Could WH2024 be a re-run of Biden v Trump – politicalbetting.com

FrancisUrquhart said:

Prosecutors said the government was dropping the driving while intoxicated and reckless driving charges because it did not believe it could meet its burden of proving them in court.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-56185570

Did they not breathize him?

They did, and he was under the legal limit.

(However, AIUI, he failed a field sobriety test, so he was probably very slighly over the limit when tested, but then passed a breath or urine test back at the station.)

Leon said:

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

Roger said:

Leon said:

Hints of a very good poll for the SNP/indy tomorrow!

Eeesh. They really are teflon.

I can't see how she could have behaved in any other way. The idea that AS did nothing wrong is ridiculous. His lawyer admitted he was a woman botherer. Maybe not enough for prison but enough to wreck his reputation which it did.

When the complaints came in what was she supposed to do? 'Nothing to do with me gov.. I've worked with him for 30 years and he's as pure as the driven snow' would would not have worked. It would have been and looked like a cover up

The alternative was to tell the complainants how to register their complaints. That was the option she chose and if you think about it there was no other option available.

'A woman more sinned against than sinning' and becoming more impressive by the day.

These are the asinine comments of a man who has read a one-paragraph summary of the entire affair and decided he likes Nicola anyway.

Roger, dear, it's all a bit more complex and murky than this.

A one paragraph summary would be mighty useful, mind.

It would. Here are 10 paragraphs which do a decent job, tho they miss the most recent shenanigans, when it has appeared that the Scottish legal system is acting politically: in aid of the SNP.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/11/what-exactly-is-the-alex-salmond-controversy-all-about

Ta for that.

dixiedean said:

LostPassword said:

Foxy said:

If Trump gets the nomination, which is quite likely if he runs, he won't win the POTUS.

Which is why he won't run.

That was why he decided not to stand for re-election, as people using that argument previously argued.

I'm pretty sure that Trump actually believes he did win in 2020, and that the election was stolen from him. It's almost necessary for the preservation of his self-image to run again.

Nor indeed would he have run in 2016.
Trump thinks he'll win, and thinks he did win, because he thinks he is preternaturally gifted and that everyone else sees it too.
Just like a textbook narcissistic personality disorder sufferer.

Either that or he is preternaturally gifted.

One of the two.

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

Roger said:

Leon said:

Hints of a very good poll for the SNP/indy tomorrow!

Eeesh. They really are teflon.

I can't see how she could have behaved in any other way. The idea that AS did nothing wrong is ridiculous. His lawyer admitted he was a woman botherer. Maybe not enough for prison but enough to wreck his reputation which it did.

When the complaints came in what was she supposed to do? 'Nothing to do with me gov.. I've worked with him for 30 years and he's as pure as the driven snow' would would not have worked. It would have been and looked like a cover up

The alternative was to tell the complainants how to register their complaints. That was the option she chose and if you think about it there was no other option available.

'A woman more sinned against than sinning' and becoming more impressive by the day.

These are the asinine comments of a man who has read a one-paragraph summary of the entire affair and decided he likes Nicola anyway.

Roger, dear, it's all a bit more complex and murky than this.

A one paragraph summary would be mighty useful, mind.

It would. Here are 10 paragraphs which do a decent job, tho they miss the most recent shenanigans, when it has appeared that the Scottish legal system is acting politically: in aid of the SNP.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/11/what-exactly-is-the-alex-salmond-controversy-all-about

Ta for that.

Actually the Andrew Neil piece, linked below, is more entertaining and much more incisive. It gives a flavour of the outright corruption now rotting away in Edinburgh

Richard_Nabavi said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

I had a long chat with her predecessor (a Sarkozy appointment, she was Hollande's pick) after a swanky do at his official residence in around 2013. He was good fun, but I was struck by how superficial his understanding of British attitudes to the EU was. This lady's views sound similarly superficial.

I wonder how many British people she has met outside of central London.

I suspect equivalent things can be said of many ambassadors from many countries.

Richard_Nabavi said:

dixiedean said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

dixiedean said:

londonpubman said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

Benpointer said:

..
At some point the government has to tackle the crazy issue of billions in housing benefit being paid to subsidise buy-to-let landlords. ..

Err, the Cameron government did exactly that, and got a hell of lot of criticism for it from the usual suspects. I don't recall you being a Cameron/Osborne supporter, but welcome to the club!

It would be nice if the government did something to bring welfare under control...we can only hope!

Pensions are by far the majority of welfare.
Plenty, including many Conservative supporters, have urged the ending of the triple lock.
Not a sausage. Maybe it isn't really about controlling welfare, but the client vote?

The triple lock is fairly trivial overall, though (although it needs to go in the long term). State pensions are not exactly lavish. And anyway, it was a LibDem policy originally, and it was Labour, not the Conservatives, who committed to keeping it in the 2017 election. Theresa May wanted to get rid of it.

So this idea that it's a Tory bung to the 'client vote' is a load of baloney.

State pensions are by far the largest section of the benefits bill.
And, after a pandemic which has seen working age people suffer economically primarily for the health benefits of the retired, by far the easiest to morally justify.
This is not a Party political point as I am not, nor ever have been a member of any Party.

The trouble is that those dependent on the state pension are still very poor - and they were told through all their working life that they were 'paying in' to the state pension scheme. It's not their fault that successive governments squandered the dosh on current spending.

It's true that the triple lock may have very perverse effects in the next couple of financial years, and I agree that it should go, for that reason (and also because of the long-term ratchet effect). But it's not true that state pensions are generous, even with it. The reason that the LibDems originally proposed it was to help poor pensioners catch up a little.

A better target would be the absurd anomaly whereby well-off people like me who are past state pension age but who are still earning (in some cases, earning a lot) don't pay employee's National Insurance. Fixing that would be my number one priority if I were Chancellor. It's ridiculous, even though I personally benefit from it.

We can agree on that much at least.
In truth, no one was ever "paying in" in any real sense. Pensions are paid out of the taxes of the currently working. Just as current pensioners paid taxes when they worked for their now largely departed elders' pensions.
Which is why they are set by the government. And are benefits not entitlements.

It's all a bit like the Remainers jumping up and down about the Supreme Court and the UK government breaking the law. Johnson still won bigly because he had an issue.

Richard_Nabavi said:

dixiedean said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

dixiedean said:

londonpubman said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

Benpointer said:

..
At some point the government has to tackle the crazy issue of billions in housing benefit being paid to subsidise buy-to-let landlords. ..

Err, the Cameron government did exactly that, and got a hell of lot of criticism for it from the usual suspects. I don't recall you being a Cameron/Osborne supporter, but welcome to the club!

It would be nice if the government did something to bring welfare under control...we can only hope!

Pensions are by far the majority of welfare.
Plenty, including many Conservative supporters, have urged the ending of the triple lock.
Not a sausage. Maybe it isn't really about controlling welfare, but the client vote?

The triple lock is fairly trivial overall, though (although it needs to go in the long term). State pensions are not exactly lavish. And anyway, it was a LibDem policy originally, and it was Labour, not the Conservatives, who committed to keeping it in the 2017 election. Theresa May wanted to get rid of it.

So this idea that it's a Tory bung to the 'client vote' is a load of baloney.

State pensions are by far the largest section of the benefits bill.
And, after a pandemic which has seen working age people suffer economically primarily for the health benefits of the retired, by far the easiest to morally justify.
This is not a Party political point as I am not, nor ever have been a member of any Party.

The trouble is that those dependent on the state pension are still very poor - and they were told through all their working life that they were 'paying in' to the state pension scheme. It's not their fault that successive governments squandered the dosh on current spending.

It's true that the triple lock may have very perverse effects in the next couple of financial years, and I agree that it should go, for that reason (and also because of the long-term ratchet effect). But it's not true that state pensions are generous, even with it. The reason that the LibDems originally proposed it was to help poor pensioners catch up a little.

A better target would be the absurd anomaly whereby well-off people like me who are past state pension age but who are still earning (in some cases, earning a lot) don't pay employee's National Insurance. Fixing that would be my number one priority if I were Chancellor. It's ridiculous, even though I personally benefit from it.

Perhaps the worse thing about the NI age thing is that it encourages some 'past their best' workers to keep going on and on.

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

Roger said:

Leon said:

Hints of a very good poll for the SNP/indy tomorrow!

Eeesh. They really are teflon.

I can't see how she could have behaved in any other way. The idea that AS did nothing wrong is ridiculous. His lawyer admitted he was a woman botherer. Maybe not enough for prison but enough to wreck his reputation which it did.

When the complaints came in what was she supposed to do? 'Nothing to do with me gov.. I've worked with him for 30 years and he's as pure as the driven snow' would would not have worked. It would have been and looked like a cover up

The alternative was to tell the complainants how to register their complaints. That was the option she chose and if you think about it there was no other option available.

'A woman more sinned against than sinning' and becoming more impressive by the day.

These are the asinine comments of a man who has read a one-paragraph summary of the entire affair and decided he likes Nicola anyway.

Roger, dear, it's all a bit more complex and murky than this.

A one paragraph summary would be mighty useful, mind.

It would. Here are 10 paragraphs which do a decent job, tho they miss the most recent shenanigans, when it has appeared that the Scottish legal system is acting politically: in aid of the SNP.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/11/what-exactly-is-the-alex-salmond-controversy-all-about

Ta for that.

Actually the Andrew Neil piece, linked below, is more entertaining and much more incisive. It gives a flavour of the outright corruption now rotting away in Edinburgh

Indeed so. I tend to avoid Scottish politics as I have no Scots family. And, despite living 35 miles from the border have only been there once. It is a foreign polity to me.
What strikes me is, whilst Labour has floundered around for a credible leader for over a decade, the SNP has produced 2. Both on a similar fish theme.
Big fish, tiny pond. Fight.
I am none the wiser as to who is in the right or wrong here.

They are BOTH in the wrong. He has admitted being a bully and a lecherous old git, she is clearly lying about the whole scandal.

But this bust-up is now much bigger than either of them: it has revealed an incestuous and corrupt culture at the top of the Scottish Establishment. The SNP is so dominant, and so lacking in opposition, it can lean on other institutions (like the law) and the media are supine (because the SNP pulls all the strings). The police don't want to annoy a party that looks like it will be in power for EVAH.

And on and on it goes. Academics become party mouthpieces. Education is co-opted to the indy cause. Charities need SNP approval. Ghastly.

Leon said:

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

dixiedean said:

Leon said:

Roger said:

Leon said:

Hints of a very good poll for the SNP/indy tomorrow!

Eeesh. They really are teflon.

I can't see how she could have behaved in any other way. The idea that AS did nothing wrong is ridiculous. His lawyer admitted he was a woman botherer. Maybe not enough for prison but enough to wreck his reputation which it did.

When the complaints came in what was she supposed to do? 'Nothing to do with me gov.. I've worked with him for 30 years and he's as pure as the driven snow' would would not have worked. It would have been and looked like a cover up

The alternative was to tell the complainants how to register their complaints. That was the option she chose and if you think about it there was no other option available.

'A woman more sinned against than sinning' and becoming more impressive by the day.

These are the asinine comments of a man who has read a one-paragraph summary of the entire affair and decided he likes Nicola anyway.

Roger, dear, it's all a bit more complex and murky than this.

A one paragraph summary would be mighty useful, mind.

It would. Here are 10 paragraphs which do a decent job, tho they miss the most recent shenanigans, when it has appeared that the Scottish legal system is acting politically: in aid of the SNP.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/11/what-exactly-is-the-alex-salmond-controversy-all-about

Ta for that.

Actually the Andrew Neil piece, linked below, is more entertaining and much more incisive. It gives a flavour of the outright corruption now rotting away in Edinburgh

Indeed so. I tend to avoid Scottish politics as I have no Scots family. And, despite living 35 miles from the border have only been there once. It is a foreign polity to me.
What strikes me is, whilst Labour has floundered around for a credible leader for over a decade, the SNP has produced 2. Both on a similar fish theme.
Big fish, tiny pond. Fight.
I am none the wiser as to who is in the right or wrong here.

They are BOTH in the wrong. He has admitted being a bully and a lecherous old git, she is clearly lying about the whole scandal.

But this bust-up is now much bigger than either of them: it has revealed an incestuous and corrupt culture at the top of the Scottish Establishment. The SNP is so dominant, and so lacking in opposition, it can lean on other institutions (like the law) and the media are supine (because the SNP pulls all the strings). The police don't want to annoy a party that looks like it will be in power for EVAH.

And on and on it goes. Academics become party mouthpieces. Education is co-opted to the indy cause. Charities need SNP approval. Ghastly.

Good job the rest of us have avoided this dystopia

Luckyguy1983 said:

EPG said:

It's all a bit like the Remainers jumping up and down about the Supreme Court and the UK government breaking the law. Johnson still won bigly because he had an issue.

I agree that at the moment it's a political story. Sturgeon is liked. Salmond was liked, now he's in the gutter (acquittal or no acquittal), and appears to be threatening a popular leader. For some, the penny will never drop. For others, the events might be crystallised successfully by hearing Salmond explain them for himself. This might be done more successfully in an interview (step forward Andrew Neil?) than before the enquiry (though it's obviously vital that he testifies there too).

Concerning the impact electorally and in the Indy stakes, the SNP has been highly successful at weaponising Scottishness. Attacks on it are successfully portrayed as attacks on Scotland, and the SNP's miscreants are 'our' miscreants. It's identity politics. The job of unionist parties is to create a clear difference between 'Scotland' and the SNP, that frees the SNP's supporters to choose other alternatives.

There is a lesson in paragraph 2 for England too.

Luckyguy1983 said:

EPG said:

It's all a bit like the Remainers jumping up and down about the Supreme Court and the UK government breaking the law. Johnson still won bigly because he had an issue.

I agree that at the moment it's a political story. Sturgeon is liked. Salmond was liked, now he's in the gutter (acquittal or no acquittal), and appears to be threatening a popular leader. For some, the penny will never drop. For others, the events might be crystallised successfully by hearing Salmond explain them for himself. This might be done more successfully in an interview (step forward Andrew Neil?) than before the enquiry (though it's obviously vital that he testifies there too).

Concerning the impact electorally and in the Indy stakes, the SNP has been highly successful at weaponising Scottishness. Attacks on it are successfully portrayed as attacks on Scotland, and the SNP's miscreants are 'our' miscreants. It's identity politics. The job of unionist parties is to create a clear difference between 'Scotland' and the SNP, that frees the SNP's supporters to choose other alternatives.

If the SNP splits into open warfare, then it can no longer claim to be the united voice of Scotland Itself. Right now, that looks very possible.

And with that, it really is Hoots. Och Aye and Goodnight

Leon said:

EPG said:

It's all a bit like the Remainers jumping up and down about the Supreme Court and the UK government breaking the law. Johnson still won bigly because he had an issue.

That's a fair analogy

One important difference, however, is that Johnson only needed to do pretty well under FPTP and he romped home in seats (against a weak and divided opposition). Sturgeon has the weak and divided opposition BUT the Holyrood system is designed to produce hung parliaments.

If Salmondgate costs the SNP just100,000 votes that could still be enough to take the Nats down, from outright majority to largest party.

With BJ as PM, and Starmer as Opposition Leader the SNP should still get over the line.....says a lot about the Union's politics.

DecrepiterJohnL said:

felix said:

another_richard said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

I had a long chat with her predecessor (a Sarkozy appointment, she was Hollande's pick) after a swanky do at his official residence in around 2013. He was good fun, but I was struck by how superficial his understanding of British attitudes to the EU was. This lady's views sound similarly superficial.

I wonder how many British people she has met outside of central London.

I suspect equivalent things can be said of many ambassadors from many countries.

Indeed - she needs to visit Hartkepool, Stoke and Hull - all places she , and dear thick Roger totally despise.

Would that help? Istm the Ambassador is right about Boris and wrong about hating Germany. What she does not even address is that unlike other European countries, Britain has not been invaded or ruled by fascist or communist dictators, so we do not credit the EU with saving us from a recurrence. Nor the likelihood that many who voted for Brexit did not really want Brexit per se, or not "this" Brexit.

There are many people who are cynical about German or Franco-German domination of the EU but that is not the same as hating Germany. Or maybe that is a distinction that has been lost in the overuse of the term "phobia".

Incidentally, you know who does visit Hartlepool, Stoke and Hull, or at least places like them? Away football supporters. Often derided as thick and violent, these fans are the ones who do see the country, even if only for a couple of hours a week. Probably more than any other group.

DecrepiterJohnL said:

felix said:

another_richard said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

I had a long chat with her predecessor (a Sarkozy appointment, she was Hollande's pick) after a swanky do at his official residence in around 2013. He was good fun, but I was struck by how superficial his understanding of British attitudes to the EU was. This lady's views sound similarly superficial.

I wonder how many British people she has met outside of central London.

I suspect equivalent things can be said of many ambassadors from many countries.

Indeed - she needs to visit Hartkepool, Stoke and Hull - all places she , and dear thick Roger totally despise.

Would that help? Istm the Ambassador is right about Boris and wrong about hating Germany. What she does not even address is that unlike other European countries, Britain has not been invaded or ruled by fascist or communist dictators, so we do not credit the EU with saving us from a recurrence. Nor the likelihood that many who voted for Brexit did not really want Brexit per se, or not "this" Brexit.

There are many people who are cynical about German or Franco-German domination of the EU but that is not the same as hating Germany. Or maybe that is a distinction that has been lost in the overuse of the term "phobia".

Incidentally, you know who does visit Hartlepool, Stoke and Hull, or at least places like them? Away football supporters. Often derided as thick and violent, these fans are the ones who do see the country, even if only for a couple of hours a week. Probably more than any other group.

Fantastic point about travelling football supporters... these guys (and are normally male) get to see the cities & towns at their worst & best - usually treated like dirt by the local constabulary as well, and not exactly loved in modern Britain.....

DecrepiterJohnL said:

felix said:

another_richard said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

I had a long chat with her predecessor (a Sarkozy appointment, she was Hollande's pick) after a swanky do at his official residence in around 2013. He was good fun, but I was struck by how superficial his understanding of British attitudes to the EU was. This lady's views sound similarly superficial.

I wonder how many British people she has met outside of central London.

I suspect equivalent things can be said of many ambassadors from many countries.

Indeed - she needs to visit Hartkepool, Stoke and Hull - all places she , and dear thick Roger totally despise.

Would that help? Istm the Ambassador is right about Boris and wrong about hating Germany. What she does not even address is that unlike other European countries, Britain has not been invaded or ruled by fascist or communist dictators, so we do not credit the EU with saving us from a recurrence. Nor the likelihood that many who voted for Brexit did not really want Brexit per se, or not "this" Brexit.

There are many people who are cynical about German or Franco-German domination of the EU but that is not the same as hating Germany. Or maybe that is a distinction that has been lost in the overuse of the term "phobia".

Incidentally, you know who does visit Hartlepool, Stoke and Hull, or at least places like them? Away football supporters. Often derided as thick and violent, these fans are the ones who do see the country, even if only for a couple of hours a week. Probably more than any other group.

One of the first groups of people to predict a Trump win in the USA - stand-up comedians. They spend every weekend in a different town, and saw it coming from a mile away, in a way that a lot of the big-city media simply failed to understand.

DecrepiterJohnL said:

OT observations from this week.
1. Lots of holiday adverts.
2. Queues at Argos. Not sure why.

Argos had some PS5 stock?

swing_voter said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

felix said:

another_richard said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

I had a long chat with her predecessor (a Sarkozy appointment, she was Hollande's pick) after a swanky do at his official residence in around 2013. He was good fun, but I was struck by how superficial his understanding of British attitudes to the EU was. This lady's views sound similarly superficial.

I wonder how many British people she has met outside of central London.

I suspect equivalent things can be said of many ambassadors from many countries.

Indeed - she needs to visit Hartkepool, Stoke and Hull - all places she , and dear thick Roger totally despise.

Would that help? Istm the Ambassador is right about Boris and wrong about hating Germany. What she does not even address is that unlike other European countries, Britain has not been invaded or ruled by fascist or communist dictators, so we do not credit the EU with saving us from a recurrence. Nor the likelihood that many who voted for Brexit did not really want Brexit per se, or not "this" Brexit.

There are many people who are cynical about German or Franco-German domination of the EU but that is not the same as hating Germany. Or maybe that is a distinction that has been lost in the overuse of the term "phobia".

Incidentally, you know who does visit Hartlepool, Stoke and Hull, or at least places like them? Away football supporters. Often derided as thick and violent, these fans are the ones who do see the country, even if only for a couple of hours a week. Probably more than any other group.

Fantastic point about travelling football supporters... these guys (and are normally male) get to see the cities & towns at their worst & best - usually treated like dirt by the local constabulary as well, and not exactly loved in modern Britain.....

To be fair to the plods, the image problem suffered by football supporters isn't wholly a legacy issue leftover from 1980s hooliganism. There's a reason why opposing sets of fans still need to be kept apart, in a way that isn't true of crowds at other sporting events: too many of them can't be trusted not to get pissed up and then start fights with each other. On top of which, alas, is the fact that the football terrace is arguably the final bastion of acceptable public hate speech against minorities (the digitally anonymised cesspit of anti-social media being a somewhat different beast.)

Within the relative safety of a large, tribal crowd, blokes can get away with yelling the sort of shit that might get them arrested if they directed the same behaviour individually towards someone in the street. Why did black players (before stadiums were emptied by Covid) still sometimes complain of racist abuse? Why are there no out gay professional footballers? Because of the behaviour of the fans.

Football reflects the nature of society, and the element of society that is most likely to be bigoted, abusive and casually violent is over-represented in football crowds. It doesn't mean that most supporters are like that, but the rotten apples are there nonetheless.

One things I can't work out at the moment is why people on PB keep saying there is no flu this year, yet the ONS death stats are finding the usual number of flu/pneumonia deaths:

https://twitter.com/ONS/status/1364146215319969792

And...

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-hospital-staff-nervous-over-pms-lockdown-plan-as-cold-wave-adds-to-pandemic-pressures-12228159

Sky News are now reporting that regular winter NHS crisis has arrived!

Also on Sky News this morning...

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-a-level-and-gcse-results-will-be-issued-earlier-to-allow-more-time-for-appeals-12227836

It's not in that piece, but they're reporting on the TV this morning that there are concerns that his will lead to grade inflation.

No shit!

There are no good options with this. But given the screeching last year, there is no other option. I don't know how (decent) universities have approached giving places this year, but if they've done the usual thing of making more offers than places, they are going to have a problem again.

tlg86 said:

Also on Sky News this morning...

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-a-level-and-gcse-results-will-be-issued-earlier-to-allow-more-time-for-appeals-12227836

It's not in that piece, but they're reporting on the TV this morning that there are concerns that his will lead to grade inflation.

No shit!

There are no good options with this. But given the screeching last year, there is no other option. I don't know how (decent) universities have approached giving places this year, but if they've done the usual thing of making more offers than places, they are going to have a problem again.

If universities were capable of thinking outside the box, they’d realise that they could expand their numbers somewhat by offering mostly-online courses in many subjects, for a reduced tuition fee. This could attract both students who can’t move away from home, students worried about debt and mature students, all groups they’re trying to encourage into universities.

felix said:

another_richard said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

I had a long chat with her predecessor (a Sarkozy appointment, she was Hollande's pick) after a swanky do at his official residence in around 2013. He was good fun, but I was struck by how superficial his understanding of British attitudes to the EU was. This lady's views sound similarly superficial.

I wonder how many British people she has met outside of central London.

I suspect equivalent things can be said of many ambassadors from many countries.

Indeed - she needs to visit Hartkepool, Stoke and Hull - all places she , and dear thick Roger totally despise.

No need. She could get the full Leaverstan experience by eating Turkey Twizzlers while watching this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek0Px142dCE

You do have to respect old mate who managed to keep hold of his glue bag throughout the entire fracas.

felix said:

rcs1000 said:

felix said:

another_richard said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

I had a long chat with her predecessor (a Sarkozy appointment, she was Hollande's pick) after a swanky do at his official residence in around 2013. He was good fun, but I was struck by how superficial his understanding of British attitudes to the EU was. This lady's views sound similarly superficial.

I wonder how many British people she has met outside of central London.

I suspect equivalent things can be said of many ambassadors from many countries.

Indeed - she needs to visit Hartkepool, Stoke and Hull - all places she , and dear thick Roger totally despise.

Well, yes. But is it the job of the French (or American or Thai) Ambassador to research the views of the British people? Or is it to raised their country to HM Government?

I felt her rather unpleasant diatribe revealed as much about her insecurity about her own country's recent past than any knowledge about either the British people or indeed its politicians. Holland's pecadillose via a moped may well be rather lame compared to Boris's pecadilloes so I guess she's also a bit pissed about that as well.

It revealed to me that she was exactly the wrong kind of person to be an Ambassador. Indeed, I'd argue that there has been a distressing trend in recent years for Ambassadors to be given to Friends of the PM/President/etc.

Casino_Royale said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

Yeah. Whatever.

One of the best things about Brexit is I don't have to give a shit what the likes of a French ex-ambassador thinks of us anymore.

Finally we find out the best thing about Brexit, its taken six years but we got there!

Sandpit said:

Jonathan said:

Casino_Royale said:

Just watched The Cannonball Run on @Jonathan's recommendation. I can only assume he was taking the piss as it's one of the silliest films I've ever seen! And it's definitely unwoke!

Best bits were the burnup of the Lambo in the intro, and the outtakes.

I might try Smokey and the Bandit next.

Ooops sorry @Casino_Royale . The Canonball Run, is indeed in truth not technically multi Oscar winning material. But the 10yr old Jonathan certainly enjoyed it and I retain a soft spot. Simpler times. It would be hard to watch it in the expectation of Oscar winning performance, however good Sammy Davis Jnr or Roger Moore were.

Whoops, guilty for encouraging that one too. It’s not the best movie ever made, but it’s a great hour and a half of escapism and non-PC jokes, centred around a real-life illegal event and with no chance it could be made today.

My dream car is a Lamborghini Countach, but thanks to there now being millions of 40-somethings who grew up watching this movie, they cost as much as a house - £300k for a decent one.

Best bad films that were actually excellent? For starters:

Grimsby (had me crying with laughter much to the bemusement of the other passengers on the plane)
Die Hard 4.0
The Rock (obvs)
And I see even Top Gun only got 6.6 on IMDb.

Sandpit said:

rcs1000 said:

Sandpit said:

tlg86 said:

Also on Sky News this morning...

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-a-level-and-gcse-results-will-be-issued-earlier-to-allow-more-time-for-appeals-12227836

It's not in that piece, but they're reporting on the TV this morning that there are concerns that his will lead to grade inflation.

No shit!

There are no good options with this. But given the screeching last year, there is no other option. I don't know how (decent) universities have approached giving places this year, but if they've done the usual thing of making more offers than places, they are going to have a problem again.

If universities were capable of thinking outside the box, they’d realise that they could expand their numbers somewhat by offering mostly-online courses in many subjects, for a reduced tuition fee. This could attract both students who can’t move away from home, students worried about debt and mature students, all groups they’re trying to encourage into universities.

Almost all the big US universities do that right now, and if I wasn't so busy, I'd consider it.

The problem is that - while it works very well for forty-somethings - it's a harder sell to most 18 year olds. University, after all, is about more than your course. (I "studied" philosophy. But my real education was hanging out with a bunch of really smart people. And becoming a fantastic poker player.)

Of course, that was all part of the fun for us, with a middle-class upbringing and parental encouragement.

For others, who have parents telling them to be scared of getting into debt, who don’t have the resources to support themselves living away, or teenagers who are carers for relatives, it’s the sort of scheme that makes a huge difference to the decision to study for a degree in the first place. We need to be encouraging much more of it.

I had part time jobs during my time at University. Nothing massive, 2-3 evenings a week times four or five hours. It saved me money (not going to the pub) and earned me at the same time. And, of course, I worked in the holidays.

Now, sure, I went to a University where rents were cheap. And I didn't have tuition fees. But someone working part time in the UK isn't going to leave University with massive debts compared to those graduating in the US (and - of course - they're at low interest rates with fairly generous repayment options.)

I'm not saying that more flexible learning isn't important - it is. But I'm not sure I'd pay that much for the academic part of my course. The other bits, mind, were priceless.

IanB2 said:

felix said:

another_richard said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

I had a long chat with her predecessor (a Sarkozy appointment, she was Hollande's pick) after a swanky do at his official residence in around 2013. He was good fun, but I was struck by how superficial his understanding of British attitudes to the EU was. This lady's views sound similarly superficial.

I wonder how many British people she has met outside of central London.

I suspect equivalent things can be said of many ambassadors from many countries.

Indeed - she needs to visit Hartkepool, Stoke and Hull - all places she , and dear thick Roger totally despise.

Her comments mostly concern Johnson’s character and in particular his dishonesty. A trip to Hartlepool seems an unnecessary pre-condition for diagnosing that.

While we didn't liberate Europe on our own, we certainly did liberate Europe and if she thinks that's a myth or irrelevant perhaps history lessons might serve better than a trip anywhere.

Sandpit said:

rcs1000 said:

Sandpit said:

tlg86 said:

Also on Sky News this morning...

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-a-level-and-gcse-results-will-be-issued-earlier-to-allow-more-time-for-appeals-12227836

It's not in that piece, but they're reporting on the TV this morning that there are concerns that his will lead to grade inflation.

No shit!

There are no good options with this. But given the screeching last year, there is no other option. I don't know how (decent) universities have approached giving places this year, but if they've done the usual thing of making more offers than places, they are going to have a problem again.

If universities were capable of thinking outside the box, they’d realise that they could expand their numbers somewhat by offering mostly-online courses in many subjects, for a reduced tuition fee. This could attract both students who can’t move away from home, students worried about debt and mature students, all groups they’re trying to encourage into universities.

Almost all the big US universities do that right now, and if I wasn't so busy, I'd consider it.

The problem is that - while it works very well for forty-somethings - it's a harder sell to most 18 year olds. University, after all, is about more than your course. (I "studied" philosophy. But my real education was hanging out with a bunch of really smart people. And becoming a fantastic poker player.)

Of course, that was all part of the fun for us, with a middle-class upbringing and parental encouragement.

For others, who have parents telling them to be scared of getting into debt, who don’t have the resources to support themselves living away, or teenagers who are carers for relatives, it’s the sort of scheme that makes a huge difference to the decision to study for a degree in the first place. We need to be encouraging much more of it.

I would add that the socialising benefited - more than anyone else - the kids from less privileged backgrounds. Tristram Hunt (my next door neighbour in the first year) was going to hang out with smart and connected people irrespective of whether he went to University or not. Someone from a comprehensive school in Bradford, not so much.

Heck: my whole career was born from the fact that *everyone* in 1993 was reading Liars Poker. And so I read it too.

So when will Alex Salmond need to seek political asylum in England ?

Philip_Thompson said:

IanB2 said:

felix said:

another_richard said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

I had a long chat with her predecessor (a Sarkozy appointment, she was Hollande's pick) after a swanky do at his official residence in around 2013. He was good fun, but I was struck by how superficial his understanding of British attitudes to the EU was. This lady's views sound similarly superficial.

I wonder how many British people she has met outside of central London.

I suspect equivalent things can be said of many ambassadors from many countries.

Indeed - she needs to visit Hartkepool, Stoke and Hull - all places she , and dear thick Roger totally despise.

Her comments mostly concern Johnson’s character and in particular his dishonesty. A trip to Hartlepool seems an unnecessary pre-condition for diagnosing that.

While we didn't liberate Europe on our own, we certainly did liberate Europe and if she thinks that's a myth or irrelevant perhaps history lessons might serve better than a trip anywhere.

Dont forget the Gaullists claim they liberated France all by themselves.

rcs1000 said:

Philip_Thompson said:

IanB2 said:

felix said:

another_richard said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

I had a long chat with her predecessor (a Sarkozy appointment, she was Hollande's pick) after a swanky do at his official residence in around 2013. He was good fun, but I was struck by how superficial his understanding of British attitudes to the EU was. This lady's views sound similarly superficial.

I wonder how many British people she has met outside of central London.

I suspect equivalent things can be said of many ambassadors from many countries.

Indeed - she needs to visit Hartkepool, Stoke and Hull - all places she , and dear thick Roger totally despise.

Her comments mostly concern Johnson’s character and in particular his dishonesty. A trip to Hartlepool seems an unnecessary pre-condition for diagnosing that.

While we didn't liberate Europe on our own, we certainly did liberate Europe and if she thinks that's a myth or irrelevant perhaps history lessons might serve better than a trip anywhere.

There's probably a Jeremy Corbyn joke there somewhere. "We were there for the liberation of Europe..."

Not Jeremy Corbyn: Charles de Gaulle. Here is 45 seconds of de Gaulle describing the liberation of Paris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuv_vbxu4lI

ETA: Paris liberated by the French, with the help of... France.

Philip_Thompson said:

Positive for the plague in my household. Wife's tested positive despite taking all the precautions and having the Pfizer first jab in December. She's asymptomatic, just been picked up as she does 3 tests a week.

I guess I'll get the plague now and may not be as lucky to be asymptomatic. Kind of regretting piling the pounds back on over winter that I lost last spring now. 😟

Hope all is well. You should be fine stats-wise. Hope so.

rcs1000 said:

Philip_Thompson said:

Positive for the plague in my household. Wife's tested positive despite taking all the precautions and having the Pfizer first jab in December. She's asymptomatic, just been picked up as she does 3 tests a week.

I guess I'll get the plague now and may not be as lucky to be asymptomatic. Kind of regretting piling the pounds back on over winter that I lost last spring now. 😟

She's unlikely to be contagious, and if she is, she'll be shedding v. low levels, so you should be fine.

You (for some values of "you") will need to self-isolate anyway so the only difference you testing positive might make is to delay your children's return to school by a couple of days.

DecrepiterJohnL said:

rcs1000 said:

Philip_Thompson said:

Positive for the plague in my household. Wife's tested positive despite taking all the precautions and having the Pfizer first jab in December. She's asymptomatic, just been picked up as she does 3 tests a week.

I guess I'll get the plague now and may not be as lucky to be asymptomatic. Kind of regretting piling the pounds back on over winter that I lost last spring now. 😟

She's unlikely to be contagious, and if she is, she'll be shedding v. low levels, so you should be fine.

You (for some values of "you") will need to self-isolate anyway so the only difference you testing positive might make is to delay your children's return to school by a couple of days.

Nice edit, btw.

rcs1000 said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

rcs1000 said:

Philip_Thompson said:

Positive for the plague in my household. Wife's tested positive despite taking all the precautions and having the Pfizer first jab in December. She's asymptomatic, just been picked up as she does 3 tests a week.

I guess I'll get the plague now and may not be as lucky to be asymptomatic. Kind of regretting piling the pounds back on over winter that I lost last spring now. 😟

She's unlikely to be contagious, and if she is, she'll be shedding v. low levels, so you should be fine.

You will need to self-isolate anyway so the only difference you testing positive might make is to delay your children's return to school by a couple of days.

I haven't seen any evidence suggesting it can't spread via messages in Internet chatrooms. Obviously, I wear a mask when using PB and wash my hands afterwards, but - to be safe - we should probably all self isolate.

I'm just marvelling at Philip giving his wife the combination to the man cave. Truly it must be love.

Has anyone seen Police Academy, one of the best gritty 1980s crime dramas?

Tbh we might ALL get Covid once the country has opened up and we're into next winter, even vaccinated. I expect it's going to be rough for the antivaxxers in all sorts of ways.

I see we're discussing the iconic Lamborghini Countasch

rcs1000 said:

felix said:

another_richard said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

I had a long chat with her predecessor (a Sarkozy appointment, she was Hollande's pick) after a swanky do at his official residence in around 2013. He was good fun, but I was struck by how superficial his understanding of British attitudes to the EU was. This lady's views sound similarly superficial.

I wonder how many British people she has met outside of central London.

I suspect equivalent things can be said of many ambassadors from many countries.

Indeed - she needs to visit Hartkepool, Stoke and Hull - all places she , and dear thick Roger totally despise.

Well, yes. But is it the job of the French (or American or Thai) Ambassador to research the views of the British people? Or is it to raised their country to HM Government?

I can normally decipher typos (it goes with the job) but this one has me stumped: what word did you mean to write here before autocorrect had its way with it?

Philip_Thompson said:

Positive for the plague in my household. Wife's tested positive despite taking all the precautions and having the Pfizer first jab in December. She's asymptomatic, just been picked up as she does 3 tests a week.

I guess I'll get the plague now and may not be as lucky to be asymptomatic. Kind of regretting piling the pounds back on over winter that I lost last spring now. 😟

Oh dear, sorry to read this. Best of luck. It's not a an absolute given that if you live with a covid + person that you catch it.

rcs1000 said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

rcs1000 said:

Philip_Thompson said:

Positive for the plague in my household. Wife's tested positive despite taking all the precautions and having the Pfizer first jab in December. She's asymptomatic, just been picked up as she does 3 tests a week.

I guess I'll get the plague now and may not be as lucky to be asymptomatic. Kind of regretting piling the pounds back on over winter that I lost last spring now. 😟

She's unlikely to be contagious, and if she is, she'll be shedding v. low levels, so you should be fine.

You will need to self-isolate anyway so the only difference you testing positive might make is to delay your children's return to school by a couple of days.

I haven't seen any evidence suggesting it can't spread via messages in Internet chatrooms. Obviously, I wear a mask when using PB and wash my hands afterwards, but - to be safe - we should probably all self isolate.

You don't think you can catch it as a computer virus? So now you're an entrepreneur and a doctor?

https://youtu.be/i_299Zvsu2A

Jonathan said:

Has anyone seen Police Academy, one of the best gritty 1980s crime dramas?

Six of the best gritty 1980’s crime dramas.

Sandpit said:

Jonathan said:

Has anyone seen Police Academy, one of the best gritty 1980s crime dramas?

Six of the best gritty 1980’s crime dramas.

Definitely. You have to watch all six to get that dramatic payoff in the final 15 minutes where it all comes together. You can see where the Wire got its inspiration.

alex_ said:

I see Gavin Williamson's (and the DfE) have been working exceptionally hard over the last few months to justify him being left in post after the fiasco of last year's exams...

aka. done nothing and just thrown their hands up in despair and made it a free for all.

It is absolutely staggering that they haven’t put in place a proper system of external moderation. It was bad enough last year and it is madness this year.

OFQUAL and the DfE both need to be axed.

Dura_Ace said:

felix said:

another_richard said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

IanB2 said:

Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.

She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.

Bermann, who served as the French ambassador to the UK from 2014 to 2017 and has been one of the most senior diplomats in the French diplomatic service, including as ambassador to China and to Russia, assesses the British handling of the Covid pandemic as among the worst in the world alongside that of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. She predicts Johnson will seek to use Covid to mask the true economic cost of Brexit on the UK economy.

Johnson, she says, comes from an Eton and Oxford University class that believes they are entitled to use language to provoke. Describing him as intelligent and charming, she says he uses “lies to embellish reality, as a game and as instrument of power. The ends justify the means. He has no rules.”

I had a long chat with her predecessor (a Sarkozy appointment, she was Hollande's pick) after a swanky do at his official residence in around 2013. He was good fun, but I was struck by how superficial his understanding of British attitudes to the EU was. This lady's views sound similarly superficial.

I wonder how many British people she has met outside of central London.

I suspect equivalent things can be said of many ambassadors from many countries.

Indeed - she needs to visit Hartkepool, Stoke and Hull - all places she , and dear thick Roger totally despise.

No need. She could get the full Leaverstan experience by eating Turkey Twizzlers while watching this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek0Px142dCE

You do have to respect old mate who managed to keep hold of his glue bag throughout the entire fracas.

Which one's felix?

DecrepiterJohnL said:

Marcus Rashford has been awarded the Gold Blue Peter Badge, like the Queen.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/56183688

He's a good bloke and all that but campaigning to spend large amounts of other people's money, all much poorer than you, on a cause however worthy is OK but not the stuff of saint making.

If everyone who went on the media campaigning to spend more of other people's money got a Blue Peter badge they would run out of badges.