NickPalmer Posts: 7,850 12:36PM A minor quirk of Brexit that will eventually affect me is whether English remains an official EU language. When Ireland joined, they noted that it already was, so to make nationalist voters happy, I understand that they declared their language to be Gaelic. Consequently, all important documents are translated into English for us and into Gaelic for Ireland. When Britain withdraws, there will be no EU countries claiming English as their native language, yet it's the second language for the great majority of businesses and politicians, and Irish politicians especially will I suspect not all really welcome having to read everything in Gaelic... Flag · Off Topic
** Malta has two official languages, Maltese and English.
I think only France would try to make French the main EU language and most countries would say 'sod off'.
If English is phased out, simultaneous translation will become far more expensive, as all possible combinations will need a translator; surely, today, some people are happy to listen in English? Will France pay?!
That is lovely, Nick. How many people let alone politicians in Ireland actually speak Gaelic, I wonder. I suspect damn few. Which raises the wonderful spectre of the EU translating documents, that were hammered out in English (that being the lingua franca of Europe), into Gaelic only for the Irish taxpayer to pay for them to be re-translated into English so that people can actually read them. A situation worthy of Jaroslav Hašek.
That £4 coffee comment. Is she a London MP? I suspect so....Labour are now the middle class party. Like the Democrats. Not bad thing in itself but they should own it.
The issue is that trade deals that benefit the EU as a whole aren't necessarily in the UK's interest.
For instance - and I've asked this question 4 times but no one has ever responded - why was it in the UK's interest for the EU to agree a Mercosur deal which opened our beef producers to competition from Argentina so that Italian/German engineers could sell their products to Brazil?
It's in the UK consumer's interests to have a wide choice of suppliers of different types.
More fundamentally, the existence of pastoral farming within the M25 while we also have a chronic undersupply of new housing shows evidence of a systemic failure.
It is, and I would look at doing that deal if the benefits accrued to the UK as well as the costs. Thus a trade off on, for example, whisky or insurance or specialty engineering might have made sense for us. A deal whereby we suffer the costs and don't get the benefits doesn't make sense for the UK as whole
(and premium beef production - like we compete with Latin America in - isn't the kind of pastoral farming you get inside the M25. But, I agree, the fetishisation of the green belt is not good policy when we have a housing shortage)
OT Given how flush many PBers are - and discussions on spending a few quid - I've been prodded into giving a bit more this Christmas to causes that get under my skin.
My choices this year so far are Mayhew Animal Centre for Christmas dinners and pet toys, Lurcher SOS for kennels, the Sally Army re homeless festive cheer, Hope Pastures for rescue ponies/donkey feed and blankets - and Wikipedia given how often it gets cited here
Surely today's big news is Liam Fox setting conditions for accepting a transitional deal ? Which means he's accepting the principle of a transitional deal. Which means Hammond is winning.
That £4 coffee comment. Is she a London MP? I suspect so....Labour are now the middle class party. Like the Democrats. Not bad thing in itself but they should own it.
I would say it is the sort of thing back in the day Tory MPs got in trouble for....but then these days £4 coffee is the pleb rate in London, even Starbucks are now starting to open "upmarket" stores which charge ~$15 a cup in the US (and will be coming here).
Again not sure the voters of Stoke, Sunderland, et al. think like that.
I live in deepest Leaverstan and £4 won't buy you most Coffee/Croissant combinations in that bastion of the elite Costa Coffee. Also the idea that " most " people in Britain ( 51%) can't afford to buy fripperies like Coffee and Croissants is absurd. They can and they do. So Catherine West is right. However so is @Plato There will be plenty of people in Britain for whom £4 is several days worth of food.
These two things aren't mutually exclusive and saying they is a fauxtrage.
The Democrats' biggest source of wasted votes per ECV was DC at ~ 90,000 votes per ECV, MA at ~ 88k and California at ~ 77.6k.
The republicans' was Oklahoma at 75.5k, Texas was the most efficient non swing GOP state outside of Alaska (15k) at ~ 21k.
But Arizona and Texas [ also Georgia ] moving the other way.
Texas increases the Democrat's "wrong winner" problem in the medium term as it becomes an increasingly efficient source of votes for the GOP, it is a long way off becoming actually DEM.
The problem being that our cars are now better washed for less money?
But with lower capital formation and lower productivity...
So what? The point is that my experience as a consumer is improved.
As Mrs Thatcher said "people keep talking to me about producers, I do wish they would talk more about consumers"
Polish plumbers give excellent cost effective service, and for every annoyed British plumber tbere are 200 happy customers.
Isn't that a lazy stereotype?
Yes.
I know someone who owns a Pimlico Plumbers type business and that stereotype is bollocks. They are sceptical as to how much of an impact European migration has had on British plumbers. Well certainly in the high end market the impact has been minimal. Carpenters on the other hand have seen massive wage suppression.
The meme that Polish plumbers = high quality and British plumbers = rubbish is not only highly offensive but also complete crap.
My own plumber is British, my point being to illustrate that there are a larger number of consumers who benefit from European migration than Britons inconvenienced by competition.
The same is true of plumbers as nurses, doctors, hotel receptionists and cleaners.
I live in deepest Leaverstan and £4 won't buy you most Coffee/Croissant combinations in that bastion of the elite Costa Coffee. Also the idea that " most " people in Britain ( 51%) can't afford to buy fripperies like Coffee and Croissants is absurd. They can and they do. So Catherine West is right. However so is @Plato There will be plenty of people in Britain for whom £4 is several days worth of food.
These two things aren't mutually exclusive and saying they is a fauxtrage.
For what it's worth, switching to instant coffee has saved me about £1,500 per year. That's a worthwhile amount of money that can be spent on more productive uses.
On the theme of the EU, I was watching the TV quiz "Pointless" this week and there was a round on the EU. The ignorance of the contestants was abysmal. Examples: Question: Which county in the EU is the largest in geographic area? Answer: The Netherlands. Question: Which country became a republic after its monarchy was abolished in 1973? Answer: The Czech Republic.
That £4 coffee comment. Is she a London MP? I suspect so....Labour are now the middle class party. Like the Democrats. Not bad thing in itself but they should own it.
I would say it is the sort of thing back in the day Tory MPs got in trouble for....but then these days £4 coffee is the pleb rate in London, even Starbucks are now starting to open "upmarket" stores which charge ~$15 a cup in the US (and will be coming here).
Again not sure the voters of Stoke, Sunderland, et al. think like that.
I find this bizarre - I've never willingly bought anything in Costa or Starbucks. I've swallowed my WTF and bought a cup/cake for a colleague because it was expected in London and I was polite. I saw the £5 I handed over as two bags of Go-Cat or more.
Being handed a cup of boiling water and a tea bag isn't worth more than pence in value - the rest is rent, labour, mark-up, marketing. It's a fashion market I simply don't understand at all.
The Salvation Army and the RNLI are now the only large, well-known, charities I will give to. I do give money and time to a couple of local charities and to the Ex-Services Mental Welfare Society (now, for some reason that I struggle to understand, re-named "Combat Stress").
As for the rest of the so called third-sector, they can go piss-up a rope as far as I am concerned. Any charity that pays its senior executives six figure salaries and has handsome headquarters buildings has got serious questions to answer.
I live in deepest Leaverstan and £4 won't buy you most Coffee/Croissant combinations in that bastion of the elite Costa Coffee. Also the idea that " most " people in Britain ( 51%) can't afford to buy fripperies like Coffee and Croissants is absurd. They can and they do. So Catherine West is right. However so is @Plato There will be plenty of people in Britain for whom £4 is several days worth of food.
These two things aren't mutually exclusive and saying they is a fauxtrage.
In the Leicester Royal Infirmary WRVS shop (hardly a bastion of the metropolitan elite!) Coffee and a Croissant are about £4. They seem to have plenty of WWC customers, perhaps this Labour MP gets out more that the passengers on the PB outrage bus...
On the theme of the EU, I was watching the TV quiz "Pointless" this week and there was a round on the EU. The ignorance of the contestants was abysmal. Examples: Question: Which county in the EU is the largest in geographic area? Answer: The Netherlands. Question: Which country became a republic after its monarchy was abolished in 1973? Answer: The Czech Republic.
That £4 coffee comment. Is she a London MP? I suspect so....Labour are now the middle class party. Like the Democrats. Not bad thing in itself but they should own it.
I would say it is the sort of thing back in the day Tory MPs got in trouble for....but then these days £4 coffee is the pleb rate in London, even Starbucks are now starting to open "upmarket" stores which charge ~$15 a cup in the US (and will be coming here).
Again not sure the voters of Stoke, Sunderland, et al. think like that.
I find this bizarre - I've never willingly bought anything in Costa or Starbucks. I've swallowed my WTF and bought a cup/cake for a colleague because it was expected in London and I was polite. I saw the £5 I handed over as two bags of Go-Cat or more.
Being handed a cup of boiling water and a tea bag isn't worth more than pence in value - the rest is rent, labour, mark-up, marketing. It's a fashion market I simply don't understand at all.
Convenience can sometimes make it worthwhile, but not often
The Salvation Army and the RNLI are now the only large, well-known, charities I will give to. I do give money and time to a couple of local charities and to the Ex-Services Mental Welfare Society (now, for some reason that I struggle to understand, re-named "Combat Stress").
As for the rest of the so called third-sector, they can go piss-up a rope as far as I am concerned. Any charity that pays its senior executives six figure salaries and has handsome headquarters buildings has got serious questions to answer.
*ahem*
Admittedly we only our CEO a high 5 figure salary, but our HQ is rather handsome.
I still think we do good things. Hopefully you can come to our Sussex Modernism show -
I live in deepest Leaverstan and £4 won't buy you most Coffee/Croissant combinations in that bastion of the elite Costa Coffee. Also the idea that " most " people in Britain ( 51%) can't afford to buy fripperies like Coffee and Croissants is absurd. They can and they do. So Catherine West is right. However so is @Plato There will be plenty of people in Britain for whom £4 is several days worth of food.
These two things aren't mutually exclusive and saying they is a fauxtrage.
For what it's worth, switching to instant coffee has saved me about £1,500 per year. That's a worthwhile amount of money that can be spent on more productive uses.
I live in deepest Leaverstan and £4 won't buy you most Coffee/Croissant combinations in that bastion of the elite Costa Coffee. Also the idea that " most " people in Britain ( 51%) can't afford to buy fripperies like Coffee and Croissants is absurd. They can and they do. So Catherine West is right. However so is @Plato There will be plenty of people in Britain for whom £4 is several days worth of food.
These two things aren't mutually exclusive and saying they is a fauxtrage.
For what it's worth, switching to instant coffee has saved me about £1,500 per year. That's a worthwhile amount of money that can be spent on more productive uses.
Switch to tea and save even more.
Probably. But I like coffee (and my office provides instant for free...)
The Salvation Army and the RNLI are now the only large, well-known, charities I will give to. I do give money and time to a couple of local charities and to the Ex-Services Mental Welfare Society (now, for some reason that I struggle to understand, re-named "Combat Stress").
As for the rest of the so called third-sector, they can go piss-up a rope as far as I am concerned. Any charity that pays its senior executives six figure salaries and has handsome headquarters buildings has got serious questions to answer.
I went to the Eastbourne Sally Army with a friend who works in local mental health - a really lovely bunch of volunteers and saw so many lost people who were trying to get back on track. I used to buy street homeless lunches - but frankly round here they get swamped, so it seemed more sensible to spend the same with the Sally Army.
I avoid all the big charities - Mayhew got a pass because an ex-collegue volunteers almost every day there and I see her Facebook location status. The others just seemed like genuinely kind hearts on Twitter and after seeing their efforts, I coughed up a few hundred to keep them going.
For longer standing PBers, they'll know I ran an informal animal rescue with all sorts of lost causes from horses to goats, I think we'd about 50 residents at our peak - I guess we can spot each other even from a distance.
Grumpy PB social conservatives should consider donating food to the local foodbank. If you drop it off in Tescos ( you don't have to buy it there ) they'll add 20% of the value ( on a weight based formula ) in for form a store credit themselves.
It's a good cause and by donating Food not cash you aren't paying anyone's salary.
On the theme of the EU, I was watching the TV quiz "Pointless" this week and there was a round on the EU. The ignorance of the contestants was abysmal. Examples: Question: Which county in the EU is the largest in geographic area? Answer: The Netherlands. Question: Which country became a republic after its monarchy was abolished in 1973? Answer: The Czech Republic.
I felt a sense of despair.
You know, I'd have gone for France as the largest EU country based on its overseas departments. I'd assumed that Germany, France and Spain were all very similar in extent. But I hadn't realised how much bigger mainland France is than Germany.
Another charitable option that would suit PBers is Survey Monkey Contribute. It's like a You Gov but they pay 50p per survey completed to a charity of your choice from a short list ( which include the RNLI ).
They surveys tend to be infrequent but they are always short sometimes very short.
On the theme of the EU, I was watching the TV quiz "Pointless" this week and there was a round on the EU. The ignorance of the contestants was abysmal. Examples: Question: Which county in the EU is the largest in geographic area? Answer: The Netherlands. Question: Which country became a republic after its monarchy was abolished in 1973? Answer: The Czech Republic.
I felt a sense of despair.
You know, I'd have gone for France as the largest EU country based on its overseas departments. I'd assumed that Germany, France and Spain were all very similar in extent. But I hadn't realised how much bigger mainland France is than Germany.
Sweden is pretty big too.
*just checked at tbe LRI WRVS cafe: Latte is £2, their croissants are 85p, but a little puny.
That £4 coffee comment. Is she a London MP? I suspect so....Labour are now the middle class party. Like the Democrats. Not bad thing in itself but they should own it.
I would say it is the sort of thing back in the day Tory MPs got in trouble for....but then these days £4 coffee is the pleb rate in London, even Starbucks are now starting to open "upmarket" stores which charge ~$15 a cup in the US (and will be coming here).
Again not sure the voters of Stoke, Sunderland, et al. think like that.
Here in Southern Spain we pay €1.20-50 for excellent coffee + water + on + pastries - the sun and the sea are gratis!
"In the Leicester Royal Infirmary WRVS shop (hardly a bastion of the metropolitan elite!) Coffee and a Croissant are about £4."
You are having a laugh, Doc. A cup of tea in the WRVS shop at the outpatients department of the Royal Sussex County Hospital costs 75p.
IIRC, I paid £1.50 for 3 cups of tea at the local Sally Army.
Dr Fox has a world view of many things that I find increasingly unbelievable, and as time has gone on - framed by his political views.
The notion that those who voted another way should suffer as he's 'All Right Jack' just confirmed my doubts. If he wasn't a medical doctor but anyone else - we'd not offer him so much slack. I no longer do.
Frankly, old chap, I would sooner spend the time sticking red hot needles into my eyes or even walk round the Tate Modern.
These are pieces from your local museums in Sussex - working to try and make them more visible to people nationally & to encourage best practice in regional museums.
"Mostly because the Trust now charges more from its concessions..."
Hang on! Since when did the WRVS providing refreshments for people waiting (often for bloody hours) become a concession? If you want an example of how the NHS has lost its way that must surely be it.
If you don't already use a cash back site for internet shopping then both Give as you live and Easy Fundraising are a boon for microcharities. They both have search facilities and have thousands of local and niche charities signed up. Everyone will be able to find a snall cause they like as well as the National big brand charities.
"In the Leicester Royal Infirmary WRVS shop (hardly a bastion of the metropolitan elite!) Coffee and a Croissant are about £4."
You are having a laugh, Doc. A cup of tea in the WRVS shop at the outpatients department of the Royal Sussex County Hospital costs 75p.
IIRC, I paid £1.50 for 3 cups of tea at the local Sally Army.
Dr Fox has a world view of many things that I find increasingly unbelievable, and as time has gone on - framed by his political views.
The notion that those who voted another way should suffer as he's 'All Right Jack' just confirmed my doubts. If he wasn't a medical doctor but anyone else - we'd not offer him so much slack. I no longer do.
I think the cost in hospital coffee shops largely depends on what the hospital is charging for rent, etc. In all likelihood, the LRI simply charges a lot more rent than the Royal Sussex, and their prices reflect this.
That is lovely, Nick. How many people let alone politicians in Ireland actually speak Gaelic, I wonder. I suspect damn few. Which raises the wonderful spectre of the EU translating documents, that were hammered out in English (that being the lingua franca of Europe), into Gaelic only for the Irish taxpayer to pay for them to be re-translated into English so that people can actually read them. A situation worthy of Jaroslav Hašek.
Most will speak it to a point. Many better than that.
That £4 coffee comment. Is she a London MP? I suspect so....Labour are now the middle class party. Like the Democrats. Not bad thing in itself but they should own it.
I would say it is the sort of thing back in the day Tory MPs got in trouble for....but then these days £4 coffee is the pleb rate in London, even Starbucks are now starting to open "upmarket" stores which charge ~$15 a cup in the US (and will be coming here).
Again not sure the voters of Stoke, Sunderland, et al. think like that.
I find this bizarre - I've never willingly bought anything in Costa or Starbucks. I've swallowed my WTF and bought a cup/cake for a colleague because it was expected in London and I was polite. I saw the £5 I handed over as two bags of Go-Cat or more.
Being handed a cup of boiling water and a tea bag isn't worth more than pence in value - the rest is rent, labour, mark-up, marketing. It's a fashion market I simply don't understand at all.
Convenience can sometimes make it worthwhile, but not often
I was thinking about that last Friday - I couldn't be arsed to cook and fancied a pizza. I went to Domino's website and they wanted £19 for a pizza delivered. Nope. I dug around in the freezer, deep fried some roast potatoes/chicken breast/covered them in Bisto Best gravy. That took about 8 mins of effort and yummy if basic.
I just can't spend almost folding money on nothing - it's not as if high st tea/coffee/cake is nice - it's horrible.
Also many small charities have Amazon Affiliate links. Book marking one is easy. I alternate between this one https://www.dur.ac.uk/durham.palestine/ , some nuns in Herefordshire and my old College.
YS: "I live in deepest Leaverstan and £4 won't buy you most Coffee/Croissant combinations in that bastion of the elite Costa Coffee. Also the idea that " most " people in Britain ( 51%) can't afford to buy fripperies like Coffee and Croissants is absurd. They can and they do. So Catherine West is right. However so is @Plato There will be plenty of people in Britain for whom £4 is several days worth of food.
These two things aren't mutually exclusive and saying they is a fauxtrage. "
Fauxtrage is a wonderful word. Leave out the uxt to get its primary exponent.
Most people get by on pretty minimised costs and then splurge on something if they can.
That £4 coffee comment. Is she a London MP? I suspect so....Labour are now the middle class party. Like the Democrats. Not bad thing in itself but they should own it.
I would say it is the sort of thing back in the day Tory MPs got in trouble for....but then these days £4 coffee is the pleb rate in London, even Starbucks are now starting to open "upmarket" stores which charge ~$15 a cup in the US (and will be coming here).
Again not sure the voters of Stoke, Sunderland, et al. think like that.
I find this bizarre - I've never willingly bought anything in Costa or Starbucks. I've swallowed my WTF and bought a cup/cake for a colleague because it was expected in London and I was polite. I saw the £5 I handed over as two bags of Go-Cat or more.
Being handed a cup of boiling water and a tea bag isn't worth more than pence in value - the rest is rent, labour, mark-up, marketing. It's a fashion market I simply don't understand at all.
Convenience can sometimes make it worthwhile, but not often
Convenience, an easy place to meet people out of the office and, perhaps, on neutral territory.
"In the Leicester Royal Infirmary WRVS shop (hardly a bastion of the metropolitan elite!) Coffee and a Croissant are about £4."
You are having a laugh, Doc. A cup of tea in the WRVS shop at the outpatients department of the Royal Sussex County Hospital costs 75p.
IIRC, I paid £1.50 for 3 cups of tea at the local Sally Army.
Dr Fox has a world view of many things that I find increasingly unbelievable, and as time has gone on - framed by his political views.
The notion that those who voted another way should suffer as he's 'All Right Jack' just confirmed my doubts. If he wasn't a medical doctor but anyone else - we'd not offer him so much slack. I no longer do.
I can confirm that what the good doctor says is true. I'm spending far too much time and money in the LRI visiting or taking various family members to appointments. And don't get me started on the bloody car parking fees!
Lol @ Catherine West Labour MP for Hornsey: "£4 is a coffee and croissant for most people".
More silly London elitism.
Everyone round here knows you've been swindled if you pay more than £2.50 for that
Joking apart, it did remind me somewhat of the famous moment a QC asked the jury in the Lady Chatterley trial (1960) whether it was the sort of book they would like their wife or their servant to read.
The point being that at the moment the choice of whether we are crippled lies with someone else with no means of us preventing it. I would advocate that any situation where we make - and more importantly can unmake - that decision ourselves has to be better. Of course I clearly don't share your poor view of the UK population to make the right choice nor of its governments to lead. I certainly trust both a lot more than the EU whose decisions may well have nothing to do with our welfare at all.
I can think of a great example to test our ability to unmake a decision that has nothing to do with our welfare...
Mr Glenn, I dimly recall you outlining your support for the EU and Trump a while ago - can you do so again? It's a rarity on PB - possibly unique amongst regular posters, and very useful to understand.
I supported Trump from late 2015 primarily because of his willingness to cut through dogma on US foreign and economic policy and instead based his approach on a more common-sense understanding of US interests. I think it's been US failures from questions such as Iraq to post 9/11 monetary policy that have been at the root of the current discontent across the West far more than the EU. At its core I see the EU as a similarly common sense construct - Europe needs a permanent political framework in which the states can work together for their mutual benefit.
If you've a PayPal account and the app they've just launched a " Support a Cause " function. It has a search facility is stuff full of small local charities noone has ever heard of.
Grumpy PB social conservatives should consider donating food to the local foodbank. If you drop it off in Tescos ( you don't have to buy it there ) they'll add 20% of the value ( on a weight based formula ) in for form a store credit themselves.
It's a good cause and by donating Food not cash you aren't paying anyone's salary.
I fail to understand why people waste so much money on coffee. They spend upwards of £2 a time for a coffee in somewhere like Costa's and probably more than once a day. If you add that up over a year its a frightening sum, probably a couple pf months mortgage payments. I avoid these establishments , I think holding a coffee is a similar habit to having to have ones phone in ones hand whilst gawping at it.
@PlatoSaid It was a practical and evidence based response to the scepticism below of large charities. It's just a fact that if you donate Food not cash 100% of it seems passed on.
I could just have slagged off the absurd view that something like Oxfam or the NSPCC being large, complex and popular is bad I thing. I was being constructive.
Several buses en route to evacuate the sick and injured from two government-held villages in Syria's Idlib province have been burned by rebels. The convoy was travelling to Foah and Kefraya, besieged by rebel fighters. Pro-government forces are demanding people be allowed to leave the mainly Shia villages in order for the evacuation of east Aleppo to continue. Thousands of people are waiting to leave in desperate conditions, reports say.
... However, UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported earlier that the rebel group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, was preventing buses entering Foah and Kefraya.
Not exactly winning the battle for Western hearts and minds, are these rebels?
I have a feeling that mainstream Western sentiment on the issue is passed from "Assad is a brutal dictator, why aren't we helping topple him?" to "Why are we not standing up to the Russians and Iranians over what they're doing in Syria?" to a resigned just-make-it-stop sigh of "Well, 'tis better it were done quickly".
I wonder what bottom line the Saudis will accept. I think that probably matters more now than what folk think in Washington, let alone Brussels.
Frankly, old chap, I would sooner spend the time sticking red hot needles into my eyes or even walk round the Tate Modern.
These are pieces from your local museums in Sussex - working to try and make them more visible to people nationally & to encourage best practice in regional museums.
Frankly, old chap, I would sooner spend the time sticking red hot needles into my eyes or even walk round the Tate Modern.
These are pieces from your local museums in Sussex - working to try and make them more visible to people nationally & to encourage best practice in regional museums.
I'm largely with @HurstLlama - bar a very small number of pieces, I detest modern art for it's lack of depth, competence and insight. I see a great deal of LOOK AT ME, deliberate fashionable clickbait and phoney sincerity/political right-on.
These people aren't suffering threats or persecution - they're sucking up to identity politics arts columnists in the Guardian - and aching for a review/tax payer earnings to subsidise their egos.
YS: "I live in deepest Leaverstan and £4 won't buy you most Coffee/Croissant combinations in that bastion of the elite Costa Coffee. Also the idea that " most " people in Britain ( 51%) can't afford to buy fripperies like Coffee and Croissants is absurd. They can and they do. So Catherine West is right. However so is @Plato There will be plenty of people in Britain for whom £4 is several days worth of food.
These two things aren't mutually exclusive and saying they is a fauxtrage. "
Fauxtrage is a wonderful word. Leave out the uxt to get its primary exponent.
Most people get by on pretty minimised costs and then splurge on something if they can.
The cost of a packet of ciggies is outrageous now, yet smoking rates are inversely related to income. 90% of homeless people smoke and 50% of single mothers. I don't cite this as evidence of fecklessness, more that the simple pleasures of sharing a smoke or a coffee are often the only affordable socially interactive pleasures avaliable. A moment to forget troubles and live like other people do.
The point being that at the moment the choice of whether we are crippled lies with someone else with no means of us preventing it. I would advocate that any situation where we make - and more importantly can unmake - that decision ourselves has to be better. Of course I clearly don't share your poor view of the UK population to make the right choice nor of its governments to lead. I certainly trust both a lot more than the EU whose decisions may well have nothing to do with our welfare at all.
I can think of a great example to test our ability to unmake a decision that has nothing to do with our welfare...
Mr Glenn, I dimly recall you outlining your support for the EU and Trump a while ago - can you do so again? It's a rarity on PB - possibly unique amongst regular posters, and very useful to understand.
I supported Trump from late 2015 primarily because of his willingness to cut through dogma on US foreign and economic policy and instead based his approach on a more common-sense understanding of US interests. I think it's been US failures from questions such as Iraq to post 9/11 monetary policy that have been at the root of the current discontent across the West far more than the EU. At its core I see the EU as a similarly common sense construct - Europe needs a permanent political framework in which the states can work together for their mutual benefit.
Frankly, old chap, I would sooner spend the time sticking red hot needles into my eyes or even walk round the Tate Modern.
These are pieces from your local museums in Sussex - working to try and make them more visible to people nationally & to encourage best practice in regional museums.
I'm largely with @HurstLlama - bar a very small number of pieces, I detest modern art for it's lack of depth, competence and insight. I see a great deal of LOOK AT ME, deliberate fashionable clickbait and phoney sincerity/political right-on.
These people aren't suffering threats or persecution - they're sucking up to identity politics arts columnists in the Guardian - and aching for a review/tax payer earnings to subsidise their egos.
Modernism isn't the same as Modern Art
It's looking at the Bloomsbury group (Virginia Woolf et al) who used to spend the summers and weekends at their country houses in Sussex & the impact that it had on their work.
Pieces by Lee Miller, Salavdor Dali, etc. Mainly from the 1920s and 1930s
Finally the M & S loyalty card Sparks is an interesting model. There are no redeemable points as such but if you register they pay 1p per transaction ( of £1 or more ) to a charity of your choice ( from a list of ten but there is something for everyone ). And they offer an intriguing amount of real time data. On the web you can view the weekly updated total and a pie chart showing the split between the 10 charities.
"These are pieces from your local museums in Sussex - working to try and make them more visible to people nationally & to encourage best practice in regional museums."
Fair go, but the Sussex Modernism stuff is still in my view pretentious rubbish that I would not spend my time, let alone my money, going to view. I say that having spent a day on the Watts Gallery.
Almost all states actually have moved depending on the regional candidate but the afterglow waves after a few elections (Texas=Bush), (Arkansas=Bill Clinton),(Arizona=McCain) can last a bit.
The only states where there is a legitimate long term move are Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, California, Maryland, Virginia,Vermont and West Virginia.
S.Carolina has the record in long term stability, being somewhere between +14 GOP and +17 GOP since 1988.
For what it's worth, switching to instant coffee has saved me about £1,500 per year. That's a worthwhile amount of money that can be spent on more productive uses.
Charles, please tell me that switch and saving is for your bank as a whole and not you personally.
Frankly, old chap, I would sooner spend the time sticking red hot needles into my eyes or even walk round the Tate Modern.
These are pieces from your local museums in Sussex - working to try and make them more visible to people nationally & to encourage best practice in regional museums.
I'm largely with @HurstLlama - bar a very small number of pieces, I detest modern art for it's lack of depth, competence and insight. I see a great deal of LOOK AT ME, deliberate fashionable clickbait and phoney sincerity/political right-on.
These people aren't suffering threats or persecution - they're sucking up to identity politics arts columnists in the Guardian - and aching for a review/tax payer earnings to subsidise their egos.
Modernism isn't the same as Modern Art
It's looking at the Bloomsbury group (Virginia Woolf et al) who used to spend the summers and weekends at their country houses in Sussex & the impact that it had on their work.
Pieces by Lee Miller, Salavdor Dali, etc. Mainly from the 1920s and 1930s
Dali is a star in my book - his stuff is incredible up close. And tiny for its detail/expert execution. Some things need to be seen in the flesh so to speak.
I can't agree re Woolf - she's core Guardian. As were her mates.
Is there a plan to see the return of the quote button, or is it gone for good? IMO it greatly facilitates conversation and hence the attractiveness of this site. PB seems much diminished without it.
Excuse me going slightly off topic, but does anyone know where the data this article about increased support for the EU across following Brexit comes from?
Oh and finally finally to link the themes of discretionary coffee and small charities the Pret Foundation is fantastic. They've stuck at the same cause since they were launched - homelessness - and the same response - nutrition. Loose change donated in store funds the vans that transport all the end of day unused food to charities as well as a grant programme for food in Homeless charities. Kitchen improvements, catering staff, cookery skills courses etc.
Finally the M & S loyalty card Sparks is an interesting model. There are no redeemable points as such but if you register they pay 1p per transaction ( of £1 or more ) to a charity of your choice ( from a list of ten but there is something for everyone ). And they offer an intriguing amount of real time data. On the web you can view the weekly updated total and a pie chart showing the split between the 10 charities.
Why not just give real money to charities you find appealing/worthy? You'd know you've contributed to them with no vested interest and can be sure your money ended up there - and how much.
Giffgaff are my mobile operator and do something similar to M&S - but I don't see that as an alternative to giving myself. It's nice CSR from them - but nothing from me.
@chestnut - British expats in the eu are getting all those services for free too. The problem with tax credits, to the extent it exists, is a domestic policy problem, not an eu one.
That's incorrect , I'm afraid.
Equal treatment of EU citizens within the UK welfare system is an EU issue. It isn't peculiar to tax credits either, it touches universal and means tested benefits.
The scale of payouts differs vastly as well across nations.
The only solution anyone is able to offer in the absence of a citizenship option is to base entitlement on contributions. The problem with that is many British people would be left destitute, That is not a price worth paying to be in the EU.
I live in deepest Leaverstan and £4 won't buy you most Coffee/Croissant combinations in that bastion of the elite Costa Coffee. Also the idea that " most " people in Britain ( 51%) can't afford to buy fripperies like Coffee and Croissants is absurd. They can and they do. So Catherine West is right. However so is @Plato There will be plenty of people in Britain for whom £4 is several days worth of food.
These two things aren't mutually exclusive and saying they is a fauxtrage.
£4 would leave ample change in a normal bakery. Try one.
Frankly, old chap, I would sooner spend the time sticking red hot needles into my eyes or even walk round the Tate Modern.
These are pieces from your local museums in Sussex - working to try and make them more visible to people nationally & to encourage best practice in regional museums.
I'm largely with @HurstLlama - bar a very small number of pieces, I detest modern art for it's lack of depth, competence and insight. I see a great deal of LOOK AT ME, deliberate fashionable clickbait and phoney sincerity/political right-on.
These people aren't suffering threats or persecution - they're sucking up to identity politics arts columnists in the Guardian - and aching for a review/tax payer earnings to subsidise their egos.
Modernism isn't the same as Modern Art
It's looking at the Bloomsbury group (Virginia Woolf et al) who used to spend the summers and weekends at their country houses in Sussex & the impact that it had on their work.
Pieces by Lee Miller, Salavdor Dali, etc. Mainly from the 1920s and 1930s
Best practise is to do guided tours. In my opinion - but I think I'm right. A tour guide can give context, enlighten, fascinate, engage the audience with a story. Without that, it's just 'oh that's nice'. I'd rather get a guided tour around a small gallery than wander around halls full of great works under my own steam.
Comments
12:36PM
A minor quirk of Brexit that will eventually affect me is whether English remains an official EU language. When Ireland joined, they noted that it already was, so to make nationalist voters happy, I understand that they declared their language to be Gaelic. Consequently, all important documents are translated into English for us and into Gaelic for Ireland. When Britain withdraws, there will be no EU countries claiming English as their native language, yet it's the second language for the great majority of businesses and politicians, and Irish politicians especially will I suspect not all really welcome having to read everything in Gaelic...
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Malta has two official languages, Maltese and English.
I think only France would try to make French the main EU language and most countries would say 'sod off'.
If English is phased out, simultaneous translation will become far more expensive, as all possible combinations will need a translator; surely, today, some people are happy to listen in English? Will France pay?!
That is lovely, Nick. How many people let alone politicians in Ireland actually speak Gaelic, I wonder. I suspect damn few. Which raises the wonderful spectre of the EU translating documents, that were hammered out in English (that being the lingua franca of Europe), into Gaelic only for the Irish taxpayer to pay for them to be re-translated into English so that people can actually read them. A situation worthy of Jaroslav Hašek.
(and premium beef production - like we compete with Latin America in - isn't the kind of pastoral farming you get inside the M25. But, I agree, the fetishisation of the green belt is not good policy when we have a housing shortage)
My choices this year so far are Mayhew Animal Centre for Christmas dinners and pet toys, Lurcher SOS for kennels, the Sally Army re homeless festive cheer, Hope Pastures for rescue ponies/donkey feed and blankets - and Wikipedia given how often it gets cited here
Again not sure the voters of Stoke, Sunderland, et al. think like that.
These two things aren't mutually exclusive and saying they is a fauxtrage.
The same is true of plumbers as nurses, doctors, hotel receptionists and cleaners.
I felt a sense of despair.
Being handed a cup of boiling water and a tea bag isn't worth more than pence in value - the rest is rent, labour, mark-up, marketing. It's a fashion market I simply don't understand at all.
The Salvation Army and the RNLI are now the only large, well-known, charities I will give to. I do give money and time to a couple of local charities and to the Ex-Services Mental Welfare Society (now, for some reason that I struggle to understand, re-named "Combat Stress").
As for the rest of the so called third-sector, they can go piss-up a rope as far as I am concerned. Any charity that pays its senior executives six figure salaries and has handsome headquarters buildings has got serious questions to answer.
This happens when you elect a semi-literate person as your President [ or , should I say, Precedent ]
"Speaking of stereotypes, Plato's charity choices conform very nicely."
Conform with what, precisely?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty7qO_RCnWA
You are having a laugh, Doc. A cup of tea in the WRVS shop at the outpatients department of the Royal Sussex County Hospital costs 75p.
Admittedly we only our CEO a high 5 figure salary, but our HQ is rather handsome.
I still think we do good things. Hopefully you can come to our Sussex Modernism show -
http://www.twotempleplace.org/exhibitions/2017-2/
Mostly because the Trust now charges more from its concessions I expect, coffee is even more expensive in the privatised hospital canteen.
I avoid all the big charities - Mayhew got a pass because an ex-collegue volunteers almost every day there and I see her Facebook location status. The others just seemed like genuinely kind hearts on Twitter and after seeing their efforts, I coughed up a few hundred to keep them going.
For longer standing PBers, they'll know I ran an informal animal rescue with all sorts of lost causes from horses to goats, I think we'd about 50 residents at our peak - I guess we can spot each other even from a distance.
It's a good cause and by donating Food not cash you aren't paying anyone's salary.
They surveys tend to be infrequent but they are always short sometimes very short.
"Sussex Modernism show"
Frankly, old chap, I would sooner spend the time sticking red hot needles into my eyes or even walk round the Tate Modern.
*just checked at tbe LRI WRVS cafe: Latte is £2, their croissants are 85p, but a little puny.
Dr Fox has a world view of many things that I find increasingly unbelievable, and as time has gone on - framed by his political views.
The notion that those who voted another way should suffer as he's 'All Right Jack' just confirmed my doubts. If he wasn't a medical doctor but anyone else - we'd not offer him so much slack. I no longer do.
Southern Spain is very good value. Madrid, less so.
"Mostly because the Trust now charges more from its concessions..."
Hang on! Since when did the WRVS providing refreshments for people waiting (often for bloody hours) become a concession? If you want an example of how the NHS has lost its way that must surely be it.
I just can't spend almost folding money on nothing - it's not as if high st tea/coffee/cake is nice - it's horrible.
These two things aren't mutually exclusive and saying they is a fauxtrage. "
Fauxtrage is a wonderful word. Leave out the uxt to get its primary exponent.
Most people get by on pretty minimised costs and then splurge on something if they can.
Everyone round here knows you've been swindled if you pay more than £2.50 for that
Joking apart, it did remind me somewhat of the famous moment a QC asked the jury in the Lady Chatterley trial (1960) whether it was the sort of book they would like their wife or their servant to read.
Madrid feels a lot cheaper than it did a few years ago. Ditto Barcelona.
The cuisine in Spain is like the weather - in the north you boil, in the centre you roast and in the south you fry.
I supported Trump from late 2015 primarily because of his willingness to cut through dogma on US foreign and economic policy and instead based his approach on a more common-sense understanding of US interests. I think it's been US failures from questions such as Iraq to post 9/11 monetary policy that have been at the root of the current discontent across the West far more than the EU. At its core I see the EU as a similarly common sense construct - Europe needs a permanent political framework in which the states can work together for their mutual benefit.
Double Urgh in fact.
I could just have slagged off the absurd view that something like Oxfam or the NSPCC being large, complex and popular is bad I thing. I was being constructive.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38358177
Several buses en route to evacuate the sick and injured from two government-held villages in Syria's Idlib province have been burned by rebels. The convoy was travelling to Foah and Kefraya, besieged by rebel fighters. Pro-government forces are demanding people be allowed to leave the mainly Shia villages in order for the evacuation of east Aleppo to continue. Thousands of people are waiting to leave in desperate conditions, reports say.
... However, UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported earlier that the rebel group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, was preventing buses entering Foah and Kefraya.
Not exactly winning the battle for Western hearts and minds, are these rebels?
I have a feeling that mainstream Western sentiment on the issue is passed from "Assad is a brutal dictator, why aren't we helping topple him?" to "Why are we not standing up to the Russians and Iranians over what they're doing in Syria?" to a resigned just-make-it-stop sigh of "Well, 'tis better it were done quickly".
I wonder what bottom line the Saudis will accept. I think that probably matters more now than what folk think in Washington, let alone Brussels.
These people aren't suffering threats or persecution - they're sucking up to identity politics arts columnists in the Guardian - and aching for a review/tax payer earnings to subsidise their egos.
Indeed. I think you might enjoy:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/demotivator/
Though I'll quite often use a cafe as a neutral location for meeting a client in London, I wouldn't go to one voluntarily.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38358177
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38356058
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38341539
and the above only on one BBC page today. Merry Christmas all.
@Stark_Dawning LOL at the shade you've just thrown at people on this site.
I wouldn't use that argument about the red wine I buy and drink..
It's looking at the Bloomsbury group (Virginia Woolf et al) who used to spend the summers and weekends at their country houses in Sussex & the impact that it had on their work.
Pieces by Lee Miller, Salavdor Dali, etc. Mainly from the 1920s and 1930s
"These are pieces from your local museums in Sussex - working to try and make them more visible to people nationally & to encourage best practice in regional museums."
Fair go, but the Sussex Modernism stuff is still in my view pretentious rubbish that I would not spend my time, let alone my money, going to view. I say that having spent a day on the Watts Gallery.
In this election they did, but there is no trend.
Here is the deviation from the national average for those 3 since 1992:
1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016
Texas +9 GOP, +14, +22, +19, +19, +20, +11
Arizona +8, +7, +7, +8, +16, +13, +6
Georgia +5, +10, +11, +14, +12, +12, +7
Almost all states actually have moved depending on the regional candidate but the afterglow waves after a few elections (Texas=Bush), (Arkansas=Bill Clinton),(Arizona=McCain) can last a bit.
The only states where there is a legitimate long term move are Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, California, Maryland, Virginia,Vermont and West Virginia.
S.Carolina has the record in long term stability, being somewhere between +14 GOP and +17 GOP since 1988.
Charles, please tell me that switch and saving is for your bank as a whole and not you personally.
And their coffee is superb.
MPs are overpaid..
I can't agree re Woolf - she's core Guardian. As were her mates.
Your good works with charity, mental health and animal welfare seem somewhat juxtaposed to your Trump/Brexit/Anti Islam teeth gnashing
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingdom-Asunder-Bloody-Crown-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B01N8UF799/
[I do apologise but the opportunity was too good to ignore].
NEW THREAD
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/eu-approval-european-union-brexit-popularity-uk-bertelsmann-foundation-a7430266.html
Giffgaff are my mobile operator and do something similar to M&S - but I don't see that as an alternative to giving myself. It's nice CSR from them - but nothing from me.
Equal treatment of EU citizens within the UK welfare system is an EU issue. It isn't peculiar to tax credits either, it touches universal and means tested benefits.
The scale of payouts differs vastly as well across nations.
The only solution anyone is able to offer in the absence of a citizenship option is to base entitlement on contributions. The problem with that is many British people would be left destitute, That is not a price worth paying to be in the EU.