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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Mrs. May’s new PM ratings honeymoon is bigger than Thatcher

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    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,220
    MTimT said:

    Cyclefree said:

    MTimT said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Charles said:

    Cyclefree said:

    MaxPB said:
    Well, obviously. That sounds quite disgusting: never eat pizza outside of Naples. Pizza should have nothing but tomatoes, oregano, olive oil and mozzarella. Olives and basil if you must. San Marzano tomatoes and really fresh mozzarella from Battipaglia are one of life's great glories.

    Pineapple and ham and tuna and eggs just mark you out as a barbarian, fit only for Dominos.

    Polenta should be used like couscous: as a base for more delicious flavours and as a way of providing bulk.

    In Socal they refer to pineapple and ham pizza as a "sweet pig" and it works really rather well...
    Oh dear.......

    I am not in fact a great pizza lover but I do have it when I am in Naples. Once or twice a year there will do me. Everything else that passes for it is an abomination, as far as I'm concerned.

    I could quite happily live on nothing but pasta al pomodoro, mozzarella, tomatoes, arancini di riso, mortadella, lemons and panettone at Xmas for the rest of my life.............

    What, no truffles? No tagliatelle al fungi? No prosciutto? No gelato? What an ascetic you are!
    Prosciutto is included in mortadella. Gelato is nice but not a "must have". Truffles: bah! Tagliatelli ai funghi are nice. I also like a good risotto and osso buco and I absolutely adore calves' brains, which were a regular in my childhood. Vitello tonnato and, indeed, veal of any kind is nice and I am partial to offal generally. Mussels, sea bass and pasta alle vongole and pasta soups with lentils, peas, beans, artichokes are also nice. My mother's meat loaf is unsurpassable.

    But if I were paring it down and trying to minimize cooking time so I could spend more time in the sea or in the garden or generally on the terrace, a glass of limoncello or good wine in hand, that's what I would choose.

    Still, if anyone wants to invite me to lunch/dinner where the other foods are on the menu.................. :)

    Ah, there's part of the difference. While I like pottering in my kitchen garden and love the sea, I prefer to limit my time in the sun (for very sound family medical reasons), and suspect I enjoy my time in the kitchen as much as you do yours gardening or by the sea.

    Even so, simple dishes are very often the best.
    I agree with that last sentence wholeheartedly.

    I spend so much time indoors, necessarily, that I crave the outdoors for my free time. I will happily garden in driving rain, if need be.

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    Mr. Urquhart, that Volvo anecdote's rather good.

    Miss Plato, the provision of olives was a factor when considering where to found Greek cities.

    One of them (maybe Byzantium) was described as perfect in all regards, excepting the lack of olives.

    Edited extra bit: anyway, must be off.

    How imagine Brownlee brother watching the rugby league....

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO8rQt7685g
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    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,031
    edited August 2016

    Mr. StClare, must confess I don't know what that means.

    Schade. Or "Mensch!" as my German teacher would mutter whenever we got something obvious wrong.

    It's funny, I always cry out Mensch when there's a really annoying woman spouting shit on the TV.
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    PlatoSaidPlatoSaid Posts: 10,383
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Charles said:

    Cyclefree said:

    MaxPB said:

    The Italians managed to turn polenta into a trendy food. If they can do that with something that tastes like heated MDF, anything is possible.

    My gf made me try a polenta pizza in Milan recently. It felt like a wasted meal, literally no taste.
    snip

    In Socal they refer to pineapple and ham pizza as a "sweet pig" and it works really rather well...
    Oh dear.......

    I am not in fact a great pizza lover but I do have it when I am in Naples. Once or twice a year there will do me. Everything else that passes for it is an abomination, as far as I'm concerned.

    I could quite happily live on nothing but pasta al pomodoro, mozzarella, tomatoes, arancini di riso, mortadella, lemons and panettone at Xmas for the rest of my life.............

    Might I recommend Franco Manca. I'm quite the pizza snob and generally only eat my own pizzas, but I do enjoy FM. Wouldn't go out for pizza anywhere else in London.
    My lad and his mate are making pizza down in the kitchen (it's raining, and they're finally bored with video games) even as a I write here in my office. The results may or may not be edible, but the kitchen will most definitely look like a tomato bomb detonation in a flour mill. :(
    Everyone has to start somewhere! When it was me I was in my parent's kitchen making an awful mess. Now I'm in my own kitchen making less of a mess and with the right tools to bake a pizza in 160 seconds, the best ovens do them in 90, but unfortunately I don't have a garden in which to build a wood fired oven. :(
    My big brother became a chef after experimenting with all sorts of horrors in our kitchen as a ween. I thought going to primary school covered in food colouring and smelling of marzipan was normal.

    My parents owned a 150 cover place in the 70s and I'm amazed a) that I survived my mum's fondness for whipped cream b) the Galloping Gourmet style food c) the bugs and rats that lived side by side with us. Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares have nothing on us. No wonder my constitution is bombproof. I've seen fish fillets moving... and cuddly desserts.

    I love going to restaurants and trying to retro-engineer what I've eaten. Nevertheless.
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    Seems a bit of shame how many of Team GB have already fled Rio. I don't blame them, but the closing ceremony could be a down to couple of poor sods who are only there because they missed their flights.
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,313
    FF43 said:


    YouGov have asked me a very interesting question.

    The number of pupils studying foreign languages at A Level has now reached a record low. If you were 16 today and had to choose, would you learn a foreign language or a computer programming language?

    Foreign language

    or

    Computer programming language


    I'm someone who is fluent in several languages, and I love learning different languages, I reckon if forced, I'd go for the computing programming course.

    What do other PBers think?

    Neither. Foreigners invariably speak English, and frankly we are so appalling at teaching foreign languages that anyone who wants to learn one should just go and live abroad for six months, if that is still allowed after Brexit. And though most jobs use computers, very few need program them.

    Spreadsheets. That's what the kids need to learn. The misuse and abuse of spreadsheets is rife and people need to have at least the basics. Accountants might use them to tot up cash balances but for everyone else they are used for tables, project-planning, ad hoc databases and probably even pictures of cats. It is all wrong but spreadsheets are ubiquitous.
    I m going to make a plea for a (short) course in philosophy. People in this country don't know how to turn out an argument. Say a staff member wants a new piece of equipment. They will attempt to justify it with facts - how much it costs; how many gigabytes it has; what connections it has etc. But they won't attempt to persuade on the benefits: I can save this amount of time; it takes the stress out of my job and you get a happier employee; it allows us to provide a more reliable service - or whatever
    I would be very surprised if a philosophy course were much use in training people to write a business case for computer equipment!
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    Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,856
    JohnO said:

    JohnO said:

    Gravesham East (Kent) result:
    CON: 36.0% (+8.4)
    LAB: 31.5% (-4.8)
    UKIP: 26.0% (+2.8)
    GRN: 4.3% (+4.3)
    LDEM: 2.3% (-1.5)

    Proper election too, not some Town Council nothingness. The actual numbers are Con 1758 / Lab 1538 / UKIP 1272.

    It was a very low turnout but even so, poor result for Labour in the sort of seat they need to be winning to form a government.
    On the face of it, that looks like a pretty respectable turnout even for a County Division.
    It was 16.38%, according to Vote UK.
    OK, yes, then low!
    That's a huge division then, almost half a constituency. Kent remains awful for Labour.
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    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,942
    Did Sheridan set fire to the curtains in a hotel room or was that some other bod ?
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    ThreeQuidderThreeQuidder Posts: 6,133
    Sandpit said:

    Linguistic/gender point but in the thread title it says "Mrs. May's ..." which is quite formal. Normally Cameron, Brown, Blair etc are referred to as such and without the formal Mr. in front of their name.

    Maybe a subconscious issue or maybe I've just not noticed it in the past but why refer to her title but not others? Is it because she's new, a woman, or has a name that is a also month (though having a name that is a colour didn't seem to be an issue when referring to Brown).

    Is it the same reason the Wimledon umpires refer to Nadal and Federer, but to Miss Williams and Mrs Henin?
    They do use Mr when a player loses a challenge.

    Which means that Murray shouldn't be knighted until he retires.

    Can you imagine "Sir Andrew has no challenges remaining"?
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    TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 40,218
    Pulpstar said:

    Did Sheridan set fire to the curtains in a hotel room or was that some other bod ?

    That was Mike Watson.
    It was the ALLEGED extra marital activity with TS.
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    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,610
    Just adding the PSF data to my models. Unbelievably we seem to have a real cut in spending. YTD current expenditure id £222.5bn, last year that was £222.8bn, with a rise of £0.4bn in interest payments. I'm astonished. Didn't think it would ever happen, Osborne's austerity finally materialised and now he's not even there to take the credit.
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    theakestheakes Posts: 842
    Whiston Council on Merseyside. Labour hold by 2 votes from Lib Dems.
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    david_herdsondavid_herdson Posts: 17,419

    Mr. Urquhart, that Volvo anecdote's rather good.

    Miss Plato, the provision of olives was a factor when considering where to found Greek cities.

    One of them (maybe Byzantium) was described as perfect in all regards, excepting the lack of olives.

    Edited extra bit: anyway, must be off.

    Won't be Byzantium: no natural freshwater source, I think?
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    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,655
    IanB2 said:

    FF43 said:


    YouGov have asked me a very interesting question.

    The number of pupils studying foreign languages at A Level has now reached a record low. If you were 16 today and had to choose, would you learn a foreign language or a computer programming language?

    Foreign language

    or

    Computer programming language


    I'm someone who is fluent in several languages, and I love learning different languages, I reckon if forced, I'd go for the computing programming course.

    What do other PBers think?

    Neither. Foreigners invariably speak English, and frankly we are so appalling at teaching foreign languages that anyone who wants to learn one should just go and live abroad for six months, if that is still allowed after Brexit. And though most jobs use computers, very few need program them.

    Spreadsheets. That's what the kids need to learn. The misuse and abuse of spreadsheets is rife and people need to have at least the basics. Accountants might use them to tot up cash balances but for everyone else they are used for tables, project-planning, ad hoc databases and probably even pictures of cats. It is all wrong but spreadsheets are ubiquitous.
    I m going to make a plea for a (short) course in philosophy. People in this country don't know how to turn out an argument. Say a staff member wants a new piece of equipment. They will attempt to justify it with facts - how much it costs; how many gigabytes it has; what connections it has etc. But they won't attempt to persuade on the benefits: I can save this amount of time; it takes the stress out of my job and you get a happier employee; it allows us to provide a more reliable service - or whatever
    I would be very surprised if a philosophy course were much use in training people to write a business case for computer equipment!
    But at least they would be able to use the phrase 'beg the question' correctly and know the difference between 'compare' and 'contrast'.
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    nunununu Posts: 6,024
    I didn't know the police were so powerful:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-37131460

    If you're a man just say no to anhy S&M lest it comes back to bite you on the bum.......
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,920
    MaxPB said:

    Just adding the PSF data to my models. Unbelievably we seem to have a real cut in spending. YTD current expenditure id £222.5bn, last year that was £222.8bn, with a rise of £0.4bn in interest payments. I'm astonished. Didn't think it would ever happen, Osborne's austerity finally materialised and now he's not even there to take the credit.

    Wow, an actual quarterly spending cut! Must be news to those who think we've had six years of cuts, but good to see it finally happening.
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    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,610
    There are a few interesting data points to take from the PSF, income tax take is up better in July than it has been YTD, not usually the sign of a faltering economy. Corporation tax is finally rising after years if stagnation due to falling rates, Osborne's gambit has worked IMO, the "expert" predictions of falling receipts with falling rates were well wide of the mark in the end and we should now collect a record amount of corporation tax this year.

    Overall having seen the data, I'm much more positive that we're looking at 0.2-0.3% growth for the current quarter, maybe even a bit higher. If there was a marked slowdown it would have begun seeping into the financial data, it just isn't there.
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    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,530
    edited August 2016

    Sandpit said:

    Linguistic/gender point but in the thread title it says "Mrs. May's ..." which is quite formal. Normally Cameron, Brown, Blair etc are referred to as such and without the formal Mr. in front of their name.

    Maybe a subconscious issue or maybe I've just not noticed it in the past but why refer to her title but not others? Is it because she's new, a woman, or has a name that is a also month (though having a name that is a colour didn't seem to be an issue when referring to Brown).

    Is it the same reason the Wimledon umpires refer to Nadal and Federer, but to Miss Williams and Mrs Henin?
    They do use Mr when a player loses a challenge.

    Which means that Murray shouldn't be knighted until he retires.

    Can you imagine "Sir Andrew has no challenges remaining"?
    2 Wimbledons, one other major, and 2 Olympic golds, he doesn't deserve a Knighthood now, he deserves a Dukedom.

    Somebody tell Prince Charles he's losing the Duke of Rothesay title to Andy Murray.

    The Duke of Rothesay has no challenges remaining sounds so much better and elegant
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    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,655
    When will the next GE be held? Maybe May? May may think that is the right time to call it.

    Maybe we should just call her Tezza.
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    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,610
    edited August 2016
    Sandpit said:

    MaxPB said:

    Just adding the PSF data to my models. Unbelievably we seem to have a real cut in spending. YTD current expenditure id £222.5bn, last year that was £222.8bn, with a rise of £0.4bn in interest payments. I'm astonished. Didn't think it would ever happen, Osborne's austerity finally materialised and now he's not even there to take the credit.

    Wow, an actual quarterly spending cut! Must be news to those who think we've had six years of cuts, but good to see it finally happening.
    Well thirdly, given that it's four months worth of data! Still good news though. The underlying financial position of the government is a lot better than people realise. I'm not going to call it a golden legacy since it tool Osborne 6 years to have the balls to cut spending, but he leaves the public purse in a stronger position than what he inherited. Far stronger.
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    MTimTMTimT Posts: 7,034
    edited August 2016
    Love this medals by population table from the Sydney Morning Herald which shows them ahead of the GB on the total medals and just one behind on the Golds/10 million population.

    Do they really, really want to go there, just to show that they are competitive with those WPBs? Because all it does is show how much better than them the Kiwis are ... ;)

    http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/rio-olympics-2016-where-australia-sits-in-the-real-medal-count-20160819-gqwbbd.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nc&eid=socialn:twi-13omn1677-edtrl-other:nnn-17/02/2014-edtrs_socialshare-all-nnn-nnn-vars-o&sa=D&usg=ALhdy28zsr6qiq
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    nunununu Posts: 6,024
    For the next government to call a second referendum on the EU would be... Acceptable: 34% Unacceptable: 56% (via YouGov)
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    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,610
    MTimT said:

    Love this medals by population table from the Sydney Morning Herald which shows them ahead of the GB on the total medals and just one behind on the Golds/10 million population.

    Do they really, really want to go there, just to show that they are competitive with those WPBs? Because all it does is show how much better than them the Kiwis are ... ;)

    http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/rio-olympics-2016-where-australia-sits-in-the-real-medal-count-20160819-gqwbbd.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nc&eid=socialn:twi-13omn1677-edtrl-other:nnn-17/02/2014-edtrs_socialshare-all-nnn-nnn-vars-o&sa=D&usg=ALhdy28zsr6qiq

    When a country/team starts making table adjustments to justify poor performance it's a bad sign. Australia sent a huge and well funded team, they just weren't at the races.
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,313
    For those interested in the China v GB (and NI) medal battle, this is an interesting piece of analysis:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/37085511

    Whilst some of our press coverage has positioned our improvement as a reaction to the poor performance in Atlanta, the historical medal table graph clearly shows that Atlanta was for some reason (?) an exceptionally low outlier; otherwise we have been working our way up the medal table for a long time, with a significant boost after London was awarded the Games in 2005.
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    MontyHallMontyHall Posts: 226

    When will the next GE be held? Maybe May? May may think that is the right time to call it.

    Maybe we should just call her Tezza.

    If she calls an election in May, particularly if she isn't popular at the time, "May Day" should be a slam dunk for any headline writer.



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    wasdwasd Posts: 276

    When will the next GE be held? Maybe May? May may think that is the right time to call it.

    Maybe we should just call her Tezza.

    Tessie M and her Westminster Crew?
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    SimonStClareSimonStClare Posts: 7,976
    edited August 2016
    MTimT said:

    Love this medals by population table from the Sydney Morning Herald which shows them ahead of the GB on the total medals and just one behind on the Golds/10 million population.

    Do they really, really want to go there, just to show that they are competitive with those WPBs? Because all it does is show how much better than them the Kiwis are ... ;)

    It’s just a bit of fun, but does show how countries with small populations often punch well above their weight. – Of course the only table that counts for anything is the one with HMQ as Head of State. :lol:
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    MTimTMTimT Posts: 7,034
    IanB2 said:

    For those interested in the China v GB (and NI) medal battle, this is an interesting piece of analysis:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/37085511

    Whilst some of our press coverage has positioned our improvement as a reaction to the poor performance in Atlanta, the historical medal table graph clearly shows that Atlanta was for some reason (?) an exceptionally low outlier; otherwise we have been working our way up the medal table for a long time, with a significant boost after London was awarded the Games in 2005.

    It would not surprise me if someone at some point correlated our decline and subsequent improvement in performance with levels of national pride post-Empire. I know that during the 70s patriotism in the UK was a dirty word, and winning simply was not expected (save in football, which perennially failed to deliver like clockwork). It strikes me that those attitudes have waned.
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    eekeek Posts: 25,007

    Sandpit said:

    Linguistic/gender point but in the thread title it says "Mrs. May's ..." which is quite formal. Normally Cameron, Brown, Blair etc are referred to as such and without the formal Mr. in front of their name.

    Maybe a subconscious issue or maybe I've just not noticed it in the past but why refer to her title but not others? Is it because she's new, a woman, or has a name that is a also month (though having a name that is a colour didn't seem to be an issue when referring to Brown).

    Is it the same reason the Wimledon umpires refer to Nadal and Federer, but to Miss Williams and Mrs Henin?
    They do use Mr when a player loses a challenge.

    Which means that Murray shouldn't be knighted until he retires.

    Can you imagine "Sir Andrew has no challenges remaining"?
    2 Wimbledons, one other major, and 2 Olympic golds, he doesn't deserve a Knighthood now, he deserves a Dukedom.

    Somebody tell Prince Charles he's losing the Duke of Rothesay title to Andy Murray.

    The Duke of Rothesay has no challenges remaining sounds so much better and elegant
    Just give him one of the currently extinct ones. Duke of Albemarle would provide a delightful WTF reaction in the French Open
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    nunununu Posts: 6,024
    nunu said:

    I didn't know the police were so powerful:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-37131460

    If you're a man just say no to anhy S&M lest it comes back to bite you on the bum.......

    oh and he has to represent himself aswell due to not being able to claim universal credit, he has no hope.
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    MTimTMTimT Posts: 7,034
    MaxPB said:

    MTimT said:

    Love this medals by population table from the Sydney Morning Herald which shows them ahead of the GB on the total medals and just one behind on the Golds/10 million population.

    Do they really, really want to go there, just to show that they are competitive with those WPBs? Because all it does is show how much better than them the Kiwis are ... ;)

    http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/rio-olympics-2016-where-australia-sits-in-the-real-medal-count-20160819-gqwbbd.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nc&eid=socialn:twi-13omn1677-edtrl-other:nnn-17/02/2014-edtrs_socialshare-all-nnn-nnn-vars-o&sa=D&usg=ALhdy28zsr6qiq

    When a country/team starts making table adjustments to justify poor performance it's a bad sign. Australia sent a huge and well funded team, they just weren't at the races.
    Indeed. And the straightforward medals by population is wrongheaded too.

    Take the EU vs the US for example. The US gets 3 representatives in a sport, the EU up to 78. The chances of misfortune suppressing expected US medal performances far outweighs that of the greater number of EU performers, just as the chance of an unexpectedly good performance from one or more of the EU's greater number of representatives far outweighs the chance of the US'.
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    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,101
    MTimT said:

    IanB2 said:

    For those interested in the China v GB (and NI) medal battle, this is an interesting piece of analysis:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/37085511

    Whilst some of our press coverage has positioned our improvement as a reaction to the poor performance in Atlanta, the historical medal table graph clearly shows that Atlanta was for some reason (?) an exceptionally low outlier; otherwise we have been working our way up the medal table for a long time, with a significant boost after London was awarded the Games in 2005.

    It would not surprise me if someone at some point correlated our decline and subsequent improvement in performance with levels of national pride post-Empire. I know that during the 70s patriotism in the UK was a dirty word, and winning simply was not expected (save in football, which perennially failed to deliver like clockwork). It strikes me that those attitudes have waned.
    There was a clear inflection point somewhere in the 70s which help Britain rediscover its place in the world. I wonder what it could be...
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    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    edited August 2016
    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "
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    John_MJohn_M Posts: 7,503

    Charles said:

    I'm shocked by this, shocked I tell you.

    Ukip Youth Group Trade Islamophobic, Anti-Semitic And Homophobic Slurs In Secret Facebook Group

    ‘Some of the most racist, hurtful and pathetic comments I have ever seen.’

    http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/uk_57b5db59e4b026af7c4cf56a

    Isn't that contradictory though?

    I mean if they are "pathetic" why are they "hurtful"? Unless you are a whining jessie
    I don't know why people would get so exorcised about some stuff a few numpties say in a secret Facebook group.

    Well, actually I do, but that makes it even worse: I could get annoyed by the left wing vapid bilge some of my friends post publicly, pretty much on a daily basis, but life is too short.
    image
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    MontyHallMontyHall Posts: 226

    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "

    Says the police have ruled out terrorism, and they are probably right to do so. There will surely be more and more attacks by people of one religion on another now we have so many living on close proximity, we cant keep calling it "terrorism" it's just life.
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    MTimTMTimT Posts: 7,034
    edited August 2016

    MTimT said:

    Love this medals by population table from the Sydney Morning Herald which shows them ahead of the GB on the total medals and just one behind on the Golds/10 million population.

    Do they really, really want to go there, just to show that they are competitive with those WPBs? Because all it does is show how much better than them the Kiwis are ... ;)

    but does show how countries with small populations often punch well above their weight.
    But does it really? I think what it shows is random chance at work. In a world where talent is randomly distributed among the world's population, some of that talent will be in Vanuatu. If that country wins just one medal, it will by simple maths beat the bigger countries on a medals/population table.

    Statistically, there will always be some small countries winning medals, which means that statistically it is highly unlikely that the larger countries would ever be at the top of the medals per head of population table.

    PS I do get that it is also just a bit of fun.
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    John_MJohn_M Posts: 7,503

    IanB2 said:

    FF43 said:


    YouGov have asked me a very interesting question.

    The number of pupils studying foreign languages at A Level has now reached a record low. If you were 16 today and had to choose, would you learn a foreign language or a computer programming language?

    Foreign language

    or

    Computer programming language


    I'm someone who is fluent in several languages, and I love learning different languages, I reckon if forced, I'd go for the computing programming course.

    What do other PBers think?

    Neither. Foreigners invariably speak English, and frankly we are so appalling at teaching foreign languages that anyone who wants to learn one should just go and live abroad for six months, if that is still allowed after Brexit. And though most jobs use computers, very few need program them.

    Spreadsheets. That's what the kids need to learn. The misuse and abuse of spreadsheets is rife and people need to have at least the basics. Accountants might use them to tot up cash balances but for everyone else they are used for tables, project-planning, ad hoc databases and probably even pictures of cats. It is all wrong but spreadsheets are ubiquitous.
    I m going to make a plea for a (short) course in philosophy. People in this country don't know how to turn out an argument. Say a staff member wants a new piece of equipment. They will attempt to justify it with facts - how much it costs; how many gigabytes it has; what connections it has etc. But they won't attempt to persuade on the benefits: I can save this amount of time; it takes the stress out of my job and you get a happier employee; it allows us to provide a more reliable service - or whatever
    I would be very surprised if a philosophy course were much use in training people to write a business case for computer equipment!
    But at least they would be able to use the phrase 'beg the question' correctly and know the difference between 'compare' and 'contrast'.
    I'm in favour of anything that encourages people to write lucid, concise prose.
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    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,277
    MontyHall said:

    When will the next GE be held? Maybe May? May may think that is the right time to call it.

    Maybe we should just call her Tezza.

    If she calls an election in May, particularly if she isn't popular at the time, "May Day" should be a slam dunk for any headline writer.



    May Day for Labour.
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    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,277
    ... and I believe one D Miliband runs something called International Rescue.
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    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,610
    edited August 2016
    https://twitter.com/samueltombs/status/766566839073796096?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

    More evidence that Sam Tombs is an idiot. The fall in "Taxes on production" all comes from a fall in tobacco duty from £1.21bn to £0.75bn, I very much doubt that had anything to do with Brexit. It's why no one looks too hard a single month's data. Fitting the data to his narrative again, the PSF figures are broadly positive tbh. Without the volatile tobacco duty figure the YoY rise is about 2%, which is in line with the rest of the release.
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    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,101
    MontyHall said:

    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "

    Says the police have ruled out terrorism, and they are probably right to do so. There will surely be more and more attacks by people of one religion on another now we have so many living on close proximity, we cant keep calling it "terrorism" it's just life.
    There are three doors concealing two terrorists and a peaceful citizen. You open the first and see a man known locally as Dave with a few mental health issues reciting the Quran. Do you switch?
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    MTimTMTimT Posts: 7,034

    MontyHall said:

    When will the next GE be held? Maybe May? May may think that is the right time to call it.

    Maybe we should just call her Tezza.

    If she calls an election in May, particularly if she isn't popular at the time, "May Day" should be a slam dunk for any headline writer.



    May Day for Labour.
    May may win May.
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    PlatoSaidPlatoSaid Posts: 10,383
    edited August 2016

    MontyHall said:

    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "

    Says the police have ruled out terrorism, and they are probably right to do so. There will surely be more and more attacks by people of one religion on another now we have so many living on close proximity, we cant keep calling it "terrorism" it's just life.
    There are three doors concealing two terrorists and a peaceful citizen. You open the first and see a man known locally as Dave with a few mental health issues reciting the Quran. Do you switch?
    :lol:

    Exactly the sort of sentimental-bollox free comment that makes PB unique.
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    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,220

    MTimT said:

    IanB2 said:

    For those interested in the China v GB (and NI) medal battle, this is an interesting piece of analysis:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/37085511

    Whilst some of our press coverage has positioned our improvement as a reaction to the poor performance in Atlanta, the historical medal table graph clearly shows that Atlanta was for some reason (?) an exceptionally low outlier; otherwise we have been working our way up the medal table for a long time, with a significant boost after London was awarded the Games in 2005.

    It would not surprise me if someone at some point correlated our decline and subsequent improvement in performance with levels of national pride post-Empire. I know that during the 70s patriotism in the UK was a dirty word, and winning simply was not expected (save in football, which perennially failed to deliver like clockwork). It strikes me that those attitudes have waned.
    There was a clear inflection point somewhere in the 70s which help Britain rediscover its place in the world. I wonder what it could be...
    The election of Mrs Thatcher?

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    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,759
    MTimT said:

    MTimT said:

    Love this medals by population table from the Sydney Morning Herald which shows them ahead of the GB on the total medals and just one behind on the Golds/10 million population.

    Do they really, really want to go there, just to show that they are competitive with those WPBs? Because all it does is show how much better than them the Kiwis are ... ;)

    but does show how countries with small populations often punch well above their weight.
    But does it really? I think what it shows is random chance at work. In a world where talent is randomly distributed among the world's population, some of that talent will be in Vanuatu. If that country wins just one medal, it will by simple maths beat the bigger countries on a medals/population table.

    Statistically, there will always be some small countries winning medals, which means that statistically it is highly unlikely that the larger countries would ever be at the top of the medals per head of population table.

    PS I do get that it is also just a bit of fun.
    The number of medals each country wins is somewhat correlated to the amount of money that country spends on developing potential medal winning athletes. Small wealthy countries such as those in the EU probably spend more per head of population than large wealthy countries.

    I believe the USA and the UK and spend roughly the same amount of money on Olympic training. I am guessing the quality of the operations is also about the same. The USA wins more medals than the UK because it has a larger pool of top class athletes to call on. The UK wins more medals per head of population but fewer medals per dollar spent, compared with the USA.
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    MontyHallMontyHall Posts: 226

    MontyHall said:

    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "

    Says the police have ruled out terrorism, and they are probably right to do so. There will surely be more and more attacks by people of one religion on another now we have so many living on close proximity, we cant keep calling it "terrorism" it's just life.
    There are three doors concealing two terrorists and a peaceful citizen. You open the first and see a man known locally as Dave with a few mental health issues reciting the Quran. Do you switch?
    Such blurred lines nowadays its tricky to define either way really. I don't think we can say every attack by a muslim shouting muslim stuff is "terrorism" though can we? Religious hatred maybe a better term.

    Calling it terrorism when its lone wolf seems over the top, plus it gives apologists the chance to pretend its nothing to worry about by lefty style mocking attempts at ironic humour
  • Options
    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,220
    MontyHall said:

    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "

    Says the police have ruled out terrorism, and they are probably right to do so. There will surely be more and more attacks by people of one religion on another now we have so many living on close proximity, we cant keep calling it "terrorism" it's just life.
    We could call them hate crimes, perhaps.

    But really your reasoning is suspect: we have had people of different religions living in close proximity for some considerable time. If there is an increase in attacks by religious people on other religious groups perhaps we might want to see whether there are any patterns e.g. which religions are targeted and whether there might be other reasons for such crimes other than mere proximity.

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    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,277
    PBers, don't miss out on your chance to get a newly-minted Corbyn emojis!

    All you need to do is check whether you can vote for Jezza:

    http://votecheck.jeremyforlabour.com/

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    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    edited August 2016
    Lone nutters stabbing one another person probably isn't terrorism...but I think there is a difference where there has been a clear ISIS / AQ inspiration to the attack compared to a "general" hate crime.

    None of which is necessarily clear cut. But it does seem that the authorities standard line now is always nutter, not terrorism, case closed.
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    John_MJohn_M Posts: 7,503
    edited August 2016
    Cyclefree said:

    MTimT said:

    IanB2 said:

    For those interested in the China v GB (and NI) medal battle, this is an interesting piece of analysis:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/37085511

    Whilst some of our press coverage has positioned our improvement as a reaction to the poor performance in Atlanta, the historical medal table graph clearly shows that Atlanta was for some reason (?) an exceptionally low outlier; otherwise we have been working our way up the medal table for a long time, with a significant boost after London was awarded the Games in 2005.

    It would not surprise me if someone at some point correlated our decline and subsequent improvement in performance with levels of national pride post-Empire. I know that during the 70s patriotism in the UK was a dirty word, and winning simply was not expected (save in football, which perennially failed to deliver like clockwork). It strikes me that those attitudes have waned.
    There was a clear inflection point somewhere in the 70s which help Britain rediscover its place in the world. I wonder what it could be...
    The election of Mrs Thatcher?

    I reached puberty. It's the only logical explanation. In fact, the UK has grown wealthier and healthier ever since I was born. No, it's OK, you're all welcome, I don't do it for the thanks.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,920
    MontyHall said:

    MontyHall said:

    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "

    Says the police have ruled out terrorism, and they are probably right to do so. There will surely be more and more attacks by people of one religion on another now we have so many living on close proximity, we cant keep calling it "terrorism" it's just life.
    There are three doors concealing two terrorists and a peaceful citizen. You open the first and see a man known locally as Dave with a few mental health issues reciting the Quran. Do you switch?
    Such blurred lines nowadays its tricky to define either way really. I don't think we can say every attack by a muslim shouting muslim stuff is "terrorism" though can we? Religious hatred maybe a better term.

    Calling it terrorism when its lone wolf seems over the top, plus it gives apologists the chance to pretend its nothing to worry about by lefty style mocking attempts at ironic humour
    I remember the Lee Rigby killers were charged simply with murder, rather than anything terrorist related.
    Meant that the trial was quick and factual, didn't go into the 'why' - which would have served no purpose except to give the morons more time to spout their bile in court. A good decision for one off 'events' like that.
  • Options
    CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,220
    MontyHall said:

    MontyHall said:

    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "

    Says the police have ruled out terrorism, and they are probably right to do so. There will surely be more and more attacks by people of one religion on another now we have so many living on close proximity, we cant keep calling it "terrorism" it's just life.
    There are three doors concealing two terrorists and a peaceful citizen. You open the first and see a man known locally as Dave with a few mental health issues reciting the Quran. Do you switch?
    Such blurred lines nowadays its tricky to define either way really. I don't think we can say every attack by a muslim shouting muslim stuff is "terrorism" though can we? Religious hatred maybe a better term.

    Calling it terrorism when its lone wolf seems over the top, plus it gives apologists the chance to pretend its nothing to worry about by lefty style mocking attempts at ironic humour
    It may well not be terrorism but if one particular group is targeted then for them it will feel as if they are the target for a sort of low level terror, if they have to be worried about being out in public while wearing items denoting their religion or if they are worried about security at schools or places of worship etc. And we should be concerned if that is happening.

  • Options

    NEW THREAD NEW THREAD

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    SeanT said:

    MontyHall said:

    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "

    Says the police have ruled out terrorism, and they are probably right to do so. There will surely be more and more attacks by people of one religion on another now we have so many living on close proximity, we cant keep calling it "terrorism" it's just life.
    That's great. Now we can rule out terrorism before the attacks even happen. I hereby predict the next seventeen terror attacks will not be terror, they'll just be something to do with people of one religion living in "close proximity" to people of another religion and occasionally attacking them.

    Even better, we can say that the era of terrorism is over, because we can and must call it something else. Hooray!

    Liberal Fuckwittery Cubed.

    Look good on the stats....# of terrorist related attacked = 0, winning.
  • Options
    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,101

    SeanT said:

    MontyHall said:

    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "

    Says the police have ruled out terrorism, and they are probably right to do so. There will surely be more and more attacks by people of one religion on another now we have so many living on close proximity, we cant keep calling it "terrorism" it's just life.
    That's great. Now we can rule out terrorism before the attacks even happen. I hereby predict the next seventeen terror attacks will not be terror, they'll just be something to do with people of one religion living in "close proximity" to people of another religion and occasionally attacking them.

    Even better, we can say that the era of terrorism is over, because we can and must call it something else. Hooray!

    Liberal Fuckwittery Cubed.

    Look good on the stats....# of terrorist related attacked = 0, winning.
    We will fight them on the bar-charts in the best tradition of Liberal Democracy.
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    MontyHallMontyHall Posts: 226
    SeanT said:

    MontyHall said:

    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "

    Says the police have ruled out terrorism, and they are probably right to do so. There will surely be more and more attacks by people of one religion on another now we have so many living on close proximity, we cant keep calling it "terrorism" it's just life.
    That's great. Now we can rule out terrorism before the attacks even happen. I hereby predict the next seventeen terror attacks will not be terror, they'll just be something to do with people of one religion living in "close proximity" to people of another religion and occasionally attacking them.

    Even better, we can say that the era of terrorism is over, because we can and must call it something else. Hooray!

    Liberal Fuckwittery Cubed.

    I think you are misunderstanding where I am coming from, I certainly am not pretending all is well, far from it. I think the fact that it is not terrorism makes it far worse for western society
  • Options
    PlatoSaidPlatoSaid Posts: 10,383

    SeanT said:

    MontyHall said:

    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "

    Says the police have ruled out terrorism, and they are probably right to do so. There will surely be more and more attacks by people of one religion on another now we have so many living on close proximity, we cant keep calling it "terrorism" it's just life.
    That's great. Now we can rule out terrorism before the attacks even happen. I hereby predict the next seventeen terror attacks will not be terror, they'll just be something to do with people of one religion living in "close proximity" to people of another religion and occasionally attacking them.

    Even better, we can say that the era of terrorism is over, because we can and must call it something else. Hooray!

    Liberal Fuckwittery Cubed.

    Look good on the stats....# of terrorist related attacked = 0, winning.
    We will fight them on the bar-charts in the best tradition of Liberal Democracy.
    :lol:
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    nunununu Posts: 6,024
    SeanT said:

    MontyHall said:

    MontyHall said:

    Rabbi is stabbed in Strasbourg by a 'Muslim attacker’ who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar'

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748782/Jewish-rabbi-stabbed-Strasbourg-Muslim-attacker.html

    and guess what....

    "The attacker is believed to have a history of mental health issues. "

    Says the police have ruled out terrorism, and they are probably right to do so. There will surely be more and more attacks by people of one religion on another now we have so many living on close proximity, we cant keep calling it "terrorism" it's just life.
    There are three doors concealing two terrorists and a peaceful citizen. You open the first and see a man known locally as Dave with a few mental health issues reciting the Quran. Do you switch?
    Such blurred lines nowadays its tricky to define either way really. I don't think we can say every attack by a muslim shouting muslim stuff is "terrorism" though can we? Religious hatred maybe a better term.

    Calling it terrorism when its lone wolf seems over the top, plus it gives apologists the chance to pretend its nothing to worry about by lefty style mocking attempts at ironic humour
    So we must clearly lie to the people, and indulge in a bizarre and collective act of denial, lest we give lefty comics the chance to fashion some ironic humour?

    That's the main worry now. Ironic humour from Mark Steel or Bill Bailey. Not terror. No. Bill Bailey.
    What's wrong with calling it a hate crime or an antisemitic crime if that's what it was?
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    theakestheakes Posts: 842
    Appears nothing at all in this weeks results to support a Conservative surge, nothing at all.
    Only party receiving increase percentage of varying amounts in almost every piece of action except Gravesham, is the "ineffective and out of the picture" Lib Dems! It is a funny old world.
This discussion has been closed.