"Mastermind behind Insulate Britain eco-mob says he would have refused to move for crying woman trying to get to mother, 81, in hospital and would block an ambulance with dying patient inside after activists brought three London routes to standstill "
I thought the FCA took a very dim view of regulated personnel using encrypted communication systems?
They do.
Work related WhatsApp messages are usually a variation of 'Read your fecking emails!'
We don’t even allow WhatsApp in our sandbox
Your employees will all have it on their personal phones and they will all have shared their personal numbers already. The FCA is applying communication edicts from the 1980s to the 2020s. There's simply nothing we can do to stop our employees from using WhatsApp or other encrypted communication apps on their personal devices. I expect if we tried the employees would win in court on violation of human rights.
Nadine Dorries today: BBC staffed by people ‘whose mum and dad worked there’, says Nadine Dorries. Culture secretary attacks ‘nepotism’ and ‘groupthink’ at broadcaster in interview at Tory conference
Nadine Dorries few years ago: MP Nadine Dorries paid her daughters up to £80k from the public purse to work in her office... and gave one a £15k pay rise
If Boris Johnson or Keir Starmer want my vote and thus a landslide at the next election then they will pass a law allowing drivers run over the insulate Britain types.
I just interviewed Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion.
Discussing the incident of the Insulate Britain protesters blocking a woman in tears trying to get to a hospital - he says he’d do the same.
In a way I respect him for admitting that. If you only think a mild disruption that doesn't do more than annoy some people is enough then perhaps the issue is not all that serious. "I'm prepared to contribute to people dying as a result of my actions" at least shows he probably believes in what he says, even if he's nutty.
But the green lobby has won. Action is being taken. COP26 will speed that up. The govt does help to fund insulation. My walls had free cavity wall insulation thanks to the govt.
The vast majority accept we need action.
We are moving away from the petrol engine and the gas boiler. In ten years time these will be things of the past from the point of view of mass manufacture and purchase.
XR are fanatics. You can never Appease fanatics.
No you cannot. And by admitting he would contribute to people's deaths in pursuit of his aims, rather than attempt to sugarcoat it or pretend he thinks otherwise, people can see just how fanatical he is.
Indeed, far better to let the cranks damn themselves with their words than just get into a slanging match with them.
But you don't seem to be adequate even to a slanging match. We have a problem, yebbut we are doing something about it, is like Mr Creosote agreeing to switch to diet tonic with his gin. How difficult are concepts like sufficient and proportionate?
Re the article, in almost all the midlands and north of England there are exactly two relevant parties, except lots of them where there is only one. Leaving aside safe seats those two parties are Labour and Tory. When the government is having a hard time Labour is where you go. There is nowhere else.
Which is why while SKS has no chance of a Labour government in 2023/4, he has as good a chance as the Tories of forming an (alliance) government. As these polls show. I still put it at 40%, but current trends suggest it maybe should be higher.
Labour gain 35, LD gain 12. SNP gain 3. Done.
The SNP would not even give C&S to Labour in that situation. They'd just say to Starmer, OK laddie, off yer go to Downing Street. And then milk every possible amount they could, before slamming the door. The most unstable period in UK governing history would end with a clamour for the Scots to be booted out the Union. They hope.
Or else an election - and a strong new Government with a majority to consign them to oblivion.
To form a stable government Starmer certainly needs Labour to win most seats, agreed, even if not a majority. If Labour has more seats than the Tories he can afford to ignore the SNP as the SNP will not vote with the Tories on most legislation.
If the Tories lose their majority but still have most seats however then Starmer could become PM but the SNP would demand a high price for their support for a Labour minority government, including devomax and indyref2
You are a bright guy. Which of these two do you think the SNP would want from a minority Labour Govt:
a) calm, stable Government for the whole of the UK, such that Starmer can call an early election where he gets a working majority and hence no longer any need of the SNP - or of any further independence referendum: or
b) an absolute shit show?
They will want indyref2, which Starmer will have to give them as they will string him along until he does, unless there is a sudden shift in the polls he would be unlikely to get a working majority from a snap election anyway.
Though I would enjoy the sight of a Starmer government being as pitiful as the May government from 2017-2019 Labour did so much to destroy, poetic justice
In any case the SNP wouldn't vote on English-only matters, so Westminster would be a midden right from the start simply because of that abstention (compare UK vs English matters).
Yes it would be 2 governments, Starmer PM of the UK government but the Tories still effectively governing England and deciding English domestic policy.
The West Lothian question would come to the fore and on current polls it is very possible
Wrong way round. Clue: it'd not be the SNP majority in Scotland fouling up the Westminster Parliament right form the start.
Call it the West Epping Question and you would be getting warmer.
Well given Blair never created an English Parliament when he gave the other 3 home nations their own Parliaments and Assemblies what did he expect would happen once there eventually ended up a scenario of a Tory majority in England but a Labour led government across the UK ?
I note that Brown, Cameron, May, and Johnson have also not created an English parliament.
No and they should have done but it is Blair who gets most of the blame as he created the devolution arrangements we have now
The others had the hindsight of seeing all the problems that... wait, remind me of the problems again?
The problem will arise as soon as we have the first Labour led UK minority government but a Tory majority still in England which on current polls could well be in 2023/24.
That means we will effectively have an English Parliament by default, assuming the SNP continue to not vote on English domestic policy
If Boris Johnson or Keir Starmer want my vote and thus a landslide at the next election then they will pass a law allowing drivers run over the insulate Britain types.
I just interviewed Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion.
Discussing the incident of the Insulate Britain protesters blocking a woman in tears trying to get to a hospital - he says he’d do the same.
In a way I respect him for admitting that. If you only think a mild disruption that doesn't do more than annoy some people is enough then perhaps the issue is not all that serious. "I'm prepared to contribute to people dying as a result of my actions" at least shows he probably believes in what he says, even if he's nutty.
But the green lobby has won. Action is being taken. COP26 will speed that up. The govt does help to fund insulation. My walls had free cavity wall insulation thanks to the govt.
The vast majority accept we need action.
We are moving away from the petrol engine and the gas boiler. In ten years time these will be things of the past from the point of view of mass manufacture and purchase.
XR are fanatics. You can never Appease fanatics.
No you cannot. And by admitting he would contribute to people's deaths in pursuit of his aims, rather than attempt to sugarcoat it or pretend he thinks otherwise, people can see just how fanatical he is.
Indeed, far better to let the cranks damn themselves with their words than just get into a slanging match with them.
But you don't seem to be adequate even to a slanging match. We have a problem, yebbut we are doing something about it, is like Mr Creosote agreeing to switch to diet tonic with his gin. How difficult are concepts like sufficient and proportionate?
You seem to have an assumption that little or nothing is being done, @IshmaelZ .
Can you evidence that claim in the case of the UK?
"Mastermind behind Insulate Britain eco-mob says he would have refused to move for crying woman trying to get to mother, 81, in hospital and would block an ambulance with dying patient inside after activists brought three London routes to standstill "
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
"at the moment there is no 5G coverage in your area"
Get two sims into your phone.
Are you on Vodafone or Three?
I have o2 and EE in my phone and between those two I get 5G coverage in most of the big towns and cities.
I have a dual device strategy
My main phone is Vodafone which gets an upgrade in a few weeks. This is my secondary device, which has just been upgraded to 5G and iPhone 13. But no 5G in my area
It's not exactly The Somme, as disasters go
Pointless, your iPhone 13 can take two SIMs, just use that rather than carrying two devices.
I broke my phone right at the start of lockdown, I was without my phone for 4 days, it felt like The Somme for me.
Well, you've just explained why I have two phones, two sims and two different networks.
It's a total backup if one phone fucks up. So not exactly "pointless"
Do what I do.
Keep an old iPhone in a draw and back up to cloud on a regular basis.
But I like having two phones, both up to date. My Vodafone phone is the best possible, and has all the bells and whistles with unlimited data, my 02 phone is on a very cheap tariff and I've been with them so long I get free upgrades anyway
It was also extremely useful when the kids were younger and they needed distracting, I could hand them my 2nd phone and still have MY phone to hand
And it is still useful if I want to lend someone my phone for a reason, but I don't want anyone to see any, say, recent pics on my main phone. You know. That kind of "sensitive" data
This has a dodgy feel to it. It sounds like an explanation but it actually isn't. Not to my ears anyway.
Lol. What do you think is the REAL reason? I have two phones, three laptops, and four iPads, and I’m all ears
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
For me the streaming service never made sense when they first did it with Mulan, in that you were expected to pay more than you would for a cinema ticket on top of the Disney+ subscription. If it had even been the same I'd have gotten it.
Nadine Dorries today: BBC staffed by people ‘whose mum and dad worked there’, says Nadine Dorries. Culture secretary attacks ‘nepotism’ and ‘groupthink’ at broadcaster in interview at Tory conference
Nadine Dorries few years ago: MP Nadine Dorries paid her daughters up to £80k from the public purse to work in her office... and gave one a £15k pay rise
Has she watched their channels at any point in the last decade or two?
The BBC is seriously lacking on diversity of opinion and thought. It is soft liberal internationalism personified. They kept banging on about the "new Taliban" until it was clear that they were actually just the same old Taliban and now they just don't talk about it because it may be perceived as racist.
FPT @Selebian. I think you're blind to the issue here - I'll highlight two main points the article makes:
(1) "In a recent report on academic freedom in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada for the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, I found that 40 percent of American academics would not hire a known Trump supporter, and 33 percent of British academics would avoid hiring a known Brexit supporter. When it comes to refereeing papers, grant bids, and promotion applications, my own work and that of others indicates that the likelihood of an academic’s discriminating against an openly conservative submission is as high as 45 percent. On a four-person panel, that makes discrimination a near certainty."
(2) "In the 1960s there were only one and a half journalists and academics on the left for every one on the right. Today that ratio is between four to one and six to one, and considerably higher among political journalists and social-science and humanities academics. In a report on academia for the Manhattan Institute, I noted that left-leaning social-science and humanities academics now outnumber those on the right in Britain by nine to one, and in the U.S. by 14 to one. Work by Mitchell Langbert using voter-registration data for the top liberal-arts colleges and universities (for five disciplines) also shows lopsided ratios. At Harvard, for instance, a recent inquiry reported a $250-to-$1 Democrat-to-Republican donation ratio among the staff."
It's not enough for there to be "legal" protections - hard to access, prove and leverage - because an institutional culture of intolerance creates an environment that is suffocating to those already employed and inhibits any future recruitment to correct it. This means even fewer conservatives apply in the first place and thus reinforces a monoculture.
Those that are employed (like my friend at the University of Bath, for example, or me at the Woke firm I've just left) "fear losing (their) job or missing out on job opportunities if (their) political views became known.” And so, as in authoritarian regimes, dissenters keep their views to themselves through preference falsification. This has been precisely my experience.
It's a problem for all of us because these institutions form a large part of our civic society - arbitrating between the citizen and the state - and thus contributes to polarisation within it.
It needs to be addressed.
The website would only let me read the opening few paragraphs of the article, sadly, but the overall tone struck me as dishonest. It started with this dramatic statistic from the dating site, then extrapolated this to discrimination in hiring, despite these being completely different and indeed unrelated things (for instance, I wouldn't date a man but I would hire one). In my own field of economics there is a range of political views. In academia there is a left wing skew, in markets there is a right wing skew. This seems entirely understandable when you think of the likely difference in motivations and values between the two industries. Academia has got more left wing over the years, but then it has also become much worse paid, in relative terms, and those facts are probably related (we might argue over the direction of causation!). As a left wing person working in the markets I don't complain about the dearth of ideological soulmates, I don't know why right wing academics are so snowflakey about it. I have collaborated in academic research with people of various political stripes including Conservative US Republicans. In my experience, research with a clear ideological skew, left or right, is most likely bad research. The goal should be uncovering the truth, not advancing an agenda. Of course, if I were an ideological hack flogging policy-based evidence-making I might feel like I was getting discriminated when my research got rejected by top journals - but the likelihood is that the research was just bad. I do recall attending a very right-leaning conference where there was a lot of moaning about the Liberal bias in US academia, but the conference was lavishly funded by Conservative benefactors and hosted at a top Ivy League school so the whole complaint rang a little hollow to me. It had a strong whiff of privileges being defended.
There's some good points in here - including your admirable acknowledgement that research with a clear ideological skew is poor research - but why is your first instinct to attack Eric Kauffman's honesty?
He's a respected Canadian Academic (of mixed Chinese, Hispanic and European ancestry) working in a British university. He cited a variety of studies in making his points, and they're all respectable ones.
We need to get past the ad hominum into the specifics. Far too many of the responses to articles like this run along the lines of "he's making it up" and "I don't see any of this, so it can't be true".
What I'm interested in is everyone feeling able and willing to discuss their views and differences openly. That has to start with less prejudgement, more listening, and more forgiveness, and it's that I'm interested in.
It's the only way to confine polarisation to the fringes where it belongs, rather than it being part of the mainstream, and we have to work harder and harder at it in the social media age, not less.
All great points but I think you cut too much slack to Trumpery. It shouldn't be viewed like, say, being a Tory, a Brexiter, a social democrat, a "classic liberal", a small state libertarian, or whatever. He's a hate monger and those who lap that up can't expect it not to be held against them by those who don't.
I would judge Trump very differently from one of his voters, who include plenty of ordinary Americans, and give them the benefit of the doubt.
Of course lots of decent people voted for him. This must be the case given the numbers. Nevertheless he has colonized the Republican party, which is both chastening and frightening to somebody like me who takes a broadly sunny-side-up view of humanity, so I'm afraid I'm the other way around to you in that I'd be a touch wary of a person who I know voted for him until I get some evidence they did it reluctantly and despite the hate he throws out and for want of (in their eyes) a viable alternative. Pls note I do NOT feel this way about Leavers and Tories etc. It's a Trump thing.
So, in your eyes they are guilty until proven innocent?
Charming.
The reason you might not feel that way about Leavers and Tories is because you've been engaging with so many of us on here for so long that you realise the world isn't that simple.
That's precisely my point.
I'm not sending them to jail or anything. All I'm doing is applying the evidence of my eyes & ears to a hypothetical real life situation. I've tracked Donald Trump closely for years. I see and hear what he puts out. I know the buttons he seeks to press, the fancies he seeks to tickle, and they are not my buttons, not my fancies. Worse, they are buttons and fancies I find abhorrent. It's not a matter of honest disagreement, it's a complete disconnect. So if I meet somebody who I know voted for Trump, I will deduce that it's likely they are (to put it mildly) not my cup of tea. I'll be going in with a negative expectation. That's rational. I've observed lots of Trumpers, seen the footage, the vox pops, the tv debates, read the articles and the social media posts, and they don't tend to surprise. But - key point - I am open to being surprised. If ever I do meet one in the flesh. I'll quiz them robustly but fairly on why they voted as they did and I'll come to a view.
But, that's your problem not theirs - you are projecting Trump's personality and character onto them rather than getting to know them and their motivations.
If they put Trump on a dating profile it is them projecting his views, not the other person. I would have sympathy with someone who perhaps was dating for a few weeks, then got dumped because the new partner later found out they voted Trump, but if anyone thinks it is something to put on a profile, i.e. worthy of attracting a partner, then they will be judged for it just as people judge any other interests or habits.
Personally I would stay clear of anyone who expresses strong political views either way on a dating profile, and think this is common sense unless you share those particular views or like listening to long diatribes.
I think I'd probably stay away from people who expressed strong political views on a dating site, irrespective of exactly what the views are. How shallow do you have to be, for your political views to be one of the most interesting things about you?
If Boris Johnson or Keir Starmer want my vote and thus a landslide at the next election then they will pass a law allowing drivers run over the insulate Britain types.
I just interviewed Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion.
Discussing the incident of the Insulate Britain protesters blocking a woman in tears trying to get to a hospital - he says he’d do the same.
In a way I respect him for admitting that. If you only think a mild disruption that doesn't do more than annoy some people is enough then perhaps the issue is not all that serious. "I'm prepared to contribute to people dying as a result of my actions" at least shows he probably believes in what he says, even if he's nutty.
But the green lobby has won. Action is being taken. COP26 will speed that up. The govt does help to fund insulation. My walls had free cavity wall insulation thanks to the govt.
The vast majority accept we need action.
We are moving away from the petrol engine and the gas boiler. In ten years time these will be things of the past from the point of view of mass manufacture and purchase.
XR are fanatics. You can never Appease fanatics.
No you cannot. And by admitting he would contribute to people's deaths in pursuit of his aims, rather than attempt to sugarcoat it or pretend he thinks otherwise, people can see just how fanatical he is.
Indeed, far better to let the cranks damn themselves with their words than just get into a slanging match with them.
But you don't seem to be adequate even to a slanging match. We have a problem, yebbut we are doing something about it, is like Mr Creosote agreeing to switch to diet tonic with his gin. How difficult are concepts like sufficient and proportionate?
You seem to have an assumption that little or nothing is being done, @IshmaelZ .
Can you evidence that claim in the case of the UK?
Well, what is being done? I'm still driving around in a diesel truck, and flying to Madeira in a couple of weeks for about half what it would have cost, in nominal never mind real terms, fifty years ago, and feeling no pain at all. Why are there no restrictions which I would notice even 5% as much as I have noticed covid restrictions?
Nadine Dorries today: BBC staffed by people ‘whose mum and dad worked there’, says Nadine Dorries. Culture secretary attacks ‘nepotism’ and ‘groupthink’ at broadcaster in interview at Tory conference
Nadine Dorries few years ago: MP Nadine Dorries paid her daughters up to £80k from the public purse to work in her office... and gave one a £15k pay rise
I live with my two sisters, one of them tested positive on their lateral flow this morning. They were asked by their workplace to do another and it was negative. She has had a PCR done this afternoon, awaiting the result which will come tomorrow. She feels fine, bit tired but no clear Covid symptoms. She is double vaccinated, but has quite bad Asthma.
Did a lateral flow myself and it was negative ( I feel fine) but if her PCR comes back positive tomorrow my work will ask me to have a PCR before returning from annual leave on Saturday. I work for an NHS Trust's Occupational Health department, three of my colleagues last week double vaccinated went off with Covid with vomiting a symptom in all three cases.
I am due my Covid Booster on Wednesday, it's 7 months since my 2nd dose so was keen to get it. If my sister's PCR comes back negative and my lateral flow on the day is fine I plan to get it done.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
(Ironic, given the reviews of Venom 2 have been dreadful, and those of NTTD have been... mixed.)
Nadine Dorries today: BBC staffed by people ‘whose mum and dad worked there’, says Nadine Dorries. Culture secretary attacks ‘nepotism’ and ‘groupthink’ at broadcaster in interview at Tory conference
Nadine Dorries few years ago: MP Nadine Dorries paid her daughters up to £80k from the public purse to work in her office... and gave one a £15k pay rise
"Mastermind behind Insulate Britain eco-mob says he would have refused to move for crying woman trying to get to mother, 81, in hospital and would block an ambulance with dying patient inside after activists brought three London routes to standstill "
I'm never one to support vigilante violence. But...
but what?
But if this continues with ER, who knows what will happen.
If they continue to put the lives of vulnerable people at risk, then they will incite a riot, and they may just get one.
Well they nearly got one on Wandsworth Bridge today.
That wasn't really a riot; not in French terms anyway.
I would be very amused if one lot of Extinction Rebellion idiots caused a riot to happen, then were prevented from getting to hospital by one of the ambulance barricades set up by another lot of Extinction Rebellion idiots.
"at the moment there is no 5G coverage in your area"
Get two sims into your phone.
Are you on Vodafone or Three?
I have o2 and EE in my phone and between those two I get 5G coverage in most of the big towns and cities.
I have a dual device strategy
My main phone is Vodafone which gets an upgrade in a few weeks. This is my secondary device, which has just been upgraded to 5G and iPhone 13. But no 5G in my area
It's not exactly The Somme, as disasters go
Pointless, your iPhone 13 can take two SIMs, just use that rather than carrying two devices.
I broke my phone right at the start of lockdown, I was without my phone for 4 days, it felt like The Somme for me.
Well, you've just explained why I have two phones, two sims and two different networks.
It's a total backup if one phone fucks up. So not exactly "pointless"
Do what I do.
Keep an old iPhone in a draw and back up to cloud on a regular basis.
But I like having two phones, both up to date. My Vodafone phone is the best possible, and has all the bells and whistles with unlimited data, my 02 phone is on a very cheap tariff and I've been with them so long I get free upgrades anyway
It was also extremely useful when the kids were younger and they needed distracting, I could hand them my 2nd phone and still have MY phone to hand
And it is still useful if I want to lend someone my phone for a reason, but I don't want anyone to see any, say, recent pics on my main phone. You know. That kind of "sensitive" data
This has a dodgy feel to it. It sounds like an explanation but it actually isn't. Not to my ears anyway.
Lol. What do you think is the REAL reason? I have two phones, three laptops, and four iPads, and I’m all ears
FPT @Selebian. I think you're blind to the issue here - I'll highlight two main points the article makes:
(1) "In a recent report on academic freedom in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada for the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, I found that 40 percent of American academics would not hire a known Trump supporter, and 33 percent of British academics would avoid hiring a known Brexit supporter. When it comes to refereeing papers, grant bids, and promotion applications, my own work and that of others indicates that the likelihood of an academic’s discriminating against an openly conservative submission is as high as 45 percent. On a four-person panel, that makes discrimination a near certainty."
(2) "In the 1960s there were only one and a half journalists and academics on the left for every one on the right. Today that ratio is between four to one and six to one, and considerably higher among political journalists and social-science and humanities academics. In a report on academia for the Manhattan Institute, I noted that left-leaning social-science and humanities academics now outnumber those on the right in Britain by nine to one, and in the U.S. by 14 to one. Work by Mitchell Langbert using voter-registration data for the top liberal-arts colleges and universities (for five disciplines) also shows lopsided ratios. At Harvard, for instance, a recent inquiry reported a $250-to-$1 Democrat-to-Republican donation ratio among the staff."
It's not enough for there to be "legal" protections - hard to access, prove and leverage - because an institutional culture of intolerance creates an environment that is suffocating to those already employed and inhibits any future recruitment to correct it. This means even fewer conservatives apply in the first place and thus reinforces a monoculture.
Those that are employed (like my friend at the University of Bath, for example, or me at the Woke firm I've just left) "fear losing (their) job or missing out on job opportunities if (their) political views became known.” And so, as in authoritarian regimes, dissenters keep their views to themselves through preference falsification. This has been precisely my experience.
It's a problem for all of us because these institutions form a large part of our civic society - arbitrating between the citizen and the state - and thus contributes to polarisation within it.
It needs to be addressed.
The website would only let me read the opening few paragraphs of the article, sadly, but the overall tone struck me as dishonest. It started with this dramatic statistic from the dating site, then extrapolated this to discrimination in hiring, despite these being completely different and indeed unrelated things (for instance, I wouldn't date a man but I would hire one). In my own field of economics there is a range of political views. In academia there is a left wing skew, in markets there is a right wing skew. This seems entirely understandable when you think of the likely difference in motivations and values between the two industries. Academia has got more left wing over the years, but then it has also become much worse paid, in relative terms, and those facts are probably related (we might argue over the direction of causation!). As a left wing person working in the markets I don't complain about the dearth of ideological soulmates, I don't know why right wing academics are so snowflakey about it. I have collaborated in academic research with people of various political stripes including Conservative US Republicans. In my experience, research with a clear ideological skew, left or right, is most likely bad research. The goal should be uncovering the truth, not advancing an agenda. Of course, if I were an ideological hack flogging policy-based evidence-making I might feel like I was getting discriminated when my research got rejected by top journals - but the likelihood is that the research was just bad. I do recall attending a very right-leaning conference where there was a lot of moaning about the Liberal bias in US academia, but the conference was lavishly funded by Conservative benefactors and hosted at a top Ivy League school so the whole complaint rang a little hollow to me. It had a strong whiff of privileges being defended.
There's some good points in here - including your admirable acknowledgement that research with a clear ideological skew is poor research - but why is your first instinct to attack Eric Kauffman's honesty?
He's a respected Canadian Academic (of mixed Chinese, Hispanic and European ancestry) working in a British university. He cited a variety of studies in making his points, and they're all respectable ones.
We need to get past the ad hominum into the specifics. Far too many of the responses to articles like this run along the lines of "he's making it up" and "I don't see any of this, so it can't be true".
What I'm interested in is everyone feeling able and willing to discuss their views and differences openly. That has to start with less prejudgement, more listening, and more forgiveness, and it's that I'm interested in.
It's the only way to confine polarisation to the fringes where it belongs, rather than it being part of the mainstream, and we have to work harder and harder at it in the social media age, not less.
All great points but I think you cut too much slack to Trumpery. It shouldn't be viewed like, say, being a Tory, a Brexiter, a social democrat, a "classic liberal", a small state libertarian, or whatever. He's a hate monger and those who lap that up can't expect it not to be held against them by those who don't.
I would judge Trump very differently from one of his voters, who include plenty of ordinary Americans, and give them the benefit of the doubt.
Of course lots of decent people voted for him. This must be the case given the numbers. Nevertheless he has colonized the Republican party, which is both chastening and frightening to somebody like me who takes a broadly sunny-side-up view of humanity, so I'm afraid I'm the other way around to you in that I'd be a touch wary of a person who I know voted for him until I get some evidence they did it reluctantly and despite the hate he throws out and for want of (in their eyes) a viable alternative. Pls note I do NOT feel this way about Leavers and Tories etc. It's a Trump thing.
So, in your eyes they are guilty until proven innocent?
Charming.
The reason you might not feel that way about Leavers and Tories is because you've been engaging with so many of us on here for so long that you realise the world isn't that simple.
That's precisely my point.
I'm not sending them to jail or anything. All I'm doing is applying the evidence of my eyes & ears to a hypothetical real life situation. I've tracked Donald Trump closely for years. I see and hear what he puts out. I know the buttons he seeks to press, the fancies he seeks to tickle, and they are not my buttons, not my fancies. Worse, they are buttons and fancies I find abhorrent. It's not a matter of honest disagreement, it's a complete disconnect. So if I meet somebody who I know voted for Trump, I will deduce that it's likely they are (to put it mildly) not my cup of tea. I'll be going in with a negative expectation. That's rational. I've observed lots of Trumpers, seen the footage, the vox pops, the tv debates, read the articles and the social media posts, and they don't tend to surprise. But - key point - I am open to being surprised. If ever I do meet one in the flesh. I'll quiz them robustly but fairly on why they voted as they did and I'll come to a view.
But, that's your problem not theirs - you are projecting Trump's personality and character onto them rather than getting to know them and their motivations.
If they put Trump on a dating profile it is them projecting his views, not the other person. I would have sympathy with someone who perhaps was dating for a few weeks, then got dumped because the new partner later found out they voted Trump, but if anyone thinks it is something to put on a profile, i.e. worthy of attracting a partner, then they will be judged for it just as people judge any other interests or habits.
Personally I would stay clear of anyone who expresses strong political views either way on a dating profile, and think this is common sense unless you share those particular views or like listening to long diatribes.
I think I'd probably stay away from people who expressed strong political views on a dating site, irrespective of exactly what the views are. How shallow do you have to be, for your political views to be one of the most interesting things about you?
I'd also add that I probably would stay away from anyone who was so partisan that they wouldn't date anyone from the other side. It's a frankly childish stance, but I suppose in the world of Twitter people just create an echo chamber for themselves, so I shouldn't be surprised that they are trying to extend that to their real life. Maybe servile and agreeable is what people want in a partner? 🤷♂️
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
(Ironic, given the reviews of Venom 2 have been dreadful, and those of NTTD have been... mixed.)
Reviews of the first Venom were pretty bad as well IIRC. Sometimes it doesn't seem to matter.
'Mixed' reviews often seems a euphemism for a movie being bad, since it could mean views are split, or that the vast majority are bad but someone liked it.
Blimey, according to FT vaxxing just 800 people over age 60 saves one hospital admission.
Got to find those refusers...
Put that way, the vaccines don’t seem that impressive, tbh
Only because the disease isn’t that deadly. A dramatic reduction in risk on an individual level, especially for the oldies.
Presumably that statistic is over a fixed timescale, so there is an assumption that not all the 800 will actually get it? The proportion of (unvaxxed) people who actually caught the disease and ended up in hospital was a lot higher.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
(Ironic, given the reviews of Venom 2 have been dreadful, and those of NTTD have been... mixed.)
Venom reviewed badly as well. It seems to do extremely poorly among those die hard Marvel/Disney fans who are bitter about the whole Spider-Man rights situation.
I thought the first one was a good laugh, I'm sure the second one will be too. My wife went because it's got Tom Hardy, I suspect she'll go to see this one as well.
Nadine Dorries today: BBC staffed by people ‘whose mum and dad worked there’, says Nadine Dorries. Culture secretary attacks ‘nepotism’ and ‘groupthink’ at broadcaster in interview at Tory conference
Nadine Dorries few years ago: MP Nadine Dorries paid her daughters up to £80k from the public purse to work in her office... and gave one a £15k pay rise
Has she watched their channels at any point in the last decade or two?
The BBC is seriously lacking on diversity of opinion and thought. It is soft liberal internationalism personified. They kept banging on about the "new Taliban" until it was clear that they were actually just the same old Taliban and now they just don't talk about it because it may be perceived as racist.
Does anyone out there have an opinion about the BBC's political output that's actually based on anything scientific? Or is it all just Tunbridge Wells-esque whining?
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Re the article, in almost all the midlands and north of England there are exactly two relevant parties, except lots of them where there is only one. Leaving aside safe seats those two parties are Labour and Tory. When the government is having a hard time Labour is where you go. There is nowhere else.
Which is why while SKS has no chance of a Labour government in 2023/4, he has as good a chance as the Tories of forming an (alliance) government. As these polls show. I still put it at 40%, but current trends suggest it maybe should be higher.
Labour gain 35, LD gain 12. SNP gain 3. Done.
The SNP would not even give C&S to Labour in that situation. They'd just say to Starmer, OK laddie, off yer go to Downing Street. And then milk every possible amount they could, before slamming the door. The most unstable period in UK governing history would end with a clamour for the Scots to be booted out the Union. They hope.
Or else an election - and a strong new Government with a majority to consign them to oblivion.
To form a stable government Starmer certainly needs Labour to win most seats, agreed, even if not a majority. If Labour has more seats than the Tories he can afford to ignore the SNP as the SNP will not vote with the Tories on most legislation.
If the Tories lose their majority but still have most seats however then Starmer could become PM but the SNP would demand a high price for their support for a Labour minority government, including devomax and indyref2
You are a bright guy. Which of these two do you think the SNP would want from a minority Labour Govt:
a) calm, stable Government for the whole of the UK, such that Starmer can call an early election where he gets a working majority and hence no longer any need of the SNP - or of any further independence referendum: or
b) an absolute shit show?
They will want indyref2, which Starmer will have to give them as they will string him along until he does, unless there is a sudden shift in the polls he would be unlikely to get a working majority from a snap election anyway.
Though I would enjoy the sight of a Starmer government being as pitiful as the May government from 2017-2019 Labour did so much to destroy, poetic justice
In any case the SNP wouldn't vote on English-only matters, so Westminster would be a midden right from the start simply because of that abstention (compare UK vs English matters).
Yes it would be 2 governments, Starmer PM of the UK government but the Tories still effectively governing England and deciding English domestic policy.
The West Lothian question would come to the fore and on current polls it is very possible
Wrong way round. Clue: it'd not be the SNP majority in Scotland fouling up the Westminster Parliament right form the start.
Call it the West Epping Question and you would be getting warmer.
Well given Blair never created an English Parliament when he gave the other 3 home nations their own Parliaments and Assemblies what did he expect would happen once there eventually ended up a scenario of a Tory majority in England but a Labour led government across the UK ?
I note that Brown, Cameron, May, and Johnson have also not created an English parliament.
And Mr Clegg. In the Coalition. Which spent time faffing around with that northern assembly business.
Play fair, Mr Carnyx. Clegg was only the junior partner in the Coalition Government. He could not get anything passed, if the Conservatives were seriously opposed to it. And the hard-line Tories were usually opposed to everything, weren't they?
Nadine Dorries today: BBC staffed by people ‘whose mum and dad worked there’, says Nadine Dorries. Culture secretary attacks ‘nepotism’ and ‘groupthink’ at broadcaster in interview at Tory conference
Nadine Dorries few years ago: MP Nadine Dorries paid her daughters up to £80k from the public purse to work in her office... and gave one a £15k pay rise
Has she watched their channels at any point in the last decade or two?
The BBC is seriously lacking on diversity of opinion and thought. It is soft liberal internationalism personified. They kept banging on about the "new Taliban" until it was clear that they were actually just the same old Taliban and now they just don't talk about it because it may be perceived as racist.
Does anyone out there have an opinion about the BBC's political output that's actually based on anything scientific? Or is it all just Tunbridge Wells-esque whining?
Oh I don't know. I think Tunbridge Wells-esque whining probably sums up the BBC pretty well.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
No Time to Die is a fantastic picture. Probably the best in the series. I absolute loved it.
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
Nadine Dorries today: BBC staffed by people ‘whose mum and dad worked there’, says Nadine Dorries. Culture secretary attacks ‘nepotism’ and ‘groupthink’ at broadcaster in interview at Tory conference
Nadine Dorries few years ago: MP Nadine Dorries paid her daughters up to £80k from the public purse to work in her office... and gave one a £15k pay rise
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
(Ironic, given the reviews of Venom 2 have been dreadful, and those of NTTD have been... mixed.)
No Time To Die is bound to divide opinion, just as OHMSS did all those years ago.
Nadine Dorries today: BBC staffed by people ‘whose mum and dad worked there’, says Nadine Dorries. Culture secretary attacks ‘nepotism’ and ‘groupthink’ at broadcaster in interview at Tory conference
Nadine Dorries few years ago: MP Nadine Dorries paid her daughters up to £80k from the public purse to work in her office... and gave one a £15k pay rise
Has she watched their channels at any point in the last decade or two?
I’d argue they lack diversity of thought. Exceptionally prone to group think. You only need to watch news watch on a Sunday morning to hear the bbc executives say “we think we got it about right” when anyone dares to criticise them. There idea of how non urban folk live is encapsulated in the execrable Countryfile.
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
"at the moment there is no 5G coverage in your area"
Get two sims into your phone.
Are you on Vodafone or Three?
I have o2 and EE in my phone and between those two I get 5G coverage in most of the big towns and cities.
I have a dual device strategy
My main phone is Vodafone which gets an upgrade in a few weeks. This is my secondary device, which has just been upgraded to 5G and iPhone 13. But no 5G in my area
It's not exactly The Somme, as disasters go
Pointless, your iPhone 13 can take two SIMs, just use that rather than carrying two devices.
I broke my phone right at the start of lockdown, I was without my phone for 4 days, it felt like The Somme for me.
Well, you've just explained why I have two phones, two sims and two different networks.
It's a total backup if one phone fucks up. So not exactly "pointless"
Do what I do.
Keep an old iPhone in a draw and back up to cloud on a regular basis.
But I like having two phones, both up to date. My Vodafone phone is the best possible, and has all the bells and whistles with unlimited data, my 02 phone is on a very cheap tariff and I've been with them so long I get free upgrades anyway
It was also extremely useful when the kids were younger and they needed distracting, I could hand them my 2nd phone and still have MY phone to hand
And it is still useful if I want to lend someone my phone for a reason, but I don't want anyone to see any, say, recent pics on my main phone. You know. That kind of "sensitive" data
This has a dodgy feel to it. It sounds like an explanation but it actually isn't. Not to my ears anyway.
Lol. What do you think is the REAL reason? I have two phones, three laptops, and four iPads, and I’m all ears
Been watching 'Midnight Mass' on Netflix. It's ok, but it feels like it switches tone halfway through from creepy to campy.
I started watching the first 20 mins and it looked brilliant, then Mrs Walker realised it was a horror and threw her toys out.
Yes, I’ve read that it disappoints, as so many things do!
Everyone’s watching Squid Game now so that needs to be the focus.
I'm not usually a horror guy, quite the opposite actually, so I kind of don't mind that it changes tack so much. It does feel like switching from The Conjuring to The Strain part way through though.
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
No Time to Die is a fantastic picture. Probably the best in the series. I absolute loved it.
Yeah we're going on Sunday, Venom 2 the weekend after. Having movies back in cinemas is definitely one of the last few pieces of the puzzle. My wife and I are definitely movie-goers rather than theatre or musical people. We enjoy both of the latter but movies are the best, just let go of real life for 2-3 hours, no phones, no distractions. We went to watch Black Widow in the cinema despite it being available on D+ and both of us really wished that Cruella (also great fun) was available on the big screen. Hoping that Disney will do a release for when the inevitable sequel comes out.
Been watching 'Midnight Mass' on Netflix. It's ok, but it feels like it switches tone halfway through from creepy to campy.
I started watching the first 20 mins and it looked brilliant, then Mrs Walker realised it was a horror and threw her toys out.
Yes, I’ve read that it disappoints, as so many things do!
Everyone’s watching Squid Game now so that needs to be the focus.
I'm not usually a horror guy, quite the opposite actually, so I kind of don't mind that it changes tack so much. It does feel like switching from The Conjuring to The Strain part way through though.
I’ve not heard of the conjuring or the strain.
I think true horror is the hardest thing to do. Harder even than comedy.
I can hardly think of any truly scary movies. I always go back to “The Shining”.
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
There are certainly some interesting views in the BBC.
I heard Evan Davis interviewing Grant Shapps earlier and asking him if people wouldn't rightly feel suspicious hearing the Tories are being funded by all of these Russian sounding names.
Apparently foreign sounding names ought to arouse suspicion.
Nadine Dorries today: BBC staffed by people ‘whose mum and dad worked there’, says Nadine Dorries. Culture secretary attacks ‘nepotism’ and ‘groupthink’ at broadcaster in interview at Tory conference
Nadine Dorries few years ago: MP Nadine Dorries paid her daughters up to £80k from the public purse to work in her office... and gave one a £15k pay rise
Nadine Dorries today: BBC staffed by people ‘whose mum and dad worked there’, says Nadine Dorries. Culture secretary attacks ‘nepotism’ and ‘groupthink’ at broadcaster in interview at Tory conference
Nadine Dorries few years ago: MP Nadine Dorries paid her daughters up to £80k from the public purse to work in her office... and gave one a £15k pay rise
Has she watched their channels at any point in the last decade or two?
She tacitly promised there will be no BBC in ten years. A truly reforming Minister
Given the BBC is more popular with older people going after it could backfire spectacularly. The Tories are so full of hubris that they think they can get away with anything . Given the Tories core vote is over 65 this constant attack on the BBC could well turn into an election issue and cost the Tories .
I thought the FCA took a very dim view of regulated personnel using encrypted communication systems?
They do.
Work related WhatsApp messages are usually a variation of 'Read your fecking emails!'
We don’t even allow WhatsApp in our sandbox
Your employees will all have it on their personal phones and they will all have shared their personal numbers already. The FCA is applying communication edicts from the 1980s to the 2020s. There's simply nothing we can do to stop our employees from using WhatsApp or other encrypted communication apps on their personal devices. I expect if we tried the employees would win in court on violation of human rights.
It’s a sackable offence to conduct business on a personal device
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
I am sure you are right, and I confess that I haven’t even seen Hobbit or any but the first LOTR.
But I spent much of lockdown getting “back” into the Beatles after a 25 year hiatus, and so I’m very much looking forward to it.
Nadine Dorries today: BBC staffed by people ‘whose mum and dad worked there’, says Nadine Dorries. Culture secretary attacks ‘nepotism’ and ‘groupthink’ at broadcaster in interview at Tory conference
Nadine Dorries few years ago: MP Nadine Dorries paid her daughters up to £80k from the public purse to work in her office... and gave one a £15k pay rise
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
Oh man the three Hobbit movies were the worst. So much unnecessary filler content that wasn't in the damn book. One 2 hour film would have been perfect for a short book, Peter Jackson should only be given deals without final edit rights.
There are certainly some interesting views in the BBC.
I heard Evan Davis interviewing Grant Shapps earlier and asking him if people wouldn't rightly feel suspicious hearing the Tories are being funded by all of these Russian sounding names.
Apparently foreign sounding names ought to arouse suspicion.
I heard it too, and I thought what a stupid question. But you, I and Shapps knew what he meant.
Been watching 'Midnight Mass' on Netflix. It's ok, but it feels like it switches tone halfway through from creepy to campy.
I started watching the first 20 mins and it looked brilliant, then Mrs Walker realised it was a horror and threw her toys out.
Yes, I’ve read that it disappoints, as so many things do!
Everyone’s watching Squid Game now so that needs to be the focus.
I'm not usually a horror guy, quite the opposite actually, so I kind of don't mind that it changes tack so much. It does feel like switching from The Conjuring to The Strain part way through though.
I’ve not heard of the conjuring or the strain.
I think true horror is the hardest thing to do. Harder even than comedy.
I can hardly think of any truly scary movies. I always go back to “The Shining”.
It may be hard to do well, but it is not hard to do cheap.
January, at least in the USA if reviewers I watch are any indicaton, is horror season, as each year 5-10 million budget horror flicks are released, which easily make back their money even if terrible.
There are certainly some interesting views in the BBC.
I heard Evan Davis interviewing Grant Shapps earlier and asking him if people wouldn't rightly feel suspicious hearing the Tories are being funded by all of these Russian sounding names.
Apparently foreign sounding names ought to arouse suspicion.
If you don’t think the Russians (or Chinese) are not trying to subvert various components of our democracy you haven’t been paying attention.
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
Torsten Bell @TorstenBell Where will the reduction in migration be felt beyond HGV drivers? Here's the top 20 jobs where firms CAN'T bring workers in via the new skilled visa route, the share of workers from EU is high and they churn quite quickly
There are certainly some interesting views in the BBC.
I heard Evan Davis interviewing Grant Shapps earlier and asking him if people wouldn't rightly feel suspicious hearing the Tories are being funded by all of these Russian sounding names.
Apparently foreign sounding names ought to arouse suspicion.
If those foreign sounding names belong to foreigners who are not UK citizens then my personal view is they should not be funding our political parties of any stripe.
There is something fundamentally wrong in my view with political parties of any country receiving funding from people who are not citizens. I don't care if they are Russians, Canadians, Nigerians or Chinese.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
I am sure you are right, and I confess that I haven’t even seen Hobbit or any but the first LOTR.
But I spent much of lockdown getting “back” into the Beatles after a 25 year hiatus, and so I’m very much looking forward to it.
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
There are certainly some interesting views in the BBC.
I heard Evan Davis interviewing Grant Shapps earlier and asking him if people wouldn't rightly feel suspicious hearing the Tories are being funded by all of these Russian sounding names.
Apparently foreign sounding names ought to arouse suspicion.
If you don’t think the Russians (or Chinese) are not trying to subvert various components of our democracy you haven’t been paying attention.
That may be so, but there are ways to raise that concern without just going 'Should people be suspicious of these Russian sounding names?' if that is in essence how he put it.
Nadine Dorries today: BBC staffed by people ‘whose mum and dad worked there’, says Nadine Dorries. Culture secretary attacks ‘nepotism’ and ‘groupthink’ at broadcaster in interview at Tory conference
Nadine Dorries few years ago: MP Nadine Dorries paid her daughters up to £80k from the public purse to work in her office... and gave one a £15k pay rise
Has she watched their channels at any point in the last decade or two?
She tacitly promised there will be no BBC in ten years. A truly reforming Minister
Given the BBC is more popular with older people going after it could backfire spectacularly. The Tories are so full of hubris that they think they can get away with anything . Given the Tories core vote is over 65 this constant attack on the BBC could well turn into an election issue and cost the Tories .
There are certainly some interesting views in the BBC.
I heard Evan Davis interviewing Grant Shapps earlier and asking him if people wouldn't rightly feel suspicious hearing the Tories are being funded by all of these Russian sounding names.
Apparently foreign sounding names ought to arouse suspicion.
If you don’t think the Russians (or Chinese) are not trying to subvert various components of our democracy you haven’t been paying attention.
The question was in the context of Temerko who's now a British citizen and no friend of Putin (nor, I expect, China)
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
I think you either need a bigger bladder or a bigger soul.
The Director's cuts of the Lord of The Rings are far better than the shorter cinema releases. I am more than happy to watch a film that is 3 or 4 hours long.
Although there may be a comic visual aspect, traffic cones are pretty heavy and you could do serious damage with one if it struck with sufficient velocity...
"at the moment there is no 5G coverage in your area"
Get two sims into your phone.
Are you on Vodafone or Three?
I have o2 and EE in my phone and between those two I get 5G coverage in most of the big towns and cities.
I have a dual device strategy
My main phone is Vodafone which gets an upgrade in a few weeks. This is my secondary device, which has just been upgraded to 5G and iPhone 13. But no 5G in my area
It's not exactly The Somme, as disasters go
Pointless, your iPhone 13 can take two SIMs, just use that rather than carrying two devices.
I broke my phone right at the start of lockdown, I was without my phone for 4 days, it felt like The Somme for me.
Well, you've just explained why I have two phones, two sims and two different networks.
It's a total backup if one phone fucks up. So not exactly "pointless"
Do what I do.
Keep an old iPhone in a draw and back up to cloud on a regular basis.
But I like having two phones, both up to date. My Vodafone phone is the best possible, and has all the bells and whistles with unlimited data, my 02 phone is on a very cheap tariff and I've been with them so long I get free upgrades anyway
It was also extremely useful when the kids were younger and they needed distracting, I could hand them my 2nd phone and still have MY phone to hand
And it is still useful if I want to lend someone my phone for a reason, but I don't want anyone to see any, say, recent pics on my main phone. You know. That kind of "sensitive" data
This has a dodgy feel to it. It sounds like an explanation but it actually isn't. Not to my ears anyway.
Lol. What do you think is the REAL reason? I have two phones, three laptops, and four iPads, and I’m all ears
I’m going with ‘multiple identities’...
I'm going with 2 girlfriends, one extra lap top with dodginess, and being an inhabitant of the Apple Prison.
There are certainly some interesting views in the BBC.
I heard Evan Davis interviewing Grant Shapps earlier and asking him if people wouldn't rightly feel suspicious hearing the Tories are being funded by all of these Russian sounding names.
Apparently foreign sounding names ought to arouse suspicion.
I heard it too, and I thought what a stupid question. But you, I and Shapps knew what he meant.
Davis passed himself a hospital pass.
He also assigned no agency to the 'housewife', which might well be accurate, but wouldn't be suggested in most circumstances.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
I am sure you are right, and I confess that I haven’t even seen Hobbit or any but the first LOTR.
But I spent much of lockdown getting “back” into the Beatles after a 25 year hiatus, and so I’m very much looking forward to it.
As for Yellow Submarine, I’m sure nobody would consider it their finest work but even that one song has a kind of omnipresence in the nation’s schools.
And it has a great Ringo vocal, which is a near contradiction in terms.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
I think you either need a bigger bladder or a bigger soul.
The Director's cuts of the Lord of The Rings are far better than the shorter cinema releases. I am more than happy to watch a film that is 3 or 4 hours long.
I like them too, but I seem to recall (at least when they first came out) he was clear they were extended cuts, not Director's cuts, as that implied he was not happy about the theatrical versions.
Though leaving Saruman's tale unfinished in the theatrical was a weird choice.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
I am sure you are right, and I confess that I haven’t even seen Hobbit or any but the first LOTR.
But I spent much of lockdown getting “back” into the Beatles after a 25 year hiatus, and so I’m very much looking forward to it.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
No Time to Die is a fantastic picture. Probably the best in the series. I absolute loved it.
Yeah we're going on Sunday, Venom 2 the weekend after. Having movies back in cinemas is definitely one of the last few pieces of the puzzle. My wife and I are definitely movie-goers rather than theatre or musical people. We enjoy both of the latter but movies are the best, just let go of real life for 2-3 hours, no phones, no distractions. We went to watch Black Widow in the cinema despite it being available on D+ and both of us really wished that Cruella (also great fun) was available on the big screen. Hoping that Disney will do a release for when the inevitable sequel comes out.
Lucky you… the Croods 2 was what I got to watch at the O2
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
(Ironic, given the reviews of Venom 2 have been dreadful, and those of NTTD have been... mixed.)
No Time To Die is bound to divide opinion, just as OHMSS did all those years ago.
But, it’s fantastic in my view.
OHMSS has got better over the years. It's now in my Bond top 5. I have at least one in my top 5 for every bond bar Niven, Dalton, and Brosnan. I have 2 Conneries, a Moore, a Lazenby and a Craig. Talk about a person - me - who is very balanced and unprejudiced.
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
I am sure you are right, and I confess that I haven’t even seen Hobbit or any but the first LOTR.
But I spent much of lockdown getting “back” into the Beatles after a 25 year hiatus, and so I’m very much looking forward to it.
As for Yellow Submarine, I’m sure nobody would consider it their finest work but even that one song has a kind of omnipresence in the nation’s schools.
And it has a great Ringo vocal, which is a near contradiction in terms.
I’ve only heard one Radiohead track, Creep. It’s pretty good.
Don’t know much about them but they don’t seem too popular here.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
Oh man the three Hobbit movies were the worst. So much unnecessary filler content that wasn't in the damn book. One 2 hour film would have been perfect for a short book, Peter Jackson should only be given deals without final edit rights.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
I think you either need a bigger bladder or a bigger soul.
The Director's cuts of the Lord of The Rings are far better than the shorter cinema releases. I am more than happy to watch a film that is 3 or 4 hours long.
That’s setting a low bar given how bad the original cinema releases were.
And The Two Towers is still bloody awful whichever version you watch.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
Oh man the three Hobbit movies were the worst. So much unnecessary filler content that wasn't in the damn book. One 2 hour film would have been perfect for a short book, Peter Jackson should only be given deals without final edit rights.
The Hobbit was 3 movies long?!
Which is extraordinary when you consider how short hobbits are
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
Oh man the three Hobbit movies were the worst. So much unnecessary filler content that wasn't in the damn book. One 2 hour film would have been perfect for a short book, Peter Jackson should only be given deals without final edit rights.
The Hobbit was 3 movies long?!
Yes. They expanded it out, with stuff that was hinted at but now shown in the book, so you could have reasonably made 2 movies, but they wanted three, which was a mistake.
Which is funny when you recall the stories of them trying to make LoTR and one studio wanting them to make it one movie, and they pitched it to New Line as two movies.
In other news, cinemas are back. Over here James Bond just broke the all time opening weekend record and in the US Venom 2 has done the second best October opening weekend ever. It turns out people like going to see movies on the big screen and escaping from real life for a couple of hours.
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Good news.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
Peter Jackson. Editing. I'm really not sure he understands the word or the concept.
Three two hour long movies. About a single recording session. For a 45 minute album.
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
I think you either need a bigger bladder or a bigger soul.
The Director's cuts of the Lord of The Rings are far better than the shorter cinema releases. I am more than happy to watch a film that is 3 or 4 hours long.
That’s setting a low bar given how bad the original cinema releases were.
And The Two Towers is still bloody awful whichever version you watch.
Comments
If they continue to put the lives of vulnerable people at risk, then they will incite a riot, and they may just get one.
Seriously?
Has she watched their channels at any point in the last decade or two?
That means we will effectively have an English Parliament by default, assuming the SNP continue to not vote on English domestic policy
Can you evidence that claim in the case of the UK?
Shockingly half of the movie industry has bet against the big screen and are now going to have to row back on streaming commitments and give movies exclusive release windows again. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney extended their release window from 6 weeks to something more like 10 weeks ±4 weeks to match SPE. WB are buggered IMO as they seem to have permanently devalued their theatrical releases by promising streaming subscribers day and date releases without an easy way to u-turn that doesn't lose them millions of subscribers.
Did a lateral flow myself and it was negative ( I feel fine) but if her PCR comes back positive tomorrow my work will ask me to have a PCR before returning from annual leave on Saturday. I work for an NHS Trust's Occupational Health department, three of my colleagues last week double vaccinated went off with Covid with vomiting a symptom in all three cases.
I am due my Covid Booster on Wednesday, it's 7 months since my 2nd dose so was keen to get it. If my sister's PCR comes back negative and my lateral flow on the day is fine I plan to get it done.
Liz Truss says she felt like her umbilical cord was cut today when WhatsApp went down.
You and the rest of us, babe.
https://twitter.com/NatashaC/status/1445086811475398674
I would be very amused if one lot of Extinction Rebellion idiots caused a riot to happen, then were prevented from getting to hospital by one of the ambulance barricades set up by another lot of Extinction Rebellion idiots.
'Mixed' reviews often seems a euphemism for a movie being bad, since it could mean views are split, or that the vast majority are bad but someone liked it.
Streamed movies suck. All the excitement is drained away when you realise you can watch it anytime / anywhere.
I see though that Peter Jackson’s long-awaited Get Back doco is happening now as a three parter on Disney+ (each part being 2 hours), though whether that’s because they can’t edit it down below 6 hours I don’t know.
I thought the first one was a good laugh, I'm sure the second one will be too. My wife went because it's got Tom Hardy, I suspect she'll go to see this one as well.
Bertrand 51%
Macron 49%
https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1445086354086506526?s=20
https://twitter.com/SamInYEG/status/1445085621924483073
'Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative party, has been assaulted by a group of men on his route to an event at the Mercure hotel.
Duncan Smith arrived at a Brexit panel with Cabinet office minister Lord Frost, only to disappear midway through to discuss the incident with a police officer who took a statement from him. Speaking afterwards, he told Steerpike that he was pursued down the road from the Midland hotel to the Mercure by several men, one of whom threw a traffic cone which hit him on the head.'
https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1445066055366418445?s=20
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/iain-duncan-smith-assaulted-at-tory-conference
But, it’s fantastic in my view.
Yes, I’ve read that it disappoints, as so many things do!
Everyone’s watching Squid Game now so that needs to be the focus.
Traffic cone. Head. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Far. Too. Long.
Someone recut the Hobbit trilogy to make it a single movie. It was - apparently - much improved.
I started doing a recut of Spectre about four years ago, trying to get rid of that ridiculous campy spymaster and the whole Five Eyes subplot. It would have knocked about 25 minutes off the movie, and made it much more interesting.
I think true horror is the hardest thing to do. Harder even than comedy.
I can hardly think of any truly scary movies.
I always go back to “The Shining”.
And I do mean all of that.
I heard Evan Davis interviewing Grant Shapps earlier and asking him if people wouldn't rightly feel suspicious hearing the Tories are being funded by all of these Russian sounding names.
Apparently foreign sounding names ought to arouse suspicion.
But I spent much of lockdown getting “back” into the Beatles after a 25 year hiatus, and so I’m very much looking forward to it.
They make Radiohead look like mewling wankers.
It is wrong on so many levels
Davis passed himself a hospital pass.
January, at least in the USA if reviewers I watch are any indicaton, is horror season, as each year 5-10 million budget horror flicks are released, which easily make back their money even if terrible.
@TorstenBell
Where will the reduction in migration be felt beyond HGV drivers? Here's the top 20 jobs where firms CAN'T bring workers in via the new skilled visa route, the share of workers from EU is high and they churn quite quickly
https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/status/1445055161584558098
===
Not looking good for rubber processing. And we may have to wash our own cars. Lordy, whatever next.
There is something fundamentally wrong in my view with political parties of any country receiving funding from people who are not citizens. I don't care if they are Russians, Canadians, Nigerians or Chinese.
If someone WhatsApps me, they are lucky to get a reply in a week.
I wonder how outraged the media will be.
I'm guessing there will be no calls for the resignation of the GMP police chief.
The Director's cuts of the Lord of The Rings are far better than the shorter cinema releases. I am more than happy to watch a film that is 3 or 4 hours long.
As for Yellow Submarine, I’m sure nobody would consider it their finest work but even that one song has a kind of omnipresence in the nation’s schools.
And it has a great Ringo vocal, which is a near contradiction in terms.
Though leaving Saruman's tale unfinished in the theatrical was a weird choice.
https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1445060377197305868?s=19
Probably not for the first time.
Don’t know much about them but they don’t seem too popular here.
And The Two Towers is still bloody awful whichever version you watch.
Which is funny when you recall the stories of them trying to make LoTR and one studio wanting them to make it one movie, and they pitched it to New Line as two movies.