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The extraordinary range of views of Nicola Sturgeon – politicalbetting.com

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  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,126
    edited April 2021
    DavidL said:

    Italy is about to overtake the UK once again on the Worldometer deaths per million scoreboard, I see.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    It feels like the UK's relatively rapid vaccination programme could make a big difference to that particuluar league table over the coming couple of months.

    Italy will overtake us tomorrow but there are pretty large gaps to anyone else. I suspect we will remain high on this particular leader board even if the gaps are reduced somewhat. January pushed us to a different level to most although some of the eastern European countries are having a terrible time.
    With some 2-3 months behind us we'll probably end up on that particular tally around 20th, which is about where we are in the world in scale of population (albeit those above us on Covid rate will not be the larger population ones, by and large) though with excess deaths and variable recording who can really say, and there'll be a whole series of places in about the same crappy level, give or take a bit.

    Eastern Europe is a long long way from that decent 2020.
    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    So in a few days we've gone back and forth between Alba helping toward a super majority without hurting the SNP, and it costing the SNP their majority (albeit still with a Sindy majority).

    It's driving me spare and we're still a month out - I don't know that my heart will make it through the ructions of the next Sindyref campaign.

    Be of good cheer. Boris really is gonna deny Sindyref2, so it won't be until 2024-25 earliest. No point in worrying.

    What will be popcorny fun is Salmond leading the Mahatma Gandhi style civil disobedience, as Nicola watches from Bute House, lip curling in shrewish disapproval, deeply tinged with personal loathing
    I only wish I could enjoy such a thing, even morbidly.

    It's not my favourite subject - I would hate it, but think a Sindyref needs to happen, but also would hate endless political strife if one was denied.

    It's going to suck.
  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,258

    Fenman said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I must the only one who finds “politician eats food” stories utterly trite.

    I’m thinking of Sir Keir’s fish and chips, Ed’s bacon sarnie and Ozzy’s burger.

    Who TF cares?

    I do, because it's a relief to talk about apparently trivial shit, as against deadly plague and dry economics. Also this stuff matters: the story of Ursula and The Chair is now everywhere, because it says something about Turkey, men, politics for women, the EU...

    And as for chips in the West Country, the moment I realised Teresa was a disaster was when she ate chips in Cornwall

    https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/859432589215617025?s=20
    Except the Tory vote share in St Austell & Newquay increased significantly, and the majority went up by about 3,000, in 2017. So perhaps Theresa May's chip eating style wasn't so off-putting after all?
    You maybe missed the other results?

    Seriously, when she ate those chips like an autistic, disarticulated android in a lady suit, who had never encountered carbohydrate-based foodstuffs before. that's when I knew she was in deeeeeeep trouble.

    Corbyn, for all his immense faults, always looked comfortable in his own skin. Boris always looks like he is enormously enjoying himself, or he is trying to hide the same hedonistic pleasure.

    Voters like to find their leaders relatable or cheering or, ideally, both. A leader that makes your teeth grind with embarrassment every time you see her, not so much
    She is diabetic and starches convert to sugars. Potato is best avoided.
    Very few diabetics avoid all carbohydrates, just use insulin at the right level to assimilate them.

    Er... I thought most type 2 diabetics take metformin rather than insulin.
    Type 2s can put it into remission by adopting a low carb high fat diet. Type 1 is a different beast and you run the risk of hypos so cutting it out altogether is not a great idea. Although it seems to me keeping both carbs and insulin low should be a good strategy.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,477

    Fenman said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I must the only one who finds “politician eats food” stories utterly trite.

    I’m thinking of Sir Keir’s fish and chips, Ed’s bacon sarnie and Ozzy’s burger.

    Who TF cares?

    I do, because it's a relief to talk about apparently trivial shit, as against deadly plague and dry economics. Also this stuff matters: the story of Ursula and The Chair is now everywhere, because it says something about Turkey, men, politics for women, the EU...

    And as for chips in the West Country, the moment I realised Teresa was a disaster was when she ate chips in Cornwall

    https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/859432589215617025?s=20
    Except the Tory vote share in St Austell & Newquay increased significantly, and the majority went up by about 3,000, in 2017. So perhaps Theresa May's chip eating style wasn't so off-putting after all?
    You maybe missed the other results?

    Seriously, when she ate those chips like an autistic, disarticulated android in a lady suit, who had never encountered carbohydrate-based foodstuffs before. that's when I knew she was in deeeeeeep trouble.

    Corbyn, for all his immense faults, always looked comfortable in his own skin. Boris always looks like he is enormously enjoying himself, or he is trying to hide the same hedonistic pleasure.

    Voters like to find their leaders relatable or cheering or, ideally, both. A leader that makes your teeth grind with embarrassment every time you see her, not so much
    She is diabetic and starches convert to sugars. Potato is best avoided.
    Very few diabetics avoid all carbohydrates, just use insulin at the right level to assimilate them.

    Yeah but eating a portion of chips is a shit idea if you are diabetic. The only good think in it is the fat. You need to keep your carbs at a moderate, constant level.
    Yes, you're right of course. Though in most cases even the fat isn't great. Beef tallow or coconut oil, those are probably OK for deep frying, but in most cases the oils aren't heat stable and are therefore full of free radicals. Not that it stops me you understand...
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,429
    kle4 said:

    DavidL said:

    Italy is about to overtake the UK once again on the Worldometer deaths per million scoreboard, I see.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    It feels like the UK's relatively rapid vaccination programme could make a big difference to that particuluar league table over the coming couple of months.

    Italy will overtake us tomorrow but there are pretty large gaps to anyone else. I suspect we will remain high on this particular leader board even if the gaps are reduced somewhat. January pushed us to a different level to most although some of the eastern European countries are having a terrible time.
    With some 2-3 months behind us we'll probably end up on that particular tally around 20th, which is about where we are in the world in scale of population (albeit those above us on Covid rate will not be the larger population ones, by and large) though with excess deaths and variable recording who can really say, and there'll be a whole series of places in about the same crappy level, give or take a bit.

    Eastern Europe is a long long way from that decent 2020.
    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    So in a few days we've gone back and forth between Alba helping toward a super majority without hurting the SNP, and it costing the SNP their majority (albeit still with a Sindy majority).

    It's driving me spare and we're still a month out - I don't know that my heart will make it through the ructions of the next Sindyref campaign.

    Be of good cheer. Boris really is gonna deny Sindyref2, so it won't be until 2024-25 earliest. No point in worrying.

    What will be popcorny fun is Salmond leading the Mahatma Gandhi style civil disobedience, as Nicola watches from Bute House, lip curling in shrewish disapproval, deeply tinged with personal loathing
    I only wish I could enjoy such a thing, even morbidly.

    It's not my favourite subject - I would hate it, but think a Sindyref needs to happen, but also would hate endless political strife if one was denied.

    It's going to suck.
    There will be endless political strife if indyref2 happens, there will be endless political strife if it doesn't. What's the difference. The one thing you can, however, forget for a while, is the idea it will happen. It won't

    Instead the focus will bat back to Edinburgh, and the final duel to the death between Alex "UDI" Salmond and Nicola "gradualist" Sturgeon. It will be gorgeously theatrical
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 26,617
    DavidL said:

    Italy is about to overtake the UK once again on the Worldometer deaths per million scoreboard, I see.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    It feels like the UK's relatively rapid vaccination programme could make a big difference to that particuluar league table over the coming couple of months.

    Italy will overtake us tomorrow but there are pretty large gaps to anyone else. I suspect we will remain high on this particular leader board even if the gaps are reduced somewhat. January pushed us to a different level to most although some of the eastern European countries are having a terrible time.
    I suspect Poland is going to rack up a huge number of deaths in the next month.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,410
    edited April 2021
    Anyways. The Stephen Hendry "comeback" was embarrassing. After winning the first frame, almost winning the second, he sat in his chair, heavily overweight, as a 23 year old Chinese ranked #84 knocked in 5 straight half centuries.
    Like watching the last fight of Mohammed Ali, but without the brain damage.
  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,258

    Fenman said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I must the only one who finds “politician eats food” stories utterly trite.

    I’m thinking of Sir Keir’s fish and chips, Ed’s bacon sarnie and Ozzy’s burger.

    Who TF cares?

    I do, because it's a relief to talk about apparently trivial shit, as against deadly plague and dry economics. Also this stuff matters: the story of Ursula and The Chair is now everywhere, because it says something about Turkey, men, politics for women, the EU...

    And as for chips in the West Country, the moment I realised Teresa was a disaster was when she ate chips in Cornwall

    https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/859432589215617025?s=20
    Except the Tory vote share in St Austell & Newquay increased significantly, and the majority went up by about 3,000, in 2017. So perhaps Theresa May's chip eating style wasn't so off-putting after all?
    You maybe missed the other results?

    Seriously, when she ate those chips like an autistic, disarticulated android in a lady suit, who had never encountered carbohydrate-based foodstuffs before. that's when I knew she was in deeeeeeep trouble.

    Corbyn, for all his immense faults, always looked comfortable in his own skin. Boris always looks like he is enormously enjoying himself, or he is trying to hide the same hedonistic pleasure.

    Voters like to find their leaders relatable or cheering or, ideally, both. A leader that makes your teeth grind with embarrassment every time you see her, not so much
    She is diabetic and starches convert to sugars. Potato is best avoided.
    Very few diabetics avoid all carbohydrates, just use insulin at the right level to assimilate them.

    Yeah but eating a portion of chips is a shit idea if you are diabetic. The only good think in it is the fat. You need to keep your carbs at a moderate, constant level.
    Yes, you're right of course. Though in most cases even the fat isn't great. Beef tallow or coconut oil, those are probably OK for deep frying, but in most cases the oils aren't heat stable and are therefore full of free radicals. Not that it stops me you understand...
    How many chippies still fry in beef dripping? My local one did when I lived in Newcastle, and when I worked in Notting Hill there was a Jewish chippy round the corner (Geales?). Now I'm low carb and chips are a rare treat. I do cook with coconut oil, butter and dripping though.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,103
    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    So in a few days we've gone back and forth between Alba helping toward a super majority without hurting the SNP, and it costing the SNP their majority (albeit still with a Sindy majority).

    It's driving me spare and we're still a month out - I don't know that my heart will make it through the ructions of the next Sindyref campaign.

    Be of good cheer. Boris really is gonna deny Sindyref2, so it won't be until 2024-25 earliest. No point in worrying.

    What will be popcorny fun is Salmond leading the Mahatma Gandhi style civil disobedience, as Nicola watches from Bute House, lip curling in shrewish disapproval, deeply tinged with personal loathing
    Correct, there will be no legal indyref2 allowed by this UK Tory government and any referendum held without Westminster consent will be ignored by the UK government and boycotted by Unionists
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,858

    DavidL said:

    Italy is about to overtake the UK once again on the Worldometer deaths per million scoreboard, I see.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    It feels like the UK's relatively rapid vaccination programme could make a big difference to that particuluar league table over the coming couple of months.

    Italy will overtake us tomorrow but there are pretty large gaps to anyone else. I suspect we will remain high on this particular leader board even if the gaps are reduced somewhat. January pushed us to a different level to most although some of the eastern European countries are having a terrible time.
    I suspect Poland is going to rack up a huge number of deaths in the next month.
    Yes they are having the equivalent to our January. Their numbers are awful.
  • RH1992RH1992 Posts: 788

    Oh wow! A smart and responsible front page from The S*n.

    Never thought I'd see the day. Hell hath completely frozen over.
    To be fair to the traditionally right leaning tabloid media, they've done a good job tonight. The Guardian and The i were more disappointing.

    https://twitter.com/OliverCooper/status/1379913670361280517
  • YokesYokes Posts: 1,335

    Yokes said:

    I have had the dubious pleasure of seeing close up rioting around my old stomping ground of West Belfast this evening where, as usual, the locals like to take things a step further, in this case petrol bombing a bus with the driver still in it. (Driver reportedly lucky)

    I am still hopeful that a bit of this recent trouble is what back in the day was always a bit of Easter causal rioting, kids off school, weather dry, kick off a bit. Sure we have upset over a number of things; NI Protocol & the police backing out of any sanction of senior Sinn Fein figures, including government ministers, over about as blatant a breach of Covid rules as you can get.

    There is a mysterious lack of media & police suggestions that the trouble is not being driven by certain loyalist groups, with the exception of a particular breakaway faction that has a bit of clout in a certain strip of County Antrim. This group is reportedly upset that the cops have been leaning on their drug trafficking,

    This seems rather remiss, deliberately so. The trouble is shifting around, different towns & different parts of Belfast suggesting a deliberate policy of action. When it kicks off in the way it did in the centre of loyalism in West Belfast, that kinda of thing has a particular sanction. The question is who? Is it one particular organisation or are they all in on it?

    Its wasteful because its going to achieve nothing, it has neither scale nor seriousness of impact at this point. Whilst someone is sending kids out for a bit of entertainment and possible conviction, the obvious thing they could do is kill some ranking EU official based in Belfast. Whilst not in anyway suggesting they should do it, it would probably get the kind of response they want. With the EU in particular such threat is likely to pay off.

    They won't though, instead they will just burn their own streets and maintain deniability.


    I wondered something along those lines.

    But the loyalist terrorists always come across as both criminal and thick.
    Indeed that's one interpretation that many would sympathise with. I notice Boris Johnson has weighed in this evening, days after this rolling run of trouble began. I'm not aware that he has directly passed comment until now. Maybe he has or maybe someone has explained something to him because I think tonight's little local outbreak has a different set of implications than what has come before. I remain hopeful once the kids are back to school things might settle a bit but there are well informed and experienced minds out there who think that those in positions of power have seriously underestimated a looming security issue.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,103

    Andy_JS said:

    I would not vote Labour if they supported the death penalty. Likewise any other party.

    Such an idea is a total abomination and must never be reintroduced.

    Labour voters seem to be getting more authoritarian. I'm sure the figures would have been lower a few years ago.
    That is surprising, as the more reactionary Labour voters are supposed to have jumped ship to the Tories, or the latest (hopefully last) Farage vehicle to appear on a ballot paper.

    Maybe it is the moderates, repelled by Corbyn that supported Johnson in GE2019 after all. In that case SKSIPM.
    Tory voters figures

    https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1379859795629457409?s=20
  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,258
    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Italy is about to overtake the UK once again on the Worldometer deaths per million scoreboard, I see.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    It feels like the UK's relatively rapid vaccination programme could make a big difference to that particuluar league table over the coming couple of months.

    Italy will overtake us tomorrow but there are pretty large gaps to anyone else. I suspect we will remain high on this particular leader board even if the gaps are reduced somewhat. January pushed us to a different level to most although some of the eastern European countries are having a terrible time.
    I suspect Poland is going to rack up a huge number of deaths in the next month.
    Yes they are having the equivalent to our January. Their numbers are awful.
    Hungary has been doing appallingly. They have been having 200-300 deaths a day with a sixth our population.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,477
    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    DavidL said:

    Italy is about to overtake the UK once again on the Worldometer deaths per million scoreboard, I see.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    It feels like the UK's relatively rapid vaccination programme could make a big difference to that particuluar league table over the coming couple of months.

    Italy will overtake us tomorrow but there are pretty large gaps to anyone else. I suspect we will remain high on this particular leader board even if the gaps are reduced somewhat. January pushed us to a different level to most although some of the eastern European countries are having a terrible time.
    With some 2-3 months behind us we'll probably end up on that particular tally around 20th, which is about where we are in the world in scale of population (albeit those above us on Covid rate will not be the larger population ones, by and large) though with excess deaths and variable recording who can really say, and there'll be a whole series of places in about the same crappy level, give or take a bit.

    Eastern Europe is a long long way from that decent 2020.
    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    So in a few days we've gone back and forth between Alba helping toward a super majority without hurting the SNP, and it costing the SNP their majority (albeit still with a Sindy majority).

    It's driving me spare and we're still a month out - I don't know that my heart will make it through the ructions of the next Sindyref campaign.

    Be of good cheer. Boris really is gonna deny Sindyref2, so it won't be until 2024-25 earliest. No point in worrying.

    What will be popcorny fun is Salmond leading the Mahatma Gandhi style civil disobedience, as Nicola watches from Bute House, lip curling in shrewish disapproval, deeply tinged with personal loathing
    I only wish I could enjoy such a thing, even morbidly.

    It's not my favourite subject - I would hate it, but think a Sindyref needs to happen, but also would hate endless political strife if one was denied.

    It's going to suck.
    There will be endless political strife if indyref2 happens, there will be endless political strife if it doesn't. What's the difference. The one thing you can, however, forget for a while, is the idea it will happen. It won't

    Instead the focus will bat back to Edinburgh, and the final duel to the death between Alex "UDI" Salmond and Nicola "gradualist" Sturgeon. It will be gorgeously theatrical
    I feel like there's now a possible endgame scenario where the SNP's Scottish Government does something like goes bankrupt and requires a UK bailout. Not unlike the original circumstances behind the Act of Union. I don't want this to happen; I want Scotland to choose the Union and us all to choose to move forward together as one slightly dysfunctional family. I suppose we'll see.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,083
    RH1992 said:

    Oh wow! A smart and responsible front page from The S*n.

    Never thought I'd see the day. Hell hath completely frozen over.
    To be fair to the traditionally right leaning tabloid media, they've done a good job tonight. The Guardian and The i were more disappointing.

    twitter.com/OliverCooper/status/1379913670361280517
    I wonder how much more dangerous wild swimming is than the AZN jab?
  • ChameleonChameleon Posts: 4,264
    edited April 2021
    The only sustainable solution for NI are e-borders between GB & NI as well as NI & RoI, and by e-borders I means borders largely in the legal fiction sense. It'd suit London, Belfast, and Dublin with the only losers being based in Brussels, and given that even the EU wouldn't be silly enough to send in EU agents to enforce an NI & RoI border it'd be yet another classic NI fudge.

    Everything up until that point is just about generating enough political cover to make it happen.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,586
    edited April 2021

    Leon said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    Charles said:

    MaxPB said:

    Charles said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    Why have we not completely sealed the border?

    Again, I do not remotely understand, and I will never forgive. We are an island. Take advantage. Close. The. Fucking. Borders
    We're into the second year of this plaintive cry from all political hues on here.
    Yet folk continue to merrily traipse backwards and forwards...
    Which is why I believe there is something we don’t know.

    I do know we are unbelievable economically linked to flights, especially to the US.

    But if might be something as simple as BA saying it will go bust and sell all its Heathrow slots to the Americans
    Wouldn't we simply bail out BA for a year at that point?
    Probably

    My point is that government is usually logical even if wrong. So there is some reason why it hasn’t closed the borders
    That's my sense too. There's a reason which cannot speak its name.
    Which is?
    We don't know.
    But we're all pretty damn sure there must be one. As what we observe makes no sense otherwise.
    It is the political equivalent of dark matter.
    But given that not a single politician seems to be bothered it would mean that the secret was widely known and universally supported.
    And yet I know a lot of politically connected people and none can explain it, apart from a few lefties who waffle about xenophobia and a few righties who waffle about freedom and trade, so I genuinely suspect it is a toxic combination of these two stupidities, with generalised apathy about tackling such a difficult problem in an interconnected country like the UK. All this plus the Ebola hangover thing, and a pious belief travel bans "don't work" when it is now absolutely clear that they do
    Which also raises the question if it is "an article of faith" how come Oz and NZ are recusant?
    I know it's much easier to implement there, but, the figures, and the relative lack of any other restrictions shout for themselves, don't they?
    It is lazy, complacent groupthink from people who believe they are smarter than they are. Watching Jonathan "masks don't work" Van Tam today just rammed it home. Why is this waffling no-mark still in a job after that hideous, repeated error?

    They are a clerisy, and they support each other. If they admit one of their number has completely fucked up, all may fall. So they go along with the established beliefs, and bear no bad witness to each other, until such time as they are so absurdly wrong they quietly shift, all at once. Again, see the advice on masks, effortlessly segueing from masks are bad to masks are brilliant, and yet no one lied, and/or no one got it terribly terribly wrong?

    At the end of this, we need a reckoning, A whole cohort of politicians and scientists and civil servants need to be sacked and driven from public life. They have monumentally failed. 150,000 have died, and still more may die.

    This can't be ignored with feeble inquiries like Iraq. This is a once-in-a-century failure of governance, guidance, and public health policy.

    Indeed, and the government is stil basing policies, such as vaccine passports, on their idiotic ideas and failed models. It's weird that you realise they're rubbish at everything and yet still trust them to do right by us on vaccine passport data modelling.m,
    My support for vaxports has fuck all to do with their shitty models. I just understand human psychology., especially cautious older folk, and I comprehend that things like theatres and concert halls will only reopen with the reassurance provided by vaxports. Otherwise too many people will be too scared

    You can't wish this away with "data on hospitalisations". The public has been successfully terrified - see their support for every severe measure - and it now needs symbolic hand-holding, to lead it back to normality. Vaxports may do that. They are certainly worth a punt

    On this Boris is right
    No he's not.

    The border is the SOLE risk. Not people going to the pub, seeing their nan, seeing a movie, hugging a grandchild, going to the theatre or going out to pull and get laid.

    I'm a supporter of this government, but if they continue to deny our fundamental liberties, while letting people flock to other countries where the pandemic is burning wild - where restrictions there are loser here - then people can come back and mingle here; it is no way to run a country. It is no way to treat liberties.

    Are we seriously thinking that in May people can go clubbing in Magaluf but not in Bristol, that it makes sense? Don't be bloody stupid.
    True. The border has always been the sole risk in fact. If we'd closed it immediately we wouldn't have had much of an epidemic, as Australia and New Zealand have shown. I've heard the arguments about lorry drivers, etc, and ways could have been found to sort out that problem.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,126

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Italy is about to overtake the UK once again on the Worldometer deaths per million scoreboard, I see.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    It feels like the UK's relatively rapid vaccination programme could make a big difference to that particuluar league table over the coming couple of months.

    Italy will overtake us tomorrow but there are pretty large gaps to anyone else. I suspect we will remain high on this particular leader board even if the gaps are reduced somewhat. January pushed us to a different level to most although some of the eastern European countries are having a terrible time.
    I suspect Poland is going to rack up a huge number of deaths in the next month.
    Yes they are having the equivalent to our January. Their numbers are awful.
    Hungary has been doing appallingly. They have been having 200-300 deaths a day with a sixth our population.
    It'd be like Brazil having 7000 a day - feels like the Eastern Europe wave being like our January should be bigger news. Come to that I was amazed how blase we were about our January.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 26,617
    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Italy is about to overtake the UK once again on the Worldometer deaths per million scoreboard, I see.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    It feels like the UK's relatively rapid vaccination programme could make a big difference to that particuluar league table over the coming couple of months.

    Italy will overtake us tomorrow but there are pretty large gaps to anyone else. I suspect we will remain high on this particular leader board even if the gaps are reduced somewhat. January pushed us to a different level to most although some of the eastern European countries are having a terrible time.
    I suspect Poland is going to rack up a huge number of deaths in the next month.
    Yes they are having the equivalent to our January. Their numbers are awful.
    https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1379848748340293637

    Polish hospital number are proportionally nearly double what the UK peaked at and still rising.

    Since peak UK hospital numbers there have been 36k UK deaths.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,692
    France is again not publishing its data on cases because of a technical issue...
  • YokesYokes Posts: 1,335
    Chameleon said:

    The only sustainable solution for NI are e-borders between GB & NI as well as NI & RoI, and by e-borders I means borders largely in the legal fiction sense. It'd suit London, Belfast, and Dublin with the only losers being based in Brussels, and given that even the EU wouldn't be silly enough to send in EU agents to enforce an NI & RoI border it'd be yet another classic NI fudge.

    Everything up until that point is just about generating enough political cover to make it happen.

    A practical solution is doable but concern is growing it might take some people to die in order to get it.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,477

    Fenman said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I must the only one who finds “politician eats food” stories utterly trite.

    I’m thinking of Sir Keir’s fish and chips, Ed’s bacon sarnie and Ozzy’s burger.

    Who TF cares?

    I do, because it's a relief to talk about apparently trivial shit, as against deadly plague and dry economics. Also this stuff matters: the story of Ursula and The Chair is now everywhere, because it says something about Turkey, men, politics for women, the EU...

    And as for chips in the West Country, the moment I realised Teresa was a disaster was when she ate chips in Cornwall

    https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/859432589215617025?s=20
    Except the Tory vote share in St Austell & Newquay increased significantly, and the majority went up by about 3,000, in 2017. So perhaps Theresa May's chip eating style wasn't so off-putting after all?
    You maybe missed the other results?

    Seriously, when she ate those chips like an autistic, disarticulated android in a lady suit, who had never encountered carbohydrate-based foodstuffs before. that's when I knew she was in deeeeeeep trouble.

    Corbyn, for all his immense faults, always looked comfortable in his own skin. Boris always looks like he is enormously enjoying himself, or he is trying to hide the same hedonistic pleasure.

    Voters like to find their leaders relatable or cheering or, ideally, both. A leader that makes your teeth grind with embarrassment every time you see her, not so much
    She is diabetic and starches convert to sugars. Potato is best avoided.
    Very few diabetics avoid all carbohydrates, just use insulin at the right level to assimilate them.

    Yeah but eating a portion of chips is a shit idea if you are diabetic. The only good think in it is the fat. You need to keep your carbs at a moderate, constant level.
    Yes, you're right of course. Though in most cases even the fat isn't great. Beef tallow or coconut oil, those are probably OK for deep frying, but in most cases the oils aren't heat stable and are therefore full of free radicals. Not that it stops me you understand...
    How many chippies still fry in beef dripping? My local one did when I lived in Newcastle, and when I worked in Notting Hill there was a Jewish chippy round the corner (Geales?). Now I'm low carb and chips are a rare treat. I do cook with coconut oil, butter and dripping though.
    When I lived near Edinburgh my local used beef tallow. Only know that because I saw the boxes one day - I am sure they had loads of 'vegetarian' customers. :lol: No idea what they use around these here parts. Definitely not coconut oil!

    Chips aren't a terrible way to consume carbs I don't think. Mainly because if you have a small portion you're not getting that much potato. Pasta I would say is far worse.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,126
    RH1992 said:

    Oh wow! A smart and responsible front page from The S*n.

    Never thought I'd see the day. Hell hath completely frozen over.
    To be fair to the traditionally right leaning tabloid media, they've done a good job tonight. The Guardian and The i were more disappointing.

    https://twitter.com/OliverCooper/status/1379913670361280517
    Despite some griping about lobby questions at daily Covid briefings, I think the media has not actually had a bad crisis on the whole. Obsessed with holidays and a level of detail that may not be possible, sure, but it feels like they have not sensatationalised for the sake of it.

    Same with the opposition. There are things they could, perhaps should, have pushed back more on, but they really haven't politicised elements of the Covid response and especially the vaccination programme at this stage at least. Even Farage, seemingly intending RefUK to be antilockdown and so could have gone down that route, hasn't bothered. It really has only been total cranks who have sought to spread discord, meaning even if they are not agreed with, the political skeptics at least have been mostly on topic.
  • HYUFD said:

    Andy_JS said:

    I would not vote Labour if they supported the death penalty. Likewise any other party.

    Such an idea is a total abomination and must never be reintroduced.

    Labour voters seem to be getting more authoritarian. I'm sure the figures would have been lower a few years ago.
    That is surprising, as the more reactionary Labour voters are supposed to have jumped ship to the Tories, or the latest (hopefully last) Farage vehicle to appear on a ballot paper.

    Maybe it is the moderates, repelled by Corbyn that supported Johnson in GE2019 after all. In that case SKSIPM.
    Tory voters figures

    https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1379859795629457409?s=20
    I am in the 15%
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,858

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    DavidL said:

    Italy is about to overtake the UK once again on the Worldometer deaths per million scoreboard, I see.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    It feels like the UK's relatively rapid vaccination programme could make a big difference to that particuluar league table over the coming couple of months.

    Italy will overtake us tomorrow but there are pretty large gaps to anyone else. I suspect we will remain high on this particular leader board even if the gaps are reduced somewhat. January pushed us to a different level to most although some of the eastern European countries are having a terrible time.
    With some 2-3 months behind us we'll probably end up on that particular tally around 20th, which is about where we are in the world in scale of population (albeit those above us on Covid rate will not be the larger population ones, by and large) though with excess deaths and variable recording who can really say, and there'll be a whole series of places in about the same crappy level, give or take a bit.

    Eastern Europe is a long long way from that decent 2020.
    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    So in a few days we've gone back and forth between Alba helping toward a super majority without hurting the SNP, and it costing the SNP their majority (albeit still with a Sindy majority).

    It's driving me spare and we're still a month out - I don't know that my heart will make it through the ructions of the next Sindyref campaign.

    Be of good cheer. Boris really is gonna deny Sindyref2, so it won't be until 2024-25 earliest. No point in worrying.

    What will be popcorny fun is Salmond leading the Mahatma Gandhi style civil disobedience, as Nicola watches from Bute House, lip curling in shrewish disapproval, deeply tinged with personal loathing
    I only wish I could enjoy such a thing, even morbidly.

    It's not my favourite subject - I would hate it, but think a Sindyref needs to happen, but also would hate endless political strife if one was denied.

    It's going to suck.
    There will be endless political strife if indyref2 happens, there will be endless political strife if it doesn't. What's the difference. The one thing you can, however, forget for a while, is the idea it will happen. It won't

    Instead the focus will bat back to Edinburgh, and the final duel to the death between Alex "UDI" Salmond and Nicola "gradualist" Sturgeon. It will be gorgeously theatrical
    I feel like there's now a possible endgame scenario where the SNP's Scottish Government does something like goes bankrupt and requires a UK bailout. Not unlike the original circumstances behind the Act of Union. I don't want this to happen; I want Scotland to choose the Union and us all to choose to move forward together as one slightly dysfunctional family. I suppose we'll see.
    The £500m of guarantees could be like a latter day Darien. I find the failure to mention this or all the other failures of government baffling. This is an election when the principal opposition party is making absolutely no attempt to offer an alternative to a tired, corrupt, incompetent and riven government that has been in office 14 years. Whose finance minister had to resign as a sex pest, whose education minister is hiding a condemnatory international report about the shambles he has made of our education until after the election. Which is involved in a bitter civil war with the previous FM. Its an absolute disgrace.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,355
    Foxy said:

    Scott_xP said:
    I am surprised we haven't had the Johnson fanclub blame it on Blair's shortsightedness when crafting the GFA.

    Write out 100 times, "it is never Boris Johnson's fault".
    I think the biggest problem with the GFA is that it fossilised sectarianism in the form of power sharing. Essential though that was to bring peace, it does prevent a move to post sectarian politics. It also entrenched the dysfunctional Stormont non-government.

    I don't think that possible to move forward without revision, but what a tinderbox reopening the constitutional status of Northern Ireland would be.
    The theory behind the GFA was that the violent types would split into those who could make it in politics and those who couldn't.

    The political ones are now protected (89 people in a 3 stall mens toilet??). And they are less and less likely to be seen alive or dead in the those pubs, anymore.

    For the moment, those who couldn't are being left alone - their criminal empires untouched.

    The idea was that later, when memories had faded a bit, the drug dealers and extortionists could be swept up. See the end of the Yugoslav Wars - especially Serbia.

    This was one reason for the Continuity IRA, the Real IRA and the rest of the comic tribute acts - they were about keeping the flame going to protect the old war horses. They knew once they were seen an embarrassment to their now civilised former comrades, they would be for the chop....
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,429

    Fenman said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I must the only one who finds “politician eats food” stories utterly trite.

    I’m thinking of Sir Keir’s fish and chips, Ed’s bacon sarnie and Ozzy’s burger.

    Who TF cares?

    I do, because it's a relief to talk about apparently trivial shit, as against deadly plague and dry economics. Also this stuff matters: the story of Ursula and The Chair is now everywhere, because it says something about Turkey, men, politics for women, the EU...

    And as for chips in the West Country, the moment I realised Teresa was a disaster was when she ate chips in Cornwall

    https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/859432589215617025?s=20
    Except the Tory vote share in St Austell & Newquay increased significantly, and the majority went up by about 3,000, in 2017. So perhaps Theresa May's chip eating style wasn't so off-putting after all?
    You maybe missed the other results?

    Seriously, when she ate those chips like an autistic, disarticulated android in a lady suit, who had never encountered carbohydrate-based foodstuffs before. that's when I knew she was in deeeeeeep trouble.

    Corbyn, for all his immense faults, always looked comfortable in his own skin. Boris always looks like he is enormously enjoying himself, or he is trying to hide the same hedonistic pleasure.

    Voters like to find their leaders relatable or cheering or, ideally, both. A leader that makes your teeth grind with embarrassment every time you see her, not so much
    She is diabetic and starches convert to sugars. Potato is best avoided.
    Very few diabetics avoid all carbohydrates, just use insulin at the right level to assimilate them.

    Yeah but eating a portion of chips is a shit idea if you are diabetic. The only good think in it is the fat. You need to keep your carbs at a moderate, constant level.
    Yes, you're right of course. Though in most cases even the fat isn't great. Beef tallow or coconut oil, those are probably OK for deep frying, but in most cases the oils aren't heat stable and are therefore full of free radicals. Not that it stops me you understand...
    How many chippies still fry in beef dripping? My local one did when I lived in Newcastle, and when I worked in Notting Hill there was a Jewish chippy round the corner (Geales?). Now I'm low carb and chips are a rare treat. I do cook with coconut oil, butter and dripping though.
    But the heavenly smell of chips cooked in beef dripping! It is the marvellous smell of an old fashioned chippy with newspaper wrappers (and jumpers for goalposts etc). Something floating along a street on a wet Friday night. OMG Yum

    It is not a myth. Chips could in beef dripping are greatly better in flavour. There used to be one in Holborn that still did it and the aroma was Proustian in quality
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,083
    This super deadly Nigerian variant....I am amazed it has managed to mutate in Nigeria and clearly can't be that deadly as more covid / covid deaths in Solihull than the whole of Nigeria most weeks.....if you believe their official figures, one of the safest places on the planet.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,710

    Fenman said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I must the only one who finds “politician eats food” stories utterly trite.

    I’m thinking of Sir Keir’s fish and chips, Ed’s bacon sarnie and Ozzy’s burger.

    Who TF cares?

    I do, because it's a relief to talk about apparently trivial shit, as against deadly plague and dry economics. Also this stuff matters: the story of Ursula and The Chair is now everywhere, because it says something about Turkey, men, politics for women, the EU...

    And as for chips in the West Country, the moment I realised Teresa was a disaster was when she ate chips in Cornwall

    https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/859432589215617025?s=20
    Except the Tory vote share in St Austell & Newquay increased significantly, and the majority went up by about 3,000, in 2017. So perhaps Theresa May's chip eating style wasn't so off-putting after all?
    You maybe missed the other results?

    Seriously, when she ate those chips like an autistic, disarticulated android in a lady suit, who had never encountered carbohydrate-based foodstuffs before. that's when I knew she was in deeeeeeep trouble.

    Corbyn, for all his immense faults, always looked comfortable in his own skin. Boris always looks like he is enormously enjoying himself, or he is trying to hide the same hedonistic pleasure.

    Voters like to find their leaders relatable or cheering or, ideally, both. A leader that makes your teeth grind with embarrassment every time you see her, not so much
    She is diabetic and starches convert to sugars. Potato is best avoided.
    Very few diabetics avoid all carbohydrates, just use insulin at the right level to assimilate them.

    Yeah but eating a portion of chips is a shit idea if you are diabetic. The only good think in it is the fat. You need to keep your carbs at a moderate, constant level.
    Yes, you're right of course. Though in most cases even the fat isn't great. Beef tallow or coconut oil, those are probably OK for deep frying, but in most cases the oils aren't heat stable and are therefore full of free radicals. Not that it stops me you understand...
    How many chippies still fry in beef dripping? My local one did when I lived in Newcastle, and when I worked in Notting Hill there was a Jewish chippy round the corner (Geales?). Now I'm low carb and chips are a rare treat. I do cook with coconut oil, butter and dripping though.
    When I lived near Edinburgh my local used beef tallow. Only know that because I saw the boxes one day - I am sure they had loads of 'vegetarian' customers. :lol: No idea what they use around these here parts. Definitely not coconut oil!

    Chips aren't a terrible way to consume carbs I don't think. Mainly because if you have a small portion you're not getting that much potato. Pasta I would say is far worse.
    Chips are the major source of vitamin C in the British diet. Potatos have a reasonable dose, and frying keeps it as being water-soluble it is lost by boiling and mashing etc.

    Not that I have them often. Maybe once a fortnight, but we'll made chips are great.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,858

    HYUFD said:

    Andy_JS said:

    I would not vote Labour if they supported the death penalty. Likewise any other party.

    Such an idea is a total abomination and must never be reintroduced.

    Labour voters seem to be getting more authoritarian. I'm sure the figures would have been lower a few years ago.
    That is surprising, as the more reactionary Labour voters are supposed to have jumped ship to the Tories, or the latest (hopefully last) Farage vehicle to appear on a ballot paper.

    Maybe it is the moderates, repelled by Corbyn that supported Johnson in GE2019 after all. In that case SKSIPM.
    Tory voters figures

    https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1379859795629457409?s=20
    I am in the 15%
    Ditto.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,083
    kle4 said:

    RH1992 said:

    Oh wow! A smart and responsible front page from The S*n.

    Never thought I'd see the day. Hell hath completely frozen over.
    To be fair to the traditionally right leaning tabloid media, they've done a good job tonight. The Guardian and The i were more disappointing.

    https://twitter.com/OliverCooper/status/1379913670361280517
    Despite some griping about lobby questions at daily Covid briefings, I think the media has not actually had a bad crisis on the whole. Obsessed with holidays and a level of detail that may not be possible, sure, but it feels like they have not sensatationalised for the sake of it.

    Same with the opposition. There are things they could, perhaps should, have pushed back more on, but they really haven't politicised elements of the Covid response and especially the vaccination programme at this stage at least. Even Farage, seemingly intending RefUK to be antilockdown and so could have gone down that route, hasn't bothered. It really has only been total cranks who have sought to spread discord, meaning even if they are not agreed with, the political skeptics at least have been mostly on topic.
    Nonsense....the media have been absolutely shit. If i was to sum up their coverage.....taps mic, sniff sniff, WROOONGG, would be the usual summary of their daily coverage.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,429
    edited April 2021

    DavidL said:

    Italy is about to overtake the UK once again on the Worldometer deaths per million scoreboard, I see.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    It feels like the UK's relatively rapid vaccination programme could make a big difference to that particuluar league table over the coming couple of months.

    Italy will overtake us tomorrow but there are pretty large gaps to anyone else. I suspect we will remain high on this particular leader board even if the gaps are reduced somewhat. January pushed us to a different level to most although some of the eastern European countries are having a terrible time.
    I suspect Poland is going to rack up a huge number of deaths in the next month.
    + the Ukraine

    They just recorded their worst ever day of deaths: 481

    The virus is still rampant and surging in large parts of the world

    EDIT: Also Iran, now going into its 4th, 5th, 6th wave? Who knows with their shonky stats. I see they have now decided AZ is OK, and not haram and made by the Little Satan
  • ChameleonChameleon Posts: 4,264
    Yokes said:

    Chameleon said:

    The only sustainable solution for NI are e-borders between GB & NI as well as NI & RoI, and by e-borders I means borders largely in the legal fiction sense. It'd suit London, Belfast, and Dublin with the only losers being based in Brussels, and given that even the EU wouldn't be silly enough to send in EU agents to enforce an NI & RoI border it'd be yet another classic NI fudge.

    Everything up until that point is just about generating enough political cover to make it happen.

    A practical solution is doable but concern is growing it might take some people to die in order to get it.
    I don't doubt it, sadly. Deaths generate a hell of a lot of concern, and will make all decision-makers sit up and take notice.

    My big concern is around the 10th-12th, 100th anniversary combined with people looking to blow off steam and hardline groups out with a point to prove is unlikely to end superbly.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,126
    Leon said:

    DavidL said:

    Italy is about to overtake the UK once again on the Worldometer deaths per million scoreboard, I see.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    It feels like the UK's relatively rapid vaccination programme could make a big difference to that particuluar league table over the coming couple of months.

    Italy will overtake us tomorrow but there are pretty large gaps to anyone else. I suspect we will remain high on this particular leader board even if the gaps are reduced somewhat. January pushed us to a different level to most although some of the eastern European countries are having a terrible time.
    I suspect Poland is going to rack up a huge number of deaths in the next month.
    + the Ukraine

    They just recorded their worst ever day of deaths: 481

    The virus is still rampant and surging in large parts of the world

    Well, they had better hope it is not surging among Russian army troops, I mean holidayers, or it'll only get worse.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,586
    edited April 2021

    This super deadly Nigerian variant....I am amazed it has managed to mutate in Nigeria and clearly can't be that deadly as more covid / covid deaths in Solihull than the whole of Nigeria most weeks.....if you believe their official figures, one of the safest places on the planet.

    Having a very young population will be helpful for Nigeria and other African countries.

    The median age in Nigeria is 17.9 years according to Google. In the UK it's 40.5 years.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,865
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/822cf638-97b1-11eb-844f-28fd7a30ed88?shareToken=8ca8032cde079109b89496064b081a18

    Peter Brookes is another one who's brains have been completely addled by brexit. Absolutely stupid cartoon.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,083
    edited April 2021
    Andy_JS said:

    This super deadly Nigerian variant....I am amazed it has managed to mutate in Nigeria and clearly can't be that deadly as more covid / covid deaths in Solihull than the whole of Nigeria most weeks.....if you believe their official figures, one of the safest places on the planet.

    Having a very young population will be helpful for Nigeria and other African countries. The median age in Nigeria is 17.9 years according Google.
    There is having a yoing population and there is having bullshit numbers.... remember when we were told India wasn't suffering too badly because of their young population with hardy immune systems....then they started testing some more....
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,212
    US public opinion trending in the right direction.
    https://twitter.com/HarrisPoll/status/1379796526000713737
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,477
    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    DavidL said:

    Italy is about to overtake the UK once again on the Worldometer deaths per million scoreboard, I see.

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

    It feels like the UK's relatively rapid vaccination programme could make a big difference to that particuluar league table over the coming couple of months.

    Italy will overtake us tomorrow but there are pretty large gaps to anyone else. I suspect we will remain high on this particular leader board even if the gaps are reduced somewhat. January pushed us to a different level to most although some of the eastern European countries are having a terrible time.
    With some 2-3 months behind us we'll probably end up on that particular tally around 20th, which is about where we are in the world in scale of population (albeit those above us on Covid rate will not be the larger population ones, by and large) though with excess deaths and variable recording who can really say, and there'll be a whole series of places in about the same crappy level, give or take a bit.

    Eastern Europe is a long long way from that decent 2020.
    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    So in a few days we've gone back and forth between Alba helping toward a super majority without hurting the SNP, and it costing the SNP their majority (albeit still with a Sindy majority).

    It's driving me spare and we're still a month out - I don't know that my heart will make it through the ructions of the next Sindyref campaign.

    Be of good cheer. Boris really is gonna deny Sindyref2, so it won't be until 2024-25 earliest. No point in worrying.

    What will be popcorny fun is Salmond leading the Mahatma Gandhi style civil disobedience, as Nicola watches from Bute House, lip curling in shrewish disapproval, deeply tinged with personal loathing
    I only wish I could enjoy such a thing, even morbidly.

    It's not my favourite subject - I would hate it, but think a Sindyref needs to happen, but also would hate endless political strife if one was denied.

    It's going to suck.
    There will be endless political strife if indyref2 happens, there will be endless political strife if it doesn't. What's the difference. The one thing you can, however, forget for a while, is the idea it will happen. It won't

    Instead the focus will bat back to Edinburgh, and the final duel to the death between Alex "UDI" Salmond and Nicola "gradualist" Sturgeon. It will be gorgeously theatrical
    I feel like there's now a possible endgame scenario where the SNP's Scottish Government does something like goes bankrupt and requires a UK bailout. Not unlike the original circumstances behind the Act of Union. I don't want this to happen; I want Scotland to choose the Union and us all to choose to move forward together as one slightly dysfunctional family. I suppose we'll see.
    The £500m of guarantees could be like a latter day Darien. I find the failure to mention this or all the other failures of government baffling. This is an election when the principal opposition party is making absolutely no attempt to offer an alternative to a tired, corrupt, incompetent and riven government that has been in office 14 years. Whose finance minister had to resign as a sex pest, whose education minister is hiding a condemnatory international report about the shambles he has made of our education until after the election. Which is involved in a bitter civil war with the previous FM. Its an absolute disgrace.
    To be fair to the poor SCONs, we are not dealing with normal politics. Normal Governments do shit and you vote them out. We don't have a normal Government, we have a representation of many peoples' own Scottish identity. So it really doesn't matter how big the scandal. The corpse is rotten but it just keeps walking. One thing is for sure, when it does all come down it is going to be Biblical.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,865
    Nigelb said:

    US public opinion trending in the right direction.
    https://twitter.com/HarrisPoll/status/1379796526000713737

    That's excellent news, 77% with a 95% efficacy vaccine takes them very close to herd immunity.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,429
    MaxPB said:

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/822cf638-97b1-11eb-844f-28fd7a30ed88?shareToken=8ca8032cde079109b89496064b081a18

    Peter Brookes is another one who's brains have been completely addled by brexit. Absolutely stupid cartoon.

    Christ yes that is shockingly bad. Let's all laugh at the excellent vaccine made in Britain with British taxpayers' money, the one single vaccine sold around the world not-for-profit, and with its IP given away for free to the 3rd world, to help poor people

    Hilarious

  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,380
    Foxy said:

    Scott_xP said:
    I am surprised we haven't had the Johnson fanclub blame it on Blair's shortsightedness when crafting the GFA.

    Write out 100 times, "it is never Boris Johnson's fault".
    I think the biggest problem with the GFA is that it fossilised sectarianism in the form of power sharing. Essential though that was to bring peace, it does prevent a move to post sectarian politics. It also entrenched the dysfunctional Stormont non-government.

    I don't think that possible to move forward without revision, but what a tinderbox reopening the constitutional status of Northern Ireland would be.
    I spend a lot of my time (well not for the last 12 months) in Northern Ireland, and sectarianism is still rampant.

    I am amazed that the fragile peace has continued for so long. I am not sure some English politicians (yes Theresa and Boris) understand the fragility of a peaceful life in the province. I thought Mrs May was foolish to make the post GE2017 arrangement with the DUP, but contrary to my expectations it worked out OK. Johnson's border in the North Sea was equally foolish, but not as foolish as land borders between the North and South would have been.

    The Brexit brokered by Johnson is incompatible with the GFA and probably peace in the North. A return to the troubles might be seen to be a price worth paying for the Brexit that Johnson's backers demanded.

    The only plan for post-sectarianism can be reunification, and that would piss one side off for a couple of generations.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    MaxPB said:

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/822cf638-97b1-11eb-844f-28fd7a30ed88?shareToken=8ca8032cde079109b89496064b081a18

    Peter Brookes is another one who's brains have been completely addled by brexit. Absolutely stupid cartoon.

    Irresponsible. He like the Guardian cartoonist I forget his name who portrayed Patel in a racist cartoon is never funny at the best of times, but has completely lost his minds.

    The Times are irresponsible for allowing this to go to print. Not funny, not big and not clever.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,477
    Foxy said:

    Fenman said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I must the only one who finds “politician eats food” stories utterly trite.

    I’m thinking of Sir Keir’s fish and chips, Ed’s bacon sarnie and Ozzy’s burger.

    Who TF cares?

    I do, because it's a relief to talk about apparently trivial shit, as against deadly plague and dry economics. Also this stuff matters: the story of Ursula and The Chair is now everywhere, because it says something about Turkey, men, politics for women, the EU...

    And as for chips in the West Country, the moment I realised Teresa was a disaster was when she ate chips in Cornwall

    https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/859432589215617025?s=20
    Except the Tory vote share in St Austell & Newquay increased significantly, and the majority went up by about 3,000, in 2017. So perhaps Theresa May's chip eating style wasn't so off-putting after all?
    You maybe missed the other results?

    Seriously, when she ate those chips like an autistic, disarticulated android in a lady suit, who had never encountered carbohydrate-based foodstuffs before. that's when I knew she was in deeeeeeep trouble.

    Corbyn, for all his immense faults, always looked comfortable in his own skin. Boris always looks like he is enormously enjoying himself, or he is trying to hide the same hedonistic pleasure.

    Voters like to find their leaders relatable or cheering or, ideally, both. A leader that makes your teeth grind with embarrassment every time you see her, not so much
    She is diabetic and starches convert to sugars. Potato is best avoided.
    Very few diabetics avoid all carbohydrates, just use insulin at the right level to assimilate them.

    Yeah but eating a portion of chips is a shit idea if you are diabetic. The only good think in it is the fat. You need to keep your carbs at a moderate, constant level.
    Yes, you're right of course. Though in most cases even the fat isn't great. Beef tallow or coconut oil, those are probably OK for deep frying, but in most cases the oils aren't heat stable and are therefore full of free radicals. Not that it stops me you understand...
    How many chippies still fry in beef dripping? My local one did when I lived in Newcastle, and when I worked in Notting Hill there was a Jewish chippy round the corner (Geales?). Now I'm low carb and chips are a rare treat. I do cook with coconut oil, butter and dripping though.
    When I lived near Edinburgh my local used beef tallow. Only know that because I saw the boxes one day - I am sure they had loads of 'vegetarian' customers. :lol: No idea what they use around these here parts. Definitely not coconut oil!

    Chips aren't a terrible way to consume carbs I don't think. Mainly because if you have a small portion you're not getting that much potato. Pasta I would say is far worse.
    Chips are the major source of vitamin C in the British diet. Potatos have a reasonable dose, and frying keeps it as being water-soluble it is lost by boiling and mashing etc.

    Not that I have them often. Maybe once a fortnight, but we'll made chips are great.
    Indeed they are. Well said.

    Regarding Vitamins leaching out of boiled veg, my Mum always swears by using the veg water for the gravy. Top tip.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    This super deadly Nigerian variant....I am amazed it has managed to mutate in Nigeria and clearly can't be that deadly as more covid / covid deaths in Solihull than the whole of Nigeria most weeks.....if you believe their official figures, one of the safest places on the planet.

    If you believe figures coming out of Nigeria, just wait until you find out what happens when you share your bank account details with their prince . . .
  • YokesYokes Posts: 1,335

    Foxy said:

    Scott_xP said:
    I am surprised we haven't had the Johnson fanclub blame it on Blair's shortsightedness when crafting the GFA.

    Write out 100 times, "it is never Boris Johnson's fault".
    I think the biggest problem with the GFA is that it fossilised sectarianism in the form of power sharing. Essential though that was to bring peace, it does prevent a move to post sectarian politics. It also entrenched the dysfunctional Stormont non-government.

    I don't think that possible to move forward without revision, but what a tinderbox reopening the constitutional status of Northern Ireland would be.
    I spend a lot of my time (well not for the last 12 months) in Northern Ireland, and sectarianism is still rampant.

    I am amazed that the fragile peace has continued for so long. I am not sure some English politicians (yes Theresa and Boris) understand the fragility of a peaceful life in the province. I thought Mrs May was foolish to make the post GE2017 arrangement with the DUP, but contrary to my expectations it worked out OK. Johnson's border in the North Sea was equally foolish, but not as foolish as land borders between the North and South would have been.

    The Brexit brokered by Johnson is incompatible with the GFA and probably peace in the North. A return to the troubles might be seen to be a price worth paying for the Brexit that Johnson's backers demanded.

    The only plan for post-sectarianism can be reunification, and that would piss one side off for a couple of generations.
    For someone who spends a lot of time here, you clearly missed that the core issue is not sectarianism, its national identity.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,586
    "OLIVER KAMM
    Be ready for a mental illness epidemic in the wake of Covid"

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/be-ready-for-a-mental-illness-epidemic-in-the-wake-of-covid-pckfsvvlv
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,206
    Andy_JS said:

    "OLIVER KAMM
    Be ready for a mental illness epidemic in the wake of Covid"

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/be-ready-for-a-mental-illness-epidemic-in-the-wake-of-covid-pckfsvvlv

    You just have to look at this board to understand how serious an issue this is.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,477
    Leon said:

    Fenman said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I must the only one who finds “politician eats food” stories utterly trite.

    I’m thinking of Sir Keir’s fish and chips, Ed’s bacon sarnie and Ozzy’s burger.

    Who TF cares?

    I do, because it's a relief to talk about apparently trivial shit, as against deadly plague and dry economics. Also this stuff matters: the story of Ursula and The Chair is now everywhere, because it says something about Turkey, men, politics for women, the EU...

    And as for chips in the West Country, the moment I realised Teresa was a disaster was when she ate chips in Cornwall

    https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/859432589215617025?s=20
    Except the Tory vote share in St Austell & Newquay increased significantly, and the majority went up by about 3,000, in 2017. So perhaps Theresa May's chip eating style wasn't so off-putting after all?
    You maybe missed the other results?

    Seriously, when she ate those chips like an autistic, disarticulated android in a lady suit, who had never encountered carbohydrate-based foodstuffs before. that's when I knew she was in deeeeeeep trouble.

    Corbyn, for all his immense faults, always looked comfortable in his own skin. Boris always looks like he is enormously enjoying himself, or he is trying to hide the same hedonistic pleasure.

    Voters like to find their leaders relatable or cheering or, ideally, both. A leader that makes your teeth grind with embarrassment every time you see her, not so much
    She is diabetic and starches convert to sugars. Potato is best avoided.
    Very few diabetics avoid all carbohydrates, just use insulin at the right level to assimilate them.

    Yeah but eating a portion of chips is a shit idea if you are diabetic. The only good think in it is the fat. You need to keep your carbs at a moderate, constant level.
    Yes, you're right of course. Though in most cases even the fat isn't great. Beef tallow or coconut oil, those are probably OK for deep frying, but in most cases the oils aren't heat stable and are therefore full of free radicals. Not that it stops me you understand...
    How many chippies still fry in beef dripping? My local one did when I lived in Newcastle, and when I worked in Notting Hill there was a Jewish chippy round the corner (Geales?). Now I'm low carb and chips are a rare treat. I do cook with coconut oil, butter and dripping though.
    But the heavenly smell of chips cooked in beef dripping! It is the marvellous smell of an old fashioned chippy with newspaper wrappers (and jumpers for goalposts etc). Something floating along a street on a wet Friday night. OMG Yum

    It is not a myth. Chips could in beef dripping are greatly better in flavour. There used to be one in Holborn that still did it and the aroma was Proustian in quality
    And they taste and smell better because they are better. Sunflower oil shouldn't be used in cooking. It shouldn't be used in any food. It's a rancid inedible hydrocarbon. It should be used as a lubricant if you run out of WD40.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,429

    Foxy said:

    Fenman said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I must the only one who finds “politician eats food” stories utterly trite.

    I’m thinking of Sir Keir’s fish and chips, Ed’s bacon sarnie and Ozzy’s burger.

    Who TF cares?

    I do, because it's a relief to talk about apparently trivial shit, as against deadly plague and dry economics. Also this stuff matters: the story of Ursula and The Chair is now everywhere, because it says something about Turkey, men, politics for women, the EU...

    And as for chips in the West Country, the moment I realised Teresa was a disaster was when she ate chips in Cornwall

    https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/859432589215617025?s=20
    Except the Tory vote share in St Austell & Newquay increased significantly, and the majority went up by about 3,000, in 2017. So perhaps Theresa May's chip eating style wasn't so off-putting after all?
    You maybe missed the other results?

    Seriously, when she ate those chips like an autistic, disarticulated android in a lady suit, who had never encountered carbohydrate-based foodstuffs before. that's when I knew she was in deeeeeeep trouble.

    Corbyn, for all his immense faults, always looked comfortable in his own skin. Boris always looks like he is enormously enjoying himself, or he is trying to hide the same hedonistic pleasure.

    Voters like to find their leaders relatable or cheering or, ideally, both. A leader that makes your teeth grind with embarrassment every time you see her, not so much
    She is diabetic and starches convert to sugars. Potato is best avoided.
    Very few diabetics avoid all carbohydrates, just use insulin at the right level to assimilate them.

    Yeah but eating a portion of chips is a shit idea if you are diabetic. The only good think in it is the fat. You need to keep your carbs at a moderate, constant level.
    Yes, you're right of course. Though in most cases even the fat isn't great. Beef tallow or coconut oil, those are probably OK for deep frying, but in most cases the oils aren't heat stable and are therefore full of free radicals. Not that it stops me you understand...
    How many chippies still fry in beef dripping? My local one did when I lived in Newcastle, and when I worked in Notting Hill there was a Jewish chippy round the corner (Geales?). Now I'm low carb and chips are a rare treat. I do cook with coconut oil, butter and dripping though.
    When I lived near Edinburgh my local used beef tallow. Only know that because I saw the boxes one day - I am sure they had loads of 'vegetarian' customers. :lol: No idea what they use around these here parts. Definitely not coconut oil!

    Chips aren't a terrible way to consume carbs I don't think. Mainly because if you have a small portion you're not getting that much potato. Pasta I would say is far worse.
    Chips are the major source of vitamin C in the British diet. Potatos have a reasonable dose, and frying keeps it as being water-soluble it is lost by boiling and mashing etc.

    Not that I have them often. Maybe once a fortnight, but we'll made chips are great.
    Indeed they are. Well said.

    Regarding Vitamins leaching out of boiled veg, my Mum always swears by using the veg water for the gravy. Top tip.
    Why do we peel spuds? As long as they are washed, there is no need. And the skin is where much of the nutrition lies. It's not even a flavour thing, skins are delicious, perhaps it is a hygiene hangover?

    I have recently discovered crushed spuds-in-skins with rocket, sea salt and olive oil. So simple, much more flavour than "boiled potatoes", more vitamins and nutrients, too. YUM

    "One hundred grams of skins, which is about equal to the skin from two potatoes, has double the amount of seven nutrients, five times more riboflavin, seven times the calcium and 17 times more iron than the same amount of flesh. You would get the same amount of vitamin C from equal portions of the skin and flesh"

    https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/skin-potato-really-vitamins-5378.html
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,206
    MaxPB said:

    Nigelb said:

    US public opinion trending in the right direction.
    https://twitter.com/HarrisPoll/status/1379796526000713737

    That's excellent news, 77% with a 95% efficacy vaccine takes them very close to herd immunity.
    Although there are some big differences between the states: the North, the Midwest, the West, Florida, California, even Texas all look great.

    Mississippi, Alabama and the Deep South all look appalling. Some of those states are doing barely half the number of vaccinations they were doing two weeks ago, despite general vaccine availability.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,477
    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "OLIVER KAMM
    Be ready for a mental illness epidemic in the wake of Covid"

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/be-ready-for-a-mental-illness-epidemic-in-the-wake-of-covid-pckfsvvlv

    You just have to look at this board to understand how serious an issue this is.
    :lol: Oy!
  • ChameleonChameleon Posts: 4,264

    Foxy said:

    Scott_xP said:
    I am surprised we haven't had the Johnson fanclub blame it on Blair's shortsightedness when crafting the GFA.

    Write out 100 times, "it is never Boris Johnson's fault".
    I think the biggest problem with the GFA is that it fossilised sectarianism in the form of power sharing. Essential though that was to bring peace, it does prevent a move to post sectarian politics. It also entrenched the dysfunctional Stormont non-government.

    I don't think that possible to move forward without revision, but what a tinderbox reopening the constitutional status of Northern Ireland would be.
    I spend a lot of my time (well not for the last 12 months) in Northern Ireland, and sectarianism is still rampant.

    I am amazed that the fragile peace has continued for so long. I am not sure some English politicians (yes Theresa and Boris) understand the fragility of a peaceful life in the province. I thought Mrs May was foolish to make the post GE2017 arrangement with the DUP, but contrary to my expectations it worked out OK. Johnson's border in the North Sea was equally foolish, but not as foolish as land borders between the North and South would have been.

    The Brexit brokered by Johnson is incompatible with the GFA and probably peace in the North. A return to the troubles might be seen to be a price worth paying for the Brexit that Johnson's backers demanded.

    The only plan for post-sectarianism can be reunification, and that would piss one side off for a couple of generations.
    You are aware that reunification (which at the moment a majority on both sides don't want) would make everything currently happening look like a minor blip right?
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,586
    edited April 2021
    edit
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    Nigelb said:

    US public opinion trending in the right direction.
    https://twitter.com/HarrisPoll/status/1379796526000713737

    The Biden administration have been superb on the vax programme.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,380
    Yokes said:

    Foxy said:

    Scott_xP said:
    I am surprised we haven't had the Johnson fanclub blame it on Blair's shortsightedness when crafting the GFA.

    Write out 100 times, "it is never Boris Johnson's fault".
    I think the biggest problem with the GFA is that it fossilised sectarianism in the form of power sharing. Essential though that was to bring peace, it does prevent a move to post sectarian politics. It also entrenched the dysfunctional Stormont non-government.

    I don't think that possible to move forward without revision, but what a tinderbox reopening the constitutional status of Northern Ireland would be.
    I spend a lot of my time (well not for the last 12 months) in Northern Ireland, and sectarianism is still rampant.

    I am amazed that the fragile peace has continued for so long. I am not sure some English politicians (yes Theresa and Boris) understand the fragility of a peaceful life in the province. I thought Mrs May was foolish to make the post GE2017 arrangement with the DUP, but contrary to my expectations it worked out OK. Johnson's border in the North Sea was equally foolish, but not as foolish as land borders between the North and South would have been.

    The Brexit brokered by Johnson is incompatible with the GFA and probably peace in the North. A return to the troubles might be seen to be a price worth paying for the Brexit that Johnson's backers demanded.

    The only plan for post-sectarianism can be reunification, and that would piss one side off for a couple of generations.
    For someone who spends a lot of time here, you clearly missed that the core issue is not sectarianism, its national identity.
    Sectarianism is based around national identity. The two are inextricably linked.
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,533
    Leon said:



    Why do we peel spuds? As long as they are washed, there is no need. And the skin is where much of the nutrition lies. It's not even a flavour thing, skins are delicious, perhaps it is a hygiene hangover?

    I have recently discovered crushed spuds-in-skins with rocket, sea salt and olive oil. So simple, much more flavour than "boiled potatoes", more vitamins and nutrients, too. YUM

    "One hundred grams of skins, which is about equal to the skin from two potatoes, has double the amount of seven nutrients, five times more riboflavin, seven times the calcium and 17 times more iron than the same amount of flesh. You would get the same amount of vitamin C from equal portions of the skin and flesh"

    https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/skin-potato-really-vitamins-5378.html

    I wouldn't dream of peeling spuds. In the same way, I'm baffled by the British habit of eating fish without the skin - surely the tastiest part, if you're going to eat fish at all. I vaguely think it's a hangover from the time when we somehow felt that hrealthy food should be plain.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,410
    Andy_JS said:

    "OLIVER KAMM
    Be ready for a mental illness epidemic in the wake of Covid"

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/be-ready-for-a-mental-illness-epidemic-in-the-wake-of-covid-pckfsvvlv

    Damn sure the NHS (And private providers) ain't ready.
    Expect charlatan, totally unqualified "therapists" to be a scandal incoming...
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,380
    Chameleon said:

    Foxy said:

    Scott_xP said:
    I am surprised we haven't had the Johnson fanclub blame it on Blair's shortsightedness when crafting the GFA.

    Write out 100 times, "it is never Boris Johnson's fault".
    I think the biggest problem with the GFA is that it fossilised sectarianism in the form of power sharing. Essential though that was to bring peace, it does prevent a move to post sectarian politics. It also entrenched the dysfunctional Stormont non-government.

    I don't think that possible to move forward without revision, but what a tinderbox reopening the constitutional status of Northern Ireland would be.
    I spend a lot of my time (well not for the last 12 months) in Northern Ireland, and sectarianism is still rampant.

    I am amazed that the fragile peace has continued for so long. I am not sure some English politicians (yes Theresa and Boris) understand the fragility of a peaceful life in the province. I thought Mrs May was foolish to make the post GE2017 arrangement with the DUP, but contrary to my expectations it worked out OK. Johnson's border in the North Sea was equally foolish, but not as foolish as land borders between the North and South would have been.

    The Brexit brokered by Johnson is incompatible with the GFA and probably peace in the North. A return to the troubles might be seen to be a price worth paying for the Brexit that Johnson's backers demanded.

    The only plan for post-sectarianism can be reunification, and that would piss one side off for a couple of generations.
    You are aware that reunification (which at the moment a majority on both sides don't want) would make everything currently happening look like a minor blip right?
    When you say both sides, who do you mean exactly? But you are correct that any movement towards reunification would be fraught with danger.

    P.S. I am fully expecting another off-topic. Interesting, as it has been a while since anyone has posted anything about Nicola Sturgeon.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,429

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486

    Leon said:



    Why do we peel spuds? As long as they are washed, there is no need. And the skin is where much of the nutrition lies. It's not even a flavour thing, skins are delicious, perhaps it is a hygiene hangover?

    I have recently discovered crushed spuds-in-skins with rocket, sea salt and olive oil. So simple, much more flavour than "boiled potatoes", more vitamins and nutrients, too. YUM

    "One hundred grams of skins, which is about equal to the skin from two potatoes, has double the amount of seven nutrients, five times more riboflavin, seven times the calcium and 17 times more iron than the same amount of flesh. You would get the same amount of vitamin C from equal portions of the skin and flesh"

    https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/skin-potato-really-vitamins-5378.html

    I wouldn't dream of peeling spuds. In the same way, I'm baffled by the British habit of eating fish without the skin - surely the tastiest part, if you're going to eat fish at all. I vaguely think it's a hangover from the time when we somehow felt that hrealthy food should be plain.
    You never eat chips then?
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,206

    Nigelb said:

    US public opinion trending in the right direction.
    https://twitter.com/HarrisPoll/status/1379796526000713737

    The Biden administration have been superb on the vax programme.
    And the Trump administration (despite the problems at Emergent and the export ban) also deserves credit.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    .

    Leon said:



    Why do we peel spuds? As long as they are washed, there is no need. And the skin is where much of the nutrition lies. It's not even a flavour thing, skins are delicious, perhaps it is a hygiene hangover?

    I have recently discovered crushed spuds-in-skins with rocket, sea salt and olive oil. So simple, much more flavour than "boiled potatoes", more vitamins and nutrients, too. YUM

    "One hundred grams of skins, which is about equal to the skin from two potatoes, has double the amount of seven nutrients, five times more riboflavin, seven times the calcium and 17 times more iron than the same amount of flesh. You would get the same amount of vitamin C from equal portions of the skin and flesh"

    https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/skin-potato-really-vitamins-5378.html

    I wouldn't dream of peeling spuds. In the same way, I'm baffled by the British habit of eating fish without the skin - surely the tastiest part, if you're going to eat fish at all. I vaguely think it's a hangover from the time when we somehow felt that hrealthy food should be plain.
    I peel them if I'm making roast potatoes, because I can make some mean roast potatoes and that's how I learnt to do it and have never changed.

    I don't peel them for anything else.

    And yes skin on 100% for fish. Not eating the skin on your salmon is like not eating the skin on KFC, its the best part by miles.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    I’m not sure, I will pay them a visit in a few weeks when I am allowed back into the wild!
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 4,598

    .

    Leon said:



    Why do we peel spuds? As long as they are washed, there is no need. And the skin is where much of the nutrition lies. It's not even a flavour thing, skins are delicious, perhaps it is a hygiene hangover?

    I have recently discovered crushed spuds-in-skins with rocket, sea salt and olive oil. So simple, much more flavour than "boiled potatoes", more vitamins and nutrients, too. YUM

    "One hundred grams of skins, which is about equal to the skin from two potatoes, has double the amount of seven nutrients, five times more riboflavin, seven times the calcium and 17 times more iron than the same amount of flesh. You would get the same amount of vitamin C from equal portions of the skin and flesh"

    https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/skin-potato-really-vitamins-5378.html

    I wouldn't dream of peeling spuds. In the same way, I'm baffled by the British habit of eating fish without the skin - surely the tastiest part, if you're going to eat fish at all. I vaguely think it's a hangover from the time when we somehow felt that hrealthy food should be plain.
    I peel them if I'm making roast potatoes, because I can make some mean roast potatoes and that's how I learnt to do it and have never changed.

    I don't peel them for anything else.

    And yes skin on 100% for fish. Not eating the skin on your salmon is like not eating the skin on KFC, its the best part by miles.
    Generally correct, of course, but roast little new potatoes in their skins are a treat.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    rcs1000 said:

    Nigelb said:

    US public opinion trending in the right direction.
    https://twitter.com/HarrisPoll/status/1379796526000713737

    The Biden administration have been superb on the vax programme.
    And the Trump administration (despite the problems at Emergent and the export ban) also deserves credit.
    One of the few good things Trump did was order shitloads of vaccines - Trump would have been beyond hopeless at running the programme, but at least Biden had the stock to work with.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,429
    edited April 2021

    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    I’m not sure, I will pay them a visit in a few weeks when I am allowed back into the wild!
    I used to live in Red Lion Square and my local was the Dolphin Tavern, which is about 30 yards from that chippy

    The scent haunts me, in a nice way, to this day, Memories of wild nights of genuinely incredible debauchery - heroin, Ecstasy and threesomes - somehow interspersed with a saveloy and chips. lol
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    Leon said:



    Why do we peel spuds? As long as they are washed, there is no need. And the skin is where much of the nutrition lies. It's not even a flavour thing, skins are delicious, perhaps it is a hygiene hangover?

    I have recently discovered crushed spuds-in-skins with rocket, sea salt and olive oil. So simple, much more flavour than "boiled potatoes", more vitamins and nutrients, too. YUM

    "One hundred grams of skins, which is about equal to the skin from two potatoes, has double the amount of seven nutrients, five times more riboflavin, seven times the calcium and 17 times more iron than the same amount of flesh. You would get the same amount of vitamin C from equal portions of the skin and flesh"

    https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/skin-potato-really-vitamins-5378.html

    I wouldn't dream of peeling spuds. In the same way, I'm baffled by the British habit of eating fish without the skin - surely the tastiest part, if you're going to eat fish at all. I vaguely think it's a hangover from the time when we somehow felt that hrealthy food should be plain.
    You never eat chips then?
    You've not tried skin on chips?
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,586
    edited April 2021
    Talking of fish and chip shops in London, this used to be a famous one. The Sea Shell, Lisson Grove.

    20 mins, 25 secs

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI6duYbZzuU
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486

    Leon said:



    Why do we peel spuds? As long as they are washed, there is no need. And the skin is where much of the nutrition lies. It's not even a flavour thing, skins are delicious, perhaps it is a hygiene hangover?

    I have recently discovered crushed spuds-in-skins with rocket, sea salt and olive oil. So simple, much more flavour than "boiled potatoes", more vitamins and nutrients, too. YUM

    "One hundred grams of skins, which is about equal to the skin from two potatoes, has double the amount of seven nutrients, five times more riboflavin, seven times the calcium and 17 times more iron than the same amount of flesh. You would get the same amount of vitamin C from equal portions of the skin and flesh"

    https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/skin-potato-really-vitamins-5378.html

    I wouldn't dream of peeling spuds. In the same way, I'm baffled by the British habit of eating fish without the skin - surely the tastiest part, if you're going to eat fish at all. I vaguely think it's a hangover from the time when we somehow felt that hrealthy food should be plain.
    You never eat chips then?
    You've not tried skin on chips?
    I have, and I love them. But rarely if ever do you get them in a chippie. I like both.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Oh yes, if you get chippie chips I expect they'll be peeled.

    But if I'm making chips (which I don't do often to be fair) they'll be skin on.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,410
    edited April 2021
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    I’m not sure, I will pay them a visit in a few weeks when I am allowed back into the wild!
    I used to live in Red Lion Square and my local was the Dolphin Tavern, which is about 30 yards from that chippy

    The scent haunts me, in a nice way, to this day, Memories of wild nights of genuinely incredible debauchery - heroin, Ecstasy and threesomes - somehow interspersed with a saveloy and chips. lol
    Jeez. That's too close for comfort. The ecstasy and threesomes in Holborn.
    On the related theme of London chippies I'm with Peter Kay. " You don't sell owt moist?"
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,083
    edited April 2021
    Fish and chips from the Chippy are never as good down south.....and I won't hear any other opinion on the matter, its a fact!
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    Good to see funding being halted to Oxfam again. Ideally this should be made permanent not temporary.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56670162

    I won't donate a penny to Oxfam, or an item of clothing. Giving away kids clothes so went looking for a charity bin, nearest was Oxfam so had to find another and found a Salvation Army one. Despite being deeply atheist I have far more respect for the Salvos than I do Oxfam. The Salvos despite their Christianity are one institution I 100% respect and think they provide a great service regardless of religion - Oxfam are an infiltrated far left pressure group masquerading as a charity.
  • YokesYokes Posts: 1,335

    Yokes said:

    Foxy said:

    Scott_xP said:
    I am surprised we haven't had the Johnson fanclub blame it on Blair's shortsightedness when crafting the GFA.

    Write out 100 times, "it is never Boris Johnson's fault".
    I think the biggest problem with the GFA is that it fossilised sectarianism in the form of power sharing. Essential though that was to bring peace, it does prevent a move to post sectarian politics. It also entrenched the dysfunctional Stormont non-government.

    I don't think that possible to move forward without revision, but what a tinderbox reopening the constitutional status of Northern Ireland would be.
    I spend a lot of my time (well not for the last 12 months) in Northern Ireland, and sectarianism is still rampant.

    I am amazed that the fragile peace has continued for so long. I am not sure some English politicians (yes Theresa and Boris) understand the fragility of a peaceful life in the province. I thought Mrs May was foolish to make the post GE2017 arrangement with the DUP, but contrary to my expectations it worked out OK. Johnson's border in the North Sea was equally foolish, but not as foolish as land borders between the North and South would have been.

    The Brexit brokered by Johnson is incompatible with the GFA and probably peace in the North. A return to the troubles might be seen to be a price worth paying for the Brexit that Johnson's backers demanded.

    The only plan for post-sectarianism can be reunification, and that would piss one side off for a couple of generations.
    For someone who spends a lot of time here, you clearly missed that the core issue is not sectarianism, its national identity.
    Sectarianism is based around national identity. The two are inextricably linked.
    Actually no, this is not the 80s. You fail to understand how far this place has moved and indeed how robust it is has been for the last 20 odd years. It would be very helpful if every outside halfwit would stop telling us how 'fragile' it all is. You rarely hear that talk from people here of whatever hue, its almost always people outside the boundaries who use such terminology. For sectarianism to exist requires people both hold a strong group identity position and in turn see an enemy of a sort that is not solely related to their choice of citizenship and you have no idea how few people self-allocate such a strong religion/national identity that it actively sees an enemy to discriminate against or show hostility to.

    Most people here don't parade their identity because they don't get defined with it and have no interest in broadcasting it. They know their views and that's all there is to it. Maybe you can enlighten me regarding exactly who you spend your time in NI with because if those people do like to parade their identity from the get go, they are the problem. They are also the minority.



  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    I’m not sure, I will pay them a visit in a few weeks when I am allowed back into the wild!
    I used to live in Red Lion Square and my local was the Dolphin Tavern, which is about 30 yards from that chippy

    The scent haunts me, in a nice way, to this day, Memories of wild nights of genuinely incredible debauchery - heroin, Ecstasy and threesomes - somehow interspersed with a saveloy and chips. lol
    Jeez. That's too close for comfort. The ecstasy and threesomes in Holborn.
    On the related theme of London chippies I'm with Peter Kay. " You don't sell owt moist?"
    What does that mean?
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,598
    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    "OLIVER KAMM
    Be ready for a mental illness epidemic in the wake of Covid"

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/be-ready-for-a-mental-illness-epidemic-in-the-wake-of-covid-pckfsvvlv

    You just have to look at this board to understand how serious an issue this is.
    Sorry, are we talking Radiohead over-appreciation?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,083
    edited April 2021

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    I’m not sure, I will pay them a visit in a few weeks when I am allowed back into the wild!
    I used to live in Red Lion Square and my local was the Dolphin Tavern, which is about 30 yards from that chippy

    The scent haunts me, in a nice way, to this day, Memories of wild nights of genuinely incredible debauchery - heroin, Ecstasy and threesomes - somehow interspersed with a saveloy and chips. lol
    Jeez. That's too close for comfort. The ecstasy and threesomes in Holborn.
    On the related theme of London chippies I'm with Peter Kay. " You don't sell owt moist?"
    What does that mean?
    Peter Kay on the idiosyncrasies of the southern chip shop: They don't do peas down south. I went into a chippy I said "Chips and peas, please." He said "We don't do peas." "You what?" "We don't do peas." "Do you do curry sauce?" "We don't do curry sauce, mate." "What?" "We don't do curry sauce." "Gravy?" "We don't do gravy." "They don't do gravy!" My friend came in. He said: "Eh? Has tha nowt moist?"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JoERQE7EFA
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,410
    edited April 2021

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    I’m not sure, I will pay them a visit in a few weeks when I am allowed back into the wild!
    I used to live in Red Lion Square and my local was the Dolphin Tavern, which is about 30 yards from that chippy

    The scent haunts me, in a nice way, to this day, Memories of wild nights of genuinely incredible debauchery - heroin, Ecstasy and threesomes - somehow interspersed with a saveloy and chips. lol
    Jeez. That's too close for comfort. The ecstasy and threesomes in Holborn.
    On the related theme of London chippies I'm with Peter Kay. " You don't sell owt moist?"
    What does that mean?
    Deleted. @FrancisUrquhart is all over it.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,410

    Good to see funding being halted to Oxfam again. Ideally this should be made permanent not temporary.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56670162

    I won't donate a penny to Oxfam, or an item of clothing. Giving away kids clothes so went looking for a charity bin, nearest was Oxfam so had to find another and found a Salvation Army one. Despite being deeply atheist I have far more respect for the Salvos than I do Oxfam. The Salvos despite their Christianity are one institution I 100% respect and think they provide a great service regardless of religion - Oxfam are an infiltrated far left pressure group masquerading as a charity.

    But not a great service regardless of sexuality.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    dixiedean said:

    Good to see funding being halted to Oxfam again. Ideally this should be made permanent not temporary.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56670162

    I won't donate a penny to Oxfam, or an item of clothing. Giving away kids clothes so went looking for a charity bin, nearest was Oxfam so had to find another and found a Salvation Army one. Despite being deeply atheist I have far more respect for the Salvos than I do Oxfam. The Salvos despite their Christianity are one institution I 100% respect and think they provide a great service regardless of religion - Oxfam are an infiltrated far left pressure group masquerading as a charity.

    But not a great service regardless of sexuality.
    Why not?

    Given we're talking about mental health before, I know people who've called them up when they've been feeling . . . shall we say down. Genuine life savers.

    What's sexuality got to do with it? Not heard complaints of that before.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,586
    edited April 2021
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,410

    dixiedean said:

    Good to see funding being halted to Oxfam again. Ideally this should be made permanent not temporary.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56670162

    I won't donate a penny to Oxfam, or an item of clothing. Giving away kids clothes so went looking for a charity bin, nearest was Oxfam so had to find another and found a Salvation Army one. Despite being deeply atheist I have far more respect for the Salvos than I do Oxfam. The Salvos despite their Christianity are one institution I 100% respect and think they provide a great service regardless of religion - Oxfam are an infiltrated far left pressure group masquerading as a charity.

    But not a great service regardless of sexuality.
    Why not?

    Given we're talking about mental health before, I know people who've called them up when they've been feeling . . . shall we say down. Genuine life savers.

    What's sexuality got to do with it? Not heard complaints of that before.
    They have a history of anti -LGBT campaigning. No charity is entirely spotless. (I almost said whiter than white), but better not.
    No doubt they do a lot of good work. But Oxfam bad, Salvation Army great isn't entirely helpful imho.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/the-goods/2019/12/16/21003560/salvation-army-anti-lgbtq-controversies-donations

  • gealbhangealbhan Posts: 2,362
    edited April 2021
    RH1992 said:

    Oh wow! A smart and responsible front page from The S*n.

    Never thought I'd see the day. Hell hath completely frozen over.
    To be fair to the traditionally right leaning tabloid media, they've done a good job tonight. The Guardian and The i were more disappointing.

    https://twitter.com/OliverCooper/status/1379913670361280517
    But it’s embarrassingly wrong though by the sun isn’t it? Is that all in figures? Or the figure for under 30’s lady’s much less likely to die of covid, but a greater chance of vaccine issue than the everyone figure? My argument being shouldn’t use all in figure in something more nuanced.
  • gealbhangealbhan Posts: 2,362
    gealbhan said:

    RH1992 said:

    Oh wow! A smart and responsible front page from The S*n.

    Never thought I'd see the day. Hell hath completely frozen over.
    To be fair to the traditionally right leaning tabloid media, they've done a good job tonight. The Guardian and The i were more disappointing.

    https://twitter.com/OliverCooper/status/1379913670361280517
    But it’s embarrassingly wrong though by the sun isn’t it? Is that all in figures? Or the figure for under 30’s lady’s much less likely to die of covid, but a greater chance of vaccine issue than the everyone figure? My argument being shouldn’t use all in figure in something more nuanced.
    A smarter headline would have been to stick to what’s actually happened
    “THINKING OF YOU GIRLS! Governments quick and on the ball vaccine response helps to protect and reassure our young ladies”
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,206
    Andy_JS said:
    WARNING:

    Any libellous comments about Brian Rose's alleged drug use will be deleted.
  • gealbhangealbhan Posts: 2,362
    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:
    WARNING:

    Any libellous comments about Brian Rose's alleged drug use will be deleted.
    Is that the Brian Rose who used to play for Somerset?
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,586
    "Tributes pour in for former Tory frontbencher Peter Ainsworth following his death aged 64

    The former conservative frontbencher Peter Ainsworth has died at the age of 64
    Mr Ainsworth joined Conservative party as a schoolboy and became MP in 1992
    Tributes were paid to Mr Ainsworth describing him as ‘kind’, ‘funny’ and ‘lovely’"

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9447215/Tributes-pour-former-Tory-frontbencher-Peter-Ainsworth-following-death-aged-64.html
  • dixiedean said:

    Anyways. The Stephen Hendry "comeback" was embarrassing. After winning the first frame, almost winning the second, he sat in his chair, heavily overweight, as a 23 year old Chinese ranked #84 knocked in 5 straight half centuries.
    Like watching the last fight of Mohammed Ali, but without the brain damage.

    Heavily overweight?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,233
    edited April 2021
    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    Good to see funding being halted to Oxfam again. Ideally this should be made permanent not temporary.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56670162

    I won't donate a penny to Oxfam, or an item of clothing. Giving away kids clothes so went looking for a charity bin, nearest was Oxfam so had to find another and found a Salvation Army one. Despite being deeply atheist I have far more respect for the Salvos than I do Oxfam. The Salvos despite their Christianity are one institution I 100% respect and think they provide a great service regardless of religion - Oxfam are an infiltrated far left pressure group masquerading as a charity.

    But not a great service regardless of sexuality.
    Why not?

    Given we're talking about mental health before, I know people who've called them up when they've been feeling . . . shall we say down. Genuine life savers.

    What's sexuality got to do with it? Not heard complaints of that before.
    They have a history of anti -LGBT campaigning. No charity is entirely spotless. (I almost said whiter than white), but better not.
    No doubt they do a lot of good work. But Oxfam bad, Salvation Army great isn't entirely helpful imho.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/the-goods/2019/12/16/21003560/salvation-army-anti-lgbtq-controversies-donations

    That's all about the North American branch of the Salvation Army, which is a totally separate organisation, of course. Very convenient for some campaigners who just want a reaction (not having a go at @dixiedean) .

    In then UK there is an obligation to non discrimination in charity services (though discrimination is possible on the basis of 'protected groups' iirc eg Womens' Services). If UK SA were doing that they'd have been sued now given where we are.

    There was a flurry of stuff when they took over doing some support services from the Eaves' Project (Vera Baird unhappy for one), and when they provided workfare opportunities - office invasions from the kind of groups who disrupt Tesco.

    I believe that the church side expects their full members to respect celibacy. And has occasionally taken controversial stances based on that.

    Hope that's a fair summary.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,233
    The reason I try to donate to Salvation Army is that they are a properly local charity in my area, and efficient. There are others, but not too many.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,204

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    Leon said:

    The chippie in Holborn that fries in beef dripping is still there, isn’t it? Fryer’s Delight on Theobald’s Road?

    Yes! Exactly. Well remembered. Does it still use the aromatic tallow?
    I’m not sure, I will pay them a visit in a few weeks when I am allowed back into the wild!
    I used to live in Red Lion Square and my local was the Dolphin Tavern, which is about 30 yards from that chippy

    The scent haunts me, in a nice way, to this day, Memories of wild nights of genuinely incredible debauchery - heroin, Ecstasy and threesomes - somehow interspersed with a saveloy and chips. lol
    Jeez. That's too close for comfort. The ecstasy and threesomes in Holborn.
    On the related theme of London chippies I'm with Peter Kay. " You don't sell owt moist?"
    What does that mean?
    Peter Kay on the idiosyncrasies of the southern chip shop: They don't do peas down south. I went into a chippy I said "Chips and peas, please." He said "We don't do peas." "You what?" "We don't do peas." "Do you do curry sauce?" "We don't do curry sauce, mate." "What?" "We don't do curry sauce." "Gravy?" "We don't do gravy." "They don't do gravy!" My friend came in. He said: "Eh? Has tha nowt moist?"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JoERQE7EFA
    Can people get saveloys where they are ?
    Something I enjoyed back in Coventry but not sold in the very north of the midlands.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,233

    Fenman said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I must the only one who finds “politician eats food” stories utterly trite.

    I’m thinking of Sir Keir’s fish and chips, Ed’s bacon sarnie and Ozzy’s burger.

    Who TF cares?

    I do, because it's a relief to talk about apparently trivial shit, as against deadly plague and dry economics. Also this stuff matters: the story of Ursula and The Chair is now everywhere, because it says something about Turkey, men, politics for women, the EU...

    And as for chips in the West Country, the moment I realised Teresa was a disaster was when she ate chips in Cornwall

    https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/859432589215617025?s=20
    Except the Tory vote share in St Austell & Newquay increased significantly, and the majority went up by about 3,000, in 2017. So perhaps Theresa May's chip eating style wasn't so off-putting after all?
    You maybe missed the other results?

    Seriously, when she ate those chips like an autistic, disarticulated android in a lady suit, who had never encountered carbohydrate-based foodstuffs before. that's when I knew she was in deeeeeeep trouble.

    Corbyn, for all his immense faults, always looked comfortable in his own skin. Boris always looks like he is enormously enjoying himself, or he is trying to hide the same hedonistic pleasure.

    Voters like to find their leaders relatable or cheering or, ideally, both. A leader that makes your teeth grind with embarrassment every time you see her, not so much
    She is diabetic and starches convert to sugars. Potato is best avoided.
    Very few diabetics avoid all carbohydrates, just use insulin at the right level to assimilate them.

    Er... I thought most type 2 diabetics take metformin rather than insulin.
    Theresa May is Type I.

    On chips, she'll be fine. She'll know exactly how many she needs for the approx walking distance due that afternoon, and will enjoy the chance to be relaxed. She's a hiker, and will walk it off. Monitoring will be fine as she has a Freestyle Libre scan monitor.

    (Type IIs on insulin is much more popular than it was for better control. When I was diagnosed Type I 20 years ago it was a thing but only from some hospital teams, but much more so now. But back then they used to expect Type IIs to do about 3 bg tests a month.)
This discussion has been closed.