£300m on new Star Wars projects...now with everybody on the DOGE train, that seems like an area of wasteful spending that Disney could cut with literally no downsides.
Disney has a problem - they’ve run out of old cartoons to remake as live action movies, marvel is reduced to the fantastic four in the hope of success - so all they have left is Star Wars for which they needs a success
I watched RRR on Netflix the other night. Spectacular action sequences, CGI and even a dance off. Hollywood needs to watch and learn.
OK, it's fairly blatant Hindutva propaganda that will give the PB Blimps apoplexy, but a massive hit and not just in India.
Oh, I've seen even overtly right wing anti-woke British reviewers like that film, so it must be good if you can get onboard with the idiosyncracies of indian cinema.
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
Disraeli, of course.
Churchill too.
Win one Nobel prize for literature and people are all, “Isn’t Churchill a good writer?”
Surprised no mention of Messrs Johnson, Gove ...
Disgusting that nobody has mentioned Sheridan. Or Sir Thomas More.
I suggested T. B. Macaulay earlier. Does Lord Broughton count? The Gmt loved his writing so much they arrested him!
Edit: How could I forget? William Cobbett.
I suggest that the greatest writer by miles who wrote (but not published) before becoming an MP was Samuel Pepys; he's is in the absolute premier league of English lit, and of prose writers I suggest only Dickens and Joyce are in his league, and of non fiction writers he stands unsurpassed.
Did he make a comparable impact as a MP, though? (Just my ignorance.) He made a huge impact as a civil servant, though, that's for sure. So did Macaulay the historian.
And does Newton count as well? He wrote Principia before becoming a MP.
And there's Bertrand Russell ... a peer.
Pepys impact as MP: not much I think, though he got into trouble over the exclusion crisis.
Russell was a hereditary. His grandfather was the great Lord John Russell, backer of the Great Reform Act of 1832.
Giles Brandreth...
Trollope. Didn't make it to an MP, came last, but used the experience in his books.
Edgar Wallace stood for election in Blackpool in 1931 as a Lloyd George Liberal.
He lost to a candidate who, it was said, had it all over him when it came to chilling the electors' blood with far-fetched stories,
Me, I suppose - I had 3 books published on wargames with a total sale of around 100,000 before I was elected for 13 years. The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming appeared in various editions (British, American, Italian). But not in the Pepys league, and most of the examples mentioned are fiction.
GB News spent some of today interviewing someone from 'DOGE UK'.
So it begins...
Let's copy America and go down the Trump rabbit hole into a fascist state.
Just great.
As it happens this person - Charlotte Gill - has often flooded twitter with examples of what she says is wasteful woke spending. So she has form.
Got any examples because what to her is waste is probably sane spending.
I can't recall details. It was usually research projects at universities that irked her iirc. With obscure sounding topics and minute detailed investigations into things she thinks no one cares about.
Basically she does not understand what a university is for.
Still she need not worry. Looks like most UK HEIs are heading to debtors prison anyway.
It would be fascinating to know whether this lady, or any similar such personages, have devised proposals to save proper, serious sums of money - or if it's just the usual culture wars guff about council diversity officers, obscure academic research and the foreign aid budget.
There are probably significant numbers of very daft voters who get wound up about all this sort of stuff because, relative to their own household wealth, the sums involved sound colossal. Therefore, it follows that cutting out the unimportant-to-me-therefore-bad spending will pay for fat pensions, hospitals that will treat you sooner than 2028 and all manner of other goodies, when in fact it's all chicken feed.
Look at the example posted elsewhere - it's £810,000
But it's then split across 3 years, is work across 3 locations (Scotland, Hawaii and Samoa) and is relevant to over projects that kicked off at the same time.
And £270,000 doesn't cover many people once you factor in general university project costs I suspect 3 people max at least 1 of which is a PHD student...
Yes and no. That kind of sum is more in keeping with science/engineering grants employing post docs over a number of years. Without seeing the breakdown I suspect Michelle has secured a lot of holiday work in a rather nice part of the world. Main point is this though - it’s funded through UKRI in competition with other projects in her field. And it looks interesting. Feel free to argue against spending money in that kind of work, but I don’t believe this is an example of woke.
Oh I'm not - I don't think it's that expensive for what it is covering. my point was simply that the headline figure was for a 3 year project...
It’s still rather expensive for what it is. I’d suspect she’s got her salary paid out of it so the 7ni can get someone else in while she’s on holiday work overseas (must stop doing that…). Plus lots of travel costs and accommodation. It’s a big whack for a humanities project where you don’t have much in the way of consumables.
Pina Coladas do not come cheap.
You can minimise the cost by going all inclusive...
The allegation seems to be that as they were counting multiple wards at once, someone moved some Labour ballots from the Ashton Hurst ward to the Audenshaw ward, helping the Lab Audenshaw candidate over the line while damaging the Lab Ashton Hurst candidate, who they didn't like. Obviously for this to work then they would also have needed to transfer an equal number for some other party's votes (e.g. Con) the other way
But surely the ballot papers include candidates' names (and wards)? Did he take the other parties' count agents out to the pub while this was going on? And the winning margin was 82 votes so if 83 were fraudulently misallocated, well, it all looks like numerology to me.
You could also see a more innocent explanation that the baseline "request" for finding votes was an early sample estimate, and "find more votes" just meant make another estimate.
But I've never been at a count so am basing this on television coverage and the Stand Up Maths video from the last general election:-
I've been scratching my head. For the parliamentary counts you see on TV this sounds ridiculous, but I'm not sure in what ways local counts differ, are there decent numbers of observers milling about, are verbal declarations made or do the numbers merely get posted, do the councillor candidates typically attend? Is a bundle swap between two trestle tables at a certain point in the count actually possible?
You still have enough people there doing the actual counting, I imagine, though are those council employees whose ears could be bent? I cannot imagine this switch being possible without a number of people knowing, so I am sceptical whether this did actually happen in reality rather than just on the page of their dumb WhatsApp group.
Still, 11 councillors suspended - 9 Tameside, reducing the nominal Labour majority to eleventy hundred, and 2 Stockport, whose loss may have a numerical effect.
Local counts are basically the same as the Parliamentary counts you see on TV.
My question, then, is more of whether observers and candidates actually turn up in decent enough numbers, whether for overnight or next day counts, to prevent this, or whether it might be quiet enough for some prestidigitation to be possible and go unnoticed at the appropriate stage in the counts.
Personally, my guess is there are enough wonks in politics who do attend, and enough counters there on the night, to make this a highly improbable story.
I have been to many counts. There were always lots of observers. As I said, it's like what you see on the telly for Westminster elections.
Off topic but I think it's here that someone keeps going on about the Ngorongoro Crater - just planning annual trip to Southern Africa and considering it - is it really that great?
I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned on here, but maybe I missed it. Anyway, I went there years ago and camped on the crater rim, and it was pretty impressive.
The inside of the crater looks a bit like the Black Mountains in the sunshine, with wildebeest and flamingos. The landscape on the drive there is beautiful: lush, rolling, oddly like the drive towards the Black Mountains through Southern Herefordshire.
Thanks. Worth a few days of "diversion" though? Assume for sake of this that everyone involved has been on safari before and seen the big 4 but not necessarily particularly "impressive" manifestations thereof.
There's definitely someone who considers it magical though.
GB News spent some of today interviewing someone from 'DOGE UK'.
So it begins...
Let's copy America and go down the Trump rabbit hole into a fascist state.
Just great.
As it happens this person - Charlotte Gill - has often flooded twitter with examples of what she says is wasteful woke spending. So she has form.
So, not DOGE, more DODGY.
If Sir One Term wanted to copy DOGE but claim originality, he could retool that daft 'Department of Value for Money' thing he created and get that to do the hacking and slashing. There are enough daft quangos in this country to find billions of savings before cutting to any actual bone.
You obviously missed the fact Starmer has been making new ones along with independent inquiries at a rate of about 1 a day.
GB News spent some of today interviewing someone from 'DOGE UK'.
So it begins...
Let's copy America and go down the Trump rabbit hole into a fascist state.
Just great.
As it happens this person - Charlotte Gill - has often flooded twitter with examples of what she says is wasteful woke spending. So she has form.
So, not DOGE, more DODGY.
If Sir One Term wanted to copy DOGE but claim originality, he could retool that daft 'Department of Value for Money' thing he created and get that to do the hacking and slashing. There are enough daft quangos in this country to find billions of savings before cutting to any actual bone.
I'll go for the obvious question - care to give us some suggestions as to what Quangos need to go?
Off topic but I think it's here that someone keeps going on about the Ngorongoro Crater - just planning annual trip to Southern Africa and considering it - is it really that great?
I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned on here, but maybe I missed it. Anyway, I went there years ago and camped on the crater rim, and it was pretty impressive.
The inside of the crater looks a bit like the Black Mountains in the sunshine, with wildebeest and flamingos. The landscape on the drive there is beautiful: lush, rolling, oddly like the drive towards the Black Mountains through Southern Herefordshire.
Thanks. Worth a few days of "diversion" though? Assume for sake of this that everyone involved has been on safari before and seen the big 4 but not necessarily particularly "impressive" manifestations thereof.
There's definitely someone who considers it magical though.
I’d say if you’ve not been to the rift valley, of which this is part, then it’s definitely worth a few days diversion. The wildlife was prolific, of course, but it’s the scenery that really distinguishes it.
Elon Musk: "If the bureaucracy is in charge, then what meaning does democracy actually have?"
A fair question.
However, it is also fair to point out that said bueacracy was brought into being by laws, enacted by elected representatives. What meaning does democracy have if an unelected official is able to overrule said laws?
Yeah Musk is talking nonsense. Anyone who can't see through this is either an idiot or wrongun.
Time for usual pedantry. Idiot and wrongun not mutually exclusive here.
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
Disraeli, of course.
Churchill too.
Win one Nobel prize for literature and people are all, “Isn’t Churchill a good writer?”
Surprised no mention of Messrs Johnson, Gove ...
Disgusting that nobody has mentioned Sheridan. Or Sir Thomas More.
I suggested T. B. Macaulay earlier. Does Lord Broughton count? The Gmt loved his writing so much they arrested him!
Edit: How could I forget? William Cobbett.
I suggest that the greatest writer by miles who wrote (but not published) before becoming an MP was Samuel Pepys; he's is in the absolute premier league of English lit, and of prose writers I suggest only Dickens and Joyce are in his league, and of non fiction writers he stands unsurpassed.
Did he make a comparable impact as a MP, though? (Just my ignorance.) He made a huge impact as a civil servant, though, that's for sure. So did Macaulay the historian.
And does Newton count as well? He wrote Principia before becoming a MP.
And there's Bertrand Russell ... a peer.
Pepys impact as MP: not much I think, though he got into trouble over the exclusion crisis.
Russell was a hereditary. His grandfather was the great Lord John Russell, backer of the Great Reform Act of 1832.
Giles Brandreth...
Trollope. Didn't make it to an MP, came last, but used the experience in his books.
Edgar Wallace stood for election in Blackpool in 1931 as a Lloyd George Liberal.
He lost to a candidate who, it was said, had it all over him when it came to chilling the electors' blood with far-fetched stories,
Me, I suppose - I had 3 books published on wargames with a total sale of around 100,000 before I was elected for 13 years. The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming appeared in various editions (British, American, Italian). But not in the Pepys league, and most of the examples mentioned are fiction.
I remember that! Albeit courtesy of Oxfam c.. 1985. I was impressed at the time with its clarity, because I was trying to write some instructions in my day job and thought it a good model.
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
Disraeli, of course.
Churchill too.
Win one Nobel prize for literature and people are all, “Isn’t Churchill a good writer?”
Surprised no mention of Messrs Johnson, Gove ...
Disgusting that nobody has mentioned Sheridan. Or Sir Thomas More.
I suggested T. B. Macaulay earlier. Does Lord Broughton count? The Gmt loved his writing so much they arrested him!
Edit: How could I forget? William Cobbett.
I suggest that the greatest writer by miles who wrote (but not published) before becoming an MP was Samuel Pepys; he's is in the absolute premier league of English lit, and of prose writers I suggest only Dickens and Joyce are in his league, and of non fiction writers he stands unsurpassed.
Did he make a comparable impact as a MP, though? (Just my ignorance.) He made a huge impact as a civil servant, though, that's for sure. So did Macaulay the historian.
And does Newton count as well? He wrote Principia before becoming a MP.
And there's Bertrand Russell ... a peer.
Pepys impact as MP: not much I think, though he got into trouble over the exclusion crisis.
Russell was a hereditary. His grandfather was the great Lord John Russell, backer of the Great Reform Act of 1832.
Giles Brandreth...
Trollope. Didn't make it to an MP, came last, but used the experience in his books.
Edgar Wallace stood for election in Blackpool in 1931 as a Lloyd George Liberal.
He lost to a candidate who, it was said, had it all over him when it came to chilling the electors' blood with far-fetched stories,
Me, I suppose - I had 3 books published on wargames with a total sale of around 100,000 before I was elected for 13 years. The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming appeared in various editions (British, American, Italian). But not in the Pepys league, and most of the examples mentioned are fiction.
I remember that! Albeit courtesy of Oxfam c.. 1985. I was impressed at the time with its clarity, because I was trying to write some instructions in my day job and thought it a good model.
And finally, not forgetting the Lib Dems. Mike Martin has a couple of books to his name.
I think established that author to MP is in fact an unusually common career path.
Hmm, lots of worry tonight across the remnants of European tech execs I know about the communique. The consensus is that they're awaiting to see what regulatory instruments come out of it because the way it's written will make AI pricing models (now industry standard) come under new regulations.
I think we really might see one last exodus from European tech to the UK and US if they go with a wide regulatory regime based off this new agreement. I won't be surprised to see a few countries back out of it now that China is in and the US isn't.
Off topic but I think it's here that someone keeps going on about the Ngorongoro Crater - just planning annual trip to Southern Africa and considering it - is it really that great?
I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned on here, but maybe I missed it. Anyway, I went there years ago and camped on the crater rim, and it was pretty impressive.
The inside of the crater looks a bit like the Black Mountains in the sunshine, with wildebeest and flamingos. The landscape on the drive there is beautiful: lush, rolling, oddly like the drive towards the Black Mountains through Southern Herefordshire.
Thanks. Worth a few days of "diversion" though? Assume for sake of this that everyone involved has been on safari before and seen the big 4 but not necessarily particularly "impressive" manifestations thereof.
There's definitely someone who considers it magical though.
I would absolutely go to the Ngorongoro crater if you have a chance and then head over tor Zanzibar. My wife and I went as part of our honeymoon and it's genuinely the best place I've ever been.
Oliver Johnson @BristOliver Extremely impressive list of signatories to a letter in the Times about the value of maths to AI, and the folly of Government cuts to A Level support
Off topic but I think it's here that someone keeps going on about the Ngorongoro Crater - just planning annual trip to Southern Africa and considering it - is it really that great?
I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned on here, but maybe I missed it. Anyway, I went there years ago and camped on the crater rim, and it was pretty impressive.
The inside of the crater looks a bit like the Black Mountains in the sunshine, with wildebeest and flamingos. The landscape on the drive there is beautiful: lush, rolling, oddly like the drive towards the Black Mountains through Southern Herefordshire.
Thanks. Worth a few days of "diversion" though? Assume for sake of this that everyone involved has been on safari before and seen the big 4 but not necessarily particularly "impressive" manifestations thereof.
There's definitely someone who considers it magical though.
In some ways it’s like the biggest safari park in the world, albeit natural. All the animals and their habitats are settled and well enough known to avoid the chasing around for a sighting. If you go, the scariest encounters are probably the birds at the visitors rest areas - utterly ruthless in their quest to rob you of your picnic! Personally, I enjoyed the few days we spent camping in the Serengeti and Lake Natron areas more.
Off topic but I think it's here that someone keeps going on about the Ngorongoro Crater - just planning annual trip to Southern Africa and considering it - is it really that great?
I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned on here, but maybe I missed it. Anyway, I went there years ago and camped on the crater rim, and it was pretty impressive.
The inside of the crater looks a bit like the Black Mountains in the sunshine, with wildebeest and flamingos. The landscape on the drive there is beautiful: lush, rolling, oddly like the drive towards the Black Mountains through Southern Herefordshire.
Thanks. Worth a few days of "diversion" though? Assume for sake of this that everyone involved has been on safari before and seen the big 4 but not necessarily particularly "impressive" manifestations thereof.
There's definitely someone who considers it magical though.
I would absolutely go to the Ngorongoro crater if you have a chance and then head over tor Zanzibar. My wife and I went as part of our honeymoon and it's genuinely the best place I've ever been.
Yes Zanzibar is great. Stone Town is a weird mix of influences - Arab slavers, Indian traders, black African and of course English to provide a veneer of technology (like Africa's oldest electricity supply and lift). The unique carved wooden doors are famous. And the beaches are wonderful. And the Tanzanians are very friendly - they say "Jambo!" ("Hi") even to complete strangers.
Oliver Johnson @BristOliver Extremely impressive list of signatories to a letter in the Times about the value of maths to AI, and the folly of Government cuts to A Level support
Sir Demis Hassabis.....little bit of an upgrade on the usual MSc students and lab techs that attach themselves to these letter writing campaigns....woophs....as the government love to quote him / Deepmind for anything AI related in the UK.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
Oliver Johnson @BristOliver Extremely impressive list of signatories to a letter in the Times about the value of maths to AI, and the folly of Government cuts to A Level support
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
Disraeli, of course.
Churchill too.
Win one Nobel prize for literature and people are all, “Isn’t Churchill a good writer?”
Surprised no mention of Messrs Johnson, Gove ...
Disgusting that nobody has mentioned Sheridan. Or Sir Thomas More.
I suggested T. B. Macaulay earlier. Does Lord Broughton count? The Gmt loved his writing so much they arrested him!
Edit: How could I forget? William Cobbett.
I suggest that the greatest writer by miles who wrote (but not published) before becoming an MP was Samuel Pepys; he's is in the absolute premier league of English lit, and of prose writers I suggest only Dickens and Joyce are in his league, and of non fiction writers he stands unsurpassed.
Did he make a comparable impact as a MP, though? (Just my ignorance.) He made a huge impact as a civil servant, though, that's for sure. So did Macaulay the historian.
And does Newton count as well? He wrote Principia before becoming a MP.
And there's Bertrand Russell ... a peer.
Pepys impact as MP: not much I think, though he got into trouble over the exclusion crisis.
Russell was a hereditary. His grandfather was the great Lord John Russell, backer of the Great Reform Act of 1832.
Giles Brandreth...
Trollope. Didn't make it to an MP, came last, but used the experience in his books.
Edgar Wallace stood for election in Blackpool in 1931 as a Lloyd George Liberal.
He lost to a candidate who, it was said, had it all over him when it came to chilling the electors' blood with far-fetched stories,
Me, I suppose - I had 3 books published on wargames with a total sale of around 100,000 before I was elected for 13 years. The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming appeared in various editions (British, American, Italian). But not in the Pepys league, and most of the examples mentioned are fiction.
I remember that! Albeit courtesy of Oxfam c.. 1985. I was impressed at the time with its clarity, because I was trying to write some instructions in my day job and thought it a good model.
And finally, not forgetting the Lib Dems. Mike Martin has a couple of books to his name.
I think established that author to MP is in fact an unusually common career path.
Michael Dobbs.
Not an MP but I think a Tory chair and certainly a Tory Spad type and now iirc in the HoLs?
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
Disraeli, of course.
Churchill too.
Win one Nobel prize for literature and people are all, “Isn’t Churchill a good writer?”
Surprised no mention of Messrs Johnson, Gove ...
Disgusting that nobody has mentioned Sheridan. Or Sir Thomas More.
I suggested T. B. Macaulay earlier. Does Lord Broughton count? The Gmt loved his writing so much they arrested him!
Edit: How could I forget? William Cobbett.
I suggest that the greatest writer by miles who wrote (but not published) before becoming an MP was Samuel Pepys; he's is in the absolute premier league of English lit, and of prose writers I suggest only Dickens and Joyce are in his league, and of non fiction writers he stands unsurpassed.
Did he make a comparable impact as a MP, though? (Just my ignorance.) He made a huge impact as a civil servant, though, that's for sure. So did Macaulay the historian.
And does Newton count as well? He wrote Principia before becoming a MP.
And there's Bertrand Russell ... a peer.
Pepys impact as MP: not much I think, though he got into trouble over the exclusion crisis.
Russell was a hereditary. His grandfather was the great Lord John Russell, backer of the Great Reform Act of 1832.
Giles Brandreth...
Trollope. Didn't make it to an MP, came last, but used the experience in his books.
Edgar Wallace stood for election in Blackpool in 1931 as a Lloyd George Liberal.
He lost to a candidate who, it was said, had it all over him when it came to chilling the electors' blood with far-fetched stories,
Me, I suppose - I had 3 books published on wargames with a total sale of around 100,000 before I was elected for 13 years. The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming appeared in various editions (British, American, Italian). But not in the Pepys league, and most of the examples mentioned are fiction.
I remember that! Albeit courtesy of Oxfam c.. 1985. I was impressed at the time with its clarity, because I was trying to write some instructions in my day job and thought it a good model.
And finally, not forgetting the Lib Dems. Mike Martin has a couple of books to his name.
I think established that author to MP is in fact an unusually common career path.
You need some similar qualities, principally the ability to choose a theme and stick to it.
Oliver Johnson @BristOliver Extremely impressive list of signatories to a letter in the Times about the value of maths to AI, and the folly of Government cuts to A Level support
It's over such a tiny amount of money too, I just don't understand the logic of it at all.
People often spend a lot of time arguing over the small stuff. It's more managable, comprehensible, accessible. Big issues and amounts come with big risks to change.
Oliver Johnson @BristOliver Extremely impressive list of signatories to a letter in the Times about the value of maths to AI, and the folly of Government cuts to A Level support
It's over such a tiny amount of money too, I just don't understand the logic of it at all.
When you rule out using the main fiscal instruments, as this idiot government has done, then all you are left with is making hundreds of fiddly little tweaks many of which come with real downsides, as rather than being broad their scope is narrow. This was predicted and it was a choice of the twerps in charge.
Oliver Johnson @BristOliver Extremely impressive list of signatories to a letter in the Times about the value of maths to AI, and the folly of Government cuts to A Level support
Oliver Johnson @BristOliver Extremely impressive list of signatories to a letter in the Times about the value of maths to AI, and the folly of Government cuts to A Level support
It's over such a tiny amount of money too, I just don't understand the logic of it at all.
When you rule out using the main fiscal instruments, as this idiot government has done, then all you are left with is making hundreds of fiddly little tweaks many of which come with real downsides, as rather than being broad their scope is narrow. This was predicted and it was a choice of the twerps in charge.
Dunno. This one smacks of 'let's cancel anything the previous guy championed'.
F*cking stupid decision.
There's a lot of talk of Phillipson being next leader. I don't get it. She looks out of her depth to me every time she is interviewed and a lot of what she does just seems to be about undoing anything the last lot did (including Blair in that description).
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
Off topic but I think it's here that someone keeps going on about the Ngorongoro Crater - just planning annual trip to Southern Africa and considering it - is it really that great?
I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned on here, but maybe I missed it. Anyway, I went there years ago and camped on the crater rim, and it was pretty impressive.
The inside of the crater looks a bit like the Black Mountains in the sunshine, with wildebeest and flamingos. The landscape on the drive there is beautiful: lush, rolling, oddly like the drive towards the Black Mountains through Southern Herefordshire.
Thanks. Worth a few days of "diversion" though? Assume for sake of this that everyone involved has been on safari before and seen the big 4 but not necessarily particularly "impressive" manifestations thereof.
There's definitely someone who considers it magical though.
I would absolutely go to the Ngorongoro crater if you have a chance and then head over tor Zanzibar. My wife and I went as part of our honeymoon and it's genuinely the best place I've ever been.
Yes Zanzibar is great. Stone Town is a weird mix of influences - Arab slavers, Indian traders, black African and of course English to provide a veneer of technology (like Africa's oldest electricity supply and lift). The unique carved wooden doors are famous. And the beaches are wonderful. And the Tanzanians are very friendly - they say "Jambo!" ("Hi") even to complete strangers.
Yes, that really confused me as a Heart of Midlothian supporter..
Oliver Johnson @BristOliver Extremely impressive list of signatories to a letter in the Times about the value of maths to AI, and the folly of Government cuts to A Level support
It's over such a tiny amount of money too, I just don't understand the logic of it at all.
When you rule out using the main fiscal instruments, as this idiot government has done, then all you are left with is making hundreds of fiddly little tweaks many of which come with real downsides, as rather than being broad their scope is narrow. This was predicted and it was a choice of the twerps in charge.
Yes but this was like £30m or something. It's literally a sneeze for a government that spends £1tn per year, or 0.003% of total spending. It's a completely pointless cut.
For the Senate to turn Blue, you need four Democratic pickups. If Sherrod Brown were to stand again in Ohio, then I think would be just about possible.
So: Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
Of the rest, Iowa is the most plausible gain: Joni Ernst only got 51% of the vote last time around.
And it's *possible* that Texas or Florida could come into play.
Trump doesn't care. The Senate is irrelevant.
The Senate doesn't matter while the Republicans have no choice but to vote things through.
The Senate will really matter when the Democrats can say No to Trump..
Trump controls the Supreme Court which can therefore rule anything he chooses to do as constitutional, because reasons. Congress might as well pack up and go home.
In other news, do we think he actually means what he says about colonizing the Gaza Strip, or is it a ruse to try to cajole the Arabs into sending in soldiers to get rid of Hamas?
The Supreme Court had no difficulty saying no to Trump in his first term, and I suspect it will demonstrate (Alito and Thomas excepted) some backbone this time around.
Enough backbone?
No, but certainly some backbone.
If they know their history they will be wary of making a Dred Scott ruling that alienates their moderate supporters handing the next elections to the Dems
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
Nope let middle eastern countries take them in. We have a duty to Ukraine as it's a European country.
As the deal clearly wasn’t negotiated in mere 12 weeks from July, the evidence now is the Conservatives and Biden took us down this route in 2022 and negotiated this over the last 2 years, with India involved, because it wasn’t the pressure from the UN that tipped the balance, but India being a blocker on our influence in the region, we need unlocked with the deal.
Yes, we’ve been gamed at UN, but also gamed after the rulings - by India “using” the rulings.
The deal in present form is unacceptable, for the amount of Chinese spying now swarm much closer to the base, and the precedent this deal sets in other disputes - if they don’t exist yet as big campaigns against us, our friend in your post and their masters will soon help further UN campaigns against us exist, on all our other territories, bases inc Cyprus and Falklands.
Anyone got any dispute, this is the most accurate picture all our study has brought us to, and we can consensus round it?
I’ve still got the 2 questions. On the legal side of things, if/when we pull the deal, how do we manage a UN “binding ruling”? Can it go to the Security Council, and we lose so face sanctions and other repercussions?
On the political side of things, surely a treaty of this length and cost needs to be scrutinised and pass through parliament - like Priti Patel’s equally controversial Rwanda Treaty was - and can’t bypass parliament and rack up so many years of commitment and spending, merely labelled as MOU, or Executive Order - that route would surely be huge Trumpian undemocratic precedent set by Starmer’s Labour?
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
On topic - I suspect JD Vance is feeling very good about life. He does not care what the Pope says. I am just surprised he bothers to pretend to be a Catholic. Why not go evangelical?
In his book he is quite scathing on Hillbilly's propensity to Charismatic Evangelicalism, seeing it as superficial and without mystery. I suspect that he doesn't speak too much on that any more.
Mostly Vance is a human chameleon, and an ambitious one. As a youth he was part Hillbilly then he went native in the Marines, then at Harvard. It was there he wanted to blend in with the preppy types, who were rather more established, and who were Episcopelian or Catholic. Hence he became a Catholic. He then was an anyone but Trumper while that was the established position, before flipping MAGA when that became the dominant tribe.
Think of him as the Talented Mr Ripley, or Oliver in Saltburn.
Zelig.
The person he reminds me of is the Matthew Macfadyen character in Succession.
It’s a fun comparison but I think he’s smarter and bolder than that
eg Hillbilly Elegy is a genuinely good and compelling book
How many other successful politicians anywhere on earth have been good writers BEFORE entering politics
Disraeli, of course.
Churchill too.
Win one Nobel prize for literature and people are all, “Isn’t Churchill a good writer?”
Surprised no mention of Messrs Johnson, Gove ...
Disgusting that nobody has mentioned Sheridan. Or Sir Thomas More.
I suggested T. B. Macaulay earlier. Does Lord Broughton count? The Gmt loved his writing so much they arrested him!
Edit: How could I forget? William Cobbett.
I suggest that the greatest writer by miles who wrote (but not published) before becoming an MP was Samuel Pepys; he's is in the absolute premier league of English lit, and of prose writers I suggest only Dickens and Joyce are in his league, and of non fiction writers he stands unsurpassed.
Did he make a comparable impact as a MP, though? (Just my ignorance.) He made a huge impact as a civil servant, though, that's for sure. So did Macaulay the historian.
And does Newton count as well? He wrote Principia before becoming a MP.
And there's Bertrand Russell ... a peer.
Pepys impact as MP: not much I think, though he got into trouble over the exclusion crisis.
Russell was a hereditary. His grandfather was the great Lord John Russell, backer of the Great Reform Act of 1832.
Giles Brandreth...
Trollope. Didn't make it to an MP, came last, but used the experience in his books.
Edgar Wallace stood for election in Blackpool in 1931 as a Lloyd George Liberal.
He lost to a candidate who, it was said, had it all over him when it came to chilling the electors' blood with far-fetched stories,
Me, I suppose - I had 3 books published on wargames with a total sale of around 100,000 before I was elected for 13 years. The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming appeared in various editions (British, American, Italian). But not in the Pepys league, and most of the examples mentioned are fiction.
Alexander Hamilton was pretty strong on the non fiction side. Also, Ben Franklin.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
Palestinians have a bad record of integrating anywhere. In Jordan they tried to overthrow the government (google Black September). In Lebanon they started a civil war. In Kuwait they encouraged the invasion by Iraq.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
I know taking responsibility for one’s actions is a bit passé nowadays, but the West has played a substantial part in making them hellholes.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
Oliver Johnson @BristOliver Extremely impressive list of signatories to a letter in the Times about the value of maths to AI, and the folly of Government cuts to A Level support
It's over such a tiny amount of money too, I just don't understand the logic of it at all.
When you rule out using the main fiscal instruments, as this idiot government has done, then all you are left with is making hundreds of fiddly little tweaks many of which come with real downsides, as rather than being broad their scope is narrow. This was predicted and it was a choice of the twerps in charge.
Yes but this was like £30m or something. It's literally a sneeze for a government that spends £1tn per year, or 0.003% of total spending. It's a completely pointless cut.
It’s easy to explain.
1) The new Chancellor comes in and says “I want fast cuts to show intent on efficiencies; get me a list of the last Government’s measures that came from ministerial whims, and do a vfm analysis”.
2) Treasury spending teams bring out the stuff they never quite liked and which sits outside the normal processes.
3) New Spads lack experience and so does the Chancellor, so the whole list is taken on the basis that Tory ministerial whim = bad.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
GB News spent some of today interviewing someone from 'DOGE UK'.
So it begins...
Let's copy America and go down the Trump rabbit hole into a fascist state.
Just great.
As it happens this person - Charlotte Gill - has often flooded twitter with examples of what she says is wasteful woke spending. So she has form.
So, not DOGE, more DODGY.
If Sir One Term wanted to copy DOGE but claim originality, he could retool that daft 'Department of Value for Money' thing he created and get that to do the hacking and slashing. There are enough daft quangos in this country to find billions of savings before cutting to any actual bone.
You obviously missed the fact Starmer has been making new ones along with independent inquiries at a rate of about 1 a day.
Perfect, he can get rid of those first. There's no prizes for having shame in politics, as Starmer well knows.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
This was Kamski's suggestion and it is not without merit.
Elon Musk: "If the bureaucracy is in charge, then what meaning does democracy actually have?"
Do you post anything other than MAGA propaganda these days ?
If unelected Musk, acting outside the law, is in charge, what meaning does democracy have ?
There's enough people posting the anti-Trump side that surely we should be grateful that one person is motivated enough to provide the balance...
Bit unfair on your self. And several others,
Don't think I've ever posted a pro-Trump tweet/news article? Certainly if I have it can't be more than a handful. Are you confusing me with someone else?
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
Nope let middle eastern countries take them in. We have a duty to Ukraine as it's a European country.
I don't think we do because they're European really, I think it's more because we've influenced the course the conflict, so it's only fair to offset some of the negatives. Plus Ukrainians are good people and will integrate easily.
Been following the Scottish trans doctor vs nurse case in Scotland. Finally have photos of said doctor. But no clarity about whether she retains her male genitalia. Which is surely the crux of the case (I’m assuming she dies, hence the nurse refusing to refer to her as a woman).
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
Strangely, I don't think the Israeli government is going to be too keen on that.
DOGE is looking into federal workers who have a high net worth despite having a low salary, according to Elon Musk.
"We find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who who have a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth."
"We're just curious as to where it came from..."
Hmm....we all know the targets who the right wing tw@terrati bang on about. Certainly going well beyond remit of identifying wasteful government spending to witchfinder general.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
Nope let middle eastern countries take them in. We have a duty to Ukraine as it's a European country.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
Nope let middle eastern countries take them in. We have a duty to Ukraine as it's a European country.
We have a duty to the Palestinians because of Balfour...
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
And yet still our media is full of Trump-news!
Barely a mention of what's going on in Sudan, DRC, Myanmar, etc. Despite legions of 'senior correspondents'.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
Strangely, I don't think the Israeli government is going to be too keen on that.
DOGE is looking into federal workers who have a high net worth despite having a low salary, according to Elon Musk.
"We find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who who have a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth."
"We're just curious as to where it came from..."
Hmm....we all know the targets who the right wing tw@terrati bang on about. Certainly going well beyond remit of identifying wasteful government spending to witchfinder general.
Nancy Pelosi apparently has an investment record to rival Warren Buffet.
DOGE is looking into federal workers who have a high net worth despite having a low salary, according to Elon Musk.
"We find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who who have a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth."
"We're just curious as to where it came from..."
Hmm....we all know the targets who the right wing tw@terrati bang on about. Certainly going well beyond remit of identifying wasteful government spending to witchfinder general.
Steve Jobs had an official salary of USD$1 as far as I remember. Something for Chief Bureaucrat Musk to wave away I expect.
DOGE is looking into federal workers who have a high net worth despite having a low salary, according to Elon Musk.
"We find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who who have a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth."
"We're just curious as to where it came from..."
Hmm....we all know the targets who the right wing tw@terrati bang on about. Certainly going well beyond remit of identifying wasteful government spending to witchfinder general.
Nancy Pelosi apparently has an investment record to rival Warren Buffet.
U.S. federal politicians are untouchable in this regard. But I think he means the bureaucracy.
Been following the Scottish trans doctor vs nurse case in Scotland. Finally have photos of said doctor. But no clarity about whether she retains her male genitalia. Which is surely the crux of the case (I’m assuming she dies, hence the nurse refusing to refer to her as a woman).
You are mistaken about the crux of the case. It is in the nature of gender critical people that they refuse to acknowledge the possibility of a sex change/gender transition/whatever, regardless of any surgery or presence or absence of genitals. If the doctor had a penis the nurse, the counsel for the nurse and her allies would have said so loudly, clearly, and repeatedly, possibly writing operas about it to ram the point home. The doctor could have sliced, diced and pureed their penis and fed it to the swans and the dispute would still be happening.
The primary locus of dispute is whether the nurse should have harassed the doctor. The defence is that the doctor is a male and hence the nurses actions were not harassment. The penis or otherwise of the doctor is not the issue and was not part of the complaint as (IIUC) the doctor's genitals were never visible.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
Strangely, I don't think the Israeli government is going to be too keen on that.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
Palestinians have a bad record of integrating anywhere. In Jordan they tried to overthrow the government (google Black September).
That was more than 50 years ago and it was the government they opposed, not the population.
Palestinian refugees and their descendants now form the majority of the population in Jordan and they are very well integrated.
The current Jordanian government hasn't lifted a finger to help Palestinians in Gaza, or for that matter anywhere else. King Abdullah was in Washington DC today saying he'd be willing to take a few thousand refugees, signalling his acceptance of the principle of the Trump and Netanyahu-threatened expulsion. (Medical evacuations to Egypt and the allowing of hospitals to operate again in Gaza are points that are already included in the ceasefire agreement, so I can't see what else he's referring to.) What a nice guy. Perhaps if Trump takes Panama he can go there in the footsteps of the Shah, because he might not be welcome for much longer in the Middle East. Meanwhile the establishment of a NATO presence in Jordan could soon become somewhat of a factor.
"Palestinians have a bad record of integrating anywhere" indeed... It could be that Palestine is the place for them then.
Elon Musk: "If the bureaucracy is in charge, then what meaning does democracy actually have?"
Do you post anything other than MAGA propaganda these days ?
If unelected Musk, acting outside the law, is in charge, what meaning does democracy have ?
The person in question spams ultra-right wing content about a talking point until called out about rule of law etc. Then starts on another ultra right-wing talking point. Perfect politics for the age of the 7 second attention span.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
Nope let middle eastern countries take them in. We have a duty to Ukraine as it's a European country.
what happened to 'solidarity can do one'?
It's an actual war, not a trade war. If Russia invaded Germany I'd be saying the same and probably be getting ready to be drafted into the military not to mention be ready to take German refugees.
DOGE is looking into federal workers who have a high net worth despite having a low salary, according to Elon Musk.
"We find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who who have a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth."
"We're just curious as to where it came from..."
Hmm....we all know the targets who the right wing tw@terrati bang on about. Certainly going well beyond remit of identifying wasteful government spending to witchfinder general.
Nancy Pelosi apparently has an investment record to rival Warren Buffet.
Wasn't Paul Pelosi a pretty successful guy? He was one of the first investors in a couple of the silicon valley vcs
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
Strangely, I don't think the Israeli government is going to be too keen on that.
There’s a story to be told, that’s not really been told yet despite how many 2nd World War books keep covering the same things, of how allied liberators, clearly following instruction from Washington and London, allowed communists to seize far far more control, land and opponents to massacre all across Europe, that we should have done more to prevent imo.
I know Czechs came to us saying you are closer to Prague than the Russians, you can easily liberate us first - it was a conscious decision not to. Soviet Union set up Iron Curtain, or should history books suggest allied decisions/deals with Moscow in 44/45 create it?
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
Strangely, I don't think the Israeli government is going to be too keen on that.
There’s a story to be told, that’s not really been told yet despite how many 2nd World War books keep covering the same things, of how allied liberators, clearly following instruction from Washington and London, allowed communists to seize far far more control, land and opponents to massacre all across Europe, that we should have done more to prevent imo.
I know Czechs came to us saying you are closer to Prague than the Russians, you can easily liberate us first - it was a conscious decision not to. Soviet Union set up Iron Curtain, or should history books suggest allied decisions/deals with Moscow in 44/45 create it?
I also think Gurballs done similar to the Czechs I mentioned, visiting the British after Adolfo’s suicide and hurry us along before the Soviets got Berlin?
CSPAN @cspan · 2h Elon Musk: "At a high level, if you say what is the goal of @DOGE and a significant part of the presidency, is to restore democracy..."
===
Translation: I have taken personal control of most of the executive branch of government in order to stop Congress, the elected part, having any further say in the administration or policy of government.
I wonder if Hamas announcement of ceasing in releasing hostages is because they don't actually have any to hand to release. Israel already believe that 8-9 of the 17 on the list are dead, and we know that it wasn't just Hamas who held these people, they were spread out among all the Islamist organisations / passed to civilian families to hold. With have already seen them swap around the people who were supposed to be released which could be that some aren't "available" for release.
The PFLP who have held some of the prisoners are secular.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
Strangely, I don't think the Israeli government is going to be too keen on that.
There’s a story to be told, that’s not really been told yet despite how many 2nd World War books keep covering the same things, of how allied liberators, clearly following instruction from Washington and London, allowed communists to seize far far more control, land and opponents to massacre all across Europe, that we should have done more to prevent imo.
I know Czechs came to us saying you are closer to Prague than the Russians, you can easily liberate us first - it was a conscious decision not to. Soviet Union set up Iron Curtain, or should history books suggest allied decisions/deals with Moscow in 44/45 create it?
I also think Gurballs done similar to the Czechs I mentioned, visiting the British after Adolfo’s suicide and hurry us along before the Soviets got Berlin?
The early discussions had taken place when western forces were still a long way from Germany and after the January 1945 offensive in the east, the Red Army was on the Oder much closer to Berlin than western forces who were still tidying up from the Battle of the Bulge.
I suspect the western allies thought there would be much greater resistance at the Rhine than proved to be the case.
Been following the Scottish trans doctor vs nurse case in Scotland. Finally have photos of said doctor. But no clarity about whether she retains her male genitalia. Which is surely the crux of the case (I’m assuming she dies, hence the nurse refusing to refer to her as a woman).
You are mistaken about the crux of the case. It is in the nature of gender critical people that they refuse to acknowledge the possibility of a sex change/gender transition/whatever, regardless of any surgery or presence or absence of genitals. If the doctor had a penis the nurse, the counsel for the nurse and her allies would have said so loudly, clearly, and repeatedly, possibly writing operas about it to ram the point home. The doctor could have sliced, diced and pureed their penis and fed it to the swans and the dispute would still be happening.
The primary locus of dispute is whether the nurse should have harassed the doctor. The defence is that the doctor is a male and hence the nurses actions were not harassment. The penis or otherwise of the doctor is not the issue and was not part of the complaint as (IIUC) the doctor's genitals were never visible.
The crux of the case is that a male doctor is forcing a female nurse to change in front of him, in distressing circumstances for her. And it is her being taken to court. Paid for by your NHS.
Human beings cannot change sex. Whether the doctor has undergone some plastic surgery is not to be discussed in the case. I believe that has been made clear. Visible or not.
It's a man, pushing his beliefs on women. A married man, forcing other women to cosplay his fetishes.
We have here, a doctor, a medical man, who believes that biological sex is nebulous. Who believes that a woman who wants to see a female doctor, who may have suffered sexual assault, may have to be seen by him as he believes he does not have to give personal information.
A doctor who despite not believing in biological sex, always finds himself in the women's changing room at the end of the day. A male doctor who describes himself as a biological female, because he has a body and thinks he is female, despite the obvious.
A lot of people will be questioning how someone who does not believe in biological sex and has the opinions he has uttered in this case, can still be medically practising.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
Every week I spend about two hours in the back of various taxis, and the taxi drivers (at least those who are politically engaged) love him to bits. And Farage, and Reform. I do not like Trump in the least but I'm not kidding myself about his levels of support.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
Strangely, I don't think the Israeli government is going to be too keen on that.
There’s a story to be told, that’s not really been told yet despite how many 2nd World War books keep covering the same things, of how allied liberators, clearly following instruction from Washington and London, allowed communists to seize far far more control, land and opponents to massacre all across Europe, that we should have done more to prevent imo.
I know Czechs came to us saying you are closer to Prague than the Russians, you can easily liberate us first - it was a conscious decision not to. Soviet Union set up Iron Curtain, or should history books suggest allied decisions/deals with Moscow in 44/45 create it?
I also think Gurballs done similar to the Czechs I mentioned, visiting the British after Adolfo’s suicide and hurry us along before the Soviets got Berlin?
The early discussions had taken place when western forces were still a long way from Germany and after the January 1945 offensive in the east, the Red Army was on the Oder much closer to Berlin than western forces who were still tidying up from the Battle of the Bulge.
I suspect the western allies thought there would be much greater resistance at the Rhine than proved to be the case.
Have you permanently emigrated Stodge, or is a vacation?
A smart press pack question to Trump would be to ask of his West Bank position?
“After you’ve brought peace to the Gaza Strip by removing 100% of Hamas from it, what are you going to do about the West Bank, Mr President? Why should the offer of help, nice new homes, jobs and nice safe places for Palestinians to resettle apply only to Gaza Palestinians - from where the evil catastrophe came from which caused the war - and not to those Palestinians whose presence on the West Bank is helping to cause escalating tensions?”
I wonder if Hamas announcement of ceasing in releasing hostages is because they don't actually have any to hand to release. Israel already believe that 8-9 of the 17 on the list are dead, and we know that it wasn't just Hamas who held these people, they were spread out among all the Islamist organisations / passed to civilian families to hold. With have already seen them swap around the people who were supposed to be released which could be that some aren't "available" for release.
The PFLP who have held some of the prisoners are secular.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
Strangely, I don't think the Israeli government is going to be too keen on that.
There’s a story to be told, that’s not really been told yet despite how many 2nd World War books keep covering the same things, of how allied liberators, clearly following instruction from Washington and London, allowed communists to seize far far more control, land and opponents to massacre all across Europe, that we should have done more to prevent imo.
I know Czechs came to us saying you are closer to Prague than the Russians, you can easily liberate us first - it was a conscious decision not to. Soviet Union set up Iron Curtain, or should history books suggest allied decisions/deals with Moscow in 44/45 create it?
The Americans actually got as far east as Budweis in the Czech lands, not to mention a huge slice of what was to become East Germany.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
Every week I spend about two hours in the back of various taxis, and the taxi drivers (at least those who are politically engaged) love him to bits. And Farage, and Reform. I do not like Trump in the least but I'm not kidding myself about his levels of support.
The best thing about Waymo is not having to engage in conversations with taxi drivers.
A smart press pack question to Trump would be to ask of his West Bank position?
“After you’ve brought peace to the Gaza Strip by removing 100% of Hamas from it, what are you going to do about the West Bank, Mr President? Why should the offer of help, nice new homes, jobs and nice safe places for Palestinians to resettle apply only to Gaza Palestinians - from where the evil catastrophe came from which caused the war - and not to those Palestinians whose presence on the West Bank is helping to cause escalating tensions?”
John Bolton suggested the other day that Israel and Jordon jointly control/administer West Bank.
If Gaza is ethnically cleansed then it's difficult to see how we, as a rich Western nation, can refuse to take anyone. It's exactly the kind of situation the refugee convention was designed for in the wake of the second world war.
As long as the policy is to rescue people from Israel, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt then Starmer would have no choice but to try and sell it to the nation. Perhaps package it up with a proposal to reform the convention a bit to "stop the boats".
If Gaza is ethnically cleansed then it's difficult to see how we, as a rich Western nation, can refuse to take anyone. It's exactly the kind of situation the refugee convention was designed for in the wake of the second world war.
As long as the policy is to rescue people from Israel, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt then Starmer would have no choice but to try and sell it to the nation. Perhaps package it up with a proposal to reform the convention a bit to "stop the boats".
But Trump has promised them "beautiful new homes." So that wouldn't be here.
It's as if the instruments of the state want people to vote Reform.
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
The people of Gaza have clearly suffered hugely. The level of destruction in Gaza is greater than in nearly all of Ukraine. I would hope and expect people would have the same sympathy for them as they rightly have for the Ukrainians.
The west doesn't have a massively good record of integrating people from medeival hellholes. I feel sympathy for them. But don't really want them here.
The obvious solution is that anyone who wants to leave Gaza goes to live on the West Bank.
The good news is there’s a whole load of nice new villages with illegal settlers than can be kicked out. They can live in those.
Strangely, I don't think the Israeli government is going to be too keen on that.
There’s a story to be told, that’s not really been told yet despite how many 2nd World War books keep covering the same things, of how allied liberators, clearly following instruction from Washington and London, allowed communists to seize far far more control, land and opponents to massacre all across Europe, that we should have done more to prevent imo.
I know Czechs came to us saying you are closer to Prague than the Russians, you can easily liberate us first - it was a conscious decision not to. Soviet Union set up Iron Curtain, or should history books suggest allied decisions/deals with Moscow in 44/45 create it?
The Americans actually got as far east as Budweis in the Czech lands, not to mention a huge slice of what was to become East Germany.
A smart press pack question to Trump would be to ask of his West Bank position?
“After you’ve brought peace to the Gaza Strip by removing 100% of Hamas from it, what are you going to do about the West Bank, Mr President? Why should the offer of help, nice new homes, jobs and nice safe places for Palestinians to resettle apply only to Gaza Palestinians - from where the evil catastrophe came from which caused the war - and not to those Palestinians whose presence on the West Bank is helping to cause escalating tensions?”
You're making the rookie error of applying logic to your questioning. Not only does it not work, even worse, it would be bad for ratings. Yawn. Pre vibeshift.
If Gaza is ethnically cleansed then it's difficult to see how we, as a rich Western nation, can refuse to take anyone. It's exactly the kind of situation the refugee convention was designed for in the wake of the second world war.
As long as the policy is to rescue people from Israel, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt then Starmer would have no choice but to try and sell it to the nation. Perhaps package it up with a proposal to reform the convention a bit to "stop the boats".
But Trump has promised them "beautiful new homes." So that wouldn't be here.
Comments
There's definitely someone who considers it magical though.
I think established that author to MP is in fact an unusually common career path.
I think we really might see one last exodus from European tech to the UK and US if they go with a wide regulatory regime based off this new agreement. I won't be surprised to see a few countries back out of it now that China is in and the US isn't.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/11/court-gives-gazans-right-settle-uk-palestine-ukraine
Oliver Johnson
@BristOliver
Extremely impressive list of signatories to a letter in the Times about the value of maths to AI, and the folly of Government cuts to A Level support
https://thetimes.com/article/5cb3c8a2-312e-4290-a1f0-3bcce52453b0?shareToken=0c995d24b4eae5369c3e25b80a135ec6
On which subject, I was out tonight for my regular Tuesday night meet up with friends from outsude my middle class bubble - and it was interesting to note the vaguely approving noises made about Donald Trump. Trump gets things done. Trump wouldn't be spending millions on hotels for refugees. Trump lets people use plastic drinking straws rather than paper ones. Outside middle class bubbles, Trump does not appear quite as unspeakable as we might expect - or at least, he is held in less contempt than our own politicians.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14327625/Failed-Albanian-asylum-seeker-UK.html
Failed Albanian asylum seeker wins the right to stay in the UK - for the sake of his wife's children by another man
Not an MP but I think a Tory chair and certainly a Tory Spad type and now iirc in the HoLs?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/02/11/chagos-case-judge-china-official-backed-russian-in-ukraine/
F*cking stupid decision.
There's a lot of talk of Phillipson being next leader. I don't get it. She looks out of her depth to me every time she is interviewed and a lot of what she does just seems to be about undoing anything the last lot did (including Blair in that description).
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/india-welcomes-chagos-islands-agreement-uk-mauritius-2610844-2024-10-03
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/03/uk-agrees-to-negotiate-with-mauritius-over-handover-of-chagos-islands
Yes, we’ve been gamed at UN, but also gamed after the rulings - by India “using” the rulings.
The deal in present form is unacceptable, for the amount of Chinese spying now swarm much closer to the base, and the precedent this deal sets in other disputes - if they don’t exist yet as big campaigns against us, our friend in your post and their masters will soon help further UN campaigns against us exist, on all our other territories, bases inc Cyprus and Falklands.
Anyone got any dispute, this is the most accurate picture all our study has brought us to, and we can consensus round it?
I’ve still got the 2 questions. On the legal side of things, if/when we pull the deal, how do we manage a UN “binding ruling”? Can it go to the Security Council, and we lose so face sanctions and other repercussions?
On the political side of things, surely a treaty of this length and cost needs to be scrutinised and pass through parliament - like Priti Patel’s equally controversial Rwanda Treaty was - and can’t bypass parliament and rack up so many years of commitment and spending, merely labelled as MOU, or Executive Order - that route would surely be huge Trumpian undemocratic precedent set by Starmer’s Labour?
Sam Stein
@samstein
The AP says their access to the WH was threatened (and may have been pulled) because they won't use Gulf of America
https://x.com/samstein/status/1889426187950133580
If unelected Musk, acting outside the law, is in charge, what meaning does democracy have ?
Also, Ben Franklin.
In Jordan they tried to overthrow the government (google Black September).
In Lebanon they started a civil war.
In Kuwait they encouraged the invasion by Iraq.
1) The new Chancellor comes in and says “I want fast cuts to show intent on efficiencies; get me a list of the last Government’s measures that came from ministerial whims, and do a vfm analysis”.
2) Treasury spending teams bring out the stuff they never quite liked and which sits outside the normal processes.
3) New Spads lack experience and so does the Chancellor, so the whole list is taken on the basis that Tory ministerial whim = bad.
Strangely, today I learned about this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleiburg_repatriations
"We find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who who have a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth."
"We're just curious as to where it came from..."
Hmm....we all know the targets who the right wing tw@terrati bang on about. Certainly going well beyond remit of identifying wasteful government spending to witchfinder general.
Barely a mention of what's going on in Sudan, DRC, Myanmar, etc. Despite legions of 'senior correspondents'.
The primary locus of dispute is whether the nurse should have harassed the doctor. The defence is that the doctor is a male and hence the nurses actions were not harassment. The penis or otherwise of the doctor is not the issue and was not part of the complaint as (IIUC) the doctor's genitals were never visible.
Here is a bsky of a pro-trans and trans lawyer who is commenting on the case: https://bsky.app/profile/reactiveashley.bsky.social
Here is the twitter of a gender-critical person tweeting the case in real time:
https://nitter.poast.org/tribunaltweets
Palestinian refugees and their descendants now form the majority of the population in Jordan and they are very well integrated.
The current Jordanian government hasn't lifted a finger to help Palestinians in Gaza, or for that matter anywhere else. King Abdullah was in Washington DC today saying he'd be willing to take a few thousand refugees, signalling his acceptance of the principle of the Trump and Netanyahu-threatened expulsion. (Medical evacuations to Egypt and the allowing of hospitals to operate again in Gaza are points that are already included in the ceasefire agreement, so I can't see what else he's referring to.) What a nice guy. Perhaps if Trump takes Panama he can go there in the footsteps of the Shah, because he might not be welcome for much longer in the Middle East. Meanwhile the establishment of a NATO presence in Jordan could soon become somewhat of a factor.
"Palestinians have a bad record of integrating anywhere" indeed... It could be that Palestine is the place for them then.
There’s a story to be told, that’s not really been told yet despite how many 2nd World War books keep covering the same things, of how allied liberators, clearly following instruction from Washington and London, allowed communists to seize far far more control, land and opponents to massacre all across Europe, that we should have done more to prevent imo.
I know Czechs came to us saying you are closer to Prague than the Russians, you can easily liberate us first - it was a conscious decision not to. Soviet Union set up Iron Curtain, or should history books suggest allied decisions/deals with Moscow in 44/45 create it?
Tim Miller
@Timodc
·
1h
The AP has been banned from the White House for refusing to use the Gulf of Mexico’s preferred pronouns.
https://x.com/Timodc/status/1889432566727368879
Haverfordwest Prendergast (Pembrokeshire) Council By-Election Result:
🙋 IND: 31.6% (New)
🔶 LDM: 25.4% (New)
🌳 CON: 21.6% (-37.0)
➡️ RFM: 11.3% (New)
🌹 LAB: 9.0% (-32.3)
🌍 GRN: 1.1% (New)
Refugees’ successful use of Ukraine settlement scheme will open floodgates, Home Office warns"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/11/court-gives-gazans-right-settle-uk-palestine-ukraine/
@cspan
·
2h
Elon Musk: "At a high level, if you say what is the goal of
@DOGE and a significant part of the presidency, is to restore democracy..."
===
Translation: I have taken personal control of most of the executive branch of government in order to stop Congress, the elected part, having any further say in the administration or policy of government.
I suspect the western allies thought there would be much greater resistance at the Rhine than proved to be the case.
Human beings cannot change sex. Whether the doctor has undergone some plastic surgery is not to be discussed in the case. I believe that has been made clear. Visible or not.
It's a man, pushing his beliefs on women. A married man, forcing other women to cosplay his fetishes.
We have here, a doctor, a medical man, who believes that biological sex is nebulous. Who believes that a woman who wants to see a female doctor, who may have suffered sexual assault, may have to be seen by him as he believes he does not have to give personal information.
A doctor who despite not believing in biological sex, always finds himself in the women's changing room at the end of the day. A male doctor who describes himself as a biological female, because he has a body and thinks he is female, despite the obvious.
A lot of people will be questioning how someone who does not believe in biological sex and has the opinions he has uttered in this case, can still be medically practising.
It's a sham.
“After you’ve brought peace to the Gaza Strip by removing 100% of Hamas from it, what are you going to do about the West Bank, Mr President? Why should the offer of help, nice new homes, jobs and nice safe places for Palestinians to resettle apply only to Gaza Palestinians - from where the evil catastrophe came from which caused the war - and not to those Palestinians whose presence on the West Bank is helping to cause escalating tensions?”
Bill Kristol
@BillKristol
·
13m
Prediction: Trump will never again let Musk take questions in the Oval Office.
As long as the policy is to rescue people from Israel, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt then Starmer would have no choice but to try and sell it to the nation. Perhaps package it up with a proposal to reform the convention a bit to "stop the boats".
So that wouldn't be here.
Not only does it not work, even worse, it would be bad for ratings.
Yawn. Pre vibeshift.