Ten minutes of George Osborne and Ed Balls discussing the politics and logistics of Boris and Jenrick.
Senior Cameroon Tories are not dismissing it out of hand and acknowledging that he would likely pull the party together, while being popular with large parts of the electorate. More in sorrow than anger but it is on the table for discussion, if not quite implementation. Yet.
Boris Johnson returning to lead the Tories would be a glorious victory for anyone wanting to see the formerly Conservative and formerly Unionist Party finally reduced to rump status.
Tony Blair - a political titan of his age. Completely reshaped his party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after he stepped down. Margaret Thatcher - a political titan of several ages. Completely reshaped her party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after she stepped down.
Boris Johnson - the self-titled World King. Bolloxed up Brexit by accidentally winning it (crumbs!), reduced his party to a minority by sacking his own MPs as not being Conservative enough (including Ken Clarke and Churchill's grandson - cripes!). Won an election with a chunky majority and then proceeded to not actually have a plan for what to do in government. Hounded out of office for one scandal too far.
If they bring him back then they truly are finished. Do it. DO IT!
Crap. Boris is the only Tory leader option who beats Reform and Labour in the recent MoreinCommon poll.
When Thatcher or Blair left neither the Conservatives or Labour were polling in third place
It's about more than polling. You have to be able to actually do the job - and Johnson is a lazy, narcissistic, corrupt liar. He is untrustworthy, divisive, vindictive, small-minded, short-sighted, cowardly and mean. He thinks, and his supporters think, he can get away with all that because he has a nice turn of phrase. It won't work for the same reason that it didn't work last time - plus there's now a lot of water under the bridge; people know him better. Of course, for some, blind eyes will always be turned but that's not a great basis on which to form strategy.
And he's 61 in a couple of weeks but looks older. His cheerful buffoon act was marginally tolerable in 2008 when he was just into his forties and a city mayor; it looks sad and desperate acting like a twenty-something when you're almost collecting your pension.
Your character analysis of Boris is absurdly spiteful. He’s a flawed man but also a gifted man. He can be generous funny kind and very clever; he is also narcissistic, foolish, silly, easily distracted, and overly libidinous. A libertine is probably the best word for him
He might have been a good or even great prime minister in the right circumstances. His response to Ukraine shows the potential. But he was exactly the wrong man for something like Covid, especially when he’d made so many lifelong enemies via Brexit - all determined to bring him down
He needs to step away now, tho. I agree on that
Yours, overly generous. The truth lies somewhere between.
Employment data this morning grim, 109,000 fewer in work in May and 55,000 fewer revised in April. Reeves job taxes hitting hone hard, employment falling off a cliff. 274,000 fewer in work than July. She's a genius.
What it also shows is that government drives to get people off benefits and back into work are misguided. There aren't enough jobs to go round and for employers, it is surely better to have well-motivated employees than borderline mentally ill or disabled victims of the JobCentre press gangs. By all means improve training and end perverse disincentives around losing benefits, but this should not be an expensive moral crusade.
How on earth is any government of any political colour going to solve that conundrum? Not enough jobs to go round requiring a constant stream of immigration which makes a lot of people restless.
Those who are borderline mentally ill or disabled or merely ill-motivated to work - seems to me it would require massive investment to create a programme for enabling or motivating them to do whatever they're capable of. And then providing the work.
This is the second time this Minister has been sent out to spin a load of nonsense, and he is terrible at it. Sophie Ridge basically calls him an outright liar
Sophy Ridge is right - the claim that the Winter Fuel payment is back because the economy is stronger does not stand up to scrutiny. As she shows here...
Here’s the other. Strange that he gets the gig, as I’d have thought he reinforces every negative the public have about politicians being robotic truth avoiders
Contrasting visions of the two political wings in the USA:
Left - Trans, abortion, illegal immigrants Right - Jesus, babies, guns
It's always been an abiding principle of the 2nd Amendment fundamentalists that they need firearms to protect themselves against authoritarian overreach by the government. Well, where the fuck are they now?
It’s not “authoritarian overreach by the government” when it’s targeted against someone they don’t like
Employment data this morning grim, 109,000 fewer in work in May and 55,000 fewer revised in April. Reeves job taxes hitting hone hard, employment falling off a cliff. 274,000 fewer in work than July. She's a genius.
What it also shows is that government drives to get people off benefits and back into work are misguided. There aren't enough jobs to go round and for employers, it is surely better to have well-motivated employees than borderline mentally ill or disabled victims of the JobCentre press gangs. By all means improve training and end perverse disincentives around losing benefits, but this should not be an expensive moral crusade.
How on earth is any government of any political colour going to solve that conundrum? Not enough jobs to go round requiring a constant stream of immigration which makes a lot of people restless.
Those who are borderline mentally ill or disabled or merely ill-motivated to work - seems to me it would require massive investment to create a programme for enabling or motivating them to do whatever they're capable of. And then providing the work.
*cough* Universal Basic Income
Will be needed soon. Call centre work will disappear shortly replaced by AI, delivery work will increasingly shift to drones and robots, AI will keep into healthcare etc.
Great. The sooner they are gone the better. 3p off income tax if we don't have to prop it up for starters. Also we can revisit the stupider provisions of the Windsor framework that exist mainly because of Ulster.
One of the biggest opportunities we missed when we left the EU was getting rid of the economic and diplomatic blight that is Northern Ireland.
Of course the current government would doubtless insist on paying trillions to the Republic to take it, but hopefully we'd have a more competent one in power by then.
Morning love! You used the word “stupider” against other people. The infra-Irish border was cited as an obvious place that the WE ARE ENGLAND DO WHAT WE SAY plan for Brexit fell apart.
Stupid are the people who insisted it wasn’t a problem, not our responsibility, just ignore it, belittle it - or as we saw with that wazzock Boris Johnson not understand it and lie about it.
Who is worse? The idiot savant who lies his way out of trouble? Or the idiots who think he is a genius?
You voted for Brexit
What does Brexit have to do with it? The issue is what successive Tory MPs did *after* Brexit. Had we become Norway or Iceland or Switzerland - none of whom are in the EU - the we would have had no issues in Ireland or anywhere else.
TBF it wasn’t just Tory MPs who should be blamed for that - both sides voted against a sensible compromise
Some news on SMR too this morning. I wonder what MaxPB makes of it.
Numbers on nuclear never add up. The cost of one nuclear power station (ca £40 billion) generating a steady 3GW is close to total planned investments in offshore wind providing up to 70GW intermittent.
Fair point. The Czechs presumably don't have the option of offshore wind. They can do solar, which is cheap and pretty much the default generation choice these days.
Ten minutes of George Osborne and Ed Balls discussing the politics and logistics of Boris and Jenrick.
Senior Cameroon Tories are not dismissing it out of hand and acknowledging that he would likely pull the party together, while being popular with large parts of the electorate. More in sorrow than anger but it is on the table for discussion, if not quite implementation. Yet.
Boris Johnson returning to lead the Tories would be a glorious victory for anyone wanting to see the formerly Conservative and formerly Unionist Party finally reduced to rump status.
Tony Blair - a political titan of his age. Completely reshaped his party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after he stepped down. Margaret Thatcher - a political titan of several ages. Completely reshaped her party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after she stepped down.
Boris Johnson - the self-titled World King. Bolloxed up Brexit by accidentally winning it (crumbs!), reduced his party to a minority by sacking his own MPs as not being Conservative enough (including Ken Clarke and Churchill's grandson - cripes!). Won an election with a chunky majority and then proceeded to not actually have a plan for what to do in government. Hounded out of office for one scandal too far.
If they bring him back then they truly are finished. Do it. DO IT!
Crap. Boris is the only Tory leader option who beats Reform and Labour in the recent MoreinCommon poll.
When Thatcher or Blair left neither the Conservatives or Labour were polling in third place
It's about more than polling. You have to be able to actually do the job - and Johnson is a lazy, narcissistic, corrupt liar. He is untrustworthy, divisive, vindictive, small-minded, short-sighted, cowardly and mean. He thinks, and his supporters think, he can get away with all that because he has a nice turn of phrase. It won't work for the same reason that it didn't work last time - plus there's now a lot of water under the bridge; people know him better. Of course, for some, blind eyes will always be turned but that's not a great basis on which to form strategy.
And he's 61 in a couple of weeks but looks older. His cheerful buffoon act was marginally tolerable in 2008 when he was just into his forties and a city mayor; it looks sad and desperate acting like a twenty-something when you're almost collecting your pension.
Your character analysis of Boris is absurdly spiteful. He’s a flawed man but also a gifted man. He can be generous funny kind and very clever; he is also narcissistic, foolish, silly, easily distracted, and overly libidinous. A libertine is probably the best word for him
He might have been a good or even great prime minister in the right circumstances. His response to Ukraine shows the potential. But he was exactly the wrong man for something like Covid, especially when he’d made so many lifelong enemies via Brexit - all determined to bring him down
He needs to step away now, tho. I agree on that
Boris! had a lot of talents which could have shone through. He is a brilliant bullshit artist, so fantastic at selling something and getting people excited and motivated.
He's utterly crap at detail and almost slovenly in his work ethic (on anything that isn't shagging). Had he the emotional intelligence to understand that he could have built a team full of talent who were able to support his strengths by infilling his weaknesses. "Build Back Better with Boris, now here's x with the details"
But no. The World King thought he could just have japes and still deliver. Its a pity, because we all looked at the political map at the end of 2019 and thought he could be office for a long long time.
Ten minutes of George Osborne and Ed Balls discussing the politics and logistics of Boris and Jenrick.
Senior Cameroon Tories are not dismissing it out of hand and acknowledging that he would likely pull the party together, while being popular with large parts of the electorate. More in sorrow than anger but it is on the table for discussion, if not quite implementation. Yet.
He needs to make some BIG promises to overcome the Faragedozer.
Farage getting quite an outing here in Wales for reopening all the Welsh superpits and both Port Talbot blast furnaces yesterday.
It was a busy day and the Welsh broadcast media are grateful for his service.
Beat that Boris!
He's going to Make Wales Great Again, isn't he, the little tinker.
Harvest the votes first and then best to sideline the impossible stuff like blast furnaces and mines. Planning and engineering requirements would take years to resolve anyway.
All about the vibes. It will collapse under scrutiny (obvs) but let's hope that happens before GE29 rather than after.
Of course it's all about the vibes. We are a multi party democracy, including all the outfits like Reform that I am not going to vote for.
The Farage zigzag has gone in stages. These include a sort of reputation for the politics of low tax, low spend, flog NHS to highest bidder, billionaires paradise, Singapore, Global free trade buccaneer, weakest to the wall, a bit of racism, a slight fondness for Mr Tough guy like Trump and Putin.
You can gain attention from all this, but once you have spoken to the zimmers, waiting lists, blokes in the bookies on the way to the pub, minimum wage people, bunions, moaners, WFA receivers, joint pain sufferers, daytime telly watchers of Clacton you realise that this is not an election winning formula. Nor can it be done in the actual world. If it could the Tories would have done it.
Farage is moving to the centre - high spend, high tax (sotto voce), welfare, NHS, regulated free market.
He cannot break the iron rules. The post 1945 world is social democrat welfarism. Elections are won from the centre. He intends to win. This is what proves it. let's hope he doesn't.
Thatcher didn't win on social democrat welfarism nor did Cameron
Total nonsense. JRM wrongly conflates "middle" with a dithering fudge, he confuses things PMs did with their campaigning position, ignores any election that is inconvenient to his story, and conveniently forgets who the opposition were (e.g. Foot in 1983 and Corbyn in 2019).
The 'centre' has always meant a pragmatic approach with the objective as delivery, while only taking on such divisive actions as were necessary as to produce that delivery. Thatcher didn't initially wage war on the NUM (and caved to them in 1981) but ensured that when she did, the government was ready and the NUM was clearly placed in the moral and legal wrong. Likewise, the economic / fiscal policies of both the 1979 and 2010 governments were built on fixing the failures of the outgoing Labour governments: a point which had already been made to, and endorsed by, the electorate: whether inflation or budget deficits.
There are, of course, many routes to that kind of centrism - Tory Wets criticised her as unnecessarily divisive but the essence of that criticism was that it wouldn't work, socially or economically. They were wrong on the economics; less so on the social side. But Thatcher also had delivery as a key objective for working-class families with council house sales; something which she believed would bind communities through a direct physical and financial stake in them. The same idea was behind prioritising small investors in privatisations. Neither quite worked as intended but the that was for the future in 1983-7.
Then she embarked on the Poll Tax, which was ideological, and got kicked out.
Whether that rule still holds in the social media age is another question. The evidence from other countries and our own is that it's far weaker than it was and vibes matter much more.
A 13% lead for Unionists in Northern Ireland is still pretty comfortable. While there is no nationalist majority at Stormont there will be no border poll anyway.
Not forgetting of course that the DUP and TUV would declare UDI for Antrim and East Londonderry rather than ever accept Dublin rule. Northern Ireland being created in the first place as hundreds of thousands of diehard Ulster Protestants had taken up arms rather than be forced to accept Home Rule and being pushed into the new Irish Free State against their will
What about North Down and East Belfast?
At one time, many years ago, I employed an Ulster Protestant. Nice chap; told me once his father had signed the Ulster Covenant in his own blood. Quite enthusiastic about NOT being 'ruled by Catholics', some of these folk.
What difference it will make that the Irish Republic doesn't seem to be 'ruled by Catholics' either I'm not sure.
I think your post is missing the words 'any more'. My understanding is that, as you say, Northern Irish unionism was significantly driven by fear of the influence of the Catholic church in the functioning of any independent Ireland - and also that for the majority of its history, the Catholic church was indeed very influential: unionist fears were quite justified. As (I think) you imply, it's different nowadays, and we have yet to see the difference this will make to unionism. I suspect given the experience of the last 50 years in NI, what the unionist fears now is being ruled by triumphant nationalists.
Fair points, @Cookie; memories in these matters are long, though, so I think it will take quite a while for traditional Unionist fears to become marginalised. It's a pity that Sinn Fein, with it's history, is the dominant anti-Unionist party, but, of course, it has the organisation. Alliance plus SDLP could be better.
I always got the feeling during the Mo Mowlam years that she favoured the hardliners (SF and DUP) over the moderates (SDLP, UUP and Alliance). There is an alternative history to be written of where NI could be now with a different approach during those years. I may be way off beam here however and am happy to hear other interpretations.
Some news on SMR too this morning. I wonder what MaxPB makes of it.
Numbers on nuclear never add up. The cost of one nuclear power station (ca £40 billion) generating a steady 3GW is close to total planned investments in offshore wind providing up to 70GW intermittent.
Should add, the £40 billion doesn't include the costs of waste handling and decommissioning, which are open-ended and big.
Ten minutes of George Osborne and Ed Balls discussing the politics and logistics of Boris and Jenrick.
Senior Cameroon Tories are not dismissing it out of hand and acknowledging that he would likely pull the party together, while being popular with large parts of the electorate. More in sorrow than anger but it is on the table for discussion, if not quite implementation. Yet.
He needs to make some BIG promises to overcome the Faragedozer.
Farage getting quite an outing here in Wales for reopening all the Welsh superpits and both Port Talbot blast furnaces yesterday.
It was a busy day and the Welsh broadcast media are grateful for his service.
Beat that Boris!
He's going to Make Wales Great Again, isn't he, the little tinker.
Harvest the votes first and then best to sideline the impossible stuff like blast furnaces and mines. Planning and engineering requirements would take years to resolve anyway.
All about the vibes. It will collapse under scrutiny (obvs) but let's hope that happens before GE29 rather than after.
Of course it's all about the vibes. We are a multi party democracy, including all the outfits like Reform that I am not going to vote for.
The Farage zigzag has gone in stages. These include a sort of reputation for the politics of low tax, low spend, flog NHS to highest bidder, billionaires paradise, Singapore, Global free trade buccaneer, weakest to the wall, a bit of racism, a slight fondness for Mr Tough guy like Trump and Putin.
You can gain attention from all this, but once you have spoken to the zimmers, waiting lists, blokes in the bookies on the way to the pub, minimum wage people, bunions, moaners, WFA receivers, joint pain sufferers, daytime telly watchers of Clacton you realise that this is not an election winning formula. Nor can it be done in the actual world. If it could the Tories would have done it.
Farage is moving to the centre - high spend, high tax (sotto voce), welfare, NHS, regulated free market.
He cannot break the iron rules. The post 1945 world is social democrat welfarism. Elections are won from the centre. He intends to win. This is what proves it. let's hope he doesn't.
Thatcher didn't win on social democrat welfarism nor did Cameron
Complete nonsense in 90 seconds. None of his examples overturned the post WWII social democratic consensus. They all tinkered with the margins and developed it, in a mixture of good and bad ways. JRM totally devalues here the central policy core which is an unaltered social democracy.
This central core is also the bit that spends all the money. Add up: pensions, benefits, education, NHS, defence.
No voice is ever raised, nor has been for years, to spend less on any of these social democrat ends. A thousand voices are raised daily to spend more.
I read a very friendly biography of Gordon Brown back in the day. One of his contributions to the New Labour philosophy was identifying a severe problem which Mrs Thatcher had created and which New Labour would need to solve: everybody had become too self-reliant.
Employment data this morning grim, 109,000 fewer in work in May and 55,000 fewer revised in April. Reeves job taxes hitting hone hard, employment falling off a cliff. 274,000 fewer in work than July. She's a genius.
What it also shows is that government drives to get people off benefits and back into work are misguided. There aren't enough jobs to go round and for employers, it is surely better to have well-motivated employees than borderline mentally ill or disabled victims of the JobCentre press gangs. By all means improve training and end perverse disincentives around losing benefits, but this should not be an expensive moral crusade.
How on earth is any government of any political colour going to solve that conundrum? Not enough jobs to go round requiring a constant stream of immigration which makes a lot of people restless.
Those who are borderline mentally ill or disabled or merely ill-motivated to work - seems to me it would require massive investment to create a programme for enabling or motivating them to do whatever they're capable of. And then providing the work.
"not enough jobs to go round requiring a constant stream of immigration" is a contradiction in terms. If the position is that there are lots of low-paid jobs which can't be filled, then the answer is either to pay them better or accept the immigration. There are already a good many jobs which I'd think of as working-class which are well-paid but generally driven by contracts rather than regular employment - all the basically manual jobs that middle-class people pay to have done to their homes for a start. The idea that manual work should be badly-paid is the real mistake here - as AI spreads, jobs which computers can't do will increase in pay, quite rightly.
Up to recently, I had a profitable second career in translation (from Danish and German into English). That's now been largely destroyed by the advance of computing, so that the work largely consists of checking AI translation at a low rate of pay. I'm not really bothered as I'm 75 and quite happy to simply retire, but it's an example of how things change.
Employment data this morning grim, 109,000 fewer in work in May and 55,000 fewer revised in April. Reeves job taxes hitting hone hard, employment falling off a cliff. 274,000 fewer in work than July. She's a genius.
What it also shows is that government drives to get people off benefits and back into work are misguided. There aren't enough jobs to go round and for employers, it is surely better to have well-motivated employees than borderline mentally ill or disabled victims of the JobCentre press gangs. By all means improve training and end perverse disincentives around losing benefits, but this should not be an expensive moral crusade.
How on earth is any government of any political colour going to solve that conundrum? Not enough jobs to go round requiring a constant stream of immigration which makes a lot of people restless.
Those who are borderline mentally ill or disabled or merely ill-motivated to work - seems to me it would require massive investment to create a programme for enabling or motivating them to do whatever they're capable of. And then providing the work.
*cough* Universal Basic Income
Will be needed soon. Call centre work will disappear shortly replaced by AI, delivery work will increasingly shift to drones and robots, AI will keep into healthcare etc.
Love to know where the tax revenue will come to pay for it - because the one thing AI will do is allow the profit to be shifted away in a none taxable way
Employment data this morning grim, 109,000 fewer in work in May and 55,000 fewer revised in April. Reeves job taxes hitting hone hard, employment falling off a cliff. 274,000 fewer in work than July. She's a genius.
What it also shows is that government drives to get people off benefits and back into work are misguided. There aren't enough jobs to go round and for employers, it is surely better to have well-motivated employees than borderline mentally ill or disabled victims of the JobCentre press gangs. By all means improve training and end perverse disincentives around losing benefits, but this should not be an expensive moral crusade.
How on earth is any government of any political colour going to solve that conundrum? Not enough jobs to go round requiring a constant stream of immigration which makes a lot of people restless.
Those who are borderline mentally ill or disabled or merely ill-motivated to work - seems to me it would require massive investment to create a programme for enabling or motivating them to do whatever they're capable of. And then providing the work.
*cough* Universal Basic Income
Will be needed soon. Call centre work will disappear shortly replaced by AI, delivery work will increasingly shift to drones and robots, AI will keep into healthcare etc.
Love to know where the tax revenue will come to pay for it
Presumably punitive business rates as theyll all be coining it in without much staffing costs and sales taxes plus some tariffs or something funky like that
Employment data this morning grim, 109,000 fewer in work in May and 55,000 fewer revised in April. Reeves job taxes hitting hone hard, employment falling off a cliff. 274,000 fewer in work than July. She's a genius.
What it also shows is that government drives to get people off benefits and back into work are misguided. There aren't enough jobs to go round and for employers, it is surely better to have well-motivated employees than borderline mentally ill or disabled victims of the JobCentre press gangs. By all means improve training and end perverse disincentives around losing benefits, but this should not be an expensive moral crusade.
How on earth is any government of any political colour going to solve that conundrum? Not enough jobs to go round requiring a constant stream of immigration which makes a lot of people restless.
Those who are borderline mentally ill or disabled or merely ill-motivated to work - seems to me it would require massive investment to create a programme for enabling or motivating them to do whatever they're capable of. And then providing the work.
*cough* Universal Basic Income
For all ?
Okay, at what level would it be set and, more importantly, where does the money come from ?
Print it ?
I wouldn’t mind. I’m retired now and will be getting my state pension in just over 7 years so, for me, I’d guess this would replace that.
Some news on SMR too this morning. I wonder what MaxPB makes of it.
Numbers on nuclear never add up. The cost of one nuclear power station (ca £40 billion) generating a steady 3GW is close to total planned investments in offshore wind providing up to 70GW intermittent.
Fair point. The Czechs presumably don't have the option of offshore wind. They can do solar, which is cheap and pretty much the default generation choice these days.
Shakespeare referred to the sea-cost of Bohemia, didn't he?
Independence has always been a hardline loyalist position. No nationalist would support it.
Not sure about this. I would say it's the Alliance position taken to its logical and possibly unviable conclusion. It's a recognition that Northern Ireland is its own place with its own history and culture. I know at least one person with that view.
As far as I know, little serious thought has been put into how the Republic of Ireland should accommodate any self determination or devolution of Northern Ireland. They probably need to start thinking now. Northern Ireland does largely mismanage itself right now
Employment data this morning grim, 109,000 fewer in work in May and 55,000 fewer revised in April. Reeves job taxes hitting hone hard, employment falling off a cliff. 274,000 fewer in work than July. She's a genius.
What it also shows is that government drives to get people off benefits and back into work are misguided. There aren't enough jobs to go round and for employers, it is surely better to have well-motivated employees than borderline mentally ill or disabled victims of the JobCentre press gangs. By all means improve training and end perverse disincentives around losing benefits, but this should not be an expensive moral crusade.
How on earth is any government of any political colour going to solve that conundrum? Not enough jobs to go round requiring a constant stream of immigration which makes a lot of people restless.
Those who are borderline mentally ill or disabled or merely ill-motivated to work - seems to me it would require massive investment to create a programme for enabling or motivating them to do whatever they're capable of. And then providing the work.
*cough* Universal Basic Income
Will be needed soon. Call centre work will disappear shortly replaced by AI, delivery work will increasingly shift to drones and robots, AI will keep into healthcare etc.
Love to know where the tax revenue will come to pay for it - because the one thing AI will do is allow the profit to be shifted away in a none taxable way
A 13% lead for Unionists in Northern Ireland is still pretty comfortable. While there is no nationalist majority at Stormont there will be no border poll anyway.
Not forgetting of course that the DUP and TUV would declare UDI for Antrim and East Londonderry rather than ever accept Dublin rule. Northern Ireland being created in the first place as hundreds of thousands of diehard Ulster Protestants had taken up arms rather than be forced to accept Home Rule and being pushed into the new Irish Free State against their will
What about North Down and East Belfast?
At one time, many years ago, I employed an Ulster Protestant. Nice chap; told me once his father had signed the Ulster Covenant in his own blood. Quite enthusiastic about NOT being 'ruled by Catholics', some of these folk.
What difference it will make that the Irish Republic doesn't seem to be 'ruled by Catholics' either I'm not sure.
I think your post is missing the words 'any more'. My understanding is that, as you say, Northern Irish unionism was significantly driven by fear of the influence of the Catholic church in the functioning of any independent Ireland - and also that for the majority of its history, the Catholic church was indeed very influential: unionist fears were quite justified. As (I think) you imply, it's different nowadays, and we have yet to see the difference this will make to unionism. I suspect given the experience of the last 50 years in NI, what the unionist fears now is being ruled by triumphant nationalists.
Fair points, @Cookie; memories in these matters are long, though, so I think it will take quite a while for traditional Unionist fears to become marginalised. It's a pity that Sinn Fein, with it's history, is the dominant anti-Unionist party, but, of course, it has the organisation. Alliance plus SDLP could be better.
I always got the feeling during the Mo Mowlam years that she favoured the hardliners (SF and DUP) over the moderates (SDLP, UUP and Alliance). There is an alternative history to be written of where NI could be now with a different approach during those years. I may be way off beam here however and am happy to hear other interpretations.
Almost by definition the moderates were on board with pretty much any peace agreement while the men of blood were not. Basing the GFA primarily on seducing Paisley & McGuinness (& even then the DUP didn't sign it) was not optimal but I can't really see any other way it could have been finessed.
Ten minutes of George Osborne and Ed Balls discussing the politics and logistics of Boris and Jenrick.
Senior Cameroon Tories are not dismissing it out of hand and acknowledging that he would likely pull the party together, while being popular with large parts of the electorate. More in sorrow than anger but it is on the table for discussion, if not quite implementation. Yet.
Boris Johnson returning to lead the Tories would be a glorious victory for anyone wanting to see the formerly Conservative and formerly Unionist Party finally reduced to rump status.
Tony Blair - a political titan of his age. Completely reshaped his party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after he stepped down. Margaret Thatcher - a political titan of several ages. Completely reshaped her party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after she stepped down.
Boris Johnson - the self-titled World King. Bolloxed up Brexit by accidentally winning it (crumbs!), reduced his party to a minority by sacking his own MPs as not being Conservative enough (including Ken Clarke and Churchill's grandson - cripes!). Won an election with a chunky majority and then proceeded to not actually have a plan for what to do in government. Hounded out of office for one scandal too far.
If they bring him back then they truly are finished. Do it. DO IT!
Crap. Boris is the only Tory leader option who beats Reform and Labour in the recent MoreinCommon poll.
When Thatcher or Blair left neither the Conservatives or Labour were polling in third place
It's about more than polling. You have to be able to actually do the job - and Johnson is a lazy, narcissistic, corrupt liar. He is untrustworthy, divisive, vindictive, small-minded, short-sighted, cowardly and mean. He thinks, and his supporters think, he can get away with all that because he has a nice turn of phrase. It won't work for the same reason that it didn't work last time - plus there's now a lot of water under the bridge; people know him better. Of course, for some, blind eyes will always be turned but that's not a great basis on which to form strategy.
And he's 61 in a couple of weeks but looks older. His cheerful buffoon act was marginally tolerable in 2008 when he was just into his forties and a city mayor; it looks sad and desperate acting like a twenty-something when you're almost collecting your pension.
Your character analysis of Boris is absurdly spiteful. He’s a flawed man but also a gifted man. He can be generous funny kind and very clever; he is also narcissistic, foolish, silly, easily distracted, and overly libidinous. A libertine is probably the best word for him
He might have been a good or even great prime minister in the right circumstances. His response to Ukraine shows the potential. But he was exactly the wrong man for something like Covid, especially when he’d made so many lifelong enemies via Brexit - all determined to bring him down
He needs to step away now, tho. I agree on that
The character portraits opposing parties paint will be harsh. I highlighted his negative qualities. I don't doubt Johnson has positive ones too: his optimism and enthusiasm being chief among them.
But he was never going to be a great prime minister because of his flaws; his political model had that foundational fault. He also never troubled himself with the necessary detail, which can only be overcome if you're really exceptional at delegating to the right people and building a team which can work fairly independently and cohesively beneath you (see Reagan). Johnson wasn't because he was too easily distracted to be able to set a consistent strategy. He was also unlucky that Covid threw him off but that was only for 18 months: had he created a better team, and had he led more effectively, he'd have had 2+ years after it to get on with what he wanted to.
Contrasting visions of the two political wings in the USA:
Left - Trans, abortion, illegal immigrants Right - Jesus, babies, guns
It's always been an abiding principle of the 2nd Amendment fundamentalists that they need firearms to protect themselves against authoritarian overreach by the government. Well, where the fuck are they now?
Unfortunately they overwhelmingly voted for Mr Trump.
This is the second time this Minister has been sent out to spin a load of nonsense, and he is terrible at it. Sophie Ridge basically calls him an outright liar
Sophy Ridge is right - the claim that the Winter Fuel payment is back because the economy is stronger does not stand up to scrutiny. As she shows here...
Indeed. Sometimes (usually?) governments are better to defend U-turns by simply saying something like 'politics is also about listening; there was clearly more opposition on this than we expected; we've heard the arguments, are persuaded by them and have changed our mind".
Ed Miliband: "...we have this massive challenge to get off fossil fuels."
So why is Ed funding new build CCGT power plants and blue hydrogen plants that will consume natural gas for decades to come?
Because it's 25 years until 2050 and even after that the UK expects to use gas to support the grid when required, even if we achieve Net Zero. Hopefully he'll announce a big expansion in gas storage too, to even out the price of gas in the winter.
The planned lifespan of a CCGT is 25 to 30 years, and many were built in the 1990s. They can be kept running if older, but that gets increasingly expensive. The owners of a CCGT near me are in that position, and have asked the government for permission to build a new plant at the site. Up to now, the answer has been no.
Until we get many more renewables, and orders of magnitude more storage, I cannot see an option other than building new CCGT (often replacing existing ones).
I think it's perfectly sensible, though I'm interested in what kind of contract the government will go for. Our gas generation had collapsed (currently at 2GW lol), so these new stations are only viable if they are able to charge very high prices to cover what small amounts of energy they do provide.
How do we take into account new interconnectors? We're currently importing more from France than we are generating from gas.
Agree. Build gas power stations as cheaply as possible and use them as little as is necessary. I would even accept coal for this purpose (easy to store)
Ten minutes of George Osborne and Ed Balls discussing the politics and logistics of Boris and Jenrick.
Senior Cameroon Tories are not dismissing it out of hand and acknowledging that he would likely pull the party together, while being popular with large parts of the electorate. More in sorrow than anger but it is on the table for discussion, if not quite implementation. Yet.
Boris Johnson returning to lead the Tories would be a glorious victory for anyone wanting to see the formerly Conservative and formerly Unionist Party finally reduced to rump status.
Tony Blair - a political titan of his age. Completely reshaped his party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after he stepped down. Margaret Thatcher - a political titan of several ages. Completely reshaped her party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after she stepped down.
Boris Johnson - the self-titled World King. Bolloxed up Brexit by accidentally winning it (crumbs!), reduced his party to a minority by sacking his own MPs as not being Conservative enough (including Ken Clarke and Churchill's grandson - cripes!). Won an election with a chunky majority and then proceeded to not actually have a plan for what to do in government. Hounded out of office for one scandal too far.
If they bring him back then they truly are finished. Do it. DO IT!
Crap. Boris is the only Tory leader option who beats Reform and Labour in the recent MoreinCommon poll.
When Thatcher or Blair left neither the Conservatives or Labour were polling in third place
It's about more than polling. You have to be able to actually do the job - and Johnson is a lazy, narcissistic, corrupt liar. He is untrustworthy, divisive, vindictive, small-minded, short-sighted, cowardly and mean. He thinks, and his supporters think, he can get away with all that because he has a nice turn of phrase. It won't work for the same reason that it didn't work last time - plus there's now a lot of water under the bridge; people know him better. Of course, for some, blind eyes will always be turned but that's not a great basis on which to form strategy.
And he's 61 in a couple of weeks but looks older. His cheerful buffoon act was marginally tolerable in 2008 when he was just into his forties and a city mayor; it looks sad and desperate acting like a twenty-something when you're almost collecting your pension.
Your character analysis of Boris is absurdly spiteful. He’s a flawed man but also a gifted man. He can be generous funny kind and very clever; he is also narcissistic, foolish, silly, easily distracted, and overly libidinous. A libertine is probably the best word for him
He might have been a good or even great prime minister in the right circumstances. His response to Ukraine shows the potential. But he was exactly the wrong man for something like Covid, especially when he’d made so many lifelong enemies via Brexit - all determined to bring him down
He needs to step away now, tho. I agree on that
The character portraits opposing parties paint will be harsh. I highlighted his negative qualities. I don't doubt Johnson has positive ones too: his optimism and enthusiasm being chief among them.
But he was never going to be a great prime minister because of his flaws; his political model had that foundational fault. He also never troubled himself with the necessary detail, which can only be overcome if you're really exceptional at delegating to the right people and building a team which can work fairly independently and cohesively beneath you (see Reagan). Johnson wasn't because he was too easily distracted to be able to set a consistent strategy. He was also unlucky that Covid threw him off but that was only for 18 months: had he created a better team, and had he led more effectively, he'd have had 2+ years after it to get on with what he wanted to.
No, you just sounded bitter
That said, Boris bitterly disappointed me. I hoped for so much more. So maybe our opinions aren’t that different
He was and is still notably better than Starmer. Eg I trust Boris has a basic love of the country. I really doubt that with Sir Keir Traitor
That’s how bad Starmer is. Notably worse than Boris
Working as I do at a University I naively expected paternal leave to be generous. I was wrong. The university jumps through every hoop possible for women, but good old dads just get two weeks. Pathetic. There is apparently some sort of Dad strike planned this week to get a better deal.
Anyone whose partner has had a cesarean will now that 6 weeks is around the time for them to get fully mobile again, so 6 weeks ought to be the default paternal leave. Its not much to ask in the modern world of sexual equality.
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
Some news on SMR too this morning. I wonder what MaxPB makes of it.
Numbers on nuclear never add up. The cost of one nuclear power station (ca £40 billion) generating a steady 3GW is close to total planned investments in offshore wind providing up to 70GW intermittent.
Fair point. The Czechs presumably don't have the option of offshore wind. They can do solar, which is cheap and pretty much the default generation choice these days.
Shakespeare referred to the sea-cost of Bohemia, didn't he?
I think at various times the Kingdom of Bohemia stretched to the Baltic and the Adriatic.
Some news on SMR too this morning. I wonder what MaxPB makes of it.
Numbers on nuclear never add up. The cost of one nuclear power station (ca £40 billion) generating a steady 3GW is close to total planned investments in offshore wind providing up to 70GW intermittent.
Should add, the £40 billion doesn't include the costs of waste handling and decommissioning, which are open-ended and big.
£40bn is around double what it should cost. And had it been given the go ahead in 2010 then it might actually have been delivered at a halfway reasonable price.
This is the second time this Minister has been sent out to spin a load of nonsense, and he is terrible at it. Sophie Ridge basically calls him an outright liar
Sophy Ridge is right - the claim that the Winter Fuel payment is back because the economy is stronger does not stand up to scrutiny. As she shows here...
Indeed. Sometimes (usually?) governments are better to defend U-turns by simply saying something like 'politics is also about listening; there was clearly more opposition on this than we expected; we've heard the arguments, are persuaded by them and have changed our mind".
I have a sneaking little hope that there might be a bit of backlash from the U-turn, to demonstrate that not all pensioners consider they're entitled to more than a fair share. £35000 is not a low income - if it were, many other individuals & families should be getting WFA.
Employment data this morning grim, 109,000 fewer in work in May and 55,000 fewer revised in April. Reeves job taxes hitting hone hard, employment falling off a cliff. 274,000 fewer in work than July. She's a genius.
I have been banging on about this since it was announced.
Some news on SMR too this morning. I wonder what MaxPB makes of it.
Numbers on nuclear never add up. The cost of one nuclear power station (ca £40 billion) generating a steady 3GW is close to total planned investments in offshore wind providing up to 70GW intermittent.
Fair point. The Czechs presumably don't have the option of offshore wind. They can do solar, which is cheap and pretty much the default generation choice these days.
Shakespeare referred to the sea-cost of Bohemia, didn't he?
I think at various times the Kingdom of Bohemia stretched to the Baltic and the Adriatic.
Possibly... though I think in Shakespeare's case he was just wrong/didn't know/didn't really care, and possibly neither did most of his audience* - it just sounded suitably faraway and exotic.
*hard to understate the ignorance of geography in Tudor times. When [can't remember his name] went searching for a shortcut to China via the North Cape of Norway and ended up landing on the shore of the White Sea, the existence of Russia came as a complete surprise.
I had six weeks off at full pay with our fourth - recently upgraded partner pay from our uni, before then it was two weeks, one full pay and one statutory pay.
Makes a hell of a difference. I took a bit of extra leave for the first three, but we don't have the option to buy leave so it was limited.
Probably didn't need it really, for the first (partly due to having a fairly simple birth and supportive family nearby) as it's doable - main carer can sleep when the baby sleeps. But with subsequent children a breastfeeding mum can be up much of the night and not get a chance to sleep when the baby sleeps in the day as the older ones need looking after. At least four weeks until things settle down a bit would be really good. Six weeks is excellent
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
It feels like tempting fate but - with all my travels - the worst aircraft experience I’ve had is really severe turbulence (which is pretty terrifying; that said)
The scariest flight experience of all was a microlight flight up the south face of Annapurna in Nepal. Followed by paragliding in the Dolomites
This is where I am scheduled to land shortly
“This is what landing at one of Europes most difficult airports look like. Atlantic Airways Airbus A319 touching down in Vagar, Faroe Islands 🇫🇴 - a place I fondly remember. #aviation”
A 13% lead for Unionists in Northern Ireland is still pretty comfortable. While there is no nationalist majority at Stormont there will be no border poll anyway.
Not forgetting of course that the DUP and TUV would declare UDI for Antrim and East Londonderry rather than ever accept Dublin rule. Northern Ireland being created in the first place as hundreds of thousands of diehard Ulster Protestants had taken up arms rather than be forced to accept Home Rule and being pushed into the new Irish Free State against their will
What about North Down and East Belfast?
At one time, many years ago, I employed an Ulster Protestant. Nice chap; told me once his father had signed the Ulster Covenant in his own blood. Quite enthusiastic about NOT being 'ruled by Catholics', some of these folk.
What difference it will make that the Irish Republic doesn't seem to be 'ruled by Catholics' either I'm not sure.
I think your post is missing the words 'any more'. My understanding is that, as you say, Northern Irish unionism was significantly driven by fear of the influence of the Catholic church in the functioning of any independent Ireland - and also that for the majority of its history, the Catholic church was indeed very influential: unionist fears were quite justified. As (I think) you imply, it's different nowadays, and we have yet to see the difference this will make to unionism. I suspect given the experience of the last 50 years in NI, what the unionist fears now is being ruled by triumphant nationalists.
Fair points, @Cookie; memories in these matters are long, though, so I think it will take quite a while for traditional Unionist fears to become marginalised. It's a pity that Sinn Fein, with it's history, is the dominant anti-Unionist party, but, of course, it has the organisation. Alliance plus SDLP could be better.
I always got the feeling during the Mo Mowlam years that she favoured the hardliners (SF and DUP) over the moderates (SDLP, UUP and Alliance). There is an alternative history to be written of where NI could be now with a different approach during those years. I may be way off beam here however and am happy to hear other interpretations.
Almost by definition the moderates were on board with pretty much any peace agreement while the men of blood were not. Basing the GFA primarily on seducing Paisley & McGuinness (& even then the DUP didn't sign it) was not optimal but I can't really see any other way it could have been finessed.
Fair point - you may be right. I'd rather have seen the men of blood marginalised - I don't want a world where violence works, and an outcome where the nationalist electorate reject the nutters like they have in the south seems a preferable one - but could that approach have worked in practice? Dunno. Presumably there is at least some level of specialism in these matters in the NI office greater than that of a bloke off the internet.
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
We have experienced 2 aborted landings at Heathrow, and the loss of an engine on a Qantas 747 on a direct flight from Heathrow to Sydney after refueling in Bangkok
The pilot informed us, and said that he was to release fuel and could only land back at Bangkok after a couple of hours of this which when we did were followed by fire engines and ambulances before coming to a halt in an apparently safe area
We were taken to a 5 star hotel, where we spent one and half nights before meeting the same captain at the departure gate as our replacement plane approached it's stance with 5 engines, the captain informing us that the inboard engine would be removed and installed on our faulty 747
This is the second time this Minister has been sent out to spin a load of nonsense, and he is terrible at it. Sophie Ridge basically calls him an outright liar
Sophy Ridge is right - the claim that the Winter Fuel payment is back because the economy is stronger does not stand up to scrutiny. As she shows here...
Indeed. Sometimes (usually?) governments are better to defend U-turns by simply saying something like 'politics is also about listening; there was clearly more opposition on this than we expected; we've heard the arguments, are persuaded by them and have changed our mind".
Winter Fuel Allowance is a nonsense but I don't think U Turns, or scrapping policies that aren't working out, are bad in principle. Governments have two possible explanations:
(1) The circumstances have changed so we have changed - as the government is claiming here. (2) We got it wrong. We've listened. We've fixed it.
I don't think it matters very much as long as people are happy that the policy is being changed. The important thing is to focus on the benefit of the change.
I'm sure it will be fine this time, and the latest set of assurances worth more than the paper they aren't written on.
Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion. I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case. https://x.com/SenBillCassidy/status/1932193937349075077
The complete abdication by Congress of its oversight of the executive is the primary enabler of the descent into authoritarianism.
Ten minutes of George Osborne and Ed Balls discussing the politics and logistics of Boris and Jenrick.
Senior Cameroon Tories are not dismissing it out of hand and acknowledging that he would likely pull the party together, while being popular with large parts of the electorate. More in sorrow than anger but it is on the table for discussion, if not quite implementation. Yet.
Boris Johnson returning to lead the Tories would be a glorious victory for anyone wanting to see the formerly Conservative and formerly Unionist Party finally reduced to rump status.
Tony Blair - a political titan of his age. Completely reshaped his party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after he stepped down. Margaret Thatcher - a political titan of several ages. Completely reshaped her party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after she stepped down.
Boris Johnson - the self-titled World King. Bolloxed up Brexit by accidentally winning it (crumbs!), reduced his party to a minority by sacking his own MPs as not being Conservative enough (including Ken Clarke and Churchill's grandson - cripes!). Won an election with a chunky majority and then proceeded to not actually have a plan for what to do in government. Hounded out of office for one scandal too far.
If they bring him back then they truly are finished. Do it. DO IT!
Crap. Boris is the only Tory leader option who beats Reform and Labour in the recent MoreinCommon poll.
When Thatcher or Blair left neither the Conservatives or Labour were polling in third place
It's about more than polling. You have to be able to actually do the job - and Johnson is a lazy, narcissistic, corrupt liar. He is untrustworthy, divisive, vindictive, small-minded, short-sighted, cowardly and mean. He thinks, and his supporters think, he can get away with all that because he has a nice turn of phrase. It won't work for the same reason that it didn't work last time - plus there's now a lot of water under the bridge; people know him better. Of course, for some, blind eyes will always be turned but that's not a great basis on which to form strategy.
And he's 61 in a couple of weeks but looks older. His cheerful buffoon act was marginally tolerable in 2008 when he was just into his forties and a city mayor; it looks sad and desperate acting like a twenty-something when you're almost collecting your pension.
Your character analysis of Boris is absurdly spiteful. He’s a flawed man but also a gifted man. He can be generous funny kind and very clever; he is also narcissistic, foolish, silly, easily distracted, and overly libidinous. A libertine is probably the best word for him
He might have been a good or even great prime minister in the right circumstances. His response to Ukraine shows the potential. But he was exactly the wrong man for something like Covid, especially when he’d made so many lifelong enemies via Brexit - all determined to bring him down
He needs to step away now, tho. I agree on that
Boris! had a lot of talents which could have shone through. He is a brilliant bullshit artist, so fantastic at selling something and getting people excited and motivated.
He's utterly crap at detail and almost slovenly in his work ethic (on anything that isn't shagging). Had he the emotional intelligence to understand that he could have built a team full of talent who were able to support his strengths by infilling his weaknesses. "Build Back Better with Boris, now here's x with the details"
But no. The World King thought he could just have japes and still deliver. Its a pity, because we all looked at the political map at the end of 2019 and thought he could be office for a long long time.
It's difficult to know the psychology of someone from a distance, but having said that:
I think Boris had what I call a lazy brain. He is obviously highly intelligent (yes, really), and I think he found school and uni fairly easy. But that means that he's not as used to actually working hard at something as most of us. He could just phone it in.
But from what I've read if he was interested in something, he'd work hard at it. If he wasn't, he wouldn't. But being MoL or PM (or even a PM...) means you have to deal with things that you probably are not interested in. You cannot pick and choose.
I've worked with someone like that. For most of the year he'd just do whatever he wanted; always potentially useful stuff, but not what he was supposed to be working on, which other would often have to do. Then there'd be something that really caught his interest, and he would more than earn his year's salary in a few months. A highly intelligent engineer, but almost impossible to manage. Which if scuttlebutt is true, has rather hampered his employment in recent years...
Gerstenmaier says during the static fire test of the Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, there was a leak that was "previously seen on this booster during its entry on its last mission. We discovered that we had not fully repaired the booster during refurbishment or we didn't find the find the leak and didn't get it corrected."
Gerst said they are installing a purge that will mitigate the leak.
He said there was also a thrust vector control problem on Merlin engine five on the booster, which required a change of components.
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Tegucigalpa?
Edit: it is certainly dangerous to take off not sure about landing. Mountain range at the end of the runway.
Never been. Looks *exciting*
Old Hong Kong was incredible
Bhutan airport is seriously dicey - or so it feels
Flying up and out of the Copper Canyon in Mexico in a tiny prop plane is quite an experience. The thermals are intense. 😬
Yes Kai Tak was great they used to make an announcement on US flights not to worry as you whizzed past at eye level the washing hanging up on apartment block balconies.
Doing a better job of being Shadow Chancellor than the waste of space actual Shadow Chancellor.
I literally do not know the name of the Shadow Chancellor. How bad is that? And I’m a massive politics geek
I’m guessing it’s either Stride or Philp? Maybe? I hear those names so maybe one of those two
That’s actually quite incredible. Maybe a measure of my getting old and mad - or a measure of the utter utter anonymity - and pointlessness - of the Tories
"Austrian law allows firearm possession on shall-issue basis with certain classes of shotguns and rifles available without permit. With approximately 30 civilian firearms per 100 people, Austria is the 14th most armed country in the world."
Those tediously weird tweets about 'the truth' coming out via Steven Bartlett and Stacey Solomon appear to be transforming into generic images of kittens, picturesque landscapes and coypus (say what?!). They're all ads so I guess X is happy to rake the money in.
Ten minutes of George Osborne and Ed Balls discussing the politics and logistics of Boris and Jenrick.
Senior Cameroon Tories are not dismissing it out of hand and acknowledging that he would likely pull the party together, while being popular with large parts of the electorate. More in sorrow than anger but it is on the table for discussion, if not quite implementation. Yet.
Boris Johnson returning to lead the Tories would be a glorious victory for anyone wanting to see the formerly Conservative and formerly Unionist Party finally reduced to rump status.
Tony Blair - a political titan of his age. Completely reshaped his party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after he stepped down. Margaret Thatcher - a political titan of several ages. Completely reshaped her party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after she stepped down.
Boris Johnson - the self-titled World King. Bolloxed up Brexit by accidentally winning it (crumbs!), reduced his party to a minority by sacking his own MPs as not being Conservative enough (including Ken Clarke and Churchill's grandson - cripes!). Won an election with a chunky majority and then proceeded to not actually have a plan for what to do in government. Hounded out of office for one scandal too far.
If they bring him back then they truly are finished. Do it. DO IT!
Crap. Boris is the only Tory leader option who beats Reform and Labour in the recent MoreinCommon poll.
When Thatcher or Blair left neither the Conservatives or Labour were polling in third place
It's about more than polling. You have to be able to actually do the job - and Johnson is a lazy, narcissistic, corrupt liar. He is untrustworthy, divisive, vindictive, small-minded, short-sighted, cowardly and mean. He thinks, and his supporters think, he can get away with all that because he has a nice turn of phrase. It won't work for the same reason that it didn't work last time - plus there's now a lot of water under the bridge; people know him better. Of course, for some, blind eyes will always be turned but that's not a great basis on which to form strategy.
And he's 61 in a couple of weeks but looks older. His cheerful buffoon act was marginally tolerable in 2008 when he was just into his forties and a city mayor; it looks sad and desperate acting like a twenty-something when you're almost collecting your pension.
Your character analysis of Boris is absurdly spiteful. He’s a flawed man but also a gifted man. He can be generous funny kind and very clever; he is also narcissistic, foolish, silly, easily distracted, and overly libidinous. A libertine is probably the best word for him
He might have been a good or even great prime minister in the right circumstances. His response to Ukraine shows the potential. But he was exactly the wrong man for something like Covid, especially when he’d made so many lifelong enemies via Brexit - all determined to bring him down
He needs to step away now, tho. I agree on that
Boris! had a lot of talents which could have shone through. He is a brilliant bullshit artist, so fantastic at selling something and getting people excited and motivated.
I can see the appeal to the tories of bringing Johnson back. Pitting Olukemi Olufunto against Nigel Paul is the epitome of bringing piss to shit fight. And it's watery piss, not one of those reeking, misty, orangey old man pisses you do after a vegan dal makhani and ten hours of sleep.
Johnson would be just as good as Farage at dominating the news cycle and probably even better and more convincing at promising gewgaws, that he has no intention of delivering, to moronic chavs in places where even the seagulls have heart disease from eating chips.
Those tediously weird tweets about 'the truth' coming out via Steven Bartlett and Stacey Solomon appear to be transforming into generic images of kittens, picturesque landscapes and coypus (say what?!). They're all ads so I guess X is happy to rake the money in.
This is the second time this Minister has been sent out to spin a load of nonsense, and he is terrible at it. Sophie Ridge basically calls him an outright liar
Sophy Ridge is right - the claim that the Winter Fuel payment is back because the economy is stronger does not stand up to scrutiny. As she shows here...
Indeed. Sometimes (usually?) governments are better to defend U-turns by simply saying something like 'politics is also about listening; there was clearly more opposition on this than we expected; we've heard the arguments, are persuaded by them and have changed our mind".
Yes, that’s all they needed to say. By spinning that the economy improving so much is the reason they are inviting ridicule, and getting it
I think part of the ‘change’ people would like is politicians not behaving like this
On the UBI "debate" I've already had the question "where does the money come from" thrown at me. Stop. Reverse that. Let's assume we don't do it.
We are going to lose an awful lot of jobs. Vast numbers of them. People who will be unemployable because the jobs simply won't be there any more.
We can't afford UBI? What is the cost of not UBI? Of whole communities without jobs? Of people stuck on welfare with no hope of a job? We're not talking small pit villages - we coped with those by throwing shitloads of investment at them. Broaden than out on a vast scale - there is a HUGE cost.
Where does the money for that come from? We can invest in the future. Or invest in endless waste not fixing the mistakes of the past.
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Tegucigalpa?
Edit: it is certainly dangerous to take off not sure about landing. Mountain range at the end of the runway.
Never been. Looks *exciting*
Old Hong Kong was incredible
Bhutan airport is seriously dicey - or so it feels
Flying up and out of the Copper Canyon in Mexico in a tiny prop plane is quite an experience. The thermals are intense. 😬
Yes Kai Tak was great they used to make an announcement on US flights not to worry as you whizzed past at eye level the washing hanging up on apartment block balconies.
I loved it. Brilliant drama. A real sense of Kerpow, NOW YOU ARE IN HONG KONG
My helicopter pub crawl in the waterlogged jungles of the Northern Territory in Oz was sensational. At one point we landed on a tiny “island” in the floods, you could see the humongous salt water crocodiles scattering as we approached
Later on as we all got drunker and drunker the two choppers raced each other over the rainforest
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
We have experienced 2 aborted landings at Heathrow, and the loss of an engine on a Qantas 747 on a direct flight from Heathrow to Sydney after refueling in Bangkok
The pilot informed us, and said that he was to release fuel and could only land back at Bangkok after a couple of hours of this which when we did were followed by fire engines and ambulances before coming to a halt in an apparently safe area
We were taken to a 5 star hotel, where we spent one and half nights before meeting the same captain at the departure gate as our replacement plane approached it's stance with 5 engines, the captain informing us that the inboard engine would be removed and installed on our faulty 747
Been very fortunate considering the amount of flying I did. We once dropped precipitously for what seemed like an age - that was never explained. Have a VERY heavy landing at Arusha - all the overhead luggage bins burst open showering people with cases. Other than that, general weirdness. Once had a 24 hour lay over in Quito, because a priest got up as it was taxiing to the airport and pulled the door open "because he wanted to see the emergency slide inflate..." There was no replacement explosive pin to reset it, so we waited for one to come from Miami.
Colleagues have been less fortunate. A helicopter crash-landed on Socotra, leaving people stranded there. Had two on an internal flight in Africa. As it came in to land, there was a terrible sound of grinding metal and bumpy as all hell until it skidded to a halt. A beaming black face appeared from the cockpit: "Ooops, sorry, forgot to put the wheels down!"
Those tediously weird tweets about 'the truth' coming out via Steven Bartlett and Stacey Solomon appear to be transforming into generic images of kittens, picturesque landscapes and coypus (say what?!). They're all ads so I guess X is happy to rake the money in.
This is the second time this Minister has been sent out to spin a load of nonsense, and he is terrible at it. Sophie Ridge basically calls him an outright liar
Sophy Ridge is right - the claim that the Winter Fuel payment is back because the economy is stronger does not stand up to scrutiny. As she shows here...
Indeed. Sometimes (usually?) governments are better to defend U-turns by simply saying something like 'politics is also about listening; there was clearly more opposition on this than we expected; we've heard the arguments, are persuaded by them and have changed our mind".
Winter Fuel Allowance is a nonsense but I don't think U Turns, or scrapping policies that aren't working out, are bad in principle. Governments have two possible explanations:
(1) The circumstances have changed so we have changed - as the government is claiming here. (2) We got it wrong. We've listened. We've fixed it.
I don't think it matters very much as long as people are happy that the policy is being changed. The important thing is to focus on the benefit of the change.
There is on the whole no such thing as unwanted free money. As every welfare state finds out daily.
A 13% lead for Unionists in Northern Ireland is still pretty comfortable. While there is no nationalist majority at Stormont there will be no border poll anyway.
Not forgetting of course that the DUP and TUV would declare UDI for Antrim and East Londonderry rather than ever accept Dublin rule. Northern Ireland being created in the first place as hundreds of thousands of diehard Ulster Protestants had taken up arms rather than be forced to accept Home Rule and being pushed into the new Irish Free State against their will
What about North Down and East Belfast?
At one time, many years ago, I employed an Ulster Protestant. Nice chap; told me once his father had signed the Ulster Covenant in his own blood. Quite enthusiastic about NOT being 'ruled by Catholics', some of these folk.
What difference it will make that the Irish Republic doesn't seem to be 'ruled by Catholics' either I'm not sure.
Things are better than they were, but the Catholic Church still has its tendrils in the Irish state. They're going to own the proposed National Maternity Hospital for example.
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
It feels like tempting fate but - with all my travels - the worst aircraft experience I’ve had is really severe turbulence (which is pretty terrifying; that said)
The scariest flight experience of all was a microlight flight up the south face of Annapurna in Nepal. Followed by paragliding in the Dolomites
This is where I am scheduled to land shortly
“This is what landing at one of Europes most difficult airports look like. Atlantic Airways Airbus A319 touching down in Vagar, Faroe Islands 🇫🇴 - a place I fondly remember. #aviation”
I wasn't too bothered by my emergency landing or emergency takeoff, but I also have once experienced severe turbulence and that was scary. Most of it was just very bumpy, but then we had a really violent moment. Stuff everywhere.
Regarding non airline flights: My one helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon was pretty tame. My glider flights were also except for the emergency landing in a field which went well and also having a go in an acrobatic glider which was fun. My bucket list fight in a Pitt Special was the most dramatic flight. Unfortunately my stomach could only stand so much. Two rolls, followed by 2 barrel rolls finished me off so I didn't get the full experience. Glad I did it, but don't want to do it again.
PS The Dolomites are fantastic. My favourite skiing location.
Ten minutes of George Osborne and Ed Balls discussing the politics and logistics of Boris and Jenrick.
Senior Cameroon Tories are not dismissing it out of hand and acknowledging that he would likely pull the party together, while being popular with large parts of the electorate. More in sorrow than anger but it is on the table for discussion, if not quite implementation. Yet.
Boris Johnson returning to lead the Tories would be a glorious victory for anyone wanting to see the formerly Conservative and formerly Unionist Party finally reduced to rump status.
Tony Blair - a political titan of his age. Completely reshaped his party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after he stepped down. Margaret Thatcher - a political titan of several ages. Completely reshaped her party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after she stepped down.
Boris Johnson - the self-titled World King. Bolloxed up Brexit by accidentally winning it (crumbs!), reduced his party to a minority by sacking his own MPs as not being Conservative enough (including Ken Clarke and Churchill's grandson - cripes!). Won an election with a chunky majority and then proceeded to not actually have a plan for what to do in government. Hounded out of office for one scandal too far.
If they bring him back then they truly are finished. Do it. DO IT!
Crap. Boris is the only Tory leader option who beats Reform and Labour in the recent MoreinCommon poll.
When Thatcher or Blair left neither the Conservatives or Labour were polling in third place
It's about more than polling. You have to be able to actually do the job - and Johnson is a lazy, narcissistic, corrupt liar. He is untrustworthy, divisive, vindictive, small-minded, short-sighted, cowardly and mean. He thinks, and his supporters think, he can get away with all that because he has a nice turn of phrase. It won't work for the same reason that it didn't work last time - plus there's now a lot of water under the bridge; people know him better. Of course, for some, blind eyes will always be turned but that's not a great basis on which to form strategy.
And he's 61 in a couple of weeks but looks older. His cheerful buffoon act was marginally tolerable in 2008 when he was just into his forties and a city mayor; it looks sad and desperate acting like a twenty-something when you're almost collecting your pension.
Your character analysis of Boris is absurdly spiteful. He’s a flawed man but also a gifted man. He can be generous funny kind and very clever; he is also narcissistic, foolish, silly, easily distracted, and overly libidinous. A libertine is probably the best word for him
He might have been a good or even great prime minister in the right circumstances. His response to Ukraine shows the potential. But he was exactly the wrong man for something like Covid, especially when he’d made so many lifelong enemies via Brexit - all determined to bring him down
He needs to step away now, tho. I agree on that
Boris! had a lot of talents which could have shone through. He is a brilliant bullshit artist, so fantastic at selling something and getting people excited and motivated.
I can see the appeal to the tories of bringing Johnson back. Pitting Olukemi Olufunto against Nigel Paul is the epitome of bringing piss to shit fight. And it's watery piss, not one of those reeking, misty, orangey old man pisses you do after a vegan dal makhani and ten hours of sleep.
Johnson would be just as good as Farage at dominating the news cycle and probably even better and more convincing at promising gewgaws, that he has no intention of delivering, to moronic chavs in places where even the seagulls have heart disease from eating chips.
Johnson might be decent if he hires a competent chief executive figure to actually run government while he handles the PR and occasionally gets involved in things he's worked up about, like Ukraine. Not an arrogant crank like Cummings, but someone like the people who ran TfL for him while he was Mayor of London.
God knows we haven't had a competent and effective PM in many years so that's what we may be reduced to, at any rate if we want to get rid of Starmer without letting Reform in.
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
It feels like tempting fate but - with all my travels - the worst aircraft experience I’ve had is really severe turbulence (which is pretty terrifying; that said)
The scariest flight experience of all was a microlight flight up the south face of Annapurna in Nepal. Followed by paragliding in the Dolomites
This is where I am scheduled to land shortly
“This is what landing at one of Europes most difficult airports look like. Atlantic Airways Airbus A319 touching down in Vagar, Faroe Islands 🇫🇴 - a place I fondly remember. #aviation”
I wasn't too bothered by my emergency landing or emergency takeoff, but I also have once experienced severe turbulence and that was scary. Most of it was just very bumpy, but then we had a really violent moment. Stuff everywhere.
Regarding non airline flights: My one helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon was pretty tame. My glider flights were also except for the emergency landing in a field which went well and also having a go in an acrobatic glider which was fun. My bucket list fight in a Pitt Special was the most dramatic flight. Unfortunately my stomach could only stand so much. Two rolls, followed by 2 barrel rolls finished me off so I didn't get the full experience. Glad I did it, but don't want to do it again.
They’ve just warned us on this plane - about to take off - about some stiff turbulence coming our way. Great. I hate turbulence
Your bucket list flight sounds horrific. Bravo on completing it, I shan’t be copying. The older I get the more I realise I am incredibly lucky to still be alive, given the insane risks I’ve taken - in many different ways - all around the world
I don’t need to add to them with pointless but exciting acrobatics in a plane…. I’d be testing God’s patience methinks
On the UBI "debate" I've already had the question "where does the money come from" thrown at me. Stop. Reverse that. Let's assume we don't do it.
We are going to lose an awful lot of jobs. Vast numbers of them. People who will be unemployable because the jobs simply won't be there any more.
We can't afford UBI? What is the cost of not UBI? Of whole communities without jobs? Of people stuck on welfare with no hope of a job? We're not talking small pit villages - we coped with those by throwing shitloads of investment at them. Broaden than out on a vast scale - there is a HUGE cost.
Where does the money for that come from? We can invest in the future. Or invest in endless waste not fixing the mistakes of the past.
If AI leads to mass unemployment it would be funded by a robot tax
Ten minutes of George Osborne and Ed Balls discussing the politics and logistics of Boris and Jenrick.
Senior Cameroon Tories are not dismissing it out of hand and acknowledging that he would likely pull the party together, while being popular with large parts of the electorate. More in sorrow than anger but it is on the table for discussion, if not quite implementation. Yet.
Boris Johnson returning to lead the Tories would be a glorious victory for anyone wanting to see the formerly Conservative and formerly Unionist Party finally reduced to rump status.
Tony Blair - a political titan of his age. Completely reshaped his party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after he stepped down. Margaret Thatcher - a political titan of several ages. Completely reshaped her party and won three elections with two of them landslides. Not brought back as leader despite the decline after she stepped down.
Boris Johnson - the self-titled World King. Bolloxed up Brexit by accidentally winning it (crumbs!), reduced his party to a minority by sacking his own MPs as not being Conservative enough (including Ken Clarke and Churchill's grandson - cripes!). Won an election with a chunky majority and then proceeded to not actually have a plan for what to do in government. Hounded out of office for one scandal too far.
If they bring him back then they truly are finished. Do it. DO IT!
Nearly. Had a plan about levelling up, you name it, then COVID. So everything changed. We can speculate about what he would have been like under BAU conditions, but he was manifestly unfit to be a crisis leader. But crisis and fiscal near-extinction event there most certainly was. Under Lab and the LDs I think we would still be locked down. Just in case and to save the NHS.
Anyone, who as Foreign Secretary (at a time of strained relations with Russia after Salisbury) shakes off his minders to attend a party in an Italian mansion complete with alcoholic drinks and hostesses (both being interests of said Foreign Secretary) and hosted by a Senior KGB Officer, has no business ever touching the levers of power again.
He resigned from Parliament having been found to have deliberately misled the House and contempt of the House. That was an unprecedented finding for a former PM. It is only in a post-truth world that anyone could possible imagine bringing him back would be a sensible thing to do.
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
We have experienced 2 aborted landings at Heathrow, and the loss of an engine on a Qantas 747 on a direct flight from Heathrow to Sydney after refueling in Bangkok
The pilot informed us, and said that he was to release fuel and could only land back at Bangkok after a couple of hours of this which when we did were followed by fire engines and ambulances before coming to a halt in an apparently safe area
We were taken to a 5 star hotel, where we spent one and half nights before meeting the same captain at the departure gate as our replacement plane approached it's stance with 5 engines, the captain informing us that the inboard engine would be removed and installed on our faulty 747
Been very fortunate considering the amount of flying I did. We once dropped precipitously for what seemed like an age - that was never explained. Have a VERY heavy landing at Arusha - all the overhead luggage bins burst open showering people with cases. Other than that, general weirdness. Once had a 24 hour lay over in Quito, because a priest got up as it was taxiing to the airport and pulled the door open "because he wanted to see the emergency slide inflate..." There was no replacement explosive pin to reset it, so we waited for one to come from Miami.
Colleagues have been less fortunate. A helicopter crash-landed on Socotra, leaving people stranded there. Had two on an internal flight in Africa. As it came in to land, there was a terrible sound of grinding metal and bumpy as all hell until it skidded to a halt. A beaming black face appeared from the cockpit: "Ooops, sorry, forgot to put the wheels down!"
Omg!
I really shouldn’t be reading these hair raising anecdotes just before this flight
Some news on SMR too this morning. I wonder what MaxPB makes of it.
Numbers on nuclear never add up. The cost of one nuclear power station (ca £40 billion) generating a steady 3GW is close to total planned investments in offshore wind providing up to 70GW intermittent.
Fair point. The Czechs presumably don't have the option of offshore wind. They can do solar, which is cheap and pretty much the default generation choice these days.
Shakespeare referred to the sea-cost of Bohemia, didn't he?
I think at various times the Kingdom of Bohemia stretched to the Baltic and the Adriatic.
Possibly... though I think in Shakespeare's case he was just wrong/didn't know/didn't really care, and possibly neither did most of his audience* - it just sounded suitably faraway and exotic.
*hard to understate the ignorance of geography in Tudor times. When [can't remember his name] went searching for a shortcut to China via the North Cape of Norway and ended up landing on the shore of the White Sea, the existence of Russia came as a complete surprise.
That seems unlikely to me. Russia was certainly more than a bit exotic to most of Europe and other-worldly but was hardly unknown to the educated classes and particularly those in government. England first sent an ambassador to Russia under Elizabeth I and given British (English and Scottish) links to Scandinavia at the time and for centuries past, it seems pretty unlikely that the very existence of Russia was unknown, even allowing for the eastward extent of Poland-Lithuania at the time, and the Livonian states.
But on Shakespeare, yes, its much easier to use foreign names inaccurately when the vast majority of the public don't know it beyond a foreign reference point. Another possibility may be that he was using the sea-coast of Bohemia in one of his clever internal reference half-truths, given that Bohemia was one of the Habsburg possessions, which also included what's now the Croatian coast - but I don't know the context of the quote.
A 13% lead for Unionists in Northern Ireland is still pretty comfortable. While there is no nationalist majority at Stormont there will be no border poll anyway.
Not forgetting of course that the DUP and TUV would declare UDI for Antrim and East Londonderry rather than ever accept Dublin rule. Northern Ireland being created in the first place as hundreds of thousands of diehard Ulster Protestants had taken up arms rather than be forced to accept Home Rule and being pushed into the new Irish Free State against their will
Is UDI something that DUP and TUV politicians talk about much?
The only place I've heard it mentioned is from you on here, but if other people are talking about it and I've missed it I'd be interested in seeing links.
The DUP and TUV are clear they would never accept Dublin rule.
People forget the Irish Free state was created NOT just by the 1918 SF majority in Ireland but by violence and bombings from the IRA and the Irish War of Independence which lasted until 1921.
Northern Ireland was effectively created by violence too and the Ulster Protestants who took up arms to resist Home Rule and Dublin rule.
The prospect of the LVF and UVF planting bombs again would be inevitable if they ever faced Dublin rule
Some news on SMR too this morning. I wonder what MaxPB makes of it.
Numbers on nuclear never add up. The cost of one nuclear power station (ca £40 billion) generating a steady 3GW is close to total planned investments in offshore wind providing up to 70GW intermittent.
Fair point. The Czechs presumably don't have the option of offshore wind. They can do solar, which is cheap and pretty much the default generation choice these days.
If they stuck a windmill in the middle of Černé Jezero (their largest lake), would that count as offshore wind?
On the UBI "debate" I've already had the question "where does the money come from" thrown at me. Stop. Reverse that. Let's assume we don't do it.
We are going to lose an awful lot of jobs. Vast numbers of them. People who will be unemployable because the jobs simply won't be there any more.
We can't afford UBI? What is the cost of not UBI? Of whole communities without jobs? Of people stuck on welfare with no hope of a job? We're not talking small pit villages - we coped with those by throwing shitloads of investment at them. Broaden than out on a vast scale - there is a HUGE cost.
Where does the money for that come from? We can invest in the future. Or invest in endless waste not fixing the mistakes of the past.
If AI leads to mass unemployment it would be funded by a robot tax
The unemployment will be in thought / clerical work and that’s not going to be taxable because good luck working out where the server the AI was running on for that transaction is?
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
We have experienced 2 aborted landings at Heathrow, and the loss of an engine on a Qantas 747 on a direct flight from Heathrow to Sydney after refueling in Bangkok
The pilot informed us, and said that he was to release fuel and could only land back at Bangkok after a couple of hours of this which when we did were followed by fire engines and ambulances before coming to a halt in an apparently safe area
We were taken to a 5 star hotel, where we spent one and half nights before meeting the same captain at the departure gate as our replacement plane approached it's stance with 5 engines, the captain informing us that the inboard engine would be removed and installed on our faulty 747
Been very fortunate considering the amount of flying I did. We once dropped precipitously for what seemed like an age - that was never explained. Have a VERY heavy landing at Arusha - all the overhead luggage bins burst open showering people with cases. Other than that, general weirdness. Once had a 24 hour lay over in Quito, because a priest got up as it was taxiing to the airport and pulled the door open "because he wanted to see the emergency slide inflate..." There was no replacement explosive pin to reset it, so we waited for one to come from Miami.
Colleagues have been less fortunate. A helicopter crash-landed on Socotra, leaving people stranded there. Had two on an internal flight in Africa. As it came in to land, there was a terrible sound of grinding metal and bumpy as all hell until it skidded to a halt. A beaming black face appeared from the cockpit: "Ooops, sorry, forgot to put the wheels down!"
Omg!
I really shouldn’t be reading these hair raising anecdotes just before this flight
Forgetting to put the wheels down seems to be quite a regular occurrence. I remember a row of smaller planes at the airport at Majorca with bent blades where it was clear that is what had happened. Either mechanical failure or cheery pilot error... For your added comfort, it didn't look like anybody would have been hurt.
This is the second time this Minister has been sent out to spin a load of nonsense, and he is terrible at it. Sophie Ridge basically calls him an outright liar
Sophy Ridge is right - the claim that the Winter Fuel payment is back because the economy is stronger does not stand up to scrutiny. As she shows here...
Indeed. Sometimes (usually?) governments are better to defend U-turns by simply saying something like 'politics is also about listening; there was clearly more opposition on this than we expected; we've heard the arguments, are persuaded by them and have changed our mind".
I have a sneaking little hope that there might be a bit of backlash from the U-turn, to demonstrate that not all pensioners consider they're entitled to more than a fair share. £35000 is not a low income - if it were, many other individuals & families should be getting WFA.
There'll probably be a further weakening in Labour support from the U-turn itself while also pretending it's not one, and - as you say - from other groups who feel hard-done by and not bailed out in the same way. But I doubt it'll be all that deep or longlasting.
On the UBI "debate" I've already had the question "where does the money come from" thrown at me. Stop. Reverse that. Let's assume we don't do it.
We are going to lose an awful lot of jobs. Vast numbers of them. People who will be unemployable because the jobs simply won't be there any more.
We can't afford UBI? What is the cost of not UBI? Of whole communities without jobs? Of people stuck on welfare with no hope of a job? We're not talking small pit villages - we coped with those by throwing shitloads of investment at them. Broaden than out on a vast scale - there is a HUGE cost.
Where does the money for that come from? We can invest in the future. Or invest in endless waste not fixing the mistakes of the past.
Past technological revolutions never produced large numbers of people without jobs. I'm not seeing anything currently that makes me expect a different result in the future.
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
We have experienced 2 aborted landings at Heathrow, and the loss of an engine on a Qantas 747 on a direct flight from Heathrow to Sydney after refueling in Bangkok
The pilot informed us, and said that he was to release fuel and could only land back at Bangkok after a couple of hours of this which when we did were followed by fire engines and ambulances before coming to a halt in an apparently safe area
We were taken to a 5 star hotel, where we spent one and half nights before meeting the same captain at the departure gate as our replacement plane approached it's stance with 5 engines, the captain informing us that the inboard engine would be removed and installed on our faulty 747
Been very fortunate considering the amount of flying I did. We once dropped precipitously for what seemed like an age - that was never explained. Have a VERY heavy landing at Arusha - all the overhead luggage bins burst open showering people with cases. Other than that, general weirdness. Once had a 24 hour lay over in Quito, because a priest got up as it was taxiing to the airport and pulled the door open "because he wanted to see the emergency slide inflate..." There was no replacement explosive pin to reset it, so we waited for one to come from Miami.
Colleagues have been less fortunate. A helicopter crash-landed on Socotra, leaving people stranded there. Had two on an internal flight in Africa. As it came in to land, there was a terrible sound of grinding metal and bumpy as all hell until it skidded to a halt. A beaming black face appeared from the cockpit: "Ooops, sorry, forgot to put the wheels down!"
Omg!
I really shouldn’t be reading these hair raising anecdotes just before this flight
Mine, aside from some bonkers turbulence on a Tristar, when we looked out of the window to see the wings flapping up and down like a bird of prey (ie full up and full down) and some "oh look we're still dropping" experiences, was on a BAe146 in northern China (I believe I have related this story before on PB). Early morning flight, dozing 20 mins before we were due to land when I was jolted awake by the plane dramatically changing trajectory and flying vertically upwards with what sounded like more thrust. Looked out of the window to see fog-covered mountains below, to the side of, and stretching out above the plane.
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
It feels like tempting fate but - with all my travels - the worst aircraft experience I’ve had is really severe turbulence (which is pretty terrifying; that said)
The scariest flight experience of all was a microlight flight up the south face of Annapurna in Nepal. Followed by paragliding in the Dolomites
This is where I am scheduled to land shortly
“This is what landing at one of Europes most difficult airports look like. Atlantic Airways Airbus A319 touching down in Vagar, Faroe Islands 🇫🇴 - a place I fondly remember. #aviation”
I wasn't too bothered by my emergency landing or emergency takeoff, but I also have once experienced severe turbulence and that was scary. Most of it was just very bumpy, but then we had a really violent moment. Stuff everywhere.
Regarding non airline flights: My one helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon was pretty tame. My glider flights were also except for the emergency landing in a field which went well and also having a go in an acrobatic glider which was fun. My bucket list fight in a Pitt Special was the most dramatic flight. Unfortunately my stomach could only stand so much. Two rolls, followed by 2 barrel rolls finished me off so I didn't get the full experience. Glad I did it, but don't want to do it again.
They’ve just warned us on this plane - about to take off - about some stiff turbulence coming our way. Great. I hate turbulence
Your bucket list flight sounds horrific. Bravo on completing it, I shan’t be copying. The older I get the more I realise I am incredibly lucky to still be alive, given the insane risks I’ve taken - in many different ways - all around the world
I don’t need to add to them with pointless but exciting acrobatics in a plane…. I’d be testing God’s patience methinks
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
We have experienced 2 aborted landings at Heathrow, and the loss of an engine on a Qantas 747 on a direct flight from Heathrow to Sydney after refueling in Bangkok
The pilot informed us, and said that he was to release fuel and could only land back at Bangkok after a couple of hours of this which when we did were followed by fire engines and ambulances before coming to a halt in an apparently safe area
We were taken to a 5 star hotel, where we spent one and half nights before meeting the same captain at the departure gate as our replacement plane approached it's stance with 5 engines, the captain informing us that the inboard engine would be removed and installed on our faulty 747
Been very fortunate considering the amount of flying I did. We once dropped precipitously for what seemed like an age - that was never explained. Have a VERY heavy landing at Arusha - all the overhead luggage bins burst open showering people with cases. Other than that, general weirdness. Once had a 24 hour lay over in Quito, because a priest got up as it was taxiing to the airport and pulled the door open "because he wanted to see the emergency slide inflate..." There was no replacement explosive pin to reset it, so we waited for one to come from Miami.
Colleagues have been less fortunate. A helicopter crash-landed on Socotra, leaving people stranded there. Had two on an internal flight in Africa. As it came in to land, there was a terrible sound of grinding metal and bumpy as all hell until it skidded to a halt. A beaming black face appeared from the cockpit: "Ooops, sorry, forgot to put the wheels down!"
Omg!
I really shouldn’t be reading these hair raising anecdotes just before this flight
Mine, aside from some bonkers turbulence on a Tristar, when we looked out of the window to see the wings flapping up and down like a bird of prey (ie full up and full down) and some "oh look we're still dropping" experiences, was on a BAe146 in northern China (I believe I have related this story before on PB). Early morning flight, dozing 20 mins before we were due to land when I was jolted awake by the plane dramatically changing trajectory and flying vertically upwards with what sounded like more thrust. Looked out of the window to see fog-covered mountains below, to the side of, and stretching out above the plane.
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
We have experienced 2 aborted landings at Heathrow, and the loss of an engine on a Qantas 747 on a direct flight from Heathrow to Sydney after refueling in Bangkok
The pilot informed us, and said that he was to release fuel and could only land back at Bangkok after a couple of hours of this which when we did were followed by fire engines and ambulances before coming to a halt in an apparently safe area
We were taken to a 5 star hotel, where we spent one and half nights before meeting the same captain at the departure gate as our replacement plane approached it's stance with 5 engines, the captain informing us that the inboard engine would be removed and installed on our faulty 747
I was in a 2-seater and the pilot asked if I wanted to try a loop the loop. I did. We got about halfway through before the pilot had to take back control promptly.
Yeah but im ignoring these calculators as wholly unsuited to the new playground, UNS and even proportionate swing will simply disintegrate under changes like these with 5 parties in double figures
On the UBI "debate" I've already had the question "where does the money come from" thrown at me. Stop. Reverse that. Let's assume we don't do it.
We are going to lose an awful lot of jobs. Vast numbers of them. People who will be unemployable because the jobs simply won't be there any more.
We can't afford UBI? What is the cost of not UBI? Of whole communities without jobs? Of people stuck on welfare with no hope of a job? We're not talking small pit villages - we coped with those by throwing shitloads of investment at them. Broaden than out on a vast scale - there is a HUGE cost.
Where does the money for that come from? We can invest in the future. Or invest in endless waste not fixing the mistakes of the past.
"Endless waste not fixing the mistakes of the past" would be a good way to describe introducing UBI to deal with unemployment after importing millions of workers because of a phantom labour shortage.
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
We have experienced 2 aborted landings at Heathrow, and the loss of an engine on a Qantas 747 on a direct flight from Heathrow to Sydney after refueling in Bangkok
The pilot informed us, and said that he was to release fuel and could only land back at Bangkok after a couple of hours of this which when we did were followed by fire engines and ambulances before coming to a halt in an apparently safe area
We were taken to a 5 star hotel, where we spent one and half nights before meeting the same captain at the departure gate as our replacement plane approached it's stance with 5 engines, the captain informing us that the inboard engine would be removed and installed on our faulty 747
Been very fortunate considering the amount of flying I did. We once dropped precipitously for what seemed like an age - that was never explained. Have a VERY heavy landing at Arusha - all the overhead luggage bins burst open showering people with cases. Other than that, general weirdness. Once had a 24 hour lay over in Quito, because a priest got up as it was taxiing to the airport and pulled the door open "because he wanted to see the emergency slide inflate..." There was no replacement explosive pin to reset it, so we waited for one to come from Miami.
Colleagues have been less fortunate. A helicopter crash-landed on Socotra, leaving people stranded there. Had two on an internal flight in Africa. As it came in to land, there was a terrible sound of grinding metal and bumpy as all hell until it skidded to a halt. A beaming black face appeared from the cockpit: "Ooops, sorry, forgot to put the wheels down!"
Omg!
I really shouldn’t be reading these hair raising anecdotes just before this flight
Mine, aside from some bonkers turbulence on a Tristar, when we looked out of the window to see the wings flapping up and down like a bird of prey (ie full up and full down) and some "oh look we're still dropping" experiences, was on a BAe146 in northern China (I believe I have related this story before on PB). Early morning flight, dozing 20 mins before we were due to land when I was jolted awake by the plane dramatically changing trajectory and flying vertically upwards with what sounded like more thrust. Looked out of the window to see fog-covered mountains below, to the side of, and stretching out above the plane.
There was a Russian pilot who used to fly out of Malabo, Equatorial Guinea with a parrot on his shoulder.
"Wuhan scientist arrested for smuggling toxic parasites into US Chengxuan Han told officers the packages contained ‘biological material related to roundworms’" (£)
So they've now decided to order some F35As, which also can't use it.
There is a couple of things driving this.
1. The RAF love many things about F-35: radar, ECM fit, sensor fusion, etc. They fucking hate one thing about it: the RN are involved. Switching to A keeps all of the things they like about B without the thing they don't. This nuclear weapon sharing bollocks is a cover story which may or probably may not ever happen.
2. The B has one user of any significant volume and that user, the USMC, aren't that keen on it. The MoD are alive to the risk that the B is going to end up orphaned and outside of the main development spiral as the USMC prefer the C and Lockmart focus on F-35 "5.5" which probably won't have a STOVL/B variant.
It doesn't matter if the RAF buy the A, B, C or the Galaxy class, if we can't integrate missiles on it it's useless.
It's got AIM-120 and it's not within the gift of the UK government to make Lockmart do the Meteor/SPEAR integration any faster. A and C, but crucially not B, are going to 6 x AIM-120 internal carriage which will never happen for Meteor so that's another possible factor in the UK decision to go for A. A vs B, in a British context, is really just a proxy war for the RAF vs RN bitter conflict over fixed wing aviation that's been raging since the 50s.
This is the second time this Minister has been sent out to spin a load of nonsense, and he is terrible at it. Sophie Ridge basically calls him an outright liar
Sophy Ridge is right - the claim that the Winter Fuel payment is back because the economy is stronger does not stand up to scrutiny. As she shows here...
Indeed. Sometimes (usually?) governments are better to defend U-turns by simply saying something like 'politics is also about listening; there was clearly more opposition on this than we expected; we've heard the arguments, are persuaded by them and have changed our mind".
Winter Fuel Allowance is a nonsense but I don't think U Turns, or scrapping policies that aren't working out, are bad in principle. Governments have two possible explanations:
(1) The circumstances have changed so we have changed - as the government is claiming here. (2) We got it wrong. We've listened. We've fixed it.
I don't think it matters very much as long as people are happy that the policy is being changed. The important thing is to focus on the benefit of the change.
There is on the whole no such thing as unwanted free money. As every welfare state finds out daily.
Oh I agree. The reinstated WFA does essentially nothing to improve pensioner poverty. The one not-bad-thing I suppose is it will cost a relatively small amount of money in the scheme of things.
Rachel Reeves forgot the wise words of the 17th century French finance minister: "The art of taxation is to pluck the most feathers from the goose for the fewest squawks." Reeves got lots of squawks and not many feathers.
In about four hours I will be landing at one of the most dangerous airports in the world
😶
Bournemouth ?
Even worse
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
With all of your flying how many 'emergencies' have you been involved in. I don't know whether I am unlucky, because my travel is significantly less than yours, but I have had 2:
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
It feels like tempting fate but - with all my travels - the worst aircraft experience I’ve had is really severe turbulence (which is pretty terrifying; that said)
The scariest flight experience of all was a microlight flight up the south face of Annapurna in Nepal. Followed by paragliding in the Dolomites
This is where I am scheduled to land shortly
“This is what landing at one of Europes most difficult airports look like. Atlantic Airways Airbus A319 touching down in Vagar, Faroe Islands 🇫🇴 - a place I fondly remember. #aviation”
I wasn't too bothered by my emergency landing or emergency takeoff, but I also have once experienced severe turbulence and that was scary. Most of it was just very bumpy, but then we had a really violent moment. Stuff everywhere.
Regarding non airline flights: My one helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon was pretty tame. My glider flights were also except for the emergency landing in a field which went well and also having a go in an acrobatic glider which was fun. My bucket list fight in a Pitt Special was the most dramatic flight. Unfortunately my stomach could only stand so much. Two rolls, followed by 2 barrel rolls finished me off so I didn't get the full experience. Glad I did it, but don't want to do it again.
They’ve just warned us on this plane - about to take off - about some stiff turbulence coming our way. Great. I hate turbulence
Your bucket list flight sounds horrific. Bravo on completing it, I shan’t be copying. The older I get the more I realise I am incredibly lucky to still be alive, given the insane risks I’ve taken - in many different ways - all around the world
I don’t need to add to them with pointless but exciting acrobatics in a plane…. I’d be testing God’s patience methinks
Before being allowed to vote everyone should have to barrel roll a Pitt Special, ski the Tortin and somersault a catamaran while out on the wire. The last one wasn't voluntary, but these are huge memories for me.
Do you support or oppose extending Winter Fuel Payment to most pensioners?
✅ Support 69% ❌ Oppose 10% 🤷♂️ Don't know 21%
[Find Out Now, 9th June, N=1,005]
Does this change make you more or less likely to vote Labour?
📈 More likely 10% 📉 Less likely 16% ➖ No difference 74%
Lmao, well done big Rach
Hahahah
All the political damage of the original decision, and nothing gained from the U-turn at all, other than grave skepticism from the bond markets
Completely clueless
She's talented in ways talent has never before been expressed
It’s probably one of those types of polls where what people say in the poll, but actually do with their vote because of the u turn, are two different things.
Fact is, ever since electoral politics invented, those in power do what they need to do to get themselves through elections.
Comments
The truth lies somewhere between.
😶
Credit to Victoria Derbyshire for calling out Keir Starmer & the Labour government’s pre election snake oil salesmanship hypocrisy on cronyism. Just watch Labour MP, James Murray squirm during this interview.
https://x.com/jamesmelville/status/1921119178037010832?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
Irregular verb and all that
I’ve just been looking at videos of the approach, as aircraft land. The view from the cockpit
I shouldnae have done that
He's utterly crap at detail and almost slovenly in his work ethic (on anything that isn't shagging). Had he the emotional intelligence to understand that he could have built a team full of talent who were able to support his strengths by infilling his weaknesses. "Build Back Better with Boris, now here's x with the details"
But no. The World King thought he could just have japes and still deliver. Its a pity, because we all looked at the political map at the end of 2019 and thought he could be office for a long long time.
There are, of course, many routes to that kind of centrism - Tory Wets criticised her as unnecessarily divisive but the essence of that criticism was that it wouldn't work, socially or economically. They were wrong on the economics; less so on the social side. But Thatcher also had delivery as a key objective for working-class families with council house sales; something which she believed would bind communities through a direct physical and financial stake in them. The same idea was behind prioritising small investors in privatisations. Neither quite worked as intended but the that was for the future in 1983-7.
Then she embarked on the Poll Tax, which was ideological, and got kicked out.
Whether that rule still holds in the social media age is another question. The evidence from other countries and our own is that it's far weaker than it was and vibes matter much more.
I may be way off beam here however and am happy to hear other interpretations.
It seems New Labour did solve that problem.
Lukla Airport (Tenzing-Hillary Airport) ?
Up to recently, I had a profitable second career in translation (from Danish and German into English). That's now been largely destroyed by the advance of computing, so that the work largely consists of checking AI translation at a low rate of pay. I'm not really bothered as I'm 75 and quite happy to simply retire, but it's an example of how things change.
https://news.sky.com/story/at-least-five-killed-in-shooting-at-austrian-school-13381539
Okay, at what level would it be set and, more importantly, where does the money come from ?
Print it ?
I wouldn’t mind. I’m retired now and will be getting my state pension in just over 7 years so, for me, I’d guess this would replace that.
Give new dads six weeks off work at nearly full pay, MPs say
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmk07jyjmxo
As far as I know, little serious thought has been put into how the Republic of Ireland should accommodate any self determination or devolution of Northern Ireland. They probably need to start thinking now. Northern Ireland does largely mismanage itself right now
But he was never going to be a great prime minister because of his flaws; his political model had that foundational fault. He also never troubled himself with the necessary detail, which can only be overcome if you're really exceptional at delegating to the right people and building a team which can work fairly independently and cohesively beneath you (see Reagan). Johnson wasn't because he was too easily distracted to be able to set a consistent strategy. He was also unlucky that Covid threw him off but that was only for 18 months: had he created a better team, and had he led more effectively, he'd have had 2+ years after it to get on with what he wanted to.
That said, Boris bitterly disappointed me. I hoped for so much more. So maybe our opinions aren’t that different
He was and is still notably better than Starmer. Eg I trust Boris has a basic love of the country. I really doubt that with Sir Keir Traitor
That’s how bad Starmer is. Notably worse than Boris
Anyone whose partner has had a cesarean will now that 6 weeks is around the time for them to get fully mobile again, so 6 weeks ought to be the default paternal leave. Its not much to ask in the modern world of sexual equality.
An aborted take off. Not very dramatic but a good set of brakes, but chaos afterwards.
An emergency landing which involved a fly past the tower and meeting a lot of nice firemen when we left the plane.
PS I have had an emergency landing in a field when being taught to fly a glider, because the winch launch went wrong, but I don't count that.
And had it been given the go ahead in 2010 then it might actually have been delivered at a halfway reasonable price.
*hard to understate the ignorance of geography in Tudor times. When [can't remember his name] went searching for a shortcut to China via the North Cape of Norway and ended up landing on the shore of the White Sea, the existence of Russia came as a complete surprise.
Edit: it is certainly dangerous to take off not sure about landing. Mountain range at the end of the runway.
Makes a hell of a difference. I took a bit of extra leave for the first three, but we don't have the option to buy leave so it was limited.
Probably didn't need it really, for the first (partly due to having a fairly simple birth and supportive family nearby) as it's doable - main carer can sleep when the baby sleeps. But with subsequent children a breastfeeding mum can be up much of the night and not get a chance to sleep when the baby sleeps in the day as the older ones need looking after. At least four weeks until things settle down a bit would be really good. Six weeks is excellent
The scariest flight experience of all was a microlight flight up the south face of Annapurna in Nepal. Followed by paragliding in the Dolomites
This is where I am scheduled to land shortly
“This is what landing at one of Europes most difficult airports look like. Atlantic Airways Airbus A319 touching down in Vagar, Faroe Islands 🇫🇴 - a place I fondly remember. #aviation”
https://x.com/visitfaroe/status/1061995321172131841?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
The pilot informed us, and said that he was to release fuel and could only land back at Bangkok after a couple of hours of this which when we did were followed by fire engines and ambulances before coming to a halt in an apparently safe area
We were taken to a 5 star hotel, where we spent one and half nights before meeting the same captain at the departure gate as our replacement plane approached it's stance with 5 engines, the captain informing us that the inboard engine would be removed and installed on our faulty 747
(1) The circumstances have changed so we have changed - as the government is claiming here. (2) We got it wrong. We've listened. We've fixed it.
I don't think it matters very much as long as people are happy that the policy is being changed. The important thing is to focus on the benefit of the change.
"If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes."
Kennedy has now fired all 17 members of that committee.
https://x.com/AaronBlake/status/1932188721580847564
I'm sure it will be fine this time, and the latest set of assurances worth more than the paper they aren't written on.
Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion. I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.
https://x.com/SenBillCassidy/status/1932193937349075077
The complete abdication by Congress of its oversight of the executive is the primary enabler of the descent into authoritarianism.
Old Hong Kong was incredible
Bhutan airport is seriously dicey - or so it feels
Flying up and out of the Copper Canyon in Mexico in a tiny prop plane is quite an experience. The thermals are intense. 😬
Weekly YouGov intention poll for The Times/Sky News
RefUK 29% (+1)
LAB 23% (+1)
CON 17% (-1)
LDEM 15% (-2)
GRN 10% (+1)
I think Boris had what I call a lazy brain. He is obviously highly intelligent (yes, really), and I think he found school and uni fairly easy. But that means that he's not as used to actually working hard at something as most of us. He could just phone it in.
But from what I've read if he was interested in something, he'd work hard at it. If he wasn't, he wouldn't. But being MoL or PM (or even a PM...) means you have to deal with things that you probably are not interested in. You cannot pick and choose.
I've worked with someone like that. For most of the year he'd just do whatever he wanted; always potentially useful stuff, but not what he was supposed to be working on, which other would often have to do. Then there'd be something that really caught his interest, and he would more than earn his year's salary in a few months. A highly intelligent engineer, but almost impossible to manage. Which if scuttlebutt is true, has rather hampered his employment in recent years...
🤞🤞
Gerstenmaier says during the static fire test of the Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, there was a leak that was "previously seen on this booster during its entry on its last mission. We discovered that we had not fully repaired the booster during refurbishment or we didn't find the find the leak and didn't get it corrected."
Gerst said they are installing a purge that will mitigate the leak.
He said there was also a thrust vector control problem on Merlin engine five on the booster, which required a change of components.
This work will be done tonight and they will be ready to support launch...
https://x.com/SpaceflightNow/status/1932199665383948347
Puts Leon's landing in context.
I’m guessing it’s either Stride or Philp? Maybe? I hear those names so maybe one of those two
That’s actually quite incredible. Maybe a measure of my getting old and mad - or a measure of the utter utter anonymity - and pointlessness - of the Tories
How long before the following changes?
"Austrian law allows firearm possession on shall-issue basis with certain classes of shotguns and rifles available without permit. With approximately 30 civilian firearms per 100 people, Austria is the 14th most armed country in the world."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_law_in_Austria
https://x.com/antashe/status/1932315327066673224
Johnson would be just as good as Farage at dominating the news cycle and probably even better and more convincing at promising gewgaws, that he has no intention of delivering, to moronic chavs in places where even the seagulls have heart disease from eating chips.
I think part of the ‘change’ people would like is politicians not behaving like this
We are going to lose an awful lot of jobs. Vast numbers of them. People who will be unemployable because the jobs simply won't be there any more.
We can't afford UBI? What is the cost of not UBI? Of whole communities without jobs? Of people stuck on welfare with no hope of a job? We're not talking small pit villages - we coped with those by throwing shitloads of investment at them. Broaden than out on a vast scale - there is a HUGE cost.
Where does the money for that come from? We can invest in the future. Or invest in endless waste not fixing the mistakes of the past.
My helicopter pub crawl in the waterlogged jungles of the Northern Territory in Oz was sensational. At one point we landed on a tiny “island” in the floods, you could see the humongous salt water crocodiles scattering as we approached
Later on as we all got drunker and drunker the two choppers raced each other over the rainforest
Colleagues have been less fortunate. A helicopter crash-landed on Socotra, leaving people stranded there. Had two on an internal flight in Africa. As it came in to land, there was a terrible sound of grinding metal and bumpy as all hell until it skidded to a halt. A beaming black face appeared from the cockpit: "Ooops, sorry, forgot to put the wheels down!"
Regarding non airline flights: My one helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon was pretty tame. My glider flights were also except for the emergency landing in a field which went well and also having a go in an acrobatic glider which was fun. My bucket list fight in a Pitt Special was the most dramatic flight. Unfortunately my stomach could only stand so much. Two rolls, followed by 2 barrel rolls finished me off so I didn't get the full experience. Glad I did it, but don't want to do it again.
PS The Dolomites are fantastic. My favourite skiing location.
Tories: £3.3 million
Labour: £2.3 million
LibDems: £1.52 million
Reform: £1.48 million
God knows we haven't had a competent and effective PM in many years so that's what we may be reduced to, at any rate if we want to get rid of Starmer without letting Reform in.
Your bucket list flight sounds horrific. Bravo on completing it, I shan’t be copying. The older I get the more I realise I am incredibly lucky to still be alive, given the insane risks I’ve taken - in many different ways - all around the world
I don’t need to add to them with pointless but exciting acrobatics in a plane…. I’d be testing God’s patience methinks
I really shouldn’t be reading these hair raising anecdotes just before this flight
But on Shakespeare, yes, its much easier to use foreign names inaccurately when the vast majority of the public don't know it beyond a foreign reference point. Another possibility may be that he was using the sea-coast of Bohemia in one of his clever internal reference half-truths, given that Bohemia was one of the Habsburg possessions, which also included what's now the Croatian coast - but I don't know the context of the quote.
People forget the Irish Free state was created NOT just by the 1918 SF majority in Ireland but by violence and bombings from the IRA and the Irish War of Independence which lasted until 1921.
Northern Ireland was effectively created by violence too and the Ulster Protestants who took up arms to resist Home Rule and Dublin rule.
The prospect of the LVF and UVF planting bombs again would be inevitable if they ever faced Dublin rule
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/usercode.py?scotcontrol=N&CON=17&LAB=23&LIB=15&Reform=29&Green=10&UKIP=&TVCON=&TVLAB=&TVLIB=&TVReform=&TVGreen=&TVUKIP=&SCOTCON=&SCOTLAB=&SCOTLIB=&SCOTReform=&SCOTGreen=&SCOTUKIP=&SCOTNAT=&display=AllChanged&regorseat=(none)&boundary=2024base
Which may cause some on here to shudder!
Safe flight anyway.
I think you win
✅ Support 69%
❌ Oppose 10%
🤷♂️ Don't know 21%
[Find Out Now, 9th June, N=1,005]
Does this change make you more or less likely to vote Labour?
📈 More likely 10%
📉 Less likely 16%
➖ No difference 74%
Lmao, well done big Rach
All the political damage of the original decision, and nothing gained from the U-turn at all, other than grave skepticism from the bond markets
Completely clueless
He slammed into the volcano.
Chengxuan Han told officers the packages contained ‘biological material related to roundworms’" (£)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/06/10/wuhan-scientist-arrested-smuggling-toxic-parasites-us/
Rachel Reeves forgot the wise words of the 17th century French finance minister: "The art of taxation is to pluck the most feathers from the goose for the fewest squawks." Reeves got lots of squawks and not many feathers.
Fact is, ever since electoral politics invented, those in power do what they need to do to get themselves through elections.