Meantime how can anyone write this with a straight face:
"Our revelation heaps further shame on the ex-PM’s controversial resignation awards, slammed for discrediting the ancient honours system by dishing out gongs to donor and cronies."
I mean, this is Corbynite levels of ignorance.
One wonders what the Sun think the honours system is for.
Hard working nurses or something equally ridiculous presumably.
That'D Be Nice. Wouldn't make these appointed any more egregious than many in the past.
The idea that our "ancient honours system" could be any more discredited by anything Cameron did or even could have done is frankly ridiculous.
Well it's not just that, the honours system exists for precisely that reason, to reward cronies and donors with meaningless titles. Better than giving them seats on government bodies like they do in the US.
There are three trains departing the station shortly and you want to film a spin piece on overcrowding, you know one is terribly overbooked and two have free seats.
You get on first train and before you can walk to length of the train, the guard offers you chance to switch trains, do you switch or stick?
Depends if there is a goat in the luggage cage next to the guard....
For example, is it really true that free trade is a good thing? Especially if you are in a western country whose workforce are going to be undercut by developing economies? At what point does the unemployment, cutting of real wages and inequalities become more of an issue than the cheaper products?
I addressed this point in The Discontented, because I think it's very important.
We - in the West - were rich because we had a monopoly on manufacturing. There was this magic we could do, that those in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, could not. They competed to send us commodities. We sent back manufactured goods in return.
That monopoly is now gone.
It will never come back. We need imports: we are not self sufficient in food or fuel. Not are we self sufficient in the fertilizer (nitrogen, phosphates or potassium) to grow food, should we so wish.
Assume for a second there were no ill effects from protecting our domestic industries. We would still get poorer in this world, because as China and India grow, they will take a greater and greater share of the world's oil, natural gas, and the like. In this best case scenario, we'll get poorer because the cost of importing raw materials would rise.
But this too rosy. Attempting to protect - say - Port Talbot may make us more self sufficient in steel. (Although, of course, we still need to import the coal and the iron ore to make the steel.) But it would be at the expense of making British car makers pay more for their steel. Does that work?
Switzerland has some of the most expensive labour in the world. Yet it runs a visible goods trade surplus. Germany's labour is also now more expensive than ours, and it too runs a surplus.
These countries have set up their educational systems to produce people with the right skills. We have not. (The great irony is that we spend our lives worrying about grammar schools, when we already offer pretty good education to the top 10% of students today. It's the bottom 50% we utterly fail.) I hope that Mrs May and her team will not be so distracted by Brexit they fail to make the changes to our education and benefits system that our country so desperately needs.
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Edinburgh to London on the East Coast Main Line shits on any of the Virgin West Coast Main Line services. Virgin West Coast first class is a joke and an insult to the very notion of first class on a train.
I took the West Coast to London recently. As the 2 previous trains had been delayed I cannot really tell you what the trains are like as everyone piled on to the previous ones and the train I was booked on was totally empty.
Regardless of the empty seats and the high quality of service (not surprising as it was empty) the arrival at the arse end of Euston reminded me exactly how bad that station is...
The return leg taking the east coast home while busier started with a far nicer station and the discovery it was an old 125 (far more comfortable than the 225)..
Brian Spokemon @BrianSpanner1 3m3 minutes ago The dreadful thing about this is the Corbynistas will now pull a stunt where they all sit on the floor in solidarity.
There are people on Twitter claiming that the obvious visible facts - Corbyn had a seat - are somehow "untrue", by virtue of Jeremy Corbyn having more *integrity* than Richard Branson.
There are three trains departing the station shortly and you want to film a spin piece on overcrowding, you know one is terribly overbooked and two have free seats.
You get on first train and before you can walk to length of the train, the guard offers you chance to switch trains, do you switch or stick?
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Edinburgh to London on the East Coast Main Line shits on any of the Virgin West Coast Main Line services. Virgin West Coast first class is a joke and an insult to the very notion of first class on a train.
I took the West Coast to London recently. As the 2 previous trains had been delayed I cannot really tell you what the trains are like as everyone piled on to the previous ones and the train I was booked on was totally empty.
Regardless of the empty seats and the high quality of service (not surprising as it was empty) the arrival at the arse end of Euston reminded me exactly how bad that station is...
The return leg taking the east coast home while busier started with a far nicer station and the discovery it was an old 125 (far more comfortable than the 225)..
If I was made dictator (sorry TSE), one of the first rules I'd bring in is one where seats on trains aligned with windows. Some modern stock is terrible; as if they designed the window layout and then stuffed the seats in at random afterwards.
I addressed this point in The Discontented, because I think it's very important.
We - in the West - were rich because we had a monopoly on manufacturing. There was this magic we could do, that those in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, could not. They competed to send us commodities. We sent back manufactured goods in return.
That monopoly is now gone.
It will never come back. We need imports: we are not self sufficient in food or fuel. Not are we self sufficient in the fertilizer (nitrogen, phosphates or potassium) to grow food, should we so wish.
Assume for a second there were no ill effects from protecting our domestic industries. We would still get poorer in this world, because as China and India grow, they will take a greater and greater share of the world's oil, natural gas, and the like. In this best case scenario, we'll get poorer because the cost of importing raw materials would rise.
But this too rosy. Attempting to protect - say - Port Talbot may make us more self sufficient in steel. (Although, of course, we still need to import the coal and the iron ore to make the steel.) But it would be at the expense of making British car makers pay more for their steel. Does that work?
Switzerland has some of the most expensive labour in the world. Yet it runs a visible goods trade surplus. Germany's labour is also now more expensive than ours, and it too runs a surplus.
These countries have set up their educational systems to produce people with the right skills. We have not. (The great irony is that we spend our lives worrying about grammar schools, when we already offer pretty good education to the top 10% of students today. It's the bottom 50% we utterly fail.) I hope that Mrs May and her team will not be so distracted by Brexit they fail to make the changes to our education and benefits system that our country so desperately needs.
I think free trade was indeed a good thing (at least for us) when we had exactly the sort of monopoly that you are talking about. The problem is we went from there to here taking along an extremely simplistic concept of comparative advantage on the way. The default assumption of our political class is still informed by this, hence American politicians pushing so hard for unpopular policies like NAFTA and TTIP. I just question whether these default assumptions are indeed good.
To take your Port Talbot example retaining a steel industry in this country retains a skill base here, it reduces imports, it makes materials more readily available should local producers want a particular product and can be said to support our manufacturing base generally. Is this worth a bit of money?
The answer is I think unclear for the reasons you state and the knock on effects are somewhat unpredictable but the answers mainstream economics offer us are naïve and uninformative.
Meantime how can anyone write this with a straight face:
"Our revelation heaps further shame on the ex-PM’s controversial resignation awards, slammed for discrediting the ancient honours system by dishing out gongs to donor and cronies."
I mean, this is Corbynite levels of ignorance.
One wonders what the Sun think the honours system is for.
Hard working nurses or something equally ridiculous presumably.
That'D Be Nice. Wouldn't make these appointed any more egregious than many in the past.
The idea that our "ancient honours system" could be any more discredited by anything Cameron did or even could have done is frankly ridiculous.
Well it's not just that, the honours system exists for precisely that reason, to reward cronies and donors with meaningless titles. Better than giving them seats on government bodies like they do in the US.
You're right. It is mostly harmless and the alternatives are probably worse.
We - in the West - were rich because we had a monopoly on manufacturing. There was this magic we could do, that those in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, could not. They competed to send us commodities. We sent back manufactured goods in return.
Switzerland has some of the most expensive labour in the world. Yet it runs a visible goods trade surplus. Germany's labour is also now more expensive than ours, and it too runs a surplus.
These countries have set up their educational systems to produce people with the right skills. We have not. (The great irony is that we spend our lives worrying about grammar schools, when we already offer pretty good education to the top 10% of students today. It's the bottom 50% we utterly fail.) I hope that Mrs May and her team will not be so distracted by Brexit they fail to make the changes to our education and benefits system that our country so desperately needs.
Robert, I won't argue with what you say. My one concern is that we should not analyze educational needs based solely on those economies which are successful at the present time, but on the skill sets that will make for a successful economy in the near to medium future.
Manufacturing is being increasingly automated or off-shored to lower-wage countries as it mainly involves algorithmic tasks. Design, innovation and creativity are the jobs that cannot be automated or off-shored as easily, the heuristic tasks.
That leaves workers who are unable to participate in heuristic work pretty much with service industries, agriculture, government/security, and natural resource extraction. Have I missed anything out? Their relative wealth then, presumably, relies on making these sectors more productive.
The Virgin press release and released CCTV stills look pretty conclusive. I wonder why no passengers picked up that there were spare seats on the Corbyn train, though? It's hard to believe that Virgin wouldn't have all their ducks in a row before they piled in on Corbyn, tbh.
Would you want Corbyn sat next to you for three hours?
"No, sorry mate, it's taken. The er, the wife has gone to the buffet car. Yeah, that's it, the buffet car...."
People on my timeline are telling me the Guardian has faked the video.
It really is 9/11 meets moonlandings meets JFK meets the 10.35 from Euston
The comments I'm reading are along the lines of "So what that it was a PR stunt? Jeremy was doing it to highlight the problem of ram packed trains, so it's just a biased media conspiracy"
I was going to say that these clowns want to run the country, but clearly they don't!
On your education point I don't know if you caught the reflections program on R4 at 9 this morning with Lord Baker. It was surprisingly interesting but the most interesting point was right at the end when he developed the idea that millions of middle management type jobs currently held by those with arts degrees are going to disappear very rapidly over the next few years with increased automation and smart systems. This clearly has profound implications for what we should be teaching the next generation which was his point.
It's a pity they finished with this rather than explore the point but it is worth catching up with.
I think free trade was indeed a good thing (at least for us) when we had exactly the sort of monopoly that you are talking about. The problem is we went from there to here taking along an extremely simplistic concept of comparative advantage on the way. The default assumption of our political class is still informed by this, hence American politicians pushing so hard for unpopular policies like NAFTA and TTIP. I just question whether these default assumptions are indeed good.
To take your Port Talbot example retaining a steel industry in this country retains a skill base here, it reduces imports, it makes materials more readily available should local producers want a particular product and can be said to support our manufacturing base generally. Is this worth a bit of money?
The answer is I think unclear for the reasons you state and the knock on effects are somewhat unpredictable but the answers mainstream economics offer us are naïve and uninformative.
Re Port Talbot. Does it meaningfully reduce imports? You still need to buy coal from abroad and iron ore. In any case, I suspect mini-mills in the UK, attached to cheap CCGTs, are still going to outcompete PT in the medium term.
But I think the important bit is that there are high labour cost countries that have minimal unemployment, and which have vibrant manufacturing bases.
They didn't achieve this through protectionism. When you implement protectionism, what you get is industrialists bribing government ministers in return for tariffs for their particular industry. That does not end well.
That is gonna cause twitter to go into meltdown. If Virgin have been even a little remiss in their evidence gathering, the Corbynistas will be out demonstrating.
There are "foodbar" signs on the entrance to the carriage he is seen taking a seat in. Are you only allowed to sit in that carriage while eating? Used to be the case that the buffet car was for people eating and drinking. But not been on a train for years, so I don't know what the rules are now.
The Virgin press release and released CCTV stills look pretty conclusive. I wonder why no passengers picked up that there were spare seats on the Corbyn train, though? It's hard to believe that Virgin wouldn't have all their ducks in a row before they piled in on Corbyn, tbh.
Would you want Corbyn sat next to you for three hours?
"No, sorry mate, it's taken. The er, the wife has gone to the buffet car. Yeah, that's it, the buffet car...."
I'd quite like having Corbyn sat next to me for three hours. By the time we reached the destination he'd be (more of) a gibbering wreck.
Especially if I was particularly fragrant after a fortnight's hiking without a shower...
To single handily create a diplomatic scandal while 1 billion people are focused on you, took some career shattering skill, - but to fuck up a spin op, on a London to Newcastle train just looks amateurish.
People on my timeline are telling me the Guardian has faked the video.
It really is 9/11 meets moonlandings meets JFK meets the 10.35 from Euston
The comments I'm reading are along the lines of "So what that it was a PR stunt? Jeremy was doing it to highlight the problem of ram packed trains, so it's just a biased media conspiracy"
There are nice and even mostly sensible Corbyn fans. But that sort of crap is such partisan bull. It was claimed as a legitimate event, something real, and it appears it wasn't. And that nonsense argument is easy to refute: would the defenders say the same if smith or may did a stunt to 'highlight a problem' and said it was real? No they bloody wouldn't. They'd say they were liars and phonies.
Mark Wallace This presumably means the "man of the people" had passengers moved so he could sit next to his staff. Not sure this is a good idea, Seumas.
That is gonna cause twitter to go into meltdown. If Virgin have been even a little remiss in their evidence gathering, the Corbynistas will be out demonstrating.
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Edinburgh to London on the East Coast Main Line shits on any of the Virgin West Coast Main Line services. Virgin West Coast first class is a joke and an insult to the very notion of first class on a train.
I took the West Coast to London recently. As the 2 previous trains had been delayed I cannot really tell you what the trains are like as everyone piled on to the previous ones and the train I was booked on was totally empty.
Regardless of the empty seats and the high quality of service (not surprising as it was empty) the arrival at the arse end of Euston reminded me exactly how bad that station is...
The return leg taking the east coast home while busier started with a far nicer station and the discovery it was an old 125 (far more comfortable than the 225)..
If I was made dictator (sorry TSE), one of the first rules I'd bring in is one where seats on trains aligned with windows. Some modern stock is terrible; as if they designed the window layout and then stuffed the seats in at random afterwards.
I hope you never become dictator.
Because I always sleep on the train, and rail companies obstinately refuse to provide decent headrests, I rely on seats next to misaligned window partitions so I can rest my weary head on the interior panelling.
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Best train journey is probably the Caledonian Sleeper, and waking up in the Highlands.
I've done that as far as Edinburgh. My problem was that I only got to sleep around Carlisle....
My level of excitement approaching a sleeper train exceeds that of a six year old boy on Christmas Eve.
I sleep ok with the rhythm. They provide decent pillows and duvets now and you just need to make sure the cabin is properly dimmed. Waking up to the views and breakfast in bed is awesome.
To sleep, my wife and I will also be aided by knocking back a few whiskeys in the restaurant car.
I didn't notice a single difference, positive or negative in my last two train trips (Both ECML) one Virgin, one state run.
Both perfectly adequate.
Food much more tasty on ECML since re-privatisation. And also more chance of getting what you want - I swear I heard 'nah we're sold out of that (obviously popular) option already' almost however near to the kitchen I sat in first class.
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Best train journey is probably the Caledonian Sleeper, and waking up in the Highlands.
I've done that as far as Edinburgh. My problem was that I only got to sleep around Carlisle....
My level of excitement approaching a sleeper train exceeds that of a six year old boy on Christmas Eve.
I sleep ok with the rhythm. They provide decent pillows and duvets now and you just need to make sure the cabin is properly dimmed. Waking up to the views and breakfast in bed is awesome.
To sleep, my wife and I will also be aided by knocking back a few whiskeys in the restaurant car.
How tall are you? They're not really made for the taller gentleman.
That is gonna cause twitter to go into meltdown. If Virgin have been even a little remiss in their evidence gathering, the Corbynistas will be out demonstrating.
They'll want to boycott Virgin trains, but Branson was lobbying for a second Ref, so they won't know what to do. Their little heads will explode.
It's only a thing because he's supposed to be a different kind of politician.
Well, quite. He was making a point not only about the train service but about his humblr nature. He has some political knowledge so would know some of his supporters dud indeed play up that point. It's like how most people don't care if you send your children to private schools, unless you also complain about them all the time.
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Best train journey is probably the Caledonian Sleeper, and waking up in the Highlands.
I've done that as far as Edinburgh. My problem was that I only got to sleep around Carlisle....
My level of excitement approaching a sleeper train exceeds that of a six year old boy on Christmas Eve.
I sleep ok with the rhythm. They provide decent pillows and duvets now and you just need to make sure the cabin is properly dimmed. Waking up to the views and breakfast in bed is awesome.
To sleep, my wife and I will also be aided by knocking back a few whiskeys in the restaurant car.
How tall are you? They're not really made for the taller gentleman.
An American Facebook friend of mine was incredibly upset by the post. I told him to calm down.
Clearly he feels bad that the 13 States no longer enjoy benevolent government from London.
Even today, any American history of the revolutionary war can't resist painting the Redcoats as behaving in a way that'd have shamed the Waffen SS.
A watched a couple of episodes of TurN on Prime, and laughed.
It makes Cowboys and Indians look objective.
Apparently, the British army of the 18th century employed foppish, sadistic, homosexuals as its officers who enjoyed raping manly Scots, Irish, and US patriots.
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Best train journey is probably the Caledonian Sleeper, and waking up in the Highlands.
I've done that as far as Edinburgh. My problem was that I only got to sleep around Carlisle....
My level of excitement approaching a sleeper train exceeds that of a six year old boy on Christmas Eve.
I sleep ok with the rhythm. They provide decent pillows and duvets now and you just need to make sure the cabin is properly dimmed. Waking up to the views and breakfast in bed is awesome.
To sleep, my wife and I will also be aided by knocking back a few whiskeys in the restaurant car.
I prefer to do train journeys in daylight. I got as far as Leuchars on the way to an interview at St Andrews in February 2012, but on the return trip the next day, it was dark soon after leaving Berwick
An American Facebook friend of mine was incredibly upset by the post. I told him to calm down.
Clearly he feels bad that the 13 States no longer enjoy benevolent government from London.
Even today, any American history of the revolutionary war can't resist painting the Redcoats as behaving in a way that'd have shamed the Waffen SS.
A watched a couple of episodes of TurN on Prime, and laughed.
It makes Cowboys and Indians look objective.
Apparently, the British army of the 18th century employed foppish, sadistic, homosexuals as its officers who enjoyed raping manly Scots, Irish, and US patriots.
Only until that well known paragon of diversity and equality Mel Gibson won the war single handedly
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Best train journey is probably the Caledonian Sleeper, and waking up in the Highlands.
I've done that as far as Edinburgh. My problem was that I only got to sleep around Carlisle....
My level of excitement approaching a sleeper train exceeds that of a six year old boy on Christmas Eve.
I sleep ok with the rhythm. They provide decent pillows and duvets now and you just need to make sure the cabin is properly dimmed. Waking up to the views and breakfast in bed is awesome.
To sleep, my wife and I will also be aided by knocking back a few whiskeys in the restaurant car.
How tall are you? They're not really made for the taller gentleman.
6'
I've always wanted to do the sleeper - the nearest I've got was a sleeping compartment on an old sleeper carriage at a preserved railway. Darned uncomfortable and not long enough for my 6'2" frame.
It's always put me off using the sleeper services. If you're comfortable at 6', perhaps I should persuade Mrs J to drop the little 'un off with my parents and make a pilgrimage to Fort Bill.
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Best train journey is probably the Caledonian Sleeper, and waking up in the Highlands.
I've done that as far as Edinburgh. My problem was that I only got to sleep around Carlisle....
My level of excitement approaching a sleeper train exceeds that of a six year old boy on Christmas Eve.
I sleep ok with the rhythm. They provide decent pillows and duvets now and you just need to make sure the cabin is properly dimmed. Waking up to the views and breakfast in bed is awesome.
To sleep, my wife and I will also be aided by knocking back a few whiskeys in the restaurant car.
How tall are you? They're not really made for the taller gentleman.
6'
I've always wanted to do the sleeper - the nearest I've got was a sleeping compartment on an old sleeper carriage at a preserved railway. Darned uncomfortable and not long enough for my 6'2" frame.
It's always put me off using the sleeper services. If you're comfortable at 6', perhaps I should persuade Mrs J to drop the little 'un off with my parents and make a pilgrimage to Fort Bill.
Do the Sleeper, do the Sleeper, do the Sleeper..
Best thing ever. Check out website of the man in seat 61 for more.
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Best train journey is probably the Caledonian Sleeper, and waking up in the Highlands.
I've done that as far as Edinburgh. My problem was that I only got to sleep around Carlisle....
My level of excitement approaching a sleeper train exceeds that of a six year old boy on Christmas Eve.
I sleep ok with the rhythm. They provide decent pillows and duvets now and you just need to make sure the cabin is properly dimmed. Waking up to the views and breakfast in bed is awesome.
To sleep, my wife and I will also be aided by knocking back a few whiskeys in the restaurant car.
How tall are you? They're not really made for the taller gentleman.
6'
I've always wanted to do the sleeper - the nearest I've got was a sleeping compartment on an old sleeper carriage at a preserved railway. Darned uncomfortable and not long enough for my 6'2" frame.
It's always put me off using the sleeper services. If you're comfortable at 6', perhaps I should persuade Mrs J to drop the little 'un off with my parents and make a pilgrimage to Fort Bill.
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Best train journey is probably the Caledonian Sleeper, and waking up in the Highlands.
I've done that as far as Edinburgh. My problem was that I only got to sleep around Carlisle....
To sleep, my wife and I will also be aided by knocking back a few whiskeys in the restaurant car.
How tall are you? They're not really made for the taller gentleman.
6'
I've always wanted to do the sleeper - the nearest I've got was a sleeping compartment on an old sleeper carriage at a preserved railway. Darned uncomfortable and not long enough for my 6'2" frame.
It's always put me off using the sleeper services. If you're comfortable at 6', perhaps I should persuade Mrs J to drop the little 'un off with my parents and make a pilgrimage to Fort Bill.
I once did the sleeper to Arbroath and got bitten by something, so I don't have fond memories.
An American Facebook friend of mine was incredibly upset by the post. I told him to calm down.
Clearly he feels bad that the 13 States no longer enjoy benevolent government from London.
Even today, any American history of the revolutionary war can't resist painting the Redcoats as behaving in a way that'd have shamed the Waffen SS.
A watched a couple of episodes of TurN on Prime, and laughed.
It makes Cowboys and Indians look objective.
Apparently, the British army of the 18th century employed foppish, sadistic, homosexuals as its officers who enjoyed raping manly Scots, Irish, and US patriots.
Cold blooded murder, burning women and children alive, premeditated rape and punishment shootings.
What none of them ever point out is that the US wasn't a thing. They were patriotic about what they felt was the true British (more accurately English) inheritance that had its roots in the glorious revolution and civil war.
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Best train journey is probably the Caledonian Sleeper, and waking up in the Highlands.
I've done that as far as Edinburgh. My problem was that I only got to sleep around Carlisle....
My level of excitement approaching a sleeper train exceeds that of a six year old boy on Christmas Eve.
I sleep ok with the rhythm. They provide decent pillows and duvets now and you just need to make sure the cabin is properly dimmed. Waking up to the views and breakfast in bed is awesome.
To sleep, my wife and I will also be aided by knocking back a few whiskeys in the restaurant car.
How tall are you? They're not really made for the taller gentleman.
6'
I've always wanted to do the sleeper - the nearest I've got was a sleeping compartment on an old sleeper carriage at a preserved railway. Darned uncomfortable and not long enough for my 6'2" frame.
It's always put me off using the sleeper services. If you're comfortable at 6', perhaps I should persuade Mrs J to drop the little 'un off with my parents and make a pilgrimage to Fort Bill.
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Best train journey is probably the Caledonian Sleeper, and waking up in the Highlands.
I've done that as far as Edinburgh. My problem was that I only got to sleep around Carlisle....
To sleep, my wife and I will also be aided by knocking back a few whiskeys in the restaurant car.
How tall are you? They're not really made for the taller gentleman.
6'
I've always wanted to do the sleeper - the nearest I've got was a sleeping compartment on an old sleeper carriage at a preserved railway. Darned uncomfortable and not long enough for my 6'2" frame
I once did the sleeper to Arbroath and got bitten by something, so I don't have fond memories.
rcs1000 - I have heard of a open cast coal mine planning application in South Wales from Tata recently... not heard it has been gramted.
When coal prices were $130 back in 2011, there were a number of plans for re-opening of coal mines (although the most advanced project - at Magram by PT - was deep rather than open pit).
Coal is now $65, and demand has dried up in the UK, as natural gas is now cheaper. (We have about 18GW of coal fired capacity in the UK... and about 1.3GW of it is currently running.) I can't see any new coal mines being built unless the price of natural gas moves up sharply (which I think unlikely).
Virgin Manchester to Euston, first class, is the best train journey in the country.
It is the AV of the railway system.
Edinburgh to London on the East Coast Main Line shits on any of the Virgin West Coast Main Line services. Virgin West Coast first class is a joke and an insult to the very notion of first class on a train.
I took the West Coast to London recently. As the 2 previous trains had been delayed I cannot really tell you what the trains are like as everyone piled on to the previous ones and the train I was booked on was totally empty.
Regardless of the empty seats and the high quality of service (not surprising as it was empty) the arrival at the arse end of Euston reminded me exactly how bad that station is...
The return leg taking the east coast home while busier started with a far nicer station and the discovery it was an old 125 (far more comfortable than the 225)..
If I was made dictator (sorry TSE), one of the first rules I'd bring in is one where seats on trains aligned with windows. Some modern stock is terrible; as if they designed the window layout and then stuffed the seats in at random afterwards.
Jeremy Corbyn - The Ryan Lochte of British politics.
I have to say it's hilarious and it couldn't happen to a better person. Serves him right for going on about privatizing the railways all the time. If he didn't it wouldn't be such a big issue.
An American Facebook friend of mine was incredibly upset by the post. I told him to calm down.
There is enough gold medals in the bits of the map that really are still pink and have the Queens head on coins (Oz, Nz, Jamaica etc.) to comfortably top the US without even including Commonwealth republics.
Comments
Still, it wound up all the usual suspects splendidly.
https://twitter.com/HeatherWheeler/status/767756321219379201
We - in the West - were rich because we had a monopoly on manufacturing. There was this magic we could do, that those in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, could not. They competed to send us commodities. We sent back manufactured goods in return.
That monopoly is now gone.
It will never come back. We need imports: we are not self sufficient in food or fuel. Not are we self sufficient in the fertilizer (nitrogen, phosphates or potassium) to grow food, should we so wish.
Assume for a second there were no ill effects from protecting our domestic industries. We would still get poorer in this world, because as China and India grow, they will take a greater and greater share of the world's oil, natural gas, and the like. In this best case scenario, we'll get poorer because the cost of importing raw materials would rise.
But this too rosy. Attempting to protect - say - Port Talbot may make us more self sufficient in steel. (Although, of course, we still need to import the coal and the iron ore to make the steel.) But it would be at the expense of making British car makers pay more for their steel. Does that work?
Switzerland has some of the most expensive labour in the world. Yet it runs a visible goods trade surplus. Germany's labour is also now more expensive than ours, and it too runs a surplus.
These countries have set up their educational systems to produce people with the right skills. We have not. (The great irony is that we spend our lives worrying about grammar schools, when we already offer pretty good education to the top 10% of students today. It's the bottom 50% we utterly fail.) I hope that Mrs May and her team will not be so distracted by Brexit they fail to make the changes to our education and benefits system that our country so desperately needs.
Regardless of the empty seats and the high quality of service (not surprising as it was empty) the arrival at the arse end of Euston reminded me exactly how bad that station is...
The return leg taking the east coast home while busier started with a far nicer station and the discovery it was an old 125 (far more comfortable than the 225)..
If he had, India as it was would've fallen. The Macedonian desire to return home gave Chandragupta the opportunity he needed.
The dreadful thing about this is the Corbynistas will now pull a stunt where they all sit on the floor in solidarity.
#notacult
To take your Port Talbot example retaining a steel industry in this country retains a skill base here, it reduces imports, it makes materials more readily available should local producers want a particular product and can be said to support our manufacturing base generally. Is this worth a bit of money?
The answer is I think unclear for the reasons you state and the knock on effects are somewhat unpredictable but the answers mainstream economics offer us are naïve and uninformative.
Manufacturing is being increasingly automated or off-shored to lower-wage countries as it mainly involves algorithmic tasks. Design, innovation and creativity are the jobs that cannot be automated or off-shored as easily, the heuristic tasks.
That leaves workers who are unable to participate in heuristic work pretty much with service industries, agriculture, government/security, and natural resource extraction. Have I missed anything out? Their relative wealth then, presumably, relies on making these sectors more productive.
"No, sorry mate, it's taken. The er, the wife has gone to the buffet car. Yeah, that's it, the buffet car...."
Also oops, linked to from that page:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2016/aug/23/alexander-rossi-causes-three-car-crash-at-pocono-indycar-race-video
towercarriage...I was going to say that these clowns want to run the country, but clearly they don't!
On your education point I don't know if you caught the reflections program on R4 at 9 this morning with Lord Baker. It was surprisingly interesting but the most interesting point was right at the end when he developed the idea that millions of middle management type jobs currently held by those with arts degrees are going to disappear very rapidly over the next few years with increased automation and smart systems. This clearly has profound implications for what we should be teaching the next generation which was his point.
It's a pity they finished with this rather than explore the point but it is worth catching up with.
But I think the important bit is that there are high labour cost countries that have minimal unemployment, and which have vibrant manufacturing bases.
They didn't achieve this through protectionism. When you implement protectionism, what you get is industrialists bribing government ministers in return for tariffs for their particular industry. That does not end well.
Sky and the Beeb show 'Tories hold Tunbridge Wells' and the Corbynites will claim Jez gains Tunbridge Wells
Especially if I was particularly fragrant after a fortnight's hiking without a shower...
As an aside- shouldn't passengers be offering up their seats to a 67 year old man?
Mind you, Labour has a choice between him or Smith, so it's not great either way.
This presumably means the "man of the people" had passengers moved so he could sit next to his staff. Not sure this is a good idea, Seumas.
It feeds the idea that JC's team faked it and then used undue influence to get others moved to accommodate their full team to sit together.
No-one needed to offer their seat to Corbyn - there were plenty for him to use and he chose not to.
That is the narrative - nothing more, nothing less.
Because I always sleep on the train, and rail companies obstinately refuse to provide decent headrests, I rely on seats next to misaligned window partitions so I can rest my weary head on the interior panelling.
How the f--k is this a thing?
We all must be seriously bored.
Currently 30 degrees in Stratford-upon-Avon, maybe the hottest place in the country:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?espv=2&q=current+weather+stratford+upon+avon&oq=current+weather+stratford&gs_l=serp.3.0.0l2j0i22i30k1l8.2716.3580.0.4258.9.9.0.0.0.0.287.760.3j2j1.6.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..3.6.758.IlXjnj1H3c0
http://www.dw.com/en/paris-berlin-want-access-to-encrypted-apps-to-fight-terror/a-19495759
I sleep ok with the rhythm. They provide decent pillows and duvets now and you just need to make sure the cabin is properly dimmed. Waking up to the views and breakfast in bed is awesome.
To sleep, my wife and I will also be aided by knocking back a few whiskeys in the restaurant car.
The bloke's expression at 0:03 is pure gold !
He has been busy....
A watched a couple of episodes of TurN on Prime, and laughed.
It makes Cowboys and Indians look objective.
Superb
What about those 18 century Ein-CHAPS-groupen?
Sorry, I'll get my own coat...
http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/loughborough-athletes-bring-home-haul-of-medals/story-29643553-detail/story.html
#traingate
#heatwave
#InternautDay
#charitytuesday
#ICantBeUrFriendBecause
Mrs Brown's Boys
Northumberland
American Football
Seumas Milne
The FA
It's always put me off using the sleeper services. If you're comfortable at 6', perhaps I should persuade Mrs J to drop the little 'un off with my parents and make a pilgrimage to Fort Bill.
The EU is no better, particularly with their approach to VAT.
Best thing ever. Check out website of the man in seat 61 for more.
https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/768108876071858176
What none of them ever point out is that the US wasn't a thing. They were patriotic about what they felt was the true British (more accurately English) inheritance that had its roots in the glorious revolution and civil war.
Coal is now $65, and demand has dried up in the UK, as natural gas is now cheaper. (We have about 18GW of coal fired capacity in the UK... and about 1.3GW of it is currently running.) I can't see any new coal mines being built unless the price of natural gas moves up sharply (which I think unlikely).