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".
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.
A film about someone no-one notices might be hard to make work.....
The beauty of the Le Carre dramatisations is precisely that one can marvel at the tradecraft which turns the necessity of no one noticing anything into a virtue of being gripping watching.
Plus The Americans was a whole, brilliant, series about no one noticing anything.
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.
I don't think it's possible for Bond to succeed in a meaningful way in the modern world now.
There's too many special interest groups who want to pull the character to their politics one way, and change the environment in which he operates the other.
I think the increasing unwillingness to offend anyone nowadays is part of the reason why good action movies nowadays are increasingly of the Comic Book genre rather than espionage etc.
A good story needs a good "Big Bad" and if you're not prepared to portray the Russians or Chinese or any other rival as the Big Bad then far simpler to write a story where The Joker or Bane or Thanos etc forms the Big Bad. Because nobody boycotts the movie because they're unhappy as they relate to Thanos.
To have a good real world action movie you really need to be prepared to portray somebody as the Big Bad and just roll with it.
Mr. F, it's baffling when, in sci-fi, people claim Rey's disliked because she's a woman (as opposed to because she's boring) when the likes of Ripley, Sam Carter, and Janeway never got the same shit flung their way because they were better written.
For that matter, the original Star Wars trilogy had Leia.
The endless rehashing and rebooting of series is not great, I think.
I think the increasing unwillingness to offend anyone nowadays is part of the reason why good action movies nowadays are increasingly of the Comic Book genre rather than espionage etc.
A good story needs a good "Big Bad" and if you're not prepared to portray the Russians or Chinese or any other rival as the Big Bad then far simpler to write a story where The Joker or Bane or Thanos etc forms the Big Bad. Because nobody boycotts the movie because they're unhappy as they relate to Thanos.
To have a good real world action movie you really need to be prepared to portray somebody as the Big Bad and just roll with it.
One filmmaker said it was a pleasure to make zombie films because, like the nazis, you could kill as many of them as you wanted in as gratuitous a manner as you wanted and no one complained.
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.
Homeland, The Bodyguard managed it.
I can't remember the story of The Bodyguard. Nor Homeland for that matter, although I did binge watch the first three or four seasons.
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.
Sure, it would be better to have police who don't abuse their position, but what would that actually look like?
Ultimately, we have to be able to trust public servants, whether police, medical, social work, legal, politicians etc. A culture change is not easy to institute, and constant observation hinders efficacy.
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.....
The beauty of the Le Carre dramatisations is precisely that one can marvel at the tradecraft which turns the necessity of no one noticing anything into a virtue of being gripping watching.
Plus The Americans was a whole, brilliant, series about no one noticing anything.
The Spy who Came in from the Cold is perfect like that. The story is both very simple, and wonderfully complex (a rather nasty operation to frame a decent man in order to protect a rotten traitor). Marcus Wolf thought Le Carre must have been in touch with someone in East German intelligence, simply because he thought that world was depicted with total accuracy.
I think the increasing unwillingness to offend anyone nowadays is part of the reason why good action movies nowadays are increasingly of the Comic Book genre rather than espionage etc.
A good story needs a good "Big Bad" and if you're not prepared to portray the Russians or Chinese or any other rival as the Big Bad then far simpler to write a story where The Joker or Bane or Thanos etc forms the Big Bad. Because nobody boycotts the movie because they're unhappy as they relate to Thanos.
To have a good real world action movie you really need to be prepared to portray somebody as the Big Bad and just roll with it.
Yes, I think that's right. Most Bond villains are very intelligent (except when trying to kill Bond) psychopaths with generic central European accents.
The trouble is that although that's rooted in post-WWII fall-out and the Cold War I suspect it's difficult to move away from that today without coming up against accusations of imperialism/racism.
The central character was among the most annoying characters ever seen in a TV drama. I managed two episodes before extreme irritation got the better of me.
“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."
Only time I've been to Romford in the last 18 months was to get my first jab at the Liberty back in April (got my second jab in Ilford itself). Before lockdown, I used to go to Romford at last once a week.
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.
My own experience of LA's is that there are lots of people on rubbish wages doing everything, being continuously denigrated by people on high wages who do nothing. However, I would not generalise based on my own experience.
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.
Sure, it would be better to have police who don't abuse their position, but what would that actually look like?
Ultimately, we have to be able to trust public servants, whether police, medical, social work, legal, politicians etc. A culture change is not easy to institute, and constant observation hinders efficacy.
It may not be easy but a culture change has to happen.
All of the following are needed -
1. Strong leadership 2. Proper due diligence 3. Thorough vetting throughout employment not just at the start. 4. No tolerance of minor misdemeanours. 5. A culture of "speak up". 6. An effective disciplinary system. 7. Accountability 8 Accepting your mistakes and learning from them not trying to spin them away.
That's how trust is earned. And kept. And how it needs to be earned back now by the police.
The central character was among the most annoying characters ever seen in a TV drama. I managed two episodes before extreme irritation got the better of me.
Agree.
One of those annoying high camp shows the British like to produce for some reason. I find such treatments remove all the danger and drama.
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.
Homeland, The Bodyguard managed it.
Re Bodyguard
the bit that bugged me was the muslim woman turning out evil rather than exploited in the end - would have been a great twist were it not for the fact it made zero sense for her to set herself up to be arrested and imprisoned
The central character was among the most annoying characters ever seen in a TV drama. I managed two episodes before extreme irritation got the better of me.
I did a bit better than you. I enjoyed the first series but it got too silly and quirky after that. A bit up itself.
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.....
The beauty of the Le Carre dramatisations is precisely that one can marvel at the tradecraft which turns the necessity of no one noticing anything into a virtue of being gripping watching.
Plus The Americans was a whole, brilliant, series about no one noticing anything.
The Spy who Came in from the Cold is perfect like that. The story is both very simple, and wonderfully complex (a rather nasty operation to frame a decent man in order to protect a rotten traitor). Marcus Wolf thought Le Carre must have been in touch with someone in East German intelligence, simply because he thought that world was depicted with total accuracy.
They are all amazing like that. And it's the details that stand out - in one of the books, can't remember which, he describes to a character how to set up or signal a meet - going to a florist, buying some roses, returning for some reason to the shop, discarding the wrapping in the nearby bin, etc.
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.
Sure, it would be better to have police who don't abuse their position, but what would that actually look like?
Ultimately, we have to be able to trust public servants, whether police, medical, social work, legal, politicians etc. A culture change is not easy to institute, and constant observation hinders efficacy.
It may not be easy but a culture change has to happen.
All of the following are needed -
1. Strong leadership 2. Proper due diligence 3. Thorough vetting throughout employment not just at the start. 4. No tolerance of minor misdemeanours. 5. A culture of "speak up". 6. An effective disciplinary system. 7. Accountability 8 Accepting your mistakes and learning from them not trying to spin them away.
That's how trust is earned. And kept. And how it needs to be earned back now by the police.
Hard. Very hard. But it has to be tried.
In reality, what I think they will do is turn up the Woke - become far more censorious on trivialities like gendered language.
I think the increasing unwillingness to offend anyone nowadays is part of the reason why good action movies nowadays are increasingly of the Comic Book genre rather than espionage etc.
A good story needs a good "Big Bad" and if you're not prepared to portray the Russians or Chinese or any other rival as the Big Bad then far simpler to write a story where The Joker or Bane or Thanos etc forms the Big Bad. Because nobody boycotts the movie because they're unhappy as they relate to Thanos.
To have a good real world action movie you really need to be prepared to portray somebody as the Big Bad and just roll with it.
Yes, I think that's right. Most Bond villains are very intelligent (except when trying to kill Bond) psychopaths with generic central European accents.
The trouble is that although that's rooted in post-WWII fall-out and the Cold War I suspect it's difficult to move away from that today without coming up against accusations of imperialism/racism.
If Starmer gets his wish and it is a woman, the film must surely be called "On Her Majesty's Secret Cervix".
(This joke is not original but it also works if the next Bond is a man.)
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.
Yes and you're assigning that to Work From Home.
However as I said in my experience if people aren't paying their bills promptly its a red flag that its not a workflow issue - its a 'not enough money in the bank account' issue.
If the organisation is running low on funds then punting invoices a few weeks later can keep things ticking over for now without facing up to the fact that you have no money left.
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.
Homeland, The Bodyguard managed it.
I can't remember the story of The Bodyguard. Nor Homeland for that matter, although I did binge watch the first three or four seasons.
Homeland pretty much stayed on the Islamic terrorism theme. Given the lead was a CIA analyst who spoke Arabic, probably no surprise. But it can be done.
SERIOUS SPOILER ALERT!
The Bodyguard was interesting, as it began with a seemingly Middle East terrorism event. Before veering through possible political intrigue. A conspiracy at the highest levels of the military/establishment? A plot to engineer a coup maybe? By inciting a race war through setting up obviously innocent brown people? Before the big twist. Which was Occam's Razor. It appeared to be a terrorist attack because it was. And the innocent had been set up by other brown folk.
By the way, anyone watching Vigil? Everyone seems to really rate it but I think it's mediocre at best.
I enjoyed it well enough - with a few points where you have to suspend disbelief, but that's normal. Final episode not all that satisfying to me (the whodunnit resolved early on - or was that episode 5, even? - and then just a fair bit of low drama wrapping up, so not a great deal of tension).
Miss Cyclefree, this is also why that copper filmed threatening to make up charges against an innocent member of the public should've been unceremoniously fired. Instead, he's still a policeman.
I think the increasing unwillingness to offend anyone nowadays is part of the reason why good action movies nowadays are increasingly of the Comic Book genre rather than espionage etc.
A good story needs a good "Big Bad" and if you're not prepared to portray the Russians or Chinese or any other rival as the Big Bad then far simpler to write a story where The Joker or Bane or Thanos etc forms the Big Bad. Because nobody boycotts the movie because they're unhappy as they relate to Thanos.
To have a good real world action movie you really need to be prepared to portray somebody as the Big Bad and just roll with it.
Yes, I think that's right. Most Bond villains are very intelligent (except when trying to kill Bond) psychopaths with generic central European accents.
The trouble is that although that's rooted in post-WWII fall-out and the Cold War I suspect it's difficult to move away from that today without coming up against accusations of imperialism/racism.
If Starmer gets his wish and it is a woman, the film must surely be called "On Her Majesty's Secret Cervix".
(This joke is not original but it also works if the next Bond is a man.)
“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."
Only time I've been to Romford in the last 18 months was to get my first jab at the Liberty back in April (got my second jab in Ilford itself). Before lockdown, I used to go to Romford at last once a week.
"Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a leading holdout on the social policy bill, issued a lengthy and strongly worded statement on Wednesday evening reiterating his opposition to the proposal as currently constituted, saying it amounted to “fiscal insanity.” "
I think the increasing unwillingness to offend anyone nowadays is part of the reason why good action movies nowadays are increasingly of the Comic Book genre rather than espionage etc.
A good story needs a good "Big Bad" and if you're not prepared to portray the Russians or Chinese or any other rival as the Big Bad then far simpler to write a story where The Joker or Bane or Thanos etc forms the Big Bad. Because nobody boycotts the movie because they're unhappy as they relate to Thanos.
To have a good real world action movie you really need to be prepared to portray somebody as the Big Bad and just roll with it.
Yes, I think that's right. Most Bond villains are very intelligent (except when trying to kill Bond) psychopaths with generic central European accents.
The trouble is that although that's rooted in post-WWII fall-out and the Cold War I suspect it's difficult to move away from that today without coming up against accusations of imperialism/racism.
If Starmer gets his wish and it is a woman, the film must surely be called "On Her Majesty's Secret Cervix".
(This joke is not original but it also works if the next Bond is a man.)
On that note I must be off to hunt for petrol.
"On His Majesty's Secret Cervix" would be even better. But I guess that has to wait for the first trans head of state.
What's the fuel situation like out there at the moment?
Locally for us the village petrol station ran out again this morning after queues down the road. They are due another delivery sometime tomorrow. However, many more petrol stations in the area seem to have petrol than previously and queues are only small. Going to be better by the weekend?
Queues started Friday last week and I said at the time I thought it would be a 5 day panic. Looks like I was a few days too optimistic.
By the way, anyone watching Vigil? Everyone seems to really rate it but I think it's mediocre at best.
I enjoyed it well enough - with a few points where you have to suspend disbelief, but that's normal. Final episode not all that satisfying to me (the whodunnit resolved early on - or was that episode 5, even? - and then just a fair bit of low drama wrapping up, so not a great deal of tension).
I thought the acting was wooden in places especially the lead police officer and the sub captain. Sometimes I detect that actors know that what they are in isn't very good and this was one of those cases.
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.
Homeland, The Bodyguard managed it.
I can't remember the story of The Bodyguard. Nor Homeland for that matter, although I did binge watch the first three or four seasons.
Homeland pretty much stayed on the Islamic terrorism theme. Given the lead was a CIA analyst who spoke Arabic, probably no surprise. But it can be done.
SERIOUS SPOILER ALERT!
The Bodyguard was interesting, as it began with a seemingly Middle East terrorism event. Before veering through possible political intrigue. A conspiracy at the highest levels of the military/establishment? A plot to engineer a coup maybe? By inciting a race war through setting up obviously innocent brown people? Before the big twist. Which was Occam's Razor. It appeared to be a terrorist attack because it was. And the innocent had been set up by other brown folk.
Couzens given whole life, meaning he will die in prison
I don't believe in death penalty.
But I do believe those sentenced to life should be given a cyanide capsule or similar, to be used if they wish to take themselves off our hands.
That should certainly apply to Couzens.
I've always been against capital punishment in case of miscarriages of justice. In this case he has owned up to it. I think your suggestion is one I could possibly support. We will keep you in prison forever until you die. If you choose to die early then we will facilitate that for you.
I think the increasing unwillingness to offend anyone nowadays is part of the reason why good action movies nowadays are increasingly of the Comic Book genre rather than espionage etc.
A good story needs a good "Big Bad" and if you're not prepared to portray the Russians or Chinese or any other rival as the Big Bad then far simpler to write a story where The Joker or Bane or Thanos etc forms the Big Bad. Because nobody boycotts the movie because they're unhappy as they relate to Thanos.
To have a good real world action movie you really need to be prepared to portray somebody as the Big Bad and just roll with it.
Yes, I think that's right. Most Bond villains are very intelligent (except when trying to kill Bond) psychopaths with generic central European accents.
The trouble is that although that's rooted in post-WWII fall-out and the Cold War I suspect it's difficult to move away from that today without coming up against accusations of imperialism/racism.
If Starmer gets his wish and it is a woman, the film must surely be called "On Her Majesty's Secret Cervix".
(This joke is not original but it also works if the next Bond is a man.)
What's the fuel situation like out there at the moment?
Locally for us the village petrol station ran out again this morning after queues down the road. They are due another delivery sometime tomorrow. However, many more petrol stations in the area seem to have petrol than previously and queues are only small. Going to be better by the weekend?
Queues started Friday last week and I said at the time I thought it would be a 5 day panic. Looks like I was a few days too optimistic.
I learned yesterday that it is possible to phone up a petrol station and ask. Very helpful. Called one BP garage they said no they hadn't got any fuel but the one half a mile away did have. Phoned them and yes they did and yes my car has petrol now. Not excessive queues either.
I do sense, however, that there is petrol shortage crisis fatigue. Not hearing as much about it - perhaps it has been subsumed into the general dystopian post-Brexit, post-Covid world as just being another Bad Thing happening to us.
She still loomed large yesterday on the BBC. And she hated the speech.
What we have here by my reckoning is a potential future party leader... if only they could find her a safe seat.
They won't like her in Merseyside..... but they'd still vote for her in a landslide. But getting a seat in Merseyside is like finding rocking horse shit. You literally are waiting on death taking the MP.
"Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a leading holdout on the social policy bill, issued a lengthy and strongly worded statement on Wednesday evening reiterating his opposition to the proposal as currently constituted, saying it amounted to “fiscal insanity.” "
NYTimes
Trump 2024 here we come.
Actually probably the reverse, independent swing voters in the US do not like big spending budgets, especially if their taxes go up to pay for them.
It was Bill Clinton and Obama's big spending in their first 2 years which saw such a swing to the Republicans in their first midterms and saw their party lose control of Congress.
If Manchin stops Biden and Pelosi going too far that might reduce swing back to the GOP next year
"Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a leading holdout on the social policy bill, issued a lengthy and strongly worded statement on Wednesday evening reiterating his opposition to the proposal as currently constituted, saying it amounted to “fiscal insanity.” "
NYTimes
Trump 2024 here we come.
Actually probably the reverse, independent swing voters in the US do not like big spending budgets.
It was Bill Clinton and Obama's big spending in their first 2 years which saw such a swing to the Republicans in their first midterms and saw their party lose control of Congress.
If Manchin stops Biden and Pelosi going too far that might reduce swing back to the GOP next year
Disagree. There is a bigger picture imho. Biden has to deliver big time to a lot of people who have been struggling for years, otherwise they will fall back under the spell of the Trump demon and his wild nationalist, populist snake oil.
Seems very sensible what they have written. More or less seems to say that in most cases transgender women cannot compete against those born female. There will need to be new categories.
Seems very sensible what they have written. More or less seems to say that in most cases transgender women cannot compete against those born female. There will need to be new categories.
Which has long been mooted not least on here. Separate categories would solve several perceived (by non-trans people at least) problems. I just wonder, idly, whether this would not be enough "woman" for a transgender woman to be and they would feel somehow belittled or stigmatised and not a "proper" woman.
By the way, anyone watching Vigil? Everyone seems to really rate it but I think it's mediocre at best.
I enjoyed it well enough - with a few points where you have to suspend disbelief, but that's normal. Final episode not all that satisfying to me (the whodunnit resolved early on - or was that episode 5, even? - and then just a fair bit of low drama wrapping up, so not a great deal of tension).
I thought the acting was wooden in places especially the lead police officer and the sub captain. Sometimes I detect that actors know that what they are in isn't very good and this was one of those cases.
One thing I won't be doing is going on a trawler boat off Barra! Was up on Eriskay (just to the north) a few years back, sat enjoying the view with my (now) missus when a big sub popped up out of the water coming south between us and Skye. No idea whether it was one of the Vanguards, but quite a sight.
What's the fuel situation like out there at the moment?
Locally for us the village petrol station ran out again this morning after queues down the road. They are due another delivery sometime tomorrow. However, many more petrol stations in the area seem to have petrol than previously and queues are only small. Going to be better by the weekend?
Queues started Friday last week and I said at the time I thought it would be a 5 day panic. Looks like I was a few days too optimistic.
I learned yesterday that it is possible to phone up a petrol station and ask. Very helpful. Called one BP garage they said no they hadn't got any fuel but the one half a mile away did have. Phoned them and yes they did and yes my car has petrol now. Not excessive queues either.
I do sense, however, that there is petrol shortage crisis fatigue. Not hearing as much about it - perhaps it has been subsumed into the general dystopian post-Brexit, post-Covid world as just being another Bad Thing happening to us.
It has a natural lifecycle because once you've filled up your car, how do you panic buy the same amount of fuel again?
You can't, unless you drive like crazy to burn it all up, and no-one is - in fact, people will be altering their behaviour to conserve fuel once they've got it.
By the way, anyone watching Vigil? Everyone seems to really rate it but I think it's mediocre at best.
The lesbian sub-story was tedious in the extreme though.
And so very very BBC.
It’s institutionally v difficult for the BBC to make good drama, as the “demands of woke” mean it’s hard to portray real life.
But Vigil was OK. I actually thought that Suranne Jones was pretty good.
WTF does the "demands of Woke" mean? Killing Eve was adapting a novel. The BBC didn't dream it up out of thin air. The fact is. If you make the villain obvious from the start and completely without redeeming qualities, it may be realistic. But makes crap drama.
Putting aside the questions about what Couzens was doing in the police in the first place, just what is the Met telling young women about how to react to the police?
What is it telling any of us?
I don’t really trust the police anymore. I won’t go out of my way to help them.
What's the fuel situation like out there at the moment?
Locally for us the village petrol station ran out again this morning after queues down the road. They are due another delivery sometime tomorrow. However, many more petrol stations in the area seem to have petrol than previously and queues are only small. Going to be better by the weekend?
Queues started Friday last week and I said at the time I thought it would be a 5 day panic. Looks like I was a few days too optimistic.
I learned yesterday that it is possible to phone up a petrol station and ask. Very helpful. Called one BP garage they said no they hadn't got any fuel but the one half a mile away did have. Phoned them and yes they did and yes my car has petrol now. Not excessive queues either.
I do sense, however, that there is petrol shortage crisis fatigue. Not hearing as much about it - perhaps it has been subsumed into the general dystopian post-Brexit, post-Covid world as just being another Bad Thing happening to us.
It has a natural lifecycle because once you've filled up your car, how do you panic buy the same amount of fuel again?
You can't, unless you drive like crazy to burn it all up, and no-one is - in fact, people will be altering their behaviour to conserve fuel once they've got it.
This will peter out by the weekend.
I hope @DavidL found his fuel as he had expected it to peter out by yesterday.
And yes of course it will peter out at some point. And are we - are you - giving the govt a free pass just one of those things hey ho in letting the country run out/so low on fuel?
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.
This is simplistic chattering class nonsense David. My girlfriend is red wall works band 3 in the NHS and is struggling because her team cannot recruit anyone.
She’s also worried about heating bills, the cost of petrol, and her salary not keeping pace with cost of living.
The idea that the ‘red wall’ are going to be happy with abstract ‘pay rises’ is frankly out of touch and insulting.
I guess the proof will be in the pudding. If wages outpace cost of living at the low end then you might be right but that remains to be seen.
Yes. There is a structural problem in the economy which Covid has amplified to both visibility and crisis point. We have simultaneously a punishing cost of living crisis and companies unable (and sometimes unwilling) to pay living wages. For all that "just pay more" is a simple solution, how does that work when none of the smaller companies can do and we then end up with a small number of giants with all that entails?
Nursing. Midwifery. HGV Drivers. Carers. Chefs - there are a stack of skilled professions who simply cannot recruit because of a combination of punitive training costs and low pay/crap conditions when you get there. And thats just skilled work, its even worse with unskilled.
As with 2 decades ago where you couldn't find plumbers, joiners, skilled tradespeople at any price we have a choice. Do we blame people and wait an indefinite period of time for people to be trained up and become available for work? Or do we import the workers because the work needs doing now?
To Make Brexit Work (great slogan btw) we need two things. One - make the points-based immigration system functional. Saying "yer barred" to anyone to pacify the red wall is daft. We need a shit ton of people so give them proper visas not a handful of "fuck off at Christmas" ones. Two - properly invest in skills and education so that we will have a pipeline of our own people coming through to replace migrants. As people can't afford their own training and companies won't due to high turnover, we will have to centralise it, a Manpower Services Commission for the 10s.
Part of the problem is forcing things to be graduate jobs. Nursing, for example, shouldn’t require 3 years academic study and £27k of debt. We need to be a lot more thoughtful.
Perhaps there is an argument for the government to fund training for a role which is then paid back by companies during someone’s first few years in the role? And would move with them to a new employer?
Totally agree about nursing. My wife was one of the last diploma nurse cohort I think. She left nursing but returned to help with Covid. She had to write a 4000 word reflective essay which took her days. She would've been much more use on the ward. She spent half a day learning how to reference articles and books correctly. Pointless.
The genius in making nursing more academic and medically knowledgable has been.. the creation of various new jobs for people to do the tasks discarded.
This is the thing. The role of ‘nurse’ in most people’s minds has been replaced by healthcare assistants who don’t require a degree as far as I’m aware.
The whole ‘nurses shouldn’t go to uni’ thing stinks of ‘back in my day…’
The question of whether the nhs should pay the fees is another question
It’s really a question of “what level of qualification do the staff we need require”.
A lot of the nursing role is “caring” rather than technical - but there have been some pressures in the industry where those functions (which can be menial) are seen as being “beneath” staff with a degree
"Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a leading holdout on the social policy bill, issued a lengthy and strongly worded statement on Wednesday evening reiterating his opposition to the proposal as currently constituted, saying it amounted to “fiscal insanity.” "
NYTimes
Trump 2024 here we come.
Actually probably the reverse, independent swing voters in the US do not like big spending budgets.
It was Bill Clinton and Obama's big spending in their first 2 years which saw such a swing to the Republicans in their first midterms and saw their party lose control of Congress.
If Manchin stops Biden and Pelosi going too far that might reduce swing back to the GOP next year
Disagree. There is a bigger picture imho. Biden has to deliver big time to a lot of people who have been struggling for years, otherwise they will fall back under the spell of the Trump demon and his wild nationalist, populist snake oil.
Biden did not win because he won vast numbers of Trump 2016 voters to the Democrats in 2020.
In fact Trump got a slightly higher voteshare in 2020 than 2016.
Biden won in 2020 mainly because he got fiscally conservative independents who went third party, especially Libertarian party, rather than vote for Hillary in 2016 to vote for him in 2020 and put him over 50%
Sky just said Couzens was known in the police as a rapist and used to 'flash'
I really cannot believe I have written that and it makes you sick to the core
As is currently being pointed out on Twitter, both the Shipman and Climbie cases led to lasting reforms in their respective professions.
The Met appear to be grotesquely, institutionally complacent.
Cressida Dick's continuing employment is a disgrace
Are you listening Patel
And Harriet Harman demanding Dick's resignation
I think a more startling thing than the Bond woman thing is that Starmer offered absolute unalloyed support for Cressida Dick's tenure extension and continuation in his GMB interview.
Now, I know he will be aware of the facts around various incidents and Dick's involvement in them, but everything about everything. It seemed he was putting his personal dealings above objective investigation and, indeed, political opportunism. Difficult to tell what his reasons are on this one.
What's the fuel situation like out there at the moment?
Locally for us the village petrol station ran out again this morning after queues down the road. They are due another delivery sometime tomorrow. However, many more petrol stations in the area seem to have petrol than previously and queues are only small. Going to be better by the weekend?
Queues started Friday last week and I said at the time I thought it would be a 5 day panic. Looks like I was a few days too optimistic.
I learned yesterday that it is possible to phone up a petrol station and ask. Very helpful. Called one BP garage they said no they hadn't got any fuel but the one half a mile away did have. Phoned them and yes they did and yes my car has petrol now. Not excessive queues either.
I do sense, however, that there is petrol shortage crisis fatigue. Not hearing as much about it - perhaps it has been subsumed into the general dystopian post-Brexit, post-Covid world as just being another Bad Thing happening to us.
It has a natural lifecycle because once you've filled up your car, how do you panic buy the same amount of fuel again?
You can't, unless you drive like crazy to burn it all up, and no-one is - in fact, people will be altering their behaviour to conserve fuel once they've got it.
This will peter out by the weekend.
I hope @DavidL found his fuel as he had expected it to peter out by yesterday.
And yes of course it will peter out at some point. And are we - are you - giving the govt a free pass just one of those things hey ho in letting the country run out/so low on fuel?
It did peter out by yesterday.
Nationwide over three quarters of stations were fully operational by yesterday, versus 20% a few days earlier.
Its all over bar the shouting. There'll be a few pockets were morons are still draining every bit they can, but especially where people aren't dingbats it is over.
Sky just said Couzens was known in the police as a rapist and used to 'flash'
I really cannot believe I have written that and it makes you sick to the core
W the actual F???
Jayne Secker of Sky was noticeably upset when she repeated it to Martin Brunt
And I was utterly shocked
The police culture on nicknames is er... interesting.
There was an armed policeman, who over a period of long service had shot (I think) three people.
A senior officer introduced him to a group of other officers as "our own serial killer"
I don't have a problem with that. Who would want to be an armed cop? I see them at Waterloo etc. and pity them as it must be incredibly boring and if you are called into action you might have to kill someone. Now, that person might themselves be a killer/threat to life, but that can't be easy. So a bit of dark humour in that context is acceptable.
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.
I think removing Dick might be best in both cases.
Seems very sensible what they have written. More or less seems to say that in most cases transgender women cannot compete against those born female. There will need to be new categories.
Which has long been mooted not least on here. Separate categories would solve several perceived (by non-trans people at least) problems. I just wonder, idly, whether this would not be enough "woman" for a transgender woman to be and they would feel somehow belittled or stigmatised and not a "proper" woman.
That is exactly the problem - anything other than being seen as 100% a women is not acceptable for some.
Mr. F, it's baffling when, in sci-fi, people claim Rey's disliked because she's a woman (as opposed to because she's boring) when the likes of Ripley, Sam Carter, and Janeway never got the same shit flung their way because they were better written.
For that matter, the original Star Wars trilogy had Leia.
The endless rehashing and rebooting of series is not great, I think.
Ellen Ripley was a fantastic piece of writing a strong female. She had a lot of talent that made you like her, being level headed, courageous and willing to stand up for herself. At the same time she was clearly flawed, regularly getting scared, suffering PTSD and never did near impossible physical feats. She was also clearly female, with her maternal nature playing a big role in the second one, yet her gender was never overdone. You could say the same thing about Sarah Connor.
I find it amazing they got the formula right in the 1980s and yet haven't been able to do it again.
Putting aside the questions about what Couzens was doing in the police in the first place, just what is the Met telling young women about how to react to the police?
What is it telling any of us?
I don’t really trust the police anymore. I won’t go out of my way to help them.
As a former police officer for a short period in Edinburgh in 1964 I think it is important that we do help the police wherever possible as they do depend on us for information and assistance
Furthermore, can we just even start to think just how many police officers must be sickened by this themselves
Sky just said Couzens was known in the police as a rapist and used to 'flash'
I really cannot believe I have written that and it makes you sick to the core
Is that, "rapist" as a nickname or rapist as in actual rapist? Radio might not be too clear on that?
I have known some amazing nicknames in my time, which I will not repeat here for fear of offending pb.com's squeamish bourgeois sensibilities, however I don't think I've ever known somebody with cognomen of 'Rapist'.
The sinister looking AR5 aircrew respirator which was issued with the optimistic intent of conducting combat operations under an incessant storm of Soviet chemical weapons was universally known as the 'Cambridge Rapist Kit'.
Sarah Everard was simply walking home. Women must be able to trust the police not fear them. Women's confidence in police will have been shattered. Urgent action needed. Met Commissioner must resign. My letters to Home Sec & Met👇https://twitter.com/HarrietHarman/status/1443533670950883328/photo/1
Sky just said Couzens was known in the police as a rapist and used to 'flash'
I really cannot believe I have written that and it makes you sick to the core
Is that, "rapist" as a nickname or rapist as in actual rapist? Radio might not be too clear on that?
When he was in the Civil Nuclear Constabulary his nickname amongst colleagues was "The Rapist" because of his creepy behaviour around women, including women colleagues.
Remember that despite this he was accepted into the Met and passed their advanced vetting to become eligible to hold a firearm.
This was known about months ago when he finally pleaded guilty to murder. Despite this Cressida Dick thought she ought to get a second term and Patel has recently extended it for two years.
That is why I have written repeatedly in headers and BTL that there is something toxic in police culture in this country and that Dick should have been sacked.
It is this tolerance for the second-rate, for a lack of leadership and accountability, for incompetence, for a failure to understand what true professionalism means which is amongst the reasons so many of our institutions are failing, are not as good as they ought to be and lack both authority and respect.
Sky just said Couzens was known in the police as a rapist and used to 'flash'
I really cannot believe I have written that and it makes you sick to the core
As is currently being pointed out on Twitter, both the Shipman and Climbie cases led to lasting reforms in their respective professions.
The Met appear to be grotesquely, institutionally complacent.
Cressida Dick's continuing employment is a disgrace
Are you listening Patel
And Harriet Harman demanding Dick's resignation
Sadiq and Patel are equally to blame. Dick is appalling for reasons much essayed on here.
Dick is at a level in permeant officialdom where being fired for being personally responsible for something is simply not how it works.
Note that the lady in charge of Rotherham went on to a bigger and better job in child services in Australia.... And when not giving her a glowing reference was mooted, the reaction of officialdom was interesting.
A friend in the civil service noted that, with respect to COVID, officials were appalled and horrified when ministers said that at the eventual enquiry, they will not take responsibility for actions which were carried out against their express instructions. That is Minister said do A, the system decided to do B, and the minister says they aren't responsible for B.
What's the fuel situation like out there at the moment?
Locally for us the village petrol station ran out again this morning after queues down the road. They are due another delivery sometime tomorrow. However, many more petrol stations in the area seem to have petrol than previously and queues are only small. Going to be better by the weekend?
Queues started Friday last week and I said at the time I thought it would be a 5 day panic. Looks like I was a few days too optimistic.
I learned yesterday that it is possible to phone up a petrol station and ask. Very helpful. Called one BP garage they said no they hadn't got any fuel but the one half a mile away did have. Phoned them and yes they did and yes my car has petrol now. Not excessive queues either.
I do sense, however, that there is petrol shortage crisis fatigue. Not hearing as much about it - perhaps it has been subsumed into the general dystopian post-Brexit, post-Covid world as just being another Bad Thing happening to us.
It has a natural lifecycle because once you've filled up your car, how do you panic buy the same amount of fuel again?
You can't, unless you drive like crazy to burn it all up, and no-one is - in fact, people will be altering their behaviour to conserve fuel once they've got it.
This will peter out by the weekend.
I hope @DavidL found his fuel as he had expected it to peter out by yesterday.
And yes of course it will peter out at some point. And are we - are you - giving the govt a free pass just one of those things hey ho in letting the country run out/so low on fuel?
It did peter out by yesterday.
Nationwide over three quarters of stations were fully operational by yesterday, versus 20% a few days earlier.
Its all over bar the shouting. There'll be a few pockets were morons are still draining every bit they can, but especially where people aren't dingbats it is over.
So as I asked - do we give the govt a free pass over it just one of those things?
Sky just said Couzens was known in the police as a rapist and used to 'flash'
I really cannot believe I have written that and it makes you sick to the core
W the actual F???
Jayne Secker of Sky was noticeably upset when she repeated it to Martin Brunt
And I was utterly shocked
The police culture on nicknames is er... interesting.
There was an armed policeman, who over a period of long service had shot (I think) three people.
A senior officer introduced him to a group of other officers as "our own serial killer"
I don't have a problem with that. Who would want to be an armed cop? I see them at Waterloo etc. and pity them as it must be incredibly boring and if you are called into action you might have to kill someone. Now, that person might themselves be a killer/threat to life, but that can't be easy. So a bit of dark humour in that context is acceptable.
The armed policeman in question was disgusted and appalled - and thought it indicated that señor officers were very out of touch with the reality.
I don’t really trust the police anymore. I won’t go out of my way to help them.
The solicitor who kept me of jail told me that there is absolutely zero upside to co-operating with the police in any way whether you are guilty or innocent.
Comments
Plus The Americans was a whole, brilliant, series about no one noticing anything.
There's too many special interest groups who want to pull the character to their politics one way, and change the environment in which he operates the other.
A good story needs a good "Big Bad" and if you're not prepared to portray the Russians or Chinese or any other rival as the Big Bad then far simpler to write a story where The Joker or Bane or Thanos etc forms the Big Bad. Because nobody boycotts the movie because they're unhappy as they relate to Thanos.
To have a good real world action movie you really need to be prepared to portray somebody as the Big Bad and just roll with it.
For that matter, the original Star Wars trilogy had Leia.
The endless rehashing and rebooting of series is not great, I think.
Ultimately, we have to be able to trust public servants, whether police, medical, social work, legal, politicians etc. A culture change is not easy to institute, and constant observation hinders efficacy.
The trouble is that although that's rooted in post-WWII fall-out and the Cold War I suspect it's difficult to move away from that today without coming up against accusations of imperialism/racism.
The central character was among the most annoying characters ever seen in a TV drama. I managed two episodes before extreme irritation got the better of me.
All of the following are needed -
1. Strong leadership
2. Proper due diligence
3. Thorough vetting throughout employment not just at the start.
4. No tolerance of minor misdemeanours.
5. A culture of "speak up".
6. An effective disciplinary system.
7. Accountability
8 Accepting your mistakes and learning from them not trying to spin them away.
That's how trust is earned. And kept. And how it needs to be earned back now by the police.
Hard. Very hard. But it has to be tried.
One of those annoying high camp shows the British like to produce for some reason. I find such treatments remove all the danger and drama.
So-1 is MoE. Has the fuel crisis plus the speech filtered through yet. No.
Absolutely gripping.
Things like that.
(This joke is not original but it also works if the next Bond is a man.)
On that note I must be off to hunt for petrol.
It will be November before the polls settle
However as I said in my experience if people aren't paying their bills promptly its a red flag that its not a workflow issue - its a 'not enough money in the bank account' issue.
If the organisation is running low on funds then punting invoices a few weeks later can keep things ticking over for now without facing up to the fact that you have no money left.
Claustrophobic murder thrillers never get old.
The lesbian sub-story was tedious in the extreme though.
SERIOUS SPOILER ALERT!
The Bodyguard was interesting, as it began with a seemingly Middle East terrorism event.
Before veering through possible political intrigue. A conspiracy at the highest levels of the military/establishment? A plot to engineer a coup maybe? By inciting a race war through setting up obviously innocent brown people?
Before the big twist. Which was Occam's Razor. It appeared to be a terrorist attack because it was. And the innocent had been set up by other brown folk.
Couzens given whole life, meaning he will die in prison
How can people have faith in such an institution?
But I do believe those sentenced to life should be given a cyanide capsule or similar, to be used if they wish to take themselves off our hands.
That should certainly apply to Couzens.
"Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a leading holdout on the social policy bill, issued a lengthy and strongly worded statement on Wednesday evening reiterating his opposition to the proposal as currently constituted, saying it amounted to “fiscal insanity.” "
NYTimes
Trump 2024 here we come.
I really cannot believe I have written that and it makes you sick to the core
Went past the Sainsbury's I filled up at yesterday. No Diesel, no Unleaded.
Locally for us the village petrol station ran out again this morning after queues down the road. They are due another delivery sometime tomorrow. However, many more petrol stations in the area seem to have petrol than previously and queues are only small. Going to be better by the weekend?
Queues started Friday last week and I said at the time I thought it would be a 5 day panic. Looks like I was a few days too optimistic.
The Met appear to be grotesquely, institutionally complacent.
Educate Yourself Another Day.
You Only Cancel Once.
I do sense, however, that there is petrol shortage crisis fatigue. Not hearing as much about it - perhaps it has been subsumed into the general dystopian post-Brexit, post-Covid world as just being another Bad Thing happening to us.
Are you listening Patel
And Harriet Harman demanding Dick's resignation
But Vigil was OK. I actually thought that Suranne Jones was pretty good.
But getting a seat in Merseyside is like finding rocking horse shit.
You literally are waiting on death taking the MP.
It was Bill Clinton and Obama's big spending in their first 2 years which saw such a swing to the Republicans in their first midterms and saw their party lose control of Congress.
If Manchin stops Biden and Pelosi going too far that might reduce swing back to the GOP next year
Dick is appalling for reasons much essayed on here.
And I was utterly shocked
'Transgender inclusion, fairness and safety often cannot co-exist' says major review
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/58732146
Seems very sensible what they have written. More or less seems to say that in most cases transgender women cannot compete against those born female. There will need to be new categories.
You can't, unless you drive like crazy to burn it all up, and no-one is - in fact, people will be altering their behaviour to conserve fuel once they've got it.
This will peter out by the weekend.
Killing Eve was adapting a novel.
The BBC didn't dream it up out of thin air.
The fact is. If you make the villain obvious from the start and completely without redeeming qualities, it may be realistic.
But makes crap drama.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10044901/French-ex-President-Nicolas-Sarkozy-guilty-illegal-campaign-financing.html
What is it telling any of us?
I don’t really trust the police anymore. I won’t go out of my way to help them.
https://twitter.com/Itwitius/status/1443256561825107968
Essentially, foreign affairs loom large.
And yes of course it will peter out at some point. And are we - are you - giving the govt a free pass just one of those things hey ho in letting the country run out/so low on fuel?
A lot of the nursing role is “caring” rather than technical - but there have been some pressures in the industry where those functions (which can be menial) are seen as being “beneath” staff with a degree
In fact Trump got a slightly higher voteshare in 2020 than 2016.
Biden won in 2020 mainly because he got fiscally conservative independents who went third party, especially Libertarian party, rather than vote for Hillary in 2016 to vote for him in 2020 and put him over 50%
There was an armed policeman, who over a period of long service had shot (I think) three people.
A senior officer introduced him to a group of other officers as "our own serial killer"
Now, I know he will be aware of the facts around various incidents and Dick's involvement in them, but everything about everything. It seemed he was putting his personal dealings above objective investigation and, indeed, political opportunism. Difficult to tell what his reasons are on this one.
Nationwide over three quarters of stations were fully operational by yesterday, versus 20% a few days earlier.
Its all over bar the shouting. There'll be a few pockets were morons are still draining every bit they can, but especially where people aren't dingbats it is over.
https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1443480467668340739
Fuck that's harsh.
Bet he would prefer Florida Supermax to that.
Cresseda Dick just has to go
I find it amazing they got the formula right in the 1980s and yet haven't been able to do it again.
Furthermore, can we just even start to think just how many police officers must be sickened by this themselves
The sinister looking AR5 aircrew respirator which was issued with the optimistic intent of conducting combat operations under an incessant storm of Soviet chemical weapons was universally known as the 'Cambridge Rapist Kit'.
Remember that despite this he was accepted into the Met and passed their advanced vetting to become eligible to hold a firearm.
This was known about months ago when he finally pleaded guilty to murder. Despite this Cressida Dick thought she ought to get a second term and Patel has recently extended it for two years.
That is why I have written repeatedly in headers and BTL that there is something toxic in police culture in this country and that Dick should have been sacked.
It is this tolerance for the second-rate, for a lack of leadership and accountability, for incompetence, for a failure to understand what true professionalism means which is amongst the reasons so many of our institutions are failing, are not as good as they ought to be and lack both authority and respect.
Note that the lady in charge of Rotherham went on to a bigger and better job in child services in Australia.... And when not giving her a glowing reference was mooted, the reaction of officialdom was interesting.
A friend in the civil service noted that, with respect to COVID, officials were appalled and horrified when ministers said that at the eventual enquiry, they will not take responsibility for actions which were carried out against their express instructions. That is Minister said do A, the system decided to do B, and the minister says they aren't responsible for B.
There is little divide between the sexes, 50% of women and 57% of men do not want a female Bond.
However Labour voters by 46% to 37% do want a female Bond, as do 18 to 24s, Remainers are also split 43% 43%.
69% of Leavers however want to keep a male Bond, as do 72% of Tories
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1443518608567676930?s=20