I agree it is a thorny moral issue, but it affects so few people, it feels decadent and wrong to waste too much time on it. Genuinely. When the world is menaced by major and terrible problems - eg millions dying of a plague, possible climate catastrophe, the coercive waxing of a Canadian trans-man's testicles seems pretty small potatoes
So this is my last comment on it for now. Purely judging it as politics, this issue plays really badly for the Left and will benefit the Right. Because it does look so insane, the epitome of Woke madness, and it does look to many feminist women like they are being abandoned by their natural lefty allies
So the Left should probably rein it in. Trouble is, they keep doubling down, they can't help it
And now, Crixus, show me to wine
You've not accessed any bevvy till 9.19pm? Fucking hell, sorely disillusioned.
I had a shared plat de fruits de mer with a mate at Randall and Aubin in Soho at lunch, and did four large glasses of Verdejo, so I took a break
Good gossip: the guy I lunched with spent a couple of days with Shamima Begum last month, and he reports she is genuinely remorseful and also "really rather hot"
I have my doubts about the first opinion but I'm ready to take his word on the second
Assume doubts about the remorse may add to the hotness, for some anyway.
"Stop staring at my neck luv.'
I'm sure this is a joke, I just don't quite get it. Explain?
In the fervid imaginings of Express leader writers she was complicit in beheadings etc, no?
With all due respect, in that case, it is a fucking terrible joke
And you are a witty, eloquent man, not unlike your quondam behatted customer, Geo Galloway
I have never sold a hat to that wee nyaff, though in my more penurious days that scenario might have provided a bit of a dilemma.
If Thatcher or May had been revealed to have committed adultery , would either have become Tory leader? Truss is also a former Libdem.
Why not?
What kind of closed-minded intolerant idiot would care about that ephemera?
Thankfully not the Tory membership. That's already been put to the test.
Do you really believe that Thatcher - or May - having had a kid or two out of wedlock would have had no impact on her leadership ambitions? I suspect that even being selected as a PPC would have proved problematic.
Could it have been an issue in the distant past? Absolutely, though a woman or a minority getting elected was a bigger challenge. Thank goodness those days are over eh?
Would it be an issue today? Or recent past for May? No of course not, don't be a dingbat. That's already been put to the test and a serial adulterer won a landslide leadership election victory.
Most people are likely to view the 1960s and 1970s as the recent past - ie'afew years ago' - rather a period little different from Victorian Britain. I doubt that most people view The Beatles as ancient history.
No offence but maybe old people feel that was only a few years ago, but yes sixty years ago are quite a distant past now and the times have quite rightly changed since then.
To put it into context the distance between today and 1960 is the same distance as the Victorian era from 1960, or 1980 from the First World War. I certainly felt growing up in the 80s that WW1 was in the ancient past. Did any child of the 60s feel the Victorian era was only a few years ago then?
You are making me feel old !!!!!!
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was released closer to WW2 than to today.
In a similar vein, my date of birth is closer to the Abdication Crisis than the present day.
It'd be time for a stiff drink if I had any booze in the flat. A Kit Kat will have to suffice
I agree it is a thorny moral issue, but it affects so few people, it feels decadent and wrong to waste too much time on it. Genuinely. When the world is menaced by major and terrible problems - eg millions dying of a plague, possible climate catastrophe, the coercive waxing of a Canadian trans-man's testicles seems pretty small potatoes
So this is my last comment on it for now. Purely judging it as politics, this issue plays really badly for the Left and will benefit the Right. Because it does look so insane, the epitome of Woke madness, and it does look to many feminist women like they are being abandoned by their natural lefty allies
So the Left should probably rein it in. Trouble is, they keep doubling down, they can't help it
And now, Crixus, show me to wine
You've not accessed any bevvy till 9.19pm? Fucking hell, sorely disillusioned.
I had a shared plat de fruits de mer with a mate at Randall and Aubin in Soho at lunch, and did four large glasses of Verdejo, so I took a break
Good gossip: the guy I lunched with spent a couple of days with Shamima Begum last month, and he reports she is genuinely remorseful and also "really rather hot"
I have my doubts about the first opinion but I'm ready to take his word on the second
If a fox dressed up as a Farm hand & promised to lock the chicken coop so the farmer could knock off early, more fool the farmer who trusted him.
And Begums no foxy lady!
Are we still talking about men with penises going into women's lavvies?
When I was a child in the 1960s I had grandparents who han been born in the late 1880s up to the 1900s.Whilst they were elderly, I did not feel that they had come from a distant age totally unrelated to the world I then inhabited. I have also recently contemplated how 1966 was as close in time to 1910 or 1911 as to the present day. I have little doubt that the world of 1966 had far more in common with the world of 2021 than it had with that of circa 1910.
Who said totally unrelated? You're extrapolating things that were never said.
But yes 1960s are distant from today, and 1800s are distant from the 1960s. Not unconnected, but distant.
Heck in some ways already I can tell there are many things that I grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s are completely distant or alien to what my kids are growing up with today.
The average person in this country was born two years after Thatcher came to power and was just over two years too young to vote for Blair in 1997.
If Thatcher or May had been revealed to have committed adultery , would either have become Tory leader? Truss is also a former Libdem.
Why not?
What kind of closed-minded intolerant idiot would care about that ephemera?
Thankfully not the Tory membership. That's already been put to the test.
Do you really believe that Thatcher - or May - having had a kid or two out of wedlock would have had no impact on her leadership ambitions? I suspect that even being selected as a PPC would have proved problematic.
Could it have been an issue in the distant past? Absolutely, though a woman or a minority getting elected was a bigger challenge. Thank goodness those days are over eh?
Would it be an issue today? Or recent past for May? No of course not, don't be a dingbat. That's already been put to the test and a serial adulterer won a landslide leadership election victory.
Most people are likely to view the 1960s and 1970s as the recent past - ie'afew years ago' - rather a period little different from Victorian Britain. I doubt that most people view The Beatles as ancient history.
No offence but maybe old people feel that was only a few years ago, but yes sixty years ago are quite a distant past now and the times have quite rightly changed since then.
To put it into context the distance between today and 1960 is the same distance as the Victorian era from 1960, or 1980 from the First World War. I certainly felt growing up in the 80s that WW1 was in the ancient past. Did any child of the 60s feel the Victorian era was only a few years ago then?
You are making me feel old !!!!!!
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was released closer to WW2 than to today.
In a similar vein, my date of birth is closer to the Abdication Crisis than the present day.
It'd be time for a stiff drink if I had any booze in the flat. A Kit Kat will have to suffice
When I was a child in the 1960s I had grandparents who han been born in the late 1880s up to the 1900s.Whilst they were elderly, I did not feel that they had come from a distant age totally unrelated to the world I then inhabited. I have also recently contemplated how 1966 was as close in time to 1910 or 1911 as to the present day. I have little doubt that the world of 1966 had far more in common with the world of 2021 than it had with that of circa 1910.
Who said totally unrelated? You're extrapolating things that were never said.
But yes 1960s are distant from today, and 1800s are distant from the 1960s. Not unconnected, but distant.
Heck in some ways already I can tell there are many things that I grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s are completely distant or alien to what my kids are growing up with today.
The average person in this country was born two years after Thatcher came to power and was just over two years too young to vote for Blair in 1997.
The median Brit is a millennial? In the making-people-feel-old stakes, you just took gold silver and bronze. Smashed it.
Just had an email which seems genuine from PFP energy our (erstwhile?) energy supplier, headed "We do not have confidence in the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng".
"...Ofgem made Kwarteng aware of the ongoing pressure to energy suppliers on 26th March 2020 but his disregard for the issues and lack of willingness to create support for the industry has resulted in a large increase in the cost of powering homes and hundreds of job losses..."
Interesting tactic, if genuine.
I expect they have been told by HMG that they are not going to be bailed out by the taxpayer
Just had an email which seems genuine from PFP energy our (erstwhile?) energy supplier, headed "We do not have confidence in the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng".
"...Ofgem made Kwarteng aware of the ongoing pressure to energy suppliers on 26th March 2020 but his disregard for the issues and lack of willingness to create support for the industry has resulted in a large increase in the cost of powering homes and hundreds of job losses..."
Interesting tactic, if genuine.
"create support" == bail me out as my business model has failed?
Sure, I'm not especially sympathetic but it's an interesting tactic nonetheless (though doomed to failure of course).
@julianborger French FM Le Drian says he has no intention of meeting his counterpart Secretary of State Tony Blinken at the UN, "though I might see him here or there, in a corridor".
I agree it is a thorny moral issue, but it affects so few people, it feels decadent and wrong to waste too much time on it. Genuinely. When the world is menaced by major and terrible problems - eg millions dying of a plague, possible climate catastrophe, the coercive waxing of a Canadian trans-man's testicles seems pretty small potatoes
So this is my last comment on it for now. Purely judging it as politics, this issue plays really badly for the Left and will benefit the Right. Because it does look so insane, the epitome of Woke madness, and it does look to many feminist women like they are being abandoned by their natural lefty allies
So the Left should probably rein it in. Trouble is, they keep doubling down, they can't help it
And now, Crixus, show me to wine
You've not accessed any bevvy till 9.19pm? Fucking hell, sorely disillusioned.
I had a shared plat de fruits de mer with a mate at Randall and Aubin in Soho at lunch, and did four large glasses of Verdejo, so I took a break
Good gossip: the guy I lunched with spent a couple of days with Shamima Begum last month, and he reports she is genuinely remorseful and also "really rather hot"
I have my doubts about the first opinion but I'm ready to take his word on the second
Some of the media dealings with Begum reminds me of the journalist behind the Serial podcast, she totally fell for the charms of the murderer, eventually losing any sort of objectiveness and really trying gloss over all the evidence still points to him having done it .
I told him I would hand her over to the Syrians or Iraqis for a trial and I would not be terribly upset if they "hanged her like a dog"
He got quite distressed. This was after my third glass
Did he make the beast with two backs with her?
I asked him directly. He looked shifty (he is living with a lady) but said No, I suspect he was very tempted, but restrained himself
I then dressed him down for the fool he is. "Banging Begum" would be a million-copy selling memoir, as I told him (this was after my fourth glass)
When I was a child in the 1960s I had grandparents who han been born in the late 1880s up to the 1900s.Whilst they were elderly, I did not feel that they had come from a distant age totally unrelated to the world I then inhabited. I have also recently contemplated how 1966 was as close in time to 1910 or 1911 as to the present day. I have little doubt that the world of 1966 had far more in common with the world of 2021 than it had with that of circa 1910.
Who said totally unrelated? You're extrapolating things that were never said.
But yes 1960s are distant from today, and 1800s are distant from the 1960s. Not unconnected, but distant.
Heck in some ways already I can tell there are many things that I grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s are completely distant or alien to what my kids are growing up with today.
The average person in this country was born two years after Thatcher came to power and was just over two years too young to vote for Blair in 1997.
The median Brit is a millennial? In the making-people-feel-old stakes, you just took gold silver and bronze. Smashed it.
When I was a child in the 1960s I had grandparents who han been born in the late 1880s up to the 1900s.Whilst they were elderly, I did not feel that they had come from a distant age totally unrelated to the world I then inhabited. I have also recently contemplated how 1966 was as close in time to 1910 or 1911 as to the present day. I have little doubt that the world of 1966 had far more in common with the world of 2021 than it had with that of circa 1910.
Who said totally unrelated? You're extrapolating things that were never said.
But yes 1960s are distant from today, and 1800s are distant from the 1960s. Not unconnected, but distant.
Heck in some ways already I can tell there are many things that I grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s are completely distant or alien to what my kids are growing up with today.
The average person in this country was born two years after Thatcher came to power and was just over two years too young to vote for Blair in 1997.
The median Brit is a millennial? In the making-people-feel-old stakes, you just took gold silver and bronze. Smashed it.
The ONS estimate for summer 2020 was 40.4.
Then that's younger than you said. I'm not middle aged yet.
EDIT: No it is what you said. I just rounded in my head from 81 to 82
@julianborger French FM Le Drian says he has no intention of meeting his counterpart Secretary of State Tony Blinken at the UN, "though I might see him here or there, in a corridor".
Just had an email which seems genuine from PFP energy our (erstwhile?) energy supplier, headed "We do not have confidence in the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng".
"...Ofgem made Kwarteng aware of the ongoing pressure to energy suppliers on 26th March 2020 but his disregard for the issues and lack of willingness to create support for the industry has resulted in a large increase in the cost of powering homes and hundreds of job losses..."
Interesting tactic, if genuine.
I expect they have been told by HMG that they are not going to be bailed out by the taxpayer
It all seems a bit late as we have already been contacted by British Gas who told us that Ofcom have transferred our account to them.
When I was a child in the 1960s I had grandparents who han been born in the late 1880s up to the 1900s.Whilst they were elderly, I did not feel that they had come from a distant age totally unrelated to the world I then inhabited. I have also recently contemplated how 1966 was as close in time to 1910 or 1911 as to the present day. I have little doubt that the world of 1966 had far more in common with the world of 2021 than it had with that of circa 1910.
Who said totally unrelated? You're extrapolating things that were never said.
But yes 1960s are distant from today, and 1800s are distant from the 1960s. Not unconnected, but distant.
Heck in some ways already I can tell there are many things that I grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s are completely distant or alien to what my kids are growing up with today.
The average person in this country was born two years after Thatcher came to power and was just over two years too young to vote for Blair in 1997.
The median Brit is a millennial? In the making-people-feel-old stakes, you just took gold silver and bronze. Smashed it.
The ONS estimate for summer 2020 was 40.4.
Then that's younger than you said. I'm not middle aged yet.
It’s trending up by about 0.1 a year so I made a reasonable estimate for Autumn 2021.
When I was a child in the 1960s I had grandparents who han been born in the late 1880s up to the 1900s.Whilst they were elderly, I did not feel that they had come from a distant age totally unrelated to the world I then inhabited. I have also recently contemplated how 1966 was as close in time to 1910 or 1911 as to the present day. I have little doubt that the world of 1966 had far more in common with the world of 2021 than it had with that of circa 1910.
Who said totally unrelated? You're extrapolating things that were never said.
But yes 1960s are distant from today, and 1800s are distant from the 1960s. Not unconnected, but distant.
Heck in some ways already I can tell there are many things that I grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s are completely distant or alien to what my kids are growing up with today.
The average person in this country was born two years after Thatcher came to power and was just over two years too young to vote for Blair in 1997.
The median Brit is a millennial? In the making-people-feel-old stakes, you just took gold silver and bronze. Smashed it.
The ONS estimate for summer 2020 was 40.4.
Yes, that's just about millennial. Wonder if that number has changed a lot since Boris offed all those grannies?
Just had an email which seems genuine from PFP energy our (erstwhile?) energy supplier, headed "We do not have confidence in the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng".
"...Ofgem made Kwarteng aware of the ongoing pressure to energy suppliers on 26th March 2020 but his disregard for the issues and lack of willingness to create support for the industry has resulted in a large increase in the cost of powering homes and hundreds of job losses..."
Interesting tactic, if genuine.
"create support" == bail me out as my business model has failed?
Too late, they have already ceased trading 2 weeks ago, British Gas taken over the accounts. So I don't know where this supposed email is coming from. Disgruntled employee?
Just had an email which seems genuine from PFP energy our (erstwhile?) energy supplier, headed "We do not have confidence in the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng".
"...Ofgem made Kwarteng aware of the ongoing pressure to energy suppliers on 26th March 2020 but his disregard for the issues and lack of willingness to create support for the industry has resulted in a large increase in the cost of powering homes and hundreds of job losses..."
Interesting tactic, if genuine.
I expect they have been told by HMG that they are not going to be bailed out by the taxpayer
Though if gas supply constraints carry on for any length of time the Government may be forced to provide some kind of support, albeit to a much smaller group of big suppliers once the bankruptcy of all the smaller ones has resulted in substantial consolidation of the sector.
If the price cap forces the suppliers to operate at a loss they will, if that state of affairs persists for long enough, have to be bailed. The only alternatives are to let them all fail and renationalise, which would probably involve a period of chaos and widespread power cuts, or to scrap price capping and let the companies apply enormous hikes to energy bills to cover their costs. Bailouts would be much the most palatable option under those circumstances.
Just had an email which seems genuine from PFP energy our (erstwhile?) energy supplier, headed "We do not have confidence in the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng".
"...Ofgem made Kwarteng aware of the ongoing pressure to energy suppliers on 26th March 2020 but his disregard for the issues and lack of willingness to create support for the industry has resulted in a large increase in the cost of powering homes and hundreds of job losses..."
Interesting tactic, if genuine.
"create support" == bail me out as my business model has failed?
Sure, I'm not especially sympathetic but it's an interesting tactic nonetheless (though doomed to failure of course).
When I was a child in the 1960s I had grandparents who han been born in the late 1880s up to the 1900s.Whilst they were elderly, I did not feel that they had come from a distant age totally unrelated to the world I then inhabited. I have also recently contemplated how 1966 was as close in time to 1910 or 1911 as to the present day. I have little doubt that the world of 1966 had far more in common with the world of 2021 than it had with that of circa 1910.
Who said totally unrelated? You're extrapolating things that were never said.
But yes 1960s are distant from today, and 1800s are distant from the 1960s. Not unconnected, but distant.
Heck in some ways already I can tell there are many things that I grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s are completely distant or alien to what my kids are growing up with today.
The average person in this country was born two years after Thatcher came to power and was just over two years too young to vote for Blair in 1997.
The median Brit is a millennial? In the making-people-feel-old stakes, you just took gold silver and bronze. Smashed it.
The ONS estimate for summer 2020 was 40.4.
Yes, that's just about millennial. Wonder if that number has changed a lot since Boris offed all those grannies?
I’d guess it was more than balanced out by the Eastern European Exodus.
Whispers of Labour going back to electoral college in selecting next leader with it being 1/3rd PLP, 1/3rd trade unions & 1/3rd CLPs. Could be going to NEC Friday...
Corbynite legacy may be little more than reversal of Miliband reforms. Unison & GMB may decide it.
If Thatcher or May had been revealed to have committed adultery , would either have become Tory leader? Truss is also a former Libdem.
Why not?
What kind of closed-minded intolerant idiot would care about that ephemera?
Thankfully not the Tory membership. That's already been put to the test.
Do you really believe that Thatcher - or May - having had a kid or two out of wedlock would have had no impact on her leadership ambitions? I suspect that even being selected as a PPC would have proved problematic.
Could it have been an issue in the distant past? Absolutely, though a woman or a minority getting elected was a bigger challenge. Thank goodness those days are over eh?
Would it be an issue today? Or recent past for May? No of course not, don't be a dingbat. That's already been put to the test and a serial adulterer won a landslide leadership election victory.
Most people are likely to view the 1960s and 1970s as the recent past - ie'afew years ago' - rather a period little different from Victorian Britain. I doubt that most people view The Beatles as ancient history.
No offence but maybe old people feel that was only a few years ago, but yes sixty years ago are quite a distant past now and the times have quite rightly changed since then.
To put it into context the distance between today and 1960 is the same distance as the Victorian era from 1960, or 1980 from the First World War. I certainly felt growing up in the 80s that WW1 was in the ancient past. Did any child of the 60s feel the Victorian era was only a few years ago then?
You are making me feel old !!!!!!
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was released closer to WW2 than to today.
In a similar vein, my date of birth is closer to the Abdication Crisis than the present day.
It'd be time for a stiff drink if I had any booze in the flat. A Kit Kat will have to suffice
Well mine's closer to Victoria's reign than to today!
Just had an email which seems genuine from PFP energy our (erstwhile?) energy supplier, headed "We do not have confidence in the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng".
"...Ofgem made Kwarteng aware of the ongoing pressure to energy suppliers on 26th March 2020 but his disregard for the issues and lack of willingness to create support for the industry has resulted in a large increase in the cost of powering homes and hundreds of job losses..."
Interesting tactic, if genuine.
"create support" == bail me out as my business model has failed?
Sure, I'm not especially sympathetic but it's an interesting tactic nonetheless (though doomed to failure of course).
Not sure Ofgem would approve either
PFP went bust a fortnight ago.
I have provided my final readings last week to them and British Gas who have transferred me in on a tariff below price cap till April 2022
@julianborger French FM Le Drian says he has no intention of meeting his counterpart Secretary of State Tony Blinken at the UN, "though I might see him here or there, in a corridor".
When I was a child in the 1960s I had grandparents who han been born in the late 1880s up to the 1900s.Whilst they were elderly, I did not feel that they had come from a distant age totally unrelated to the world I then inhabited. I have also recently contemplated how 1966 was as close in time to 1910 or 1911 as to the present day. I have little doubt that the world of 1966 had far more in common with the world of 2021 than it had with that of circa 1910.
Who said totally unrelated? You're extrapolating things that were never said.
But yes 1960s are distant from today, and 1800s are distant from the 1960s. Not unconnected, but distant.
Heck in some ways already I can tell there are many things that I grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s are completely distant or alien to what my kids are growing up with today.
The average person in this country was born two years after Thatcher came to power and was just over two years too young to vote for Blair in 1997.
The median Brit is a millennial? In the making-people-feel-old stakes, you just took gold silver and bronze. Smashed it.
The ONS estimate for summer 2020 was 40.4.
Yes, that's just about millennial. Wonder if that number has changed a lot since Boris offed all those grannies?
I’d guess it was more than balanced out by the Eastern European Exodus.
Good point. But counterpoint: Boris has been doing yeoman's work at increasing the number of youngsters in and around west London.
When I was a child in the 1960s I had grandparents who han been born in the late 1880s up to the 1900s.Whilst they were elderly, I did not feel that they had come from a distant age totally unrelated to the world I then inhabited. I have also recently contemplated how 1966 was as close in time to 1910 or 1911 as to the present day. I have little doubt that the world of 1966 had far more in common with the world of 2021 than it had with that of circa 1910.
Who said totally unrelated? You're extrapolating things that were never said.
But yes 1960s are distant from today, and 1800s are distant from the 1960s. Not unconnected, but distant.
Heck in some ways already I can tell there are many things that I grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s are completely distant or alien to what my kids are growing up with today.
The average person in this country was born two years after Thatcher came to power and was just over two years too young to vote for Blair in 1997.
The median Brit is a millennial? In the making-people-feel-old stakes, you just took gold silver and bronze. Smashed it.
The ONS estimate for summer 2020 was 40.4.
Yes, that's just about millennial. Wonder if that number has changed a lot since Boris offed all those grannies?
Covid has polished off, at a reasonable guess, just over 0.2% of the British population, a significant fraction of whom probably didn't have long to live anyway. A lot of individual tragedies, but not enough to make any significant difference to that particular statistic.
I am interested to know why so many of these tiny energy companies, who don't produce any energy, have sprung up in the past 2-3-4 years.
I mean I presume there was money to be made in quiet times, but it still a terrible business model to get into, you don't produce any of the product yourself, and are totally reliant on are having to bet on the futures market, and I can't see how a tiny energy company with a small number of employees enjoys any of the economies of scale when it comes to advertising, marketing and customer support.
I would have thought if you were such a whizz on energy futures, you would be just better being a trading outfit and not having to worry about Maureen from Margate getting very angry that her meter reading is wrong.
If Thatcher or May had been revealed to have committed adultery , would either have become Tory leader? Truss is also a former Libdem.
Why not?
What kind of closed-minded intolerant idiot would care about that ephemera?
Thankfully not the Tory membership. That's already been put to the test.
Do you really believe that Thatcher - or May - having had a kid or two out of wedlock would have had no impact on her leadership ambitions? I suspect that even being selected as a PPC would have proved problematic.
Could it have been an issue in the distant past? Absolutely, though a woman or a minority getting elected was a bigger challenge. Thank goodness those days are over eh?
Would it be an issue today? Or recent past for May? No of course not, don't be a dingbat. That's already been put to the test and a serial adulterer won a landslide leadership election victory.
Most people are likely to view the 1960s and 1970s as the recent past - ie'afew years ago' - rather a period little different from Victorian Britain. I doubt that most people view The Beatles as ancient history.
No offence but maybe old people feel that was only a few years ago, but yes sixty years ago are quite a distant past now and the times have quite rightly changed since then.
To put it into context the distance between today and 1960 is the same distance as the Victorian era from 1960, or 1980 from the First World War. I certainly felt growing up in the 80s that WW1 was in the ancient past. Did any child of the 60s feel the Victorian era was only a few years ago then?
You are making me feel old !!!!!!
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was released closer to WW2 than to today.
In a similar vein, my date of birth is closer to the Abdication Crisis than the present day.
It'd be time for a stiff drink if I had any booze in the flat. A Kit Kat will have to suffice
Well mine's closer to Victoria's reign than to today!
That genuinely surprises me. I always thought you were younger than me. My DoB is still closer to the Titanic than to the present day. Which is kind of strange to consider.
Le Drian is saying that the decision by "the US and Australia" recalls an era of unilateralism that they thought had been left behind, and he claims France has the full support of the EU.
He's French. Even if he could speak fluent English he'd wait for the translation.
Sure, in Paris
But he's in NYC for the UN meeting and he surely wants to make the case for France. He needs to speak in fluent, persuasive English, to all the major Anglo journalists in the room (and every other country, that uses English, as a lingua franca, worldwide). But apparently he can't speak it, so the presser is awkward, sad, dull, and mystifying
How can you possibly have a Foreign Minister that doesn't speak English?! Mad
Just had an email which seems genuine from PFP energy our (erstwhile?) energy supplier, headed "We do not have confidence in the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng".
"...Ofgem made Kwarteng aware of the ongoing pressure to energy suppliers on 26th March 2020 but his disregard for the issues and lack of willingness to create support for the industry has resulted in a large increase in the cost of powering homes and hundreds of job losses..."
Interesting tactic, if genuine.
I expect they have been told by HMG that they are not going to be bailed out by the taxpayer
Though if gas supply constraints carry on for any length of time the Government may be forced to provide some kind of support, albeit to a much smaller group of big suppliers once the bankruptcy of all the smaller ones has resulted in substantial consolidation of the sector.
If the price cap forces the suppliers to operate at a loss they will, if that state of affairs persists for long enough, have to be bailed. The only alternatives are to let them all fail and renationalise, which would probably involve a period of chaos and widespread power cuts, or to scrap price capping and let the companies apply enormous hikes to energy bills to cover their costs. Bailouts would be much the most palatable option under those circumstances.
The big boys have hedged supplies is my understanding.
That is the difference with the business model of the little start-ups with funny names who are all sunk this week I reckon.
Of course if this price spike goes on for months and months then the hedging may run out of road.
He's French. Even if he could speak fluent English he'd wait for the translation.
Sure, in Paris
But he's in NYC for the UN meeting and he surely wants to make the case for France. He needs to speak in fluent, persuasive English, to all the major Anglo journalists in the room (and every other country, that uses English, as a lingua franca, worldwide). But apparently he can't speak it, so the presser is awkward, sad, dull, and mystifying
How can you possibly have a Foreign Minister that doesn't speak English?! Mad
Of course he will speak English...I just presume he is one of those French types who insists on saying “la fin de semaine" rather than le weekend.
If Thatcher or May had been revealed to have committed adultery , would either have become Tory leader? Truss is also a former Libdem.
Why not?
What kind of closed-minded intolerant idiot would care about that ephemera?
Thankfully not the Tory membership. That's already been put to the test.
Do you really believe that Thatcher - or May - having had a kid or two out of wedlock would have had no impact on her leadership ambitions? I suspect that even being selected as a PPC would have proved problematic.
Could it have been an issue in the distant past? Absolutely, though a woman or a minority getting elected was a bigger challenge. Thank goodness those days are over eh?
Would it be an issue today? Or recent past for May? No of course not, don't be a dingbat. That's already been put to the test and a serial adulterer won a landslide leadership election victory.
Most people are likely to view the 1960s and 1970s as the recent past - ie'afew years ago' - rather a period little different from Victorian Britain. I doubt that most people view The Beatles as ancient history.
No offence but maybe old people feel that was only a few years ago, but yes sixty years ago are quite a distant past now and the times have quite rightly changed since then.
To put it into context the distance between today and 1960 is the same distance as the Victorian era from 1960, or 1980 from the First World War. I certainly felt growing up in the 80s that WW1 was in the ancient past. Did any child of the 60s feel the Victorian era was only a few years ago then?
You are making me feel old !!!!!!
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was released closer to WW2 than to today.
In a similar vein, my date of birth is closer to the Abdication Crisis than the present day.
It'd be time for a stiff drink if I had any booze in the flat. A Kit Kat will have to suffice
Well mine's closer to Victoria's reign than to today!
That genuinely surprises me. I always thought you were younger than me. My DoB is still closer to the Titanic than to the present day. Which is kind of strange to consider.
Sadly, I am now 61, though I still feel like 30ish mentally.
He's French. Even if he could speak fluent English he'd wait for the translation.
Sure, in Paris
But he's in NYC for the UN meeting and he surely wants to make the case for France. He needs to speak in fluent, persuasive English, to all the major Anglo journalists in the room (and every other country, that uses English, as a lingua franca, worldwide). But apparently he can't speak it, so the presser is awkward, sad, dull, and mystifying
How can you possibly have a Foreign Minister that doesn't speak English?! Mad
Just because he isn't speaking English, doesn't mean he can't. I've never seen a French minister speak in English even if they're perfectly fluent, its a matter of national pride.
He's French. Even if he could speak fluent English he'd wait for the translation.
Sure, in Paris
But he's in NYC for the UN meeting and he surely wants to make the case for France. He needs to speak in fluent, persuasive English, to all the major Anglo journalists in the room (and every other country, that uses English, as a lingua franca, worldwide). But apparently he can't speak it, so the presser is awkward, sad, dull, and mystifying
How can you possibly have a Foreign Minister that doesn't speak English?! Mad
Of course he will speak English...I just presume he is one of those French types who insists on saying “la fin de semaine" rather than le weekend.
I presume you are right, but there are French twitterers saying he actually can't speak it. But they may be political enemies laughing at him. I dunno
Do you think Liz Truss could take a press conference in French?
No, nor should she be expected to, because French is not the common language of the global elite, world journalism, plus aviation, tourism, business, industry, sport, music, TV, trade, art, the internet, nor is it the language of New York City, where Drian is actually speaking in his press conference
Does Truss speak Portuguese or Turkish? No. Because it is not necessary, nor is French
I am interested to know why so many of these tiny energy companies, who don't produce any energy, have sprung up in the past 2-3-4 years.
I mean I presume there was money to be made in quiet times, but it still a terrible business model to get into, you don't produce any of the product yourself, and are totally reliant on are having to bet on the futures market, and I can't see how a tiny energy company with a small number of employees enjoys any of the economies of scale when it comes to advertising, marketing and customer support.
I would have thought if you were such a whizz on energy futures, you would be just better being a trading outfit and not having to worry about Maureen from Margate getting very angry that her meter reading is wrong.
It's the same basic flaw as with a lot of this pseudo-market stuff. You get the business by quoting low and hoping for the best. Quoting low gets you to the top of the market comarison sites and the business just rolls in as a result.
If it all goes pear-shape, so what? You just reneg on your contract and fold the company. (See also, rail franchises.)
Do you think Liz Truss could take a press conference in French?
No, nor should she be expected to, because French is not the common language of the global elite, world journalism, plus aviation, tourism, business, industry, sport, music, TV, trade, art, the internet, nor is it the language of New York City, where Drian is actually speaking in his press conference
Does Truss speak Portuguese or Turkish? No. Because it is not necessary, nor is French
Oh, it's the language of the elite. Ok, got it now.
He's French. Even if he could speak fluent English he'd wait for the translation.
Sure, in Paris
But he's in NYC for the UN meeting and he surely wants to make the case for France. He needs to speak in fluent, persuasive English, to all the major Anglo journalists in the room (and every other country, that uses English, as a lingua franca, worldwide). But apparently he can't speak it, so the presser is awkward, sad, dull, and mystifying
How can you possibly have a Foreign Minister that doesn't speak English?! Mad
Just because he isn't speaking English, doesn't mean he can't. I've never seen a French minister speak in English even if they're perfectly fluent, its a matter of national pride.
I differ. Macron speaks pretty good English, albeit with a heavy accent, and has done it at pressers. Barnier also. Plenty others
The interesting case is Sarkozy. He cannot speak good English, but he has expressed regret for this, and he told French people that they should accept learning English in the future is "just a thing you have to do, like getting a driving licence"
I am interested to know why so many of these tiny energy companies, who don't produce any energy, have sprung up in the past 2-3-4 years.
I mean I presume there was money to be made in quiet times, but it still a terrible business model to get into, you don't produce any of the product yourself, and are totally reliant on are having to bet on the futures market, and I can't see how a tiny energy company with a small number of employees enjoys any of the economies of scale when it comes to advertising, marketing and customer support.
I would have thought if you were such a whizz on energy futures, you would be just better being a trading outfit and not having to worry about Maureen from Margate getting very angry that her meter reading is wrong.
It's the same basic flaw as with a lot of this pseudo-market stuff. You get the business by quoting low and hoping for the best. Quoting low gets you to the top of the market comarison sites and the business just rolls in as a result.
If it all goes pear-shape, so what? You just reneg on your contract and fold the company. (See also, rail franchises.)
I think I will give it a miss as a business opportunity....
I cannot understand why the government hasnt solved this problem today. The CO2 comes as by-product from two fertilizer producers who have halted work because of the energy costs.
Pay the frigging energy costs for them for the next couple of months as an emergency measure!!
Seems we have a government that can merrily ban grandads from hugging their grandkids and shutter the pubs for months on end, but can't do something as simple as this.
Isn't the minor detail that the reason for said energy cost is because we're burning every available therm of gas to keep the lights on, which is why they've been priced out of the market.
If the government starts funding the energy costs of users who can't pay, then we'll end up with more demand than supply, and the lights going out.
Do you think Liz Truss could take a press conference in French?
No, nor should she be expected to, because French is not the common language of the global elite, world journalism, plus aviation, tourism, business, industry, sport, music, TV, trade, art, the internet, nor is it the language of New York City, where Drian is actually speaking in his press conference
Does Truss speak Portuguese or Turkish? No. Because it is not necessary, nor is French
Oh, it's the language of the elite. Ok, got it now.
Not the elite
It is the language accepted across the globe and we are very fortunate it is
Do you think Liz Truss could take a press conference in French?
It is just courtesy to speak the language of your hosts if you are able to do so
The host being the United Nations, which has six official languages, including... yup, you guessed it.
I suppose if the French want to strop on the international stage then so be it, but it does not do them any favours
I don't really know that conducting a press conference in your own language is really worthy of the word "strop". What "favours" are you offering, anyway? I'm not sure they have much incentive to take your opinion into account, but perhaps if you're offering something really good?
Do you think Liz Truss could take a press conference in French?
No, nor should she be expected to, because French is not the common language of the global elite, world journalism, plus aviation, tourism, business, industry, sport, music, TV, trade, art, the internet, nor is it the language of New York City, where Drian is actually speaking in his press conference
Does Truss speak Portuguese or Turkish? No. Because it is not necessary, nor is French
Oh, it's the language of the elite. Ok, got it now.
It's the first language of the internet and the universal second language of the world, and it isn't going away. Ignoring this is ridiculous French nostalgie
For a couple of centuries anyone who thought themselves civilised in Europe had to speak French. And they did
I've seen Pushkin's note to his alleged French cuckolder, challenging him to a duel, in the Pushkin museum in St Petersburg. It is written in immaculate French, it is brilliant. It says "I would like to kill you at 9am Thursday" mais, j'ai l'honneur d'etre votre" etc etc
Now diplo-French has gone, never to return. They REALLY need to get over this shit
Do you think Liz Truss could take a press conference in French?
No, nor should she be expected to, because French is not the common language of the global elite, world journalism, plus aviation, tourism, business, industry, sport, music, TV, trade, art, the internet, nor is it the language of New York City, where Drian is actually speaking in his press conference
Does Truss speak Portuguese or Turkish? No. Because it is not necessary, nor is French
Oh, it's the language of the elite. Ok, got it now.
Not the elite
It is the language accepted across the globe and we are very fortunate it is
Just had an email which seems genuine from PFP energy our (erstwhile?) energy supplier, headed "We do not have confidence in the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng".
"...Ofgem made Kwarteng aware of the ongoing pressure to energy suppliers on 26th March 2020 but his disregard for the issues and lack of willingness to create support for the industry has resulted in a large increase in the cost of powering homes and hundreds of job losses..."
Interesting tactic, if genuine.
On 26 March 2020, PFP could have hedged their entire energy exposure at about a quarter of current prices.
I am interested to know why so many of these tiny energy companies, who don't produce any energy, have sprung up in the past 2-3-4 years.
I mean I presume there was money to be made in quiet times, but it still a terrible business model to get into, you don't produce any of the product yourself, and are totally reliant on are having to bet on the futures market, and I can't see how a tiny energy company with a small number of employees enjoys any of the economies of scale when it comes to advertising, marketing and customer support.
I would have thought if you were such a whizz on energy futures, you would be just better being a trading outfit and not having to worry about Maureen from Margate getting very angry that her meter reading is wrong.
It's the same basic flaw as with a lot of this pseudo-market stuff. You get the business by quoting low and hoping for the best. Quoting low gets you to the top of the market comarison sites and the business just rolls in as a result.
If it all goes pear-shape, so what? You just reneg on your contract and fold the company. (See also, rail franchises.)
I think I will give it a miss as a business opportunity....
Me too. But I think the whole model is artificial. There should be a market for energy production and wholesale supply but the network and distribution to homes and businesses should just be a standard service: one set of rates, no switching, and thus no costs of switching admin having to be baked into the consumer prices.
When I was a child in the 1960s I had grandparents who han been born in the late 1880s up to the 1900s.Whilst they were elderly, I did not feel that they had come from a distant age totally unrelated to the world I then inhabited. I have also recently contemplated how 1966 was as close in time to 1910 or 1911 as to the present day. I have little doubt that the world of 1966 had far more in common with the world of 2021 than it had with that of circa 1910.
Who said totally unrelated? You're extrapolating things that were never said.
But yes 1960s are distant from today, and 1800s are distant from the 1960s. Not unconnected, but distant.
Heck in some ways already I can tell there are many things that I grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s are completely distant or alien to what my kids are growing up with today.
The average person in this country was born two years after Thatcher came to power and was just over two years too young to vote for Blair in 1997.
The median Brit is a millennial? In the making-people-feel-old stakes, you just took gold silver and bronze. Smashed it.
The ONS estimate for summer 2020 was 40.4.
Then that's younger than you said. I'm not middle aged yet.
EDIT: No it is what you said. I just rounded in my head from 81 to 82
As immigrants tend to skew young, it's possible that the median age of British born is a little older.
Hi, everyone. It is technically my first post, but I have been lurking for many, many years. The thread header has finally made me feel I should contribute.
It is disappointing that Cyclefree, who wrote so much on the subject of Corbyn Labour's blind spots to bigotry in the form of antisemitism, has now fallen so deeply into her own blind spot.
To be clear, this isn't about condemning abuse and intimidation of people like Rosie Duffield. Of course, such behaviour is contemptible (not to mention counterproductive). Nor is this even about concerns over protection of women's spaces if gender recognition is made too easy to abuse.
Also "chest-feeding", if indeed that term is used, is stupid. What organ are you using to nurse the child if not a breast?
As the old saying goes, it's not what you say, it's how you say it. And this article, while articulating concerns about intimidation of those who are concerned about protections for women, does so in a way that is deeply transphobic. It is so because wording goes out of its way to pay no respect whatsoever to the validity of trans people as trans people.
"in response to a question from Justin Webb on the Today programme about whether there was anywhere biological males should not go – replied “No, no”."
I haven't seen the programme, but I highly doubt it went down like that. I'm sure the question was about transwomen specifically. By paraphrasing it in this way, Cyclefree is denying that transwomen are any different at any level from any man. They are basically just "men in dresses", a known anti-trans slur that she has in fact used in the past few days, but would never abide, from her writing on Corbynism, its antisemitic equivalents such as Zio or even the coded used of theoretically objective term Zionist.
"let along something to be recategorized out of existence to assuage the feelings of some men."
If the concern is predatory men abusing self-ID to access women's protected spaces, this is clearly not targeted at them, because recognition of trans people is not intended to protect their feelings, obviously. Rather it is targeted at transwomen, again denying that they are indeed so. Just "men in dresses".
Denying the validity of transwomen, especially when conflating them with trojan horse predation, i.e. something to feared, is the very definition of transphobia.
I'm sure Cyclefree doesn't want to be associated with any form of bigotry, hence brisling against being labelled transphobic, but if you deny the legitimacy of trans people and are blase about using insensitive and demeaning terminology to refer to them, then how else would you describe your attitude towards them?
Clearly, we have a long way to go, but at least these issues are being talked about.
Let me guess: you are not trans, you don't know any trans people well, and are a lefty looking for a cause. How on earth do you expect to be taken seriously if you label this piece "deeply transphobic"? Let me tell you a secret: trans people are not all the same.
You sound like an arsehole for sure, pompous one at that.
I thought TissuePrice had posted a link to the Canadian election show but I can't find it. Does anyone remember when or what time he posted it? Maybe it was on a previous thread.
I thought TissuePrice had posted a link to the Canadian election show but I can't find it. Does anyone remember when or what time he posted it? Maybe it was on a previous thread.
Le Drian says that "Europe is excluded" from Aukus. I suspect he thinks Europe is a synonym for France.
I think its fair enough to have Europe as a synonym for the EU and thus excluding the UK.
'America' is not a synonym for Canada.
He keeps repeating it in contexts where it can only mean France. Also the EU isn't a state.
That's a fine Gallic tradition. When de Gaulle referred to La France he meant himself.
After the first veto, Duncan Sandys said that we're dealing with a man who thinks that France is Europe and that he is France.
Long ago the Sunday Times analysed many political leaders' speeches for egotism, using the simple metric of the frequency of use of the first person singular. The least egotistic person by that measure was found to be de Gaulle. Until it was pointed out that ....
If Thatcher or May had been revealed to have committed adultery , would either have become Tory leader? Truss is also a former Libdem.
Why not?
What kind of closed-minded intolerant idiot would care about that ephemera?
Thankfully not the Tory membership. That's already been put to the test.
Do you really believe that Thatcher - or May - having had a kid or two out of wedlock would have had no impact on her leadership ambitions? I suspect that even being selected as a PPC would have proved problematic.
Could it have been an issue in the distant past? Absolutely, though a woman or a minority getting elected was a bigger challenge. Thank goodness those days are over eh?
Would it be an issue today? Or recent past for May? No of course not, don't be a dingbat. That's already been put to the test and a serial adulterer won a landslide leadership election victory.
Most people are likely to view the 1960s and 1970s as the recent past - ie'afew years ago' - rather a period little different from Victorian Britain. I doubt that most people view The Beatles as ancient history.
No offence but maybe old people feel that was only a few years ago, but yes sixty years ago are quite a distant past now and the times have quite rightly changed since then.
To put it into context the distance between today and 1960 is the same distance as the Victorian era from 1960, or 1980 from the First World War. I certainly felt growing up in the 80s that WW1 was in the ancient past. Did any child of the 60s feel the Victorian era was only a few years ago then?
You are making me feel old !!!!!!
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was released closer to WW2 than to today.
In a similar vein, my date of birth is closer to the Abdication Crisis than the present day.
It'd be time for a stiff drink if I had any booze in the flat. A Kit Kat will have to suffice
Well mine's closer to Victoria's reign than to today!
I always had you down as one of our younger posters!
The fact is those small energy suppliers were speculating and have been literally caught short.
And a lot of life decisions are like that.
If you're preparing for an exam, do you make sure you've covered every topic, or get super-prepared for a few things you hope will come up?
In the short term, aggressive gambles can produce big winners, which is why we hear from them. But the same gambles mean that, from time to time, you lose big as well.
It's the grown up discussion we ought to be having post-Covid; have we got the balance between efficiency and resilience right? When we cut, is it trimming flab or cutting the reserve of fat a healthy organism has to survive a hard winter?
If Thatcher or May had been revealed to have committed adultery , would either have become Tory leader? Truss is also a former Libdem.
Why not?
What kind of closed-minded intolerant idiot would care about that ephemera?
Thankfully not the Tory membership. That's already been put to the test.
Do you really believe that Thatcher - or May - having had a kid or two out of wedlock would have had no impact on her leadership ambitions? I suspect that even being selected as a PPC would have proved problematic.
Could it have been an issue in the distant past? Absolutely, though a woman or a minority getting elected was a bigger challenge. Thank goodness those days are over eh?
Would it be an issue today? Or recent past for May? No of course not, don't be a dingbat. That's already been put to the test and a serial adulterer won a landslide leadership election victory.
Most people are likely to view the 1960s and 1970s as the recent past - ie'afew years ago' - rather a period little different from Victorian Britain. I doubt that most people view The Beatles as ancient history.
No offence but maybe old people feel that was only a few years ago, but yes sixty years ago are quite a distant past now and the times have quite rightly changed since then.
To put it into context the distance between today and 1960 is the same distance as the Victorian era from 1960, or 1980 from the First World War. I certainly felt growing up in the 80s that WW1 was in the ancient past. Did any child of the 60s feel the Victorian era was only a few years ago then?
You are making me feel old !!!!!!
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was released closer to WW2 than to today.
In a similar vein, my date of birth is closer to the Abdication Crisis than the present day.
It'd be time for a stiff drink if I had any booze in the flat. A Kit Kat will have to suffice
Well mine's closer to Victoria's reign than to today!
I always had you down as one of our younger posters!
I'm flattered, though I'm sure I've mentioned several times that I'm retired.
I thought TissuePrice had posted a link to the Canadian election show but I can't find it. Does anyone remember when or what time he posted it? Maybe it was on a previous thread.
I thought TissuePrice had posted a link to the Canadian election show but I can't find it. Does anyone remember when or what time he posted it? Maybe it was on a previous thread.
TP last posted once in January 2020 and before that post his last posts were in November 2019.
I wonder if anything happened around then that changed the way he approaches discussing politics? 🤔
If Thatcher or May had been revealed to have committed adultery , would either have become Tory leader? Truss is also a former Libdem.
Why not?
What kind of closed-minded intolerant idiot would care about that ephemera?
Thankfully not the Tory membership. That's already been put to the test.
Do you really believe that Thatcher - or May - having had a kid or two out of wedlock would have had no impact on her leadership ambitions? I suspect that even being selected as a PPC would have proved problematic.
Could it have been an issue in the distant past? Absolutely, though a woman or a minority getting elected was a bigger challenge. Thank goodness those days are over eh?
Would it be an issue today? Or recent past for May? No of course not, don't be a dingbat. That's already been put to the test and a serial adulterer won a landslide leadership election victory.
Most people are likely to view the 1960s and 1970s as the recent past - ie'afew years ago' - rather a period little different from Victorian Britain. I doubt that most people view The Beatles as ancient history.
No offence but maybe old people feel that was only a few years ago, but yes sixty years ago are quite a distant past now and the times have quite rightly changed since then.
To put it into context the distance between today and 1960 is the same distance as the Victorian era from 1960, or 1980 from the First World War. I certainly felt growing up in the 80s that WW1 was in the ancient past. Did any child of the 60s feel the Victorian era was only a few years ago then?
You are making me feel old !!!!!!
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was released closer to WW2 than to today.
In a similar vein, my date of birth is closer to the Abdication Crisis than the present day.
It'd be time for a stiff drink if I had any booze in the flat. A Kit Kat will have to suffice
Well mine's closer to Victoria's reign than to today!
That genuinely surprises me. I always thought you were younger than me. My DoB is still closer to the Titanic than to the present day. Which is kind of strange to consider.
This is fun. Mine is getting alarming close to equidistant to the year my company began, 1879. Another 8 years to go!
@julianborger French FM Le Drian says he has no intention of meeting his counterpart Secretary of State Tony Blinken at the UN, "though I might see him here or there, in a corridor".
If Thatcher or May had been revealed to have committed adultery , would either have become Tory leader? Truss is also a former Libdem.
Why not?
What kind of closed-minded intolerant idiot would care about that ephemera?
Thankfully not the Tory membership. That's already been put to the test.
Do you really believe that Thatcher - or May - having had a kid or two out of wedlock would have had no impact on her leadership ambitions? I suspect that even being selected as a PPC would have proved problematic.
Could it have been an issue in the distant past? Absolutely, though a woman or a minority getting elected was a bigger challenge. Thank goodness those days are over eh?
Would it be an issue today? Or recent past for May? No of course not, don't be a dingbat. That's already been put to the test and a serial adulterer won a landslide leadership election victory.
Most people are likely to view the 1960s and 1970s as the recent past - ie'afew years ago' - rather a period little different from Victorian Britain. I doubt that most people view The Beatles as ancient history.
No offence but maybe old people feel that was only a few years ago, but yes sixty years ago are quite a distant past now and the times have quite rightly changed since then.
To put it into context the distance between today and 1960 is the same distance as the Victorian era from 1960, or 1980 from the First World War. I certainly felt growing up in the 80s that WW1 was in the ancient past. Did any child of the 60s feel the Victorian era was only a few years ago then?
You are making me feel old !!!!!!
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was released closer to WW2 than to today.
In a similar vein, my date of birth is closer to the Abdication Crisis than the present day.
It'd be time for a stiff drink if I had any booze in the flat. A Kit Kat will have to suffice
Well mine's closer to Victoria's reign than to today!
That genuinely surprises me. I always thought you were younger than me. My DoB is still closer to the Titanic than to the present day. Which is kind of strange to consider.
This is fun. Mine is getting alarming close to equidistant to the year my company began, 1879. Another 8 years to go!
Mine is getting close to equidistant to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Who is going to tell Big_G his birthday was nearer to the assassination of Lincoln than today?
It's OK I know I am old, confused and need to keep taking my pills, but I have so many blessings not least my wife who I met 60 years ago next year and who has been my soul mate through all those years and is a wonderful mother and grandmother
Can anyone explain to me the point of having a multitude of private companies arguing about which of them pretends to supply a solitary stream of electricity and gas that is in fact supplied by somebody else? I’m now on my third fictional supplier in a year and sick to the eye-teeth of the admin.
I am interested to know why so many of these tiny energy companies, who don't produce any energy, have sprung up in the past 2-3-4 years.
I mean I presume there was money to be made in quiet times, but it still a terrible business model to get into, you don't produce any of the product yourself, and are totally reliant on are having to bet on the futures market, and I can't see how a tiny energy company with a small number of employees enjoys any of the economies of scale when it comes to advertising, marketing and customer support.
I would have thought if you were such a whizz on energy futures, you would be just better being a trading outfit and not having to worry about Maureen from Margate getting very angry that her meter reading is wrong.
Yeah, but you can't raise EIS money to start an energy trading business. But you can raise it to start an energy retailer. You can therefore gamble with the government's money, and demand a bail out if you call the market wrong.
If Thatcher or May had been revealed to have committed adultery , would either have become Tory leader? Truss is also a former Libdem.
Why not?
What kind of closed-minded intolerant idiot would care about that ephemera?
Thankfully not the Tory membership. That's already been put to the test.
Do you really believe that Thatcher - or May - having had a kid or two out of wedlock would have had no impact on her leadership ambitions? I suspect that even being selected as a PPC would have proved problematic.
Could it have been an issue in the distant past? Absolutely, though a woman or a minority getting elected was a bigger challenge. Thank goodness those days are over eh?
Would it be an issue today? Or recent past for May? No of course not, don't be a dingbat. That's already been put to the test and a serial adulterer won a landslide leadership election victory.
Most people are likely to view the 1960s and 1970s as the recent past - ie'afew years ago' - rather a period little different from Victorian Britain. I doubt that most people view The Beatles as ancient history.
No offence but maybe old people feel that was only a few years ago, but yes sixty years ago are quite a distant past now and the times have quite rightly changed since then.
To put it into context the distance between today and 1960 is the same distance as the Victorian era from 1960, or 1980 from the First World War. I certainly felt growing up in the 80s that WW1 was in the ancient past. Did any child of the 60s feel the Victorian era was only a few years ago then?
You are making me feel old !!!!!!
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was released closer to WW2 than to today.
In a similar vein, my date of birth is closer to the Abdication Crisis than the present day.
It'd be time for a stiff drink if I had any booze in the flat. A Kit Kat will have to suffice
Well mine's closer to Victoria's reign than to today!
That genuinely surprises me. I always thought you were younger than me. My DoB is still closer to the Titanic than to the present day. Which is kind of strange to consider.
Sadly, I am now 61, though I still feel like 30ish mentally.
I feel 30ish mentally at 30ish, so can probably look forward to feeling 60ish mentally at 61. Certainly I feel, physically, about 45, but that's what I get for sitting on my arse eating too much.
Just had an email which seems genuine from PFP energy our (erstwhile?) energy supplier, headed "We do not have confidence in the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng".
"...Ofgem made Kwarteng aware of the ongoing pressure to energy suppliers on 26th March 2020 but his disregard for the issues and lack of willingness to create support for the industry has resulted in a large increase in the cost of powering homes and hundreds of job losses..."
Interesting tactic, if genuine.
On 26 March 2020, PFP could have hedged their entire energy exposure at about a quarter of current prices.
And somehow Kwarteng is responsible?
Today I received this email from my supplier, Good Energy.
"You’ll no doubt have seen the news around the turbulence in the energy market which has led to several of our competitors failing and speculation about others following.
I would like to reassure you all that Good Energy is stable, prudently run and not at risk of running into difficulty.
Many of the suppliers under threat have taken risks, pricing below cost and don’t have the 20 years’ experience that Good Energy does in trading energy.
We are financially and operationally sound and I am confident that we are robust enough to navigate the current market conditions. We are a well-run company with a sustainable model.
The Good Energy team and I will keep a close eye on the situation, but please rest assured that Good Energy is in a solid position."
I do hope it doesn't prove to be hubris, but they're not pulling their punches in respect of the companies that have collapsed.
You'd imagine well-run companies would be outraged if others were bailed out.
Can anyone explain to me the point of having a multitude of private companies arguing about which of them pretends to supply a solitary stream of electricity and gas that is in fact supplied by somebody else? I’m now on my third fictional supplier in a year and sick to the eye-teeth of the admin.
Just nationalise it FFS.
More than most industries utilities really does seem, to a lot of consumers, just a matter of a different header on a bill than offering any difference.
It is remarkable to think that my neighbour, who is shortly to be 92 (yet races to ensure that he beats me to bringing the bins in after collection) has a birthday nearer to the start of the First Afghan War in 1839 than today....
Comments
It'd be time for a stiff drink if I had any booze in the flat. A Kit Kat will have to suffice
I wasn’t, but same goes
Does that make me middle aged? 😱
Indeed, I'd expect confirmation that your partner is vaccinated would be in the contract.
French FM Le Drian says he has no intention of meeting his counterpart Secretary of State Tony Blinken at the UN, "though I might see him here or there, in a corridor".
https://twitter.com/julianborger/status/1440060905706819590
I then dressed him down for the fool he is. "Banging Begum" would be a million-copy selling memoir, as I told him (this was after my fourth glass)
EDIT: No it is what you said. I just rounded in my head from 81 to 82
LE CRINGE? LE GRANDE CRINGE
PfP Energy Customers: Your questions on new supplier British Gas - 10th September
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/pfp-energy-customers-your-questions-new-supplier-british-gas
If the price cap forces the suppliers to operate at a loss they will, if that state of affairs persists for long enough, have to be bailed. The only alternatives are to let them all fail and renationalise, which would probably involve a period of chaos and widespread power cuts, or to scrap price capping and let the companies apply enormous hikes to energy bills to cover their costs. Bailouts would be much the most palatable option under those circumstances.
Aaron Bastani
@AaronBastani
HERE WE GO?
Whispers of Labour going back to electoral college in selecting next leader with it being 1/3rd PLP, 1/3rd trade unions & 1/3rd CLPs. Could be going to NEC Friday...
Corbynite legacy may be little more than reversal of Miliband reforms. Unison & GMB may decide it.
Taking questions in English, waiting for the translation, huge delay, much confusion, apparently he can't speak English?
The French Foreign Minister. AWKS
https://twitter.com/visactu/status/1440056384863621124?s=20
I have provided my final readings last week to them and British Gas who have transferred me in on a tariff below price cap till April 2022
But counterpoint: Boris has been doing yeoman's work at increasing the number of youngsters in and around west London.
I mean I presume there was money to be made in quiet times, but it still a terrible business model to get into, you don't produce any of the product yourself, and are totally reliant on are having to bet on the futures market, and I can't see how a tiny energy company with a small number of employees enjoys any of the economies of scale when it comes to advertising, marketing and customer support.
I would have thought if you were such a whizz on energy futures, you would be just better being a trading outfit and not having to worry about Maureen from Margate getting very angry that her meter reading is wrong.
But he's in NYC for the UN meeting and he surely wants to make the case for France. He needs to speak in fluent, persuasive English, to all the major Anglo journalists in the room (and every other country, that uses English,
as a lingua franca, worldwide). But apparently he can't speak it, so the presser is awkward, sad, dull, and mystifying
How can you possibly have a Foreign Minister that doesn't speak English?! Mad
That is the difference with the business model of the little start-ups with funny names who are all sunk this week I reckon.
Of course if this price spike goes on for months and months then the hedging may run out of road.
Does Truss speak Portuguese or Turkish? No. Because it is not necessary, nor is French
If it all goes pear-shape, so what? You just reneg on your contract and fold the company. (See also, rail franchises.)
The interesting case is Sarkozy. He cannot speak good English, but he has expressed regret for this, and he told French people that they should accept learning English in the future is "just a thing you have to do, like getting a driving licence"
If the government starts funding the energy costs of users who can't pay, then we'll end up with more demand than supply, and the lights going out.
Put it another way: I can speak French - I can get by. But no way would I be able to take a press conference in French.
It is the language accepted across the globe and we are very fortunate it is
What "favours" are you offering, anyway? I'm not sure they have much incentive to take your opinion into account, but perhaps if you're offering something really good?
For a couple of centuries anyone who thought themselves civilised in Europe had to speak French. And they did
I've seen Pushkin's note to his alleged French cuckolder, challenging him to a duel, in the Pushkin museum in St Petersburg. It is written in immaculate French, it is brilliant. It says "I would like to kill you at 9am Thursday" mais, j'ai l'honneur d'etre votre" etc etc
Now diplo-French has gone, never to return. They REALLY need to get over this shit
'We phoned the Electricity Board.'
'They said...'
"This has absolutely nothing to do with us."
'Cyril...'
Goodnight comrades.
And somehow Kwarteng is responsible?
It was very O level but it was appreciated
Indeed we went on a bus tour from New York to Canada and back to Washington and then New York
In Quebec we were taken to a French restaurant and I had to order in French
The Americans with us could not speak a word of French and were not served, leaving the restaurant in dismay
'America' is not a synonym for Canada.
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/3573680#Comment_3573680
If you're preparing for an exam, do you make sure you've covered every topic, or get super-prepared for a few things you hope will come up?
In the short term, aggressive gambles can produce big winners, which is why we hear from them. But the same gambles mean that, from time to time, you lose big as well.
It's the grown up discussion we ought to be having post-Covid; have we got the balance between efficiency and resilience right? When we cut, is it trimming flab or cutting the reserve of fat a healthy organism has to survive a hard winter?
Bet we don't have it, though.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1946855491575
CBC results page, (awaiting first result):
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/federal/2021/results/
I wonder if anything happened around then that changed the way he approaches discussing politics? 🤔
Mine is getting alarming close to equidistant to the year my company began, 1879. Another 8 years to go!
We count our blessings every day
Just nationalise it FFS.
"You’ll no doubt have seen the news around the turbulence in the energy market which has led to several of our competitors failing and speculation about others following.
I would like to reassure you all that Good Energy is stable, prudently run and not at risk of running into difficulty.
Many of the suppliers under threat have taken risks, pricing below cost and don’t have the 20 years’ experience that Good Energy does in trading energy.
We are financially and operationally sound and I am confident that we are robust enough to navigate the current market conditions. We are a well-run company with a sustainable model.
The Good Energy team and I will keep a close eye on the situation, but please rest assured that Good Energy is in a solid position."
I do hope it doesn't prove to be hubris, but they're not pulling their punches in respect of the companies that have collapsed.
You'd imagine well-run companies would be outraged if others were bailed out.