If you're going to write fiction, change the names. Or just don't write common tropes.
Difficult to disentangle this one. I suspect the University were a bit poo-poo about the whole thing, right up,to the point the stupid sod actually turned up (Richard III that is). After that they would have been all over it. So the character may not have been bang on, or may have been an amalgam, but when you write something based on a true story, you risk pissing people off who know more about the truth than the writer.
Odds on both of these bills screwing up their target constituencies even more than they are already?
I have a nasty feeling that the changes in the Renter’s Rights Bill will result in even more property being taken off the rental market & rents climbing ever higher as a result.
The Employment Bill is going to completely screw over anyone with a spotty work history. All those people who have been out of work with anxiety / actual long covid / heart issues etc etc since 2020? Good luck getting them into work if their prospective employer can’t sack them within a six month probationary period. Why would any employer take the risk of employing them in a soft jobs market where they have other options?
2 years is too long to get normal employment rights, but why go from 2 years to first day? I think either six months, or a phased in approach with some at 3 months and the rest after a year, would be about right, but even if they made it 1 month it would give employers a chance to make a risky employment decision. Instead it will all end up with temp agencies instead, how is that better?
Bit late in the day, but I thought I'd necro this post as I've a fairly relevant perspective having just been round the hamster wheel of taking on a hard case of an employee.
Six months ago I took on a lad aged about 30. Life a bit of a mess, no job, up to his eyeballs in debt, precarious living arrangements but seemed genuinely keen to come and work. Offered him 40hrs a week at min wage, with the possibility of his rate increasing fairly quickly if he shaped up to be any good.
When he turned up, he did generally work fairly hard. But he was forever not turning up (always with a plausible sounding sob story of an excuse).
I've not seen him for three weeks, two weeks ago he sent me a sick note because he's apparently had a nervous breakdown, so I'm now paying him SSP. Whilst he was off, I got an "Attachment of earnings order" from the local court requiring me to deduct ~£170 from his wages and send it to them for some sort of unpaid fine. Last night he messaged saying he was much better and would be in today. Today - not a sign of him.
I'm basically done with him at this point. I've given him massive benefit of the doubt, I've put up with behaviour that most employers wouldn't. It's not even what he costs directly (until the latest episode with the apparent mental breakdown, if he didn't turn up, I wasn't paying him), it's the amount of my (very limited and expensive) time that he wastes. I'd pretty much decided he had to go (although I hadn't actually said anything to him) a few weeks ago, then he had a spurt of good behaviour and tried really hard for a week, and so I foolishly relented. Needless to say, it didn't last.
I'm now debating between sacking him whilst he's still off on the sick, or sacking him when he comes back. Neither is great, but I've got to do one of them.
Anyway - the Employment Rights Bill means to complete end of this sort of shenanigans. Never again will I try taking on a hard case if I can't boot them without repercussions if it goes wrong. Yes, in theory I could sack this lad anyway, but I run a small business - I don't have time to document everything, give him umpteen formal warnings etc.
The current 2 years before acquiring rights is probably about right. I've given my lad loads of rope because I don't have a looming cutoff to get rid. 3 or 6 months will just mean employers have to sack the borderline cases before they get rights. Even a year would feel pressured.
I can only assume the government hates people on the margins of work - there will probably be ten losers for a every winner from day one rights.
I suspect this lad I'm about to sack will never work again, because of the Employment Rights Bill. We, as taxpayers, will fund his existence for the next 30, 40, 50 years. What he actually needs is a massive kick up the arse in a "if a man will not work, neither shall he eat" sort of a way, where he literally has to hold down a job or go hungry but that's anathema to the idiots currently in power.
The idiots currently in power say, in the first paragraph, that the Bill is part of their growth agenda, don't you know.
Tories seem to have bottomed out and Reform seem to be levelling off.
Lab still dropping like a stone (averaging 1% drop in average poll share per month) - now losing share to Greens instead of Reform. They are now lower than the Cons' worst polling average in the last parliament.
If they keep on the current trend, they'll drop below Cons around New Year and they could be in 5th place and nearing 10% by the big elections next May. Surely they can't get that low, can they? They have to bottom out at some point, surely?
If you're going to write fiction, change the names. Or just don't write common tropes.
Difficult to disentangle this one. I suspect the University were a bit poo-poo about the whole thing, right up,to the point the stupid sod actually turned up (Richard III that is). After that they would have been all over it. So the character may not have been bang on, or may have been an amalgam, but when you write something based on a true story, you risk pissing people off who know more about the truth than the writer.
Hmm. It was a University archaeological team who dug up Mr Plantagenet.
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
"Altman said earlier this month that ChatGPT now has 800 million weekly active users. The company’s estimates therefore suggest that every seven days, around 560,000 people may be exchanging messages with ChatGPT that indicate they are experiencing mania or psychosis. About 2.4 million more are possibly expressing suicidal ideations or prioritizing talking to ChatGPT over their loved ones, school, or work. "
"Altman said earlier this month that ChatGPT now has 800 million weekly active users. The company’s estimates therefore suggest that every seven days, around 560,000 people may be exchanging messages with ChatGPT that indicate they are experiencing mania or psychosis. About 2.4 million more are possibly expressing suicidal ideations or prioritizing talking to ChatGPT over their loved ones, school, or work. "
I can't read the article so not sure where the "The company’s estimates therefore suggest" is coming from or what "may be exchanging" means - but that's about 1-1.5% of their users? Which seems surprisingly low compared to FB/reddit/twitter/etc.
In a given week, OpenAI estimated that around .07 percent of active ChatGPT users show “possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania” and .15 percent “have conversations that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent.”
Goodness - that's much lower than I would have guessed. I wonder what the figures are for Grok/meta/claude/etc.
Google gets enough searches related to suicide that they’ve implemented banners at the top of the results pages.
If you're going to write fiction, change the names. Or just don't write common tropes.
Difficult to disentangle this one. I suspect the University were a bit poo-poo about the whole thing, right up,to the point the stupid sod actually turned up (Richard III that is). After that they would have been all over it. So the character may not have been bang on, or may have been an amalgam, but when you write something based on a true story, you risk pissing people off who know more about the truth than the writer.
Hmm. It was a University archaeological team who dug up Mr Plantagenet.
Yep, but the thrust of the mad Richard woman’s story is that she had to battle all the way against ‘the authorities’. That’s the story that Coogan chose to,portray.
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
Tories seem to have bottomed out and Reform seem to be levelling off.
Lab still dropping like a stone (averaging 1% drop in average poll share per month) - now losing share to Greens instead of Reform. They are now lower than the Cons' worst polling average in the last parliament.
If they keep on the current trend, they'll drop below Cons around New Year and they could be in 5th place and nearing 10% by the big elections next May. Surely they can't get that low, can they? They have to bottom out at some point, surely?
WRT Labour, this theory seems to me to have a reasonable chance:
The next election will be Reform v Not Reform. And we are not going to have an election in which there is only one real horse - ie Reform.
The Tories are not a genuine 'Not Reform' party. So unless they switch to the centre they disappear for most practical purposes.
The LDs appear strong but stuck in the 100 or so seats where they count.
Scotland and Wales can be Reform v SNP/PC.
That leaves England where Reform v Labour is the only feasible contest. What must happen will happen, therefore Labour in 2028/9 will do a lot better than on current projections.
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
The seventies were a different country...
Indeed. I was at a 70s bog standard comp on the outskirts of Brum and my memory is there was literally a handful of black british kids across the whole school. And only one or two south asians per year. There was a kid from Iraq whose father was on the run from Saddam or which ever nutter was in charge there in mid 70s.
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
The seventies were a different country...
Indeed. I was at a 70s bog standard comp on the outskirts of Brum and my memory is there was literally a handful of black british kids across the whole school. And only one or two south asians per year. There was a kid from Iraq whose father was on the run from Saddam or which ever nutter was in charge there in mid 70s.
There were no non-white kids in my school when I left it in 2006. Was the valleys, so maybe not an attractive choice.
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
The seventies were a different country...
Indeed. I was at a 70s bog standard comp on the outskirts of Brum and my memory is there was literally a handful of black british kids across the whole school. And only one or two south asians per year. There was a kid from Iraq whose father was on the run from Saddam or which ever nutter was in charge there in mid 70s.
A surprising number of Iraqis and other interesting characters in Hebridean schools. Not sure why the Skripals didn't get a similar posting.
Otherwise, eastern Europeans and a few Commonwealth citizens who'd settled after the Army or RAF.
Tories seem to have bottomed out and Reform seem to be levelling off.
Lab still dropping like a stone (averaging 1% drop in average poll share per month) - now losing share to Greens instead of Reform. They are now lower than the Cons' worst polling average in the last parliament.
If they keep on the current trend, they'll drop below Cons around New Year and they could be in 5th place and nearing 10% by the big elections next May. Surely they can't get that low, can they? They have to bottom out at some point, surely?
WRT Labour, this theory seems to me to have a reasonable chance:
The next election will be Reform v Not Reform. And we are not going to have an election in which there is only one real horse - ie Reform.
The Tories are not a genuine 'Not Reform' party. So unless they switch to the centre they disappear for most practical purposes.
The LDs appear strong but stuck in the 100 or so seats where they count.
Scotland and Wales can be Reform v SNP/PC.
That leaves England where Reform v Labour is the only feasible contest. What must happen will happen, therefore Labour in 2028/9 will do a lot better than on current projections.
BTW - the 100 LD seats are becoming more like 150-180, simply because of the fragmentation of the other parties.
Not enough to challenge yet, but all those seats where the LDs are on 22%, but are 30 points behind Lab or Con, well... those are going to be very interesting.
I am doing my bit, massive increase in productivity thanks to incorporation of AI into my work flows and 100hr working weeks....am I the only one working in this country?
Productivity is measured as output per hour worked so working 100 hour weeks might decrease productivity not increase it.
Indeed. In general, I must say I've found over the years that colleagues that are keen to tell you they are snowed under and working every hour God sends aren't generally the stars, but rather startlingly inefficient people.
You have obviously never run tech start-ups in the ML / AI sector.
During my PhD / Post-doc time, 10hrs a day / 6-7 days a week was completely normal, ramping up to easily a 100hrs a week the month before paper submission time (which was every 3 months). It really the only way you could keep up with speed of technological change and ensure you got enough papers published. Speaking to everybody in that field often felt like I slacked off only doing the 60 hrs a week during down time.
You're not the only one here with a PhD, and perhaps you're the exception that proves the rule. I'm just saying that, generally, for individuals in similar lines of work, those posting huge hours tend to be less efficient rather than better than their peers.
There are PhDs and PhDs. And I am very much still involved in the ML / AI rearch community. I am not sure people quite understand the insanity that has been going on and is going on.
For instance, the top tier NeurIPS conference now get 50k papers submitted every year now. There are individuals sending in 20-25 papers at a time. And that is just one conference out of 3-4 per year for the pure side of ML. There are ones for vision, graphics, etc etc etc.
Compared to every other field its a total outlier now in terms of research output. Is it all top tier amazing stuff, no, but the sheer amount of effort being deployed particularly from American and Chinese academics is mind blowing (and that also includes the core teams at the big tech companies who are also working the insane hours). Nobody is doing 30-40hrs a week.
There was an article just the other day saying the top LLM labs, they are genuinely working 7 days a week and sleeping just here and there for a few hours a day.
Still, at least you've got time to argue the toss with some prick on the bottom half of the internet, 100 hour weeks notwithstanding. Sir - I salute your courage, your strength, and your indefatigability!
As I say I'm a slacker. Just fuelling up for a zwift ride, before back to work in a couple of hours.....
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
The seventies were a different country...
Indeed. I was at a 70s bog standard comp on the outskirts of Brum and my memory is there was literally a handful of black british kids across the whole school. And only one or two south asians per year. There was a kid from Iraq whose father was on the run from Saddam or which ever nutter was in charge there in mid 70s.
My Birmingham Grammar was about 25% Indian/pakistani/bangladeshi in the 1990s. Not a single black student. It's about 70% south asian now.
There's been endless talk about an AI bubble, but less about exactly how, why, and how much it's a bubble. So I turned to the framework put forward by scholars Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch, authors of "Bubbles and Crashes," for assessing tech bubbles.
There's been endless talk about an AI bubble, but less about exactly how, why, and how much it's a bubble. So I turned to the framework put forward by scholars Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch, authors of "Bubbles and Crashes," for assessing tech bubbles.
Prince Andrew hosted Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein at Royal Lodge, the publicly-owned home where he effectively lives rent-free.
The trio visited the Windsor mansion as part of his daughter Beatrice's masked ball 18th birthday celebrations in 2006, two months after a US arrest warrant had been issued for Epstein for the sexual assault of a minor.
Seriously the vast majority of people couldn’t give a flying fxck if a mansion tax is put on homes over 2 million pounds .
Except the ones exepcted to pay it , many of whom who will have the wherewithall to stick up two fingers and leave and so they will get less and less tax, they are morons.
Seriously the vast majority of people couldn’t give a flying fxck if a mansion tax is put on homes over 2 million pounds .
Except the ones exepcted to pay it , many of whom who will have the wherewithall to stick up two fingers and leave and so they will get less and less tax, they are morons.
How does the house move. That's the whole point of a property taxes you can't escape it by upping sticks because the tax on the property still needs to be paid otherwise it will eventually be taken off you to pay the bill.
Seriously the vast majority of people couldn’t give a flying fxck if a mansion tax is put on homes over 2 million pounds .
If everything that the Mail, the Telegraph, the rest of the press, and pundits on here and elsewhere predict will be in the budget is true, it's unlikely that Rachel will finish her speech before Xmas.
Prince Andrew hosted Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein at Royal Lodge, the publicly-owned home where he effectively lives rent-free.
The trio visited the Windsor mansion as part of his daughter Beatrice's masked ball 18th birthday celebrations in 2006, two months after a US arrest warrant had been issued for Epstein for the sexual assault of a minor.
The fact that Andrew is the only person to have really taken the fall on Epstein remains notable.
It also reveals the essential powerless of the Royal Family.
It remains unknown the extent of Andrew’s actual guilt. So far as I can tell, the general judgment is that his stupidity, cupidity, and arrogance are such that it doesn’t really matter.
Until the age of 11, I lived in South West London, then I moved to Horsham, West Sussex, and then Bedford.
The consequence of this is that I never completed a school from start to finish.
I also experienced some massive differences. South West London was about 85% white, 15% non-white. The area I was in was more like 95% white, but a lot of the more ambitious parents from Hounslow sent their kids to my school.
Then I moved to Horsham. My school, Tanbridge, was (as near as damn it) 100% white. The only non-white face I ever saw was the (and this is so stereotypical it makes me cringe) the daughter of the local SPAR, who also went to my school. (Albeit the year above me.) I genuinely don't think there was a single non-white face in my grade of 150 kids.
Bedford was a completely differenrt story. Even in 1988, when I arrived, Biddenham was 60% "English not the first language at home". There was a large element of Bangladeshi, Pakastani, mixed with a surprisingly large Polish and Italian community. (Weirdly, up until about 2005, there was an Italian consulate in Bedford.)
By far the dominant ethnicity at Biddenham Upper School was South Indian. More kids got Urdu GCSEs than French.
Until the age of 11, I lived in South West London, then I moved to Horsham, West Sussex, and then Bedford.
The consequence of this is that I never completed a school from start to finish.
I also experienced some massive differences. South West London was about 85% white, 15% non-white. The area I was in was more like 95% white, but a lot of the more ambitious parents from Hounslow sent their kids to my school.
Then I moved to Horsham. My school, Tanbridge, was (as near as damn it) 100% white. The only non-white face I ever saw was the (and this is so stereotypical it makes me cringe) the daughter of the local SPAR, who also went to my school. (Albeit the year above me.) I genuinely don't think there was a single non-white face in my grade of 150 kids.
Bedford was a completely differenrt story. Even in 1988, when I arrived, Biddenham was 60% "English not the first language at home". There was a large element of Bangladeshi, Pakastani, mixed with a surprisingly large Polish and Italian community. (Weirdly, up until about 2005, there was an Italian consulate in Bedford.)
By far the dominant ethnicity at Biddenham Upper School was South Indian. More kids got Urdu GCSEs than French.
South Asian? Urdu's not spoken much in South India!
Until the age of 11, I lived in South West London, then I moved to Horsham, West Sussex, and then Bedford.
The consequence of this is that I never completed a school from start to finish.
I also experienced some massive differences. South West London was about 85% white, 15% non-white. The area I was in was more like 95% white, but a lot of the more ambitious parents from Hounslow sent their kids to my school.
Then I moved to Horsham. My school, Tanbridge, was (as near as damn it) 100% white. The only non-white face I ever saw was the (and this is so stereotypical it makes me cringe) the daughter of the local SPAR, who also went to my school. (Albeit the year above me.) I genuinely don't think there was a single non-white face in my grade of 150 kids.
Bedford was a completely differenrt story. Even in 1988, when I arrived, Biddenham was 60% "English not the first language at home". There was a large element of Bangladeshi, Pakastani, mixed with a surprisingly large Polish and Italian community. (Weirdly, up until about 2005, there was an Italian consulate in Bedford.)
By far the dominant ethnicity at Biddenham Upper School was South Indian. More kids got Urdu GCSEs than French.
South Asian? Urdu's not spoken much in South India!
Sorry, I meant East Asian. I'm tired.
South Indian - bhel poori, dosa, thali etc - is my favorite cuisine, and the cause of my confusion.
You can tell it is strong from how well defined the eye is. 40in of rain likely too - not good on deforested hills.
When intense hurricanes stop intensifying they can start developing an outer eye as outer bands steal energy from the inner ones, and that is likely to happen here before it reaches Jamaica. This often leads to a little weakening but in this case it will make little difference to the outcome.
Prince Andrew hosted Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein at Royal Lodge, the publicly-owned home where he effectively lives rent-free.
The trio visited the Windsor mansion as part of his daughter Beatrice's masked ball 18th birthday celebrations in 2006, two months after a US arrest warrant had been issued for Epstein for the sexual assault of a minor.
The fact that Andrew is the only person to have really taken the fall on Epstein remains notable.
It also reveals the essential powerless of the Royal Family. It remains unknown the extent of Andrew’s actual guilt. So far as I can tell, the general judgment is that his stupidity, cupidity, and arrogance are such that it doesn’t really matter.
What would have happened if the Royal Family had simply brazened it out? Perhaps they can't and only the monarch and his wife are now unassailable. Maybe the Royal Family is just now the monarch and spouse and heirs, and the whole idea of a wider Royal Family is over.
Prince Andrew hosted Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein at Royal Lodge, the publicly-owned home where he effectively lives rent-free.
The trio visited the Windsor mansion as part of his daughter Beatrice's masked ball 18th birthday celebrations in 2006, two months after a US arrest warrant had been issued for Epstein for the sexual assault of a minor.
The fact that Andrew is the only person to have really taken the fall on Epstein remains notable.
It also reveals the essential powerless of the Royal Family.
It remains unknown the extent of Andrew’s actual guilt. So far as I can tell, the general judgment is that his stupidity, cupidity, and arrogance are such that it doesn’t really matter.
The general judgement is entirely unfair. Innocent until proven guilty, even for Prince Andrew.
Seriously the vast majority of people couldn’t give a flying fxck if a mansion tax is put on homes over 2 million pounds .
If everything that the Mail, the Telegraph, the rest of the press, and pundits on here and elsewhere predict will be in the budget is true, it's unlikely that Rachel will finish her speech before Xmas.
Incidentally, well done to Torsten Bell for pushing back on a silly, nasty bullshit story that the Mail, Telegraph and Times ran today;
There's been endless talk about an AI bubble, but less about exactly how, why, and how much it's a bubble. So I turned to the framework put forward by scholars Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch, authors of "Bubbles and Crashes," for assessing tech bubbles.
There are a lot of vocal people, not to mention cash-poor pensioners in London who care quite a lot about a supposed mansion tax.
And? It may encourage them to downsize although ideally I want a property tax with stamp duty removed as that would encourage moving when the house became too big....
Seriously the vast majority of people couldn’t give a flying fxck if a mansion tax is put on homes over 2 million pounds .
If everything that the Mail, the Telegraph, the rest of the press, and pundits on here and elsewhere predict will be in the budget is true, it's unlikely that Rachel will finish her speech before Xmas.
Incidentally, well done to Torsten Bell for pushing back on a silly, nasty bullshit story that the Mail, Telegraph and Times ran today;
Seriously the vast majority of people couldn’t give a flying fxck if a mansion tax is put on homes over 2 million pounds .
If everything that the Mail, the Telegraph, the rest of the press, and pundits on here and elsewhere predict will be in the budget is true, it's unlikely that Rachel will finish her speech before Xmas.
Incidentally, well done to Torsten Bell for pushing back on a silly, nasty bullshit story that the Mail, Telegraph and Times ran today;
Even if nothing objectively changes, a bit more confidence and swagger from the government would be good for national morale.
Even if it had been true, what a stupid story. That someone made it up is pitiful.
Its the sort of nonsense the Mirror used to do, not the Times or the Telegraph. Its of the level of George Osborne had a £13 burger for his dinner when working late. These days be glad to get a burger for £13.
Seriously the vast majority of people couldn’t give a flying fxck if a mansion tax is put on homes over 2 million pounds .
If everything that the Mail, the Telegraph, the rest of the press, and pundits on here and elsewhere predict will be in the budget is true, it's unlikely that Rachel will finish her speech before Xmas.
Its all anchoring. And the media can't wait to report what a little bird told them. Then when the budget results in only been shafted 5 days a week, it will be spun it isn't as bad as it could have been, it could have been 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.
Well all these AI companies promising AI will revolutionise how you do x or y with near genius level intelligence that require a small nuclear reactor to power the GPUs to do the inference, while OnlyFans sits there and makes a gazillion dollars a year out of a simple promise of lots of videos of boobs.....
Gavin Newsom: “You could lose this country. It’s not the rule of law anymore, it’s the Rule of Don. He doesn’t give a shit about the law. This guy is wrecking this country. It’s not about being Democrat or Republican. These guys aren’t fucking around” https://x.com/MarcoFoster_/status/1982830248808079830
Gavin Newsom: “You could lose this country. It’s not the rule of law anymore, it’s the Rule of Don. He doesn’t give a shit about the law. This guy is wrecking this country. It’s not about being Democrat or Republican. These guys aren’t fucking around” https://x.com/MarcoFoster_/status/1982830248808079830
For a significant minority of Americans - and a surprising number of people even here - racial homogenity is more important than the rule of law.
Gavin Newsom: “You could lose this country. It’s not the rule of law anymore, it’s the Rule of Don. He doesn’t give a shit about the law. This guy is wrecking this country. It’s not about being Democrat or Republican. These guys aren’t fucking around” https://x.com/MarcoFoster_/status/1982830248808079830
For a significant minority of Americans - and a surprising number of people even here - racial homogenity is more important than the rule of law.
That is a very odd framing. I don't especially like Altman or OpenAI - but he said they were willing to treat adults as adults if you opted in to it. 'Sexting as a service' is so click-baity compared to "Sign up with a paid account, click your profile, click settings, click 'Allow adult mode (only available to paid and verified customers)', click "I'm sure".
It's not like 'Sexting as a Service' was unavailable before. I remember an old Beavis & Butthead episode about it from the early 90s (afair).
Some of these posts are beginning to feel like the old arguments between radio and TV, print vs. online. And very divorced from reality. Whether 0898 numbers, video nasties, video games, home taping is killing music, ... whatever.
There are a lot of vocal people, not to mention cash-poor pensioners in London who care quite a lot about a supposed mansion tax.
Who will get precisely zero sympathy from most of the public who could only dream of being able to afford a 2 million pound plus home .
That’s true in general. However, like I said, this group are vocal. And Labour actually draws some of whatever support is left from this group.
Unless it comes paired with broader stamp duty and council tax reform, it’s going to look like another punitive tax on people who have worked hard, ie anti-growth.
And depending on how precisely it is levied, it might raise very little in comparison to the noise it will make.
You can tell it is strong from how well defined the eye is. 40in of rain likely too - not good on deforested hills.
When intense hurricanes stop intensifying they can start developing an outer eye as outer bands steal energy from the inner ones, and that is likely to happen here before it reaches Jamaica. This often leads to a little weakening but in this case it will make little difference to the outcome.
I hope there is some help ready to roll.
Certainly looking quite dramatic on the weather websites :
That is a very odd framing. I don't especially like Altman or OpenAI - but he said they were willing to treat adults as adults if you opted in to it. 'Sexting as a service' is so click-baity compared to "Sign up with a paid account, click your profile, click settings, click 'Allow adult mode (only available to paid and verified customers)', click "I'm sure".
It's not like 'Sexting as a Service' was unavailable before. I remember an old Beavis & Butthead episode about it from the early 90s (afair).
Some of these posts are beginning to feel like the old arguments between radio and TV, print vs. online. And very divorced from reality. Whether 0898 numbers, video nasties, video games, home taping is killing music, ... whatever.
Have you read the article on “gooning” in Vanity Fair? It suggests that a growing proportion of young men are being lost to a life of round the clock wanking to digital stimulus.
Gavin Newsom: “You could lose this country. It’s not the rule of law anymore, it’s the Rule of Don. He doesn’t give a shit about the law. This guy is wrecking this country. It’s not about being Democrat or Republican. These guys aren’t fucking around” https://x.com/MarcoFoster_/status/1982830248808079830
For a significant minority of Americans - and a surprising number of people even here - racial homogenity is more important than the rule of law.
Everything in Britain is about class. Everything in America is about race.
Gavin Newsom: “You could lose this country. It’s not the rule of law anymore, it’s the Rule of Don. He doesn’t give a shit about the law. This guy is wrecking this country. It’s not about being Democrat or Republican. These guys aren’t fucking around” https://x.com/MarcoFoster_/status/1982830248808079830
For a significant minority of Americans - and a surprising number of people even here - racial homogenity is more important than the rule of law.
Everything in Britain is about class. Everything in America is about race.
If you interpret the class system as a legacy of the Norman yoke then the two become interchangeable.
That is a very odd framing. I don't especially like Altman or OpenAI - but he said they were willing to treat adults as adults if you opted in to it. 'Sexting as a service' is so click-baity compared to "Sign up with a paid account, click your profile, click settings, click 'Allow adult mode (only available to paid and verified customers)', click "I'm sure".
It's not like 'Sexting as a Service' was unavailable before. I remember an old Beavis & Butthead episode about it from the early 90s (afair).
Some of these posts are beginning to feel like the old arguments between radio and TV, print vs. online. And very divorced from reality. Whether 0898 numbers, video nasties, video games, home taping is killing music, ... whatever.
Have you read the article on “gooning” in Vanity Fair? It suggests that a growing proportion of young men are being lost to a life of round the clock wanking to digital stimulus.
It wouldn't surprise me. But neither would the same-ish people 40yrs ago with a selection of VHS's.
If the media wanted to (and I hold out hope for Jon Ronson here) they could look into the more 'video on demand' that's being driven by (particularly) the open weights video models coming out of China. Zero censorship on the models in terms of adult content. Won't generate a video of Tienanmen Square though.
Gavin Newsom: “You could lose this country. It’s not the rule of law anymore, it’s the Rule of Don. He doesn’t give a shit about the law. This guy is wrecking this country. It’s not about being Democrat or Republican. These guys aren’t fucking around” https://x.com/MarcoFoster_/status/1982830248808079830
For a significant minority of Americans - and a surprising number of people even here - racial homogenity is more important than the rule of law.
Everything in Britain is about class. Everything in America is about race.
I agree. One of the things I find uncomfortable about being in the USA is the way that you sometimes feel other white people are sort of assuming you're on "their side" when for me that's never been a consideration, it's all about the way you pronounce words like "bus" and "glass" in the UK.
That is a very odd framing. I don't especially like Altman or OpenAI - but he said they were willing to treat adults as adults if you opted in to it. 'Sexting as a service' is so click-baity compared to "Sign up with a paid account, click your profile, click settings, click 'Allow adult mode (only available to paid and verified customers)', click "I'm sure".
It's not like 'Sexting as a Service' was unavailable before. I remember an old Beavis & Butthead episode about it from the early 90s (afair).
Some of these posts are beginning to feel like the old arguments between radio and TV, print vs. online. And very divorced from reality. Whether 0898 numbers, video nasties, video games, home taping is killing music, ... whatever.
Have you read the article on “gooning” in Vanity Fair? It suggests that a growing proportion of young men are being lost to a life of round the clock wanking to digital stimulus.
I presume you've read Millions of Women Are Waiting To Meet You, and the the article in the Spectator on wanking oneself to death.
Gavin Newsom: “You could lose this country. It’s not the rule of law anymore, it’s the Rule of Don. He doesn’t give a shit about the law. This guy is wrecking this country. It’s not about being Democrat or Republican. These guys aren’t fucking around” https://x.com/MarcoFoster_/status/1982830248808079830
I've said it before, but Newsom is one of the few Dems who understands where their country is heading under Trump, and the fact the US as we know it may not exist in a couple of years.
Odds on both of these bills screwing up their target constituencies even more than they are already?
I have a nasty feeling that the changes in the Renter’s Rights Bill will result in even more property being taken off the rental market & rents climbing ever higher as a result.
The Employment Bill is going to completely screw over anyone with a spotty work history. All those people who have been out of work with anxiety / actual long covid / heart issues etc etc since 2020? Good luck getting them into work if their prospective employer can’t sack them within a six month probationary period. Why would any employer take the risk of employing them in a soft jobs market where they have other options?
2 years is too long to get normal employment rights, but why go from 2 years to first day? I think either six months, or a phased in approach with some at 3 months and the rest after a year, would be about right, but even if they made it 1 month it would give employers a chance to make a risky employment decision. Instead it will all end up with temp agencies instead, how is that better?
Bit late in the day, but I thought I'd necro this post as I've a fairly relevant perspective having just been round the hamster wheel of taking on a hard case of an employee.
Six months ago I took on a lad aged about 30. Life a bit of a mess, no job, up to his eyeballs in debt, precarious living arrangements but seemed genuinely keen to come and work. Offered him 40hrs a week at min wage, with the possibility of his rate increasing fairly quickly if he shaped up to be any good.
When he turned up, he did generally work fairly hard. But he was forever not turning up (always with a plausible sounding sob story of an excuse).
I've not seen him for three weeks, two weeks ago he sent me a sick note because he's apparently had a nervous breakdown, so I'm now paying him SSP. Whilst he was off, I got an "Attachment of earnings order" from the local court requiring me to deduct ~£170 from his wages and send it to them for some sort of unpaid fine. Last night he messaged saying he was much better and would be in today. Today - not a sign of him.
I'm basically done with him at this point. I've given him massive benefit of the doubt, I've put up with behaviour that most employers wouldn't. It's not even what he costs directly (until the latest episode with the apparent mental breakdown, if he didn't turn up, I wasn't paying him), it's the amount of my (very limited and expensive) time that he wastes. I'd pretty much decided he had to go (although I hadn't actually said anything to him) a few weeks ago, then he had a spurt of good behaviour and tried really hard for a week, and so I foolishly relented. Needless to say, it didn't last.
I'm now debating between sacking him whilst he's still off on the sick, or sacking him when he comes back. Neither is great, but I've got to do one of them.
Anyway - the Employment Rights Bill means to complete end of this sort of shenanigans. Never again will I try taking on a hard case if I can't boot them without repercussions if it goes wrong. Yes, in theory I could sack this lad anyway, but I run a small business - I don't have time to document everything, give him umpteen formal warnings etc.
The current 2 years before acquiring rights is probably about right. I've given my lad loads of rope because I don't have a looming cutoff to get rid. 3 or 6 months will just mean employers have to sack the borderline cases before they get rights. Even a year would feel pressured.
I can only assume the government hates people on the margins of work - there will probably be ten losers for a every winner from day one rights.
I suspect this lad I'm about to sack will never work again, because of the Employment Rights Bill. We, as taxpayers, will fund his existence for the next 30, 40, 50 years. What he actually needs is a massive kick up the arse in a "if a man will not work, neither shall he eat" sort of a way, where he literally has to hold down a job or go hungry but that's anathema to the idiots currently in power.
The idiots currently in power say, in the first paragraph, that the Bill is part of their growth agenda, don't you know.
They'll manage growth alright with the bill. Growth in the number of employment tribunals. Growth in the number unemployed, and permanently unemployable. Growth in the size of the national debt.
The only sort of growth they won't have is economic growth. Pity that's the one that pays for the rest of it.
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
The seventies were a different country...
Absolutely.
Back then, a discredited Labour government, following a deeply unpopular Conservative government, was leading the country to economic stagnation and decline through big state economic mismanagement and the avoidance of hard choices, following an energy crisis, wars and instability in the Middle East and in relations with Russia.
Thank God we've learned and evolved in the past half-century ..
Prince Andrew hosted Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein at Royal Lodge, the publicly-owned home where he effectively lives rent-free.
The trio visited the Windsor mansion as part of his daughter Beatrice's masked ball 18th birthday celebrations in 2006, two months after a US arrest warrant had been issued for Epstein for the sexual assault of a minor.
That sounds like the dinner party from hell.
Although the “effectively rent free” characterisation is hugely unfair. He owns a leasehold like millions of others
There are a lot of vocal people, not to mention cash-poor pensioners in London who care quite a lot about a supposed mansion tax.
And? It may encourage them to downsize although ideally I want a property tax with stamp duty removed as that would encourage moving when the house became too big....
It would be fine - and sensible - if they removed stamp duty. Otherwise it really screws a small group of people.
When it comes to "innocent until proven guilty", there can't be any exceptions. Amazing how many people don't seem to believe or understand that.
There is a difference of being convicted of a crime where that does apply and being chased out of public life.
Andrew is a loathsome individual who has a ridiculous sense of entitlement. He has no intrinsic right to play any role in royal events. That’s not a matter of guilt or innocence.
Fundamentally he should give up his lease on the Royal Lodge and be compensated for it at market value. But he’s digging his heels in because it damages his brother and he thinks he can negotiate a better deal as a result
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
The seventies were a different country...
Absolutely.
Back then, a discredited Labour government, following a deeply unpopular Conservative government, was leading the country to economic stagnation and decline through big state economic mismanagement and the avoidance of hard choices, following an energy crisis, wars and instability in the Middle East and in relations with Russia.
Thank God we've learned and evolved in the past half-century ..
Fortunately, back then there were a number of think tanks - whether the Centre for Policy Studies or the Institute for Fiscal Studies - who produced thoughtful pieces on how we might get out of the rut.
When it comes to "innocent until proven guilty", there can't be any exceptions. Amazing how many people don't seem to believe or understand that.
There is a difference of being convicted of a crime where that does apply and being chased out of public life.
Andrew is a loathsome individual who has a ridiculous sense of entitlement. He has no intrinsic right to play any role in royal events. That’s not a matter of guilt or innocence.
Fundamentally he should give up his lease on the Royal Lodge and be compensated for it at market value. But he’s digging his heels in because it damages his brother and he thinks he can negotiate a better deal as a result
Given Prince Andrew will have to live somewhere, I'm not sure the King and rest of the Royal Family are doing themselves any favours with this media row about forcing Andrew out of one royal home into another, unless there really is a plan to force him overseas.
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
The seventies were a different country...
Absolutely.
Back then, a discredited Labour government, following a deeply unpopular Conservative government, was leading the country to economic stagnation and decline through big state economic mismanagement and the avoidance of hard choices, following an energy crisis, wars and instability in the Middle East and in relations with Russia.
Thank God we've learned and evolved in the past half-century ..
Fortunately, back then there were a number of think tanks - whether the Centre for Policy Studies or the Institute for Fiscal Studies - who produced thoughtful pieces on how we might get out of the rut.
Grinch that stole football as fans say Christmas is ruined by bizarre Boxing Day plan The may only be one Boxing day fixture and it's left stunned supporters venting their anger after news broke last night that they will be starved of top team action ... The outrage was sparked by a report that the break from tradition is expected because of calendar pressures triggered by UEFA competition expansion and the FA Cup switching exclusively to weekends.
Grinch that stole football as fans say Christmas is ruined by bizarre Boxing Day plan The may only be one Boxing day fixture and it's left stunned supporters venting their anger after news broke last night that they will be starved of top team action ... The outrage was sparked by a report that the break from tradition is expected because of calendar pressures triggered by UEFA competition expansion and the FA Cup switching exclusively to weekends.
Not thinking more than seven days ahead is apparently not confined to the government.
You would have presumed this would have all been organised you know before the start of the season...its not like Boxing Day is some day that you never know when it will be.
Gavin Newsom: “You could lose this country. It’s not the rule of law anymore, it’s the Rule of Don. He doesn’t give a shit about the law. This guy is wrecking this country. It’s not about being Democrat or Republican. These guys aren’t fucking around” https://x.com/MarcoFoster_/status/1982830248808079830
I've said it before, but Newsom is one of the few Dems who understands where their country is heading under Trump, and the fact the US as we know it may not exist in a couple of years.
I think there are a large number of Dems who understand very well; there just aren't many of their leaders who have a very good idea of how to respond.
And an awful lot of people who, until very recently, have shouted "Trump derangement syndrome" at any attempt to push back.
Looks very scary; the strongest hurricane ever recorded to hit Jamaica. Flooding and storm surges will be huge.
The scale is hard to grasp.
This footage from inside the eye of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa might be the most jaw-dropping video ever captured of a hurricane’s eye, showcasing the infamous “stadium effect." https://x.com/US_Stormwatch/status/1982919662418694336
These guys are totally and utterly mad, you learn on your first day of flight school to get the hell away from anything that looks like it might be a storm!
These guys are totally and utterly mad, you learn on your first day of flight school to get the hell away from anything that looks like it might be a storm!
Very unusual to see anything like that in the Atlantic.
Do you see all that purple? That corresponds to incredibly cold cloud tops around minus-80 degrees Celsius (minus-112 degrees Fahrenheit). Clouds have to be about 52,000 feet tall (or greater) to be that cold.
The fact that Melissa has such a tall, cold CDO, or Central Dense Overcast, is an indicator of its extreme strength.
Truth be told, this looks like a satellite image of the strongest typhoons in the western Pacific – not really something we typically see in the Atlantic. Melissa is a rare, rare storm. https://x.com/MatthewCappucci/status/1983010147224936687
It looks as though it will still be at full strength as it crosses Jamaica, which is also not usual.
Grinch that stole football as fans say Christmas is ruined by bizarre Boxing Day plan The may only be one Boxing day fixture and it's left stunned supporters venting their anger after news broke last night that they will be starved of top team action ... The outrage was sparked by a report that the break from tradition is expected because of calendar pressures triggered by UEFA competition expansion and the FA Cup switching exclusively to weekends.
Not thinking more than seven days ahead is apparently not confined to the government.
The issue is that football has gone woke. In the old days, everyone would have played on Friday 26 December. Then, everyone would have been scheduled to play on Sunday 28 December with a couple of games moved to the Monday and Tuesday nights for TV. In 2008-09, the next set of fixtures were FA Cup on Saturday 3 Jan with no New Year’s Day round. In 2014-15, they squeezed in a New Year’s Day round and had any FA Cup ties featuring premier league teams play the Sunday at the earliest.
However, a few seasons ago, the Premier League decided that two games in three days was not acceptable. Therefore, everyone is scheduled to play Tuesday 30 December. For broadcasting purposes, as that round can’t be the Sunday, it is treated as one of the five midweek rounds. Therefore, the round before is a weekend round as there are four other midweeks (early December, early January, Feb and Mar). So everyone is down to play Saturday 27 December.
The EFL are squeezing three games in with everyone playing Friday 26, Monday 29, Thursday 1. The Premier League could have done that but that would have meant far fewer unique slots for broadcasters.
So where we’ve ended up is with Sky filling Boxing Day with EFL coverage and getting their Sunday 28 December games from the Premier League round that follows Christmas.
Personally I’m not that bothered and would rather go to Arsenal on Saturday 27 December. But I do feel for fans of clubs in the EFL. They’re making players play four games in 10 days. Thats just as bad as making teams play two games in three days. Making fans go to games on Monday 29 December rather than Sunday 28 December is unfair in my opinion.
Grinch that stole football as fans say Christmas is ruined by bizarre Boxing Day plan The may only be one Boxing day fixture and it's left stunned supporters venting their anger after news broke last night that they will be starved of top team action ... The outrage was sparked by a report that the break from tradition is expected because of calendar pressures triggered by UEFA competition expansion and the FA Cup switching exclusively to weekends.
Not thinking more than seven days ahead is apparently not confined to the government.
You would have presumed this would have all been organised you know before the start of the season...its not like Boxing Day is some day that you never know when it will be.
Sounds like they’re saying that because Boxing Day is a Friday they can’t play because of the existing Saturday and Sunday fixtures, which they can’t move because they’re contracted to play so many ‘weekend’ matches every year.
Presumably this has been the same since the fixtures were published, and it’s only now the fans looking for tickets are realising that Boxing Day got cancelled.
Grinch that stole football as fans say Christmas is ruined by bizarre Boxing Day plan The may only be one Boxing day fixture and it's left stunned supporters venting their anger after news broke last night that they will be starved of top team action ... The outrage was sparked by a report that the break from tradition is expected because of calendar pressures triggered by UEFA competition expansion and the FA Cup switching exclusively to weekends.
Not thinking more than seven days ahead is apparently not confined to the government.
You would have presumed this would have all been organised you know before the start of the season...its not like Boxing Day is some day that you never know when it will be.
Sounds like they’re saying that because Boxing Day is a Friday they can’t play because of the existing Saturday and Sunday fixtures, which they can’t move because they’re contracted to play so many ‘weekend’ matches every year.
Presumably this has been the same since the fixtures were published, and it’s only now the fans looking for tickets are realising that Boxing Day got cancelled.
Nah, there was “outrage” the day the Premier League fixtures came out.
I mean, they could have had everyone play 26 December and moved a few games to the Saturday or Sunday, but my guess is the Premier League want the games not picked for TV to be Saturday 15:00 for international broadcasters.
Ultimately it comes down to the Premier League not allowing teams to play Friday-Sunday any more.
Good article, by a guy who has worked on building these systems. The film seemed pretty plausible to me. Real wold intercepts are VERY different from controlled tests.
These guys are totally and utterly mad, you learn on your first day of flight school to get the hell away from anything that looks like it might be a storm!
Even (especially ?) the professionals are impressed.
This is unequivocally the most astounding capture of the atmosphere that I have ever seen.
If you are a younger meteorologist, watch this then attempt to understand it through study. All hurricanes have a center, not all hurricanes attain cyclostrophic balance and produce one of the rarest phenomena on planet earth. https://x.com/TTrogdon/status/1982973585812848911
He won't be, you know. Vance was picked both for his - ahem - closeness to one of Trump's sons and his utter spinelessness. The whole point of his being there is he wouldn't invoke the twenty fifth even if Trump buggered a goat on the White House Lawn while shrieking loudly about how it's pixies that ruin everything.
When it comes to "innocent until proven guilty", there can't be any exceptions. Amazing how many people don't seem to believe or understand that.
There is a difference of being convicted of a crime where that does apply and being chased out of public life.
Andrew is a loathsome individual who has a ridiculous sense of entitlement. He has no intrinsic right to play any role in royal events. That’s not a matter of guilt or innocence.
Fundamentally he should give up his lease on the Royal Lodge and be compensated for it at market value. But he’s digging his heels in because it damages his brother and he thinks he can negotiate a better deal as a result
Given Prince Andrew will have to live somewhere, I'm not sure the King and rest of the Royal Family are doing themselves any favours with this media row about forcing Andrew out of one royal home into another, unless there really is a plan to force him overseas.
What can they do? The media has decided to go for him but the RF needs his agreement to leave royal lodge
Grinch that stole football as fans say Christmas is ruined by bizarre Boxing Day plan The may only be one Boxing day fixture and it's left stunned supporters venting their anger after news broke last night that they will be starved of top team action ... The outrage was sparked by a report that the break from tradition is expected because of calendar pressures triggered by UEFA competition expansion and the FA Cup switching exclusively to weekends.
Not thinking more than seven days ahead is apparently not confined to the government.
The issue is that football has gone woke. In the old days, everyone would have played on Friday 26 December. Then, everyone would have been scheduled to play on Sunday 28 December with a couple of games moved to the Monday and Tuesday nights for TV. In 2008-09, the next set of fixtures were FA Cup on Saturday 3 Jan with no New Year’s Day round. In 2014-15, they squeezed in a New Year’s Day round and had any FA Cup ties featuring premier league teams play the Sunday at the earliest.
However, a few seasons ago, the Premier League decided that two games in three days was not acceptable. Therefore, everyone is scheduled to play Tuesday 30 December. For broadcasting purposes, as that round can’t be the Sunday, it is treated as one of the five midweek rounds. Therefore, the round before is a weekend round as there are four other midweeks (early December, early January, Feb and Mar). So everyone is down to play Saturday 27 December.
The EFL are squeezing three games in with everyone playing Friday 26, Monday 29, Thursday 1. The Premier League could have done that but that would have meant far fewer unique slots for broadcasters.
So where we’ve ended up is with Sky filling Boxing Day with EFL coverage and getting their Sunday 28 December games from the Premier League round that follows Christmas.
Personally I’m not that bothered and would rather go to Arsenal on Saturday 27 December. But I do feel for fans of clubs in the EFL. They’re making players play four games in 10 days. Thats just as bad as making teams play two games in three days. Making fans go to games on Monday 29 December rather than Sunday 28 December is unfair in my opinion.
While I don't disagree with your conclusions, I'm not sure what this has to do with 'woke'.
Grinch that stole football as fans say Christmas is ruined by bizarre Boxing Day plan The may only be one Boxing day fixture and it's left stunned supporters venting their anger after news broke last night that they will be starved of top team action ... The outrage was sparked by a report that the break from tradition is expected because of calendar pressures triggered by UEFA competition expansion and the FA Cup switching exclusively to weekends.
Not thinking more than seven days ahead is apparently not confined to the government.
You would have presumed this would have all been organised you know before the start of the season...its not like Boxing Day is some day that you never know when it will be.
Oh, Mr Smartypants here can work out when Boxing Day will be in advance and wants to lord it up over the rest of us.
Now granted they could and should have moved a fe matches from the 27th to the 26th but given how stricter the times are that’s not possible except for the night matches and no one wants to travel home at 10pm on Boxing Day when there isn’t any public transport
I think its tricky. Its a bit odd when 4% of British people are black that over half of adverts feature black people. But its obvious why - its advertisers selling stuff and optimising who they appeal to.
But we have an issue in this country with Reform and people voting for them. What drives someone to think that the county has far more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than is the case? This is something we know - if you ask people to estimate the proportions that are black, asian etc the norm is to vastly overstate the numbers. Well just maybe having the adverts like this plays a part?
But what realistically would be done, even if you wanted to do something? How would you ensure a set of adverts has the approved ethnic make up? You can't - its stupid to even try.
But maybe all those who wonder why people are pushed to Reform should reflect a bit when people tell them why.
There was a time when an accurate reflection of society was deemed important in works of fiction
A few years ago, Brian True-May was suspended from his job. True-May was the producer of ITV drama "Midsomer Murders", a detective show set in rural England, and his crime was to admit that he didn't use black or Asian people in the series as 'it wouldn't be an English village with them"
The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust said True-May's comments were out of date and no longer reflected English society.
"Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim that the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society, particularly to this show's large international audience," said the trust's director Rob Berkeley. "It is not a major surprise that ethnic minority people choose not to watch a show that excludes them."
I remember this, haven’t seen Midsomer Murders in ages. All got a bit samey.
The people who for years have banged on about diversity and representation and how important it is are suddenly outraged when someone points out where it’s ended with over representation of some demographics. All the confected anger on social media was most tedious.
I suspect Luckyguys take on this was right, and one I concur.
Still, I’m sure we will get more stories along the lines of the countryside is racist, skiing is racist, sailing is racist etc etc etc.
That large parts of the English countryside are like old style Misomer Murders is true. And imagine how jarring it is for them to see a London Ad agencies idea of what Britain looks like. But I don’t think there is anything to actually be done about it, other than perhaps to not give a shit.
The Goodness Gracious Me sketch:
To see the real England you have to go to the countryside. There are people there who have never seen a brown face.
We joke, but… At my Grammar school in Salisbury there was one black kid out of 600-700. One. Now that was a way back now, but it’s probably not changed that much.
The seventies were a different country...
Absolutely.
Back then, a discredited Labour government, following a deeply unpopular Conservative government, was leading the country to economic stagnation and decline through big state economic mismanagement and the avoidance of hard choices, following an energy crisis, wars and instability in the Middle East and in relations with Russia.
Thank God we've learned and evolved in the past half-century ..
Fortunately, back then there were a number of think tanks - whether the Centre for Policy Studies or the Institute for Fiscal Studies - who produced thoughtful pieces on how we might get out of the rut.
Where are the think tanks now?
There are plenty - the ASI, the IEA etc. But they don't matter much. The solutions to our economic stagnation and decline aren't difficult or abstract. Simple undergraduate economics teaches that markets generally allocate resources more efficiently than governments, and empirical studies show, by a margin of eight to one or more that low tax and spending economies outperform high tax and spending ones.
What is needed is a charismatic and effective political leader with the courage to make the case for basic economic literacy, like Javier Milei or Margaret Thatcher, and to stick to his/her guns in the face of short-term unpopularity. And to stand up to the Russians without fear and do much more than just keep the Ukrainians in the fight. Then we can truly say we've learned from the seventies and the twenties.
Grinch that stole football as fans say Christmas is ruined by bizarre Boxing Day plan The may only be one Boxing day fixture and it's left stunned supporters venting their anger after news broke last night that they will be starved of top team action ... The outrage was sparked by a report that the break from tradition is expected because of calendar pressures triggered by UEFA competition expansion and the FA Cup switching exclusively to weekends.
Not thinking more than seven days ahead is apparently not confined to the government.
You would have presumed this would have all been organised you know before the start of the season...its not like Boxing Day is some day that you never know when it will be.
Oh, Mr Smartypants here can work out when Boxing Day will be in advance and wants to lord it up over the rest of us.
He won't be, you know. Vance was picked both for his - ahem - closeness to one of Trump's sons and his utter spinelessness. The whole point of his being there is he wouldn't invoke the twenty fifth even if Trump buggered a goat on the White House Lawn while shrieking loudly about how it's pixies that ruin everything.
Radical Left pixies, of course.
Meanwhile in another reality, Bannon is stirring up the idea of a third term. Given his age and his alleged condition, Trump will eventually start looking like El Cid with his corpse tied to a chair and paraded around wherever they want the troops rallied.
Any bets on there being a Trump Tomb, like Lenin's in Red Square?
Now granted they could and should have moved a fe matches from the 27th to the 26th but given how stricter the times are that’s not possible except for the night matches and no one wants to travel home at 10pm on Boxing Day when there isn’t any public transport
Basically it’s the capitalist owners ganging up on the overworked physical labourers and risking injury by cutting their rest periods.
Comments
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67f6711f555773bbf109e21a/employment-rights-bill-overview.pdf
Been looking at the latest polling graph:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
Tories seem to have bottomed out and Reform seem to be levelling off.
Lab still dropping like a stone (averaging 1% drop in average poll share per month) - now losing share to Greens instead of Reform. They are now lower than the Cons' worst polling average in the last parliament.
If they keep on the current trend, they'll drop below Cons around New Year and they could be in 5th place and nearing 10% by the big elections next May. Surely they can't get that low, can they? They have to bottom out at some point, surely?
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-far-right-lawmakers-accused-of-spying-for-russia/a-74456881
Its rather weird the way that Putin cosies up to real Nazis while accusing Zelensky of being one.
I wonder which other far right and far left parties are penetrated.
https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/amazon-targets-many-30000-corporate-job-cuts-sources-say-2025-10-27/
The fight against Reform is bringing Blairites and the soft left together
By George Eaton"
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/labour/2025/10/labours-new-common-ground
The next election will be Reform v Not Reform. And we are not going to have an election in which there is only one real horse - ie Reform.
The Tories are not a genuine 'Not Reform' party. So unless they switch to the centre they disappear for most practical purposes.
The LDs appear strong but stuck in the 100 or so seats where they count.
Scotland and Wales can be Reform v SNP/PC.
That leaves England where Reform v Labour is the only feasible contest. What must happen will happen, therefore Labour in 2028/9 will do a lot better than on current projections.
Otherwise, eastern Europeans and a few Commonwealth citizens who'd settled after the Army or RAF.
Not enough to challenge yet, but all those seats where the LDs are on 22%, but are 30 points behind Lab or Con, well... those are going to be very interesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/oct/27/hurricane-melissa-jamaica-cuba-caribbean-haiti-dominican-republic-live-news-latest-updates
There's been endless talk about an AI bubble, but less about exactly how, why, and how much it's a bubble. So I turned to the framework put forward by scholars Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch, authors of "Bubbles and Crashes," for assessing tech bubbles.
Spoiler: On a scale of 1 to 8, AI is an 8
https://bsky.app/profile/bcmerchant.bsky.social/post/3m47cof5it22q
Seriously the vast majority of people couldn’t give a flying fxck if a mansion tax is put on homes over 2 million pounds .
If only the Rangers had waited a week.
https://x.com/celticfc/status/1982927460535808032?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-QThe
The trio visited the Windsor mansion as part of his daughter Beatrice's masked ball 18th birthday celebrations in 2006, two months after a US arrest warrant had been issued for Epstein for the sexual assault of a minor.
Hmmm.
Are these people from the same expert class the Mail told us to ignore as liars during the Brexit debate?
It also reveals the essential powerless of the Royal Family.
It remains unknown the extent of Andrew’s actual guilt.
So far as I can tell, the general judgment is that his stupidity, cupidity, and arrogance are such that it doesn’t really matter.
The consequence of this is that I never completed a school from start to finish.
I also experienced some massive differences. South West London was about 85% white, 15% non-white. The area I was in was more like 95% white, but a lot of the more ambitious parents from Hounslow sent their kids to my school.
Then I moved to Horsham. My school, Tanbridge, was (as near as damn it) 100% white. The only non-white face I ever saw was the (and this is so stereotypical it makes me cringe) the daughter of the local SPAR, who also went to my school. (Albeit the year above me.) I genuinely don't think there was a single non-white face in my grade of 150 kids.
Bedford was a completely differenrt story. Even in 1988, when I arrived, Biddenham was 60% "English not the first language at home". There was a large element of Bangladeshi, Pakastani, mixed with a surprisingly large Polish and Italian community. (Weirdly, up until about 2005, there was an Italian consulate in Bedford.)
By far the dominant ethnicity at Biddenham Upper School was South Indian. More kids got Urdu GCSEs than French.
South Indian - bhel poori, dosa, thali etc - is my favorite cuisine, and the cause of my confusion.
Not a good sight for Jamaicans today. Melissa is now down to 906mb with winds of 175mph:
https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/meso_band.php?sat=G19&lat=18N&lon=76W&band=GEOCOLOR&length=120&dim=1
You can tell it is strong from how well defined the eye is. 40in of rain likely too - not good on deforested hills.
When intense hurricanes stop intensifying they can start developing an outer eye as outer bands steal energy from the inner ones, and that is likely to happen here before it reaches Jamaica. This often leads to a little weakening but in this case it will make little difference to the outcome.
I hope there is some help ready to roll.
https://bsky.app/profile/torstenbell.bsky.social/post/3m46v466vbk2x
Even if nothing objectively changes, a bit more confidence and swagger from the government would be good for national morale.
That someone made it up is pitiful.
Altman’s announcement framed the issue as though only the users, not he, are moral actors here.
https://x.com/LeahLibresco/status/1982888643586076795
https://x.com/MarcoFoster_/status/1982830248808079830
https://x.com/Polymarket/status/1982928759796969886
Chinese influencers now required to hold university degree to discuss serious topics — or face a ¥100,000 fine.
It's not like 'Sexting as a Service' was unavailable before. I remember an old Beavis & Butthead episode about it from the early 90s (afair).
Some of these posts are beginning to feel like the old arguments between radio and TV, print vs. online. And very divorced from reality. Whether 0898 numbers, video nasties, video games, home taping is killing music, ... whatever.
However, like I said, this group are vocal.
And Labour actually draws some of whatever support is left from this group.
Unless it comes paired with broader stamp duty and council tax reform, it’s going to look like another punitive tax on people who have worked hard, ie anti-growth.
And depending on how precisely it is levied, it might raise very little in comparison to the noise it will make.
https://www.windy.com/?17.912,-76.096,7
It suggests that a growing proportion of young men are being lost to a life of round the clock wanking to digital stimulus.
Everything in America is about race.
If the media wanted to (and I hold out hope for Jon Ronson here) they could look into the more 'video on demand' that's being driven by (particularly) the open weights video models coming out of China. Zero censorship on the models in terms of adult content. Won't generate a video of Tienanmen Square though.
➡️ REF – 28% (+1)
🔴 LAB – 18% (-4)
🔵 CON – 18% (-1)
🟢 GRN – 17% (+4)
🟠 LD – 11% (+1)
LeftieStats estimated seat totals:
➡️ REF – 369 (+364)
🟠 LD – 81 (+9)
🔴 LAB – 50 (-361)
🟡 SNP – 46 (+37)
🔵 CON – 38 (-83)
🟢 GRN – 24 (+20)
🏴 PLAID – 7 (+3)
The only sort of growth they won't have is economic growth. Pity that's the one that pays for the rest of it.
Back then, a discredited Labour government, following a deeply unpopular Conservative government, was leading the country to economic stagnation and decline through big state economic mismanagement and the avoidance of hard choices, following an energy crisis, wars and instability in the Middle East and in relations with Russia.
Thank God we've learned and evolved in the past half-century ..
Although the “effectively rent free” characterisation is hugely unfair. He owns a leasehold like millions of others
Capital gains tax would be far worse
Andrew is a loathsome individual who has a ridiculous sense of entitlement. He has no intrinsic right to play any role in royal events. That’s not a matter of guilt or innocence.
Fundamentally he should give up his lease on the Royal Lodge and be compensated for it at market value. But he’s digging his heels in because it damages his brother and he thinks he can negotiate a better deal as a result
Where are the think tanks now?
https://cps.org.uk/about/our-board/
The may only be one Boxing day fixture and it's left stunned supporters venting their anger after news broke last night that they will be starved of top team action
...
The outrage was sparked by a report that the break from tradition is expected because of calendar pressures triggered by UEFA competition expansion and the FA Cup switching exclusively to weekends.
Those fixture demands appear to have forced the top flight’s hand but further crunch talks are set to take place. The Premier League is contractually obliged to deliver 33 weekends to broadcasters.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/grinch-stole-football-fans-say-36141950
Not thinking more than seven days ahead is apparently not confined to the government.
And an awful lot of people who, until very recently, have shouted "Trump derangement syndrome" at any attempt to push back.
Pray for Jamaica, Hurricane Melissa looks horrific for the island.
https://x.com/backpirchcrew/status/1982987718750511288
The scale is hard to grasp.
This footage from inside the eye of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa might be the most jaw-dropping video ever captured of a hurricane’s eye, showcasing the infamous “stadium effect."
https://x.com/US_Stormwatch/status/1982919662418694336
https://x.com/flynonymouswx/status/1982911146266075605
These guys are totally and utterly mad, you learn on your first day of flight school to get the hell away from anything that looks like it might be a storm!
Do you see all that purple? That corresponds to incredibly cold cloud tops around minus-80 degrees Celsius (minus-112 degrees Fahrenheit). Clouds have to be about 52,000 feet tall (or greater) to be that cold.
The fact that Melissa has such a tall, cold CDO, or Central Dense Overcast, is an indicator of its extreme strength.
Truth be told, this looks like a satellite image of the strongest typhoons in the western Pacific – not really something we typically see in the Atlantic. Melissa is a rare, rare storm.
https://x.com/MatthewCappucci/status/1983010147224936687
It looks as though it will still be at full strength as it crosses Jamaica, which is also not usual.
However, a few seasons ago, the Premier League decided that two games in three days was not acceptable. Therefore, everyone is scheduled to play Tuesday 30 December. For broadcasting purposes, as that round can’t be the Sunday, it is treated as one of the five midweek rounds. Therefore, the round before is a weekend round as there are four other midweeks (early December, early January, Feb and Mar). So everyone is down to play Saturday 27 December.
The EFL are squeezing three games in with everyone playing Friday 26, Monday 29, Thursday 1. The Premier League could have done that but that would have meant far fewer unique slots for broadcasters.
So where we’ve ended up is with Sky filling Boxing Day with EFL coverage and getting their Sunday 28 December games from the Premier League round that follows Christmas.
Personally I’m not that bothered and would rather go to Arsenal on Saturday 27 December. But I do feel for fans of clubs in the EFL. They’re making players play four games in 10 days. Thats just as bad as making teams play two games in three days. Making fans go to games on Monday 29 December rather than Sunday 28 December is unfair in my opinion.
Presumably this has been the same since the fixtures were published, and it’s only now the fans looking for tickets are realising that Boxing Day got cancelled.
I mean, they could have had everyone play 26 December and moved a few games to the Saturday or Sunday, but my guess is the Premier League want the games not picked for TV to be Saturday 15:00 for international broadcasters.
Ultimately it comes down to the Premier League not allowing teams to play Friday-Sunday any more.
The film seemed pretty plausible to me. Real wold intercepts are VERY different from controlled tests.
The Military’s Missile Defense System Cannot Be as Good as It Says
Kathryn Bigelow’s new movie, A House of Dynamite, is more accurate on this point than the Defense Department itself.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/10/pentagon-house-of-dynamite/684714/?gift=_IXYI0Wrwnxuvm7JZ0fMfPW1NYvLHdyK-Y4Ewh80CNI&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
He is 3 months from his disappearance on labor day.
-6 month MRIs are used to monitor severe progressions of Alzheimer’s or Vascular Dementia.
-3 month follow-ups are used after a stroke.
No non-serious condition requires anyone to get a 6 month MRI.
The Presidents currently disclosed conditions do not merit a 6 month MRI...
https://x.com/adamscochran/status/1982934315227922760
This is unequivocally the most astounding capture of the atmosphere that I have ever seen.
If you are a younger meteorologist, watch this then attempt to understand it through study. All hurricanes have a center, not all hurricanes attain cyclostrophic balance and produce one of the rarest phenomena on planet earth.
https://x.com/TTrogdon/status/1982973585812848911
https://x.com/oldscarf1stweek/status/1982826602083004872
If it’s severe turbulence for *them*…
Now granted they could and should have moved a fe matches from the 27th to the 26th but given how stricter the times are that’s not possible except for the night matches and no one wants to travel home at 10pm on Boxing Day when there isn’t any public transport
What is needed is a charismatic and effective political leader with the courage to make the case for basic economic literacy, like Javier Milei or Margaret Thatcher, and to stick to his/her guns in the face of short-term unpopularity. And to stand up to the Russians without fear and do much more than just keep the Ukrainians in the fight. Then we can truly say we've learned from the seventies and the twenties.
Meanwhile in another reality, Bannon is stirring up the idea of a third term. Given his age and his alleged condition, Trump will eventually start looking like El Cid with his corpse tied to a chair and paraded around wherever they want the troops rallied.
Any bets on there being a Trump Tomb, like Lenin's in Red Square?
/sultana mode off