On topic, the Conservatives have ratnered their brand: their own supporters don't trust them, and their elected representatives despise them in turn; everyone else who doesn't vote for them hates them.
I'm not sure I see a way out.
A start would be to see whether they can go back to the sensible days where they were a broad church, but Bozo's scorched earth policy has made this very difficult. Trump is doing a similar, but even more extreme version on the GOP. Parties that purge a whole wing that doesn't agree with the leadership of the day will reap their eventual comeuppance.
Have any of the class of '24 impressed so far? My suspicion is that they are the ones who will be able to escape from the tar pit of the 2019-24 fiasco by saying "nothing to do with me, guv".
If there is still a meaningful Conservative Party left by the time they reach the top.
The problem is that so few of the new intake of Tories are actually new. Most are retreads or various place holding hacks. The contrast with the 60 odd new Lib Dems- many with very distinguished careers before Parliament is very telling. Even the so-called new entry of Tories are a pretty poor and uninspiring bunch.
Sam Stein @samstein · 23m It appears that US Space Force isn't taking a DOGE like cut as the other agencies are. On Friday it announced three big contracts. The biggest: $6 billion to Elon Musk's SpaceX
There's probably sense in the contract, but the obvious conflict if interest would disqualify him from involvement in government in any other western democracy.
It's almost impressive how the offspring of the two largest and most well funded defence contractors (ULA) can't launch rockets as cheaply as SpaceX after decades of watching them do it. There's no especial magic, either. You can literally read the papers online, written by various engineers there on things like landing algorithms.
ULA would love to. But no-one in ULA has the power to invest in the capability because their owners, Boeing and LM, are uninterested. That will continue to be the case until, and probably beyond, when they are eventually sold.
Their SMART Idea seems interesting, as does BO's Jarvis upper stage (and indeed, the alleged competition between reusable second stages and cheaply built ones).
SMART is pretty dumb - demolishing the stage to get the engines back only makes sense if your stages are cheap. Vulcan first stages aren’t.
There’s a reason that everyone else, round the world is going for first stage reuse - intact.
I pretty much disagree with that. It's another approach to a similar end. Without a look at the costs, it *may* be sensible - particularly for a rocket that was not designed from the ground up to be reused.
BO are apparently looking at having a 'competition' between reusable second stages and newly-built ones, to see which is most efficient. That seems a sensible thing to be doing, especially as SS keeps on failing...
The mistake was not making the first stage reusable.
Vulcan is engineered with all the trimmings - grid carved out of solid metal etc.
Even Arianespace isn’t doing that with Themis - which is designed to be reusable.
If you’d deported an innocent man to a hell hole in El Salvador .
1.Would you try and do the right thing and get the man back to the USA .
2. Make no apology , go to the courts to stop having to get the man back , not giving a flying fxck if the man is murdered in the jail as he originally fled El Salvador to get away from the same gangs .
Of course the most disgusting cesspit administration of all time does option 2 . The cruelty on show from Trump and the rest of his loathsome cabinet is stomach churning .
So Trumps allowed to hammer China but they’re not allowed to respond . If the Chinese don’t back down or some agreement is reached then the markets are going to completely implode .
I never thought I would be on the side of China, but I hope they fuck Trumpistan until the blood runs out of Trump’s arse.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Thank goodness there is one country willing & able to face the bully down. I'm cheering them on (for the time being at least).
China has been on a decades long mission to undermine our economy as well as America's. To do this they have employed every tactic from sharp business practice to outright theft. It is high time they were faced down, and I am glad that someone has come in with the balls to do it.
The UK actually trades very little with China, but as Malmesbury was explaining, our tariff relationship is completely unbalanced due to the Foreign Office's fear of 'upsetting' them. Well, bugger them.
Yes but you wash chicken in the sink
Where would you suggest one should wash it?
Don't wash it - cook it correctly
I like you a lot BigG, but which part of the fact that cooking does absolutely nothing to remove chemical contamination from BPAs in (for example) film packaging do you not understand.
Neither does washing, in all likelihood.
It does a lot more than not washing, as for obvious reasons it will be on the surface.
This is an extract from Wales on line re washing chicken
Why chicken really shouldn’t be washed
Traces of feathers, slime or dirt might have necessitated washing chicken half a century ago. But nowadays, poultry is pre-washed and ready to cook when you buy it.
Still, some people seem to think you should wash your chicken in order to remove the dangerous microorganisms raw meat contains. While it’s true chicken does contain harmful microorganisms, washing prior to cooking doesn’t remove them.
Chicken in particular naturally carries Salmonella and Campylobacter. These can cause very severe illness, with infections causing symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and possibly even septicaemia (blood infection).
Children, elderly people, pregnant women and those with other health conditions or poor immune systems are most at risk of illness from these bacteria. But even in healthy people, Salmonella and Campylobacter infections can lead to hospitalisations and death.
Washing chicken prior to cooking does not eliminate all the germs within a chicken. At most, it may only remove the bacteria on the surface. But this practice actually makes the overall infection risk from raw chicken significantly worse, as it may potentially cause the pathogens washed off the chicken skin to spread throughout your kitchen.
When you put raw chicken under the tap, the bacteria on the skin move into the water stream. This will then be splashed into your sink – and potentially your surrounding counters, cupboards and dish rack. This water spray can travel up to 80cm – the length of the average adult arm. This makes cross-contamination pretty likely, especially if these water droplets have landed elsewhere in your kitchen. It may even contaminate other uncooked foods you later place in the same sink.
Even if you rinse the sink with water after washing the chicken, this may not be sufficient to remove all the pathogenic bacteria that have become attached.
It’s also worth noting that soaking poultry in a brine of water and vinegar or citrus juice does not make it more hygienic. Research has shown that Salmonella weren’t killed following soaking chicken in vinegar or citrus juice for more than five minutes. Other research shows that Campylobacter numbers may be reduced following a marinade in vinegar or lemon juice, but it takes 24 hours of soaking.
I do parboil whole chicken for about 5 minutes before roasting. It removes an unpleasant scum. It also helps cook the bird more evenly as both the outside and the inside of the carcass are warmed before putting in the oven.
Good idea to be fair
Seems like a bit of a faff tbh. I've never noticed any 'scum' with my roast chicken.
You roast it in the bag for an hour then 20-30mins outside the bag. It was excellent, tender and flavoursome. No question of spreading any contamination pre-cooking with that one.
And at £4.95 for the standard brined chicken or £9.95 for the "No. 1" free-range version, it's great value. We had roast chicken for the two of us, a cold chicken sandwich each today, enough meat in the freezer for a biryani for two, plus a litre of chicken stock from the bones.
And no chlorine wash or growth hormones.
You presumably haven't seen the scum because you have never boiled it out. The faff is the effort of boiling a pan of water, sticking a chicken in the water and taking it out again. Probably about 20 seconds of your time. For that you get a slightly better tasting roast bird and save maybe 10 minutes cooking time.
Fair enough. I winder what the 'scum' actually is? We do get a scum from simmering the carcass for stock which we always do after a roast bird - so much better than stock cube stock. We skim the scum off and freeze the stock for whenever we need it.
Anyway, I think we'll stick to the Waitrose brined chickens for the foreseeable, as this one was so good.
This is a complete guess, so don't accuse me of kooky theories, but maybe it's dead pathogens and parasites and things. I have heard about skimming and how its better to take off the foam and get rid. Never investigated it though.
An AI answer:
"The "scum" that forms on top of boiling chicken broth is primarily coagulated proteins (like albumin) and fat that rise to the surface and clump together, often appearing as a foamy or bubbly layer. "
So Trumps allowed to hammer China but they’re not allowed to respond . If the Chinese don’t back down or some agreement is reached then the markets are going to completely implode .
I never thought I would be on the side of China, but I hope they fuck Trumpistan until the blood runs out of Trump’s arse.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Thank goodness there is one country willing & able to face the bully down. I'm cheering them on (for the time being at least).
China has been on a decades long mission to undermine our economy as well as America's. To do this they have employed every tactic from sharp business practice to outright theft. It is high time they were faced down, and I am glad that someone has come in with the balls to do it.
The UK actually trades very little with China, but as Malmesbury was explaining, our tariff relationship is completely unbalanced due to the Foreign Office's fear of 'upsetting' them. Well, bugger them.
Yes but you wash chicken in the sink
Where would you suggest one should wash it?
Don't wash it - cook it correctly
I like you a lot BigG, but which part of the fact that cooking does absolutely nothing to remove chemical contamination from BPAs in (for example) film packaging do you not understand.
Neither does washing, in all likelihood.
It does a lot more than not washing, as for obvious reasons it will be on the surface.
This is an extract from Wales on line re washing chicken
Why chicken really shouldn’t be washed
Traces of feathers, slime or dirt might have necessitated washing chicken half a century ago. But nowadays, poultry is pre-washed and ready to cook when you buy it.
Still, some people seem to think you should wash your chicken in order to remove the dangerous microorganisms raw meat contains. While it’s true chicken does contain harmful microorganisms, washing prior to cooking doesn’t remove them.
Chicken in particular naturally carries Salmonella and Campylobacter. These can cause very severe illness, with infections causing symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and possibly even septicaemia (blood infection).
Children, elderly people, pregnant women and those with other health conditions or poor immune systems are most at risk of illness from these bacteria. But even in healthy people, Salmonella and Campylobacter infections can lead to hospitalisations and death.
Washing chicken prior to cooking does not eliminate all the germs within a chicken. At most, it may only remove the bacteria on the surface. But this practice actually makes the overall infection risk from raw chicken significantly worse, as it may potentially cause the pathogens washed off the chicken skin to spread throughout your kitchen.
When you put raw chicken under the tap, the bacteria on the skin move into the water stream. This will then be splashed into your sink – and potentially your surrounding counters, cupboards and dish rack. This water spray can travel up to 80cm – the length of the average adult arm. This makes cross-contamination pretty likely, especially if these water droplets have landed elsewhere in your kitchen. It may even contaminate other uncooked foods you later place in the same sink.
Even if you rinse the sink with water after washing the chicken, this may not be sufficient to remove all the pathogenic bacteria that have become attached.
It’s also worth noting that soaking poultry in a brine of water and vinegar or citrus juice does not make it more hygienic. Research has shown that Salmonella weren’t killed following soaking chicken in vinegar or citrus juice for more than five minutes. Other research shows that Campylobacter numbers may be reduced following a marinade in vinegar or lemon juice, but it takes 24 hours of soaking.
I do parboil whole chicken for about 5 minutes before roasting. It removes an unpleasant scum. It also helps cook the bird more evenly as both the outside and the inside of the carcass are warmed before putting in the oven.
Good idea to be fair
Seems like a bit of a faff tbh. I've never noticed any 'scum' with my roast chicken.
You roast it in the bag for an hour then 20-30mins outside the bag. It was excellent, tender and flavoursome. No question of spreading any contamination pre-cooking with that one.
And at £4.95 for the standard brined chicken or £9.95 for the "No. 1" free-range version, it's great value. We had roast chicken for the two of us, a cold chicken sandwich each today, enough meat in the freezer for a biryani for two, plus a litre of chicken stock from the bones.
And no chlorine wash or growth hormones.
You presumably haven't seen the scum because you have never boiled it out. The faff is the effort of boiling a pan of water, sticking a chicken in the water and taking it out again. Probably about 20 seconds of your time. For that you get a slightly better tasting roast bird and save maybe 10 minutes cooking time.
Fair enough. I winder what the 'scum' actually is? We do get a scum from simmering the carcass for stock which we always do after a roast bird - so much better than stock cube stock. We skim the scum off and freeze the stock for whenever we need it.
Anyway, I think we'll stick to the Waitrose brined chickens for the foreseeable, as this one was so good.
This is a complete guess, so don't accuse me of kooky theories, but maybe it's dead pathogens and parasites and things. I have heard about skimming and how its better to take off the foam and get rid. Never investigated it though.
It's just denatured protein, >99.99% of which will have come from the chicken itself and a very small percentage from other organisms including bacteria. That's my guess.
We only remove it for aesthetic reasons - it looks 'unsightly'.
One thing I'd bet on: you'll get a similar amount of scum whether you wash the chicken first or not.
So Trumps allowed to hammer China but they’re not allowed to respond . If the Chinese don’t back down or some agreement is reached then the markets are going to completely implode .
I never thought I would be on the side of China, but I hope they fuck Trumpistan until the blood runs out of Trump’s arse.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Thank goodness there is one country willing & able to face the bully down. I'm cheering them on (for the time being at least).
China has been on a decades long mission to undermine our economy as well as America's. To do this they have employed every tactic from sharp business practice to outright theft. It is high time they were faced down, and I am glad that someone has come in with the balls to do it.
The UK actually trades very little with China, but as Malmesbury was explaining, our tariff relationship is completely unbalanced due to the Foreign Office's fear of 'upsetting' them. Well, bugger them.
Yes but you wash chicken in the sink
Where would you suggest one should wash it?
Don't wash it - cook it correctly
I like you a lot BigG, but which part of the fact that cooking does absolutely nothing to remove chemical contamination from BPAs in (for example) film packaging do you not understand.
Neither does washing, in all likelihood.
It does a lot more than not washing, as for obvious reasons it will be on the surface.
This is an extract from Wales on line re washing chicken
Why chicken really shouldn’t be washed
Traces of feathers, slime or dirt might have necessitated washing chicken half a century ago. But nowadays, poultry is pre-washed and ready to cook when you buy it.
Still, some people seem to think you should wash your chicken in order to remove the dangerous microorganisms raw meat contains. While it’s true chicken does contain harmful microorganisms, washing prior to cooking doesn’t remove them.
Chicken in particular naturally carries Salmonella and Campylobacter. These can cause very severe illness, with infections causing symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and possibly even septicaemia (blood infection).
Children, elderly people, pregnant women and those with other health conditions or poor immune systems are most at risk of illness from these bacteria. But even in healthy people, Salmonella and Campylobacter infections can lead to hospitalisations and death.
Washing chicken prior to cooking does not eliminate all the germs within a chicken. At most, it may only remove the bacteria on the surface. But this practice actually makes the overall infection risk from raw chicken significantly worse, as it may potentially cause the pathogens washed off the chicken skin to spread throughout your kitchen.
When you put raw chicken under the tap, the bacteria on the skin move into the water stream. This will then be splashed into your sink – and potentially your surrounding counters, cupboards and dish rack. This water spray can travel up to 80cm – the length of the average adult arm. This makes cross-contamination pretty likely, especially if these water droplets have landed elsewhere in your kitchen. It may even contaminate other uncooked foods you later place in the same sink.
Even if you rinse the sink with water after washing the chicken, this may not be sufficient to remove all the pathogenic bacteria that have become attached.
It’s also worth noting that soaking poultry in a brine of water and vinegar or citrus juice does not make it more hygienic. Research has shown that Salmonella weren’t killed following soaking chicken in vinegar or citrus juice for more than five minutes. Other research shows that Campylobacter numbers may be reduced following a marinade in vinegar or lemon juice, but it takes 24 hours of soaking.
I do parboil whole chicken for about 5 minutes before roasting. It removes an unpleasant scum. It also helps cook the bird more evenly as both the outside and the inside of the carcass are warmed before putting in the oven.
Good idea to be fair
Seems like a bit of a faff tbh. I've never noticed any 'scum' with my roast chicken.
You roast it in the bag for an hour then 20-30mins outside the bag. It was excellent, tender and flavoursome. No question of spreading any contamination pre-cooking with that one.
And at £4.95 for the standard brined chicken or £9.95 for the "No. 1" free-range version, it's great value. We had roast chicken for the two of us, a cold chicken sandwich each today, enough meat in the freezer for a biryani for two, plus a litre of chicken stock from the bones.
And no chlorine wash or growth hormones.
You presumably haven't seen the scum because you have never boiled it out. The faff is the effort of boiling a pan of water, sticking a chicken in the water and taking it out again. Probably about 20 seconds of your time. For that you get a slightly better tasting roast bird and save maybe 10 minutes cooking time.
Fair enough. I winder what the 'scum' actually is? We do get a scum from simmering the carcass for stock which we always do after a roast bird - so much better than stock cube stock. We skim the scum off and freeze the stock for whenever we need it.
Anyway, I think we'll stick to the Waitrose brined chickens for the foreseeable, as this one was so good.
This is a complete guess, so don't accuse me of kooky theories, but maybe it's dead pathogens and parasites and things. I have heard about skimming and how its better to take off the foam and get rid. Never investigated it though.
An AI answer:
"The "scum" that forms on top of boiling chicken broth is primarily coagulated proteins (like albumin) and fat that rise to the surface and clump together, often appearing as a foamy or bubbly layer. "
Maybe I will go back to being a vegetarian again.
Check out the scum you get from boiling brown rice!
So Trumps allowed to hammer China but they’re not allowed to respond . If the Chinese don’t back down or some agreement is reached then the markets are going to completely implode .
I never thought I would be on the side of China, but I hope they fuck Trumpistan until the blood runs out of Trump’s arse.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Thank goodness there is one country willing & able to face the bully down. I'm cheering them on (for the time being at least).
China has been on a decades long mission to undermine our economy as well as America's. To do this they have employed every tactic from sharp business practice to outright theft. It is high time they were faced down, and I am glad that someone has come in with the balls to do it.
The UK actually trades very little with China, but as Malmesbury was explaining, our tariff relationship is completely unbalanced due to the Foreign Office's fear of 'upsetting' them. Well, bugger them.
Yes but you wash chicken in the sink
Where would you suggest one should wash it?
Don't wash it - cook it correctly
I like you a lot BigG, but which part of the fact that cooking does absolutely nothing to remove chemical contamination from BPAs in (for example) film packaging do you not understand.
Neither does washing, in all likelihood.
It does a lot more than not washing, as for obvious reasons it will be on the surface.
This is an extract from Wales on line re washing chicken
Why chicken really shouldn’t be washed
Traces of feathers, slime or dirt might have necessitated washing chicken half a century ago. But nowadays, poultry is pre-washed and ready to cook when you buy it.
Still, some people seem to think you should wash your chicken in order to remove the dangerous microorganisms raw meat contains. While it’s true chicken does contain harmful microorganisms, washing prior to cooking doesn’t remove them.
Chicken in particular naturally carries Salmonella and Campylobacter. These can cause very severe illness, with infections causing symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and possibly even septicaemia (blood infection).
Children, elderly people, pregnant women and those with other health conditions or poor immune systems are most at risk of illness from these bacteria. But even in healthy people, Salmonella and Campylobacter infections can lead to hospitalisations and death.
Washing chicken prior to cooking does not eliminate all the germs within a chicken. At most, it may only remove the bacteria on the surface. But this practice actually makes the overall infection risk from raw chicken significantly worse, as it may potentially cause the pathogens washed off the chicken skin to spread throughout your kitchen.
When you put raw chicken under the tap, the bacteria on the skin move into the water stream. This will then be splashed into your sink – and potentially your surrounding counters, cupboards and dish rack. This water spray can travel up to 80cm – the length of the average adult arm. This makes cross-contamination pretty likely, especially if these water droplets have landed elsewhere in your kitchen. It may even contaminate other uncooked foods you later place in the same sink.
Even if you rinse the sink with water after washing the chicken, this may not be sufficient to remove all the pathogenic bacteria that have become attached.
It’s also worth noting that soaking poultry in a brine of water and vinegar or citrus juice does not make it more hygienic. Research has shown that Salmonella weren’t killed following soaking chicken in vinegar or citrus juice for more than five minutes. Other research shows that Campylobacter numbers may be reduced following a marinade in vinegar or lemon juice, but it takes 24 hours of soaking.
I do parboil whole chicken for about 5 minutes before roasting. It removes an unpleasant scum. It also helps cook the bird more evenly as both the outside and the inside of the carcass are warmed before putting in the oven.
Good idea to be fair
Seems like a bit of a faff tbh. I've never noticed any 'scum' with my roast chicken.
You roast it in the bag for an hour then 20-30mins outside the bag. It was excellent, tender and flavoursome. No question of spreading any contamination pre-cooking with that one.
And at £4.95 for the standard brined chicken or £9.95 for the "No. 1" free-range version, it's great value. We had roast chicken for the two of us, a cold chicken sandwich each today, enough meat in the freezer for a biryani for two, plus a litre of chicken stock from the bones.
And no chlorine wash or growth hormones.
You presumably haven't seen the scum because you have never boiled it out. The faff is the effort of boiling a pan of water, sticking a chicken in the water and taking it out again. Probably about 20 seconds of your time. For that you get a slightly better tasting roast bird and save maybe 10 minutes cooking time.
Fair enough. I winder what the 'scum' actually is? We do get a scum from simmering the carcass for stock which we always do after a roast bird - so much better than stock cube stock. We skim the scum off and freeze the stock for whenever we need it.
Anyway, I think we'll stick to the Waitrose brined chickens for the foreseeable, as this one was so good.
This is a complete guess, so don't accuse me of kooky theories, but maybe it's dead pathogens and parasites and things. I have heard about skimming and how its better to take off the foam and get rid. Never investigated it though.
An AI answer:
"The "scum" that forms on top of boiling chicken broth is primarily coagulated proteins (like albumin) and fat that rise to the surface and clump together, often appearing as a foamy or bubbly layer. "
Maybe I will go back to being a vegetarian again.
Check out the scum you get from boiling brown rice!
Don't tell Ref UK - it's all down to those woke Asians.
Trump: "I said to [the former hostages], was there any sign of love? Did Hamas show any signs of, like, help or liking you? Did they give you a piece of bread extra? Did they give you a meal on the side? Like what happened in Germany."
So Trumps allowed to hammer China but they’re not allowed to respond . If the Chinese don’t back down or some agreement is reached then the markets are going to completely implode .
I never thought I would be on the side of China, but I hope they fuck Trumpistan until the blood runs out of Trump’s arse.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Thank goodness there is one country willing & able to face the bully down. I'm cheering them on (for the time being at least).
China has been on a decades long mission to undermine our economy as well as America's. To do this they have employed every tactic from sharp business practice to outright theft. It is high time they were faced down, and I am glad that someone has come in with the balls to do it.
The UK actually trades very little with China, but as Malmesbury was explaining, our tariff relationship is completely unbalanced due to the Foreign Office's fear of 'upsetting' them. Well, bugger them.
Yes but you wash chicken in the sink
Where would you suggest one should wash it?
Don't wash it - cook it correctly
I like you a lot BigG, but which part of the fact that cooking does absolutely nothing to remove chemical contamination from BPAs in (for example) film packaging do you not understand.
Neither does washing, in all likelihood.
It does a lot more than not washing, as for obvious reasons it will be on the surface.
This is an extract from Wales on line re washing chicken
Why chicken really shouldn’t be washed
Traces of feathers, slime or dirt might have necessitated washing chicken half a century ago. But nowadays, poultry is pre-washed and ready to cook when you buy it.
Still, some people seem to think you should wash your chicken in order to remove the dangerous microorganisms raw meat contains. While it’s true chicken does contain harmful microorganisms, washing prior to cooking doesn’t remove them.
Chicken in particular naturally carries Salmonella and Campylobacter. These can cause very severe illness, with infections causing symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and possibly even septicaemia (blood infection).
Children, elderly people, pregnant women and those with other health conditions or poor immune systems are most at risk of illness from these bacteria. But even in healthy people, Salmonella and Campylobacter infections can lead to hospitalisations and death.
Washing chicken prior to cooking does not eliminate all the germs within a chicken. At most, it may only remove the bacteria on the surface. But this practice actually makes the overall infection risk from raw chicken significantly worse, as it may potentially cause the pathogens washed off the chicken skin to spread throughout your kitchen.
When you put raw chicken under the tap, the bacteria on the skin move into the water stream. This will then be splashed into your sink – and potentially your surrounding counters, cupboards and dish rack. This water spray can travel up to 80cm – the length of the average adult arm. This makes cross-contamination pretty likely, especially if these water droplets have landed elsewhere in your kitchen. It may even contaminate other uncooked foods you later place in the same sink.
Even if you rinse the sink with water after washing the chicken, this may not be sufficient to remove all the pathogenic bacteria that have become attached.
It’s also worth noting that soaking poultry in a brine of water and vinegar or citrus juice does not make it more hygienic. Research has shown that Salmonella weren’t killed following soaking chicken in vinegar or citrus juice for more than five minutes. Other research shows that Campylobacter numbers may be reduced following a marinade in vinegar or lemon juice, but it takes 24 hours of soaking.
I do parboil whole chicken for about 5 minutes before roasting. It removes an unpleasant scum. It also helps cook the bird more evenly as both the outside and the inside of the carcass are warmed before putting in the oven.
Good idea to be fair
Seems like a bit of a faff tbh. I've never noticed any 'scum' with my roast chicken.
You roast it in the bag for an hour then 20-30mins outside the bag. It was excellent, tender and flavoursome. No question of spreading any contamination pre-cooking with that one.
And at £4.95 for the standard brined chicken or £9.95 for the "No. 1" free-range version, it's great value. We had roast chicken for the two of us, a cold chicken sandwich each today, enough meat in the freezer for a biryani for two, plus a litre of chicken stock from the bones.
And no chlorine wash or growth hormones.
You presumably haven't seen the scum because you have never boiled it out. The faff is the effort of boiling a pan of water, sticking a chicken in the water and taking it out again. Probably about 20 seconds of your time. For that you get a slightly better tasting roast bird and save maybe 10 minutes cooking time.
Fair enough. I winder what the 'scum' actually is? We do get a scum from simmering the carcass for stock which we always do after a roast bird - so much better than stock cube stock. We skim the scum off and freeze the stock for whenever we need it.
Anyway, I think we'll stick to the Waitrose brined chickens for the foreseeable, as this one was so good.
This is a complete guess, so don't accuse me of kooky theories, but maybe it's dead pathogens and parasites and things. I have heard about skimming and how its better to take off the foam and get rid. Never investigated it though.
An AI answer:
"The "scum" that forms on top of boiling chicken broth is primarily coagulated proteins (like albumin) and fat that rise to the surface and clump together, often appearing as a foamy or bubbly layer. "
Maybe I will go back to being a vegetarian again.
Check out the scum you get from boiling brown rice!
If you’d deported an innocent man to a hell hole in El Salvador .
1.Would you try and do the right thing and get the man back to the USA .
2. Make no apology , go to the courts to stop having to get the man back , not giving a flying fxck if the man is murdered in the jail as he originally fled El Salvador to get away from the same gangs .
Of course the most disgusting cesspit administration of all time does option 2 . The cruelty on show from Trump and the rest of his loathsome cabinet is stomach churning .
People are entitled to opinions, and free to have them, or not.
But to forego sense of humanity, this is not acceptable.To retain sense of humanity is prerequisite for everybody - you are not given a choice on this. There is no opt out.
There is not a single member of this administration, who would cross the road to help someone in trouble.
On topic, the Conservatives have ratnered their brand: their own supporters don't trust them, and their elected representatives despise them in turn; everyone else who doesn't vote for them hates them.
I'm not sure I see a way out.
Kemi has really improved as this year has gone on - she is now regularly besting Starmer at PMQs. She is punchy and clear in interviews and on social media - such as how she dismantled Lammy yesterday, not a tough gig though admittedly. Her vox pops and soundbites getting onto the news have been so good recently, I can imagine Kemi as a Prime Minister now.
Strangely we agree on this. I have sort of got used to her slow tempo too.
The Tories have not 'Ratnered' their brand recently. Theresa May ratnered the brand when she called them 'the nasty party'. That was a classic Ratner, and almost as damaging as the original in its own way.
She didn't really "Ratner" the brand - Ratner said that their products were crap, while TMay said that some other people called the Conservatives "the nasty party" - not the same thing at all.
Anyway, she first called them that in 2002. After that they went on to lose one general election, win four and lose one.
Compared to disasters like the Truss premiership and the current split on the Right, I don't think it had any effect whatsover.
So Trumps allowed to hammer China but they’re not allowed to respond . If the Chinese don’t back down or some agreement is reached then the markets are going to completely implode .
I never thought I would be on the side of China, but I hope they fuck Trumpistan until the blood runs out of Trump’s arse.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Thank goodness there is one country willing & able to face the bully down. I'm cheering them on (for the time being at least).
China has been on a decades long mission to undermine our economy as well as America's. To do this they have employed every tactic from sharp business practice to outright theft. It is high time they were faced down, and I am glad that someone has come in with the balls to do it.
The UK actually trades very little with China, but as Malmesbury was explaining, our tariff relationship is completely unbalanced due to the Foreign Office's fear of 'upsetting' them. Well, bugger them.
Yes but you wash chicken in the sink
Where would you suggest one should wash it?
Don't wash it - cook it correctly
I like you a lot BigG, but which part of the fact that cooking does absolutely nothing to remove chemical contamination from BPAs in (for example) film packaging do you not understand.
Neither does washing, in all likelihood.
It does a lot more than not washing, as for obvious reasons it will be on the surface.
This is an extract from Wales on line re washing chicken
Why chicken really shouldn’t be washed
Traces of feathers, slime or dirt might have necessitated washing chicken half a century ago. But nowadays, poultry is pre-washed and ready to cook when you buy it.
Still, some people seem to think you should wash your chicken in order to remove the dangerous microorganisms raw meat contains. While it’s true chicken does contain harmful microorganisms, washing prior to cooking doesn’t remove them.
Chicken in particular naturally carries Salmonella and Campylobacter. These can cause very severe illness, with infections causing symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and possibly even septicaemia (blood infection).
Children, elderly people, pregnant women and those with other health conditions or poor immune systems are most at risk of illness from these bacteria. But even in healthy people, Salmonella and Campylobacter infections can lead to hospitalisations and death.
Washing chicken prior to cooking does not eliminate all the germs within a chicken. At most, it may only remove the bacteria on the surface. But this practice actually makes the overall infection risk from raw chicken significantly worse, as it may potentially cause the pathogens washed off the chicken skin to spread throughout your kitchen.
When you put raw chicken under the tap, the bacteria on the skin move into the water stream. This will then be splashed into your sink – and potentially your surrounding counters, cupboards and dish rack. This water spray can travel up to 80cm – the length of the average adult arm. This makes cross-contamination pretty likely, especially if these water droplets have landed elsewhere in your kitchen. It may even contaminate other uncooked foods you later place in the same sink.
Even if you rinse the sink with water after washing the chicken, this may not be sufficient to remove all the pathogenic bacteria that have become attached.
It’s also worth noting that soaking poultry in a brine of water and vinegar or citrus juice does not make it more hygienic. Research has shown that Salmonella weren’t killed following soaking chicken in vinegar or citrus juice for more than five minutes. Other research shows that Campylobacter numbers may be reduced following a marinade in vinegar or lemon juice, but it takes 24 hours of soaking.
I do parboil whole chicken for about 5 minutes before roasting. It removes an unpleasant scum. It also helps cook the bird more evenly as both the outside and the inside of the carcass are warmed before putting in the oven.
Good idea to be fair
Seems like a bit of a faff tbh. I've never noticed any 'scum' with my roast chicken.
You roast it in the bag for an hour then 20-30mins outside the bag. It was excellent, tender and flavoursome. No question of spreading any contamination pre-cooking with that one.
And at £4.95 for the standard brined chicken or £9.95 for the "No. 1" free-range version, it's great value. We had roast chicken for the two of us, a cold chicken sandwich each today, enough meat in the freezer for a biryani for two, plus a litre of chicken stock from the bones.
And no chlorine wash or growth hormones.
You presumably haven't seen the scum because you have never boiled it out. The faff is the effort of boiling a pan of water, sticking a chicken in the water and taking it out again. Probably about 20 seconds of your time. For that you get a slightly better tasting roast bird and save maybe 10 minutes cooking time.
Fair enough. I winder what the 'scum' actually is? We do get a scum from simmering the carcass for stock which we always do after a roast bird - so much better than stock cube stock. We skim the scum off and freeze the stock for whenever we need it.
Anyway, I think we'll stick to the Waitrose brined chickens for the foreseeable, as this one was so good.
This is a complete guess, so don't accuse me of kooky theories, but maybe it's dead pathogens and parasites and things. I have heard about skimming and how its better to take off the foam and get rid. Never investigated it though.
An AI answer:
"The "scum" that forms on top of boiling chicken broth is primarily coagulated proteins (like albumin) and fat that rise to the surface and clump together, often appearing as a foamy or bubbly layer. "
Maybe I will go back to being a vegetarian again.
Check out the scum you get from boiling brown rice!
Giving it a rinse isn't always a daft idea. Some rice has quite a lot of arsenic in it.
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
So Trumps allowed to hammer China but they’re not allowed to respond . If the Chinese don’t back down or some agreement is reached then the markets are going to completely implode .
I never thought I would be on the side of China, but I hope they fuck Trumpistan until the blood runs out of Trump’s arse.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Thank goodness there is one country willing & able to face the bully down. I'm cheering them on (for the time being at least).
China has been on a decades long mission to undermine our economy as well as America's. To do this they have employed every tactic from sharp business practice to outright theft. It is high time they were faced down, and I am glad that someone has come in with the balls to do it.
The UK actually trades very little with China, but as Malmesbury was explaining, our tariff relationship is completely unbalanced due to the Foreign Office's fear of 'upsetting' them. Well, bugger them.
Yes but you wash chicken in the sink
Where would you suggest one should wash it?
Don't wash it - cook it correctly
I like you a lot BigG, but which part of the fact that cooking does absolutely nothing to remove chemical contamination from BPAs in (for example) film packaging do you not understand.
Neither does washing, in all likelihood.
It does a lot more than not washing, as for obvious reasons it will be on the surface.
This is an extract from Wales on line re washing chicken
Why chicken really shouldn’t be washed
Traces of feathers, slime or dirt might have necessitated washing chicken half a century ago. But nowadays, poultry is pre-washed and ready to cook when you buy it.
Still, some people seem to think you should wash your chicken in order to remove the dangerous microorganisms raw meat contains. While it’s true chicken does contain harmful microorganisms, washing prior to cooking doesn’t remove them.
Chicken in particular naturally carries Salmonella and Campylobacter. These can cause very severe illness, with infections causing symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and possibly even septicaemia (blood infection).
Children, elderly people, pregnant women and those with other health conditions or poor immune systems are most at risk of illness from these bacteria. But even in healthy people, Salmonella and Campylobacter infections can lead to hospitalisations and death.
Washing chicken prior to cooking does not eliminate all the germs within a chicken. At most, it may only remove the bacteria on the surface. But this practice actually makes the overall infection risk from raw chicken significantly worse, as it may potentially cause the pathogens washed off the chicken skin to spread throughout your kitchen.
When you put raw chicken under the tap, the bacteria on the skin move into the water stream. This will then be splashed into your sink – and potentially your surrounding counters, cupboards and dish rack. This water spray can travel up to 80cm – the length of the average adult arm. This makes cross-contamination pretty likely, especially if these water droplets have landed elsewhere in your kitchen. It may even contaminate other uncooked foods you later place in the same sink.
Even if you rinse the sink with water after washing the chicken, this may not be sufficient to remove all the pathogenic bacteria that have become attached.
It’s also worth noting that soaking poultry in a brine of water and vinegar or citrus juice does not make it more hygienic. Research has shown that Salmonella weren’t killed following soaking chicken in vinegar or citrus juice for more than five minutes. Other research shows that Campylobacter numbers may be reduced following a marinade in vinegar or lemon juice, but it takes 24 hours of soaking.
I do parboil whole chicken for about 5 minutes before roasting. It removes an unpleasant scum. It also helps cook the bird more evenly as both the outside and the inside of the carcass are warmed before putting in the oven.
Good idea to be fair
Seems like a bit of a faff tbh. I've never noticed any 'scum' with my roast chicken.
You roast it in the bag for an hour then 20-30mins outside the bag. It was excellent, tender and flavoursome. No question of spreading any contamination pre-cooking with that one.
And at £4.95 for the standard brined chicken or £9.95 for the "No. 1" free-range version, it's great value. We had roast chicken for the two of us, a cold chicken sandwich each today, enough meat in the freezer for a biryani for two, plus a litre of chicken stock from the bones.
And no chlorine wash or growth hormones.
You presumably haven't seen the scum because you have never boiled it out. The faff is the effort of boiling a pan of water, sticking a chicken in the water and taking it out again. Probably about 20 seconds of your time. For that you get a slightly better tasting roast bird and save maybe 10 minutes cooking time.
Fair enough. I winder what the 'scum' actually is? We do get a scum from simmering the carcass for stock which we always do after a roast bird - so much better than stock cube stock. We skim the scum off and freeze the stock for whenever we need it.
Anyway, I think we'll stick to the Waitrose brined chickens for the foreseeable, as this one was so good.
This is a complete guess, so don't accuse me of kooky theories, but maybe it's dead pathogens and parasites and things. I have heard about skimming and how its better to take off the foam and get rid. Never investigated it though.
An AI answer:
"The "scum" that forms on top of boiling chicken broth is primarily coagulated proteins (like albumin) and fat that rise to the surface and clump together, often appearing as a foamy or bubbly layer. "
Maybe I will go back to being a vegetarian again.
Check out the scum you get from boiling brown rice!
Giving it a rinse isn't always a daft idea. Some rice has quite a lot of arsenic in it.
This might sound sacrilegious but since I’ve discovered Tilda pop in the microwave rice I haven’t looked back !
As you all know im from Norway. I just watched a couple of interviews with Trump and people from his admin. Is there anyone in that group that can complete a sentence?? Are they all fucking insane? Or is this the absolute dumbest group in human existence?? https://x.com/glenn_tunes/status/1909249238396973079
Evening (afternoon) from leafy Coyoacan. The Frida Kahlo museum is closed. There appear to be no litter bins for me to deposit my empty bottle of coke. Nor any public loos. Which would be fine if the cafes had them, which most don’t. Other than that it’s very pleasant and leafy. It appears to be where the Americans and Europeans hang out. I’d heard about a post-Covid surge in digital nomads in Mexico City so perhaps it’s them.
Mexico continues to give off reasonably comfortable middle income vibes. They’ve definitely got an obesity problem, especially the older generation, but perhaps no surprise when there’s a taqueria on every corner. I did a car count: the plurality are Japanese and Korean, particularly Toyota and Kia. There are several Audis, some other VW group members including Seats and Cupras, and quite a few BYDs. BYD are going to take over the world at this rate.
The cathedral square in the old centre is huge, like the Plaza Major transported from Madrid to Tienanmen.
Regardless of what you made of Biden-era industrial policy, is an amazingly grim irony that US tariffs are being raised with the stated aim of reindustrialising America, ignoring an *actual generational boom in industrial investment* which the tariffs now pose a huge threat to. https://x.com/Birdyword/status/1908987369472061851
Robin Brooks @robin_j_brooks · 5m The S&P 500 managed to claw its way back today to close almost flat. That doesn't mean much. Everything now depends on China. If the US imposes an additional 50% tariff on China, the bottom will drop out of global markets. Such a scenario would almost certainly see China devalue.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421281122 Recent projections suggest that large geographical areas will soon experience heat and humidity exceeding limits for human thermoregulation. The survivability limits modeled in that research were based on laboratory studies suggesting that humans cannot effectively thermoregulate in wet bulb temperatures (Twb) above 26 to 31 °C, values considerably lower than the widely publicized theoretical threshold of 35 °C. The newly proposed empirical limits were derived from the Twb corresponding to the core temperature inflection point in participants exposed to stepped increases in air temperature or relative humidity in a climate-controlled chamber. Despite the increasing use of these thermal-step protocols, their validity has not been established. We used a humidity-step protocol to estimate the Twb threshold for core temperature inflection in 12 volunteers. To determine whether this threshold truly demarcates the Twb above which thermoregulation is impossible, each participant was subsequently exposed to Twb above (~33.7 °C, Tabove) and below (~30.9 °C, Tbelow) their respective inflection point (~32.3 °C, Twb) for up to 9 h (in random order). Core temperature rose continuously in Tabove. It was projected that core temperatures associated with heat stroke (40.2 °C) would occur within 10 h. While Tbelow was also uncompensable, the core temperature rate of rise was considerably lower than in Tabove such that it would take >24 h to reach 40.2 °C. Our study supports thermal-step protocols as an effective technique for evaluating survivability limits for heat exposure and provides a direct assessment of the limits of human thermoregulation...
On topic, the Conservatives have ratnered their brand: their own supporters don't trust them, and their elected representatives despise them in turn; everyone else who doesn't vote for them hates them.
I'm not sure I see a way out.
A start would be to see whether they can go back to the sensible days where they were a broad church, but Bozo's scorched earth policy has made this very difficult. Trump is doing a similar, but even more extreme version on the GOP. Parties that purge a whole wing that doesn't agree with the leadership of the day will reap their eventual comeuppance.
Have any of the class of '24 impressed so far? My suspicion is that they are the ones who will be able to escape from the tar pit of the 2019-24 fiasco by saying "nothing to do with me, guv".
If there is still a meaningful Conservative Party left by the time they reach the top.
The problem is that so few of the new intake of Tories are actually new. Most are retreads or various place holding hacks. The contrast with the 60 odd new Lib Dems- many with very distinguished careers before Parliament is very telling. Even the so-called new entry of Tories are a pretty poor and uninspiring bunch.
And yet you called out @MoonRabbit fpr being partisan…
Dead cat bounce tomorrow, then further collapse on Wednesday.
Highlights of tonight's footy was buying a pie and a half of IPA, and getting served a full pint before kickoff. After that it was down hill.
It's 4 months since we scored a goal at home.
How good is Khannouss? How much will you get for him?
Our best player by some margin. The only ones close are Buenonotte (on loan from Brighton) and Abdul Fatawu (out since the autumn with a knee injury). We should try to keep him.
Khannous is the only player in our team who could thrive in the PL. Possibly Hermansen too. It's not his fault that we concede so many goals, it's our pisspoor back line and useless midfield.
Robin Brooks @robin_j_brooks · 5m The S&P 500 managed to claw its way back today to close almost flat. That doesn't mean much. Everything now depends on China. If the US imposes an additional 50% tariff on China, the bottom will drop out of global markets. Such a scenario would almost certainly see China devalue.
We've had the shift from "it's a negotiating ploy" to "some tariffs will be permanent but some are for negotiating purposes" being priced in.
The scenario that I think is being underpriced is that larger blocs like China, the EU etc do not cave to Trump and the escalation continues unabated.
There is also the potential for further volatility once hard economic data comes out post-tariffs being implemented. That will take time but until then everyone's guessing as the size of impact.
Robin Brooks @robin_j_brooks · 5m The S&P 500 managed to claw its way back today to close almost flat. That doesn't mean much. Everything now depends on China. If the US imposes an additional 50% tariff on China, the bottom will drop out of global markets. Such a scenario would almost certainly see China devalue.
On topic, the Conservatives have ratnered their brand: their own supporters don't trust them, and their elected representatives despise them in turn; everyone else who doesn't vote for them hates them.
I'm not sure I see a way out.
A start would be to see whether they can go back to the sensible days where they were a broad church, but Bozo's scorched earth policy has made this very difficult. Trump is doing a similar, but even more extreme version on the GOP. Parties that purge a whole wing that doesn't agree with the leadership of the day will reap their eventual comeuppance.
Have any of the class of '24 impressed so far? My suspicion is that they are the ones who will be able to escape from the tar pit of the 2019-24 fiasco by saying "nothing to do with me, guv".
If there is still a meaningful Conservative Party left by the time they reach the top.
The problem is that so few of the new intake of Tories are actually new. Most are retreads or various place holding hacks. The contrast with the 60 odd new Lib Dems- many with very distinguished careers before Parliament is very telling. Even the so-called new entry of Tories are a pretty poor and uninspiring bunch.
And yet you called out @MoonRabbit fpr being partisan…
I'm wondering whether the country is better with the Conservatives being extinct, TBH. Significant parts of the party are internalising and weaponising the far right poison, rather than fighting it.
Speaking as a former member until the end of 2022.
Robin Brooks @robin_j_brooks · 5m The S&P 500 managed to claw its way back today to close almost flat. That doesn't mean much. Everything now depends on China. If the US imposes an additional 50% tariff on China, the bottom will drop out of global markets. Such a scenario would almost certainly see China devalue.
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
That article is unbeatable for "random stuff to blame cycle lanes on". It's not like congregations have been shrinking elsewhere, is it?!
I do feel sorry for the Minister though. I recently attended a few services and the sense of community they provide to older people is incredibly important. It's a shame that he can't see that making his church easier to walk and cycle to might encourage a younger and perhaps poorer generation to attend, even as his current flock diminishes.
I make a point of visiting some of the splendid churches in the UK and Europe on my cycle tours. Peaceful places for a rest and a guaranteed water source for a weary traveller. Sometimes get a handful of scones thrust in my direction too.
On topic, the Conservatives have ratnered their brand: their own supporters don't trust them, and their elected representatives despise them in turn; everyone else who doesn't vote for them hates them.
I'm not sure I see a way out.
A start would be to see whether they can go back to the sensible days where they were a broad church, but Bozo's scorched earth policy has made this very difficult. Trump is doing a similar, but even more extreme version on the GOP. Parties that purge a whole wing that doesn't agree with the leadership of the day will reap their eventual comeuppance.
Have any of the class of '24 impressed so far? My suspicion is that they are the ones who will be able to escape from the tar pit of the 2019-24 fiasco by saying "nothing to do with me, guv".
If there is still a meaningful Conservative Party left by the time they reach the top.
The problem is that so few of the new intake of Tories are actually new. Most are retreads or various place holding hacks. The contrast with the 60 odd new Lib Dems- many with very distinguished careers before Parliament is very telling. Even the so-called new entry of Tories are a pretty poor and uninspiring bunch.
And yet you called out @MoonRabbit fpr being partisan…
Well that is a tricky one isn't it because if you have a foot in the camp you will obviously be accused of being biased unless you come out with a contrary view. It is possible to give an honest positive view without being partisan, although it is also reasonable for others to be suspicious.
As it happens I agree with @Cicero and could have the same accusation thrown at me, but may I suggest you look at some of the CVs. Many are quite impressive. Whether they make good MPs is another matter
So Trumps allowed to hammer China but they’re not allowed to respond . If the Chinese don’t back down or some agreement is reached then the markets are going to completely implode .
I never thought I would be on the side of China, but I hope they fuck Trumpistan until the blood runs out of Trump’s arse.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Thank goodness there is one country willing & able to face the bully down. I'm cheering them on (for the time being at least).
China has been on a decades long mission to undermine our economy as well as America's. To do this they have employed every tactic from sharp business practice to outright theft. It is high time they were faced down, and I am glad that someone has come in with the balls to do it.
The UK actually trades very little with China, but as Malmesbury was explaining, our tariff relationship is completely unbalanced due to the Foreign Office's fear of 'upsetting' them. Well, bugger them.
Yes but you wash chicken in the sink
Where would you suggest one should wash it?
Don't wash it - cook it correctly
I like you a lot BigG, but which part of the fact that cooking does absolutely nothing to remove chemical contamination from BPAs in (for example) film packaging do you not understand.
Neither does washing, in all likelihood.
It does a lot more than not washing, as for obvious reasons it will be on the surface.
This is an extract from Wales on line re washing chicken
Why chicken really shouldn’t be washed
Traces of feathers, slime or dirt might have necessitated washing chicken half a century ago. But nowadays, poultry is pre-washed and ready to cook when you buy it.
Still, some people seem to think you should wash your chicken in order to remove the dangerous microorganisms raw meat contains. While it’s true chicken does contain harmful microorganisms, washing prior to cooking doesn’t remove them.
Chicken in particular naturally carries Salmonella and Campylobacter. These can cause very severe illness, with infections causing symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and possibly even septicaemia (blood infection).
Children, elderly people, pregnant women and those with other health conditions or poor immune systems are most at risk of illness from these bacteria. But even in healthy people, Salmonella and Campylobacter infections can lead to hospitalisations and death.
Washing chicken prior to cooking does not eliminate all the germs within a chicken. At most, it may only remove the bacteria on the surface. But this practice actually makes the overall infection risk from raw chicken significantly worse, as it may potentially cause the pathogens washed off the chicken skin to spread throughout your kitchen.
When you put raw chicken under the tap, the bacteria on the skin move into the water stream. This will then be splashed into your sink – and potentially your surrounding counters, cupboards and dish rack. This water spray can travel up to 80cm – the length of the average adult arm. This makes cross-contamination pretty likely, especially if these water droplets have landed elsewhere in your kitchen. It may even contaminate other uncooked foods you later place in the same sink.
Even if you rinse the sink with water after washing the chicken, this may not be sufficient to remove all the pathogenic bacteria that have become attached.
It’s also worth noting that soaking poultry in a brine of water and vinegar or citrus juice does not make it more hygienic. Research has shown that Salmonella weren’t killed following soaking chicken in vinegar or citrus juice for more than five minutes. Other research shows that Campylobacter numbers may be reduced following a marinade in vinegar or lemon juice, but it takes 24 hours of soaking.
I do parboil whole chicken for about 5 minutes before roasting. It removes an unpleasant scum. It also helps cook the bird more evenly as both the outside and the inside of the carcass are warmed before putting in the oven.
Good idea to be fair
Seems like a bit of a faff tbh. I've never noticed any 'scum' with my roast chicken.
You roast it in the bag for an hour then 20-30mins outside the bag. It was excellent, tender and flavoursome. No question of spreading any contamination pre-cooking with that one.
And at £4.95 for the standard brined chicken or £9.95 for the "No. 1" free-range version, it's great value. We had roast chicken for the two of us, a cold chicken sandwich each today, enough meat in the freezer for a biryani for two, plus a litre of chicken stock from the bones.
And no chlorine wash or growth hormones.
You presumably haven't seen the scum because you have never boiled it out. The faff is the effort of boiling a pan of water, sticking a chicken in the water and taking it out again. Probably about 20 seconds of your time. For that you get a slightly better tasting roast bird and save maybe 10 minutes cooking time.
Fair enough. I winder what the 'scum' actually is? We do get a scum from simmering the carcass for stock which we always do after a roast bird - so much better than stock cube stock. We skim the scum off and freeze the stock for whenever we need it.
Anyway, I think we'll stick to the Waitrose brined chickens for the foreseeable, as this one was so good.
This is a complete guess, so don't accuse me of kooky theories, but maybe it's dead pathogens and parasites and things. I have heard about skimming and how its better to take off the foam and get rid. Never investigated it though.
An AI answer:
"The "scum" that forms on top of boiling chicken broth is primarily coagulated proteins (like albumin) and fat that rise to the surface and clump together, often appearing as a foamy or bubbly layer. "
Maybe I will go back to being a vegetarian again.
Check out the scum you get from boiling brown rice!
Don't you wash your rice??
I was going to post the same thing. I realised leon just does boil-in-a-bag - but I had higher hopes for some others.
Robin Brooks @robin_j_brooks · 5m The S&P 500 managed to claw its way back today to close almost flat. That doesn't mean much. Everything now depends on China. If the US imposes an additional 50% tariff on China, the bottom will drop out of global markets. Such a scenario would almost certainly see China devalue.
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
That article is unbeatable for "random stuff to blame cycle lanes on". It's not like congregations have been shrinking elsewhere, is it?!
I do feel sorry for the Minister though. I recently attended a few services and the sense of community they provide to older people is incredibly important. It's a shame that he can't see that making his church easier to walk and cycle to might encourage a younger and perhaps poorer generation to attend, even as his current flock diminishes.
I make a point of visiting some of the splendid churches in the UK and Europe on my cycle tours. Peaceful places for a rest and a guaranteed water source for a weary traveller. Sometimes get a handful of scones thrust in my direction too.
Those parishioners don’t know how lucky they are. Earlier I ended up walking the entire circumference of Mexico City’s central cathedral (and that circumference must easily be a kilometre once you factor in archaeological digs and fenced off areas) before realising the one entrance through the fencing was about 5 steps from where I started.
I'm not convinced this is mathematically exact, but the point is a strong one.
The average American goes to work for 8 hours during which they do about an hour of actual work) at a low exertion low risk job, and in return they consume probably 25 man hours of global labor product daily. We are now being told that somehow this amounts to the rest of the world getting over on us, though we’ve had virtually nothing to offer to them in return other than green paper which we print indiscriminately out of thin air. .. https://x.com/_FlipMan/status/1908645303185776877
I'm not convinced this is mathematically exact, but the point is a strong one.
The average American goes to work for 8 hours during which they do about an hour of actual work) at a low exertion low risk job, and in return they consume probably 25 man hours of global labor product daily. We are now being told that somehow this amounts to the rest of the world getting over on us, though we’ve had virtually nothing to offer to them in return other than green paper which we print indiscriminately out of thin air. .. https://x.com/_FlipMan/status/1908645303185776877
Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour. Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out? Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
Robin Brooks @robin_j_brooks · 5m The S&P 500 managed to claw its way back today to close almost flat. That doesn't mean much. Everything now depends on China. If the US imposes an additional 50% tariff on China, the bottom will drop out of global markets. Such a scenario would almost certainly see China devalue.
In addition to any devaluation, the Chinese will retaliate with an additional 50% tariff to match the extra 50%.
Will Trump then threaten 50% more or, 100% more, on top of the 50% ?
Does it matter. Once you get to a certain point nobody is selling or buying anything anyway as neither side can afford the tariff. You might as well make it 1,000,000 % once you are past a certain point.
Presumably if the China tariff escalation continues, we’re about to get flooded by a lot of relatively cheap goods? Could we actually see deflation?
If the UK levied the same tariff on Chinese imports China does on its UK imports, the tariff would rise from 4% to 9%. Trump is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut but in terms of dumping of cheap goods on the US market he has some logic
I'm not convinced this is mathematically exact, but the point is a strong one.
The average American goes to work for 8 hours during which they do about an hour of actual work) at a low exertion low risk job, and in return they consume probably 25 man hours of global labor product daily. We are now being told that somehow this amounts to the rest of the world getting over on us, though we’ve had virtually nothing to offer to them in return other than green paper which we print indiscriminately out of thin air. .. https://x.com/_FlipMan/status/1908645303185776877
I suspect it’s mathematically not far off. That’s why picking on countries like Vietnam and Cambodia, and indeed the entirety of the lower income world, is the craziest part of this policy.
A targeted tariff war against the EU and China on certain competitive would have been chilling to GDP but might have achieved at least a few pyrrhic manufacturing victories over Germany in particular. It would have been at a similar level of logic and impact as Brexit. But blanket tariffs on everyone is just scorched earth. It’s Russian artillery tactics.
I'm not convinced this is mathematically exact, but the point is a strong one.
The average American goes to work for 8 hours during which they do about an hour of actual work) at a low exertion low risk job, and in return they consume probably 25 man hours of global labor product daily. We are now being told that somehow this amounts to the rest of the world getting over on us, though we’ve had virtually nothing to offer to them in return other than green paper which we print indiscriminately out of thin air. .. https://x.com/_FlipMan/status/1908645303185776877
I suspect it’s mathematically not far off. That’s why picking on countries like Vietnam and Cambodia, and indeed the entirety of the lower income world, is the craziest part of this policy.
A targeted tariff war against the EU and China on certain competitive would have been chilling to GDP but might have achieved at least a few pyrrhic manufacturing victories over Germany in particular. It would have been at a similar level of logic and impact as Brexit. But blanket tariffs on everyone is just scorched earth. It’s Russian artillery tactics.
Trump is so stupid he talks about tariffs funding the federal govt. Its true they did in the 19th century but then the govt didnt do much other than run an army. Maybe thats all Trump wants the govt to do.
Presumably if the China tariff escalation continues, we’re about to get flooded by a lot of relatively cheap goods? Could we actually see deflation?
If the UK levied the same tariff on Chinese imports China does on its UK imports, the tariff would rise from 4% to 9%. Trump is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut but in terms of dumping of cheap goods on the US market he has some logic
Thing is, in an era when most Americans’ biggest economic bugbear is inflation, “dumping cheap goods” isn’t the most obvious of sins.
The US is a consumer economy which like ours is services dominated. They should focus on growing those categories where they have competitive advantage, but those are exactly the ones they’re Ratnering.
Presumably if the China tariff escalation continues, we’re about to get flooded by a lot of relatively cheap goods? Could we actually see deflation?
If the UK levied the same tariff on Chinese imports China does on its UK imports, the tariff would rise from 4% to 9%. Trump is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut but in terms of dumping of cheap goods on the US market he has some logic
Thing is, in an era when most Americans’ biggest economic bugbear is inflation, “dumping cheap goods” isn’t the most obvious of sins.
The US is a consumer economy which like ours is services dominated. They should focus on growing those categories where they have competitive advantage, but those are exactly the ones they’re Ratnering.
Services are strongest on the Harris voting coasts, Trump voting rustbelt middle America's glory days were in their strong manufacturing past and they want them back with less foreign import competition
Presumably if the China tariff escalation continues, we’re about to get flooded by a lot of relatively cheap goods? Could we actually see deflation?
If the UK levied the same tariff on Chinese imports China does on its UK imports, the tariff would rise from 4% to 9%. Trump is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut but in terms of dumping of cheap goods on the US market he has some logic
Thing is, in an era when most Americans’ biggest economic bugbear is inflation, “dumping cheap goods” isn’t the most obvious of sins.
The US is a consumer economy which like ours is services dominated. They should focus on growing those categories where they have competitive advantage, but those are exactly the ones they’re Ratnering.
Services are strongest on the Harris voting coasts, Trump voting rustbelt middle America's glory days were in their strong manufacturing past and they want them back with less foreign import competition
They want it back but with the same cheap consumer goods. That isn’t going to happen no matter how many times you say it.
Presumably if the China tariff escalation continues, we’re about to get flooded by a lot of relatively cheap goods? Could we actually see deflation?
If the UK levied the same tariff on Chinese imports China does on its UK imports, the tariff would rise from 4% to 9%. Trump is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut but in terms of dumping of cheap goods on the US market he has some logic
Thing is, in an era when most Americans’ biggest economic bugbear is inflation, “dumping cheap goods” isn’t the most obvious of sins.
The US is a consumer economy which like ours is services dominated. They should focus on growing those categories where they have competitive advantage, but those are exactly the ones they’re Ratnering.
Services are strongest on the Harris voting coasts, Trump voting rustbelt middle America's glory days were in their strong manufacturing past and they want them back with less foreign import competition
The US manufacturing base saw investment levels off the charts across not only the rust belt but the majority of red states in the last 3 years thanks to Biden’s IRA tax credits.
Not only was that manufacturing jobs, but it was hi-tech, knowledge based, high margin manufacturing. And it was directly at the expense of European countries!
Biden.
Oh and the GOP want to roll back the IRA and stop the gold rush, because it’s woke.
"Britain’s courts are being used as a political weapon to bludgeon heretics Prosecutions are still being pursued for minor Covid violations whilst real criminals face lax justice Isabel Oakeshott" (£)
Bogota said: "Trump is so stupid he talks about tariffs funding the federal govt. Its true they did in the 19th century but then the govt didnt do much other than run an army. Maybe thats all Trump wants the govt to do."
The US Army had about 16,000 men at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. (About half of them were stationed to protect settlers (and other tribes) from attacks by the more warlike tribes.)
The Navy was small, but reasonably effective.
By 1890, the US Army had about 30,000 men. (By then the US population had passed 60 million.)
(So the US didn't need much in the way of taxes, then.)
"Britain’s courts are being used as a political weapon to bludgeon heretics Prosecutions are still being pursued for minor Covid violations whilst real criminals face lax justice Isabel Oakeshott" (£)
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
That article is unbeatable for "random stuff to blame cycle lanes on". It's not like congregations have been shrinking elsewhere, is it?!
I do feel sorry for the Minister though. I recently attended a few services and the sense of community they provide to older people is incredibly important. It's a shame that he can't see that making his church easier to walk and cycle to might encourage a younger and perhaps poorer generation to attend, even as his current flock diminishes.
I make a point of visiting some of the splendid churches in the UK and Europe on my cycle tours. Peaceful places for a rest and a guaranteed water source for a weary traveller. Sometimes get a handful of scones thrust in my direction too.
Yes, my standard local tour-of-the-flatlands takes in about 5 or 6 very old churches and I always stop at one or two just because, even though I'm as irreligious as they come.
Top marks in the category goes to Selby Abbey for a) inviting us to prop bikes inside against their medieval wall whilst b) partaking from their cake stand and c) being such a magnificent building in what seems like an unlikely place.
I do think something has been lost with the lack of church attendance. The Church of England have effectively tried a non-religious religion and even that hasn't really worked.
Presumably if the China tariff escalation continues, we’re about to get flooded by a lot of relatively cheap goods? Could we actually see deflation?
If the UK levied the same tariff on Chinese imports China does on its UK imports, the tariff would rise from 4% to 9%. Trump is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut but in terms of dumping of cheap goods on the US market he has some logic
Thing is, in an era when most Americans’ biggest economic bugbear is inflation, “dumping cheap goods” isn’t the most obvious of sins.
The US is a consumer economy which like ours is services dominated. They should focus on growing those categories where they have competitive advantage, but those are exactly the ones they’re Ratnering.
Services are strongest on the Harris voting coasts, Trump voting rustbelt middle America's glory days were in their strong manufacturing past and they want them back with less foreign import competition
The US manufacturing base saw investment levels off the charts across not only the rust belt but the majority of red states in the last 3 years thanks to Biden’s IRA tax credits.
Not only was that manufacturing jobs, but it was hi-tech, knowledge based, high margin manufacturing. And it was directly at the expense of European countries!
Biden.
Oh and the GOP want to roll back the IRA and stop the gold rush, because it’s woke.
Most Trump voters aren't hi tech trained, they want mass manufacturing jobs back
Presumably if the China tariff escalation continues, we’re about to get flooded by a lot of relatively cheap goods? Could we actually see deflation?
If the UK levied the same tariff on Chinese imports China does on its UK imports, the tariff would rise from 4% to 9%. Trump is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut but in terms of dumping of cheap goods on the US market he has some logic
Thing is, in an era when most Americans’ biggest economic bugbear is inflation, “dumping cheap goods” isn’t the most obvious of sins.
The US is a consumer economy which like ours is services dominated. They should focus on growing those categories where they have competitive advantage, but those are exactly the ones they’re Ratnering.
Services are strongest on the Harris voting coasts, Trump voting rustbelt middle America's glory days were in their strong manufacturing past and they want them back with less foreign import competition
They want it back but with the same cheap consumer goods. That isn’t going to happen no matter how many times you say it.
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
That article is unbeatable for "random stuff to blame cycle lanes on". It's not like congregations have been shrinking elsewhere, is it?!
I do feel sorry for the Minister though. I recently attended a few services and the sense of community they provide to older people is incredibly important. It's a shame that he can't see that making his church easier to walk and cycle to might encourage a younger and perhaps poorer generation to attend, even as his current flock diminishes.
I make a point of visiting some of the splendid churches in the UK and Europe on my cycle tours. Peaceful places for a rest and a guaranteed water source for a weary traveller. Sometimes get a handful of scones thrust in my direction too.
Yes, my standard local tour-of-the-flatlands takes in about 5 or 6 very old churches and I always stop at one or two just because, even though I'm as irreligious as they come.
Top marks in the category goes to Selby Abbey for a) inviting us to prop bikes inside against their medieval wall whilst b) partaking from their cake stand and c) being such a magnificent building in what seems like an unlikely place.
I do think something has been lost with the lack of church attendance. The Church of England have effectively tried a non-religious religion and even that hasn't really worked.
Plenty of C of E evangelical churches are full, see HTB, though they often tend to be in big cities and towns and in newer buildings. Cathedrals also get a good attendance at services as well as lots of tourists.
Our rural churches have plenty of Roman Catholics as well as Angiicans as there are no RC churches in the villages
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
That article is unbeatable for "random stuff to blame cycle lanes on". It's not like congregations have been shrinking elsewhere, is it?!
I do feel sorry for the Minister though. I recently attended a few services and the sense of community they provide to older people is incredibly important. It's a shame that he can't see that making his church easier to walk and cycle to might encourage a younger and perhaps poorer generation to attend, even as his current flock diminishes.
I make a point of visiting some of the splendid churches in the UK and Europe on my cycle tours. Peaceful places for a rest and a guaranteed water source for a weary traveller. Sometimes get a handful of scones thrust in my direction too.
Yes, my standard local tour-of-the-flatlands takes in about 5 or 6 very old churches and I always stop at one or two just because, even though I'm as irreligious as they come.
Top marks in the category goes to Selby Abbey for a) inviting us to prop bikes inside against their medieval wall whilst b) partaking from their cake stand and c) being such a magnificent building in what seems like an unlikely place.
I do think something has been lost with the lack of church attendance. The Church of England have effectively tried a non-religious religion and even that hasn't really worked.
English churches still feel much more lived in and welcoming than French ones, which are more like intact archaeological remains. They do occasionally have services there - we once went to an Easter Day mass just to see what it was like - but there’s none of the parish newsletters and noticeboards, trifold leaflets about the history or local amateur historian’s self published book about the village with honesty box as you walk in. And you certainly don’t get scones shoved in your direction when visiting French churches.
I think that’s maybe a feature of the CofE being the established religion. French community life is as or more active than ours, but the action is elsewhere.
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
That article is unbeatable for "random stuff to blame cycle lanes on". It's not like congregations have been shrinking elsewhere, is it?!
I do feel sorry for the Minister though. I recently attended a few services and the sense of community they provide to older people is incredibly important. It's a shame that he can't see that making his church easier to walk and cycle to might encourage a younger and perhaps poorer generation to attend, even as his current flock diminishes.
I make a point of visiting some of the splendid churches in the UK and Europe on my cycle tours. Peaceful places for a rest and a guaranteed water source for a weary traveller. Sometimes get a handful of scones thrust in my direction too.
Yes, my standard local tour-of-the-flatlands takes in about 5 or 6 very old churches and I always stop at one or two just because, even though I'm as irreligious as they come.
Top marks in the category goes to Selby Abbey for a) inviting us to prop bikes inside against their medieval wall whilst b) partaking from their cake stand and c) being such a magnificent building in what seems like an unlikely place.
I do think something has been lost with the lack of church attendance. The Church of England have effectively tried a non-religious religion and even that hasn't really worked.
English churches still feel much more lived in and welcoming than French ones, which are more like intact archaeological remains. They do occasionally have services there - we once went to an Easter Day mass just to see what it was like - but there’s none of the parish newsletters and noticeboards, trifold leaflets about the history or local amateur historian’s self published book about the village with honesty box as you walk in. And you certainly don’t get scones shoved in your direction when visiting French churches.
I think that’s maybe a feature of the CofE being the established religion. French community life is as or more active than ours, but the action is elsewhere.
Partly that the French government is in charge (and pays for) renovations to church buildings, I think - a hangover from the revoluton. I was shocked the first time I saw french rural churches with wooden props holding masonry up and buckets catching rainwater. British churches may be in permanent fundraising mode, but they seem to get it done.
Looks like the only way the Canadian Tories can win the election is if the Liberal vote is very heavily concentrated in the big cities where they already hold most of the seats. Unlikely but possible.
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
That article is unbeatable for "random stuff to blame cycle lanes on". It's not like congregations have been shrinking elsewhere, is it?!
I do feel sorry for the Minister though. I recently attended a few services and the sense of community they provide to older people is incredibly important. It's a shame that he can't see that making his church easier to walk and cycle to might encourage a younger and perhaps poorer generation to attend, even as his current flock diminishes.
I make a point of visiting some of the splendid churches in the UK and Europe on my cycle tours. Peaceful places for a rest and a guaranteed water source for a weary traveller. Sometimes get a handful of scones thrust in my direction too.
Yes, my standard local tour-of-the-flatlands takes in about 5 or 6 very old churches and I always stop at one or two just because, even though I'm as irreligious as they come.
Top marks in the category goes to Selby Abbey for a) inviting us to prop bikes inside against their medieval wall whilst b) partaking from their cake stand and c) being such a magnificent building in what seems like an unlikely place.
I do think something has been lost with the lack of church attendance. The Church of England have effectively tried a non-religious religion and even that hasn't really worked.
English churches still feel much more lived in and welcoming than French ones, which are more like intact archaeological remains. They do occasionally have services there - we once went to an Easter Day mass just to see what it was like - but there’s none of the parish newsletters and noticeboards, trifold leaflets about the history or local amateur historian’s self published book about the village with honesty box as you walk in. And you certainly don’t get scones shoved in your direction when visiting French churches.
I think that’s maybe a feature of the CofE being the established religion. French community life is as or more active than ours, but the action is elsewhere.
Historic French churches are funded and maintained by the state but that also means more restrictions on how they can be used.
Macron's government also made a big payment towards the Notre Dame restoration too of course
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
That article is unbeatable for "random stuff to blame cycle lanes on". It's not like congregations have been shrinking elsewhere, is it?!
I do feel sorry for the Minister though. I recently attended a few services and the sense of community they provide to older people is incredibly important. It's a shame that he can't see that making his church easier to walk and cycle to might encourage a younger and perhaps poorer generation to attend, even as his current flock diminishes.
I make a point of visiting some of the splendid churches in the UK and Europe on my cycle tours. Peaceful places for a rest and a guaranteed water source for a weary traveller. Sometimes get a handful of scones thrust in my direction too.
Yes, my standard local tour-of-the-flatlands takes in about 5 or 6 very old churches and I always stop at one or two just because, even though I'm as irreligious as they come.
Top marks in the category goes to Selby Abbey for a) inviting us to prop bikes inside against their medieval wall whilst b) partaking from their cake stand and c) being such a magnificent building in what seems like an unlikely place.
I do think something has been lost with the lack of church attendance. The Church of England have effectively tried a non-religious religion and even that hasn't really worked.
Plenty of C of E evangelical churches are full, see HTB, though they often tend to be in big cities and towns and in newer buildings. Cathedrals also get a good attendance at services as well as lots of tourists.
Our rural churches have plenty of Roman Catholics as well as Angiicans as there are no RC churches in the villages
I think the signs I usually see telling me that services are only held the 2nd Sunday in the month might be an indication that many rural churches are not well attended.
Though some do get borrowed, as you say. One local C13 CofE church seems to hold services in Romanian more frequently than in English.
"Considering the 1990s are generally believed to be the best decade, if not one of the pinnacles of human civilisation, should we make meaningful attempts to bring it back? If so, what sorts of things could we implement to restore that era?"
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
Sounds like a more long winded route.
We have to traipse behind dozens of cyclists hogging our rural Ongar roads to get to church most Sundays
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
That article is unbeatable for "random stuff to blame cycle lanes on". It's not like congregations have been shrinking elsewhere, is it?!
I do feel sorry for the Minister though. I recently attended a few services and the sense of community they provide to older people is incredibly important. It's a shame that he can't see that making his church easier to walk and cycle to might encourage a younger and perhaps poorer generation to attend, even as his current flock diminishes.
I make a point of visiting some of the splendid churches in the UK and Europe on my cycle tours. Peaceful places for a rest and a guaranteed water source for a weary traveller. Sometimes get a handful of scones thrust in my direction too.
Yes, my standard local tour-of-the-flatlands takes in about 5 or 6 very old churches and I always stop at one or two just because, even though I'm as irreligious as they come.
Top marks in the category goes to Selby Abbey for a) inviting us to prop bikes inside against their medieval wall whilst b) partaking from their cake stand and c) being such a magnificent building in what seems like an unlikely place.
I do think something has been lost with the lack of church attendance. The Church of England have effectively tried a non-religious religion and even that hasn't really worked.
Plenty of C of E evangelical churches are full, see HTB, though they often tend to be in big cities and towns and in newer buildings. Cathedrals also get a good attendance at services as well as lots of tourists.
Our rural churches have plenty of Roman Catholics as well as Angiicans as there are no RC churches in the villages
I think the signs I usually see telling me that services are only held the 2nd Sunday in the month might be an indication that many rural churches are not well attended.
Though some do get borrowed, as you say. One local C13 CofE church seems to hold services in Romanian more frequently than in English.
We have four churches in our benefice, services are rotated between them so they each get one service a month with the congregation travelling between them.
Of course it was much easier a few centuries ago when you could fine people for not attending their local C of E service on Sundays
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
That article is unbeatable for "random stuff to blame cycle lanes on". It's not like congregations have been shrinking elsewhere, is it?!
I do feel sorry for the Minister though. I recently attended a few services and the sense of community they provide to older people is incredibly important. It's a shame that he can't see that making his church easier to walk and cycle to might encourage a younger and perhaps poorer generation to attend, even as his current flock diminishes.
I make a point of visiting some of the splendid churches in the UK and Europe on my cycle tours. Peaceful places for a rest and a guaranteed water source for a weary traveller. Sometimes get a handful of scones thrust in my direction too.
Yes, my standard local tour-of-the-flatlands takes in about 5 or 6 very old churches and I always stop at one or two just because, even though I'm as irreligious as they come.
Top marks in the category goes to Selby Abbey for a) inviting us to prop bikes inside against their medieval wall whilst b) partaking from their cake stand and c) being such a magnificent building in what seems like an unlikely place.
I do think something has been lost with the lack of church attendance. The Church of England have effectively tried a non-religious religion and even that hasn't really worked.
Plenty of C of E evangelical churches are full, see HTB, though they often tend to be in big cities and towns and in newer buildings. Cathedrals also get a good attendance at services as well as lots of tourists.
Our rural churches have plenty of Roman Catholics as well as Angiicans as there are no RC churches in the villages
I think the signs I usually see telling me that services are only held the 2nd Sunday in the month might be an indication that many rural churches are not well attended.
Though some do get borrowed, as you say. One local C13 CofE church seems to hold services in Romanian more frequently than in English.
We have four churches in our benefice, services are rotated between them so they each get one service a month with the congregation travelling between them.
Of course it was much easier a few centuries ago when you could fine people for not attending their local C of E service on Sundays
All pre 16th century churches were of course originally Roman Catholic anyway so it makes logical sense to invite local Catholics to become part of their congregation if they have no RC church nearby
Presumably if the China tariff escalation continues, we’re about to get flooded by a lot of relatively cheap goods? Could we actually see deflation?
If the UK levied the same tariff on Chinese imports China does on its UK imports, the tariff would rise from 4% to 9%. Trump is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut but in terms of dumping of cheap goods on the US market he has some logic
Thing is, in an era when most Americans’ biggest economic bugbear is inflation, “dumping cheap goods” isn’t the most obvious of sins.
The US is a consumer economy which like ours is services dominated. They should focus on growing those categories where they have competitive advantage, but those are exactly the ones they’re Ratnering.
Services are strongest on the Harris voting coasts, Trump voting rustbelt middle America's glory days were in their strong manufacturing past and they want them back with less foreign import competition
They want it back but with the same cheap consumer goods. That isn’t going to happen no matter how many times you say it.
Depends if they buy more American goods instead
Given how much more American goods cost to manufacturer compared to overseas (because as you well know wages in America are far higher than say Vietnam) the only way they will buy more American goods will be if they buy less overall.
Which will simply make your average American feel poorer because things cost more and they can afford to buy less.
"Considering the 1990s are generally believed to be the best decade, if not one of the pinnacles of human civilisation, should we make meaningful attempts to bring it back? If so, what sorts of things could we implement to restore that era?"
Presumably if the China tariff escalation continues, we’re about to get flooded by a lot of relatively cheap goods? Could we actually see deflation?
If the UK levied the same tariff on Chinese imports China does on its UK imports, the tariff would rise from 4% to 9%. Trump is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut but in terms of dumping of cheap goods on the US market he has some logic
Thing is, in an era when most Americans’ biggest economic bugbear is inflation, “dumping cheap goods” isn’t the most obvious of sins.
The US is a consumer economy which like ours is services dominated. They should focus on growing those categories where they have competitive advantage, but those are exactly the ones they’re Ratnering.
Services are strongest on the Harris voting coasts, Trump voting rustbelt middle America's glory days were in their strong manufacturing past and they want them back with less foreign import competition
They want it back but with the same cheap consumer goods. That isn’t going to happen no matter how many times you say it.
Depends if they buy more American goods instead
Non - union, slave labour workers in China and Asia can turn out the same products the rust belt used to for 10 times cheaper, as their incomes ten times smaller. This is the essence of Globalisation. Donald Trump doesn’t have an answer to it. His Tarrifs are not an answer to it.
He’s simply fooled a lot of gullible people into thinking he’s protecting his own country and workers, like the classic con man. There’s people in UK wishing for a British Trump to do the same, a government who sticks up for them the same way Trump does for America. They vote reform.
So there’s a world recession. We’ve had them before and come through them. Politically, Trump, MAGA and the GOP won’t come through the Trump Slump, but as they lose reps and senators and US turns away from tarrifs, those workers in Asia producing things ten times cheaper than Americans can, will still be there - maybe locked out factory a while, maybe poorer, but they will outlast Trump and his Tarrifs. Trump can’t beat globalisation, he has no answer to it.
I would do a better job than Trump fighting Globalisation, without a single tarrif - but by stopping the container ships docking. The ability to manufacture more cheaply elsewhere has probably always been there, but Globalisation is powered by the logistics moving it around the world.
Then again is it Trumps politics to be protectionist? If you consider how protectionist Biden’s administration was too, is it a new era not of free trade but fair trade - not confined to Trumps White House at all, but a new era for the world, only revealing itself through the USA first by how rattled US is realising they are losing super power status to the Chinese. Great Britain led the world in 19thC - the USA in 20thC, but China for the foreseeable - Trumps a mere bull with snails horns, postering his snails horns hopelessly and pathetically, unable to turn back time or halt the decline of Pax America.
Trump remembered in the history books as the President who first revealed America’s fears and concerns to the world. And ushered in the end of super power status.
Presumably if the China tariff escalation continues, we’re about to get flooded by a lot of relatively cheap goods? Could we actually see deflation?
Judging by the amount of services inflation in play right now - no.
High service inflation, low goods inflation is a winning combination because it generally means higher cost of living. That we saw through the late 1990s and noughties.
Services inflation is driven by wage costs and disposable income/wealth. If it’s rising it means people are being paid more. (Or the government is taking more in tax forcing employers to put up prices, but bear in mind the recent employer NI increases don’t raise costs half as much as the last 2 employee NI cuts before the election reduced them).
If you’d deported an innocent man to a hell hole in El Salvador .
1.Would you try and do the right thing and get the man back to the USA .
2. Make no apology , go to the courts to stop having to get the man back , not giving a flying fxck if the man is murdered in the jail as he originally fled El Salvador to get away from the same gangs .
Of course the most disgusting cesspit administration of all time does option 2 . The cruelty on show from Trump and the rest of his loathsome cabinet is stomach churning .
People are entitled to opinions, and free to have them, or not.
But to forego sense of humanity, this is not acceptable.To retain sense of humanity is prerequisite for everybody - you are not given a choice on this. There is no opt out.
There is not a single member of this administration, who would cross the road to help someone in trouble.
Even top MAGA podcaster Joe Rogan has called them out on this.
Mexico is one of those countries where, if you’re moderately rich and stick to the safe areas, you can live like a king.
That’s usually a sign of a middle income country with stark wealth inequality.
I’m sitting outside on a balmy evening in the centre of Polanco, the CDMX equivalent of Mayfair/Upper East Side/6th arrondissement, the sort of place the foreigners visit and get relatively fleeced, on Oscar Wilde street, in a posh restaurant with twinkly outdoor lighting, that just brought a brioche roll with one of those fancy butters (you know the sort of place) and I’m expecting to come out after 2 courses and wine + a Mezcal within my expense allowance of £45.
Taxis today (uber) were 3 or 4 quid for half hour drives. I think you can judge the rich x egalitarian quotient of a country by the cost of a taxi. Denmark is the most expensive taxi country in the world.
Though things have taken an eccentric turn on two counts.
I changed my mind on starter and cancelled the short rib taquitos for some salmon carpaccio instead, but they’ve brought both. So I think I’m blowing the expense allowance and will get a guilt trip email and a reimbursement charge.
But the second thing is a strange English group of a dad and his two very, I think, Essex sons, have sat down on the next table. Are they gangsters? Or just acting like it? “No mate, not Stella, Estrella!”, they later when the new beers (not Estrella) arrive “I love you dad”. “Cheers son”. Youngest boy talking about “when I went to fuckin Hawksmoor”. It’s like watching Birds of a Feather, Christmas special trip to Mexico.
Looks like the only way the Canadian Tories can win the election is if the Liberal vote is very heavily concentrated in the big cities where they already hold most of the seats. Unlikely but possible.
Carney looking pretty safe now though. The recovery of the Grits in the last three months is the greatest act of escapology since Houdini....
"Considering the 1990s are generally believed to be the best decade, if not one of the pinnacles of human civilisation, should we make meaningful attempts to bring it back? If so, what sorts of things could we implement to restore that era?"
"Considering the 1990s are generally believed to be the best decade, if not one of the pinnacles of human civilisation, should we make meaningful attempts to bring it back? If so, what sorts of things could we implement to restore that era?"
Looks like the only way the Canadian Tories can win the election is if the Liberal vote is very heavily concentrated in the big cities where they already hold most of the seats. Unlikely but possible.
Carney looking pretty safe now though. The recovery of the Grits in the last three months is the greatest act of escapology since Houdini....
Not such a great act of escapology when Trump is going round undoing all the padlocks...
On topic, the Conservatives have ratnered their brand: their own supporters don't trust them, and their elected representatives despise them in turn; everyone else who doesn't vote for them hates them.
I'm not sure I see a way out.
Kemi has really improved as this year has gone on - she is now regularly besting Starmer at PMQs. She is punchy and clear in interviews and on social media - such as how she dismantled Lammy yesterday, not a tough gig though admittedly. Her vox pops and soundbites getting onto the news have been so good recently, I can imagine Kemi as a Prime Minister now.
Strangely we agree on this. I have sort of got used to her slow tempo too.
The Tories have not 'Ratnered' their brand recently. Theresa May ratnered the brand when she called them 'the nasty party'. That was a classic Ratner, and almost as damaging as the original in its own way.
She didn't really "Ratner" the brand - Ratner said that their products were crap, while TMay said that some other people called the Conservatives "the nasty party" - not the same thing at all.
Anyway, she first called them that in 2002. After that they went on to lose one general election, win four and lose one.
Compared to disasters like the Truss premiership and the current split on the Right, I don't think it had any effect whatsover.
The effect can be argued, but the method, standing in front of an audience and deliberately shooting your product in the foot, is as exact a parallel as you'll find in politics.
Truss and other issues may have been disastrous or damaging, but they weren't anything to do with Ratner.
"Considering the 1990s are generally believed to be the best decade, if not one of the pinnacles of human civilisation, should we make meaningful attempts to bring it back? If so, what sorts of things could we implement to restore that era?"
On topic, the Conservatives have ratnered their brand: their own supporters don't trust them, and their elected representatives despise them in turn; everyone else who doesn't vote for them hates them.
I'm not sure I see a way out.
Kemi has really improved as this year has gone on - she is now regularly besting Starmer at PMQs. She is punchy and clear in interviews and on social media - such as how she dismantled Lammy yesterday, not a tough gig though admittedly. Her vox pops and soundbites getting onto the news have been so good recently, I can imagine Kemi as a Prime Minister now.
Strangely we agree on this. I have sort of got used to her slow tempo too.
The Tories have not 'Ratnered' their brand recently. Theresa May ratnered the brand when she called them 'the nasty party'. That was a classic Ratner, and almost as damaging as the original in its own way.
She didn't really "Ratner" the brand - Ratner said that their products were crap, while TMay said that some other people called the Conservatives "the nasty party" - not the same thing at all.
Anyway, she first called them that in 2002. After that they went on to lose one general election, win four and lose one.
Compared to disasters like the Truss premiership and the current split on the Right, I don't think it had any effect whatsover.
The effect can be argued, but the method, standing in front of an audience and deliberately shooting your product in the foot, is as exact a parallel as you'll find in politics.
Truss and other issues may have been disastrous or damaging, but they weren't anything to do with Ratner.
What she said was true, and needed saying for the good of the party. The people ratnering the brand are those who supported Johnson and Truss...
Mexico is one of those countries where, if you’re moderately rich and stick to the safe areas, you can live like a king.
That’s usually a sign of a middle income country with stark wealth inequality.
I’m sitting outside on a balmy evening in the centre of Polanco, the CDMX equivalent of Mayfair/Upper East Side/6th arrondissement, the sort of place the foreigners visit and get relatively fleeced, on Oscar Wilde street, in a posh restaurant with twinkly outdoor lighting, that just brought a brioche roll with one of those fancy butters (you know the sort of place) and I’m expecting to come out after 2 courses and wine + a Mezcal within my expense allowance of £45.
Taxis today (uber) were 3 or 4 quid for half hour drives. I think you can judge the rich x egalitarian quotient of a country by the cost of a taxi. Denmark is the most expensive taxi country in the world.
It's a couple of decades since I was in Mexico, and really liked it. I must get back there at some point.
I think you are right in pointing out that the cost of services when travelling reflects the standards of living of ordinary people. These costs are mostly made up of the cost of labour, so if cheap then it means someone is getting paid very little. It may be more than they would get subsistence farming, but it isn't enough for them to go travelling or eat out. So I am not too bothered by the eye-watering prices of the Faeroes etc, as it means that the server is being paid well.
On topic, the Conservatives have ratnered their brand: their own supporters don't trust them, and their elected representatives despise them in turn; everyone else who doesn't vote for them hates them.
I'm not sure I see a way out.
Kemi has really improved as this year has gone on - she is now regularly besting Starmer at PMQs. She is punchy and clear in interviews and on social media - such as how she dismantled Lammy yesterday, not a tough gig though admittedly. Her vox pops and soundbites getting onto the news have been so good recently, I can imagine Kemi as a Prime Minister now.
Strangely we agree on this. I have sort of got used to her slow tempo too.
The Tories have not 'Ratnered' their brand recently. Theresa May ratnered the brand when she called them 'the nasty party'. That was a classic Ratner, and almost as damaging as the original in its own way.
She didn't really "Ratner" the brand - Ratner said that their products were crap, while TMay said that some other people called the Conservatives "the nasty party" - not the same thing at all.
Anyway, she first called them that in 2002. After that they went on to lose one general election, win four and lose one.
Compared to disasters like the Truss premiership and the current split on the Right, I don't think it had any effect whatsover.
The effect can be argued, but the method, standing in front of an audience and deliberately shooting your product in the foot, is as exact a parallel as you'll find in politics.
Truss and other issues may have been disastrous or damaging, but they weren't anything to do with Ratner.
What she said was true, and needed saying for the good of the party. The people ratnering the brand are those who supported Johnson and Truss...
From the speech itself:
You know what some people call us – the nasty party.
I know that’s unfair. You know that’s unfair but it’s the people out there we need to convince – and we can only do that by avoiding behaviour and attitudes that play into the hands of our opponents. No more glib moralising, no more hypocritical finger-wagging.
There were, there are, lots of card-carrying Conservatives quietly getting in with doing good things in their communities. But that hadn't been the party's image for a long time. It's got worse since then, to the point that Kemi Badenoch has criticised the Liberal Democrats for just wanting to do nice things in their communities;
A typical Liberal Democrat will be somebody who is good at fixing their church roof. And, you know, the people in the community like them...
There is a difference between pointing out that one's foot has a hole in it with blood coming out and shooting oneself in the foot.
On topic, the Conservatives have ratnered their brand: their own supporters don't trust them, and their elected representatives despise them in turn; everyone else who doesn't vote for them hates them.
I'm not sure I see a way out.
Kemi has really improved as this year has gone on - she is now regularly besting Starmer at PMQs. She is punchy and clear in interviews and on social media - such as how she dismantled Lammy yesterday, not a tough gig though admittedly. Her vox pops and soundbites getting onto the news have been so good recently, I can imagine Kemi as a Prime Minister now.
Strangely we agree on this. I have sort of got used to her slow tempo too.
The Tories have not 'Ratnered' their brand recently. Theresa May ratnered the brand when she called them 'the nasty party'. That was a classic Ratner, and almost as damaging as the original in its own way.
She didn't really "Ratner" the brand - Ratner said that their products were crap, while TMay said that some other people called the Conservatives "the nasty party" - not the same thing at all.
Anyway, she first called them that in 2002. After that they went on to lose one general election, win four and lose one.
Compared to disasters like the Truss premiership and the current split on the Right, I don't think it had any effect whatsover.
The effect can be argued, but the method, standing in front of an audience and deliberately shooting your product in the foot, is as exact a parallel as you'll find in politics.
Truss and other issues may have been disastrous or damaging, but they weren't anything to do with Ratner.
What she said was true, and needed saying for the good of the party. The people ratnering the brand are those who supported Johnson and Truss...
From the speech itself:
You know what some people call us – the nasty party.
I know that’s unfair. You know that’s unfair but it’s the people out there we need to convince – and we can only do that by avoiding behaviour and attitudes that play into the hands of our opponents. No more glib moralising, no more hypocritical finger-wagging.
There were, there are, lots of card-carrying Conservatives quietly getting in with doing good things in their communities. But that hadn't been the party's image for a long time. It's got worse since then, to the point that Kemi Badenoch has criticised the Liberal Democrats for just wanting to do nice things in their communities;
A typical Liberal Democrat will be somebody who is good at fixing their church roof. And, you know, the people in the community like them...
There is a difference between pointing out that one's foot has a hole in it with blood coming out and shooting oneself in the foot.
Are we talking about Theresa May's remarks or Donald Trump's tariffs?
Comments
https://x.com/thestalwart/status/1909335814451974181
"Ocean front properties"
Republicans against Trump
@RpsAgainstTrump
Trump on Gaza: I think it’s an incredible piece of important real estate.
https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1909339625736241366
Vulcan is engineered with all the trimmings - grid carved out of solid metal etc.
Even Arianespace isn’t doing that with Themis - which is designed to be reusable.
... it's subliminal
1.Would you try and do the right thing and get the man back to the USA .
2. Make no apology , go to the courts to stop having to get the man back , not giving a flying fxck if the man is murdered in the jail as he originally fled El Salvador to get away from the same gangs .
Of course the most disgusting cesspit administration of all time does option 2 . The cruelty on show from Trump and the rest of his loathsome cabinet is stomach churning .
We only remove it for aesthetic reasons - it looks 'unsightly'.
One thing I'd bet on: you'll get a similar amount of scum whether you wash the chicken first or not.
Trump is also this evening on about getting rid of tariffs so there can be open borders.
Highlights of tonight's footy was buying a pie and a half of IPA, and getting served a full pint before kickoff. After that it was down hill.
It's 4 months since we scored a goal at home.
"REBEL scum!"
But to forego sense of humanity, this is not acceptable.To retain sense of humanity is prerequisite for everybody - you are not given a choice on this. There is no opt out.
There is not a single member of this administration, who would cross the road to help someone in trouble.
Anyway, she first called them that in 2002. After that they went on to lose one general election, win four and lose one.
Compared to disasters like the Truss premiership and the current split on the Right, I don't think it had any effect whatsover.
Some rice has quite a lot of arsenic
in it.
The Nobs of Altrincham all need self-driving Teslas because the installation of a short cycle track and pedestrian crossing means that none of them can find the plonking great parish church any more, so the vicar claims that 40% of them have stopped coming. Perhaps only 60% will tolerate fools gladly.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1k4n2w9mygo
What's happened is that 1/3 of the parish have a new crossing so it is no longer cut off by a 10k vehicles a day road, and he has a lovely new active travel route so they can all get to his church without a quarter mile diversion to find a crossing across the bloody main road.
God save us from whining (*&^^$&*ers.
(My lovingkindness muscles are under strain, today, after three cars full of police turned up to a minor incident in the local park, whilst other people leave their cars all over the fvucking pavements with ZERO intervention.)
https://x.com/glenn_tunes/status/1909249238396973079
Mexico continues to give off reasonably comfortable middle income vibes. They’ve definitely got an obesity problem, especially the older generation, but perhaps no surprise when there’s a taqueria on every corner. I did a car count: the plurality are Japanese and Korean, particularly Toyota and Kia. There are several Audis, some other VW group members including Seats and Cupras, and quite a few BYDs. BYD are going to take over the world at this rate.
The cathedral square in the old centre is huge, like the Plaza Major transported from Madrid to Tienanmen.
https://x.com/Birdyword/status/1908987369472061851
Robin Brooks
@robin_j_brooks
·
5m
The S&P 500 managed to claw its way back today to close almost flat. That doesn't mean much. Everything now depends on China. If the US imposes an additional 50% tariff on China, the bottom will drop out of global markets. Such a scenario would almost certainly see China devalue.
https://x.com/robin_j_brooks/status/1909360460131971180
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421281122
Recent projections suggest that large geographical areas will soon experience heat and humidity exceeding limits for human thermoregulation. The survivability limits modeled in that research were based on laboratory studies suggesting that humans cannot effectively thermoregulate in wet bulb temperatures (Twb) above 26 to 31 °C, values considerably lower than the widely publicized theoretical threshold of 35 °C. The newly proposed empirical limits were derived from the Twb corresponding to the core temperature inflection point in participants exposed to stepped increases in air temperature or relative humidity in a climate-controlled chamber. Despite the increasing use of these thermal-step protocols, their validity has not been established. We used a humidity-step protocol to estimate the Twb threshold for core temperature inflection in 12 volunteers. To determine whether this threshold truly demarcates the Twb above which thermoregulation is impossible, each participant was subsequently exposed to Twb above (~33.7 °C, Tabove) and below (~30.9 °C, Tbelow) their respective inflection point (~32.3 °C, Twb) for up to 9 h (in random order). Core temperature rose continuously in Tabove. It was projected that core temperatures associated with heat stroke (40.2 °C) would occur within 10 h. While Tbelow was also uncompensable, the core temperature rate of rise was considerably lower than in Tabove such that it would take >24 h to reach 40.2 °C. Our study supports thermal-step protocols as an effective technique for evaluating survivability limits for heat exposure and provides a direct assessment of the limits of human thermoregulation...
Khannous is the only player in our team who could thrive in the PL. Possibly Hermansen too. It's not his fault that we concede so many goals, it's our pisspoor back line and useless midfield.
We've had the shift from "it's a negotiating ploy" to "some tariffs will be permanent but some are for negotiating purposes" being priced in.
The scenario that I think is being underpriced is that larger blocs like China, the EU etc do not cave to Trump and the escalation continues unabated.
There is also the potential for further volatility once hard economic data comes out post-tariffs being implemented. That will take time but until then everyone's guessing as the size of impact.
Will Trump then threaten 50% more or, 100% more, on top of the 50% ?
Speaking as a former member until the end of 2022.
I do feel sorry for the Minister though. I recently attended a few services and the sense of community they provide to older people is incredibly important. It's a shame that he can't see that making his church easier to walk and cycle to might encourage a younger and perhaps poorer generation to attend, even as his current flock diminishes.
I make a point of visiting some of the splendid churches in the UK and Europe on my cycle tours. Peaceful places for a rest and a guaranteed water source for a weary traveller. Sometimes get a handful of scones thrust in my direction too.
As it happens I agree with @Cicero and could have the same accusation thrown at me, but may I suggest you look at some of the CVs. Many are quite impressive. Whether they make good MPs is another matter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SLG-4cetz8
The average American goes to work for 8 hours during which they do about an hour of actual work) at a low exertion low risk job, and in return they consume probably 25 man hours of global labor product daily. We are now being told that somehow this amounts to the rest of the world getting over on us, though we’ve had virtually nothing to offer to them in return other than green paper which we print indiscriminately out of thin air. ..
https://x.com/_FlipMan/status/1908645303185776877
Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.
Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/105686/html/#:~:text=The average tariff (4.2%),the UK's exports to China.
Britain’s political frontline is angry
Fred Sculthorp"
https://unherd.com/2025/04/reform-is-coming-for-dagenham/
A targeted tariff war against the EU and China on certain competitive would have been chilling to GDP but might have achieved at least a few pyrrhic manufacturing victories over Germany in particular. It would have been at a similar level of logic and impact as Brexit. But blanket tariffs on everyone is just scorched earth. It’s Russian artillery tactics.
The US is a consumer economy which like ours is services dominated. They should focus on growing those categories where they have competitive advantage, but those are exactly the ones they’re Ratnering.
If the rest of the world can deepen trade integration and the oil price stays low for a while, it’s not all bad news for us.
Not only was that manufacturing jobs, but it was hi-tech, knowledge based, high margin manufacturing. And it was directly at the expense of European countries!
Biden.
Oh and the GOP want to roll back the IRA and stop the gold rush, because it’s woke.
Prosecutions are still being pursued for minor Covid violations whilst real criminals face lax justice
Isabel Oakeshott" (£)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/07/courts-political-weapon-silence-dissent-heretics/
The US Army had about 16,000 men at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. (About half of them were stationed to protect settlers (and other tribes) from attacks by the more warlike tribes.)
The Navy was small, but reasonably effective.
By 1890, the US Army had about 30,000 men. (By then the US population had passed 60 million.)
(So the US didn't need much in the way of taxes, then.)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g2ejjr0n7o
Top marks in the category goes to Selby Abbey for a) inviting us to prop bikes inside against their medieval wall whilst b) partaking from their cake stand and c) being such a magnificent building in what seems like an unlikely place.
I do think something has been lost with the lack of church attendance. The Church of England have effectively tried a non-religious religion and even that hasn't really worked.
Our rural churches have plenty of Roman Catholics as well as Angiicans as there are no RC churches in the villages
I think that’s maybe a feature of the CofE being the established religion. French community life is as or more active than ours, but the action is elsewhere.
Macron's government also made a big payment towards the Notre Dame restoration too of course
Though some do get borrowed, as you say. One local C13 CofE church seems to hold services in Romanian more frequently than in English.
"Considering the 1990s are generally believed to be the best decade, if not one of the pinnacles of human civilisation, should we make meaningful attempts to bring it back? If so, what sorts of things could we implement to restore that era?"
https://www.quora.com/Considering-the-1990s-are-generally-believed-to-be-the-best-decade-if-not-one-of-the-pinnacles-of-human-civilisation-should-we-make-meaningful-attempts-to-bring-it-back-If-so-what-sorts-of-things-could-we-implement
We have to traipse behind dozens of cyclists hogging our rural Ongar roads to get to church most Sundays
Of course it was much easier a few centuries ago when you could fine people for not attending their local C of E service on Sundays
Which will simply make your average American feel poorer because things cost more and they can afford to buy less.
Stand aside boomers, a new nostalgia machine is in town and it’s carrying a new peak decade with it.
He’s simply fooled a lot of gullible people into thinking he’s protecting his own country and workers, like the classic con man. There’s people in UK wishing for a British Trump to do the same, a government who sticks up for them the same way Trump does for America. They vote reform.
So there’s a world recession. We’ve had them before and come through them. Politically, Trump, MAGA and the GOP won’t come through the Trump Slump, but as they lose reps and senators and US turns away from tarrifs, those workers in Asia producing things ten times cheaper than Americans can, will still be there - maybe locked out factory a while, maybe poorer, but they will outlast Trump and his Tarrifs. Trump can’t beat globalisation, he has no answer to it.
I would do a better job than Trump fighting Globalisation, without a single tarrif - but by stopping the container ships docking. The ability to manufacture more cheaply elsewhere has probably always been there, but Globalisation is powered by the logistics moving it around the world.
Then again is it Trumps politics to be protectionist? If you consider how protectionist Biden’s administration was too, is it a new era not of free trade but fair trade - not confined to Trumps White House at all, but a new era for the world, only revealing itself through the USA first by how rattled US is realising they are losing super power status to the Chinese. Great Britain led the world in 19thC - the USA in 20thC, but China for the foreseeable - Trumps a mere bull with snails horns, postering his snails horns hopelessly and pathetically, unable to turn back time or halt the decline of Pax America.
Trump remembered in the history books as the President who first revealed America’s fears and concerns to the world. And ushered in the end of super power status.
Services inflation is driven by wage costs and disposable income/wealth. If it’s rising it means people are being paid more. (Or the government is taking more in tax forcing employers to put up prices, but bear in mind the recent employer NI increases don’t raise costs half as much as the last 2 employee NI cuts before the election reduced them).
Exclusive: Richard Harpin pauses donations in move insiders say will result in closure of party’s northern HQ
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/apr/07/tories-lose-donor-richard-harpin-blow-to-kemi-badenoch-northern-hq
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/gsce-a-level-private-tutoring-revision-camps-wxfmf629r (£££)
As we have said before, there is more to private education than private schools.
That’s usually a sign of a middle income country with stark wealth inequality.
I’m sitting outside on a balmy evening in the centre of Polanco, the CDMX equivalent of Mayfair/Upper East Side/6th arrondissement, the sort of place the foreigners visit and get relatively fleeced, on Oscar Wilde street, in a posh restaurant with twinkly outdoor lighting, that just brought a brioche roll with one of those fancy butters (you know the sort of place) and I’m expecting to come out after 2 courses and wine + a Mezcal within my expense allowance of £45.
Taxis today (uber) were 3 or 4 quid for half hour drives. I think you can judge the rich x egalitarian quotient of a country by the cost of a taxi. Denmark is the most expensive taxi country in the world.
I changed my mind on starter and cancelled the short rib taquitos for some salmon carpaccio instead, but they’ve brought both. So I think I’m blowing the expense allowance and will get a guilt trip email and a reimbursement charge.
But the second thing is a strange English group of a dad and his two very, I think, Essex sons, have sat down on the next table. Are they gangsters? Or just acting like it? “No mate, not Stella, Estrella!”, they later when the new beers (not Estrella) arrive “I love you dad”. “Cheers son”. Youngest boy talking about “when I went to fuckin Hawksmoor”. It’s like watching Birds of a Feather, Christmas special trip to Mexico.
The live crooner has moved on to his version of Hotel California.
German authorities suspected a string of terror attacks committed by foreigners may have been orchestrated by Russia
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/04/07/russians-internet-search-before-attack-mannheim-germany/ (£££)
https://www.cityam.com/musk-turns-on-trump-amid-tariff-fallout/
How much of recent Western political history is real, and how much is a big Russian amplifier turned up to 11?
Explains why they so readily see “CIA-backed colour revolution” in every popular street protest. Projection.
Truss and other issues may have been disastrous or damaging, but they weren't anything to do with Ratner.
But dial up Internet would end social media and Netflix... think of the productivity boom!
I see Trump and Xi are having a pissing contest. How splendid.
I think you are right in pointing out that the cost of services when travelling reflects the standards of living of ordinary people. These costs are mostly made up of the cost of labour, so if cheap then it means someone is getting paid very little. It may be more than they would get subsistence farming, but it isn't enough for them to go travelling or eat out. So I am not too bothered by the eye-watering prices of the Faeroes etc, as it means that the server is being paid well.
You know what some people call us – the nasty party.
I know that’s unfair. You know that’s unfair but it’s the people out there we need to convince – and we can only do that by avoiding behaviour and attitudes that play into the hands of our opponents. No more glib moralising, no more hypocritical finger-wagging.
There were, there are, lots of card-carrying Conservatives quietly getting in with doing good things in their communities. But that hadn't been the party's image for a long time. It's got worse since then, to the point that Kemi Badenoch has criticised the Liberal Democrats for just wanting to do nice things in their communities;
A typical Liberal Democrat will be somebody who is good at fixing their church roof. And, you know, the people in the community like them...
There is a difference between pointing out that one's foot has a hole in it with blood coming out and shooting oneself in the foot.