Today in overbearing but also completely unenforceable legislation.
(For those too fancy to be initiated, at Wetherspoons there is an unattended machine to produce tea, coffee and hot chocolate. You pay the price, the same for any product, and get given a mug. Refills are free.)
This week we've also seen notices taped on to pop machines at fast food places warning customers to restrict themselves on only one non-diet drink.
I noticed this today in Shrewsbury Wetherspoons. Ridiculous. I want my hot chocolate.
He writes there: "The government literally banned you from having more than one Coca Cola at Nando’s."
This is literally not true. The government has banned certain promotions on unhealthy foods and Nando's unlimited Cola for one payment counts, so you can no longer have unlimited Cola and just pay once. But the law doesn't stop you buying as many Colas as you want.
Clarkson looks like he’s running in Donny North vs Miliband.
Not a fan of Clarkson, but I don't see how that isn't a significant upgrade.
Presumably he's already signed the Amazon deal to produce 'Clarkson's Westminster'?
It would probably be very educational to the British people as to how politics actually works.
Clarkson's just a grifter. Advertising his shitty farm to keep his farm land millions growing.
I'm glad the BBC kicked him off top gear he was/is a rude outrageous comic who wasn't averse to using racist taunts in his show.
It's probably true that the farm itself makes no money from growing crops, but the larger Diddly Squat operation is a money making machine. I visited the pub on Saturday. It is a well oiled machine for fleecing visitors. Impressive in its own way.
Many farms make next to no money. Using it for a TV series showing how farming works is just an extension of the paintball, quad biking, clay shooting, solar panels and all the other stuff that’s been tried.
Clarkson looks like he’s running in Donny North vs Miliband.
Not a fan of Clarkson, but I don't see how that isn't a significant upgrade.
Presumably he's already signed the Amazon deal to produce 'Clarkson's Westminster'?
It would probably be very educational to the British people as to how politics actually works.
Clarkson's just a grifter. Advertising his shitty farm to keep his farm land millions growing.
I'm glad the BBC kicked him off top gear he was/is a rude outrageous comic who wasn't averse to using racist taunts in his show.
It's probably true that the farm itself makes no money from growing crops, but the larger Diddly Squat operation is a money making machine. I visited the pub on Saturday. It is a well oiled machine for fleecing visitors. Impressive in its own way.
Many farms make next to no money. Using it for a TV series showing how farming works is just an extension of the paintball, quad biking, clay shooting, solar panels and all the other stuff that’s been tried.
Making a comedic TV show is not an option available to most farmers, just to Clarkson.
If they do it by uni, not faculty, they're idiots. All universities, and that does include Oxford and Cambridge, have stronger and weaker faculties and there would be few universities indeed that would meet the criteria of no teaching being substandard.
All that a blanket reduction would do if implemented rigorously (which of course it won't be) would be to further bankrupt every university and make matters considerably worse.
Unfortunately, they are idiots.
Looks like it will be by uni not faculty.
Those found to be offering inadequate teaching by the Office for Students (OfS), the regulator, will have to charge less than the standard fees, currently capped at £9,535.
Universities are ranked gold, silver or bronze by the OfS’s teaching excellence framework (TEF), introduced in 2017. It judges universities’ student experience, which includes teaching and assessment, resources, and student engagement and support.
We know some of these assessment measures are flawed. But if given a target, the universities will do what everyone does in this situation, and game the system to ensure we score well on those measures.
"Teaching excellence framework" fills me with a sense of dread. At our .ac.uk we have a newish group called the 'service excellence team' who are universally referred to as 'the cuts team'.
Today in overbearing but also completely unenforceable legislation.
(For those too fancy to be initiated, at Wetherspoons there is an unattended machine to produce tea, coffee and hot chocolate. You pay the price, the same for any product, and get given a mug. Refills are free.)
This week we've also seen notices taped on to pop machines at fast food places warning customers to restrict themselves on only one non-diet drink.
I think Keir pledged to tread more lightly on our lives
How's that going?
Isn't this as a result of legislation that was passed by the previous Tory government.
Has anyone done a study on the issue of muscle loss associated with using the weight loss drugs. I wonder if we are storing up a problem for the future. What we do know is that people who are physically active as they go into old age, and have good muscle mass, do much better in terms of staying active and out of hospital.
It's a good question. However, I would note that most of my friends who are on one of the weight loss drugs have also taken up exercise.
Clarkson looks like he’s running in Donny North vs Miliband.
Not a fan of Clarkson, but I don't see how that isn't a significant upgrade.
Presumably he's already signed the Amazon deal to produce 'Clarkson's Westminster'?
It would probably be very educational to the British people as to how politics actually works.
Clarkson's just a grifter. Advertising his shitty farm to keep his farm land millions growing.
I'm glad the BBC kicked him off top gear he was/is a rude outrageous comic who wasn't averse to using racist taunts in his show.
It's probably true that the farm itself makes no money from growing crops, but the larger Diddly Squat operation is a money making machine. I visited the pub on Saturday. It is a well oiled machine for fleecing visitors. Impressive in its own way.
Many farms make next to no money. Using it for a TV series showing how farming works is just an extension of the paintball, quad biking, clay shooting, solar panels and all the other stuff that’s been tried.
Making a comedic TV show is not an option available to most farmers, just to Clarkson.
True - which is why most of them try other things.
I’m just interested by the idea that do something other than farming on a farm is somehow wrong.
My relative-in-law quite upset today. A large family tour of impeccably liberal, anti-Netanyahu relatives of my wife went on a large family tour to north-east London for retrace the roots and steps of their Jewish ancestors. . All was going well, and a lovely family day out in the autumn sun, until a passer-by, possibly from Somalia or somewhere in the same region, overhead that the group was Jewish. He started swearing and threatening the whole group, and screaming at them to stop bombing the Palestinians, in between spitting on them. Two of the group were very liberal healthcare workers who calmed him down, from both a professional and political point of view, before he got violent.
Family day partially ruined. The hatred out there is still very raw and real, particularly after two years of the conflict.
Clarkson looks like he’s running in Donny North vs Miliband.
Not a fan of Clarkson, but I don't see how that isn't a significant upgrade.
Presumably he's already signed the Amazon deal to produce 'Clarkson's Westminster'?
It would probably be very educational to the British people as to how politics actually works.
Clarkson's just a grifter. Advertising his shitty farm to keep his farm land millions growing.
I'm glad the BBC kicked him off top gear he was/is a rude outrageous comic who wasn't averse to using racist taunts in his show.
It's probably true that the farm itself makes no money from growing crops, but the larger Diddly Squat operation is a money making machine. I visited the pub on Saturday. It is a well oiled machine for fleecing visitors. Impressive in its own way.
Many farms make next to no money. Using it for a TV series showing how farming works is just an extension of the paintball, quad biking, clay shooting, solar panels and all the other stuff that’s been tried.
Making a comedic TV show is not an option available to most farmers, just to Clarkson.
True - which is why most of them try other things.
I’m just interested by the idea that do something other than farming on a farm is somehow wrong.
Clarkson looks like he’s running in Donny North vs Miliband.
Not a fan of Clarkson, but I don't see how that isn't a significant upgrade.
Presumably he's already signed the Amazon deal to produce 'Clarkson's Westminster'?
It would probably be very educational to the British people as to how politics actually works.
Clarkson's just a grifter. Advertising his shitty farm to keep his farm land millions growing.
I'm glad the BBC kicked him off top gear he was/is a rude outrageous comic who wasn't averse to using racist taunts in his show.
It's probably true that the farm itself makes no money from growing crops, but the larger Diddly Squat operation is a money making machine. I visited the pub on Saturday. It is a well oiled machine for fleecing visitors. Impressive in its own way.
Many farms make next to no money. Using it for a TV series showing how farming works is just an extension of the paintball, quad biking, clay shooting, solar panels and all the other stuff that’s been tried.
Making a comedic TV show is not an option available to most farmers, just to Clarkson.
Years before - poor old Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall made an early TV start just pluckily trading jams, pickles and the like to rich middle class people he happened to meet on the road as he travelled around the country with a television crew. And then - plucky lad - happened upon a 'smallholding' which, oddly, went from expensive strength to expensive strength. With a television crew.
Eventually, through good luck and hard work managed to buy a farm off an actual farmer, and turn it into an eco-cookery-school for rich middle class people. With a television crew in tow.
It's that sort of rags to riches story that really gets to you. It's a wonder more people don't follow that - seemingly easy - path. Maybe they think not being from landed gentry and going to Eton makes it more difficult to make the connections needed.
Lack of ambition, that's all it is. Be more like Hugh. Be a hero.
My relative-in-law quite upset today. A large family tour of impeccably liberal, anti-Netanyahu relatives of my wife went on a large family tour to north-east London for retrace the roots and steps of their Jewish ancestors. . All was going well, and a lovely family day out in the autumn sun, until a passer-by, possibly from Somalia or somewhere nearby to that, overhead that the group was Jewish. He started swearing and threatening the whole group, and screaming at them to stop bombing the Palestinians, in between spitting on them. Two of the group were very liberal healthcare workers who calmed him down, from both a professional and political point of view, before he got violent.
Family day partially ruined. The hatred out there is still very raw and real, particularly after two years of the conflict.
Horrible. But I wonder if that “impeccably liberal” family is now reconsidering its absurdly positive views on mass immigration
People across the west are getting red pilled like this. And finally realising the catastrophe of multiculturalism
Today in overbearing but also completely unenforceable legislation.
(For those too fancy to be initiated, at Wetherspoons there is an unattended machine to produce tea, coffee and hot chocolate. You pay the price, the same for any product, and get given a mug. Refills are free.)
This week we've also seen notices taped on to pop machines at fast food places warning customers to restrict themselves on only one non-diet drink.
I noticed this today in Shrewsbury Wetherspoons. Ridiculous. I want my hot chocolate.
He writes there: "The government literally banned you from having more than one Coca Cola at Nando’s."
This is literally not true. The government has banned certain promotions on unhealthy foods and Nando's unlimited Cola for one payment counts, so you can no longer have unlimited Cola and just pay once. But the law doesn't stop you buying as many Colas as you want.
Clarkson looks like he’s running in Donny North vs Miliband.
Not a fan of Clarkson, but I don't see how that isn't a significant upgrade.
Presumably he's already signed the Amazon deal to produce 'Clarkson's Westminster'?
It would probably be very educational to the British people as to how politics actually works.
Clarkson's just a grifter. Advertising his shitty farm to keep his farm land millions growing.
I'm glad the BBC kicked him off top gear he was/is a rude outrageous comic who wasn't averse to using racist taunts in his show.
It's probably true that the farm itself makes no money from growing crops, but the larger Diddly Squat operation is a money making machine. I visited the pub on Saturday. It is a well oiled machine for fleecing visitors. Impressive in its own way.
Many farms make next to no money. Using it for a TV series showing how farming works is just an extension of the paintball, quad biking, clay shooting, solar panels and all the other stuff that’s been tried.
Making a comedic TV show is not an option available to most farmers, just to Clarkson.
Years before - poor old Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall made an early TV start just pluckily trading jams, pickles and the like to rich middle class people he happened to meet on the road as he travelled around the country with a television crew. And then - plucky lad - happened upon a 'smallholding' which, oddly, went from expensive strength to expensive strength. With a television crew.
Eventually, through good luck and hard work managed to buy a farm off an actual farmer, and turn it into an eco-cookery-school for rich middle class people. With a television crew in tow.
It's that sort of rags to riches story that really gets to you. It's a wonder more people don't follow that - seemingly easy - path. Maybe they think not being from landed gentry and going to Eton makes it more difficult to make the connections needed.
Lack of ambition, that's all it is. Be more like Hugh. Be a hero.
So he made a career out of journalism and then food programs. Not sure what the problem is with that, either.
The country has elected many, many government which have made farming a very low margin industry. Then wondered why Big Agriculture is buying up the farms. And why people are doing things with farms apart from farming.
Today in overbearing but also completely unenforceable legislation.
(For those too fancy to be initiated, at Wetherspoons there is an unattended machine to produce tea, coffee and hot chocolate. You pay the price, the same for any product, and get given a mug. Refills are free.)
This week we've also seen notices taped on to pop machines at fast food places warning customers to restrict themselves on only one non-diet drink.
I think Keir pledged to tread more lightly on our lives
Has anyone done a study on the issue of muscle loss associated with using the weight loss drugs. I wonder if we are storing up a problem for the future. What we do know is that people who are physically active as they go into old age, and have good muscle mass, do much better in terms of staying active and out of hospital.
At least one of the medications seems not to have that side effect. But it's clearly a concern.
Clarkson looks like he’s running in Donny North vs Miliband.
Not a fan of Clarkson, but I don't see how that isn't a significant upgrade.
Presumably he's already signed the Amazon deal to produce 'Clarkson's Westminster'?
It would probably be very educational to the British people as to how politics actually works.
Clarkson's just a grifter. Advertising his shitty farm to keep his farm land millions growing.
I'm glad the BBC kicked him off top gear he was/is a rude outrageous comic who wasn't averse to using racist taunts in his show.
It's probably true that the farm itself makes no money from growing crops, but the larger Diddly Squat operation is a money making machine. I visited the pub on Saturday. It is a well oiled machine for fleecing visitors. Impressive in its own way.
Many farms make next to no money. Using it for a TV series showing how farming works is just an extension of the paintball, quad biking, clay shooting, solar panels and all the other stuff that’s been tried.
Making a comedic TV show is not an option available to most farmers, just to Clarkson.
Years before - poor old Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall made an early TV start just pluckily trading jams, pickles and the like to rich middle class people he happened to meet on the road as he travelled around the country with a television crew. And then - plucky lad - happened upon a 'smallholding' which, oddly, went from expensive strength to expensive strength. With a television crew.
Eventually, through good luck and hard work managed to buy a farm off an actual farmer, and turn it into an eco-cookery-school for rich middle class people. With a television crew in tow.
It's that sort of rags to riches story that really gets to you. It's a wonder more people don't follow that - seemingly easy - path. Maybe they think not being from landed gentry and going to Eton makes it more difficult to make the connections needed.
Lack of ambition, that's all it is. Be more like Hugh. Be a hero.
So he made a career out of journalism and then food programs. Not sure what the problem is with that, either.
The country has elected many, many government which have made farming a very low margin industry. Then wondered why Big Agriculture is buying up the farms. And why people are doing things with farms apart from farming.
Are you deliberately missing the point being made?
This is a chilling but very interesting three year old video by Ryan Mcbeth on what UK targets the Russians would spend a dozen nuclear warheads on, assuming they wanted to paralyse but not destroy the country and damage the free world:
Today in overbearing but also completely unenforceable legislation.
(For those too fancy to be initiated, at Wetherspoons there is an unattended machine to produce tea, coffee and hot chocolate. You pay the price, the same for any product, and get given a mug. Refills are free.)
This week we've also seen notices taped on to pop machines at fast food places warning customers to restrict themselves on only one non-diet drink.
I think Keir pledged to tread more lightly on our lives
How's that going?
Isn't this as a result of legislation that was passed by the previous Tory government.
When you are within these forests you are, without realising, bound in a spell. As you exit it is like coming off a drug
Have you never visited them before ?
Nope. Done the giant sequoias (and Yosemite etc) but this one had, until now, evaded me. And I think it is probably the most profound and moving of all California’s sublime landscapes
The noom is off the dial. And the noom is bright, my friend, it is bright indeed
Today in overbearing but also completely unenforceable legislation.
(For those too fancy to be initiated, at Wetherspoons there is an unattended machine to produce tea, coffee and hot chocolate. You pay the price, the same for any product, and get given a mug. Refills are free.)
This week we've also seen notices taped on to pop machines at fast food places warning customers to restrict themselves on only one non-diet drink.
I noticed this today in Shrewsbury Wetherspoons. Ridiculous. I want my hot chocolate.
He writes there: "The government literally banned you from having more than one Coca Cola at Nando’s."
This is literally not true. The government has banned certain promotions on unhealthy foods and Nando's unlimited Cola for one payment counts, so you can no longer have unlimited Cola and just pay once. But the law doesn't stop you buying as many Colas as you want.
Could they not just get round it by charging the regular price for a glass but saying the unit is 10 litres of cola?
Clarkson looks like he’s running in Donny North vs Miliband.
Not a fan of Clarkson, but I don't see how that isn't a significant upgrade.
Presumably he's already signed the Amazon deal to produce 'Clarkson's Westminster'?
It would probably be very educational to the British people as to how politics actually works.
Clarkson's just a grifter. Advertising his shitty farm to keep his farm land millions growing.
I'm glad the BBC kicked him off top gear he was/is a rude outrageous comic who wasn't averse to using racist taunts in his show.
It's probably true that the farm itself makes no money from growing crops, but the larger Diddly Squat operation is a money making machine. I visited the pub on Saturday. It is a well oiled machine for fleecing visitors. Impressive in its own way.
Many farms make next to no money. Using it for a TV series showing how farming works is just an extension of the paintball, quad biking, clay shooting, solar panels and all the other stuff that’s been tried.
Making a comedic TV show is not an option available to most farmers, just to Clarkson.
Years before - poor old Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall made an early TV start just pluckily trading jams, pickles and the like to rich middle class people he happened to meet on the road as he travelled around the country with a television crew. And then - plucky lad - happened upon a 'smallholding' which, oddly, went from expensive strength to expensive strength. With a television crew.
Eventually, through good luck and hard work managed to buy a farm off an actual farmer, and turn it into an eco-cookery-school for rich middle class people. With a television crew in tow.
It's that sort of rags to riches story that really gets to you. It's a wonder more people don't follow that - seemingly easy - path. Maybe they think not being from landed gentry and going to Eton makes it more difficult to make the connections needed.
Lack of ambition, that's all it is. Be more like Hugh. Be a hero.
So he made a career out of journalism and then food programs. Not sure what the problem is with that, either.
The country has elected many, many government which have made farming a very low margin industry. Then wondered why Big Agriculture is buying up the farms. And why people are doing things with farms apart from farming.
Are you deliberately missing the point being made?
Bit hard to see - a rant about *something*
This is what we wanted farming to become. We voted for it, consistently for over 3/4 of a century. Don't be upset when you get what you asked for.
This is a chilling but very interesting three year old video by Ryan Mcbeth on what UK targets the Russians would spend a dozen nuclear warheads on, assuming they wanted to paralyse but not destroy the country and damage the free world:
Gov. Pritzker: "The Insurrection Act is called the Insurrection Act for a reason — there has to be an insurrection in order for [Trump] to be allowed to invoke it. He can say anything he wants, but if the Constitution means anything...the Insurrection Act cannot be invoked."
My relative-in-law quite upset today. A large family tour of impeccably liberal, anti-Netanyahu relatives of my wife went on a large family tour to north-east London for retrace the roots and steps of their Jewish ancestors. . All was going well, and a lovely family day out in the autumn sun, until a passer-by, possibly from Somalia or somewhere nearby to that, overhead that the group was Jewish. He started swearing and threatening the whole group, and screaming at them to stop bombing the Palestinians, in between spitting on them. Two of the group were very liberal healthcare workers who calmed him down, from both a professional and political point of view, before he got violent.
Family day partially ruined. The hatred out there is still very raw and real, particularly after two years of the conflict.
Horrible. But I wonder if that “impeccably liberal” family is now reconsidering its absurdly positive views on mass immigration
People across the west are getting red pilled like this. And finally realising the catastrophe of multiculturalism
It wouldn't make me give up on multiculturalism, but it is saddening about human nature and polarisation. I have met a fair few educated and humane Muslim people in London over the years.
My wife was quite upset about fhe effecf on her relatives. The loon involved was also screaming at the assembled therapists and academics about the area not needing Jewish money, in between bouts of spitting and swearing at them.
There's now a string of German polls showing AfD overtaking CDU as Germany's lead party. AfD is riding popular discontent on immigration and will keep growing unless the political center finally confronts this issue. If the center is "too posh" to do that, AfD will keep rising...
Crypto anger as speculators claim insider trading in Trump crash Timing of investor’s short position raises questions over whether they had inside information ... It has been alleged that the trader lodged their so-called short position in Bitcoin and Ether around 30 minutes before the US president announced plans to levy fresh tariffs on China. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/12/crypto-anger-speculators-insider-trading-trump-crash/ (£££)
There's now a string of German polls showing AfD overtaking CDU as Germany's lead party. AfD is riding popular discontent on immigration and will keep growing unless the political center finally confronts this issue. If the center is "too posh" to do that, AfD will keep rising...
Gov. Pritzker: "The Insurrection Act is called the Insurrection Act for a reason — there has to be an insurrection in order for [Trump] to be allowed to invoke it. He can say anything he wants, but if the Constitution means anything...the Insurrection Act cannot be invoked."
Managing sucks! It sucks even when you like the people you’re managing and it’s a low-stress position! And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you: running CBS News is not a low-stress position. You are going to get blamed by everyone above you for decisions that are made by people below you, and you are going to get blamed by people below you for the decisions that are made by people above you. You’re also going to get blamed for your own decisions, just for kicks. You have elected to take a job where the primary purpose is for you to eat shit and own the death of broadcast TV news, a thing that is going to die no matter what you do. Nice work!
Crypto anger as speculators claim insider trading in Trump crash Timing of investor’s short position raises questions over whether they had inside information ... It has been alleged that the trader lodged their so-called short position in Bitcoin and Ether around 30 minutes before the US president announced plans to levy fresh tariffs on China. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/12/crypto-anger-speculators-insider-trading-trump-crash/ (£££)
Speculators in an imaginary product angry at someone being unfair to them?
There's now a string of German polls showing AfD overtaking CDU as Germany's lead party. AfD is riding popular discontent on immigration and will keep growing unless the political center finally confronts this issue. If the center is "too posh" to do that, AfD will keep rising...
Would be a different world if, within the space of a few years, we, the Frogs and the Krauts elected Reform, Le Pen's lot and the AfD. Maybe just in time for America to return to sanity in 2029.
There's now a string of German polls showing AfD overtaking CDU as Germany's lead party. AfD is riding popular discontent on immigration and will keep growing unless the political center finally confronts this issue. If the center is "too posh" to do that, AfD will keep rising...
Would be a different world if, within the space of a few years, we, the Frogs and the Krauts elected Reform, Le Pen's lot and the AfD. Maybe just in time for America to return to sanity in 2029.
What a mad decade the 2020s have been.
It hasn't been particularly mad. I think it’s been very hopeful. Green shoots.
Managing sucks! It sucks even when you like the people you’re managing and it’s a low-stress position! And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you: running CBS News is not a low-stress position. You are going to get blamed by everyone above you for decisions that are made by people below you, and you are going to get blamed by people below you for the decisions that are made by people above you. You’re also going to get blamed for your own decisions, just for kicks. You have elected to take a job where the primary purpose is for you to eat shit and own the death of broadcast TV news, a thing that is going to die no matter what you do. Nice work!
. That pretty much sums up my job too (apart from the death bit).
Crypto anger as speculators claim insider trading in Trump crash Timing of investor’s short position raises questions over whether they had inside information ... It has been alleged that the trader lodged their so-called short position in Bitcoin and Ether around 30 minutes before the US president announced plans to levy fresh tariffs on China. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/12/crypto-anger-speculators-insider-trading-trump-crash/ (£££)
Me? Oh I’m just in Drive Thru Tree Memorial Park where I’m about to DRIVE THROUGH A TREE, until I discover that actually my American Chevrolet SUV is too fat to drive thru the drive thru tree
Somewhere buried in there is a deep and meaningful metaphor
Today in overbearing but also completely unenforceable legislation.
(For those too fancy to be initiated, at Wetherspoons there is an unattended machine to produce tea, coffee and hot chocolate. You pay the price, the same for any product, and get given a mug. Refills are free.)
This week we've also seen notices taped on to pop machines at fast food places warning customers to restrict themselves on only one non-diet drink.
Unless they find some way of enforcing it, I'd expect consumption of those things to go through the roof out of annoyance.
I would really struggle to drink more than one hot chocolate at a sitting.
There's now a string of German polls showing AfD overtaking CDU as Germany's lead party. AfD is riding popular discontent on immigration and will keep growing unless the political center finally confronts this issue. If the center is "too posh" to do that, AfD will keep rising...
Which means little given the governing CDU and SPD are on 38% combined to just 26% for the AfD and Germany has PR. Chancellor Merz has also tightened immigration restrictions
There's now a string of German polls showing AfD overtaking CDU as Germany's lead party. AfD is riding popular discontent on immigration and will keep growing unless the political center finally confronts this issue. If the center is "too posh" to do that, AfD will keep rising...
Which means little given the governing CDU and SPD are on 38% combined to just 26% for the AfD and Germany has PR. Chancellor Merz has also tightened immigration restrictions
There's now a string of German polls showing AfD overtaking CDU as Germany's lead party. AfD is riding popular discontent on immigration and will keep growing unless the political center finally confronts this issue. If the center is "too posh" to do that, AfD will keep rising...
Which means little given the governing CDU and SPD are on 38% combined to just 26% for the AfD and Germany has PR. Chancellor Merz has also tightened immigration restrictions
This is a chilling but very interesting three year old video by Ryan Mcbeth on what UK targets the Russians would spend a dozen nuclear warheads on, assuming they wanted to paralyse but not destroy the country and damage the free world:
There's now a string of German polls showing AfD overtaking CDU as Germany's lead party. AfD is riding popular discontent on immigration and will keep growing unless the political center finally confronts this issue. If the center is "too posh" to do that, AfD will keep rising...
Which means little given the governing CDU and SPD are on 38% combined to just 26% for the AfD and Germany has PR. Chancellor Merz has also tightened immigration restrictions
On topic, speaking as a voter in this race I have observed that Trump and his cronies are constantly lying so I don't care what they say. I'm not interested in whether somebody has documentary evidence of something.
Today in overbearing but also completely unenforceable legislation.
(For those too fancy to be initiated, at Wetherspoons there is an unattended machine to produce tea, coffee and hot chocolate. You pay the price, the same for any product, and get given a mug. Refills are free.)
This week we've also seen notices taped on to pop machines at fast food places warning customers to restrict themselves on only one non-diet drink.
I think Keir pledged to tread more lightly on our lives
How's that going?
It's measures like this or massive tax rises to cover the cost of a morbidly fat population via the NHS. .
Real-time monitoring of the entire population, both physical and online, combined with AI, facial recognition, cloud-based computing, will enable the Government to know every detail and action of your life and retrieve it at a moment's notice
When people ask me why I have turned so vehemently against this Government, it's because they have grown so far from their left-wing roots that all they have left is warmed-over right-wing shit like this. This is just awful.
There is outrage in the classic car world because apparently Rachel Reeves plans to jettison the 40 year old plus classic car vehicle excise duty.
I have no idea if this is true or not. I hope not, but the source is reliable. It is non other than PB favourite and the man who gave us Currygate, Durham and Essex's very own Ric Holden.
Today in overbearing but also completely unenforceable legislation.
(For those too fancy to be initiated, at Wetherspoons there is an unattended machine to produce tea, coffee and hot chocolate. You pay the price, the same for any product, and get given a mug. Refills are free.)
This week we've also seen notices taped on to pop machines at fast food places warning customers to restrict themselves on only one non-diet drink.
I think Keir pledged to tread more lightly on our lives
How's that going?
It's measures like this or massive tax rises to cover the cost of a morbidly fat population via the NHS. .
Today in overbearing but also completely unenforceable legislation.
(For those too fancy to be initiated, at Wetherspoons there is an unattended machine to produce tea, coffee and hot chocolate. You pay the price, the same for any product, and get given a mug. Refills are free.)
This week we've also seen notices taped on to pop machines at fast food places warning customers to restrict themselves on only one non-diet drink.
I think Keir pledged to tread more lightly on our lives
How's that going?
It's measures like this or massive tax rises to cover the cost of a morbidly fat population via the NHS. .
Your terms are acceptable. I select option b.
Fair enough! The trouble with the NHS is the classic insurance problem of moral hazard will, eventually, kill it off.
People like me will see 50% of our tax going on a service that we rarely use - exacerbated by enormous health inequality - and start to lend an ear to a party that offers something different.
Real-time monitoring of the entire population, both physical and online, combined with AI, facial recognition, cloud-based computing, will enable the Government to know every detail and action of your life and retrieve it at a moment's notice
When people ask me why I have turned so vehemently against this Government, it's because they have grown so far from their left-wing roots that all they have left is warmed-over right-wing shit like this. This is just awful.
If Blair had proposed this in about 2002 I probably would have supported it, but I was more optimistic about technology at that time. I was also in favour of the UK adopting the Euro at that time, incidentally.
Real-time monitoring of the entire population, both physical and online, combined with AI, facial recognition, cloud-based computing, will enable the Government to know every detail and action of your life and retrieve it at a moment's notice
When people ask me why I have turned so vehemently against this Government, it's because they have grown so far from their left-wing roots that all they have left is warmed-over right-wing shit like this. This is just awful.
The Labour Party has never been about liberty in the general sense. The idea of the Labour Party is that they will come up with the ideal solutions (in the centre) and the solutions will enacted on the country.
There is even a level of incomprehension there - during the negotiations over the Coalition government, the Labour Party negotiators (such as Ed Balls) assumed that the Lib Dems would drop their opposition to the ID card databases, because it was a well meaning policy.
There is outrage in the classic car world because apparently Rachel Reeves plans to jettison the 40 year old plus classic car vehicle excise duty exemption.
I have no idea if this is true or not. I hope not, but the source is reliable. It is non other than PB favourite and the man who gave us Currygate, Durham and Essex's very own Ric Holden.
Today in overbearing but also completely unenforceable legislation.
(For those too fancy to be initiated, at Wetherspoons there is an unattended machine to produce tea, coffee and hot chocolate. You pay the price, the same for any product, and get given a mug. Refills are free.)
This week we've also seen notices taped on to pop machines at fast food places warning customers to restrict themselves on only one non-diet drink.
I think Keir pledged to tread more lightly on our lives
How's that going?
It's measures like this or massive tax rises to cover the cost of a morbidly fat population via the NHS. .
Your terms are acceptable. I select option b.
Fair enough! The trouble with the NHS is the classic insurance problem of moral hazard will, eventually, kill it off.
People like me will see 50% of our tax going on a service that we rarely use - exacerbated by enormous health inequality - and start to lend an ear to a party that offers something different.
A positive "pull" scheme, like the Vitality scheme, would do the job. Would be cheaper as well. And popular - get healthy, get freebies.
When it was introduced in my office, even the most sedentary I'll-never-exercise types were out walking the dog until it was knackered. For a few cinema tickets...
There is outrage in the classic car world because apparently Rachel Reeves plans to jettison the 40 year old plus classic car vehicle excise duty.
I have no idea if this is true or not. I hope not, but the source is reliable. It is non other than PB favourite and the man who gave us Currygate, Durham and Essex's very own Ric Holden.
Ric has found a shed load of other taxes Rachel Reeves is about to drop on you too.
Stupid if she does - it's yet another area where the increased tax revenue will turn out to be a mirage and the economic damage considerable. I think I've two classics with (free) tax running that haven't been on the road in five years - and I suspect I'm not unusual within the classic car world. I won't be paying for the privilege unless I actually fix them and stick them back on the road, and even then I'll probably only tax for the summer.
Also a great way to hack off a moderate chunk of the voting population in one go.
There is outrage in the classic car world because apparently Rachel Reeves plans to jettison the 40 year old plus classic car vehicle excise duty.
I have no idea if this is true or not. I hope not, but the source is reliable. It is non other than PB favourite and the man who gave us Currygate, Durham and Essex's very own Ric Holden.
Ric has found a shed load of other taxes Rachel Reeves is about to drop on you too.
Stupid if she does - it's yet another area where the increased tax revenue will turn out to be a mirage and the economic damage considerable. I think I've two classics with (free) tax running that haven't been on the road in five years - and I suspect I'm not unusual within the classic car world. I won't be paying for the privilege unless I actually fix them and stick them back on the road, and even then I'll probably only tax for the summer.
Also a great way to hack off a moderate chunk of the voting population in one go.
It was 25 years originally, no? But new cars were starting to last 25 years so it was increased..
There is outrage in the classic car world because apparently Rachel Reeves plans to jettison the 40 year old plus classic car vehicle excise duty.
I have no idea if this is true or not. I hope not, but the source is reliable. It is non other than PB favourite and the man who gave us Currygate, Durham and Essex's very own Ric Holden.
Ric has found a shed load of other taxes Rachel Reeves is about to drop on you too.
Stupid if she does - it's yet another area where the increased tax revenue will turn out to be a mirage and the economic damage considerable. I think I've two classics with (free) tax running that haven't been on the road in five years - and I suspect I'm not unusual within the classic car world. I won't be paying for the privilege unless I actually fix them and stick them back on the road, and even then I'll probably only tax for the summer.
Also a great way to hack off a moderate chunk of the voting population in one go.
There are 300K classic on the road (approx)
Conclusion - this is a policy that will annoy lots of people and not raise very much money. So they will do this.
Today in overbearing but also completely unenforceable legislation.
(For those too fancy to be initiated, at Wetherspoons there is an unattended machine to produce tea, coffee and hot chocolate. You pay the price, the same for any product, and get given a mug. Refills are free.)
This week we've also seen notices taped on to pop machines at fast food places warning customers to restrict themselves on only one non-diet drink.
I noticed this today in Shrewsbury Wetherspoons. Ridiculous. I want my hot chocolate.
He writes there: "The government literally banned you from having more than one Coca Cola at Nando’s."
This is literally not true. The government has banned certain promotions on unhealthy foods and Nando's unlimited Cola for one payment counts, so you can no longer have unlimited Cola and just pay once. But the law doesn't stop you buying as many Colas as you want.
It's a little exaggerated, to be sure, but there is an underlying point to be made about our obsession with persnickety, busy body, nanny state regulations over addressing major problems.
Real-time monitoring of the entire population, both physical and online, combined with AI, facial recognition, cloud-based computing, will enable the Government to know every detail and action of your life and retrieve it at a moment's notice .
Why do technologists look at the dystopic parts of speculative fiction for inspiration?
On Blair, I'm not surprised he is supportive of ID cards, but isn't he basically in the pocket of the Oracle bloke now, so has to back up any techn idea going?
Real-time monitoring of the entire population, both physical and online, combined with AI, facial recognition, cloud-based computing, will enable the Government to know every detail and action of your life and retrieve it at a moment's notice
When people ask me why I have turned so vehemently against this Government, it's because they have grown so far from their left-wing roots that all they have left is warmed-over right-wing shit like this. This is just awful.
The Labour Party has never been about liberty in the general sense. The idea of the Labour Party is that they will come up with the ideal solutions (in the centre) and the solutions will enacted on the country.
There is even a level of incomprehension there - during the negotiations over the Coalition government, the Labour Party negotiators (such as Ed Balls) assumed that the Lib Dems would drop their opposition to the ID card databases, because it was a well meaning policy.
Quite. Anyone who inherently associates liberty with the left and authoritarianism with the right is likely brainwashed or entirely ignorant of politics. But it's a misrepresentation so widespread that it allows the left to get away with terrible liberties (and indeed the retraction thereof).
It would be amusing to hear ID cards unironically described as 'right wing shit', were it not for the fact that a lot of people genuinely believe this...
What's the Green Party's attitude to ID cards? Is it too much to ask for that they might be against the idea.
Google suggests Polanksi at least is against them, as are the Scottish Greens, but it was not immediately obvious to me if the England and Wales Greens still were, though they seem to have been historically against.
Real-time monitoring of the entire population, both physical and online, combined with AI, facial recognition, cloud-based computing, will enable the Government to know every detail and action of your life and retrieve it at a moment's notice
When people ask me why I have turned so vehemently against this Government, it's because they have grown so far from their left-wing roots that all they have left is warmed-over right-wing shit like this. This is just awful.
The Labour Party has never been about liberty in the general sense. The idea of the Labour Party is that they will come up with the ideal solutions (in the centre) and the solutions will enacted on the country.
There is even a level of incomprehension there - during the negotiations over the Coalition government, the Labour Party negotiators (such as Ed Balls) assumed that the Lib Dems would drop their opposition to the ID card databases, because it was a well meaning policy.
Quite. Anyone who inherently associates liberty with the left and authoritarianism with the right is likely brainwashed or entirely ignorant of politics. But it's a misrepresentation so widespread that it allows the left to get away with terrible liberties (and indeed the retraction thereof).
It would be amusing to hear ID cards unironically described as 'right wing shit', were it not for the fact that a lot of people genuinely believe this...
Well, yes. I should have described it as "warmed-over shit". Although it just goes to show just how widespread and unremarkable authoritarianism has become. I didn't want my later years to deteriorate into a a Denis Leary ripoff act, particularly since he was himself a Bill Hicks ripoff act...
What's the Green Party's attitude to ID cards? Is it too much to ask for that they might be against the idea.
You are obsessed! Are you an asylum seeker?
I'm totally obsessed with the country not turning into some type of 1984-style dystopia where the government monitors everything people do. Is there something wrong with that? Or perhaps you read the book and thought — this sounds quite attractive.
Real-time monitoring of the entire population, both physical and online, combined with AI, facial recognition, cloud-based computing, will enable the Government to know every detail and action of your life and retrieve it at a moment's notice .
Why do technologists look at the dystopic parts of speculative fiction for inspiration?
On Blair, I'm not surprised he is supportive of ID cards, but isn't he basically in the pocket of the Oracle bloke now, so has to back up any techn idea going?
There is outrage in the classic car world because apparently Rachel Reeves plans to jettison the 40 year old plus classic car vehicle excise duty.
I have no idea if this is true or not. I hope not, but the source is reliable. It is non other than PB favourite and the man who gave us Currygate, Durham and Essex's very own Ric Holden.
Ric has found a shed load of other taxes Rachel Reeves is about to drop on you too.
Stupid if she does - it's yet another area where the increased tax revenue will turn out to be a mirage and the economic damage considerable. I think I've two classics with (free) tax running that haven't been on the road in five years - and I suspect I'm not unusual within the classic car world. I won't be paying for the privilege unless I actually fix them and stick them back on the road, and even then I'll probably only tax for the summer.
Also a great way to hack off a moderate chunk of the voting population in one go.
It was 25 years originally, no? But new cars were starting to last 25 years so it was increased..
It was originally a rolling 25 years. Blair stopped it rolling (on the grounds that he didn't like the idea of the proles enjoying themselves with cars I think). For a long time the cut off was a fixed (1st Jan 73 iirc). This had various strange distortions (eg decent 72 reg series landrover was about £500 dearer than an identical 73 reg)
The Tories restarted it rolling in 2013, but without catching it back up, so it became a 40 year rolling exemption.
My guess is that Reeves is more likely to freeze it again than cancel it completely, but who knows how stupid she might be!
There is outrage in the classic car world because apparently Rachel Reeves plans to jettison the 40 year old plus classic car vehicle excise duty.
I have no idea if this is true or not. I hope not, but the source is reliable. It is non other than PB favourite and the man who gave us Currygate, Durham and Essex's very own Ric Holden.
Ric has found a shed load of other taxes Rachel Reeves is about to drop on you too.
Stupid if she does - it's yet another area where the increased tax revenue will turn out to be a mirage and the economic damage considerable. I think I've two classics with (free) tax running that haven't been on the road in five years - and I suspect I'm not unusual within the classic car world. I won't be paying for the privilege unless I actually fix them and stick them back on the road, and even then I'll probably only tax for the summer.
Also a great way to hack off a moderate chunk of the voting population in one go.
There are 300K classic on the road (approx)
Conclusion - this is a policy that will annoy lots of people and not raise very much money. So they will do this.
I start from the assumption that she doesn’t like cars, or rather doesn’t like the idea that people should have the freedom to go anywhere without the State getting in the way, and work backwards from there.
She definitely has no idea about why people would get up early on a Sunday morning, to take an old smelly pollution machine 50 miles up the road to a coffee shop, followed by 50 miles back again.
But adding costs to 2nd cars “hits the rich”, so she’ll do it even if it raises no money, and alienate yet another easily identifiable and organised group of people.
Managing sucks! It sucks even when you like the people you’re managing and it’s a low-stress position! And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you: running CBS News is not a low-stress position. You are going to get blamed by everyone above you for decisions that are made by people below you, and you are going to get blamed by people below you for the decisions that are made by people above you. You’re also going to get blamed for your own decisions, just for kicks. You have elected to take a job where the primary purpose is for you to eat shit and own the death of broadcast TV news, a thing that is going to die no matter what you do. Nice work!
Watching the American media totally lose their mind, over the appointment of someone that five years ago they would have described as a role model for young gay women, has been rather amusing to watch. They’re all absolutely terrified that she might succeed.
She definitely has quite the challenge ahead, but the biggest part of it will be dealing with those inside the organisation who desparately want her to fail. Good luck to her.
The other difference is the sheer scale. Potentially many millions versus tens of thousands. TikTok US is worth many billions, and it has been sold off cheap in a forced sale controlled by the administration.
The opportunity to buy TikTok US has effectively been gifted by Trump to a selected bunch of investors for what probably less than half its actual value, Congress having abdicated its role in the affair.
There is outrage in the classic car world because apparently Rachel Reeves plans to jettison the 40 year old plus classic car vehicle excise duty.
I have no idea if this is true or not. I hope not, but the source is reliable. It is non other than PB favourite and the man who gave us Currygate, Durham and Essex's very own Ric Holden.
Ric has found a shed load of other taxes Rachel Reeves is about to drop on you too.
Stupid if she does - it's yet another area where the increased tax revenue will turn out to be a mirage and the economic damage considerable. I think I've two classics with (free) tax running that haven't been on the road in five years - and I suspect I'm not unusual within the classic car world. I won't be paying for the privilege unless I actually fix them and stick them back on the road, and even then I'll probably only tax for the summer.
Also a great way to hack off a moderate chunk of the voting population in one go.
Hmmm. At this point I'd say that's more the Blues trying to scare the horses back into their stall. There's no political downside to them to make the claim, and they get a bit of attention in the tabloids, and to poke Mail and Express readers in the eye. And Bloe Job Bobby may make an outraged viral video of himself huffing and puffing like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
For your 5 year off road classics, you can of course just SORN them. If you want the zero-tax I think it's still necessary to fill in a form - so the "Government overreach" argument does not work.
Potential revenue from this is maybe £50-100 million, so I'd be watching the other items. I think she actually *could* withdraw the temporary "COVID" fuel-price concession this time, and that is about £3-5 billion per annum.
I don't think the classic car tax offers a good enough political return to be worth doing.
My relative-in-law quite upset today. A large family tour of impeccably liberal, anti-Netanyahu relatives of my wife went on a large family tour to north-east London for retrace the roots and steps of their Jewish ancestors. . All was going well, and a lovely family day out in the autumn sun, until a passer-by, possibly from Somalia or somewhere in the same region, overhead that the group was Jewish. He started swearing and threatening the whole group, and screaming at them to stop bombing the Palestinians, in between spitting on them. Two of the group were very liberal healthcare workers who calmed him down, from both a professional and political point of view, before he got violent.
Family day partially ruined. The hatred out there is still very raw and real, particularly after two years of the conflict.
The irony is that Gaza, though tragic, is an irrelevant distraction to the conflict that really matters to the free world, which is in Ukraine. But many people are much more passionate about Gaza. Putin can only be delighted by that. However the war ends, I think future generations will judge us harshly for not helping the brave Ukrainians a lot more.
From WSJ: “Inside the White House, top advisers joke that they are ruling Congress with an ‘iron fist,’… Steve Bannon, the influential Trump ally, likened Congress to the Duma, the Russian assembly that is largely ceremonial.” https://x.com/jaketapper/status/1977498061854355794
If the Democrats fail to retake Congress next year, there's a real danger this becomes permanent.
With a President that the Supreme Court has rules is effectively unconstrained by the law.
What's the Green Party's attitude to ID cards? Is it too much to ask for that they might be against the idea.
You are obsessed! Are you an asylum seeker?
I'm totally obsessed with the country not turning into some type of 1984-style dystopia where the government monitors everything people do. Is there something wrong with that? Or perhaps you read the book and thought — this sounds quite attractive.
Backing Britain’s extreme right party seems a rather high risk way of trying to avoid that?
My relative-in-law quite upset today. A large family tour of impeccably liberal, anti-Netanyahu relatives of my wife went on a large family tour to north-east London for retrace the roots and steps of their Jewish ancestors. . All was going well, and a lovely family day out in the autumn sun, until a passer-by, possibly from Somalia or somewhere in the same region, overhead that the group was Jewish. He started swearing and threatening the whole group, and screaming at them to stop bombing the Palestinians, in between spitting on them. Two of the group were very liberal healthcare workers who calmed him down, from both a professional and political point of view, before he got violent.
Family day partially ruined. The hatred out there is still very raw and real, particularly after two years of the conflict.
The irony is that Gaza, though tragic, is an irrelevant distraction to the conflict that really matters to the free world, which is in Ukraine. But many people are much more passionate about Gaza. Putin can only be delighted by that. However the war ends, I think future generations will judge us harshly for not helping the brave Ukrainians a lot more.
Without question, the outcome of the Ukraine war is vastly more important to any European than the outcome of the war in Gaza.
An interesting podcast from Guardian Australia largely comparing One Nation (their main party on the far right), with Ref UK and the different political contexts:
Managing sucks! It sucks even when you like the people you’re managing and it’s a low-stress position! And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you: running CBS News is not a low-stress position. You are going to get blamed by everyone above you for decisions that are made by people below you, and you are going to get blamed by people below you for the decisions that are made by people above you. You’re also going to get blamed for your own decisions, just for kicks. You have elected to take a job where the primary purpose is for you to eat shit and own the death of broadcast TV news, a thing that is going to die no matter what you do. Nice work!
Watching the American media totally lose their mind, over the appointment of someone that five years ago they would have described as a role model for young gay women, has been rather amusing to watch. They’re all absolutely terrified that she might succeed.
She definitely has quite the challenge ahead, but the biggest part of it will be dealing with those inside the organisation who desparately want her to fail. Good luck to her.
I have been a Free Press subscriber for a long time, and I think Nate Silver got this one absolutely right (as he gets many things absolutely right): this is a fucking shitty terrible job. "But my one (1) fresh take is that a management job where many people don’t want you there doesn’t sound very fun. Like if Paramount offered me $150m and the EIC job at CBS News, I’d counter with $150m and I never have to step within 100 yards of the CBS News building."
Not a great look from Bridget. Although I don't think we should take any lessons about delusional thinking from a man who thinks that killing more children than Herod is a great way to trigger the Second Coming.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Ghislaine Maxwell had a meeting with an unknown person in her new prison camp, during which the entire prison was on lockdown. https://x.com/JayShams/status/1977499517256696092
What's the Green Party's attitude to ID cards? Is it too much to ask for that they might be against the idea.
You are obsessed! Are you an asylum seeker?
I'm totally obsessed with the country not turning into some type of 1984-style dystopia where the government monitors everything people do. Is there something wrong with that? Or perhaps you read the book and thought — this sounds quite attractive.
People will have to carry their passports when Farages ICE thugs start sweeping the streets for deportations without due legal process.
The threat to civil liberties there is real not theoretical.
Comments
This is literally not true. The government has banned certain promotions on unhealthy foods and Nando's unlimited Cola for one payment counts, so you can no longer have unlimited Cola and just pay once. But the law doesn't stop you buying as many Colas as you want.
I’m just interested by the idea that do something other than farming on a farm is somehow wrong.
My relative-in-law quite upset today. A large family tour of impeccably liberal, anti-Netanyahu relatives of my wife went on a large family tour to north-east London for retrace the roots and steps of their Jewish ancestors.
.
All was going well, and a lovely family day out in the autumn sun, until a passer-by, possibly from Somalia or somewhere in the same region, overhead that the group was Jewish. He started swearing and threatening the whole group, and screaming at them to stop bombing the Palestinians, in between spitting on them. Two of the group were very liberal healthcare workers who calmed him down, from both a professional and political point of view, before he got violent.
Family day partially ruined. The hatred out there is still very raw and real, particularly after two years of the conflict.
Eventually, through good luck and hard work managed to buy a farm off an actual farmer, and turn it into an eco-cookery-school for rich middle class people. With a television crew in tow.
It's that sort of rags to riches story that really gets to you. It's a wonder more people don't follow that - seemingly easy - path. Maybe they think not being from landed gentry and going to Eton makes it more difficult to make the connections needed.
Lack of ambition, that's all it is. Be more like Hugh. Be a hero.
But interesting to watch how much work goes into it
People across the west are getting red pilled like this. And finally realising the catastrophe of multiculturalism
My god
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir
https://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm
The country has elected many, many government which have made farming a very low margin industry. Then wondered why Big Agriculture is buying up the farms. And why people are doing things with farms apart from farming.
It's their nature.
But it's clearly a concern.
I'm one of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYWcgF4Wwog
Lakenheath, Portsmouth, Fylingdales, a couple of London data centres and Rosyth. The army get off pretty lightly.
I imagine I'd be among the 200k deaths or 1.3 million injuries he forecasts.
Luckily Putin is only a calculating psychopath, not a suicidal psychotic.
*they die earlier
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03336/SN03336.pdf
The noom is off the dial. And the noom is bright, my friend, it is bright indeed
This is what we wanted farming to become. We voted for it, consistently for over 3/4 of a century. Don't be upset when you get what you asked for.
Gov. Pritzker: "The Insurrection Act is called the Insurrection Act for a reason — there has to be an insurrection in order for [Trump] to be allowed to invoke it. He can say anything he wants, but if the Constitution means anything...the Insurrection Act cannot be invoked."
https://x.com/BulwarkOnline/status/1977383107046088996
My wife was quite upset about fhe effecf on her relatives. The loon involved was also screaming at the assembled therapists and academics about the area not needing Jewish money, in between bouts of spitting and swearing at them.
@robin_j_brooks
There's now a string of German polls showing AfD overtaking CDU as Germany's lead party. AfD is riding popular discontent on immigration and will keep growing unless the political center finally confronts this issue. If the center is "too posh" to do that, AfD will keep rising...
https://x.com/robin_j_brooks/status/1977354213832130875
Timing of investor’s short position raises questions over whether they had inside information
...
It has been alleged that the trader lodged their so-called short position in Bitcoin and Ether around 30 minutes before the US president announced plans to levy fresh tariffs on China.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/12/crypto-anger-speculators-insider-trading-trump-crash/ (£££)
Managing sucks! It sucks even when you like the people you’re managing and it’s a low-stress position! And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you: running CBS News is not a low-stress position. You are going to get blamed by everyone above you for decisions that are made by people below you, and you are going to get blamed by people below you for the decisions that are made by people above you. You’re also going to get blamed for your own decisions, just for kicks. You have elected to take a job where the primary purpose is for you to eat shit and own the death of broadcast TV news, a thing that is going to die no matter what you do. Nice work!
What a mad decade the 2020s have been.
That pretty much sums up my job too (apart from the death bit).
Somewhere buried in there is a deep and meaningful metaphor
https://petitionmap.unboxedconsulting.com/?petition=730194
https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
You can 'amuse yourself' testing the blast radius and effects of various nuclear bombs in various locations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alnNJ3vR9qY
When people ask me why I have turned so vehemently against this Government, it's because they have grown so far from their left-wing roots that all they have left is warmed-over right-wing shit like this. This is just awful.
I have no idea if this is true or not. I hope not, but the source is reliable. It is non other than PB favourite and the man who gave us Currygate, Durham and Essex's very own Ric Holden.
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/2117661/classic-car-owners-tax-exemption-rachel-reeves/amp
Ric has found a shed load of other taxes Rachel Reeves is about to drop on you too.
People like me will see 50% of our tax going on a service that we rarely use - exacerbated by enormous health inequality - and start to lend an ear to a party that offers something different.
There is even a level of incomprehension there - during the negotiations over the Coalition government, the Labour Party negotiators (such as Ed Balls) assumed that the Lib Dems would drop their opposition to the ID card databases, because it was a well meaning policy.
When it was introduced in my office, even the most sedentary I'll-never-exercise types were out walking the dog until it was knackered. For a few cinema tickets...
Also a great way to hack off a moderate chunk of the voting population in one go.
Conclusion - this is a policy that will annoy lots of people and not raise very much money. So they will do this.
On Blair, I'm not surprised he is supportive of ID cards, but isn't he basically in the pocket of the Oracle bloke now, so has to back up any techn idea going?
Quite. Anyone who inherently associates liberty with the left and authoritarianism with the right is likely brainwashed or entirely ignorant of politics. But it's a misrepresentation so widespread that it allows the left to get away with terrible liberties (and indeed the retraction thereof).
It would be amusing to hear ID cards unironically described as 'right wing shit', were it not for the fact that a lot of people genuinely believe this...
The Tories restarted it rolling in 2013, but without catching it back up, so it became a 40 year rolling exemption.
My guess is that Reeves is more likely to freeze it again than cancel it completely, but who knows how stupid she might be!
She definitely has no idea about why people would get up early on a Sunday morning, to take an old smelly pollution machine 50 miles up the road to a coffee shop, followed by 50 miles back again.
But adding costs to 2nd cars “hits the rich”, so she’ll do it even if it raises no money, and alienate yet another easily identifiable and organised group of people.
She definitely has quite the challenge ahead, but the biggest part of it will be dealing with those inside the organisation who desparately want her to fail. Good luck to her.
The opportunity to buy TikTok US has effectively been gifted by Trump to a selected bunch of investors for what probably less than half its actual value, Congress having abdicated its role in the affair.
For your 5 year off road classics, you can of course just SORN them. If you want the zero-tax I think it's still necessary to fill in a form - so the "Government overreach" argument does not work.
Potential revenue from this is maybe £50-100 million, so I'd be watching the other items. I think she actually *could* withdraw the temporary "COVID" fuel-price concession this time, and that is about £3-5 billion per annum.
I don't think the classic car tax offers a good enough political return to be worth doing.
From WSJ: “Inside the White House, top advisers joke that they are ruling Congress with an ‘iron fist,’… Steve Bannon, the influential Trump ally, likened Congress to the Duma, the Russian assembly that is largely ceremonial.”
https://x.com/jaketapper/status/1977498061854355794
If the Democrats fail to retake Congress next year, there's a real danger this becomes permanent.
With a President that the Supreme Court has rules is effectively unconstrained by the law.
An interesting podcast from Guardian Australia largely comparing One Nation (their main party on the far right), with Ref UK and the different political contexts:
One Nation, Nigel Farage and the rise of the populist right – Full Story podcast: Newsroom edition
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6rIYRkWcHCY
https://x.com/JayShams/status/1977499517256696092
The threat to civil liberties there is real not theoretical.