A blinding moment of insight? Or an assessment after a full year of lockdown telly?
I just watched it live for the first time in months. Fuck me. Lamentable. Nothing on. Even the news is dumbed down. It is doomed
It is getting harder and harder to mount a defence, for sure.
I was wondering if re-animating BBC3 was so the DG could step in and say "No! That's not what we do any more!". But I suspect that any press release has had to pass through 16 committees and get his sign-off first.
I get far better, quicker news from Twitter, PB, Google, and digital papers, than I do from dumbed down mainstream BBC
I get better much drama (with a few significant exceptions) from Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, and (free) ITV
For me, that leaves Masterchef and Springwatch, and occasionally the BBC website, tho this has declined greatly, as well. It used to be my first go-to, online, now I barely touch it. I accept that others do
Is this worth £170 a year? Bluntly, no
I am aware this is an argument we have had many times, and do not especially wish to revive it, I was just saddened and surprised at the sorry state of BBC TV when I sampled it live (for the first time in months) this evening. The comedy show on BBC2 before Newsnight, in particular, was just shockingly and CRINGINGLY bad. I do not wish a single pound of my money to pay for shit like like that. Fuck off
If they actually had to fund themselves they might have an incentive to improve
Adapt or die
Of course it suits them to threaten people and keep the money roll in with no need to do anything
But according to some its a national treasure....only the other day gardenwalker was going on about taxing my broadband to pay for it.....broadband I need to have to work so an extra tax for working
There is a big department store in my town which is slightly dated and expensive. Maybe it makes no sense for people to shop there, but I always say ‘when it goes we will wish it were still here’ because when it is a phone repair shop, a fried chicken takeaway, a charity shop, a nail bar and a Turkish barbers the place will go to pot. I think the same is true of the bbc - it is a haven from adverts for loans, equity release, a free Parker pen when you join out over 50s plan, etc. Society needs old dependable institutions
Are you however suggesting people should be forced to fund it even if they never set foot in it? People are suggesting that with the BBC. Personally I havent watched anything on BBC since 2005 and wouldn't notice if it went away.
Well people pay tax to fund the NHS even if they choose to go private, I don’t believe the money is really an issue for people. It’s a state broadcaster so it’s funded through a tax like all state things
Yes it is absolutely different, people pay tax to fund the nhs because EVERYONE needs healthcare.....absolutely no on needs HOMES UNDER THE HAMMER,EAST ENDERS etc
He’s literally just given you an analogue in the healthcare space: even if you use Bupa exclusively you still have to pay income tax, some of which is used to pay for the NHS.
No he really hasnt because bbc is purely entertainment. Would you support general taxation supporting my amazon prime sub? No of course you wouldn't. People need healthcare, education, roads absolutely no one needs the dross that is the bbc
I don’t care for the main BBC News programmes, which certainly have been dumbed down and are made worse by Laura K, who is an incredibly poor journalist.
Yet the BBC News channel can be rather good. Calling it entertainment is silly: it’s fairly neutral news delivered without adverts. It’s worth having.
Well may be worth having for you all I can say is you have lower standards than I for what I want from news
Well I have now seen Bloodlands Ep 2 and have to say I worked out the twist a mile off. However, I was absolutely aided in my deduction by the fact I knew a twist was coming, so I was looking for it.
Rather enjoying the series so far, be interesting to see where they take it.
Only 2 more episodes...then just another 3 years to wait for a new season.
I don’t mind that, and I also like shorter series. Most US subscription stuff is overpadded waffle. House of Cards was superb but was utterly ruined by being stretched out endlessly. It could and should have been wrapped up in two series.
There are many examples. The imperious Big Little Lies was perfection: no need for a second season.
If you want to make short seasons, you need to have a lot of hits then. People demand the content, they hover it up. The BBC are just leaving money on the table by taking 8 years to make 30 episodes of Peaky Blinders.
People hoover up wallpaper telly. Six episodes should plenty to tell a story. The Godfather triology is an epic piece of storytelling, but it wouldn’t fill a single season of Netflix.
Depressingly, I've just worked out how much I've paid in rent for my box room in East London. Accounting for inflation, it's roughly twice the deposit my grandfather paid in 1965 for a suburban 4 bedroom house.
Living in the non-posh bits of London used to be quite cheap until about 1986, from what I've read. That was the year the capital suddenly became fashionable again, after about 15 years on the slide.
Indeed. My 4 bedroom student house from those days, no shower, central heating or double glazing, which we used to pay the chip shop owner in cash weekly, and get free fish and chips or a kebab if paid on time is on Zoopla for £2.3 million.
Depressingly, I've just worked out how much I've paid in rent for my box room in East London. Accounting for inflation, it's roughly twice the deposit my grandfather paid in 1965 for a suburban 4 bedroom house.
Living in the non-posh bits of London used to be quite cheap until about 1986, from what I've read. That was the year the capital suddenly became fashionable again, after about 15 years on the slide.
Indeed. My 4 bedroom student house from those days, no shower, central heating or double glazing, which we used to pay the chip shop owner in cash weekly, and get free fish and chips or a kebab if paid on time is on Zoopla for £2.3 million.
You certainly hope it has a shower, central heating and double glazing if you are paying that much.
Depressingly, I've just worked out how much I've paid in rent for my box room in East London. Accounting for inflation, it's roughly twice the deposit my grandfather paid in 1965 for a suburban 4 bedroom house.
Living in the non-posh bits of London used to be quite cheap until about 1986, from what I've read. That was the year the capital suddenly became fashionable again, after about 15 years on the slide.
You've correctly identified the year London began its revival. 1986. I actually remember, personally, sensing it. On coke. In a restaurant in the City. Around the time of the Big Bang. Suddenly London revved into gear.
This coincides exactly with the Thatcherite reforms and the time London's population began to increase, again, after many years of decline.
And this is where your second statement is wrong. London's decline didn't begin 15 years before 1986, it began waaaaaay before then, possibly 1939. when the population peaked, but arguably much before then, as financial power leaked to New York after World War 1, and as political power ebbed from the "Imperial" capital, increasingly losing its nerve.
I'd say London was in decline from 1914-1986. Then newly resurgent from 1986 to 2016. On hold til 2020. As of now? Who knows.
It may gain from Brexit freedoms and the struggles of other cities. Hong Kong, perhaps even NYC. Or it may tip into long term decline, once more. The loss of 500,000 citizens is not a great sign
Depressingly, I've just worked out how much I've paid in rent for my box room in East London. Accounting for inflation, it's roughly twice the deposit my grandfather paid in 1965 for a suburban 4 bedroom house.
Living in the non-posh bits of London used to be quite cheap until about 1986, from what I've read. That was the year the capital suddenly became fashionable again, after about 15 years on the slide.
Indeed. My 4 bedroom student house from those days, no shower, central heating or double glazing, which we used to pay the chip shop owner in cash weekly, and get free fish and chips or a kebab if paid on time is on Zoopla for £2.3 million.
You certainly hope it has a shower, central heating and double glazing if you are paying that much.
It probably does. That was just off Northcote Road. AKA Nappy Valley. One of London's most sought after postcodes. We just had a newsagents that rented under the counter hard core pornography. And a barbers where Jimmy White got his hair cut for the Crucible. And Victor Value for shopping.
I'd say London was in decline from 1914-1986. Then newly resurgent from 1986 to 2016. On hold til 2020. As of now? Who knows.
It may gain from Brexit freedoms and the struggles of other cities. Hong Kong, perhaps even NYC. Or it may tip into long term decline, once more. The loss of 500,000 citizens is not a great sign
This is where a bit of momentum from opening up fully from covid restrictions earlier than its rivals could be the lucky break London needs at the moment.
1st second doses for a strict 84 day plan were due today. We're running more along the lines of a 68 day plan though, except Wales - they're off doing their own thing.
A blinding moment of insight? Or an assessment after a full year of lockdown telly?
I just watched it live for the first time in months. Fuck me. Lamentable. Nothing on. Even the news is dumbed down. It is doomed
With my son being pursued over not having a license I looked at all of my 4 lads viewing habits
None of them watch terrestial tv, not a one
BTW, this letter he got....it didn't say something like "You have been caught watching iPlayer and you are recorded as not having a licence" did it?
I cant remember exact wording - but that does not ring a bell - and he doesnt watch iplayer - Netflix and Amazon and you tube is all (perhaps Disney plus occasionally)
Only because apparently that is a "scare" letter Capita are sending out at the moment, where they basically just claim loads of people have been caught watching iPlayer without a licence, but they haven't got any proof (and doesn't need to be true), its just to pressure people into buying a licence.
I have no TV licence because I don't have a TV or use iPlayer.
I get one licence letter a month and have a large collection of the things. They are pretty disgraceful, and clearly designed to scare people. Stuff like 'we're watching you' or 'you have been scheduled for a visit' when none of these things are true. All 'signed' by fictitious people.
The government should put a stop to it. Immediately.
Edit: Although, come to think of it, although I've had one a month for years, I haven't had one this year. The Pandemic must have struck Capita.
I still get them on a regular basis. They go in cycles, after a year or so get the same threatening letters again. I think part of the charter renewal should limit them to one enquiry to unlicensed addresses annually, on environmental grounds (how many trees a year to they waste on this currently!).
I believe that if you want to stop them you can block their implied right of access, including to post stuff to in your letterbox - if you want to particularly annoy them, you write as "the legal occupier" of your address without giving your name - this is legal, and they must comply, but their systems can't easily cope with it.
Out of interest, has anyone tried legal action against them under the Malicious Communications act 1988? This makes it an offence to send letters etc. with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
(1)Any person who sends to another person— (a)a letter, electronic communication or article of any description which conveys— (i)a message which is indecent or grossly offensive; (ii)a threat; or (iii)information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender;
is guilty of an offence if his purpose, or one of his purposes, in sending it is that it should, so far as falling within paragraph (a) or (b) above, cause distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom he intends that it or its contents or nature should be communicated. (2)A person is not guilty of an offence by virtue of subsection (1)(a)(ii) above if he shows— (a)that the threat was used to reinforce a demand made by him on reasonable grounds; and (b)that he believed [F4, and had reasonable grounds for believing,] that the use of the threat was a proper means of reinforcing the demand.
I would argue that letters such as the one informing me "that enforcement officers are in my area", should fall nicely under section (1)(a) (iii). Also, all the letters would come under section (1)(a)(ii) and I'm not sure I would fancy my chances defending them on either test in section (2).
Here's a policy that the EU could learn from Biden's White House: new vaccination allocations depend on getting jabs into people's arms. If you are sitting on doses, then you won't get new allocations.
(California will not do well on this measure - but it should at least encourage the dreadful Newsom administration to not sit on 2m unused doses.)
Of course, it's harder in the EU. Germany and France may have done a dreadful job vaccinating people, but they have paid for the vaccines. It will be hard for the EU to withhold supplies from member states, no matter how poorly they perform.
Depressingly, I've just worked out how much I've paid in rent for my box room in East London. Accounting for inflation, it's roughly twice the deposit my grandfather paid in 1965 for a suburban 4 bedroom house.
Living in the non-posh bits of London used to be quite cheap until about 1986, from what I've read. That was the year the capital suddenly became fashionable again, after about 15 years on the slide.
Indeed. My 4 bedroom student house from those days, no shower, central heating or double glazing, which we used to pay the chip shop owner in cash weekly, and get free fish and chips or a kebab if paid on time is on Zoopla for £2.3 million.
You certainly hope it has a shower, central heating and double glazing if you are paying that much.
It probably does. That was just off Northcote Road. AKA Nappy Valley. One of London's most sought after postcodes. We just had a newsagents that rented under the counter hard core pornography. And a barbers where Jimmy White got his hair cut for the Crucible. And Victor Value for shopping.
Northcote road in Battersea? I lived off it in Honeywell road from 1982 until 1991 - my 1 bed falt which I loft converted to a 2 bed rose in value fom 14K to 90K - now would be abour 600k I think! I lived through an extraordinary gentrification of the area with zero council tax for about 3 years,
Happy Budget Day to you all on PB, and hope the Chancellor brings you lots of presents.
If instead, you think he’ll be bringing you a lump of coal, he can be laid at 4.8 as next PM - and 3.5 as next Conservative leader - on Betfair right now.
I agree with those who really dislike the majority of the measures trailed in the morning’s papers, but at least it shouldn’t detract from the real big news of the day up in Holyrood.
Here's a policy that the EU could learn from Biden's White House: new vaccination allocations depend on getting jabs into people's arms. If you are sitting on doses, then you won't get new allocations.
(California will not do well on this measure - but it should at least encourage the dreadful Newsom administration to not sit on 2m unused doses.)
Of course, it's harder in the EU. Germany and France may have done a dreadful job vaccinating people, but they have paid for the vaccines. It will be hard for the EU to withhold supplies from member states, no matter how poorly they perform.
I don't know about France, but easily the biggest thing that Germany could do to reduce the amount of doses sitting unused would be to stop storing one reserved second dose for every first dose they give. The second (related) easy win would be to allow the second dose to be given a bit later. The third easy win would be to recommend AZ for all ages.
If after that there are still lots of unused doses then you could apply your idea to the Bundesländer, who are responsible.
Anyway, last time I checked, most of the rest of the EU were doing about the same as Germany and France, with only Malta doing significantly better.
Happy Budget Day to you all on PB, and hope the Chancellor brings you lots of presents.
If instead, you think he’ll be bringing you a lump of coal, he can be laid at 4.8 as next PM - and 3.5 as next Conservative leader - on Betfair right now.
I agree with those who really dislike the majority of the measures trailed in the morning’s papers, but at least it shouldn’t detract from the real big news of the day up in Holyrood.
I do think Sturgeon may just be making the headlines today....
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
Depressingly, I've just worked out how much I've paid in rent for my box room in East London. Accounting for inflation, it's roughly twice the deposit my grandfather paid in 1965 for a suburban 4 bedroom house.
Living in the non-posh bits of London used to be quite cheap until about 1986, from what I've read. That was the year the capital suddenly became fashionable again, after about 15 years on the slide.
Indeed. My 4 bedroom student house from those days, no shower, central heating or double glazing, which we used to pay the chip shop owner in cash weekly, and get free fish and chips or a kebab if paid on time is on Zoopla for £2.3 million.
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
Happy Budget Day to you all on PB, and hope the Chancellor brings you lots of presents.
If instead, you think he’ll be bringing you a lump of coal, he can be laid at 4.8 as next PM - and 3.5 as next Conservative leader - on Betfair right now.
I agree with those who really dislike the majority of the measures trailed in the morning’s papers, but at least it shouldn’t detract from the real big news of the day up in Holyrood.
I do think Sturgeon may just be making the headlines today....
I don't, I think its a good day for Sturgeon to bury bad news.
Here's a policy that the EU could learn from Biden's White House: new vaccination allocations depend on getting jabs into people's arms. If you are sitting on doses, then you won't get new allocations.
(California will not do well on this measure - but it should at least encourage the dreadful Newsom administration to not sit on 2m unused doses.)
Of course, it's harder in the EU. Germany and France may have done a dreadful job vaccinating people, but they have paid for the vaccines. It will be hard for the EU to withhold supplies from member states, no matter how poorly they perform.
I don't know about France, but easily the biggest thing that Germany could do to reduce the amount of doses sitting unused would be to stop storing one reserved second dose for every first dose they give. The second (related) easy win would be to allow the second dose to be given a bit later. The third easy win would be to recommend AZ for all ages.
If after that there are still lots of unused doses then you could apply your idea to the Bundesländer, who are responsible.
Anyway, last time I checked, most of the rest of the EU were doing about the same as Germany and France, with only Malta doing significantly better.
Most of the EU seems to be following the "reserve a second dose" strategy, which is (basically) incomprehensible.
Given vaccine supply is only going to improve from here, and even a single dose confers significant protection, it is dumb beyond belief.
(California also follows this strategy, so stupidity is not just reserved for the continent.)
I confess I've never seen the appeal of horse racing unless there's money riding on the outcome. At least with F1 you can enjoy any (non-fatal/injuring) pile up as a spectacle.
Whatever the rights and wrongs I don’t think horses get the shit beaten out of them when racing. Tad of an exaggeration.
I seem to recall they are limited in how much they can strike the horse.
Plus pretty thick skin on horses. Note I’m not really in favour of racing, but the point could be made without hyperbole. But maybe I don’t get the way social media works...
Any animal that would let a fifteen stone behemoth in metal armour clamber on his back and charge it into a chaotic melee strikes me as pretty resilient.
Also possibly not deep thinkers...
Whenever I've got on a horse it's just stopped to eat a bush and taken utterly no notice of me or my directions.
You weren’t going on to it about identity politics, by any chance?
Quite a choice for Sturgeon to mull over her morning coffee: what to do today?
Tell the truth - and lose her job and the last shot at independence in decades
Lie - and lose her liberty and the last shot at independence in decades
Obfuscate and not remember - and lose her credibility and the last shot at independence in decades
Who'd be a politician, eh?
Sturgeon is a master politician and I think she's being underestimated by people on here today.
Does anyone think its a coincidence she's chosen Budget Day to be the day she gets her grilling?
Or the night before Budget Day to be the night the papers are released?
She'll obfuscate and not remember, wait for the Chancellor's speech to dominate the news, have very little publicity on this relative to what it deserves, then before long its old news, people close ranks and she glides on.
Well I have now seen Bloodlands Ep 2 and have to say I worked out the twist a mile off. However, I was absolutely aided in my deduction by the fact I knew a twist was coming, so I was looking for it.
Rather enjoying the series so far, be interesting to see where they take it.
Only 2 more episodes...then just another 3 years to wait for a new season.
I don’t mind that, and I also like shorter series. Most US subscription stuff is overpadded waffle. House of Cards was superb but was utterly ruined by being stretched out endlessly. It could and should have been wrapped up in two series.
There are many examples. The imperious Big Little Lies was perfection: no need for a second season.
If you want to make short seasons, you need to have a lot of hits then. People demand the content, they hover it up. The BBC are just leaving money on the table by taking 8 years to make 30 episodes of Peaky Blinders.
People hoover up wallpaper telly. Six episodes should plenty to tell a story. The Godfather triology is an epic piece of storytelling, but it wouldn’t fill a single season of Netflix.
Set against that, you have no idea how magnificent The Godfather could have been if it was told over 80 episodes.
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Well I have now seen Bloodlands Ep 2 and have to say I worked out the twist a mile off. However, I was absolutely aided in my deduction by the fact I knew a twist was coming, so I was looking for it.
Rather enjoying the series so far, be interesting to see where they take it.
Only 2 more episodes...then just another 3 years to wait for a new season.
I don’t mind that, and I also like shorter series. Most US subscription stuff is overpadded waffle. House of Cards was superb but was utterly ruined by being stretched out endlessly. It could and should have been wrapped up in two series.
There are many examples. The imperious Big Little Lies was perfection: no need for a second season.
If you want to make short seasons, you need to have a lot of hits then. People demand the content, they hover it up. The BBC are just leaving money on the table by taking 8 years to make 30 episodes of Peaky Blinders.
People hoover up wallpaper telly. Six episodes should plenty to tell a story. The Godfather triology is an epic piece of storytelling, but it wouldn’t fill a single season of Netflix.
Set against that, you have no idea how magnificent The Godfather could have been if it was told over 80 episodes.
Exhibit A - The Sopranos
The Sopranos is a great example of bloat. Really enjoyed the first few seasons. After that, felt like it was repeating itself, never got beyond season 3.
Quite a choice for Sturgeon to mull over her morning coffee: what to do today?
Tell the truth - and lose her job and the last shot at independence in decades
Lie - and lose her liberty and the last shot at independence in decades
Obfuscate and not remember - and lose her credibility and the last shot at independence in decades
Who'd be a politician, eh?
Sturgeon is a master politician and I think she's being underestimated by people on here today.
Does anyone think its a coincidence she's chosen Budget Day to be the day she gets her grilling?
Or the night before Budget Day to be the night the papers are released?
She'll obfuscate and not remember, wait for the Chancellor's speech to dominate the news, have very little publicity on this relative to what it deserves, then before long its old news, people close ranks and she glides on.
Most likely, yes. Short of uncovering video evidence of her strangling defenceless kittens, I don't think that the Greens will pull the plug. That means Sturgeon continues on to the election and wins - although, frankly, her party would do just fine without her in any case. Scotland has been Ulsterized - so long as an even more militantly pro-independence party doesn't gain traction and outflank it, the SNP is completely secure.
Well I have now seen Bloodlands Ep 2 and have to say I worked out the twist a mile off. However, I was absolutely aided in my deduction by the fact I knew a twist was coming, so I was looking for it.
Rather enjoying the series so far, be interesting to see where they take it.
Only 2 more episodes...then just another 3 years to wait for a new season.
I don’t mind that, and I also like shorter series. Most US subscription stuff is overpadded waffle. House of Cards was superb but was utterly ruined by being stretched out endlessly. It could and should have been wrapped up in two series.
There are many examples. The imperious Big Little Lies was perfection: no need for a second season.
If you want to make short seasons, you need to have a lot of hits then. People demand the content, they hover it up. The BBC are just leaving money on the table by taking 8 years to make 30 episodes of Peaky Blinders.
People hoover up wallpaper telly. Six episodes should plenty to tell a story. The Godfather triology is an epic piece of storytelling, but it wouldn’t fill a single season of Netflix.
Set against that, you have no idea how magnificent The Godfather could have been if it was told over 80 episodes.
Exhibit A - The Sopranos
The Sopranos is a great example of bloat. Really enjoyed the first few seasons. After that, felt like it was repeating itself, never got beyond season 3.
By the final season it approached a form of high art.
Quite a choice for Sturgeon to mull over her morning coffee: what to do today?
Tell the truth - and lose her job and the last shot at independence in decades
Lie - and lose her liberty and the last shot at independence in decades
Obfuscate and not remember - and lose her credibility and the last shot at independence in decades
Who'd be a politician, eh?
Sturgeon is a master politician and I think she's being underestimated by people on here today.
Does anyone think its a coincidence she's chosen Budget Day to be the day she gets her grilling?
Or the night before Budget Day to be the night the papers are released?
She'll obfuscate and not remember, wait for the Chancellor's speech to dominate the news, have very little publicity on this relative to what it deserves, then before long its old news, people close ranks and she glides on.
Except, she's now coming up against a paper trail that closes down that option. Sod the Budget, that's all been leaked - nobody is getting the popcorn in for that. Plenty of people are going to be watching her testimony very, very carefully - especially her coalition partners in the Greens. They aren't going ocean swimming in May tied to an anvil.
Quite a choice for Sturgeon to mull over her morning coffee: what to do today?
Tell the truth - and lose her job and the last shot at independence in decades
Lie - and lose her liberty and the last shot at independence in decades
Obfuscate and not remember - and lose her credibility and the last shot at independence in decades
Who'd be a politician, eh?
Sturgeon is a master politician and I think she's being underestimated by people on here today.
Does anyone think its a coincidence she's chosen Budget Day to be the day she gets her grilling?
Or the night before Budget Day to be the night the papers are released?
She'll obfuscate and not remember, wait for the Chancellor's speech to dominate the news, have very little publicity on this relative to what it deserves, then before long its old news, people close ranks and she glides on.
Except, she's now coming up against a paper trail that closes down that option. Sod the Budget, that's all been leaked - nobody is getting the popcorn in for that. Plenty of people are going to be watching her testimony very, very carefully - especially her coalition partners in the Greens. They aren't going ocean swimming in May tied to an anvil.
And remember - she's under oath.
I wish you were right she seems absolutely dodgy and corrupting everything now and @malcolmg deserves credit for picking up on this long before anyone else it seems. I thought he was jilted because he liked Salmond but malcolm seems 100% vindicated now so kudos to him.
But I am worried this is going to be like a reverse Scooby Doo - "she wouldn't have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for that meddling Sunak".
Quite a choice for Sturgeon to mull over her morning coffee: what to do today?
Tell the truth - and lose her job and the last shot at independence in decades
Lie - and lose her liberty and the last shot at independence in decades
Obfuscate and not remember - and lose her credibility and the last shot at independence in decades
Who'd be a politician, eh?
Sturgeon is a master politician and I think she's being underestimated by people on here today.
Does anyone think its a coincidence she's chosen Budget Day to be the day she gets her grilling?
Or the night before Budget Day to be the night the papers are released?
She'll obfuscate and not remember, wait for the Chancellor's speech to dominate the news, have very little publicity on this relative to what it deserves, then before long its old news, people close ranks and she glides on.
Most likely, yes. Short of uncovering video evidence of her strangling defenceless kittens, I don't think that the Greens will pull the plug. That means Sturgeon continues on to the election and wins - although, frankly, her party would do just fine without her in any case. Scotland has been Ulsterized - so long as an even more militantly pro-independence party doesn't gain traction and outflank it, the SNP is completely secure.
On this same general subject, Wales is headed down a similar path as Abolish stands to drag the Tory centre of gravity further towards devoscepticism. It'll be nationalist versus unionist (with an inbuilt nationalist majority) just like Scotland before too much longer, and under those circumstances the Government can get away with any old crap just so long as it bangs the drum for its side of the constitutional argument as hard and as loudly as possible.
The best solution to all of this is the dissolution of the UK and independence all round. There's no future for a clapped out confederacy of England and Three Northern Irelands.
Random question but is the vaccination for 60-64's well underway in Scotland? I'm wondering when my mum will get a date for her jab but can't find any clear info if that group is now well underway or not - unless I'm just not looking in the right place.
I suspect it must be , my wife's sister has had hers at that age. I am only just above that and had mine weeks ago. Get her to phone her GP or the government 0800 helpline number.
Sure. At sea. But not in British politics. It is outrageous: what she tried to do to Salmond
Yes yes yes, I'm a Yoon and a Brexiteer and I hate haggis
One of the (few) relevant questions being asked by bewildered Nats on Twitter is: why did she do it? Why even go near this? She was the anointed successor. A cool, clever politician, with a great future. Did she really fear Salmond's return to Edinburgh that much?
I don't buy it. I do believe she was involved in this conspiracy, but I am not yet clear on the motive. Bewildering
But you haven't heard her evidence yet. Good job you're not on the jury.
She has to do some fancy footwork to overcome that ferocious blast from her own lawyers. It is going to be bravura for sure.
More likely is she comes out of it a laughing stock. Contortion on obfuscation. With lots of unsteady memories. Which in itself will be a gift to her political foes.
BTW, her woes were the second item on the 10 o'clock news behind the Budget.
Well I have now seen Bloodlands Ep 2 and have to say I worked out the twist a mile off. However, I was absolutely aided in my deduction by the fact I knew a twist was coming, so I was looking for it.
Rather enjoying the series so far, be interesting to see where they take it.
Only 2 more episodes...then just another 3 years to wait for a new season.
I don’t mind that, and I also like shorter series. Most US subscription stuff is overpadded waffle. House of Cards was superb but was utterly ruined by being stretched out endlessly. It could and should have been wrapped up in two series.
There are many examples. The imperious Big Little Lies was perfection: no need for a second season.
If you want to make short seasons, you need to have a lot of hits then. People demand the content, they hover it up. The BBC are just leaving money on the table by taking 8 years to make 30 episodes of Peaky Blinders.
People hoover up wallpaper telly. Six episodes should plenty to tell a story. The Godfather triology is an epic piece of storytelling, but it wouldn’t fill a single season of Netflix.
Set against that, you have no idea how magnificent The Godfather could have been if it was told over 80 episodes.
Exhibit A - The Sopranos
The Sopranos is a great example of bloat. Really enjoyed the first few seasons. After that, felt like it was repeating itself, never got beyond season 3.
I don’t agree on the Sopranos, but the general point is true. The US House of Cards started brilliantly but by series three had nothing new to offer. So many US series go the same way, trying to milk a loyal audience for as long as they can sustain the ad revenue while the quality of the ideas slowly fades away.
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
One of the (few) relevant questions being asked by bewildered Nats on Twitter is: why did she do it? Why even go near this? She was the anointed successor. A cool, clever politician, with a great future. Did she really fear Salmond's return to Edinburgh that much?
Seems she did fear him enough, it's the only plausible explanation. It's been clear for a while now that Nicola Sturgeon's one and only priority is to remain FM. Any threat to her position must be taken care of.
There may be a degree of envy in the fear. Sturgeon is by any measure a successful and capable politician, but she must know deep down she's no match for Alex Salmond, who even his enemies will admit is a political talent of exceptional quality.
I think it started at the conference where she had decreed that Salmond could not take the stage but that attendees stood and cheered for him so long that he had to say some words and got rapturous applause and stole Nicola's thunder. She knew then if he came back she was toast. The mere whisper of it after they had stitched up McDonald for an innocent text sent them into apoplexy and as we see they made a real horlicks of it , double down several times and now the end beckons.
Scotland has been Ulsterized - so long as an even more militantly pro-independence party doesn't gain traction and outflank it, the SNP is completely secure.
That is the big risk.
Eck standing a raft of Real SNP candidates against Nippy's Continuity SNP
I increasingly have a view that politics is about optimists versus pessimists. All the election winners in recent years - Blair, Cameron, Johnson have been optimists. Whereas Brown, Miliband and May were pessimists.
Yes, and Corbyn would have been in the pessimist column, of course.
I increasingly have a view that politics is about optimists versus pessimists. All the election winners in recent years - Blair, Cameron, Johnson have been optimists. Whereas Brown, Miliband and May were pessimists.
Yes, and Corbyn would have been in the pessimist column, of course.
What about Starmer?
He strikes me as utterly devoid of emotion, leaning towards sneering pessimist when anything does break through.
One of the (few) relevant questions being asked by bewildered Nats on Twitter is: why did she do it? Why even go near this? She was the anointed successor. A cool, clever politician, with a great future. Did she really fear Salmond's return to Edinburgh that much?
Seems she did fear him enough, it's the only plausible explanation. It's been clear for a while now that Nicola Sturgeon's one and only priority is to remain FM. Any threat to her position must be taken care of.
There may be a degree of envy in the fear. Sturgeon is by any measure a successful and capable politician, but she must know deep down she's no match for Alex Salmond, who even his enemies will admit is a political talent of exceptional quality.
I think it is much more likely that Sturgeon believed that what she was doing was "right".
That is, Sturgeon believed that Salmond was guilty of inappropriate behaviour tantamount to sexual harassment and that he should be called to account & convicted.
It just seems that what evidence there is does not support such a strong conclusion.
Leslie Evans is a strong feminist, as is Nicola Sturgeon. My guess is that Evans & Sturgeon convinced themselves that the evidence was there if they went looking for it.
It is a fine line between looking for evidence and entrapment, especially in cases like these where the evidence can be ambiguous & hard to get.
But all the latest evidence points towards conspiracy. And a cover-up. Which refutes your explanation
I still don't quite know why, however
I suspect Sturgeon, or she and her allies, saw a potentially genuine case against her rival Salmond, and righteously pursued - but also tried to exploit it for maximum political gain. But they then got badly caught out when the case failed, necessitating a deeper and deeper spiral into cover-up. As we see.
A cover-up which will damage them permanently, or finish them all
I don't think it refutes my explanation.
Evans & Sturgeon thought the evidence was there, and they -- I am not quite sure what the word is -- "encouraged" complainants to come forward.
They thought -- with the conviction of the righteous -- that they had a strong case. They did these things because they believed they were righting an injustice against women. This seems very plausible to me, especially with the impetus of MeToo.
The cover-up happened -- as cover-ups always do -- because lying is easy.
It is very easy to lie, if you think you can get away with it. You should know that. 😃
I am still not quite sure how all this is going to play out. I think Sturgeon could still turn this around with a great performance tomorrow, though she will obviously have to admit mistakes.
People like it when politicians are contrite and admit errors -- especially with some tears.
This is much, much more fascinating than Rishi and his dull budget -- the two most interesting & successful politicians in the UK fighting each other to the death. Like two samourai.
I think Salmond looks implacable. So one of them will finish the other off. I just don't know who will win.
I think telling they had only two I believe till late on and it then mushroomed to nine. Given they were all thrown out , Salmond had lots of witnesses , defence had none and fact that people say if you knew the names you know the reasons, hence why all the court orders supposedly. Looking at all the obfuscation , reluctance to provide papers and evidence whilst publicly saying they will give out all evidence. Reality is it is only coming out due to threat of them being chucked out by parliament. Fantastic as it seems everything points to something being far wrong with the whole thing, if you see the whatsapp messages , Evans sending the "we lost the battle but will win the war " text etc after judicial review collapsed, they expected to still get him. Murrel of course had SNP sending e-mails on fishing expeditions according to witness statements, the whatsapp group discussing their case etc etc , there is a lot of disparate information out there if you piece it all together. Even in the unlikely event that it started out with good intentions it went bad at some point. Hopefully one day we will see all the evidence and be able to make our own minds up.
I increasingly have a view that politics is about optimists versus pessimists. All the election winners in recent years - Blair, Cameron, Johnson have been optimists. Whereas Brown, Miliband and May were pessimists.
Yes, and Corbyn would have been in the pessimist column, of course.
She's rather good, calmly talking to that excitable dork, Krishnan GM
Labour could do worse than ship her down to Westminster, if she is willing and Starmer bores himself into early resignation
To think they past her by for that absolute bellend Sarwar, typical Labour. She is about the only one in Scottish Labour that could walk and chew gum at the same time.
One of the (few) relevant questions being asked by bewildered Nats on Twitter is: why did she do it? Why even go near this? She was the anointed successor. A cool, clever politician, with a great future. Did she really fear Salmond's return to Edinburgh that much?
Seems she did fear him enough, it's the only plausible explanation. It's been clear for a while now that Nicola Sturgeon's one and only priority is to remain FM. Any threat to her position must be taken care of.
There may be a degree of envy in the fear. Sturgeon is by any measure a successful and capable politician, but she must know deep down she's no match for Alex Salmond, who even his enemies will admit is a political talent of exceptional quality.
I think it is much more likely that Sturgeon believed that what she was doing was "right".
That is, Sturgeon believed that Salmond was guilty of inappropriate behaviour tantamount to sexual harassment and that he should be called to account & convicted.
It just seems that what evidence there is does not support such a strong conclusion.
Leslie Evans is a strong feminist, as is Nicola Sturgeon. My guess is that Evans & Sturgeon convinced themselves that the evidence was there if they went looking for it.
It is a fine line between looking for evidence and entrapment, especially in cases like these where the evidence can be ambiguous & hard to get.
But all the latest evidence points towards conspiracy. And a cover-up. Which refutes your explanation
I still don't quite know why, however
I suspect Sturgeon, or she and her allies, saw a potentially genuine case against her rival Salmond, and righteously pursued - but also tried to exploit it for maximum political gain. But they then got badly caught out when the case failed, necessitating a deeper and deeper spiral into cover-up. As we see.
A cover-up which will damage them permanently, or finish them all
I don't think it refutes my explanation.
Evans & Sturgeon thought the evidence was there, and they -- I am not quite sure what the word is -- "encouraged" complainants to come forward.
They thought -- with the conviction of the righteous -- that they had a strong case. They did these things because they believed they were righting an injustice against women. This seems very plausible to me, especially with the impetus of MeToo.
The cover-up happened -- as cover-ups always do -- because lying is easy.
It is very easy to lie, if you think you can get away with it. You should know that. 😃
I am still not quite sure how all this is going to play out. I think Sturgeon could still turn this around with a great performance tomorrow, though she will obviously have to admit mistakes.
People like it when politicians are contrite and admit errors -- especially with some tears.
This is much, much more fascinating than Rishi and his dull budget -- the two most interesting & successful politicians in the UK fighting each other to the death. Like two samourai.
I think Salmond looks implacable. So one of them will finish the other off. I just don't know who will win.
I think telling they had only two I believe till late on and it then mushroomed to nine. Given they were all thrown out , Salmond had lots of witnesses , defence had none and fact that people say if you knew the names you know the reasons, hence why all the court orders supposedly. Looking at all the obfuscation , reluctance to provide papers and evidence whilst publicly saying they will give out all evidence. Reality is it is only coming out due to threat of them being chucked out by parliament. Fantastic as it seems everything points to something being far wrong with the whole thing, if you see the whatsapp messages , Evans sending the "we lost the battle but will win the war " text etc after judicial review collapsed, they expected to still get him. Murrel of course had SNP sending e-mails on fishing expeditions according to witness statements, the whatsapp group discussing their case etc etc , there is a lot of disparate information out there if you piece it all together. Even in the unlikely event that it started out with good intentions it went bad at some point. Hopefully one day we will see all the evidence and be able to make our own minds up.
Are there any crocodiles that the sainted Nicola could borrow. . I don't think any tears from her would have any benefit whatsoever. Contrition, if necessary, needs to be believable.
One of the (few) relevant questions being asked by bewildered Nats on Twitter is: why did she do it? Why even go near this? She was the anointed successor. A cool, clever politician, with a great future. Did she really fear Salmond's return to Edinburgh that much?
Seems she did fear him enough, it's the only plausible explanation. It's been clear for a while now that Nicola Sturgeon's one and only priority is to remain FM. Any threat to her position must be taken care of.
There may be a degree of envy in the fear. Sturgeon is by any measure a successful and capable politician, but she must know deep down she's no match for Alex Salmond, who even his enemies will admit is a political talent of exceptional quality.
I think it is much more likely that Sturgeon believed that what she was doing was "right".
That is, Sturgeon believed that Salmond was guilty of inappropriate behaviour tantamount to sexual harassment and that he should be called to account & convicted.
It just seems that what evidence there is does not support such a strong conclusion.
Leslie Evans is a strong feminist, as is Nicola Sturgeon. My guess is that Evans & Sturgeon convinced themselves that the evidence was there if they went looking for it.
It is a fine line between looking for evidence and entrapment, especially in cases like these where the evidence can be ambiguous & hard to get.
But all the latest evidence points towards conspiracy. And a cover-up. Which refutes your explanation
I still don't quite know why, however
I suspect Sturgeon, or she and her allies, saw a potentially genuine case against her rival Salmond, and righteously pursued - but also tried to exploit it for maximum political gain. But they then got badly caught out when the case failed, necessitating a deeper and deeper spiral into cover-up. As we see.
A cover-up which will damage them permanently, or finish them all
I don't think it refutes my explanation.
Evans & Sturgeon thought the evidence was there, and they -- I am not quite sure what the word is -- "encouraged" complainants to come forward.
They thought -- with the conviction of the righteous -- that they had a strong case. They did these things because they believed they were righting an injustice against women. This seems very plausible to me, especially with the impetus of MeToo.
The cover-up happened -- as cover-ups always do -- because lying is easy.
It is very easy to lie, if you think you can get away with it. You should know that. 😃
I am still not quite sure how all this is going to play out. I think Sturgeon could still turn this around with a great performance tomorrow, though she will obviously have to admit mistakes.
People like it when politicians are contrite and admit errors -- especially with some tears.
This is much, much more fascinating than Rishi and his dull budget -- the two most interesting & successful politicians in the UK fighting each other to the death. Like two samourai.
I think Salmond looks implacable. So one of them will finish the other off. I just don't know who will win.
I think telling they had only two I believe till late on and it then mushroomed to nine. Given they were all thrown out , Salmond had lots of witnesses , defence had none and fact that people say if you knew the names you know the reasons, hence why all the court orders supposedly. Looking at all the obfuscation , reluctance to provide papers and evidence whilst publicly saying they will give out all evidence. Reality is it is only coming out due to threat of them being chucked out by parliament. Fantastic as it seems everything points to something being far wrong with the whole thing, if you see the whatsapp messages , Evans sending the "we lost the battle but will win the war " text etc after judicial review collapsed, they expected to still get him. Murrel of course had SNP sending e-mails on fishing expeditions according to witness statements, the whatsapp group discussing their case etc etc , there is a lot of disparate information out there if you piece it all together. Even in the unlikely event that it started out with good intentions it went bad at some point. Hopefully one day we will see all the evidence and be able to make our own minds up.
A SNP watcher on a podcast I was listening to yesterday reminded us that the allegations came out at the height of the "Me Too" thing and we should not underestimate this fact.
If this is true, that Sturgeon was prepared to push Salmond under the bus (and possible imprisonment) off the back of that then no wonder Salmond is furious.
I increasingly have a view that politics is about optimists versus pessimists. All the election winners in recent years - Blair, Cameron, Johnson have been optimists. Whereas Brown, Miliband and May were pessimists.
Yes, and Corbyn would have been in the pessimist column, of course.
What about Starmer?
Mist.
I`m not sure. He could turn out optimist - but he has a mountain to climb. I`m not as critical of Starmer as many on here. I still think he was the best choice.
What`s the motivation though? Why would they want to destroy Salmond?
His popularity and fact he may come back , they were enjoying the power and money too much.
If that`s it though - that they were prepared to destroy a man`s life and put him in prison - they really are an evil bunch. And I don`t use that word lightly.
Quite a choice for Sturgeon to mull over her morning coffee: what to do today?
Tell the truth - and lose her job and the last shot at independence in decades
Lie - and lose her liberty and the last shot at independence in decades
Obfuscate and not remember - and lose her credibility and the last shot at independence in decades
Who'd be a politician, eh?
Sturgeon is a master politician and I think she's being underestimated by people on here today.
Does anyone think its a coincidence she's chosen Budget Day to be the day she gets her grilling?
Or the night before Budget Day to be the night the papers are released?
She'll obfuscate and not remember, wait for the Chancellor's speech to dominate the news, have very little publicity on this relative to what it deserves, then before long its old news, people close ranks and she glides on.
You give her too much credit , timing was all down to the fact they kept trying to muzzle Salmond's response and he called their bluff till they agreed to allow him to talk freely. She was supposed to be on weeks ago.
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
They say Peaky Blinders is poor , just lots of flashbacks of previous series.
What`s the motivation though? Why would they want to destroy Salmond?
Insecurity. Nowhere near as good a politician as Wee Eck. As we are now seeing.
But coupled with The Prize. Being remembered as the person who delivered an independent Scotland. A statue in every town square. Picture on the banknote. Swanning off around the globe as Leader of the latest new country admitted to the UN.
And they thought if they only lied a bit more, The Prize was theirs.
Well I have now seen Bloodlands Ep 2 and have to say I worked out the twist a mile off. However, I was absolutely aided in my deduction by the fact I knew a twist was coming, so I was looking for it.
Rather enjoying the series so far, be interesting to see where they take it.
Only 2 more episodes...then just another 3 years to wait for a new season.
I don’t mind that, and I also like shorter series. Most US subscription stuff is overpadded waffle. House of Cards was superb but was utterly ruined by being stretched out endlessly. It could and should have been wrapped up in two series.
There are many examples. The imperious Big Little Lies was perfection: no need for a second season.
If you want to make short seasons, you need to have a lot of hits then. People demand the content, they hover it up. The BBC are just leaving money on the table by taking 8 years to make 30 episodes of Peaky Blinders.
People hoover up wallpaper telly. Six episodes should plenty to tell a story. The Godfather triology is an epic piece of storytelling, but it wouldn’t fill a single season of Netflix.
Set against that, you have no idea how magnificent The Godfather could have been if it was told over 80 episodes.
Exhibit A - The Sopranos
The Sopranos is a great example of bloat. Really enjoyed the first few seasons. After that, felt like it was repeating itself, never got beyond season 3.
Ouch. I can`t accept that. Best series ever for me - right up to the last second (which was excellent).
Scotland has been Ulsterized - so long as an even more militantly pro-independence party doesn't gain traction and outflank it, the SNP is completely secure.
That is the big risk.
Eck standing a raft of Real SNP candidates against Nippy's Continuity SNP
I think there is a very good chance of that , even if most will be on list, he would surely get some big hitters for selected constituency seats.
Well I have now seen Bloodlands Ep 2 and have to say I worked out the twist a mile off. However, I was absolutely aided in my deduction by the fact I knew a twist was coming, so I was looking for it.
Rather enjoying the series so far, be interesting to see where they take it.
Only 2 more episodes...then just another 3 years to wait for a new season.
I don’t mind that, and I also like shorter series. Most US subscription stuff is overpadded waffle. House of Cards was superb but was utterly ruined by being stretched out endlessly. It could and should have been wrapped up in two series.
There are many examples. The imperious Big Little Lies was perfection: no need for a second season.
If you want to make short seasons, you need to have a lot of hits then. People demand the content, they hover it up. The BBC are just leaving money on the table by taking 8 years to make 30 episodes of Peaky Blinders.
People hoover up wallpaper telly. Six episodes should plenty to tell a story. The Godfather triology is an epic piece of storytelling, but it wouldn’t fill a single season of Netflix.
Set against that, you have no idea how magnificent The Godfather could have been if it was told over 80 episodes.
Exhibit A - The Sopranos
The Sopranos is a great example of bloat. Really enjoyed the first few seasons. After that, felt like it was repeating itself, never got beyond season 3.
Ouch. I can`t accept that. Best series ever for me - right up to the last second (which was excellent).
The joy of the arts is that every opinion is valid!
Quite a choice for Sturgeon to mull over her morning coffee: what to do today?
Tell the truth - and lose her job and the last shot at independence in decades
Lie - and lose her liberty and the last shot at independence in decades
Obfuscate and not remember - and lose her credibility and the last shot at independence in decades
Who'd be a politician, eh?
Sturgeon is a master politician and I think she's being underestimated by people on here today.
Does anyone think its a coincidence she's chosen Budget Day to be the day she gets her grilling?
Or the night before Budget Day to be the night the papers are released?
She'll obfuscate and not remember, wait for the Chancellor's speech to dominate the news, have very little publicity on this relative to what it deserves, then before long its old news, people close ranks and she glides on.
You give her too much credit , timing was all down to the fact they kept trying to muzzle Salmond's response and he called their bluff till they agreed to allow him to talk freely. She was supposed to be on weeks ago.
Yes she was supposed to be on weeks ago and she's stalled exactly long enough to be grilled on Budget Day. Not gone weeks sooner when it would have been the day's main news. Not delayed it even a day later when it will be the day's main news again.
'Entirely by coincidence' I'm sure it falls on Budget Day. She is a cynical, conniving person and I don't buy for one second its a coincidence. She's using every tool of state at her disposal to try and get away with this and having used the Crown Office etc she's now using the hated Westminster Treasury to try and hide behind.
Do you really think its a coincidence? That its not played in her mind this is the best day to bury bad news?
Well I have now seen Bloodlands Ep 2 and have to say I worked out the twist a mile off. However, I was absolutely aided in my deduction by the fact I knew a twist was coming, so I was looking for it.
Rather enjoying the series so far, be interesting to see where they take it.
Only 2 more episodes...then just another 3 years to wait for a new season.
I don’t mind that, and I also like shorter series. Most US subscription stuff is overpadded waffle. House of Cards was superb but was utterly ruined by being stretched out endlessly. It could and should have been wrapped up in two series.
There are many examples. The imperious Big Little Lies was perfection: no need for a second season.
If you want to make short seasons, you need to have a lot of hits then. People demand the content, they hover it up. The BBC are just leaving money on the table by taking 8 years to make 30 episodes of Peaky Blinders.
People hoover up wallpaper telly. Six episodes should plenty to tell a story. The Godfather triology is an epic piece of storytelling, but it wouldn’t fill a single season of Netflix.
Set against that, you have no idea how magnificent The Godfather could have been if it was told over 80 episodes.
Exhibit A - The Sopranos
The Sopranos is a great example of bloat. Really enjoyed the first few seasons. After that, felt like it was repeating itself, never got beyond season 3.
Ouch. I can`t accept that. Best series ever for me - right up to the last second (which was excellent).
The joy of the arts is that every opinion is valid!
If that was right I challenge anyone to say with a straight face that Godfather 3 is the best of the trilogy 😉
Quite a choice for Sturgeon to mull over her morning coffee: what to do today?
Tell the truth - and lose her job and the last shot at independence in decades
Lie - and lose her liberty and the last shot at independence in decades
Obfuscate and not remember - and lose her credibility and the last shot at independence in decades
Who'd be a politician, eh?
Sturgeon is a master politician and I think she's being underestimated by people on here today.
Does anyone think its a coincidence she's chosen Budget Day to be the day she gets her grilling?
Or the night before Budget Day to be the night the papers are released?
She'll obfuscate and not remember, wait for the Chancellor's speech to dominate the news, have very little publicity on this relative to what it deserves, then before long its old news, people close ranks and she glides on.
You give her too much credit , timing was all down to the fact they kept trying to muzzle Salmond's response and he called their bluff till they agreed to allow him to talk freely. She was supposed to be on weeks ago.
Yes she was supposed to be on weeks ago and she's stalled exactly long enough to be grilled on Budget Day. Not gone weeks sooner when it would have been the day's main news. Not delayed it even a day later when it will be the day's main news again.
'Entirely by coincidence' I'm sure it falls on Budget Day. She is a cynical, conniving person and I don't buy for one second its a coincidence. She's using every tool of state at her disposal to try and get away with this and having used the Crown Office etc she's now using the hated Westminster Treasury to try and hide behind.
Do you really think its a coincidence? That its not played in her mind this is the best day to bury bad news?
There will be no burying of this , in Scotland at least , budget will be trivia news up here.
Quite a choice for Sturgeon to mull over her morning coffee: what to do today?
Tell the truth - and lose her job and the last shot at independence in decades
Lie - and lose her liberty and the last shot at independence in decades
Obfuscate and not remember - and lose her credibility and the last shot at independence in decades
Who'd be a politician, eh?
Sturgeon is a master politician and I think she's being underestimated by people on here today.
Does anyone think its a coincidence she's chosen Budget Day to be the day she gets her grilling?
Or the night before Budget Day to be the night the papers are released?
She'll obfuscate and not remember, wait for the Chancellor's speech to dominate the news, have very little publicity on this relative to what it deserves, then before long its old news, people close ranks and she glides on.
You give her too much credit , timing was all down to the fact they kept trying to muzzle Salmond's response and he called their bluff till they agreed to allow him to talk freely. She was supposed to be on weeks ago.
Yes she was supposed to be on weeks ago and she's stalled exactly long enough to be grilled on Budget Day. Not gone weeks sooner when it would have been the day's main news. Not delayed it even a day later when it will be the day's main news again.
'Entirely by coincidence' I'm sure it falls on Budget Day. She is a cynical, conniving person and I don't buy for one second its a coincidence. She's using every tool of state at her disposal to try and get away with this and having used the Crown Office etc she's now using the hated Westminster Treasury to try and hide behind.
Do you really think its a coincidence? That its not played in her mind this is the best day to bury bad news?
There will be no burying of this , in Scotland at least , budget will be trivia news up here.
We had all the Budget news and announcements about three days ago to be honest. The most briefed Budget in history.
Lots of people moaned that Blair was too presidential. Wait until Sunak is PM.
Scotland has been Ulsterized - so long as an even more militantly pro-independence party doesn't gain traction and outflank it, the SNP is completely secure.
That is the big risk.
Eck standing a raft of Real SNP candidates against Nippy's Continuity SNP
I think there is a very good chance of that , even if most will be on list, he would surely get some big hitters for selected constituency seats.
Are there any big hitters in Scotland,? They might be to the local eye , but otherwise will be largely unknown or forgotten...
Prof Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said it was important to wait until schools go back next week to check that the numbers would continue to fall.
"We all have to hit the pause button until then," he said. "But if, after schools go back, there isn't a big uptick then we're in a very different position and can think about opening up sooner rather than later.
Telegraph
The paper is reporting that the real world data is ahead of modelled expected outcomes by several weeks.
Scotland has been Ulsterized - so long as an even more militantly pro-independence party doesn't gain traction and outflank it, the SNP is completely secure.
That is the big risk.
Eck standing a raft of Real SNP candidates against Nippy's Continuity SNP
I think there is a very good chance of that , even if most will be on list, he would surely get some big hitters for selected constituency seats.
Are there any big hitters in Scotland,? They might be to the local eye , but otherwise will be largely unknown or forgotten...
Well it is Holyrood elections , so would be the better ones from there, lots of dross but there are a few popular ones. Independence will come from Holyrood not Westminster.
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
Prof Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said it was important to wait until schools go back next week to check that the numbers would continue to fall.
"We all have to hit the pause button until then," he said. "But if, after schools go back, there isn't a big uptick then we're in a very different position and can think about opening up sooner rather than later.
Telegraph
The paper is reporting that the real world data is ahead of modelled expected outcomes by several weeks.
That seems a very reasonable suggestion. If numbers continue to fall with schools open then that would be very good news, I expect they will as the vaccine effect will be reducing R by ever increasing numbers.
I got my text a few minutes ago, I'm negative for the virus. Feeling fully better from whatever it was that hit me on Sunday now, whether it be a mild case that wasn't detected or something else.
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
Can you get one then cancel it?
I thought you got a refund for unused months or is that only if moving?
Prof Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said it was important to wait until schools go back next week to check that the numbers would continue to fall.
"We all have to hit the pause button until then," he said. "But if, after schools go back, there isn't a big uptick then we're in a very different position and can think about opening up sooner rather than later.
Telegraph
The paper is reporting that the real world data is ahead of modelled expected outcomes by several weeks.
Hospitalisation data looked to match the prediction almost exactly.
Scotland has been Ulsterized - so long as an even more militantly pro-independence party doesn't gain traction and outflank it, the SNP is completely secure.
That is the big risk.
Eck standing a raft of Real SNP candidates against Nippy's Continuity SNP
I think there is a very good chance of that , even if most will be on list, he would surely get some big hitters for selected constituency seats.
Are there any big hitters in Scotland,? They might be to the local eye , but otherwise will be largely unknown or forgotten...
Farage showed in the Euro elections what could be achieved in a very short period. Salmond as the figurehead, peel off some anti Sturgeon MSPs, and then open up a quick vetting process for a new list everywhere else. He’s just about got enough time hasn’t he?
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
Can you get one then cancel it?
I thought you got a refund for unused months or is that only if moving?
Just watch it for a few weeks, they are not going to know. They send threatening letters to try and frighten people but they have no clue you are watching a TV and if they come to your house tell them to F off and get a search warrant.
Scotland has been Ulsterized - so long as an even more militantly pro-independence party doesn't gain traction and outflank it, the SNP is completely secure.
That is the big risk.
Eck standing a raft of Real SNP candidates against Nippy's Continuity SNP
I think there is a very good chance of that , even if most will be on list, he would surely get some big hitters for selected constituency seats.
Are there any big hitters in Scotland,? They might be to the local eye , but otherwise will be largely unknown or forgotten...
Farage showed in the Euro elections what could be achieved in a very short period. Salmond as the figurehead, peel off some anti Sturgeon MSPs, and then open up a quick vetting process for a new list everywhere else. He’s just about got enough time hasn’t he?
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
Can you get one then cancel it?
I thought you got a refund for unused months or is that only if moving?
Not last I checked, think you’re right only if moving to somewhere that already has one. When I was overseas I happily plonked down $$$ for a World Cup package off a dedicated streaming platform. But it was a fraction of the cost of an annual uk license. Clunky half time analysis courtesy of big hitters like Jermaine Pennant that managed to be 10x more illuminating than from the usual MOTD stooges.
Prof Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said it was important to wait until schools go back next week to check that the numbers would continue to fall.
"We all have to hit the pause button until then," he said. "But if, after schools go back, there isn't a big uptick then we're in a very different position and can think about opening up sooner rather than later.
Telegraph
The paper is reporting that the real world data is ahead of modelled expected outcomes by several weeks.
Hospitalisation data looked to match the prediction almost exactly.
There's a lag effect isn't there so hospitalisations will be prior cases, which will likely be pre-vaccine.
There's a major lag effect, there's 11k people in hospital right now and a significant percentage of them may die. But the number of them who may die who were vaccinated will be miniscule. Looking at deaths and hospital figures I think overestimates the risk for removing lockdown now, since people aren't going to suddenly become unvaccinated again.
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
False economy.. in two weeks you would spend far more in the pub than on a year's license.
Prof Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said it was important to wait until schools go back next week to check that the numbers would continue to fall.
"We all have to hit the pause button until then," he said. "But if, after schools go back, there isn't a big uptick then we're in a very different position and can think about opening up sooner rather than later.
Telegraph
The paper is reporting that the real world data is ahead of modelled expected outcomes by several weeks.
Hospitalisation data looked to match the prediction almost exactly.
There's a lag effect isn't there so hospitalisations will be prior cases, which will likely be pre-vaccine.
There's a major lag effect, there's 11k people in hospital right now and a significant percentage of them may die. But the number of them who may die who were vaccinated will be miniscule. Looking at deaths and hospital figures I think overestimates the risk for removing lockdown now, since people aren't going to suddenly become unvaccinated again.
Scotland has been Ulsterized - so long as an even more militantly pro-independence party doesn't gain traction and outflank it, the SNP is completely secure.
That is the big risk.
Eck standing a raft of Real SNP candidates against Nippy's Continuity SNP
I think there is a very good chance of that , even if most will be on list, he would surely get some big hitters for selected constituency seats.
Are there any big hitters in Scotland,? They might be to the local eye , but otherwise will be largely unknown or forgotten...
Farage showed in the Euro elections what could be achieved in a very short period. Salmond as the figurehead, peel off some anti Sturgeon MSPs, and then open up a quick vetting process for a new list everywhere else. He’s just about got enough time hasn’t he?
He has indeed.
Good. I don’t particularly have a horse in the independence race. Just want the plurality of Scots to be happy, even if as an English Brit I’d miss the contribution made to UK life by the Scots. Seems to me that pro independence voters deserve a more honest candle holder for their cause than Sturgeon is proving herself to be.
Prof Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said it was important to wait until schools go back next week to check that the numbers would continue to fall.
"We all have to hit the pause button until then," he said. "But if, after schools go back, there isn't a big uptick then we're in a very different position and can think about opening up sooner rather than later.
Telegraph
The paper is reporting that the real world data is ahead of modelled expected outcomes by several weeks.
That seems a very reasonable suggestion. If numbers continue to fall with schools open then that would be very good news, I expect they will as the vaccine effect will be reducing R by ever increasing numbers.
I got my text a few minutes ago, I'm negative for the virus. Feeling fully better from whatever it was that hit me on Sunday now, whether it be a mild case that wasn't detected or something else.
Glad to hear about your result.
On the subject of schools going back and cases going up; it will happen as all pupils and staff are going to be tested three times in the first week or so and then weekly afterwards (assuming supplies of test kits hold out). This means lots of currently asymptomatic cases will be detected. The thing to look for is if the numbers are still going up a week or two after March the 8th which will mean significant transmission in school.
Scotland has been Ulsterized - so long as an even more militantly pro-independence party doesn't gain traction and outflank it, the SNP is completely secure.
That is the big risk.
Eck standing a raft of Real SNP candidates against Nippy's Continuity SNP
I think there is a very good chance of that , even if most will be on list, he would surely get some big hitters for selected constituency seats.
Are there any big hitters in Scotland,? They might be to the local eye , but otherwise will be largely unknown or forgotten...
Farage showed in the Euro elections what could be achieved in a very short period. Salmond as the figurehead, peel off some anti Sturgeon MSPs, and then open up a quick vetting process for a new list everywhere else. He’s just about got enough time hasn’t he?
He has indeed.
Would probably come far behind the SNP but under your electoral system win a significant slate of list MSPs if he did that.
Certainly far more likely to win list MSPs than Galloway's egotrip.
Sure. At sea. But not in British politics. It is outrageous: what she tried to do to Salmond
Yes yes yes, I'm a Yoon and a Brexiteer and I hate haggis
One of the (few) relevant questions being asked by bewildered Nats on Twitter is: why did she do it? Why even go near this? She was the anointed successor. A cool, clever politician, with a great future. Did she really fear Salmond's return to Edinburgh that much?
I don't buy it. I do believe she was involved in this conspiracy, but I am not yet clear on the motive. Bewildering
But you haven't heard her evidence yet. Good job you're not on the jury.
She has to do some fancy footwork to overcome that ferocious blast from her own lawyers. It is going to be bravura for sure.
More likely is she comes out of it a laughing stock. Contortion on obfuscation. With lots of unsteady memories. Which in itself will be a gift to her political foes.
BTW, her woes were the second item on the 10 o'clock news behind the Budget.
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
Can you get one then cancel it?
I thought you got a refund for unused months or is that only if moving?
Not last I checked, think you’re right only if moving to somewhere that already has one. When I was overseas I happily plonked down $$$ for a World Cup package off a dedicated streaming platform. But it was a fraction of the cost of an annual uk license. Clunky half time analysis courtesy of big hitters like Jermaine Pennant that managed to be 10x more illuminating than from the usual MOTD stooges.
The man who is most famous for forgetting he left his Porsche at an airport for five months is an expert commentator?
Prof Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said it was important to wait until schools go back next week to check that the numbers would continue to fall.
"We all have to hit the pause button until then," he said. "But if, after schools go back, there isn't a big uptick then we're in a very different position and can think about opening up sooner rather than later.
Telegraph
The paper is reporting that the real world data is ahead of modelled expected outcomes by several weeks.
Hospitalisation data looked to match the prediction almost exactly.
There's a lag effect isn't there so hospitalisations will be prior cases, which will likely be pre-vaccine.
There's a major lag effect, there's 11k people in hospital right now and a significant percentage of them may die. But the number of them who may die who were vaccinated will be miniscule. Looking at deaths and hospital figures I think overestimates the risk for removing lockdown now, since people aren't going to suddenly become unvaccinated again.
The lag isn't that long!
Sure it is. 3 weeks for vaccine to take effect + 2 weeks to be hospitalised + 1 weeks in hospital before dying say. That's 6 weeks, takes us back to January.
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
Can you get one then cancel it?
I thought you got a refund for unused months or is that only if moving?
Not last I checked, think you’re right only if moving to somewhere that already has one. When I was overseas I happily plonked down $$$ for a World Cup package off a dedicated streaming platform. But it was a fraction of the cost of an annual uk license. Clunky half time analysis courtesy of big hitters like Jermaine Pennant that managed to be 10x more illuminating than from the usual MOTD stooges.
The man who is most famous for forgetting he left his Porsche at an airport for five months is an expert commentator?
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
Can you get one then cancel it?
I thought you got a refund for unused months or is that only if moving?
Just watch it for a few weeks, they are not going to know. They send threatening letters to try and frighten people but they have no clue you are watching a TV and if they come to your house tell them to F off and get a search warrant.
After my mum passed away it was some time before they noticed.
It's a bit like Planning Enforcement - just normal stringing out will give you at least 6-9 months, and perhaps a year. Mechanisms are slightly different.
Prof Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said it was important to wait until schools go back next week to check that the numbers would continue to fall.
"We all have to hit the pause button until then," he said. "But if, after schools go back, there isn't a big uptick then we're in a very different position and can think about opening up sooner rather than later.
Telegraph
The paper is reporting that the real world data is ahead of modelled expected outcomes by several weeks.
Hospitalisation data looked to match the prediction almost exactly.
There's a lag effect isn't there so hospitalisations will be prior cases, which will likely be pre-vaccine.
There's a major lag effect, there's 11k people in hospital right now and a significant percentage of them may die. But the number of them who may die who were vaccinated will be miniscule. Looking at deaths and hospital figures I think overestimates the risk for removing lockdown now, since people aren't going to suddenly become unvaccinated again.
The lag isn't that long!
Sure it is. 3 weeks for vaccine to take effect + 2 weeks to be hospitalised + 1 weeks in hospital before dying say. That's 6 weeks, takes us back to January.
But the hospitalisation data refers to people who caught it maybe a week or so ago, pre-vaccine has nothing to do with it. And the projection was made more than a month ago. It was a prediction of future events when it was made.
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
False economy.. in two weeks you would spend far more in the pub than on a year's license.
However it would be much more enjoyable and you would have got your money's worth.
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
Whatever one views that the license view should be ended until it has been ended people who refuse to pay the license fee are cheating the system.The idea that 99% plus of people living in the UK are not in some way going to access BBC services is absurd.That PB users here who have stopped paying the license fee and are complaining about threatening letters - you deserve to get harassed by the GOVT.You are expecting other UK residents to pick up your BBC bill. I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
The BBC are so shit that nowadays many people don't use their "services".
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
The only things the bbc will broadcast this year I’m interested in are the Olympics, Euros and 6 episodes of Peaky Blinders. And they only have the rights to the first two because of state mandate. The latter will be available on iTunes for perhaps £15 at some point, if not free on Netflix. It depresses me that I’ll have to sign up for a license for the whole year to watch a bit of this summer’s sport.
Cancel your TV licence, and use the money to help out your local hospitality industry by watching the football in the pub!
Good point! To be honest I had forgotten pubs exist this early in the morning and this long into lockdown.
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
False economy.. in two weeks you would spend far more in the pub than on a year's license.
However it would be much more enjoyable and you would have got your money's worth.
Prof Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said it was important to wait until schools go back next week to check that the numbers would continue to fall.
"We all have to hit the pause button until then," he said. "But if, after schools go back, there isn't a big uptick then we're in a very different position and can think about opening up sooner rather than later.
Telegraph
The paper is reporting that the real world data is ahead of modelled expected outcomes by several weeks.
Hospitalisation data looked to match the prediction almost exactly.
Hospitalisation data is laggy. Daily hospitalisations for the UK have only been published up to the 23rd, for some reason it takes the small nations longer to come up with the figures. However England is available up to the 27th, and they are about a third lower than those published for the 23rd (624 v 976), so we should see substantial falls in the headline UK figure over the next few days.
Cases and deaths have fallen by 29% and 36% over the last week. This is an acceleration: not so long ago the decline in cases had fallen to 20% and deaths have been declining by about 30%. So some evidence of an acceleration.
Comments
This coincides exactly with the Thatcherite reforms and the time London's population began to increase, again, after many years of decline.
And this is where your second statement is wrong. London's decline didn't begin 15 years before 1986, it began waaaaaay before then, possibly 1939. when the population peaked, but arguably much before then, as financial power leaked to New York after World War 1, and as political power ebbed from the "Imperial" capital, increasingly losing its nerve.
I'd say London was in decline from 1914-1986. Then newly resurgent from 1986 to 2016. On hold til 2020. As of now? Who knows.
It may gain from Brexit freedoms and the struggles of other cities. Hong Kong, perhaps even NYC. Or it may tip into long term decline, once more. The loss of 500,000 citizens is not a great sign
And Victor Value for shopping.
We're running more along the lines of a 68 day plan though, except Wales - they're off doing their own thing.
I think part of the charter renewal should limit them to one enquiry to unlicensed addresses annually, on environmental grounds (how many trees a year to they waste on this currently!).
I believe that if you want to stop them you can block their implied right of access, including to post stuff to in your letterbox - if you want to particularly annoy them, you write as "the legal occupier" of your address without giving your name - this is legal, and they must comply, but their systems can't easily cope with it.
Out of interest, has anyone tried legal action against them under the Malicious Communications act 1988? This makes it an offence to send letters etc. with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
(1)Any person who sends to another person—
(a)a letter, electronic communication or article of any description which conveys—
(i)a message which is indecent or grossly offensive;
(ii)a threat; or
(iii)information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender;
is guilty of an offence if his purpose, or one of his purposes, in sending it is that it should, so far as falling within paragraph (a) or (b) above, cause distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom he intends that it or its contents or nature should be communicated.
(2)A person is not guilty of an offence by virtue of subsection (1)(a)(ii) above if he shows—
(a)that the threat was used to reinforce a demand made by him on reasonable grounds; and
(b)that he believed [F4, and had reasonable grounds for believing,] that the use of the threat was a proper means of reinforcing the demand.
I would argue that letters such as the one informing me "that enforcement officers are in my area", should fall nicely under section (1)(a) (iii). Also, all the letters would come under section (1)(a)(ii) and I'm not sure I would fancy my chances defending them on either test in section (2).
(California will not do well on this measure - but it should at least encourage the dreadful Newsom administration to not sit on 2m unused doses.)
Of course, it's harder in the EU. Germany and France may have done a dreadful job vaccinating people, but they have paid for the vaccines. It will be hard for the EU to withhold supplies from member states, no matter how poorly they perform.
If instead, you think he’ll be bringing you a lump of coal, he can be laid at 4.8 as next PM - and 3.5 as next Conservative leader - on Betfair right now.
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/politics/event/29513080/multi-market?marketIds=1.160843673
I agree with those who really dislike the majority of the measures trailed in the morning’s papers, but at least it shouldn’t detract from the real big news of the day up in Holyrood.
If after that there are still lots of unused doses then you could apply your idea to the Bundesländer, who are responsible.
Anyway, last time I checked, most of the rest of the EU were doing about the same as Germany and France, with only Malta doing significantly better.
I do not like the way the BBC is now run by woke activists, or its allocation of huge funds to cover Premier League football at the expense of other sports but i do use their services and BBC4 & BBC Parliamentary are excellent TV Channels whilst i listen to BBC radio in the car
Incidentally you only need to pay for TV (or a bigger issue live TV of other suppliers), not for the car radio. That's the law.
I respect those who have cancelled their licence fee and if I didn't pay for Sky Sports I'd probably cancel mine, but I see no justification to pay for the BBC because I like the football and cricket on Sky - or because other people like using the radio.
Given vaccine supply is only going to improve from here, and even a single dose confers significant protection, it is dumb beyond belief.
(California also follows this strategy, so stupidity is not just reserved for the continent.)
Tell the truth - and lose her job and the last shot at independence in decades
Lie - and lose her liberty and the last shot at independence in decades
Obfuscate and not remember - and lose her credibility and the last shot at independence in decades
Who'd be a politician, eh?
Does anyone think its a coincidence she's chosen Budget Day to be the day she gets her grilling?
Or the night before Budget Day to be the night the papers are released?
She'll obfuscate and not remember, wait for the Chancellor's speech to dominate the news, have very little publicity on this relative to what it deserves, then before long its old news, people close ranks and she glides on.
Exhibit A - The Sopranos
And remember - she's under oath.
But I am worried this is going to be like a reverse Scooby Doo - "she wouldn't have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for that meddling Sunak".
The best solution to all of this is the dissolution of the UK and independence all round. There's no future for a clapped out confederacy of England and Three Northern Irelands.
Eck standing a raft of Real SNP candidates against Nippy's Continuity SNP
What about Starmer?
Fantastic as it seems everything points to something being far wrong with the whole thing, if you see the whatsapp messages , Evans sending the "we lost the battle but will win the war " text etc after judicial review collapsed, they expected to still get him. Murrel of course had SNP sending e-mails on fishing expeditions according to witness statements, the whatsapp group discussing their case etc etc , there is a lot of disparate information out there if you piece it all together.
Even in the unlikely event that it started out with good intentions it went bad at some point. Hopefully one day we will see all the evidence and be able to make our own minds up.
If this is true, that Sturgeon was prepared to push Salmond under the bus (and possible imprisonment) off the back of that then no wonder Salmond is furious.
But coupled with The Prize. Being remembered as the person who delivered an independent Scotland. A statue in every town square. Picture on the banknote. Swanning off around the globe as Leader of the latest new country admitted to the UN.
And they thought if they only lied a bit more, The Prize was theirs.
'Entirely by coincidence' I'm sure it falls on Budget Day. She is a cynical, conniving person and I don't buy for one second its a coincidence. She's using every tool of state at her disposal to try and get away with this and having used the Crown Office etc she's now using the hated Westminster Treasury to try and hide behind.
Do you really think its a coincidence? That its not played in her mind this is the best day to bury bad news?
Ha!
Lots of people moaned that Blair was too presidential. Wait until Sunak is PM.
"We all have to hit the pause button until then," he said. "But if, after schools go back, there isn't a big uptick then we're in a very different position and can think about opening up sooner rather than later.
Telegraph
The paper is reporting that the real world data is ahead of modelled expected outcomes by several weeks.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2021/03/03/what-tactics-will-we-see/
(I do not have a tv license, which is why it would irk me to get one this summer just for a few weeks).
I got my text a few minutes ago, I'm negative for the virus. Feeling fully better from whatever it was that hit me on Sunday now, whether it be a mild case that wasn't detected or something else.
I thought you got a refund for unused months or is that only if moving?
There's a major lag effect, there's 11k people in hospital right now and a significant percentage of them may die. But the number of them who may die who were vaccinated will be miniscule. Looking at deaths and hospital figures I think overestimates the risk for removing lockdown now, since people aren't going to suddenly become unvaccinated again.
https://twitter.com/DollyParton/status/1366866210852323328?s=20
On the subject of schools going back and cases going up; it will happen as all pupils and staff are going to be tested three times in the first week or so and then weekly afterwards (assuming supplies of test kits hold out). This means lots of currently asymptomatic cases will be detected. The thing to look for is if the numbers are still going up a week or two after March the 8th which will mean significant transmission in school.
Certainly far more likely to win list MSPs than Galloway's egotrip.
https://caltonjock.com/2021/03/02/holyrood-inquiry-full-update-oct-dec-2017-including-input-from-salmond-sturgeon-and-many-others/
It's a bit like Planning Enforcement - just normal stringing out will give you at least 6-9 months, and perhaps a year. Mechanisms are slightly different.
Cases and deaths have fallen by 29% and 36% over the last week. This is an acceleration: not so long ago the decline in cases had fallen to 20% and deaths have been declining by about 30%. So some evidence of an acceleration.