Do any wine buffs know whether Barossa Valley Shiraz is any good?
Laithwaites are trying to sell me a case at half price.
Barossa is recognised as a premier area for Shiraz, and produces a lot of good quality wine, especially where there are older vines that survived the vine pulling incentives of twenty years back.
I did my wine qualification online with Laithwaites during the first lockdown, and they’re a good company with some good quality wines on their list. However as a principally online/mail order firm they do rely on selling a lot of plonk cheaply to attract new customers. If you are looking for quality it is generally better to look at their mid-range wines rather than the offers.
Cheers.
Price reduction for 12 bottles is from an alleged £275 to £138
Mid-range? Certainly not plonk (in my universe).
I am not Sean T, or Deirdre as he may be currently.
Very strong, oakey and tannic. Personally I would find it undrinkable.
It wouldn't be my preference, either, but it is probably good stuff. I'd look to keep some of it for at least a couple of years and a few bottles for longer, rather than drinking it all straight away.
Must say I've been drinking a lot more Portuguese red lately. Very drinkable.
I gave up alcohol two years, despite humouring Eadric (Sean) in a discussion of champagnes. I don't miss the alcohol at all.
However, I enjoyed the occasional red from esoteric regions. A particular favourite was Chateau Musar from the Lebanon. Get the right vintage and it's superb.
I've largely gone off red-wine. I don't know why, I've just had two many bad experiences and it makes me feel dehydrated quickly and gives me a headache.
Bollinger? Tattinger? Even Chapel Down? Delicious.
And, I enjoy (love) low-brew golden real-ales <5% ABV.
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
The challenge for a lot of people is that as @Sandpit noted the city centre offices may not be there anymore. Even if employee efficiency WFH is 10% down, if operating costs are more than 10% down then its a positive for the business. For too long companies have been largely held hostage by the cartel behaviour of corporate landlords boosting the value of both rental offices and one bed flats for employees to absurd levels.
The opportunity to downsize is too appealing. Cut the huge cost of the city office. Dump the cost of office costs onto your employees. The one bed flat in easy commuting distance to the office is what will go, not the city centre office to stay. A massive development of similar apartments surrounding Wembley Stadium, bonkers rents and a supporting infrastructure of eateries and shops to feed the workers with easy commute into the City. Glad I haven't invested in that...
Well I hope you're right, but the way most R House members are effectively voting for a coup is not that encouraging.
Hypothetically... if the Republicans had won the House... particularly in a landslide... would Biden have been certified? Are we now in a situation where if the Republicans win the House... that's it for US democracy?
Do any wine buffs know whether Barossa Valley Shiraz is any good?
Laithwaites are trying to sell me a case at half price.
Barossa is recognised as a premier area for Shiraz, and produces a lot of good quality wine, especially where there are older vines that survived the vine pulling incentives of twenty years back.
I did my wine qualification online with Laithwaites during the first lockdown, and they’re a good company with some good quality wines on their list. However as a principally online/mail order firm they do rely on selling a lot of plonk cheaply to attract new customers. If you are looking for quality it is generally better to look at their mid-range wines rather than the offers.
Cheers.
Price reduction for 12 bottles is from an alleged £275 to £138
Mid-range? Certainly not plonk (in my universe).
I am not Sean T, or Deirdre as he may be currently.
Very strong, oakey and tannic. Personally I would find it undrinkable.
It wouldn't be my preference, either, but it is probably good stuff. I'd look to keep some of it for at least a couple of years and a few bottles for longer, rather than drinking it all straight away.
Must say I've been drinking a lot more Portuguese red lately. Very drinkable.
OKC, same here and yet to get a bad one. Also been drinking more from Puglia as well and they are nice.
Portugal, Chile, Southern Italy and parts of Eastern Europe are producing some of the best value reds right now.
Interesting to see what happens to Trump's approval rating now. 538 average has it currently at net -10.3, which is actually a bit higher than it was during most of his presidency. Will he finally start losing support now?
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters”
Who cares about Trump’s approval rating, he’s a nobody a fortnight from now.
Everyone needs to ignore him completely, let him live out his life wherever he wishes and deny him the oxygen of publicity that he’s craved his whole life.
You do realise that the majority of Republican House members just voted to reject Biden's win? Trump is just a typical Republican - he's just been a bit more open about it, a bit more crass, and a bit more inept. In that sense he's just exposed the Republican party for what it already was. The fact that 40% still support this is pretty worrying.
Biden won, and both the House and Senate agree that Biden won. Trump will leave office on 20th, Dems will control all three elected offices and we can all move on from the last four years.
That’s of course if America wants to move on - or does it want to continue the division?
One of the reasons the situation is so bad is that Democrats "moved on" from other previous attempts by Republicans to subvert democracy.
If one side backs a coup then you have to defeat them utterly. There's no moving on from that until you do.
America needs to look long and hard at how badly it is served by the electoral college mechanism, that allows losers of the popular vote to still become their President. Even if changing that would have delivered President Hillary Clinton. It's not exactly providing checks and balances when it leads to Congress being stormed.
And a 10 week transfer of power in a digital age is just nuts.
Our voting system has the same potential, and has demonstrated it several times in the last century.
But we don't elect a President.
A nicety when the issue is that a majority of seats can go to the second placed party in terms of votes.
Like February 1974 you mean, when Labour won more seats on a quarter of a million less votes?
Didn't exactly lead to legions of Heathites storming Parliament, did it?
Well there were a couple of scuffles in the Commons over the next two years, with Lawson punching a Labour minister, and the Heseltine mace thing, but no.
Trump's statement claims his term as the greatest first term in US history and suggests it is only the start of his campaign to MAGA.
Looks like a belated and surely forlorn attempt to recover the future career he just trashed?
There is no way Fox gives him a show, will even the OANN and other fringe networks even touch him after yesterday? As i said down thread, O wouldn't be surprised if social media deperson him in a few weeks.
He may find very quickly all his megaphones have been removed.
When a smarter man could have planted seeeds of doubt over the election (using outriders), got his Trump TV show and spent 4 years using his megaphone to continue to preach to his base, continuously criticise Biden, flog them tat and perhaps him or another Trump had another run ar it.
It may be that Trumpites are quickly reduced to a minority (still a vocal, loud and problematic one, but a minority nonetheless) just like Corbynites have been in the Labour Party here.
I wouldn't be surprised if twitter ban Trump soon after he leaves office. He could easily use his reach to whip up the mob again.
If Facebook and twitter ban him, he'll struggle to build elsewhere. He doesn't actually have a proper Parler profile yet, & the reach isn't the same.
I guess he has what one might call the Byronic option. Or the Bonnie Prince option, where pronouncements from his bunker are smuggled out and circulated on social media by key supporters?
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
Damn it I'm doing it again; liking both sides of an argument. People stop being so bloody convincing.
A question on the vaccine delays. I quite understand how it takes time to approve each batch, etc. But why is it reported that there are shortages of vials ? They've had a good nine months to plan this, so such basic materials shortages at this point seem inexcusable.
Comments from Drosten in his latest podcast that South Africa has a degree of herd immunity, so strong selective pressure for mutations that have some ability to get around the immunity to older variants - hence the new mutation.
If so, another nail in the coffin in the arguments for trying to reach herd immunity through enough people being infected.
And more reasons for having (had since last February, but better late than never) strong restrictions on travel.
I mean this was probably already obvious to the smarter people on here, but I only understood this yesterday. If you have lots of infections there's a point where you have lots of people with immunity and lots of infected people where the virus can mutate, so a big chance of a mutation happening (and spreading rapidly) that the infection-acquired immunity isn't effective against.
If you could keep infections low and then quickly roll out mass vaccination, that risk is far lower.
Indeed. Regardless of the impossibility of protecting the vulnerable while allowing the epidemic to rage freely around the community, ignoring the vast death tolls amongst even the younger demographics incurred by doing so, overlooking the certain collapse of the health service, and pretending that the time scales involved weren't well beyond a year, anyway... it would be ideal conditions to reboot the pandemic repeatedly.
But the Great Barrington Declaration was only ever an attempt to find a way to surrender to, and/or collaborate with, a non-sentient threat, like those through history who would try to sacrifice anyone and anything else to get back to their former, contended way of life.
Guarantee that, except for the Trumpskyites (and even some of them) will hate Hawley for the rest of his days for forcing them to stay up WAY past their bed times feeding Trumpsky's ego and Junior Senator from Missouri's all-too-transparent ambition for even higher preferment thanks to the unwashed MAGA legions.
Especially after such a hard day at the office, to put it mildly.
Most especially the older members, for whom all-night sessions can be true ordeals.
Be nice if the new Senate under Vice President Harris votes to expel Cruz and Hawley.
Expelling members should only be done under the most extreme of circumstances. This fails that test.
True, but they tacitly supported the mob. They didn't care if Trump did what he did and still dont. Itd be nice to think they would face some consequences but I bet they dont. They're still the heroes of their own story and to the good old boys they are still, even now, pandering to.
A question on the vaccine delays. I quite understand how it takes time to approve each batch, etc. But why is it reported that there are shortages of vials ? They've had a good nine months to plan this, so such basic materials shortages at this point seem inexcusable.
Especially when they promised 30 million by September...you would have thought if that was your manufacturing target you might have erhhh ordered the materials. And it isn't like they would never be used.
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
The challenge for a lot of people is that as @Sandpit noted the city centre offices may not be there anymore. Even if employee efficiency WFH is 10% down, if operating costs are more than 10% down then its a positive for the business. For too long companies have been largely held hostage by the cartel behaviour of corporate landlords boosting the value of both rental offices and one bed flats for employees to absurd levels.
The opportunity to downsize is too appealing. Cut the huge cost of the city office. Dump the cost of office costs onto your employees. The one bed flat in easy commuting distance to the office is what will go, not the city centre office to stay. A massive development of similar apartments surrounding Wembley Stadium, bonkers rents and a supporting infrastructure of eateries and shops to feed the workers with easy commute into the City. Glad I haven't invested in that...
It's probably going to be the next crisis in local government. Some local councils have got carried away investing in shopping centres and city centre office blocks as a way to derive some income from their cash balances.
Even after that appalling disgrace last night 2/3 of Republican representatives vote to support the objection to the vote in Pennsylvania , 137 for the objection and 64 against. The sickness in that party goes way beyond Trump.
Quite. Contrarian is perfectly correct that the anti trumpers will have a very tough fight on their hands. That they lost in the first place and most of them still do hus bidding bodes Ill.
OT I was reading this weekend about research suggesting the 1889-90 “Russian Flu” outbreak was caused by human coronavirus OC43 which is still circulating albeit with less virulent effects. Seemed persuasive to my untrained eye. Did occur to me though that prior to the mid C19 this coronavirus would barely have been noticed given that our life expectancy was far lower than the age of the people worst effected - and the fatality rate from the pre existing conditions even before catching the virus was much much higher. We are very lucky to live when we do.
I think the thought was that genetic variability from animal cousins to OC43 places its origins in humans to around late c19th and 1890 is about the mid point estimate. Plus qualitative similarities from accounts of the time (like not really affecting children at the outset). And 1890 has a good claim to be the nastiest respiratory pandemic of that century. It's attractive but.....
To me, hunt out the Dutch study for antibodies to the 1957 Asian flu outbreak. They collected all the viable pre-outbreak blood samples they could muster, then looked for the incidence of antibodies, which suddenly appeared in those in their late 60s, growing to around 20% immunity in the old. I don't believe it was confirmed anywhere else - it was good presence of mind by the Dutch to do that on such a scale - but it seemed to me like a near slam dunk for 1890 being H2N2 flu.
Even after that appalling disgrace last night 2/3 of Republican representatives vote to support the objection to the vote in Pennsylvania , 137 for the objection and 64 against. The sickness in that party goes way beyond Trump.
It started long before Trump, as well.
Agreed. It starts with a kind of nativism, a belief that this country belongs to them and people like them, not to others. This makes it legitimate to suppress the vote of these others (since you are protecting your country) and, if that doesn't work sufficiently, to eventually to reject the vote of the others since only the votes of those like them should count. It is racist, undemocratic and horribly divisive. The fact that Trump has jet fueled this tendency and given it an apparent legitimacy makes it a threat to the continued existence of the republic.
Indeed. Doesn't feel like a coincidence that the same a day an African American man is elected Senator in Georgia, a mob with Confederate flags attacks the Capitol building. Let's not pretend we don't have these vile tendencies in this country too.
There are vile tendencies in a small minority in both the extreme right and left in all countries
Phoney moral equivalence.
Nothing phoney at all in that comment
In this country the extreme left tore down the statue of someone who got rich off the greatest crime in human history. The extreme right murdered an MP and young mother. I don't think the two are equivalent in the slightest.
That wasn't the extreme left, that was a bunch of wankers. And while I agree with you about the crime, it wasn't a crime that could be committed in a vacuum at a personal or corporate level. We committed it as a nation, where we includes you.
I agree. That's why the statue went up and stayed up for so long - Colston didn't put it up himself after all (he'd been dead for a century IIRC). That's why it was important his statue was taken down from its place of pride looking down on the Black citizens of Bristol. It should be in a museum as part of an exhibit about the slave trade and its deep legacy in the UK.
Trump's statement claims his term as the greatest first term in US history and suggests it is only the start of his campaign to MAGA.
Looks like a belated and surely forlorn attempt to recover the future career he just trashed?
He must be impeached.
The counter view is that he has destroyed himself and should now just be sidelined and ignored, rather than making him the focus of attention once again. It's the attention he craves more than anything, and the imminent loss of being the centre of things that has tipped him over the edge. Like my dog trainer says, for dogs being ignored is a greater punishment than being told off.
The US should spend a bit more time bringing those who trashed the Capitol and posted images of themselves doing so on social media, to justice.
Well I hope you're right, but the way most R House members are effectively voting for a coup is not that encouraging.
Hypothetically... if the Republicans had won the House... particularly in a landslide... would Biden have been certified? Are we now in a situation where if the Republicans win the House... that's it for US democracy?
It is hard to know even what would have happened if yesterday's invasion of the Senate had not taken place. It did seem to have a salutory effect on Republicans making objections. Many Republicans were very late in acknowledging Biden's November victory and it might depend how many of those believed their own rhetoric or were merely playing along with Trump.
A question on the vaccine delays. I quite understand how it takes time to approve each batch, etc. But why is it reported that there are shortages of vials ? They've had a good nine months to plan this, so such basic materials shortages at this point seem inexcusable.
It seems to me that the distribution is being massively ramped up now.
Another example of vaccinating on Sunday. 4 local surgeries are using the facilities of the University of Southampton on Saturday and Sunday and will do around 3000 vaccinations over the weekend.
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
Damn it I'm doing it again; liking both sides of an argument. People stop being so bloody convincing.
I don't think it is an argument.
Once again, COVID has accelerated an existing trend.
- More people will continue WFH when this is over than before - Quite a few people will return to the office - Some willingly - Some will hate going back - Some will be forced to WFH against their inclinations. - Some companies will offer great terms for WFH - Some companies will take the view that WFH is all about cutting costs..... make the worker pay for his/her own office space/equipment.
The last point will become an issue in the next stage of employment rights/law/campaigning, I think.
Do any wine buffs know whether Barossa Valley Shiraz is any good?
Laithwaites are trying to sell me a case at half price.
Barossa is recognised as a premier area for Shiraz, and produces a lot of good quality wine, especially where there are older vines that survived the vine pulling incentives of twenty years back.
I did my wine qualification online with Laithwaites during the first lockdown, and they’re a good company with some good quality wines on their list. However as a principally online/mail order firm they do rely on selling a lot of plonk cheaply to attract new customers. If you are looking for quality it is generally better to look at their mid-range wines rather than the offers.
Cheers.
Price reduction for 12 bottles is from an alleged £275 to £138
Mid-range? Certainly not plonk (in my universe).
I am not Sean T, or Deirdre as he may be currently.
Very strong, oakey and tannic. Personally I would find it undrinkable.
It wouldn't be my preference, either, but it is probably good stuff. I'd look to keep some of it for at least a couple of years and a few bottles for longer, rather than drinking it all straight away.
Must say I've been drinking a lot more Portuguese red lately. Very drinkable.
OKC, same here and yet to get a bad one. Also been drinking more from Puglia as well and they are nice.
A cousin, who then lived in Puglia introduced me to their wines five or so years ago. Been impressed; prior to that I was a bit suspicious of Italian red.
There is an argument, sometimes espoused on here, that Trump should not be prosecuted for his crimes, that we mustn't give him attention or make him into a martyr.
I think we are past that now. And even if we weren't - I just don't see that we can ignore the law for this man. People need to see that no one is above the law.
The next Republican who loses the Presidency may be better at organizing a coup. We can't just ignore this.
Well I hope you're right, but the way most R House members are effectively voting for a coup is not that encouraging.
Hypothetically... if the Republicans had won the House... particularly in a landslide... would Biden have been certified? Are we now in a situation where if the Republicans win the House... that's it for US democracy?
Quite likely not.
However, it's pretty unlikely for both a Democratic presidential win and a Republican House landslide to occur in the same election
Trump's statement claims his term as the greatest first term in US history and suggests it is only the start of his campaign to MAGA.
Looks like a belated and surely forlorn attempt to recover the future career he just trashed?
He must be impeached.
The counter view is that he has destroyed himself and should now just be sidelined and ignored, rather than making him the focus of attention once again. It's the attention he craves more than anything, and the imminent loss of being the centre of things that has tipped him over the edge. Like my dog trainer says, for dogs being ignored is a greater punishment than being told off.
The US should spend a bit more time bringing those who trashed the Capitol and posted images of themselves doing so on social media, to justice.
I like the dog analogy. However your dog does not have access to social media (ok, so neither does Trump at the moment) and is unlikely to undermine the duly elected Leader of the free world.
A question on the vaccine delays. I quite understand how it takes time to approve each batch, etc. But why is it reported that there are shortages of vials ? They've had a good nine months to plan this, so such basic materials shortages at this point seem inexcusable.
Especially when they promised 30 million by September...you would have thought if that was your manufacturing target you might have erhhh ordered the materials. And it isn't like they would never be used.
There should never have been a shortage of vials, our Gov't should and could have been doing a domestic procurement production exercise along the line of Warp Speed that the Trump admin did with Corning Valor
Well I hope you're right, but the way most R House members are effectively voting for a coup is not that encouraging.
Hypothetically... if the Republicans had won the House... particularly in a landslide... would Biden have been certified? Are we now in a situation where if the Republicans win the House... that's it for US democracy?
Quite likely not.
However, it's pretty unlikely for both a Democratic presidential win and a Republican House landslide to occur in the same election
It happened in 1996 and 2012. I don't think it's unlikely at all the Dems might lose the House next time round.
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
Damn it I'm doing it again; liking both sides of an argument. People stop being so bloody convincing.
I don't think it is an argument.
Once again, COVID has accelerated an existing trend.
- More people will continue WFH when this is over than before - Quite a few people will return to the office - Some willingly - Some will hate going back - Some will be forced to WFH against their inclinations. - Some companies will offer great terms for WFH - Some companies will take the view that WFH is all about cutting costs..... make the worker pay for his/her own office space/equipment.
The last point will become an issue in the next stage of employment rights/law/campaigning, I think.
Our company has got rid of the office so full time wfh it seems. However I do expect for many companies they are going to experience some pushback from the "I prefer to be in the office crowd". People who prefer to be in the office rather than wfh , not all naturally but a lot, cite the social side of it. I wonder how they will feel about an office where it is half empty.
Good speech by Romney and now the House has by 282 votes to 138 votes to reject an objection to Pennsylvania's EC votes after the Senate voted by 92 votes to 7 to reject the objection and Congress has now certified Biden's win.
President Trump has also now finally said that while he disagrees with the result still there will be an orderly transition of power on January 20th
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
All that, but it's also a little boring after a while.
I want Wednesdays (key seminars and workshops) and Thursdays (1:1s, team meeting and pub). And aside from that I'm happy to WFH.
It may be a bit different for graduates and their managers, who may need to figure something else out.
Interesting to see nationalists of both the Brexity stripe and the Scottish version on here trying to draw parallels between people they oppose and the f*ckwits invading Capitol Hill. Who are you trying to kid again? The Trump and MAGA dimwits are your blood brothers. They work to create hatred and division using faux grievances, false histories and intellectually vacuous argument. The only differences between Trump, Farage, Sturgeon, Salmond and Boris Johnson are those of accent and eloquence. Nationalism is the f8ckwits charter. It always leads to chaos, and Capitol Hill is another classic example.
Trump's statement claims his term as the greatest first term in US history and suggests it is only the start of his campaign to MAGA.
Looks like a belated and surely forlorn attempt to recover the future career he just trashed?
He must be impeached.
What, with a fortnight to go ? They couldnt even get the papers organised in time.
Impeachment might depend on how Republicans see last night's events, and whether it is seen as politically necessary for them to break with Trump.
There are enough Republicans still willing to object to certifying the election results that the consensus necessary for a speedy impeachment clearly isn't there.
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
Absolutely.
For the PB demographic (if not retired then I would guess largely similar to your first list) it is fab to work at home. Here I am, gazing out on the frost-dappled trees outside, while the fire is lit in the dining room my study, my employer fedexed a replacement laptop to me when mine was on the fritz, shall I go for a bike ride a bit later to see whether the yellowhammers are out in force yet? I think I shall.
Living in a small flat which you share with family or non-family or living alone with virtually your whole social life centred around work, bars near work, and colleagues from work....not so great.
Well I hope you're right, but the way most R House members are effectively voting for a coup is not that encouraging.
Hypothetically... if the Republicans had won the House... particularly in a landslide... would Biden have been certified? Are we now in a situation where if the Republicans win the House... that's it for US democracy?
Quite likely not.
However, it's pretty unlikely for both a Democratic presidential win and a Republican House landslide to occur in the same election
But a narrow republican majority in the House would have made the last weeks a lot more worrying...
Meanwhile a snap Yougov America poll has US voters as a whole now by 50% to 42% now saying Trump should be impeached and removed from office immediately after the events on the Capitol Building, however 85% of Republican voters say Trump should not be impeached and remain in office to complete his term.
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
The challenge for a lot of people is that as @Sandpit noted the city centre offices may not be there anymore. Even if employee efficiency WFH is 10% down, if operating costs are more than 10% down then its a positive for the business. For too long companies have been largely held hostage by the cartel behaviour of corporate landlords boosting the value of both rental offices and one bed flats for employees to absurd levels.
The opportunity to downsize is too appealing. Cut the huge cost of the city office. Dump the cost of office costs onto your employees. The one bed flat in easy commuting distance to the office is what will go, not the city centre office to stay. A massive development of similar apartments surrounding Wembley Stadium, bonkers rents and a supporting infrastructure of eateries and shops to feed the workers with easy commute into the City. Glad I haven't invested in that...
Yes, the £1,000/sqft apartment, “only 20 mins walk from the tube”, is probably not the best investment to be holding at the moment.
For a lot of people, their 2022 office is going to be a conference room at an hotel in Milton Keynes or Basingstoke, where they spend a few days a month brainstorming, teambuilding and socialising. They’ll be living all over the place, in nice houses rather than shoebox flats. Their employer will save a fortune on their central London offices, and the employee will save a fortune in time and money by getting rid of the daily commute.
Of course that won’t happen for everyone, there will be certain fast-paced companies that meet more often, and there will be arsehole bosses who insist on commuting for the sake of it - but as the economy recovers, employees will have these choices available to them, and employers will have a wider range of potential employees, who for many reasons can’t or won’t move close to London.
I’m even being approached for some of these jobs, working for a London-based company but remotely out of Dubai.
The first responses of the Trump faithful to his statement today are very interesting indeed.
Builderman5000 @builderman5000 · 34m Replying to @DanScavino Seriously? What was this all about then? Why did we invest so much of our heart and soul into this? What was all these sleepless night for? Is this the worlds greatest cock tease? Or is something going to happen? Chaotic Mommy @Chaotic_Mommy · 38m Replying to @DanScavino I’m so confused. Is he giving up? What happened to the storm? What happened to game on? I thought he would never give up!!!
The party deserves to be electorally obliterated. It no longer supports democracy.
Yes. Why do people like Romney continue to be registered Republicans in this situation?
The tradition of floor-crossing if you don't agree with your party is actually quite rare in the US (and it's becoming rare in Britain too - why are Ken Clarke and Dominic Grieve still nominally Tory?). The tradition is that you choose a tribe and stick with it for life. If it goes mad, you shake your head and either keep your head down or make a speech regretting the insanity.
I'm a party loyalist - I've been a member for 50 years. But if Starmer, or Corbyn, or any other past, present or future leader, refused to recognise an election on transparently vacuous grounds and incited a mob to attack Parliament, I'd resign. Tribal loyalty should have limits.
Well said. At some point its shameful to disassociate from actions of those who claim partnership with you. Trump was very clear the rioters were part of their party and movement. Does Romney disagree? He can leave the party, which I have zero doubt mostly supports trump and those fuelling what happened.
Pretend sadness because it went further than they anticipated is just phoney.
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
All that, but it's also a little boring after a while.
I want Wednesdays (key seminars and workshops) and Thursdays (1:1s, team meeting and pub). And aside from that I'm happy to WFH.
It may be a bit different for graduates and their managers, who may need to figure something else out.
The issue with wanting Wednesdays and Thursdays is so will everyone else.
It reminds me of flying around Europe - Monday arrive late, Tuesday + Wednesday are long days and Thursday features a dash to the airport.
While all this has been going on the USA has recorded a new high in cases and deaths, topping 4000 deaths for the first time. Not that they are unique of course.
It may be that Trumpites are quickly reduced to a minority (still a vocal, loud and problematic one, but a minority nonetheless) just like Corbynites have been in the Labour Party here.
It could play out in a number of different ways.
The difference though was Corbyn Labour was trounced last year by a 12% margin, it took a landslide defeat for Starmer to be elected and Corbynites to lose control.
Trump however did not lose by a landslide but by only a 4% margin and so will still have influence in the party, it would take a landslide defeat for him, Trump Jnr, Pence or Cruz in 2024 I think for the GOP to even start to move back to the centre in terms of its Presidential nominee
Trump's statement claims his term as the greatest first term in US history and suggests it is only the start of his campaign to MAGA.
Looks like a belated and surely forlorn attempt to recover the future career he just trashed?
He must be impeached.
The counter view is that he has destroyed himself and should now just be sidelined and ignored, rather than making him the focus of attention once again. It's the attention he craves more than anything, and the imminent loss of being the centre of things that has tipped him over the edge. Like my dog trainer says, for dogs being ignored is a greater punishment than being told off.
The US should spend a bit more time bringing those who trashed the Capitol and posted images of themselves doing so on social media, to justice.
I like the dog analogy. However your dog does not have access to social media (ok, so neither does Trump at the moment) and is unlikely to undermine the duly elected Leader of the free world.
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
Damn it I'm doing it again; liking both sides of an argument. People stop being so bloody convincing.
I don't think it is an argument.
Once again, COVID has accelerated an existing trend.
- More people will continue WFH when this is over than before - Quite a few people will return to the office - Some willingly - Some will hate going back - Some will be forced to WFH against their inclinations. - Some companies will offer great terms for WFH - Some companies will take the view that WFH is all about cutting costs..... make the worker pay for his/her own office space/equipment.
The last point will become an issue in the next stage of employment rights/law/campaigning, I think.
And again to answer your well made points, for several companies it is a matter of self-perception. They see their company as a homogenous, geographically-centralised whole which they can walk in and point to (for customers, M&A prospects, competitors) and say "that's us".
From a betting POV there may be some interesting outcomes. The Republican party is about to enter its own version of Labour in the 1980's. I genuinely think they will be out of power in all 3 legislatures (Presidency, House and Senate) for at least 8 years.
That means the 2024 Presidency bet should be going on a Democrat. And the 2022 mid-terms will NOT see the GOP regain any control.
These scenes will be etched into middle America's consciousness for a generation.
I wouldn't be so sure of that, even the Democrats had control of the House in the 1980s despite Presidents Reagan and Bush and Republican control of the Senate during the Reagan Presidency.
If the Biden/Harris administration has low ratings in 2022 then the GOP will likely retake the House as is usual in midterms for the opposition party
Interesting to see nationalists of both the Brexity stripe and the Scottish version on here trying to draw parallels between people they oppose and the f*ckwits invading Capitol Hill. Who are you trying to kid again? The Trump and MAGA dimwits are your blood brothers. They work to create hatred and division using faux grievances, false histories and intellectually vacuous argument. The only differences between Trump, Farage, Sturgeon, Salmond and Boris Johnson are those of accent and eloquence. Nationalism is the f8ckwits charter. It always leads to chaos, and Capitol Hill is another classic example.
Farage, Salmond and Johnson (but not Sturgeon) have all sucked up to Trump at one point or another. Farage's constant friendship is well known. The others courted him when convenient. Salmond eventually fell out with Trump over the wind farm thing, but he was all for his golf investment in Scotland prior to that, whatever the consequences for local residents. Johnson's duplicity, from his 2015 convenient liberal mayor of London anti-Trump stance to his equally convenient sucking up when PM and leader of the Brexit movement, is obvious for all to see. Shameful the lot of it.
The party deserves to be electorally obliterated. It no longer supports democracy.
Yes. Why do people like Romney continue to be registered Republicans in this situation?
The tradition of floor-crossing if you don't agree with your party is actually quite rare in the US (and it's becoming rare in Britain too - why are Ken Clarke and Dominic Grieve still nominally Tory?). The tradition is that you choose a tribe and stick with it for life. If it goes mad, you shake your head and either keep your head down or make a speech regretting the insanity.
I'm a party loyalist - I've been a member for 50 years. But if Starmer, or Corbyn, or any other past, present or future leader, refused to recognise an election on transparently vacuous grounds and incited a mob to attack Parliament, I'd resign. Tribal loyalty should have limits.
Well said. At some point its shameful to disassociate from actions of those who claim partnership with you. Trump was very clear the rioters were part of their party and movement. Does Romney disagree? He can leave the party, which I have zero doubt mostly supports trump and those fuelling what happened.
Pretend sadness because it went further than they anticipated is just phoney.
Crossing the floor used to be more common in the US than in the UK
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
All that, but it's also a little boring after a while.
I want Wednesdays (key seminars and workshops) and Thursdays (1:1s, team meeting and pub). And aside from that I'm happy to WFH.
It may be a bit different for graduates and their managers, who may need to figure something else out.
The issue with wanting Wednesdays and Thursdays is so will everyone else.
It reminds me of flying around Europe - Monday arrive late, Tuesday + Wednesday are long days and Thursday features a dash to the airport.
Having everyone work two days a week from the central office is a worst-of-all-worlds scenario. Two daily peak train tickets a week are as expensive as an annual season, people still have to live close enough to commute to the office, the company still needs almost as much office space as previously, and still suffers from the potential downsides of productivity, team integration and social life.
BORIS Johnson will hold a Downing Street press conference later today as he unveils a new Army-led distribution plan for the UK's Covid vaccines.
I think the general rollout is excellent - just wish we would stick to the timescale particularly on Pfizer, nothing like a partially immune older host for the Saffer variant to get going in.
From a betting POV there may be some interesting outcomes. The Republican party is about to enter its own version of Labour in the 1980's. I genuinely think they will be out of power in all 3 legislatures (Presidency, House and Senate) for at least 8 years.
That means the 2024 Presidency bet should be going on a Democrat. And the 2022 mid-terms will NOT see the GOP regain any control.
These scenes will be etched into middle America's consciousness for a generation.
I wouldn't be so sure of that, even the Democrats had control of the House in the 1980s despite Presidents Reagan and Bush and Republican control of the Senate during the Reagan Presidency.
If the Biden/Harris administration has low ratings in 2022 then the GOP will likely retake the House as is usual in midterms for the opposition party
The 1980s were completely different times. I wish you wouldn't keep brining up such irrelevant precedents.
The scenes at the Capitol yesterday are going to be replayed constantly in Democratic campaign ads for years
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
Damn it I'm doing it again; liking both sides of an argument. People stop being so bloody convincing.
I don't think it is an argument.
Once again, COVID has accelerated an existing trend.
- More people will continue WFH when this is over than before - Quite a few people will return to the office - Some willingly - Some will hate going back - Some will be forced to WFH against their inclinations. - Some companies will offer great terms for WFH - Some companies will take the view that WFH is all about cutting costs..... make the worker pay for his/her own office space/equipment.
The last point will become an issue in the next stage of employment rights/law/campaigning, I think.
And again to answer your well made points, for several companies it is a matter of self-perception. They see their company as a homogenous, geographically-centralised whole which they can walk in and point to (for customers, M&A prospects, competitors) and say "that's us".
In tech startups, for example, they *need* the room full of people bouncing ideas off each other. Doesn't work online, yet.
Even after that appalling disgrace last night 2/3 of Republican representatives vote to support the objection to the vote in Pennsylvania , 137 for the objection and 64 against. The sickness in that party goes way beyond Trump.
It started long before Trump, as well.
Agreed. It starts with a kind of nativism, a belief that this country belongs to them and people like them, not to others. This makes it legitimate to suppress the vote of these others (since you are protecting your country) and, if that doesn't work sufficiently, to eventually to reject the vote of the others since only the votes of those like them should count. It is racist, undemocratic and horribly divisive. The fact that Trump has jet fueled this tendency and given it an apparent legitimacy makes it a threat to the continued existence of the republic.
Indeed. Doesn't feel like a coincidence that the same a day an African American man is elected Senator in Georgia, a mob with Confederate flags attacks the Capitol building. Let's not pretend we don't have these vile tendencies in this country too.
There are vile tendencies in a small minority in both the extreme right and left in all countries
Phoney moral equivalence.
Nothing phoney at all in that comment
In this country the extreme left tore down the statue of someone who got rich off the greatest crime in human history. The extreme right murdered an MP and young mother. I don't think the two are equivalent in the slightest.
The extreme left has also attacked statues of Lincoln and Columbus and Roosevelt and Winston Churchill and even Baden Powell and trashed banks and business when rioting in London.
It may be that Trumpites are quickly reduced to a minority (still a vocal, loud and problematic one, but a minority nonetheless) just like Corbynites have been in the Labour Party here.
It could play out in a number of different ways.
It's a hope. His power is gone soon and he may be too distracted by legal matters to spend time whipping his supporters up to pressure other Republicans.
I really can't see how he hadn't committed several crimes this week alone, so he could be busy.
Trump's statement claims his term as the greatest first term in US history and suggests it is only the start of his campaign to MAGA.
Looks like a belated and surely forlorn attempt to recover the future career he just trashed?
He must be impeached.
I think you mean thrown in jail after due process, for sedition.
Absolutely. A 13 day impeachment isn't credible. But if it's high crimes and misdemeanours, there is no reason at all that Citizen Trump can't be prosecuted to the full extent of the law after 20th.
GB News will bring to the UK what Fox News brought to the US, discuss.
I dont know if that is their intent, I'm sure they say it isn't, but theres a market for that more than another news outlet seeking to be neutral, so its success probably requires it.
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
Absolutely.
For the PB demographic (if not retired then I would guess largely similar to your first list) it is fab to work at home. Here I am, gazing out on the frost-dappled trees outside, while the fire is lit in the dining room my study, my employer fedexed a replacement laptop to me when mine was on the fritz, shall I go for a bike ride a bit later to see whether the yellowhammers are out in force yet? I think I shall.
Living in a small flat which you share with family or non-family or living alone with virtually your whole social life centred around work, bars near work, and colleagues from work....not so great.
It is not just money and property - more mature workers already have the job knowledge and experience, and the personal contacts, to make working at home easier and more satisfying.
If you are starting out in a job or career, you are much more reliant on personal interaction with employees, customers and suppliers to learn and develop into the job. And plenty of us know that such contacts can be very useful in future, opening up future opportunities. All of this is being denied to the young who find that being at work means sitting in their bedsit tied to a laptop.
Anyone know what the ‘medical emergencies’ were that killed the other 3 people? Seems a weird addendum to the whole disaster.
One fell of Scaffolding that they climbed.
. In a population, some individuals will have inherited traits that help them survive and reproduce (given the conditions of the environment, such as the predators and food sources present).
Looks like he didn't inherit traits that predisposed him toward survival
From a betting POV there may be some interesting outcomes. The Republican party is about to enter its own version of Labour in the 1980's. I genuinely think they will be out of power in all 3 legislatures (Presidency, House and Senate) for at least 8 years.
That means the 2024 Presidency bet should be going on a Democrat. And the 2022 mid-terms will NOT see the GOP regain any control.
These scenes will be etched into middle America's consciousness for a generation.
I wouldn't be so sure of that, even the Democrats had control of the House in the 1980s despite Presidents Reagan and Bush and Republican control of the Senate during the Reagan Presidency.
If the Biden/Harris administration has low ratings in 2022 then the GOP will likely retake the House as is usual in midterms for the opposition party
The 1980s were completely different times. I wish you wouldn't keep brining up such irrelevant precedents.
The scenes at the Capitol yesterday are going to be replayed constantly in Democratic campaign ads for years
Maybe but it is usually the opposition party voters who most turn out in relatively lower turnout midterm elections and most Republican voters still do not see yesterday's events as a threat to democracy and most Republicans see those taking part as protestors and patriots not extremists and terrorists, a narrow plurality even supported yesterday's actions and do not blame Trump for them.
Plus as I said if Biden/Harris does not have a high approval rating in 2002 there will be a swing to the opposition party in the midterms, regardless of what happened yesterday.
Interesting to see nationalists of both the Brexity stripe and the Scottish version on here trying to draw parallels between people they oppose and the f*ckwits invading Capitol Hill. Who are you trying to kid again? The Trump and MAGA dimwits are your blood brothers. They work to create hatred and division using faux grievances, false histories and intellectually vacuous argument. The only differences between Trump, Farage, Sturgeon, Salmond and Boris Johnson are those of accent and eloquence. Nationalism is the f8ckwits charter. It always leads to chaos, and Capitol Hill is another classic example.
Farage, Salmond and Johnson (but not Sturgeon) have all sucked up to Trump at one point or another. Farage's constant friendship is well known. The others courted him when convenient. Salmond eventually fell out with Trump over the wind farm thing, but he was all for his golf investment in Scotland prior to that, whatever the consequences for local residents. Johnson's duplicity, from his 2015 convenient liberal mayor of London anti-Trump stance to his equally convenient sucking up when PM and leader of the Brexit movement, is obvious for all to see. Shameful the lot of it.
He is POTUS. There's no getting away from that and as such other world leaders have to make accommodation with him.
Johnson is a twat, obvs, but doesn't alter the main point. The US-UK relationship is bigger than the current incumbents.
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
All that, but it's also a little boring after a while.
I want Wednesdays (key seminars and workshops) and Thursdays (1:1s, team meeting and pub). And aside from that I'm happy to WFH.
It may be a bit different for graduates and their managers, who may need to figure something else out.
The issue with wanting Wednesdays and Thursdays is so will everyone else.
It reminds me of flying around Europe - Monday arrive late, Tuesday + Wednesday are long days and Thursday features a dash to the airport.
Having everyone work two days a week from the central office is a worst-of-all-worlds scenario. Two daily peak train tickets a week are as expensive as an annual season, people still have to live close enough to commute to the office, the company still needs almost as much office space as previously, and still suffers from the potential downsides of productivity, team integration and social life.
I'm not so sure.
I've known people doing this - living outside the regular London commute zone, but doing 2 days a week in London.
You can survive a couple of days a week, in return for a big house, family life in the country etc.
If the company is hot desking - then it still reduces the *average* number of people in the office.
FPT - Johnson was predicting workers would flock back to offices once the pandemic ends; he's not encouraging them to do so now, or soon.
FWIW, I don't agree. I think a 3-day week will become the new 5-day week (with most workers WFH on Mondays and Fridays) and some only coming in for one or two days, but of course it's impossible to predict with any certainty at this stage:
I think it will mostly depend on whether your boss is a controlling arsehole or not.
Your assuming that everyone likes working from home.
I like it. I have
- space - quiet - kids - kids who are mature enough to sort out their online schooling themselves - a proper desk - a huge monitor - a high end computer - good internet connection - a proper chair - an employer who has excellent technical infrastructure - a job that can easily be done remotely - a capable, stable long running team
etc etc
Half the team want to go back to the office.
- The younger ones want do back to berserk-after-work - out partying after work. - One guy is sharing his one bed flat with his wife who is a manger on the phone 9 hours a day.... constant meetings, and she doesn't have a volume control.
etc etc
Absolutely.
For the PB demographic (if not retired then I would guess largely similar to your first list) it is fab to work at home. Here I am, gazing out on the frost-dappled trees outside, while the fire is lit in the dining room my study, my employer fedexed a replacement laptop to me when mine was on the fritz, shall I go for a bike ride a bit later to see whether the yellowhammers are out in force yet? I think I shall.
Living in a small flat which you share with family or non-family or living alone with virtually your whole social life centred around work, bars near work, and colleagues from work....not so great.
It is not just money and property - more mature workers already have the job knowledge and experience, and the personal contacts, to make working at home easier and more satisfying.
If you are starting out in a job or career, you are much more reliant on personal interaction with employees, customers and suppliers to learn and develop into the job. And plenty of us know that such contacts can be very useful in future, opening up future opportunities. All of this is being denied to the young who find that being at work means sitting in their bedsit tied to a laptop.
Yep agree absolutely. Hence I think the WFH thing won't be as much of a thing as some think.
Having watched events unfold last night, I can't help but think that talk of insurrections and coups is somewhat overblown.
Basically, it was a large, but not massive, crowd of redneck losers incited by their leader. But had the police/security forces done their job they would never have got past the steps at the bottom of the Capitol, and it would have been just another in a sequence of MAGA demos - a non-event. A bit like a well-policed EDL-type thing over here, albeit with larger numbers than Tommy Robinson could muster.
Indeed, once inside the building the losers didn't seem to have a clue as to what they were supposed to do - a pretty shambolic insurrection.
So what worries me most is why there were allowed to access the grounds and building, given that the security forces had lots of advance notice that the rednecks were coming to town. It seems a bit more than careless.
Comments
Bollinger? Tattinger? Even Chapel Down? Delicious.
And, I enjoy (love) low-brew golden real-ales <5% ABV.
The opportunity to downsize is too appealing. Cut the huge cost of the city office. Dump the cost of office costs onto your employees. The one bed flat in easy commuting distance to the office is what will go, not the city centre office to stay. A massive development of similar apartments surrounding Wembley Stadium, bonkers rents and a supporting infrastructure of eateries and shops to feed the workers with easy commute into the City. Glad I haven't invested in that...
He may find very quickly all his megaphones have been removed.
When a smarter man could have planted seeeds of doubt over the election (using outriders), got his Trump TV show and spent 4 years using his megaphone to continue to preach to his base, continuously criticise Biden, flog them tat and perhaps him or another Trump had another run ar it.
It could play out in a number of different ways.
It's over.
I quite understand how it takes time to approve each batch, etc. But why is it reported that there are shortages of vials ?
They've had a good nine months to plan this, so such basic materials shortages at this point seem inexcusable.
Regardless of the impossibility of protecting the vulnerable while allowing the epidemic to rage freely around the community, ignoring the vast death tolls amongst even the younger demographics incurred by doing so, overlooking the certain collapse of the health service, and pretending that the time scales involved weren't well beyond a year, anyway... it would be ideal conditions to reboot the pandemic repeatedly.
But the Great Barrington Declaration was only ever an attempt to find a way to surrender to, and/or collaborate with, a non-sentient threat, like those through history who would try to sacrifice anyone and anything else to get back to their former, contended way of life.
https://twitter.com/robdothutton/status/1347107526047895555?s=21
To me, hunt out the Dutch study for antibodies to the 1957 Asian flu outbreak. They collected all the viable pre-outbreak blood samples they could muster, then looked for the incidence of antibodies, which suddenly appeared in those in their late 60s, growing to around 20% immunity in the old. I don't believe it was confirmed anywhere else - it was good presence of mind by the Dutch to do that on such a scale - but it seemed to me like a near slam dunk for 1890 being H2N2 flu.
The US should spend a bit more time bringing those who trashed the Capitol and posted images of themselves doing so on social media, to justice.
Another example of vaccinating on Sunday. 4 local surgeries are using the facilities of the University of Southampton on Saturday and Sunday and will do around 3000 vaccinations over the weekend.
Once again, COVID has accelerated an existing trend.
- More people will continue WFH when this is over than before
- Quite a few people will return to the office
- Some willingly
- Some will hate going back
- Some will be forced to WFH against their inclinations.
- Some companies will offer great terms for WFH
- Some companies will take the view that WFH is all about cutting costs..... make the worker pay for his/her own office space/equipment.
The last point will become an issue in the next stage of employment rights/law/campaigning, I think.
https://twitter.com/youngvulgarian/status/1346930460136337409?s=21
I think we are past that now. And even if we weren't - I just don't see that we can ignore the law for this man.
People need to see that no one is above the law.
The next Republican who loses the Presidency may be better at organizing a coup.
We can't just ignore this.
However, it's pretty unlikely for both a Democratic presidential win and a Republican House landslide to occur in the same election
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/06/11/operation-warp-speed-ramps-up-us-based-manufacturing-capacity-for-vials-for-covid-19-vaccines-and-treatments.html
I don't think it's unlikely at all the Dems might lose the House next time round.
President Trump has also now finally said that while he disagrees with the result still there will be an orderly transition of power on January 20th
https://twitter.com/DanScavino/status/1347103015493361664?s=20
https://twitter.com/DanScavino/status/1347103016311259136?s=20
I want Wednesdays (key seminars and workshops) and Thursdays (1:1s, team meeting and pub). And aside from that I'm happy to WFH.
It may be a bit different for graduates and their managers, who may need to figure something else out.
For the PB demographic (if not retired then I would guess largely similar to your first list) it is fab to work at home. Here I am, gazing out on the frost-dappled trees outside, while the fire is lit in
the dining roommy study, my employer fedexed a replacement laptop to me when mine was on the fritz, shall I go for a bike ride a bit later to see whether the yellowhammers are out in force yet? I think I shall.Living in a small flat which you share with family or non-family or living alone with virtually your whole social life centred around work, bars near work, and colleagues from work....not so great.
https://twitter.com/YouGovAmerica/status/1346979225962749953?s=20
For a lot of people, their 2022 office is going to be a conference room at an hotel in Milton Keynes or Basingstoke, where they spend a few days a month brainstorming, teambuilding and socialising. They’ll be living all over the place, in nice houses rather than shoebox flats. Their employer will save a fortune on their central London offices, and the employee will save a fortune in time and money by getting rid of the daily commute.
Of course that won’t happen for everyone, there will be certain fast-paced companies that meet more often, and there will be arsehole bosses who insist on commuting for the sake of it - but as the economy recovers, employees will have these choices available to them, and employers will have a wider range of potential employees, who for many reasons can’t or won’t move close to London.
I’m even being approached for some of these jobs, working for a London-based company but remotely out of Dubai.
Builderman5000
@builderman5000
·
34m
Replying to
@DanScavino
Seriously? What was this all about then? Why did we invest so much of our heart and soul into this? What was all these sleepless night for? Is this the worlds greatest cock tease? Or is something going to happen?
Chaotic Mommy
@Chaotic_Mommy
·
38m
Replying to
@DanScavino
I’m so confused. Is he giving up? What happened to the storm? What happened to game on? I thought he would never give up!!!
Pretend sadness because it went further than they anticipated is just phoney.
It reminds me of flying around Europe - Monday arrive late, Tuesday + Wednesday are long days and Thursday features a dash to the airport.
Trump however did not lose by a landslide but by only a 4% margin and so will still have influence in the party, it would take a landslide defeat for him, Trump Jnr, Pence or Cruz in 2024 I think for the GOP to even start to move back to the centre in terms of its Presidential nominee
https://twitter.com/schmoyoho/status/1347053742521262082?s=21
If the Biden/Harris administration has low ratings in 2022 then the GOP will likely retake the House as is usual in midterms for the opposition party
After what happened to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlen_Specter this largely stopped.
https://twitter.com/YousefMunayyer/status/1347026407294201863
The scenes at the Capitol yesterday are going to be replayed constantly in Democratic campaign ads for years
I really can't see how he hadn't committed several crimes this week alone, so he could be busy.
If you are starting out in a job or career, you are much more reliant on personal interaction with employees, customers and suppliers to learn and develop into the job. And plenty of us know that such contacts can be very useful in future, opening up future opportunities. All of this is being denied to the young who find that being at work means sitting in their bedsit tied to a laptop.
Looks like he didn't inherit traits that predisposed him toward survival
Plus as I said if Biden/Harris does not have a high approval rating in 2002 there will be a swing to the opposition party in the midterms, regardless of what happened yesterday.
https://twitter.com/YouGovAmerica/status/1346979210821128194?s=20
https://twitter.com/YouGovAmerica/status/1346979230240935938?s=20
https://twitter.com/YouGovAmerica/status/1346979215569281027?s=20
https://twitter.com/YouGovAmerica/status/1346979221223124994?s=20
Johnson is a twat, obvs, but doesn't alter the main point. The US-UK relationship is bigger than the current incumbents.
I've known people doing this - living outside the regular London commute zone, but doing 2 days a week in London.
You can survive a couple of days a week, in return for a big house, family life in the country etc.
If the company is hot desking - then it still reduces the *average* number of people in the office.
Basically, it was a large, but not massive, crowd of redneck losers incited by their leader. But had the police/security forces done their job they would never have got past the steps at the bottom of the Capitol, and it would have been just another in a sequence of MAGA demos - a non-event. A bit like a well-policed EDL-type thing over here, albeit with larger numbers than Tommy Robinson could muster.
Indeed, once inside the building the losers didn't seem to have a clue as to what they were supposed to do - a pretty shambolic insurrection.
So what worries me most is why there were allowed to access the grounds and building, given that the security forces had lots of advance notice that the rednecks were coming to town. It seems a bit more than careless.