ALL THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA WANTS TO TALK ABOUT IS COVID, COVID, COVID. ON NOVEMBER 4th, YOU WON’T BE HEARING SO MUCH ABOUT IT ANYMORE. WE ARE ROUNDING THE TURN!!!
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
Have to say the coverage of the React-2 study is lamentable. The media seem to be falling over themselves talking about how immunity lasts for just a few months without getting expert opinion on B and T cell based immunity. Just because antibody levels fall or disappear it doesn't mean that people who have prior infections don't have antibody memory to produce them again should T cells then encounter the same virus.
It's almost as if the UK media is addicted to the doom loop news and will jump on anything that helps them push the doom narrative.
Yes, nothing on the fact that the immune system isn't just antibodies.....
If it leads, it bleeds.
The problem is that no news = good news. Maybe. Sometimes.
A thought for a news model for the 21st cent. Some stories are continuous - they deserve continuous coverage.... a mini-blog each? For example, the various trials and programs for fast tests.
Seems like there is opportunity the Athletic type approach to wider news....however if you can actually make it economically viable is a different matter.
Yes - but worth a try as an alternative.
A collection of running stories - the web is a perfect platform for this. Contract each story to a specialist. A small enough thing for one person to pursue as a hobby/part time job...
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Don't agree with this, at least based on my experiences living there 15 years ago or so. Some excellent restaurants in the larger cities, good wines, and while most beer is lager, the were others such as speights that produced a more flavoured experience. Smaller towns less likely to a great night life, but then most of the small towns are really little more than villages in size.
Have to say the coverage of the React-2 study is lamentable. The media seem to be falling over themselves talking about how immunity lasts for just a few months without getting expert opinion on B and T cell based immunity. Just because antibody levels fall or disappear it doesn't mean that people who have prior infections don't have antibody memory to produce them again should T cells then encounter the same virus.
It's almost as if the UK media is addicted to the doom loop news and will jump on anything that helps them push the doom narrative.
Yes, nothing on the fact that the immune system isn't just antibodies.....
If it leads, it bleeds.
The problem is that no news = good news. Maybe. Sometimes.
A thought for a news model for the 21st cent. Some stories are continuous - they deserve continuous coverage.... a mini-blog each? For example, the various trials and programs for fast tests.
Other way around – if it bleeds, it leads
Also, I find people are getting bored of endless one-sided bad news despite the assumption that the public greedily devour endless misery.
It's not that - it's that we miss vital information because of the idea that you write a story. It's published. It's done. Great for newspapers. But the web gives us the opportunity to have a continuous, evolving stories.
We had the 17 - 19 parliament trying to overturn the EU ref in plain sight We have the GOP trying to overturn the POTUS election in plain sight We will have Johnson denying indyref2 in the face of a massive Scottish SNP/Green vote at the next Holyrood election.
It didn't go well for the 17 - 19 parliament, it won't go well for the GOP come November 3rd and it'll be the death of the UK shortly.
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
Agreed. I haven't actually visited New England but it appeals massively. New York I found vastly inferior to London although I visited in a horrible heatwave, so wasn't able to fairly judge. I'll go again post-pandemic in the autumn or early springtime.
France I absolutely love.
Getting to New York in optimal weather seems tough. In summer it's way too hot, frozen in winter. My visit in early November coincided with Superstorm Sandy and was a complete write off. Last year I was there in mid October and, in contrast to early October in Virginia and DC which were warm autumnal, by mid month New York was feeling distinctly chilly.
I'd choose Italy over France. Easier language, better food, much better scenery, friendlier people.
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
People get slack after thirty days, or some other reason why the benefit appears time limited, I wonder? (particularly as its a linear graph so you'd expect the higher non-mask areas to have greater exponential momentum)
We had the 17 - 19 parliament trying to overturn the EU ref in plain sight We have the GOP trying to overturn the POTUS election in plain sight We will have Johnson denying indyref2 in the face of a massive Scottish SNP/Green vote at the next Holyrood election.
It didn't go well for the 17 - 19 parliament, it won't go well for the GOP come November 3rd and it'll be the death of the UK shortly.
In the UK I am comfortable with the basic principle that no parliament can bind its successor. So it was perfectly legitimate and democratic for the 2017 parliament to have a different take on the referendum held in the 2015 parliament. Similarly The 2021 Scottish parliament can take a different tack to the 2011 parliament.
That all feels very different from America where the current Congress appears to be trying to prevent the democratic process of electing a new Congress & President.
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
Agreed. I haven't actually visited New England but it appeals massively. New York I found vastly inferior to London although I visited in a horrible heatwave, so wasn't able to fairly judge. I'll go again post-pandemic in the autumn or early springtime.
France I absolutely love.
Getting to New York in optimal weather seems tough. In summer it's way too hot, frozen in winter. My visit in early November coincided with Superstorm Sandy and was a complete write off. Last year I was there in mid October and, in contrast to early October in Virginia and DC which were warm autumnal, by mid month New York was feeling distinctly chilly.
I'd choose Italy over France. Easier language, better food, much better scenery, friendlier people.
Italy is also cheaper than France. However, I speak some French and no Italian, so prefer France (although also love Italy). The fact that I speak some French also helps with the friendliness thing, I find!
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
France is a lot harder to move to as a Brit these days, of course, because of you-know-what. New York is horrible, there are a lot of nicer places in North America - I have a real soft spot for Vancouver, and even Washington DC is better than NYC in my opinion. If I didn't live here I'd probably go for something completely different, like Sri Lanka or the Caribbean. I mean, if I wanted to live in a cosmopolitan Western city why would I leave London, which is the greatest such city in the world?
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
Agreed. I haven't actually visited New England but it appeals massively. New York I found vastly inferior to London although I visited in a horrible heatwave, so wasn't able to fairly judge. I'll go again post-pandemic in the autumn or early springtime.
France I absolutely love.
Getting to New York in optimal weather seems tough. In summer it's way too hot, frozen in winter. My visit in early November coincided with Superstorm Sandy and was a complete write off. Last year I was there in mid October and, in contrast to early October in Virginia and DC which were warm autumnal, by mid month New York was feeling distinctly chilly.
I'd choose Italy over France. Easier language, better food, much better scenery, friendlier people.
Italy is also cheaper than France. However, I speak some French and no Italian, so prefer France (although also love Italy). The fact that I speak some French also helps with the friendliness thing, I find!
I was watching a language video recently (Langfocus on YouTube; excellent stuff for anyone interested in linguistics) that made the point that French and Italian are very similar, more so than Spanish and Italian in terms of word roots and grammar. French sounds different from Italian, apparently because the Gauls (who spoke some form of Celtic) left their accent behind.
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
"Hate speech" is not loaded either? Whether the term is "loaded" or not one group, on this (as on some other matters) are outliers - and they are disproportionately represented on social media.
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Don't agree with this, at least based on my experiences living there 15 years ago or so. Some excellent restaurants in the larger cities, good wines, and while most beer is lager, the were others such as speights that produced a more flavoured experience. Smaller towns less likely to a great night life, but then most of the small towns are really little more than villages in size.
Not so. I did a massive road trip around the North Island and it was impossible to find anywhere with decent food in most of the 'cities' – and I'm talking places with 100k - 150k inhabitants. It was frequently a miserable experience arriving at places to find nowhere nice to eat. The shops weren't much better. Often poorly stocked and a dismal range of ingredients to cook with. I remember arriving in one surfer town where the only grocery lacked any fresh fruit or vegetables.
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
Agreed. I haven't actually visited New England but it appeals massively. New York I found vastly inferior to London although I visited in a horrible heatwave, so wasn't able to fairly judge. I'll go again post-pandemic in the autumn or early springtime.
France I absolutely love.
Getting to New York in optimal weather seems tough. In summer it's way too hot, frozen in winter. My visit in early November coincided with Superstorm Sandy and was a complete write off. Last year I was there in mid October and, in contrast to early October in Virginia and DC which were warm autumnal, by mid month New York was feeling distinctly chilly.
I'd choose Italy over France. Easier language, better food, much better scenery, friendlier people.
Italy is also cheaper than France. However, I speak some French and no Italian, so prefer France (although also love Italy). The fact that I speak some French also helps with the friendliness thing, I find!
Depends on where and what you are doing.
A 10 days in a villa in Chablis... lounge by the pool, wander round the local vineyards. Not many art galleries..
Paris is the museums and is a bit of dump otherwise.
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
France is a lot harder to move to as a Brit these days, of course, because of you-know-what. New York is horrible, there are a lot of nicer places in North America - I have a real soft spot for Vancouver, and even Washington DC is better than NYC in my opinion. If I didn't live here I'd probably go for something completely different, like Sri Lanka or the Caribbean. I mean, if I wanted to live in a cosmopolitan Western city why would I leave London, which is the greatest such city in the world?
Better weather!
If forced to live in the US I'd choose between San Diego and Asheville.
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
You think political correctness has tolerance and respect for other peoples' views?
The whole point of it is to shout down and shame the wrong opinions.
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
Political correctness is the pole opposite of "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views".
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
Political correctness has gone mad, didn't you get the memo?
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
France is a lot harder to move to as a Brit these days, of course, because of you-know-what. New York is horrible, there are a lot of nicer places in North America - I have a real soft spot for Vancouver, and even Washington DC is better than NYC in my opinion. If I didn't live here I'd probably go for something completely different, like Sri Lanka or the Caribbean. I mean, if I wanted to live in a cosmopolitan Western city why would I leave London, which is the greatest such city in the world?
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
France is a lot harder to move to as a Brit these days, of course, because of you-know-what. New York is horrible, there are a lot of nicer places in North America - I have a real soft spot for Vancouver, and even Washington DC is better than NYC in my opinion. If I didn't live here I'd probably go for something completely different, like Sri Lanka or the Caribbean. I mean, if I wanted to live in a cosmopolitan Western city why would I leave London, which is the greatest such city in the world?
Dc was the surprise of my trip last year. All round the States, especially away from the coasts, people told me how horrible it was and a fair few tried to persuade me not to go there. Yet I thought it was probably the nicest large city I visited. A lot of the streets are more similar to London's - tree lined and with parallel streetside parking, putting some distance between the sidewalk and the traffic - which helps a lot compared to New York and Chicago where it feels like you're walking along the side of a motorway.
The irony is that this guy is a Labour Councillor so by the standards of Cambridge college porters he is probably a raving Leftie. I'm not sure the word "servant" is really appropriate here, but if the Spectator wants to go full on Class War then who am I to stand in its way.
Why is it ironic? I know a lot of women who are left wing politically, who are quite uncomfortable around issues stemming from men who transition to women.. It isn't just JK Rowling.
It's not a left-right issue, is it? Lots of second wave feminists are very leftwing yet argue that transwomen are not women, insofar as they have a dissimilar life experience to being a birth woman.
The relief in America when Trump and his clan are ejected can only be imagined. Like the final scene in the Magnificent seven. Around the world the bells will be ringing. In a UK context only 1997 comes anywhere near it. But that was pretty special. A country getting its smile back
1997 was after 18 years of the Tories in power, the GOP have only held the White House for 4 years so not exactly the same
Imagine the carnage after four Trump terms. Don and Jnr
Pence would beat Jnr for the GOP nomination in 2024 even if Trump was re elected
I reckon if you ran a the same poll for GOP nomination in 2028 you would get pretty much the same result. Pence is leading because he's the one in the news all the time, while on the campaign trail and can be imagined being the president. It is nothing more than name recognition, and bears no relationship to what is likely to happen over the next 4 or 8 years.
Irrespective of the Pence numbers, it's quite incredible that anyone would consider the Trump spawn qualified for dogcatcher, let alone President.
4 years experience at the centre of Government must have some value...
Not if it is experience of the wrong sort. Could anybody learn anything positive from Trump?
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
France is a lot harder to move to as a Brit these days, of course, because of you-know-what. New York is horrible, there are a lot of nicer places in North America - I have a real soft spot for Vancouver, and even Washington DC is better than NYC in my opinion. If I didn't live here I'd probably go for something completely different, like Sri Lanka or the Caribbean. I mean, if I wanted to live in a cosmopolitan Western city why would I leave London, which is the greatest such city in the world?
Better weather!
If forced to live in the US I'd choose between San Diego and Asheville.
I grew up in Scotland so I find the weather in London very pleasant, it's basically the tropics round here.
If you zoom in, what you will notice is that the % of early voters in the major counties is tailing off. While some have already passed their 2016 levels, some look as though they will struggle to get there.
Now go to the bottom and look at the numbers for El Paso and Hidalgo counties, which are heavily Hispanic and voted heavily for Clinton (over 40% margin). Not much sign of a surge of early voting there and, in Hidalgo, chances are with that trajectory, early voting will come in less than in 2020.
I suspect Bloomberg's ads in TX are more about trying to restore momentum to the Hispanic vote than they suddenly think TX is in play.
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
"Hate speech" is not loaded either? Whether the term is "loaded" or not one group, on this (as on some other matters) are outliers - and they are disproportionately represented on social media.
Yes, "hate speech" is loaded too, and I dislike it as much as I do political correctness.
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
France is a lot harder to move to as a Brit these days, of course, because of you-know-what. New York is horrible, there are a lot of nicer places in North America - I have a real soft spot for Vancouver, and even Washington DC is better than NYC in my opinion. If I didn't live here I'd probably go for something completely different, like Sri Lanka or the Caribbean. I mean, if I wanted to live in a cosmopolitan Western city why would I leave London, which is the greatest such city in the world?
Dc was the surprise of my trip last year. All round the States, especially away from the coasts, people told me how horrible it was and a fair few tried to persuade me not to go there. Yet I thought it was probably the nicest large city I visited. A lot of the streets are more similar to London's - tree lined and with parallel streetside parking, putting some distance between the sidewalk and the traffic - which helps a lot compared to New York and Chicago where it feels like you're walking along the side of a motorway.
I loved DC myself. Went about 9 years ago and the layout reminded me a little bit of other European cities with planned elements like Berlin or Paris. Granted, apart from the usual attractions there's not really much else you'd go there for, but it was definitely the most peaceful capital city I've been to.
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
You think political correctness has tolerance and respect for other peoples' views?
The whole point of it is to shout down and shame the wrong opinions.
Thanks for proving my point. People have such negative connotations of PC that of course they think it's a problem. I'm slightly curious as to what you think are "wrong opinions", but I can probably guess.
The relief in America when Trump and his clan are ejected can only be imagined. Like the final scene in the Magnificent seven. Around the world the bells will be ringing. In a UK context only 1997 comes anywhere near it. But that was pretty special. A country getting its smile back
1997 was after 18 years of the Tories in power, the GOP have only held the White House for 4 years so not exactly the same
Imagine the carnage after four Trump terms. Don and Jnr
Pence would beat Jnr for the GOP nomination in 2024 even if Trump was re elected
I reckon if you ran a the same poll for GOP nomination in 2028 you would get pretty much the same result. Pence is leading because he's the one in the news all the time, while on the campaign trail and can be imagined being the president. It is nothing more than name recognition, and bears no relationship to what is likely to happen over the next 4 or 8 years.
Irrespective of the Pence numbers, it's quite incredible that anyone would consider the Trump spawn qualified for dogcatcher, let alone President.
Ivanka would actually likely be a better President than her father, she is actually moderate, urbane and has degrees from Georgetown and the University of Pennsylvania.
Don Trump Jnr though I agree would probably make you wish his father was back in charge
Hopefully the name Trump will be even more politically toxic than the name Clinton from 2021 onwards
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
France is a lot harder to move to as a Brit these days, of course, because of you-know-what. New York is horrible, there are a lot of nicer places in North America - I have a real soft spot for Vancouver, and even Washington DC is better than NYC in my opinion. If I didn't live here I'd probably go for something completely different, like Sri Lanka or the Caribbean. I mean, if I wanted to live in a cosmopolitan Western city why would I leave London, which is the greatest such city in the world?
Dc was the surprise of my trip last year. All round the States, especially away from the coasts, people told me how horrible it was and a fair few tried to persuade me not to go there. Yet I thought it was probably the nicest large city I visited. A lot of the streets are more similar to London's - tree lined and with parallel streetside parking, putting some distance between the sidewalk and the traffic - which helps a lot compared to New York and Chicago where it feels like you're walking along the side of a motorway.
DC is very nice, I lived there for a while. There are some lovely neighbourhoods including Capitol Hill, my favourite, just as you describe, and there is an interesting mix of people. It has improved a lot and some of the disdain with which it is viewed elsewhere reflects an outdated view. The weather is a lot better than people say, too, I quite liked the hot summers. It is extremely divided on racial/social class lines, though.
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
France is a lot harder to move to as a Brit these days, of course, because of you-know-what. New York is horrible, there are a lot of nicer places in North America - I have a real soft spot for Vancouver, and even Washington DC is better than NYC in my opinion. If I didn't live here I'd probably go for something completely different, like Sri Lanka or the Caribbean. I mean, if I wanted to live in a cosmopolitan Western city why would I leave London, which is the greatest such city in the world?
Better weather!
If forced to live in the US I'd choose between San Diego and Asheville.
I have at least 3 US trips banked up that I want to do post Covid. New England. Dixie. Vegas. I've been boycotting the place since 2016 so I need to get a move on now.
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
"Hate speech" is not loaded either? Whether the term is "loaded" or not one group, on this (as on some other matters) are outliers - and they are disproportionately represented on social media.
Yes, "hate speech" is loaded too, and I dislike it as much as I do political correctness.
I think "hate speech" is quite clear. It is where someone says something that is demonstrating their hatred of a minority, and is designed to further enflame prejudice or even violence toward that minority. I believe it is defined in law here in the UK and is a criminal offence. Political correctness is much less defined.
If you zoom in, what you will notice is that the % of early voters in the major counties is tailing off. While some have already passed their 2016 levels, some look as though they will struggle to get there.
Now go to the bottom and look at the numbers for El Paso and Hidalgo counties, which are heavily Hispanic and voted heavily for Clinton (over 40% margin). Not much sign of a surge of early voting there and, in Hidalgo, chances are with that trajectory, early voting will come in less than in 2020.
I suspect Bloomberg's ads in TX are more about trying to restore momentum to the Hispanic vote than they suddenly think TX is in play.
As the graphs show, turnout in 9 out of the 10 most populous counties is almsot exactly the total early turnout in 2016.
Spookily close, in fact.
It remains to be seen what the additional early vote is, but it is almost inevitable that it will exceed 2016 by a substantive margin in at least 9 of the 10.
A very interesting article from 538 about the importance of PA to Biden and the permutations for both him and Trump if he does lose it. With only a 5% or so lead there he's not much more than a very bad polling error away from it really being the tipping point, Interesting read https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-joe-biden-toast-if-he-loses-pennsylvania/
The relief in America when Trump and his clan are ejected can only be imagined. Like the final scene in the Magnificent seven. Around the world the bells will be ringing. In a UK context only 1997 comes anywhere near it. But that was pretty special. A country getting its smile back
1997 was after 18 years of the Tories in power, the GOP have only held the White House for 4 years so not exactly the same
Imagine the carnage after four Trump terms. Don and Jnr
Pence would beat Jnr for the GOP nomination in 2024 even if Trump was re elected
I reckon if you ran a the same poll for GOP nomination in 2028 you would get pretty much the same result. Pence is leading because he's the one in the news all the time, while on the campaign trail and can be imagined being the president. It is nothing more than name recognition, and bears no relationship to what is likely to happen over the next 4 or 8 years.
Irrespective of the Pence numbers, it's quite incredible that anyone would consider the Trump spawn qualified for dogcatcher, let alone President.
4 years experience at the centre of Government must have some value...
Not if it is experience of the wrong sort. Could anybody learn anything positive from Trump?
A relative of mine started his career working for a complete lunatic. He described it as incredibly instructive - an incredible insight into all the things you shouldn't do.
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Don't agree with this, at least based on my experiences living there 15 years ago or so. Some excellent restaurants in the larger cities, good wines, and while most beer is lager, the were others such as speights that produced a more flavoured experience. Smaller towns less likely to a great night life, but then most of the small towns are really little more than villages in size.
Not so. I did a massive road trip around the North Island and it was impossible to find anywhere with decent food in most of the 'cities' – and I'm talking places with 100k - 150k inhabitants. It was frequently a miserable experience arriving at places to find nowhere nice to eat. The shops weren't much better. Often poorly stocked and a dismal range of ingredients to cook with. I remember arriving in one surfer town where the only grocery lacked any fresh fruit or vegetables.
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Don't agree with this, at least based on my experiences living there 15 years ago or so. Some excellent restaurants in the larger cities, good wines, and while most beer is lager, the were others such as speights that produced a more flavoured experience. Smaller towns less likely to a great night life, but then most of the small towns are really little more than villages in size.
Not so. I did a massive road trip around the North Island and it was impossible to find anywhere with decent food in most of the 'cities' – and I'm talking places with 100k - 150k inhabitants. It was frequently a miserable experience arriving at places to find nowhere nice to eat. The shops weren't much better. Often poorly stocked and a dismal range of ingredients to cook with. I remember arriving in one surfer town where the only grocery lacked any fresh fruit or vegetables.
Really, extremely poor.
I found excellent places in Aukland, Wellington, Kaikoura, Rotorua, Taupo, Napier and New Plymnouth for the North Island. As I said, in the smaller places it is more hit and miss, and often based on 'Hotels' which can be lacking. Each to their own. Maybe we have a different idea of what is a good place to eat, Fish restaurant in Tauranga was one of the best meals I've ever had.
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
Political correctness is the pole opposite of "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views".
I'm genuinely surprised you think that, given I tend to agree with you on much. Being 'politically correct' in its original incarnation would include, for example, not making casual sexist remarks about women's appearance, or not indulging in lazy stereotypes based on race or sexuality. I don't see how that's the polar opposite of respect/tolerance etc.
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
You think political correctness has tolerance and respect for other peoples' views?
The whole point of it is to shout down and shame the wrong opinions.
It depends. There's good PC and bad PC. The bad is the sort that suppresses uncomfortable truths. The good is all the rest.
Speaking of the ONS death data he's how it has grown since the nadir
Guess what kind of trend line the trend line is?
Terrible chart - label the damn axes!
I liked your post but just to be clear it's the ONS weekly death figures and they are on a near perfect 2 week doubling exponential curve.
At this rate it's be 20 thousand dead in the week before Christmas.
So lets hope it flattens off a bit soon.
I know, and I was being cheeky. I do think there will be a levelling off. Wales experiment with the fire break will hopefully work, and the slowdown in the increase of cases will come through with a lag.
Well he is right, you can and they are lovely. His point just demonstrates how cheap food is now when you see what a high end food retailer is charging. Spend £20 wisely at Aldi and you will get bags of food.
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Indeed, if I lived anywhere other than the UK it would be New England or New York or France, New Zealand is a beautiful country to visit with nice people on the whole who live there but not exactly full of culture and gastronomy, with no really big global city and thousands of miles from anywhere
France is a lot harder to move to as a Brit these days, of course, because of you-know-what. New York is horrible, there are a lot of nicer places in North America - I have a real soft spot for Vancouver, and even Washington DC is better than NYC in my opinion. If I didn't live here I'd probably go for something completely different, like Sri Lanka or the Caribbean. I mean, if I wanted to live in a cosmopolitan Western city why would I leave London, which is the greatest such city in the world?
Better weather!
If forced to live in the US I'd choose between San Diego and Asheville.
London has much better weather than New York – as discussed above. NY is just horribly hot in the summer and bitterly cold in winter.
San Diego sounds lovely – I have clients there. Same mild weather every day though – could get a bit boring I guess?!
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Don't agree with this, at least based on my experiences living there 15 years ago or so. Some excellent restaurants in the larger cities, good wines, and while most beer is lager, the were others such as speights that produced a more flavoured experience. Smaller towns less likely to a great night life, but then most of the small towns are really little more than villages in size.
Not so. I did a massive road trip around the North Island and it was impossible to find anywhere with decent food in most of the 'cities' – and I'm talking places with 100k - 150k inhabitants. It was frequently a miserable experience arriving at places to find nowhere nice to eat. The shops weren't much better. Often poorly stocked and a dismal range of ingredients to cook with. I remember arriving in one surfer town where the only grocery lacked any fresh fruit or vegetables.
New Zealand is the world's most overrated country. Great landscapes (although many other countries also have great landscapes) – but deathly boring and nothing to do, nothing good to eat and nowhere nice to drink in large portions of it – including many of the 'big' towns.
Don't agree with this, at least based on my experiences living there 15 years ago or so. Some excellent restaurants in the larger cities, good wines, and while most beer is lager, the were others such as speights that produced a more flavoured experience. Smaller towns less likely to a great night life, but then most of the small towns are really little more than villages in size.
...
Really, extremely poor.
I found excellent places in Aukland, Wellington, Kaikoura, Rotorua, Taupo, Napier and New Plymnouth for the North Island. As I said, in the smaller places it is more hit and miss, and often based on 'Hotels' which can be lacking. Each to their own. Maybe we have a different idea of what is a good place to eat, Fish restaurant in Tauranga was one of the best meals I've ever had.
I had a great dinner in Taupo, and that was pretty much it. New Plymouth I found to be desolate – you did very well finding something there. TBH I had just driven five hours via shitty NZ roads in a giant camper van, so wasn't able to hunt. All the local 'pubs' were absolutely dire!
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
You think political correctness has tolerance and respect for other peoples' views?
The whole point of it is to shout down and shame the wrong opinions.
It depends. There's good PC and bad PC. The bad is the sort that suppresses uncomfortable truths. The good is all the rest.
I think it's a lot like Health and Safety. There's actually a lot more common ground on banning unsafe practices, and treating people with respect, than we think.
But you do get some twits who see it as an excuse to exercise power over others, or are so scared to make a mistake that they lose all sense of proportion.
And the ideologues on the Right have been very successful in discrediting the whole with the exceptions.
The problem is cheap food is often calorific but nutritionally deficient - sadly its quite possible to have malnourished obese people, counter-intuitive as that may sound.
If you zoom in, what you will notice is that the % of early voters in the major counties is tailing off. While some have already passed their 2016 levels, some look as though they will struggle to get there.
Now go to the bottom and look at the numbers for El Paso and Hidalgo counties, which are heavily Hispanic and voted heavily for Clinton (over 40% margin). Not much sign of a surge of early voting there and, in Hidalgo, chances are with that trajectory, early voting will come in less than in 2020.
I suspect Bloomberg's ads in TX are more about trying to restore momentum to the Hispanic vote than they suddenly think TX is in play.
As the graphs show, turnout in 9 out of the 10 most populous counties is almsot exactly the total early turnout in 2016.
Spookily close, in fact.
It remains to be seen what the additional early vote is, but it is almost inevitable that it will exceed 2016 by a substantive margin in at least 9 of the 10.
Dallas (Democrat) and Denton (Republican) have surpassed it, most of the rest are 2-3% within 2016 (though Harris is at where it was). Hidalgo is around 6% behind.
Well he is right, you can and they are lovely. His point just demonstrates how cheap food is now when you see what a high end food retailer is charging. Spend £20 wisely at Aldi and you will get bags of food.
So a family of 5 skipping breakfast, no snacks, fruit or drinks could feed themselves for just under £8500 per year following his fantastic advice. Whats their problem?
Well he is right, you can and they are lovely. His point just demonstrates how cheap food is now when you see what a high end food retailer is charging. Spend £20 wisely at Aldi and you will get bags of food.
So Rashford has made it all up has he? Can't quite see why he would. His mother doesn't exactly look like a crack addict or a scrounger to me. As an ex-Conservative Party member and activist (emphasis on the ex), I cannot understand why the most spendthrift Conservative (in name only) government in history wants to die in a ditch over this issue. I can only assume it is because The Clown has been told he has done far too many U-turns and people are beginning to realise he is weak and ineffectual. Children will go hungry to spare Mr. Johnson's blushes about being a hopeless case.
Well he is right, you can and they are lovely. His point just demonstrates how cheap food is now when you see what a high end food retailer is charging. Spend £20 wisely at Aldi and you will get bags of food.
So Rashford has made it all up has he? Can't quite see why he would. His mother doesn't exactly look like a crack addict or a scrounger to me. As an ex-Conservative Party member and activist (emphasis on the ex), I cannot understand why the most spendthrift Conservative (in name only) government in history wants to die in a ditch over this issue. I can only assume it is because The Clown has been told he has done far too many U-turns and people are beginning to realise he is weak and ineffectual. Children will go hungry to spare Mr. Johnson's blushes about being a hopeless case.
How can you say children are going hungry due to lack of money when childhood obesity in the most deprived areas in twice the national average? 27% of children in deprived areas are obese. That is the most shocking stat.
Shows the clash between a now largely secular France and the still very religious Muslim world, and how the 2 can come into conflict particularly in inner city France.
Macron is right that free speech is vital but he also needs to be aware of how Muslims will see his remarks and ensure he shows respect to the Islamic faith too, the problem for him is he has to build bridges with the Muslim community without going so far as to be accused of appeasement by Marine Le Pen
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
You think political correctness has tolerance and respect for other peoples' views?
The whole point of it is to shout down and shame the wrong opinions.
It depends. There's good PC and bad PC. The bad is the sort that suppresses uncomfortable truths. The good is all the rest.
I think it's a lot like Health and Safety. There's actually a lot more common ground on banning unsafe practices, and treating people with respect, than we think.
But you do get some twits who see it as an excuse to exercise power over others, or are so scared to make a mistake that they lose all sense of proportion.
And the ideologues on the Right have been very successful in discrediting the whole with the exceptions.
Its all kind of inevitable really, there is always going to be a tension between freedom of expression and whats considered polite in society. On its own the label political correctness doesnt (and cant) set that balance, its how its interpreted by different individual people and organisations that matter. Some will get it right, others will go too far one way or the other.
All this would happen whether or not the term political correctness existed and whether or not people tried to follow it.
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
Now that's ironic - 'political correctness' is apparently no longer a politically-correct term because too many people have cottoned on to the noxious reality of what it entails, and so its cheerleaders must seek another euphemism for controlling speech and thought...
The biggest problem with online-only learning is that you have no "relationship" with any of the teaching staff.
Malcolm Bradbury would have some fun with today's identity and crit theory lecturers no doubt.
The Tory culture war bollox.....
The ‘false binaries’ of culture wars do not resonate with the reality of the attitudes of most of the British public. For example, 73 per cent of Britons are worried about hate speech and at the same time 72 per cent believe that political political correctness is a problem.
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
This is meaningless. Views on "political correctness" are negative because it is a loaded term with negative connotations, obviously. Change the question to: "Courtesy towards, respect for, and tolerance of, others' views is a problem in our country" and you'd get a very different result. Political correctness isn't that different.
You think political correctness has tolerance and respect for other peoples' views?
The whole point of it is to shout down and shame the wrong opinions.
Thanks for proving my point. People have such negative connotations of PC that of course they think it's a problem. I'm slightly curious as to what you think are "wrong opinions", but I can probably guess.
Lol you are trying to shame me for opinions without knowing what they are. This is a perfect example of what PC is.
Maybe, but it is dumb politics to conform to the "Tories don't care about poor people" stereotype. It might appeal to a few hard hearted right wingers but it will sit really badly with floating voters and more centrist conservatives, the latter who, contrary to the stereotype, strongly believe in compassion for the less fortunate.
Shows the clash between a now largely secular France and the still very religious Muslim world, and how the 2 can come into conflict when the 2 collide particularly in inner city France.
Macron is right that free speech is vital but he also needs to be aware of how Muslims will see his remarks and ensure he also shows respect to the Islamic faith
...and the Islamic world needs to respect French culture as well.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. But I've never seen such galaxy-class trolling before today. Ascend, Douglas Ross. You are a satire's Titan.
Really? I certainly can "afford" to have two children now, but can I be sure that I would still be able to afford them in ten years?
What level of savings, or insurance, should I have to protect my ability to afford to have children until they are eighteen?
I said kinda.
Back when my boy, George Osborne CH, was Chancellor I saw a study from the JRF or the Resolution Foundation which identified a significant number of kids who grew up in households where neither parent had worked.
Then there's the long term unemployed, and I'm talking 5 or 10 years plus who have more kids when they've been long term unemployed. I mean put a bloody sock on it.
Comments
Trump really is completely nuts.
EDIT: nevermind, it breaks blockquote for some reason...
https://twitter.com/GregWEaton/status/1320808540680921088
Spot the outliers (hint - they're unlikely to be Tory)
A collection of running stories - the web is a perfect platform for this. Contract each story to a specialist. A small enough thing for one person to pursue as a hobby/part time job...
hmmmm
Guess what kind of trend line the trend line is?
We have the GOP trying to overturn the POTUS election in plain sight
We will have Johnson denying indyref2 in the face of a massive Scottish SNP/Green vote at the next Holyrood election.
It didn't go well for the 17 - 19 parliament, it won't go well for the GOP come November 3rd and it'll be the death of the UK shortly.
I'd choose Italy over France. Easier language, better food, much better scenery, friendlier people.
That all feels very different from America where the current Congress appears to be trying to prevent the democratic process of electing a new Congress & President.
https://twitter.com/alexburnsNYT/status/1321050753839124482
Not so. I did a massive road trip around the North Island and it was impossible to find anywhere with decent food in most of the 'cities' – and I'm talking places with 100k - 150k inhabitants. It was frequently a miserable experience arriving at places to find nowhere nice to eat. The shops weren't much better. Often poorly stocked and a dismal range of ingredients to cook with. I remember arriving in one surfer town where the only grocery lacked any fresh fruit or vegetables.
Really, extremely poor.
A 10 days in a villa in Chablis... lounge by the pool, wander round the local vineyards. Not many art galleries..
Paris is the museums and is a bit of dump otherwise.
etc etc
If forced to live in the US I'd choose between San Diego and Asheville.
The whole point of it is to shout down and shame the wrong opinions.
https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2020/texas-early-voting-numbers/
If you zoom in, what you will notice is that the % of early voters in the major counties is tailing off. While some have already passed their 2016 levels, some look as though they will struggle to get there.
Now go to the bottom and look at the numbers for El Paso and Hidalgo counties, which are heavily Hispanic and voted heavily for Clinton (over 40% margin). Not much sign of a surge of early voting there and, in Hidalgo, chances are with that trajectory, early voting will come in less than in 2020.
I suspect Bloomberg's ads in TX are more about trying to restore momentum to the Hispanic vote than they suddenly think TX is in play.
At this rate it's be 20 thousand dead in the week before Christmas.
So lets hope it flattens off a bit soon.
Spookily close, in fact.
It remains to be seen what the additional early vote is, but it is almost inevitable that it will exceed 2016 by a substantive margin in at least 9 of the 10.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-joe-biden-toast-if-he-loses-pennsylvania/
https://twitter.com/EtanSmallman/status/1321066197975207938
I try so hard to position the party for electability and those twats let the side (and their constituents) down.
San Diego sounds lovely – I have clients there. Same mild weather every day though – could get a bit boring I guess?!
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/britons-dont-want-to-fight-a-culture-war-7ntd37x9t
Study (free): https://www.britainschoice.uk/media/4yulkygt/moreincommon_britainschoice_report.pdf
https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/key-topics/nutrition-obesity/about-childhood-obesity
https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/obesity
https://twitter.com/EtanSmallman/status/1321069257929695233
But you do get some twits who see it as an excuse to exercise power over others, or are so scared to make a mistake that they lose all sense of proportion.
And the ideologues on the Right have been very successful in discrediting the whole with the exceptions.
https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1321068229452771332?s=20
The whole Rashford argument is about lack of money for food for those on UC and it is completely bogus.
https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/the-early-voting-blog-3
https://civiqs.com/documents/Civiqs_DailyKos_GA_banner_book_2020_10_p577m2.pdf
https://civiqs.com/documents/Civiqs_DailyKos_PA_banner_book_2020_10_3x5e25.pdf
What level of savings, or insurance, should I have to protect my ability to afford to have children until they are eighteen?
https://twitter.com/bellacaledonia/status/1321061964861288453?s=19
Macron is right that free speech is vital but he also needs to be aware of how Muslims will see his remarks and ensure he shows respect to the Islamic faith too, the problem for him is he has to build bridges with the Muslim community without going so far as to be accused of appeasement by Marine Le Pen
All this would happen whether or not the term political correctness existed and whether or not people tried to follow it.
Now that's ironic - 'political correctness' is apparently no longer a politically-correct term because too many people have cottoned on to the noxious reality of what it entails, and so its cheerleaders must seek another euphemism for controlling speech and thought...
https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1321043219199787011
But You Can't Say That!
Back when my boy, George Osborne CH, was Chancellor I saw a study from the JRF or the Resolution Foundation which identified a significant number of kids who grew up in households where neither parent had worked.
Then there's the long term unemployed, and I'm talking 5 or 10 years plus who have more kids when they've been long term unemployed. I mean put a bloody sock on it.