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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Welcome to the “Nanny State” – Boris style

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  • FF43FF43 Posts: 17,208
    Toms said:

    FF43 said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!

    Apparently you can get "sourdough flour" that doesn't need it. My dad bought some. No idea if it works yet
    You can make your own sourdough starter. Takes a few days. Be warned that bread entirely leavened with sourdough is quite sour. The "San Francisco" style sourdough bread that you buy in shops is mostly leavened with yeast.
    Chit Chat:
    My grandma was a farmer's wife. Their farm was well away from the madding crowd. Her bread was sourdough using a culture from scrapings from the leaves of the hedge in front of the house. I don't know whether it was bay. Granddad was born just before 1870.
    Sourdough starter can be made simply from flour and water. It attracts yeasts that naturally occur in the atmosphere. My wife made it a couple of times. Frankly it's a bit of a bother to keep going when you can empty a sachet of yeast powder into your dough instead. Different in a lockdown situation.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,464
    Wouldn't call her a 'hard left union rabble rouser' on the evidence shown. On the left certainly, but doesn't strike me as a ;rabble rouser'. Silly lady dog perhaps.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,148
    nichomar said:
    More likely riots given the current virus situation if they don't lockdown
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,000
    edited March 2020
    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,148

    kyf_100 said:

    What we need is effective opposition. Where is it?

    It’s coming...
    When they proclaim RLB the winner.
    Most Labour members have already voted amd given Yougov have Starmer miles ahead and had Corbyn miles ahead in 2015 and 2016 you have to assume they are right
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,164

    kyf_100 said:

    What we need is effective opposition. Where is it?

    It’s coming...
    When they proclaim RLB the winner.
    Diane Abott counting the ballots?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,250
    edited March 2020
    felix said:
    Hardly a surprise. It's a commonplace of socialist experience that it only ever applies to everybody else.

    Consider how Tony Benn hung onto his wealth whilst pretending to believe in socialism, or the personal wealth of the members of Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,609
    One of my near neighbours surfaced for a day at the weekend. He is high up in Public Health England. Prisons and nursing homes have been his focus recently.

    He is not an optimistic bunny....
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,227
    Morning all. I am not seeing the announcement yesterday as particularly repressive or radical. Essentially it was a restating of previous advice - with a few obviously needed additions - but this time delivered in a formal and forceful way via a PM address to the nation rather than the more casual conversational vibe of the daily briefing. Listening to it, the message I got was that "advice" had become "instruction", which I think was the point. If so, it worked well IMO. I predict a very good level of compliance. But none of this is genuinely enforceable. The police will not get involved in any significant or meaningful way. It is in practice voluntary and I for one am relieved by that. I am a great fan of a Nanny State (which this is) but not of a Police State (which this isn't). So, a tick from me, Johnson and co will be pleased to hear, and let's hope that our covid numbers feel the benefit in due course.
  • kicorsekicorse Posts: 435
    isam said:

    kinabalu said:

    Pulpstar said:

    I've just had a text from the NHS telling me to stay home. No idea what my health condition is though...

    The one that grants the magic power to run 10k in less than 50 mins? :smile:
    I broke 25 mins for 5k yesterday for the first time in ages, inspired completely by @Pulpstar.
    Well done! And it's good to see that PB is populated by people who are about as good at running as me. A much better place to talk about it than running sites.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,464
    Just been reading about the situation in Amman, Jordan, as reported in the Guardian,

    Residents face a year in jail if they leave home – no grocery shopping, no pharmacy visits, no short walks.
    The quarantine law says anyone caught outside will be jailed for up to a year. The car is parked on the street outside, with a box of water in the boot. Do you risk it?

    Hmmmmn.
  • kamskikamski Posts: 5,191

    isam said:

    Is this fellow talking nonsense? Pollution is to blame for China and Italy’s crisis, and loads of people die from Coronavirus every year anyway, we just don’t report them

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBB9bA-gXL4

    He certainly isn't inline with the medical consensus, although the point about air pollution is interesting. You would imagine high rates of smoking + poor air quality = knackered lungs.

    We have also seen talk of obesity likely being a big issue. Obviously America suffers terribly with this, China due to a number of reasons, very low. Northern Italy?
    Although pollution in cities like Milan is bad, it is not that much worse than places like Cologne (and it's certainly not the "worst in the world" it's not even in the same league as cities in India and China). Rates of smoking also similar. Life expectancy is higher in Lombardy (and Italy as a whole) than Germany.
  • felix said:

    kyf_100 said:

    What we need is effective opposition. Where is it?

    It’s coming...
    When they proclaim RLB the winner.
    Diane Abott counting the ballots?
    The cult won't just give up. They're running the election. Significant number of ballot papers not sent to members who joined to vote against the cult. So many CLP nomination meetings having only a fraction of the membership there.

    Would be quite easy to justify a "surprise" RLB win as reflecting the Silent Majority of members who as anyone who has been active in the party knows joined to vote for Jeremy and do literally nothing else at all...
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,000
    kamski said:

    Now that Australia's mortality rate (deaths/confirmed cases) is lower than Germany's, I fully expect the posters who were claiming that Germany was cheating, that something funny was going on, that the Germans were hiding Covid-19 deaths or whatever, will now make the same claims about Australia

    I'm sure wee Dan Hannan will be along shortly with a theory about the magical properties conferred by being part of the Anglosphere (while ignoring the big fat orange elephant in the room).
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,932

    Toms said:

    Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!

    I like eating, me.
    I've been baking my own bread for 40 years or so (these days gluten free), four loaves at a time, so I have a stash. I add lots of seeds: baking your own allows one to customise.
    Delicious toasted with Marmite.
    The vast explosion of Gluten Free Bread Mix sales have been the revelation of the last week...
    Vast explosion? Did you put too much yeast in? :lol:
    A flour explosion is probably what started the Great Fire of London, so we loop round to Pepys again.
  • kicorsekicorse Posts: 435
    kinabalu said:

    Morning all. I am not seeing the announcement yesterday as particularly repressive or radical. Essentially it was a restating of previous advice - with a few obviously needed additions - but this time delivered in a formal and forceful way via a PM address to the nation rather than the more casual conversational vibe of the daily briefing. Listening to it, the message I got was that "advice" had become "instruction", which I think was the point. If so, it worked well IMO. I predict a very good level of compliance. But none of this is genuinely enforceable. The police will not get involved in any significant or meaningful way. It is in practice voluntary and I for one am relieved by that. I am a great fan of a Nanny State (which this is) but not of a Police State (which this isn't). So, a tick from me, Johnson and co will be pleased to hear, and let's hope that our covid numbers feel the benefit in due course.

    This is spot-on. The anecdotal evidence was that too many people were ignoring the advice, so it was made more forcefully.

    It will shift everyone's thinking a bit, including mine. I was planning on walking to my workplace at 6am today before it fully closed this evening, in order to pick up some "essential" stuff for home-working. Social-distancing on the walk back home would have been difficult. This was enough to make me decide that that the stuff really wasn't essential, and I stayed at home.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,205

    Pulpstar said:

    I've just had a text from the NHS telling me to stay home. No idea what my health condition is though...

    Did it say that you have been “identified as someone at risk of severe illness If you catch Coronavirus” or was it a generic please stay home one?
    Please stay home. Further condition on my illness soon.
  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,266
    I hesitate to carp at a time like this, but has anyone yet unravelled the ambiguity behind "only go to work if it's essential"? Is it the work that's deemed essential or the journey there? Anyone who uses a computer screen can usefully work at home with appropriate networking. What about people - even in London - who work with their hands? All the advice so far is focused on the food and retail economy. The further north and west you get from SW1 the more people are dependent on work in fields, factories, construction sites, quarries, refineries, potteries ... mines. Even a locked-down economy depends on their contribution to the supply chain. Sooner or later stock levels will start running down. When Adam delved and Eve span who was considered more essential?
  • TomsToms Posts: 2,478

    Toms said:

    Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!

    I like eating, me.
    I've been baking my own bread for 40 years or so (these days gluten free), four loaves at a time, so I have a stash. I add lots of seeds: baking your own allows one to customise.
    Delicious toasted with Marmite.
    I would be interested in your GF bread recipe if you care to post it up here
    Do you know, I have no fixed recipe. I even measure quantities by eye governed by experience. I suppose it's a bit analogous to how birds make nests. Obviously it involves yeast, salt, Dove's Farm flour (usually) egg-whites whipped (sometimes), sugar or honey, mixed seeds (making it rise less, but tasty), xanthan gum, and considerable manual dexterity. I use old-fashioned bread tins made from folded sheet metal. I mix it all in a circular plastic dedicated washing-up bowl, keeping some warm water in the kettle to fine-tune the mix. Use a wooden spoon to separate the dough into loaves with a liberal sprinklings of fresh flour on your hands to shape the loaves. Any such flour left in the bowl can be used to make fritters or pancakes the next day, so there is no waste. Lacking gluten, the dough is somewhat sticky---hence the liberal use of dusting flour---and your hands will be a mess. As I'm tactile I don't mind. At age 18 a personality test indicated a 90 percent rating to be a surgeon, but my bedside manner would have been diabolical.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,227
    isam said:

    I broke 25 mins for 5k yesterday for the first time in ages, inspired completely by @Pulpstar.

    I'm a 3k in 15 man. As in I can do that but not another step. And even then only on one of my "going days". Few and far between right now, which is just as well with lockdown on. A "going day" is the last thing you want at the moment.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,424
    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    I've just had a text from the NHS telling me to stay home. No idea what my health condition is though...

    Did it say that you have been “identified as someone at risk of severe illness If you catch Coronavirus” or was it a generic please stay home one?
    Please stay home. Further condition on my illness soon.
    More likely to be this?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52017451
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,375
    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    On one occasion I was taking my morning coffee in Place Des Allemand in Trujillo, Peru.

    I heard a crunch-crunch... turned my head to see the School marching practise...

    They teach marching in the schools - and being inspired by Fredrick the Great, it's all goose step.

    So I sat there as the girls and boys (separate formations) crunched past. Deeply weird - kept expecting someone to start singing the Panzerlied.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,557
    kinabalu said:

    Never thought I'd be relieved to be placed under house arrest along with millions of people under a police state by a right wing Tory government

    — Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 23, 2020
    Perhaps Owen Jones will be able to reflect how few on the left, and on the right, genuinely don't want people's lives controlled by the state and all sorts of self righteous busybodies, and become an independent minded writer.

  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,976
    nichomar said:
    Prisons on lockdown? My goodness. What will they think of next?
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    Work colleague just rung me - we were talking about the virus and he said over weekend he walked past a pub that was bursting at seams - this in a village that has had 2 fatalities already.......
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,000
    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    Nothing better to soothe an unruly populace than the sight of a totenkopf, all the menace implicit.
  • kicorsekicorse Posts: 435

    felix said:

    kyf_100 said:

    What we need is effective opposition. Where is it?

    It’s coming...
    When they proclaim RLB the winner.
    Diane Abott counting the ballots?
    The cult won't just give up. They're running the election. Significant number of ballot papers not sent to members who joined to vote against the cult. So many CLP nomination meetings having only a fraction of the membership there.

    Would be quite easy to justify a "surprise" RLB win as reflecting the Silent Majority of members who as anyone who has been active in the party knows joined to vote for Jeremy and do literally nothing else at all...
    Do you have any evidence for this nonsense?

    I joined in December and will vote for Nandy. Starmer my second choice. Still haven't decided on Deputy contest. I got my ballot my e-mail, followed by a reminder a couple of weeks later. I haven't heard from anyone who hasn't received their ballot.

    I like this blog because it is generally possible to have rational discussions across political divides, but the one exception is that conspiracy theories about the Labour left seem to be the norm.
  • Beibheirli_CBeibheirli_C Posts: 8,163
    ">
    Pulpstar said:

    I've just had a text from the NHS telling me to stay home. No idea what my health condition is though...

    My mother and my aunt both have chronic conditions that need treatment on a regular basis and the treatment can only be done by GPs. The medical centre is not answering the phone, the doors are locked and all the staff can be seen indoors.

    The are 145 CV cases in Northern Ireland. The medical system is not swamped. What are all these GPs and nurses doing behind locked doors whilst the car park is full of people pleading for treatment?
  • CD13CD13 Posts: 6,366
    I think it is true that a large section of the underground could operate without drivers."

    The Copenhagen Metro works very well without drivers. Standing at the front of the train, my grandkids pretended to be driving, to the amusement of the other passengers. There was even a pretend dashboard for them to use.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,932
    edited March 2020

    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    On one occasion I was taking my morning coffee in Place Des Allemand in Trujillo, Peru.

    I heard a crunch-crunch... turned my head to see the School marching practise...

    They teach marching in the schools - and being inspired by Fredrick the Great, it's all goose step.

    So I sat there as the girls and boys (separate formations) crunched past. Deeply weird - kept expecting someone to start singing the Panzerlied.
    They teach marching in British schools too, though only the posh ones that most of the government and half the opposition attended. CCF or OTC or whatever it is called now.

    ETA your Chilean anecdote reminds me of the Japanese Emperor being impressed by the Royal Navy, which is why Japanese school uniforms look like Edwardian sailor suits, though only for girls, oddly. Perhaps @edmundintokyo can tell us whether this is still universal over there.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,375
    kicorse said:

    kinabalu said:

    Morning all. I am not seeing the announcement yesterday as particularly repressive or radical. Essentially it was a restating of previous advice - with a few obviously needed additions - but this time delivered in a formal and forceful way via a PM address to the nation rather than the more casual conversational vibe of the daily briefing. Listening to it, the message I got was that "advice" had become "instruction", which I think was the point. If so, it worked well IMO. I predict a very good level of compliance. But none of this is genuinely enforceable. The police will not get involved in any significant or meaningful way. It is in practice voluntary and I for one am relieved by that. I am a great fan of a Nanny State (which this is) but not of a Police State (which this isn't). So, a tick from me, Johnson and co will be pleased to hear, and let's hope that our covid numbers feel the benefit in due course.

    This is spot-on. The anecdotal evidence was that too many people were ignoring the advice, so it was made more forcefully.

    It will shift everyone's thinking a bit, including mine. I was planning on walking to my workplace at 6am today before it fully closed this evening, in order to pick up some "essential" stuff for home-working. Social-distancing on the walk back home would have been difficult. This was enough to make me decide that that the stuff really wasn't essential, and I stayed at home.
    I noted the other day that there is a pattern to this - first the government announces voluntary measures. Then follows it up with enforced measures a day or 2 later.

    All the European lockdowns have followed this pattern - and I believe those outside Europe have often followed this idea.... First get buy in the from the sensible, then show them that the fools are not listening. Then apply legal enforcement.

    As to the topic - this is a national emergency. So measures are being taken that would be associated with a war. Bit like War Socialism. There were plenty of whiners (and worse) in 1940 when the government started cracking down. And in terms of prohibitions, that was, in many ways, a less legally constrained society.
  • TomsToms Posts: 2,478
    Toms said:

    Toms said:

    Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!

    I like eating, me.
    I've been baking my own bread for 40 years or so (these days gluten free), four loaves at a time, so I have a stash. I add lots of seeds: baking your own allows one to customise.
    Delicious toasted with Marmite.
    I would be interested in your GF bread recipe if you care to post it up here
    Do you know, I have no fixed recipe. I even measure quantities by eye governed by experience. I suppose it's a bit analogous to how birds make nests. Obviously it involves yeast, salt, Dove's Farm flour (usually) egg-whites whipped (sometimes), sugar or honey, mixed seeds (making it rise less, but tasty), xanthan gum, and considerable manual dexterity. I use old-fashioned bread tins made from folded sheet metal. I mix it all in a circular plastic dedicated washing-up bowl, keeping some warm water in the kettle to fine-tune the mix. Use a wooden spoon to separate the dough into loaves with a liberal sprinklings of fresh flour on your hands to shape the loaves. Any such flour left in the bowl can be used to make fritters or pancakes the next day, so there is no waste. Lacking gluten, the dough is somewhat sticky---hence the liberal use of dusting flour---and your hands will be a mess. As I'm tactile I don't mind. At age 18 a personality test indicated a 90 percent rating to be a surgeon, but my bedside manner would have been diabolical.
    Oh, and lots of olive oil.
  • As I posted earlier the trip to the hospital for my wife's blood test was enlightening.

    It is a glorious morning and the first thing that was noticeable was how few cars there were on the roads

    As I drove past the promenades and beaches the few people out were obeying the 2 metre spacing and the restaurants/cafes were all closed with the outside tables taped off

    I passed a parked police car on the promenade and a second one driving along the promenade and it did confirm my view from yesterday that with so few people around enforcement would be easier if necessary

    And for the test my wife went to the automatic doors at the hospital which opened with a nurse in attendence. My wife said she had come out of isolation and the nurse said to wait in the car, she would register my wife's attendence, and for her to return at the appointment time. This part of the hospital is usually packed with patients, today it was empty

    On time my wife was shown straight to the nurse who took her blood sample and then came straight out, as a young couple arrived but safe space was observed

    Overall near 100% compliance with Boris's speech last night.

    I am impressed and well done my fellow North Walians

    It's day one, Big G.
  • ABZABZ Posts: 441

    One of my near neighbours surfaced for a day at the weekend. He is high up in Public Health England. Prisons and nursing homes have been his focus recently.

    He is not an optimistic bunny....

    Oh dear... can you share more about what his specific concerns are?
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,464
    algarkirk said:

    kinabalu said:

    Never thought I'd be relieved to be placed under house arrest along with millions of people under a police state by a right wing Tory government

    — Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 23, 2020
    Perhaps Owen Jones will be able to reflect how few on the left, and on the right, genuinely don't want people's lives controlled by the state and all sorts of self righteous busybodies, and become an independent minded writer.



    I tread somewhere that there may be a rethink on immigration policy. Maybe this government is ideologically right wing than some of us feared.
  • As I posted earlier the trip to the hospital for my wife's blood test was enlightening.

    It is a glorious morning and the first thing that was noticeable was how few cars there were on the roads

    As I drove past the promenades and beaches the few people out were obeying the 2 metre spacing and the restaurants/cafes were all closed with the outside tables taped off

    I passed a parked police car on the promenade and a second one driving along the promenade and it did confirm my view from yesterday that with so few people around enforcement would be easier if necessary

    And for the test my wife went to the automatic doors at the hospital which opened with a nurse in attendence. My wife said she had come out of isolation and the nurse said to wait in the car, she would register my wife's attendence, and for her to return at the appointment time. This part of the hospital is usually packed with patients, today it was empty

    On time my wife was shown straight to the nurse who took her blood sample and then came straight out, as a young couple arrived but safe space was observed

    Overall near 100% compliance with Boris's speech last night.

    I am impressed and well done my fellow North Walians

    It's day one, Big G.
    And a great start here
  • MyBurningEarsMyBurningEars Posts: 3,651
    Oh pleeeease tell me James O'Brien read that out on air, complete with "her majesty"!!!

    I wouldn't say he is a stupid man but he has a strange weakness for spotting things that fall into his worldview and treating them uncritically due to his own biases (see also: the Exaro files) bearing in mind he absolutely hammers people he dislikes if he notices (as he's very sharp at) they're falling for the same flaw of human nature...
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,464

    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    On one occasion I was taking my morning coffee in Place Des Allemand in Trujillo, Peru.

    I heard a crunch-crunch... turned my head to see the School marching practise...

    They teach marching in the schools - and being inspired by Fredrick the Great, it's all goose step.

    So I sat there as the girls and boys (separate formations) crunched past. Deeply weird - kept expecting someone to start singing the Panzerlied.
    They teach marching in British schools too, though only the posh ones that most of the government and half the opposition attended. CCF or OTC or whatever it is called now.
    CCF. I was worried when grandson 2 joined in his 2nd or 3rd year. However he only lasted about a year, then he got interested in golf.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    IanB2 said:

    Third

    The Guardian plays it straight and the Telegraph goes for the political hyperbole.

    Why are you surprised?
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,464

    Oh pleeeease tell me James O'Brien read that out on air, complete with "her majesty"!!!

    I wouldn't say he is a stupid man but he has a strange weakness for spotting things that fall into his worldview and treating them uncritically due to his own biases (see also: the Exaro files) bearing in mind he absolutely hammers people he dislikes if he notices (as he's very sharp at) they're falling for the same flaw of human nature...
    I'm reminded of when David Amess MP was, in 1997, asking questions about the misuse of 'Cake' which he'd been led to believe was a new psychedelic imported from Czechoslovakia.
    It was of course before what we now know as Cake was widely used.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    IanB2 said:

    The interesting bit is not what happens now, but what happens afterwards. It’s hard to see how we go back to where we were domestically and internationally. How the aftermath is handled is what will truly define this government. We are all going to be paying more tax - but who will pay and how much, will services be cut at the same time? What role will the state have in controlling our infrastructure? Internationally, can we still do business with an increasingly crazed Trump presiding over an increasingly divided US, is China a country we can ever trust, will the EU and UK find common cause as they deal with these two challenges, could that see both sides become more realistic as they negotiate an FTA? And so on and so on.
    Currently, the government has very few choices. It is doing what has to be done. Looking at Trump and the other populists, we should be grateful for that, of course. However, once the crisis has past there are going to be huge calls to make where there are plenty of choices. That’s when we’ll find out more.

    They would have been wise to have dealt with the extra tax now, when it would be accepted as part of the crisis package and helped head off the likely inflationary spike. Trying to slap extra taxes on us just as we are released from our homes won’t go down well.
    Trying to slap extra taxes on people when very many have lost their jobs or are fearful of doing so or have had their incomes slashed and their pensions and other assets severely reduced in value would go down like the proverbial cup of cold sick, I would imagine.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,464

    algarkirk said:

    kinabalu said:

    Never thought I'd be relieved to be placed under house arrest along with millions of people under a police state by a right wing Tory government

    — Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 23, 2020
    Perhaps Owen Jones will be able to reflect how few on the left, and on the right, genuinely don't want people's lives controlled by the state and all sorts of self righteous busybodies, and become an independent minded writer.

    I tread somewhere that there may be a rethink on immigration policy. Maybe this government is ideologically right wing than some of us feared.

    Silly....... 'less' ideologically....
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,868
    So I'm not going to another Wetherspoons again until the CEO resigns.
  • Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,285

    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    On one occasion I was taking my morning coffee in Place Des Allemand in Trujillo, Peru.

    I heard a crunch-crunch... turned my head to see the School marching practise...

    They teach marching in the schools - and being inspired by Fredrick the Great, it's all goose step.

    So I sat there as the girls and boys (separate formations) crunched past. Deeply weird - kept expecting someone to start singing the Panzerlied.
    They teach marching in British schools too, though only the posh ones that most of the government and half the opposition attended. CCF or OTC or whatever it is called now.
    CCF. I was worried when grandson 2 joined in his 2nd or 3rd year. However he only lasted about a year, then he got interested in golf.
    You know something is a bit odd about your school if your reaction to seeing a student with a (functional) rifle is to tell them off for holding it incorrectly...
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,227

    Bovril is far better on hot buttered toast; mixes with the butter.

    That is the very thing I do NOT like - when it gets blended in with the butter.

    We would struggle to live together.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318

    IanB2 said:

    Looks like we are heading for a beautiful run of weather too. Just typical for the incessant rain finally to stop right now.

    People may take slightly longer for that "one walk" a day.
    There's going to be some lovely gardens come June.....

    If we can get on top of this, the summer may be one of the most glorious any of us has ever experienced - whatever the weather (though we must be due some sustained blue skies). Leisure and catering businesses that can hold until June are going to do very well indeed.

    You are assuming that this will be over - or at least under control - by June. I hope you are right.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,464

    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    On one occasion I was taking my morning coffee in Place Des Allemand in Trujillo, Peru.

    I heard a crunch-crunch... turned my head to see the School marching practise...

    They teach marching in the schools - and being inspired by Fredrick the Great, it's all goose step.

    So I sat there as the girls and boys (separate formations) crunched past. Deeply weird - kept expecting someone to start singing the Panzerlied.
    They teach marching in British schools too, though only the posh ones that most of the government and half the opposition attended. CCF or OTC or whatever it is called now.
    CCF. I was worried when grandson 2 joined in his 2nd or 3rd year. However he only lasted about a year, then he got interested in golf.
    You know something is a bit odd about your school if your reaction to seeing a student with a (functional) rifle is to tell them off for holding it incorrectly...
    Firing a gun was why he joined. As I say, worried me. Also into quite violent video games.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677



    ETA your Chilean anecdote reminds me of the Japanese Emperor being impressed by the Royal Navy, which is why Japanese school uniforms look like Edwardian sailor suits, though only for girls, oddly. Perhaps @edmundintokyo can tell us whether this is still universal over there.

    It's also why the Japanese Navy runs on curry made with RN style curry powder. Although the resultant meal is prepared to a higher standard than anything the white mafia ever dishes up.
  • nichomarnichomar Posts: 7,483
    I was using the wrong stats actually a near 20% rise in 24 hours not so good!
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,464
    kinabalu said:

    Bovril is far better on hot buttered toast; mixes with the butter.

    That is the very thing I do NOT like - when it gets blended in with the butter.

    We would struggle to live together.
    LOL. Politics would be OK, though.
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,291
    kinabalu said:

    Never thought I'd be relieved to be placed under house arrest along with millions of people under a police state by a right wing Tory government

    — Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 23, 2020

    If Boris has got Peter Hitchens, Nigel Farage and Owen Jones moaning at him he's probably doing a good job...
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,464
    MaxPB said:

    So I'm not going to another Wetherspoons .

    That's better
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,291

    As I posted earlier the trip to the hospital for my wife's blood test was enlightening.

    It is a glorious morning and the first thing that was noticeable was how few cars there were on the roads

    As I drove past the promenades and beaches the few people out were obeying the 2 metre spacing and the restaurants/cafes were all closed with the outside tables taped off

    I passed a parked police car on the promenade and a second one driving along the promenade and it did confirm my view from yesterday that with so few people around enforcement would be easier if necessary

    And for the test my wife went to the automatic doors at the hospital which opened with a nurse in attendence. My wife said she had come out of isolation and the nurse said to wait in the car, she would register my wife's attendence, and for her to return at the appointment time. This part of the hospital is usually packed with patients, today it was empty

    On time my wife was shown straight to the nurse who took her blood sample and then came straight out, as a young couple arrived but safe space was observed

    Overall near 100% compliance with Boris's speech last night.

    I am impressed and well done my fellow North Walians

    Good to hear Big G. Hope you and Mrs G have a lovely day. :)
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,227

    The coronavirus is proving to the wider population that certain people are the absolute twats some of us have long pegged them to be....

    He was joking!

    Nice sense of humour, Owen has.

    Where's yours gone?
  • glwglw Posts: 9,908

    Oh pleeeease tell me James O'Brien read that out on air, complete with "her majesty"!!!

    I wouldn't say he is a stupid man but he has a strange weakness for spotting things that fall into his worldview and treating them uncritically due to his own biases (see also: the Exaro files) bearing in mind he absolutely hammers people he dislikes if he notices (as he's very sharp at) they're falling for the same flaw of human nature...

    Exactly. A professional loudmouth is all he is, with much in common with the people he attacks.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,468
    edited March 2020
    MaxPB said:

    So I'm not going to another Wetherspoons again until the CEO resigns.

    Us Remainers have been doing this already for 3 years. Welcome to the club.
  • ABZABZ Posts: 441
    nichomar said:

    I was using the wrong stats actually a near 20% rise in 24 hours not so good!

    out of curiosity, what figures are you using? On worldometers, it's a 13% rise in cases (so far) today but I know they update in the evening when the Spanish government gives official figures in the morning?
  • logical_songlogical_song Posts: 9,914
    MattW said:

    felix said:
    Hardly a surprise. It's a commonplace of socialist experience that it only ever applies to everybody else.

    Consider how Tony Benn hung onto his wealth whilst pretending to believe in socialism, or the personal wealth of the members of Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet.
    Your first sentence is fair enough for this story.
    The second, not so much. Can one not believe in equality and want the rich taxed while being rich oneself. If anything it reflects credit on them.
    Full disclosure: I'm not a socialist.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,491
    MaxPB said:

    So I'm not going to another Wetherspoons again until the CEO resigns.

    How are you feeling?
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,695
    MaxPB said:

    So I'm not going to another Wetherspoons .

    What's he done now?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,119
    edited March 2020
    I wonder can the BBC manage do any report without criticism? The text been sent out to everybody, apparently South Korea has a system where the government can override all the mobile operators and send direct messages to the people, we don't and that is really really bad. Austerity you see is to blame.

    Perhaps, the government maybe also thought that's rather creepy and authoritarian to be able to beam direct government propaganda to people like this. Instead the government have to go through the mobile operators and say people send this message to all your customers.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,375

    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    On one occasion I was taking my morning coffee in Place Des Allemand in Trujillo, Peru.

    I heard a crunch-crunch... turned my head to see the School marching practise...

    They teach marching in the schools - and being inspired by Fredrick the Great, it's all goose step.

    So I sat there as the girls and boys (separate formations) crunched past. Deeply weird - kept expecting someone to start singing the Panzerlied.
    They teach marching in British schools too, though only the posh ones that most of the government and half the opposition attended. CCF or OTC or whatever it is called now.

    ETA your Chilean anecdote reminds me of the Japanese Emperor being impressed by the Royal Navy, which is why Japanese school uniforms look like Edwardian sailor suits, though only for girls, oddly. Perhaps @edmundintokyo can tell us whether this is still universal over there.
    Ha - was in the CCF. No, it is not anything like teaching mass goose stepping. In a way, it is the reverse - emphasises non-military feel of much of the British military. Yes, I know that sounds strange, but ask anyone

    When are the traffic wardens being issued the SLRs? No one has answered that...

    Peru, not Chile - but probably the same there.

    The sailor suit thing was a Victorian fashion in the UK - all the boys (those whose parents could afford it) were dressed in them. The Japanese copied a lot of stuff from the UK in that period - not just the Navy
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,491
    I think the Government is going to end up letting a lot of prisoners out.

    I can't see 23 hours lockups and no visitors ending well.
  • MyBurningEarsMyBurningEars Posts: 3,651

    Oh pleeeease tell me James O'Brien read that out on air, complete with "her majesty"!!!

    I wouldn't say he is a stupid man but he has a strange weakness for spotting things that fall into his worldview and treating them uncritically due to his own biases (see also: the Exaro files) bearing in mind he absolutely hammers people he dislikes if he notices (as he's very sharp at) they're falling for the same flaw of human nature...
    I'm reminded of when David Amess MP was, in 1997, asking questions about the misuse of 'Cake' which he'd been led to believe was a new psychedelic imported from Czechoslovakia.
    It was of course before what we now know as Cake was widely used.
    Indeed, Brass Eye got him! The broadcast was in 1997 but the the question appears in Hansard under Written Answers for 23 Jul 1996...

    https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199596/cmhansrd/vo960723/text/60723w10.htm


    Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action the Government propose in respect of the import of (a) khat, (b) gammahydroxybutyrate and (c) "cake" to the United Kingdom. [38968]

    Mr. Sackville: Neither the khat plant nor the substances gammahydroxybutyrate--GHB--or "cake", which we understand refers to 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-benzylamphetamine, are controlled under the international United Nations drug conventions or under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

    The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs considered the misuse of khat in 1988 and advised that there was no evidence of a social problem arising from its misuse in the United Kingdom such as to justify bringing the plant under the controls of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. We have no current plan to bring khat under legislative controls but will continue to monitor the position.

    The misuse of GHB is to be review by the advisory council at its next meeting in November.

    We are not aware of any reports of misuse in the United Kingdom of the substance known as "cake" but the advisory council nevertheless has under review the question whether this and a number of similar substances should be brought within the scope of the 1971 Act.


    Years later he's still struggling to live it down...

    https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080403/debtext/80403-0009.htm

    "In my early years in the House, when I represented a different constituency, a constituent called Leah Betts died as a result of ecstasy; her father later became an adviser to the Government. A satirical programme managed to gain admittance to this House and interviewed me about a drug called “cake”. Lord Newton of Braintree had the Minister’s job at the time. His officials answered the questions we tabled on “cake”; we as Members of Parliament did not know whether “cake” was a slang term. I am hardly a superstar, but even nowadays sometimes when I walk along a street a very young person will run up to me who has seen that bit of television footage—it is shown over and again. What I usually say to them is, “Okay, you thought it was funny, but did it actually put you off taking drugs?” Obviously, the parents of Leah Betts were not particularly pleased at the trivialisation of the matter."
  • TGOHF666TGOHF666 Posts: 2,052

    kyf_100 said:

    What we need is effective opposition. Where is it?

    It’s coming...
    Layla Moran ?
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,491
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    So I'm not going to another Wetherspoons again until the CEO resigns.

    How are you feeling?
    Better, fever is down, still coughing, still got body ache. Yesterday was awful. I'd like to know whether I've had it now.
    Great to hear you're on the mend.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,932
    edited March 2020
    Deleted: too lazy to sort out blockquotes.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,227

    Can he ever switch off the partisan politics?

    He was JOKING !!

    Supporting the measures in a sweet and humorous way.

    C'mon.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,000

    MaxPB said:

    So I'm not going to another Wetherspoons .

    What's he done now?
    Staff made redundant with only wages for hours already worked, they will only get any other money if & when JDW gets a government grant. Also advised them to try for jobs with Tescos.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,119
    edited March 2020

    Now that all news interviews seem to be via webcam from some expert's house, I'm loving how people try and shoehorn things into the background. It's usually a bookcase filled with heavy reading, or pictures of them with powerful people or certificates and commendations. I'd have a selection of old jizz mags strewn over my unmade bed and the Mrs wandering about trying to tidy up.

    Also shows we don't need to be ferrying people all around the country to studios. Loads of BBC bods are ferried between London and Salford every week just to tick the box of having programmes made in the regions.

    If you watch any Twitch and YouTube channels that have decent following, it is clear they can produce live streaming that top notch quality in terms of the video and audio.

    Not suggesting MOTD presented by Gary Lineker from home in his pants. But there are loads of segments they could.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,695
    "Coronavirus: ‘How is £94 a week going to pay anyone’s bills?’"

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52005581

    Were these people complaining when some of their fellow citizens were surviving on £74 a weeK?
  • Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 32,570
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    So I'm not going to another Wetherspoons again until the CEO resigns.

    How are you feeling?
    Better, fever is down, still coughing, still got body ache. Yesterday was awful. I'd like to know whether I've had it now.
    Glad you are on the mend Max. All the best to you and your family.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,227
    Floater said:

    What a knob

    It was a smart and jokey comment in SUPPORT of the government.

    YOU are the knob.

    Either that or dense.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992
    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    17th/21st Lancers officers' mess committee?
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,695

    MaxPB said:

    So I'm not going to another Wetherspoons .

    What's he done now?
    Staff made redundant with only wages for hours already worked, they will only get any other money if & when JDW gets a government grant. Also advised them to try for jobs with Tescos.
    What a bastard. Why am I not surprised?
  • BluestBlueBluestBlue Posts: 4,556
    kinabalu said:

    Can he ever switch off the partisan politics?

    He was JOKING !!

    Supporting the measures in a sweet and humorous way.

    C'mon.
    I thought he was vaguely amusing, for once.

    I also think we should deliberately avoid telling him when the lockdown is over... :wink:
  • edmundintokyoedmundintokyo Posts: 17,708


    ETA your Chilean anecdote reminds me of the Japanese Emperor being impressed by the Royal Navy, which is why Japanese school uniforms look like Edwardian sailor suits, though only for girls, oddly. Perhaps @edmundintokyo can tell us whether this is still universal over there.

    Yup, they don't all do it but some schools still have sailor uniforms (セーラー服).

    PS. Make sure you have safe search on if you search the web for that.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,176

    MaxPB said:

    So I'm not going to another Wetherspoons .

    What's he done now?
    Staff made redundant with only wages for hours already worked, they will only get any other money if & when JDW gets a government grant. Also advised them to try for jobs with Tescos.
    What a bastard. Why am I not surprised?
    I'm surprised because generally Spoons come across as a good employer.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    TOPPING said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    17th/21st Lancers officers' mess committee?
    100 Squadron reunion.
  • MyBurningEarsMyBurningEars Posts: 3,651

    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    On one occasion I was taking my morning coffee in Place Des Allemand in Trujillo, Peru.

    I heard a crunch-crunch... turned my head to see the School marching practise...

    They teach marching in the schools - and being inspired by Fredrick the Great, it's all goose step.

    So I sat there as the girls and boys (separate formations) crunched past. Deeply weird - kept expecting someone to start singing the Panzerlied.
    They teach marching in British schools too, though only the posh ones that most of the government and half the opposition attended. CCF or OTC or whatever it is called now.
    CCF. I was worried when grandson 2 joined in his 2nd or 3rd year. However he only lasted about a year, then he got interested in golf.
    You know something is a bit odd about your school if your reaction to seeing a student with a (functional) rifle is to tell them off for holding it incorrectly...
    My favourite CCF story comes from Felsted School in Essex:

    On 25 July 1953 the school's Combined Cadet Force armoury was raided by the Irish Republican Army (1922–69), making off with 8 Bren guns, 12 Sten guns, an anti-tank gun, a mortar and 109 rifles. Their van was stopped by a police patrol and Cathal Goulding, Sean Stephenson, later known as Seán Mac Stíofáin and Manus Canning each received 8 years in prison
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,119
    MaxPB said:

    So I'm not going to another Wetherspoons again until the CEO resigns.

    You normally visit Spoons? We have standards on here you know, I thought that was up there with eating pineapple on pizza.
  • kicorsekicorse Posts: 435
    kinabalu said:

    Floater said:

    What a knob

    It was a smart and jokey comment in SUPPORT of the government.

    YOU are the knob.

    Either that or dense.
    More than that, Jones' comment will do good.

    There are plenty of people out there whose instincts would be to do the opposite of whatever Boris Johnson wants them to do. To have someone like Owen Jones, who is known for being fiercely anti-Tory, essentially saying "this may seem crazy, but he is right" might be the only way to persuade some of them.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,375

    Oh pleeeease tell me James O'Brien read that out on air, complete with "her majesty"!!!

    I wouldn't say he is a stupid man but he has a strange weakness for spotting things that fall into his worldview and treating them uncritically due to his own biases (see also: the Exaro files) bearing in mind he absolutely hammers people he dislikes if he notices (as he's very sharp at) they're falling for the same flaw of human nature...
    I'm reminded of when David Amess MP was, in 1997, asking questions about the misuse of 'Cake' which he'd been led to believe was a new psychedelic imported from Czechoslovakia.
    It was of course before what we now know as Cake was widely used.
    It was the savagery with which the author of Cake hoax was destroyed professionally that first got me to consider we had a new Upper 10,000
  • Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,285

    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    On one occasion I was taking my morning coffee in Place Des Allemand in Trujillo, Peru.

    I heard a crunch-crunch... turned my head to see the School marching practise...

    They teach marching in the schools - and being inspired by Fredrick the Great, it's all goose step.

    So I sat there as the girls and boys (separate formations) crunched past. Deeply weird - kept expecting someone to start singing the Panzerlied.
    They teach marching in British schools too, though only the posh ones that most of the government and half the opposition attended. CCF or OTC or whatever it is called now.
    CCF. I was worried when grandson 2 joined in his 2nd or 3rd year. However he only lasted about a year, then he got interested in golf.
    You know something is a bit odd about your school if your reaction to seeing a student with a (functional) rifle is to tell them off for holding it incorrectly...
    My favourite CCF story comes from Felsted School in Essex:

    On 25 July 1953 the school's Combined Cadet Force armoury was raided by the Irish Republican Army (1922–69), making off with 8 Bren guns, 12 Sten guns, an anti-tank gun, a mortar and 109 rifles. Their van was stopped by a police patrol and Cathal Goulding, Sean Stephenson, later known as Seán Mac Stíofáin and Manus Canning each received 8 years in prison
    I’m fairly sure we don’t have anything quite that powerful. I did once confiscate a sword from a pupil, but it was one he needed for a fencing match later so he got it back.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,227
    felix said:

    Yay - well done Owen - the boy's finally growing up.

    What is wrong with people that they cannot appreciate a clever and humorous (and supportive of the government) remark by a pundit simply because the pundit is Owen Jones?

    Is there anybody in 2020 Britain more unfairly maligned and sadly under-appreciated?

    Not sure there is. Maybe Peter Crouch.
  • StereotomyStereotomy Posts: 4,092
    GIN1138 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Never thought I'd be relieved to be placed under house arrest along with millions of people under a police state by a right wing Tory government

    — Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 23, 2020

    If Boris has got Peter Hitchens, Nigel Farage and Owen Jones moaning at him he's probably doing a good job...

    And what if he has Owen Jones supporting him, as in the tweet you just quoted?
  • GIN1138 said:

    As I posted earlier the trip to the hospital for my wife's blood test was enlightening.

    It is a glorious morning and the first thing that was noticeable was how few cars there were on the roads

    As I drove past the promenades and beaches the few people out were obeying the 2 metre spacing and the restaurants/cafes were all closed with the outside tables taped off

    I passed a parked police car on the promenade and a second one driving along the promenade and it did confirm my view from yesterday that with so few people around enforcement would be easier if necessary

    And for the test my wife went to the automatic doors at the hospital which opened with a nurse in attendence. My wife said she had come out of isolation and the nurse said to wait in the car, she would register my wife's attendence, and for her to return at the appointment time. This part of the hospital is usually packed with patients, today it was empty

    On time my wife was shown straight to the nurse who took her blood sample and then came straight out, as a young couple arrived but safe space was observed

    Overall near 100% compliance with Boris's speech last night.

    I am impressed and well done my fellow North Walians

    Good to hear Big G. Hope you and Mrs G have a lovely day. :)
    Thanks Gin.

    It is a glorious day here and we are so fortunate to have a lovely home and garden

    We count our blessings every day and do understand the stress of so many in these unprecidented times.

    I came into the world as Hitlers bombs were cutting out above our houses in Manchester

    I hope that when my time comes covid 19 will be a memory as well, but who knows
  • StereotomyStereotomy Posts: 4,092
    kinabalu said:

    Floater said:

    What a knob

    It was a smart and jokey comment in SUPPORT of the government.

    YOU are the knob.

    Either that or dense.
    Noticing an interesting correlation between people who hate Owen Jones and poor reading comprehension
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,375
    TOPPING said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    17th/21st Lancers officers' mess committee?
    "Gentlemen, I apologise for the lateness of your meal. But I had to shoot the cooks."
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,000
    edited March 2020

    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    On one occasion I was taking my morning coffee in Place Des Allemand in Trujillo, Peru.

    I heard a crunch-crunch... turned my head to see the School marching practise...

    They teach marching in the schools - and being inspired by Fredrick the Great, it's all goose step.

    So I sat there as the girls and boys (separate formations) crunched past. Deeply weird - kept expecting someone to start singing the Panzerlied.
    They teach marching in British schools too, though only the posh ones that most of the government and half the opposition attended. CCF or OTC or whatever it is called now.
    CCF. I was worried when grandson 2 joined in his 2nd or 3rd year. However he only lasted about a year, then he got interested in golf.
    You know something is a bit odd about your school if your reaction to seeing a student with a (functional) rifle is to tell them off for holding it incorrectly...
    My favourite CCF story comes from Felsted School in Essex:

    On 25 July 1953 the school's Combined Cadet Force armoury was raided by the Irish Republican Army (1922–69), making off with 8 Bren guns, 12 Sten guns, an anti-tank gun, a mortar and 109 rifles. Their van was stopped by a police patrol and Cathal Goulding, Sean Stephenson, later known as Seán Mac Stíofáin and Manus Canning each received 8 years in prison
    Jesus, an anti-tank gun.

    In If, a favourite film of my adolescent years, the finale depends on the rebels finding a secret stash of arms in the school cellar. Looks like all they had to do was turn up for OTC.
  • kicorsekicorse Posts: 435

    MaxPB said:

    So I'm not going to another Wetherspoons again until the CEO resigns.

    Us Remainers have been doing this already for 3 years. Welcome to the club.
    I'm a Remainer who was not boycotting Wetherspoons. He was entitled to his opinion. There was nothing evil about it. This is different.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,464

    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kyf_100 said:



    I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.

    Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
    Since we're going full totalitär, BJ should get our lads kitted out like the Chilean army.


    The spirit of the times demands something a little more... imperial.


    On one occasion I was taking my morning coffee in Place Des Allemand in Trujillo, Peru.

    I heard a crunch-crunch... turned my head to see the School marching practise...

    They teach marching in the schools - and being inspired by Fredrick the Great, it's all goose step.

    So I sat there as the girls and boys (separate formations) crunched past. Deeply weird - kept expecting someone to start singing the Panzerlied.
    They teach marching in British schools too, though only the posh ones that most of the government and half the opposition attended. CCF or OTC or whatever it is called now.
    CCF. I was worried when grandson 2 joined in his 2nd or 3rd year. However he only lasted about a year, then he got interested in golf.
    You know something is a bit odd about your school if your reaction to seeing a student with a (functional) rifle is to tell them off for holding it incorrectly...
    My favourite CCF story comes from Felsted School in Essex:

    On 25 July 1953 the school's Combined Cadet Force armoury was raided by the Irish Republican Army (1922–69), making off with 8 Bren guns, 12 Sten guns, an anti-tank gun, a mortar and 109 rifles. Their van was stopped by a police patrol and Cathal Goulding, Sean Stephenson, later known as Seán Mac Stíofáin and Manus Canning each received 8 years in prison
    People,le might come up from Chingford and places like that. You NEED to be prepared.
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