Excellent header, on-topic. Like all in this series.
(I hadn't known that Salmond argued for an independent Scotland to be outwith the EU, underlining my status as a PB Scotch expert )
That was certainly not Salmond’s position at the time of the referendum, in fact he had to fight a constant rearguard action against the central proposition of Bettertogether that the only way to stay in EU was to vote no to Indy (that worked out well). The author may have confused him with Jim Sillars.
Reasonable article but definitely of the glass half full type, re-iterating all the bogus London reasons to allow them to keep milking us and ignoring any of the positives , ie biggest one is how on earth could we be worse off than we are under the English parliament. Lots of small countries doing much better than the basket case UK and they have little or no resources compared to Scotland. We will just see the usual "London" responses here from bigoted people with no clue about Scotland other than it is a nice piggy bank that has lots of collateral to back up their loans.
I might misremember but perhaps some of our Indian contributors would like to comment. Apparently India was 10% of the world GDP before the Raj and 1% during it as wealth was extracted. An independent India (or Ireland) is now climbing up the ranks.
Or perhaps there are other reasons for the comparative growth / decline in a nations fortunes - but why not give everyone a chance. Especially since the Welsh, Irish and Scots are all 'spongers'
Quite a bit of that wasn't exactly wealth extraction, though. World GDP grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution - and the British control of India meant they were unable to shield their (very large) domestic textile industry from mechanised competition, so it collapsed as a result.
Pre-Industrial Revolution, a State’s share of world GDP tended to match its share of world population, with most people growing food as peasants, in villages. Maximum GDP per head was about $2,000. The lives of the elite were simply unimaginable to such people.
I was reading one economic article about the Roman Empire, which estimated Senatorial incomes at an average £9m, in 150, and knightly incomes at £720,000. The rest were on about £800 a year, per capita.
That all changed after 1800.
I get the impression that some people are bitter that Britain industrialised first, perhaps even than Britain industrialised at all.
Putting it bluntly the SNP have run out of ideas. In the 2024 General Election their manifesto was FOR SCOTLAND - if you weren't for the SNP you were against Scotland. They actually deployed that line that aggressively on the doorstep!
Our problems north of the wall are practically the same as south of the wall - a broken country where the economy means jobs struggle to pay soaring bills, and services crumbling due to a lack of cash.
The SNP solution to not being able to see a dentist or no investment into roads or a lack of teachers? Independence! From what I saw last year punters have largely stopped listening to this guff - they want solutions that are little more tangible than Independence or being told you're a traitor to the flag.
My gut instinct is that they are going to struggle - a very tired incumbent party riven deeply on most issues presiding over a mess. It should be party time for challenging parties - oh yeah Labour are also a very tired incumbent party.
I think we're going to get a chaos result. SNP losing a stack of seats, Labour not gaining as many as they demand by right, Reform picking up scores, the Tories reduced back into redoubts, LD and Green and likely others doing decently well.
I look forward to giving you updates as a candidate.
The wall?
Isn't Hadrian's Wall entirely in England, and the Antonine Wall entirely in Scotland?
Yes. I live north of Hadrian’s Wall and there’s still about 100 miles of England north of me.
I once met an englishman at the Mull of Galloway who had moved south from England to live in Scotland. He had been living in Northumberland, and had moved to the Mull - south of his old home.
Labour are completely wrecking the economy, Rachel Reeves is worse than Liz Truss. The country is on the road to financial ruin and all these Labour MPs can do is call for more spending. Unfit for government.
Cowed by nonentity backbenchers trying to reduce spending by even a small amount.
‘ BREAKING NEWS: More pressure on Chancellor Reeves to raise taxes/repair public finances/‘fix the foundations’ (still a work in progress, contrary to ministerial claims): UK government borrowing rose to almost £21 billion last month, £6.6bn higher than June 2024 and the second-highest June borrowing figure since monthly records began in 1993. City economists had forecast borrowing to increase to £16.5bn. These days when it comes to inflation, growth, borrowing and pretty much every other economic indicator ‘City economists’ are invariably over-optimistic about Labour economic policy.’
Ed Miliband admits Sizewell C cost has almost doubled to £38bn
I was utterly bemused by Reform's attack on renewable energy and the subsidies that it supposedly takes with a preference for nuclear instead. The strike price for nuclear is already nearly twice the renewable rate and they are heading in opposite directions. The one universal and unbreakable rule since the 1950s has always been that nuclear energy is the most expensive option. Always. And it is going to remain so.
The problem they have is that the idea that renewables are expensive and the problem has become an article of faith for them, bordering on religious. Just listen to @Luckyguy1983
Such pesky little realities as strike prices, costs, facts or figures don't play into people who are operating on faith.
Extremist zealots on the other extreme don't help their case either to be fair.
Ed Miliband admits Sizewell C cost has almost doubled to £38bn
There really needs to be a list of government infrastructure projects together with ratios of actual spending to budget and time completed to predicted.
Thankyou for the article Gareth of the Vale. As time passes, both problems and opportunities for the SNP. I think they are in a decent position to defend the 62 constituency seats they won in 2021, by virtue of a much more splintered opposition. Not sure how many constituenceies the Greens will stand in this time, but don't think it'll have too big an effect outside of a handful of Glasgow/Edinburgh seats.
As long as the SNP keep winning Holyrood elections, they remain in a good position to argue for a referendum. Its now nearly 11 years since indy ref and next year's 16 year old voters will have little recollection of that vote. Both Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling are no longer with us, we are definitely nearing the generation passing.
I can't see Starmer agreeing to a referendum whilst he has 40-odd Slab MPs to rely on, but the bare facts are 11 years on yes are still polling somewhere near 45% (or above). I think tipping point will come if yes start polling above 55% for a year or more.
Next year could be a bloodbath for the Scottish Tories, Reform look to be heading for a dozen + MSPs, without even naming many of their candidates.
I don't think JS will want to serve a full term (if he wins), could be a chance for Kate Forbes, Angus Robertson or Stephen Flynn to lead this coming parliament
I think you can probably remove Angus Robertson from that shortlist. His frankly mystifying shenanigans with the Israeli deputy ambassador have damaged his bland but smart credentials.
I must warn Mr. Eagles that Ep29 of Undercutters does include a bit about Horner leaving Red Bull. I know this will upset you, so I wanted to provide fair warning in case you decide to skip this episode.
Also, Piastri's penalty and looking ahead to Belgium, including the last race there.
My youngest contacted all the British based F1 teams about wanting to learn more about what they do because he has an interest in physics and F1 and sees it as a potential career.
All but one of them sent generic replies, Red Bull were the only ones who sent a genuine reply.
I may have to revise my opinion of Red Bull.
My elder son worked for Formula One Management at, eventually, a very senior technical/management level for many years. He himself has a son who is casting about, post University for 'something to do'. I'm sure he'd be willing to help your son.
PM me if you'd like details and/or wish to be put in contact.
Labour are completely wrecking the economy, Rachel Reeves is worse than Liz Truss. The country is on the road to financial ruin and all these Labour MPs can do is call for more spending. Unfit for government.
And in other non-hyprrbolic news, Good Morning PB'ers !
Dorset Council previously said it would introduce voice automation and artificial intelligence to help save £77m by 2030. The project, called Our Future Council, is estimated to cost £48m over that period.
Why i am getting Simpsons Monorail episode vibes.
My local council has several departments that don’t do their jobs and are uncontactable. They don’t even have *internal* phone numbers now.
In the case of issuing parking permits, the whole thing could be automated. To the point of no humans.
Reading our council's Digital Strategy Policy indicates that over 85% of those below pension age are internet users. It falls away to 54% over that age. So it makes sense to use AI and the internet to provide services - which the council are now doing.
The only mention of humans in the 18 page document is the comment that AI will keep humans in the loop (aka. generate reports) for SLA and contract monitoring.
It becomes difficult to deny another referendum if the SNP wins a majority and a "generation" has passed, for the purposes of which I'll define as 21 years.
That means if the SNP are in pole position in 2035, about 10 years time, they'll get another shot, possibly slightly earlier, and if the 2029GE results in a UK hung parliament where their support is needed well, there's the opportunity.
Not sure about that. My conclusion from the header is that while I have no idea how the SNP will do in future elections, Scotland isn't going to be independent, and IMO, there won't be another referendum either in the next generation.
It is not realistic to have another referendum until and unless there is consistent polling showing clear support for independence, and, so as not to repeat the Brexit disaster, there was clear polling support given a proper outline of what sort of independence there would be WRT currency and other central questions.
The SNP made crucial mistake in turning wokeish leftwards. What they should have done is take the powers they have, which are considerable, and run Scotland as centre ground social democrats and use their extra funding to run things loads better than England, so that Scots and English looked to Scottish schools, hospitals, housing, crime levels, prisons as beacons of hope and examples to follow for the rest of us.
Dorset Council previously said it would introduce voice automation and artificial intelligence to help save £77m by 2030. The project, called Our Future Council, is estimated to cost £48m over that period.
Why i am getting Simpsons Monorail episode vibes.
My local council has several departments that don’t do their jobs and are uncontactable. They don’t even have *internal* phone numbers now.
In the case of issuing parking permits, the whole thing could be automated. To the point of no humans.
Have they outsourced the work to British Gas?
I was told last week by a chap patching a Council fence, that my Council's "Highways Maintainers" ("Via East Midlands") were previously controlled by Cornwall County Council, and aiui it used to be 100%.
As Mr Data says ... processing, processing.
(They are not very good, and the only one in the country who's Active Travel England assessment went down last year. I'm not sure what will happen in the future, given RefUK ... in Derbyshire the Cons were already diverting future investment to patching potholes.)
Having Starmer as PM is clearly an opportunity for the SNP if only they had the wit to grab it. After all, if he's willing to pay £3.4bn to get the Chagos Islands off his hands how much would he be willing to pay to lose Scotland?
The problem is that even Starmer won't last forever and Scotland's fiscal position has deteriorated since 2014 as have its prospects. North Sea oil is in danger of becoming income negative as the clean up and close up costs accrue. The resistance to opening up new fields both accelerates and accentuates that trend.
The Barnett formula bonanza is also something of a poisoned chalice. It helps the SNP buy popularity in Scotland like no University fees (although flocks of chickens are coming home to roost there) and slightly more generous benefits but it means Scotland has to acknowledge that Independence comes with an immediate price in the form of even more taxation or substantial public sector spending cuts. Our share of the UK deficit of £150bn is not insignificant either. I fear borrowing for an independent Scotland would be prohibitively expensive.
For me, the SNP are caught in a cleft stick. To get independence they need to grow and boost the Scottish economy and its tax base. To do this they would need to reverse many of the policies that their base likes, higher public spending, a bloated public sector, higher taxes and more regulation. Kate Forbes might be up for such a platform but can she win either the leadership or an election with it? I don't think so.
In a way it may be easiest for the SNP if Anas Sarwar gets a turn at governing then Lab can be blamed for poor finances on both sides of the border. Who will level with the public sector that spending is too high?
I agree the best position for independence would need a centrist leader to tempt businesses and middle classes into the tent.
Always like to make a positive post if I can and in particular for an opponent. Everything shouldn't be partisan. I was watching a committee meeting on SEND, primarily for the LD MP (whom I know) asking the question. Angela Rayner was in the hot seat. Much to my surprise she was brilliant at dealing with the questions. She clearly knew her stuff, not confrontational, productive discussions.
Cowed by nonentity backbenchers trying to reduce spending by even a small amount.
‘ BREAKING NEWS: More pressure on Chancellor Reeves to raise taxes/repair public finances/‘fix the foundations’ (still a work in progress, contrary to ministerial claims): UK government borrowing rose to almost £21 billion last month, £6.6bn higher than June 2024 and the second-highest June borrowing figure since monthly records began in 1993. City economists had forecast borrowing to increase to £16.5bn. These days when it comes to inflation, growth, borrowing and pretty much every other economic indicator ‘City economists’ are invariably over-optimistic about Labour economic policy.’
Borrowing fiscal year to date (April-June) is exactly in line with the OBR's March forecast.
This is true. But is it possible to describe how this government is communicating to the interested public what their plan is over the annual, 5 year and 10 year period to reduce that debt we are still increasing and to run the current account without relying on the never never? I listen but have no idea.
The silence suggests that a sovereign debt/inflation crisis can't be off the table. And as Reform are the only likely alternative government at the moment, they could but don't steal a march on Labour by letting us, and the IFS, into their secret and cunning plan on the same question.
Reasonable article but definitely of the glass half full type, re-iterating all the bogus London reasons to allow them to keep milking us and ignoring any of the positives , ie biggest one is how on earth could we be worse off than we are under the English parliament. Lots of small countries doing much better than the basket case UK and they have little or no resources compared to Scotland. We will just see the usual "London" responses here from bigoted people with no clue about Scotland other than it is a nice piggy bank that has lots of collateral to back up their loans.
I might misremember but perhaps some of our Indian contributors would like to comment. Apparently India was 10% of the world GDP before the Raj and 1% during it as wealth was extracted. An independent India (or Ireland) is now climbing up the ranks.
Or perhaps there are other reasons for the comparative growth / decline in a nations fortunes - but why not give everyone a chance. Especially since the Welsh, Irish and Scots are all 'spongers'
Quite a bit of that wasn't exactly wealth extraction, though. World GDP grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution - and the British control of India meant they were unable to shield their (very large) domestic textile industry from mechanised competition, so it collapsed as a result.
Pre-Industrial Revolution, a State’s share of world GDP tended to match its share of world population, with most people growing food as peasants, in villages. Maximum GDP per head was about $2,000. The lives of the elite were simply unimaginable to such people.
I was reading one economic article about the Roman Empire, which estimated Senatorial incomes at an average £9m, in 150, and knightly incomes at £720,000. The rest were on about £800 a year, per capita.
That all changed after 1800.
I get the impression that some people are bitter that Britain industrialised first, perhaps even than Britain industrialised at all.
A lot of people have an absurdly romanticised view of what the pre-industrial world was like.
Some numbers were remarkably consistent. About 24, for average life expectancy; about 45%, for children who never reached the age of 15; about 10%, for women who died in childbirth. And, a varying percentage of men who died in war.
*betting post* I've had some success this series in betting on India women, who strike me as by some way the better side, yet are consistently at longer odds - perhaps this is a symptom of these matches attracting a disproportionate number of "going to the match - let's have a flutter on the home side" types?
Isn't the series drawn 1-1 so far? But yes, England are favourites in the main and subsidiary markets. Good luck with your punting.
I must warn Mr. Eagles that Ep29 of Undercutters does include a bit about Horner leaving Red Bull. I know this will upset you, so I wanted to provide fair warning in case you decide to skip this episode.
Also, Piastri's penalty and looking ahead to Belgium, including the last race there.
My youngest contacted all the British based F1 teams about wanting to learn more about what they do because he has an interest in physics and F1 and sees it as a potential career.
All but one of them sent generic replies, Red Bull were the only ones who sent a genuine reply.
I may have to revise my opinion of Red Bull.
My elder son worked for Formula One Management at, eventually, a very senior technical/management level for many years. He himself has a son who is casting about, post University for 'something to do'. I'm sure he'd be willing to help your son.
PM me if you'd like details and/or wish to be put in contact.
Thank you, I will message you later, just got to disappear into a meeting for the rest of the morning.
Cowed by nonentity backbenchers trying to reduce spending by even a small amount.
‘ BREAKING NEWS: More pressure on Chancellor Reeves to raise taxes/repair public finances/‘fix the foundations’ (still a work in progress, contrary to ministerial claims): UK government borrowing rose to almost £21 billion last month, £6.6bn higher than June 2024 and the second-highest June borrowing figure since monthly records began in 1993. City economists had forecast borrowing to increase to £16.5bn. These days when it comes to inflation, growth, borrowing and pretty much every other economic indicator ‘City economists’ are invariably over-optimistic about Labour economic policy.’
Borrowing fiscal year to date (April-June) is exactly in line with the OBR's March forecast.
Indeed it is, at £58 billion in the three months. If you spread that liability out across the million highest tax paying UK institutions and individuals that would be an extra £58,000 each. And again in the next three months. And then again......
Putting it bluntly the SNP have run out of ideas. In the 2024 General Election their manifesto was FOR SCOTLAND - if you weren't for the SNP you were against Scotland. They actually deployed that line that aggressively on the doorstep!
Our problems north of the wall are practically the same as south of the wall - a broken country where the economy means jobs struggle to pay soaring bills, and services crumbling due to a lack of cash.
The SNP solution to not being able to see a dentist or no investment into roads or a lack of teachers? Independence! From what I saw last year punters have largely stopped listening to this guff - they want solutions that are little more tangible than Independence or being told you're a traitor to the flag.
My gut instinct is that they are going to struggle - a very tired incumbent party riven deeply on most issues presiding over a mess. It should be party time for challenging parties - oh yeah Labour are also a very tired incumbent party.
I think we're going to get a chaos result. SNP losing a stack of seats, Labour not gaining as many as they demand by right, Reform picking up scores, the Tories reduced back into redoubts, LD and Green and likely others doing decently well.
I look forward to giving you updates as a candidate.
The wall?
Isn't Hadrian's Wall entirely in England, and the Antonine Wall entirely in Scotland?
Yes. I live north of Hadrian’s Wall and there’s still about 100 miles of England north of me.
I once met an englishman at the Mull of Galloway who had moved south from England to live in Scotland. He had been living in Northumberland, and had moved to the Mull - south of his old home.
Also, Newcastle is further west than Southampton.
Yes, the Mull is as far south as Hartlepool
And here's a road where you can drive due South into Scotland (or vice versa, according to taste):
It becomes difficult to deny another referendum if the SNP wins a majority and a "generation" has passed, for the purposes of which I'll define as 21 years.
That means if the SNP are in pole position in 2035, about 10 years time, they'll get another shot, possibly slightly earlier, and if the 2029GE results in a UK hung parliament where their support is needed well, there's the opportunity.
Yes, that's fair enough. Would it be fair to add the proviso that, given the financial state of the UK, those who vote for independence will be paying the whole cost of negotiations etc for both sides?
I suspect it will all founder on money.
They would want currency and no internal border. The UK would want a comprehensive security and defence pact so the GIUK gap was still fully secure.
I'm not so sure. Brexit demonstrated that economic self interest is insufficient glue if voters can be persuaded to gamble.
Any negotiations post any independence vote would be messy, and likely costly for both parties. But that alone wouldn't prevent a vote.
And two groups will be up for a gamble.
Those who feel they have nothing to lose, and those with so much that a loss won't hurt much.
*betting post* I've had some success this series in betting on India women, who strike me as by some way the better side, yet are consistently at longer odds - perhaps this is a symptom of these matches attracting a disproportionate number of "going to the match - let's have a flutter on the home side" types?
Isn't the series drawn 1-1 so far? But yes, England are favourites in the main and subsidiary markets. Good luck with your punting.
As a regular cricket watcher, both in person and on the box, I would say that the teams are reasonably evenly matched, but that India just about edge it.
Dorset Council previously said it would introduce voice automation and artificial intelligence to help save £77m by 2030. The project, called Our Future Council, is estimated to cost £48m over that period.
Why i am getting Simpsons Monorail episode vibes.
My local council has several departments that don’t do their jobs and are uncontactable. They don’t even have *internal* phone numbers now.
In the case of issuing parking permits, the whole thing could be automated. To the point of no humans.
Reading our council's Digital Strategy Policy indicates that over 85% of those below pension age are internet users. It falls away to 54% over that age. So it makes sense to use AI and the internet to provide services - which the council are now doing.
The only mention of humans in the 18 page document is the comment that AI will keep humans in the loop (aka. generate reports) for SLA and contract monitoring.
It would be interesting to know how many of the other <15% are people who don't have the capacity to look after themselves or live independent lives. How many are independent & capable and yet unable to use the Internet, and what's stopping them?
Or does below pension age include infants and young children?
It becomes difficult to deny another referendum if the SNP wins a majority and a "generation" has passed, for the purposes of which I'll define as 21 years.
That means if the SNP are in pole position in 2035, about 10 years time, they'll get another shot, possibly slightly earlier, and if the 2029GE results in a UK hung parliament where their support is needed well, there's the opportunity.
Yes, that's fair enough. Would it be fair to add the proviso that, given the financial state of the UK, those who vote for independence will be paying the whole cost of negotiations etc for both sides?
I suspect it will all founder on money.
They would want currency and no internal border. The UK would want a comprehensive security and defence pact so the GIUK gap was still fully secure.
I'm not so sure. Brexit demonstrated that economic self interest is insufficient glue if voters can be persuaded to gamble.
Any negotiations post any independence vote would be messy, and likely costly for both parties. But that alone wouldn't prevent a vote.
And two groups will be up for a gamble.
Those who feel they have nothing to lose, and those with so much that a loss won't hurt much.
Hence the Brexit/Reform coalition.
The latter was disproportionately larger in the Brexit referendum.
A myth has taken over, largely as it suits almost all parties interests, that Brexit was a desperate act of desperate (or misguided depending on your PoV) people.
Actually however largely the Brexit vote was by people who were comfortable. Home owners, who weren't scared by the threats.
The challenge for the SNP is not how to scare people into voting for independence on a 'how could it be any worse' basis as malcolm argues.
The challenge for the SNP is how to make people comfortable. Get people secure, comfortable and not scared off taking a risk.
The problem for the SNP is they don't seem to even grasp that challenge, let alone being any good at it.
In specious connections news I learn Alexander the Great was only 5 ft tall, so small can be great. There’s also an Alexandria in Scotland, case closed.
Reasonable article but definitely of the glass half full type, re-iterating all the bogus London reasons to allow them to keep milking us and ignoring any of the positives , ie biggest one is how on earth could we be worse off than we are under the English parliament. Lots of small countries doing much better than the basket case UK and they have little or no resources compared to Scotland. We will just see the usual "London" responses here from bigoted people with no clue about Scotland other than it is a nice piggy bank that has lots of collateral to back up their loans.
malcolmg - some fair points. TBH - my connections are to England and Wales so am less dialled in to Scotland. Have you thought about writing a header yourself? Would be interested in hearing the assessment of someone pro-Indy
Ed Miliband admits Sizewell C cost has almost doubled to £38bn
I was utterly bemused by Reform's attack on renewable energy and the subsidies that it supposedly takes with a preference for nuclear instead. The strike price for nuclear is already nearly twice the renewable rate and they are heading in opposite directions. The one universal and unbreakable rule since the 1950s has always been that nuclear energy is the most expensive option. Always. And it is going to remain so.
Would be good to see a price comparison over time. It looks to me like the costs associated with solar panels and turbines are coming down over time, as manufacturing ramps up and efficiency gets better.
There is a fairly significant leg up to companies via CfD payments, now being extended to 20 years in the new allocation round. Would prefer if the government built some offshore wind farms themselves rather than leave it to the multi national developers. When you get into the guts of them there is significant habitat damage with wind energy
In specious connections news I learn Alexander the Great was only 5 ft tall, so small can be great. There’s also an Alexandria in Scotland, case closed.
And an Alecandroupoli in Greece. On the other hand, he seems to have been a bit of an unhinged psychopath, rampaging across partly through guile and partly through sheer madness.
Good article. The SNP's core base has been rural areas of the Highlands, islands and Aberdeensgire but to win Scotland it has needed to win the urban central belt which went Labour last year. They may win most seats again next year but likely face a Unionist majority of MSPs.
Commitment to net zero means the SNP abandoning oil revenues. Currency wise and independent Scotland would have to try and rejoin the EU and join the Euro which dilutes independence anyway now.
Unless the SNP held the balance of power in a hung parliament for a Labour minority government the UK government would refuse indyref2. Swinney has ruled out UDI and Westminster would impose direct rule if it tried anyway like Madrid did in Catalonia
I was confused reading this thread. I thought Scotland was already independent?
Everybody told me that if we left the EU the Union was DOOOOMMMMMED.
Just like we'd have five million unemployed, empty supermarket shelves, a house price crash, nobody would ever want to ally with us, etc. etc. etc.
We may not have taken every opportunity since leaving the EU, but it's always a pleasure to point out Remainer lies.
More lies from Leave I am afraid. Those issues were in the event of a “no deal” Brexit which obviously didn’t happen.
Claims were exaggerated before and after depending on people's views but the official Treasury prediction was that there would be an immediate four quarter recession after a Leave vote:
Britain’s economy would be tipped into a year-long recession, with at least 500,000 jobs lost and GDP around 3.6% lower, following a vote to leave the EU, new Treasury analysis launched today by the Prime Minister and Chancellor shows.
Then there were the predictions about tax rises and spending cuts:
In the latest of a series of government warnings about the consequences of a vote to leave, Mr Osborne shared a stage with his Labour predecessor, Lord Darling, setting out £30bn of "illustrative" tax rises and spending cuts, including a 2p rise in the basic rate of income tax and a 3p rise in the higher rate.
They also said spending on the police, transport and local government could take a 5% cut and ring-fenced NHS budget could be "slashed", along with education, defence and policing.
I was confused reading this thread. I thought Scotland was already independent?
Everybody told me that if we left the EU the Union was DOOOOMMMMMED.
Just like we'd have five million unemployed, empty supermarket shelves, a house price crash, nobody would ever want to ally with us, etc. etc. etc.
We may not have taken every opportunity since leaving the EU, but it's always a pleasure to point out Remainer lies.
More lies from Leave I am afraid. Those issues were in the event of a “no deal” Brexit which obviously didn’t happen.
Claims were exaggerated before and after depending on people's views but the official Treasury prediction was that there would be an immediate four quarter recession after a Leave vote:
Britain’s economy would be tipped into a year-long recession, with at least 500,000 jobs lost and GDP around 3.6% lower, following a vote to leave the EU, new Treasury analysis launched today by the Prime Minister and Chancellor shows.
Then there were the predictions about tax rises and spending cuts:
In the latest of a series of government warnings about the consequences of a vote to leave, Mr Osborne shared a stage with his Labour predecessor, Lord Darling, setting out £30bn of "illustrative" tax rises and spending cuts, including a 2p rise in the basic rate of income tax and a 3p rise in the higher rate.
They also said spending on the police, transport and local government could take a 5% cut and ring-fenced NHS budget could be "slashed", along with education, defence and policing.
On a more comical level there were predictions of 'no strawberries in the supermarkets'.
I think that one was comprehensively debunked on PB.
Umm but we didnt actually leave until 2020 and then we immediately had a massive recession and unemployment went up almost 500,000.
The claim was if we vote to leave, not when we do leave. The effects were supposed to be immediate as companies contract and the economy crashes merely from the uncertainty arising from the vote.
Instead we just had Parliament paralysed for years 2017-19, not the economy.
I don't think you can count Covid as being caused by Brexit and I doubt even you believe that so keep some integrity and don't try and link the two.
Reasonable article but definitely of the glass half full type, re-iterating all the bogus London reasons to allow them to keep milking us and ignoring any of the positives , ie biggest one is how on earth could we be worse off than we are under the English parliament. Lots of small countries doing much better than the basket case UK and they have little or no resources compared to Scotland. We will just see the usual "London" responses here from bigoted people with no clue about Scotland other than it is a nice piggy bank that has lots of collateral to back up their loans.
malcolmg - some fair points. TBH - my connections are to England and Wales so am less dialled in to Scotland. Have you thought about writing a header yourself? Would be interested in hearing the assessment of someone pro-Indy
The one inescapable reality about independence in a peaceful democracy like the UK is that if it is the settled will of an identifiable nation as a whole - and Scotland for all sorts of geographical and historical reasons is that - that they shall be independent then the force is unstoppable.
Scotland is nowhere near that position. To get to that position is 100% in the hands of its people. (I can see Scotland from where I live in England, family members live and work in Scotland, and personally I support the union).
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
TBF, Indy and Brexit are linked, and continue to be so in practical political terms. So it's unsurprising the topic comes up, and Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days.
Reasonable article but definitely of the glass half full type, re-iterating all the bogus London reasons to allow them to keep milking us and ignoring any of the positives , ie biggest one is how on earth could we be worse off than we are under the English parliament. Lots of small countries doing much better than the basket case UK and they have little or no resources compared to Scotland. We will just see the usual "London" responses here from bigoted people with no clue about Scotland other than it is a nice piggy bank that has lots of collateral to back up their loans.
I might misremember but perhaps some of our Indian contributors would like to comment. Apparently India was 10% of the world GDP before the Raj and 1% during it as wealth was extracted. An independent India (or Ireland) is now climbing up the ranks.
Or perhaps there are other reasons for the comparative growth / decline in a nations fortunes - but why not give everyone a chance. Especially since the Welsh, Irish and Scots are all 'spongers'
Quite a bit of that wasn't exactly wealth extraction, though. World GDP grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution - and the British control of India meant they were unable to shield their (very large) domestic textile industry from mechanised competition, so it collapsed as a result.
Pre-Industrial Revolution, a State’s share of world GDP tended to match its share of world population, with most people growing food as peasants, in villages. Maximum GDP per head was about $2,000. The lives of the elite were simply unimaginable to such people.
I was reading one economic article about the Roman Empire, which estimated Senatorial incomes at an average £9m, in 150, and knightly incomes at £720,000. The rest were on about £800 a year, per capita.
That all changed after 1800.
I get the impression that some people are bitter that Britain industrialised first, perhaps even than Britain industrialised at all.
Not a bit of it; it's something which provided us with a century or so of prosperity, for which I'm grateful.
That it also had a pretty disastrous effect on the economy of the Indian subcontinent, as a fairly direct result of our being the colonial power at the same time as we industrialised, isn't particularly controversial.
I must warn Mr. Eagles that Ep29 of Undercutters does include a bit about Horner leaving Red Bull. I know this will upset you, so I wanted to provide fair warning in case you decide to skip this episode.
Also, Piastri's penalty and looking ahead to Belgium, including the last race there.
My youngest contacted all the British based F1 teams about wanting to learn more about what they do because he has an interest in physics and F1 and sees it as a potential career.
All but one of them sent generic replies, Red Bull were the only ones who sent a genuine reply.
I may have to revise my opinion of Red Bull.
My elder son worked for Formula One Management at, eventually, a very senior technical/management level for many years. He himself has a son who is casting about, post University for 'something to do'. I'm sure he'd be willing to help your son.
PM me if you'd like details and/or wish to be put in contact.
Thank you, I will message you later, just got to disappear into a meeting for the rest of the morning.
If it's no dice with the F1 teams you could try Pilbeam Racing Designs in Bourne,Lincs. They make racing cars for hill climbing events. I also believe they are closely associated with Cranfield University. Shelsley Walsh hill climb might not be the Monaco Grand Prix, but it could be a stepping stone to greater things.
There are a few other similar companies. Gould in Newbury is one, and most of the WRC cars are prepared in the UK. Presumably they all use a similar technology if not quite so sophisticated. Good luck!
Ed Miliband admits Sizewell C cost has almost doubled to £38bn
I was utterly bemused by Reform's attack on renewable energy and the subsidies that it supposedly takes with a preference for nuclear instead. The strike price for nuclear is already nearly twice the renewable rate and they are heading in opposite directions. The one universal and unbreakable rule since the 1950s has always been that nuclear energy is the most expensive option. Always. And it is going to remain so.
The problem they have is that the idea that renewables are expensive and the problem has become an article of faith for them, bordering on religious. Just listen to @Luckyguy1983
Such pesky little realities as strike prices, costs, facts or figures don't play into people who are operating on faith.
Extremist zealots on the other extreme don't help their case either to be fair.
Also, you have to be pretty close to the action to be aware of how cheap solar and wind have got, and how quickly.
Now, we're just left with the issues that the cost of renewables is mostly capital and the cost of fossil fuels is mostly revenue, and that building things makes busybodies cross.
I am surprised they allowed anyone else in the room when the MRI was on.
Generally, they don't.
Occasionally someone slips up, and accidents can then happen. ...McAllister was not the first person killed by an MRI machine in New York. In 2001, Michael Colombini, 6, died when an oxygen tank flew into an MRI chamber that he was in, having been pulled in by the machine at a medical center in Westchester county...
Horrible, and totally avoidable if people only read the warning signs and understand.
I use NMR (essentially the same as MRI) and both use superconducting magnets (essentially permanent magnets, as long as the coils are kept to around 2 degrees K. The idea that you can 'turn it off' makes me laugh (a bit unfairly). One of our old technical team never believed me when I told him that the NMR magnet wasn't being powered by the cables that run from it (they go to the console/computer to do the experiments). He only finally understood when we changed the console to another manufacturer - everything was removed from the magnet, no more cables ran to it and it was still a magnet (as shown by a compass). He was gob smacked.
I was confused reading this thread. I thought Scotland was already independent?
Everybody told me that if we left the EU the Union was DOOOOMMMMMED.
Just like we'd have five million unemployed, empty supermarket shelves, a house price crash, nobody would ever want to ally with us, etc. etc. etc.
We may not have taken every opportunity since leaving the EU, but it's always a pleasure to point out Remainer lies.
More lies from Leave I am afraid. Those issues were in the event of a “no deal” Brexit which obviously didn’t happen.
Claims were exaggerated before and after depending on people's views but the official Treasury prediction was that there would be an immediate four quarter recession after a Leave vote:
Britain’s economy would be tipped into a year-long recession, with at least 500,000 jobs lost and GDP around 3.6% lower, following a vote to leave the EU, new Treasury analysis launched today by the Prime Minister and Chancellor shows.
Then there were the predictions about tax rises and spending cuts:
In the latest of a series of government warnings about the consequences of a vote to leave, Mr Osborne shared a stage with his Labour predecessor, Lord Darling, setting out £30bn of "illustrative" tax rises and spending cuts, including a 2p rise in the basic rate of income tax and a 3p rise in the higher rate.
They also said spending on the police, transport and local government could take a 5% cut and ring-fenced NHS budget could be "slashed", along with education, defence and policing.
On a more comical level there were predictions of 'no strawberries in the supermarkets'.
I think that one was comprehensively debunked on PB.
Umm but we didnt actually leave until 2020 and then we immediately had a massive recession and unemployment went up almost 500,000.
The claim was if we vote to leave, not when we do leave. The effects were supposed to be immediate as companies contract and the economy crashes merely from the uncertainty arising from the vote.
Instead we just had Parliament paralysed for years 2017-19, not the economy.
I don't think you can count Covid as being caused by Brexit and I doubt even you believe that so keep some integrity and don't try and link the two.
The treasury modelled what the politicians asked them to do. Not their fault the Conservative party collectively shat the bed about what they had unleashed.
I must warn Mr. Eagles that Ep29 of Undercutters does include a bit about Horner leaving Red Bull. I know this will upset you, so I wanted to provide fair warning in case you decide to skip this episode.
Also, Piastri's penalty and looking ahead to Belgium, including the last race there.
My youngest contacted all the British based F1 teams about wanting to learn more about what they do because he has an interest in physics and F1 and sees it as a potential career.
All but one of them sent generic replies, Red Bull were the only ones who sent a genuine reply.
I may have to revise my opinion of Red Bull.
My elder son worked for Formula One Management at, eventually, a very senior technical/management level for many years. He himself has a son who is casting about, post University for 'something to do'. I'm sure he'd be willing to help your son.
PM me if you'd like details and/or wish to be put in contact.
Thank you, I will message you later, just got to disappear into a meeting for the rest of the morning.
If it's no dice with the F1 teams you could try Pilbeam Racing Designs in Bourne,Lincs. They make racing cars for hill climbing events. I also believe they are closely associated with Cranfield University. Shelsley Walsh hill climb might not be the Monaco Grand Prix, but it could be a stepping stone to greater things.
There are a few other similar companies. Gould in Newbury is one, and most of the WRC cars are prepared in the UK. Presumably they all use a similar technology if not quite so sophisticated. Good luck!
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
Sensitive, toi?
Not at all. Just woke up from a good night’s sleep
What’s really on my mind is the sad state of Soho last night. Ok it was a little showery and it was Monday
But it’s summer. The evening was mild. This is London’s “entertainment” district. Yet it was so quiet
Soho Square was mainly full of Deliveroo bikers. I saw a few homeless. Lots of shuttered shops. On the way out of the Groucho (also v quiet) the manager said to me “please put your phone away, they get snatched right here”
She wasn’t being officious she really meant it
I fear that the combo of Reeves horrible taxes and london’s crime and cultural changes is killing the capital. Certainly Soho
The ONS is identifying most of the increase in borrowing as due to increased interest payments on inflation-linked government debt. But then that should have been trivially easy to forecast, yet the monthly total was higher than expected.
Anyone know what component was higher/lower than expected?
The great harmonious union of England and Scotland, of Leon and Theuniondivvie, continues its merry way.
There’s a large body of opinion that Scotland is supported by the South and independence would be a disaster and yet there is little appetite to accept the request for another series of referendums. Just seems odd.
I was confused reading this thread. I thought Scotland was already independent?
Everybody told me that if we left the EU the Union was DOOOOMMMMMED.
Just like we'd have five million unemployed, empty supermarket shelves, a house price crash, nobody would ever want to ally with us, etc. etc. etc.
We may not have taken every opportunity since leaving the EU, but it's always a pleasure to point out Remainer lies.
More lies from Leave I am afraid. Those issues were in the event of a “no deal” Brexit which obviously didn’t happen.
Claims were exaggerated before and after depending on people's views but the official Treasury prediction was that there would be an immediate four quarter recession after a Leave vote:
Britain’s economy would be tipped into a year-long recession, with at least 500,000 jobs lost and GDP around 3.6% lower, following a vote to leave the EU, new Treasury analysis launched today by the Prime Minister and Chancellor shows.
Then there were the predictions about tax rises and spending cuts:
In the latest of a series of government warnings about the consequences of a vote to leave, Mr Osborne shared a stage with his Labour predecessor, Lord Darling, setting out £30bn of "illustrative" tax rises and spending cuts, including a 2p rise in the basic rate of income tax and a 3p rise in the higher rate.
They also said spending on the police, transport and local government could take a 5% cut and ring-fenced NHS budget could be "slashed", along with education, defence and policing.
I must warn Mr. Eagles that Ep29 of Undercutters does include a bit about Horner leaving Red Bull. I know this will upset you, so I wanted to provide fair warning in case you decide to skip this episode.
Also, Piastri's penalty and looking ahead to Belgium, including the last race there.
My youngest contacted all the British based F1 teams about wanting to learn more about what they do because he has an interest in physics and F1 and sees it as a potential career.
All but one of them sent generic replies, Red Bull were the only ones who sent a genuine reply.
I may have to revise my opinion of Red Bull.
My elder son worked for Formula One Management at, eventually, a very senior technical/management level for many years. He himself has a son who is casting about, post University for 'something to do'. I'm sure he'd be willing to help your son.
PM me if you'd like details and/or wish to be put in contact.
Thank you, I will message you later, just got to disappear into a meeting for the rest of the morning.
If it's no dice with the F1 teams you could try Pilbeam Racing Designs in Bourne,Lincs. They make racing cars for hill climbing events. I also believe they are closely associated with Cranfield University. Shelsley Walsh hill climb might not be the Monaco Grand Prix, but it could be a stepping stone to greater things.
There are a few other similar companies. Gould in Newbury is one, and most of the WRC cars are prepared in the UK. Presumably they all use a similar technology if not quite so sophisticated. Good luck!
Dorset Council previously said it would introduce voice automation and artificial intelligence to help save £77m by 2030. The project, called Our Future Council, is estimated to cost £48m over that period.
Why i am getting Simpsons Monorail episode vibes.
My local council has several departments that don’t do their jobs and are uncontactable. They don’t even have *internal* phone numbers now.
In the case of issuing parking permits, the whole thing could be automated. To the point of no humans.
Have they outsourced the work to British Gas?
To understand how bad it is, they fired SERCO and internalised it. Which made the parking unit stop working. I know people who been waiting months for a residents permit. No answer to email. No phone to call.
It’s like someone read Ayn Rand and thought implementing the “everything stops” thing was a good idea.
I was confused reading this thread. I thought Scotland was already independent?
Everybody told me that if we left the EU the Union was DOOOOMMMMMED.
Just like we'd have five million unemployed, empty supermarket shelves, a house price crash, nobody would ever want to ally with us, etc. etc. etc.
We may not have taken every opportunity since leaving the EU, but it's always a pleasure to point out Remainer lies.
More lies from Leave I am afraid. Those issues were in the event of a “no deal” Brexit which obviously didn’t happen.
Claims were exaggerated before and after depending on people's views but the official Treasury prediction was that there would be an immediate four quarter recession after a Leave vote:
Britain’s economy would be tipped into a year-long recession, with at least 500,000 jobs lost and GDP around 3.6% lower, following a vote to leave the EU, new Treasury analysis launched today by the Prime Minister and Chancellor shows.
Then there were the predictions about tax rises and spending cuts:
In the latest of a series of government warnings about the consequences of a vote to leave, Mr Osborne shared a stage with his Labour predecessor, Lord Darling, setting out £30bn of "illustrative" tax rises and spending cuts, including a 2p rise in the basic rate of income tax and a 3p rise in the higher rate.
They also said spending on the police, transport and local government could take a 5% cut and ring-fenced NHS budget could be "slashed", along with education, defence and policing.
On a more comical level there were predictions of 'no strawberries in the supermarkets'.
I think that one was comprehensively debunked on PB.
Umm but we didnt actually leave until 2020 and then we immediately had a massive recession and unemployment went up almost 500,000.
The claim was if we vote to leave, not when we do leave. The effects were supposed to be immediate as companies contract and the economy crashes merely from the uncertainty arising from the vote.
Instead we just had Parliament paralysed for years 2017-19, not the economy.
I don't think you can count Covid as being caused by Brexit and I doubt even you believe that so keep some integrity and don't try and link the two.
The treasury modelled what the politicians asked them to do. Not their fault the Conservative party collectively shat the bed about what they had unleashed.
Yes, the Treasury modelled BS about an "immediate recession if we vote to Leave" because that's what Osborne wanted them to model.
Not because there was any truth to it, which there was not.
Reasonable article but definitely of the glass half full type, re-iterating all the bogus London reasons to allow them to keep milking us and ignoring any of the positives , ie biggest one is how on earth could we be worse off than we are under the English parliament. Lots of small countries doing much better than the basket case UK and they have little or no resources compared to Scotland. We will just see the usual "London" responses here from bigoted people with no clue about Scotland other than it is a nice piggy bank that has lots of collateral to back up their loans.
I might misremember but perhaps some of our Indian contributors would like to comment. Apparently India was 10% of the world GDP before the Raj and 1% during it as wealth was extracted. An independent India (or Ireland) is now climbing up the ranks.
Or perhaps there are other reasons for the comparative growth / decline in a nations fortunes - but why not give everyone a chance. Especially since the Welsh, Irish and Scots are all 'spongers'
Quite a bit of that wasn't exactly wealth extraction, though. World GDP grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution - and the British control of India meant they were unable to shield their (very large) domestic textile industry from mechanised competition, so it collapsed as a result.
Pre-Industrial Revolution, a State’s share of world GDP tended to match its share of world population, with most people growing food as peasants, in villages. Maximum GDP per head was about $2,000. The lives of the elite were simply unimaginable to such people.
I was reading one economic article about the Roman Empire, which estimated Senatorial incomes at an average £9m, in 150, and knightly incomes at £720,000. The rest were on about £800 a year, per capita.
That all changed after 1800.
I get the impression that some people are bitter that Britain industrialised first, perhaps even than Britain industrialised at all.
Not a bit of it; it's something which provided us with a century or so of prosperity, for which I'm grateful.
That it also had a pretty disastrous effect on the economy of the Indian subcontinent, as a fairly direct result of our being the colonial power at the same time as we industrialised, isn't particularly controversial.
Indeed.
But there are people who do resent the industrial revolution happening here as they think one of:
1) It allowed 'wicked' Britain to 'exploit' the rest of the world.
2) It ended some rural pastoral idyll.
3) It messed up some wonderful Jane Austen style social system.
I think the extent of disagreement with the main GB parties across GB is underestimated, and the main driver of Reform's success (asnd to a lesser extent the SNP). Inconveniently it's not focused on a particular issue (which could be addressed sharply, potentially solving the problem) but on a nebulous sense that things haven't got any better for years under any government. An impression of offering radical change without going into detail, even with self-contradictions and obvious gaps (as Reform certainly offers, and perhaps the SNP) fits the mood of the times, and the main parties are mistaken when they think that careful issue-based argument is the answer.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
"Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days."
QED
It is remarkable that a handful of Brexiteers have the audacity to spam the site each day with a million posts decrying current government fiscal travails, whilst still quietly considering Brexit is a success and "Boris Johnson got all the big calls right".
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
Sensitive, toi?
Not at all. Just woke up from a good night’s sleep
What’s really on my mind is the sad state of Soho last night. Ok it was a little showery and it was Monday
But it’s summer. The evening was mild. This is London’s “entertainment” district. Yet it was so quiet
Soho Square was mainly full of Deliveroo bikers. I saw a few homeless. Lots of shuttered shops. On the way out of the Groucho (also v quiet) the manager said to me “please put your phone away, they get snatched right here”
She wasn’t being officious she really meant it
I fear that the combo of Reeves horrible taxes and london’s crime and cultural changes is killing the capital. Certainly Soho
I was in Soho last year and found it incredibly tamed compared to the 1990's and early 2000's. There's still a certain frisson from the dimensions of the narrow streets at such a central location, but a certain excitement seems a bit quietened. Il
In the 1990's Sohio felt like a laboratory for the new London - strip clubs rubbing shoulders with record shops and film suites, and new businesses. Many worlds seemed to be merging witb each other. You could see the process of dilapidation and seedinrss , to a sort of ultra-trendy fever of youth culture, to a quieter gentrification, happening in real time. I don't know if the Berwick Steeet market, with its mixture of working-class stallholders and raver record shop buyers, is still going.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
"Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days."
QED
It is remarkable that a handful of Brexiteers have the audacity to spam the site each day with a million posts decrying current government fiscal travails, whilst still quietly considering Brexit is a success and "Boris Johnson got all the big calls right".
How sad that on a politics site, people should have views that conflict with your own.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
Sensitive, toi?
Not at all. Just woke up from a good night’s sleep
What’s really on my mind is the sad state of Soho last night. Ok it was a little showery and it was Monday
But it’s summer. The evening was mild. This is London’s “entertainment” district. Yet it was so quiet
Soho Square was mainly full of Deliveroo bikers. I saw a few homeless. Lots of shuttered shops. On the way out of the Groucho (also v quiet) the manager said to me “please put your phone away, they get snatched right here”
She wasn’t being officious she really meant it
I fear that the combo of Reeves horrible taxes and london’s crime and cultural changes is killing the capital. Certainly Soho
My apologies, I fat-finger flagged that. I hope I've unflagged it again.
I am surprised they allowed anyone else in the room when the MRI was on.
Generally, they don't.
Occasionally someone slips up, and accidents can then happen. ...McAllister was not the first person killed by an MRI machine in New York. In 2001, Michael Colombini, 6, died when an oxygen tank flew into an MRI chamber that he was in, having been pulled in by the machine at a medical center in Westchester county...
In some ways, this highlights the massive safety around these machines. They are inherent dangers around them, yet there are very few deaths via this sort of incident. Given the amount of use they get, I'd say that's a success. And trying to make them *safer* might decrease safety...
Note the presenter uses the American term ‘curb cut’ so probably the whole list originated over there.
I thought Star Trek gave us automatic doors ?
Without looking at it I would expect it to be the usual bollocks like the life hacks shit on socials. E.g. using the hole in the saucepan handle to rest the wooden spoon on and claiming thats what it's there for (its not, its so you can hang the pan up) and so one.
Horrible, and totally avoidable if people only read the warning signs and understand.
I use NMR (essentially the same as MRI) and both use superconducting magnets (essentially permanent magnets, as long as the coils are kept to around 2 degrees K. The idea that you can 'turn it off' makes me laugh (a bit unfairly). One of our old technical team never believed me when I told him that the NMR magnet wasn't being powered by the cables that run from it (they go to the console/computer to do the experiments). He only finally understood when we changed the console to another manufacturer - everything was removed from the magnet, no more cables ran to it and it was still a magnet (as shown by a compass). He was gob smacked.
Surely you'd need power to run the cooling system for the magnets though?
Reasonable article but definitely of the glass half full type, re-iterating all the bogus London reasons to allow them to keep milking us and ignoring any of the positives , ie biggest one is how on earth could we be worse off than we are under the English parliament. Lots of small countries doing much better than the basket case UK and they have little or no resources compared to Scotland. We will just see the usual "London" responses here from bigoted people with no clue about Scotland other than it is a nice piggy bank that has lots of collateral to back up their loans.
I might misremember but perhaps some of our Indian contributors would like to comment. Apparently India was 10% of the world GDP before the Raj and 1% during it as wealth was extracted. An independent India (or Ireland) is now climbing up the ranks.
Or perhaps there are other reasons for the comparative growth / decline in a nations fortunes - but why not give everyone a chance. Especially since the Welsh, Irish and Scots are all 'spongers'
Quite a bit of that wasn't exactly wealth extraction, though. World GDP grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution - and the British control of India meant they were unable to shield their (very large) domestic textile industry from mechanised competition, so it collapsed as a result.
Pre-Industrial Revolution, a State’s share of world GDP tended to match its share of world population, with most people growing food as peasants, in villages. Maximum GDP per head was about $2,000. The lives of the elite were simply unimaginable to such people.
I was reading one economic article about the Roman Empire, which estimated Senatorial incomes at an average £9m, in 150, and knightly incomes at £720,000. The rest were on about £800 a year, per capita.
That all changed after 1800.
I get the impression that some people are bitter that Britain industrialised first, perhaps even than Britain industrialised at all.
Not a bit of it; it's something which provided us with a century or so of prosperity, for which I'm grateful.
That it also had a pretty disastrous effect on the economy of the Indian subcontinent, as a fairly direct result of our being the colonial power at the same time as we industrialised, isn't particularly controversial.
Indeed.
But there are people who do resent the industrial revolution happening here as they think one of:
1) It allowed 'wicked' Britain to 'exploit' the rest of the world.
2) It ended some rural pastoral idyll.
3) It messed up some wonderful Jane Austen style social system.
It’s funny. The Bennetts are “poor”, but they still own a village. Even minor nobility, in a pre-industrial world, live lives of incredible opulence, compared to the vast majority.
Ed Miliband admits Sizewell C cost has almost doubled to £38bn
I was utterly bemused by Reform's attack on renewable energy and the subsidies that it supposedly takes with a preference for nuclear instead. The strike price for nuclear is already nearly twice the renewable rate and they are heading in opposite directions. The one universal and unbreakable rule since the 1950s has always been that nuclear energy is the most expensive option. Always. And it is going to remain so.
Would be good to see a price comparison over time. It looks to me like the costs associated with solar panels and turbines are coming down over time, as manufacturing ramps up and efficiency gets better.
There is a fairly significant leg up to companies via CfD payments, now being extended to 20 years in the new allocation round. Would prefer if the government built some offshore wind farms themselves rather than leave it to the multi national developers. When you get into the guts of them there is significant habitat damage with wind energy
The price of solar has dropped much faster, and more consistently than that of wind power - and has a fairly predictable path to dropping a lot further.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
Sensitive, toi?
Not at all. Just woke up from a good night’s sleep
What’s really on my mind is the sad state of Soho last night. Ok it was a little showery and it was Monday
But it’s summer. The evening was mild. This is London’s “entertainment” district. Yet it was so quiet
Soho Square was mainly full of Deliveroo bikers. I saw a few homeless. Lots of shuttered shops. On the way out of the Groucho (also v quiet) the manager said to me “please put your phone away, they get snatched right here”
She wasn’t being officious she really meant it
I fear that the combo of Reeves horrible taxes and london’s crime and cultural changes is killing the capital. Certainly Soho
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
"Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days."
QED
It is remarkable that a handful of Brexiteers have the audacity to spam the site each day with a million posts decrying current government fiscal travails, whilst still quietly considering Brexit is a success and "Boris Johnson got all the big calls right".
Brexit is a success.
We got out of the UK, reclaimed our laws and aren't paying billions into the EU anymore. Exactly as promised.
The only thing that didn't happen, was the supposed recession if we voted to leave. No, we had a recession like the whole world did due to Covid, but no Brexit one.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
Sensitive, toi?
Not at all. Just woke up from a good night’s sleep
What’s really on my mind is the sad state of Soho last night. Ok it was a little showery and it was Monday
But it’s summer. The evening was mild. This is London’s “entertainment” district. Yet it was so quiet
Soho Square was mainly full of Deliveroo bikers. I saw a few homeless. Lots of shuttered shops. On the way out of the Groucho (also v quiet) the manager said to me “please put your phone away, they get snatched right here”
She wasn’t being officious she really meant it
I fear that the combo of Reeves horrible taxes and london’s crime and cultural changes is killing the capital. Certainly Soho
I think Monday may be the main driver tbh. Being involved in a minor retail operation one can drive oneself crazy trying to work out the drifts and tides of the consuming public, there's often no obvious reason for bad (or good) days.
Yes, Brexit has done a number on Scotland. Being hauled out of the EU against its will supports the case for Independence but it has made the journey towards it more difficult.
I am surprised they allowed anyone else in the room when the MRI was on.
Generally, they don't.
Occasionally someone slips up, and accidents can then happen. ...McAllister was not the first person killed by an MRI machine in New York. In 2001, Michael Colombini, 6, died when an oxygen tank flew into an MRI chamber that he was in, having been pulled in by the machine at a medical center in Westchester county...
In some ways, this highlights the massive safety around these machines. They are inherent dangers around them, yet there are very few deaths via this sort of incident. Given the amount of use they get, I'd say that's a success. And trying to make them *safer* might decrease safety...
One thing I've not seen and don't know its possible (but it ought to be) is that most NMR magnets are now actively shielded (that means the magnetic field stretching away from the magnet is mostly screened by a counter field around the outside of the can). For NMR thats fine as the sample is very small but I wonder if the need to have a human sized sample is the issue with MRI or if they are not actively shielded to save on cost?
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
"Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days."
QED
It is remarkable that a handful of Brexiteers have the audacity to spam the site each day with a million posts decrying current government fiscal travails, whilst still quietly considering Brexit is a success and "Boris Johnson got all the big calls right".
How sad that on a politics site, people should have views that conflict with your own.
It is the inconsistency and lack of nuance that bemuses, not the difference in opinion.
A large portion of the Brexity right continue to post that:
The UK economy and governance is a disaster zone Brexit has been good for UK economy and governance
Reasonable article but definitely of the glass half full type, re-iterating all the bogus London reasons to allow them to keep milking us and ignoring any of the positives , ie biggest one is how on earth could we be worse off than we are under the English parliament. Lots of small countries doing much better than the basket case UK and they have little or no resources compared to Scotland. We will just see the usual "London" responses here from bigoted people with no clue about Scotland other than it is a nice piggy bank that has lots of collateral to back up their loans.
I might misremember but perhaps some of our Indian contributors would like to comment. Apparently India was 10% of the world GDP before the Raj and 1% during it as wealth was extracted. An independent India (or Ireland) is now climbing up the ranks.
Or perhaps there are other reasons for the comparative growth / decline in a nations fortunes - but why not give everyone a chance. Especially since the Welsh, Irish and Scots are all 'spongers'
Quite a bit of that wasn't exactly wealth extraction, though. World GDP grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution - and the British control of India meant they were unable to shield their (very large) domestic textile industry from mechanised competition, so it collapsed as a result.
Pre-Industrial Revolution, a State’s share of world GDP tended to match its share of world population, with most people growing food as peasants, in villages. Maximum GDP per head was about $2,000. The lives of the elite were simply unimaginable to such people.
I was reading one economic article about the Roman Empire, which estimated Senatorial incomes at an average £9m, in 150, and knightly incomes at £720,000. The rest were on about £800 a year, per capita.
That all changed after 1800.
I get the impression that some people are bitter that Britain industrialised first, perhaps even than Britain industrialised at all.
Not a bit of it; it's something which provided us with a century or so of prosperity, for which I'm grateful.
That it also had a pretty disastrous effect on the economy of the Indian subcontinent, as a fairly direct result of our being the colonial power at the same time as we industrialised, isn't particularly controversial.
Indeed.
But there are people who do resent the industrial revolution happening here as they think one of:
1) It allowed 'wicked' Britain to 'exploit' the rest of the world.
2) It ended some rural pastoral idyll.
3) It messed up some wonderful Jane Austen style social system.
2) and 3) were as much about the repeal of the Corn Laws. The great British landowners (or at lest the smarter ones) suddenly got very interested in investing in industry around that time.
Reasonable article but definitely of the glass half full type, re-iterating all the bogus London reasons to allow them to keep milking us and ignoring any of the positives , ie biggest one is how on earth could we be worse off than we are under the English parliament. Lots of small countries doing much better than the basket case UK and they have little or no resources compared to Scotland. We will just see the usual "London" responses here from bigoted people with no clue about Scotland other than it is a nice piggy bank that has lots of collateral to back up their loans.
I might misremember but perhaps some of our Indian contributors would like to comment. Apparently India was 10% of the world GDP before the Raj and 1% during it as wealth was extracted. An independent India (or Ireland) is now climbing up the ranks.
Or perhaps there are other reasons for the comparative growth / decline in a nations fortunes - but why not give everyone a chance. Especially since the Welsh, Irish and Scots are all 'spongers'
Quite a bit of that wasn't exactly wealth extraction, though. World GDP grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution - and the British control of India meant they were unable to shield their (very large) domestic textile industry from mechanised competition, so it collapsed as a result.
Pre-Industrial Revolution, a State’s share of world GDP tended to match its share of world population, with most people growing food as peasants, in villages. Maximum GDP per head was about $2,000. The lives of the elite were simply unimaginable to such people.
I was reading one economic article about the Roman Empire, which estimated Senatorial incomes at an average £9m, in 150, and knightly incomes at £720,000. The rest were on about £800 a year, per capita.
That all changed after 1800.
I get the impression that some people are bitter that Britain industrialised first, perhaps even than Britain industrialised at all.
Not a bit of it; it's something which provided us with a century or so of prosperity, for which I'm grateful.
That it also had a pretty disastrous effect on the economy of the Indian subcontinent, as a fairly direct result of our being the colonial power at the same time as we industrialised, isn't particularly controversial.
Indeed.
But there are people who do resent the industrial revolution happening here as they think one of:
1) It allowed 'wicked' Britain to 'exploit' the rest of the world.
2) It ended some rural pastoral idyll.
3) It messed up some wonderful Jane Austen style social system.
It’s funny. The Bennetts are “poor”, but they still own a village. Even minor nobility, in a pre-industrial world, live lives of incredible opulence, compared to the vast majority.
And yet of desperate privation, compared with today's middle class.
Horrible, and totally avoidable if people only read the warning signs and understand.
I use NMR (essentially the same as MRI) and both use superconducting magnets (essentially permanent magnets, as long as the coils are kept to around 2 degrees K. The idea that you can 'turn it off' makes me laugh (a bit unfairly). One of our old technical team never believed me when I told him that the NMR magnet wasn't being powered by the cables that run from it (they go to the console/computer to do the experiments). He only finally understood when we changed the console to another manufacturer - everything was removed from the magnet, no more cables ran to it and it was still a magnet (as shown by a compass). He was gob smacked.
Surely you'd need power to run the cooling system for the magnets though?
No - they are superconducting so have ZERO electrical resistance. ZERO. The only issue is keeping them cold (with liquid helium and then nitrogen boil off to keep the helium cold). If they go above the superconducting temperature you get a magnet quench - the coils suddenly become resistive and heat the gases, causing rapid boil off. Uncontrolled quenches are rare - a magnet will normally only quench during filling with cryogen (if a mistake is made) or when energising or de-energising with electricity.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
Sensitive, toi?
Not at all. Just woke up from a good night’s sleep
What’s really on my mind is the sad state of Soho last night. Ok it was a little showery and it was Monday
But it’s summer. The evening was mild. This is London’s “entertainment” district. Yet it was so quiet
Soho Square was mainly full of Deliveroo bikers. I saw a few homeless. Lots of shuttered shops. On the way out of the Groucho (also v quiet) the manager said to me “please put your phone away, they get snatched right here”
She wasn’t being officious she really meant it
I fear that the combo of Reeves horrible taxes and london’s crime and cultural changes is killing the capital. Certainly Soho
I was in Soho last year and found it incredibly tamed compared to the 1990's and early 2000's. There's still a certain frisson from the dimensions of the narrow streets at such a central location, but a certain excitement seems a bit quietened. Il
In the 1990's Sohio felt like a laboratory for the new London - strip clubs rubbing shoulders with record shops and film suites, and new businesses. Many worlds seemed to be merging witb each other. You could see the process of dilapidation and seedinrss , to a sort of ultra-trendy fever of youth culture, to a quieter gentrification, happening in real time. I don't know if the Berwick Steeet market, with its mixture of working-class stallholders and raver record shop buyers, is still going.
I kind of feel the same but lets be honest about it, this is a site full of middle aged and older people moaning that things have changed from their youth. A very natural state of affairs, it was ever thus and probably will be for as long as humanity prevails.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
"Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days."
QED
It is remarkable that a handful of Brexiteers have the audacity to spam the site each day with a million posts decrying current government fiscal travails, whilst still quietly considering Brexit is a success and "Boris Johnson got all the big calls right".
Brexit is a success.
We got out of the UK, reclaimed our laws and aren't paying billions into the EU anymore. Exactly as promised.
The only thing that didn't happen, was the supposed recession if we voted to leave. No, we had a recession like the whole world did due to Covid, but no Brexit one.
Job done. What's not to like?
The £ collapsed against the € and never recovered.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
"Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days."
QED
It is remarkable that a handful of Brexiteers have the audacity to spam the site each day with a million posts decrying current government fiscal travails, whilst still quietly considering Brexit is a success and "Boris Johnson got all the big calls right".
Brexit is a success.
We got out of the UK, reclaimed our laws and aren't paying billions into the EU anymore. Exactly as promised.
The only thing that didn't happen, was the supposed recession if we voted to leave. No, we had a recession like the whole world did due to Covid, but no Brexit one.
Job done. What's not to like?
Covid was a disaster in so many ways but the among the worst was masking the effect of Brexit. An awful lot of people believe the country is hugely worse off because of Brexit and a lot of that is really down to Covid and our response. It would have been a better world (in many ways) if covid had not happened and we might have had a clearer idea of the effects or not of Brexit.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
"Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days."
QED
It is remarkable that a handful of Brexiteers have the audacity to spam the site each day with a million posts decrying current government fiscal travails, whilst still quietly considering Brexit is a success and "Boris Johnson got all the big calls right".
Brexit is a success.
We got out of the UK, reclaimed our laws and aren't paying billions into the EU anymore. Exactly as promised.
The only thing that didn't happen, was the supposed recession if we voted to leave. No, we had a recession like the whole world did due to Covid, but no Brexit one.
Job done. What's not to like?
The £ collapsed against the € and never recovered.
Hmm - a longer term view would be that the pound was artificially high in the run up to Brexit and corrected...
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
Sensitive, toi?
Not at all. Just woke up from a good night’s sleep
What’s really on my mind is the sad state of Soho last night. Ok it was a little showery and it was Monday
But it’s summer. The evening was mild. This is London’s “entertainment” district. Yet it was so quiet
Soho Square was mainly full of Deliveroo bikers. I saw a few homeless. Lots of shuttered shops. On the way out of the Groucho (also v quiet) the manager said to me “please put your phone away, they get snatched right here”
She wasn’t being officious she really meant it
I fear that the combo of Reeves horrible taxes and london’s crime and cultural changes is killing the capital. Certainly Soho
I was in Soho last year and found it incredibly tamed compared to the 1990's and early 2000's. There's still a certain frisson from the dimensions of the narrow streets at such a central location, but a certain excitement seems a bit quietened. Il
In the 1990's Sohio felt like a laboratory for the new London - strip clubs rubbing shoulders with record shops and film suites, and new businesses. Many worlds seemed to be merging witb each other. You could see the process of dilapidation and seedinrss , to a sort of ultra-trendy fever of youth culture, to a quieter gentrification, happening in real time. I don't know if the Berwick Steeet market, with its mixture of working-class stallholders and raver record shop buyers, is still going.
I kind of feel the same but lets be honest about it, this is a site full of middle aged and older people moaning that things have changed from their youth. A very natural state of affairs, it was ever thus and probably will be for as long as humanity prevails.
I think the centre of gravity in London seems to have shifted. I still sense more of this atmosphere to the north-east and south of London. Soho seems too near the ever-more plutocratic centre to retaim some of unpredictability of 1990s Lomdon, now.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
Sensitive, toi?
Not at all. Just woke up from a good night’s sleep
What’s really on my mind is the sad state of Soho last night. Ok it was a little showery and it was Monday
But it’s summer. The evening was mild. This is London’s “entertainment” district. Yet it was so quiet
Soho Square was mainly full of Deliveroo bikers. I saw a few homeless. Lots of shuttered shops. On the way out of the Groucho (also v quiet) the manager said to me “please put your phone away, they get snatched right here”
She wasn’t being officious she really meant it
I fear that the combo of Reeves horrible taxes and london’s crime and cultural changes is killing the capital. Certainly Soho
The one inescapable reality about independence in a peaceful democracy like the UK is that if it is the settled will of an identifiable nation as a whole - and Scotland for all sorts of geographical and historical reasons is that - that they shall be independent then the force is unstoppable.
Scotland is nowhere near that position. To get to that position is 100% in the hands of its people. (I can see Scotland from where I live in England, family members live and work in Scotland, and personally I support the union).
Correct. Legalities are secondary to the will of the people on this scale. If a large majority of Scots wanted separation (say 80% or more) and this level of support was maintained over a long period, then independence would happen one way or another. The UK government would be in the position of having to accept the inevitable and work out some kind of deal for an orderly breakup.
But, as you say, that point has not been reached and there is no sign it will be in the foreseeable future. Brexit did not do it, contrary to the dreams of nationalists, and I doubt even PM Farage would. There are lots of Scots who's businesses or jobs depend on trade with the rest of the UK, who have family there, or just see themselves as fundamentally of British identity. Pushing those people to point where they flipped to supporting separation would require some kind of extreme event, and without them the majority required to make independence the settled will of the people is not happening.
Protocol should be that everyone is checked before entering the room.
The last time I had an MRI, (private) they had a setup in the doorframe that would flash red if you had a significant amount of magnetically susceptible material on you.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
"Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days."
QED
It is remarkable that a handful of Brexiteers have the audacity to spam the site each day with a million posts decrying current government fiscal travails, whilst still quietly considering Brexit is a success and "Boris Johnson got all the big calls right".
Brexit is a success.
We got out of the UK, reclaimed our laws and aren't paying billions into the EU anymore. Exactly as promised.
The only thing that didn't happen, was the supposed recession if we voted to leave. No, we had a recession like the whole world did due to Covid, but no Brexit one.
Job done. What's not to like?
The £ collapsed against the € and never recovered.
Making our exports more competitive, no big deal.
Anyway, it 'collapsed' back to where it was only a few years prior. In 2010 it was at some stages below €1.10, while today it is €1.15, higher than it was then. So no big deal.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
"Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days."
QED
It is remarkable that a handful of Brexiteers have the audacity to spam the site each day with a million posts decrying current government fiscal travails, whilst still quietly considering Brexit is a success and "Boris Johnson got all the big calls right".
Brexit is a success.
We got out of the UK, reclaimed our laws and aren't paying billions into the EU anymore. Exactly as promised.
The only thing that didn't happen, was the supposed recession if we voted to leave. No, we had a recession like the whole world did due to Covid, but no Brexit one.
Job done. What's not to like?
The £ collapsed against the € and never recovered.
Hmm - a longer term view would be that the pound was artificially high in the run up to Brexit and corrected...
Reasonable article but definitely of the glass half full type, re-iterating all the bogus London reasons to allow them to keep milking us and ignoring any of the positives , ie biggest one is how on earth could we be worse off than we are under the English parliament. Lots of small countries doing much better than the basket case UK and they have little or no resources compared to Scotland. We will just see the usual "London" responses here from bigoted people with no clue about Scotland other than it is a nice piggy bank that has lots of collateral to back up their loans.
I might misremember but perhaps some of our Indian contributors would like to comment. Apparently India was 10% of the world GDP before the Raj and 1% during it as wealth was extracted. An independent India (or Ireland) is now climbing up the ranks.
Or perhaps there are other reasons for the comparative growth / decline in a nations fortunes - but why not give everyone a chance. Especially since the Welsh, Irish and Scots are all 'spongers'
Quite a bit of that wasn't exactly wealth extraction, though. World GDP grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution - and the British control of India meant they were unable to shield their (very large) domestic textile industry from mechanised competition, so it collapsed as a result.
Pre-Industrial Revolution, a State’s share of world GDP tended to match its share of world population, with most people growing food as peasants, in villages. Maximum GDP per head was about $2,000. The lives of the elite were simply unimaginable to such people.
I was reading one economic article about the Roman Empire, which estimated Senatorial incomes at an average £9m, in 150, and knightly incomes at £720,000. The rest were on about £800 a year, per capita.
That all changed after 1800.
I get the impression that some people are bitter that Britain industrialised first, perhaps even than Britain industrialised at all.
Not a bit of it; it's something which provided us with a century or so of prosperity, for which I'm grateful.
That it also had a pretty disastrous effect on the economy of the Indian subcontinent, as a fairly direct result of our being the colonial power at the same time as we industrialised, isn't particularly controversial.
Indeed.
But there are people who do resent the industrial revolution happening here as they think one of:
1) It allowed 'wicked' Britain to 'exploit' the rest of the world.
2) It ended some rural pastoral idyll.
3) It messed up some wonderful Jane Austen style social system.
It’s funny. The Bennetts are “poor”, but they still own a village. Even minor nobility, in a pre-industrial world, live lives of incredible opulence, compared to the vast majority.
The Bennetts were reasonably well off in the present moment (I don't think we are told Mr Bennett's income) but would lose everything on the death of Mr Bennett on account of the estate being entailed in the male line, and having no sons and five daughters.
The questions of daughters of or close to well off families but without independent fortune is a staple of 19th century fiction. Trollope was obsessed by it. The options are so stark; good marriage to money, poor marriage, then utter dependence of no marriage and no money when you have been brought up amonmg gentlefolk.
BTW Bennett's are not 'nobility'. They are leading commoners in their patch. The social gulf always remains. There is a fascinating subject, perhaps a bit underexplored to this day of 'commoner' but ancient families - no titles but a landed presence in an area for hundreds of years. Like the Thornes of Ullathorne in Trollope. There are still quite a few quietly around.
Protocol should be that everyone is checked before entering the room.
The last time I had an MRI, (private) they had a setup in the doorframe that would flash red if you had a significant amount of magnetically susceptible material on you.
He pushed his way into the room, as I understand it from reporting.
Horrible, and totally avoidable if people only read the warning signs and understand.
I use NMR (essentially the same as MRI) and both use superconducting magnets (essentially permanent magnets, as long as the coils are kept to around 2 degrees K. The idea that you can 'turn it off' makes me laugh (a bit unfairly). One of our old technical team never believed me when I told him that the NMR magnet wasn't being powered by the cables that run from it (they go to the console/computer to do the experiments). He only finally understood when we changed the console to another manufacturer - everything was removed from the magnet, no more cables ran to it and it was still a magnet (as shown by a compass). He was gob smacked.
Surely you'd need power to run the cooling system for the magnets though?
No - they are superconducting so have ZERO electrical resistance. ZERO. The only issue is keeping them cold (with liquid helium and then nitrogen boil off to keep the helium cold). If they go above the superconducting temperature you get a magnet quench - the coils suddenly become resistive and heat the gases, causing rapid boil off. Uncontrolled quenches are rare - a magnet will normally only quench during filling with cryogen (if a mistake is made) or when energising or de-energising with electricity.
Yes, I know what superconductivity is. The bit is was wondering about was how they'd be kept cool without power to the cooling system to pump liquid helium around, etc. If you disconnected everything from the machine, then sooner or later the temperature of the magnets would rise sufficiently to stop them being superconducting.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
Sensitive, toi?
Not at all. Just woke up from a good night’s sleep
What’s really on my mind is the sad state of Soho last night. Ok it was a little showery and it was Monday
But it’s summer. The evening was mild. This is London’s “entertainment” district. Yet it was so quiet
Soho Square was mainly full of Deliveroo bikers. I saw a few homeless. Lots of shuttered shops. On the way out of the Groucho (also v quiet) the manager said to me “please put your phone away, they get snatched right here”
She wasn’t being officious she really meant it
I fear that the combo of Reeves horrible taxes and london’s crime and cultural changes is killing the capital. Certainly Soho
I was in Soho last year and found it incredibly tamed compared to the 1990's and early 2000's. There's still a certain frisson from the dimensions of the narrow streets at such a central location, but a certain excitement seems a bit quietened. Il
In the 1990's Sohio felt like a laboratory for the new London - strip clubs rubbing shoulders with record shops and film suites, and new businesses. Many worlds seemed to be merging witb each other. You could see the process of dilapidation and seedinrss , to a sort of ultra-trendy fever of youth culture, to a quieter gentrification, happening in real time. I don't know if the Berwick Steeet market, with its mixture of working-class stallholders and raver record shop buyers, is still going.
I kind of feel the same but lets be honest about it, this is a site full of middle aged and older people moaning that things have changed from their youth. A very natural state of affairs, it was ever thus and probably will be for as long as humanity prevails.
So we just ignore the fact that Soho is objectively less interesting than it used to be?
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
"Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days."
QED
It is remarkable that a handful of Brexiteers have the audacity to spam the site each day with a million posts decrying current government fiscal travails, whilst still quietly considering Brexit is a success and "Boris Johnson got all the big calls right".
Brexit is a success.
We got out of the UK, reclaimed our laws and aren't paying billions into the EU anymore. Exactly as promised.
The only thing that didn't happen, was the supposed recession if we voted to leave. No, we had a recession like the whole world did due to Covid, but no Brexit one.
Job done. What's not to like?
The £ collapsed against the € and never recovered.
For which all those in wealth creation are thankful.
If you want a higher exchange rate then Britain needs to:
1) Live within its means 2) Increase its savings rate 3) Increase its productivity
Without that then a falling exchange rate is both necessary and good.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
Sensitive, toi?
Not at all. Just woke up from a good night’s sleep
What’s really on my mind is the sad state of Soho last night. Ok it was a little showery and it was Monday
But it’s summer. The evening was mild. This is London’s “entertainment” district. Yet it was so quiet
Soho Square was mainly full of Deliveroo bikers. I saw a few homeless. Lots of shuttered shops. On the way out of the Groucho (also v quiet) the manager said to me “please put your phone away, they get snatched right here”
She wasn’t being officious she really meant it
I fear that the combo of Reeves horrible taxes and london’s crime and cultural changes is killing the capital. Certainly Soho
I was in Soho last year and found it incredibly tamed compared to the 1990's and early 2000's. There's still a certain frisson from the dimensions of the narrow streets at such a central location, but a certain excitement seems a bit quietened. Il
In the 1990's Sohio felt like a laboratory for the new London - strip clubs rubbing shoulders with record shops and film suites, and new businesses. Many worlds seemed to be merging witb each other. You could see the process of dilapidation and seedinrss , to a sort of ultra-trendy fever of youth culture, to a quieter gentrification, happening in real time. I don't know if the Berwick Steeet market, with its mixture of working-class stallholders and raver record shop buyers, is still going.
I kind of feel the same but lets be honest about it, this is a site full of middle aged and older people moaning that things have changed from their youth. A very natural state of affairs, it was ever thus and probably will be for as long as humanity prevails.
I think the centre of gravity in London seems to have shifted. I still sense more of this atmosphere to the north-east and south of London. Soho seems too near the ever-more plutocratic centre to retaim some of unpredictability of 1990s Lomdon, now.
Yes. This may be a “central London thing”
I got the tube back from Soho to Camden at about 10.30pm and Camden was five times as lively - full of people, bars open and doing roaring trade, noise and life everywhere
Camden is an awful lot cheaper for businesses AND customers and seems better at attracting kids
It would have been the reverse 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Camden relatively quiet, Soho rocking
To be fair to Camden council they have done some good things around the Tube. Pedestrianising the high street was clever
You’re never gonna rid Camden of its edge - the grit and graffiti, the grot and the drugs, but it throbs with energy. Perhaps they are linked
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
"Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days."
QED
It is remarkable that a handful of Brexiteers have the audacity to spam the site each day with a million posts decrying current government fiscal travails, whilst still quietly considering Brexit is a success and "Boris Johnson got all the big calls right".
Brexit is a success.
We got out of the UK, reclaimed our laws and aren't paying billions into the EU anymore. Exactly as promised.
The only thing that didn't happen, was the supposed recession if we voted to leave. No, we had a recession like the whole world did due to Covid, but no Brexit one.
Job done. What's not to like?
The £ collapsed against the € and never recovered.
Making our exports more competitive, no big deal.
Anyway, it 'collapsed' back to where it was only a few years prior. In 2010 it was at some stages below €1.10, while today it is €1.15, higher than it was then. So no big deal.
Bart channelling Harold Wilson's pound in your pocket speech there.
In 2010, the £ was low because of the global financial crash in 2008. It was much higher prior to that. So, if you're saying Brexit was as bad for us as the global financial crash, sure, I can go along with that.
Horrible, and totally avoidable if people only read the warning signs and understand.
I use NMR (essentially the same as MRI) and both use superconducting magnets (essentially permanent magnets, as long as the coils are kept to around 2 degrees K. The idea that you can 'turn it off' makes me laugh (a bit unfairly). One of our old technical team never believed me when I told him that the NMR magnet wasn't being powered by the cables that run from it (they go to the console/computer to do the experiments). He only finally understood when we changed the console to another manufacturer - everything was removed from the magnet, no more cables ran to it and it was still a magnet (as shown by a compass). He was gob smacked.
Surely you'd need power to run the cooling system for the magnets though?
No - they are superconducting so have ZERO electrical resistance. ZERO. The only issue is keeping them cold (with liquid helium and then nitrogen boil off to keep the helium cold). If they go above the superconducting temperature you get a magnet quench - the coils suddenly become resistive and heat the gases, causing rapid boil off. Uncontrolled quenches are rare - a magnet will normally only quench during filling with cryogen (if a mistake is made) or when energising or de-energising with electricity.
Yes, I know what superconductivity is. The bit is was wondering about was how they'd be kept cool without power to the cooling system to pump liquid helium around, etc. If you disconnected everything from the machine, then sooner or later the temperature of the magnets would rise sufficiently to stop them being superconducting.
You don't pump helium around - the coils sit in a bath of liquid helium.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
"Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days."
QED
It is remarkable that a handful of Brexiteers have the audacity to spam the site each day with a million posts decrying current government fiscal travails, whilst still quietly considering Brexit is a success and "Boris Johnson got all the big calls right".
How sad that on a politics site, people should have views that conflict with your own.
It is the inconsistency and lack of nuance that bemuses, not the difference in opinion.
A large portion of the Brexity right continue to post that:
The UK economy and governance is a disaster zone Brexit has been good for UK economy and governance
It is a weird form of Schroedingers cat.
Two entirely logical and consistent positions.
Unless you take the position its all sunshine and roses on the continent, which it most certainly is not.
We have had the negatives of Covid to deal with, and bad choices our politicians have made, and the negatives of our refusal to liberate planning so people can't build what we need to get growth and of which is a disaster.
Its good that we have removed the comfort blanket of politicians being able to blame Brussels for our problems, while paying Brussels for the privilege.
Its good that we can kick out the buggers who make the rules if they do a bad job. We've done that once already, and we have the right to do it again and again until we get some that will do a good job. Unlike the unanswerable, unelectable Commission in Brussels setting rules we don't have a demos for.
How very PB, a header on the SNP & Indy turns into a reflexive regurgitation of Brexit was good anctually and Remoaners smell.
Obsessive, toi?
Complete with a laboured, bitter, unfunny whine from your good self. So, yes: tick tick tick
Sensitive, toi?
Not at all. Just woke up from a good night’s sleep
What’s really on my mind is the sad state of Soho last night. Ok it was a little showery and it was Monday
But it’s summer. The evening was mild. This is London’s “entertainment” district. Yet it was so quiet
Soho Square was mainly full of Deliveroo bikers. I saw a few homeless. Lots of shuttered shops. On the way out of the Groucho (also v quiet) the manager said to me “please put your phone away, they get snatched right here”
She wasn’t being officious she really meant it
I fear that the combo of Reeves horrible taxes and london’s crime and cultural changes is killing the capital. Certainly Soho
In the days when I had a pied-à-terre in Canonbury I'd walk back from the West End after the theatre, stopping for a nightcap at the Museum Tavern and another at the King's Head. Now both places close unconscionably early. That great moment of liberation - 24-hour drinking - is just a sad memory. Not enough 24-hour drinkers to make it work.
Horrible, and totally avoidable if people only read the warning signs and understand.
I use NMR (essentially the same as MRI) and both use superconducting magnets (essentially permanent magnets, as long as the coils are kept to around 2 degrees K. The idea that you can 'turn it off' makes me laugh (a bit unfairly). One of our old technical team never believed me when I told him that the NMR magnet wasn't being powered by the cables that run from it (they go to the console/computer to do the experiments). He only finally understood when we changed the console to another manufacturer - everything was removed from the magnet, no more cables ran to it and it was still a magnet (as shown by a compass). He was gob smacked.
Surely you'd need power to run the cooling system for the magnets though?
No - they are superconducting so have ZERO electrical resistance. ZERO. The only issue is keeping them cold (with liquid helium and then nitrogen boil off to keep the helium cold). If they go above the superconducting temperature you get a magnet quench - the coils suddenly become resistive and heat the gases, causing rapid boil off. Uncontrolled quenches are rare - a magnet will normally only quench during filling with cryogen (if a mistake is made) or when energising or de-energising with electricity.
Yes, I know what superconductivity is. The bit is was wondering about was how they'd be kept cool without power to the cooling system to pump liquid helium around, etc. If you disconnected everything from the machine, then sooner or later the temperature of the magnets would rise sufficiently to stop them being superconducting.
You don't pump helium around - the coils sit in a bath of liquid helium.
Which would have to be kept cool somehow.
Edit: I'm not trying to be snide; I'm just curious. I know very little about the engineering of MRI machines, but just from a purely thermodynamic point of view, you'd need power at some point in order to maintain the low temperature of the magnets.
The one inescapable reality about independence in a peaceful democracy like the UK is that if it is the settled will of an identifiable nation as a whole - and Scotland for all sorts of geographical and historical reasons is that - that they shall be independent then the force is unstoppable.
Scotland is nowhere near that position. To get to that position is 100% in the hands of its people. (I can see Scotland from where I live in England, family members live and work in Scotland, and personally I support the union).
Correct. Legalities are secondary to the will of the people on this scale. If a large majority of Scots wanted separation (say 80% or more) and this level of support was maintained over a long period, then independence would happen one way or another. The UK government would be in the position of having to accept the inevitable and work out some kind of deal for an orderly breakup.
But, as you say, that point has not been reached and there is no sign it will be in the foreseeable future. Brexit did not do it, contrary to the dreams of nationalists, and I doubt even PM Farage would. There are lots of Scots who's businesses or jobs depend on trade with the rest of the UK, who have family there, or just see themselves as fundamentally of British identity. Pushing those people to point where they flipped to supporting separation would require some kind of extreme event, and without them the majority required to make independence the settled will of the people is not happening.
Stating that there needs to a sustained level of 80%+ support for indy before it can even be considered is a weird kind of Scottish exceptionalism. Meanwhile we have to accept the ongoing and apparently immutable settled will of 52% of the (mainly English & Welsh) people regarding the EU.
Comments
Such pesky little realities as strike prices, costs, facts or figures don't play into people who are operating on faith.
Extremist zealots on the other extreme don't help their case either to be fair.
I'm sure he'd be willing to help your son.
PM me if you'd like details and/or wish to be put in contact.
The only mention of humans in the 18 page document is the comment that AI will keep humans in the loop (aka. generate reports) for SLA and contract monitoring.
It is not realistic to have another referendum until and unless there is consistent polling showing clear support for independence, and, so as not to repeat the Brexit disaster, there was clear polling support given a proper outline of what sort of independence there would be WRT currency and other central questions.
The SNP made crucial mistake in turning wokeish leftwards. What they should have done is take the powers they have, which are considerable, and run Scotland as centre ground social democrats and use their extra funding to run things loads better than England, so that Scots and English looked to Scottish schools, hospitals, housing, crime levels, prisons as beacons of hope and examples to follow for the rest of us.
As Mr Data says ... processing, processing.
(They are not very good, and the only one in the country who's Active Travel England assessment went down last year. I'm not sure what will happen in the future, given RefUK ... in Derbyshire the Cons were already diverting future investment to patching potholes.)
I agree the best position for independence would need a centrist leader to tempt businesses and middle classes into the tent.
The silence suggests that a sovereign debt/inflation crisis can't be off the table. And as Reform are the only likely alternative government at the moment, they could but don't steal a march on Labour by letting us, and the IFS, into their secret and cunning plan on the same question.
Some numbers were remarkably consistent. About 24, for average life expectancy; about 45%, for children who never reached the age of 15; about 10%, for women who died in childbirth. And, a varying percentage of men who died in war.
Those who feel they have nothing to lose, and those with so much that a loss won't hurt much.
Hence the Brexit/Reform coalition.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_3fjqnl9WwU
Spoilers:-
- Dropped kerbs
- Electric toothbrushes
- Ramps
- Siri, Alexa and chums
- Velcro
- Audio books
- Automatic doors
- Subtitles
Note the presenter uses the American term ‘curb cut’ so probably the whole list originated over there.Man dies after weight-training chain around neck pulls him into MRI machine
Keith McAllister had approached machine after wife called for help, and was sucked in by device’s magnetic force
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/21/new-york-mri-machine-accident-death
Or does below pension age include infants and young children?
A myth has taken over, largely as it suits almost all parties interests, that Brexit was a desperate act of desperate (or misguided depending on your PoV) people.
Actually however largely the Brexit vote was by people who were comfortable. Home owners, who weren't scared by the threats.
The challenge for the SNP is not how to scare people into voting for independence on a 'how could it be any worse' basis as malcolm argues.
The challenge for the SNP is how to make people comfortable. Get people secure, comfortable and not scared off taking a risk.
The problem for the SNP is they don't seem to even grasp that challenge, let alone being any good at it.
There is a fairly significant leg up to companies via CfD payments, now being extended to 20 years in the new allocation round. Would prefer if the government built some offshore wind farms themselves rather than leave it to the multi national developers. When you get into the guts of them there is significant habitat damage with wind energy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4sd2EnDZE8
Steve Rosenberg's review of today's Russian papers.
Commitment to net zero means the SNP abandoning oil revenues. Currency wise and independent Scotland would have to try and rejoin the EU and join the Euro which dilutes independence anyway now.
Unless the SNP held the balance of power in a hung parliament for a Labour minority government the UK government would refuse indyref2. Swinney has ruled out UDI and Westminster would impose direct rule if it tried anyway like Madrid did in Catalonia
Instead we just had Parliament paralysed for years 2017-19, not the economy.
I don't think you can count Covid as being caused by Brexit and I doubt even you believe that so keep some integrity and don't try and link the two.
Scotland is nowhere near that position. To get to that position is 100% in the hands of its people. (I can see Scotland from where I live in England, family members live and work in Scotland, and personally I support the union).
So it's unsurprising the topic comes up, and Leavers are, for obvious reasons, reflexively defensive these days.
That it also had a pretty disastrous effect on the economy of the Indian subcontinent, as a fairly direct result of our being the colonial power at the same time as we industrialised, isn't particularly controversial.
There are a few other similar companies. Gould in Newbury is one, and most of the WRC cars are prepared in the UK. Presumably they all use a similar technology if not quite so sophisticated. Good luck!
Now, we're just left with the issues that the cost of renewables is mostly capital and the cost of fossil fuels is mostly revenue, and that building things makes busybodies cross.
And those problems sum up the British Condition.
Occasionally someone slips up, and accidents can then happen.
...McAllister was not the first person killed by an MRI machine in New York. In 2001, Michael Colombini, 6, died when an oxygen tank flew into an MRI chamber that he was in, having been pulled in by the machine at a medical center in Westchester county...
I use NMR (essentially the same as MRI) and both use superconducting magnets (essentially permanent magnets, as long as the coils are kept to around 2 degrees K. The idea that you can 'turn it off' makes me laugh (a bit unfairly). One of our old technical team never believed me when I told him that the NMR magnet wasn't being powered by the cables that run from it (they go to the console/computer to do the experiments). He only finally understood when we changed the console to another manufacturer - everything was removed from the magnet, no more cables ran to it and it was still a magnet (as shown by a compass). He was gob smacked.
https://www.prodrive.com/motorsport/
QED
What’s really on my mind is the sad state of Soho last night. Ok it was a little showery and it was Monday
But it’s summer. The evening was mild. This is London’s “entertainment” district. Yet it was so quiet
Soho Square was mainly full of Deliveroo bikers. I saw a few homeless. Lots of shuttered shops. On the way out of the Groucho (also v quiet) the manager said to me “please put your phone away, they get snatched right here”
She wasn’t being officious she really meant it
I fear that the combo of Reeves horrible taxes and london’s crime and cultural changes is killing the capital. Certainly Soho
Anyone know what component was higher/lower than expected?
Explanations?
Well played.
It’s like someone read Ayn Rand and thought implementing the “everything stops” thing was a good idea.
Not because there was any truth to it, which there was not.
But there are people who do resent the industrial revolution happening here as they think one of:
1) It allowed 'wicked' Britain to 'exploit' the rest of the world.
2) It ended some rural pastoral idyll.
3) It messed up some wonderful Jane Austen style social system.
I think the extent of disagreement with the main GB parties across GB is underestimated, and the main driver of Reform's success (asnd to a lesser extent the SNP). Inconveniently it's not focused on a particular issue (which could be addressed sharply, potentially solving the problem) but on a nebulous sense that things haven't got any better for years under any government. An impression of offering radical change without going into detail, even with self-contradictions and obvious gaps (as Reform certainly offers, and perhaps the SNP) fits the mood of the times, and the main parties are mistaken when they think that careful issue-based argument is the answer.
In the 1990's Sohio felt like a laboratory for the new London - strip clubs rubbing shoulders with record shops and film suites, and new businesses. Many worlds seemed to be merging witb each other. You could see the process of dilapidation and seedinrss , to a sort of ultra-trendy fever of youth culture, to a quieter gentrification, happening in real time. I don't know if the Berwick Steeet market, with its mixture of working-class stallholders and raver record shop buyers, is still going.
We got out of the UK, reclaimed our laws and aren't paying billions into the EU anymore. Exactly as promised.
The only thing that didn't happen, was the supposed recession if we voted to leave. No, we had a recession like the whole world did due to Covid, but no Brexit one.
Job done. What's not to like?
Being involved in a minor retail operation one can drive oneself crazy trying to work out the drifts and tides of the consuming public, there's often no obvious reason for bad (or good) days.
A large portion of the Brexity right continue to post that:
The UK economy and governance is a disaster zone
Brexit has been good for UK economy and governance
It is a weird form of Schroedingers cat.
I’m due back tonight so I shall compare
But, as you say, that point has not been reached and there is no sign it will be in the foreseeable future. Brexit did not do it, contrary to the dreams of nationalists, and I doubt even PM Farage would. There are lots of Scots who's businesses or jobs depend on trade with the rest of the UK, who have family there, or just see themselves as fundamentally of British identity. Pushing those people to point where they flipped to supporting separation would require some kind of extreme event, and without them the majority required to make independence the settled will of the people is not happening.
Protocol should be that everyone is checked before entering the room.
The last time I had an MRI, (private) they had a setup in the doorframe that would flash red if you had a significant amount of magnetically susceptible material on you.
Anyway, it 'collapsed' back to where it was only a few years prior. In 2010 it was at some stages below €1.10, while today it is €1.15, higher than it was then. So no big deal.
The questions of daughters of or close to well off families but without independent fortune is a staple of 19th century fiction. Trollope was obsessed by it. The options are so stark; good marriage to money, poor marriage, then utter dependence of no marriage and no money when you have been brought up amonmg gentlefolk.
BTW Bennett's are not 'nobility'. They are leading commoners in their patch. The social gulf always remains. There is a fascinating subject, perhaps a bit underexplored to this day of 'commoner' but ancient families - no titles but a landed presence in an area for hundreds of years. Like the Thornes of Ullathorne in Trollope. There are still quite a few quietly around.
If you want a higher exchange rate then Britain needs to:
1) Live within its means
2) Increase its savings rate
3) Increase its productivity
Without that then a falling exchange rate is both necessary and good.
I got the tube back from Soho to Camden at about 10.30pm and Camden was five times as lively - full of people, bars open and doing roaring trade, noise and life everywhere
Camden is an awful lot cheaper for businesses AND customers and seems better at attracting kids
It would have been the reverse 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Camden relatively quiet, Soho rocking
To be fair to Camden council they have done some good things around the Tube. Pedestrianising the high street was clever
You’re never gonna rid Camden of its edge - the grit and graffiti, the grot and the drugs, but it throbs with energy. Perhaps they are linked
In 2010, the £ was low because of the global financial crash in 2008. It was much higher prior to that. So, if you're saying Brexit was as bad for us as the global financial crash, sure, I can go along with that.
Unless you take the position its all sunshine and roses on the continent, which it most certainly is not.
We have had the negatives of Covid to deal with, and bad choices our politicians have made, and the negatives of our refusal to liberate planning so people can't build what we need to get growth and of which is a disaster.
Its good that we have removed the comfort blanket of politicians being able to blame Brussels for our problems, while paying Brussels for the privilege.
Its good that we can kick out the buggers who make the rules if they do a bad job. We've done that once already, and we have the right to do it again and again until we get some that will do a good job. Unlike the unanswerable, unelectable Commission in Brussels setting rules we don't have a demos for.
Edit: I'm not trying to be snide; I'm just curious. I know very little about the engineering of MRI machines, but just from a purely thermodynamic point of view, you'd need power at some point in order to maintain the low temperature of the magnets.
Meanwhile we have to accept the ongoing and apparently immutable settled will of 52% of the (mainly English & Welsh) people regarding the EU.