That UKIP claim that their polling among women went from 28% to 46% in Eastleigh looks odd, the Ashcroft exit poll put them on 21%, 27% among men,. The Lib Dems had a massive lead among women as the embarrassing and imbecilic "local mother of four" campaign run by the Tories with the challenged candidate Maria Hutchings forced the female Tory vote down to 21% (31% among men)
Fascinating documentary, especially for the discussion of the then-recent Bermondsey by-election* and the brief appearance of George Cunningham at the end, a couple of years after he bailed out of Labour into the SDP and just months before the end of his stint as an MP. He ever so almost managed to keep Islington South and Finsbury for the Social Democrats, but lost it to Chris Smith by a couple of hundred votes in the 1983 election. I didn't realise he came back and almost beat Smith in the 1987 election, which is very impressive for a defector!
* Best piece of Bermondsey by-election trivia - Esmond Bevan finished in 16th and last place, with 8 votes, running as "Systems Designer" after mistakenly putting his profession rather than party (Independent Labour) on the form.
Some of you will remember 'URW', a legendary gambler who used to post on here regularly. I have just been given the sad news that he passed away on Saturday. He remained razor-sharp to the end; he will be much missed.
RIP
****************************
Sad news, Richard.
He was a great, if eccentric, PB poster. I remember many exchanges with him.
Almost too hard core a gambler for PB. Didn't he have his own blog or forum where he held forth on Big Brother evictions?
Some of you will remember 'URW', a legendary gambler who used to post on here regularly. I have just been given the sad news that he passed away on Saturday. He remained razor-sharp to the end; he will be much missed.
RIP
****************************
I can just about remember him from when I first joined PB in 2009ish. Sad news indeed.
In relation to nothing, my well-informed gay friend told me that it is fairly common in circumstances where someone has been firmly in the closet for an extended period beyond the normal age of sexual learning that (a) they have a desire to 'make up for lost time' and (b) they are unaware of the nuances of sexual etiquette in the gay community.
This can lead to unfortunate situations whether either signals are misread, or an approach is persistent or overly aggressive. Although there may be no specific intention, this can result in behaviour which crosses the boundary of what is acceptable and/or potentially even legal.
Alanbrooke - " The two big constants say that a government doesn't often up its support in a second term ..."
Governments often improve their position at the election after coming to office. They did in 1955, 1966 and 1983. Wilson also did better in the second 1974 election, though they were very close together. In addition, although Blair lost a handful of seats in 2001, he still won a landslide.
Against that, there's only Attlee's second election in 1950 (though he did win), and Heath's defeat (just) in 1974.
Of course, it's a lot easier to do well in the second election when you can pick the date.
In relation to nothing, my well-informed gay friend told me that it is fairly common in circumstances where someone has been firmly in the closet for an extended period beyond the normal age of sexual learning that (a) they have a desire to 'make up for lost time' and (b) they are unaware of the nuances of sexual etiquette in the gay community.
This can lead to unfortunate situations whether either signals are misread, or an approach is persistent or overly aggressive. Although there may be no specific intention, this can result in behaviour which crosses the boundary of what is acceptable and/or potentially even legal.
The Law is the Law, irrespective of any supposed nuances prevalent in the imaginary "gay community"...
The Times has leaned Tory for a while, but was always scrupulously balanced in its news coverage, with a good mix of views on its editorial pages. Sadly, under its new editor it has become much more partisan and, therefore, much less interesting to read. With its decline into flag-waving Torydom we have lost the UK's last paper of record. Agendas drive every one of the nationals now. I guess they all put a premium on having a "voice" these days because of the online challenges they face.
In relation to nothing, my well-informed gay friend told me that it is fairly common in circumstances where someone has been firmly in the closet for an extended period beyond the normal age of sexual learning that (a) they have a desire to 'make up for lost time' and (b) they are unaware of the nuances of sexual etiquette in the gay community.
This can lead to unfortunate situations whether either signals are misread, or an approach is persistent or overly aggressive. Although there may be no specific intention, this can result in behaviour which crosses the boundary of what is acceptable and/or potentially even legal.
The Law is the Law, irrespective of any supposed nuances prevalent in the imaginary "gay community"...
Indeed it is. But a misreading of nuances can lead to consent being presumed when it has not been given resulting in the law being broken. As for my well-informed friend, he circulates in a well-connected group of like-minded individuals in London. That was the specific community I was referring to, not any generic group. As an example, he told me pre-summer that he fully expected tonights events to play out - both in outcome and in the number of charges (which I suspect surprised many).
Sadly TSE told me I couldn't post the relevant insights!
I loved the newspaper headlines from that Islington documentary - the outrage that Little Black Sambo might be banned from schools (extraordinarily, it wasn't), the horror that gay people might be allowed to work with children. That was just 30 years ago.
The Times has leaned Tory for a while, but was always scrupulously balanced in its news coverage, with a good mix of views on its editorial pages. Sadly, under its new editor it has become much more partisan and, therefore, much less interesting to read. With its decline into flag-waving Torydom we have lost the UK's last paper of record. Agendas drive every one of the nationals now. I guess they all put a premium on having a "voice" these days because of the online challenges they face.
Worth quoting Wikipedia on The Times's political allegiance:
The Times adopted a stance described as "peculiarly detached" at the 1945 general election; although it was increasingly critical of the Conservative Party's campaign, it did not advocate a vote for any one party. However, the newspaper reverted to the Tories for the next election five years later. It supported the Conservatives for the subsequent three elections, followed by support for both the Conservatives and the Liberal Party for the next five elections, expressly supporting a Con-Lib coalition in 1974. The paper then backed the Conservatives solidly until 1997, when it declined to make any party endorsement but supported individual (primarily Eurosceptic) candidates.
For the 2001 general election The Times declared its support for Tony Blair's Labour government, which was re-elected by a landslide. It supported Labour again in 2005, when Labour achieved a third successive win, though with a reduced majority. For the 2010 general election, however, the newspaper declared its support for the Tories once again; the election ended in the Tories taking the most votes and seats but having to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in order to form a government as they had failed to gain an overall majority.
This makes it the most varied newspaper in terms of political support in British history. Some columnists in The Times are connected to the Conservative Party such as Daniel Finkelstein, Tim Montgomerie and Matthew Parris, but there are also columnists connected to the Labour Party such as David Aaronovitch, Phil Collins and Rod Liddle.
If The Times is turning against Ed Miliband in the run up to the 2015 General Election, you should be looking for other more obvious reasons than its traditional political allegiance.
URW (Ray Joseph): There's a chapter on him in Mike Atherton's 'Gambling':
It should be reasonably obvious that Joseph's idea of a good bet is one where you can't lose - or at least one where the odds are heavily stacked in your favour. In that sense he's a gambler only to a limited extent... Joseph gambles only when he feels he has a considerable edge. 'Listen, the idea of pure chance is anathema to me.... If I don't have an edge, I don't bet. It's as simple as that. I'm cautious and that sometimes means I don't give myself a chance to win big, but at least I win. I bet high turnover, low risk. My profit margins are small as a percentage of my turnover, but high as a percentage of risk'.
This makes it the most varied newspaper in terms of political support in British history. Some columnists in The Times are connected to the Conservative Party such as Daniel Finkelstein, Tim Montgomerie and Matthew Parris, but there are also columnists connected to the Labour Party such as David Aaronovitch, Phil Collins and Rod Liddle.
If The Times is turning against Ed Miliband in the run up to the 2015 General Election, you should be looking for other more obvious reasons than its traditional political allegiance.
The Times turned against Labour prior to 2010. That was fine by me. And whatever its allegiance it never affected the way news was covered or the availability of varied voices on the editorial pages. That has changed over the last year or so and The Times is less good as a result. I was always an avid reader having abandoned the one-eyed Grauniad in about 2008, but tend to skirt all but the Saturday issue now. I miss what it used to be. Still the best for sport mind.
Vince Cable has criticised a growing “complacency” towards the economy, in a calculated swipe at George Osborne before the Liberal Democrat conference.
The Liberal Democrat Business Secretary will suggest today (Wednesday) that Britain is not seeing “the kind of growth we want” despite the Chancellor claiming on Monday that the economy is “turning a corner”.
Relatedly, I'm starting to get the impression that almost EVERYONE dies.
I'm afraid the odds are distinctly stacked against anyone wishing not to die.
This is ridiculous. So you're saying MOST people will die? I don't remember this being mentioned when I was in my teens or 20s. Just suddenly now, when we have a big deficit. Yeah, right.
Lolcats.
It's incredibly convenient for the government, now that pensions are becoming expensive, that - all of a sudden - they realise a LOT of people will eventually die, thus saving trillions.
Coincidence, NOT.
Are you sure it is not the last Labour governments fault....everything else is.
Relatedly, I'm starting to get the impression that almost EVERYONE dies.
I'm afraid the odds are distinctly stacked against anyone wishing not to die.
This is ridiculous. So you're saying MOST people will die? I don't remember this being mentioned when I was in my teens or 20s. Just suddenly now, when we have a big deficit. Yeah, right.
Lolcats.
It's incredibly convenient for the government, now that pensions are becoming expensive, that - all of a sudden - they realise a LOT of people will eventually die, thus saving trillions.
Coincidence, NOT.
More bad news, Sean. It looks like the advances of medical technology have failed to impact the death rate at all.
Relatedly, I'm starting to get the impression that almost EVERYONE dies.
I'm afraid the odds are distinctly stacked against anyone wishing not to die.
This is ridiculous. So you're saying MOST people will die? I don't remember this being mentioned when I was in my teens or 20s. Just suddenly now, when we have a big deficit. Yeah, right.
Lolcats.
It's incredibly convenient for the government, now that pensions are becoming expensive, that - all of a sudden - they realise a LOT of people will eventually die, thus saving trillions.
Coincidence, NOT.
Are you sure it is not the last Labour governments fault....everything else is.
Of course not! People started dying in America......
I loved the newspaper headlines from that Islington documentary - the outrage that Little Black Sambo might be banned from schools (extraordinarily, it wasn't), the horror that gay people might be allowed to work with children. That was just 30 years ago.
It's not exactly surprising, but it was a very vivid reminder. A lot of what the Socialist Republic of Islington was up to, such as being sensitive to gay housing rights, would now be seen as entirely normal and good practice. But then, there's the red flag, the bust of Lenin, the refusal to communicate with the press, the political grandstanding over Northern Ireland and Irish jokes.
Thirty years can be a long time in terms of attitude shifts; it's fascinating how fulsome the moral outrage has been at Russia having its Section 28 moment. It reminded me of how quickly Britain transitioned from a country that made a fortune from the slave trade, to one that at great expense sent its warships to fight it. I often wonder what aspects of our current culture will be viewed with utter shock and condemnation in 2040. The casual sexism with which TV totty are cast, perhaps? Or is the notion of eye candy weathergirls something we'll be stuck forever with as a natural facet of human nature? The fact that few of us suffer crippling enviroguilt every time we drive our car? Will being opposed to uncontrolled, illegal immigration be seen as an act of staggering racism and xenophobia? Does the fact I hung out on a gambling-related website make me a sinner of the future?
I loved the newspaper headlines from that Islington documentary - the outrage that Little Black Sambo might be banned from schools (extraordinarily, it wasn't), the horror that gay people might be allowed to work with children. That was just 30 years ago.
It's not exactly surprising, but it was a very vivid reminder. A lot of what the Socialist Republic of Islington was up to, such as being sensitive to gay housing rights, would now be seen as entirely normal and good practice. But then, there's the red flag, the bust of Lenin, the refusal to communicate with the press, the political grandstanding over Northern Ireland and Irish jokes.
Thirty years can be a long time in terms of attitude shifts; it's fascinating how fulsome the moral outrage has been at Russia having its Section 28 moment. It reminded me of how quickly Britain transitioned from a country that made a fortune from the slave trade, to one that at great expense sent its warships to fight it. I often wonder what aspects of our current culture will be viewed with utter shock and condemnation in 2040. The casual sexism with which TV totty are cast, perhaps? Or is the notion of eye candy weathergirls something we'll be stuck forever with as a natural facet of human nature? The fact that few of us suffer crippling enviroguilt every time we drive our car? Will being opposed to uncontrolled, illegal immigration be seen as an act of staggering racism and xenophobia? Does the fact I hung out on a gambling-related website make me a sinner of the future?
I loved the newspaper headlines from that Islington documentary - the outrage that Little Black Sambo might be banned from schools (extraordinarily, it wasn't), the horror that gay people might be allowed to work with children. That was just 30 years ago.
It's not exactly surprising, but it was a very vivid reminder. A lot of what the Socialist Republic of Islington was up to, such as being sensitive to gay housing rights, would now be seen as entirely normal and good practice. But then, there's the red flag, the bust of Lenin, the refusal to communicate with the press, the political grandstanding over Northern Ireland and Irish jokes.
Thirty years can be a long time in terms of attitude shifts; it's fascinating how fulsome the moral outrage has been at Russia having its Section 28 moment. It reminded me of how quickly Britain transitioned from a country that made a fortune from the slave trade, to one that at great expense sent its warships to fight it. I often wonder what aspects of our current culture will be viewed with utter shock and condemnation in 2040. The casual sexism with which TV totty are cast, perhaps? Or is the notion of eye candy weathergirls something we'll be stuck forever with as a natural facet of human nature? The fact that few of us suffer crippling enviroguilt every time we drive our car? Will being opposed to uncontrolled, illegal immigration be seen as an act of staggering racism and xenophobia? Does the fact I hung out on a gambling-related website make me a sinner of the future?
No-one tells Irish jokes anymore, do they? Back in the day Islington and Camden were very Irish and the Labour parties in both boroughs were too. The Republicanism wasn't pleasant, but it represented the views of a large part of the voting demographic. Going to pubs back then you'd often stand for a playing of the Soldiers Song at evening's end and collections for Sinn Fein were commonplace.
In the past I have enjoyed reading the Times but in recent weeks and months it has become noticeably partisan. If I wanted biased reporting I would buy the Sun. It seems no longer to be a paper of record and these posts have made my mind up to switch, at least some of the time, back to the good old Grauniad, even though it can be stuck up its own arse(not Jack's) at times.
Very sad news about URW. He was one of the "fun" PB members back in the day.
I've been contemplating life and death a lot this year - In some ways there's a pure randomness about it all - I mean, I'm a non smoker and not a heavy drinker and I was well on my way to oral cancer - But in other ways there's also an inevitability about it all - At the end of The Green Mile the main character say's;
"We are all walking our own Green Mile, each in our own time."
There's a lot of truth in that, I think.
The randomness is in the thing that takes you, but the inevitability is that sooner or later take you it will.
"I often wonder what aspects of our current culture will be viewed with utter shock and condemnation in 2040."
I'd start with the fact that we allow thousands of girls to be taken out of the country in order to be mutilated, with no prosecutions despite in being illegal for 30 years.
English and French clubs break away from Heineken Cup
The board of the European Rugby Cup face a crisis meeting in Dublin on Wednesday following the declaration by the leading clubs in England and France of their intention to set up a new breakaway competition to rival the Heineken Cup from next season.
The cruel randomness is quite noticeable. Most days I get asked, "why have I got this? What have I done to get this?"
Sometimes the answer is obvious, suicide by smoking, suicide by food, suicide by drinking, but all too often there is no answer. Western medicine is not good at answering these questions, but complementary medicine often is. Its part of its appeal.
Death is not so bad, but only if in the right form.
Bob Monkhouse :" I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my uncle did. Not screaming in terror like the passengers on the bus he was driving"
Very sad news about URW. He was one of the "fun" PB members back in the day.
I've been contemplating life and death a lot this year - In some ways there's a pure randomness about it all - I mean, I'm a non smoker and not a heavy drinker and I was well on my way to oral cancer - But in other ways there's also an inevitability about it all - At the end of The Green Mile the main character say's;
"We are all walking our own Green Mile, each in our own time."
There's a lot of truth in that, I think.
The randomness is in the thing that takes you, but the inevitability is that take you, it will.
I often wonder what aspects of our current culture will be viewed with utter shock and condemnation in 2040. The casual sexism with which TV totty are cast, perhaps? Or is the notion of eye candy weathergirls something we'll be stuck forever with as a natural facet of human nature? The fact that few of us suffer crippling enviroguilt every time we drive our car? Will being opposed to uncontrolled, illegal immigration be seen as an act of staggering racism and xenophobia? Does the fact I hung out on a gambling-related website make me a sinner of the future?
The paper then backed the Conservatives solidly until 1997, when it declined to make any party endorsement but supported individual (primarily Eurosceptic) candidates.
A quirk that pbers may appreciate is that I was one of the beneficiaries of the Times endorsements. My opponent in 1997 was Sir Jim Lester, a close friend of Ken Clarke's and a Europhile - not especially fanatical but still pro-EU. The Times singled him out for the Black Spot, and explicitly recommended that readers vote for me as the best-placed candidate to evict him.
At the time, I was a very active member of the Labour Movement for Europe, I'd lived on the Continent for nearly the whole of my life since age 8, and my europhilia made Jim Lester look like UKIP. I must admit I didn't ring the Times to urge them to reconsider, and merely gave an evil chuckle at the Times's expense.
I often wonder what aspects of our current culture will be viewed with utter shock and condemnation in 2040. The casual sexism with which TV totty are cast, perhaps? Or is the notion of eye candy weathergirls something we'll be stuck forever with as a natural facet of human nature? The fact that few of us suffer crippling enviroguilt every time we drive our car? Will being opposed to uncontrolled, illegal immigration be seen as an act of staggering racism and xenophobia? Does the fact I hung out on a gambling-related website make me a sinner of the future?
The paper then backed the Conservatives solidly until 1997, when it declined to make any party endorsement but supported individual (primarily Eurosceptic) candidates.
A oquirk that pbers may appreciate is that I was one of the beneficiaries of the Times endorsements. My opponent in 1997 was Sir Jim Lester, a close friend of Ken Clarke's and a Europhile - not especially fanatical but still pro-EU. The Times singled him out for the Black Spot, and explicitly recommended that readers vote for me as the best-placed candidate to evict him.
At the time, I was a very active member of the Labour Movement for Europe, I'd lived on the Continent for nearly the whole of my life since age 8, and my europhilia made Jim Lester look like UKIP. I must admit I didn't ring the Times to urge them to reconsider, and merely gave an evil chuckle at the Times's expense.
You are damned, Nick.
You have taken Murdoch's shilling without complaint!
In the past I have enjoyed reading the Times but in recent weeks and months it has become noticeably partisan. If I wanted biased reporting I would buy the Sun. It seems no longer to be a paper of record and these posts have made my mind up to switch, at least some of the time, back to the good old Grauniad, even though it can be stuck up its own arse(not Jack's) at times.
As TSE mentions above, things are getting close in Germany: latest average of polls is centre-right coalition 45.3% and the three main centre-left/left parties 44.9%.
Interesting though that the three main centre-left/left parties are probably going to get less support between them than last time when it was 48.4% vs 45.6%, mainly because of the decline in support for Die Linke.
What's happened to Radio Five Live? They used to have fairly interesting phone-ins at this time but now it's just some kind of inane question and answer contest.
Sad news about URW. Whenever you were scanning a thread quickly, only slowing down for posters you knew were worth reading carefully, his posts always rewarded you for the time you gave them.
It feels strange to be mourning someone you never met, I never even knew his name until this thread. But somehow these threads and all the banter does make a community, even for those who don't make the meetups. I can't help thinking again of the time SBS showed me round the National Liberal Club, I wonder how he would have found the triumphs and despair of coalition.
I've tried looking in the archives to see if I can find any of URW comments but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be possible to read comments in the archives anymore.
Did someone mention Ukraine (possibly in the context of football)? I was singing the Ukrainian national anthem at 11:56am on Sunday while walking along Oak Avenue in Shirley, Croydon with my MP and about 14 other people.
Now I could understand them passing a motion calling for fox hunting to be banned in the UK, but what was the point of banning it in Islington?
Stoke-on-trent was a nuclear-free zone, despite there being no prospect of any nuclear power stations or weapons ever being there.
unless they were proposing to ban nuclei which would have been difficult.
or perhaps it was an ironic comment on the lack of any real cohesive city centre...
edited: i did a their/there confusion. by god. it may be time to give up speaking english. no, there are two of them. perhaps an evil auto-correct issue. either way. i'm going to have a lie down
Thanks for the link on the 125's.. particularly fond of that train, and will be very sad to see it go. Hopefully it will continue to serve the Penzance route given that electrification down that far seems a way off.
I believe the national collection (i.e. the National Railway Museum) have first dibs on a full set (two power cars and a full set of coaches), and a private group are hoping to buy a second.
But the HSTs will be around for a long time yet IMHO. With this government's electrification plans, there will be less need for diesel-only sets. I see a fair few 125's being kept for emergency relief.
Am iconic British (Derby) design.
On that note, one of the original prototype 125's power cars is being returned to the main line. It recently was started up for the first time in decades: http://www.projectmiller.org.uk/
Now I could understand them passing a motion calling for fox hunting to be banned in the UK, but what was the point of banning it in Islington?
Stoke-on-trent was a nuclear-free zone, despite there being no prospect of any nuclear power stations or weapons ever being there.
unless they were proposing to ban nuclei which would have been difficult.
or perhaps it was an ironic comment on the lack of any real cohesive city centre...
edited: i did a their/there confusion. by god. it may be time to give up speaking english. no, there are two of them. perhaps an evil auto-correct issue. either way. i'm going to have a lie down
Basildon was too. With notices on all the main roads ino the town. The night the Tories took control of the Council two new Tory councillors went round removing the signs and were threatened with prosecution for damaging Council property!
Comments
* Best piece of Bermondsey by-election trivia - Esmond Bevan finished in 16th and last place, with 8 votes, running as "Systems Designer" after mistakenly putting his profession rather than party (Independent Labour) on the form.
He was a great, if eccentric, PB poster. I remember many exchanges with him.
Almost too hard core a gambler for PB. Didn't he have his own blog or forum where he held forth on Big Brother evictions?
This can lead to unfortunate situations whether either signals are misread, or an approach is persistent or overly aggressive. Although there may be no specific intention, this can result in behaviour which crosses the boundary of what is acceptable and/or potentially even legal.
http://www7.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2013/09/06/strictly-come-dancing-betting-thread/
Sadly TSE told me I couldn't post the relevant insights!
The Times adopted a stance described as "peculiarly detached" at the 1945 general election; although it was increasingly critical of the Conservative Party's campaign, it did not advocate a vote for any one party. However, the newspaper reverted to the Tories for the next election five years later. It supported the Conservatives for the subsequent three elections, followed by support for both the Conservatives and the Liberal Party for the next five elections, expressly supporting a Con-Lib coalition in 1974. The paper then backed the Conservatives solidly until 1997, when it declined to make any party endorsement but supported individual (primarily Eurosceptic) candidates.
For the 2001 general election The Times declared its support for Tony Blair's Labour government, which was re-elected by a landslide. It supported Labour again in 2005, when Labour achieved a third successive win, though with a reduced majority. For the 2010 general election, however, the newspaper declared its support for the Tories once again; the election ended in the Tories taking the most votes and seats but having to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in order to form a government as they had failed to gain an overall majority.
This makes it the most varied newspaper in terms of political support in British history. Some columnists in The Times are connected to the Conservative Party such as Daniel Finkelstein, Tim Montgomerie and Matthew Parris, but there are also columnists connected to the Labour Party such as David Aaronovitch, Phil Collins and Rod Liddle.
If The Times is turning against Ed Miliband in the run up to the 2015 General Election, you should be looking for other more obvious reasons than its traditional political allegiance.
It should be reasonably obvious that Joseph's idea of a good bet is one where you can't lose - or at least one where the odds are heavily stacked in your favour. In that sense he's a gambler only to a limited extent... Joseph gambles only when he feels he has a considerable edge. 'Listen, the idea of pure chance is anathema to me.... If I don't have an edge, I don't bet. It's as simple as that. I'm cautious and that sometimes means I don't give myself a chance to win big, but at least I win. I bet high turnover, low risk. My profit margins are small as a percentage of my turnover, but high as a percentage of risk'.
One of the greats, and a great character too.
If The Times is turning against Ed Miliband in the run up to the 2015 General Election, you should be looking for other more obvious reasons than its traditional political allegiance.
The Times turned against Labour prior to 2010. That was fine by me. And whatever its allegiance it never affected the way news was covered or the availability of varied voices on the editorial pages. That has changed over the last year or so and The Times is less good as a result. I was always an avid reader having abandoned the one-eyed Grauniad in about 2008, but tend to skirt all but the Saturday issue now. I miss what it used to be. Still the best for sport mind.
Vince Cable has criticised a growing “complacency” towards the economy, in a calculated swipe at George Osborne before the Liberal Democrat conference.
The Liberal Democrat Business Secretary will suggest today (Wednesday) that Britain is not seeing “the kind of growth we want” despite the Chancellor claiming on Monday that the economy is “turning a corner”.
Where's there's Life, there's hope.
Thirty years can be a long time in terms of attitude shifts; it's fascinating how fulsome the moral outrage has been at Russia having its Section 28 moment. It reminded me of how quickly Britain transitioned from a country that made a fortune from the slave trade, to one that at great expense sent its warships to fight it. I often wonder what aspects of our current culture will be viewed with utter shock and condemnation in 2040. The casual sexism with which TV totty are cast, perhaps? Or is the notion of eye candy weathergirls something we'll be stuck forever with as a natural facet of human nature? The fact that few of us suffer crippling enviroguilt every time we drive our car? Will being opposed to uncontrolled, illegal immigration be seen as an act of staggering racism and xenophobia? Does the fact I hung out on a gambling-related website make me a sinner of the future?
Try this for size!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFhoWBxNfBs
Someone sent the video to me a few days ago and I've uploaded it as soon as possible because it was so fascinating.
It probably hasn't been watched by anyone for 30 years.
It seems no longer to be a paper of record and these posts have made my mind up to switch, at least some of the time, back to the good old Grauniad, even though it can be stuck up its own arse(not Jack's) at times.
Though of a sensitive disposition should look away now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHmHxSNxOaI
I've been contemplating life and death a lot this year - In some ways there's a pure randomness about it all - I mean, I'm a non smoker and not a heavy drinker and I was well on my way to oral cancer - But in other ways there's also an inevitability about it all - At the end of The Green Mile the main character say's;
"We are all walking our own Green Mile, each in our own time."
There's a lot of truth in that, I think.
The randomness is in the thing that takes you, but the inevitability is that sooner or later take you it will.
Oh sweet baby Jesus.
I sent that to a friend, and the sick bugger just put an evil thought or two into my head
"The mother, she'd make a good dominatrix/the start of the video looks like the start of a MILF porno"
I'd start with the fact that we allow thousands of girls to be taken out of the country in order to be mutilated, with no prosecutions despite in being illegal for 30 years.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18900803
Good night. x
English and French clubs break away from Heineken Cup
The board of the European Rugby Cup face a crisis meeting in Dublin on Wednesday following the declaration by the leading clubs in England and France of their intention to set up a new breakaway competition to rival the Heineken Cup from next season.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/club/10300721/English-and-French-clubs-break-away-from-Heineken-Cup.html
Sometimes the answer is obvious, suicide by smoking, suicide by food, suicide by drinking, but all too often there is no answer. Western medicine is not good at answering these questions, but complementary medicine often is. Its part of its appeal.
Death is not so bad, but only if in the right form.
Bob Monkhouse :" I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my uncle did. Not screaming in terror like the passengers on the bus he was driving"
Always one of the most interesting posters here when he was around.
RIP.
At the time, I was a very active member of the Labour Movement for Europe, I'd lived on the Continent for nearly the whole of my life since age 8, and my europhilia made Jim Lester look like UKIP. I must admit I didn't ring the Times to urge them to reconsider, and merely gave an evil chuckle at the Times's expense.
You have taken Murdoch's shilling without complaint!
Interesting though that the three main centre-left/left parties are probably going to get less support between them than last time when it was 48.4% vs 45.6%, mainly because of the decline in support for Die Linke.
It feels strange to be mourning someone you never met, I never even knew his name until this thread. But somehow these threads and all the banter does make a community, even for those who don't make the meetups. I can't help thinking again of the time SBS showed me round the National Liberal Club, I wonder how he would have found the triumphs and despair of coalition.
RIP
Now I could understand them passing a motion calling for fox hunting to be banned in the UK, but what was the point of banning it in Islington?
unless they were proposing to ban nuclei which would have been difficult.
or perhaps it was an ironic comment on the lack of any real cohesive city centre...
edited: i did a their/there confusion. by god. it may be time to give up speaking english. no, there are two of them. perhaps an evil auto-correct issue. either way. i'm going to have a lie down
http://www.125group.org.uk/
But the HSTs will be around for a long time yet IMHO. With this government's electrification plans, there will be less need for diesel-only sets. I see a fair few 125's being kept for emergency relief.
Am iconic British (Derby) design.
On that note, one of the original prototype 125's power cars is being returned to the main line. It recently was started up for the first time in decades:
http://www.projectmiller.org.uk/
Another of the "PB Old Contemptibles" bites the dust.
RIP