MaxPB said:

JosiasJessop said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

JosiasJessop said:

I've worked with some BBC technical bods in the past on projects. They're excellent, and have developed great tech. If they get the managerial backing they can do amazing stuff (or if they skunkworks it).

Like the £100 million digital media project that they had to abandon after trying to reinvent the wheel when they could have just brought a solution of the shelf?

I didn't say they were perfect.

Didn't ?Siemens? (or ?Fujitsu?) also have trouble with the same project? It'd be interesting to read up on exactly went wrong - I'm presuming mismanagement rather than hard technical issues.

But seriously: the BBC tech bods I've worked with have been excellent.

The problem isn't and has never been the tech teams or even the production teams. It's the dead hand of management that chokes everything creative at the BBC. How does HBO produce world class TV on less than half the annual budget? How does Netflix commission the best global shows? How does Amazon TV end up being able to fund tentpoles like TGT?

They all run a massively tight ship. The BBC could dump all of their daytime shit and just show repeats of older shows instead and invest the savings in top end drama and documentaries like Netflix.

Pretty much agree with that. But how much are BBC tied by the charter?

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/800446505773596672

AFP - Sarkozy out.

MaxPB said:

JosiasJessop said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

JosiasJessop said:

I've worked with some BBC technical bods in the past on projects. They're excellent, and have developed great tech. If they get the managerial backing they can do amazing stuff (or if they skunkworks it).

Like the £100 million digital media project that they had to abandon after trying to reinvent the wheel when they could have just brought a solution of the shelf?

I didn't say they were perfect.

Didn't ?Siemens? (or ?Fujitsu?) also have trouble with the same project? It'd be interesting to read up on exactly went wrong - I'm presuming mismanagement rather than hard technical issues.

But seriously: the BBC tech bods I've worked with have been excellent.

The problem isn't and has never been the tech teams or even the production teams. It's the dead hand of management that chokes everything creative at the BBC. How does HBO produce world class TV on less than half the annual budget? How does Netflix commission the best global shows? How does Amazon TV end up being able to fund tentpoles like TGT?

They all run a massively tight ship. The BBC could dump all of their daytime shit and just show repeats of older shows instead and invest the savings in top end drama and documentaries like Netflix.

In my experience, public sector bodies are quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations first, and businesses second. And the businesses they tend to emulate are the traditional pyramidal corporations of old.

A good chunk of any public sector body seems to be just as interested in promoting, or acting as an advocate for, government policy as yet another arm of the civil service.

Pulpstar said:

Well Juppe isn't going to win the run off, so surely its Fillon vs Le Pen now ?

£200 on Filon at 1.66 to try and rescue the position !

Fillon is going to be the next President of France, it's one of those weird things were the primary election is more important than the general.

Pulpstar said:

Well Juppe isn't going to win the run off, so surely its Fillon vs Le Pen now ?

£200 on Filon at 1.66 to try and rescue the position !

Don't chase a bad position. I lose money every time I do that.

He's probably a marginal lay right now, anyway.

Speedy said:

Pulpstar said:

Well Juppe isn't going to win the run off, so surely its Fillon vs Le Pen now ?

£200 on Filon at 1.66 to try and rescue the position !

Fillon is going to be the next President of France, it's one of those weird things were the primary election is more important than the general.

Hmm. I'm not so sure. But glad I piled into Fillon early this morning thanks to a poll that was mentioned here on PB.

ThreeQuidder said:

Will Juppe now do a Leadsom?

What a good idea. As I'm red on him.

Fillon has a reputation as a bit of an anglophile, and his wife is Welsh, but I'm not sure that means an awful lot in France.

Maybe it means France won't be a complete dick to the UK next year after the election, but I'm not holding my breath.

Pulpstar said:

Casino_Royale said:

Pulpstar said:

Well Juppe isn't going to win the run off, so surely its Fillon vs Le Pen now ?

£200 on Filon at 1.66 to try and rescue the position !

Don't chase a bad position. I lose money every time I do that.

He's probably a marginal lay right now, anyway.

I think Filon will go tighter yet.

I think you're right, but I'm not backing him at this price.

Not until I see some new polling.

Transfers would have to break more than 5-1 for Juppe, can't see it myself.

Sarkozy was a crap president

It remains to be seen if Fillon has a plan for France

TheScreamingEagles said:

tlg86 said:

Scrapheap_as_was said:

ydoethur said:

If you have bets on anyone other than Murray being SPOTY, I rather suspect that you have lost your money.

Some of us went large on muzza at better than evens...

I'm still counting the BBC going all PC and doing all they can to get Laura over the line.

I'm on team Laura.

Trouble with Murray is he's won twice already. Really, despite the Davis Cup win, I thought he shouldn't have won last year, when he'd actually had a disappointing season. Jess ennis deserved to win a Spoty for career achievement and all round good eggness and coming back from childbirth to win the Worlds was a great achievement. Still I think she's a knocking ew bet this time although she won't win.

If Lil Laura is in contention, I'm not sure why Jason Kenny isn't. He doesn't pursue it maybe.

Still think Brownlee could win - career achievement and good sportsmanship - and he's approaching value now.

Casino_Royale said:

Fillon has a reputation as a bit of an anglophile, and his wife is Welsh, but I'm not sure that means an awful lot in France.

Maybe it means France won't be a complete dick to the UK next year after the election, but I'm not holding my breath.

https://www.fillon2017.fr/2016/06/28/brexit-intervention-assemblee-nationale/

His Brexit position is for a quick and amicable divorce and to remain friends with Britain.

Belatedly, I see Merkel is running again after being Chancellor for 11 years and CDU leader for 16 years.

Bit like Maggie saying in 1990 she wants to go on until 1994/1995, and being applauded for it.

Casino_Royale said:

Belatedly, I see Merkel is running again after being Chancellor for 11 years and CDU leader for 16 years.

Bit like Maggie saying in 1990 she wants to go on until 1994/1995, and being applauded for it.

Kohl was chancellor for 16 years.. perhaps the Germans like a bit of stability?

So this primary is lot like AV isn't it?

Bottom candidate gets eliminated, until there are but, and the one that gets over 50% wins.

RobD said:

Casino_Royale said:

Belatedly, I see Merkel is running again after being Chancellor for 11 years and CDU leader for 16 years.

Bit like Maggie saying in 1990 she wants to go on until 1994/1995, and being applauded for it.

Kohl was chancellor for 16 years.. perhaps the Germans like a bit of stability?

Let's bloody hope so.

TheScreamingEagles said:

So this primary is lot like AV isn't it?

Bottom candidate gets eliminated, until there are but, and the one that gets over 50% wins.

Well Sarkozy has declared himself out, so that is ~ 21% of the vote going spare. Filon only needs another 7 odd %.

RobD said:

Casino_Royale said:

Belatedly, I see Merkel is running again after being Chancellor for 11 years and CDU leader for 16 years.

Bit like Maggie saying in 1990 she wants to go on until 1994/1995, and being applauded for it.

Kohl was chancellor for 16 years.. perhaps the Germans like a bit of stability?

They do, because of past experiences, they hate instability, that's why they'll agree to things like grand coalitions.

TheScreamingEagles said:

RobD said:

Casino_Royale said:

Belatedly, I see Merkel is running again after being Chancellor for 11 years and CDU leader for 16 years.

Bit like Maggie saying in 1990 she wants to go on until 1994/1995, and being applauded for it.

Kohl was chancellor for 16 years.. perhaps the Germans like a bit of stability?

They do, because of past experiences, they hate instability, that's why they'll agree to things like grand coalitions.

Sickening!

TheScreamingEagles said:

So this primary is lot like AV isn't it?

Bottom candidate gets eliminated, until there are but, and the one that gets over 50% wins.

What's better than one FPTP election? Two FPTP elections!

Oh, my coat?

RobD said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

RobD said:

Casino_Royale said:

Belatedly, I see Merkel is running again after being Chancellor for 11 years and CDU leader for 16 years.

Bit like Maggie saying in 1990 she wants to go on until 1994/1995, and being applauded for it.

Kohl was chancellor for 16 years.. perhaps the Germans like a bit of stability?

They do, because of past experiences, they hate instability, that's why they'll agree to things like grand coalitions.

Sickening!

Just think if were like the Germans, in 2010 we would have had a grand coalition of Labour and the Tories.

Casino_Royale said:

Belatedly, I see Merkel is running again after being Chancellor for 11 years and CDU leader for 16 years.

Bit like Maggie saying in 1990 she wants to go on until 1994/1995, and being applauded for it.

12 was enough for Hitler, though as I recall he did not go quietly.

Casino_Royale said:

Speedy said:

Casino_Royale said:

Fillon has a reputation as a bit of an anglophile, and his wife is Welsh, but I'm not sure that means an awful lot in France.

Maybe it means France won't be a complete dick to the UK next year after the election, but I'm not holding my breath.

https://www.fillon2017.fr/2016/06/28/brexit-intervention-assemblee-nationale/

His Brexit position is for a quick and amicable divorce and to remain friends with Britain.

But he has French domestic politics to contend with.

It's a small positive, but not a decisive one.

In France the President is King (because since the reform of 2002 they always win a majority in Parliament too).

MikeK said:

I still say that Fillon will be swallowed by Marine Le Pen in the GE but we shall see.

Sadly, I think you may be right. I'm betting accordingly. Green on a run-off between LePen and Fillon.

Speedy said:

Casino_Royale said:

Speedy said:

Casino_Royale said:

Fillon has a reputation as a bit of an anglophile, and his wife is Welsh, but I'm not sure that means an awful lot in France.

Maybe it means France won't be a complete dick to the UK next year after the election, but I'm not holding my breath.

https://www.fillon2017.fr/2016/06/28/brexit-intervention-assemblee-nationale/

His Brexit position is for a quick and amicable divorce and to remain friends with Britain.

But he has French domestic politics to contend with.

It's a small positive, but not a decisive one.

In France the President is King (because since the reform of 2002 they always win a majority in Parliament too).

What happened in 2002?

TheScreamingEagles said:

RobD said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

RobD said:

Casino_Royale said:

Belatedly, I see Merkel is running again after being Chancellor for 11 years and CDU leader for 16 years.

Bit like Maggie saying in 1990 she wants to go on until 1994/1995, and being applauded for it.

Kohl was chancellor for 16 years.. perhaps the Germans like a bit of stability?

They do, because of past experiences, they hate instability, that's why they'll agree to things like grand coalitions.

Sickening!

Just think if were like the Germans, in 2010 we would have had a grand coalition of Labour and the Tories.

Hurray for FPTP.

I couldn't imagine a worse outcome than a Brown-Osborne coalition government.

If his wife is Welsh, and he's French, then that means they must really hate the England rugby team.

Casino_Royale said:

JosiasJessop said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

JosiasJessop said:

I've worked with some BBC technical bods in the past on projects. They're excellent, and have developed great tech. If they get the managerial backing they can do amazing stuff (or if they skunkworks it).

Like the £100 million digital media project that they had to abandon after trying to reinvent the wheel when they could have just brought a solution of the shelf?

I didn't say they were perfect.

Didn't ?Siemens? (or ?Fujitsu?) also have trouble with the same project? It'd be interesting to read up on exactly went wrong - I'm presuming mismanagement rather than hard technical issues.

But seriously: the BBC tech bods I've worked with have been excellent.

PM'ed you.

Replied, with thanks.

Speedy said:

RobD said:

Speedy said:

Casino_Royale said:

Speedy said:

Casino_Royale said:

Fillon has a reputation as a bit of an anglophile, and his wife is Welsh, but I'm not sure that means an awful lot in France.

Maybe it means France won't be a complete dick to the UK next year after the election, but I'm not holding my breath.

https://www.fillon2017.fr/2016/06/28/brexit-intervention-assemblee-nationale/

His Brexit position is for a quick and amicable divorce and to remain friends with Britain.

But he has French domestic politics to contend with.

It's a small positive, but not a decisive one.

In France the President is King (because since the reform of 2002 they always win a majority in Parliament too).

What happened in 2002?

They changed it from a 7 year term to a 5 year term to coincide with the French Parliamentary elections, so effectively the person who wins the Presidency also wins Parliament and has absolute power.

Oh, like in the US? I wonder if they have done any studies into split voting.

rcs1000 said:

Alanbrooke said:

Sarkozy was a crap president

It remains to be seen if Fillon has a plan for France

He's described himself as Thatcher's biggest fan.

I think he has some competition from our very own posters for that one...

MikeK said:

I still say that Fillon will be swallowed by Marine Le Pen in the GE but we shall see.

Ooohhhh error

Looks like Mr Fish has sunk to the bottom, almost.

chestnut said:

This usually precedes a resounding defeat;

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-italy-referendum-idUKKBN13F0UM?il=0

Where's St Bob?