It was officially renewed - contracts signed etc - before Christmas
Great news. Not least because it will piss off all the racist incels with their moans about black elves and 'efnic' hobbits.
Eh, it really lost me with the second series. I can totally get on board with going against canon and so on, but it just wasn't gripping me.
The race of elves stuff is nothing to do with the original stories.
Bolder and braver would have been to have racial groups within the elves - with discussion of how this influenced the Kinslaying, say.
Instead of random elves being black and no one noticing.
The real problem is that the story was written by a committee. Who have no clue how to write an intelligent plot. Galadriel is an x thousand year old princess, who personally knows the angels and archangels, has met The Devil and is generally isn’t a teenager. With poor emotion control.
This would be the Galadriel who, as Tolkein wrote her, took part in the Noldur rebellion - the Civil War between the elves - on the side of the rebels and who claimed that her ambition was to rule her own kingdom in Middle Earth.
Personally I think the rendition in RoP is pretty accurate.
I've maintained before her famous line about potentially being a dark queen etc makes more sense if the version of her backstory where she was a rebel (and thus probably a bit of an arrogant arse) is taken as true (Tolkein did write several different versions), and could be the set up for good character growth.
I just think it's not a well written show. I could forgive any lore issues I do have if it was, as characterisation and plotting are more important to get right.
Reminds me a bit of Westworld in that regard, which I think fooled people in its first season that it was good with great production values, and missing it was a load of old nonsense.
First series of Westworld had a superb twist for the viewer - multiple timelines that presented as a single timeline. Great fun. But then after they felt a need to have another great idea. And once you leave the Park you have to build a whole world, and frankly the workd they built didn’t work. Sometimes having the guts to stop after the story is told is a virtue.
It was the perfect one series show.
Its a bit like Jurassic Park (although there was a second book).
Words. Utterly meaningless in the face of his real world actions.
Claiming that they need to do more to protect US citizens from environmental impacts and poor food and drug quality and safety whilst at the same time hamstringing the FDA and CDC tells you everything you need to know about how seriously Trump really takes these things.
I lost a small blue rucksack on the tube at Euston station at about 2:30pm today. Must have dropped it without realising because I was carrying a lot of other things at the same time. Did anyone hand it in to lost property? Unfortunately not. I checked several times.
Trump on Canada: "I spoke to Governor Trudeau ... they don't have military protection, and you take a look at what's going on out there ... people are in danger ... they need our protection."
Maybe you could go over there are ask him to get a room with you ?
I lost a small blue rucksack on the tube at Euston station at about 2:30pm today. Must have dropped it without realising because I was carrying a lot of other things at the same time. Did anyone hand it in to lost property? Unfortunately not. I checked several times.
Could be worse; you could have watched it get blown up in a controlled explosion.
Having worked extensively in schools I believe I have the necessary experience to reply to the suggestion I should help set one up. "Do you think I'm fucking mental ?!?!"
I am reasonably well to do. Reasonably intelligent. Quite strident with my views on some things and a child in school who has the realistic potential to become World Queen. Let’s assume I’m upset that her school is teaching woke things and think “hey let’s get other parents just like me to set up a new school to compete with the woke shit one”.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Having worked extensively in schools I believe I have the necessary experience to reply to the suggestion I should help set one up. "Do you think I'm fucking mental ?!?!"
I am reasonably well to do. Reasonably intelligent. Quite strident with my views on some things and a child in school who has the realistic potential to become World Queen. Let’s assume I’m upset that her school is teaching woke things and think “hey let’s get other parents just like me to set up a new school to compete with the woke shit one”.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Something like 600 Free Schools have been set up in the U.K.
Having worked extensively in schools I believe I have the necessary experience to reply to the suggestion I should help set one up. "Do you think I'm fucking mental ?!?!"
I am reasonably well to do. Reasonably intelligent. Quite strident with my views on some things and a child in school who has the realistic potential to become World Queen. Let’s assume I’m upset that her school is teaching woke things and think “hey let’s get other parents just like me to set up a new school to compete with the woke shit one”.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Something like 600 Free Schools have been set up in the U.K.
That's fantastic news. How many tens of thousands of others are there?
I know we're not expecting all schools to be free schools, but the point was that it is pretty hard, and 600 is a big achievement but still not all that many.
Anyone watching Mussolini: Son of the Century? I thought it was too much of the zeitgeist not to watch so have done the first episode. Can’t decide if it’s genius or an expressionist/Futurist/modernist pastiche. Leon’s favourite old school Fascist warrior poet D’Annunzio plays quite a big part, green teeth and all. The intro has dead Mussolini talking to us over a montage of his ‘achievements’ concluding with his bloody death. He ends by asking ‘Now tell me, what was the point? Look around you…we’re still here’.
Having worked extensively in schools I believe I have the necessary experience to reply to the suggestion I should help set one up. "Do you think I'm fucking mental ?!?!"
I am reasonably well to do. Reasonably intelligent. Quite strident with my views on some things and a child in school who has the realistic potential to become World Queen. Let’s assume I’m upset that her school is teaching woke things and think “hey let’s get other parents just like me to set up a new school to compete with the woke shit one”.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Something like 600 Free Schools have been set up in the U.K.
That's fantastic news. How many tens of thousands of others are there?
I know we're not expecting all schools to be free schools, but the point was that it is pretty hard, and 600 is a lot of work but still not all that many.
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
(Btw, does this include the Reg Vardy Creationism is Real schools?)
Having worked extensively in schools I believe I have the necessary experience to reply to the suggestion I should help set one up. "Do you think I'm fucking mental ?!?!"
I am reasonably well to do. Reasonably intelligent. Quite strident with my views on some things and a child in school who has the realistic potential to become World Queen. Let’s assume I’m upset that her school is teaching woke things and think “hey let’s get other parents just like me to set up a new school to compete with the woke shit one”.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Something like 600 Free Schools have been set up in the U.K.
That's fantastic news. How many tens of thousands of others are there?
I know we're not expecting all schools to be free schools, but the point was that it is pretty hard, and 600 is a big achievement but still not all that many.
It's true what they say, the political spectrum is like a horseshoe... If you go too far left-wing, you end up reaching the head-up-Putin's-arse end of the political spectrum.
Having worked extensively in schools I believe I have the necessary experience to reply to the suggestion I should help set one up. "Do you think I'm fucking mental ?!?!"
I am reasonably well to do. Reasonably intelligent. Quite strident with my views on some things and a child in school who has the realistic potential to become World Queen. Let’s assume I’m upset that her school is teaching woke things and think “hey let’s get other parents just like me to set up a new school to compete with the woke shit one”.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Something like 600 Free Schools have been set up in the U.K.
How many will be left after Bridget has been in office for 5 years?
It's true what they say, the political spectrum is like a horseshoe... If you go too far left-wing, you end up reaching the head-up-Putin's-arse end of the political spectrum.
Anyone watching Mussolini: Son of the Century? I thought it was too much of the zeitgeist not to watch so have done the first episode. Can’t decide if it’s genius or an expressionist/Futurist/modernist pastiche. Leon’s favourite old school Fascist warrior poet D’Annunzio plays quite a big part, green teeth and all. The intro has dead Mussolini talking to us over a montage of his ‘achievements’ concluding with his bloody death. He ends by asking ‘Now tell me, what was the point? Look around you…we’re still here’.
"Robert Hardy and Helen Mirren star as Benito Mussolini and his lover Claretta Petacci in this dramatization of their last night together, locked in a small peasant cottage"
It's true what they say, the political spectrum is like a horseshoe... If you go too far left-wing, you end up reaching the head-up-Putin's-arse end of the political spectrum.
I still cannot get over a 'comedy' piece once which was trying to make fun of the horseshoe theory approach...by parroting the purported motivations of hard left vs hard right to show they were different after all and only idiots think they can end up similar. As if that makes a difference to practical realities beyond trivial matters.
Trump on Canada: "I spoke to Governor Trudeau ... they don't have military protection, and you take a look at what's going on out there ... people are in danger ... they need our protection."
Maybe you could go over there are ask him to get a room with you ?
If you did you'd find he was too busy trying to take over the room next door.
Well, given your pro-Corbyn views, it is fair to say you are the expert on irrelevence.
Trump is following Corbyn policy on Ukraine
Well done Donald.
Of backing the invader?
You must be so proud.
The hard left in the U.K. has long followed the Comintern line - everything once part of Russian empire is the property of Russia.
And fighting back is equally as morally wrong as being attacked without provocation.
I actually did see that line pushed apparently as one with serious merit in a novel recently, and it really soured my enjoyment. The character with that belief was not shown to be totally right, eventually, but it was milquetoast 'they have a point' kind of thing.
Anyone watching Mussolini: Son of the Century? I thought it was too much of the zeitgeist not to watch so have done the first episode. Can’t decide if it’s genius or an expressionist/Futurist/modernist pastiche. Leon’s favourite old school Fascist warrior poet D’Annunzio plays quite a big part, green teeth and all. The intro has dead Mussolini talking to us over a montage of his ‘achievements’ concluding with his bloody death. He ends by asking ‘Now tell me, what was the point? Look around you…we’re still here’.
Sky Atlantic. The actor playing Mussolini is excellent, helped by a physical resemblance but he really pulls off that weird combination of ridiculousness and sinister threat.
Having worked extensively in schools I believe I have the necessary experience to reply to the suggestion I should help set one up. "Do you think I'm fucking mental ?!?!"
I am reasonably well to do. Reasonably intelligent. Quite strident with my views on some things and a child in school who has the realistic potential to become World Queen. Let’s assume I’m upset that her school is teaching woke things and think “hey let’s get other parents just like me to set up a new school to compete with the woke shit one”.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Something like 600 Free Schools have been set up in the U.K.
That's fantastic news. How many tens of thousands of others are there?
I know we're not expecting all schools to be free schools, but the point was that it is pretty hard, and 600 is a big achievement but still not all that many.
Having worked extensively in schools I believe I have the necessary experience to reply to the suggestion I should help set one up. "Do you think I'm fucking mental ?!?!"
I am reasonably well to do. Reasonably intelligent. Quite strident with my views on some things and a child in school who has the realistic potential to become World Queen. Let’s assume I’m upset that her school is teaching woke things and think “hey let’s get other parents just like me to set up a new school to compete with the woke shit one”.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Something like 600 Free Schools have been set up in the U.K.
That's fantastic news. How many tens of thousands of others are there?
I know we're not expecting all schools to be free schools, but the point was that it is pretty hard, and 600 is a big achievement but still not all that many.
Why is it (other than ideology) "fantastic news"? There is no evidence they are better.
Having worked extensively in schools I believe I have the necessary experience to reply to the suggestion I should help set one up. "Do you think I'm fucking mental ?!?!"
I am reasonably well to do. Reasonably intelligent. Quite strident with my views on some things and a child in school who has the realistic potential to become World Queen. Let’s assume I’m upset that her school is teaching woke things and think “hey let’s get other parents just like me to set up a new school to compete with the woke shit one”.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Something like 600 Free Schools have been set up in the U.K.
That's fantastic news. How many tens of thousands of others are there?
I know we're not expecting all schools to be free schools, but the point was that it is pretty hard, and 600 is a big achievement but still not all that many.
Having worked extensively in schools I believe I have the necessary experience to reply to the suggestion I should help set one up. "Do you think I'm fucking mental ?!?!"
I am reasonably well to do. Reasonably intelligent. Quite strident with my views on some things and a child in school who has the realistic potential to become World Queen. Let’s assume I’m upset that her school is teaching woke things and think “hey let’s get other parents just like me to set up a new school to compete with the woke shit one”.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Something like 600 Free Schools have been set up in the U.K.
That's fantastic news. How many tens of thousands of others are there?
I know we're not expecting all schools to be free schools, but the point was that it is pretty hard, and 600 is a big achievement but still not all that many.
Why is it (other than ideology) "fantastic news"? There is no evidence they are better.
I was simply accepting what I assumed was the premise that there are a lot and that is a good thing, but that it did not change that that presumed goodness cannot be scaled up to everyone.
I actually have no idea whether they are better or not, as long as they are not inherently worse I have very little opinion on that.
The BBC website is still featuring two hostile stories about Rachel Reeves on the front page.
I think it's tuned to the visitor. If I open it in a private/incognito window it's all Trump and Ukraine. Zero UK news at all.
Are you on a VPN? In private browsing, I get all the Reeves stuff and UK news. If I turn on my VPN (even though it is set to UK) it gives me all the Trump stuff.
The BBC website is still featuring two hostile stories about Rachel Reeves on the front page.
I think it's tuned to the visitor. If I open it in a private/incognito window it's all Trump and Ukraine. Zero UK news at all.
Are you in the UK at the moment? I just tried in a private window and the featured stories were two about Trump and Ukraine, two about Rachel Reeves and one about the Hamas hostages.
It was officially renewed - contracts signed etc - before Christmas
Great news. Not least because it will piss off all the racist incels with their moans about black elves and 'efnic' hobbits.
Eh, it really lost me with the second series. I can totally get on board with going against canon and so on, but it just wasn't gripping me.
The race of elves stuff is nothing to do with the original stories.
Bolder and braver would have been to have racial groups within the elves - with discussion of how this influenced the Kinslaying, say.
Instead of random elves being black and no one noticing.
The real problem is that the story was written by a committee. Who have no clue how to write an intelligent plot. Galadriel is an x thousand year old princess, who personally knows the angels and archangels, has met The Devil and is generally isn’t a teenager. With poor emotion control.
This would be the Galadriel who, as Tolkein wrote her, took part in the Noldur rebellion - the Civil War between the elves - on the side of the rebels and who claimed that her ambition was to rule her own kingdom in Middle Earth.
Personally I think the rendition in RoP is pretty accurate.
I've maintained before her famous line about potentially being a dark queen etc makes more sense if the version of her backstory where she was a rebel (and thus probably a bit of an arrogant arse) is taken as true (Tolkein did write several different versions), and could be the set up for good character growth.
I just think it's not a well written show. I could forgive any lore issues I do have if it was, as characterisation and plotting are more important to get right.
Reminds me a bit of Westworld in that regard, which I think fooled people in its first season that it was good with great production values, and missing it was a load of old nonsense.
First series of Westworld had a superb twist for the viewer - multiple timelines that presented as a single timeline. Great fun. But then after they felt a need to have another great idea. And once you leave the Park you have to build a whole world, and frankly the workd they built didn’t work. Sometimes having the guts to stop after the story is told is a virtue.
I found out the other day that there was a fourth series. An apparent return to form, but nobody watched it.
The BBC website is still featuring two hostile stories about Rachel Reeves on the front page.
I think it's tuned to the visitor. If I open it in a private/incognito window it's all Trump and Ukraine. Zero UK news at all.
Are you in the UK at the moment? I just tried in a private window and the featured stories were two about Trump and Ukraine, two about Rachel Reeves and one about the Hamas hostages.
I initially skim read that as two about Rachel Reeves and the Hamas hostages. Nice to know you're not blaming her for everything.
It was officially renewed - contracts signed etc - before Christmas
Great news. Not least because it will piss off all the racist incels with their moans about black elves and 'efnic' hobbits.
Eh, it really lost me with the second series. I can totally get on board with going against canon and so on, but it just wasn't gripping me.
The race of elves stuff is nothing to do with the original stories.
Bolder and braver would have been to have racial groups within the elves - with discussion of how this influenced the Kinslaying, say.
Instead of random elves being black and no one noticing.
The real problem is that the story was written by a committee. Who have no clue how to write an intelligent plot. Galadriel is an x thousand year old princess, who personally knows the angels and archangels, has met The Devil and is generally isn’t a teenager. With poor emotion control.
This would be the Galadriel who, as Tolkein wrote her, took part in the Noldur rebellion - the Civil War between the elves - on the side of the rebels and who claimed that her ambition was to rule her own kingdom in Middle Earth.
Personally I think the rendition in RoP is pretty accurate.
I've maintained before her famous line about potentially being a dark queen etc makes more sense if the version of her backstory where she was a rebel (and thus probably a bit of an arrogant arse) is taken as true (Tolkein did write several different versions), and could be the set up for good character growth.
I just think it's not a well written show. I could forgive any lore issues I do have if it was, as characterisation and plotting are more important to get right.
Reminds me a bit of Westworld in that regard, which I think fooled people in its first season that it was good with great production values, and missing it was a load of old nonsense.
First series of Westworld had a superb twist for the viewer - multiple timelines that presented as a single timeline. Great fun. But then after they felt a need to have another great idea. And once you leave the Park you have to build a whole world, and frankly the workd they built didn’t work. Sometimes having the guts to stop after the story is told is a virtue.
I found out the other day that there was a fourth series. An apparent return to form, but nobody watched it.
It was bloody awful. It has all become terminator-esque the robots are invincible and only they are fighting each other for their vision of the world...big hulk smash....none of the cleverness of the original series.
Anyone watching Mussolini: Son of the Century? I thought it was too much of the zeitgeist not to watch so have done the first episode. Can’t decide if it’s genius or an expressionist/Futurist/modernist pastiche. Leon’s favourite old school Fascist warrior poet D’Annunzio plays quite a big part, green teeth and all. The intro has dead Mussolini talking to us over a montage of his ‘achievements’ concluding with his bloody death. He ends by asking ‘Now tell me, what was the point? Look around you…we’re still here’.
There's also Jonathan Meades' programme about Mussolini from 2016.
It was officially renewed - contracts signed etc - before Christmas
Great news. Not least because it will piss off all the racist incels with their moans about black elves and 'efnic' hobbits.
Eh, it really lost me with the second series. I can totally get on board with going against canon and so on, but it just wasn't gripping me.
The race of elves stuff is nothing to do with the original stories.
Bolder and braver would have been to have racial groups within the elves - with discussion of how this influenced the Kinslaying, say.
Instead of random elves being black and no one noticing.
The real problem is that the story was written by a committee. Who have no clue how to write an intelligent plot. Galadriel is an x thousand year old princess, who personally knows the angels and archangels, has met The Devil and is generally isn’t a teenager. With poor emotion control.
This would be the Galadriel who, as Tolkein wrote her, took part in the Noldur rebellion - the Civil War between the elves - on the side of the rebels and who claimed that her ambition was to rule her own kingdom in Middle Earth.
Personally I think the rendition in RoP is pretty accurate.
I've maintained before her famous line about potentially being a dark queen etc makes more sense if the version of her backstory where she was a rebel (and thus probably a bit of an arrogant arse) is taken as true (Tolkein did write several different versions), and could be the set up for good character growth.
I just think it's not a well written show. I could forgive any lore issues I do have if it was, as characterisation and plotting are more important to get right.
Reminds me a bit of Westworld in that regard, which I think fooled people in its first season that it was good with great production values, and missing it was a load of old nonsense.
First series of Westworld had a superb twist for the viewer - multiple timelines that presented as a single timeline. Great fun. But then after they felt a need to have another great idea. And once you leave the Park you have to build a whole world, and frankly the workd they built didn’t work. Sometimes having the guts to stop after the story is told is a virtue.
I found out the other day that there was a fourth series. An apparent return to form, but nobody watched it.
Nah, it wasn’t that good. Did try to set up a future series, which I think would have been back to the beginning, but it was too late.
It's true what they say, the political spectrum is like a horseshoe... If you go too far left-wing, you end up reaching the head-up-Putin's-arse end of the political spectrum.
I still cannot get over a 'comedy' piece once which was trying to make fun of the horseshoe theory approach...by parroting the purported motivations of hard left vs hard right to show they were different after all and only idiots think they can end up similar. As if that makes a difference to practical realities beyond trivial matters.
When they are shooting you in the back of the head and kicking your body into the pile in the trench, does the logo on the arm bands matter?
It's true what they say, the political spectrum is like a horseshoe... If you go too far left-wing, you end up reaching the head-up-Putin's-arse end of the political spectrum.
I still cannot get over a 'comedy' piece once which was trying to make fun of the horseshoe theory approach...by parroting the purported motivations of hard left vs hard right to show they were different after all and only idiots think they can end up similar. As if that makes a difference to practical realities beyond trivial matters.
When they are shooting you in the back of the head and kicking your body into the pile in the trench, does the logo on the arm bands matter?
It's true what they say, the political spectrum is like a horseshoe... If you go too far left-wing, you end up reaching the head-up-Putin's-arse end of the political spectrum.
I still cannot get over a 'comedy' piece once which was trying to make fun of the horseshoe theory approach...by parroting the purported motivations of hard left vs hard right to show they were different after all and only idiots think they can end up similar. As if that makes a difference to practical realities beyond trivial matters.
When they are shooting you in the back of the head and kicking your body into the pile in the trench, does the logo on the arm bands matter?
Having worked extensively in schools I believe I have the necessary experience to reply to the suggestion I should help set one up. "Do you think I'm fucking mental ?!?!"
I am reasonably well to do. Reasonably intelligent. Quite strident with my views on some things and a child in school who has the realistic potential to become World Queen. Let’s assume I’m upset that her school is teaching woke things and think “hey let’s get other parents just like me to set up a new school to compete with the woke shit one”.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Something like 600 Free Schools have been set up in the U.K.
That's fantastic news. How many tens of thousands of others are there?
I know we're not expecting all schools to be free schools, but the point was that it is pretty hard, and 600 is a big achievement but still not all that many.
Having worked extensively in schools I believe I have the necessary experience to reply to the suggestion I should help set one up. "Do you think I'm fucking mental ?!?!"
I am reasonably well to do. Reasonably intelligent. Quite strident with my views on some things and a child in school who has the realistic potential to become World Queen. Let’s assume I’m upset that her school is teaching woke things and think “hey let’s get other parents just like me to set up a new school to compete with the woke shit one”.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Something like 600 Free Schools have been set up in the U.K.
That's fantastic news. How many tens of thousands of others are there?
I know we're not expecting all schools to be free schools, but the point was that it is pretty hard, and 600 is a big achievement but still not all that many.
Why is it (other than ideology) "fantastic news"? There is no evidence they are better.
I was simply accepting what I assumed was the premise that there are a lot and that is a good thing, but that it did not change that that presumed goodness cannot be scaled up to everyone.
I actually have no idea whether they are better or not, as long as they are not inherently worse I have very little opinion on that.
One comedy stat that gets pulled out is that they are “less diverse”
The way some measure diversity in schools is the number who get free school meals.
So a school that attracts the middle class back to state schools, away from the private sector will, by this definition, be less diverse.
The BBC website is still featuring two hostile stories about Rachel Reeves on the front page.
I think it's tuned to the visitor. If I open it in a private/incognito window it's all Trump and Ukraine. Zero UK news at all.
Are you in the UK at the moment? I just tried in a private window and the featured stories were two about Trump and Ukraine, two about Rachel Reeves and one about the Hamas hostages.
Yup - in the UK. Homepage currently looks like this :
Although they do say they want efficiency, Musk has made no attempt to professionally audit or even understand many of the programs being cut. Although they say they want to cut costs, the programs they are attacking represent a tiny fraction of the U.S. budget. The only thing these policies will certainly do, and are clearly designed to do, is alter the behavior and values of the civil service
The BBC website is still featuring two hostile stories about Rachel Reeves on the front page.
I think it's tuned to the visitor. If I open it in a private/incognito window it's all Trump and Ukraine. Zero UK news at all.
Are you in the UK at the moment? I just tried in a private window and the featured stories were two about Trump and Ukraine, two about Rachel Reeves and one about the Hamas hostages.
Yup - in the UK. Homepage currently looks like this :
The BBC website is still featuring two hostile stories about Rachel Reeves on the front page.
I think it's tuned to the visitor. If I open it in a private/incognito window it's all Trump and Ukraine. Zero UK news at all.
Are you in the UK at the moment? I just tried in a private window and the featured stories were two about Trump and Ukraine, two about Rachel Reeves and one about the Hamas hostages.
Yup - in the UK. Homepage currently looks like this :
The BBC website is still featuring two hostile stories about Rachel Reeves on the front page.
I think it's tuned to the visitor. If I open it in a private/incognito window it's all Trump and Ukraine. Zero UK news at all.
Are you in the UK at the moment? I just tried in a private window and the featured stories were two about Trump and Ukraine, two about Rachel Reeves and one about the Hamas hostages.
Yup - in the UK. Homepage currently looks like this :
This is what it looks like for me:
I'm glad our future LLM overlords aren't learning from this. Otherwise they might get quite confused.
There's a kernel of truth in there: the Dollar's dominance disadvantages American manufacturers.
The problem is that the more you upset the apple cart, the more the US Dollar becomes the safe haven currency, which further disadvantages your own manufacturers.
The idea, however, that the current tariffs are a stroke of genius demonstrates how detached from reality Varafoukis continues to be. If you want to advantage US manufacturing you would want to reduce tariffs on intermediate goods, and increase them on final ones: i.e., you'd make it "free" to import steel and aluminium, and "expensive" to import cars. Otherwise, all you'll do is drive auto making outside the US and to places which don't face tariffs.
For the leader of a country massively more powerful than is Russia, that’s just weird. Weakest US President ever - though paradoxically, he’ll wreak more damage in the world than almost all of them.
For the leader of a country massively more powerful than is Russia, that’s just weird. Weakest US President ever - though paradoxically, he’ll wreak more damage in the world than almost all of them.
One can only hope that history will eventually find out why Trump is so enthralled and fawning over Putin.
Could it be as simple as a single photograph from a Moscow hotel room?
Or is it genuine homo love?
The desperation of the white faced, thin ginger haired kid in school who couldn't fight in Vietnam because...erm... he has dodgy feet whilst Vlad is busy in the KGB wanting to be mates with the hard guy??
For the leader of a country massively more powerful than is Russia, that’s just weird. Weakest US President ever - though paradoxically, he’ll wreak more damage in the world than almost all of them.
One can only hope that history will eventually find out why Trump is so enthralled and fawning over Putin.
Could it be as simple as a single photograph from a Moscow hotel room?
Or is it genuine homo love?
The desperation of the white faced, thin ginger haired kid in school who couldn't fight in Vietnam because...erm... he has dodgy feet whilst Vlad is busy in the KGB wanting to be mates with the hard guy??
For the leader of a country massively more powerful than is Russia, that’s just weird. Weakest US President ever - though paradoxically, he’ll wreak more damage in the world than almost all of them.
One can only hope that history will eventually find out why Trump is so enthralled and fawning over Putin.
Could it be as simple as a single photograph from a Moscow hotel room?
Or is it genuine homo love?
The desperation of the white faced, thin ginger haired kid in school who couldn't fight in Vietnam because...erm... he has dodgy feet whilst Vlad is busy in the KGB wanting to be mates with the hard guy??
The longer Trump has done his thing the less I believe the kompromat thing. This is a man who shrugged off paying off a pornstar and a conviction for sexual assault, and simulated a blow job on a microphone at a rally; he’s a stranger to shame. If a photo came out of him being peed on he’d just call it fake or say so what.
All I can think is he sees a very select club of men who hold absolute power and considers them his equals.
For the leader of a country massively more powerful than is Russia, that’s just weird. Weakest US President ever - though paradoxically, he’ll wreak more damage in the world than almost all of them.
It's the weakness of a Presidential system that so much depends on the personality of the President, as he is unconstrained in the way a Prime Minister is by the legislature, the Cabinet, and in our case by the Monarch. Americans basically set up a head of state with the powers of an 18th century monarch, made him elected and haven't changed it much in 200 years.
But a Presidential system naturally bends towards despotism. And because they are so extraordinarily chauvinistic and insular, it never occurs to Americans that maybe their system isn't the right one.
For the leader of a country massively more powerful than is Russia, that’s just weird. Weakest US President ever - though paradoxically, he’ll wreak more damage in the world than almost all of them.
One can only hope that history will eventually find out why Trump is so enthralled and fawning over Putin.
Could it be as simple as a single photograph from a Moscow hotel room?
Or is it genuine homo love?
The desperation of the white faced, thin ginger haired kid in school who couldn't fight in Vietnam because...erm... he has dodgy feet whilst Vlad is busy in the KGB wanting to be mates with the hard guy??
The longer Trump has done his thing the less I believe the kompromat thing. This is a man who shrugged off paying off a pornstar and a conviction for sexual assault, and simulated a blow job on a microphone at a rally; he’s a stranger to shame. If a photo came out of him being peed on he’d just call it fake or say so what.
All I can think is he sees a very select club of men who hold absolute power and considers them his equals.
Another aspect is people have come out and accused him of a wide range of things, but none of it is kinky. So they even if they had him on tape shagging, its a bit like finding out Russell Brand shagged loads of women back in the day.
I think its just much simpler as you say he likes blokes who he sees as strong men and tell him he is also one.
The government has every right to dismantle government agencies.
DOGE aren't doing any of the actual actioning, they take their finding to WH for them to order changes. However, there are legal arguments about certain funding and departments having been created by act of congress and can the president ignore those acts / reverse them without going back to congress.
Apparently there is only one real previous case law which was under Nixon where he told the head of a department not to spend all the money assigned by an act of congress. He eventually lost in court. But there were subtle parts to the case that might not apply in all scenerios.
Previous presidents have done similar things but normally its shaving around the edges and they have been allowed to do so.
The legal job market in London especially is brutal at the moment, but it depends what practice area. My area, construction, still seems to be in demand.
The legal job market in London especially is brutal at the moment, but it depends what practice area. My area, construction, still seems to be in demand.
Thanks. Just seems crazy to me = lawyers who cannot get jobs??
The government has every right to dismantle government agencies.
That's not true.
If the House of Congress pass a law calling for the creation of an army, and then allocate funding for $1bn for the army, the President can't choose to dismantle the army and spend $1bn on statues of himself.
It's called Checks and Balances, and the US is setup so the Presidency -in theory- is the weakest of the three branches of government.
Afternoon all and another glorious day in Hawke’s Bay
Plenty of flapping about in Napier at the start of Art Deco Festival weekend but more locally we’ve had the Shake, Rattle & Roll lunch, not as I suspected a homage to mods and rockers but related to the 1931 earthquake and while anyone can attend it’s ostensibly for the descendants of the survivors.
What those who endured the earthquake itself would make of the world today is anyone’s guess.
I posed the question of where Britain could find an additional £60 billion to fund defence to bring it closer to 5% of GDP and needless to say the ill informed “slash and burn the public sector” brigade were out in force. This is dangerous for Reform, torn as it is between its quasi-Thatcherite leadership and its culturally conservative quasi-socialist voters.
I need to be convinced this £60 billion is a) necessary, b) affordable and c) will we get value for our investment? If anything, defence has proved as much a bottomless pit as health over the decades. I think we’re being bounced by politicians close to the defence industries and a bit of media scaremongering. Having Russia as “the threat” worked once but we now know the Warsaw Pact was largely a paper tiger though we convinced ourselves they were a force of supermen who would be at the Rhine in 72 hours and Paris in a week.
That’s NOT to say there isn’t an argument for spending in some areas such as cyber warfare and drones but the nature of war is changing and we need to urgently understand and learn what is really needed on the 21st century battlefield and the shape of that battlefield.
The hapless ACT leader, David Seymour, has blundered his way back into the news. After his stunt trying to drive a Land Rover up the steps of Parliament, his actions as Schools Minister have now come back to bite him.
He outsourced the provision of all meals in New Zealand schools to Compass with the contract starting at the beginning of the current school year which over here was last Monday.
As part of the new start, there was supposed to be a pie for every child yesterday (kiwis love their pies - I’ve found a nearby bakery which does a stunning beef and cheese, don’t laugh). Unfortunately, as Jimmy Perrin (Reggie’s brother) famously opined there was “a bit of a cock up on the catering front”. Amongst the disasters were the wrong pies sent to schools and Halal pies not properly certified.
Seymour is facing calls to apologise which he’s not good at. At Waitangi last week, they turned off his microphone and a group of Māori women turned their backs on him as he sought to defend the Treaty Principles Bill which won’t get through Parliament as Luxon has ordered National MPs to vote it down at the Third Reading.
There's a kernel of truth in there: the Dollar's dominance disadvantages American manufacturers.
The problem is that the more you upset the apple cart, the more the US Dollar becomes the safe haven currency, which further disadvantages your own manufacturers.
The idea, however, that the current tariffs are a stroke of genius demonstrates how detached from reality Varafoukis continues to be. If you want to advantage US manufacturing you would want to reduce tariffs on intermediate goods, and increase them on final ones: i.e., you'd make it "free" to import steel and aluminium, and "expensive" to import cars. Otherwise, all you'll do is drive auto making outside the US and to places which don't face tariffs.
Did I mishear the radio earlier?
It sounded like Trump is objective to Europe applying VAT to US imports.
There's a kernel of truth in there: the Dollar's dominance disadvantages American manufacturers.
The problem is that the more you upset the apple cart, the more the US Dollar becomes the safe haven currency, which further disadvantages your own manufacturers.
The idea, however, that the current tariffs are a stroke of genius demonstrates how detached from reality Varafoukis continues to be. If you want to advantage US manufacturing you would want to reduce tariffs on intermediate goods, and increase them on final ones: i.e., you'd make it "free" to import steel and aluminium, and "expensive" to import cars. Otherwise, all you'll do is drive auto making outside the US and to places which don't face tariffs.
Did I mishear the radio earlier?
It sounded like Trump is objective to Europe applying VAT to US imports.
But then he’s probably never paid sales tax…
He seems to believe that VAT is only paid on imports rather than on everything that is sold.
The government has every right to dismantle government agencies.
That's not true.
If the House of Congress pass a law calling for the creation of an army, and then allocate funding for $1bn for the army, the President can't choose to dismantle the army and spend $1bn on statues of himself.
It's called Checks and Balances, and the US is setup so the Presidency -in theory- is the weakest of the three branches of government.
“The government" does have every right. But "the government" includes Congress. To overturn a law, they must legislate.
The President can't just overturn laws that have been passed. That's not changed by the absurd Supreme Court immunity decision - which is in strong contention for the worst decision in the history of the Constitution.
There's a kernel of truth in there: the Dollar's dominance disadvantages American manufacturers.
The problem is that the more you upset the apple cart, the more the US Dollar becomes the safe haven currency, which further disadvantages your own manufacturers.
The idea, however, that the current tariffs are a stroke of genius demonstrates how detached from reality Varafoukis continues to be. If you want to advantage US manufacturing you would want to reduce tariffs on intermediate goods, and increase them on final ones: i.e., you'd make it "free" to import steel and aluminium, and "expensive" to import cars. Otherwise, all you'll do is drive auto making outside the US and to places which don't face tariffs.
Did I mishear the radio earlier?
It sounded like Trump is objective to Europe applying VAT to US imports.
The government has every right to dismantle government agencies.
That's not true.
If the House of Congress pass a law calling for the creation of an army, and then allocate funding for $1bn for the army, the President can't choose to dismantle the army and spend $1bn on statues of himself.
It's called Checks and Balances, and the US is setup so the Presidency -in theory- is the weakest of the three branches of government.
Marbury v Madison established the principle of changing that balance if one element has enough presence to do so. The power of the courts in the US is preposterous
There's a kernel of truth in there: the Dollar's dominance disadvantages American manufacturers.
The problem is that the more you upset the apple cart, the more the US Dollar becomes the safe haven currency, which further disadvantages your own manufacturers.
The idea, however, that the current tariffs are a stroke of genius demonstrates how detached from reality Varafoukis continues to be. If you want to advantage US manufacturing you would want to reduce tariffs on intermediate goods, and increase them on final ones: i.e., you'd make it "free" to import steel and aluminium, and "expensive" to import cars. Otherwise, all you'll do is drive auto making outside the US and to places which don't face tariffs.
Did I mishear the radio earlier?
It sounded like Trump is objective to Europe applying VAT to US imports.
But then he’s probably never paid sales tax…
He seems to believe that VAT is only paid on imports rather than on everything that is sold.
If he really understood VAT, he's probably have been into carousel fraud years ago.
The latest DOGE executive order makes it something akin to the old Soviet General Secretariat, at least as far as the US executive is concerned.
The second part is meatier.
New hires have to be approved by newly-installed DOGE Team Leads in each agency. These Team Leads will report what goes on in the agency they're assigned to on a monthly basis.
And federal agencies are ordered to participate in their own dismemberment. … Agencies are ordered to develop a comprehensive reorganization plan that identifies offices that can be purged because they lack statutory protections..
As a result, the head of DOGE will now wield something close to full executive power in the US bureaucracy. Domestically, it’s now the second most powerful position in government, de facto.
If, for a minute, we ignore the process and look at the results isn't there a good case for someone to be doing this? And not just in America but here too.
"Public sector productivity fell again last year, according to figures that dealt a blow to ministers’ hopes of a more efficient state.
Rising numbers of staff are not being matched by results and the state remains 8.4 per cent below its pre-pandemic levels of productivity, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The NHS has driven declining efficiency and remains 18.5 per cent less productive than before the Covid lockdown, the figures suggest."
Isn't it right for someone out there to be asking the question about making savings in the public sector, even if the money is shoved into other bits of it or infrastructure investment. The complete lack of oversight of state spending by politicians for the last 8 years since Theresa May turned on the taps (and Labour look like increasing further) has resulted in an almost 10% drop in productivity, that's literally £70bn in spending we could cut tomorrow from departments to push into infrastructure or just not spend and reduce the deficit. There's £40bn of productivity loss in the NHS alone.
We need more focus on outcomes and less focus on processes. It's that incessant focus on process that has resulted in an 18.5% drop in NHS productivity. The lack of accountability has slowed them to get away with it too.
Process isn't everything and a rebalancing may be needed, a shock even, but are there no limitations?
Maybe there shouldn't be because what we're doing isn't working. Sending someone like Musk in to slash at the unproductive parts of the state so we can stop borrowing so much money for basically no loss in output might actually be the way out of the current conundrum for the government. Yes the unions would be upset and we'd end up with 1m or so people looking for work (resulting in lower inflation) but we're going to borrow £127bn this year and £70bn of that is due to productivity losses vs pre-covid era productivity. Imagine if the NHS was as productive today as it was in 2019 and had the same funding, literally 20% more operations, 20% more appointments, 20% more resource overall, instead we've been shoving ever more cash into a system that has peaked in output terms and can no longer expand it's output regardless of how much we put in.
This is like the benevolent dictator argument though. It may work brilliantly for a time, then it doesnt, so there's processes to avoid it.
Sure, but again, maybe we need to slash and burn at the current "process state" because it's causing a huge burden on the taxpayer for no real gain. We're spending more on the state than ever but receive less service from it than we did in 2017. That money has just gone into the ether, wouldn't it be better if we just didn't spend it and reduced state borrowing?
The extra money has gone on debt service and ageing related costs. It's not a mystery.
Again, it's not me saying this, the ONS have said there's an 18.5% drop in productivity in the NHS and 8.4% overall in the public sector. That accounts for basically all of the additional departmental spending since then, not even getting to the extra debt interest and age related spending. Dress it up how you like, since 2019 all of the additional money that government departments have got has amounted to precisely zero additional output. Maybe the way Elon Musk is doing it in the US is suboptimal, yet no one who says so admits that £70bn in additional departmental spending giving us zero incremental output is also suboptimal.
Cut that spending and reduce the deficit, stop borrowing so much, reduce gilt supply, push down yields and get inflation down (and therefore debt interest) down. The additional £70bn isn't getting us anything anyway.
Max, it is deeply frustrating, bordering on infuriating, that all this public money has been thrown at departments for no return but the idea that the spending can simply be cut and we have the same service for what it cost before is, with due respect, nuts. A lot of this money has gone in additional wages and to buy peace both in the NHS and the train sector. Are we to return their wages to 2019 levels despite the inflation since?
We certainly need to address the way that public service both deteriorates and increases in cost as time goes by. It is a major factor in our economic underperformance. But it is not a simple problem.
Payrises need to be coupled with output increases. We need to end the cycle of something for nothing in the state. End WFH, stop automatic pay rises, bring in union busting laws, strike busting laws and make it much, much easier to fire people at will from the public sector, with no recourse for compensation except in cases of discrimination or foul play. A 10% pay rise must be coupled with a 5-10% cut in headcount.
Max I kept drafting a reply to say I basically agree with your position (but didn't send it quickly enough to keep up with the discussion) but in this response you just reveal that you have very little idea about how to drive public sector productivity.
'Output increases' are complex in the public sector. What do output increases look like in education? Bigger classes so you get more GCSEs per teacher?
'Automatic pay rises?' look at the first graph on this IFS report on relative pay. https://ifs.org.uk/articles/what-has-happened-teacher-pay-england. If you stop pay rises all you get is experienced (read: more productive) professionals leaving the profession.
Coupling pay rises with a reduction in head count? We're getting that anyway with the recruitment crisis.
There are many productivity issues that do need addressing, in education as well as elsewhere as @foxy notes.
But to try to apply your (clearly extensive) experience of the private sector without adequate knowledge of the particular challenges of the public sector is just naive.
Again, we've been playing by your (well maybe not yours but the normal) rules until now and things keep getting worse. Maybe it's time to adopt what the private sector does and see what happens. Madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Why should anyone believe that we're going to magically get a different result by doing the same thing again?
It's time for drastic action which includes mandatory headcount losses across all departments including the sainted NHS and and drop in output should be punishable by wage freezes and further job cuts for senior and top managers. These people all say they could "do better in the private sector" well I say it's time to call that bluff. Put these people on the spot and if they can't do it then find people who can.
Alright, to stop being a naysayer and to focus on the good bits of what I think you're driving at:
We could achieve dramatic productivity improvements in education by changing the way schools operate.
Much more use of technology, much greater data harvesting of student performance fed into AI to generate personalised learning tasks for each student. Students have much more choice over which tasks they tackle (but with a minimum time requirement spent on core subjects).
Students routinely work in classrooms with 100 kids in, supervised by specialists in behaviour management not subject specialists.Teachers spend their time monitoring student performance on assigned tasks (again with AI support) and using that info to plan intervention sessions that move kids on when they're stuck. These are more like university tutorials. Students get a minimum entitlement to such tutorials to maintain motivation and human contact.
I'd estimate you could cut 20% off the education budget, employ fewer teachers, but get better outputs (better educated, happier, more motivated kids).
I'd be up for that, we do need a paradigm shift (hopefully that doesn't sound too MBA) in how services are delivered and a much bigger focus on outcomes rather than processes. One of the core values of a company I consulted for last year was "be customer obsessed" or something along those lines and that's really just a way of saying "be outcome focussed" translating it to the public sector. The state cares more about its employees than it does about the customer, that's what needs to change.
Agreed on the lack of 'customer' focus in the public sector atm, and to defend other bits of what you're saying, I suspect unions would throw their toys out the pram at such a radical change, so they may need to be fought on something like this.
I don't buy the 'treat the employees worse and you'll get better results' aspect, but I do think we should be much braver in calling out poor performance within the public sector and being able to sack eg crap teachers.
I also think we could do away with local authority control over schools and most of the DfE, most of OFSTED and just give parents much more control over where they send their kids, even giving them the ability to take them out at the end of the year and putting them in another school. Your way would actually allow for parent power/market power to put bad schools out of business and allow for that funding to be better spent.
Most children go to their parents' first choice of schools. You can take your children out of school any time you want and enroll them in another school if it has space. And most English secondary schools are already Academies and therefore not run by the local authority. Sure, get rid of the DofE and OFSTED but then who would oversee the money spent on Academies, and how would parents have any idea which schools are good? Just out of interest, do you have much experience of the state school system?
1) The DfE don’t do that now - look at the disaster engulfing schools in Stoke due to appalling financial oversight which would have been avoided had central government actually been vaguely competent;
2) Yes, you are right about the need for inspection for quality control, but again, OFSTED lied to a coroner to conceal the fact they had falsified a report on the orders of an organisation they are legally obliged to ignore. How can we believe anything they write in a report after that (and unfortunately that applies even though most reports are probably fairly accurate in terms of assessing schools against that stupid criteria Spielman invented)?
Comments
Its a bit like Jurassic Park (although there was a second book).
Claiming that they need to do more to protect US citizens from environmental impacts and poor food and drug quality and safety whilst at the same time hamstringing the FDA and CDC tells you everything you need to know about how seriously Trump really takes these things.
Problem. I need a load of cash. Other committed parents. A suitable building. Permission to operate as a school, some teachers, something to teach that is more detailed than “not that woke shit”. And do so without upsetting my already busy life and need to earn dollar.
As you say, my response to the Max throwaway “do your own school” idea is as you say. I’m not mental. And my daughter’s school is not woke.
Well done Donald.
I know we're not expecting all schools to be free schools, but the point was that it is pretty hard, and 600 is a big achievement but still not all that many.
The intro has dead Mussolini talking to us over a montage of his ‘achievements’ concluding with his bloody death. He ends by asking ‘Now tell me, what was the point? Look around you…we’re still here’.
You must be so proud.
(Btw, does this include the Reg Vardy Creationism is Real schools?)
Not too long ago I watched :
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072755/
Caesar and Claretta
"Robert Hardy and Helen Mirren star as Benito Mussolini and his lover Claretta Petacci in this dramatization of their last night together, locked in a small peasant cottage"
It's very good, imho.
I actually did see that line pushed apparently as one with serious merit in a novel recently, and it really soured my enjoyment. The character with that belief was not shown to be totally right, eventually, but it was milquetoast 'they have a point' kind of thing.
The actor playing Mussolini is excellent, helped by a physical resemblance but he really pulls off that weird combination of ridiculousness and sinister threat.
There is no evidence they are better.
https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/free-schools-england/
I actually have no idea whether they are better or not, as long as they are not inherently worse I have very little opinion on that.
Among Republicans:
Businesses should be held accountable if they're focused on being 'Woke': 49%
Businesses should be able to operate however they like as long as they don't break the law: 44%
Echelon / Feb 13, 2025 / n=1010
https://x.com/USA_Polling/status/1890139701849493659
Nice to know you're not blaming her for everything.
But has anyone else seen the video of that kayaker in Chile swallowed by a whale?
Kayaking? Bloody hell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0y_zmtquh8
Eh??
@TSE ??
The way some measure diversity in schools is the number who get free school meals.
So a school that attracts the middle class back to state schools, away from the private sector will, by this definition, be less diverse.
Despite having a more disparate body of students.
All that expansion and contraction means you are constantly fixing things.
https://archive.is/m3ba1
https://unherd.com/2025/02/why-trumps-tariffs-are-a-masterplan/
Let's hope they keep that view when the next budget comes to the House
How bad can this all be? For arguments sake, let's pretend none of us has seen Foundation.
The problem is that the more you upset the apple cart, the more the US Dollar becomes the safe haven currency, which further disadvantages your own manufacturers.
The idea, however, that the current tariffs are a stroke of genius demonstrates how detached from reality Varafoukis continues to be. If you want to advantage US manufacturing you would want to reduce tariffs on intermediate goods, and increase them on final ones: i.e., you'd make it "free" to import steel and aluminium, and "expensive" to import cars. Otherwise, all you'll do is drive auto making outside the US and to places which don't face tariffs.
https://x.com/ruth_deyermond/status/1890165583200809041
Trump is apparently in thrall to Putin.
For the leader of a country massively more powerful than is Russia, that’s just weird. Weakest US President ever - though paradoxically, he’ll wreak more damage in the world than almost all of them.
➡️ RFM: 47.0%
🌹 LAB: 26.6%
👤 IND: 12.0%
👤 IND: 11.7%
🌍 GRN: 2.6%
Could it be as simple as a single photograph from a Moscow hotel room?
Or is it genuine homo love?
The desperation of the white faced, thin ginger haired kid in school who couldn't fight in Vietnam because...erm... he has dodgy feet whilst Vlad is busy in the KGB wanting to be mates with the hard guy??
Lab 1064
Con 501
RefUK 434
Green 202
LD 93
Rejoin 68
Lab hold
Lab 45.0%
Con 21.2%
RefUK 18.4%
Green 8.6%
LD 3.9%
Rejoin 2.9%
All I can think is he sees a very select club of men who hold absolute power and considers them his equals.
Lab 26% (+1)
RefUK 25% (nc)
Con 22% (-1)
LD 12% (-1)
Grn 8% (+1)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/kemi-badenoch-poll-drop-steve-gibson-b2697632.html
But a Presidential system naturally bends towards despotism. And because they are so extraordinarily chauvinistic and insular, it never occurs to Americans that maybe their system isn't the right one.
I think its just much simpler as you say he likes blokes who he sees as strong men and tell him he is also one.
Apparently there is only one real previous case law which was under Nixon where he told the head of a department not to spend all the money assigned by an act of congress. He eventually lost in court. But there were subtle parts to the case that might not apply in all scenerios.
Previous presidents have done similar things but normally its shaving around the edges and they have been allowed to do so.
Good one.
So Farage PM if he can get Kemi's and the DUP's support
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/usercode.py?scotcontrol=N&CON=22&LAB=26&LIB=12&Reform=25&Green=8&UKIP=&TVCON=&TVLAB=&TVLIB=&TVReform=&TVGreen=&TVUKIP=&SCOTCON=&SCOTLAB=&SCOTLIB=&SCOTReform=&SCOTGreen=&SCOTUKIP=&SCOTNAT=&display=AllChanged&regorseat=(none)&boundary=2024base
If the House of Congress pass a law calling for the creation of an army, and then allocate funding for $1bn for the army, the President can't choose to dismantle the army and spend $1bn on statues of himself.
It's called Checks and Balances, and the US is setup so the Presidency -in theory- is the weakest of the three branches of government.
Plenty of flapping about in Napier at the start of Art Deco Festival weekend but more locally we’ve had the Shake, Rattle & Roll lunch, not as I suspected a homage to mods and rockers but related to the 1931 earthquake and while anyone can attend it’s ostensibly for the descendants of the survivors.
What those who endured the earthquake itself would make of the world today is anyone’s guess.
I posed the question of where Britain could find an additional £60 billion to fund defence to bring it closer to 5% of GDP and needless to say the ill informed “slash and burn the public sector” brigade were out in force. This is dangerous for Reform, torn as it is between its quasi-Thatcherite leadership and its culturally conservative quasi-socialist voters.
I need to be convinced this £60 billion is a) necessary, b) affordable and c) will we get value for our investment? If anything, defence has proved as much a bottomless pit as health over the decades. I think we’re being bounced by politicians close to the defence industries and a bit of media scaremongering. Having Russia as “the threat” worked once but we now know the Warsaw Pact was largely a paper tiger though we convinced ourselves they were a force of supermen who would be at the Rhine in 72 hours and Paris in a week.
That’s NOT to say there isn’t an argument for spending in some areas such as cyber warfare and drones but the nature of war is changing and we need to urgently understand and learn what is really needed on the 21st century battlefield and the shape of that battlefield.
He outsourced the provision of all meals in New Zealand schools to Compass with the contract starting at the beginning of the current school year which over here was last Monday.
As part of the new start, there was supposed to be a pie for every child yesterday (kiwis love their pies - I’ve found a nearby bakery which does a stunning beef and cheese, don’t laugh). Unfortunately, as Jimmy Perrin (Reggie’s brother) famously opined there was “a bit of a cock up on the catering front”. Amongst the disasters were the wrong pies sent to schools and Halal pies not properly certified.
Seymour is facing calls to apologise which he’s not good at. At Waitangi last week, they turned off his microphone and a group of Māori women turned their backs on him as he sought to defend the Treaty Principles Bill which won’t get through Parliament as Luxon has ordered National MPs to vote it down at the Third Reading.
It sounded like Trump is objective to Europe applying VAT to US imports.
But then he’s probably never paid sales tax…
But "the government" includes Congress.
To overturn a law, they must legislate.
The President can't just overturn laws that have been passed. That's not changed by the absurd Supreme Court immunity decision - which is in strong contention for the worst decision in the history of the Constitution.
The man is a dangerous idiot.
Exclusive: Charity says it has made drastic changes to safeguard future as Guardian finds it spent £100m more than it raised over last six years
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/13/macmillan-cancer-support-cuts-quarter-of-staff-and-scraps-hardship-scheme
2) Yes, you are right about the need for inspection for quality control, but again, OFSTED lied to a coroner to conceal the fact they had falsified a report on the orders of an organisation they are legally obliged to ignore. How can we believe anything they write in a report after that (and unfortunately that applies even though most reports are probably fairly accurate in terms of assessing schools against that stupid criteria Spielman invented)?