A question: if I fly to Europe and put my Irish passport on the personal details bit of the ticket, can I then - when I fly back - put my British passport details on?
I don’t see the Intelligence and Security Committee on that list. What’s happened to it?
And how the hell can Jeremy Hunt hold the government to account on health when he was in charge of that department for so much of its time in office?
Wednesday's elections do not include the intelligence and security committee (ISC) - the head of which is chosen through a separate process, with nominations provided by the prime minister after consultation with the leader of the opposition.
Apparently Julian Knight only beat Damien Collins by 7 votes for the DCMS Chair...I wonder how many other Corbynite never kissed a Tory types like old Sultana abstained from voting?
A question: if I fly to Europe and put my Irish passport on the personal details bit of the ticket, can I then - when I fly back - put my British passport details on?
I don’t see the Intelligence and Security Committee on that list. What’s happened to it?
And how the hell can Jeremy Hunt hold the government to account on health when he was in charge of that department for so much of its time in office?
Wednesday's elections do not include the intelligence and security committee (ISC) - the head of which is chosen through a separate process, with nominations provided by the prime minister after consultation with the leader of the opposition.
So it is confirmed that he got the boot for a single tweet where he quoted a passage from Shakespeare, that he has used before to reply to other trolls? Its a bit like Danny Baker sacking. Nobody with any sense genuinely thinks he is a massive racist.
Reminds me of the time someone complained to Mike about me being an Islamophobe.
(Was when I posted on PB that I really wouldn't want a deeply religious Muslim family living next door to me.)
What you aren't. I always had you down as a closet Britain First member ;-)
I'd have joined Britain First but they have far too many fans of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage as members.
Thinking about it, I would have thought before you even got to that, the standard of dress among members would have put you off.
Indeed.
That said I have dressed like a member of Britain First when I’ve snuck into home ends of Liverpool away matches, albeit in genuine Hackett, Louis Vuitton, and Burberry gear.
People must get behind this - at least the spirit of it - if they are serious about spreading wealth and opportunity in this country.
Utterly bonkers.
For the Left to threaten private education provokes the same kind of emotional reaction as if the Right were threatening the NHS. You're going to get nuclear-level pushback for minimal political gain. Want a Tory vote stuck at 40%+ indefinitely? Then have Labour push spiteful class war policies like this one.
So it is confirmed that he got the boot for a single tweet where he quoted a passage from Shakespeare, that he has used before to reply to other trolls? Its a bit like Danny Baker sacking. Nobody with any sense genuinely thinks he is a massive racist.
Exactly, but companies have adopted a "zero tolerance" approach to public comments that could if you cross your eyes, maybe, just perhaps be construed as possibly racist, even it that was unintended. It's very, very silly.
The problem with this kind of approach is it actually gives cover to the proper racists, as they can claim look everything / everybody is deemed racist these days.
It trivialises the issue, and doesn't do anything to tackle racism. Companies and organisations are very wary of falling foul to social media outrage and the kind of storms that are whipped up, and they feel obliged to act as if the don't "person X is racist" will rapidly become "company X is racist", and then you get boycotts, petitions, and all the other cancel culture nonsense.
I stand by my view that social media is the worst invention since the atomic bomb.
A question: if I fly to Europe and put my Irish passport on the personal details bit of the ticket, can I then - when I fly back - put my British passport details on?
Can Irish citizens not use the UK line as Ireland is part of the CTA?
If not just leave your Irish details on your ticket and whip out your British passport when you reach UK immigration, no need to burden the airline with unnecessary details.....
People must get behind this - at least the spirit of it - if they are serious about spreading wealth and opportunity in this country.
Utterly bonkers.
For the Left to threaten private education provokes the same kind of emotional reaction as if the Right were threatening the NHS. You're going to get nuclear-level pushback for minimal political gain. Want a Tory vote stuck at 40%+ indefinitely? Then have Labour push spiteful class war policies like this one.
From the description is says..
A disproportionate number of people who occupy the top jobs across the UK – from the prime minister and leading politicians to judges and entertainers – were privately educated.
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
What decided it for me was driving into Chicago, when the free flowing interstate suddenly turned into a long tailback of stop-start traffic which reminded me of those at the Blackwall Tunnel. With a CVT the car's cruise control stayed engaged right down to zero speed, and with its built in radar it braked by itself as the car in front slowed down, and started off again when the traffic resumed moving. With lane assist engaged it steered by itself to follow the bends in the road. All the way into Chicago I barely had to do anything and sat there admiring the view.
Hitting the Blackwall Tunnel again in my manual, I decided it had to go.
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
What decided it for me was driving into Chicago, when the free flowing interstate suddenly turned into a long tailback of stop-start traffic which reminded me of those at the Blackwall Tunnel. With a CVT the car's cruise control stayed engaged right down to zero speed, and with its built in radar it braked by itself as the car in front slowed down, and started off again when the traffic resumed moving. With lane assist engaged it steered by itself to follow the bends in the road. All the way into Chicago I barely had to do anything and sat there admiring the view.
Hitting the Blackwall Tunnel again in my manual, I decided it had to go.
Are the queues at the Blackwall Tunnel worse than those Northbound at the Dartford crossing? It's easy to leave Essex, very slow getting back North.
Seems the bloke who has taken offence at being quoted Shakespeare at isn't exactly errrhh above using race....
Mr Shapland deleted all his tweets today amid scrutiny of his own social media where he was accused of 'anti-white bigotry' because his messages were packed with rants about 'f***ing white privilege'.
People must get behind this - at least the spirit of it - if they are serious about spreading wealth and opportunity in this country.
Utterly bonkers.
For the Left to threaten private education provokes the same kind of emotional reaction as if the Right were threatening the NHS. You're going to get nuclear-level pushback for minimal political gain. Want a Tory vote stuck at 40%+ indefinitely? Then have Labour push spiteful class war policies like this one.
From the description is says..
A disproportionate number of people who occupy the top jobs across the UK – from the prime minister and leading politicians to judges and entertainers – were privately educated.
Funny it doesn't say "Guardian journalists"...
The Guardian itself is literally the only good argument for the abolition of private schools...
People must get behind this - at least the spirit of it - if they are serious about spreading wealth and opportunity in this country.
Utterly bonkers.
For the Left to threaten private education provokes the same kind of emotional reaction as if the Right were threatening the NHS. You're going to get nuclear-level pushback for minimal political gain. Want a Tory vote stuck at 40%+ indefinitely? Then have Labour push spiteful class war policies like this one.
From the description is says..
A disproportionate number of people who occupy the top jobs across the UK – from the prime minister and leading politicians to judges and entertainers – were privately educated.
Funny it doesn't say "Guardian journalists"...
The Guardian itself is literally the only good argument for the abolition of private schools...
Fastest way of getting the ban hammer on Comment is Free is to post the educational background of all the leading Guardianistas under articles about the disgusting injustices of private education.
A question: if I fly to Europe and put my Irish passport on the personal details bit of the ticket, can I then - when I fly back - put my British passport details on?
Can Irish citizens not use the UK line as Ireland is part of the CTA?
If not just leave your Irish details on your ticket and whip out your British passport when you reach UK immigration, no need to burden the airline with unnecessary details.....
I'd assume you'd need to use the same passport used to buy the ticket when you check in and when you board the plane, so that the ID matches up. But I don't see why at immigration/customs you cant just choose whichever you prefer.
Southwest Flew Millions on Jets With Unconfirmed Maintenance Records, Government Report Says
Transportation Department report to fault FAA for what it calls ineffective oversight of carrier
A government report to be released in coming days says Southwest Airlines Co. failed to prioritize safety and the airline’s regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration, hasn’t done enough about it.
Southwest pilots flew more than 17 million passengers on planes with unconfirmed maintenance records over roughly two years, and in 2019 smashed both wingtips of a jet on a runway while repeatedly trying to land amid gale-force winds, according to the Transportation Department report, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The lapses are highlighted in a draft audit by the agency’s inspector general that also criticizes the FAA’s oversight of the carrier as lax, ineffective and inconsistent. The document indicates no agency enforcement action resulted from those safety slip-ups or certain other alleged hazards. In some cases, the report alleges, the FAA’s overall approach served to “justify continued noncompliance with safety regulations.”
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
What decided it for me was driving into Chicago, when the free flowing interstate suddenly turned into a long tailback of stop-start traffic which reminded me of those at the Blackwall Tunnel. With a CVT the car's cruise control stayed engaged right down to zero speed, and with its built in radar it braked by itself as the car in front slowed down, and started off again when the traffic resumed moving. With lane assist engaged it steered by itself to follow the bends in the road. All the way into Chicago I barely had to do anything and sat there admiring the view.
Hitting the Blackwall Tunnel again in my manual, I decided it had to go.
Are the queues at the Blackwall Tunnel worse than those Northbound at the Dartford crossing? It's easy to leave Essex, very slow getting back North.
Doubtless had I any desire to go to Essex, I would have reached the same decision.
"Early on [Cummings] is said to have told some bemused spads that Johnson’s government could be remembered more for “radical science” than for Brexit."
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
WTF are you driving? An Austin Brexit? Just about every manual car made in the last 10 years has hill start assist.
Can no one balance a clutch any more ?
The one mistake I made with the hire car in the US is driving it into the wall of a multi storey car park; I stopped but needed to be a bit further into the space, so I did what I would do in my own car and tap the accelerator and then stop the car with the hand brake. Except that it didn't have one.
"Early on [Cummings] is said to have told some bemused spads that Johnson’s government could be remembered more for “radical science” than for Brexit."
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
WTF are you driving? An Austin Brexit? Just about every manual car made in the last 10 years has hill start assist.
Can no one balance a clutch any more ?
The one mistake I made with the hire car in the US is driving it into the wall of a multi storey car park; I stopped but needed to be a bit further into the space, so I did what I would do in my own car and tap the accelerator and then stop the car with the hand brake. Except that it didn't have one.
I remember when I got my ML in 2006 and being utterly confused by having a vehicle without a handbrake or a gear stick.
"Early on [Cummings] is said to have told some bemused spads that Johnson’s government could be remembered more for “radical science” than for Brexit."
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
Wasn’t that what was in a DAF?
Yes.
The fun thing about them is, they go just as fast backwards as forwards (at least in theory; I imagine they stick some sort of governor in to prevent this from being true).
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
WTF are you driving? An Austin Brexit? Just about every manual car made in the last 10 years has hill start assist.
Can no one balance a clutch any more ?
The one mistake I made with the hire car in the US is driving it into the wall of a multi storey car park; I stopped but needed to be a bit further into the space, so I did what I would do in my own car and tap the accelerator and then stop the car with the hand brake. Except that it didn't have one.
I remember when I got my ML in 2006 and being utterly confused by having a vehicle without a handbrake or a gear stick.
You cant really nudge a car a few inches forward or back without one, since the right foot cant move quick enough. I believe there's a little switch that does the same thing as the handbrake.
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
WTF are you driving? An Austin Brexit? Just about every manual car made in the last 10 years has hill start assist.
Can no one balance a clutch any more ?
The one mistake I made with the hire car in the US is driving it into the wall of a multi storey car park; I stopped but needed to be a bit further into the space, so I did what I would do in my own car and tap the accelerator and then stop the car with the hand brake. Except that it didn't have one.
I remember when I got my ML in 2006 and being utterly confused by having a vehicle without a handbrake or a gear stick.
You cant really nudge a car a few inches forward or back without one, since the right foot cant move quick enough. I believe there's a little switch that does the same thing as the handbrake.
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
Wasn’t that what was in a DAF?
Yes.
The fun thing about them is, they go just as fast backwards as forwards (at least in theory; I imagine they stick some sort of governor in to prevent this from being true).
The same is true of electric cars. (ETA which you can also set up to be controlled by one pedal or two: in years to come pb-ers will be declaring their shock at having to adjust to using separate brake and accelerator pedals again.)
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
WTF are you driving? An Austin Brexit? Just about every manual car made in the last 10 years has hill start assist.
Can no one balance a clutch any more ?
The one mistake I made with the hire car in the US is driving it into the wall of a multi storey car park; I stopped but needed to be a bit further into the space, so I did what I would do in my own car and tap the accelerator and then stop the car with the hand brake. Except that it didn't have one.
I remember when I got my ML in 2006 and being utterly confused by having a vehicle without a handbrake or a gear stick.
You cant really nudge a car a few inches forward or back without one, since the right foot cant move quick enough. I believe there's a little switch that does the same thing as the handbrake.
You could use the left foot.
After driving an auto doesn't it just wither and die?
One thing to think about in relation to any future vote on Scottish independence - who would lead the campaign for No? The list of popular and credible unionists is not exactly long and I imagine Boris Johnson would feature heavily in the pro-independence campaign literature.
It’s a good point. I imagine it’d default to someone like Ruth Davidson, but I agree there’s not an obvious stream of likely candidates.
I suspect many English Tories would secretly like Scottish Independence to happen. Best way for that to occur would be for a Tory MP to say something along the lines of 'itll never happen because the Scots don't have the bottle', and goad Scotland into a Yes vote.
Given the Tories won an a manifesto of no indyref2 even with a nationalist majority in 2021 that is not the case, the Tories remain the Conservative and Unionist party and the only party committed to respecting the 'once in a generation' 2014 No vote
The party policy overall maybe, but individual MPs and members might not shed a tear over the loss of a left wing Remainer anti English block of SNP MPs, which would reduce the opposition ranks by another 50.
Machiavellianism alert:
If Labour is still run by extremists when the next election approaches and the Tories are behind in the polls, they could do a lot worse than to use their majority to, er, 'gift' Scotland its independence instantaneously. Boris would technically have kept his word - he wouldn't have granted a second independence referendum!
Does anyone have the foggiest idea what is going on in Surrey Heath?
The CEO is suspended or on permanent leave, or ... Nobody seems to know and it is for sometime now.
Regarding the leader of the council:
The Conservatives have announced the following: "It is with regret that we announce the Conservative Group held a unanimous Vote of No Confidence in the leadership of Cllr Richard Brooks, for failing to uphold the highest levels of integrity consistent with being a Conservative Councillor". His deputy has also stood down and both are out of the group. It is now under NOC.
Going from leader to out altogether is impressive.
BUT nobody has any idea what he has supposed to have done. It is being kept secret.
"Early on [Cummings] is said to have told some bemused spads that Johnson’s government could be remembered more for “radical science” than for Brexit."
Does anyone have the foggiest idea what is going on in Surrey Heath?
The CEO is suspended or on permanent leave, or ... Nobody seems to know and it is for sometime now.
Regarding the leader of the council:
The Conservatives have announced the following: "It is with regret that we announce the Conservative Group held a unanimous Vote of No Confidence in the leadership of Cllr Richard Brooks, for failing to uphold the highest levels of integrity consistent with being a Conservative Councillor". His deputy has also stood down and both are out of the group. It is now under NOC.
Going from leader to out altogether is impressive.
BUT nobody has any idea what he has supposed to have done. It is being kept secret.
There was this from the LibDems there last week, but it doesn't add much more:
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
WTF are you driving? An Austin Brexit? Just about every manual car made in the last 10 years has hill start assist.
Can no one balance a clutch any more ?
The one mistake I made with the hire car in the US is driving it into the wall of a multi storey car park; I stopped but needed to be a bit further into the space, so I did what I would do in my own car and tap the accelerator and then stop the car with the hand brake. Except that it didn't have one.
I remember when I got my ML in 2006 and being utterly confused by having a vehicle without a handbrake or a gear stick.
You cant really nudge a car a few inches forward or back without one, since the right foot cant move quick enough. I believe there's a little switch that does the same thing as the handbrake.
So it is confirmed that he got the boot for a single tweet where he quoted a passage from Shakespeare, that he has used before to reply to other trolls? Its a bit like Danny Baker sacking. Nobody with any sense genuinely thinks he is a massive racist.
Reminds me of the time someone complained to Mike about me being an Islamophobe.
(Was when I posted on PB that I really wouldn't want a deeply religious Muslim family living next door to me.)
What you aren't. I always had you down as a closet Britain First member ;-)
I'd have joined Britain First but they have far too many fans of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage as members.
Thinking about it, I would have thought before you even got to that, the standard of dress among members would have put you off.
Indeed.
That said I have dressed like a member of Britain First when I’ve snuck into home ends of Liverpool away matches, albeit in genuine Hackett, Louis Vuitton, and Burberry gear.
You'd fit right in with an Ibrox home crowd, though I'm pretty sure Hackett don't do a balaclava.
If @Gallowgate needs a new angle for his or her thesis, perhaps the number of law firms in the new Stonewall list of gay-friendly employers is of note, as enlightened companies scoop up gay talent. Number 4 is the home of pb's @AlastairMeeks, of course.
Politics-wise, some government departments and a handful of local authorities feature; the Welsh Assembly and Welsh Government are at numbers 8 and 9.
We have found that our longstanding recognition by Stonewall makes us a very attractive employer to all kinds of potential recruits, not just gay talent. I was interviewing candidates for a junior position in Birmingham last year. Both external candidates mentioned this unprompted as something that really attracted them to the firm. I didn’t ask, obviously, but so far as I could tell both are straight (the successful candidate, who was one of them, is in a longterm heterosexual relationship).
I'm struggling on what all this means. Surely all that matters is that an employer is not bigoted and doesn't tolerate bigotry in its staff. What matters is who you are not what you are.
So what am I missing? How does one employer become more LGBT friendly than another if they don't tolerate bigotry?
I don’t know, but Pride does seem to be becoming a year-round event now.
TfL seemed to be very reluctant to take the flags down last year, and now the majority of staff wear a rainbow lanyard.
Of course, it’s impossible to question because anyone who did so would be terrified of being labelled a closet bigot, so it isn’t; steadily, it just becomes “the norm”, and therefore not particularly meaningful.
Oh no, gay people being treated as normal. The horror.
That wasn’t the point I was making, and well you know it.
I genuinely don't get what point you were trying to make. You feel uncomfortable with people wearing multi-colour lanyards?
Does anyone have the foggiest idea what is going on in Surrey Heath?
The CEO is suspended or on permanent leave, or ... Nobody seems to know and it is for sometime now.
Regarding the leader of the council:
The Conservatives have announced the following: "It is with regret that we announce the Conservative Group held a unanimous Vote of No Confidence in the leadership of Cllr Richard Brooks, for failing to uphold the highest levels of integrity consistent with being a Conservative Councillor". His deputy has also stood down and both are out of the group. It is now under NOC.
Going from leader to out altogether is impressive.
BUT nobody has any idea what he has supposed to have done. It is being kept secret.
There was this from the LibDems there last week, but it doesn't add much more:
On topic, what happens if there’s Indyref2 and the Scots don’t secede?
Is that Scottish nationalism killed stone dead?
Stone dead as a political force. The nutters will splinter off from the SNP killing the Nationalist block vote. Or they may even effect a coup which would kill the SNP as a serious political force.
Morning all and oh it is delightful to see the SNP battering themselves off a brick wall while Boris just keeps telling them to fuck themselves!
The SNP has replaced the Scottish Labour Party as the party of choice of the left and those with a constant grievance. They have reached 45% which was around the maximum Scottish Labour ever achieved. The young and idealists might be impressed by all the saltire waving crap and the Fat Laird standing up and talking shite every Wednesday at 12 noon when he gets his 2 questions but more and more Scots are getting angrier that the SNP is only interested in IndyRef2 when Scotland's education system is rapidly going down the international pan and our health service is starting to fall apart.
Let's see how good a shape the SNP as a party is once the Alex Salmond trial has concluded and indeed whether Nicola Sturgeon is still First Minister! Separately I am delighted the SCons held their seat in the Dumfries and Galloway council by-election last Thursday.
Oi! I lost money thanks to you. I bet on the SNP gaining CS&ER.
I too lost money on the bold pronouncements of SCons surges in the north.
Does anyone have the foggiest idea what is going on in Surrey Heath?
The CEO is suspended or on permanent leave, or ... Nobody seems to know and it is for sometime now.
Regarding the leader of the council:
The Conservatives have announced the following: "It is with regret that we announce the Conservative Group held a unanimous Vote of No Confidence in the leadership of Cllr Richard Brooks, for failing to uphold the highest levels of integrity consistent with being a Conservative Councillor". His deputy has also stood down and both are out of the group. It is now under NOC.
Going from leader to out altogether is impressive.
BUT nobody has any idea what he has supposed to have done. It is being kept secret.
There was this from the LibDems there last week, but it doesn't add much more:
I have been talking to people who should have first hand knowledge but nobody seems to know. I guess the Tories don't have to say why, but it looks very odd.
Is it to do with the CEO or is that coincidental, and what is going on with that?
Last night there was a vote on a new administration. The Tories still have it because the Greens and LDs voted against the alternative which was a Labour leader (the one and only on the council!). The LDs and Greens thought that was ridiculous but more importantly the coalition would have involved the ex Tory leader and they don't know what he has supposed to have done.
The LD total will probably go up 1 in a few weeks as one of their councillors died suddenly. He was only 33 and elected for the first time last year. Very sad.
So it is confirmed that he got the boot for a single tweet where he quoted a passage from Shakespeare, that he has used before to reply to other trolls? Its a bit like Danny Baker sacking. Nobody with any sense genuinely thinks he is a massive racist.
Reminds me of the time someone complained to Mike about me being an Islamophobe.
(Was when I posted on PB that I really wouldn't want a deeply religious Muslim family living next door to me.)
What you aren't. I always had you down as a closet Britain First member ;-)
I'd have joined Britain First but they have far too many fans of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage as members.
Thinking about it, I would have thought before you even got to that, the standard of dress among members would have put you off.
Indeed.
That said I have dressed like a member of Britain First when I’ve snuck into home ends of Liverpool away matches, albeit in genuine Hackett, Louis Vuitton, and Burberry gear.
You'd fit right in with an Ibrox home crowd, though I'm pretty sure Hackett don't do a balaclava.
Nazi fashion has really gone downhill recently, hasn't it?
Does anyone have the foggiest idea what is going on in Surrey Heath?
The CEO is suspended or on permanent leave, or ... Nobody seems to know and it is for sometime now.
Regarding the leader of the council:
The Conservatives have announced the following: "It is with regret that we announce the Conservative Group held a unanimous Vote of No Confidence in the leadership of Cllr Richard Brooks, for failing to uphold the highest levels of integrity consistent with being a Conservative Councillor". His deputy has also stood down and both are out of the group. It is now under NOC.
Going from leader to out altogether is impressive.
BUT nobody has any idea what he has supposed to have done. It is being kept secret.
There was this from the LibDems there last week, but it doesn't add much more:
Regarding your point about Spain wanting to negotiate its own deal. We are seven years after Cameron's Bloomberg speech, five years after the renegotiation, four years after the referendum and three years after executing article whatever. How many times in that period has somebody said "EU Country X will negotiate a separate deal" only to see it not happen? Cameron, Davis, various minor Conservative MPs and whichever guy was serving Trump in the first few months of his administration tried it, and all were disappointed. It's happening so often I'm beginning to think there's an actual disconnect here (see my remarks about how many English people just can't get their heads round Ireland). I assume you know the saying about doing things repeatedly and expecting a different outcome...
Regarding your point about Spain wanting to negotiate its own deal. We are seven years after Cameron's Bloomberg speech, five years after the renegotiation, four years after the referendum and three years after executing article whatever. How many times in that period has somebody said "EU Country X will negotiate a separate deal" only to see it not happen? Cameron, Davis, various minor Conservative MPs and whichever guy was serving Trump in the first few months of his administration tried it, and all were disappointed. It's happening so often I'm beginning to think there's an actual disconnect here (see my remarks about how many English people just can't get their heads round Ireland). I assume you know the saying about doing things repeatedly and expecting a different outcome...
Brits just don't understand how the EU works. We see that from HY who has predicted six of Macron's last zero vetoes.
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
What decided it for me was driving into Chicago, when the free flowing interstate suddenly turned into a long tailback of stop-start traffic which reminded me of those at the Blackwall Tunnel. With a CVT the car's cruise control stayed engaged right down to zero speed, and with its built in radar it braked by itself as the car in front slowed down, and started off again when the traffic resumed moving. With lane assist engaged it steered by itself to follow the bends in the road. All the way into Chicago I barely had to do anything and sat there admiring the view.
Hitting the Blackwall Tunnel again in my manual, I decided it had to go.
Are the queues at the Blackwall Tunnel worse than those Northbound at the Dartford crossing? It's easy to leave Essex, very slow getting back North.
Doubtless had I any desire to go to Essex, I would have reached the same decision.
Can I recommend Gillian Darley’s ‘Excellent Essex’ written in praise of ‘England’s most misunderstood County’.
So it is confirmed that he got the boot for a single tweet where he quoted a passage from Shakespeare, that he has used before to reply to other trolls? Its a bit like Danny Baker sacking. Nobody with any sense genuinely thinks he is a massive racist.
Reminds me of the time someone complained to Mike about me being an Islamophobe.
(Was when I posted on PB that I really wouldn't want a deeply religious Muslim family living next door to me.)
What you aren't. I always had you down as a closet Britain First member ;-)
I'd have joined Britain First but they have far too many fans of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage as members.
Thinking about it, I would have thought before you even got to that, the standard of dress among members would have put you off.
Indeed.
That said I have dressed like a member of Britain First when I’ve snuck into home ends of Liverpool away matches, albeit in genuine Hackett, Louis Vuitton, and Burberry gear.
You'd fit right in with an Ibrox home crowd, though I'm pretty sure Hackett don't do a balaclava.
Nazi fashion has really gone downhill recently, hasn't it?
The insidious interloper of designer sportswear has tainted the Aryan purity of Hugo Boss inspired (1933-45, Boss has got a bit shit nowadays too) tailoring.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
W.
Hitting the Blackwall Tunnel again in my manual, I decided it had to go.
Are the queues at the Blackwall Tunnel worse than those Northbound at the Dartford crossing? It's easy to leave Essex, very slow getting back North.
Doubtless had I any desire to go to Essex, I would have reached the same decision.
Can I recommend Gillian Darley’s ‘Excellent Essex’ written in praise of ‘England’s most misunderstood County’.
This Amazon reviewer appears to differ: !
"This book wholly ignores that side of Essex in favour of an excruciating and sometimes forced search for any sign that the county had things in it that the average Radio 4 listener could applaud. It turned out that, by misunderstood, the author was pleading for us to ignore rather than understand its grubby image and instead notice the few earnest types peppered around this otherwise benighted land. No, no - she seemed to be pleading - those horrible white van types are not how you should judge Essex - we have posh people too."
"Just about every posh leftwing activist that so much as spent an afternoon here gets a longwinded and loving passage in the book (some of which were quite interesting, I admit - hence the two stars). But explore the entrepreneurs, the grafters, the people that actually make Essex unique and a fantastic classless model for the rest of the country? Dear me no!"
"The author is far more interested in people like Grayson Perry and Billy Bragg (lefties who seem to have a lot to say despite fleeing Essex for Islington and Dorset) than featuring anyone - still here - that actually makes the place special. And this reader just couldn't help getting the impression that the author wrote the book perhaps because she was fed up having to defend the county she lived in (though only just - notice that those on the north side of the border never call it the "Essex-Suffolk border") to her terribly lovely and earnest friends in Islington. She wanted to prove that Essex can be right-on too. As for the people that actually make Essex unique - well who wants to understand them?"
I would have thought minority ethnic people in general are financiallyworse off than white people in this country, and the gap should be wider for pensioners, shouldn’t it?
Geofencing as a campaign tool (I'm guessing this would not be legal in the UK ?) :
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/01/29/trumps-geofencing-could-be-a-potent-political-issue/ If you attend an evangelical or a Catholic Church, a women’s rights march or a political rally of any kind, especially in a seriously contested state, the odds are that your cellphone ID number, home address, partisan affiliation and the identifying information of the people around you will be provided by geofencing marketers to campaigns, lobbyists and other interest groups…
…The data generally provides information about individual users’ day-to-day activities and preferences: Where they shop; What they do for fun; What other apps they use, for how long, and what they do in those apps; Where they live; Where they work; With whom they associate.
You might think that Donald Trump holds political rallies simply because he enjoys the adulation, but that’s not the real purpose. His campaign manager Brad Pascale recently boasted about the information he harvests from MAGA rallies:
Out of more than 20,000 identified voters who came to a recent Trump rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 57.9 percent did not have a history of voting for Republicans. Remarkably, 4,413 attendees didn’t even vote in the last election — a clear indication that President Trump is energizing Americans who were previously not engaged in politics…
I would have thought minority ethnic people in general are financiallyworse off than white people in this country, and the gap should be wider for pensioners, shouldn’t it?
The researchers said the ethnicity gap was driven by several factors, including lower average earnings, variable employment rates and the greater likelihood of minority ethnic workers being self-employed. Part of the problem was that there was an annual state pension income gap of about £600 for ethnic minorities, they added. For example, DWP data showed that while 98% of white pensioner households received the state pension, it was 85% for Asian pensioner households.
So in other words, a particular reason for the gap is that 15% of OAP Asians don't qualify for state pension, due to not having enough qualifying years. Bloody racist that's what it is...
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
W.
Hitting the Blackwall Tunnel again in my manual, I decided it had to go.
Are the queues at the Blackwall Tunnel worse than those Northbound at the Dartford crossing? It's easy to leave Essex, very slow getting back North.
Doubtless had I any desire to go to Essex, I would have reached the same decision.
Can I recommend Gillian Darley’s ‘Excellent Essex’ written in praise of ‘England’s most misunderstood County’.
This Amazon reviewer appears to differ: !
"This book wholly ignores that side of Essex in favour of an excruciating and sometimes forced search for any sign that the county had things in it that the average Radio 4 listener could applaud. It turned out that, by misunderstood, the author was pleading for us to ignore rather than understand its grubby image and instead notice the few earnest types peppered around this otherwise benighted land. No, no - she seemed to be pleading - those horrible white van types are not how you should judge Essex - we have posh people too."
"Just about every posh leftwing activist that so much as spent an afternoon here gets a longwinded and loving passage in the book (some of which were quite interesting, I admit - hence the two stars). But explore the entrepreneurs, the grafters, the people that actually make Essex unique and a fantastic classless model for the rest of the country? Dear me no!"
"The author is far more interested in people like Grayson Perry and Billy Bragg (lefties who seem to have a lot to say despite fleeing Essex for Islington and Dorset) than featuring anyone - still here - that actually makes the place special. And this reader just couldn't help getting the impression that the author wrote the book perhaps because she was fed up having to defend the county she lived in (though only just - notice that those on the north side of the border never call it the "Essex-Suffolk border") to her terribly lovely and earnest friends in Islington. She wanted to prove that Essex can be right-on too. As for the people that actually make Essex unique - well who wants to understand them?"
Nice of the Spiked (or Sp!ked as these edgy lads put it) book reviewer to do pro bono reviews.
Geofencing as a campaign tool (I'm guessing this would not be legal in the UK ?) :
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/01/29/trumps-geofencing-could-be-a-potent-political-issue/ If you attend an evangelical or a Catholic Church, a women’s rights march or a political rally of any kind, especially in a seriously contested state, the odds are that your cellphone ID number, home address, partisan affiliation and the identifying information of the people around you will be provided by geofencing marketers to campaigns, lobbyists and other interest groups…
…The data generally provides information about individual users’ day-to-day activities and preferences: Where they shop; What they do for fun; What other apps they use, for how long, and what they do in those apps; Where they live; Where they work; With whom they associate.
You might think that Donald Trump holds political rallies simply because he enjoys the adulation, but that’s not the real purpose. His campaign manager Brad Pascale recently boasted about the information he harvests from MAGA rallies:
Out of more than 20,000 identified voters who came to a recent Trump rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 57.9 percent did not have a history of voting for Republicans. Remarkably, 4,413 attendees didn’t even vote in the last election — a clear indication that President Trump is energizing Americans who were previously not engaged in politics…
The other campaign employing this technique on an extensive basis - Bernie Sanders.
I quite enjoy driving my old manual banger around.
Continuously variable transmission.
I've been driving automatics for like 15/16 years, I don't think I can drive a manual again.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
WTF are you driving? An Austin Brexit? Just about every manual car made in the last 10 years has hill start assist.
Can no one balance a clutch any more ?
The one mistake I made with the hire car in the US is driving it into the wall of a multi storey car park; I stopped but needed to be a bit further into the space, so I did what I would do in my own car and tap the accelerator and then stop the car with the hand brake. Except that it didn't have one.
I remember when I got my ML in 2006 and being utterly confused by having a vehicle without a handbrake or a gear stick.
You cant really nudge a car a few inches forward or back without one, since the right foot cant move quick enough. I believe there's a little switch that does the same thing as the handbrake.
You could use the left foot.
Who brakes with the right foot when driving an automatic? LF braking is much faster, every racing driver does it.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
W.
Hitting the Blackwall Tunnel again in my manual, I decided it had to go.
Are the queues at the Blackwall Tunnel worse than those Northbound at the Dartford crossing? It's easy to leave Essex, very slow getting back North.
Doubtless had I any desire to go to Essex, I would have reached the same decision.
Can I recommend Gillian Darley’s ‘Excellent Essex’ written in praise of ‘England’s most misunderstood County’.
This Amazon reviewer appears to differ: !
"This book wholly ignores that side of Essex in favour of an excruciating and sometimes forced search for any sign that the county had things in it that the average Radio 4 listener could applaud. It turned out that, by misunderstood, the author was pleading for us to ignore rather than understand its grubby image and instead notice the few earnest types peppered around this otherwise benighted land. No, no - she seemed to be pleading - those horrible white van types are not how you should judge Essex - we have posh people too."
"Just about every posh leftwing activist that so much as spent an afternoon here gets a longwinded and loving passage in the book (some of which were quite interesting, I admit - hence the two stars). But explore the entrepreneurs, the grafters, the people that actually make Essex unique and a fantastic classless model for the rest of the country? Dear me no!"
"The author is far more interested in people like Grayson Perry and Billy Bragg (lefties who seem to have a lot to say despite fleeing Essex for Islington and Dorset) than featuring anyone - still here - that actually makes the place special. And this reader just couldn't help getting the impression that the author wrote the book perhaps because she was fed up having to defend the county she lived in (though only just - notice that those on the north side of the border never call it the "Essex-Suffolk border") to her terribly lovely and earnest friends in Islington. She wanted to prove that Essex can be right-on too. As for the people that actually make Essex unique - well who wants to understand them?"
On topic, what happens if there’s Indyref2 and the Scots don’t secede?
Is that Scottish nationalism killed stone dead?
Stone dead as a political force. The nutters will splinter off from the SNP killing the Nationalist block vote. Or they may even effect a coup which would kill the SNP as a serious political force.
Do you think Starmer's strategy of being willing to offer indyref2 after 2021, but offer federalism as part of the package of a No vote, might actually resurrect SLAB from the dead, then?
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
W.
Hitting the Blackwall Tunnel again in my manual, I decided it had to go.
Are the queues at the Blackwall Tunnel worse than those Northbound at the Dartford crossing? It's easy to leave Essex, very slow getting back North.
Doubtless had I any desire to go to Essex, I would have reached the same decision.
Can I recommend Gillian Darley’s ‘Excellent Essex’ written in praise of ‘England’s most misunderstood County’.
This Amazon reviewer appears to differ: !
"This book wholly ignores that side of Essex in favour of an excruciating and sometimes forced search for any sign that the county had things in it that the average Radio 4 listener could applaud. It turned out that, by misunderstood, the author was pleading for us to ignore rather than understand its grubby image and instead notice the few earnest types peppered around this otherwise benighted land. No, no - she seemed to be pleading - those horrible white van types are not how you should judge Essex - we have posh people too."
"Just about every posh leftwing activist that so much as spent an afternoon here gets a longwinded and loving passage in the book (some of which were quite interesting, I admit - hence the two stars). But explore the entrepreneurs, the grafters, the people that actually make Essex unique and a fantastic classless model for the rest of the country? Dear me no!"
"The author is far more interested in people like Grayson Perry and Billy Bragg (lefties who seem to have a lot to say despite fleeing Essex for Islington and Dorset) than featuring anyone - still here - that actually makes the place special. And this reader just couldn't help getting the impression that the author wrote the book perhaps because she was fed up having to defend the county she lived in (though only just - notice that those on the north side of the border never call it the "Essex-Suffolk border") to her terribly lovely and earnest friends in Islington. She wanted to prove that Essex can be right-on too. As for the people that actually make Essex unique - well who wants to understand them?"
Rural Essex is actually quite posh with several villages and market towns going back to the middle ages and Tudor times if not earlier. Colchester of course goes back to Roman times.
I've recently had to start driving manuals again, and with a lot of hill starts. It's horrible.
W.
Hitting the Blackwall Tunnel again in my manual, I decided it had to go.
Are the queues at the Blackwall Tunnel worse than those Northbound at the Dartford crossing? It's easy to leave Essex, very slow getting back North.
Doubtless had I any desire to go to Essex, I would have reached the same decision.
Can I recommend Gillian Darley’s ‘Excellent Essex’ written in praise of ‘England’s most misunderstood County’.
This Amazon reviewer appears to differ: !
"This book wholly ignores that side of Essex in favour of an excruciating and sometimes forced search for any sign that the county had things in it that the average Radio 4 listener could applaud. It turned out that, by misunderstood, the author was pleading for us to ignore rather than understand its grubby image and instead notice the few earnest types peppered around this otherwise benighted land. No, no - she seemed to be pleading - those horrible white van types are not how you should judge Essex - we have posh people too."
"Just about every posh leftwing activist that so much as spent an afternoon here gets a longwinded and loving passage in the book (some of which were quite interesting, I admit - hence the two stars). But explore the entrepreneurs, the grafters, the people that actually make Essex unique and a fantastic classless model for the rest of the country? Dear me no!"
"The author is far more interested in people like Grayson Perry and Billy Bragg (lefties who seem to have a lot to say despite fleeing Essex for Islington and Dorset) than featuring anyone - still here - that actually makes the place special. And this reader just couldn't help getting the impression that the author wrote the book perhaps because she was fed up having to defend the county she lived in (though only just - notice that those on the north side of the border never call it the "Essex-Suffolk border") to her terribly lovely and earnest friends in Islington. She wanted to prove that Essex can be right-on too. As for the people that actually make Essex unique - well who wants to understand them?"
How close must you be to the Stour in order to be able to say that you are on the Suffolk-Essex border to pass muster with lovely and earnest friends in Islington? Asking for a friend.
David Cameron is a far sighted visionary who should by lauded for all time as the true seer of our time. His erudite denunciation of the invidious evil that is known as Twitter shows the greatness of this man.
On Brexit Day tomorrow I'll be picking up my first new car for ten years. If the economy proceeds to go pear shaped at least I have done my bit.
Tomorrow morning will probably be the last time I ever drive a car with a manual transmission.
2019 was the first year autos outsold manual in the UK.
CVTs killed manuals in cheap cars and DCT/PDK (sub 200ms shift) killed them in fast cars.
The Tesla model 3 was the third best selling car in Europe in December. Auto/manual is going to be of interest only to old car collectors soon enough.
Electric taking over the mass market is only a couple of improvements in battery tech away.
Manual gearboxes are, as you imply, obsolete. Manuals are pointless now thanks to the increased efficiency of automatics, and more dangerous than automatics because they require much greater periods where the driver has only one hand on the wheel.
I had a bizarre conversation with someone (who doesn't drive) who claimed that by driving an automatic you are not really in control of the car.
I asked him whether he extended this puritanical view to ABS, automatic chokes and automatic headlights, which ended the discussion.
On topic, what happens if there’s Indyref2 and the Scots don’t secede?
Is that Scottish nationalism killed stone dead?
Stone dead as a political force. The nutters will splinter off from the SNP killing the Nationalist block vote. Or they may even effect a coup which would kill the SNP as a serious political force.
Do you think Starmer's strategy of being willing to offer indyref2 after 2021, but offer federalism as part of the package of a No vote, might actually resurrect SLAB from the dead, then?
No, it's ludicrous. Scotland can't force Fedralism on the rest of the UK, it would require a UK wide vote. And England doesn't want Federalism.
It is an incoherent strategy which will go precisely no where. The only thing it might do is deliver a SNP majority in 2021.
On topic, what happens if there’s Indyref2 and the Scots don’t secede?
Is that Scottish nationalism killed stone dead?
Stone dead as a political force. The nutters will splinter off from the SNP killing the Nationalist block vote. Or they may even effect a coup which would kill the SNP as a serious political force.
Do you think Starmer's strategy of being willing to offer indyref2 after 2021, but offer federalism as part of the package of a No vote, might actually resurrect SLAB from the dead, then?
No, it's ludicrous. Scotland can't force Fedralism on the rest of the UK, it would require a UK wide vote. And England doesn't want Federalism.
It is an incoherent strategy which will go precisely no where. The only thing it might do is deliver a SNP majority in 2021.
Starmer has no chance of becoming PM until 2023 at the earliest and Boris will ban indyref2 until then any way whatever happens in 2021
Geofencing as a campaign tool (I'm guessing this would not be legal in the UK ?) :
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/01/29/trumps-geofencing-could-be-a-potent-political-issue/ If you attend an evangelical or a Catholic Church, a women’s rights march or a political rally of any kind, especially in a seriously contested state, the odds are that your cellphone ID number, home address, partisan affiliation and the identifying information of the people around you will be provided by geofencing marketers to campaigns, lobbyists and other interest groups…
…The data generally provides information about individual users’ day-to-day activities and preferences: Where they shop; What they do for fun; What other apps they use, for how long, and what they do in those apps; Where they live; Where they work; With whom they associate.
You might think that Donald Trump holds political rallies simply because he enjoys the adulation, but that’s not the real purpose. His campaign manager Brad Pascale recently boasted about the information he harvests from MAGA rallies:
Out of more than 20,000 identified voters who came to a recent Trump rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 57.9 percent did not have a history of voting for Republicans. Remarkably, 4,413 attendees didn’t even vote in the last election — a clear indication that President Trump is energizing Americans who were previously not engaged in politics…
The other campaign employing this technique on an extensive basis - Bernie Sanders.
Every politician is doing this now - every engagement is all about the data.
As I've said on here ad nauseam, the 2020 US election is going to be an absolute sh!t-show of fake news, fake adverts, fake photos, fake videos and total untruths on all sides - with Facebook and Google in the middle of it all, profiting massively from all the fakery and polarisation.
Whoever wins, there's gong to be a huge call to regulate or break up those two companies in particular.
The SNP’s siding with Corbyn and the ERG to torpedo Theresa May’s softish Brexit, which would have produced a much more frictionless border than Boris Johnson is aiming at, looks short-sighted.
Up there with voting down the Callaghan administration.
Most PBers under 60 won't get that reference. It was the SNP that paved the way for Maggie in 1979
I thought it was that Irish MP who eventally abstained that did for Callaghan, but I do not recall the SNP part in this.. I will investigate....
The Irish Independent who didn't turn up was the final nail in the coffin but pretty all non-Labour MP's, IIRC, were either against or absent.The Lib-Lab pact had long since collapsed.
The 3 Plaid MPs voted with Labour as did the 2 short -lived Scottish Labour Party MPs - including Jim Sillars. A few Unionists also backed Callaghan in the fateful vote.
From official trade statistics, the proportions of Scottish exports of physical goods (inc agricultural bulk exports) is IIRC 38% to the rUK, 31.5% to the EU and 30.5% to the rest of the World.
If Richard is seriously suggesting there will be major disruption to rUK/EU trade in services, and by association Scotland/rUK services trading, can he give us some evidence?
The idea that in an independent Scotland a homeowner would be prevented getting a mortgage from a UK provider, or a Scottish firm providing an insurance policy in the other direction is absurd.
The SNP’s siding with Corbyn and the ERG to torpedo Theresa May’s softish Brexit, which would have produced a much more frictionless border than Boris Johnson is aiming at, looks short-sighted.
Up there with voting down the Callaghan administration.
Most PBers under 60 won't get that reference. It was the SNP that paved the way for Maggie in 1979
I thought it was that Irish MP who eventally abstained that did for Callaghan, but I do not recall the SNP part in this.. I will investigate....
It was many factors. The SDLP and a Republican abstained. Sir Alfred Broughton was dying and Callaghan ordered him not to attend (he had offered to come in even if it killed him, which given how sick he was it would have done). Bernard Wetherill offered to abstain in his place but Walter Harrison thought that was asking too much of Wetherill. The SNP tabled a motion of their own and then voted for Thatcher’s motion. As did the Liberals, for that matter.
It’s simplistic to say one thing or person doomed the Callaghan government. The real issue was of course that it had no majority and following the IMF bailout and the Winter of Discontent had lost public support.
Labour had recovered strongly following the IMP involvement at the end of 1976 - and throughout 1978 they were level pegging with the Tories in most polls. Gallup in September and October showed Labour leads of 5%. Callaghan's delay proved disastrous. In the March 1979 Debate Labour MPs ought to have been much tougher on Gerry Fitt - by suggesting that his intent to abstain was comparable to a decision by a Social Democrat in the Reichstag to abstain on the March 1933 Enabling Act.
From official trade statistics, the proportions of Scottish exports of physical goods (inc agricultural bulk exports) is IIRC 38% to the rUK, 31.5% to the EU and 30.5% to the rest of the World.
If Richard is seriously suggesting there will be major disruption to rUK/EU trade in services, and by association Scotland/rUK services trading, can he give us some evidence?
The idea that in an independent Scotland a homeowner would be prevented getting a mortgage from a UK provider, or a Scottish firm providing an insurance policy in the other direction is absurd.
Why would someone in Scotland want to get a mortgage from somewhere in England? Who in England gets their mortgage from a French company, for example?
From official trade statistics, the proportions of Scottish exports of physical goods (inc agricultural bulk exports) is IIRC 38% to the rUK, 31.5% to the EU and 30.5% to the rest of the World.
If Richard is seriously suggesting there will be major disruption to rUK/EU trade in services, and by association Scotland/rUK services trading, can he give us some evidence?
The idea that in an independent Scotland a homeowner would be prevented getting a mortgage from a UK provider, or a Scottish firm providing an insurance policy in the other direction is absurd.
Why would someone in Scotland want to get a mortgage from somewhere in England? Who in England gets their mortgage from a French company, for example?
Especially now that every shoe-shine boy in the square mile is solemnly assuring his clients that Sterling will be at parity with the Euro any day now.
Comments
😱
That said I have dressed like a member of Britain First when I’ve snuck into home ends of Liverpool away matches, albeit in genuine Hackett, Louis Vuitton, and Burberry gear.
For the Left to threaten private education provokes the same kind of emotional reaction as if the Right were threatening the NHS. You're going to get nuclear-level pushback for minimal political gain. Want a Tory vote stuck at 40%+ indefinitely? Then have Labour push spiteful class war policies like this one.
I stand by my view that social media is the worst invention since the atomic bomb.
A disproportionate number of people who occupy the top jobs across the UK – from the prime minister and leading politicians to judges and entertainers – were privately educated.
Funny it doesn't say "Guardian journalists"...
Hitting the Blackwall Tunnel again in my manual, I decided it had to go.
Mr Shapland deleted all his tweets today amid scrutiny of his own social media where he was accused of 'anti-white bigotry' because his messages were packed with rants about 'f***ing white privilege'.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7946269/Mary-Nightingale-announces-good-friend-mentor-Alastair-Stewart-step-down.html
Southwest Flew Millions on Jets With Unconfirmed Maintenance Records, Government Report Says
Transportation Department report to fault FAA for what it calls ineffective oversight of carrier
A government report to be released in coming days says Southwest Airlines Co. failed to prioritize safety and the airline’s regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration, hasn’t done enough about it.
Southwest pilots flew more than 17 million passengers on planes with unconfirmed maintenance records over roughly two years, and in 2019 smashed both wingtips of a jet on a runway while repeatedly trying to land amid gale-force winds, according to the Transportation Department report, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The lapses are highlighted in a draft audit by the agency’s inspector general that also criticizes the FAA’s oversight of the carrier as lax, ineffective and inconsistent. The document indicates no agency enforcement action resulted from those safety slip-ups or certain other alleged hazards. In some cases, the report alleges, the FAA’s overall approach served to “justify continued noncompliance with safety regulations.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/southwest-flew-millions-on-jets-with-unconfirmed-maintenance-records-government-report-says-11580380201?mod=e2tw
"Early on [Cummings] is said to have told some bemused spads that Johnson’s government could be remembered more for “radical science” than for Brexit."
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/boris-johnson-dominic-cummings-tech-government-labour_uk_5e31f944c5b6b7612c092c70?uo&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly90LmNvL1Z1VXVubFU1RmE_YW1wPTE&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKBNeZpF-w0Jg0vUqg18iHQRyx0mz1SKL8vvpzXvrRk1-snfdShSe67Oxn3gn-sjj0Mxa2p2SqvU-Aib1BRcLJucz5WI59oKeKfq2kbzWm_30kPNVu_NsuhWMRWsONuadIfwwIy3rVkt14PnwOuL16dwLqTlrUpULmGYy-WTklKw
How did your predictions of the SNP hitting the wall of electoral reality on 12/12/19 go?
The fun thing about them is, they go just as fast backwards as forwards (at least in theory; I imagine they stick some sort of governor in to prevent this from being true).
If Labour is still run by extremists when the next election approaches and the Tories are behind in the polls, they could do a lot worse than to use their majority to, er, 'gift' Scotland its independence instantaneously. Boris would technically have kept his word - he wouldn't have granted a second independence referendum!
The CEO is suspended or on permanent leave, or ... Nobody seems to know and it is for sometime now.
Regarding the leader of the council:
The Conservatives have announced the following: "It is with regret that we announce the Conservative Group held a unanimous Vote of No Confidence in the leadership of Cllr Richard Brooks, for failing to uphold the highest levels of integrity consistent with being a Conservative Councillor". His deputy has also stood down and both are out of the group. It is now under NOC.
Going from leader to out altogether is impressive.
BUT nobody has any idea what he has supposed to have done. It is being kept secret.
https://www.libdemvoice.org/tories-lose-control-of-surrey-heath-council-63300.html
What are you wanting to question?
https://twitter.com/chrisgiles_/status/1222853357926277121?s=21
Is it to do with the CEO or is that coincidental, and what is going on with that?
Last night there was a vote on a new administration. The Tories still have it because the Greens and LDs voted against the alternative which was a Labour leader (the one and only on the council!). The LDs and Greens thought that was ridiculous but more importantly the coalition would have involved the ex Tory leader and they don't know what he has supposed to have done.
The LD total will probably go up 1 in a few weeks as one of their councillors died suddenly. He was only 33 and elected for the first time last year. Very sad.
Regarding your point about Spain wanting to negotiate its own deal. We are seven years after Cameron's Bloomberg speech, five years after the renegotiation, four years after the referendum and three years after executing article whatever. How many times in that period has somebody said "EU Country X will negotiate a separate deal" only to see it not happen? Cameron, Davis, various minor Conservative MPs and whichever guy was serving Trump in the first few months of his administration tried it, and all were disappointed. It's happening so often I'm beginning to think there's an actual disconnect here (see my remarks about how many English people just can't get their heads round Ireland). I assume you know the saying about doing things repeatedly and expecting a different outcome...
"This book wholly ignores that side of Essex in favour of an excruciating and sometimes forced search for any sign that the county had things in it that the average Radio 4 listener could applaud. It turned out that, by misunderstood, the author was pleading for us to ignore rather than understand its grubby image and instead notice the few earnest types peppered around this otherwise benighted land. No, no - she seemed to be pleading - those horrible white van types are not how you should judge Essex - we have posh people too."
"Just about every posh leftwing activist that so much as spent an afternoon here gets a longwinded and loving passage in the book (some of which were quite interesting, I admit - hence the two stars). But explore the entrepreneurs, the grafters, the people that actually make Essex unique and a fantastic classless model for the rest of the country? Dear me no!"
"The author is far more interested in people like Grayson Perry and Billy Bragg (lefties who seem to have a lot to say despite fleeing Essex for Islington and Dorset) than featuring anyone - still here - that actually makes the place special.
And this reader just couldn't help getting the impression that the author wrote the book perhaps because she was fed up having to defend the county she lived in (though only just - notice that those on the north side of the border never call it the "Essex-Suffolk border") to her terribly lovely and earnest friends in Islington. She wanted to prove that Essex can be right-on too. As for the people that actually make Essex unique - well who wants to understand them?"
https://twitter.com/hackneyabbott/status/1222846770000093184?s=21
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/01/29/trumps-geofencing-could-be-a-potent-political-issue/
If you attend an evangelical or a Catholic Church, a women’s rights march or a political rally of any kind, especially in a seriously contested state, the odds are that your cellphone ID number, home address, partisan affiliation and the identifying information of the people around you will be provided by geofencing marketers to campaigns, lobbyists and other interest groups…
…The data generally provides information about individual users’ day-to-day activities and preferences: Where they shop; What they do for fun; What other apps they use, for how long, and what they do in those apps; Where they live; Where they work; With whom they associate.
You might think that Donald Trump holds political rallies simply because he enjoys the adulation, but that’s not the real purpose. His campaign manager Brad Pascale recently boasted about the information he harvests from MAGA rallies:
Out of more than 20,000 identified voters who came to a recent Trump rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 57.9 percent did not have a history of voting for Republicans. Remarkably, 4,413 attendees didn’t even vote in the last election — a clear indication that President Trump is energizing Americans who were previously not engaged in politics…
So in other words, a particular reason for the gap is that 15% of OAP Asians don't qualify for state pension, due to not having enough qualifying years. Bloody racist that's what it is...
https://twitter.com/romfordrecorder/status/1222859270233972736?s=21
https://twitter.com/getrwuegyweh/status/1222855064622157824?s=20
I hate everyone equally.
Actually that's not true, I especially hate people think pineapple is an acceptable topping on pizza.
https://twitter.com/KateMaltby/status/1222658045156655106
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7946397/Milan-BAN-cars-city-Sunday-considers-prohibiting-smoking-bus-stops.html
Good luck enforcing that one! It is like trying to enforce the French not to commit adultery.
https://twitter.com/TheScotsman/status/1222854473678295041?s=20
Transparent attempt to give the impression that anyone is giving much of a toss.
https://twitter.com/MShapland/status/1222854232405151745
NEW THREAD
David Cameron is a far sighted visionary who should by lauded for all time as the true seer of our time. His erudite denunciation of the invidious evil that is known as Twitter shows the greatness of this man.
Or rather, aaaaaaaarrrrrgggghhh.
https://twitter.com/MichaelPDeacon/status/1222864870695227398?s=20
NEW THREAD
I had a bizarre conversation with someone (who doesn't drive) who claimed that by driving an automatic you are not really in control of the car.
I asked him whether he extended this puritanical view to ABS, automatic chokes and automatic headlights, which ended the discussion.
It is an incoherent strategy which will go precisely no where. The only thing it might do is deliver a SNP majority in 2021.
As I've said on here ad nauseam, the 2020 US election is going to be an absolute sh!t-show of fake news, fake adverts, fake photos, fake videos and total untruths on all sides - with Facebook and Google in the middle of it all, profiting massively from all the fakery and polarisation.
Whoever wins, there's gong to be a huge call to regulate or break up those two companies in particular.
From official trade statistics, the proportions of Scottish exports of physical goods (inc agricultural bulk exports) is IIRC 38% to the rUK, 31.5% to the EU and 30.5% to the rest of the World.
If Richard is seriously suggesting there will be major disruption to rUK/EU trade in services, and by association Scotland/rUK services trading, can he give us some evidence?
The idea that in an independent Scotland a homeowner would be prevented getting a mortgage from a UK provider, or a Scottish firm providing an insurance policy in the other direction is absurd.