Regarding trade unions: I have been in several public sector trade unions. They are good for protection, better than any insurance policy you can imagine. I don't understand why people don't join them, it puts them at the mercy of an adversarial management culture if they ever run in to problems. And when you work in the public sector, problems can come from any direction, there are any number of accusations that can be levelled at you, and if you are marked, then you are in a very difficult place without union representation. I've seen many people come back from the biggest disasters imaginable to promotion and success, thanks to the union. Sometimes this is a good thing, other times it is a bad thing.
On the other hand, the political stuff is an annoying sideshow. Unions rarely represent the views of members, but members in turn show little interest in changing this side of of trade unionism. So it goes on.
I joined the HCSA when working as a manager on a number of disciplinary incidents, or allegations there of.
The BMA reps were poorly prepared, and the ones with no rep like lambs to the slaughter. The HCSA reps were professionally prepared, knew their brief and advocated clearly and highly competently. So I joined. When in trouble, you do not want an advocate who is reasonable, you want a pit bull who scares the opposition.
The HCSA also doesn't do politics, just terms and conditions.
I have just had my Asda order delivered and again complete as ordered
I asked the driver how he was managing with the fuel and he said it 'was over' and this morning there was one car at Asda filling station when he came away just now
I was surprised but the he does work for Asda and has to fuel daily, so he is in the know
Waitrose was fully stocked at 8.45am this morning, all shelves filled with fresh fruit & vegetables and fresh meat and fish on top too.
That said, HMG really need to get on top of this with a logistics and labour strategy for transportation, agriculture and hospitality that works across industry to address low-pay and ameliorate poor working conditions in the aftermath of Brexit and Covid. They need to start training up and recruiting people in - because it's going at least 6-12 month process to get results. I suspect where we'll end up is a mix of a changed and improved domestic market, some price rises, and some seasonal/temporary visas on top for extra labour, but nothing like the levels we had under free movement.
It really does need fixing because it will rapidly discredit the Government if left to its own devices.
Why do you think that?
Realistically we're at the worst of the disruption now as people spring back post-Covid and companies haven't yet filled vacancies. Yet shelves are still fully stocked and people are already moving on.
As time goes by things will realistically get better as companies engage in training and recruitment. That's already began.
I would rather trust every business and every employee to sort themselves out, leading to the invisible hand fixing this, than I would trust Boris, Gove, Sir Humphrey or anyone else to micromanage this from Whitehall.
EDIT: If the government needs to be fixing anything, its likely gas. Though any actions there may be too little, to late.
What the Government needs to fix is those WFH working for Local Authorities as Local Authorities are grinding to a halt due to those WFH not working.
Haha! Another evidence-free post wrapping up a couple of your prejudices.
We need to wait for the weekend polls to see if Labour has got any post conference bounce
Indeed and I would suggest we need to wait until the end of October/ early November to determine the overall effects of the conference speeches and of course the budget on the 27th October
I note HMG has announced a £500 million hardship fund to be available through local authorities no doubt to ameliorate the effects of the lost UC uplift and towards the increases in gas supply
It has been announced the UK economy has grown by 5.5% between April and June, higher than the previous estimate of 4.8%
And I did chuckle when Starmer said just now to Burley that his speech was so long because of the number of interruptions from the applause
Last para made me laugh.
£500m isnt going to go very far if it's being shared between say 5m poorer households. Would have been better to delay the UC cut til spring. But that would cost more. Not sure how much.
Actually I think we can detect quite an astute attitude from Rishi because he can add to the hardship fund on need throughout the winter without making a 6 billion annual increase with the UC uplift made permanent
We still need a reverse ferret on the salami slicing of UC since 2015, and the too steep taper.
I wonder if UK Gov want a higher than tiny Green vote to strip some from Lab.
I expect something will be announced in the budget
If he's announcing something in the budget why the leaking of the £500m today? Just a media stunt to distract from SKS doing too well?
Furlough ends today. I'm interested to see how much churn we see in the jobs market before we pay too much heed to employers moaning about unfilled vacancies and needing FOM relaxation.
The end of the furlough scheme is going to be a big story. It would be quite interesting to see a breakdown of the people still there at the end, by job and market segment. There will likely be a combination of redundancies, retentions and a few companies rolling their own furlough scheme for critical employees (such as airline pilots, who cost a fortune to hire and train).
It won't surprise me if a significant chunk of people "on furlough" are those who can exploit the system to get free cash.
Eg if an individual has a small family business with their family or close friends all on paywall then they could be tempted keep some of them on furlough even if they are working. The family is getting money into the business via work, money from HMRC via furlough, and since everyone's related then everyone can be a winner from the arrangement with plausible deniability that there's any wrongdoing.
It won't surprise me if half the stragglers still on furlough to the end miraculously start working from tomorrow.
Yes, I know a few people in private practice via companies, who have furloughed their spouses from the payroll, for 18 months now. Not Mrs Foxy, as I missed that dodge by not having her on the payroll.
I expect the same in many other small companies.
Having the missus on the payroll (or husband, whichever way around) and saying they do 'admin' is an age old con for small businesses. Mostly a way of getting another 10k or so a year out the company tax free.
Which for the past 18 months has become a way to get £12k from the state tax free.
My consultancy company does it and having retained a new accountant recently his advice was that I wasn't being aggressive enough with my payroll...
I don't get the enduring appeal of James Bond films. Sorry.
I mean when I was a spotty teenager, thrilled by the gadgets and bikini girls, I loved them and recall that my first cinema experience without parents was to see The Spy Who Loved Me with my friend. But as an adult?
The franchise has a reputation for me of lame sets, dodgy acting and banal, implausible script. All-round a bit ... naff.
If you want to watch an action movie then JB films aren't in the same league as, say, the Bourne movies or the awesome and flawless Mad Max Thunder Road are they?
I hope that's not too controversial so as to make you choke on your cornflakes especially on James Bond Day.
JB films have been transformed by Bourne.
Once upon a time they were light hearted, self-parodic, and tremendous and unserious fun.
However, despite their copying Bourne, or trying to, they are long, lumbering, taking themselves far too seriously with hugely convoluted plots.
Both the Bond films and Doctor Who have fallen victim to the same phenomenon of believing the hype of a few obsessives.
The Bourne films moved that kind of film into a different league in the same way that the Matrix did with sci-fi. I think Daniel Craig worked hard to keep up with that but there is an incredible amount of baggage with Bond that the fanatics need to see which makes the films long and cumbersome. I will go and see the new Bond but I can't claim that I have been desperate to do so over the last year.
Like Dr Who, a couple of decades of rest would not go amiss.
I’ve not yet seen the latest Bond. But it’s an interesting quandary about how to reinvent it post Craig. The Big Bad in today’s world is of course China. But it’s also one of the biggest movie markets. So instead of plotting relevant to today’s threats, we get stuck in a cycle of quiet psycho terrorist type villains.
I’d go back to the beginning and do it as a lavish period action saga. Mad Men styling. Classic cars. Take away the silliness, comic book villains and plodding plotting of the originals. Draw a proper multi film plot arc rather than the retconning of Spectre and make-it-up-as-we-film of Quantum of Solace. A rounded character following a coherent arc, with a personality that can breath around the action sequences rather than be suffocated by them.
Much of the best bits of the Craig era followed this template but they should go full throttle with it.
Yes, I could see that working. A fairly stripped back Bond in a late Fifties/ early Sixties style, where his tastes fit pre counter-culture, and with a clear Cold War enemy. Part of what makes James Bond such a dinosaur is his 1950s style idea of sophistication, and a Britain which still was a world power. It makes as much sense to place him in the modern era as setting Poirot in modern London investigating County Lines.
I'd much prefer that.
I think the alternative is that what happens to future Bond films is what happened to Doctor Who.
If you haven't already seen it, The Man from UNCLE film is basically this, and it's excellent; unfortunately it flopped commercially so very little chance of a sequel.
I've said before that I tend to really respect jobs that need doing, but I wouldn't want to do myself. At uni I had a friend who had worked in one, and his stories were...interesting. I've also been in one on a few occasions (*), and even though clean and bright, there's something heavy about them, spirit-wise.
Hence, even if it is semi-skilled, abattoir workers should be being paid much more than they are. It's an awful, soul-destroying job.
(*) Abattoirs have sumps where... well, you can guess what ends up in them. Every so often these need cleaning out, so we hired a pump to do it. A pump and pipework that was kept for that express purpose, and was kept on a part of the depot well away from anything else as, even after cleaning, it stank. (AFAICR the sump had its own pump, that would often break down and so they had to hire one in to drain the sump, so some poor sod could go down and fix it.)
Most of this problem ultimately comes back to the supermarket sector. If they didn’t demand meat at extremely low prices, and sometimes even at a loss, there wouldn’t be such an issue.
But then that begs another question, of course - are people willing to pay the cost of production?
This is just the nature of capitalism - competition driving down prices and squeezing costs at every stage of production. It's well covered in books like the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. It's the great strength but also the great weakness of capitalism as an economic system, when those costs getting squeezed are human beings. It's why I vote Labour, for enlightened policies to temper capitalism with interventions to protect people from the remorseless logic of the system - but still capturing the positive elements of that system as much as possible.
Yet now it’s the Conservatives arguing for higher wages and employers to provide training, while Labour want to throw hundreds of thousands of cheap immigrants at the problem, to prop up the supermarkets’ profits.
My question is how and why these companies are to provide training to "drive up productivity". The Tories want labour mobility, which means as soon as you finish training a driver they are out the door. Wouldn't happen if we re-unionised the sector. And drivers are hardly unproductive - being harried every minute of every shift is a reason why so many are not coming back into it having left.
There is a simple reality here - British workers don't want the work. Whether it is in factories or care homes or a whole stack of jobs, we don't want them. You can say "pay more" but the point where we stopped wanting to do them relative pay was higher.
I have a lot of sympathy for the Tory thinkers who wrote the "British workers are lazy" book. I have worked for various companies with various facilities where it is clear and obviously true. Eastern Europeans became so popular not because they were cheaper, but because they actually turned up to do the job.
But you need to look at why British Labour relations are so poor compared to much of our neighbours in Northern Europe in the historical round.
Britain's postwar settlement disguised class and employer-employee relations that were still feudal. The union militancy of the 1970's was the flipside of an almost seigneurially abusive attitude from many large employers compared to countries like Germany or Sweden. Thatcher then "solved" this by a scorched-earth victory for the employers. The alienation in the British Labour market is deep-seated and deep-rooted, and I would very strongly reject blaming that just on the employees.
I don't blame the employees! I said this was structural not the fault of individuals. We need to equip and empower a workforce for the 21st century and we aren't going to do that by only focusing on warehouse and delivery jobs.
The part of the Starmer speech was was surprising was "The Good Society and the Strong Economy need each other" because its sad that this needs to be said. Companies need a workforce productive and engaged, employees need companies supportive and nurturing.
We are a long way from getting this. Too few people are unionised and frankly several of the big unions seem wedded to overthrowing capitalism still. Too few companies give a shit about their employees and the tax system gives no incentive to the long term investment in people.
Unions are not the solution. Unions are just as much a distortion, trying to get businesses to pay above market rates, as the current issue of businesses trying to get employees in for below market rates.
Just stand back and laissez-faire. Let the productive employers find the productive employees.
Unions try to ensure there is no other supply available so they can get away with picket lines etc, while 'free movement' ensured there was an infinite supply available. What we need is simply what we have now a competitive market with a finite supply.
Being unionised is the single most effective way of achieving better pay and conditions. That is just a fact. Perhaps Brexit will make it easier for workers to organise, one lives in hope.
Not convinced.
If we have Unions, they must be depoliticised. I would perhaps follow some aspects of the German Model.
But [edit] you don't say whether it's OK for the bosses to make donations to political parties with other people's (shareholders') money? Including thinly disguised gifts such as booking space at party conferences.
The equivalent to depoliticising unions would be to permit company directors only to make personal gifts to political parties. Never out of company money.
Edit: oifg course, you may be opposed to that too.
Personally, I am quite attracted to the idea that donations to political parties should only be from individuals.
I have been concerned that a weakness of that has been that Tories were mainly much richer than Lab, but looking at the supporters of various parties - eg Luvvies, footballers, business people worth tens of millions each and the wealthy areas of the country being more leftish now - I wonder if that is still a relevant concern.
An alternative might be to overhaul TU democracy which seems not to work. I'm not sure just how I would frame that.
Hmm, that last was done by Mrs T. The real issue is the low proportion of those who do vote. But that's true of any election. One could hardly claim that HYUFD for instance should be deposed from his councillorship just because the Epping citizens did not turn out 100% [or so one assumes: obviously I can't check the actual figure].
The last time the idea of banning non-individual donations (and limiting individual donations) came up (semi-seriously), the Labour party was all for it. Provided Trade Unions were exempt.
A very, very Old Labour friend was in favour. He was much put out by my plan to start the National Union of Boilermakers and Hedge Fund Managers.
He thought that this wouldn't be a Real Union.
He tried "TUC affiliation" - I pointed out that I would be applying, plus there are a number of legit unions outside the TUC...
He did finally laugh at my suggestions for swag - a deluxe, stainless steel drum for picket line fires (decorated by a high end Calypso drum maker). A Versace badged version of a road mans jacket.....
There’s a couple of airline pilot unions, and an air traffic controllers’ union, none of which I believe affiliate with the TUC nor the Labour Party. Probably a few others too.
Do senior civil servants not have their own union, and senior ranks of the police?
The First Division Association is the senior c.s.'s union.
Yes, it's outdated isn't it. It should be called the Premier League Association by now.
I have just had my Asda order delivered and again complete as ordered
I asked the driver how he was managing with the fuel and he said it 'was over' and this morning there was one car at Asda filling station when he came away just now
I was surprised but the he does work for Asda and has to fuel daily, so he is in the know
Waitrose was fully stocked at 8.45am this morning, all shelves filled with fresh fruit & vegetables and fresh meat and fish on top too.
That said, HMG really need to get on top of this with a logistics and labour strategy for transportation, agriculture and hospitality that works across industry to address low-pay and ameliorate poor working conditions in the aftermath of Brexit and Covid. They need to start training up and recruiting people in - because it's going at least 6-12 month process to get results. I suspect where we'll end up is a mix of a changed and improved domestic market, some price rises, and some seasonal/temporary visas on top for extra labour, but nothing like the levels we had under free movement.
It really does need fixing because it will rapidly discredit the Government if left to its own devices.
Why do you think that?
Realistically we're at the worst of the disruption now as people spring back post-Covid and companies haven't yet filled vacancies. Yet shelves are still fully stocked and people are already moving on.
As time goes by things will realistically get better as companies engage in training and recruitment. That's already began.
I would rather trust every business and every employee to sort themselves out, leading to the invisible hand fixing this, than I would trust Boris, Gove, Sir Humphrey or anyone else to micromanage this from Whitehall.
EDIT: If the government needs to be fixing anything, its likely gas. Though any actions there may be too little, to late.
What the Government needs to fix is those WFH working for Local Authorities as Local Authorities are grinding to a halt due to those WFH not working.
Haha! Another evidence-free post wrapping up a couple of your prejudices.
Evidence free??? I deal everyday with 6 LAs, they used to pay my firm dead on time, it now takes them 6+ months, no reason given, I am now having to involve Councillors on their Finance Committees.
Its not just the Finance Department, it is endemic throughout. It is impossible to speak to anyone, emails are unanswered, projects are not being completed.
I don't get the enduring appeal of James Bond films. Sorry.
I mean when I was a spotty teenager, thrilled by the gadgets and bikini girls, I loved them and recall that my first cinema experience without parents was to see The Spy Who Loved Me with my friend. But as an adult?
The franchise has a reputation for me of lame sets, dodgy acting and banal, implausible script. All-round a bit ... naff.
If you want to watch an action movie then JB films aren't in the same league as, say, the Bourne movies or the awesome and flawless Mad Max Thunder Road are they?
I hope that's not too controversial so as to make you choke on your cornflakes especially on James Bond Day.
JB films have been transformed by Bourne.
Once upon a time they were light hearted, self-parodic, and tremendous and unserious fun.
However, despite their copying Bourne, or trying to, they are now long, lumbering, taking themselves far too seriously with hugely convoluted plots.
Both the Bond films and Doctor Who have fallen victim to the same phenomenon of believing the hype of a few obsessives.
Edit: the obsessives in the case of Bond being the financiers, mainly.
They also seem to have become (weirdly to me) part of the UK national psyche: film premiere 2nd or 3rd on BBC news bulletins, lots of talking heading about meaning, much angst about whether it’s a ‘good one’, the London Olympics silliness.
Aside from something to watch at Christmas while building Tamiya’s latest panzer they never really did it for me. Apart from anything else they’ve become such exercises in self referential nostalgia; I believe the latest offering includes a DB5, a Vantage, a Land Rover III and Triumph’s own self referring tribute to its ‘iconic’ scrambler, helpfully plastered with a UJ in case you didn’t get the message.
Eventually Bond will be OHMSS equipped with a Webley revolver and a Sopwith Camel, which is essentially Richard Hannay. Actually, I might watch that…
Tamiya? Blimey, I remember seeing them in the model shops in days of yore. A bit exotic for me. I tended to stick to Airfix and the odd Revell and Matchbox and once, I think, a Frog.
Man, I was on all them drugs, eventually maxed out on the hard stuff of vac form and scratch building.
Not to mention the smell of Britfix polystyrene cement in the morning. Though Lepages Styrene was too much for me - the equivalent of Capstan Extra Strength.
Interesting, though, about JB. I can remember when the Airfix 1:24 Aston Martin DB5 with swivelling number plates, machine guns and calthrops was the go-for model of the month. And that was a very, very long time ago. The fact that the latest film is harking back to that particular model of [full size!] car is quite significant.
Even though it's a terrible kit I reckon I've built the Airfix 1/24 Sea Harrier over 40 times for retirement presentations. F/A-2s are particularly irksome as they need an additional resin conversion kit of variable quality.
I'm surprised that Big And Expensive didn't have piles of die-cast models to give away.
I'm sure they did but they never made it as far down the MoD food chain as the actual operators.
Northrop-Grumman, by contrast, used to carpet bomb the F-14 community with merch when they ran the ground school.
On topic, I wouldn't read too much into these numbers - it was a selected group of people (the vast majority of people won't have watched it) and almost all of what Starmer said was bland inoffensive stuff that almost any mainstream politician could have said.
That said, in terms of signalling that Labour is now unthreatening it may have important medium-term effects, if this theme is stuck to and developed, so one to look out for.
A problem for the future of party membership (Lan, Con and LD):
1) What normal person would queue up to join a party with people entrenched in it who heckle their own leader on significant public occasions?
2) Given that political parties pretend in public to oppose everything supported by the others, why would any normal person - who thinks the human race as whole has lots of decent people with differing opinions - join a party?
3) As they all tend to converge identically on the genuinely big issues, why would anyone join one?
I think the general public think that anyone who joins a political party these days is a bit weird.
I have just had my Asda order delivered and again complete as ordered
I asked the driver how he was managing with the fuel and he said it 'was over' and this morning there was one car at Asda filling station when he came away just now
I was surprised but the he does work for Asda and has to fuel daily, so he is in the know
Waitrose was fully stocked at 8.45am this morning, all shelves filled with fresh fruit & vegetables and fresh meat and fish on top too.
That said, HMG really need to get on top of this with a logistics and labour strategy for transportation, agriculture and hospitality that works across industry to address low-pay and ameliorate poor working conditions in the aftermath of Brexit and Covid. They need to start training up and recruiting people in - because it's going at least 6-12 month process to get results. I suspect where we'll end up is a mix of a changed and improved domestic market, some price rises, and some seasonal/temporary visas on top for extra labour, but nothing like the levels we had under free movement.
It really does need fixing because it will rapidly discredit the Government if left to its own devices.
Why do you think that?
Realistically we're at the worst of the disruption now as people spring back post-Covid and companies haven't yet filled vacancies. Yet shelves are still fully stocked and people are already moving on.
As time goes by things will realistically get better as companies engage in training and recruitment. That's already began.
I would rather trust every business and every employee to sort themselves out, leading to the invisible hand fixing this, than I would trust Boris, Gove, Sir Humphrey or anyone else to micromanage this from Whitehall.
EDIT: If the government needs to be fixing anything, its likely gas. Though any actions there may be too little, to late.
Because I think infrastructure, planning, education & training and migration policy all play a part here - so I think the Government does have a facilitating role.
I don't get the enduring appeal of James Bond films. Sorry.
I mean when I was a spotty teenager, thrilled by the gadgets and bikini girls, I loved them and recall that my first cinema experience without parents was to see The Spy Who Loved Me with my friend. But as an adult?
The franchise has a reputation for me of lame sets, dodgy acting and banal, implausible script. All-round a bit ... naff.
If you want to watch an action movie then JB films aren't in the same league as, say, the Bourne movies or the awesome and flawless Mad Max Thunder Road are they?
I hope that's not too controversial so as to make you choke on your cornflakes especially on James Bond Day.
JB films have been transformed by Bourne.
Once upon a time they were light hearted, self-parodic, and tremendous and unserious fun.
However, despite their copying Bourne, or trying to, they are now long, lumbering, taking themselves far too seriously with hugely convoluted plots.
Both the Bond films and Doctor Who have fallen victim to the same phenomenon of believing the hype of a few obsessives.
Edit: the obsessives in the case of Bond being the financiers, mainly.
They also seem to have become (weirdly to me) part of the UK national psyche: film premiere 2nd or 3rd on BBC news bulletins, lots of talking heading about meaning, much angst about whether it’s a ‘good one’, the London Olympics silliness.
Aside from something to watch at Christmas while building Tamiya’s latest panzer they never really did it for me. Apart from anything else they’ve become such exercises in self referential nostalgia; I believe the latest offering includes a DB5, a Vantage, a Land Rover III and Triumph’s own self referring tribute to its ‘iconic’ scrambler, helpfully plastered with a UJ in case you didn’t get the message.
Eventually Bond will be OHMSS equipped with a Webley revolver and a Sopwith Camel, which is essentially Richard Hannay. Actually, I might watch that…
Tamiya? Blimey, I remember seeing them in the model shops in days of yore. A bit exotic for me. I tended to stick to Airfix and the odd Revell and Matchbox and once, I think, a Frog.
Man, I was on all them drugs, eventually maxed out on the hard stuff of vac form and scratch building.
Not to mention the smell of Britfix polystyrene cement in the morning. Though Lepages Styrene was too much for me - the equivalent of Capstan Extra Strength.
Interesting, though, about JB. I can remember when the Airfix 1:24 Aston Martin DB5 with swivelling number plates, machine guns and calthrops was the go-for model of the month. And that was a very, very long time ago. The fact that the latest film is harking back to that particular model of [full size!] car is quite significant.
Even though it's a terrible kit I reckon I've built the Airfix 1/24 Sea Harrier over 40 times for retirement presentations. F/A-2s are particularly irksome as they need an additional resin conversion kit of variable quality.
I'm surprised that Big And Expensive didn't have piles of die-cast models to give away.
Hell, when I was at JCB a little while back, because we were picking up some kit, the office guy heard that we had kids and was offering tons of rather nice toys/models....
An anecdote When I was a kid, I lived near JCB, and my dad bought a fair few of them. I made a model JCB 3CX out of cardboard, and it got displayed at my primary school. Another parent, who worked at JCB, saw it, and it got displayed for a while in the JCB foyer, on top of (I think!) the welder that is on display there (one of Bamford's first purchases).
I wish I had a picture of that. I think my parents still have the model somewhere...
I've also got a diecast model 3CX in a box signed by Noel Edmonds, won in a raffle at a product launch. Now that's a random combination ...
I hope those flats are well insulated or that GSHP is not going to be running very efficiently…
To be fair the capital cost of drilling boreholes is much more attractive when split across many flats rather than one detached dwelling.
Yes - in general areas with lots of homes in proximity are best served by district heating (i.e. a central source with pipes to al lthe homes), with the added benefit that you don't need to clutter up your home with a boiler and worry about maintenance. I'd never known anything else when I grew up in blocks of flats in Denmark and Switzerland. The case is less clear when you have lots of detached houses.
A friend of ours is Romanian, and they used to have such a system in their tower block. Then communism fell, and people could start buying their flats. Apparently the first thing people would do is turn off the old system and put in a new, localised one. The reason: the pipes were always on, meaning that in summer the building would get insufferably hot, particularly on the lower floors, and heat often did not reach the upper floors at times of high demand. There was also very little control of the heating, except at a building level.
That's obviously one system, but it shows how they can be utter failures if not designed and implemented correctly.
Funnily enough, there's a large development near where I live with a similar system. A friend who lives there was complaining about it last week. The residents in the flats have no control over their heating - a completely bizarre state of affairs. And of course the block management set it on the assumption that everyone is a 90-year-old granny who will die if their flats aren't as warm as Hawaii in December. So the flats rent at a discount to everywhere else around there.
One-size-fits-all socialism in action.
Is that in the UK?
Yes.
I am told that the whole of St Petersburg is on the one CH system.
I've said before that I tend to really respect jobs that need doing, but I wouldn't want to do myself. At uni I had a friend who had worked in one, and his stories were...interesting. I've also been in one on a few occasions (*), and even though clean and bright, there's something heavy about them, spirit-wise.
Hence, even if it is semi-skilled, abattoir workers should be being paid much more than they are. It's an awful, soul-destroying job.
(*) Abattoirs have sumps where... well, you can guess what ends up in them. Every so often these need cleaning out, so we hired a pump to do it. A pump and pipework that was kept for that express purpose, and was kept on a part of the depot well away from anything else as, even after cleaning, it stank. (AFAICR the sump had its own pump, that would often break down and so they had to hire one in to drain the sump, so some poor sod could go down and fix it.)
Most of this problem ultimately comes back to the supermarket sector. If they didn’t demand meat at extremely low prices, and sometimes even at a loss, there wouldn’t be such an issue.
But then that begs another question, of course - are people willing to pay the cost of production?
This is just the nature of capitalism - competition driving down prices and squeezing costs at every stage of production. It's well covered in books like the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. It's the great strength but also the great weakness of capitalism as an economic system, when those costs getting squeezed are human beings. It's why I vote Labour, for enlightened policies to temper capitalism with interventions to protect people from the remorseless logic of the system - but still capturing the positive elements of that system as much as possible.
Yet now it’s the Conservatives arguing for higher wages and employers to provide training, while Labour want to throw hundreds of thousands of cheap immigrants at the problem, to prop up the supermarkets’ profits.
My question is how and why these companies are to provide training to "drive up productivity". The Tories want labour mobility, which means as soon as you finish training a driver they are out the door. Wouldn't happen if we re-unionised the sector. And drivers are hardly unproductive - being harried every minute of every shift is a reason why so many are not coming back into it having left.
There is a simple reality here - British workers don't want the work. Whether it is in factories or care homes or a whole stack of jobs, we don't want them. You can say "pay more" but the point where we stopped wanting to do them relative pay was higher.
I have a lot of sympathy for the Tory thinkers who wrote the "British workers are lazy" book. I have worked for various companies with various facilities where it is clear and obviously true. Eastern Europeans became so popular not because they were cheaper, but because they actually turned up to do the job.
But you need to look at why British Labour relations are so poor compared to much of our neighbours in Northern Europe in the historical round.
Britain's postwar settlement disguised class and employer-employee relations that were still feudal. The union militancy of the 1970's was the flipside of an almost seigneurially abusive attitude from many large employers compared to countries like Germany or Sweden. Thatcher then "solved" this by a scorched-earth victory for the employers. The alienation in the British Labour market is deep-seated and deep-rooted, and I would very strongly reject blaming that just on the employees.
I don't blame the employees! I said this was structural not the fault of individuals. We need to equip and empower a workforce for the 21st century and we aren't going to do that by only focusing on warehouse and delivery jobs.
The part of the Starmer speech was was surprising was "The Good Society and the Strong Economy need each other" because its sad that this needs to be said. Companies need a workforce productive and engaged, employees need companies supportive and nurturing.
We are a long way from getting this. Too few people are unionised and frankly several of the big unions seem wedded to overthrowing capitalism still. Too few companies give a shit about their employees and the tax system gives no incentive to the long term investment in people.
Unions are not the solution. Unions are just as much a distortion, trying to get businesses to pay above market rates, as the current issue of businesses trying to get employees in for below market rates.
Just stand back and laissez-faire. Let the productive employers find the productive employees.
Unions try to ensure there is no other supply available so they can get away with picket lines etc, while 'free movement' ensured there was an infinite supply available. What we need is simply what we have now a competitive market with a finite supply.
Being unionised is the single most effective way of achieving better pay and conditions. That is just a fact. Perhaps Brexit will make it easier for workers to organise, one lives in hope.
Not convinced.
If we have Unions, they must be depoliticised. I would perhaps follow some aspects of the German Model.
But [edit] you don't say whether it's OK for the bosses to make donations to political parties with other people's (shareholders') money? Including thinly disguised gifts such as booking space at party conferences.
The equivalent to depoliticising unions would be to permit company directors only to make personal gifts to political parties. Never out of company money.
Edit: oifg course, you may be opposed to that too.
Personally, I am quite attracted to the idea that donations to political parties should only be from individuals.
I have been concerned that a weakness of that has been that Tories were mainly much richer than Lab, but looking at the supporters of various parties - eg Luvvies, footballers, business people worth tens of millions each and the wealthy areas of the country being more leftish now - I wonder if that is still a relevant concern.
An alternative might be to overhaul TU democracy which seems not to work. I'm not sure just how I would frame that.
Hmm, that last was done by Mrs T. The real issue is the low proportion of those who do vote. But that's true of any election. One could hardly claim that HYUFD for instance should be deposed from his councillorship just because the Epping citizens did not turn out 100% [or so one assumes: obviously I can't check the actual figure].
The last time the idea of banning non-individual donations (and limiting individual donations) came up (semi-seriously), the Labour party was all for it. Provided Trade Unions were exempt.
A very, very Old Labour friend was in favour. He was much put out by my plan to start the National Union of Boilermakers and Hedge Fund Managers.
He thought that this wouldn't be a Real Union.
He tried "TUC affiliation" - I pointed out that I would be applying, plus there are a number of legit unions outside the TUC...
He did finally laugh at my suggestions for swag - a deluxe, stainless steel drum for picket line fires (decorated by a high end Calypso drum maker). A Versace badged version of a road mans jacket.....
There’s a couple of airline pilot unions, and an air traffic controllers’ union, none of which I believe affiliate with the TUC nor the Labour Party. Probably a few others too.
Do senior civil servants not have their own union, and senior ranks of the police?
The First Division Association is the senior c.s.'s union.
Yes, it's outdated isn't it. It should be called the Premier League Association by now.
Maybe the standards have dropped, so now they're more equivalent to 3rd tier?
I don't get the enduring appeal of James Bond films. Sorry.
I mean when I was a spotty teenager, thrilled by the gadgets and bikini girls, I loved them and recall that my first cinema experience without parents was to see The Spy Who Loved Me with my friend. But as an adult?
The franchise has a reputation for me of lame sets, dodgy acting and banal, implausible script. All-round a bit ... naff.
If you want to watch an action movie then JB films aren't in the same league as, say, the Bourne movies or the awesome and flawless Mad Max Thunder Road are they?
I hope that's not too controversial so as to make you choke on your cornflakes especially on James Bond Day.
JB films have been transformed by Bourne.
Once upon a time they were light hearted, self-parodic, and tremendous and unserious fun.
However, despite their copying Bourne, or trying to, they are now long, lumbering, taking themselves far too seriously with hugely convoluted plots.
Both the Bond films and Doctor Who have fallen victim to the same phenomenon of believing the hype of a few obsessives.
Edit: the obsessives in the case of Bond being the financiers, mainly.
They also seem to have become (weirdly to me) part of the UK national psyche: film premiere 2nd or 3rd on BBC news bulletins, lots of talking heading about meaning, much angst about whether it’s a ‘good one’, the London Olympics silliness.
Aside from something to watch at Christmas while building Tamiya’s latest panzer they never really did it for me. Apart from anything else they’ve become such exercises in self referential nostalgia; I believe the latest offering includes a DB5, a Vantage, a Land Rover III and Triumph’s own self referring tribute to its ‘iconic’ scrambler, helpfully plastered with a UJ in case you didn’t get the message.
Eventually Bond will be OHMSS equipped with a Webley revolver and a Sopwith Camel, which is essentially Richard Hannay. Actually, I might watch that…
Tamiya? Blimey, I remember seeing them in the model shops in days of yore. A bit exotic for me. I tended to stick to Airfix and the odd Revell and Matchbox and once, I think, a Frog.
Man, I was on all them drugs, eventually maxed out on the hard stuff of vac form and scratch building.
Not to mention the smell of Britfix polystyrene cement in the morning. Though Lepages Styrene was too much for me - the equivalent of Capstan Extra Strength.
Interesting, though, about JB. I can remember when the Airfix 1:24 Aston Martin DB5 with swivelling number plates, machine guns and calthrops was the go-for model of the month. And that was a very, very long time ago. The fact that the latest film is harking back to that particular model of [full size!] car is quite significant.
Even though it's a terrible kit I reckon I've built the Airfix 1/24 Sea Harrier over 40 times for retirement presentations. F/A-2s are particularly irksome as they need an additional resin conversion kit of variable quality.
I'm surprised that Big And Expensive didn't have piles of die-cast models to give away.
I'm sure they did but they never made it as far down the MoD food chain as the actual operators.
For some reason that makes me think of the stories of American workers hiding booze in the tanks that were being sent to Russia during WWII.
At first they just put stuff in the tanks. But it got pilfered. So they got ingenious.
Apparently quite a few turned up with the gun barrels full of bottles...
I'd thought Abu Dhabi would veto that. And Bahrain wouldn't want it either.
Not news - Christian Horner leaked it at the weekend. TBH we do not need yet another middle east race that nobody attends. I know that the calendar has been in flux due to Covid, but they really need to stop and think what they are trying to achieve.
"Just give the people with the biggest chequebooks the races" is where F1 in the Bernie era failed so miserably.
And there goes all of yesterday's good headlines down the tubes in 5...4...3...2...1...
Uless she has a certain kind of lady friend. Which is apparently very popular in movies, or so I am led to believe.
Bond as a woman has already been done - Atomic Blonde
She gets drunk on vodka, get battered into pulp while *just* winning fights, "investigates" by antagonising the opponents until they try and kill her. Is a fashionista. And chases the ladies....
I have just had my Asda order delivered and again complete as ordered
I asked the driver how he was managing with the fuel and he said it 'was over' and this morning there was one car at Asda filling station when he came away just now
I was surprised but the he does work for Asda and has to fuel daily, so he is in the know
Waitrose was fully stocked at 8.45am this morning, all shelves filled with fresh fruit & vegetables and fresh meat and fish on top too.
That said, HMG really need to get on top of this with a logistics and labour strategy for transportation, agriculture and hospitality that works across industry to address low-pay and ameliorate poor working conditions in the aftermath of Brexit and Covid. They need to start training up and recruiting people in - because it's going at least 6-12 month process to get results. I suspect where we'll end up is a mix of a changed and improved domestic market, some price rises, and some seasonal/temporary visas on top for extra labour, but nothing like the levels we had under free movement.
It really does need fixing because it will rapidly discredit the Government if left to its own devices.
Why do you think that?
Realistically we're at the worst of the disruption now as people spring back post-Covid and companies haven't yet filled vacancies. Yet shelves are still fully stocked and people are already moving on.
As time goes by things will realistically get better as companies engage in training and recruitment. That's already began.
I would rather trust every business and every employee to sort themselves out, leading to the invisible hand fixing this, than I would trust Boris, Gove, Sir Humphrey or anyone else to micromanage this from Whitehall.
EDIT: If the government needs to be fixing anything, its likely gas. Though any actions there may be too little, to late.
What the Government needs to fix is those WFH working for Local Authorities as Local Authorities are grinding to a halt due to those WFH not working.
Haha! Another evidence-free post wrapping up a couple of your prejudices.
Evidence free??? I deal everyday with 6 LAs, they used to pay my firm dead on time, it now takes them 6+ months, no reason given, I am now having to involve Councillors on their Finance Committees.
Its not just the Finance Department, it is endemic throughout. It is impossible to speak to anyone, emails are unanswered, projects are not being completed.
And your evidence that that is caused by people WFH is... ?
You just make a cheap assumption that, as I say, fits your prejudices, and go with it.
I have two close relatives who work for councils and, yes, like many in private industry, they have worked from home for long stretches through the pandemic. They are still working flat out, under-staffed, under-funded, tied up in endless reorganisation brought about by councillors and/or government. Both looking for alternative employment for the sake of their health.
I have just had my Asda order delivered and again complete as ordered
I asked the driver how he was managing with the fuel and he said it 'was over' and this morning there was one car at Asda filling station when he came away just now
I was surprised but the he does work for Asda and has to fuel daily, so he is in the know
Waitrose was fully stocked at 8.45am this morning, all shelves filled with fresh fruit & vegetables and fresh meat and fish on top too.
That said, HMG really need to get on top of this with a logistics and labour strategy for transportation, agriculture and hospitality that works across industry to address low-pay and ameliorate poor working conditions in the aftermath of Brexit and Covid. They need to start training up and recruiting people in - because it's going at least 6-12 month process to get results. I suspect where we'll end up is a mix of a changed and improved domestic market, some price rises, and some seasonal/temporary visas on top for extra labour, but nothing like the levels we had under free movement.
It really does need fixing because it will rapidly discredit the Government if left to its own devices.
Why do you think that?
Realistically we're at the worst of the disruption now as people spring back post-Covid and companies haven't yet filled vacancies. Yet shelves are still fully stocked and people are already moving on.
As time goes by things will realistically get better as companies engage in training and recruitment. That's already began.
I would rather trust every business and every employee to sort themselves out, leading to the invisible hand fixing this, than I would trust Boris, Gove, Sir Humphrey or anyone else to micromanage this from Whitehall.
EDIT: If the government needs to be fixing anything, its likely gas. Though any actions there may be too little, to late.
What the Government needs to fix is those WFH working for Local Authorities as Local Authorities are grinding to a halt due to those WFH not working.
Haha! Another evidence-free post wrapping up a couple of your prejudices.
Evidence free??? I deal everyday with 6 LAs, they used to pay my firm dead on time, it now takes them 6+ months, no reason given, I am now having to involve Councillors on their Finance Committees.
Its not just the Finance Department, it is endemic throughout. It is impossible to speak to anyone, emails are unanswered, projects are not being completed.
And your evidence that that is caused by people WFH is... ?
You just make a cheap assumption that, as I say, fits your prejudices, and go with it.
I have two close relatives who work for councils and, yes, like many in private industry, they have worked from home for long stretches through the pandemic. They are still working flat out, under-staffed, under-funded, tied up in endless reorganisation brought about by councillors and/or government. Both looking for alternative employment for the sake of their health.
I suspect it is a result of so many councils being flat broke more than having staff working from home. Remember that on top of years of crippling funding cuts to local government direct funding, hey have had a huge cost loading from Covid.
I've said before that I tend to really respect jobs that need doing, but I wouldn't want to do myself. At uni I had a friend who had worked in one, and his stories were...interesting. I've also been in one on a few occasions (*), and even though clean and bright, there's something heavy about them, spirit-wise.
Hence, even if it is semi-skilled, abattoir workers should be being paid much more than they are. It's an awful, soul-destroying job.
(*) Abattoirs have sumps where... well, you can guess what ends up in them. Every so often these need cleaning out, so we hired a pump to do it. A pump and pipework that was kept for that express purpose, and was kept on a part of the depot well away from anything else as, even after cleaning, it stank. (AFAICR the sump had its own pump, that would often break down and so they had to hire one in to drain the sump, so some poor sod could go down and fix it.)
Most of this problem ultimately comes back to the supermarket sector. If they didn’t demand meat at extremely low prices, and sometimes even at a loss, there wouldn’t be such an issue.
But then that begs another question, of course - are people willing to pay the cost of production?
This is just the nature of capitalism - competition driving down prices and squeezing costs at every stage of production. It's well covered in books like the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. It's the great strength but also the great weakness of capitalism as an economic system, when those costs getting squeezed are human beings. It's why I vote Labour, for enlightened policies to temper capitalism with interventions to protect people from the remorseless logic of the system - but still capturing the positive elements of that system as much as possible.
Yet now it’s the Conservatives arguing for higher wages and employers to provide training, while Labour want to throw hundreds of thousands of cheap immigrants at the problem, to prop up the supermarkets’ profits.
Spot on. Labour has forgotten their original purpose - swamped by internationalism
It's principally driven by the desperation to show that freedom of movement in the SM was a good thing that we shouldn't have given up, regardless of the consequences for their natural supporters.
Their vision is a cheap labour, low productivity future where skilled, middle class professionals get a lot of services on the cheap, a good standard of living and the flexibility to move if they so want and the opportunity to sell their services into a bigger market so they can justify a higher price. I mean, from the viewpoint of a professional in London doing financial services etc where they UK is more than competitive you can see why this seems a no brainer but from the viewpoint of a former Labour supporter in the red wall its mainly downside. The absolute refusal to see that suggests to me that winning those supporters back is going to be problematic.
There was not a hint of contrition from Starmer or the wider Labour Party towards those who felt that Labour had screwed them over, and out of frustration turned first to Brexit and then the Tories.
Labour have been out of power for over a decade. Time soon for the Tories to start thinking about contrition, perhaps ?
I may be wrong, but I'd treat this with a pinch of salt. I don't imagine Starmer gives a flying f**k who the next James Bond is, let alone 'calling' for him to be female. But if asked if it could be a woman, he probably didn't say no.
I have just had my Asda order delivered and again complete as ordered
I asked the driver how he was managing with the fuel and he said it 'was over' and this morning there was one car at Asda filling station when he came away just now
I was surprised but the he does work for Asda and has to fuel daily, so he is in the know
Waitrose was fully stocked at 8.45am this morning, all shelves filled with fresh fruit & vegetables and fresh meat and fish on top too.
That said, HMG really need to get on top of this with a logistics and labour strategy for transportation, agriculture and hospitality that works across industry to address low-pay and ameliorate poor working conditions in the aftermath of Brexit and Covid. They need to start training up and recruiting people in - because it's going at least 6-12 month process to get results. I suspect where we'll end up is a mix of a changed and improved domestic market, some price rises, and some seasonal/temporary visas on top for extra labour, but nothing like the levels we had under free movement.
It really does need fixing because it will rapidly discredit the Government if left to its own devices.
Why do you think that?
Realistically we're at the worst of the disruption now as people spring back post-Covid and companies haven't yet filled vacancies. Yet shelves are still fully stocked and people are already moving on.
As time goes by things will realistically get better as companies engage in training and recruitment. That's already began.
I would rather trust every business and every employee to sort themselves out, leading to the invisible hand fixing this, than I would trust Boris, Gove, Sir Humphrey or anyone else to micromanage this from Whitehall.
EDIT: If the government needs to be fixing anything, its likely gas. Though any actions there may be too little, to late.
What the Government needs to fix is those WFH working for Local Authorities as Local Authorities are grinding to a halt due to those WFH not working.
Haha! Another evidence-free post wrapping up a couple of your prejudices.
Evidence free??? I deal everyday with 6 LAs, they used to pay my firm dead on time, it now takes them 6+ months, no reason given, I am now having to involve Councillors on their Finance Committees.
Its not just the Finance Department, it is endemic throughout. It is impossible to speak to anyone, emails are unanswered, projects are not being completed.
Have to say. I don't deal with them on a daily basis, fortunately. But my experience concurs with this. Uaed to be they had offices you could walk up to and hang about till someone did something. However. LA's have been close to breaking point for years. It’s such a cushy number everyone is desperate to quit. See also teaching.
I hope those flats are well insulated or that GSHP is not going to be running very efficiently…
To be fair the capital cost of drilling boreholes is much more attractive when split across many flats rather than one detached dwelling.
Yes - in general areas with lots of homes in proximity are best served by district heating (i.e. a central source with pipes to al lthe homes), with the added benefit that you don't need to clutter up your home with a boiler and worry about maintenance. I'd never known anything else when I grew up in blocks of flats in Denmark and Switzerland. The case is less clear when you have lots of detached houses.
A friend of ours is Romanian, and they used to have such a system in their tower block. Then communism fell, and people could start buying their flats. Apparently the first thing people would do is turn off the old system and put in a new, localised one. The reason: the pipes were always on, meaning that in summer the building would get insufferably hot, particularly on the lower floors, and heat often did not reach the upper floors at times of high demand. There was also very little control of the heating, except at a building level.
That's obviously one system, but it shows how they can be utter failures if not designed and implemented correctly.
Funnily enough, there's a large development near where I live with a similar system. A friend who lives there was complaining about it last week. The residents in the flats have no control over their heating - a completely bizarre state of affairs. And of course the block management set it on the assumption that everyone is a 90-year-old granny who will die if their flats aren't as warm as Hawaii in December. So the flats rent at a discount to everywhere else around there.
One-size-fits-all socialism in action.
Is that in the UK?
Yes.
I am told that the whole of St Petersburg is on the one CH system.
Most of Manhattan south of IIRC 96th street is on ConEd’s steam system. New buildings no, e.g. neither the old nor new WTC but that is perhaps as much a function of the area being at least partially reclaimed land since after the original steam pipe grid was installed.
Residential apartments on the steam grid will have at least radiator level controls. Any domestic radiators installed at the time of the 1918 pandemic and for many years after are deliberately designed to pump out heat sufficient to keep the windows open, as it was realized that ventilation was key to stopping the virus from spreading (something we’re re-learning).
Even in our gas-heated 1940 house in the NYC suburbs, unless we keep the ‘stat right on the cusp, our big rads just pump out heat.
I may be wrong, but I'd treat this with a pinch of salt. I don't imagine Starmer gives a flying f**k who the next James Bond is, let alone 'calling' for him to be female. But if asked if it could be a woman, he probably didn't say no.
Yeah, sort of nonsense politicians have to put up with. I'd say "well, the owners of the franchise are free to do as they wish. Whether it would be a good move commercially, I'm not so sure."
Re a retro James Bond. Sounds like a great idea - surely a golden opportunity for a parallel spin-off series set in the Mad Men era?
The retro Bond's food choices would be good for a bit of fun: the early books are littered with references to foreign exotica as hamburgers, spaghetti bolognese, avocados...
I may be wrong, but I'd treat this with a pinch of salt. I don't imagine Starmer gives a flying f**k who the next James Bond is, let alone 'calling' for him to be female. But if asked if it could be a woman, he probably didn't say no.
Seems like easy money for the franchise to create a new series of 003 or whatever number female agent, Jessica/Jane Bond, perhaps with James Bond cameo-ing in them.
And there goes all of yesterday's good headlines down the tubes in 5...4...3...2...1...
Uless she has a certain kind of lady friend. Which is apparently very popular in movies, or so I am led to believe.
Bond as a woman has already been done - Atomic Blonde
She gets drunk on vodka, get battered into pulp while *just* winning fights, "investigates" by antagonising the opponents until they try and kill her. Is a fashionista. And chases the ladies....
Surely Jack Reacher must be the most battered-to-pulp-while-just-winning-fights (then-fine-an-hour-later) hero out there at the moment?
I may be wrong, but I'd treat this with a pinch of salt. I don't imagine Starmer gives a flying f**k who the next James Bond is, let alone 'calling' for him to be female. But if asked if it could be a woman, he probably didn't say no.
According to Mail (I know...) "appearing on Good Morning Britain today, the Opposition Leader joined them, saying: 'I don't have a favourite Bond, but I do think it's time for a female Bond.'"
Not sure that was a smart move, if correctly reported. Lacks context, but it looks like a volunteered view.
Edit: My own opinion is that you can have a Bond franchise film with a female lead - all the other same characters, James can appear in a cameo, maybe. But you have a different name and - why not? - a different back story. Could be ethnic minority, different roots etc, mouthy, working class, prefers a four pack of stella to a martini...
I don't get the enduring appeal of James Bond films. Sorry.
I mean when I was a spotty teenager, thrilled by the gadgets and bikini girls, I loved them and recall that my first cinema experience without parents was to see The Spy Who Loved Me with my friend. But as an adult?
The franchise has a reputation for me of lame sets, dodgy acting and banal, implausible script. All-round a bit ... naff.
If you want to watch an action movie then JB films aren't in the same league as, say, the Bourne movies or the awesome and flawless Mad Max Thunder Road are they?
I hope that's not too controversial so as to make you choke on your cornflakes especially on James Bond Day.
JB films have been transformed by Bourne.
Once upon a time they were light hearted, self-parodic, and tremendous and unserious fun.
However, despite their copying Bourne, or trying to, they are long, lumbering, taking themselves far too seriously with hugely convoluted plots.
Both the Bond films and Doctor Who have fallen victim to the same phenomenon of believing the hype of a few obsessives.
The Bourne films moved that kind of film into a different league in the same way that the Matrix did with sci-fi. I think Daniel Craig worked hard to keep up with that but there is an incredible amount of baggage with Bond that the fanatics need to see which makes the films long and cumbersome. I will go and see the new Bond but I can't claim that I have been desperate to do so over the last year.
Like Dr Who, a couple of decades of rest would not go amiss.
I’ve not yet seen the latest Bond. But it’s an interesting quandary about how to reinvent it post Craig. The Big Bad in today’s world is of course China. But it’s also one of the biggest movie markets. So instead of plotting relevant to today’s threats, we get stuck in a cycle of quiet psycho terrorist type villains.
I’d go back to the beginning and do it as a lavish period action saga. Mad Men styling. Classic cars. Take away the silliness, comic book villains and plodding plotting of the originals. Draw a proper multi film plot arc rather than the retconning of Spectre and make-it-up-as-we-film of Quantum of Solace. A rounded character following a coherent arc, with a personality that can breath around the action sequences rather than be suffocated by them.
Much of the best bits of the Craig era followed this template but they should go full throttle with it.
During lockdown I have watched most if not all the Bond films. Outside the Craig era, the only one I wouldn't ignite all copies of would be Goldfinger. (I wouldn't spare Quantum of Solace either.) But the rest of the Craig era stand up as a superb series of films.
I think you are being a little unfair on From Russia With Love, Spy Who Loved Me, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Goldeneye. And the Living Daylights, Bond training Bin Laden is classic with hindsight.
The Living Daylights is my favourite Bond film, and Timothy Dalton my favourite actor.
He plays Flemings' Bond in the books and is much more like Bond would be in real life, an understated and professional spy but intelligent, driven and ruthless.
But the character is a man. They’d have to write a medical transition into the storyline.
Bond should be a female, vegan, Guardian-reader who works for a Global Government and pulls up villains on the use of their pronouns. She tackles their lairs by publicly shaming them with their microaggressions and lack of diversity in their henchpeople.
Afterwards, the protagonists agree to "check their secret organisation privilege" and willingly go on unconscious bias training. Jane Bond gives a lift back home to any asylum seekers who want it, and the Q-gadgets are donated to inner-city London schoolkids.
It seems a very worthy idea but I am astounded at the money apparently being made from it. Are we in a bubble?
It’s not actual folding stuff. It’s just the implied value based on the price someone was willing to invest money at
And the more actual folding money that gets invested, the smaller the stake Mr Blair retains in the company.
But he’s still done well - pre money around £550m implying his stake £150-200m
Yes, but how much actual cash at that valuation? Could just as easily easily be a friend of his ‘investing’ £550k for 0.1%, so he can hype the valuation to drive down the rate of his own divestment.
The article says they raised £95m for a £650m valuation, so they sold a meaningful chunk of the company. 400 staff, but only "more than 5000 placements".
I can't make sense of the numbers.
That’s because they don’t make sense!
400 staff are going to be costing let’s say £40m a year, so they have two years of cash to ‘ramp up’ the actual work and start seeing revenues exceeding expenses. Maybe they’re simply hoping to get close and hope that a bigger player buys them out, maybe Microsoft/LinkedIn.
The valuation is based on the potential future of the business, rather than what they do today, but yes, it does look an awful lot like 1999 all over again.
Modern finance (though I'm pretty sure Robert Maxwell anticipated all this)...
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/biz/2021/09/175_316199.html Bithumb Korea, one of the major cryptocurrency exchanges headquartered in Korea, has made a more than 100-percent profit from its investment into local media firm Bucket STUDIO, which is related to Netflix's latest global hit drama, "Squid Game."
The blockchain tech firm invested about 15 billion won ($12.6 million) into Bucket STUDIO's mezzanine financing in May and the investment helped it get about a 12.5-percent stake of the media company's shares. With the investment, the crypto exchange operator has become the second largest major shareholder in the media firm. ...
...The two firms' close relationship is due to the complicated share structure that links the two firms. Vidente, the largest shareholder of both Bithumb Korea and Bithumb Holdings, is also a subsidiary of blockchain firm INBIOGEN, which is a subsidiary of Bucket STUDIO.
I may be wrong, but I'd treat this with a pinch of salt. I don't imagine Starmer gives a flying f**k who the next James Bond is, let alone 'calling' for him to be female. But if asked if it could be a woman, he probably didn't say no.
Seems like easy money for the franchise to create a new series of 003 or whatever number female agent, Jessica/Jane Bond, perhaps with James Bond cameo-ing in them.
Yeah, that's my view. I've got zero problems with a black (or even British Asian) male James Bond, but a female one just doesn't fit in with the whole JB backstory.
If you want to create a female James Bond-style character, there's lots more opportunities if you step outside the restrictive JB canon. A combination of the characters of Amy Thorpe, Violette Szabo, Lona Cohen and others.
I may be wrong, but I'd treat this with a pinch of salt. I don't imagine Starmer gives a flying f**k who the next James Bond is, let alone 'calling' for him to be female. But if asked if it could be a woman, he probably didn't say no.
According to Mail (I know...) "appearing on Good Morning Britain today, the Opposition Leader joined them, saying: 'I don't have a favourite Bond, but I do think it's time for a female Bond.'"
Not sure that was a smart move, if correctly reported. Lacks context, but it looks like a volunteered view.
I may be wrong, but I'd treat this with a pinch of salt. I don't imagine Starmer gives a flying f**k who the next James Bond is, let alone 'calling' for him to be female. But if asked if it could be a woman, he probably didn't say no.
Yeah, sort of nonsense politicians have to put up with. I'd say "well, the owners of the franchise are free to do as they wish. Whether it would be a good move commercially, I'm not so sure."
Fwiw, and his opinion on this doesn't bother me too much, he suggested it unprompted, with enthusiasm, but also in a fairly light manner (not sure what fun had preceded this question):
I may be wrong, but I'd treat this with a pinch of salt. I don't imagine Starmer gives a flying f**k who the next James Bond is, let alone 'calling' for him to be female. But if asked if it could be a woman, he probably didn't say no.
According to Mail (I know...) "appearing on Good Morning Britain today, the Opposition Leader joined them, saying: 'I don't have a favourite Bond, but I do think it's time for a female Bond.'"
Not sure that was a smart move, if correctly reported. Lacks context, but it looks like a volunteered view.
Edit: My own opinion is that you can have a Bond franchise film with a female lead - all the other same characters, James can appear in a cameo, maybe. But you have a different name and - why not? - a different back story. Could be ethnic minority, different roots etc, mouthy, working class, prefers a four pack of stella to a martini...
'I don't have a favourite Bond, but I do think it's time for a female Bond.'
Surely the tying in of Bond with British patriotism goes back to at least the Union Jack parachute in the opening sequence of The Spy Who Loved Me? I remember going to see it as a nipper and the cinema cheered to the rafters.
As an aside, I recently saw a claim that the KGB believed that much of the Bond gadgetry of the 60s/70s was essentially “real” and based on actual kit available to Western intelligence agencies, and that they spent many rubles trying to make their own in vain. Probably BS but an interesting story.
Personally, I am quite attracted to the idea that donations to political parties should only be from individuals.
I have been concerned that a weakness of that has been that Tories were mainly much richer than Lab, but looking at the supporters of various parties - eg Luvvies, footballers, business people worth tens of millions each and the wealthy areas of the country being more leftish now - I wonder if that is still a relevant concern.
An alternative might be to overhaul TU democracy which seems not to work. I'm not sure just how I would frame that.
The whole thread has been interesting on this. On that point, I agree that the polling is clear that income is no longer a significant driver of political preference. Wealth is another matter, though - there are plenty of well-paid left-wingers, far fewer (I think) who have inherited large sums and who can without hesitation donate £100,000 to their preferred party (perhaps in unspoken exchange for some profitable access).
My preferred solution would be:
* Limit contributions to individuals * Limit contribution PER individual to £1000 * Set strict spending limits that prevent fudges (e.g. "national" leaflets distributed only in target seats) * Provide every household with a booklet at election time with two pages for each party to set out its case
The last is what the Swiss do for referenda, and it works pretty well. You obviously need a threshold for inclusion - perhaps having a candidate in 75% of the seats in your area? - but it greatly reduces the need for massive spending. It also gives smaller parties a crack of the whip - the big parties will get their pages in first, but the LibDems, Green, Reform etc. could put their case too. In order to persuade the big parties, perhaps parties that got >20% last time should get two pages, the others only one.
But the character is a man. They’d have to write a medical transition into the storyline.
Bond should be a female, vegan, Guardian-reader who works for a Global Government and pulls up villains on the use of their pronouns. She tackles their lairs by publicly shaming them with their microaggressions and lack of diversity in their henchpeople.
Afterwards, the protagonists agree to "check their secret organisation privilege" and willingly go on unconscious bias training. Jane Bond gives a lift back home to any asylum seekers who want it, and the Q-gadgets are donated to inner-city London schoolkids.
Very good. But a serious omission: you haven't used the word "woke".
Re a retro James Bond. Sounds like a great idea - surely a golden opportunity for a parallel spin-off series set in the Mad Men era?
The retro Bond's food choices would be good for a bit of fun: the early books are littered with references to foreign exotica as hamburgers, spaghetti bolognese, avocados...
We need to wait for the weekend polls to see if Labour has got any post conference bounce
Indeed and I would suggest we need to wait until the end of October/ early November to determine the overall effects of the conference speeches and of course the budget on the 27th October
I note HMG has announced a £500 million hardship fund to be available through local authorities no doubt to ameliorate the effects of the lost UC uplift and towards the increases in gas supply
It has been announced the UK economy has grown by 5.5% between April and June, higher than the previous estimate of 4.8%
And I did chuckle when Starmer said just now to Burley that his speech was so long because of the number of interruptions from the applause
Last para made me laugh.
£500m isnt going to go very far if it's being shared between say 5m poorer households. Would have been better to delay the UC cut til spring. But that would cost more. Not sure how much.
You are missing the point of the manoeuvre - which is a device adopted by Conservative governments over several decades.
The funds are to be administered by local authorities, so the responsibility/blame for underfunding is to some extent shifted to them.
You might not like it, you might think it's totally irrelevant but Starmer's Bond comment has picked up more traction than any of his speech in my office and not in a good way. Both my colleagues would seriously consider Burnham.
Why not just create an original story about a woman who's a gifted intelligence officer? There have been plenty of them in real life.
Because that's not how Woke works.
It's rather like casting black actors as Henry V or Ann Boleyn. It would be far more interesting, IMHO, to actually have a series set in the Empire of Mali, or medieval Abyssinia; they've got everything, ruthless kings, scheming beautiful noblewomen, treacherous lords, chivalrous knights etc.
But the character is a man. They’d have to write a medical transition into the storyline.
I never paid much attention but I know they kept had a bunch of different actors playing the same character, how did they write the fact that he kept showing up as a totally different person into the storyline?
You might not like it, you might think it's totally irrelevant but Starmer's Bond comment has picked up more traction than any of his speech in my office and not in a good way. Both my colleagues would seriously consider Burnham.
Lucky your colleagues aren't in charge, Burnham would make a terrible James Bond.
Surely the tying in of Bond with British patriotism goes back to at least the Union Jack parachute in the opening sequence of The Spy Who Loved Me? I remember going to see it as a nipper and the cinema cheered to the rafters.
As an aside, I recently saw a claim that the KGB believed that much of the Bond gadgetry of the 60s/70s was essentially “real” and based on actual kit available to Western intelligence agencies, and that they spent many rubles trying to make their own in vain. Probably BS but an interesting story.
I doubt it, simply because the KGB, and its East German equivalent, was far and away the best-informed intelligence service in the world.
That said, the kind of gadgetry that intelligence services have used in real life is just as fascinating as in fiction.
I may be wrong, but I'd treat this with a pinch of salt. I don't imagine Starmer gives a flying f**k who the next James Bond is, let alone 'calling' for him to be female. But if asked if it could be a woman, he probably didn't say no.
According to Mail (I know...) "appearing on Good Morning Britain today, the Opposition Leader joined them, saying: 'I don't have a favourite Bond, but I do think it's time for a female Bond.'"
Not sure that was a smart move, if correctly reported. Lacks context, but it looks like a volunteered view.
Edit: My own opinion is that you can have a Bond franchise film with a female lead - all the other same characters, James can appear in a cameo, maybe. But you have a different name and - why not? - a different back story. Could be ethnic minority, different roots etc, mouthy, working class, prefers a four pack of stella to a martini...
Angela Rayner sounds a perfect fit (apart from the ethnic minority bit).
But the character is a man. They’d have to write a medical transition into the storyline.
I never paid much attention but I know they kept had a bunch of different actors playing the same character, how did they write the fact that he kept showing up as a totally different person into the storyline?
And the fact his career spanned seventy years. Did they make him immortal at some point?
Why not just create an original story about a woman who's a gifted intelligence officer? There have been plenty of them in real life.
Who is this aimed at?
Starmer? He has other things to do The franchise? They are sticking to the male character The industry? Homeland, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Killing Eve
I have just had my Asda order delivered and again complete as ordered
I asked the driver how he was managing with the fuel and he said it 'was over' and this morning there was one car at Asda filling station when he came away just now
I was surprised but the he does work for Asda and has to fuel daily, so he is in the know
Waitrose was fully stocked at 8.45am this morning, all shelves filled with fresh fruit & vegetables and fresh meat and fish on top too.
That said, HMG really need to get on top of this with a logistics and labour strategy for transportation, agriculture and hospitality that works across industry to address low-pay and ameliorate poor working conditions in the aftermath of Brexit and Covid. They need to start training up and recruiting people in - because it's going at least 6-12 month process to get results. I suspect where we'll end up is a mix of a changed and improved domestic market, some price rises, and some seasonal/temporary visas on top for extra labour, but nothing like the levels we had under free movement.
It really does need fixing because it will rapidly discredit the Government if left to its own devices.
Why do you think that?
Realistically we're at the worst of the disruption now as people spring back post-Covid and companies haven't yet filled vacancies. Yet shelves are still fully stocked and people are already moving on.
As time goes by things will realistically get better as companies engage in training and recruitment. That's already began.
I would rather trust every business and every employee to sort themselves out, leading to the invisible hand fixing this, than I would trust Boris, Gove, Sir Humphrey or anyone else to micromanage this from Whitehall.
EDIT: If the government needs to be fixing anything, its likely gas. Though any actions there may be too little, to late.
What the Government needs to fix is those WFH working for Local Authorities as Local Authorities are grinding to a halt due to those WFH not working.
Haha! Another evidence-free post wrapping up a couple of your prejudices.
Evidence free??? I deal everyday with 6 LAs, they used to pay my firm dead on time, it now takes them 6+ months, no reason given, I am now having to involve Councillors on their Finance Committees.
Its not just the Finance Department, it is endemic throughout. It is impossible to speak to anyone, emails are unanswered, projects are not being completed.
And your evidence that that is caused by people WFH is... ?
You just make a cheap assumption that, as I say, fits your prejudices, and go with it.
I have two close relatives who work for councils and, yes, like many in private industry, they have worked from home for long stretches through the pandemic. They are still working flat out, under-staffed, under-funded, tied up in endless reorganisation brought about by councillors and/or government. Both looking for alternative employment for the sake of their health.
I could give dozens of examples. LAs were our best customers 2 years ago, properly designed projects, engineers that were easy to get hold of, invoices paid promptly. None of that happens now. They have become our worst customers and we are stopping working for them.
6 weeks ago I emailed the CE of a LA asking for her help in getting an invoice paid. She did reply promply and said she would look into the issue. a day later she emailed to say that it was embarrassing that the invoice had not been paid and she would sort it. 6 weeks later we have still not been paid.
As an anecdote an Electrical Enginner at a LA is an old school friend. He is on full pay but is working less than a day a week, he barely goes into the office and has no idea when he will be required to start working properly again.
But the character is a man. They’d have to write a medical transition into the storyline.
I never paid much attention but I know they kept had a bunch of different actors playing the same character, how did they write the fact that he kept showing up as a totally different person into the storyline?
They ignored it, and don’t forget that Craig’s Bond is supposed to be a “reboot” from the original continuity with him starting from scratch in Casino Royale. Judi Dench as “M” is supposed to be coincidental to the old continuity.
And achieving s female Bond within the continuity is simple: Bond must have more kids running around than Boris.
Why not just create an original story about a woman who's a gifted intelligence officer? There have been plenty of them in real life.
Who is this aimed at?
Starmer? He has other things to do The franchise? They are sticking to the male character The industry? Homeland, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Killing Eve
Homeland was a great series. My objection to Killing Eve was portraying assassins as glamorous people living the high life, whereas people who are really successful in that line of work keep a very low profile.
We need to wait for the weekend polls to see if Labour has got any post conference bounce
Indeed and I would suggest we need to wait until the end of October/ early November to determine the overall effects of the conference speeches and of course the budget on the 27th October
I note HMG has announced a £500 million hardship fund to be available through local authorities no doubt to ameliorate the effects of the lost UC uplift and towards the increases in gas supply
It has been announced the UK economy has grown by 5.5% between April and June, higher than the previous estimate of 4.8%
And I did chuckle when Starmer said just now to Burley that his speech was so long because of the number of interruptions from the applause
Last para made me laugh.
£500m isnt going to go very far if it's being shared between say 5m poorer households. Would have been better to delay the UC cut til spring. But that would cost more. Not sure how much.
You are missing the point of the manoeuvre - which is a device adopted by Conservative governments over several decades.
The funds are to be administered by local authorities, so the responsibility/blame for underfunding is to some extent shifted to them.
Ditto the costs. Teams set up in every LA, to devise their own systems of application, decision and distribution. Bonfire of red tape, my arse. Nowt the Tories like more than Byzantine bureaucracy.
Why not just create an original story about a woman who's a gifted intelligence officer? There have been plenty of them in real life.
Who is this aimed at?
Starmer? He has other things to do The franchise? They are sticking to the male character The industry? Homeland, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Killing Eve
Homeland was a great series. My objection to Killing Eve was portraying assassins as glamorous people living the high life, whereas people who are really successful in that line of work keep a very low profile.
I didnt particularly like Killing Eve either, it was ok but a bit cringey. However, it was popular and successful and shows they are creating original stories with female spies.
I don't get the enduring appeal of James Bond films. Sorry.
I mean when I was a spotty teenager, thrilled by the gadgets and bikini girls, I loved them and recall that my first cinema experience without parents was to see The Spy Who Loved Me with my friend. But as an adult?
The franchise has a reputation for me of lame sets, dodgy acting and banal, implausible script. All-round a bit ... naff.
If you want to watch an action movie then JB films aren't in the same league as, say, the Bourne movies or the awesome and flawless Mad Max Thunder Road are they?
I hope that's not too controversial so as to make you choke on your cornflakes especially on James Bond Day.
JB films have been transformed by Bourne.
Once upon a time they were light hearted, self-parodic, and tremendous and unserious fun.
However, despite their copying Bourne, or trying to, they are long, lumbering, taking themselves far too seriously with hugely convoluted plots.
Both the Bond films and Doctor Who have fallen victim to the same phenomenon of believing the hype of a few obsessives.
The Bourne films moved that kind of film into a different league in the same way that the Matrix did with sci-fi. I think Daniel Craig worked hard to keep up with that but there is an incredible amount of baggage with Bond that the fanatics need to see which makes the films long and cumbersome. I will go and see the new Bond but I can't claim that I have been desperate to do so over the last year.
Like Dr Who, a couple of decades of rest would not go amiss.
I’ve not yet seen the latest Bond. But it’s an interesting quandary about how to reinvent it post Craig. The Big Bad in today’s world is of course China. But it’s also one of the biggest movie markets. So instead of plotting relevant to today’s threats, we get stuck in a cycle of quiet psycho terrorist type villains.
I’d go back to the beginning and do it as a lavish period action saga. Mad Men styling. Classic cars. Take away the silliness, comic book villains and plodding plotting of the originals. Draw a proper multi film plot arc rather than the retconning of Spectre and make-it-up-as-we-film of Quantum of Solace. A rounded character following a coherent arc, with a personality that can breath around the action sequences rather than be suffocated by them.
Much of the best bits of the Craig era followed this template but they should go full throttle with it.
During lockdown I have watched most if not all the Bond films. Outside the Craig era, the only one I wouldn't ignite all copies of would be Goldfinger. (I wouldn't spare Quantum of Solace either.) But the rest of the Craig era stand up as a superb series of films.
I think you are being a little unfair on From Russia With Love, Spy Who Loved Me, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Goldeneye. And the Living Daylights, Bond training Bin Laden is classic with hindsight.
The Living Daylights is my favourite Bond film, and Timothy Dalton my favourite actor.
He plays Flemings' Bond in the books and is much more like Bond would be in real life, an understated and professional spy but intelligent, driven and ruthless.
Yes, that’s an absolutely excellent picture. I’ll forgive the massive failure of geography (the Austria/Warsaw Pact border is flat, not mountainous). And Dalton was massively underrated. It is a shame he only made two films.
I have my ticket for No Time To Die on Saturday and am looking forward to it. But the run time is going to be hard on the bladder, especially as I’m going to a posh cinema with a proper bar.
Why don’t we reintroduce intervals for films close to three hours in length?
I may be wrong, but I'd treat this with a pinch of salt. I don't imagine Starmer gives a flying f**k who the next James Bond is, let alone 'calling' for him to be female. But if asked if it could be a woman, he probably didn't say no.
According to Mail (I know...) "appearing on Good Morning Britain today, the Opposition Leader joined them, saying: 'I don't have a favourite Bond, but I do think it's time for a female Bond.'"
Not sure that was a smart move, if correctly reported. Lacks context, but it looks like a volunteered view.
Edit: My own opinion is that you can have a Bond franchise film with a female lead - all the other same characters, James can appear in a cameo, maybe. But you have a different name and - why not? - a different back story. Could be ethnic minority, different roots etc, mouthy, working class, prefers a four pack of stella to a martini...
'I don't have a favourite Bond, but I do think it's time for a female Bond.'
In my experience if people or organisations make repeated promises to pay - and fail to do so promptly - then there's usual 'darker' problems than simply somebody is 'not working' and its time to question their creditworthiness.
1. Couzens getting a whole life sentence with a minimum of 40 years to be served before he is even considered for release. 2. Cressida Dick to resign. Or, ideally, be sacked.
Key line - "This enduring service failure has given cause for concern about public safety in Greater Manchester."
Also see what the Chief Inspector at HMIC told Woman's Hour - that the Everard case is not a "one off" and that forces don't have effective means to prevent abuses of position and that officers are not being properly vetted.
If true - and what the hell is HMIC doing about it, other than wringing their hands - this is an absolute scandal.
“Romford Business Improvement District (BID) director Julie Frost felt the shopping mall plans represent a "significant vote of confidence" in the town.
She said: "There exists the potential for this new enterprise to help to drive additional footfall into the BID area.
"However, there remains a very real risk that the highly specialised nature of the offering could find only a limited uptake in an area in which the principal cultural market is extremely limited.
"We shall have to wait and see."
Aklu said he had no concerns about attracting people to visit.
"Why wouldn't the community come here? If I have a product you can use and have the quality, freshness and price, why not?
"We specialise in products Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda don't really specialise in. I hope it works and everybody likes it. I don't want one community liking it and the next hating it. I want everybody to like this."
But the character is a man. They’d have to write a medical transition into the storyline.
Bond should be a female, vegan, Guardian-reader who works for a Global Government and pulls up villains on the use of their pronouns. She tackles their lairs by publicly shaming them with their microaggressions and lack of diversity in their henchpeople.
Afterwards, the protagonists agree to "check their secret organisation privilege" and willingly go on unconscious bias training. Jane Bond gives a lift back home to any asylum seekers who want it, and the Q-gadgets are donated to inner-city London schoolkids.
Very good.
I don't care if Bond is female, Othello is white, or Hamlet is a geriatric.
But the character is a man. They’d have to write a medical transition into the storyline.
I never paid much attention but I know they kept had a bunch of different actors playing the same character, how did they write the fact that he kept showing up as a totally different person into the storyline?
The answer is that "James Bond" is an alias, like "M" or "Q" that changes over time. The use of the same name is just a way to confuse foreign agents as to his immortality...
All I would say about Bond and other films, as mentioned by @moonshine I believe this morning - is that they don't have a large available pool of baddies for fear of offending people.
It's why I stopped watching Spooks. The baddies weren't those you might normally associate with terrorist threats to the UK but instead "rogue" or even state-sponsored Americans, Israelis, or Brits.
Why not just create an original story about a woman who's a gifted intelligence officer? There have been plenty of them in real life.
Who is this aimed at?
Starmer? He has other things to do The franchise? They are sticking to the male character The industry? Homeland, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Killing Eve
Homeland was a great series. My objection to Killing Eve was portraying assassins as glamorous people living the high life, whereas people who are really successful in that line of work keep a very low profile.
I didnt particularly like Killing Eve either, it was ok but a bit cringey. However, it was popular and successful and shows they are creating original stories with female spies.
The ideal assassin is someone nobody notices, as they slip ricin into your coffee, or accidentally jab you in the leg with their umbrella.
Why not just create an original story about a woman who's a gifted intelligence officer? There have been plenty of them in real life.
Who is this aimed at?
Starmer? He has other things to do The franchise? They are sticking to the male character The industry? Homeland, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Killing Eve
Homeland was a great series. My objection to Killing Eve was portraying assassins as glamorous people living the high life, whereas people who are really successful in that line of work keep a very low profile.
I didnt particularly like Killing Eve either, it was ok but a bit cringey. However, it was popular and successful and shows they are creating original stories with female spies.
Just finished "Help" - magnificent performance by Jodie Comer. And of course Stephen Graham.
If one programme could bring the govt down it would be that.
I may be wrong, but I'd treat this with a pinch of salt. I don't imagine Starmer gives a flying f**k who the next James Bond is, let alone 'calling' for him to be female. But if asked if it could be a woman, he probably didn't say no.
According to Mail (I know...) "appearing on Good Morning Britain today, the Opposition Leader joined them, saying: 'I don't have a favourite Bond, but I do think it's time for a female Bond.'"
Not sure that was a smart move, if correctly reported. Lacks context, but it looks like a volunteered view.
Edit: My own opinion is that you can have a Bond franchise film with a female lead - all the other same characters, James can appear in a cameo, maybe. But you have a different name and - why not? - a different back story. Could be ethnic minority, different roots etc, mouthy, working class, prefers a four pack of stella to a martini...
'I don't have a favourite Bond, but I do think it's time for a female Bond.'
Personally, I am quite attracted to the idea that donations to political parties should only be from individuals.
I have been concerned that a weakness of that has been that Tories were mainly much richer than Lab, but looking at the supporters of various parties - eg Luvvies, footballers, business people worth tens of millions each and the wealthy areas of the country being more leftish now - I wonder if that is still a relevant concern.
An alternative might be to overhaul TU democracy which seems not to work. I'm not sure just how I would frame that.
The whole thread has been interesting on this. On that point, I agree that the polling is clear that income is no longer a significant driver of political preference. Wealth is another matter, though - there are plenty of well-paid left-wingers, far fewer (I think) who have inherited large sums and who can without hesitation donate £100,000 to their preferred party (perhaps in unspoken exchange for some profitable access).
My preferred solution would be:
* Limit contributions to individuals * Limit contribution PER individual to £1000 * Set strict spending limits that prevent fudges (e.g. "national" leaflets distributed only in target seats) * Provide every household with a booklet at election time with two pages for each party to set out its case
The last is what the Swiss do for referenda, and it works pretty well. You obviously need a threshold for inclusion - perhaps having a candidate in 75% of the seats in your area? - but it greatly reduces the need for massive spending. It also gives smaller parties a crack of the whip - the big parties will get their pages in first, but the LibDems, Green, Reform etc. could put their case too. In order to persuade the big parties, perhaps parties that got >20% last time should get two pages, the others only one.
The major problem is that it suits both major parties to be funded by institutions other than individuals. So don't hold your breath.
Another is that the more genuine an individuals system is, the fewer people will give, and the less genuine it is the more it will become the next funding scandal.
Very few private individuals have the slightest intention of giving a farthing to any political party, and the more they are the same on the big issues while indulging in the narcissism of small differences the truer this will be.
I think this is a genuine example of a problem which does not have a solution.
Why not just create an original story about a woman who's a gifted intelligence officer? There have been plenty of them in real life.
Who is this aimed at?
Starmer? He has other things to do The franchise? They are sticking to the male character The industry? Homeland, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Killing Eve
Homeland was a great series. My objection to Killing Eve was portraying assassins as glamorous people living the high life, whereas people who are really successful in that line of work keep a very low profile.
I didnt particularly like Killing Eve either, it was ok but a bit cringey. However, it was popular and successful and shows they are creating original stories with female spies.
The ideal assassin is someone nobody notices, as they slip ricin into your coffee, or accidentally jab you in the leg with their umbrella.
A film about someone no-one notices might be hard to make work.....
All I would say about Bond and other films, as mentioned by @moonshine I believe this morning - is that they don't have a large available pool of baddies for fear of offending people.
It's why I stopped watching Spooks. The baddies weren't those you might normally associate with terrorist threats to the UK but instead "rogue" or even state-sponsored Americans, Israelis, or Brits.
24 went the same way.
Bauer bringing down the POTUS one season was actually a very good way to portray that, because that's pretty much unheard of in that genre, but it became very samey of the threats being domestic greedy businesses etc instead of actual real threats.
1. Couzens getting a whole life sentence with a minimum of 40 years to be served before he is even considered for release. 2. Cressida Dick to resign. Or, ideally, be sacked.
Key line - "This enduring service failure has given cause for concern about public safety in Greater Manchester."
Also see what the Chief Inspector at HMIC told Woman's Hour - that the Everard case is not a "one off" and that forces don't have effective means to prevent abuses of position and that officers are not being properly vetted.
If true - and what the hell is HMIC doing about it, other than wringing their hands - this is an absolute scandal.
Don't know what the situation is with S Yorkshire Police is. But they sure have had issues. Recent dealings suggest they haven't improved. Although that may be just my anecdotal experience. And Jen Williams is the best (only?) reporter in the country. Actually actively searches out complexity, rather than falling back on clickbait.
Why not just create an original story about a woman who's a gifted intelligence officer? There have been plenty of them in real life.
Who is this aimed at?
Starmer? He has other things to do The franchise? They are sticking to the male character The industry? Homeland, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Killing Eve
Homeland was a great series. My objection to Killing Eve was portraying assassins as glamorous people living the high life, whereas people who are really successful in that line of work keep a very low profile.
I didnt particularly like Killing Eve either, it was ok but a bit cringey. However, it was popular and successful and shows they are creating original stories with female spies.
The ideal assassin is someone nobody notices, as they slip ricin into your coffee, or accidentally jab you in the leg with their umbrella.
A film about someone no-one notices might be hard to make work.....
Why not just create an original story about a woman who's a gifted intelligence officer? There have been plenty of them in real life.
Who is this aimed at?
Starmer? He has other things to do The franchise? They are sticking to the male character The industry? Homeland, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Killing Eve
Homeland was a great series. My objection to Killing Eve was portraying assassins as glamorous people living the high life, whereas people who are really successful in that line of work keep a very low profile.
I didnt particularly like Killing Eve either, it was ok but a bit cringey. However, it was popular and successful and shows they are creating original stories with female spies.
The ideal assassin is someone nobody notices, as they slip ricin into your coffee, or accidentally jab you in the leg with their umbrella.
A film about someone no-one notices might be hard to make work.....
Leon is a film that features a low key, quite discreet contract killer, which also helps with his paedophilia.
In my experience if people or organisations make repeated promises to pay - and fail to do so promptly - then there's usual 'darker' problems than simply somebody is 'not working' and its time to question their creditworthiness.
One Council require three signatures before payment is made. They then send the receipient a copy of a Payment Certficate with these signatures on. As an example one of our invoices was approved by the QS for the project on the 6th June, it took 8 weeks before someone in the Finance Department did there bit and signed it off and a further 6 weeks before it got final approval. Councils are supposed to pay in 10 days from the receipt of a valid invoice. Our invoice was deemed valid by the QS on the 6th June, again no payment has been received.
To clarify Council's are not just picking on my company, this is what happens now to all their Contractors. So much so that Companies are refusing to tender for Council projects as they have become a nightmare to work for. As I said they have gone from Blue Chip to complete crap.
Why not just create an original story about a woman who's a gifted intelligence officer? There have been plenty of them in real life.
Who is this aimed at?
Starmer? He has other things to do The franchise? They are sticking to the male character The industry? Homeland, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Killing Eve
Homeland was a great series. My objection to Killing Eve was portraying assassins as glamorous people living the high life, whereas people who are really successful in that line of work keep a very low profile.
I didnt particularly like Killing Eve either, it was ok but a bit cringey. However, it was popular and successful and shows they are creating original stories with female spies.
The ideal assassin is someone nobody notices, as they slip ricin into your coffee, or accidentally jab you in the leg with their umbrella.
A film about someone no-one notices might be hard to make work.....
Why not just create an original story about a woman who's a gifted intelligence officer? There have been plenty of them in real life.
Who is this aimed at?
Starmer? He has other things to do The franchise? They are sticking to the male character The industry? Homeland, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Killing Eve
Homeland was a great series. My objection to Killing Eve was portraying assassins as glamorous people living the high life, whereas people who are really successful in that line of work keep a very low profile.
I didnt particularly like Killing Eve either, it was ok but a bit cringey. However, it was popular and successful and shows they are creating original stories with female spies.
The ideal assassin is someone nobody notices, as they slip ricin into your coffee, or accidentally jab you in the leg with their umbrella.
A film about someone no-one notices might be hard to make work.....
Comments
The BMA reps were poorly prepared, and the ones with no rep like lambs to the slaughter. The HCSA reps were professionally prepared, knew their brief and advocated clearly and highly competently. So I joined. When in trouble, you do not want an advocate who is reasonable, you want a pit bull who scares the opposition.
The HCSA also doesn't do politics, just terms and conditions.
The problem with that film was that it was 90% of a hit. Something was missing.
Its not just the Finance Department, it is endemic throughout. It is impossible to speak to anyone, emails are unanswered, projects are not being completed.
Northrop-Grumman, by contrast, used to carpet bomb the F-14 community with merch when they ran the ground school.
When I was a kid, I lived near JCB, and my dad bought a fair few of them. I made a model JCB 3CX out of cardboard, and it got displayed at my primary school. Another parent, who worked at JCB, saw it, and it got displayed for a while in the JCB foyer, on top of (I think!) the welder that is on display there (one of Bamford's first purchases).
I wish I had a picture of that. I think my parents still have the model somewhere...
I've also got a diecast model 3CX in a box signed by Noel Edmonds, won in a raffle at a product launch. Now that's a random combination ...
https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1443513135349043205?s=20
Qatar's on the calendar. This year.
https://twitter.com/Motorsport/status/1443501437154168834
I'd thought Abu Dhabi would veto that. And Bahrain wouldn't want it either.
At first they just put stuff in the tanks. But it got pilfered. So they got ingenious.
Apparently quite a few turned up with the gun barrels full of bottles...
"Just give the people with the biggest chequebooks the races" is where F1 in the Bernie era failed so miserably.
She gets drunk on vodka, get battered into pulp while *just* winning fights, "investigates" by antagonising the opponents until they try and kill her. Is a fashionista. And chases the ladies....
You just make a cheap assumption that, as I say, fits your prejudices, and go with it.
I have two close relatives who work for councils and, yes, like many in private industry, they have worked from home for long stretches through the pandemic. They are still working flat out, under-staffed, under-funded, tied up in endless reorganisation brought about by councillors and/or government. Both looking for alternative employment for the sake of their health.
Jonathan Portes
@jdportes
·
2h
Government cut benefits for low income families (in and out of work) by about £15 billion.
UC uplift, which expires next week, temporarily restored some - £6 bn - of that.
Govt now proposing a one-off, discretionary fund of £0.5 bn.
Levelling down
Time soon for the Tories to start thinking about contrition, perhaps ?
Uaed to be they had offices you could walk up to and hang about till someone did something.
However. LA's have been close to breaking point for years.
It’s such a cushy number everyone is desperate to quit. See also teaching.
Residential apartments on the steam grid will have at least radiator level controls. Any domestic radiators installed at the time of the 1918 pandemic and for many years after are deliberately designed to pump out heat sufficient to keep the windows open, as it was realized that ventilation was key to stopping the virus from spreading (something we’re re-learning).
Even in our gas-heated 1940 house in the NYC suburbs, unless we keep the ‘stat right on the cusp, our big rads just pump out heat.
Karen Gillan would be good in the role.
The retro Bond's food choices would be good for a bit of fun: the early books are littered with references to foreign exotica as hamburgers, spaghetti bolognese, avocados...
Anything else is clear discrimination and should be cancelled.
Not sure that was a smart move, if correctly reported. Lacks context, but it looks like a volunteered view.
Edit: My own opinion is that you can have a Bond franchise film with a female lead - all the other same characters, James can appear in a cameo, maybe. But you have a different name and - why not? - a different back story. Could be ethnic minority, different roots etc, mouthy, working class, prefers a four pack of stella to a martini...
Keir Starmer may be more popular than Jeremy Corbyn and Ed Miliband but the party’s fundamental weaknesses remain the same.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/labour/2021/09/how-bad-is-labours-electoral-plight
Afterwards, the protagonists agree to "check their secret organisation privilege" and willingly go on unconscious bias training. Jane Bond gives a lift back home to any asylum seekers who want it, and the Q-gadgets are donated to inner-city London schoolkids.
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/biz/2021/09/175_316199.html
Bithumb Korea, one of the major cryptocurrency exchanges headquartered in Korea, has made a more than 100-percent profit from its investment into local media firm Bucket STUDIO, which is related to Netflix's latest global hit drama, "Squid Game."
The blockchain tech firm invested about 15 billion won ($12.6 million) into Bucket STUDIO's mezzanine financing in May and the investment helped it get about a 12.5-percent stake of the media company's shares. With the investment, the crypto exchange operator has become the second largest major shareholder in the media firm. ...
...The two firms' close relationship is due to the complicated share structure that links the two firms. Vidente, the largest shareholder of both Bithumb Korea and Bithumb Holdings, is also a subsidiary of blockchain firm INBIOGEN, which is a subsidiary of Bucket STUDIO.
If you want to create a female James Bond-style character, there's lots more opportunities if you step outside the restrictive JB canon. A combination of the characters of Amy Thorpe, Violette Szabo, Lona Cohen and others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7UFpZgk3IQ
https://twitter.com/danwootton/status/1443508732294582277?s=19
That’s the man
As an aside, I recently saw a claim that the KGB believed that much of the Bond gadgetry of the 60s/70s was essentially “real” and based on actual kit available to Western intelligence agencies, and that they spent many rubles trying to make their own in vain. Probably BS but an interesting story.
My preferred solution would be:
* Limit contributions to individuals
* Limit contribution PER individual to £1000
* Set strict spending limits that prevent fudges (e.g. "national" leaflets distributed only in target seats)
* Provide every household with a booklet at election time with two pages for each party to set out its case
The last is what the Swiss do for referenda, and it works pretty well. You obviously need a threshold for inclusion - perhaps having a candidate in 75% of the seats in your area? - but it greatly reduces the need for massive spending. It also gives smaller parties a crack of the whip - the big parties will get their pages in first, but the LibDems, Green, Reform etc. could put their case too. In order to persuade the big parties, perhaps parties that got >20% last time should get two pages, the others only one.
The funds are to be administered by local authorities, so the responsibility/blame for underfunding is to some extent shifted to them.
Both my colleagues would seriously consider Burnham.
That said, the kind of gadgetry that intelligence services have used in real life is just as fascinating as in fiction.
Starmer? He has other things to do
The franchise? They are sticking to the male character
The industry? Homeland, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Killing Eve
6 weeks ago I emailed the CE of a LA asking for her help in getting an invoice paid. She did reply promply and said she would look into the issue. a day later she emailed to say that it was embarrassing that the invoice had not been paid and she would sort it. 6 weeks later we have still not been paid.
As an anecdote an Electrical Enginner at a LA is an old school friend. He is on full pay but is working less than a day a week, he barely goes into the office and has no idea when he will be required to start working properly again.
And achieving s female Bond within the continuity is simple: Bond must have more kids running around than Boris.
@GordonBrown
Twenty pounds may not seem like a significant amount to many, but for families living on the brink, this money is a lifeline.
This universal credit cut deepens the UK’s divide.
https://twitter.com/GordonBrown/status/1443503264679481349
Teams set up in every LA, to devise their own systems of application, decision and distribution.
Bonfire of red tape, my arse.
Nowt the Tories like more than Byzantine bureaucracy.
https://twitter.com/KayBurley/status/1443502642752282632?s=19
Not that it matters!
1. Couzens getting a whole life sentence with a minimum of 40 years to be served before he is even considered for release.
2. Cressida Dick to resign. Or, ideally, be sacked.
Incidentally, if people think this is just a Met problem, think again. The Greater Manchester Police is having many of the same issues - https://twitter.com/jenwilliamsmen/status/1443501415075360770?s=21.
Key line - "This enduring service failure has given cause for concern about public safety in Greater Manchester."
Also see what the Chief Inspector at HMIC told Woman's Hour - that the Everard case is not a "one off" and that forces don't have effective means to prevent abuses of position and that officers are not being properly vetted.
If true - and what the hell is HMIC doing about it, other than wringing their hands - this is an absolute scandal.
“Romford Business Improvement District (BID) director Julie Frost felt the shopping mall plans represent a "significant vote of confidence" in the town.
She said: "There exists the potential for this new enterprise to help to drive additional footfall into the BID area.
"However, there remains a very real risk that the highly specialised nature of the offering could find only a limited uptake in an area in which the principal cultural market is extremely limited.
"We shall have to wait and see."
Aklu said he had no concerns about attracting people to visit.
"Why wouldn't the community come here? If I have a product you can use and have the quality, freshness and price, why not?
"We specialise in products Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda don't really specialise in. I hope it works and everybody likes it. I don't want one community liking it and the next hating it. I want everybody to like this."
https://twitter.com/romfordrecorder/status/1443523521611812869?s=21
I don't care if Bond is female, Othello is white, or Hamlet is a geriatric.
It's fiction.
It's why I stopped watching Spooks. The baddies weren't those you might normally associate with terrorist threats to the UK but instead "rogue" or even state-sponsored Americans, Israelis, or Brits.
https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/karen-gillan-on-how-jumanji-welcomed-her-to-the-jungle/
If one programme could bring the govt down it would be that.
I couldn’t care less if he thinks Bonds a load of rubbish, or if he hasn’t got a favourite.
Another is that the more genuine an individuals system is, the fewer people will give, and the less genuine it is the more it will become the next funding scandal.
Very few private individuals have the slightest intention of giving a farthing to any political party, and the more they are the same on the big issues while indulging in the narcissism of small differences the truer this will be.
I think this is a genuine example of a problem which does not have a solution.
Bauer bringing down the POTUS one season was actually a very good way to portray that, because that's pretty much unheard of in that genre, but it became very samey of the threats being domestic greedy businesses etc instead of actual real threats.
And Jen Williams is the best (only?) reporter in the country. Actually actively searches out complexity, rather than falling back on clickbait.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024184/
To clarify Council's are not just picking on my company, this is what happens now to all their Contractors. So much so that Companies are refusing to tender for Council projects as they have become a nightmare to work for. As I said they have gone from Blue Chip to complete crap.