politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Theresa May – the wrong woman for her time?
Comments
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Charles said:
Banks didn’t donate to the Leave campaignCyclefree said:
You might want to wait for what comes out of the Mueller investigation and the NCA's investigation into Arron Banks' donations to the Leave campaign before harnessing your sails to Farage's mast.GIN1138 said:
I'd vote for it.Sean_F said:
If Brexit gets cancelled, then I think Farage's new party will be riding high in the polls.Norm said:
I can imagine Brexit cancelled but the idea there'd still be a functioning Tory party afterwards is shall we say politely a tad unlikely.edmundintokyo said:
Which part don't you buy?Norm said:
A remainer drug ridden fantasy I'd suggestedmundintokyo said:I dunno, TMay looks hopelessly incompetent right now but you have to wait to see the outcome.
Imagine parliament "forces" a Remain vs Deal referendum on her. A few months from now we could easily have:
* Brexit cancelled
* Con leading in polls
* TMay still PM
* Her enemies marginalized, feuding and discredited
...and people will be asking if she planned the whole thing.
They rejected his input so he went off on his own
Guilt by association isn’t a thing
Two of PBs favourite header writers go head-to-head .. First Alastair's "her authority has scattered across the floor of the House of Commons like pearls from a broken necklace"
.....and now cyclefree's "harnessing your sails to to Farage's mast' (which actually made me LOL).0 -
Yup, there's also a piece from a more explicitly leftist direction arguing that aside from the things she actually did as a prosecutor, the mere fact of being one is siding with the powerful...rkrkrk said:
Interesting. Certainly enough in there to get the left unhappy, suspect in today's climate being a prosecutor is not ideal for Dem primary.edmundintokyo said:Hit job in the NYT on Kamala Harris's record as a CA Attorney General:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html
https://theintercept.com/2019/01/20/a-problem-for-kamala-harris-can-a-prosecutor-become-president-in-the-age-of-black-lives-matter/
Looking at Kos the netroots don't seem very bothered by this stuff. What I don't have a good read on is how it will play among black voters, particularly SC; I think a lot of people have been assuming she'll win them because she's black - this was implicit in Nate Silver's analysis that @rcs1000 linked a while back. I wouldn't be so sure, especially if she underperforms in Iowa and NH.0 -
You have used the most interesting word in the English language and one I have never properly understood.Roger said:Your headers are becoming more poetic. Now the bifurcation looks evitable and the country is going to cleave it's appropriate that our language should deconverge.
To 'Cleave' means to split or sever.
To 'Cleave to' means to stay very close to or to stick to.
Why? It makes no sense. They are almost exact opposites.0 -
Any ideology (nationalism, socialism, liberalism, conservatism even pragmatism) taken to extremes or applied as if it is the sole truth causes major problems. Currently we need to dial down nationalism a touch.0
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Italy sticks the boot in to France again blaming it for the mediterranean refugee crisis and demands sanctions are placed on France
https://www.lastampa.it/2019/01/22/economia/migranti-raffiche-di-accuse-contro-parigi-la-francia-convoca-lambasciatore-frasi-inaccettabili-aF50fJPR4SdYrSjyMhGmRN/pagina.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-469550060 -
You are blunt and to the point.Richard_Tyndall said:
You have used the most interesting word in the English language and one I have never properly understood.Roger said:Your headers are becoming more poetic. Now the bifurcation looks evitable and the country is going to cleave it's appropriate that our language should deconverge.
To 'Cleave' means to split or sever.
To 'Cleave to' means to stay very close to or to stick to.
Why? It makes no sense. They are almost exact opposites.0 -
I sometimes come to Statist conclusions, my free market is pretty regulated, my gun control tight, my government active in strategic sectors. But, I'm with this: there is no Business good or national good or societal good per se, it is merely a shorthand, a convenient and useful shorthand, for an aggregate and distribution of individual human effects, and policy makers daily should remember it as such.Richard_Tyndall said:
I hope I am in agreement with Edmund. The state is nothing other than the framework which allows people to coexist under a mutually agreed set of rules. The state as an entity should never be considered more important than the individuals that live within it.edmundintokyo said:
Right, but the point is that it's not good for *the collective* per se, it's good for the individuals in the collective.FeersumEnjineeya said:
That seems a strange thing to say. Surely the whole point of having laws at all is to put the collective good before individual freedom? For example, we don't have the individual freedom to drop litter wherever we like so as to achieve the collective good of a tidy country. Not many people would see that as a bad thing.
Putting it another way, say you've got a country called Somewheria, and all the citizens of Somewheria decide they want to move to Elsewheria, and Somewheria ceases to exist. This results in the DESTRUCTION of Somewheria. But nobody is harmed, and everyone is better off, and nobody's rights are violated.
This is something that nationalists would probably disagree with - they care about the abstract organization over the actual humans.
The primary difference between a reasonable Libertarian and a reasonable Statist is the degree to which the collective, acting through the state, should impose rules on the individual.
Unless of course you are talking about the very good manga series Hetalia.0 -
LOL. Excellent. I had never thought of that one.Jonathan said:
You are blunt and to the point.Richard_Tyndall said:
You have used the most interesting word in the English language and one I have never properly understood.Roger said:Your headers are becoming more poetic. Now the bifurcation looks evitable and the country is going to cleave it's appropriate that our language should deconverge.
To 'Cleave' means to split or sever.
To 'Cleave to' means to stay very close to or to stick to.
Why? It makes no sense. They are almost exact opposites.
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I prefer “more thoughtful and independently minded” to “less loyal”!Nemtynakht said:
I think Conservative voters are less loyal than Labour. Tony Blair understood how to win a majority by targeting close run seats. Labour have the ten safest seats in the commons - not necessarily the best thing_Anazina_ said:
As I said the other night, the PB Tories would vote for my cat if she had a blue rosette. She is very photogenic so has media appeal.kle4 said:
People like party labels. They might know he was a class act, but not that his opponent was so bad that he was better than the person wearing the right rosette. We don't have much time to get to know candidates, and most only spout party slogans, it is hard to tell._Anazina_ said:
Anyone even vaguely interested in politics ought to have been able to tell that Ed Balls is a class act.kle4 said:
Until someone is elected you cannot always tell their quality. It's why we trust to the brand.Benpointer said:
I'd be truly mortified if that were me TSE._Anazina_ said:
You and David preferred Andrea Jenkyns to Ed Balls? You have never shown signs of being stark raving bonkers before.TheScreamingEagles said:
Andrew Bridgen, Iain Duncan Smith, Peter Bone, Mark Francois, Steve Baker, and the woman who I helped to elect, Andrea Jenkyns, though I think David Herdson deserves the lion's share of the credit for that.kle4 said:
I tried speculating last night if there are any MPs who would be worse in this particular situation. Not that she does not have some qualities better than many, but thinking about how she is so clearly wrong for this situation as she is unwilling to act and is just pursuing options she knows will not work just to delay.Philip_Thompson said:Couldn't agree more. May has provided a complete vacuum where leadership was required. Anyone, even Andrea Leadsom, would have been better than this. They could hardly have been worse!
All I came up with were Chris Williamson and Chris Chope as being worse, but there have to be a full handful at least. Suggestions?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-safe-seat-marginal-constituencies-house-of-commons-jeremy-corbyn-theresa-may-a7886571.html0 -
Tetchy. Ok, you reject any form of political arrangement that exercises any level of authority over the individual, the freedom of which you regard as absolute worldwide.edmundintokyo said:
Either make an actual argument or fuck off.Casino_Royale said:
You’re obviously intelligent but you live in an idealistic bubble totally disconnected from the real world.edmundintokyo said:
Right, but the point is that it's not good for *the collective* per se, it's good for the individuals in the collective.FeersumEnjineeya said:
That seems a strange thing to say. Surely the whole point of having laws at all is to put the collective good before individual freedom? For example, we don't have the individual freedom to drop litter wherever we like so as to achieve the collective good of a tidy country. Not many people would see that as a bad thing.
Putting it another way, say you've got a country called Somewheria, and all the citizens of Somewheria decide they want to move to Elsewheria, and Somewheria ceases to exist. This results in the DESTRUCTION of Somewheria. But nobody is harmed, and everyone is better off, and nobody's rights are violated.
This is something that nationalists would probably disagree with - they care about the abstract organization over the actual humans.
You should write for The Economist.
Whilst your intelligence means you are able to deploy sophisticated arguments around that point of view I think that’s fundamentally palpably absurd.
Better?0 -
If you’re ever subject to criminal proceedings in the US, don’t hire Rudi Giuliani...
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/even-if-he-did-do-it-it-wouldnt-be-a-crime-rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-robert-mueller-moscow-buzzfeed
Because I have been through all the tapes, I have been through all the texts, I have been through all the e-mails, and I knew none existed. And then, basically, when the special counsel said that, just in case there are any others I might not know about, they probably went through others and found the same thing.
Wait, what tapes have you gone through?
I shouldn’t have said tapes....0 -
What? No.Casino_Royale said:
Ok, you reject any form of political arrangement that exercises any level of authority over the individual, the freedom of which you regard as absolute worldwide.0 -
Oh boy, what an idiot.Nigelb said:If you’re ever subject to criminal proceedings in the US, don’t hire Rudi Giuliani...
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/even-if-he-did-do-it-it-wouldnt-be-a-crime-rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-robert-mueller-moscow-buzzfeed
Because I have been through all the tapes, I have been through all the texts, I have been through all the e-mails, and I knew none existed. And then, basically, when the special counsel said that, just in case there are any others I might not know about, they probably went through others and found the same thing.
Wait, what tapes have you gone through?
I shouldn’t have said tapes....
Trump is going to be Giuli roasted...0 -
Did you lose money in it ?Charles said:
I’ll dig out a fun article on the South Sea bubble for you when I get a momentCyclefree said:Anyway, if you're bored of Brexit or fed up with it, some non-Brexit related reading.
https://barry-walsh.co.uk/news/
The essay I refer to is very well worth your time.0 -
You do know Bulgarians picked our strawberries before the EU* and will do so after the EU?Nemtynakht said:
I always frame it as an open door so that Bulgarians could pick our strawberries. It sounds less tragic and wastefully mediocre but is more accurateFF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstops, no deal minideals, customs unions, Articles 50, gridlock at Dover, blah, we should not lose sight of the central, tragic, wasteful mediocrity of Brexit.Scott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
* metaphorically because of the whole Communisim thing0 -
Political ideologies remind me of the quackery doctors used to practice. If you believe exclusively in liberalism, conservativism, nationalism, socialism you may as well believe in leeches.0
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Nevertheless, things evolve. Once upon a time my predecessor would just have been Kentish. Then he became Wessexian, and Kentish. Then he became English as well. And British. I am quite happy to be European, and British, and Kentish as well, by birth anyhow.Casino_Royale said:
I completely disagree. That’s a classic Anywhere viewpoint. Nations are formed of people who emotionally self-identify with that nation, which is why they exist in the first place and the basis of their stability. They have a legitimate interest in who joins them and at what rate that can at times supersede raw economic considerations of output and input.rcs1000 said:
Nations are just economic actors, no more special than football teams or firms.Casino_Royale said:
Nations are not commodities.rcs1000 said:
I always find it odd when anyone puts the good of a "country" above the good of people.brendan16 said:
And do you think it should be the aspiration of Bulgarians to pick our food? Bulgaria has lost 2 million of its citizens since the early 1990s - nearly 25% of its then population. Its rather sad don't you think - that all you think they are good for is to pick strawberries? Who is going to pick their fruit and care for their elderly?FF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstops, no deal minideals, customs unions, Articles 50, gridlock at Dover, blah, we should not lose sight of the central, tragic, wasteful mediocrity of Brexit.Scott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
By that logic, Israel should not allowed to let Jews arrive, because it drains other countries of intelligent citizens.
Much better, surely, that nations because subject to the same laws of demand as other commodities. Failing countries that follow stupid policies, should lose all their people.
It’s the reduction of everything to an economic unit - creating a simplistic game where one simply endeavours to maximise the equation - that lies behind much of the change in today’s politics.
The people within them are economic actors, who individually demand goods and services, and thus collectively nations do, but nations are neither “just economic actors” nor the same as football teams or firms, which is ludicrous.
Any time spent thinking about it, or talking to a normal person, will show that up to be nonsense it is.0 -
They picked strawberries metaphorically, they picked metaphorical strawberries, or they picked strawberries in a metaphorical EU?Charles said:
You do know Bulgarians picked our strawberries before the EU* and will do so after the EU?Nemtynakht said:
I always frame it as an open door so that Bulgarians could pick our strawberries. It sounds less tragic and wastefully mediocre but is more accurateFF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstops, no deal minideals, customs unions, Articles 50, gridlock at Dover, blah, we should not lose sight of the central, tragic, wasteful mediocrity of Brexit.Scott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
* metaphorically because of the whole Communisim thing0 -
so according to IMF in or out makes little difference UK, France Germany all at the same growth level in 2019 and 2020
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-469459720 -
That's an unkind comment. When it comes to politics however, 'leeches' seems an apt way of describing certain of the useless cu...er, politicians.Jonathan said:Political ideologies remind me of the quackery doctors used to practice. If you believe exclusively in liberalism, conservativism, nationalism, socialism you may as well believe in leeches.
0 -
Very fair post.Jonathan said:Any ideology (nationalism, socialism, liberalism, conservatism even pragmatism) taken to extremes or applied as if it is the sole truth causes major problems. Currently we need to dial down nationalism a touch.
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It was a happy accident. I was thinking of a third word that sounded plausable but was invented when I came accross 'cleave' wich I liked so much I had to use it though it rather spoilt the point of my post..Richard_Tyndall said:
You have used the most interesting word in the English language and one I have never properly understood.Roger said:Your headers are becoming more poetic. Now the bifurcation looks evitable and the country is going to cleave it's appropriate that our language should deconverge.
To 'Cleave' means to split or sever.
To 'Cleave to' means to stay very close to or to stick to.
Why? It makes no sense. They are almost exact opposites.0 -
Against the people, naturallybrendan16 said:
Don't forget though - she is 'for the people'. Not sure what the other declared Dem candidates are for?rottenborough said:
Trillions? Wow.edmundintokyo said:OT Kamala Harris tax and spending plans:
$3 trillion for Medicare For All, sounds like she might have to raise taxes, but no, fuck everything, let's just do a $3 trillion tax cut as well.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/21/sen-kamala-harriss-policy-agenda-trillion-tax-plan-tax-credits-renters-bail-reform-medicare-for-all/?utm_term=.26b7ab82676b
(You have to keep hitting the escape key while the page loads or it'll try to show you a paywall.)
I expect we will see more and more such promises in order to win over the left leaning primary and caucus voters.0 -
That's funny!asjohnstone said:
Did you lose money in it ?Charles said:
I’ll dig out a fun article on the South Sea bubble for you when I get a momentCyclefree said:Anyway, if you're bored of Brexit or fed up with it, some non-Brexit related reading.
https://barry-walsh.co.uk/news/
The essay I refer to is very well worth your time.0 -
I like to consider myself an Earthling. But it usually just means I'm alien-fodder.....IanB2 said:
Nevertheless, things evolve. Once upon a time my predecessor would just have been Kentish. Then he became Wessexian, and Kentish. Then he became English as well. And British. I am quite happy to be European, and British, and Kentish as well, by birth anyhow.Casino_Royale said:
I completely disagree. That’s a classic Anywhere viewpoint. Nations are formed of people who emotionally self-identify with that nation, which is why they exist in the first place and the basis of their stability. They have a legitimate interest in who joins them and at what rate that can at times supersede raw economic considerations of output and input.rcs1000 said:
Nations are just economic actors, no more special than football teams or firms.Casino_Royale said:
Nations are not commodities.rcs1000 said:
I always find it odd when anyone puts the good of a "country" above the good of people.brendan16 said:
And do you think it should be the aspiration of Bulgarians to pick our food? Bulgaria has lost 2 million of its citizens since the early 1990s - nearly 25% of its then population. Its rather sad don't you think - that all you think they are good for is to pick strawberries? Who is going to pick their fruit and care for their elderly?FF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstops, no deal minideals, customs unions, Articles 50, gridlock at Dover, blah, we should not lose sight of the central, tragic, wasteful mediocrity of Brexit.Scott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
By that logic, Israel should not allowed to let Jews arrive, because it drains other countries of intelligent citizens.
Much better, surely, that nations because subject to the same laws of demand as other commodities. Failing countries that follow stupid policies, should lose all their people.
It’s the reduction of everything to an economic unit - creating a simplistic game where one simply endeavours to maximise the equation - that lies behind much of the change in today’s politics.
The people within them are economic actors, who individually demand goods and services, and thus collectively nations do, but nations are neither “just economic actors” nor the same as football teams or firms, which is ludicrous.
Any time spent thinking about it, or talking to a normal person, will show that up to be nonsense it is.0 -
Yes, I don't see any virtue in cherishing an abstraction over the concrete happiness of those who live in the abstraction. A nationalist would I think say - and I'd concede - that a sense of belonging to their community is an important factor in their happiness, so in your example they feel very attached to Somewheria and its prosperity - or even, more sinisterly, its dominance over others - makes them happy and they wouldn't dream of moving to Elsewheria.edmundintokyo said:
Right, but the point is that it's not good for *the collective* per se, it's good for the individuals in the collective.FeersumEnjineeya said:
That seems a strange thing to say. Surely the whole point of having laws at all is to put the collective good before individual freedom? For example, we don't have the individual freedom to drop litter wherever we like so as to achieve the collective good of a tidy country. Not many people would see that as a bad thing.
Putting it another way, say you've got a country called Somewheria, and all the citizens of Somewheria decide they want to move to Elsewheria, and Somewheria ceases to exist. This results in the DESTRUCTION of Somewheria. But nobody is harmed, and everyone is better off, and nobody's rights are violated.
This is something that nationalists would probably disagree with - they care about the abstract organization over the actual humans.
Similarly, I feel as a socialist that living in a society with wealth widely shared and incomes not grossly different is important to my happiness, and in a more abstract way I reckon it's important to the happiness of others, which I both want to promote and feel I ought to promote. (In my case this goes back to growing up in Denmark and comparing society then to Britain now.) So although I agree that it's all about how individuals feel, politics is to a great extent about working out how our surrounding environment makes us all feel.0 -
St Paul disagrees with yourcs1000 said:
There you go, elevating the national entity above human beings.DecrepitJohnL said:
If a hypothetical developing country loses most of its doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs to the West then firstly, it is subsidising the richer countries, and more importantly is less likely to develop if it loses the very citizens most likely to deliver growth. Against that, it benefits both the individuals who leave and the country they end up in. There again, those left behind, who are less well off than they would otherwise have been, are people too.rcs1000 said:
I always find it odd when anyone puts the good of a "country" above the good of people.brendan16 said:
And do you think it should be the aspiration of Bulgarians to pick our food? Bulgaria has lost 2 million of its citizens since the early 1990s - nearly 25% of its then population. Its rather sad don't you think - that all you think they are good for is to pick strawberries? Who is going to pick their fruit and care for their elderly?FF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstops, no deal minideals, customs unions, Articles 50, gridlock at Dover, blah, we should not lose sight of the central, tragic, wasteful mediocrity of Brexit.Scott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
By that logic, Israel should not allowed to let Jews arrive, because it drains other countries of intelligent citizens.
Much better, surely, that nations because subject to the same laws of demand as other commodities. Failing countries that follow stupid policies, should lose all their people.
It is all too hard for this bear of little brain but I am suspicious of trite answers on either side. The economic effects are complicated, and the moralising best left to philosophers and theologians, and, well, politicians.
Nothing scares me more than putting the collective good over individual freedom . Almost every evil in this world stems from that root.0 -
President Macron's grand plan for Germany to spend its money in French arms factories and teach its young'uns French rather than English. That treaty?Alanbrooke said:Germany and France sign the Aachen treaty today, reading throughthe respective presses its hard to think their heart is in it.
http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2019/01/21/01003-20190121ARTFIG00257-ce-que-prevoit-le-traite-d-aix-la-chapelle.php0 -
I'd be very interested in @Cyclefree's take on bitcoin and blockchain, which has been this generation's defining financial scandal, and so obviously a bubble even while it was inflating.0
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Kentish? Even I wouldn’t say that about you.IanB2 said:
Nevertheless, things evolve. Once upon a time my predecessor would just have been Kentish. Then he became Wessexian, and Kentish. Then he became English as well. And British. I am quite happy to be European, and British, and Kentish as well, by birth anyhow.Casino_Royale said:
Ircs1000 said:
NCasino_Royale said:
Nrcs1000 said:
I always find it odd when anyone puts the good of a "country" above the good of people.brendan16 said:
And do you think it should be the aspiration of Bulgarians to pick our food? Bulgaria has lost 2 million of its citizens since the early 1990s - nearly 25% of its then population. Its rather sad don't you think - that all you think they are good for is to pick strawberries? Who is going to pick their fruit and care for their elderly?FF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstops, no deal minideals, customs unions, Articles 50, gridlock at Dover, blah, we should not lose sight of the central, tragic, wasteful mediocrity of Brexit.Scott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
By that logic, Israel should not allowed to let Jews arrive, because it drains other countries of intelligent citizens.
Much better, surely, that nations because subject to the same laws of demand as other commodities. Failing countries that follow stupid policies, should lose all their people.
Any time spent thinking about it, or talking to a normal person, will show that up to be nonsense it is.
Nevertheless, you are right. Nations (or even tribes) can change shape and type over time but there are always there.
Fundamentally, humans need a level of shared identity over a defined geography to be able to collectively organise a sophisticated society otherwise you have less freedom, not more, as we default to a state of family/nomadic group pseudo anarchy which tends to have violent confrontations.
That identity needs to be credible, not artificial, stable and command a good level of popular support. And whilst we can have different overlapping identities some can and do carry more weight than others, depending upon what it represents.0 -
Another fairly nuanced (but hostile) tweetstorm on Kamala Harris as CA AG showing up in my feed:
https://twitter.com/mcclure111/status/1087502878598676480
I guess where this is going is that there are absolutely loads of liberal activists and pressure groups in CA that feel wronged by her in one way or another, and they're all going to talk. What's particularly tough is that:
1) The AG often runs into social issues that have evolved over time, so the calls you made as an ambitious liberal careerist in 2011 or 2005 will now look seriously reactionary
2) A lot of these stories involve identifiable victims, many of whom are still alive and will talk0 -
If all the citizens of Somewheria moved the Elsewheraia the citizens of Somewhereia would only be better off if Elsewhere had higher incomes and wealth than Somewheria but that in turn could mean the citizens of Elsewheraia could be worse off with lower wages and a sudden influx of Labour over demand and added pressure on resources and services.edmundintokyo said:
Right, but the point is that it's not good for *the collective* per se, it's good for the individuals in the collective.FeersumEnjineeya said:
That seems a strange thing to say. Surely the whole point of having laws at all is to put the collective good before individual freedom? For example, we don't have the individual freedom to drop litter wherever we like so as to achieve the collective good of a tidy country. Not many people would see that as a bad thing.
Putting it another way, say you've got a country called Somewheria, and all the citizens of Somewheria decide they want to move to Elsewheria, and Somewheria ceases to exist. This results in the DESTRUCTION of Somewheria. But nobody is harmed, and everyone is better off, and nobody's rights are violated.
This is something that nationalists would probably disagree with - they care about the abstract organization over the actual humans.
If Elsewheraia was a poorer country than Somewheria but say the citizens of the latter fled there due to war the citizens of the former may be better off due to the increased wealth coming into their country but the citizens of the latter would be worse off economically even if temporarily more secure0 -
For sure. There is identity, and then there is political management. The centralisation we have too much of right now isn't European, but national. What we have too little of is true localism.Casino_Royale said:
Kentish? Even I wouldn’t say that about you.IanB2 said:
Nevertheless, things evolve. Once upon a time my predecessor would just have been Kentish. Then he became Wessexian, and Kentish. Then he became English as well. And British. I am quite happy to be European, and British, and Kentish as well, by birth anyhow.Casino_Royale said:
Ircs1000 said:
NCasino_Royale said:
Nrcs1000 said:
I always find it odd when anyone puts the good of a "country" above the good of people.brendan16 said:
And do you think it should be the aspiration of Bulgarians to pick our food? Bulgaria has lost 2 million of its citizens since the early 1990s - nearly 25% of its then population. Its rather sad don't you think - that all you think they are good for is to pick strawberries? Who is going to pick their fruit and care for their elderly?FF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstops, no deal minideals, customs unions, Articles 50, gridlock at Dover, blah, we should not lose sight of the central, tragic, wasteful mediocrity of Brexit.Scott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
By that logic, Israel should not allowed to let Jews arrive, because it drains other countries of intelligent citizens.
Much better, surely, that nations because subject to the same laws of demand as other commodities. Failing countries that follow stupid policies, should lose all their people.
Any time spent thinking about it, or talking to a normal person, will show that up to be nonsense it is.
Nevertheless, you are right. Nations (or even tribes) can change shape and type over time but there are always there.
Fundamentally, humans need a level of shared identity over a defined geography to be able to collectively organise a sophisticated society otherwise you have less freedom, not more, as we default to a state of family/nomadic group pseudo anarchy which tends to have violent confrontations.
That identity needs to be credible, not artificial, stable and command a good level of popular support. And whilst we can have different overlapping identities some can and do carry more weight than others, depending upon what it represents.0 -
Bitcoin is one thing but blockchain might have legitimate uses, perhaps even in tracing supply chains over soft Irish borders.AlastairMeeks said:I'd be very interested in @Cyclefree's take on bitcoin and blockchain, which has been this generation's defining financial scandal, and so obviously a bubble even while it was inflating.
0 -
Well he wouldn't have contemplated May as PM...Charles said:
St Paul disagrees with yourcs1000 said:
There you go, elevating the national entity above human beings.DecrepitJohnL said:
If a hypothetical developing country loses most of its doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs to the West then firstly, it is subsidising the richer countries, and more importantly is less likely to develop if it loses the very citizens most likely to deliver growth. Against that, it benefits both the individuals who leave and the country they end up in. There again, those left behind, who are less well off than they would otherwise have been, are people too.rcs1000 said:
I always find it odd when anyone puts the good of a "country" above the good of people.brendan16 said:
And do you think it should be the aspiration of Bulgarians to pick our food? Bulgaria has lost 2 million of its citizens since the early 1990s - nearly 25% of its then population. Its rather sad don't you think - that all you think they are good for is to pick strawberries? Who is going to pick their fruit and care for their elderly?FF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstops, no deal minideals, customs unions, Articles 50, gridlock at Dover, blah, we should not lose sight of the central, tragic, wasteful mediocrity of Brexit.Scott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
By that logic, Israel should not allowed to let Jews arrive, because it drains other countries of intelligent citizens.
Much better, surely, that nations because subject to the same laws of demand as other commodities. Failing countries that follow stupid policies, should lose all their people.
It is all too hard for this bear of little brain but I am suspicious of trite answers on either side. The economic effects are complicated, and the moralising best left to philosophers and theologians, and, well, politicians.
Nothing scares me more than putting the collective good over individual freedom . Almost every evil in this world stems from that root.
Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet....0 -
Whoever started this nonsense needs a day off.HYUFD said:
If all the citizens of Somewheria moved the Elsewheraia the citizens of Somewhereia would only be better off if Elsewhere had higher incomes and wealth than Somewheria but that in turn could mean the citizens of Elsewheraia could be worse off with lower wages and a sudden influx of Labour over demand and added pressure on resources and services.edmundintokyo said:
Right, but the point is that it's not good for *the collective* per se, it's good for the individuals in the collective.FeersumEnjineeya said:
That seems a strange thing to say. Surely the whole point of having laws at all is to put the collective good before individual freedom? For example, we don't have the individual freedom to drop litter wherever we like so as to achieve the collective good of a tidy country. Not many people would see that as a bad thing.
Putting it another way, say you've got a country called Somewheria, and all the citizens of Somewheria decide they want to move to Elsewheria, and Somewheria ceases to exist. This results in the DESTRUCTION of Somewheria. But nobody is harmed, and everyone is better off, and nobody's rights are violated.
This is something that nationalists would probably disagree with - they care about the abstract organization over the actual humans.
If Elsewheraia was a poorer country than Somewheria but say the citizens of the latter fled there due to war the citizens of the former may be better off due to the increased wealth coming into their country but the citizens of the latter would be worse off economically even if temporarily more secure0 -
As a general rule, the more ornate the writer's language, the less he has to say. That might apply on this occasion too.Roger said:Your headers are becoming more poetic. Now the bifurcation looks evitable and the country is going to cleave it's appropriate that our language should deconverge.
0 -
I think many of us would argue there’s too much centralisation at European level.IanB2 said:
For sure. There is identity, and then there is political management. The centralisation we have too much of right now isn't European, but national. What we have too little of is true localism.Casino_Royale said:
Kentish? Even I wouldn’t say that about you.IanB2 said:
Nevertheless, things evolve. Once upon a time my predecessor would just have been Kentish. Then he became Wessexian, and Kentish. Then he became English as well. And British. I am quite happy to be European, and British, and Kentish as well, by birth anyhow.Casino_Royale said:
Ircs1000 said:
NCasino_Royale said:
Nrcs1000 said:
I always find it odd when anyone puts the good of a "country" above the good of people.brendan16 said:
And do you elderly?FF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstops, no deal minideals, customs unions, Articles 50, gridlock at Dover, blah, we should not lose sight of the central, tragic, wasteful mediocrity of Brexit.Scott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
By that logic, Israel should not allowed to let Jews arrive, because it drains other countries of intelligent citizens.
Much better, surely, that nations because subject to the same laws of demand as other commodities. Failing countries that follow stupid policies, should lose all their people.
Any time spent thinking about it, or talking to a normal person, will show that up to be nonsense it is.
Nevertheless, you are right. Nations (or even tribes) can change shape and type over time but there are always there.
Fundamentally, humans need a level of shared identity over a defined geography to be able to collectively organise a sophisticated society otherwise you have less freedom, not more, as we default to a state of family/nomadic group pseudo anarchy which tends to have violent confrontations.
That identity needs to be credible, not artificial, stable and command a good level of popular support. And whilst we can have different overlapping identities some can and do carry more weight than others, depending upon what it represents.
I largely agree with you on the national/local point.0 -
That’s an extreme example. There are a lot of people who put value on non economic factors.edmundintokyo said:
Right, but the point is that it's not good for *the collective* per se, it's good for the individuals in the collective.FeersumEnjineeya said:
That seems a strange thing to say. Surely the whole point of having laws at all is to put the collective good before individual freedom? For example, we don't have the individual freedom to drop litter wherever we like so as to achieve the collective good of a tidy country. Not many people would see that as a bad thing.
Putting it another way, say you've got a country called Somewheria, and all the citizens of Somewheria decide they want to move to Elsewheria, and Somewheria ceases to exist. This results in the DESTRUCTION of Somewheria. But nobody is harmed, and everyone is better off, and nobody's rights are violated.
This is something that nationalists would probably disagree with - they care about the abstract organization over the actual humans.
Let’s say that 75% of Somewherians are economic agents while 25% feel strongly about national identity (in a positive way).
The 75% vote to merge their country with Everywheria (in return for an annual payment). They are economically better off. The 25% who feel strongly about national identity are distraught.
(Any similarities with Scotland real countries are purely coincidental)0 -
Facepalm.Alanbrooke said:Italy sticks the boot in to France again blaming it for the mediterranean refugee crisis and demands sanctions are placed on France
https://www.lastampa.it/2019/01/22/economia/migranti-raffiche-di-accuse-contro-parigi-la-francia-convoca-lambasciatore-frasi-inaccettabili-aF50fJPR4SdYrSjyMhGmRN/pagina.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46955006
I never got the chance to thank you for your Italy headers the other week. I didn't agree entirely, for example that M5S / Lega represent some kind of step change in stable governance (Italy has had a few enduring governments over the last 20 years, M5S shed politicians like UKIP at times - indeed M5S expulsions already threaten the Senate majority, and it is premature to conclude such when Salvini in particular is still in honeymoon).
To me, the relationship with France is the acid test of the Italian government's maturity. They may be ideological opposites, but Macrons integrationism and Italy's need for fiscal flows within the Eurozone are aligned and, with the UK gone, a Franco-Italian united front towards a Germany in which Merkel is fading is perhaps the best chance in a good few years to surt the Eurozone out.
There is a decision for Italy to make : do they simply want the EU and Macron as footballs to kick at, a la Boris Euroscepticism, or do they actually want to make a stab at solving what they complain about.
0 -
Rudi's on a train to nowhere - and he certainly ain't sophisticated, nor well-educated...ydoethur said:
Oh boy, what an idiot.Nigelb said:If you’re ever subject to criminal proceedings in the US, don’t hire Rudi Giuliani...
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/even-if-he-did-do-it-it-wouldnt-be-a-crime-rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-robert-mueller-moscow-buzzfeed
Because I have been through all the tapes, I have been through all the texts, I have been through all the e-mails, and I knew none existed. And then, basically, when the special counsel said that, just in case there are any others I might not know about, they probably went through others and found the same thing.
Wait, what tapes have you gone through?
I shouldn’t have said tapes....
Trump is going to be Giuli roasted...0 -
In what way has it been a scandal?AlastairMeeks said:I'd be very interested in @Cyclefree's take on bitcoin and blockchain, which has been this generation's defining financial scandal, and so obviously a bubble even while it was inflating.
Bitcoin has undergone several more-or-less identical boom and busts over the years. The same people moaning about the crash from 20k to 3.5k are the people who were tut tutting about the near-identical fall from 1200 to 350 in 2013-2014. And will probably be the same people groaning about the fall from 170k to 20k in 2022.
Bitcoin increases in scarcity at regular intervals (known as reward halvings), these kick off bull markets which result in the bubbles I have described above. You could actually say that these boom and bust cycles are baked into Bitcoin, a feature not a bug. There is no "scandal" at all here, just the pure economics of a more or less completely unregulated financial product (although regulations are now coming in, it is hard to see how things change dramatically).0 -
Maybe it's because I'm an old fogey or maybe it's because every time someone explains to me how blockchain works the words fizz in my ears and trickle out again like Otex, but I have yet to see what solutions it offers to existing problems that we haven't already solved through simpler means.DecrepitJohnL said:
Bitcoin is one thing but blockchain might have legitimate uses, perhaps even in tracing supply chains over soft Irish borders.AlastairMeeks said:I'd be very interested in @Cyclefree's take on bitcoin and blockchain, which has been this generation's defining financial scandal, and so obviously a bubble even while it was inflating.
0 -
Good morning, everyone.
It's going to get up to 8C on Friday. Goodness knows how I'll cope with the soaring mercury.0 -
At the moment, they're pursuing a Polish-Italian front - which I suppose is at least a geographical curiosity.Pro_Rata said:
Facepalm.Alanbrooke said:Italy sticks the boot in to France again blaming it for the mediterranean refugee crisis and demands sanctions are placed on France
https://www.lastampa.it/2019/01/22/economia/migranti-raffiche-di-accuse-contro-parigi-la-francia-convoca-lambasciatore-frasi-inaccettabili-aF50fJPR4SdYrSjyMhGmRN/pagina.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46955006
I never got the chance to thank you for your Italy headers the other week. I didn't agree entirely, for example that M5S / Legal represent some kind of step change in stable governance (Italy has had a few enduring governments over the last 20 years, M5S shed politicians like UKIP at times - indeed M5S expulsions already threaten the Senate majority, and it is premature to conclude such when Salvini in particular is still in honeymoon).
To me, the relationship with France is the acid test of the Italian government's maturity. They may be ideological opposites, but Macrons integrationism and Italy's need for fiscal flows within the Eurozone are aligned, and with the UK gone a Franco-Italian united front towards a Germany in which Merkel is fading, is perhaps the best chance in a good few years to surt the Eurozone out...0 -
"Lock them up! Lock them up!" might play well - if she were a Republican.edmundintokyo said:Another fairly nuanced (but hostile) tweetstorm on Kamala Harris as CA AG showing up in my feed:
https://twitter.com/mcclure111/status/1087502878598676480
I guess where this is going is that there are absolutely loads of liberal activists and pressure groups in CA that feel wronged by her in one way or another, and they're all going to talk. What's particularly tough is that:
1) The AG often runs into social issues that have evolved over time, so the calls you made as an ambitious liberal careerist in 2011 or 2005 will now look seriously reactionary
2) A lot of these stories involve identifiable victims, many of whom are still alive and will talk
0 -
I think they come from different roots and it’s just a wonder of the English language that they look and sound the sameRichard_Tyndall said:
You have used the most interesting word in the English language and one I have never properly understood.Roger said:Your headers are becoming more poetic. Now the bifurcation looks evitable and the country is going to cleave it's appropriate that our language should deconverge.
To 'Cleave' means to split or sever.
To 'Cleave to' means to stay very close to or to stick to.
Why? It makes no sense. They are almost exact opposites.0 -
France summons the Italian Ambassador after M5S Leader and Italian Deputy PM Luigi Di Maio said France was impoverishing Africa and encouraging migration to Europe by printing money for them using the CFA Franc backed by the French treasury rather than supporting African economic development
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-469550060 -
There are problems of cohesion in local communities and wealth is very unevenly spread across the U.K. Brexit has been sold as solving those problems. We will see if it can. I have my doubts.Casino_Royale said:
I think many of us would argue there’s too much centralisation at European level.Casino_Royale said:
For sure. There is identity, and then there is political management. The centralisation we have too much of right now isn't European, but national. What we have too little of is true localism.IanB2 said:
Kentish? Even I wouldn’t say that about you.Casino_Royale said:
Nevertheless, things evolve. Once upon a time my predecessor would just have been Kentish. Then he became Wessexian, and Kentish. Then he became English as well. And British. I am quite happy to be European, and British, and Kentish as well, by birth anyhow.rcs1000 said:
ICasino_Royale said:
Nrcs1000 said:
I always find it odd when anyone puts the good of a "country" above the good of people.brendan16 said:
And do you elderly?FF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstops, no deal minideals, customs unions, Articles 50, gridlock at Dover, blah, we should not lose sight of the central, tragic, wasteful mediocrity of Brexit.Scott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
By that logic, Israel should not allowed to let Jews arrive, because it drains other countries of intelligent citizens.
Much better, surely, that nations because subject to the same laws of demand as other commodities.
N
Any time spent thinking about it, or talking to a normal person, will show that up to be nonsense it is.
Nevertheless, you are right. Nations (or even tribes) can change shape and type over time but there are always there.
Fundamentally, humans need a level of shared identity over a defined geography to be able to collectively organise a sophisticated society otherwise you have less freedom, not more, as we default to a state of family/nomadic group pseudo anarchy which tends to have violent confrontations.
That identity needs to be credible, not artificial, stable and command a good level of popular support. And whilst we can have different overlapping identities some can and do carry more weight than others, depending upon what it represents.
I largely agree with you on the national/local point.0 -
It's an attempt to create a trusted financial system without any central regulation.AlastairMeeks said:
Maybe it's because I'm an old fogey or maybe it's because every time someone explains to me how blockchain works the words fizz in my ears and trickle out again like Otex, but I have yet to see what solutions it offers to existing problems that we haven't already solved through simpler means.DecrepitJohnL said:
Bitcoin is one thing but blockchain might have legitimate uses, perhaps even in tracing supply chains over soft Irish borders.AlastairMeeks said:I'd be very interested in @Cyclefree's take on bitcoin and blockchain, which has been this generation's defining financial scandal, and so obviously a bubble even while it was inflating.
If it worked, it would be a great idea, but thus far, it doesn't.0 -
Made about £1.6m (in 1720s money). Still spending it 😝asjohnstone said:
Did you lose money in it ?Charles said:
I’ll dig out a fun article on the South Sea bubble for you when I get a momentCyclefree said:Anyway, if you're bored of Brexit or fed up with it, some non-Brexit related reading.
https://barry-walsh.co.uk/news/
The essay I refer to is very well worth your time.0 -
But get the Czech Republic and Austria on board and they would have, er, cleaved the EU in two.....Nigelb said:
At the moment, they're pursuing a Polish-Italian front - which I suppose is at least a geographical curiosity.Pro_Rata said:
Facepalm.Alanbrooke said:Italy sticks the boot in to France again blaming it for the mediterranean refugee crisis and demands sanctions are placed on France
https://www.lastampa.it/2019/01/22/economia/migranti-raffiche-di-accuse-contro-parigi-la-francia-convoca-lambasciatore-frasi-inaccettabili-aF50fJPR4SdYrSjyMhGmRN/pagina.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46955006
I never got the chance to thank you for your Italy headers the other week. I didn't agree entirely, for example that M5S / Legal represent some kind of step change in stable governance (Italy has had a few enduring governments over the last 20 years, M5S shed politicians like UKIP at times - indeed M5S expulsions already threaten the Senate majority, and it is premature to conclude such when Salvini in particular is still in honeymoon).
To me, the relationship with France is the acid test of the Italian government's maturity. They may be ideological opposites, but Macrons integrationism and Italy's need for fiscal flows within the Eurozone are aligned, and with the UK gone a Franco-Italian united front towards a Germany in which Merkel is fading, is perhaps the best chance in a good few years to surt the Eurozone out...0 -
Blockchain is a database. That’s it.AlastairMeeks said:
Maybe it's because I'm an old fogey or maybe it's because every time someone explains to me how blockchain works the words fizz in my ears and trickle out again like Otex, but I have yet to see what solutions it offers to existing problems that we haven't already solved through simpler means.DecrepitJohnL said:
Bitcoin is one thing but blockchain might have legitimate uses, perhaps even in tracing supply chains over soft Irish borders.AlastairMeeks said:I'd be very interested in @Cyclefree's take on bitcoin and blockchain, which has been this generation's defining financial scandal, and so obviously a bubble even while it was inflating.
0 -
A lot of agreement here across the barricades this morning.Jonathan said:Political ideologies remind me of the quackery doctors used to practice. If you believe exclusively in liberalism, conservativism, nationalism, socialism you may as well believe in leeches.
I always tend to view politics as a tug of war. On the state vs the individual question I don't want either side to win completely as on one side you have something akin to Soviet Russia and on the other the wild west. So both sides have to keep pulling as best they can so we end up with something around the middle ...ish.0 -
He put up a good fight but political situation demands it of him.FrancisUrquhart said:Telegraph seems to think Jezza has finally backed a second referendum,
Jeremy Corbyn backs MPs' plan to force a second Brexit referendum
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/01/21/jeremy-corbyn-backs-mps-plan-force-second-brexit-referendum/
0 -
I love this idea of a UK-EU agreement, giving the UK a "say" in all future EU trade arrangements.DrCanard said:At no point will Labour vote for or abstain in favour of May's deal, no matter how she tries to blackmail by running the clock down. If the deal narrow passes by Tory and DUP votes only (still can't see the DUP backing down, and they aren't getting a change to the backstop - pure fantasy) then I think Labour could live with that. The Tories will still face the brunt of a vast amount of disappointment and discord from within their own side, and it wouldnt be too hard to reverse in the future.
ON the other hand, they will have made very clear that there are plenty of other alternatives than No Deal that they would be happy to vote for, so if May was insane enough to drive us off of a cliff, it would be totally on her as well.
I'm sure now is the ideal time to ask the EU to commit itself to having to negotiate all its future business with the UK.0 -
They were a bit confusing in old English:Charles said:
I think they come from different roots and it’s just a wonder of the English language that they look and sound the sameRichard_Tyndall said:
You have used the most interesting word in the English language and one I have never properly understood.Roger said:Your headers are becoming more poetic. Now the bifurcation looks evitable and the country is going to cleave it's appropriate that our language should deconverge.
To 'Cleave' means to split or sever.
To 'Cleave to' means to stay very close to or to stick to.
Why? It makes no sense. They are almost exact opposites.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/cleave
cleave (v.1)
"to split, part or divide by force," Old English cleofan, cleven, cliven "to split, separate" (class II strong verb, past tense cleaf, past participle clofen), from Proto-Germanic *kleuban (source also of Old Saxon klioban, Old Norse kljufa, Danish klöve, Dutch kloven, Old High German klioban, German klieben "to cleave, split"), from PIE root *gleubh- "to tear apart, cleave."
Past tense form clave is recorded in Northern writers from 14c. and was used with both verbs (see cleave (v.2)), apparently by analogy with other Middle English strong verbs. Clave was common to c. 1600 and still alive at the time of the KJV; weak past tense cleaved for this verb also emerged in 14c.; cleft is still later. The past participle cloven survives, though mostly in compounds.
cleave (v.2)
"to adhere, cling," Middle English cleven, clevien, cliven, from Old English clifian, cleofian "to stick fast, adhere," also figurative, from West Germanic *klibajan (source also of Old Saxon klibon, Old High German kliban, Dutch kleven, Old High German kleben, German kleben "to stick, cling, adhere"), from PIE *gloi- "to stick" (see clay).
The confusion was less in Old English when cleave (v.1) was a class 2 strong verb; but it has grown since cleave (v.1) weakened, which may be why both are largely superseded by stick (v.) and split (v.).0 -
I've been to conferences where someone mentions blockchain and most of the audience nod sagely. Meanwhile I'm sat there in bafflement. I suspect most of the others share my bafflement, but dare not admit to it.AlastairMeeks said:
Maybe it's because I'm an old fogey or maybe it's because every time someone explains to me how blockchain works the words fizz in my ears and trickle out again like Otex, but I have yet to see what solutions it offers to existing problems that we haven't already solved through simpler means.DecrepitJohnL said:
Bitcoin is one thing but blockchain might have legitimate uses, perhaps even in tracing supply chains over soft Irish borders.AlastairMeeks said:I'd be very interested in @Cyclefree's take on bitcoin and blockchain, which has been this generation's defining financial scandal, and so obviously a bubble even while it was inflating.
0 -
Metaphorical Bulgarians (ie other low paid seasonal workers)ydoethur said:
They picked strawberries metaphorically, they picked metaphorical strawberries, or they picked strawberries in a metaphorical EU?Charles said:
You do know Bulgarians picked our strawberries before the EU* and will do so after the EU?Nemtynakht said:
I always frame it as an open door so that Bulgarians could pick our strawberries. It sounds less tragic and wastefully mediocre but is more accurateFF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstops, no deal minideals, customs unions, Articles 50, gridlock at Dover, blah, we should not lose sight of the central, tragic, wasteful mediocrity of Brexit.Scott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
* metaphorically because of the whole Communisim thing0 -
Deleted0
-
Trump - Crime of the Century?Nigelb said:
Rudi's on a train to nowhere - and he certainly ain't sophisticated, nor well-educated...ydoethur said:
Oh boy, what an idiot.Nigelb said:If you’re ever subject to criminal proceedings in the US, don’t hire Rudi Giuliani...
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/even-if-he-did-do-it-it-wouldnt-be-a-crime-rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-robert-mueller-moscow-buzzfeed
Because I have been through all the tapes, I have been through all the texts, I have been through all the e-mails, and I knew none existed. And then, basically, when the special counsel said that, just in case there are any others I might not know about, they probably went through others and found the same thing.
Wait, what tapes have you gone through?
I shouldn’t have said tapes....
Trump is going to be Giuli roasted...0 -
Bernie Madoff was clearly born in the wrong century...Charles said:
Made about £1.6m (in 1720s money). Still spending it 😝asjohnstone said:
Did you lose money in it ?Charles said:
I’ll dig out a fun article on the South Sea bubble for you when I get a momentCyclefree said:Anyway, if you're bored of Brexit or fed up with it, some non-Brexit related reading.
https://barry-walsh.co.uk/news/
The essay I refer to is very well worth your time.0 -
Its not going to help with many of their main problems, unless they want to be the Germany of the Zlotyzone.Nigelb said:
At the moment, they're pursuing a Polish-Italian front - which I suppose is at least a geographical curiosity.Pro_Rata said:
Facepalm.Alanbrooke said:Italy sticks the boot in to France again blaming it for the mediterranean refugee crisis and demands sanctions are placed on France
https://www.lastampa.it/2019/01/22/economia/migranti-raffiche-di-accuse-contro-parigi-la-francia-convoca-lambasciatore-frasi-inaccettabili-aF50fJPR4SdYrSjyMhGmRN/pagina.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46955006
I never got the chance to thank you for your Italy headers the other week. I didn't agree entirely, for example that M5S / Legal represent some kind of step change in stable governance (Italy has had a few enduring governments over the last 20 years, M5S shed politicians like UKIP at times - indeed M5S expulsions already threaten the Senate majority, and it is premature to conclude such when Salvini in particular is still in honeymoon).
To me, the relationship with France is the acid test of the Italian government's maturity. They may be ideological opposites, but Macrons integrationism and Italy's need for fiscal flows within the Eurozone are aligned, and with the UK gone a Franco-Italian united front towards a Germany in which Merkel is fading, is perhaps the best chance in a good few years to surt the Eurozone out...0 -
Sorry got muddled - £19,000 in 1720s money (1.6m today)Charles said:
Made about £1.6m (in 1720s money). Still spending it 😝asjohnstone said:
Did you lose money in it ?Charles said:
I’ll dig out a fun article on the South Sea bubble for you when I get a momentCyclefree said:Anyway, if you're bored of Brexit or fed up with it, some non-Brexit related reading.
https://barry-walsh.co.uk/news/
The essay I refer to is very well worth your time.
Spent most of it on a nice house in the country and a shop in London.0 -
Brilliant. Thanks Nigel. Also for the site. Many happy hours ahead exploring that oneNigelb said:
They were a bit confusing in old English:Charles said:
I think they come from different roots and it’s just a wonder of the English language that they look and sound the sameRichard_Tyndall said:
You have used the most interesting word in the English language and one I have never properly understood.Roger said:Your headers are becoming more poetic. Now the bifurcation looks evitable and the country is going to cleave it's appropriate that our language should deconverge.
To 'Cleave' means to split or sever.
To 'Cleave to' means to stay very close to or to stick to.
Why? It makes no sense. They are almost exact opposites.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/cleave
cleave (v.1)
"to split, part or divide by force," Old English cleofan, cleven, cliven "to split, separate" (class II strong verb, past tense cleaf, past participle clofen), from Proto-Germanic *kleuban (source also of Old Saxon klioban, Old Norse kljufa, Danish klöve, Dutch kloven, Old High German klioban, German klieben "to cleave, split"), from PIE root *gleubh- "to tear apart, cleave."
Past tense form clave is recorded in Northern writers from 14c. and was used with both verbs (see cleave (v.2)), apparently by analogy with other Middle English strong verbs. Clave was common to c. 1600 and still alive at the time of the KJV; weak past tense cleaved for this verb also emerged in 14c.; cleft is still later. The past participle cloven survives, though mostly in compounds.
cleave (v.2)
"to adhere, cling," Middle English cleven, clevien, cliven, from Old English clifian, cleofian "to stick fast, adhere," also figurative, from West Germanic *klibajan (source also of Old Saxon klibon, Old High German kliban, Dutch kleven, Old High German kleben, German kleben "to stick, cling, adhere"), from PIE *gloi- "to stick" (see clay).
The confusion was less in Old English when cleave (v.1) was a class 2 strong verb; but it has grown since cleave (v.1) weakened, which may be why both are largely superseded by stick (v.) and split (v.).0 -
We probably get the word from the two very similar German verbs kleiben (cut) and kleben (stick).Richard_Tyndall said:
You have used the most interesting word in the English language and one I have never properly understood.Roger said:Your headers are becoming more poetic. Now the bifurcation looks evitable and the country is going to cleave it's appropriate that our language should deconverge.
To 'Cleave' means to split or sever.
To 'Cleave to' means to stay very close to or to stick to.
Why? It makes no sense. They are almost exact opposites.
You can partially distinguish the forms because only the cutting variant is a strong verb.
E2A: NigelB confirms my bullshit guess. I might do the lottery this week.0 -
Logical.MarqueeMark said:
Trump - Crime of the Century?Nigelb said:
Rudi's on a train to nowhere - and he certainly ain't sophisticated, nor well-educated...ydoethur said:
Oh boy, what an idiot.Nigelb said:If you’re ever subject to criminal proceedings in the US, don’t hire Rudi Giuliani...
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/even-if-he-did-do-it-it-wouldnt-be-a-crime-rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-robert-mueller-moscow-buzzfeed
Because I have been through all the tapes, I have been through all the texts, I have been through all the e-mails, and I knew none existed. And then, basically, when the special counsel said that, just in case there are any others I might not know about, they probably went through others and found the same thing.
Wait, what tapes have you gone through?
I shouldn’t have said tapes....
Trump is going to be Giuli roasted...0 -
kle4 said:
He put up a good fight but political situation demands it of him.FrancisUrquhart said:Telegraph seems to think Jezza has finally backed a second referendum,
Jeremy Corbyn backs MPs' plan to force a second Brexit referendum
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/01/21/jeremy-corbyn-backs-mps-plan-force-second-brexit-referendum/
Backing Ref2 is one thing; holding one is another. It isn't going to happen until after we have left as it is easily one of the most poisoned of the poisoned chalices. To say we should have had one, once we are in a new mess in due course, is the way politics works. Everyone is anxious to be elsewhere than the crime scene. If what you back does not happen you have an exit strategy. People are preparing their positions now. Jeremy is preparing several.
0 -
Agreed. She's coastal Californian elite - may not play well with black Dems in southern states. Also Booker means she may not be the only black candidate in the field.edmundintokyo said:
Yup, there's also a piece from a more explicitly leftist direction arguing that aside from the things she actually did as a prosecutor, the mere fact of being one is siding with the powerful...rkrkrk said:
Interesting. Certainly enough in there to get the left unhappy, suspect in today's climate being a prosecutor is not ideal for Dem primary.edmundintokyo said:Hit job in the NYT on Kamala Harris's record as a CA Attorney General:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html
https://theintercept.com/2019/01/20/a-problem-for-kamala-harris-can-a-prosecutor-become-president-in-the-age-of-black-lives-matter/
Looking at Kos the netroots don't seem very bothered by this stuff. What I don't have a good read on is how it will play among black voters, particularly SC; I think a lot of people have been assuming she'll win them because she's black - this was implicit in Nate Silver's analysis that @rcs1000 linked a while back. I wouldn't be so sure, especially if she underperforms in Iowa and NH.0 -
Maybe I’m thick but I don’t understand it either. Sometimes I make myself feel a bit better by rationalising to myself that some of those trying to explain it to me don’t either.AlastairMeeks said:
Maybe it's because I'm an old fogey or maybe it's because every time someone explains to me how blockchain works the words fizz in my ears and trickle out again like Otex, but I have yet to see what solutions it offers to existing problems that we haven't already solved through simpler means.DecrepitJohnL said:
Bitcoin is one thing but blockchain might have legitimate uses, perhaps even in tracing supply chains over soft Irish borders.AlastairMeeks said:I'd be very interested in @Cyclefree's take on bitcoin and blockchain, which has been this generation's defining financial scandal, and so obviously a bubble even while it was inflating.
I don’t invest or trade in things I don’t understand.0 -
I presume Kleben transmuted into “Club” somewhere along the line?Dura_Ace said:
We probably get the word from the two very similar German verbs kleiben (cut) and kleben (stick).Richard_Tyndall said:
You have used the most interesting word in the English language and one I have never properly understood.Roger said:Your headers are becoming more poetic. Now the bifurcation looks evitable and the country is going to cleave it's appropriate that our language should deconverge.
To 'Cleave' means to split or sever.
To 'Cleave to' means to stay very close to or to stick to.
Why? It makes no sense. They are almost exact opposites.
You can partially distinguish the forms because only the cutting variant is a strong verb.
E2A: NigelB confirms my bullshit guess. I might do the lottery this week.0 -
There's still going to be a lot of air sucked through teeth in certain Labour circles if he does. Notably, the trade union leaders....kle4 said:
He put up a good fight but political situation demands it of him.FrancisUrquhart said:Telegraph seems to think Jezza has finally backed a second referendum,
Jeremy Corbyn backs MPs' plan to force a second Brexit referendum
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/01/21/jeremy-corbyn-backs-mps-plan-force-second-brexit-referendum/0 -
I’m not sure May is exercising authority over men - or anyone in fact!Nigelb said:
Well he wouldn't have contemplated May as PM...Charles said:
St Paul disagrees with yourcs1000 said:
There you go, elevating the national entity above human beings.DecrepitJohnL said:
If a hypothetical developing country loses most of its doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs to the West then firstly, it is subsidising the richer countries, and more importantly is less likely to develop if it loses the very citizens most likely to deliver growth. Against that, it benefits both the individuals who leave and the country they end up in. There again, those left behind, who are less well off than they would otherwise have been, are people too.rcs1000 said:
I always find it odd when anyone puts the good of a "country" above the good of people.brendan16 said:
And do you think it should be the aspiration of Bulgarians to pick our food? Bulgaria has lost 2 million of its citizens since the early 1990s - nearly 25% of its then population. Its rather sad don't you think - that all you think they are good for is to pick strawberries? Who is going to pick their fruit and care for their elderly?FF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstopsScott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
By that logic, Israel should not allowed to let Jews arrive, because it drains other countries of intelligent citizens.
Much better, surely, that nations because subject to the same laws of demand as other commodities. Failing countries that follow stupid policies, should lose all their people.
It is all too hard for this bear of little brain but I am suspicious of trite answers on either side. The economic effects are complicated, and the moralising best left to philosophers and theologians, and, well, politicians.
Nothing scares me more than putting the collective good over individual freedom . Almost every evil in this world stems from that root.
Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet....0 -
Bloody well right!Nigelb said:
Logical.MarqueeMark said:
Trump - Crime of the Century?Nigelb said:
Rudi's on a train to nowhere - and he certainly ain't sophisticated, nor well-educated...ydoethur said:
Oh boy, what an idiot.Nigelb said:If you’re ever subject to criminal proceedings in the US, don’t hire Rudi Giuliani...
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/even-if-he-did-do-it-it-wouldnt-be-a-crime-rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-robert-mueller-moscow-buzzfeed
Because I have been through all the tapes, I have been through all the texts, I have been through all the e-mails, and I knew none existed. And then, basically, when the special counsel said that, just in case there are any others I might not know about, they probably went through others and found the same thing.
Wait, what tapes have you gone through?
I shouldn’t have said tapes....
Trump is going to be Giuli roasted...0 -
Morning folks!
What's the latest on Brexit? Lots of developments (bar what is coming from the PM) - it's hard to keep up with all these amendments.
At least Mrs May is consistent - "nothing has changed"
We are sleep walking into a hard Brexit is what I see.0 -
As noted by Pratchett, transparent can mean both easy to see, and not easy to see.Richard_Tyndall said:
LOL. Excellent. I had never thought of that one.Jonathan said:
You are blunt and to the point.Richard_Tyndall said:
You have used the most interesting word in the English language and one I have never properly understood.Roger said:Your headers are becoming more poetic. Now the bifurcation looks evitable and the country is going to cleave it's appropriate that our language should deconverge.
To 'Cleave' means to split or sever.
To 'Cleave to' means to stay very close to or to stick to.
Why? It makes no sense. They are almost exact opposites.0 -
Sanction has directly opposite meanings - to authorise and to penalise as unauthorised.0
-
"Gate" is a road in Norse, but something that blocks a road in English. Hence Kingsgate Street in Winchester has a gate at the end of it, but Fishergate in Preston is simply the street of the fishermen.0
-
Blockchain appears, much of the time, to be a solution in search of a problem. Its promoters think it will change the world (in a way which is positive for them) but at present it is heartily oversold. I was at a conference presentation where it was dropped in to suggest modernity and forward thinking. Practical detail was, on close questioning, somewhat more ephemeral.AlastairMeeks said:
Maybe it's because I'm an old fogey or maybe it's because every time someone explains to me how blockchain works the words fizz in my ears and trickle out again like Otex, but I have yet to see what solutions it offers to existing problems that we haven't already solved through simpler means.DecrepitJohnL said:
Bitcoin is one thing but blockchain might have legitimate uses, perhaps even in tracing supply chains over soft Irish borders.AlastairMeeks said:I'd be very interested in @Cyclefree's take on bitcoin and blockchain, which has been this generation's defining financial scandal, and so obviously a bubble even while it was inflating.
0 -
And let's not get started on rather.AlastairMeeks said:Sanction has directly opposite meanings - to authorise and to penalise as unauthorised.
0 -
The shoes are neither modest nor discreet.Charles said:
I’m not sure May is exercising authority over men - or anyone in fact!Nigelb said:
Well he wouldn't have contemplated May as PM...Charles said:
St Paul disagrees with yourcs1000 said:
There you go, elevating the national entity above human beings.DecrepitJohnL said:
If a hypothetical developing country loses most of its doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs to the West then firstly, it is subsidising the richer countries, and more importantly is less likely to develop if it loses the very citizens most likely to deliver growth. Against that, it benefits both the individuals who leave and the country they end up in. There again, those left behind, who are less well off than they would otherwise have been, are people too.rcs1000 said:
I always find it odd when anyone puts the good of a "country" above the good of people.brendan16 said:
And do you think it should be the aspiration of Bulgarians to pick our food? Bulgaria has lost 2 million of its citizens since the early 1990s - nearly 25% of its then population. Its rather sad don't you think - that all you think they are good for is to pick strawberries? Who is going to pick their fruit and care for their elderly?FF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstopsScott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
By that logic, Israel should not allowed to let Jews arrive, because it drains other countries of intelligent citizens.
Much better, surely, that nations because subject to the same laws of demand as other commodities. Failing countries that follow stupid policies, should lose all their people.
It is all too hard for this bear of little brain but I am suspicious of trite answers on either side. The economic effects are complicated, and the moralising best left to philosophers and theologians, and, well, politicians.
Nothing scares me more than putting the collective good over individual freedom . Almost every evil in this world stems from that root.
Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet....0 -
It's arguably just a modern implementation of a solution that was implemented centuries ago.AlastairMeeks said:Maybe it's because I'm an old fogey or maybe it's because every time someone explains to me how blockchain works the words fizz in my ears and trickle out again like Otex, but I have yet to see what solutions it offers to existing problems that we haven't already solved through simpler means.
In essence the blockchain is a distributed, public, anonymous accounting ledger of all transactions.
Distributed; not stored in a single location, but copied on every computer that runs the software, millions of them Worldwide
Public; everyone who has a copy can read every transaction
Anonymous; the transactions are identified only by 'address', a long string of digits, which is not linked directly to any individual person or public entity. It is however potentially vulnerable to traffic analysis.
You could argue it's 'double entry bookkeeping" for the new millennium...0 -
And not, it seems sometimes, made for walking.Nigelb said:
The shoes are neither modest nor discreet.Charles said:
I’m not sure May is exercising authority over men - or anyone in fact!Nigelb said:
Well he wouldn't have contemplated May as PM...Charles said:
St Paul disagrees with yourcs1000 said:
There you go, elevating the national entity above human beings.DecrepitJohnL said:
If a hypothetical developing country loses most of its doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs to the West then firstly, it is subsidising the richer countries, and more importantly is less likely to develop if it loses the very citizens most likely to deliver growth. Against that, it benefits both the individuals who leave and the country they end up in. There again, those left behind, who are less well off than they would otherwise have been, are people too.rcs1000 said:brendan16 said:
And do you think it should be the aspiration of Bulgarians to pick our food? Bulgaria has lost 2 million of its citizens since the early 1990s - nearly 25% of its then population. Its rather sad don't you think - that all you think they are good for is to pick strawberries? Who is going to pick their fruit and care for their elderly?FF43 said:
Amongst all the talk of backstopsScott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
By that logic, Israel should not allowed to let Jews arrive, because it drains other countries of intelligent citizens.
Much better, surely, that nations because subject to the same laws of demand as other commodities. Failing countries that follow stupid policies, should lose all their people.
It is all too hard for this bear of little brain but I am suspicious of trite answers on either side. The economic effects are complicated, and the moralising best left to philosophers and theologians, and, well, politicians.
Nothing scares me more than putting the collective good over individual freedom . Almost every evil in this world stems from that root.
Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet....0 -
We can all forget about Brexit for a week. Nothing happening....murali_s said:Morning folks!
What's the latest on Brexit? Lots of developments (bar what is coming from the PM) - it's hard to keep up with all these amendments.
At least Mrs May is consistent - "nothing has changed"
We are sleep walking into a hard Brexit is what I see.0 -
I've yet to see a problem that Blockchain "solves" that a decent database (with some security) wouldn't be able to solve for far less money...matt said:
Blockchain appears, much of the time, to be a solution in search of a problem. Its promoters think it will change the world (in a way which is positive for them) but at present it is heartily oversold. I was at a conference presentation where it was dropped in to suggest modernity and forward thinking. Practical detail was, on close questioning, somewhat more ephemeral.AlastairMeeks said:
Maybe it's because I'm an old fogey or maybe it's because every time someone explains to me how blockchain works the words fizz in my ears and trickle out again like Otex, but I have yet to see what solutions it offers to existing problems that we haven't already solved through simpler means.DecrepitJohnL said:
Bitcoin is one thing but blockchain might have legitimate uses, perhaps even in tracing supply chains over soft Irish borders.AlastairMeeks said:I'd be very interested in @Cyclefree's take on bitcoin and blockchain, which has been this generation's defining financial scandal, and so obviously a bubble even while it was inflating.
0 -
Enjoined always gets people into trouble.Nigelb said:
And let's not get started on rather.AlastairMeeks said:Sanction has directly opposite meanings - to authorise and to penalise as unauthorised.
The bit in contracts of employment enjoining and having sexual relations with staff.0 -
She’s taking instruction but not quietlyNigelb said:
The shoes are neither modest nor discreet.Charles said:
I’m not sure May is exercising authority over men - or anyone in fact!Nigelb said:
Well he wouldn't have contemplated May as PM...Charles said:
St Paul disagrees with yourcs1000 said:
There you go, elevating the national entity above human beings.DecrepitJohnL said:
If a hypothetical developing country loses most of its doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs to the West then firstly, it is subsidising the richer countries, and more importantly is less likely to develop if it loses the very citizens most likely to deliver growth. Against that, it benefits both the individuals who leave and the country they end up in. There again, those left behind, who are less well off than they would otherwise have been, are people too.rcs1000 said:
I always find it odd when anyone puts the good of a "country" above the good of people.brendan16 said:FF43 said:Scott_P said:Ummm, you remember all those foreigners that were taking British jobs...
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1087363097281601536
All of this is to stop Bulgarians picking our strawberries.
By that logic, Israel should not allowed to let Jews arrive, because it drains other countries of intelligent citizens.
Much better, surely, that nations because subject to the same laws of demand as other commodities. Failing countries that follow stupid policies, should lose all their people.
It is all too hard for this bear of little brain but I am suspicious of trite answers on either side. The economic effects are complicated, and the moralising best left to philosophers and theologians, and, well, politicians.
Nothing scares me more than putting the collective good over individual freedom . Almost every evil in this world stems from that root.
Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet....0 -
If there was a vessel containing a vacuum, which was then filled with air, then again emptied to restore the vacuum - could it then be argued that "nothing has changed"?0
-
A great-nephew of mine is alleged to have made quite a lot of money from Bitcoin, or something like that. Although the family drums seem to have been quiet on the subject lately!Scott_P said:
It's arguably just a modern implementation of a solution that was implemented centuries ago.AlastairMeeks said:Maybe it's because I'm an old fogey or maybe it's because every time someone explains to me how blockchain works the words fizz in my ears and trickle out again like Otex, but I have yet to see what solutions it offers to existing problems that we haven't already solved through simpler means.
In essence the blockchain is a distributed, public, anonymous accounting ledger of all transactions.
Distributed; not stored in a single location, but copied on every computer that runs the software, millions of them Worldwide
Public; everyone who has a copy can read every transaction
Anonymous; the transactions are identified only by 'address', a long string of digits, which is not linked directly to any individual person or public entity. It is however potentially vulnerable to traffic analysis.
You could argue it's 'double entry bookkeeping" for the new millennium...0 -
Why are Labour people such hypocrites when it comes to education?
A teenager from the East End of London has accepted a £76,000 scholarship to Eton despite calling the elite public school “absurd and corrupt”.
Hasan Patel became the youngest speaker at a party conference for one of the main political parties when he gave a rousing speech to Labour members last September at the age of 15.
He has 20,000 followers on Twitter as @CorbynistaTeen. Last August he tweeted: “Private schools such as Eton will save £522 million in tax over the next five years thanks to their absurd and corrupt charitable status. Meanwhile ‘peasants’ like me who attend ordinary state schools have teachers spending their own money on basic equipment such as glue sticks.”
Yet within weeks he was sitting the entrance exam and undergoing intensive interviews to win a place.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/labour-activist-who-called-public-school-absurd-wins-place-at-eton-3sxjskkv50 -
I'm loving this English language stuff.0
-
Could you give some examples of clear practical applications and what they would do in practice (I recall that HSBC did a Brazil soybean (I think) trade claimed using blockchain although they haven't publicised a second run so it was perhaps a one off).Scott_P said:
It's arguably just a modern implementation of a solution that was implemented centuries ago.AlastairMeeks said:Maybe it's because I'm an old fogey or maybe it's because every time someone explains to me how blockchain works the words fizz in my ears and trickle out again like Otex, but I have yet to see what solutions it offers to existing problems that we haven't already solved through simpler means.
In essence the blockchain is a distributed, public, anonymous accounting ledger of all transactions.
Distributed; not stored in a single location, but copied on every computer that runs the software, millions of them Worldwide
Public; everyone who has a copy can read every transaction
Anonymous; the transactions are identified only by 'address', a long string of digits, which is not linked directly to any individual person or public entity. It is however potentially vulnerable to traffic analysis.
You could argue it's 'double entry bookkeeping" for the new millennium...0 -
Pretty good analysis of the various chances here:murali_s said:Morning folks!
What's the latest on Brexit? Lots of developments (bar what is coming from the PM) - it's hard to keep up with all these amendments.
At least Mrs May is consistent - "nothing has changed"
We are sleep walking into a hard Brexit is what I see.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/22/what-are-mays-options-for-a-plan-b-that-could-win-over-the-commons0 -
He's a dutiful son and is doing what his father wanted?TheScreamingEagles said:Why are Labour people such hypocrites when it comes to education?
A teenager from the East End of London has accepted a £76,000 scholarship to Eton despite calling the elite public school “absurd and corrupt”.
Hasan Patel became the youngest speaker at a party conference for one of the main political parties when he gave a rousing speech to Labour members last September at the age of 15.
He has 20,000 followers on Twitter as @CorbynistaTeen. Last August he tweeted: “Private schools such as Eton will save £522 million in tax over the next five years thanks to their absurd and corrupt charitable status. Meanwhile ‘peasants’ like me who attend ordinary state schools have teachers spending their own money on basic equipment such as glue sticks.”
Yet within weeks he was sitting the entrance exam and undergoing intensive interviews to win a place.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/labour-activist-who-called-public-school-absurd-wins-place-at-eton-3sxjskkv50 -
Maybe his parents forced him to do it!TheScreamingEagles said:Why are Labour people such hypocrites when it comes to education?
A teenager from the East End of London has accepted a £76,000 scholarship to Eton despite calling the elite public school “absurd and corrupt”.
Hasan Patel became the youngest speaker at a party conference for one of the main political parties when he gave a rousing speech to Labour members last September at the age of 15.
He has 20,000 followers on Twitter as @CorbynistaTeen. Last August he tweeted: “Private schools such as Eton will save £522 million in tax over the next five years thanks to their absurd and corrupt charitable status. Meanwhile ‘peasants’ like me who attend ordinary state schools have teachers spending their own money on basic equipment such as glue sticks.”
Yet within weeks he was sitting the entrance exam and undergoing intensive interviews to win a place.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/labour-activist-who-called-public-school-absurd-wins-place-at-eton-3sxjskkv50 -
He's going to Eton so that he can learn what "absurd and corrupt" truly means?TheScreamingEagles said:Why are Labour people such hypocrites when it comes to education?
A teenager from the East End of London has accepted a £76,000 scholarship to Eton despite calling the elite public school “absurd and corrupt”.
Hasan Patel became the youngest speaker at a party conference for one of the main political parties when he gave a rousing speech to Labour members last September at the age of 15.
He has 20,000 followers on Twitter as @CorbynistaTeen. Last August he tweeted: “Private schools such as Eton will save £522 million in tax over the next five years thanks to their absurd and corrupt charitable status. Meanwhile ‘peasants’ like me who attend ordinary state schools have teachers spending their own money on basic equipment such as glue sticks.”
Yet within weeks he was sitting the entrance exam and undergoing intensive interviews to win a place.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/labour-activist-who-called-public-school-absurd-wins-place-at-eton-3sxjskkv50 -
Is ‘ruth’ the atonym of ruthless?kle4 said:I'm loving this English language stuff.
0 -
No. There is nothing 'blockchain' can do that a regular old database can't do.DecrepitJohnL said:
Bitcoin is one thing but blockchain might have legitimate uses, perhaps even in tracing supply chains over soft Irish borders.AlastairMeeks said:I'd be very interested in @Cyclefree's take on bitcoin and blockchain, which has been this generation's defining financial scandal, and so obviously a bubble even while it was inflating.
Blockchain is a bullshit buzzword that solves no problem that couldn't already be solved by regular computing technology.0 -
I always thought it was a parody account, sign of the times I guess.OldKingCole said:
He's a dutiful son and is doing what his father wanted?TheScreamingEagles said:Why are Labour people such hypocrites when it comes to education?
A teenager from the East End of London has accepted a £76,000 scholarship to Eton despite calling the elite public school “absurd and corrupt”.
Hasan Patel became the youngest speaker at a party conference for one of the main political parties when he gave a rousing speech to Labour members last September at the age of 15.
He has 20,000 followers on Twitter as @CorbynistaTeen. Last August he tweeted: “Private schools such as Eton will save £522 million in tax over the next five years thanks to their absurd and corrupt charitable status. Meanwhile ‘peasants’ like me who attend ordinary state schools have teachers spending their own money on basic equipment such as glue sticks.”
Yet within weeks he was sitting the entrance exam and undergoing intensive interviews to win a place.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/labour-activist-who-called-public-school-absurd-wins-place-at-eton-3sxjskkv50
