose.
Making either choice would be foolish and Starmer needs to stay neutral no matter how difficult
That's not how Trump works. He will force a choice.
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
Not sustainable as just ensures everytime they are on tv that is all they will be asked, modern interviewers love nothing better than a politician unwilling to answer. They seem to have the comms in hand with Starmer, Lammy and Mandelson willing cucks to avoid upsetting the toddler bully. Hopefully they are privately pivoting to much stronger defence and trade links with the rest of the modern world. Combined that may sadly be about as good as we can do.
Media interviews with politicians are mostly a boring waste of time and there are far too many of them. What the media, both trad and newstyle, does best is genuinely expert comment and analysis. And the straight hard reporting of facts, not what someone in government has said.
Instead of unilluminating non-anwering interviews, which should be a very occasional art form, the well resourced news media like the BBC should focus on researching, critiqueing and communicating what government is actually doing and not doing (How is the northern powerhouse getting on? Railway from Liverpool to Hull? Progress? How is development in social housing going?) through parliament, ministerial decision, committees, reports and so on.
I think there is a fascinating aspect of that article that supports a belief that I have long held; the idea that encouraging people to retire while they are still more than capable of working is damaging for the economy (and IMO the individuals themselves). By all means, encourage older people to achieve a great work life balance, maybe by working much less hours, but encouraging them to think that it is a life aspiration to do nowt is incredibly dumb.
One way Haldane thinks Reeves could do this is to help older people stay in work for longer. “Ageing is only a problem… if we stick with this model of people rolling into retirement [at a relatively early age],” he said.
“After the age of 50, the rate of employment starts falling rapidly, despite the fact that people are living longer lives than ever.” “Provided we live healthily and productively and we remain skilled, the resolution of this puzzle is to have people remain in the workplace for longer.” “That would deliver a huge benefit to the public purse and to growth. Ageing need not be a problem. It could actually be the opportunity of our lifetimes, if we seize it.” The Government has so far been reluctant to change the existing safety net for pensioners, after a furious backlash to the decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance.
OK given that it's a lazy, sunny Monday afternoon and I am just waiting for gin o'clock with a mate
Here's the OFFICIAL LEON LIST of the top ten THINGS to see in ALL THE WORLD
1. Gobekli Tepe and the Tas Tepeler 2. The City of London 3. Angkor Wat 4. Paris 5. Venice 6. The Antartcic Peninsula 7. The Old City of Jerusalem and the abutting Valley of the Shadow of Death 8. The National Parks of south Utah 9. Kyoto 10. The Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea of North Russia
@leon as someone wanting to plan more trips and not impressed with some I have done can you give reasons for some of your picks. Ignore 2,4,5.
Having visited Death Valley last year and being impressed, why Utah ahead of Death Valley. What is special about it?
PS just looked at some pictures of Utah - interesting.
Utah is a very lovely place.
I follow this guy on YouTube, he has one of the best jobs in the world. He’s a breakdown truck driver in and around the national parks in Utah. Spends his days pulling tourists out of the sand and rescuing dead off-road vehicles from the middle of nowhere. Epic backdrops to most of his videos, which explains why he has nearly 2m subscribers. http://www.youtube.com/@MattsOffRoadRecovery
One of our favourite memories is of Lake Louise, in Western Canada. We were in a hotel room overlooking the lake and I woke early, and looked out of the window. The lake was absolutely still, and the sun had just risen enough to make the whole scene look magical. One of the few times I've woken Mrs C early in the morning, and about the only time she really appreciated me doing so!
OK given that it's a lazy, sunny Monday afternoon and I am just waiting for gin o'clock with a mate
Here's the OFFICIAL LEON LIST of the top ten THINGS to see in ALL THE WORLD
1. Gobekli Tepe and the Tas Tepeler 2. The City of London 3. Angkor Wat 4. Paris 5. Venice 6. The Antartcic Peninsula 7. The Old City of Jerusalem and the abutting Valley of the Shadow of Death 8. The National Parks of south Utah 9. Kyoto 10. The Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea of North Russia
@leon as someone wanting to plan more trips and not impressed with some I have done can you give reasons for some of your picks. Ignore 2,4,5.
Having visited Death Valley last year and being impressed, why Utah ahead of Death Valley. What is special about it?
PS just looked at some pictures of Utah - interesting.
Utah is a very lovely place.
I follow this guy on YouTube, he has one of the best jobs in the world. He’s a breakdown truck driver in and around the national parks in Utah. Spends his days pulling tourists out of the sand and rescuing dead off-road vehicles from the middle of nowhere. Epic backdrops to most of his videos, which explains why he has nearly 2m subscribers. http://www.youtube.com/@MattsOffRoadRecovery
Utah was the last place to be mapped in the continental USA/lower 48 states
It was terra incognita until the late 19th century, which is quite amazing:
"The last blank spot on U.S. maps - specifically in the area of the Uinta Mountains and the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah - was finally filled in by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 1879, concluding the first comprehensive mapping of the lower 48 states."
Even now it is VERY easy to get lost and meet a grisly end in the wilds of Utah. Nearly happened to me once, I went down a canyon, like I was going for a walk in Holland Park, then turned a few corners, then realised I was utterly lost. all the canyons look the same. Zero phone signal
People die doing that shit. I got lucky when I nearly stepped on a rattlesnake, reeled back in fear, and as I reeled back I recognised a bunch of unusual trees on a cliff, and I recognised my way out
True story
Go to Utah if you want a true sense of wild, frontier America, with lots of sun
Scanning that I read you got lost in Holland Park and trod on a rattlesnake.
Sky business report referring to Trump’s comments last night on applying tariffs on the EU and UK said it is likely UK will avoid the tariffs as we are not in the EU
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
Hardly. It’s a signal we don’t matter.
Avoiding trade tariffs to our biggest market would be a huge plus
OK given that it's a lazy, sunny Monday afternoon and I am just waiting for gin o'clock with a mate
Here's the OFFICIAL LEON LIST of the top ten THINGS to see in ALL THE WORLD
1. Gobekli Tepe and the Tas Tepeler 2. The City of London 3. Angkor Wat 4. Paris 5. Venice 6. The Antartcic Peninsula 7. The Old City of Jerusalem and the abutting Valley of the Shadow of Death 8. The National Parks of south Utah 9. Kyoto 10. The Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea of North Russia
@leon as someone wanting to plan more trips and not impressed with some I have done can you give reasons for some of your picks. Ignore 2,4,5.
Having visited Death Valley last year and being impressed, why Utah ahead of Death Valley. What is special about it?
PS just looked at some pictures of Utah - interesting.
Utah is a very lovely place.
I follow this guy on YouTube, he has one of the best jobs in the world. He’s a breakdown truck driver in and around the national parks in Utah. Spends his days pulling tourists out of the sand and rescuing dead off-road vehicles from the middle of nowhere. Epic backdrops to most of his videos, which explains why he has nearly 2m subscribers. http://www.youtube.com/@MattsOffRoadRecovery
One of our favourite memories is of Lake Louise, in Western Canada. We were in a hotel room overlooking the lake and I woke early, and looked out of the window. The lake was absolutely still, and the sun had just risen enough to make the whole scene look magical. One of the few times I've woken Mrs C early in the morning, and about the only time she really appreciated me doing so!
Sky business report referring to Trump’s comments last night on applying tariffs on the EU and UK said it is likely UK will avoid the tariffs as we are not in the EU
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
Hardly. It’s a signal we don’t matter.
Avoiding trade tariffs to our biggest market would be a huge plus
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
Starmer is playing Trump pretty well so far. But I suspect we can’t hide under the radar forever, and there will come a crunch point.
There will and it is an extremely dangerous one for Starmer. If he chooses the US over the EU when the time comes, as it will, he will almost certainly face a major Parliamentary rebellion and a challenge to his leadership, which he would probably lose.
Making either choice would be foolish and Starmer needs to stay neutral no matter how difficult
That's not how Trump works. He will force a choice.
Starmer siding with Trump loses his party, siding with the EU his party loses to Reform
Sky business report referring to Trump’s comments last night on applying tariffs on the EU and UK said it is likely UK will avoid the tariffs as we are not in the EU
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
Hardly. It’s a signal we don’t matter.
Avoiding trade tariffs to our biggest market would be a huge plus
Sky business report referring to Trump’s comments last night on applying tariffs on the EU and UK said it is likely UK will avoid the tariffs as we are not in the EU
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
Even if we are subject to the same tariffs as the EU it's a Brexit benefit because we can choose our retaliatory tariffs to suit us.
There were suggestions over the weekend that the senior management got marched out of the building after refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump’s team. It sounds like the plan is to merge USAID back into the State Department, starting with a zero-based budget.
'there were suggestions' is another tell from you that what follows is bollocks.
Unless 'refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump's team' =
Two senior officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been suspended after they tried to stop members of Elon Musk's efficiency team from accessing secure systems, according to reports.
Sky News' US partner NBC News spoke to three sources who said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team wanted to access some files that were beyond their security level.
“What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”
Congress does have powers to intervene. The GOP are simply choosing not to exercise them.
Similarly on tariffs: Congress has the power to immediately overturn tariffs imposed by the executive on "national security" grounds, if they so choose.
Trump is doing so many things at the same time it would be umpossible to block everything and I think that’s the point here
They aren't even trying is the point.
No one seems to be trying, anywhere, which is what is odd.
The Dems took the weekend off to elect a new DNC chair, which was hardly the most urgent matter in the circumstances.
But without control of either house of Congress, they are limited to little more than protest. The mechanisms for challenging even blatant misuse of executive power rely on institutions controlled by the GOP, or Trump appointees.
There were suggestions over the weekend that the senior management got marched out of the building after refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump’s team. It sounds like the plan is to merge USAID back into the State Department, starting with a zero-based budget.
'there were suggestions' is another tell from you that what follows is bollocks.
Unless 'refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump's team' =
Two senior officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been suspended after they tried to stop members of Elon Musk's efficiency team from accessing secure systems, according to reports.
Sky News' US partner NBC News spoke to three sources who said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team wanted to access some files that were beyond their security level.
“What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”
Congress does have powers to intervene. The GOP are simply choosing not to exercise them.
Similarly on tariffs: Congress has the power to immediately overturn tariffs imposed by the executive on "national security" grounds, if they so choose.
Trump is doing so many things at the same time it would be umpossible to block everything and I think that’s the point here
They aren't even trying is the point.
To be fair, an awful lot of this is being sprung on the world at weekends, when the normal response mechanisms don't really work. The interesting thing is what gets slowed or reversed during the week to come.
When a burglar breaks into somewhere they're not allowed to go, it's a crime. What is it when one of Musk's Dogey Interns does it?
Seems to me they have zero sense of consequences. Is Elon Musk planning to be on his way to Mars by the time of the next election? Or is he comfortable with spending the rest of his life in gaol? What about all their minions? US politics had already become far too ready to resort to lawfare and this is adding fuel to the fire.
Good morning, everyone.
This is hardly "lawfare", though. It's blatantly outside the law.
Ignore it, and the existing constitution becomes more akin to those of Hungary/Turkey/Russia. A largely empty document.
That's what I meant. So many of them seem to be so tribal that they'll excuse anything and there are no boundaries any more.
Personally I would stick Edinburgh in the top 10. Arriving in Waverley is possibly the best introduction to any city.
Top ten European cities?
I disagree, but it is arguable
In the top ten THINGS TO SEE IN THE WORLD ? - no no no
Oh good grief, top ten/twelve European cities only, not global destinations. On the latter surprised pyramids do not feature.
Because the Tas Tepeler and Angkor Wat are genuinely more impressive than the pyramids - Angkor Wat is more sublime, beautiful, dreamy and even more impressive in scale; Gobekli and the Tas Tepeler way more important as archaeology, world-altering history, mind-blowing theories, and they have such stupendous Noom
And I felt two pre-modern monuments was enough
Pyramids are in the 2nd ten, also the ruins of Luxor and environs
Edinburgh needs to DEMOLISH THE POO BUILDING if it wants a tilt at a top ten spot
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
I have a very soft spot for Berlin. It embodies the history of the 20th Century, all in one place. All the faultlines, the ideologies, the hope and despair.
I do think it was perhaps at its most compelling around the mid noughties, funnily enough around the time that Merkel was taking office or had just bedded in. Some of the past was even more present (e.g the ugly East German parliament building was still standing, though I think was already slated for demolition) but there was perhaps a dynamism and energy in the air with the new architecture of government, the rebuilt Reichstag building etc, which gave it the feeling of a city in optimistic transition - moving from the shadows of the past into the exciting new European future where Germany would take the lead. The city is still great, but perhaps seeing it in that optimistic, transitional moment was the most special
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
Depends what you want/like. Berlin has an international feel (unlike other German cities) a feeling of space (lots of wide streets), some agreeably grungey neighborhoods, and interesting historical stuff - the various holocaust memorials are worth mentioning. Of course you can't compare it with Rome (and in what crazy world is Rome not a top tier European city?), but I think a comparison with Vienna is interesting - both former imperial capitals (and both much smaller than London), but with very different things to offer.
There's a top tier of world cities, but it is tiny. New York, London, Paris.... and then any others? Not sure. Singapore? Dubai? Nope. Not enough culture. Tokyo a bit too Japanese. Sydney nah. Hong Kong was getting there, not now. Rome isn't in this tier because to be a world city you need power, size and tech/financial heft
Rome is at the top of the second tier
Shanghai is probably the likeliest to make the grade to world city, and maybe soon
But to be in the rarefied second tier you need a lot of history (hence Rome, Athens), amazing culture and architecture (Vienna, Barcelona). I'd put Moscow and St Petersburg in this second tier, as well, and Istanbul
Berlin doesn't quite match those cities, to my mind
Top of the third tier is about right for the Prussian capital
"Berlin as a travel destination" was what you wrote at the top of this thread. It's a rare pervert who needs "power, size and tech/financial heft" to enjoy their city break.
Rome is absolutely a top tier city as a travel destination for anyone who isn't a weirdo.
We kinda moved on to cities as cities, their world status
But even as a top city destination, Berlin doesn't cut it
What are the ten must see cities in Europe?
London Paris Rome Barcelona Athens Vienna Venice Istanbul Moscow St Petersburg
Sorry, Berlin doesn't make it
It's in the next ten, isn't it?
Prague Amsterdam Madrid Naples Lisbon Dublin Berlin Kyiv Edinburgh Florence
If Tbilisi is allowed I'd swap it for Dublin
Thirty years ago I would have agreed abut Barcelona, but these days it is a very pale shadow of what it was. There are at least a dozen more interesting cities to visit in Spain::
Madrid Valencia Seville Grenada Bilbao San Sebastian Salamanca Leon Zamora Toledo La Corunna Cadiz
I confess I haven't been to Barcelona since pre Covid, maybe even a decade
Is it really that crap now? Over tourism? Migration? Airbnbs? What? what's happened to it?
It must be pretty sad if it's now below Bilbao and Cadiz, which are interesting towns but in the past nowhere near Barca
Massive, ridiculous over-tourism combined with three decades of inward looking, narrow-minded, exclusionary Catalan nationalism. It's nothing like the city it was. The dynamism, the joy, the snark and the life have been entirely sucked out of it. It's such a huge shame. Bilbao is an ugly place but is lived in and it is dynamic. It has an authenticity that a city needs and Barcelona has thrown away.
Eeesh. That's quite depressing, Barcelona at its best was BRILLIANT
It has it all, location, culture, art, history - glorious architecture - Gaudi, the Gothic quarter, the Eixample - plus great food and splendid weather
I think there is a fascinating aspect of that article that supports a belief that I have long held; the idea that encouraging people to retire while they are still more than capable of working is damaging for the economy (and IMO the individuals themselves). By all means, encourage older people to achieve a great work life balance, maybe by working much less hours, but encouraging them to think that it is a life aspiration to do nowt is incredibly dumb.
One way Haldane thinks Reeves could do this is to help older people stay in work for longer. “Ageing is only a problem… if we stick with this model of people rolling into retirement [at a relatively early age],” he said.
“After the age of 50, the rate of employment starts falling rapidly, despite the fact that people are living longer lives than ever.” “Provided we live healthily and productively and we remain skilled, the resolution of this puzzle is to have people remain in the workplace for longer.” “That would deliver a huge benefit to the public purse and to growth. Ageing need not be a problem. It could actually be the opportunity of our lifetimes, if we seize it.” The Government has so far been reluctant to change the existing safety net for pensioners, after a furious backlash to the decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance.
By the time I got into my early 50's and started to seriously consider retirement I decided that was I was going to stop full-time at 65 and work part-time until 70. Physically and mentally I could have moved the whole scheme on five years but by 75 things were going wrong physically. I'm not sorry I went until 65, though; did some interesting things and met some good people.
Sky business report referring to Trump’s comments last night on applying tariffs on the EU and UK said it is likely UK will avoid the tariffs as we are not in the EU
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
I suspect this is more Sir Keir playing a blinder. In fact, if we had a more Brexity PM, say Boris, we'd probably be more vulnerable to Trump's whims as the room for manoeuvre would be drastically reduced, what with the antipathy from the EU and pressure from the transatlantic Right. Sir Keir stands out as a politician who has forged his own destiny and is beholden to no son of man.
There were suggestions over the weekend that the senior management got marched out of the building after refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump’s team. It sounds like the plan is to merge USAID back into the State Department, starting with a zero-based budget.
'there were suggestions' is another tell from you that what follows is bollocks.
Unless 'refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump's team' =
Two senior officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been suspended after they tried to stop members of Elon Musk's efficiency team from accessing secure systems, according to reports.
Sky News' US partner NBC News spoke to three sources who said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team wanted to access some files that were beyond their security level.
“What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”
Congress does have powers to intervene. The GOP are simply choosing not to exercise them.
Similarly on tariffs: Congress has the power to immediately overturn tariffs imposed by the executive on "national security" grounds, if they so choose.
Trump is doing so many things at the same time it would be umpossible to block everything and I think that’s the point here
They aren't even trying is the point.
To be fair, an awful lot of this is being sprung on the world at weekends, when the normal response mechanisms don't really work. The interesting thing is what gets slowed or reversed during the week to come.
When a burglar breaks into somewhere they're not allowed to go, it's a crime. What is it when one of Musk's Dogey Interns does it?
Seems to me they have zero sense of consequences. Is Elon Musk planning to be on his way to Mars by the time of the next election? Or is he comfortable with spending the rest of his life in gaol? What about all their minions? US politics had already become far too ready to resort to lawfare and this is adding fuel to the fire.
Good morning, everyone.
This is hardly "lawfare", though. It's blatantly outside the law.
Ignore it, and the existing constitution becomes more akin to those of Hungary/Turkey/Russia. A largely empty document.
Sky business report referring to Trump’s comments last night on applying tariffs on the EU and UK said it is likely UK will avoid the tariffs as we are not in the EU
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
Hardly. It’s a signal we don’t matter.
Avoiding trade tariffs to our biggest market would be a huge plus
I think there is a fascinating aspect of that article that supports a belief that I have long held; the idea that encouraging people to retire while they are still more than capable of working is damaging for the economy (and IMO the individuals themselves). By all means, encourage older people to achieve a great work life balance, maybe by working much less hours, but encouraging them to think that it is a life aspiration to do nowt is incredibly dumb.
One way Haldane thinks Reeves could do this is to help older people stay in work for longer. “Ageing is only a problem… if we stick with this model of people rolling into retirement [at a relatively early age],” he said.
“After the age of 50, the rate of employment starts falling rapidly, despite the fact that people are living longer lives than ever.” “Provided we live healthily and productively and we remain skilled, the resolution of this puzzle is to have people remain in the workplace for longer.” “That would deliver a huge benefit to the public purse and to growth. Ageing need not be a problem. It could actually be the opportunity of our lifetimes, if we seize it.” The Government has so far been reluctant to change the existing safety net for pensioners, after a furious backlash to the decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance.
By the time I got into my early 50's and started to seriously consider retirement I decided that was I was going to stop full-time at 65 and work part-time until 70. Physically and mentally I could have moved the whole scheme on five years but by 75 things were going wrong physically. I'm not sorry I went until 65, though; did some interesting things and met some good people.
I am not suggesting it is right for everyone, because so much depends on health, but I do think that there is an industry that encourages retirement in people (and sometimes guilts them into thinking they must) when they can (and in many cases do) continue to make a significant contribution.
There were suggestions over the weekend that the senior management got marched out of the building after refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump’s team. It sounds like the plan is to merge USAID back into the State Department, starting with a zero-based budget.
'there were suggestions' is another tell from you that what follows is bollocks.
Unless 'refusing to co-operate with anyone in Trump's team' =
Two senior officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been suspended after they tried to stop members of Elon Musk's efficiency team from accessing secure systems, according to reports.
Sky News' US partner NBC News spoke to three sources who said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team wanted to access some files that were beyond their security level.
“What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”
Congress does have powers to intervene. The GOP are simply choosing not to exercise them.
Similarly on tariffs: Congress has the power to immediately overturn tariffs imposed by the executive on "national security" grounds, if they so choose.
Trump is doing so many things at the same time it would be umpossible to block everything and I think that’s the point here
They aren't even trying is the point.
No one seems to be trying, anywhere, which is what is odd.
The Dems took the weekend off to elect a new DNC chair, which was hardly the most urgent matter in the circumstances.
But without control of either house of Congress, they are limited to little more than protest. The mechanisms for challenging even blatant misuse of executive power rely on institutions controlled by the GOP, or Trump appointees.
Dems want a landslide in the midterms, best hope of that is the tariffs proving a disaster and Trump and the GOP Congress owning them. For oppositions the worse inflation and the economy are doing normally the better you do
"Markets are retreating sharply today because investors had not expected a robust response from the countries hit by new US tariffs."
What did they expect exactly?
How wilfully thick can some brilliant people be?
Markets haven't actually moved much. 2-3% below recent all time highs. I suspect the majority view is that the tariffs wont be in place for long, or we should have seen a bigger reaction.
It is quite muted. I guess the idea is the tariffs will go when Trump gets something he can present as a 'win'. I don't like this. It's not only appeasement it sets up a vicious circle. If he gets a 'win' it rewards naked aggression (cf Putin and Ukraine), he's puffed up to do more similar shit, his popularity at home is supported. My preference, painful and messy as it might be, is for him to be confronted and handed a 'loss'.
I think there is a fascinating aspect of that article that supports a belief that I have long held; the idea that encouraging people to retire while they are still more than capable of working is damaging for the economy (and IMO the individuals themselves). By all means, encourage older people to achieve a great work life balance, maybe by working much less hours, but encouraging them to think that it is a life aspiration to do nowt is incredibly dumb.
One way Haldane thinks Reeves could do this is to help older people stay in work for longer. “Ageing is only a problem… if we stick with this model of people rolling into retirement [at a relatively early age],” he said.
“After the age of 50, the rate of employment starts falling rapidly, despite the fact that people are living longer lives than ever.” “Provided we live healthily and productively and we remain skilled, the resolution of this puzzle is to have people remain in the workplace for longer.” “That would deliver a huge benefit to the public purse and to growth. Ageing need not be a problem. It could actually be the opportunity of our lifetimes, if we seize it.” The Government has so far been reluctant to change the existing safety net for pensioners, after a furious backlash to the decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance.
From seeing various family members retire - I would recommend tapering off with consultancy/part time working. If the work if appropriate for that and you don't massively hate it.
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
Starmer is playing Trump pretty well so far. But I suspect we can’t hide under the radar forever, and there will come a crunch point.
There will and it is an extremely dangerous one for Starmer. If he chooses the US over the EU when the time comes, as it will, he will almost certainly face a major Parliamentary rebellion and a challenge to his leadership, which he would probably lose.
Making either choice would be foolish and Starmer needs to stay neutral no matter how difficult
That's not how Trump works. He will force a choice.
Starmer siding with Trump loses his party, siding with the EU his party loses to Reform
No most Labour voters are Remainers again now, most of the red wall seats Labour won are already going to Reform anyway
I see various Canadian provinces have already stopped stocking US alcohol.
I can see the 'boycott USA' gaining traction over there. You have a President imposing tariffs on you for no reason, threateningly calling ok you to become the 51st state.
USD strengthening too, which makes US exports even less competitive on top of retaliatory tariffs. Great way to improve a trade deficit.
The Democrats just need to hold steady and call out Trump for making things more expensive for ordinary Americans. Because that is the inevitable result on his trade policy.
I suspect boycott USA might be going a bit far in the UK. Boycott Tesla though I can definitely imagine.
"Just Get A Nazi"
Boycott the Swasti-car.
I have had two. Won't be buying another unless there is a change of ownership.
Sky business report referring to Trump’s comments last night on applying tariffs on the EU and UK said it is likely UK will avoid the tariffs as we are not in the EU
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
Hardly. It’s a signal we don’t matter.
Avoiding trade tariffs to our biggest market would be a huge plus
Our exports to the EU are bigger than the US. They are 3x higher for goods - the most likely to be hit by tariffs.
At the moment a lot of Democrat voters are pissed off with the Democrat party because they screwed up so badly allowing Trump to win. A feeling I share.
If the figures haven't changed in 6 months then they are in trouble.
I think that the Democrats are an institution. The people leading them, less so.
Given that Trump is making a spectacular mess, I get the impression that people are standing back, rather than wasting time trying to (futilely) stop him.
The Dem conference at the weekend looked like a parody of itself written by Republicans. It started with an apology to the First Nations for stealing their land, then went on a festival of wokeness and LGBTQIA++ that doubled down on all the reasons they lost the election in the first place.
I think there is a fascinating aspect of that article that supports a belief that I have long held; the idea that encouraging people to retire while they are still more than capable of working is damaging for the economy (and IMO the individuals themselves). By all means, encourage older people to achieve a great work life balance, maybe by working much less hours, but encouraging them to think that it is a life aspiration to do nowt is incredibly dumb.
One way Haldane thinks Reeves could do this is to help older people stay in work for longer. “Ageing is only a problem… if we stick with this model of people rolling into retirement [at a relatively early age],” he said.
“After the age of 50, the rate of employment starts falling rapidly, despite the fact that people are living longer lives than ever.” “Provided we live healthily and productively and we remain skilled, the resolution of this puzzle is to have people remain in the workplace for longer.” “That would deliver a huge benefit to the public purse and to growth. Ageing need not be a problem. It could actually be the opportunity of our lifetimes, if we seize it.” The Government has so far been reluctant to change the existing safety net for pensioners, after a furious backlash to the decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance.
"Ageing need not be a problem. It could actually be the opportunity of our lifetimes, if we seize it." That very much reflects my view.
Having said, that, I'd retire tomorrow if I could afford to. I find my job interesting. I don't find it stressful. And I enjoy the company of my colleagues. I'm very lucky. But there are still dozens of things I'd find more pleasant or productive to do if I didn't have to spend my time earning money to live. And I don't think I'm unusual in this. I was out with some friends at the weekend in the 'coming up 50' age bracket, most of whom have made more optimal life choices than me for their long-term financial well-being, and I was quite taken aback by the number who plan to retire in the next few years.
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
I have a very soft spot for Berlin. It embodies the history of the 20th Century, all in one place. All the faultlines, the ideologies, the hope and despair.
I do think it was perhaps at its most compelling around the mid noughties, funnily enough around the time that Merkel was taking office or had just bedded in. Some of the past was even more present (e.g the ugly East German parliament building was still standing, though I think was already slated for demolition) but there was perhaps a dynamism and energy in the air with the new architecture of government, the rebuilt Reichstag building etc, which gave it the feeling of a city in optimistic transition - moving from the shadows of the past into the exciting new European future where Germany would take the lead. The city is still great, but perhaps seeing it in that optimistic, transitional moment was the most special
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
Depends what you want/like. Berlin has an international feel (unlike other German cities) a feeling of space (lots of wide streets), some agreeably grungey neighborhoods, and interesting historical stuff - the various holocaust memorials are worth mentioning. Of course you can't compare it with Rome (and in what crazy world is Rome not a top tier European city?), but I think a comparison with Vienna is interesting - both former imperial capitals (and both much smaller than London), but with very different things to offer.
There's a top tier of world cities, but it is tiny. New York, London, Paris.... and then any others? Not sure. Singapore? Dubai? Nope. Not enough culture. Tokyo a bit too Japanese. Sydney nah. Hong Kong was getting there, not now. Rome isn't in this tier because to be a world city you need power, size and tech/financial heft
Rome is at the top of the second tier
Shanghai is probably the likeliest to make the grade to world city, and maybe soon
But to be in the rarefied second tier you need a lot of history (hence Rome, Athens), amazing culture and architecture (Vienna, Barcelona). I'd put Moscow and St Petersburg in this second tier, as well, and Istanbul
Berlin doesn't quite match those cities, to my mind
Top of the third tier is about right for the Prussian capital
"Berlin as a travel destination" was what you wrote at the top of this thread. It's a rare pervert who needs "power, size and tech/financial heft" to enjoy their city break.
Rome is absolutely a top tier city as a travel destination for anyone who isn't a weirdo.
We kinda moved on to cities as cities, their world status
But even as a top city destination, Berlin doesn't cut it
What are the ten must see cities in Europe?
London Paris Rome Barcelona Athens Vienna Venice Istanbul Moscow St Petersburg
Sorry, Berlin doesn't make it
It's in the next ten, isn't it?
Prague Amsterdam Madrid Naples Lisbon Dublin Berlin Kyiv Edinburgh Florence
If Tbilisi is allowed I'd swap it for Dublin
Thirty years ago I would have agreed abut Barcelona, but these days it is a very pale shadow of what it was. There are at least a dozen more interesting cities to visit in Spain::
Madrid Valencia Seville Grenada Bilbao San Sebastian Salamanca Leon Zamora Toledo La Corunna Cadiz
I confess I haven't been to Barcelona since pre Covid, maybe even a decade
Is it really that crap now? Over tourism? Migration? Airbnbs? What? what's happened to it?
It must be pretty sad if it's now below Bilbao and Cadiz, which are interesting towns but in the past nowhere near Barca
Massive, ridiculous over-tourism combined with three decades of inward looking, narrow-minded, exclusionary Catalan nationalism. It's nothing like the city it was. The dynamism, the joy, the snark and the life have been entirely sucked out of it. It's such a huge shame. Bilbao is an ugly place but is lived in and it is dynamic. It has an authenticity that a city needs and Barcelona has thrown away.
Eeesh. That's quite depressing, Barcelona at its best was BRILLIANT
It has it all, location, culture, art, history - glorious architecture - Gaudi, the Gothic quarter, the Eixample - plus great food and splendid weather
On Trump and the UK. My advice to Starmer is that he should issue an edict to his colleagues that there will be no public comment either through the media or on Twitter etc. by the government or its agencies on the threat of tariffs or any other Trumpian matter. Make it clear that the government's response to Trump shall be conducted entirely through private diplomatic channels.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
Starmer is playing Trump pretty well so far. But I suspect we can’t hide under the radar forever, and there will come a crunch point.
There will and it is an extremely dangerous one for Starmer. If he chooses the US over the EU when the time comes, as it will, he will almost certainly face a major Parliamentary rebellion and a challenge to his leadership, which he would probably lose.
Making either choice would be foolish and Starmer needs to stay neutral no matter how difficult
That's not how Trump works. He will force a choice.
Starmer siding with Trump loses his party, siding with the EU his party loses to Reform
No most Labour voters are Remainers again now, most of the red wall seats Labour won are already going to Reform anyway
Sky business report referring to Trump’s comments last night on applying tariffs on the EU and UK said it is likely UK will avoid the tariffs as we are not in the EU
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
Perhaps but ultimately Trump aims to hit all imports with a minimum 10% tariff, just Mexico and Canada and China have taken the biggest initial hit as they are the three biggest importers to the US
Sky business report referring to Trump’s comments last night on applying tariffs on the EU and UK said it is likely UK will avoid the tariffs as we are not in the EU
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
Hardly. It’s a signal we don’t matter.
Avoiding trade tariffs to our biggest market would be a huge plus
Our exports to the EU are bigger than the US. They are 3x higher for goods - the most likely to be hit by tariffs.
The EU is not contemplating retaliating to Trump by imposing punitive tariffs on the UK
OK given that it's a lazy, sunny Monday afternoon and I am just waiting for gin o'clock with a mate
Here's the OFFICIAL LEON LIST of the top ten THINGS to see in ALL THE WORLD
1. Gobekli Tepe and the Tas Tepeler 2. The City of London 3. Angkor Wat 4. Paris 5. Venice 6. The Antartcic Peninsula 7. The Old City of Jerusalem and the abutting Valley of the Shadow of Death 8. The National Parks of south Utah 9. Kyoto 10. The Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea of North Russia
@leon as someone wanting to plan more trips and not impressed with some I have done can you give reasons for some of your picks. Ignore 2,4,5.
Having visited Death Valley last year and being impressed, why Utah ahead of Death Valley. What is special about it?
PS just looked at some pictures of Utah - interesting.
Utah is a very lovely place.
I follow this guy on YouTube, he has one of the best jobs in the world. He’s a breakdown truck driver in and around the national parks in Utah. Spends his days pulling tourists out of the sand and rescuing dead off-road vehicles from the middle of nowhere. Epic backdrops to most of his videos, which explains why he has nearly 2m subscribers. http://www.youtube.com/@MattsOffRoadRecovery
One of our favourite memories is of Lake Louise, in Western Canada. We were in a hotel room overlooking the lake and I woke early, and looked out of the window. The lake was absolutely still, and the sun had just risen enough to make the whole scene look magical. One of the few times I've woken Mrs C early in the morning, and about the only time she really appreciated me doing so!
Sky business report referring to Trump’s comments last night on applying tariffs on the EU and UK said it is likely UK will avoid the tariffs as we are not in the EU
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
Hardly. It’s a signal we don’t matter.
Avoiding trade tariffs to our biggest market would be a huge plus
I think there is a fascinating aspect of that article that supports a belief that I have long held; the idea that encouraging people to retire while they are still more than capable of working is damaging for the economy (and IMO the individuals themselves). By all means, encourage older people to achieve a great work life balance, maybe by working much less hours, but encouraging them to think that it is a life aspiration to do nowt is incredibly dumb.
One way Haldane thinks Reeves could do this is to help older people stay in work for longer. “Ageing is only a problem… if we stick with this model of people rolling into retirement [at a relatively early age],” he said.
“After the age of 50, the rate of employment starts falling rapidly, despite the fact that people are living longer lives than ever.” “Provided we live healthily and productively and we remain skilled, the resolution of this puzzle is to have people remain in the workplace for longer.” “That would deliver a huge benefit to the public purse and to growth. Ageing need not be a problem. It could actually be the opportunity of our lifetimes, if we seize it.” The Government has so far been reluctant to change the existing safety net for pensioners, after a furious backlash to the decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance.
From seeing various family members retire - I would recommend tapering off with consultancy/part time working. If the work if appropriate for that and you don't massively hate it.
Indeed, it does depend on someone finding work one finds rewarding in some way. I largely like my work, so I am lucky. It is partly that perspective (and in spite of having a number of hobbies) that makes me think retirement would be ghastly by comparison. Also a number of my hobbies are hideously expensive so they need to be paid for!
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
I have a very soft spot for Berlin. It embodies the history of the 20th Century, all in one place. All the faultlines, the ideologies, the hope and despair.
I do think it was perhaps at its most compelling around the mid noughties, funnily enough around the time that Merkel was taking office or had just bedded in. Some of the past was even more present (e.g the ugly East German parliament building was still standing, though I think was already slated for demolition) but there was perhaps a dynamism and energy in the air with the new architecture of government, the rebuilt Reichstag building etc, which gave it the feeling of a city in optimistic transition - moving from the shadows of the past into the exciting new European future where Germany would take the lead. The city is still great, but perhaps seeing it in that optimistic, transitional moment was the most special
It’s great if you want Dark Noom. It probably has more Dark Noom than any capital city on earth. This is where Hitler died. This was a stasi torture chamber. This was the Berlin Wall. Those are graffiti by red army soldiers etc
But most people don’t travel to experience the noomy absence of god and the tingle of spiritual despair and bleakness; so hey Ho
Some excellent museums and nice gardens. Definitely better in summer unter den linden
How much of it survived the final onslaught against the Nazi's ?
Is there any of old Berlin left or is it totally rebuilt
There's quite a bit left, all battered and shrapnelled - but that only adds to the Dark Noom
East Berlin probably has more than West because they didn't have the money to demolish and develop
It's not a great world city, nowhere near. I'm not even sure it is in the noble second tier of European cities alongside, say Barcelona or Rome, Vienna or Athens
It's in the crowded third tier - with Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Edinburgh, Dublin...
Better than Wick, mind you
Depends what you want/like. Berlin has an international feel (unlike other German cities) a feeling of space (lots of wide streets), some agreeably grungey neighborhoods, and interesting historical stuff - the various holocaust memorials are worth mentioning. Of course you can't compare it with Rome (and in what crazy world is Rome not a top tier European city?), but I think a comparison with Vienna is interesting - both former imperial capitals (and both much smaller than London), but with very different things to offer.
There's a top tier of world cities, but it is tiny. New York, London, Paris.... and then any others? Not sure. Singapore? Dubai? Nope. Not enough culture. Tokyo a bit too Japanese. Sydney nah. Hong Kong was getting there, not now. Rome isn't in this tier because to be a world city you need power, size and tech/financial heft
Rome is at the top of the second tier
Shanghai is probably the likeliest to make the grade to world city, and maybe soon
But to be in the rarefied second tier you need a lot of history (hence Rome, Athens), amazing culture and architecture (Vienna, Barcelona). I'd put Moscow and St Petersburg in this second tier, as well, and Istanbul
Berlin doesn't quite match those cities, to my mind
Top of the third tier is about right for the Prussian capital
"Berlin as a travel destination" was what you wrote at the top of this thread. It's a rare pervert who needs "power, size and tech/financial heft" to enjoy their city break.
Rome is absolutely a top tier city as a travel destination for anyone who isn't a weirdo.
We kinda moved on to cities as cities, their world status
But even as a top city destination, Berlin doesn't cut it
What are the ten must see cities in Europe?
London Paris Rome Barcelona Athens Vienna Venice Istanbul Moscow St Petersburg
Sorry, Berlin doesn't make it
It's in the next ten, isn't it?
Prague Amsterdam Madrid Naples Lisbon Dublin Berlin Kyiv Edinburgh Florence
If Tbilisi is allowed I'd swap it for Dublin
Thirty years ago I would have agreed abut Barcelona, but these days it is a very pale shadow of what it was. There are at least a dozen more interesting cities to visit in Spain::
Madrid Valencia Seville Grenada Bilbao San Sebastian Salamanca Leon Zamora Toledo La Corunna Cadiz
I confess I haven't been to Barcelona since pre Covid, maybe even a decade
Is it really that crap now? Over tourism? Migration? Airbnbs? What? what's happened to it?
It must be pretty sad if it's now below Bilbao and Cadiz, which are interesting towns but in the past nowhere near Barca
Massive, ridiculous over-tourism combined with three decades of inward looking, narrow-minded, exclusionary Catalan nationalism. It's nothing like the city it was. The dynamism, the joy, the snark and the life have been entirely sucked out of it. It's such a huge shame. Bilbao is an ugly place but is lived in and it is dynamic. It has an authenticity that a city needs and Barcelona has thrown away.
Eeesh. That's quite depressing, Barcelona at its best was BRILLIANT
It has it all, location, culture, art, history - glorious architecture - Gaudi, the Gothic quarter, the Eixample - plus great food and splendid weather
Or should I say it DID have all these
I think it still does
Likewise - the over touristed stuff is actually easily avoided. It's a bit like London. Yes, Leicester Square/Piccadilly is mobbed. but there are places a hundred yards away that are pretty much tourist free.
Comments
What did they expect exactly?
How wilfully thick can some brilliant people be?
Here's the OFFICIAL LEON LIST of the top ten THINGS to see in ALL THE WORLD
1. Gobekli Tepe and the Tas Tepeler
2. The City of London
3. Angkor Wat
4. Paris
5. Venice
6. The Antartcic Peninsula
7. The Old City of Jerusalem and the abutting Valley of the Shadow of Death
8. The National Parks of south Utah
9. Kyoto
10. The Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea of North Russia
His STALINGRAD is, of course, even better. Possibly the best book of military history ever written, and there are a LOT of mighty rivals for that crown
But don't underestimate the desire for some to get back to the old normal. It's in the interests of some in the west to get the refineries working, the oil and gas flowing west, and for Russia to come out of the cold. These lovely people might be the saviours of Russia.
When a burglar breaks into somewhere they're not allowed to go, it's a crime. What is it when one of Musk's Dogey Interns does it?
LONDON, FLOWER OF CITIES ALL
They’re now at the point where not only is there no export market for their O&G output, but they’re stuggling to get fuel supply lines in place for their war effort.
Looks like the NorKs have given up defending Kursk as well, Mr Kim didn’t exactly expect his troops to be sent into a meat grinder.
There’s more and more articles and videos about the Russian economy being on the verge of collapse, fingers crossed it comes around some day soon.
In other words, don't give Trump the oxygen of publicity, or any opportunity to lash out at anything said.
Herman Kahn recalled, in his memoirs, that he was giving a presentation on a strategic scenario. He had described the first move - a Soviet one. The probable US response, and third party responses. Then the Soviet and third party response to that. He had got to the third or fourth round of this and realised that people were staring at him as if he was some kind of prophet. The idea of reaction to a reaction to reaction was something that they hadn't really thought about. And these were serious political types.
Now obviously, for the most part that's not going to happen but you don't necessarily want subject your own consumers to inflation if you've say got an import heavy country.
Good morning, everyone.
In his Arnhem he actually gets a few things wrong, which disappointed me.
Having visited Death Valley last year and being impressed, why Utah ahead of Death Valley. What is special about it?
PS just looked at some pictures of Utah - interesting.
I disagree, but it is arguable
In the top ten THINGS TO SEE IN THE WORLD ? - no no no
When I first started work [1961] I took the train from Berwick to Edinburgh Waverley there and back every day and best of all, steam hauled
"We are responding to President Trump through the normal diplomatic channels, and we'll let you know as soon as we have any announcement to make".
Last week, the Russian TV was happily posting photos of a ‘decoy missile’ they had managed to shoot down.
Well, err, yeah, that’s the whole point of them! They’re designed to be a cheap missile with a lot of fuel and no warhead, that looks as big as a plane on radar specifically to draw enemy fire ahead of the actual missiles.
Given that Trump is making a spectacular mess, I get the impression that people are standing back, rather than wasting time trying to (futilely) stop him.
As an example the UK could impose a £100 tariff on every bottle of US wine.
It would stop all importation of wine from the USA but have trivial effect on consumers as they would instead buy wine from a different origin.
It has five - FIVE - National Parks all in a row - Arches. Canyonlands, Bryce, Zion and Capitol Reef
Taken together and seen in one go they are possibly - probably - the grandest landscapes on earth, with the exception of Antarctica, and all in a relatively small area. Even outside the parks you have sublime scenery. The red rocks of Moab!
South Utah is phenomenal. Go, if you ever get the chance
Also, nice craft beers
It's blatantly outside the law.
Ignore it, and the existing constitution becomes more akin to those of Hungary/Turkey/Russia. A largely empty document.
Madrid
Valencia
Seville
Grenada
Bilbao
San Sebastian
Salamanca
Leon
Zamora
Toledo
La Corunna
Cadiz
How?
On topic, I'v been to Angkor Wat. One needs to get there early in the morning, although the tourist crowds are wising up to that. And be there at sunset.
Not going to Jerusalem, and it's 'neighbour' Petra are among my regrets, along with never seeing Antartica. Or Patagonia!
And could be extended to other issues as well.
I follow this guy on YouTube, he has one of the best jobs in the world. He’s a breakdown truck driver in and around the national parks in Utah. Spends his days pulling tourists out of the sand and rescuing dead off-road vehicles from the middle of nowhere. Epic backdrops to most of his videos, which explains why he has nearly 2m subscribers.
http://www.youtube.com/@MattsOffRoadRecovery
There's partisan advantage two years down the line (the Dems can pick a candidate to oppose whatever the reality they end up facing), but it's a weakness right now.
Is it really that crap now? Over tourism? Migration? Airbnbs? What? what's happened to it?
It must be pretty sad if it's now below Bilbao and Cadiz, which are interesting towns but in the past nowhere near Barca
It's a curious pattern of techbro politics- we saw the same when Cummings tried it here. The assumption that the game ends after your brilliant move, and that the other player(s) don't get to respond.
Is this a Brexit benefit if we avoid Trump’s tariffs?
It was terra incognita until the late 19th century, which is quite amazing:
"The last blank spot on U.S. maps - specifically in the area of the Uinta Mountains and the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah - was finally filled in by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 1879, concluding the first comprehensive mapping of the lower 48 states."
Even now it is VERY easy to get lost and meet a grisly end in the wilds of Utah. Nearly happened to me once, I went down a canyon, like I was going for a walk in Holland Park, then turned a few corners, then realised I was utterly lost. all the canyons look the same. Zero phone signal
People die doing that shit. I got lucky when I nearly stepped on a rattlesnake, reeled back in fear, and as I reeled back I recognised a bunch of unusual trees on a cliff, and I recognised my way out
True story
Go to Utah if you want a true sense of wild, frontier America, with lots of sun
Instead of unilluminating non-anwering interviews, which should be a very occasional art form, the well resourced news media like the BBC should focus on researching, critiqueing and communicating what government is actually doing and not doing (How is the northern powerhouse getting on? Railway from Liverpool to Hull? Progress? How is development in social housing going?) through parliament, ministerial decision, committees, reports and so on.
I think there is a fascinating aspect of that article that supports a belief that I have long held; the idea that encouraging people to retire while they are still more than capable of working is damaging for the economy (and IMO the individuals themselves). By all means, encourage older people to achieve a great work life balance, maybe by working much less hours, but encouraging them to think that it is a life aspiration to do nowt is incredibly dumb.
One way Haldane thinks Reeves could do this is to help older people stay in work for longer.
“Ageing is only a problem… if we stick with this model of people rolling into retirement [at a relatively early age],” he said.
“After the age of 50, the rate of employment starts falling rapidly, despite the fact that people are living longer lives than ever.”
“Provided we live healthily and productively and we remain skilled, the resolution of this puzzle is to have people remain in the workplace for longer.”
“That would deliver a huge benefit to the public purse and to growth. Ageing need not be a problem. It could actually be the opportunity of our lifetimes, if we seize it.”
The Government has so far been reluctant to change the existing safety net for pensioners, after a furious backlash to the decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance.
But without control of either house of Congress, they are limited to little more than protest.
The mechanisms for challenging even blatant misuse of executive power rely on institutions controlled by the GOP, or Trump appointees.
And I felt two pre-modern monuments was enough
Pyramids are in the 2nd ten, also the ruins of Luxor and environs
Edinburgh needs to DEMOLISH THE POO BUILDING if it wants a tilt at a top ten spot
It has it all, location, culture, art, history - glorious architecture - Gaudi, the Gothic quarter, the Eixample - plus great food and splendid weather
Or should I say it DID have all these
That very much reflects my view.
Having said, that, I'd retire tomorrow if I could afford to. I find my job interesting. I don't find it stressful. And I enjoy the company of my colleagues. I'm very lucky. But there are still dozens of things I'd find more pleasant or productive to do if I didn't have to spend my time earning money to live. And I don't think I'm unusual in this. I was out with some friends at the weekend in the 'coming up 50' age bracket, most of whom have made more optimal life choices than me for their long-term financial well-being, and I was quite taken aback by the number who plan to retire in the next few years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jK-LA-jPE4
https://x.com/katiedaviscourt/status/1886220486885216741
Absolute chaos at Seattle's Alki Beach as thousands of anti-ICE protesters shut down the streets.
A car burst into flames, and the group chanted "f-ck the police" as Mexican flags flew in the air.