Having raised the stakes so high the Tories cannot now ever risk losing power, so presumably free and fair elections are next on the hit list. All this was pretty clearly going to happen once Johnson decided to close down Parliament last year. There’s no point being angry about it. Neither he nor Cummings is a democrat. The interesting thing is to watch those who proclaim to treasure liberty, democracy and the rule of law above all else go along with it all because it will wind-up the lefties. How shallow. How utterly predictable.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
Only one thing really matters: being accepting of the judgement of the electorate.
Because that is the natural self correcting mechanism.
In the 1960s and 1970s, we had some bloody awful governments, who took tax rates up to 98% on unearned income. Incredible, damaging, stupid things.
But the electoral system worked, and we got rid of people that peddled stupidity.
I'm also struggling to see who's standing on the platform you describe. Let's not forget, AOC and her cohort were an utter failure in the Democratic Primaries this year. Of the 19 people she and her PAC supported, only two won in the Primaries, and both look certain to lose.
One last thing: if you ask what proportion of the US believes in "critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility", you'll get - what 10-15%. At most. That's rather less than believe QAnon conspiracies.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
It's infected our own National Trust too, which is why I cancelled my membership this week.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
You don't half write some bollocks (for an apparently intelligent lady).
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
You don't half write some bollocks (for an apparently intelligent lady).
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
It’s evil. Not just devastating. Especially as (a) the scientific basis for the 10 pm curfew is non-existent; (b) it will do little to stop the spread of the virus.
Daughter has effectively since July turned her pub into a restaurant and this will only accelerate given these new restrictions. She is shortening the menu to minimise waste and make the restaurant as efficient and profitable as possible. She will continue with the takeaway business. She’s had to let one member of staff go, sadly. And she will reduce the use of casual labour - youngsters hoping to train in the business - to the bare minimum or nothing, if needed.
She is hoping that this will - with whatever other measures she can think of - be enough to see her though to the spring.
If there is a full lockdown without further support, then it’s the end for her business, the loss of the remaining jobs, a landlord with no income, breweries and local suppliers with one less customer and 4 villages without their only socialising space.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
It’s evil. Not just devastating. Especially as (a) the scientific basis for the 10 pm curfew is non-existent; (b) it will do little to stop the spread of the virus.
Daughter has effectively since July turned her pub into a restaurant and this will only accelerate given these new restrictions. She is shortening the menu to minimise waste and make the restaurant as efficient and profitable as possible. She will continue with the takeaway business. She’s had to let one member of staff go, sadly. And she will reduce the use of casual labour - youngsters hoping to train in the business - to the bare minimum or nothing, if needed.
She is hoping that this will - with whatever other measures she can think of - be enough to see her though to the spring.
If there is a full lockdown without further support, then it’s the end for her business, the loss of the remaining jobs, a landlord with no income, breweries and local suppliers with one less customer and 4 villages without their only socialising space.
“Levelling up” - my arse!
Oh, the 10pm curfew means everyone is leaving at the same time, so it's probably means the virus will spread more easily.
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
You don't half write some bollocks (for an apparently intelligent lady).
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
Only one thing really matters: being accepting of the judgement of the electorate.
Because that is the natural self correcting mechanism.
In the 1960s and 1970s, we had some bloody awful governments, who took tax rates up to 98% on unearned income. Incredible, damaging, stupid things.
But the electoral system worked, and we got rid of people that peddled stupidity.
I'm also struggling to see who's standing on the platform you describe. Let's not forget, AOC and her cohort were an utter failure in the Democratic Primaries this year. Of the 19 people she and her PAC supported, only two won in the Primaries, and both look certain to lose.
One last thing: if you ask what proportion of the US believes in "critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility", you'll get - what 10-15%. At most. That's rather less than believe QAnon conspiracies.
Idiotically naive.
That 10-15% of Critical Race Theory Believers has completely captured academe, and from there they have spread and evolved, taking over media, the arts, liberal politics, the charity sector.
The Q Anon people are the plebs, they have no power. By contrast, the Left has completely won the Culture War, at the highest level of society, and these Lefties are infected with this mad identity politics fungus. Look at the Lib Dems denying biological gender.
It's bad in the UK and the situation is far worse in the USA, because the racial antagonism is so much more serious.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
It’s evil. Not just devastating. Especially as (a) the scientific basis for the 10 pm curfew is non-existent; (b) it will do little to stop the spread of the virus.
Daughter has effectively since July turned her pub into a restaurant and this will only accelerate given these new restrictions. She is shortening the menu to minimise waste and make the restaurant as efficient and profitable as possible. She will continue with the takeaway business. She’s had to let one member of staff go, sadly. And she will reduce the use of casual labour - youngsters hoping to train in the business - to the bare minimum or nothing, if needed.
She is hoping that this will - with whatever other measures she can think of - be enough to see her though to the spring.
If there is a full lockdown without further support, then it’s the end for her business, the loss of the remaining jobs, a landlord with no income, breweries and local suppliers with one less customer and 4 villages without their only socialising space.
“Levelling up” - my arse!
Oh, the 10pm curfew means everyone is leaving at the same time, so it's probably means the virus will spread more easily.
It's a pretty stupid policy.
It's killing businesses and causing packed trains of drunk people.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
I want to fucking emigrate
If you're not picky then that's very easy. Even if you are, if you have some sort of asset base and some sort of skills then you'll be fine. Do let us know how you get on! (Sorry )
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
I want to fucking emigrate
If you're not picky then that's very easy. Even if you are, if you have some sort of asset base and some sort of skills then you'll be fine. Do let us know how you get on! (Sorry )
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
You don't half write some bollocks (for an apparently intelligent lady).
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
I want to fucking emigrate
If you're not picky then that's very easy. Even if you are, if you have some sort of asset base and some sort of skills then you'll be fine. Do let us know how you get on! (Sorry )
He only needs to do it in his head
Yes. And we mostly conclude that we want to stay - warts and all.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
I want to fucking emigrate
I'm currently in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
It's crazy and beautiful here, rugged high desert. There are some great restaraunts, and they're all open (albeit) with slightly reduced capacity. The bars all have big open areas with space heaters, so you can go for a drink after dinner if you like.
But they also take CV19 very seriously. Everyone assidiously wears a mask on the street, or while queuing for a table or in a shop. And schools and colleges are on-line learning only.
In the whole county (150,000 population) there are about five CV19 cases a day.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
I want to fucking emigrate
If you're not picky then that's very easy. Even if you are, if you have some sort of asset base and some sort of skills then you'll be fine. Do let us know how you get on! (Sorry )
He only needs to do it in his head
Yes. And we mostly conclude that we want to stay - warts and all.
No I mean, Sean just needs to pretend to have emigrated and he will have done, he can come back as a new account tomorrow
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
A lot of restaurants provide a very indifferent product, often overpriced.
Plus around here, most pubs are in fact restaurants as well so the distinction between pubs and restaurants is not as marked as it may be in London. But he’s certainly right that the loss of the trade from 9:30 onwards will hurt.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
It’s evil. Not just devastating. Especially as (a) the scientific basis for the 10 pm curfew is non-existent; (b) it will do little to stop the spread of the virus.
Daughter has effectively since July turned her pub into a restaurant and this will only accelerate given these new restrictions. She is shortening the menu to minimise waste and make the restaurant as efficient and profitable as possible. She will continue with the takeaway business. She’s had to let one member of staff go, sadly. And she will reduce the use of casual labour - youngsters hoping to train in the business - to the bare minimum or nothing, if needed.
She is hoping that this will - with whatever other measures she can think of - be enough to see her though to the spring.
If there is a full lockdown without further support, then it’s the end for her business, the loss of the remaining jobs, a landlord with no income, breweries and local suppliers with one less customer and 4 villages without their only socialising space.
“Levelling up” - my arse!
I hope she's able to survive this and find a way to operate as a pub again when the time comes. On it being devastating, I meant to the pub industry rather than the motivation. I think the motivation is simply ignorant rather than evil, they didn't think through any of the consequences of the decision because no one there is in touch with the real world.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
A lot of restaurants provide a very indifferent product, often overpriced.
Plus around here, most pubs are in fact restaurants as well so the distinction between pubs and restaurants is not as marked as it may be in London. But he’s certainly right that the loss of the trade from 9:30 onwards will hurt.
On topic, an interesting thread header, and one to which there is very little to add.
15 years ago, I was still a couple of years from discovering pb.com. I've posted ever since under a few different IDs.
Since then, it has been interesting to note how Labour has lost the original prop of its three-legged stool, the white working class. Of the other two, the middle-class Guardianistas have become much more loyal while blacks and browns (especially Muslims, not so much Hindus) have stayed overwhelmingly Socialist. When this kind of change happens in America they call it a "realignment", or a "noo pardy [new party] system". The latest one was the collapse of the solid South following the Democrats' embrace of civil rights in the 60s. I think we've seen enough change since 2005 in this country for it to qualify as a realignment. It's the first one we've had since the collapse of the Liberals in the 1920s.
One thing that might be interesting would be to compare the map with an ethnic breakdown of the country. I'd guess that the whitest areas would be those who've swung furthest to the Conservatives, while more diverse areas like London and a few cities might be less friendly to their message. If so it would imply how counter-productive "rubbing the right's nose in diversity" has been for Labour in the country as a whole, and how beneficial it has been in our larger metro areas.
One particularly interesting aspect of the map - I'm quite surprised by the swing to the Conservatives in Yorkshire, contrasting with its opposite further east.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
I want to fucking emigrate
I'm currently in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
It's crazy and beautiful here, rugged high desert. There are some great restaraunts, and they're all open (albeit) with slightly reduced capacity. The bars all have big open areas with space heaters, so you can go for a drink after dinner if you like.
But they also take CV19 very seriously. Everyone assidiously wears a mask on the street, or while queuing for a table or in a shop. And schools and colleges are on-line learning only.
In the whole county (150,000 population) there are about five CV19 cases a day.
I LOVE New Mexico. Indeed all the SW USA desert states.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
I want to fucking emigrate
If you're not picky then that's very easy. Even if you are, if you have some sort of asset base and some sort of skills then you'll be fine. Do let us know how you get on! (Sorry )
He only needs to do it in his head
Yes. And we mostly conclude that we want to stay - warts and all.
No I mean, Sean just needs to pretend to have emigrated and he will have done, he can come back as a new account tomorrow
Ah - I hadn't realised it was SeanT.
Well if so he's totally stuck! No skills whatsover
Mind you a writing career that probably has it's own 007 theme tune.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
It’s evil. Not just devastating. Especially as (a) the scientific basis for the 10 pm curfew is non-existent; (b) it will do little to stop the spread of the virus.
Daughter has effectively since July turned her pub into a restaurant and this will only accelerate given these new restrictions. She is shortening the menu to minimise waste and make the restaurant as efficient and profitable as possible. She will continue with the takeaway business. She’s had to let one member of staff go, sadly. And she will reduce the use of casual labour - youngsters hoping to train in the business - to the bare minimum or nothing, if needed.
She is hoping that this will - with whatever other measures she can think of - be enough to see her though to the spring.
If there is a full lockdown without further support, then it’s the end for her business, the loss of the remaining jobs, a landlord with no income, breweries and local suppliers with one less customer and 4 villages without their only socialising space.
“Levelling up” - my arse!
Oh, the 10pm curfew means everyone is leaving at the same time, so it's probably means the virus will spread more easily.
It's a pretty stupid policy.
It's killing businesses and causing packed trains of drunk people.
Mail is saying it was a "back of a fag packet" policy with no scientific basis.
As I posted the other day, it was just to be seen to be doing something.
Pubs have been thrown under a bus in order for Johnson to look like he is doing something. If it is not safe and demonstrably so, then shut them and fund the owners and staff to go into deep sleep until March.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
It’s evil. Not just devastating. Especially as (a) the scientific basis for the 10 pm curfew is non-existent; (b) it will do little to stop the spread of the virus.
Daughter has effectively since July turned her pub into a restaurant and this will only accelerate given these new restrictions. She is shortening the menu to minimise waste and make the restaurant as efficient and profitable as possible. She will continue with the takeaway business. She’s had to let one member of staff go, sadly. And she will reduce the use of casual labour - youngsters hoping to train in the business - to the bare minimum or nothing, if needed.
She is hoping that this will - with whatever other measures she can think of - be enough to see her though to the spring.
If there is a full lockdown without further support, then it’s the end for her business, the loss of the remaining jobs, a landlord with no income, breweries and local suppliers with one less customer and 4 villages without their only socialising space.
“Levelling up” - my arse!
Oh, the 10pm curfew means everyone is leaving at the same time, so it's probably means the virus will spread more easily.
It's a pretty stupid policy.
It's killing businesses and causing packed trains of drunk people.
Mail is saying it was a "back of a fag packet" policy with no scientific basis.
As I posted the other day, it was just to be seen to be doing something.
Pubs have been thrown under a bus in order for Johnson to look like he is doing something. If it is not safe and demonstrably so, then shut them and fund the owners and staff to go into deep sleep until March.
To me it is so they can say "well we tried and it failed" and then they can do more restrictions.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
Only one thing really matters: being accepting of the judgement of the electorate.
Because that is the natural self correcting mechanism.
In the 1960s and 1970s, we had some bloody awful governments, who took tax rates up to 98% on unearned income. Incredible, damaging, stupid things.
But the electoral system worked, and we got rid of people that peddled stupidity.
I'm also struggling to see who's standing on the platform you describe. Let's not forget, AOC and her cohort were an utter failure in the Democratic Primaries this year. Of the 19 people she and her PAC supported, only two won in the Primaries, and both look certain to lose.
One last thing: if you ask what proportion of the US believes in "critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility", you'll get - what 10-15%. At most. That's rather less than believe QAnon conspiracies.
Idiotically naive.
That 10-15% of Critical Race Theory Believers has completely captured academe, and from there they have spread and evolved, taking over media, the arts, liberal politics, the charity sector.
The Q Anon people are the plebs, they have no power. By contrast, the Left has completely won the Culture War, at the highest level of society, and these Lefties are infected with this mad identity politics fungus. Look at the Lib Dems denying biological gender.
It's bad in the UK and the situation is far worse in the USA, because the racial antagonism is so much more serious.
There will be blood.
Yet they have utterly failed to make any impact on US politics. They aren't represented in the legal system. Find me a single "BLM" or "Critical Race Theory" judge.
And now Covid means that their ability to spread bullshit through Universities has largely disappeared.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
I want to fucking emigrate
I'm currently in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
It's crazy and beautiful here, rugged high desert. There are some great restaraunts, and they're all open (albeit) with slightly reduced capacity. The bars all have big open areas with space heaters, so you can go for a drink after dinner if you like.
But they also take CV19 very seriously. Everyone assidiously wears a mask on the street, or while queuing for a table or in a shop. And schools and colleges are on-line learning only.
In the whole county (150,000 population) there are about five CV19 cases a day.
I LOVE New Mexico. Indeed all the SW USA desert states.
Football still isn't right without a crowd. Imagine this West Brom game, 3-0 to 3-2, the crowd would be going mad, the have gone from totally delerious to nerves.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
I am meant to be going for a pub drink-up in Soho with friends tonight.
It's a cold grey evening, like November. I know we will be corralled to our allotted table and people in masks will hover, and track, and trace, and we won't have time to get properly sozzled.
Utterly depressing. I'd rather stay home and drink my own good (cheaper) wine, with my own music and food, and have a couple of these friends over.
This, indeed, is how pubs will die
Yeah he's actually talking to a pub owner he knows about how they can help him but pubs aren't in the same position as he was because none of them really have unique products, their food is good but nothing unique there, they offer good quality beer and wine but people can buy that from the supermarket and they can't really run a takeaway business that will keep them going and they don't have any chance of an e-commerce sideline.
There's no way out for them, he's run a pub previously and says that around 60% of their revenue came between 9pm and midnight, now pubs only have 30 mins to sell drinks in that window with much reduced capacity.
I want to fucking emigrate
I'm currently in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
It's crazy and beautiful here, rugged high desert. There are some great restaraunts, and they're all open (albeit) with slightly reduced capacity. The bars all have big open areas with space heaters, so you can go for a drink after dinner if you like.
But they also take CV19 very seriously. Everyone assidiously wears a mask on the street, or while queuing for a table or in a shop. And schools and colleges are on-line learning only.
In the whole county (150,000 population) there are about five CV19 cases a day.
I LOVE New Mexico. Indeed all the SW USA desert states.
Southern Utah is high on my list of Places to Die
New Mexico, I agree.
Utah is a bit dry, in the teetotal sense, for me.
Some of the towns are surprisingly pragmatic in letting tourists drink in exchange for their cash.
Football still isn't right without a crowd. Imagine this West Brom game, 3-0 to 3-2, the crowd would be going mad, the have gone from totally delerious to nerves.
Football without a crowd is suiting my team fine. 1-0 down at home to WBA last week and the miserable, pessimistic gits would have been on the backs of certain players as per usual, making them nervous of doing anything at all. And we wouldn't have won.
One major difference is that it is being enforced. Strictly. Which makes a big difference. And not even allowing people to place posters in windows protesting. And furthermore, whilst for most people if required to self isolate it will likely be a one off to endure. For students forced to isolate in vast halls of residence ("officially" in many cases not even allowed to socialise with those with whom they are isolating! - see University of Stirling guidance posted above) they face the prospect of having to do so repeatedly for months. Every time there's a positive test somewhere in the vicinity.
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
It's infected our own National Trust too, which is why I cancelled my membership this week.
"White fragility doesn't exist"
Also:
"I cancelled my National Trust membership because they mentioned slavery."
Yes, this is a very typical reaction from the Leftists defending them who are utterly clueless.
One major difference is that it is being enforced. Strictly. Which makes a big difference. And not even allowing people to place posters in windows protesting. And furthermore, whilst for most people if required to self isolate it will likely be a one off to endure. For students forced to isolate in vast halls of residence ("officially" in many cases not even allowed to socialise with those with whom they are isolating! - see University of Stirling guidance posted above) they face the prospect of having to do so repeatedly for months. Every time there's a positive test somewhere in the vicinity.
Students will end up voluntarily going for herd immunity so they avoid that fate.
One major difference is that it is being enforced. Strictly. Which makes a big difference. And not even allowing people to place posters in windows protesting. And furthermore, whilst for most people if required to self isolate it will likely be a one off to endure. For students forced to isolate in vast halls of residence ("officially" in many cases not even allowed to socialise with those with whom they are isolating! - see University of Stirling guidance posted above) they face the prospect of having to do so repeatedly for months. Every time there's a positive test somewhere in the vicinity.
When I was in halls in the 1980s we weren't allowed (amongst other rules) posters in the window.
I am glad Fox jr2 is not in Halls. He seems to be having a good time in his first week at Uni.
One major difference is that it is being enforced. Strictly. Which makes a big difference. And not even allowing people to place posters in windows protesting. And furthermore, whilst for most people if required to self isolate it will likely be a one off to endure. For students forced to isolate in vast halls of residence ("officially" in many cases not even allowed to socialise with those with whom they are isolating! - see University of Stirling guidance posted above) they face the prospect of having to do so repeatedly for months. Every time there's a positive test somewhere in the vicinity.
When I was in halls in the 1980s we weren't allowed (amongst other rules) posters in the window.
I am glad Fox jr2 is not in Halls. He seems to be having a good time in his first week at Uni.
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
It’s evil. Not just devastating. Especially as (a) the scientific basis for the 10 pm curfew is non-existent; (b) it will do little to stop the spread of the virus.
Daughter has effectively since July turned her pub into a restaurant and this will only accelerate given these new restrictions. She is shortening the menu to minimise waste and make the restaurant as efficient and profitable as possible. She will continue with the takeaway business. She’s had to let one member of staff go, sadly. And she will reduce the use of casual labour - youngsters hoping to train in the business - to the bare minimum or nothing, if needed.
She is hoping that this will - with whatever other measures she can think of - be enough to see her though to the spring.
If there is a full lockdown without further support, then it’s the end for her business, the loss of the remaining jobs, a landlord with no income, breweries and local suppliers with one less customer and 4 villages without their only socialising space.
“Levelling up” - my arse!
I hope she's able to survive this and find a way to operate as a pub again when the time comes. On it being devastating, I meant to the pub industry rather than the motivation. I think the motivation is simply ignorant rather than evil, they didn't think through any of the consequences of the decision because no one there is in touch with the real world.
For politicians to be so ignorant is utterly negligent - and in the circumstances of this year - quite malicious.
One major difference is that it is being enforced. Strictly. Which makes a big difference. And not even allowing people to place posters in windows protesting. And furthermore, whilst for most people if required to self isolate it will likely be a one off to endure. For students forced to isolate in vast halls of residence ("officially" in many cases not even allowed to socialise with those with whom they are isolating! - see University of Stirling guidance posted above) they face the prospect of having to do so repeatedly for months. Every time there's a positive test somewhere in the vicinity.
When I was in halls in the 1980s we weren't allowed (amongst other rules) posters in the window.
I am glad Fox jr2 is not in Halls. He seems to be having a good time in his first week at Uni.
So far as he can tell he is the only male on his course of 30, Out tonight for an in person meet up. Clearly not an engineer!
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
It's infected our own National Trust too, which is why I cancelled my membership this week.
Wow, with all due respect, that’s pretty pathetic.
One major difference is that it is being enforced. Strictly. Which makes a big difference. And not even allowing people to place posters in windows protesting. And furthermore, whilst for most people if required to self isolate it will likely be a one off to endure. For students forced to isolate in vast halls of residence ("officially" in many cases not even allowed to socialise with those with whom they are isolating! - see University of Stirling guidance posted above) they face the prospect of having to do so repeatedly for months. Every time there's a positive test somewhere in the vicinity.
When I was in halls in the 1980s we weren't allowed (amongst other rules) posters in the window.
I am glad Fox jr2 is not in Halls. He seems to be having a good time in his first week at Uni.
So far as he can tell he is the only male on his course of 30, Out tonight for an in person meet up. Clearly not an engineer!
One major difference is that it is being enforced. Strictly. Which makes a big difference. And not even allowing people to place posters in windows protesting. And furthermore, whilst for most people if required to self isolate it will likely be a one off to endure. For students forced to isolate in vast halls of residence ("officially" in many cases not even allowed to socialise with those with whom they are isolating! - see University of Stirling guidance posted above) they face the prospect of having to do so repeatedly for months. Every time there's a positive test somewhere in the vicinity.
When I was in halls in the 1980s we weren't allowed (amongst other rules) posters in the window.
I am glad Fox jr2 is not in Halls. He seems to be having a good time in his first week at Uni.
So far as he can tell he is the only male on his course of 30, Out tonight for an in person meet up. Clearly not an engineer!
On the 10pm shut off - had lunch today with a friend of mine who owns and runs a restaurant (and now takeaway), inevitably the subject got onto the 10pm closing time. His view - it won't drive restaurants to bankruptcy as most are now baseline profitable from their takeaway business, at least if they are good enough for repeat business. His major insight to me is that the shift to takeaway has made the restaurant business into much more of a meritocracy as punters rely on reviews on takeaway websites and less so on passing trade than before. Give customers a bad food experience and they won't come back.
On how the restriction will change things, the kitchen now closed at around 9:30pm and last orders are at around 9pm. This means they now have just one dinner sitting down from two. He said pre-COVID they would have 320 diners per night and they were basically fully booked every night of the week, with social distancing this went down to 140 diners and now they are down to just 70. He's happy that they developed a website and e-commerce business as soon as lockdown started and they got the government grant because now they sell sauces, marinades and seasoning mixes on their own website for local and now national delivery. He said this makes up for basically all of the revenue loss of the eat in business.
His view on pubs - they're fucked and the government has completely fucked it for them. After speaking to him I'm very worried about @Cyclefree and her daughter's pub. That the government are throwing away thousands of businesses and millions of jobs just to make it look like they are doing something is absolutely devastating.
It’s evil. Not just devastating. Especially as (a) the scientific basis for the 10 pm curfew is non-existent; (b) it will do little to stop the spread of the virus.
Daughter has effectively since July turned her pub into a restaurant and this will only accelerate given these new restrictions. She is shortening the menu to minimise waste and make the restaurant as efficient and profitable as possible. She will continue with the takeaway business. She’s had to let one member of staff go, sadly. And she will reduce the use of casual labour - youngsters hoping to train in the business - to the bare minimum or nothing, if needed.
She is hoping that this will - with whatever other measures she can think of - be enough to see her though to the spring.
If there is a full lockdown without further support, then it’s the end for her business, the loss of the remaining jobs, a landlord with no income, breweries and local suppliers with one less customer and 4 villages without their only socialising space.
“Levelling up” - my arse!
I hope she's able to survive this and find a way to operate as a pub again when the time comes. On it being devastating, I meant to the pub industry rather than the motivation. I think the motivation is simply ignorant rather than evil, they didn't think through any of the consequences of the decision because no one there is in touch with the real world.
For politicians to be so ignorant is utterly negligent - and in the circumstances of this year - quite malicious.
Especially given the hypothesis of the government needing the situation to get worse so that the public / Conservative backbenchers will accept the harsher measures that are needed to stop the infections running out of control.
To be clear- there's no way of proving that is the calculation. But it's the simplest model that's consistent with all the observations.
One major difference is that it is being enforced. Strictly. Which makes a big difference. And not even allowing people to place posters in windows protesting. And furthermore, whilst for most people if required to self isolate it will likely be a one off to endure. For students forced to isolate in vast halls of residence ("officially" in many cases not even allowed to socialise with those with whom they are isolating! - see University of Stirling guidance posted above) they face the prospect of having to do so repeatedly for months. Every time there's a positive test somewhere in the vicinity.
When I was in halls in the 1980s we weren't allowed (amongst other rules) posters in the window.
I am glad Fox jr2 is not in Halls. He seems to be having a good time in his first week at Uni.
So far as he can tell he is the only male on his course of 30, Out tonight for an in person meet up. Clearly not an engineer!
One major difference is that it is being enforced. Strictly. Which makes a big difference. And not even allowing people to place posters in windows protesting. And furthermore, whilst for most people if required to self isolate it will likely be a one off to endure. For students forced to isolate in vast halls of residence ("officially" in many cases not even allowed to socialise with those with whom they are isolating! - see University of Stirling guidance posted above) they face the prospect of having to do so repeatedly for months. Every time there's a positive test somewhere in the vicinity.
When I was in halls in the 1980s we weren't allowed (amongst other rules) posters in the window.
I am glad Fox jr2 is not in Halls. He seems to be having a good time in his first week at Uni.
So far as he can tell he is the only male on his course of 30, Out tonight for an in person meet up. Clearly not an engineer!
Some engineers have social skills!
Software “engineering” isn't engineering mate
Well a lot of engineers have no social skills at all, that certainly carries over.
I do consider it engineering, or a science, depending what your degree says
It would be interesting to know if anyone is challenging university legal interpretation of some of these self-isolation rules. I could just about understand basing on flats, maybe shared kitchen groups. But treating entire accommodation blocks as effectively single households sounds like pushing to the limit. And bear in mind that there are very few, if any, examples of successful application of coronavirus legislation in the courts.
One major difference is that it is being enforced. Strictly. Which makes a big difference. And not even allowing people to place posters in windows protesting. And furthermore, whilst for most people if required to self isolate it will likely be a one off to endure. For students forced to isolate in vast halls of residence ("officially" in many cases not even allowed to socialise with those with whom they are isolating! - see University of Stirling guidance posted above) they face the prospect of having to do so repeatedly for months. Every time there's a positive test somewhere in the vicinity.
When I was in halls in the 1980s we weren't allowed (amongst other rules) posters in the window.
I am glad Fox jr2 is not in Halls. He seems to be having a good time in his first week at Uni.
So far as he can tell he is the only male on his course of 30, Out tonight for an in person meet up. Clearly not an engineer!
Some engineers have social skills!
Possibly (my brother always seemed to have a girl) but on an engineering course the gender balance would be different to Comparative Literature*.
*Course reading looks great, much more interesting than English Lit.
@Gallowgate has a point though, software engineering makes us sound more intelligent than we are and software engineering jobs seem to get higher salaries - at least that was the case when I was applying
@Gallowgate has a point though, software engineering makes us sound more intelligent than we are and software engineering jobs seem to get higher salaries - at least that was the case when I was applying
Software projects are always late, more expensive than expected, and don't usually work properly to begin with. This tracing app seems to be no different.
@Gallowgate has a point though, software engineering makes us sound more intelligent than we are and software engineering jobs seem to get higher salaries - at least that was the case when I was applying
Software projects are always late, more expensive than expected, and don't usually work properly to begin with. This tracing app seems to be no different.
I'm pleased to say my current project is right on time!
One major difference is that it is being enforced. Strictly. Which makes a big difference. And not even allowing people to place posters in windows protesting. And furthermore, whilst for most people if required to self isolate it will likely be a one off to endure. For students forced to isolate in vast halls of residence ("officially" in many cases not even allowed to socialise with those with whom they are isolating! - see University of Stirling guidance posted above) they face the prospect of having to do so repeatedly for months. Every time there's a positive test somewhere in the vicinity.
When I was in halls in the 1980s we weren't allowed (amongst other rules) posters in the window.
I am glad Fox jr2 is not in Halls. He seems to be having a good time in his first week at Uni.
So far as he can tell he is the only male on his course of 30, Out tonight for an in person meet up. Clearly not an engineer!
Some engineers have social skills!
Possibly (my brother always seemed to have a girl) but on an engineering course the gender balance would be different to Comparative Literature*.
*Course reading looks great, much more interesting than English Lit.
There was 6 girls on my mechanical engineering undergraduate course out of about 150. It was awful.
Yes, we must ignore the parts of our history that we no longer like.
But that's not happening. The slave trade is as well and widely documented and acknowledged as the Industrial Revolution. Which makes you look a complete twit if you purport to have the historical firepower to run the National Trust and then come up with the Hang on, lads, we've made some unwelcome discoveries spiel.
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
It's infected our own National Trust too, which is why I cancelled my membership this week.
Bonkers! What on earth did the National Trust do?
It is indeed bonkers.
The National Trust report was one of the most astonishingly inept pieces of work I've ever seen. It's a massive self-inflicted wound.
You can read more about the problem in the links below. Rather than adding to their record of the stories of their properties in a fair and balanced way, where things are currently lopsided or inaccurate, and looking to add more and new stories of non-whites in (which would have been welcome) - they've thrown everyone in the same boat and damned them all. The last 400 years. The lot.
They've equated slavery and colonialism as exactly the same thing, linked people together to both with all sorts of tendentious and tangential evidence, without context, and littered the foreword and the main body report with Wokeness about "power" and "privilege" and a general narcisstic tone of atonement permeates the whole report.
It's largely been written by agenda pursuing left-wing academics - a hectoring, partial, nihilistic, anti-patriotic hatchet job - and the NT has contracted this out to them in the belief this creates "inclusivity" and "all parts of society" - when in reality it will do the opposite.
If that's the furrow they want to plough in future they won't be getting any more of my money. And I have told them so.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
Only one thing really matters: being accepting of the judgement of the electorate.
Because that is the natural self correcting mechanism.
In the 1960s and 1970s, we had some bloody awful governments, who took tax rates up to 98% on unearned income. Incredible, damaging, stupid things.
But the electoral system worked, and we got rid of people that peddled stupidity.
I'm also struggling to see who's standing on the platform you describe. Let's not forget, AOC and her cohort were an utter failure in the Democratic Primaries this year. Of the 19 people she and her PAC supported, only two won in the Primaries, and both look certain to lose.
One last thing: if you ask what proportion of the US believes in "critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility", you'll get - what 10-15%. At most. That's rather less than believe QAnon conspiracies.
Idiotically naive.
That 10-15% of Critical Race Theory Believers has completely captured academe, and from there they have spread and evolved, taking over media, the arts, liberal politics, the charity sector.
The Q Anon people are the plebs, they have no power. By contrast, the Left has completely won the Culture War, at the highest level of society, and these Lefties are infected with this mad identity politics fungus. Look at the Lib Dems denying biological gender.
It's bad in the UK and the situation is far worse in the USA, because the racial antagonism is so much more serious.
There will be blood.
The Woke Youngesters hatch into Little Merchant Bankers remarkably fast.
Course you can't really get much more of an identity politician than Trump.
I don't think you understand: appealing to racists is 'acceptable politics'. Fighting against racism is 'identity politics' which is bad.
Posts like that just serve to show how you're on one side of the culture wars and he's on the other. America is more extreme and toxic of course, but we have a similar divide here now too.
Oh, for genuine liberals with the self-awareness to realise what's going on and rise above it and pull people together - using common sense.
Yes, we must ignore the parts of our history that we no longer like.
But that's not happening. The slave trade is as well and widely documented and acknowledged as the Industrial Revolution. Which makes you look a complete twit if you purport to have the historical firepower to run the National Trust and then come up with the Hang on, lads, we've made some unwelcome discoveries spiel.
Surely that is what they are doing, pointing out how a number of houses and monuments were funded by the slave trade, or other colonialist ventures?
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
It's infected our own National Trust too, which is why I cancelled my membership this week.
Bonkers! What on earth did the National Trust do?
It is indeed bonkers.
The National Trust report was one of the most astonishingly inept pieces of work I've ever seen. It's a massive self-inflicted wound.
You can read more about the problem in the links below. Rather than adding to their record of the stories of their properties in a fair and balanced way, where things are currently lopsided or inaccurate, and looking to add more and new stories of non-whites in (which would have been welcome) - they've thrown everyone in the same boat and damned them all. The last 400 years. The lot.
They've equated slavery and colonialism as exactly the same thing, linked people together to both with all sorts of tendentious and tangential evidence, without context, and littered the foreword and the main body report with Wokeness about "power" and "privilege" and a general narcisstic tone of atonement permeates the whole report.
It's largely been written by agenda pursuing left-wing academics - a hectoring, partial, nihilistic, anti-patriotic hatchet job - and the NT has contracted this out to them in the belief this creates "inclusivity" and "all parts of society" - when in reality it will do the opposite.
If that's the furrow they want to plough in future they won't be getting any more of my money. And I have told them so.
Like I said. Pathetic. You need to get a life. The national trust is still the same organization, it’s just highlighting some uncomfortable truths which you are welcome to ignore if you like.
Who gives a sh*t? Just ignore it if you don’t like it like 99% of people.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
Only one thing really matters: being accepting of the judgement of the electorate.
Because that is the natural self correcting mechanism.
In the 1960s and 1970s, we had some bloody awful governments, who took tax rates up to 98% on unearned income. Incredible, damaging, stupid things.
But the electoral system worked, and we got rid of people that peddled stupidity.
I'm also struggling to see who's standing on the platform you describe. Let's not forget, AOC and her cohort were an utter failure in the Democratic Primaries this year. Of the 19 people she and her PAC supported, only two won in the Primaries, and both look certain to lose.
One last thing: if you ask what proportion of the US believes in "critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility", you'll get - what 10-15%. At most. That's rather less than believe QAnon conspiracies.
Idiotically naive.
That 10-15% of Critical Race Theory Believers has completely captured academe, and from there they have spread and evolved, taking over media, the arts, liberal politics, the charity sector.
The Q Anon people are the plebs, they have no power. By contrast, the Left has completely won the Culture War, at the highest level of society, and these Lefties are infected with this mad identity politics fungus. Look at the Lib Dems denying biological gender.
It's bad in the UK and the situation is far worse in the USA, because the racial antagonism is so much more serious.
There will be blood.
This is true.
Both sides are fundamentally incapable of understanding the other too.
Can't private institutions and charities do what they want
It’s not even a big deal, I don’t know why some people are so obsessed. Have they not got anything better to do?
The same people who are whining about the National Trust are probably the same pathetic losers who feel the need to spend their precious time complaining to ofcom about a BLM necklace on TV.
They just need to get a life. This isn’t about the “culture war” whatsoever. A vast majority of people are happy to just get on with their lives.
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
It's infected our own National Trust too, which is why I cancelled my membership this week.
Bonkers! What on earth did the National Trust do?
It is indeed bonkers.
The National Trust report was one of the most astonishingly inept pieces of work I've ever seen. It's a massive self-inflicted wound.
You can read more about the problem in the links below. Rather than adding to their record of the stories of their properties in a fair and balanced way, where things are currently lopsided or inaccurate, and looking to add more and new stories of non-whites in (which would have been welcome) - they've thrown everyone in the same boat and damned them all. The last 400 years. The lot.
They've equated slavery and colonialism as exactly the same thing, linked people together to both with all sorts of tendentious and tangential evidence, without context, and littered the foreword and the main body report with Wokeness about "power" and "privilege" and a general narcisstic tone of atonement permeates the whole report.
It's largely been written by agenda pursuing left-wing academics - a hectoring, partial, nihilistic, anti-patriotic hatchet job - and the NT has contracted this out to them in the belief this creates "inclusivity" and "all parts of society" - when in reality it will do the opposite.
If that's the furrow they want to plough in future they won't be getting any more of my money. And I have told them so.
Like I said. Pathetic. You need to get a life. The national trust is still the same organization, it’s just highlighting some uncomfortable truths which you are welcome to ignore if you like.
Who gives a sh*t? Just ignore it if you don’t like it like 99% of people.
Again this is a very typical reaction from ignoramuses who fail to understand the importance of context, selection and presentation of historical facts.
The authors of this report understood this very well of course - which is precisely why they choose to present it in this way. It includes charmers like this:
"One of the report’s editors is Professor Corinne Fowler, director of the Colonial Countryside project at Leicester university, and author of Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural Britain’s Colonial Histories. She retweets things like ‘Rural racism means POC [People of Colour] don’t feel safe in there. The countryside is one of the last bastions of Empire’ and ‘Amid a global reckoning over the history of slavery one institution has remained silent: the British monarchy’"
In answer to your last question the answer is: millions of people, which is why the National Trust will now find they've got a big problem.
Can't private institutions and charities do what they want
It’s not even a big deal, I don’t know why some people are so obsessed. Have they not got anything better to do?
The same people who are whining about the National Trust are probably the same pathetic losers who feel the need to spend their precious time complaining to ofcom about a BLM necklace on TV.
They just need to get a life. This isn’t about the “culture war” whatsoever. A vast majority of people are happy to just get on with their lives.
You're young, so I'll cut you a break but posts like this just to serve to show how ignorant you are of people who don't think like you do.
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
It's infected our own National Trust too, which is why I cancelled my membership this week.
Bonkers! What on earth did the National Trust do?
It is indeed bonkers.
The National Trust report was one of the most astonishingly inept pieces of work I've ever seen. It's a massive self-inflicted wound.
You can read more about the problem in the links below. Rather than adding to their record of the stories of their properties in a fair and balanced way, where things are currently lopsided or inaccurate, and looking to add more and new stories of non-whites in (which would have been welcome) - they've thrown everyone in the same boat and damned them all. The last 400 years. The lot.
They've equated slavery and colonialism as exactly the same thing, linked people together to both with all sorts of tendentious and tangential evidence, without context, and littered the foreword and the main body report with Wokeness about "power" and "privilege" and a general narcisstic tone of atonement permeates the whole report.
It's largely been written by agenda pursuing left-wing academics - a hectoring, partial, nihilistic, anti-patriotic hatchet job - and the NT has contracted this out to them in the belief this creates "inclusivity" and "all parts of society" - when in reality it will do the opposite.
If that's the furrow they want to plough in future they won't be getting any more of my money. And I have told them so.
Like I said. Pathetic. You need to get a life. The national trust is still the same organization, it’s just highlighting some uncomfortable truths which you are welcome to ignore if you like.
Who gives a sh*t? Just ignore it if you don’t like it like 99% of people.
Again this is a very typical reaction from ignoramuses who fail to understand the importance of context, selection and presentation of historical facts.
The authors of this report understood this very well of course - which is precisely why they choose to present it in this way. It includes charmers like this:
"One of the report’s editors is Professor Corinne Fowler, director of the Colonial Countryside project at Leicester university, and author of Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural Britain’s Colonial Histories. She retweets things like ‘Rural racism means POC [People of Colour] don’t feel safe in there. The countryside is one of the last bastions of Empire’ and ‘Amid a global reckoning over the history of slavery one institution has remained silent: the British monarchy’"
In answer to your last question the answer is: millions of people, which is why the National Trust will now find they've got a big problem.
They've just taken sides in the culture wars.
It’s just a fact of life that a vast majority of our historical figures were, by today’s standards, bad people.
And so what? Why do you want to hide that? It doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make any race “evil” and it shouldn’t lead to any “white guilt” or any of that nonsense. It’s just a fact.
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
It's infected our own National Trust too, which is why I cancelled my membership this week.
Bonkers! What on earth did the National Trust do?
It is indeed bonkers.
The National Trust report was one of the most astonishingly inept pieces of work I've ever seen. It's a massive self-inflicted wound.
You can read more about the problem in the links below. Rather than adding to their record of the stories of their properties in a fair and balanced way, where things are currently lopsided or inaccurate, and looking to add more and new stories of non-whites in (which would have been welcome) - they've thrown everyone in the same boat and damned them all. The last 400 years. The lot.
They've equated slavery and colonialism as exactly the same thing, linked people together to both with all sorts of tendentious and tangential evidence, without context, and littered the foreword and the main body report with Wokeness about "power" and "privilege" and a general narcisstic tone of atonement permeates the whole report.
It's largely been written by agenda pursuing left-wing academics - a hectoring, partial, nihilistic, anti-patriotic hatchet job - and the NT has contracted this out to them in the belief this creates "inclusivity" and "all parts of society" - when in reality it will do the opposite.
If that's the furrow they want to plough in future they won't be getting any more of my money. And I have told them so.
Like I said. Pathetic. You need to get a life. The national trust is still the same organization, it’s just highlighting some uncomfortable truths which you are welcome to ignore if you like.
Who gives a sh*t? Just ignore it if you don’t like it like 99% of people.
I think I know how Casino feels. I felt the same way when I read some complete bollocks from some LibDem quango recently on LGBT stuff. Should I complain? Nah - I decided to just ignore it. It doesn't figure anywhere in the LibDem conference proceedings to amend it or vote against it. So I'm just ignoring it. It's bollocks.
So on one hand you got a random on the street spouting awful opinions and on the other hand you have the president of the United States glorifying violence against his political opponents and refusing to confirm he will stand down if defeated.
Do you see how the equivalency fails?
Also I haven't seen a single top level Dem politician praise the Marxist front orginisation BlackLivesMatters as opposed to the general amorphous movement made of ordinary people pushing for racial justice that has the same name.
It is astonishing and extremely upsetting to watch American democracy self-destruct.
Both sides are responsible for this tragedy. The insane identity politics of the American Left are as corrosive and damaging as the stupidity and aggression of the Trumpians.
The insane identity politics are - of course - ridiculous and damaging.
But if Trump was just attacking that, and immigration, and free trade, etc., then we while we might not agree with him on everything, that would be well within his right.
But "insane identity politics" are not a threat to democracy. What is currently happening in the US *is* a threat to democracy. And we need to call it out when we see it, not attempt to say "there are good people on both sides".
The US (like the UK) has been successful because it has a good system. Once you dismantle a good system, you are on the highway to hell.
I think critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility, and so on, are arguably more menacing, long term, to American democracy, than Trump's everyday lunacies.
He's a terrible, odious president, but at most he can only run one more term (and he's surely going to lose); Cultural Marxism/Critical Race Theory and all that goes with it is a terrible but powerful IDEA, and ideas are more important in the end. This particular idea will presage a race war in the USA if it gets worse.
Moreover, America is exporting the madness of Critical Race Theory around the world, roiling other western nations.
It's infected our own National Trust too, which is why I cancelled my membership this week.
Bonkers! What on earth did the National Trust do?
It is indeed bonkers.
The National Trust report was one of the most astonishingly inept pieces of work I've ever seen. It's a massive self-inflicted wound.
You can read more about the problem in the links below. Rather than adding to their record of the stories of their properties in a fair and balanced way, where things are currently lopsided or inaccurate, and looking to add more and new stories of non-whites in (which would have been welcome) - they've thrown everyone in the same boat and damned them all. The last 400 years. The lot.
They've equated slavery and colonialism as exactly the same thing, linked people together to both with all sorts of tendentious and tangential evidence, without context, and littered the foreword and the main body report with Wokeness about "power" and "privilege" and a general narcisstic tone of atonement permeates the whole report.
It's largely been written by agenda pursuing left-wing academics - a hectoring, partial, nihilistic, anti-patriotic hatchet job - and the NT has contracted this out to them in the belief this creates "inclusivity" and "all parts of society" - when in reality it will do the opposite.
If that's the furrow they want to plough in future they won't be getting any more of my money. And I have told them so.
Like I said. Pathetic. You need to get a life. The national trust is still the same organization, it’s just highlighting some uncomfortable truths which you are welcome to ignore if you like.
Who gives a sh*t? Just ignore it if you don’t like it like 99% of people.
Again this is a very typical reaction from ignoramuses who fail to understand the importance of context, selection and presentation of historical facts.
The authors of this report understood this very well of course - which is precisely why they choose to present it in this way. It includes charmers like this:
"One of the report’s editors is Professor Corinne Fowler, director of the Colonial Countryside project at Leicester university, and author of Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural Britain’s Colonial Histories. She retweets things like ‘Rural racism means POC [People of Colour] don’t feel safe in there. The countryside is one of the last bastions of Empire’ and ‘Amid a global reckoning over the history of slavery one institution has remained silent: the British monarchy’"
In answer to your last question the answer is: millions of people, which is why the National Trust will now find they've got a big problem.
They've just taken sides in the culture wars.
It’s just a fact of life that a vast majority of our historical figures were, by today’s standards, bad people.
And so what? Why do you want to hide that? It doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make any race “evil” and it shouldn’t lead to any “white guilt” or any of that nonsense. It’s just a fact.
I suggest you get over it.
I think the point is some of the people behind (re)writing this are bad faith actors. They aren't simply trying to record accurately historical ties, they are have a wider motive. Same as those who setup the BLM and XR movements, it isn't (simply) about race equality and climate change.
Comments
Because that is the natural self correcting mechanism.
In the 1960s and 1970s, we had some bloody awful governments, who took tax rates up to 98% on unearned income. Incredible, damaging, stupid things.
But the electoral system worked, and we got rid of people that peddled stupidity.
I'm also struggling to see who's standing on the platform you describe. Let's not forget, AOC and her cohort were an utter failure in the Democratic Primaries this year. Of the 19 people she and her PAC supported, only two won in the Primaries, and both look certain to lose.
One last thing: if you ask what proportion of the US believes in "critical race theory, cultural Marxism, the idea of original sin of White Racism and Fragility", you'll get - what 10-15%. At most. That's rather less than believe QAnon conspiracies.
It really isn't a positive step.
Daughter has effectively since July turned her pub into a restaurant and this will only accelerate given these new restrictions. She is shortening the menu to minimise waste and make the restaurant as efficient and profitable as possible. She will continue with the takeaway business. She’s had to let one member of staff go, sadly. And she will reduce the use of casual labour - youngsters hoping to train in the business - to the bare minimum or nothing, if needed.
She is hoping that this will - with whatever other measures she can think of - be enough to see her though to the spring.
If there is a full lockdown without further support, then it’s the end for her business, the loss of the remaining jobs, a landlord with no income, breweries and local suppliers with one less customer and 4 villages without their only socialising space.
“Levelling up” - my arse!
It's a pretty stupid policy.
That 10-15% of Critical Race Theory Believers has completely captured academe, and from there they have spread and evolved, taking over media, the arts, liberal politics, the charity sector.
The Q Anon people are the plebs, they have no power. By contrast, the Left has completely won the Culture War, at the highest level of society, and these Lefties are infected with this mad identity politics fungus. Look at the Lib Dems denying biological gender.
It's bad in the UK and the situation is far worse in the USA, because the racial antagonism is so much more serious.
There will be blood.
It's crazy and beautiful here, rugged high desert. There are some great restaraunts, and they're all open (albeit) with slightly reduced capacity. The bars all have big open areas with space heaters, so you can go for a drink after dinner if you like.
But they also take CV19 very seriously. Everyone assidiously wears a mask on the street, or while queuing for a table or in a shop. And schools and colleges are on-line learning only.
In the whole county (150,000 population) there are about five CV19 cases a day.
Plus around here, most pubs are in fact restaurants as well so the distinction between pubs and restaurants is not as marked as it may be in London. But he’s certainly right that the loss of the trade from 9:30 onwards will hurt.
15 years ago, I was still a couple of years from discovering pb.com. I've posted ever since under a few different IDs.
Since then, it has been interesting to note how Labour has lost the original prop of its three-legged stool, the white working class. Of the other two, the middle-class Guardianistas have become much more loyal while blacks and browns (especially Muslims, not so much Hindus) have stayed overwhelmingly Socialist. When this kind of change happens in America they call it a "realignment", or a "noo pardy [new party] system". The latest one was the collapse of the solid South following the Democrats' embrace of civil rights in the 60s. I think we've seen enough change since 2005 in this country for it to qualify as a realignment. It's the first one we've had since the collapse of the Liberals in the 1920s.
One thing that might be interesting would be to compare the map with an ethnic breakdown of the country. I'd guess that the whitest areas would be those who've swung furthest to the Conservatives, while more diverse areas like London and a few cities might be less friendly to their message. If so it would imply how counter-productive "rubbing the right's nose in diversity" has been for Labour in the country as a whole, and how beneficial it has been in our larger metro areas.
One particularly interesting aspect of the map - I'm quite surprised by the swing to the Conservatives in Yorkshire, contrasting with its opposite further east.
Southern Utah is high on my list of Places to Die
Well if so he's totally stuck! No skills whatsover
Mind you a writing career that probably has it's own 007 theme tune.
As I posted the other day, it was just to be seen to be doing something.
Pubs have been thrown under a bus in order for Johnson to look like he is doing something. If it is not safe and demonstrably so, then shut them and fund the owners and staff to go into deep sleep until March.
But yet again we've wasted two weeks
And now Covid means that their ability to spread bullshit through Universities has largely disappeared.
You're tilting at shadows.
Its a bit ironic really.
Utah is a bit dry, in the teetotal sense, for me.
1-0 down at home to WBA last week and the miserable, pessimistic gits would have been on the backs of certain players as per usual, making them nervous of doing anything at all.
And we wouldn't have won.
I am glad Fox jr2 is not in Halls. He seems to be having a good time in his first week at Uni.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/09/25/the-making-of-britains-covid-catastrophe/
So Tories, are we in favour of this or not?
To be clear- there's no way of proving that is the calculation. But it's the simplest model that's consistent with all the observations.
I do consider it engineering, or a science, depending what your degree says
*Course reading looks great, much more interesting than English Lit.
The National Trust report was one of the most astonishingly inept pieces of work I've ever seen. It's a massive self-inflicted wound.
You can read more about the problem in the links below. Rather than adding to their record of the stories of their properties in a fair and balanced way, where things are currently lopsided or inaccurate, and looking to add more and new stories of non-whites in (which would have been welcome) - they've thrown everyone in the same boat and damned them all. The last 400 years. The lot.
They've equated slavery and colonialism as exactly the same thing, linked people together to both with all sorts of tendentious and tangential evidence, without context, and littered the foreword and the main body report with Wokeness about "power" and "privilege" and a general narcisstic tone of atonement permeates the whole report.
It's largely been written by agenda pursuing left-wing academics - a hectoring, partial, nihilistic, anti-patriotic hatchet job - and the NT has contracted this out to them in the belief this creates "inclusivity" and "all parts of society" - when in reality it will do the opposite.
If that's the furrow they want to plough in future they won't be getting any more of my money. And I have told them so.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-national-trusts-shameful-manifesto/amp
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8762205/amp/DOMINIC-SANDBROOK-dare-National-Trust-link-Wordsworth-slavery.html
Oh, for genuine liberals with the self-awareness to realise what's going on and rise above it and pull people together - using common sense.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54244434
Who gives a sh*t? Just ignore it if you don’t like it like 99% of people.
Both sides are fundamentally incapable of understanding the other too.
The same people who are whining about the National Trust are probably the same pathetic losers who feel the need to spend their precious time complaining to ofcom about a BLM necklace on TV.
They just need to get a life. This isn’t about the “culture war” whatsoever. A vast majority of people are happy to just get on with their lives.
The authors of this report understood this very well of course - which is precisely why they choose to present it in this way. It includes charmers like this:
"One of the report’s editors is Professor Corinne Fowler, director of the Colonial Countryside project at Leicester university, and author of Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural Britain’s Colonial Histories. She retweets things like ‘Rural racism means POC [People of Colour] don’t feel safe in there. The countryside is one of the last bastions of Empire’ and ‘Amid a global reckoning over the history of slavery one institution has remained silent: the British monarchy’"
In answer to your last question the answer is: millions of people, which is why the National Trust will now find they've got a big problem.
They've just taken sides in the culture wars.
And so what? Why do you want to hide that? It doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make any race “evil” and it shouldn’t lead to any “white guilt” or any of that nonsense. It’s just a fact.
I suggest you get over it.
Educating people on how the property that they are admiring was built, and where the money came from seem to fall well within their objectives.
Tories have breached 40%