It's all the fault of the evil English, you know. They've put down the Scots for too long, caused all of Scotland's ills. They made the Scots profit from the slave trade, made them imperialists. They ruined the shipbuilding industry. Every other country: Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Germany - has learnt from their mistakes. But not England. Oh no.
(/Dickson mode)
I’ve just been to the Acropolis Museum where they constantly repeat the historical point that the SCOTTISH Lord Elgin, ambassador for the UK, looted all those marbles
I can only presume the poor Lord did it at gun point, forced by redcoats to go against his every instinct as a true Scotsman
Have you been to the restaurant ? I had a great meal there.
Had lunch there today! Fabulous food. Going back again
It's making me hungry just thinking about it again.
It’s one of the most interesting menus I’ve encountered in many months. Genuinely innovative and delicious and not that pricey
I haven’t had a bad meal in 8 days in Athens. OK I’ve had a lot of Greek salads but a Greek salad done well is a noble thing
Greek salads in Greece enabled me to overcome a lifelong aversion to uncooked tomatoes.
It's all the fault of the evil English, you know. They've put down the Scots for too long, caused all of Scotland's ills. They made the Scots profit from the slave trade, made them imperialists. They ruined the shipbuilding industry. Every other country: Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Germany - has learnt from their mistakes. But not England. Oh no.
(/Dickson mode)
I’ve just been to the Acropolis Museum where they constantly repeat the historical point that the SCOTTISH Lord Elgin, ambassador for the UK, looted all those marbles
I can only presume the poor Lord did it at gun point, forced by redcoats to go against his every instinct as a true Scotsman
Have you been to the restaurant ? I had a great meal there.
Had lunch there today! Fabulous food. Going back again
It's making me hungry just thinking about it again.
It’s one of the most interesting menus I’ve encountered in many months. Genuinely innovative and delicious and not that pricey
I haven’t had a bad meal in 8 days in Athens. OK I’ve had a lot of Greek salads but a Greek salad done well is a noble thing
Many people don't realise, but Greek restaurant food, particularly in Athens if you want more adventurous menus, has gradually become some of the best in Europe. There's been simply too many decades of Greek chefs travelling around France, Britain, Germany and Italy, and combining that with very strong local traditions from various places, for it not to be.
Interesting line up description on QT, given usual party labels, but I suppose they'd no other option James Cleverly - Conservative Lisa Nandy - Labour Rory Stewart - Former minister Nelufar Hedayat - Journalist Mehdi Hasan - Broadcaster
I also wonder if broadcaster outranks journalist or vice versa.
Interesting line up description on QT, given usual party labels, but I suppose they'd no other option James Cleverly - Conservative Lisa Nandy - Labour Rory Stewart - Former minister Nelufar Hedayat - Journalist Mehdi Hasan - Broadcaster
I also wonder if broadcaster outranks journalist or vice versa.
Journalist is definitely superior to broadcaster. Whether Nelufar Hedayat is worthy of that description, I don't know, but plenty aren't.
Interesting line up description on QT, given usual party labels, but I suppose they'd no other option James Cleverly - Conservative Lisa Nandy - Labour Rory Stewart - Former minister Nelufar Hedayat - Journalist Mehdi Hasan - Broadcaster
I also wonder if broadcaster outranks journalist or vice versa.
Mehdi Hasan? Wasn't he the guy who called non-Muslims "cattle"?
Something that makes it indisputably clear how far the Afghan conflict has been a proxy cultural and military conflict in the local region, is the distribution of social media posts. By far the lion's share of posts on twitter, and seemingly on Facebook too, are from India and Pakistan. Indians apparently almost uniformly take the horrified view of American and western conservatives, while posters from Pakistan seem to almost universally describe the events in terms of a 'great welcome and peaceful transition' from a lickspittle government.
"Taliban have broken ‘the shackles of slavery,’ says Pakistan PM Imran Khan"
I'm quite surprised by this. I suppose I must have assumed that anyone who played international cricket would be on the side of the 21st century (or at least the 20th) over that of the 14th.
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
Well 1) many Scots simply don't believe these figures (see malcolmg), so they don't provide much of a disincentive to vote Yes, but more importantly 2) A newly independent Scotland would presumably simply start living within its means. Scotland spends more than RUK per head because it can - we give it that money - not because it has to. There'll be a big hit to public spending - it'll be a shock to the subsidy junkies - but it would be able to function. (Assuming there's someone prepared to take on the challenge, of course!) Oh, and 3) it doesn't really matter - these are all problems to be faced *after* independence. The point of the SNP is presumably to get to independence - once there, mission accomplished: the future is somebody else's challenge, surely?
Sure. But as we’ve oft discussed on here, there’s a crucial ‘middle third’ of Scotch public opinion which is neither massively Nat nor Yoon. And will be persuaded or not by the financial cost or benefit
The enormous deficit will not go unnoticed by many of them
It's all the fault of the evil English, you know. They've put down the Scots for too long, caused all of Scotland's ills. They made the Scots profit from the slave trade, made them imperialists. They ruined the shipbuilding industry. Every other country: Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Germany - has learnt from their mistakes. But not England. Oh no.
(/Dickson mode)
I’ve just been to the Acropolis Museum where they constantly repeat the historical point that the SCOTTISH Lord Elgin, ambassador for the UK, looted all those marbles
I can only presume the poor Lord did it at gun point, forced by redcoats to go against his every instinct as a true Scotsman
Have you been to the restaurant ? I had a great meal there.
Had lunch there today! Fabulous food. Going back again
It's making me hungry just thinking about it again.
It’s one of the most interesting menus I’ve encountered in many months. Genuinely innovative and delicious and not that pricey
I haven’t had a bad meal in 8 days in Athens. OK I’ve had a lot of Greek salads but a Greek salad done well is a noble thing
Many people don't realise, but Greek restaurant food, particularly in Athens if you want more adventurous menus , has gradually become some of the best in Europe. There's been simply too many decades of Greek chefs travelling around France, Britain, Germany and Italy, and combining that with very strong local traditions from various places, for it not to be.
Like the Italians, they generally resist messing around too much with their food, though. Sit yourself at a Taverna and order some meze style starters, a plate of grilled fish, salad and jug of retsina. Perfect.
It's all the fault of the evil English, you know. They've put down the Scots for too long, caused all of Scotland's ills. They made the Scots profit from the slave trade, made them imperialists. They ruined the shipbuilding industry. Every other country: Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Germany - has learnt from their mistakes. But not England. Oh no.
(/Dickson mode)
I’ve just been to the Acropolis Museum where they constantly repeat the historical point that the SCOTTISH Lord Elgin, ambassador for the UK, looted all those marbles
I can only presume the poor Lord did it at gun point, forced by redcoats to go against his every instinct as a true Scotsman
Have you been to the restaurant ? I had a great meal there.
Had lunch there today! Fabulous food. Going back again
It's making me hungry just thinking about it again.
It’s one of the most interesting menus I’ve encountered in many months. Genuinely innovative and delicious and not that pricey
I haven’t had a bad meal in 8 days in Athens. OK I’ve had a lot of Greek salads but a Greek salad done well is a noble thing
Many people don't realise, but Greek restaurant food, particularly in Athens if you want more adventurous menus , has gradually become some of the best in Europe. There's been simply too many decades of Greek chefs travelling around France, Britain, Germany and Italy, and combining that with very strong local traditions in various places, for it not to be.
Yes, it’s excellent generally in Athens
There’s a popular trad taverna near me (Kolonaki) which does old Greek dishes. 20 years ago it would have been stodgy moussaka and ok calamari
It’s brilliant. I had a slow roasted pork and wild mushroom thing there yesterday. Genius. Rich yet light. Wonderful
It's all the fault of the evil English, you know. They've put down the Scots for too long, caused all of Scotland's ills. They made the Scots profit from the slave trade, made them imperialists. They ruined the shipbuilding industry. Every other country: Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Germany - has learnt from their mistakes. But not England. Oh no.
(/Dickson mode)
I’ve just been to the Acropolis Museum where they constantly repeat the historical point that the SCOTTISH Lord Elgin, ambassador for the UK, looted all those marbles
I can only presume the poor Lord did it at gun point, forced by redcoats to go against his every instinct as a true Scotsman
Have you been to the restaurant ? I had a great meal there.
Had lunch there today! Fabulous food. Going back again
It's making me hungry just thinking about it again.
It’s one of the most interesting menus I’ve encountered in many months. Genuinely innovative and delicious and not that pricey
I haven’t had a bad meal in 8 days in Athens. OK I’ve had a lot of Greek salads but a Greek salad done well is a noble thing
Many people don't realise, but Greek restaurant food, particularly in Athens if you want more adventurous menus , has gradually become some of the best in Europe. There's been simply too many decades of Greek chefs travelling around France, Britain, Germany and Italy, and combining that with very strong local traditions from various places, for it not to be.
Like the Italians, they generally resist messing around too much with their food, though. Sit yourself at a Taverna and order some meze style starters, a plate of grilled fish, salad and jug of retsina. Perfect.
That's true, and the other side of the coin. There's still a great base of traditional food all over the islands and the coasts, and even some parts deep inland, for them to draw on for instance.
Interesting line up description on QT, given usual party labels, but I suppose they'd no other option James Cleverly - Conservative Lisa Nandy - Labour Rory Stewart - Former minister Nelufar Hedayat - Journalist Mehdi Hasan - Broadcaster
I also wonder if broadcaster outranks journalist or vice versa.
A strange thing to wonder!
If you promise to keep it secret, I will confess to being a tad strange at times.
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
Well 1) many Scots simply don't believe these figures (see malcolmg), so they don't provide much of a disincentive to vote Yes, but more importantly 2) A newly independent Scotland would presumably simply start living within its means. Scotland spends more than RUK per head because it can - we give it that money - not because it has to. There'll be a big hit to public spending - it'll be a shock to the subsidy junkies - but it would be able to function. (Assuming there's someone prepared to take on the challenge, of course!) Oh, and 3) it doesn't really matter - these are all problems to be faced *after* independence. The point of the SNP is presumably to get to independence - once there, mission accomplished: the future is somebody else's challenge, surely?
Sure. But as we’ve oft discussed on here, there’s a crucial ‘middle third’ of Scotch public opinion which is neither massively Nat nor Yoon. And will be persuaded or not by the financial cost or benefit
The enormous deficit will not go unnoticed by many of them
Mmm - you're probably right. So we are therefore stuck in this regrettable situation of Scotland hating us but not being able to leave.
How did the West get sucked into "nation building" in Afghanistan in the first place? We were suppose to be there only to dismantle the terrorism threat in 2001.
Rumsfeld cocked the job up, and everything followed from that.
He, you will recall, did it on the cheap, relying on the locals backed up by US air power...
Mission creep I suppose.
The conventional wisdom at the time was that the reason that things had gone wrong in Afghanistan was, that
- The Russians massive military intervention had put everyone in Afghanistan against them - After they were defeated - "The West abandoned Afghanistan". - Which allowed Osama and chums to roll in.
So, the conventional wisdom was that the intervention in Afghanistan should be Afghan led (if possible) and followed up with lots of... nation building.
There’s a nice moment in The Outpost film, the local US army officer having a ‘hearts and minds’ meeting with Afghan villagers, when a villager says “you’ve been here for forty years” and the indignant officer tries to explain the difference between Russia and America to the villagers - who clearly weren’t seeing it.
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
Well 1) many Scots simply don't believe these figures (see malcolmg), so they don't provide much of a disincentive to vote Yes, but more importantly 2) A newly independent Scotland would presumably simply start living within its means. Scotland spends more than RUK per head because it can - we give it that money - not because it has to. There'll be a big hit to public spending - it'll be a shock to the subsidy junkies - but it would be able to function. (Assuming there's someone prepared to take on the challenge, of course!) Oh, and 3) it doesn't really matter - these are all problems to be faced *after* independence. The point of the SNP is presumably to get to independence - once there, mission accomplished: the future is somebody else's challenge, surely?
Sure. But as we’ve oft discussed on here, there’s a crucial ‘middle third’ of Scotch public opinion which is neither massively Nat nor Yoon. And will be persuaded or not by the financial cost or benefit
The enormous deficit will not go unnoticed by many of them
Mmm - you're probably right. So we are therefore stuck in this regrettable situation of Scotland hating us but not being able to leave.
If you settle enough* Afghan refugees in Scotland, so that the Scottish share of the UK population rises above the 9.1% share of public spending they receive, then you'd reverse the Barnett consequentials formula and there would be a financial case for Independence.
Something that makes it indisputably clear how far the Afghan conflict has been a proxy cultural and military conflict in the local region, is the distribution of social media posts. By far the lion's share of posts on twitter, and seemingly on Facebook too, are from India and Pakistan. Indians apparently almost uniformly take the horrified view of American and western conservatives, while posters from Pakistan seem to almost universally describe the events in terms of a 'great welcome and peaceful transition' from a lickspittle government.
"Taliban have broken ‘the shackles of slavery,’ says Pakistan PM Imran Khan"
Something that makes it indisputably clear how far the Afghan conflict has been a proxy cultural and military conflict in the local region, is the distribution of social media posts. By far the lion's share of posts on twitter, and seemingly on Facebook too, are from India and Pakistan. Indians apparently almost uniformly take the horrified view of American and western conservatives, while posters from Pakistan seem to almost universally describe the events in terms of a 'great welcome and peaceful transition' from a lickspittle government.
"Taliban have broken ‘the shackles of slavery,’ says Pakistan PM Imran Khan"
Boris Johnson had to justify the ignominious retreat from Afghanistan in front of a testy, and at times hostile, House of Commons – dominated by critics from his own side asking if Britain could have been better prepared and if the collapse of the Kabul government could have been averted.
It was an occasion the UK prime minister struggled to rise to, not helped by the format that Downing Street had opted for: a general debate, which meant MPs were allowed to rise and seek to intervene as Johnson spoke, generating a crescendo of background noise after he had completed a line or two. After two minutes the prime minister was refusing – again – to agree to a public inquiry in response to an intervention from Tobias Ellwood, the chair of the defence select committee, rather than develop his own argument.
It was an attempt to demonstrate there was, ultimately, no alternative, an argument which might have gone unchallenged for longer had not his predecessor, Theresa May, immediately stood up and asked what attempt Johnson had made “of putting together an alliance of other forces in order to replace American support in Afghanistan” within Nato.
At first Johnson sought to deflect – he had spoke to Nato’s chief “only the other day” – before he cut to the essential point: “I do not believe that today deploying tens of thousands of British troops to fight the Taliban is an option that, no matter how sincerely people may advocate it – and I appreciate their sincerity – would commend itself either to the British people or to this house.” Just like Biden, Johnson’s argument was that, in reality, the UK has no desire to commit to an endless fight.
Just like Biden, Johnson’s argument was that, in reality, the UK has no desire to commit to an endless fight.
Well he's right about that. Depressing as the situation is whether one supported the withdrawal or not, our leaders have at least been somewhat honest about that part.
Something that makes it indisputably clear how far the Afghan conflict has been a proxy cultural and military conflict in the local region, is the distribution of social media posts. By far the lion's share of posts on twitter, and seemingly on Facebook too, are from India and Pakistan. Indians apparently almost uniformly take the horrified view of American and western conservatives, while posters from Pakistan seem to almost universally describe the events in terms of a 'great welcome and peaceful transition' from a lickspittle government.
"Taliban have broken ‘the shackles of slavery,’ says Pakistan PM Imran Khan"
There's definitely been some ball tampering going on from the Pakistan side, and probably not just with bottle tops.
I’m completely lost with the politics of why an ascendent Afghani Taliban would be welcomed by a Pakistani government that attempts to position itself as outward looking and modern.
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
Well 1) many Scots simply don't believe these figures (see malcolmg), so they don't provide much of a disincentive to vote Yes, but more importantly 2) A newly independent Scotland would presumably simply start living within its means. Scotland spends more than RUK per head because it can - we give it that money - not because it has to. There'll be a big hit to public spending - it'll be a shock to the subsidy junkies - but it would be able to function. (Assuming there's someone prepared to take on the challenge, of course!) Oh, and 3) it doesn't really matter - these are all problems to be faced *after* independence. The point of the SNP is presumably to get to independence - once there, mission accomplished: the future is somebody else's challenge, surely?
Sure. But as we’ve oft discussed on here, there’s a crucial ‘middle third’ of Scotch public opinion which is neither massively Nat nor Yoon. And will be persuaded or not by the financial cost or benefit
The enormous deficit will not go unnoticed by many of them
The intellectual (and moral) problem for the SNP is the only way they can win independence is by persuading a majority of Scots that they will be better off - even though they, ie, the SNP High Command - know this to be an absolute lie, no matter how they cut it.
Boris et al, had no great problem with this when it came to Brexit, but part of the SNP schtick, is that they are morally superior to the evil English Tories and would never stoop so low. Ho hum.
It's all the fault of the evil English, you know. They've put down the Scots for too long, caused all of Scotland's ills. They made the Scots profit from the slave trade, made them imperialists. They ruined the shipbuilding industry. Every other country: Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Germany - has learnt from their mistakes. But not England. Oh no.
(/Dickson mode)
I’ve just been to the Acropolis Museum where they constantly repeat the historical point that the SCOTTISH Lord Elgin, ambassador for the UK, looted all those marbles
I can only presume the poor Lord did it at gun point, forced by redcoats to go against his every instinct as a true Scotsman
Have you been to the restaurant ? I had a great meal there.
Had lunch there today! Fabulous food. Going back again
It's making me hungry just thinking about it again.
It’s one of the most interesting menus I’ve encountered in many months. Genuinely innovative and delicious and not that pricey
I haven’t had a bad meal in 8 days in Athens. OK I’ve had a lot of Greek salads but a Greek salad done well is a noble thing
Many people don't realise, but Greek restaurant food, particularly in Athens if you want more adventurous menus , has gradually become some of the best in Europe. There's been simply too many decades of Greek chefs travelling around France, Britain, Germany and Italy, and combining that with very strong local traditions from various places, for it not to be.
Like the Italians, they generally resist messing around too much with their food, though. Sit yourself at a Taverna and order some meze style starters, a plate of grilled fish, salad and jug of retsina. Perfect.
That's true, and the other side of the coin. There's still a great base of traditional food all over the islands and the coasts, and even some parts deep inland, for them to draw on for instance.
I’m sure both the Italians and Greeks suspect that the French invented sauces in order to disguise bad food.
Off thread - has the death of Sean Lock been raised? Genuinely sad about this. Not in a 'deluding-myself-that-I-know-someone-famous' type way, but he was my favourite comedian, and I'm sad that we'll never get anything more from him. One of very few comedians to make me laugh until it hurts.
Here's my prediction: if SPD + Green + Linke exceeds 50% of the seats in the Bundestag (which is perhaps a one-in-three shot), then Laschet will not be Chancellor. There is simply no mileage in the SPD propping up an extremely unpopular CDU leader.
I thought that Forsa poll would be interesting though somebody claimed the German election was going to be a "snoozefest".
Changes since 2017 Bundestag election:
Union CDU/CSU: 23% (-10) Social Democrats: 21% (+0.5) Greens: 19% (+10) FDP-RE: 12% (+1.5) AfD-ID: 10% (-2.5) LINKE-LEFT: 6% (-3)
To take this further, a state poll in Mecklenberg put the SPD ahead of the CDU 25-21. That represents a 12% swing from the CDU to SPD since 2017 so it's not just a question of the national poll numbers but the state and regional poll numbers as well.
Akin to Canada, where, with 200 out of 338 ridings, Ontario and Quebec are hugely significant in detemrining the national outcome.
Something that makes it indisputably clear how far the Afghan conflict has been a proxy cultural and military conflict in the local region, is the distribution of social media posts. By far the lion's share of posts on twitter, and seemingly on Facebook too, are from India and Pakistan. Indians apparently almost uniformly take the horrified view of American and western conservatives, while posters from Pakistan seem to almost universally describe the events in terms of a 'great welcome and peaceful transition' from a lickspittle government.
"Taliban have broken ‘the shackles of slavery,’ says Pakistan PM Imran Khan"
I'm quite surprised by this. I suppose I must have assumed that anyone who played international cricket would be on the side of the 21st century (or at least the 20th) over that of the 14th.
He's been on quite the journey. The price of power, I assume.
Mmm - you're probably right. So we are therefore stuck in this regrettable situation of Scotland hating us but not being able to leave.
What's this thing you English have for people, indeed whole countries, 'hating' you? I confess to hating BJ and his horrible, morally vacant mob, but I try to keep it quarantined. I will own up to a fair degree of contempt for those that enthusiastically support these pricks at every evidence of their arseholery..
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
As supportive as I am of any argument bolstering the case for the UK I have a hard time imagining any outcome quite so bad.
Insert hyperbole emoji
It wouldn’t be Venezuela. But fuck. It would be BAD
I'm reading the diary of Sir Henry "Chips" Channon, who describes travelling through Ireland a few years after independence. He lists all the public service cuts and price increases that the Irish had been forced to make, and says that some of them were yearning to have the English back.
OK, it didn't happen in the end, and Ireland has prospered over the last few decades. Still, an interesting read.
It's all the fault of the evil English, you know. They've put down the Scots for too long, caused all of Scotland's ills. They made the Scots profit from the slave trade, made them imperialists. They ruined the shipbuilding industry. Every other country: Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Germany - has learnt from their mistakes. But not England. Oh no.
(/Dickson mode)
I’ve just been to the Acropolis Museum where they constantly repeat the historical point that the SCOTTISH Lord Elgin, ambassador for the UK, looted all those marbles
I can only presume the poor Lord did it at gun point, forced by redcoats to go against his every instinct as a true Scotsman
Have you been to the restaurant ? I had a great meal there.
Had lunch there today! Fabulous food. Going back again
It's making me hungry just thinking about it again.
It’s one of the most interesting menus I’ve encountered in many months. Genuinely innovative and delicious and not that pricey
I haven’t had a bad meal in 8 days in Athens. OK I’ve had a lot of Greek salads but a Greek salad done well is a noble thing
Many people don't realise, but Greek restaurant food, particularly in Athens if you want more adventurous menus , has gradually become some of the best in Europe. There's been simply too many decades of Greek chefs travelling around France, Britain, Germany and Italy, and combining that with very strong local traditions in various places, for it not to be.
Yes, it’s excellent generally in Athens
There’s a popular trad taverna near me (Kolonaki) which does old Greek dishes. 20 years ago it would have been stodgy moussaka and ok calamari
It’s brilliant. I had a slow roasted pork and wild mushroom thing there yesterday. Genius. Rich yet light. Wonderful
Komi used to be one of the very best restaurants in DC. Incredibly fresh-tasting food. Run by a young Greek American chef, Johnny Monis. He was only 24 years old when Komi attained the top-rated status in DC.
Boris Johnson had to justify the ignominious retreat from Afghanistan in front of a testy, and at times hostile, House of Commons – dominated by critics from his own side asking if Britain could have been better prepared and if the collapse of the Kabul government could have been averted.
It was an occasion the UK prime minister struggled to rise to, not helped by the format that Downing Street had opted for: a general debate, which meant MPs were allowed to rise and seek to intervene as Johnson spoke, generating a crescendo of background noise after he had completed a line or two. After two minutes the prime minister was refusing – again – to agree to a public inquiry in response to an intervention from Tobias Ellwood, the chair of the defence select committee, rather than develop his own argument.
It was an attempt to demonstrate there was, ultimately, no alternative, an argument which might have gone unchallenged for longer had not his predecessor, Theresa May, immediately stood up and asked what attempt Johnson had made “of putting together an alliance of other forces in order to replace American support in Afghanistan” within Nato.
At first Johnson sought to deflect – he had spoke to Nato’s chief “only the other day” – before he cut to the essential point: “I do not believe that today deploying tens of thousands of British troops to fight the Taliban is an option that, no matter how sincerely people may advocate it – and I appreciate their sincerity – would commend itself either to the British people or to this house.” Just like Biden, Johnson’s argument was that, in reality, the UK has no desire to commit to an endless fight.
If that is Johnson's argument, then it is a flawed one.
Britain cannot afford to commit to an endless fight, a point that is being totally ignored in parliament and in the mainstream press.
We just spent half a trillion on covid Our next move is to spend a further one and a half trillion on net zero by 2050.
Perhaps someone should remind those MPs moaning about the size of the defence budget.
Something that makes it indisputably clear how far the Afghan conflict has been a proxy cultural and military conflict in the local region, is the distribution of social media posts. By far the lion's share of posts on twitter, and seemingly on Facebook too, are from India and Pakistan. Indians apparently almost uniformly take the horrified view of American and western conservatives, while posters from Pakistan seem to almost universally describe the events in terms of a 'great welcome and peaceful transition' from a lickspittle government.
"Taliban have broken ‘the shackles of slavery,’ says Pakistan PM Imran Khan"
There's definitely been some ball tampering going on from the Pakistan side, and probably not just with bottle tops.
I’m completely lost with the politics of why an ascendent Afghani Taliban would be welcomed by a Pakistani government that attempts to position itself as outward looking and modern.
Just like Biden, Johnson’s argument was that, in reality, the UK has no desire to commit to an endless fight.
Well he's right about that. Depressing as the situation is whether one supported the withdrawal or not, our leaders have at least been somewhat honest about that part.
Most voters never wanted to go there in the first place.
The whole fiasco arose because the US needed to do something after 9/11 (their special forces were parachuted into Afghanistan with a suitcase containing $3 million in $100 bills just fifteen days later, before any political decisions had been made) and invading Afghanistan was the obvious something.
Despite the likes of our HY insisting that only invading could stem the spread of world terrorism, it would clearly have been possible to let the special forces do their stuff, rather than invade and get lumbered with trying to manage the whole country for the next twenty years.
Indeed, despite the “US withdrawal” story in the media, aren’t the US special forces still operating out there, right now, and for the foreseeable?
Interesting line up description on QT, given usual party labels, but I suppose they'd no other option James Cleverly - Conservative Lisa Nandy - Labour Rory Stewart - Former minister Nelufar Hedayat - Journalist Mehdi Hasan - Broadcaster
I also wonder if broadcaster outranks journalist or vice versa.
Medhi Hasan argued that the 7/7 bombers had adapted well to English culture because "they played cricket"
Mmm - you're probably right. So we are therefore stuck in this regrettable situation of Scotland hating us but not being able to leave.
What's this thing you English have for people, indeed whole countries, 'hating' you? I confess to hating BJ and his horrible, morally vacant mob, but I try to keep it quarantined. I will own up to a fair degree of contempt for those that enthusiastically support these pricks at every evidence of their arseholery..
You must have missed the entire commentary of Mr Stuart Dickson, gentleman of this very parish
Something that makes it indisputably clear how far the Afghan conflict has been a proxy cultural and military conflict in the local region, is the distribution of social media posts. By far the lion's share of posts on twitter, and seemingly on Facebook too, are from India and Pakistan. Indians apparently almost uniformly take the horrified view of American and western conservatives, while posters from Pakistan seem to almost universally describe the events in terms of a 'great welcome and peaceful transition' from a lickspittle government.
"Taliban have broken ‘the shackles of slavery,’ says Pakistan PM Imran Khan"
I'm quite surprised by this. I suppose I must have assumed that anyone who played international cricket would be on the side of the 21st century (or at least the 20th) over that of the 14th.
Check the evolution of his partners. From London playboy with a blonde on each arm to husband of a wife in a near full-on burqa
Interesting line up description on QT, given usual party labels, but I suppose they'd no other option James Cleverly - Conservative Lisa Nandy - Labour Rory Stewart - Former minister Nelufar Hedayat - Journalist Mehdi Hasan - Broadcaster
I also wonder if broadcaster outranks journalist or vice versa.
Medhi Hasan argued that the 7/7 bombers had adapted well to English culture because "they played cricket"
He's also been on record as referring to non-Muslims as "cattle".
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
As supportive as I am of any argument bolstering the case for the UK I have a hard time imagining any outcome quite so bad.
Insert hyperbole emoji
It wouldn’t be Venezuela. But fuck. It would be BAD
I'm reading the diary of Sir Henry "Chips" Channon, who describes travelling through Ireland a few years after independence. He lists all the public service cuts and price increases that the Irish had been forced to make, and says that some of them were yearning to have the English back.
OK, it didn't happen in the end, and Ireland has prospered over the last few decades. Still, an interesting read.
They had a civil war along the way too, as I seem to recall.
The more recent prosperity has, I think, a lot to do with an aggressive low tax policy to attract inward investors, plus large wodges of cash from the EU to do up the infrastructure. Probably not options for IndyScot.
Something that makes it indisputably clear how far the Afghan conflict has been a proxy cultural and military conflict in the local region, is the distribution of social media posts. By far the lion's share of posts on twitter, and seemingly on Facebook too, are from India and Pakistan. Indians apparently almost uniformly take the horrified view of American and western conservatives, while posters from Pakistan seem to almost universally describe the events in terms of a 'great welcome and peaceful transition' from a lickspittle government.
"Taliban have broken ‘the shackles of slavery,’ says Pakistan PM Imran Khan"
There's definitely been some ball tampering going on from the Pakistan side, and probably not just with bottle tops.
I’m completely lost with the politics of why an ascendent Afghani Taliban would be welcomed by a Pakistani government that attempts to position itself as outward looking and modern.
The Taliban were largely invented by the ISI - the Pakistani Intelligence service. They were worried that the post Soviet Government in Kabul was getting too close to India....
Whether the ISI tried to weaponise Islam, got converted to the radial Islamic cause or some mixture is an interesting question. Suffice it to say that these days, they are very, very hardline.
As in, a PM of Pakistan who doesn't go with their flow will very likely end up dead.
Interesting line up description on QT, given usual party labels, but I suppose they'd no other option James Cleverly - Conservative Lisa Nandy - Labour Rory Stewart - Former minister Nelufar Hedayat - Journalist Mehdi Hasan - Broadcaster
I also wonder if broadcaster outranks journalist or vice versa.
Medhi Hasan argued that the 7/7 bombers had adapted well to English culture because "they played cricket"
He also been on record as referring to non-Muslims as "cattle".
Can you just sweep stuff you said in the past under the carpet anymore, or is it a straight red/cancellation
“All of these ulama unanimously agree that at the very minimum if Yazid was not a Kaffir — then at the very minimum he was a fasiq, a transgressor, a breaker of Islamic laws, a corrupt individual, a tyrant, a killer a drunkard, a dog lover, a music lover, a homosexual, a pedophile, a sexual deviant, someone who slept with his own mother,” Hasan says in an old recording of what appears to be a sermon on Islamic law.
“In this respect the Koran describes the atheist as cattle. As cattle of those who grow the crops and do not stop and wonder about this world,” he said at another moment.
I have always regretted the dumb and offensive comments I made in my 20s, on atheism and homosexuality. They still embarrass me, but they haven’t been representative of my beliefs for over a decade,” he told TheWrap in an additional statement. “Rather than bury them, I chose to raise them myself in a Twitter thread over the weekend to try and urge us all to reckon with our prejudices and to challenge hate speech – whether witting or unwitting – wherever we find it.”
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
As supportive as I am of any argument bolstering the case for the UK I have a hard time imagining any outcome quite so bad.
Insert hyperbole emoji
It wouldn’t be Venezuela. But fuck. It would be BAD
I'm reading the diary of Sir Henry "Chips" Channon, who describes travelling through Ireland a few years after independence. He lists all the public service cuts and price increases that the Irish had been forced to make, and says that some of them were yearning to have the English back.
OK, it didn't happen in the end, and Ireland has prospered over the last few decades. Still, an interesting read.
They had a civil war along the way too, as I seem to recall.
The more recent prosperity has, I think, a lot to do with an aggressive low tax policy to attract inward investors, plus large wodges of cash from the EU to do up the infrastructure. Probably not options for IndyScot.
an aggressive low tax policy in a country within the Single Market to attract inward investors
It's all the fault of the evil English, you know. They've put down the Scots for too long, caused all of Scotland's ills. They made the Scots profit from the slave trade, made them imperialists. They ruined the shipbuilding industry. Every other country: Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Germany - has learnt from their mistakes. But not England. Oh no.
(/Dickson mode)
I’ve just been to the Acropolis Museum where they constantly repeat the historical point that the SCOTTISH Lord Elgin, ambassador for the UK, looted all those marbles
I can only presume the poor Lord did it at gun point, forced by redcoats to go against his every instinct as a true Scotsman
Have you been to the restaurant ? I had a great meal there.
Had lunch there today! Fabulous food. Going back again
It's making me hungry just thinking about it again.
It’s one of the most interesting menus I’ve encountered in many months. Genuinely innovative and delicious and not that pricey
I haven’t had a bad meal in 8 days in Athens. OK I’ve had a lot of Greek salads but a Greek salad done well is a noble thing
Many people don't realise, but Greek restaurant food, particularly in Athens if you want more adventurous menus , has gradually become some of the best in Europe. There's been simply too many decades of Greek chefs travelling around France, Britain, Germany and Italy, and combining that with very strong local traditions in various places, for it not to be.
Yes, it’s excellent generally in Athens
There’s a popular trad taverna near me (Kolonaki) which does old Greek dishes. 20 years ago it would have been stodgy moussaka and ok calamari
It’s brilliant. I had a slow roasted pork and wild mushroom thing there yesterday. Genius. Rich yet light. Wonderful
Komi used to be one of the very best restaurants in DC. Incredibly fresh-tasting food. Run by a young Greek American chef, Johnny Monis. He was only 24 years old when Komi attained the top-rated status in DC.
Yes, the great thing about Greek food is that it is also so fucking healthy. Lots of super fresh salad and seafood, but now done with invention, as well
I have been checking the obesity of foreign tourists here
The fattest are the Americans, who have gotten even fatter over Covid. Some are just outstanding, 22 year old women who can barely walk I fear the Brits are second, not a pretty sight Germans a close-ish third The French and Italians remain fairly svelte, damn them The Greeks have not changed at all. Mammacious women, as ever
Mmm - you're probably right. So we are therefore stuck in this regrettable situation of Scotland hating us but not being able to leave.
What's this thing you English have for people, indeed whole countries, 'hating' you? I confess to hating BJ and his horrible, morally vacant mob, but I try to keep it quarantined. I will own up to a fair degree of contempt for those that enthusiastically support these pricks at every evidence of their arseholery..
You must have missed the entire commentary of Mr Stuart Dickson, gentleman of this very parish
There's something of a difference between the attitudes of one person and those of a nation.
The problem with any discussion of northerly parts (and of contentious political issues more generally) is that such conversations attract a certain amount of dipstickery, and that the dipsticks tend to shout the loudest. We appreciate that this happens all over social media. PB obviously isn't even remotely as bad as Twitter, but you see that up to a point on here as well. And taking social media mudslinging and shouting matches as representative of the thoughts of the masses gives one an entirely false impression of the overall state of public opinion.
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
As supportive as I am of any argument bolstering the case for the UK I have a hard time imagining any outcome quite so bad.
Insert hyperbole emoji
It wouldn’t be Venezuela. But fuck. It would be BAD
I'm reading the diary of Sir Henry "Chips" Channon, who describes travelling through Ireland a few years after independence. He lists all the public service cuts and price increases that the Irish had been forced to make, and says that some of them were yearning to have the English back.
OK, it didn't happen in the end, and Ireland has prospered over the last few decades. Still, an interesting read.
They had a civil war along the way too, as I seem to recall.
The more recent prosperity has, I think, a lot to do with an aggressive low tax policy to attract inward investors, plus large wodges of cash from the EU to do up the infrastructure. Probably not options for IndyScot.
an aggressive low tax policy in a country within the Single Market to attract inward investors
True. Of course, to be in the Singe Market, you have to be in the EU which means meeting the EU's deficit requirements. A bothersome requirement when your deficit is eight times too high. But, hey!
Something that makes it indisputably clear how far the Afghan conflict has been a proxy cultural and military conflict in the local region, is the distribution of social media posts. By far the lion's share of posts on twitter, and seemingly on Facebook too, are from India and Pakistan. Indians apparently almost uniformly take the horrified view of American and western conservatives, while posters from Pakistan seem to almost universally describe the events in terms of a 'great welcome and peaceful transition' from a lickspittle government.
"Taliban have broken ‘the shackles of slavery,’ says Pakistan PM Imran Khan"
There's definitely been some ball tampering going on from the Pakistan side, and probably not just with bottle tops.
I’m completely lost with the politics of why an ascendent Afghani Taliban would be welcomed by a Pakistani government that attempts to position itself as outward looking and modern.
The Taliban were largely invented by the ISI - the Pakistani Intelligence service. They were worried that the post Soviet Government in Kabul was getting too close to India....
Whether the ISI tried to weaponise Islam, got converted to the radial Islamic cause or some mixture is an interesting question. Suffice it to say that these days, they are very, very hardline.
As in, a PM of Pakistan who doesn't go with their flow will very likely end up dead.
But the US also deserves a place high up in the closing credits of “Taliban, the true story”….
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
As supportive as I am of any argument bolstering the case for the UK I have a hard time imagining any outcome quite so bad.
Insert hyperbole emoji
It wouldn’t be Venezuela. But fuck. It would be BAD
I'm reading the diary of Sir Henry "Chips" Channon, who describes travelling through Ireland a few years after independence. He lists all the public service cuts and price increases that the Irish had been forced to make, and says that some of them were yearning to have the English back.
OK, it didn't happen in the end, and Ireland has prospered over the last few decades. Still, an interesting read.
They had a civil war along the way too, as I seem to recall.
The more recent prosperity has, I think, a lot to do with an aggressive low tax policy to attract inward investors, plus large wodges of cash from the EU to do up the infrastructure. Probably not options for IndyScot.
Interesting line up description on QT, given usual party labels, but I suppose they'd no other option James Cleverly - Conservative Lisa Nandy - Labour Rory Stewart - Former minister Nelufar Hedayat - Journalist Mehdi Hasan - Broadcaster
I also wonder if broadcaster outranks journalist or vice versa.
Medhi Hasan argued that the 7/7 bombers had adapted well to English culture because "they played cricket"
He also been on record as referring to non-Muslims as "cattle".
Can you just sweep stuff you said in the past under the carpet anymore, or is it a straight red/cancellation
“All of these ulama unanimously agree that at the very minimum if Yazid was not a Kaffir — then at the very minimum he was a fasiq, a transgressor, a breaker of Islamic laws, a corrupt individual, a tyrant, a killer a drunkard, a dog lover, a music lover, a homosexual, a pedophile, a sexual deviant, someone who slept with his own mother,” Hasan says in an old recording of what appears to be a sermon on Islamic law.
“In this respect the Koran describes the atheist as cattle. As cattle of those who grow the crops and do not stop and wonder about this world,” he said at another moment.
I have always regretted the dumb and offensive comments I made in my 20s, on atheism and homosexuality. They still embarrass me, but they haven’t been representative of my beliefs for over a decade,” he told TheWrap in an additional statement. “Rather than bury them, I chose to raise them myself in a Twitter thread over the weekend to try and urge us all to reckon with our prejudices and to challenge hate speech – whether witting or unwitting – wherever we find it.”
No redemption appears to be the done thing thesedays, as well as all sins and transgressions being equal. I don't know enough of him to know if he has changed, but I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.
Off thread - has the death of Sean Lock been raised? Genuinely sad about this. Not in a 'deluding-myself-that-I-know-someone-famous' type way, but he was my favourite comedian, and I'm sad that we'll never get anything more from him. One of very few comedians to make me laugh until it hurts.
From reading the BBC feed there did seem to rather a lot of 'stab in the back' mythologizing being attempted in parliament today.
Listening to MPs talk, it is almost as if covid never happened, 400bn hadn't been run up in debt, freedoms were never curtailed, an aggressive propaganda war was never unleashed, the economy hadn't been shattered and 5.5m weren't waiting on NHS treatment lists.
The awkward fact for them is that all of these things have happened. And more.
Mmm - you're probably right. So we are therefore stuck in this regrettable situation of Scotland hating us but not being able to leave.
What's this thing you English have for people, indeed whole countries, 'hating' you? I confess to hating BJ and his horrible, morally vacant mob, but I try to keep it quarantined. I will own up to a fair degree of contempt for those that enthusiastically support these pricks at every evidence of their arseholery..
You must have missed the entire commentary of Mr Stuart Dickson, gentleman of this very parish
There's something of a difference between the attitudes of one person and those of a nation.
The problem with any discussion of northerly parts (and of contentious political issues more generally) is that such conversations attract a certain amount of dipstickery, and that the dipsticks tend to shout the loudest. We appreciate that this happens all over social media. PB obviously isn't even remotely as bad as Twitter, but you see that up to a point on here as well. And taking social media mudslinging and shouting matches as representative of the thoughts of the masses gives one an entirely false impression of the overall state of public opinion.
True, but Theuniondivvie was talking about people “hating the English”, and I think we have an example of exactly that, on this site. Stuart Dickson lapses into speech about England and the English which - to me - would be regarded as racism if aimed at anyone else. He genuinely seems to hate the country AND the people
For the record, I don’t think any other PB Nat is anywhere near that bad. Malcolmg is clearly a bot programmed by a bored turnip farmer, Theuniondivvie is waspish but often witty, Carnyx is one of the most urbane and informed of PB commenters
Likewise, the most ferocious Tories - HYUFD - never evince “hatred” as far as I can see. His discourse about tanks to Glasgow is nuts, but it is a logical evolution of his fierce unionism (misguided, but not hateful towards Scots I don’t think)
So “English-hatred” is rare but it does happen, is my modest point
Mmm - you're probably right. So we are therefore stuck in this regrettable situation of Scotland hating us but not being able to leave.
What's this thing you English have for people, indeed whole countries, 'hating' you? I confess to hating BJ and his horrible, morally vacant mob, but I try to keep it quarantined. I will own up to a fair degree of contempt for those that enthusiastically support these pricks at every evidence of their arseholery..
Hate the regime / love the people. Like with China.
Well not "love" exactly - leave that to the sort of people who like to say that they "love" a whole people - but you know what I mean.
Interesting line up description on QT, given usual party labels, but I suppose they'd no other option James Cleverly - Conservative Lisa Nandy - Labour Rory Stewart - Former minister Nelufar Hedayat - Journalist Mehdi Hasan - Broadcaster
I also wonder if broadcaster outranks journalist or vice versa.
Medhi Hasan argued that the 7/7 bombers had adapted well to English culture because "they played cricket"
He also been on record as referring to non-Muslims as "cattle".
Can you just sweep stuff you said in the past under the carpet anymore, or is it a straight red/cancellation
“All of these ulama unanimously agree that at the very minimum if Yazid was not a Kaffir — then at the very minimum he was a fasiq, a transgressor, a breaker of Islamic laws, a corrupt individual, a tyrant, a killer a drunkard, a dog lover, a music lover, a homosexual, a pedophile, a sexual deviant, someone who slept with his own mother,” Hasan says in an old recording of what appears to be a sermon on Islamic law.
“In this respect the Koran describes the atheist as cattle. As cattle of those who grow the crops and do not stop and wonder about this world,” he said at another moment.
I have always regretted the dumb and offensive comments I made in my 20s, on atheism and homosexuality. They still embarrass me, but they haven’t been representative of my beliefs for over a decade,” he told TheWrap in an additional statement. “Rather than bury them, I chose to raise them myself in a Twitter thread over the weekend to try and urge us all to reckon with our prejudices and to challenge hate speech – whether witting or unwitting – wherever we find it.”
No redemption appears to be the done thing thesedays, as well as all sins and transgressions being equal. I don't know enough of him to know if he has changed, but I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.
If Maajid Nawaz can put outright jihadism behind him we should be able to forgive Mehdi Hasan some non-violent prejudice a decade ago. Especially when he just outright apologizes for them without an attempt to rationalize them.
Interesting line up description on QT, given usual party labels, but I suppose they'd no other option James Cleverly - Conservative Lisa Nandy - Labour Rory Stewart - Former minister Nelufar Hedayat - Journalist Mehdi Hasan - Broadcaster
I also wonder if broadcaster outranks journalist or vice versa.
Medhi Hasan argued that the 7/7 bombers had adapted well to English culture because "they played cricket"
He also been on record as referring to non-Muslims as "cattle".
Can you just sweep stuff you said in the past under the carpet anymore, or is it a straight red/cancellation
“All of these ulama unanimously agree that at the very minimum if Yazid was not a Kaffir — then at the very minimum he was a fasiq, a transgressor, a breaker of Islamic laws, a corrupt individual, a tyrant, a killer a drunkard, a dog lover, a music lover, a homosexual, a pedophile, a sexual deviant, someone who slept with his own mother,” Hasan says in an old recording of what appears to be a sermon on Islamic law.
“In this respect the Koran describes the atheist as cattle. As cattle of those who grow the crops and do not stop and wonder about this world,” he said at another moment.
I have always regretted the dumb and offensive comments I made in my 20s, on atheism and homosexuality. They still embarrass me, but they haven’t been representative of my beliefs for over a decade,” he told TheWrap in an additional statement. “Rather than bury them, I chose to raise them myself in a Twitter thread over the weekend to try and urge us all to reckon with our prejudices and to challenge hate speech – whether witting or unwitting – wherever we find it.”
No redemption appears to be the done thing thesedays, as well as all sins and transgressions being equal. I don't know enough of him to know if he has changed, but I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.
If Maajid Nawaz can put outright jihadism behind him we should be able to forgive Mehdi Hasan some non-violent prejudice a decade ago. Especially when he just outright apologizes for them without an attempt to rationalize them.
There is a difference though. Nawaz is now the opposite of an apologist for Islamic extremism. Let's see what Hasan has to say tonight
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
Well 1) many Scots simply don't believe these figures (see malcolmg), so they don't provide much of a disincentive to vote Yes, but more importantly 2) A newly independent Scotland would presumably simply start living within its means. Scotland spends more than RUK per head because it can - we give it that money - not because it has to. There'll be a big hit to public spending - it'll be a shock to the subsidy junkies - but it would be able to function. (Assuming there's someone prepared to take on the challenge, of course!) Oh, and 3) it doesn't really matter - these are all problems to be faced *after* independence. The point of the SNP is presumably to get to independence - once there, mission accomplished: the future is somebody else's challenge, surely?
I doubt an independent Scotland would start living within its means initially.
Because many Nats believe that Scotland is subsidising England and would be much richer if independent.
They're not going to accept tax rises and spending cuts.
Now tax rises and spending cuts might be forced upon Scotland very quickly but as you say that would be someone else's problem.
Mmm - you're probably right. So we are therefore stuck in this regrettable situation of Scotland hating us but not being able to leave.
What's this thing you English have for people, indeed whole countries, 'hating' you? I confess to hating BJ and his horrible, morally vacant mob, but I try to keep it quarantined. I will own up to a fair degree of contempt for those that enthusiastically support these pricks at every evidence of their arseholery..
Hate the regime / love the people. Like with China.
Well not "love" exactly - leave that to the sort of people who like to say that they "love" a whole people - but you know what I mean.
There needs to be a word for 'feel vaguely benevolent towards and wish pleasant things for'.
It's all the fault of the evil English, you know. They've put down the Scots for too long, caused all of Scotland's ills. They made the Scots profit from the slave trade, made them imperialists. They ruined the shipbuilding industry. Every other country: Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Germany - has learnt from their mistakes. But not England. Oh no.
(/Dickson mode)
At some point Sturgeon is gonna have to turn around and say Uh, sorry guys, no Indy, not for quite a while, it’s just impossible
In the face of these astonishing figures, what else can a sane politician do?
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
Well 1) many Scots simply don't believe these figures (see malcolmg), so they don't provide much of a disincentive to vote Yes, but more importantly 2) A newly independent Scotland would presumably simply start living within its means. Scotland spends more than RUK per head because it can - we give it that money - not because it has to. There'll be a big hit to public spending - it'll be a shock to the subsidy junkies - but it would be able to function. (Assuming there's someone prepared to take on the challenge, of course!) Oh, and 3) it doesn't really matter - these are all problems to be faced *after* independence. The point of the SNP is presumably to get to independence - once there, mission accomplished: the future is somebody else's challenge, surely?
I doubt an independent Scotland would start living within its means initially.
Because many Nats believe that Scotland is subsidising England and would be much richer if independent.
They're not going to accept tax rises and spending cuts.
Now tax rises and spending cuts might be forced upon Scotland very quickly but as you say that would be someone else's problem.
If newly Scotland didn’t immediately impose enormous tax rises and huge spending cuts no one would lend to it, and it would default
It might default anyway, because of the near-intractable currency/bank problem
FWIW I have no doubt an Indy Scotland would eventually prosper, albeit in a modest way (it’s too late for them to copy the Irish model, and the oil has gone) but it would be a deeply painful 10-15 years on the way there
It appears to be an agonising situation for many Afghan interpreters and people who've worked with the west. On the one hand some are now being provided with what appears to be the golden ticket of a visa, but they can't know if answering the call and attempting to leave makes it more or less dangerous for them. What a hellish dilemma.
Reading behind the headline deficit figure in the GERS report it was created by £ spent in the pandemic as opposed to Scottish government largesse. So what is the equivalent deficit figure for the whole of the UK...?
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
Reading behind the headline deficit figure in the GERS report it was created by £ spent in the pandemic as opposed to Scottish government largesse. So what is the equivalent deficit figure for the whole of the UK...?
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
Well 1) many Scots simply don't believe these figures (see malcolmg), so they don't provide much of a disincentive to vote Yes, but more importantly 2) A newly independent Scotland would presumably simply start living within its means. Scotland spends more than RUK per head because it can - we give it that money - not because it has to. There'll be a big hit to public spending - it'll be a shock to the subsidy junkies - but it would be able to function. (Assuming there's someone prepared to take on the challenge, of course!) Oh, and 3) it doesn't really matter - these are all problems to be faced *after* independence. The point of the SNP is presumably to get to independence - once there, mission accomplished: the future is somebody else's challenge, surely?
I doubt an independent Scotland would start living within its means initially.
Because many Nats believe that Scotland is subsidising England and would be much richer if independent.
They're not going to accept tax rises and spending cuts.
Now tax rises and spending cuts might be forced upon Scotland very quickly but as you say that would be someone else's problem.
If newly Scotland didn’t immediately impose enormous tax rises and huge spending cuts no one would lend to it, and it would default
It might default anyway, because of the near-intractable currency/bank problem
FWIW I have no doubt an Indy Scotland would eventually prosper, albeit in a modest way (it’s too late for them to copy the Irish model, and the oil has gone) but it would be a deeply painful 10-15 years on the way there
Very hard to see how they could prosper even in 10-15 years if they spend the first few of them slashing public expenditure and trying to join the EU, and then have to install an EU external border at Gretna Green.
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
Well 1) many Scots simply don't believe these figures (see malcolmg), so they don't provide much of a disincentive to vote Yes, but more importantly 2) A newly independent Scotland would presumably simply start living within its means. Scotland spends more than RUK per head because it can - we give it that money - not because it has to. There'll be a big hit to public spending - it'll be a shock to the subsidy junkies - but it would be able to function. (Assuming there's someone prepared to take on the challenge, of course!) Oh, and 3) it doesn't really matter - these are all problems to be faced *after* independence. The point of the SNP is presumably to get to independence - once there, mission accomplished: the future is somebody else's challenge, surely?
I doubt an independent Scotland would start living within its means initially.
Because many Nats believe that Scotland is subsidising England and would be much richer if independent.
They're not going to accept tax rises and spending cuts.
Now tax rises and spending cuts might be forced upon Scotland very quickly but as you say that would be someone else's problem.
The premise of a second IndyRef is the "material change in circumstances" which was Scotland being bounced out of the EU. Ergo, a successful Yes campaign must lead to a process leading to EU membership. Ergo, devastating austerity measures to get the deficit down so as to meet EU requirements. There will be no flexibility on this - just ask the Greeks.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
An experiment taught monkeys to use rudimentary currency, with different colour disks being used to buy nuts, berries etc.
The researchers were astonishing when, unprompted, a male monkey left one of his disks in possession of a female monkey after sex, and the female cashed it in for food.
Interesting line up description on QT, given usual party labels, but I suppose they'd no other option James Cleverly - Conservative Lisa Nandy - Labour Rory Stewart - Former minister Nelufar Hedayat - Journalist Mehdi Hasan - Broadcaster
I also wonder if broadcaster outranks journalist or vice versa.
Medhi Hasan argued that the 7/7 bombers had adapted well to English culture because "they played cricket"
He also been on record as referring to non-Muslims as "cattle".
Can you just sweep stuff you said in the past under the carpet anymore, or is it a straight red/cancellation
“All of these ulama unanimously agree that at the very minimum if Yazid was not a Kaffir — then at the very minimum he was a fasiq, a transgressor, a breaker of Islamic laws, a corrupt individual, a tyrant, a killer a drunkard, a dog lover, a music lover, a homosexual, a pedophile, a sexual deviant, someone who slept with his own mother,” Hasan says in an old recording of what appears to be a sermon on Islamic law.
“In this respect the Koran describes the atheist as cattle. As cattle of those who grow the crops and do not stop and wonder about this world,” he said at another moment.
I have always regretted the dumb and offensive comments I made in my 20s, on atheism and homosexuality. They still embarrass me, but they haven’t been representative of my beliefs for over a decade,” he told TheWrap in an additional statement. “Rather than bury them, I chose to raise them myself in a Twitter thread over the weekend to try and urge us all to reckon with our prejudices and to challenge hate speech – whether witting or unwitting – wherever we find it.”
No redemption appears to be the done thing thesedays, as well as all sins and transgressions being equal. I don't know enough of him to know if he has changed, but I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.
At the very least, chapeau for not trying to hide or deny the past comments.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
For the record, I don't approve of New Zealand's approach either.
The vaccines are not working as effectively now as we would wish against Delta and people SHOULD be taking precautions. Everyone should be wearing a mask indoors compulsorily in all circumstances and we should be minimising social contact. Small price to pay for relative levels of freedom.
Instead of which Britain has gone bonkers and trouble is coming of it.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
Reading behind the headline deficit figure in the GERS report it was created by £ spent in the pandemic as opposed to Scottish government largesse. So what is the equivalent deficit figure for the whole of the UK...?
An experiment taught monkeys to use rudimentary currency, with different colour disks being used to buy nuts, berries etc.
The researchers were astonishing when, unprompted, a male monkey left one of his disks in possession of a female monkey after sex, and the female cashed it in for food.
The monkeys had invested a kind of prostitution.
Not necessarily prostitution. All social species have a system of paying it forward. Witness the 'kissing' vampire bats, who unnecessarily share food (blood), even in times of glut, as a way of forming closer bonds with the other individual.
For the record, I don't approve of New Zealand's approach either.
The vaccines are not working as effectively now as we would wish against Delta and people SHOULD be taking precautions. Everyone should be wearing a mask indoors compulsorily in all circumstances and we should be minimising social contact. Small price to pay for relative levels of freedom.
Instead of which Britain has gone bonkers and trouble is coming of it.
That would be far less freedom than we've had throughout.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
Isn’t that hospitalisation figure just a by-product of the fact that so many of the at-risk group have been vaccinated?
Yes, of course it is. Utterly meaningless without considering the prior risk profile.
Hospitalisations, deaths and case numbers are all rising I'm afraid.
We can try to pretend otherwise. Like Canute holding back the tide.
We don't need to pretend - the issue is not rising, but how much it is rising by and is that a level that does not justify legal restrictions.
Bluntly, and coldly, the level of deaths is not very high at all compared to previous waves and would need to rise a lot more to force a change of policy now.
It looks as though the 2021 contest in Canada will be plagued by daily "rolling" polls which are as much use as something that's of no use somewhere where it's even less useful.
Mainstreet Research and EKOS look to be doing daily rolling polls which I'm inclined to ignore. Abacus has a poll with the Liberals on 33%, the Conservatives on 28% and NDP on 22% (a decent number for them).
As always, I follow the numbers in Ontario and Quebec with particular interest as 200 of the 338 ridings are in these two provinces.
In Ontario, Abacus has the Liberals leading the Conservatives 36-30 with the NDP on 24%. The numbers in October 2019 were 41.5% for the Libs, 33% for the Conservatives and 17% for the NDP so I make that a 1.25% swing from Liberal to Conservative with a 5% swing from Conservative to NDP and 6.25% from Liberal to NDP.
Remember, half the Liberal caucus comes from Ontario so this is the battleground for Trudeau.
In Quebec, Liberals 34%, BQ 31%, Conservative 14%, NDP 10% and Greens 8%. The Greens are up 3.5%, the Conservatives down 2 and BQ down 1.5 so not a huge amount of change. The 78 seats in the province split Liberals 35, BQ 32, Conservatives 10 and NDP 1.
The third biggest province is British Columbia which brings 42 ridings to the table. Last time, the Conservatives won 34% and 17 seats. The Liberals got 11 seats on 26% and the NDP 11 seats on 24.5% with the Greens winning 2 seats on 12.5% and a single Independent.
Abacus has a statistical tie with Liberals on 31%, Conservatives on 30% and NDP on 29%. That's a 4.5% swing from Conservative to Liberal so any Conservative gains in Ontario would be offset by losses in British Columbia.
The NDP look on course for an improved showing nationally after polling just 16% last time and dropping from 39 to 24.
They won't emulate the result achieved by Jack Layton in 2013 but could well have their second best ever result and could see them winning 50 seats.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
Of course 58% of people in hospital with Covid in Israel are double jabbed. As the proportion of people double jabbed rise, so does the proportion of them in hospital. That's a statistical inevitability.
The basic fact is that Pfizer isn't stemming Delta as effectively on most pandemic measurements as it did with preceding variants. It is also the case that herd immunity is now very unlikely to be achieved.
The rest is a case of watching the data: growing case numbers, serious illness, hospitalisations and deaths ... some of whom will have been double jabbed with Pfizer. In all of those instances more will be affected than would have been the case with preceding variants.
A much simpler way of putting this is that we're heading for trouble this autumn / winter. I wish it weren't so and I wish I could take the Peter Pan approach that some stridently desire. The evidence sadly makes that impossible.
As someone who’s double-Pfizered, may I just say thank you for ruining my day Heathener.
I wouldn't worry - chances are even if you contract covid now, you will have a bad few days at most, and almost certainly won'y need hospital care. @Heathener has a rather doom filled outlook. If he/she was commenting at this time last year, they would have been proven absolutely correct. Now over 90% of adults have some immunity. Well in the UK at least, not sure where you are...
I’m doubled jabbed with AZ and have got Covid. Diagnosed yesterday. Caught it from the wife. Feel fine now. I’m not too fussed. The jabs work.
Hope it’s not too bad for you.
Yes, the jabs work. It’s very much a half-truth to say they don’t stop transmission, what they are unquestionably doing is keeping people out of hospitals.
Untrue, sadly. 58% of those hospitalised in Israel have received both Pfizer jabs.
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
Isn’t that hospitalisation figure just a by-product of the fact that so many of the at-risk group have been vaccinated?
I think that's just a desperate attempt to find light in what is clearly a deteriorating picture.
The vaccines obviously help but Pfizer in particular seems to be fading in the face of Delta.
I wish this were not so and that I could be like Boris. You know, coming out with optimistic tosh in the flying face of evidence, but I can't.
The facts are clear. We're heading for another dip this autumn/winter and it isn't great.
Half way through the pandemic. 2 years to go folks. Tighten your belts.
Nothing desperate about it, and the facts aren’t clear, as this little discussion has shown.
As a matter of clarification, is the hospitalization figure 'those with COVID' or "those hospitalized because of COVID"? There is undoubtedly inflation in the death number due to those dying of other causes who also happen to have been infected with COVID over the past 28 days, and this inflation will mirror the number of extant COVID infections.
To me, the next few weeks will tell us a lot about subsequent waves post widespread vaccination. I am interested in both the shape and the amplitude of the post-unlockdown curve. My guess is that it will be both much flatter and shallower than previous waves, and that this tendency to flatter, shallower waves will continue with subsequent waves.
BTW, for those who missed it, the US has authorized booster jabs 8 months out for all those with 2 shots of Pfizer or Moderna, and all those with one shot of J&J. I guess I qualify mid November.
“My total loss of life in my recent car crash is no barrier to my bid for Olympic boxing gold, says mouldering corpse in tomb during imaginary conversation with bereaved wife”
I suppose technically nothing is a barrier to independence, just to the comfortableness of that independence.
True. ‘Look, ok, we will be eating moss and small pieces of dung for ten years but we can do it. We can go Indy. The big pieces of dung will be sold to Ireland, obvs’
But Scotland will always have a deficit as long as RUK continues to send them more money than they make. There is no disincentive not to run up a massive deficit, because it will be covered by RUK.
There is quite a disincentive if you simultaneously wish to make a sound fiscal case for Scottish independence. These deficit stats are hallucinatory in their awfulness. The UK is bad enough, but we have our own bank and currency and a credit history several centuries long
Indy Scotland would be like ‘Indy Cambodia’ in 1975, or ‘Indy Venezuela’ last week
Well 1) many Scots simply don't believe these figures (see malcolmg), so they don't provide much of a disincentive to vote Yes, but more importantly 2) A newly independent Scotland would presumably simply start living within its means. Scotland spends more than RUK per head because it can - we give it that money - not because it has to. There'll be a big hit to public spending - it'll be a shock to the subsidy junkies - but it would be able to function. (Assuming there's someone prepared to take on the challenge, of course!) Oh, and 3) it doesn't really matter - these are all problems to be faced *after* independence. The point of the SNP is presumably to get to independence - once there, mission accomplished: the future is somebody else's challenge, surely?
I doubt an independent Scotland would start living within its means initially.
Because many Nats believe that Scotland is subsidising England and would be much richer if independent.
They're not going to accept tax rises and spending cuts.
Now tax rises and spending cuts might be forced upon Scotland very quickly but as you say that would be someone else's problem.
If newly Scotland didn’t immediately impose enormous tax rises and huge spending cuts no one would lend to it, and it would default
It might default anyway, because of the near-intractable currency/bank problem
FWIW I have no doubt an Indy Scotland would eventually prosper, albeit in a modest way (it’s too late for them to copy the Irish model, and the oil has gone) but it would be a deeply painful 10-15 years on the way there
Very hard to see how they could prosper even in 10-15 years if they spend the first few of them slashing public expenditure and trying to join the EU, and then have to install an EU external border at Gretna Green.
A fair point. But you’re a Remainer and I’m a Brexiteer. I intrinsically believe sovereign nations can adapt faster and better than is generally accepted, you fear the unknown economic future more than me
I can already see unexpected but encouraging green Brexit shoots in northern England, as an example
That said, the maddest of Nats outdo the worst of the Panglossian Brexiteers, in their fatuous denial of obvious truths. Scottish Indy would be bloody painful, just as Brexit has been endless arse-ache. It is inevitable
An experiment taught monkeys to use rudimentary currency, with different colour disks being used to buy nuts, berries etc.
The researchers were astonishing when, unprompted, a male monkey left one of his disks in possession of a female monkey after sex, and the female cashed it in for food.
The monkeys had invented a kind of prostitution.
That’ll be why it’s known as the world’s oldest profession.
Reading behind the headline deficit figure in the GERS report it was created by £ spent in the pandemic as opposed to Scottish government largesse. So what is the equivalent deficit figure for the whole of the UK...?
14.2% in the UK compared to 22.4%.
And the rUK deficit is 13.5%.....
Scotland has a pretty mahoosive structural deficit which is currently being carried by fiscal transfers from the rest of the UK. Dealing with that wouldn't be pretty in any imaginable circumstances which involves the break-up of the UK and the secession of Scotland.
Here's my prediction: if SPD + Green + Linke exceeds 50% of the seats in the Bundestag (which is perhaps a one-in-three shot), then Laschet will not be Chancellor. There is simply no mileage in the SPD propping up an extremely unpopular CDU leader.
I thought that Forsa poll would be interesting though somebody claimed the German election was going to be a "snoozefest".
Changes since 2017 Bundestag election:
Union CDU/CSU: 23% (-10) Social Democrats: 21% (+0.5) Greens: 19% (+10) FDP-RE: 12% (+1.5) AfD-ID: 10% (-2.5) LINKE-LEFT: 6% (-3)
To take this further, a state poll in Mecklenberg put the SPD ahead of the CDU 25-21. That represents a 12% swing from the CDU to SPD since 2017 so it's not just a question of the national poll numbers but the state and regional poll numbers as well.
Akin to Canada, where, with 200 out of 338 ridings, Ontario and Quebec are hugely significant in detemrining the national outcome.
If it isn't a snoozefest the main reason will not be the results so much as the SPD breaking their near decade long Grand Coalition with the Union to form a government with the far left Linke as well as the Greens.
If so that will break a long held taboo that the SPD would not bring Linke into government just as the Union would not now bring the AfD into government.
In 2005 for example Schroder could have had a majority with Linke and the Greens too but refused and the SPD went into Grand Coalition with Merkel as Chancellor.
In 2013 equally Steinbruck of the SPD could have had a majority with the Linke and Greens but refused for a Grand Coalition with Merkel again.
In 2017 by contrast Merkel could have had a majority with the AfD and FDP but refused for another Grand Coalition with the SPD .
So if the SPD bring Linke into government and break the Grand Coalition and centrist coalition then it also opens the way for the Union to work with the AfD in response.
As for Canada I think there is a chance Trudeau narrowly wins most seats but only thanks to Quebec with the Conservatives winning most seats in Canada excluding those from Quebec
Comments
The enormous deficit will not go unnoticed by many of them
There’s a popular trad taverna near me (Kolonaki) which does old Greek dishes. 20 years ago it would have been stodgy moussaka and ok calamari
It’s brilliant. I had a slow roasted pork and wild mushroom thing there yesterday. Genius. Rich yet light. Wonderful
* About 700,000 would do the trick.
It was an occasion the UK prime minister struggled to rise to, not helped by the format that Downing Street had opted for: a general debate, which meant MPs were allowed to rise and seek to intervene as Johnson spoke, generating a crescendo of background noise after he had completed a line or two. After two minutes the prime minister was refusing – again – to agree to a public inquiry in response to an intervention from Tobias Ellwood, the chair of the defence select committee, rather than develop his own argument.
It was an attempt to demonstrate there was, ultimately, no alternative, an argument which might have gone unchallenged for longer had not his predecessor, Theresa May, immediately stood up and asked what attempt Johnson had made “of putting together an alliance of other forces in order to replace American support in Afghanistan” within Nato.
At first Johnson sought to deflect – he had spoke to Nato’s chief “only the other day” – before he cut to the essential point: “I do not believe that today deploying tens of thousands of British troops to fight the Taliban is an option that, no matter how sincerely people may advocate it – and I appreciate their sincerity – would commend itself either to the British people or to this house.” Just like Biden, Johnson’s argument was that, in reality, the UK has no desire to commit to an endless fight.
https://betway.com/en/sports/evt/7018800
DYOR but at those odds you could simply arb it.
Boris et al, had no great problem with this when it came to Brexit, but part of the SNP schtick, is that they are morally superior to the evil English Tories and would never stoop so low. Ho hum.
Changes since 2017 Bundestag election:
Union CDU/CSU: 23% (-10)
Social Democrats: 21% (+0.5)
Greens: 19% (+10)
FDP-RE: 12% (+1.5)
AfD-ID: 10% (-2.5)
LINKE-LEFT: 6% (-3)
To take this further, a state poll in Mecklenberg put the SPD ahead of the CDU 25-21. That represents a 12% swing from the CDU to SPD since 2017 so it's not just a question of the national poll numbers but the state and regional poll numbers as well.
Akin to Canada, where, with 200 out of 338 ridings, Ontario and Quebec are hugely significant in detemrining the national outcome.
OK, it didn't happen in the end, and Ireland has prospered over the last few decades. Still, an interesting read.
Britain cannot afford to commit to an endless fight, a point that is being totally ignored in parliament and in the mainstream press.
We just spent half a trillion on covid Our next move is to spend a further one and a half trillion on net zero by 2050.
Perhaps someone should remind those MPs moaning about the size of the defence budget.
The whole fiasco arose because the US needed to do something after 9/11 (their special forces were parachuted into Afghanistan with a suitcase containing $3 million in $100 bills just fifteen days later, before any political decisions had been made) and invading Afghanistan was the obvious something.
Despite the likes of our HY insisting that only invading could stem the spread of world terrorism, it would clearly have been possible to let the special forces do their stuff, rather than invade and get lumbered with trying to manage the whole country for the next twenty years.
Indeed, despite the “US withdrawal” story in the media, aren’t the US special forces still operating out there, right now, and for the foreseeable?
https://twitter.com/profchalmers/status/1428038647417294850?s=21
https://twitter.com/LordAshcroft/status/1428038022273064961?s=20
The more recent prosperity has, I think, a lot to do with an aggressive low tax policy to attract inward investors, plus large wodges of cash from the EU to do up the infrastructure. Probably not options for IndyScot.
Whether the ISI tried to weaponise Islam, got converted to the radial Islamic cause or some mixture is an interesting question. Suffice it to say that these days, they are very, very hardline.
As in, a PM of Pakistan who doesn't go with their flow will very likely end up dead.
“All of these ulama unanimously agree that at the very minimum if Yazid was not a Kaffir — then at the very minimum he was a fasiq, a transgressor, a breaker of Islamic laws, a corrupt individual, a tyrant, a killer a drunkard, a dog lover, a music lover, a homosexual, a pedophile, a sexual deviant, someone who slept with his own mother,” Hasan says in an old recording of what appears to be a sermon on Islamic law.
“In this respect the Koran describes the atheist as cattle. As cattle of those who grow the crops and do not stop and wonder about this world,” he said at another moment.
I have always regretted the dumb and offensive comments I made in my 20s, on atheism and homosexuality. They still embarrass me, but they haven’t been representative of my beliefs for over a decade,” he told TheWrap in an additional statement. “Rather than bury them, I chose to raise them myself in a Twitter thread over the weekend to try and urge us all to reckon with our prejudices and to challenge hate speech – whether witting or unwitting – wherever we find it.”
https://www.thewrap.com/al-jazeera-host-mehdi-hasan-apologizes-for-past-criticisms-of-non-believers/
I have been checking the obesity of foreign tourists here
The fattest are the Americans, who have gotten even fatter over Covid. Some are just outstanding, 22 year old women who can barely walk
I fear the Brits are second, not a pretty sight
Germans a close-ish third
The French and Italians remain fairly svelte, damn them
The Greeks have not changed at all. Mammacious women, as ever
The Russians are the most beautiful, of course
There was also criticism in Sweden that its embassy staff had been airlifted out while Afghan staff and interpreters were left behind.
The problem with any discussion of northerly parts (and of contentious political issues more generally) is that such conversations attract a certain amount of dipstickery, and that the dipsticks tend to shout the loudest. We appreciate that this happens all over social media. PB obviously isn't even remotely as bad as Twitter, but you see that up to a point on here as well. And taking social media mudslinging and shouting matches as representative of the thoughts of the masses gives one an entirely false impression of the overall state of public opinion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashman_(novel)
Almost a prediction of how the Western 'experts' would misunderstand Afghanistan.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=TTUNQAa-tzE
The awkward fact for them is that all of these things have happened. And more.
For the record, I don’t think any other PB Nat is anywhere near that bad. Malcolmg is clearly a bot programmed by a bored turnip farmer, Theuniondivvie is waspish but often witty, Carnyx is one of the most urbane and informed of PB commenters
Likewise, the most ferocious Tories - HYUFD - never evince “hatred” as far as I can see. His discourse about tanks to Glasgow is nuts, but it is a logical evolution of his fierce unionism (misguided, but not hateful towards Scots I don’t think)
So “English-hatred” is rare but it does happen, is my modest point
@chrischirp
·
2h
THREAD on a growing variant...
Various people have been raising the variant AY.3 as a potential problem. So here is a quick thread on what we are seeing here (and internationally).
Well not "love" exactly - leave that to the sort of people who like to say that they "love" a whole people - but you know what I mean.
Together with the increase in Scotland and Northern Ireland it does look like 'gap filling'.
Delta is the Heineken of variants.
Because many Nats believe that Scotland is subsidising England and would be much richer if independent.
They're not going to accept tax rises and spending cuts.
Now tax rises and spending cuts might be forced upon Scotland very quickly but as you say that would be someone else's problem.
It might default anyway, because of the near-intractable currency/bank problem
FWIW I have no doubt an Indy Scotland would eventually prosper, albeit in a modest way (it’s too late for them to copy the Irish model, and the oil has gone) but it would be a deeply painful 10-15 years on the way there
https://twitter.com/stevestuwill/status/1427955982580158467?s=21
I'm double Pfizered so I take no pleasure in reporting the facts. 15% increase in UK cases over the past week. Hospitalisations and deaths also all up.
I'm sorry to say we are heading for further trouble.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9905405/UKs-Covid-cases-rise-33-904-positive-tests-marking-15-week-week-jump.html
Britain has gone bonkers. We go from one extreme to the other, instead of forging a middle path.
I don't think it was wise to get involved 20 years ago, but having done so it's disgraceful to have done a coitus interruptus on Afghanistan.
One of the most appalling and shameful episodes in the history of western democracy.
The vaccines obviously help but Pfizer in particular seems to be fading in the face of Delta.
I wish this were not so and that I could be like Boris. You know, coming out with optimistic tosh in the flying face of evidence, but I can't.
The facts are clear. We're heading for another dip this autumn/winter and it isn't great.
Half way through the pandemic. 2 years to go folks. Tighten your belts.
We can try to pretend otherwise. Like Canute holding back the tide.
The researchers were astonishing when, unprompted, a male monkey left one of his disks in possession of a female monkey after sex, and the female cashed it in for food.
The monkeys had invented a kind of prostitution.
The vaccines are not working as effectively now as we would wish against Delta and people SHOULD be taking precautions. Everyone should be wearing a mask indoors compulsorily in all circumstances and we should be minimising social contact. Small price to pay for relative levels of freedom.
Instead of which Britain has gone bonkers and trouble is coming of it.
https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/07/vampire-bats-french-kiss-with-blood-to-form-lasting-bonds/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/science/vampire-bats-blood.html
Bluntly, and coldly, the level of deaths is not very high at all compared to previous waves and would need to rise a lot more to force a change of policy now.
Back to politics and elections for a moment.
It looks as though the 2021 contest in Canada will be plagued by daily "rolling" polls which are as much use as something that's of no use somewhere where it's even less useful.
Mainstreet Research and EKOS look to be doing daily rolling polls which I'm inclined to ignore. Abacus has a poll with the Liberals on 33%, the Conservatives on 28% and NDP on 22% (a decent number for them).
https://abacusdata.ca/election-2021-liberal-lead-shrinks/
As always, I follow the numbers in Ontario and Quebec with particular interest as 200 of the 338 ridings are in these two provinces.
In Ontario, Abacus has the Liberals leading the Conservatives 36-30 with the NDP on 24%. The numbers in October 2019 were 41.5% for the Libs, 33% for the Conservatives and 17% for the NDP so I make that a 1.25% swing from Liberal to Conservative with a 5% swing from Conservative to NDP and 6.25% from Liberal to NDP.
Remember, half the Liberal caucus comes from Ontario so this is the battleground for Trudeau.
In Quebec, Liberals 34%, BQ 31%, Conservative 14%, NDP 10% and Greens 8%. The Greens are up 3.5%, the Conservatives down 2 and BQ down 1.5 so not a huge amount of change. The 78 seats in the province split Liberals 35, BQ 32, Conservatives 10 and NDP 1.
The third biggest province is British Columbia which brings 42 ridings to the table. Last time, the Conservatives won 34% and 17 seats. The Liberals got 11 seats on 26% and the NDP 11 seats on 24.5% with the Greens winning 2 seats on 12.5% and a single Independent.
Abacus has a statistical tie with Liberals on 31%, Conservatives on 30% and NDP on 29%. That's a 4.5% swing from Conservative to Liberal so any Conservative gains in Ontario would be offset by losses in British Columbia.
The NDP look on course for an improved showing nationally after polling just 16% last time and dropping from 39 to 24.
They won't emulate the result achieved by Jack Layton in 2013 but could well have their second best ever result and could see them winning 50 seats.
(a) retarded?
or
(b) a troll?
Of course 58% of people in hospital with Covid in Israel are double jabbed. As the proportion of people double jabbed rise, so does the proportion of them in hospital. That's a statistical inevitability.
Please read this article:
https://www.covid-datascience.com/post/israeli-data-how-can-efficacy-vs-severe-disease-be-strong-when-60-of-hospitalized-are-vaccinated
To me, the next few weeks will tell us a lot about subsequent waves post widespread vaccination. I am interested in both the shape and the amplitude of the post-unlockdown curve. My guess is that it will be both much flatter and shallower than previous waves, and that this tendency to flatter, shallower waves will continue with subsequent waves.
BTW, for those who missed it, the US has authorized booster jabs 8 months out for all those with 2 shots of Pfizer or Moderna, and all those with one shot of J&J. I guess I qualify mid November.
I can already see unexpected but encouraging green Brexit shoots in northern England, as an example
That said, the maddest of Nats outdo the worst of the Panglossian Brexiteers, in their fatuous denial of obvious truths. Scottish Indy would be bloody painful, just as Brexit has been endless arse-ache. It is inevitable
If so that will break a long held taboo that the SPD would not bring Linke into government just as the Union would not now bring the AfD into government.
In 2005 for example Schroder could have had a majority with Linke and the Greens too but refused and the SPD went into Grand Coalition with Merkel as Chancellor.
In 2013 equally Steinbruck of the SPD could have had a majority with the Linke and Greens but refused for a Grand Coalition with Merkel again.
In 2017 by contrast Merkel could have had a majority with the AfD and FDP but refused for another Grand Coalition with the SPD .
So if the SPD bring Linke into government and break the Grand Coalition and centrist coalition then it also opens the way for the Union to work with the AfD in response.
As for Canada I think there is a chance Trudeau narrowly wins most seats but only thanks to Quebec with the Conservatives winning most seats in Canada excluding those from Quebec