Shouldnt they wait until the Scottish Government revises its projections for oil prices?
I don't think alliances made during the referendum campaign extend to the Scottish Greens waiting breathlessly upon pronouncements made by the SNP government.
I cant imagine many people are waiting breathlessly for the SNP government's oil price projections (well, not for their informative value anyway).
True (though a few Unionists seem desperate for them). 'Just a bit more shit than those of the UK Government' isn't a great strapline.
That and telling teenagers who seem to think a light T-shirt is adequate wear for early January to stop moaning and put some clothes on.
When you were a teenager you would have said "it's fashionable" in a tone which implied that explained everything, and no further discussion was required... my sister did, my daughter would do it we didn't live in the tropics
Shouldnt they wait until the Scottish Government revises its projections for oil prices?
I don't think alliances made during the referendum campaign extend to the Scottish Greens waiting breathlessly upon pronouncements made by the SNP government.
I cant imagine many people are waiting breathlessly for the SNP government's oil price projections (well, not for their informative value anyway).
True (though a few Unionists seem desperate for them). 'Just a bit more shit than those of the UK Government' isn't a great strapline.
But then 45% of people did turn out to vote for a something "just a bit more shit than the UK Government" last September so there's no accounting for taste.
As you say, whatever threads you put up, the 'others' will suspect they're being short changed.
Many Labour people accuse the BBC of being rabidly right wing. We all have our biases, and despite what some people think, even scientists do.
That's why some theories last longer than they should. Incidentally, string theory and M theory, beloved of Stephen Hawking, also seems to be drifting out of fashion. I can't follow the maths but it appears the concept of eleven dimensions and a multiverse may be losing popularity.
Even 'Big Bang' the sitcom has the character Sheldon Cooper wanting to switch from it (and the script writers do receive advice from the theoretical physics experts).
It's lasted thirty years and I thought it might linger as it's virtually impossible to prove it false. I may be an old fuddy-duddy, but I'd call that metaphysics. But it made things interesting for a while - the aim of many scientific theories.
I love the Big Bang Theory, Physics gives me a hadron. Although I'm like Raj.
Re Rotherham and Louise Casey's report, it is being finalised, the delay as I understand it is, that there was more people coming forward to give evidence than anticipated, and one her report aims was to help draw wider conclusions/ideas for all Councils, not just Rotherham.
Obviously M'learned friends are taking their time over the report before it is published.
Turnout is going to be the key thing in Scotland. There's always a danger in talking about the "mood" of a nation, if you just project your own feelings onto your fellow countrymen. But I suspect there is a huge sense of disillusionment about in Scotland.
Those supporting independence were motivated by a combination of a positive vision of the future with a sense of grievance about the present. With their positive vision crushed by the referendum, only the grievance remains, but doubled by a sense of being robbed.
Meanwhile the rest of us are fed up with the posturing, the politics and the anti-politics.
How will this translate into turnout? Will independence voters turn out to show their rage or stay at home? Will voters be the normal older middle class people, who mostly voted No?
An interesting factoid from the survey tables. Interviewees were asked, " In the May 2011 election for the Scottish Parliament, half of Scottish people voted and the other half did not vote. Can you remember whether you voted in that particular election?" 77% said Yes to that question
The single most important thing I did to reduce my heating bills was to insulate my house properly and eliminate as many draughts as possible. It has made a huge difference both to the bills and to our comfort.
Improving our existing housing stock would do at least as much as price freezing/lower energy bills and what-have-you to reduce what people have to spend and our carbon emissions.
That and telling teenagers who seem to think a light T-shirt is adequate wear for early January to stop moaning and put some clothes on.
Boring, unglamorous, old-fashioned: yes but essential IMO.
This is possibly my boringest comment ever, but have you tried HIVE? It's heating you control with wifi, from your PC, laptop, iPad, smartphone, anywhere in the world - or from your nice warm bed. Amazing.
It asks you - as you leave the house - do you want to turn your heating off, or down, or set it at 13C for 3 hours? It offers automatic frost protection. It saves £100s.
I just got a hefty rebate from NPower - three figures - because after installing Hive my heating bills nosedived, and I had overpaid.
Not boring at all. Interesting (to me anyway) because I have just been offered this by nPower and couldn't work out whether worth it or not. So thanks - will have another look.
BTW - just to show how much draughts cost you - and what a difference two mild winters make - my combined monthly gas/electricity payments dropped by nearly four-fifths.
It's definitely worth it. Here's a positive review (and I think they underplay the money-saving aspect). Hive and its cousins are also the future of heating, for sure: within 10 years all domestic central heating will be operated this way - might as well start now?
What happens when the North Koreans hack the system?
It will turnout to be disgruntled former Sony employees but not before a war hysteria is generated leading to yet another unprovoked attack on some hapless country as well as yet more billions wasted on cyber security.
Shouldnt they wait until the Scottish Government revises its projections for oil prices?
I don't think alliances made during the referendum campaign extend to the Scottish Greens waiting breathlessly upon pronouncements made by the SNP government.
I cant imagine many people are waiting breathlessly for the SNP government's oil price projections (well, not for their informative value anyway).
True (though a few Unionists seem desperate for them). 'Just a bit more shit than those of the UK Government' isn't a great strapline.
But then 45% of people did turn out to vote for a something "just a bit more shit than the UK Government" last September so there's no accounting for taste.
I'm talking about your 'informative value', no longer sure what you're talking about.
The single most important thing I did to reduce my heating bills was to insulate my house properly and eliminate as many draughts as possible. It has made a huge difference both to the bills and to our comfort.
Improving our existing housing stock would do at least as much as price freezing/lower energy bills and what-have-you to reduce what people have to spend and our carbon emissions.
That and telling teenagers who seem to think a light T-shirt is adequate wear for early January to stop moaning and put some clothes on.
Boring, unglamorous, old-fashioned: yes but essential IMO.
It asks you - as you leave the house - do you want to turn your heating off, or down, or set it at 13C for 3 hours? It offers automatic frost protection. It saves £100s.
I just got a hefty rebate from NPower - three figures - because after installing Hive my heating bills nosedived, and I had overpaid.
Not boring at all. Interesting (to me anyway) because I have just been offered this by nPower and couldn't work out whether worth it or not. So thanks - will have another look.
BTW - just to show how much draughts cost you - and what a difference two mild winters make - my combined monthly gas/electricity payments dropped by nearly four-fifths.
It's definitely worth it. Here's a positive review (and I think they underplay the money-saving aspect). Hive and its cousins are also the future of heating, for sure: within 10 years all domestic central heating will be operated this way - might as well start now?
That and telling teenagers who seem to think a light T-shirt is adequate wear for early January to stop moaning and put some clothes on.
When you were a teenager you would have said "it's fashionable" in a tone which implied that explained everything, and no further discussion was required... my sister did, my daughter would do it we didn't live in the tropics
When I was a teenager I lived in houses that had no central heating or, indeed, heating of any kind beyond hot water bottles and it was always freezing. So I got used to it and my mother's incessant insistence on wearing vests. It may explain why my lungs are shot to pieces now, though.
Teenagers seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in bed so maybe that explains why they don't feel the cold as much. They're not in it for very long.
YouGov have put Peter Kellner's article from the Sunday Times up. If he's right then there's some decent bets out there. David Cameron is on course to lead the largest party following May’s general election – but it could be touch and go whether he can remain prime minister https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/01/19/how-cameron-could-win-and-lose/
If Cameron is able to remain as PM, EdM will have to go. The betting then moves onto who his replacement is. After the shift to the left with EdM, will Labour choose a more Blairite candidate? Or are the internal electoral numbers stacked up for another leftie such as Burnham, albeit his leftie roots are recently acquired?
The single most important thing I did to reduce my heating bills was to insulate my house properly and eliminate as many draughts as possible. It has made a huge difference both to the bills and to our comfort.
Improving our existing housing stock would do at least as much as price freezing/lower energy bills and what-have-you to reduce what people have to spend and our carbon emissions.
That and telling teenagers who seem to think a light T-shirt is adequate wear for early January to stop moaning and put some clothes on.
Boring, unglamorous, old-fashioned: yes but essential IMO.
It asks you - as you leave the house - do you want to turn your heating off, or down, or set it at 13C for 3 hours? It offers automatic frost protection. It saves £100s.
I just got a hefty rebate from NPower - three figures - because after installing Hive my heating bills nosedived, and I had overpaid.
Not boring at all. Interesting (to me anyway) because I have just been offered this by nPower and couldn't work out whether worth it or not. So thanks - will have another look.
BTW - just to show how much draughts cost you - and what a difference two mild winters make - my combined monthly gas/electricity payments dropped by nearly four-fifths.
It's definitely worth it. Here's a positive review (and I think they underplay the money-saving aspect). Hive and its cousins are also the future of heating, for sure: within 10 years all domestic central heating will be operated this way - might as well start now?
That and telling teenagers who seem to think a light T-shirt is adequate wear for early January to stop moaning and put some clothes on.
When you were a teenager you would have said "it's fashionable" in a tone which implied that explained everything, and no further discussion was required... my sister did, my daughter would do it we didn't live in the tropics
When I was a teenager I lived in houses that had no central heating or, indeed, heating of any kind beyond hot water bottles and it was always freezing. So I got used to it and my mother's incessant insistence on wearing vests. It may explain why my lungs are shot to pieces now, though.
Teenagers seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in bed so maybe that explains why they don't feel the cold as much. They're not in it for very long.
Big Bang relies on either being a geek or knowing them. Without that, it'd make little sense. Have you seen Boston Legal? William Shatner and James Spader are epic.
As you say, whatever threads you put up, the 'others' will suspect they're being short changed.
Many Labour people accuse the BBC of being rabidly right wing. We all have our biases, and despite what some people think, even scientists do.
That's why some theories last longer than they should. Incidentally, string theory and M theory, beloved of Stephen Hawking, also seems to be drifting out of fashion. I can't follow the maths but it appears the concept of eleven dimensions and a multiverse may be losing popularity.
Even 'Big Bang' the sitcom has the character Sheldon Cooper wanting to switch from it (and the script writers do receive advice from the theoretical physics experts).
It's lasted thirty years and I thought it might linger as it's virtually impossible to prove it false. I may be an old fuddy-duddy, but I'd call that metaphysics. But it made things interesting for a while - the aim of many scientific theories.
My GF loves Big Bang but I just don't get it. Didn't raise a single chuckle in me. I agree about 24 tho, it loses pace by season 3 or 4, and flails beyond that. As indeed do most TV dramas. It is virtually a law of scriptwriting. And it is the reason very very few dramas go beyond 5 seasons.
As for the physics, my layman's understanding is that multiverse theory is still highly fashionable - almost verging on consensus. There may even be *evidence*.
No, my opinion is based on the fact that I used to be a nurse, and also the reality of having three elderly relatives who had suffered from very poor care while they were in hospital in various parts of Scotland in recent years. Add to that my own personal experience over the last few months due to a health scare, and I have some very genuine concerns.
I genuinely believe that anyone other than the SNP could do a better job of getting their priorities right when it comes to running the Scottish NHS right now. For start, I would get rid of the new shift hours that nursing staff now work. What the hell were people thinking when they thought this was a good idea, certainly not maintaining a good continuity of care for the patients that is for sure.
"As a side note. I have been warning of the difficulties that the Scottish NHS was facing for the last few years on PB, it is under serious pressure right now"
While this is true, as it is everywhere in the UK, a recent poll showed the SNP are the most trusted party on the NHS in Scotland.
In spite of all the efforts of BBC Scotland, there is no plurality believing that SLAB or the Tories would do as well, never mind better.
LOL, surprise surprise a Tory thinks they could sell of the NHS and it would be better. I am sure it is the SNP that do the shift rotas on the NHS. Not too bright methinks or just blinded by hatred of SNP.
As you say, whatever threads you put up, the 'others' will suspect they're being short changed.
Many Labour people accuse the BBC of being rabidly right wing. We all have our biases, and despite what some people think, even scientists do.
That's why some theories last longer than they should. Incidentally, string theory and M theory, beloved of Stephen Hawking, also seems to be drifting out of fashion. I can't follow the maths but it appears the concept of eleven dimensions and a multiverse may be losing popularity.
Even 'Big Bang' the sitcom has the character Sheldon Cooper wanting to switch from it (and the script writers do receive advice from the theoretical physics experts).
It's lasted thirty years and I thought it might linger as it's virtually impossible to prove it false. I may be an old fuddy-duddy, but I'd call that metaphysics. But it made things interesting for a while - the aim of many scientific theories.
My GF loves Big Bang but I just don't get it. Didn't raise a single chuckle in me. I agree about 24 tho, it loses pace by season 3 or 4, and flails beyond that. As indeed do most TV dramas. It is virtually a law of scriptwriting. And it is the reason very very few dramas go beyond 5 seasons.
As for the physics, my layman's understanding is that multiverse theory is still highly fashionable - almost verging on consensus. There may even be *evidence*.
I find the Big Bang theory to be the most painfully unfunny sitcom I can remember watching. It seems to be mainly laughing at stale cliches of nerds, but with a laughter track to remind you when to laugh.
I agree on 24, but felt it nose-dived quicker than you felt. The first season was great, but the format quickly became repetitive. It also lost my suspension of disbelief when the CTU turned out to have the worst screening process for counter-agents I've ever seen. I felt a similar thing with Homeland. You can take one, or even two, incredible consequences as just the premise of the show, but when it gets to five or six you've lost me.
I had a fish tank thermometer on my bedroom window as a kid. It usually said about 54f during the winter. We had real Norwegian eider downs to stay snug at night
Improving our existing housing stock would do at least as much as price freezing/lower energy bills and what-have-you to reduce what people have to spend and our carbon emissions.
That and telling teenagers who seem to think a light T-shirt is adequate wear for early January to stop moaning and put some clothes on.
Boring, unglamorous, old-fashioned: yes but essential IMO.
It asks you - as you leave the house - do you want to turn your heating off, or down, or set it at 13C for 3 hours? It offers automatic frost protection. It saves £100s.
I just got a hefty rebate from NPower - three figures - because after installing Hive my heating bills nosedived, and I had overpaid.
Not boring at all. Interesting (to me anyway) because I have just been offered this by nPower and couldn't work out whether worth it or not. So thanks - will have another look.
BTW - just to show how much draughts cost you - and what a difference two mild winters make - my combined monthly gas/electricity payments dropped by nearly four-fifths.
It's definitely worth it. Here's a positive review (and I think they underplay the money-saving aspect). Hive and its cousins are also the future of heating, for sure: within 10 years all domestic central heating will be operated this way - might as well start now?
That and telling teenagers who seem to think a light T-shirt is adequate wear for early January to stop moaning and put some clothes on.
When you were a teenager you would have said "it's fashionable" in a tone which implied that explained everything, and no further discussion was required... my sister did, my daughter would do it we didn't live in the tropics
When I was a teenager I lived in houses that had no central heating or, indeed, heating of any kind beyond hot water bottles and it was always freezing. So I got used to it and my mother's incessant insistence on wearing vests. It may explain why my lungs are shot to pieces now, though.
Teenagers seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in bed so maybe that explains why they don't feel the cold as much. They're not in it for very long.
It is if you live in a flat so damp that it was declared unfit for human habitation. At any event, I have the sort of medical history with my lungs that makes doctors drool. I am practically a walking medical casebook. When I was v ill once in hospital I could hardly get any sleep so frequent were the visits from students and their teachers anxious to use me as a teaching aid.
Nope, you are obviously not ready to admit that this smart politics by Jim Murphy when it comes to targeting the Scots voters he is trying to persuade to vote for Labour at the next GE. I doubt that dyed in the wool Yes voting Celtic fans are at the top of that list. He is at least attempting to bring together and unite Scots with this campaign, whereas the SNP seem determined to maintain the politics of division...
You are obviously not old enough to remember the popularity of both Billy McNeil and John Greig.... Go on, admit it through gnashing of teeth, this is extremely smart politics from Jim Murphy?
As J***s K***y notes, the much touted SCon revival on the back of Davidson's 'good' referendum appears entirely absent. It seems, as with Murphy, that despite winning the referendum, it has had very few knock-on benefits for Unionist pols.
How pathetic can Murphy get, he now wants knighthoods for Billy McNeil and John Greig. You just could not make it up.
UK honours have always gone down well with the Green Brigade.
There are people who give a toss about honours, and there are people who don't. I'm pretty sure Yes voting Celtic supporters are in the latter category.
It's just another example of Murphy's slightly tin-eared hoordom: 'You like this, and this? Is this doing it for you baby?'
Jim Murphy understands who he needs to get back to Labour and has some understanding of what motivates them. I'm far from convinced that he has time to achieve the job for May to salvage much from the wreckage, or that the people he needs to get back are ready to listen to him.
I think Jim Murphy's main challenge is to keep SLAB support at the 25% level. Not only is he fighting the SNP, but UKIP and the Greens will also be eating into SLAB's support base. A further challenge will be hanging onto the ex-LibDem support once they are free of the shackles of the Coalition. He will also need to turn his guns onto the Tories, which will limit any tactical voting.
Unimpressed by performance of Labour's 34 yr old "hope for the future" Alison McGovern MP on Daily Politics Show. Trained by G. Brown so that may explain a lot.
It also lost my suspension of disbelief when the CTU turned out to have the worst screening process for counter-agents I've ever seen.
Yup, since the US seems to model policy on it (or they did with torture) they really need to just go ahead and lock up everybody in their intelligence services preventatively before they have a chance to attempt their various evil plots.
It is if you live in a flat so damp that it was declared unfit for human habitation. At any event, I have the sort of medical history with my lungs that makes doctors drool. I am practically a walking medical casebook. When I was v ill once in hospital I could hardly get any sleep so frequent were the visits from students and their teachers anxious to use me as a teaching aid.
A friend of mine emigrated to Canada, came out of a shopping centre in Toronto on a cold winter's day, took a gulp of air and died. Apparently his lungs froze. Locals knew to baffle the air flows through scarfs etc but he was used to sunny Dundee.
It was seriously cold, even colder than your flat I would guess
When I was a child ice on the inside of bedroom windows was fairly commonplace. Its what you are used to I suspect.
I've always liked James Blunt, and he's socking it to Reverend Underpants
After the shadow culture minister name-checked Blunt as one of the performers from a ‘privileged background’ dominating the arts, the singer decided to write back
And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working class people that posh people like me don’t deserve it, and that we must redress the balance. But it is your populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas which make our country crap, far more than me and my shit songs, and my plummy accent.
It is if you live in a flat so damp that it was declared unfit for human habitation. At any event, I have the sort of medical history with my lungs that makes doctors drool. I am practically a walking medical casebook. When I was v ill once in hospital I could hardly get any sleep so frequent were the visits from students and their teachers anxious to use me as a teaching aid.
Ah fair enough, "damp" (And the associated fungus) is for sure.
There may be evidence that fits her theory and to be fair, she did try to predict, but the LHC results aren't being as helpful as they might (don't ask me for the details, though). These theories come and go and very few persist in their original form but they form a basis to move forward. Of course, it helps if you can definitively rule them out at some stage. It's still wait and see.
And for M theory, it's still a matter of faith - faith in mathematics as representing reality. Don't forget that mathematics doesn't have time at all and infinities still boggles its mind
To get a Theory of Everything, we need to begin by linking relativity with quantum theory and that's still a way off, despite the weekly "breakthroughs" announced. Think the tabloid press and cures for cancer.
Mr Eagles, thanks for the info about the Casey review. I 'd forgotten about the lawyers.
I much prefer Homeland. The current season has surprises. It got lost in the previous season.
You've had a House experience too. Mine was multiple emergency admissions for a random selection of life threatening ones. Still no idea what set off tachycardia or other stuff.
It is if you live in a flat so damp that it was declared unfit for human habitation. At any event, I have the sort of medical history with my lungs that makes doctors drool. I am practically a walking medical casebook. When I was v ill once in hospital I could hardly get any sleep so frequent were the visits from students and their teachers anxious to use me as a teaching aid.
That's why some theories last longer than they should. Incidentally, string theory and M theory, beloved of Stephen Hawking, also seems to be drifting out of fashion. I can't follow the maths but it appears the concept of eleven dimensions and a multiverse may be losing popularity.
Even 'Big Bang' the sitcom has the character Sheldon Cooper wanting to switch from it (and the script writers do receive advice from the theoretical physics experts).
It's lasted thirty years and I thought it might linger as it's virtually impossible to prove it false. I may be an old fuddy-duddy, but I'd call that metaphysics. But it made things interesting for a while - the aim of many scientific theories.
As for the physics, my layman's understanding is that multiverse theory is still highly fashionable - almost verging on consensus. There may even be *evidence*.
I find the Big Bang theory to be the most painfully unfunny sitcom I can remember watching. It seems to be mainly laughing at stale cliches of nerds, but with a laughter track to remind you when to laugh.
I agree on 24, but felt it nose-dived quicker than you felt. The first season was great, but the format quickly became repetitive. It also lost my suspension of disbelief when the CTU turned out to have the worst screening process for counter-agents I've ever seen. I felt a similar thing with Homeland. You can take one, or even two, incredible consequences as just the premise of the show, but when it gets to five or six you've lost me.
There may be evidence that fits her theory and to be fair, she did try to predict, but the LHC results aren't being as helpful as they might (don't ask me for the details, though). These theories come and go and very few persist in their original form but they form a basis to move forward. Of course, it helps if you can definitively rule them out at some stage. It's still wait and see.
And for M theory, it's still a matter of faith - faith in mathematics as representing reality. Don't forget that mathematics doesn't have time at all and infinities still boggles its mind
To get a Theory of Everything, we need to begin by linking relativity with quantum theory and that's still a way off, despite the weekly "breakthroughs" announced. Think the tabloid press and cures for cancer.
Mr Eagles, thanks for the info about the Casey review. I 'd forgotten about the lawyers.
Given the legal action instigated last week, they have to be cautious.
I've always liked James Blunt, and he's socking it to Reverend Underpants
After the shadow culture minister name-checked Blunt as one of the performers from a ‘privileged background’ dominating the arts, the singer decided to write back
And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working class people that posh people like me don’t deserve it, and that we must redress the balance. But it is your populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas which make our country crap, far more than me and my shit songs, and my plummy accent.
I've always liked James Blunt, and he's socking it to Reverend Underpants
After the shadow culture minister name-checked Blunt as one of the performers from a ‘privileged background’ dominating the arts, the singer decided to write back
And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working class people that posh people like me don’t deserve it, and that we must redress the balance. But it is your populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas which make our country crap, far more than me and my shit songs, and my plummy accent.
It is if you live in a flat so damp that it was declared unfit for human habitation. At any event, I have the sort of medical history with my lungs that makes doctors drool. I am practically a walking medical casebook. When I was v ill once in hospital I could hardly get any sleep so frequent were the visits from students and their teachers anxious to use me as a teaching aid.
Ah fair enough, "damp" (And the associated fungus) is for sure.
I've always liked James Blunt, and he's socking it to Reverend Underpants
After the shadow culture minister name-checked Blunt as one of the performers from a ‘privileged background’ dominating the arts, the singer decided to write back
And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working class people that posh people like me don’t deserve it, and that we must redress the balance. But it is your populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas which make our country crap, far more than me and my shit songs, and my plummy accent.
Ho, ho, etims evidently know nothing about smart politics.
'I could write a few dozen paragraphs on how it sickens me to see a so called Scottish Party( Do Scottish Labour exist on their own?) use Celtic (and Rangers) to increase their grass roots appeal and expand their media coverage, aided of course by that great friend of Celtic , The Daily Record ( Thugs and Thieves anyone), but I wont. I could write a long and lengthy rant at how sad it is to see our Greatest Captain being used as a Political toy ( knowingly or unknowingly) to further a desperate mans attempt to climb up the popularity stakes by going for the lowest common denominator instead of actually thinking up Policy that can help people, but I wont.'
I've always liked James Blunt, and he's socking it to Reverend Underpants
After the shadow culture minister name-checked Blunt as one of the performers from a ‘privileged background’ dominating the arts, the singer decided to write back
And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working class people that posh people like me don’t deserve it, and that we must redress the balance. But it is your populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas which make our country crap, far more than me and my shit songs, and my plummy accent.
Oxfam (they used to worry about famine) are filling the BBC news channels with this "report" into global inequality. 10 years ago other NGOs complained about Oxfam's closeness with the Labour party. From the New Statesman May 2005. http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/world-affairs/2014/04/why-oxfam-failing-africa "One senior NGO official .....describes the relationship as "far too cosy". He says: "They have incredible access, and what that has meant is that Oxfam are the ones who are always asked to speak for the whole development movement.......They have decided that, in the longer term, their lot is best served by being in with Labour and they go out on a limb to endorse the government.""
Not convinced by this "Someone said in 2005" evidence. I think they're oppositionist rather than Labour-leaning. As a Labour MP I felt they were tiresomely hostile (War on Want was even more so, and I support both organisations) - you could do 75% of what they wanted and they'd instantly slag you off for not doing the remaining 25%. I'm not religious but I found Christian Aid a lot more reasonable - they'd praise you if you did what they thought was the right thing and attack you if you didn't.
Ultimately, though NGOs do what their supporters want, and why not? That's the reason there's an "N" in the phrase.
I've always liked James Blunt, and he's socking it to Reverend Underpants
After the shadow culture minister name-checked Blunt as one of the performers from a ‘privileged background’ dominating the arts, the singer decided to write back
And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working class people that posh people like me don’t deserve it, and that we must redress the balance. But it is your populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas which make our country crap, far more than me and my shit songs, and my plummy accent.
I should have added Mr McKenna "a traditional Labour voter now supporting independence has his finger rather closer to the pulse in understanding these things than Carlotta."
I have my finger on the pulse sufficiently to note that George Osborne has not been Chancellor of the exchequer for 10 years....
I should have added Mr McKenna "a traditional Labour voter now supporting independence has his finger rather closer to the pulse in understanding these things than Carlotta."
I have my finger on the pulse sufficiently to note that George Osborne has not been Chancellor of the exchequer for 10 years....
As J***s K***y notes, the much touted SCon revival on the back of Davidson's 'good' referendum appears entirely absent. It seems, as with Murphy, that despite winning the referendum, it has had very few knock-on benefits for Unionist pols.
How pathetic can Murphy get, he now wants knighthoods for Billy McNeil and John Greig. You just could not make it up.
UK honours have always gone down well with the Green Brigade.
You have to wonder if being at the trough in London for so long has addled his brain. He seems to think Scotland is as it was 20 years ago.
He definitely seems very out of touch as to the influence Sectarianism has in Scotland these days, this goes back to the Monklands by-election when the dirty politics of Labour's institutional Catholic bias was exposed.
Sectarianism has been dying for years, it's been dying since at least the late 80s and I can't remember the last time the code-phrase "what team do you support?" was asked of me by someone I met for the first time. I remember not so long ago it was the standard first question you ever got asked.
Now with the removal of the Old Firm Game for three years, its main re-enforcing factor has also gone.
Murphy appear to be courting a Catholic vote, he's been very forthright in reminding people how good a Catholic he is, I would think his expectation is that the Loyalist vote will stay with Labour regardless of what he says. I don't know how much traction that will have. UKIP support in the Loyalist trenches is pretty apparent on Rangers forums.
In effect he's failing to get Yes supporting Catholics back while alienating Yes and No supporting Protestants and alienating those of no religion.
That's why some theories last longer than they should. Incidentally, string theory and M theory, beloved of Stephen Hawking, also seems to be drifting out of fashion. I can't follow the maths but it appears the concept of eleven dimensions and a multiverse may be losing popularity.
Even 'Big Bang' the sitcom has the character Sheldon Cooper wanting to switch from it (and the script writers do receive advice from the theoretical physics experts).
It's lasted thirty years and I thought it might linger as it's virtually impossible to prove it false. I may be an old fuddy-duddy, but I'd call that metaphysics. But it made things interesting for a while - the aim of many scientific theories.
...
As for the physics, my layman's understanding is that multiverse theory is still highly fashionable - almost verging on consensus. There may even be *evidence*.
I find the Big Bang theory to be the most painfully unfunny sitcom I can remember watching. It seems to be mainly laughing at stale cliches of nerds, but with a laughter track to remind you when to laugh.
I agree on 24, but felt it nose-dived quicker than you felt. The first season was great, but the format quickly became repetitive. It also lost my suspension of disbelief when the CTU turned out to have the worst screening process for counter-agents I've ever seen. I felt a similar thing with Homeland. You can take one, or even two, incredible consequences as just the premise of the show, but when it gets to five or six you've lost me.
Willing suspension of disbelief. Oxford and its surrounding countryside are nothing like Morse Lewis and Midsommer Murders. Although the recent arson and destruction of the council offices contradict that (in fact on second thought they don't - its far too unbelievable event for fiction). All crime/police/spy/political dramas are fantasy. The more you try to make them look believable the more of dilemma's horns you catch yourself on.
If my grandson is anything to go by, Big Bang Theory is comedy for 11 year olds. I can't work out if that is good or bad. There is of course the possibility that all Art is infantile which, were it to be true, is perhaps a concept even deeper than Quantum Mechanics.
I've always liked James Blunt, and he's socking it to Reverend Underpants
After the shadow culture minister name-checked Blunt as one of the performers from a ‘privileged background’ dominating the arts, the singer decided to write back
And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working class people that posh people like me don’t deserve it, and that we must redress the balance. But it is your populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas which make our country crap, far more than me and my shit songs, and my plummy accent.
Shouldnt they wait until the Scottish Government revises its projections for oil prices?
I don't think alliances made during the referendum campaign extend to the Scottish Greens waiting breathlessly upon pronouncements made by the SNP government.
I cant imagine many people are waiting breathlessly for the SNP government's oil price projections (well, not for their informative value anyway).
True (though a few Unionists seem desperate for them). 'Just a bit more shit than those of the UK Government' isn't a great strapline.
But then 45% of people did turn out to vote for a something "just a bit more shit than the UK Government" last September so there's no accounting for taste.
The other way to look at it is that only a minority of Scots actually voted for the most glorious Union in the last 300 years. Not exactly a resounding statement of approval. The rest voted against or cared so little about remaining in the UK that they didn't bother voting. And that was after a propaganda campaign of which we won't see the like till the Brexit campaign (and you lot will sure know it when it happens).
YouGov have put Peter Kellner's article from the Sunday Times up. If he's right then there's some decent bets out there. David Cameron is on course to lead the largest party following May’s general election – but it could be touch and go whether he can remain prime minister https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/01/19/how-cameron-could-win-and-lose/
If Cameron is able to remain as PM, EdM will have to go. The betting then moves onto who his replacement is. After the shift to the left with EdM, will Labour choose a more Blairite candidate? Or are the internal electoral numbers stacked up for another leftie such as Burnham, albeit his leftie roots are recently acquired?
Surely his recent acquisition of leftie roots show you which way things are going in the Labour party membership...
I find the Big Bang theory to be the most painfully unfunny sitcom I can remember watching. It seems to be mainly laughing at stale cliches of nerds, but with a laughter track to remind you when to laugh.
I agree on 24, but felt it nose-dived quicker than you felt. The first season was great, but the format quickly became repetitive. It also lost my suspension of disbelief when the CTU turned out to have the worst screening process for counter-agents I've ever seen. I felt a similar thing with Homeland. You can take one, or even two, incredible consequences as just the premise of the show, but when it gets to five or six you've lost me.
The first season of 24 is great, absolutely fantastic television. The second season is poor, the third season is worse and, after a great opening couple of hours, the 4th season is despicably bad.
Do you know the original concept of 24 was going to be 24 hours before a wedding. I watched 24 for the real-time ness, not the Jack Bauer and his CTU friends fun show. It would have been great if the second season had ditched tyhe entire cast of the first season and had done something different - just kept the real time nature.
I find the Big Bang theory to be the most painfully unfunny sitcom I can remember watching. It seems to be mainly laughing at stale cliches of nerds, but with a laughter track to remind you when to laugh.
The left are just determined to avoid discussion of this issue. They just repeat this thing of "nothing to see here", "Muslim values are British values" (really? "Muslim values" include freedom of speech, representative government and constitutionalism?") etc and refuse to engage further. When Ed Miliband was asked about the Rotherham and Rochdale scandals, he just said "it's awful, lessons will be learnt" platitudes. Nothing more will be done.
Just the other day the Guardian release a piece of saying that 'Islamophobia' (i.e. criticism of Islam), is "racism plain and simple" and therefor not "legitimate expression":
Presumably the ground is being prepared for a banning of anti-Islam criticism, because, like racism, it is "illegitimate" and therefore not covered by free speech.
As J***s K***y notes, the much touted SCon revival on the back of Davidson's 'good' referendum appears entirely absent. It seems, as with Murphy, that despite winning the referendum, it has had very few knock-on benefits for Unionist pols.
How pathetic can Murphy get, he now wants knighthoods for Billy McNeil and John Greig. You just could not make it up.
UK honours have always gone down well with the Green Brigade.
You have to wonder if being at the trough in London for so long has addled his brain. He seems to think Scotland is as it was 20 years ago.
He definitely seems very out of touch as to the influence Sectarianism has in Scotland these days, this goes back to the Monklands by-election when the dirty politics of Labour's institutional Catholic bias was exposed.
Sectarianism has been dying for years, it's been dying since at least the late 80s and I can't remember the last time the code-phrase "what team do you support?" was asked of me by someone I met for the first time. I remember not so long ago it was the standard first question you ever got asked.
Now with the removal of the Old Firm Game for three years, its main re-enforcing factor has also gone.
Murphy appear to be courting a Catholic vote, he's been very forthright in reminding people how good a Catholic he is, I would think his expectation is that the Loyalist vote will stay with Labour regardless of what he says. I don't know how much traction that will have. UKIP support in the Loyalist trenches is pretty apparent on Rangers forums.
In effect he's failing to get Yes supporting Catholics back while alienating Yes and No supporting Protestants and alienating those of no religion.
Excellent, thanks. I'd been wondering about that issue but didn't know enough about it as I don't live in the obvious area.
Labour really going to turn the leadership over to him after Red Ed? I mean really?
If he'd stuck to his guns and said, look when I read the letter I will give you a comment, he;d have been OK....
It was bizarre - for some reason he wasn't even being a politician very well:
Q: "Is the letter patronising?" A: "I haven't read the letter and I will do so and look forward to coming back to discuss it here (endearing grin to Dermot) but I think we need to remember that all communities make a great contrib...etc, etc, blah, blah.."
Nope, you are obviously not ready to admit that this smart politics by Jim Murphy when it comes to targeting the Scots voters he is trying to persuade to vote for Labour at the next GE. I doubt that dyed in the wool Yes voting Celtic fans are at the top of that list. He is at least attempting to bring together and unite Scots with this campaign, whereas the SNP seem determined to maintain the politics of division...
You are obviously not old enough to remember the popularity of both Billy McNeil and John Greig.... Go on, admit it through gnashing of teeth, this is extremely smart politics from Jim Murphy?
As J***s K***y notes, the much touted SCon revival on the back of Davidson's 'good' referendum appears entirely absent. It seems, as with Murphy, that despite winning the referendum, it has had very few knock-on benefits for Unionist pols.
How pathetic can Murphy get, he now wants knighthoods for Billy McNeil and John Greig. You just could not make it up.
UK honours have always gone down well with the Green Brigade.
There are people who give a toss about honours, and there are people who don't. I'm pretty sure Yes voting Celtic supporters are in the latter category.
It's just another example of Murphy's slightly tin-eared hoordom: 'You like this, and this? Is this doing it for you baby?'
I wonder if you've thought your point through.
It is absolutely divisive. Over half of Scotland DO NOT SUPPORT the Old Firm. In fact they despise the Old Firm for a variety of football and non-football reasons. Where's Willie Miller or John Robertson or David Narey or whoever other Scottish players might deserve the same consideration of Greig and McNeill but don't happen to be Old Firm legends?
There is no "cheer" of any kind for Labour in these figures small or otherwise. Just the opposite in fact. Here is just six of the best pointers.
1) The survey was three days later than Panelbase ie 20 per cent SNP lead three days AFTER 10 per cent SNP lead. 2) The SNP lead among women is now even higher than among men 3) The geographical breakdown is disastrous for Labour. SNP leads everywhere but biggest swings in Glasgow and West Central Scotland (58 to 28!) 4) Big SNP lead in North East suggests an "oil effect" if anything favourable to SNP 5) SNP outpolls Liberals by 2-1 in Highlands , the only place Liberals have significant support 6) SNP at 50 per cent for Scottish Parliament! In other words Labour under Murphy would get masssively less seats than the 2011 disaster under Ian Gray!
There is much, much more in the detail and all of it good news for the SNP team.
The lead among women is interesting, I think it reflects the fact that the SNP surge is being led by women - now 44% (pre-surge 33%), which is the highest % of any party. Not sure how this fits into Jim Murphy's lost 190,000 older male voters theory.
Interestingly Survation identified the SNP surge 6 months ahead of the referendum, whereas most other pollsters didn't pick it up until post-ref. I think this might be due to Survation weighting regionally.
It show Labour spending in the last parliament almost targeting a 3% deficit. For 2013/14 the deficit is 5.8% down from 10.8% in 2009/10, with debt now up to 87.9%. This shows there is still a long way to go on deficit reduction, let alone debt reduction.
One methodological change is that child tax credits and working tax credits are now accounted for as benefits received, rather than negative tax as in the past.
Oxfam (they used to worry about famine) are filling the BBC news channels with this "report" into global inequality. 10 years ago other NGOs complained about Oxfam's closeness with the Labour party. From the New Statesman May 2005. http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/world-affairs/2014/04/why-oxfam-failing-africa "One senior NGO official .....describes the relationship as "far too cosy". He says: "They have incredible access, and what that has meant is that Oxfam are the ones who are always asked to speak for the whole development movement.......They have decided that, in the longer term, their lot is best served by being in with Labour and they go out on a limb to endorse the government.""
Not convinced by this "Someone said in 2005" evidence. I think they're oppositionist rather than Labour-leaning. As a Labour MP I felt they were tiresomely hostile (War on Want was even more so, and I support both organisations) - you could do 75% of what they wanted and they'd instantly slag you off for not doing the remaining 25%. I'm not religious but I found Christian Aid a lot more reasonable - they'd praise you if you did what they thought was the right thing and attack you if you didn't.......
Er NickMP the point made was just about Oxfam being far too close with Labour WHEN IT WAS IN GOVT. Not making any point about NGOs being oppositionist. It was other NGOs (not just someone) making the point in the leftie mag New Statesman that OXFAM was in bed with Labour.
No reason today to believe that Oxfam have severed their ties with Labour.
Shouldnt they wait until the Scottish Government revises its projections for oil prices?
I don't think alliances made during the referendum campaign extend to the Scottish Greens waiting breathlessly upon pronouncements made by the SNP government.
I cant imagine many people are waiting breathlessly for the SNP government's oil price projections (well, not for their informative value anyway).
True (though a few Unionists seem desperate for them). 'Just a bit more shit than those of the UK Government' isn't a great strapline.
But then 45% of people did turn out to vote for a something "just a bit more shit than the UK Government" last September so there's no accounting for taste.
The other way to look at it is that only a minority of Scots actually voted for the most glorious Union in the last 300 years. Not exactly a resounding statement of approval. The rest voted against or cared so little about remaining in the UK that they didn't bother voting. And that was after a propaganda campaign of which we won't see the like till the Brexit campaign (and you lot will sure know it when it happens).
Or that fewer than 2 in 5 Scots fell for the SNP's fantastical 'currency union with the UK, automatic EU membership land of milk and honey funded by $110/barrel oil'.......
The single most important thing I did to reduce my heating bills was to insulate my house properly and eliminate as many draughts as possible. It has made a huge difference both to the bills and to our comfort.
...
Boring, unglamorous, old-fashioned: yes but essential IMO.
It asks you - as you leave the house - do you want to turn your heating off, or down, or set it at 13C for 3 hours? It offers automatic frost protection. It saves £100s.
I just got a hefty rebate from NPower - three figures - because after installing Hive my heating bills nosedived, and I had overpaid.
Not boring at all. Interesting (to me anyway) because I have just been offered this by nPower and couldn't work out whether worth it or not. So thanks - will have another look.
BTW - just to show how much draughts cost you - and what a difference two mild winters make - my combined monthly gas/electricity payments dropped by nearly four-fifths.
It's definitely worth it. Here's a positive review (and I think they underplay the money-saving aspect). Hive and its cousins are also the future of heating, for sure: within 10 years all domestic central heating will be operated this way - might as well start now?
For those looking to replace their boiler also very very much worth looking at the new Flow boilers. They generate electricity from your gas supply and heat water. Thermally this is alot more efficient than generating in a power station and transmitting the electricity long distances. The water is heated as a by-product of the power or as 'surge' demand when needed. Dramatic cuts to both gas AND ELECTRICITY bills.
Patrick may be right but I read - ''In effect the household gets a new money-making boiler for the cost of installation. (A typical boiler costs around £2,500.) But for the first five years Flow Energy keeps the feed-in tariffs (FITs) plus the electricity you generate. Only after that does it share the income 50-50 with the homeowner.'' ''Unlike other manufacturers who offer more generous warranties, Flow’s boilers – manufactured in Scotland by a US firm called Jabil – only have a two-year warranty. ''
Generating electricity is an advantage - but the 'payback' period for any modern traditional boiler usually kicks in just as it reaches the end of its life. Of course if your boiler has gone kaput then you need a new one...
You really need to find a political Bizarre Love Triangle in the next ten hours then.
I already have. (Is a story from last week) But I think it counts.
Following on from the Bizarre Love Triangle involving Brooks Newmark, his todger and his cameraphone, the Tories have selected James Cleverly as their candidate to replace Brooks Newmark in Braintree.
There is no "cheer" of any kind for Labour in these figures small or otherwise. Just the opposite in fact. Here is just six of the best pointers.
1) The survey was three days later than Panelbase ie 20 per cent SNP lead three days AFTER 10 per cent SNP lead. 2) The SNP lead among women is now even higher than among men 3) The geographical breakdown is disastrous for Labour. SNP leads everywhere but biggest swings in Glasgow and West Central Scotland (58 to 28!) 4) Big SNP lead in North East suggests an "oil effect" if anything favourable to SNP 5) SNP outpolls Liberals by 2-1 in Highlands , the only place Liberals have significant support 6) SNP at 50 per cent for Scottish Parliament! In other words Labour under Murphy would get masssively less seats than the 2011 disaster under Ian Gray!
There is much, much more in the detail and all of it good news for the SNP team.
The lead among women is interesting, I think it reflects the fact that the SNP surge is being led by women - now 44% (pre-surge 33%), which is the highest % of any party. Not sure how this fits into Jim Murphy's lost 190,000 older male voters theory.
Interestingly Survation identified the SNP surge 6 months ahead of the referendum, whereas most other pollsters didn't pick it up until post-ref. I think this might be due to Survation weighting regionally.
Any observer in an A&E unit, or polis station, on an Old Firm night could give us a couple of reasons why women might respond poorly to Mr Murphy's footie-related initiatives. Alcohol at a footie match anybody? I don't know if the polling was done late enough to pick up on the full effect of the fitba offensive, though.
TBF he may have a point about it being a class thing - but then the logical thing to do is to ban all alcohol from football stadia, even the directors' box.
Big Bang relies on either being a geek or knowing them. Without that, it'd make little sense. Have you seen Boston Legal? William Shatner and James Spader are epic.
As you say, whatever threads you put up, the 'others' will suspect they're being short changed.
Many Labour people accuse the BBC of being rabidly right wing. We all have our biases, and despite what some people think, even scientists do.
That's why some theories last longer than they should. Incidentally, string theory and M theory, beloved of Stephen Hawking, also seems to be drifting out of fashion. I can't follow the maths but it appears the concept of eleven dimensions and a multiverse may be losing popularity.
Even 'Big Bang' the sitcom has the character Sheldon Cooper wanting to switch from it (and the script writers do receive advice from the theoretical physics experts).
It's lasted thirty years and I thought it might linger as it's virtually impossible to prove it false. I may be an old fuddy-duddy, but I'd call that metaphysics. But it made things interesting for a while - the aim of many scientific theories.
My GF loves Big Bang but I just don't get it. Didn't raise a single chuckle in me. I agree about 24 tho, it loses pace by season 3 or 4, and flails beyond that. As indeed do most TV dramas. It is virtually a law of scriptwriting. And it is the reason very very few dramas go beyond 5 seasons.
As for the physics, my layman's understanding is that multiverse theory is still highly fashionable - almost verging on consensus. There may even be *evidence*.
Comments
I'm calling it...
the Blues (and lilywhites) are on the charge*
*charge as in a glacial speed of progress but there nonetheless!
It reminds me of Joseph Heller's response when it was suggested he had never written another book as good as Catch 22: "Who has?"
My guess is that it will another of those interminable polls with the main parties within 1% of each other.
Re Rotherham and Louise Casey's report, it is being finalised, the delay as I understand it is, that there was more people coming forward to give evidence than anticipated, and one her report aims was to help draw wider conclusions/ideas for all Councils, not just Rotherham.
Obviously M'learned friends are taking their time over the report before it is published.
Those supporting independence were motivated by a combination of a positive vision of the future with a sense of grievance about the present. With their positive vision crushed by the referendum, only the grievance remains, but doubled by a sense of being robbed.
Meanwhile the rest of us are fed up with the posturing, the politics and the anti-politics.
How will this translate into turnout? Will independence voters turn out to show their rage or stay at home? Will voters be the normal older middle class people, who mostly voted No?
An interesting factoid from the survey tables. Interviewees were asked, " In the May 2011 election for the Scottish Parliament, half of Scottish people voted and the other half did not vote. Can you remember whether you voted in that particular election?" 77% said Yes to that question
Teenagers seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in bed so maybe that explains why they don't feel the cold as much. They're not in it for very long.
Don't write David Cameron off - the tide may be turning among Tories
Many Conservative Party release the PM is more popular than they are - and could keep them in power
http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/isobel-hardman-dont-write-david-cameron-off--the-tide-may-be-turning-among-tories-9987626.html
Do all other firms last polls have Lab narrowly ahead.
If so LARGER (Lord Ashcroft Randomly Generated Election Result) probably a 10 pt lead either way.
As you say Gold Standard
I agree on 24, but felt it nose-dived quicker than you felt. The first season was great, but the format quickly became repetitive. It also lost my suspension of disbelief when the CTU turned out to have the worst screening process for counter-agents I've ever seen. I felt a similar thing with Homeland. You can take one, or even two, incredible consequences as just the premise of the show, but when it gets to five or six you've lost me.
http://etims.net/?p=6412
Dear Jim Murphy – Please Stop!
"Cold is bad for your lungs ? o_O"
It is if you live in a flat so damp that it was declared unfit for human habitation. At any event, I have the sort of medical history with my lungs that makes doctors drool. I am practically a walking medical casebook. When I was v ill once in hospital I could hardly get any sleep so frequent were the visits from students and their teachers anxious to use me as a teaching aid.
At least I think it was. I never understand polls until someone else has Baxtered them for me.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/19/scottish-government-decision-on-fracking-imminent?CMP=share_btn_tw
It is if you live in a flat so damp that it was declared unfit for human habitation. At any event, I have the sort of medical history with my lungs that makes doctors drool. I am practically a walking medical casebook. When I was v ill once in hospital I could hardly get any sleep so frequent were the visits from students and their teachers anxious to use me as a teaching aid.
A friend of mine emigrated to Canada, came out of a shopping centre in Toronto on a cold winter's day, took a gulp of air and died. Apparently his lungs froze. Locals knew to baffle the air flows through scarfs etc but he was used to sunny Dundee.
It was seriously cold, even colder than your flat I would guess
When I was a child ice on the inside of bedroom windows was fairly commonplace. Its what you are used to I suspect.
After the shadow culture minister name-checked Blunt as one of the performers from a ‘privileged background’ dominating the arts, the singer decided to write back
And then you come along, looking for votes, telling working class people that posh people like me don’t deserve it, and that we must redress the balance. But it is your populist, envy-based, vote-hunting ideas which make our country crap, far more than me and my shit songs, and my plummy accent.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/19/james-blunts-letter-chris-bryant-in-full
It is if you live in a flat so damp that it was declared unfit for human habitation. At any event, I have the sort of medical history with my lungs that makes doctors drool. I am practically a walking medical casebook. When I was v ill once in hospital I could hardly get any sleep so frequent were the visits from students and their teachers anxious to use me as a teaching aid.
Ah fair enough, "damp" (And the associated fungus) is for sure.
There may be evidence that fits her theory and to be fair, she did try to predict, but the LHC results aren't being as helpful as they might (don't ask me for the details, though). These theories come and go and very few persist in their original form but they form a basis to move forward. Of course, it helps if you can definitively rule them out at some stage. It's still wait and see.
And for M theory, it's still a matter of faith - faith in mathematics as representing reality. Don't forget that mathematics doesn't have time at all and infinities still boggles its mind
To get a Theory of Everything, we need to begin by linking relativity with quantum theory and that's still a way off, despite the weekly "breakthroughs" announced. Think the tabloid press and cures for cancer.
Mr Eagles, thanks for the info about the Casey review. I 'd forgotten about the lawyers.
You've had a House experience too. Mine was multiple emergency admissions for a random selection of life threatening ones. Still no idea what set off tachycardia or other stuff. Cold is bad for your lungs ? o_O
.
Cold is bad for your lungs ? o_O
It is if you live in a flat so damp that it was declared unfit for human habitation. At any event, I have the sort of medical history with my lungs that makes doctors drool. I am practically a walking medical casebook. When I was v ill once in hospital I could hardly get any sleep so frequent were the visits from students and their teachers anxious to use me as a teaching aid.
Ah fair enough, "damp" (And the associated fungus) is for sure.
The interviewer, Dermot Murnaghan said "he's needing more time to find out the Labour line to to take"
'I could write a few dozen paragraphs on how it sickens me to see a so called Scottish Party( Do Scottish Labour exist on their own?) use Celtic (and Rangers) to increase their grass roots appeal and expand their media coverage, aided of course by that great friend of Celtic , The Daily Record ( Thugs and Thieves anyone), but I wont.
I could write a long and lengthy rant at how sad it is to see our Greatest Captain being used as a Political toy ( knowingly or unknowingly) to further a desperate mans attempt to climb up the popularity stakes by going for the lowest common denominator instead of actually thinking up Policy that can help people, but I wont.'
Mr. Crosby, that seems a weird thing to storm off over.
I've seen him live a few times.
Ultimately, though NGOs do what their supporters want, and why not? That's the reason there's an "N" in the phrase.
Rather magnificent.
Sectarianism has been dying for years, it's been dying since at least the late 80s and I can't remember the last time the code-phrase "what team do you support?" was asked of me by someone I met for the first time. I remember not so long ago it was the standard first question you ever got asked.
Now with the removal of the Old Firm Game for three years, its main re-enforcing factor has also gone.
Murphy appear to be courting a Catholic vote, he's been very forthright in reminding people how good a Catholic he is, I would think his expectation is that the Loyalist vote will stay with Labour regardless of what he says. I don't know how much traction that will have. UKIP support in the Loyalist trenches is pretty apparent on Rangers forums.
In effect he's failing to get Yes supporting Catholics back while alienating Yes and No supporting Protestants and alienating those of no religion.
Willing suspension of disbelief. Oxford and its surrounding countryside are nothing like Morse Lewis and Midsommer Murders. Although the recent arson and destruction of the council offices contradict that (in fact on second thought they don't - its far too unbelievable event for fiction).
All crime/police/spy/political dramas are fantasy. The more you try to make them look believable the more of dilemma's horns you catch yourself on.
If my grandson is anything to go by, Big Bang Theory is comedy for 11 year olds. I can't work out if that is good or bad. There is of course the possibility that all Art is infantile which, were it to be true, is perhaps a concept even deeper than Quantum Mechanics.
If he'd stuck to his guns and said, look when I read the letter I will give you a comment, he;d have been OK....
And you can also enjoy the flounce of Chukka..spoiled brat that he is.
Young Tories promised a holiday in Ibiza with Dave and SamCam if they knock on enough doors before election
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2916765/Young-Tories-promised-holiday-Ibiza-Dave-SamCam-knock-doors-election.html
'Labour really going to turn the leadership over to him after Red Ed? I mean really?'
I hope so,great entertainment.
Pure comedy gold.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-information-office/2014/Lords-notice-list-of-candidates-Chorley-Abernethy.pdf
As usual we have short statements from most of the candidates (but not the Duke of Marlborough).
Results first week of February.
Do you know the original concept of 24 was going to be 24 hours before a wedding. I watched 24 for the real-time ness, not the Jack Bauer and his CTU friends fun show. It would have been great if the second season had ditched tyhe entire cast of the first season and had done something different - just kept the real time nature.
I find the Big Bang theory to be the most painfully unfunny sitcom I can remember watching. It seems to be mainly laughing at stale cliches of nerds, but with a laughter track to remind you when to laugh.
They use a live audience, not a laughter track.
1st prize: one week with Dave and Sam.
2nd prize....
But I have nothing, on John Boehner, Speaker of the US House of Representatives.
He's done a response to Obama's latest policy using Taylor Swift gifs
http://www.speaker.gov/general/12-taylor-swift-reactions-president-obamas-free-college-idea
Just the other day the Guardian release a piece of saying that 'Islamophobia' (i.e. criticism of Islam), is "racism plain and simple" and therefor not "legitimate expression":
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/10/islamophobia-racism-dresden-protests-germany-islamisation
Presumably the ground is being prepared for a banning of anti-Islam criticism, because, like racism, it is "illegitimate" and therefore not covered by free speech.
Q: "Is the letter patronising?"
A: "I haven't read the letter and I will do so and look forward to coming back to discuss it here (endearing grin to Dermot) but I think we need to remember that all communities make a great contrib...etc, etc, blah, blah.."
Job done.
It is absolutely divisive. Over half of Scotland DO NOT SUPPORT the Old Firm. In fact they despise the Old Firm for a variety of football and non-football reasons. Where's Willie Miller or John Robertson or David Narey or whoever other Scottish players might deserve the same consideration of Greig and McNeill but don't happen to be Old Firm legends?
Interestingly Survation identified the SNP surge 6 months ahead of the referendum, whereas most other pollsters didn't pick it up until post-ref. I think this might be due to Survation weighting regionally.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_391066.pdf
It show Labour spending in the last parliament almost targeting a 3% deficit. For 2013/14 the deficit is 5.8% down from 10.8% in 2009/10, with debt now up to 87.9%. This shows there is still a long way to go on deficit reduction, let alone debt reduction.
One methodological change is that child tax credits and working tax credits are now accounted for as benefits received, rather than negative tax as in the past.
Brilliantly angry letter.
No reason today to believe that Oxfam have severed their ties with Labour.
https://twitter.com/cjsnowdon/status/557146128349941761/photo/1
Maybe they hired someone from the Lib Dems instead of from Labour?
With Klass and Blunt against them, I really don't see how labour can win from here.
Annoy Philip Schofield, and its definitely curtains.
''Unlike other manufacturers who offer more generous warranties, Flow’s boilers – manufactured in Scotland by a US firm called Jabil – only have a two-year warranty. ''
Generating electricity is an advantage - but the 'payback' period for any modern traditional boiler usually kicks in just as it reaches the end of its life. Of course if your boiler has gone kaput then you need a new one...
Following on from the Bizarre Love Triangle involving Brooks Newmark, his todger and his cameraphone, the Tories have selected James Cleverly as their candidate to replace Brooks Newmark in Braintree.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2015/jan/19/blue-monday-most-depressing-day-year
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/opinion/marine-le-pen-france-was-attacked-by-islamic-fundamentalism.html?ref=international&_r=0
TBF he may have a point about it being a class thing - but then the logical thing to do is to ban all alcohol from football stadia, even the directors' box.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kMlGymb8jY