I have been out of the UK too long to have a sense of internal Labour politics. But from a distance, Benn would have seemed the obvious choice. It was his sacking that caused the rebellion in the cabinet and the no-confidence vote. And with his father, he has a pedigree ...
Genuine question - why did he not stand? If he could not win, why not?
Pedigree. Sounds so much better than nepotism.
But, being pedantic, it would only be nepotism if the father secured the position for him.
Blair in particular had two massive majorities but failed to be radical enough. The minimum wage was a good example of what he did achieve in his first term, but that's balanced by the devolution cockup - which very nearly broke the Union a decade and a half later. Maybe May can cement her legacy early on with the same radical thinking as another woman did in the same position.
Oh, and build the damn Heathrow runway. And another one while we've got the diggers out!
A strange revisionist assessment of Blair. Devolution was hugely popular in both Scotland and Wales at the time after years of centralisation from Westminster. The Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly actually gave the Conservatives a way back after the 1997 wipe out.
Up to 1999, Blair and Brown followed Clarke's spending plans but the decision to increase spending was widely welcomed and even the Conservatives didn't say at the time spending should be cut - indeed, the message in 2001 was they could do more if central Government was reduced in size.
As to the second Blair term, the events of September 11th 2001 changed everything and we will never know what, if those terrible events had never happened, the Labour Government might have achieved at home. The consequences of those events live with us to this day.
I have been out of the UK too long to have a sense of internal Labour politics. But from a distance, Benn would have seemed the obvious choice. It was his sacking that caused the rebellion in the cabinet and the no-confidence vote. And with his father, he has a pedigree ...
Genuine question - why did he not stand? If he could not win, why not?
Labour's members are not currently in the mood to uphold international law and human right with anything that might actually hurt the bad guys. Consequently, Benn is a warmonger.
I had always read that disposing of the brine was an environmental problem of the first order. Dumping it into the Dead Sea seems like a brilliant solution at first glance. But most countries don't have a Dead Sea, and it will be interesting to hear the ecological impact on the Dead Sea and the River Jordan once the dumping has been going for a while.
Is the salt composition of the Med the same as a salt lake? If not, what will this change?
Great to hear that the energy costs of desal have been cut so much, though.
Corbynistas have a new mantra: "JC is forming the biggest political party in Europe".
It'll take some explaining then when they lose 100 seats at next GE.
Parliament, what's that? They're trying to create a movement of workers and people to overthrow Tory scum on, err, Twitter.
The PLP are the Russians in Afghanistan. Their opponents are playing by different rules with different objectives. Corbyn doesn't need to win a general election. He does need control of the NEC. The boundary changes, plus GE20, will simply winnow out the disloyal 172.
It must be a race against time though. Sooner or later the young hipsters and students who think JC walks on water will realise that they have been had by a load of snake oil salesmen.
I very much doubt that. The young hipsters are beyond redemption IMO.
They'll move on. The whole point about being a hipster is to be hip. Trends change. It won't always be cool to be a Corbynista, especially after crushing electoral defeat.
Going against the grain is very valued by these people, being unpopular and losing is what they want. It's the same reason the Guardian makes no money while the Times does. They wear their unpopularity like a badge of honour.
There is certainly a bitterite tendency among the. Orbyn clan, but it's very small. Wide-eyed and credulous is much more typical. The GE defeat will drstroy many of them.
I actually think that defeat will make them bolder than before, they will blame the media, claim MI5 fixed the result and all manner of other theories but they won't even contemplate the bleeding obvious that their candidate is terrible and people are too sensible to vote for a party led by him. Labour are reaping what they have sowed, tbh and my sympathy is running lower and lower everyday. Especially since Smith is such a terrible candidate, he make Corbyn look half decent
I disagree. We'll find out, I guess.
did u see the comres poll that showed the tory party at -11 favourable/unfavourable (not good obvs.) and the Labour party at -20%? I'm quite young so I don't remember the last time that labour party were more unpopular than the Toariiiies.
Fascinating to see the ascendancy of Theresa May on the "favourable-unfavourable" polling numbers. She stands head and shoulders above all parties and all other political figures currently. It's remarkable for someone who has fallen into the top job and done almost nothing since she got there.
Her supporters "MayBes" (that's my suggestion) seem to have latched on to her much as a drowning man latches on to a lifebelt.
''Great to hear that the energy costs of desal have been cut so much, though. ''
AEP has done a couple of quite good (for him) ''gamechanger'' articles recently. There is one on how US shale oil producer costs are plummeting, and one on how battery storage technology advances are changing the energy production game.
Fascinating to see the ascendancy of Theresa May on the "favourable-unfavourable" polling numbers. She stands head and shoulders above all parties and all other political figures currently. It's remarkable for someone who has fallen into the top job and done almost nothing since she got there.
Her supporters "MayBes" (that's my suggestion) seem to have latched on to her much as a drowning man latches on to a lifebelt.
I think she may (no pun) turn out well, but I have to laugh at comments which say things like 'She's proven she will be X or y on z' and 'It is clear as leader she will z', when she's been in the job not long and not had time to prove anything. The one ruthless thing she did, sack Osborne, is itself still disputed in how ruthlessly she did it.
I have been out of the UK too long to have a sense of internal Labour politics. But from a distance, Benn would have seemed the obvious choice. It was his sacking that caused the rebellion in the cabinet and the no-confidence vote. And with his father, he has a pedigree ...
Genuine question - why did he not stand? If he could not win, why not?
Pedigree. Sounds so much better than nepotism.
But, being pedantic, it would only be nepotism if the father secured the position for him.
Only if his uncle secured the position, surely?
Thank you, I did not know that.
"Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives. The term originated with the assignment of nephews to cardinal positions by Catholic popes and bishops."
There were certainly lots of other people who contributed to the Ultra system but were there really lots of other people who contributed to the Ultra system more?
I think there's a conflation between Turing's contribution to wartime decryption efforts and his role as early pioneer of computing. Although Bletchley Park is famous for the world's first semi-programmable computer, Colossus, Turing wasn't involved in that project. Nor did he create the Bombe - the machines that decrypted Enigma naval codes. He was however key in working out decryption techniques for Enigma especially after the Germans upgraded the machine during the war.
There were several heros at Bletchley but the one I would pick out above all others is Bill Tutte who was able to reconstruct the Lorenz cypher machine used for Army codes, simply from the codes, and without seeing an actual machine. He did this using just one mistakenly transmitted message - the same message was encoded twice with the identical key.
My second hero is Tommy Flowers who was a telephone engineer who proposed using valves for an electronic computer. He used his own money to build part of the computer in the face of sceptism that such a machine could operate with thousands of valves, any of which could blow at any time.
''Great to hear that the energy costs of desal have been cut so much, though. ''
AEP has done a couple of quite good (for him) ''gamechanger'' articles recently. There is one on how US shale oil producer costs are plummeting, and one on how battery storage technology advances are changing the energy production game.
Presumably the latter brings solar more into the energy mix. But there is still the issue of efficient transport of solar - the best sources are not particularly close to the bigger conurbations.
In the US, Musk, through Solar City, is trying to really push the house-top solar market.
''Great to hear that the energy costs of desal have been cut so much, though. ''
AEP has done a couple of quite good (for him) ''gamechanger'' articles recently. There is one on how US shale oil producer costs are plummeting, and one on how battery storage technology advances are changing the energy production game.
...and one today on the very rapidly improving economics / value of offshore wind...
Comments
It should be Theresa and her "Mates".
Up to 1999, Blair and Brown followed Clarke's spending plans but the decision to increase spending was widely welcomed and even the Conservatives didn't say at the time spending should be cut - indeed, the message in 2001 was they could do more if central Government was reduced in size.
As to the second Blair term, the events of September 11th 2001 changed everything and we will never know what, if those terrible events had never happened, the Labour Government might have achieved at home. The consequences of those events live with us to this day.
Well, that is the prize, isn't it?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37084410
Is the salt composition of the Med the same as a salt lake? If not, what will this change?
Great to hear that the energy costs of desal have been cut so much, though.
Fascinating to see the ascendancy of Theresa May on the "favourable-unfavourable" polling numbers. She stands head and shoulders above all parties and all other political figures currently. It's remarkable for someone who has fallen into the top job and done almost nothing since she got there.
Her supporters "MayBes" (that's my suggestion) seem to have latched on to her much as a drowning man latches on to a lifebelt.
NEW THREAD NEW THREAD
Paul Ryan 180-220
John Kasich 430-850
Mike Pence 800-920
Ladbrokes:
Trump to be replaced as Republican candidate 5\1
AEP has done a couple of quite good (for him) ''gamechanger'' articles recently. There is one on how US shale oil producer costs are plummeting, and one on how battery storage technology advances are changing the energy production game.
"Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives. The term originated with the assignment of nephews to cardinal positions by Catholic popes and bishops."
There were several heros at Bletchley but the one I would pick out above all others is Bill Tutte who was able to reconstruct the Lorenz cypher machine used for Army codes, simply from the codes, and without seeing an actual machine. He did this using just one mistakenly transmitted message - the same message was encoded twice with the identical key.
My second hero is Tommy Flowers who was a telephone engineer who proposed using valves for an electronic computer. He used his own money to build part of the computer in the face of sceptism that such a machine could operate with thousands of valves, any of which could blow at any time.
In the US, Musk, through Solar City, is trying to really push the house-top solar market.
" Jeremy Corbyn has nearly twice as much support among Labour voters as his rival Owen Smith , a poll shows today.
The exclusive survey for the Sunday Mirror reveals that Mr Corbyn enjoys a lead of 22 points over the contender for his leadership crown.
The poll shows 47 per cent of people intending to vote for Labour believe Corbyn makes the better leader, with 25 per cent opting for Smith.
I would have thought that was enough