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Ahead of the May 6 locals – some key facts and figures – politicalbetting.com

SystemSystem Posts: 11,002
edited March 2021 in General
imageAhead of the May 6 locals – some key facts and figures – politicalbetting.com

The reason the totals are showing a decline is because of local boundary changes and the application of a government policy to reduce the overall number of councillors and council wards .

Read the full story here

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Comments

  • First.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,878
    2nd - as good as I get these days...
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    edited March 2021
    Third, like England in the cricket.

    (Is that how cricket works?)
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited March 2021
    All those who put the mockers on England...get your things....your off to Conservative Home....
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,080
    edited March 2021
    5th.
    TOPPING said:

    MattW said:

    Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room.

    Hawksmoor's Spitalfields all day long.

    I find the church quite bombastic. Though peal of bells is one of the best to ring in London, and the acoustic is great.

    For Hawksmoor I prefer St Mary Woolnoth, just by the statue of Wotsit Peabody near Bank Station.
  • All those who put the mockers on England...get your things....off to Conservative Home....

    The banhammer should be deployed.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 9,688
    These will certainly be the most interesting local elections for a long while - possibly ever.

    FPT:


    Do you mean 'Fall of Eagles'? About Hapsburgs and so on. Absolutely fantastic. Michael Horden narrating. Never be made now - material far too difficult and non PC for today's viewers.

    I did, and thanks for the correction.
  • BromBrom Posts: 3,760
    Not sure I've ever seen Curran hit a six
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 113,957
    edited March 2021
    Anyhoo I've switched over to Zack Synder's Justice League.

    Whoever thought it was a great idea to release a film in UHD with a 4:3 aspect ratio needs to have deep and long think about their life choices.

    This maybe a very long four hours of my life I may not get back.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,238
    edited March 2021
    fpt

    "Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room."


    Like Topping I'd go for Hawksmoor's Christ Church, Spitalfields. Possibly my favourite church in the world, not just London. But is it in the City, technically? I think not


    So I'd go for either St Brides, Fleet St (Roman foundations in the cellar!), St Stephen Walbrook - Wrenaissance perfection - or St Bartholomew the Great - medieval and picturesque

    https://www.themontcalm.com/blog/a-look-at-christ-church-spitalfields/

    https://ststephenwalbrook.net/tag/church-design/

    https://regentclassicorgans.com/st-bartholomew-the-great/
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited March 2021
    Brom said:

    Not sure I've ever seen Curran hit a six

    He has hit plenty. He can bat, but he is no Sam Billings.

    Should England recall Hales and put Buttler down the order?
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,080
    Thank-you for the header.

    And fair play to the EMA for coming out with a fairly clear answer.
  • BromBrom Posts: 3,760

    Brom said:

    Not sure I've ever seen Curran hit a six

    He has hit plenty. He can bat, but he is no Sam Billings.

    Should England recall Hales and put Buttler down the order?
    Just swapping Buttler and Bairstow round would be a start. Probably about time to bring Hales back into the fold.
    I'd still bet on us to win the decider.
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797

    Anyhoo I've switched over to Zack Synder's Justice League.

    Whoever thought it was a great idea to release a film in UHD with a 4:3 aspect ratio needs to have deep and long think about their life choices.

    This maybe a very long four hours of my life I may not get back.

    Zack Synder did because he loves how Imax works.

    And this is very much Zack Synder's directors cut.
  • Brom said:

    Not sure I've ever seen Curran hit a six

    He has hit plenty. He can bat, but he is no Sam Billings.

    Should England recall Hales and put Buttler down the order?
    Not going to happen while Morgan is captain.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,770
    Leon said:

    fpt

    "Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room."


    Like Topping I'd go for Hawksmoor's Christ Church, Spitalfields. Possibly my favourite church in the world, not just London. But is it in the City, technically? I think not


    So I'd go for either St Brides, Fleet St (Roman foundations in the cellar!), St Stephen Walbrook - Wrenaissance perfection - or St Bartholomew the Great - medieval and picturesque

    https://www.themontcalm.com/blog/a-look-at-christ-church-spitalfields/

    https://ststephenwalbrook.net/tag/church-design/

    https://regentclassicorgans.com/st-bartholomew-the-great/

    St Brides is also right next to Goldman Sachs
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,238
    MattW said:

    5th.

    TOPPING said:

    MattW said:

    Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room.

    Hawksmoor's Spitalfields all day long.

    I find the church quite bombastic. Though peal of bells is one of the best to ring in London, and the acoustic is great.

    For Hawksmoor I prefer St Mary Woolnoth, just by the statue of Wotsit Peabody near Bank Station.
    It's more than bombastic. It is Fascistic, even Satanic. That's why I like it. Doesn't mimsy around. Says God is a bastard, and He doesn't care what you think

    Peter Ackroyd's novel Hawksmoor captures some of this sublime darkness

    And of course its location, Spitalfields, is perfect. Ancient streets, memories of Jack the Ripper, Huguenot silk weavers, beigels and biryainis on Brick Lane, amazing new restaurants and bars, the City surging into the sky a few hundred yards away.

    God I miss London. Can we have it back now, please?
  • eek said:

    Anyhoo I've switched over to Zack Synder's Justice League.

    Whoever thought it was a great idea to release a film in UHD with a 4:3 aspect ratio needs to have deep and long think about their life choices.

    This maybe a very long four hours of my life I may not get back.

    Zack Synder did because he loves how Imax works.

    And this is very much Zack Synder's directors cut.
    The thing is, having huge chunks of black bars on a 75 inch tv is a bloody mess.

    I think the correct format to watch this turns out to be my 12.9 inch iPad Pro.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,238
    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    fpt

    "Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room."


    Like Topping I'd go for Hawksmoor's Christ Church, Spitalfields. Possibly my favourite church in the world, not just London. But is it in the City, technically? I think not


    So I'd go for either St Brides, Fleet St (Roman foundations in the cellar!), St Stephen Walbrook - Wrenaissance perfection - or St Bartholomew the Great - medieval and picturesque

    https://www.themontcalm.com/blog/a-look-at-christ-church-spitalfields/

    https://ststephenwalbrook.net/tag/church-design/

    https://regentclassicorgans.com/st-bartholomew-the-great/

    St Brides is also right next to Goldman Sachs
    It is also the sacred church of journalists: being on Fleet Street, and its unusual tower allegedly inspired the invention of tiered wedding cakes, tho I have always wondered if that is an urban myth
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080
    TOPPING said:

    Third, like England in the cricket.

    (Is that how cricket works?)

    I thought it went on until everyone has lost the will to live, or it started raining, whereupon it was declared a draw?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,238
    As soon as lockdown properly ends, I am going to explore London all over again. Visit all those bars I never got round to visiting before. Try every single restaurant in the entire city. Balloon in weight to 600kg. What the F. Who cares.

    Freedom!!!!
  • Crikey Jofra, it is the hope that gets you.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    edited March 2021
    Leon said:

    MattW said:

    5th.

    TOPPING said:

    MattW said:

    Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room.

    Hawksmoor's Spitalfields all day long.

    I find the church quite bombastic. Though peal of bells is one of the best to ring in London, and the acoustic is great.

    For Hawksmoor I prefer St Mary Woolnoth, just by the statue of Wotsit Peabody near Bank Station.
    It's more than bombastic. It is Fascistic, even Satanic. That's why I like it. Doesn't mimsy around. Says God is a bastard, and He doesn't care what you think

    Peter Ackroyd's novel Hawksmoor captures some of this sublime darkness

    And of course its location, Spitalfields, is perfect. Ancient streets, memories of Jack the Ripper, Huguenot silk weavers, beigels and biryainis on Brick Lane, amazing new restaurants and bars, the City surging into the sky a few hundred yards away.

    God I miss London. Can we have it back now, please?
    Yes it's because it's so f*ck you that it is so impressive.

    As to (not) being in the City you could be right - I remember when that area was artists studios after the market proper closed. Fantastic time. Then The City encroached and it all became a bit tatt-y and "street food".
  • SandraMcSandraMc Posts: 582
    On the basis of name alone, I'd go for St Andrew by the Wardrobe with St Ann.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 12,741
    Afternoon all :)

    Rather like Cheltenham, an interesting set of races.

    What may be interesting is whether we see, as in 2019, a proliferation of anti-development Independents or Residents Association candidates in the south east challenging sitting Conservatives and whether these can forge any kind of electoral pact with other non-Conservative parties.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 12,741
    Leon said:

    As soon as lockdown properly ends, I am going to explore London all over again. Visit all those bars I never got round to visiting before. Try every single restaurant in the entire city. Balloon in weight to 600kg. What the F. Who cares.

    Freedom!!!!

    So it will be Leon Creosote before too long - could be a nom de plume or nom gastronomique.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 9,688
    IanB2 said:

    TOPPING said:

    Third, like England in the cricket.

    (Is that how cricket works?)

    I thought it went on until everyone has lost the will to live, or it started raining, whereupon it was declared a draw?
    Much like that. A slightly reassuring clack of willow on leather, a pressed silence as the bowler runs in, disappointment in the outfield. I'm sure you're right.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080
    edited March 2021
    Leon said:

    fpt

    "Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room."


    Like Topping I'd go for Hawksmoor's Christ Church, Spitalfields. Possibly my favourite church in the world, not just London. But is it in the City, technically? I think not


    So I'd go for either St Brides, Fleet St (Roman foundations in the cellar!), St Stephen Walbrook - Wrenaissance perfection - or St Bartholomew the Great - medieval and picturesque

    https://www.themontcalm.com/blog/a-look-at-christ-church-spitalfields/

    https://ststephenwalbrook.net/tag/church-design/

    https://regentclassicorgans.com/st-bartholomew-the-great/

    I like Christchurch Greyfriars, next to my first place of work, which is bombed out, but provides a great bit of rare open space in the city, which is far more useful than it ever was actually being a church. And LSO St Luke’s, another just outside the city, both for the wonderful outreach musical venue is is nowadays, and for the utterly memorable moment, when it was still bombed out in the 1990s, when I was walking past it accompanying a delegation from the German Post Office to lunch, and they asked me what had happened to it (the idea that it would still be in ruins fifty years later never having occurred to them).
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,607
    Leon said:

    As soon as lockdown properly ends, I am going to explore London all over again. Visit all those bars I never got round to visiting before. Try every single restaurant in the entire city. Balloon in weight to 600kg. What the F. Who cares.

    Freedom!!!!

    I tried to book a table at J Sheekey earlier, for June. Any idea why it's not taking any bookings?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,614
    I reworked the latest weekly England vaccination release (18th) to produce percentages by age per MSOA

    Headline numbers -

    20% Under 55
    49% 55-59
    76% 60-64
    88% 65-69
    93% 70-74
    94% 75-79
    94% 80+

    A sample

    image

    Full file at

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/16Ss-wULsziT6YqtyCYIq5NnYCa2IEyCh/view?usp=sharing
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,238
    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    fpt

    "Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room."


    Like Topping I'd go for Hawksmoor's Christ Church, Spitalfields. Possibly my favourite church in the world, not just London. But is it in the City, technically? I think not


    So I'd go for either St Brides, Fleet St (Roman foundations in the cellar!), St Stephen Walbrook - Wrenaissance perfection - or St Bartholomew the Great - medieval and picturesque

    https://www.themontcalm.com/blog/a-look-at-christ-church-spitalfields/

    https://ststephenwalbrook.net/tag/church-design/

    https://regentclassicorgans.com/st-bartholomew-the-great/

    I like Christchurch Greyfriars, next to my first place of work, which is bombed out, but provides a great bit of rare open space in the city, which is far more useful than it ever was actually being a church. And LSO St Luke’s, another just outside the city, both for the wonderful outreach musical venue is is nowadays, and for the utterly memorable moment, when it was still bombed out in the 1990s, when I was walking past it accompanying a delegation from the German Post Office to lunch, and they asked me what had happened to it (the idea that it would still be in ruins fifty years later never having occurred to them).
    I always liked St ethelburga’s. Tiny and Saxon and lovely. Squeezed between skyscrapers. I got quite upset when the IRA blew much of it up and I wanted us to nuke Dublin in return, which is unlike me

    https://knowyourlondon.wordpress.com/2019/10/23/st-ethelburga-the-virgin/

  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 9,688

    Leon said:

    As soon as lockdown properly ends, I am going to explore London all over again. Visit all those bars I never got round to visiting before. Try every single restaurant in the entire city. Balloon in weight to 600kg. What the F. Who cares.

    Freedom!!!!

    I tried to book a table at J Sheekey earlier, for June. Any idea why it's not taking any bookings?
    How do they connect with the famous 'Sheekey's'?

    (I don't think they are one and the same, but I could be wrong)
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080
    Also St Bartholomew the Great, near to a hospital where I have spent far too much time, for the facade of its gatehouse which was revealed by surprise when a German airship dropped a bomb on it during WW1
  • sarissasarissa Posts: 1,749
    edited March 2021
    MattW said:

    5th.

    TOPPING said:

    MattW said:

    Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room.

    Hawksmoor's Spitalfields all day long.

    I find the church quite bombastic. Though peal of bells is one of the best to ring in London, and the acoustic is great.

    For Hawksmoor I prefer St Mary Woolnoth, just by the statue of Wotsit Peabody near Bank Station.
    Not really religious, but a favourite bit of grotesquerie© from a Scottish kirk:


  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    He may very well turn out to be right. If we're left entirely reliant on our own modest production then the vaccine project could easily take the rest of the year.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,009
    Won't be the same wards but I expect to see some bounceback for the Tories versus 2019, and to hold much of the 2017 gains - including West Midlands and Tees Valley.

    However, London will be an absolute car-crash, and Labour will do well enough in the Mets and university towns/cities.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080
    Leon said:

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    fpt

    "Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room."


    Like Topping I'd go for Hawksmoor's Christ Church, Spitalfields. Possibly my favourite church in the world, not just London. But is it in the City, technically? I think not


    So I'd go for either St Brides, Fleet St (Roman foundations in the cellar!), St Stephen Walbrook - Wrenaissance perfection - or St Bartholomew the Great - medieval and picturesque

    https://www.themontcalm.com/blog/a-look-at-christ-church-spitalfields/

    https://ststephenwalbrook.net/tag/church-design/

    https://regentclassicorgans.com/st-bartholomew-the-great/

    I like Christchurch Greyfriars, next to my first place of work, which is bombed out, but provides a great bit of rare open space in the city, which is far more useful than it ever was actually being a church. And LSO St Luke’s, another just outside the city, both for the wonderful outreach musical venue is is nowadays, and for the utterly memorable moment, when it was still bombed out in the 1990s, when I was walking past it accompanying a delegation from the German Post Office to lunch, and they asked me what had happened to it (the idea that it would still be in ruins fifty years later never having occurred to them).
    I always liked St ethelburga’s. Tiny and Saxon and lovely. Squeezed between skyscrapers. I got quite upset when the IRA blew much of it up and I wanted us to nuke Dublin in return, which is unlike me

    https://knowyourlondon.wordpress.com/2019/10/23/st-ethelburga-the-virgin/

    Very like you, I’d say. It is after all less than 24 hours since you wanted to nuke the EU because of a late delivery from an Indian vaccine factory.
  • Animal_pbAnimal_pb Posts: 608
    Omnium said:

    IanB2 said:

    TOPPING said:

    Third, like England in the cricket.

    (Is that how cricket works?)

    I thought it went on until everyone has lost the will to live, or it started raining, whereupon it was declared a draw?
    Much like that. A slightly reassuring clack of willow on leather, a pressed silence as the bowler runs in, disappointment in the outfield. I'm sure you're right.
    Ah yes, the sound of willow on leather. To some, the soundtrack of the Isle of the Blessed; to others the noise of Sisyphean torment.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,059

    He may very well turn out to be right. If we're left entirely reliant on our own modest production then the vaccine project could easily take the rest of the year.
    Oh come on - we are at 50% now.
  • BurgessianBurgessian Posts: 2,394
    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    fpt

    "Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room."


    Like Topping I'd go for Hawksmoor's Christ Church, Spitalfields. Possibly my favourite church in the world, not just London. But is it in the City, technically? I think not


    So I'd go for either St Brides, Fleet St (Roman foundations in the cellar!), St Stephen Walbrook - Wrenaissance perfection - or St Bartholomew the Great - medieval and picturesque

    https://www.themontcalm.com/blog/a-look-at-christ-church-spitalfields/

    https://ststephenwalbrook.net/tag/church-design/

    https://regentclassicorgans.com/st-bartholomew-the-great/

    I like Christchurch Greyfriars, next to my first place of work, which is bombed out, but provides a great bit of rare open space in the city, which is far more useful than it ever was actually being a church. And LSO St Luke’s, another just outside the city, both for the wonderful outreach musical venue is is nowadays, and for the utterly memorable moment, when it was still bombed out in the 1990s, when I was walking past it accompanying a delegation from the German Post Office to lunch, and they asked me what had happened to it (the idea that it would still be in ruins fifty years later never having occurred to them).
    I did a walking tour of the City churches a couple of years ago and was absolutely bowled over by them. The interiors of some are like jewel-boxes. Quite extraordinary.

    The two that stood out, in the sense that they were that bit different, were St Barts as it is relatively complete medieval, and the one by the Tower (forget its name) due to the crypt.

    But doing a tour of them is highly recommended, just don't do what we did and try to cram in too many at once.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 47,787
    It looks like Portugal isn't going to bother with vaccine passports.
    https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1372598408452657152
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,835
    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080
    We’re not going to see the long-promised March ramping up, are we? The story for the next six weeks or so, once the 50+ are all done, is all going to be second doses.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,459
    DougSeal said:

    He may very well turn out to be right. If we're left entirely reliant on our own modest production then the vaccine project could easily take the rest of the year.
    Oh come on - we are at 50% now.
    I assume by 'full vaccination rate' he's referring to % vaccinated with both doses, not just one.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    DougSeal said:

    He may very well turn out to be right. If we're left entirely reliant on our own modest production then the vaccine project could easily take the rest of the year.
    Oh come on - we are at 50% now.
    And how many more accidents are there going to be? "Oh, the EU's blockaded us!" "Oh, the Indians don't want to export!" "Oh, we need to retest this lot and that lot!" "Oh, problem with yields!" "Oh, the glass vials have run out!" etc, etc, etc.

    And meanwhile, the first mutterings about rising case rates have started.

    We've no idea how long this is going to drag on for, and how long we're going to be locked up. The easiest thing to do is dispense with all the reassurances about timetables and plans, and not to assume that any of it will happen until it actually does. Seeing is believing.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 113,957
    edited March 2021
    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.

    But any government which moved us to all unitaries would face a mass rebellion from their council base.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,164

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.
    Not sure PB has anyone who supports two-tier councils.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080
    CNN: In the EU, leaders will now face the question of how to rebuild any trust in the AstraZeneca vaccine that has been lost over the past week. The bloc's rollout of the jab has stumbled from one obstacle to another since it was approved for use in January, with governments scrambling to secure limited supplies of the jab while simultaneously casting doubts over its efficacy and safety.

    Italy said it will resume AstraZeneca vaccinations on Friday, and other countries are expected to follow. Milan's largest vaccine center told CNN it would overbook appointments in an attempt to make up for the shortfalls of the past few days. Ireland's Prime Minister had earlier told CNN he hoped his country could "catch up fairly quickly" once the vaccination program resumed.

    But experts fear that some damage has already been done. In France, an Elabe poll showed this week that only 22% of the population now trusts the AstraZeneca vaccine. Remi Salomon, a senior French hospitals official, told BFM TV on Thursday that "people are being overly cautious" in the country and that he feared "people will not interpret" the suspensions in "the right way."

    "A scare like this has the potential to increase vaccine hesitancy," Michael Head, senior research fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton in Britain, told CNN earlier in the week. "These vaccines are to protect against a pandemic virus. There is an urgency to the rollout."
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    IanB2 said:

    We’re not going to see the long-promised March ramping up, are we? The story for the next six weeks or so, once the 50+ are all done, is all going to be second doses.

    To be absolutely fair, that's not true.

    We're getting the March ramp, followed by the April slump.

    What will happen after that? Fuck knows.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 9,688
    Animal_pb said:

    Omnium said:

    IanB2 said:

    TOPPING said:

    Third, like England in the cricket.

    (Is that how cricket works?)

    I thought it went on until everyone has lost the will to live, or it started raining, whereupon it was declared a draw?
    Much like that. A slightly reassuring clack of willow on leather, a pressed silence as the bowler runs in, disappointment in the outfield. I'm sure you're right.
    Ah yes, the sound of willow on leather. To some, the soundtrack of the Isle of the Blessed; to others the noise of Sisyphean torment.
    No reason to pay any attention whatsoever to the actual game if you don't want to. Even for the fans it's quite hard to have a great day at the cricket - mostly it's just a great day, and there was some cricket.
  • BluestBlueBluestBlue Posts: 4,556
    IanB2 said:

    We’re not going to see the long-promised March ramping up, are we? The story for the next six weeks or so, once the 50+ are all done, is all going to be second doses.

    Aside from the fact that after today's numbers our vaccination rate is the highest it's ever been, no...
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905

    It looks like Portugal isn't going to bother with vaccine passports.
    https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1372598408452657152

    Desperation. Not that it helps very much if the taking of holidays isn't decriminalised on May 17th. Or if it is but you have to go into quarantine for a fortnight when you get back.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080

    IanB2 said:

    We’re not going to see the long-promised March ramping up, are we? The story for the next six weeks or so, once the 50+ are all done, is all going to be second doses.

    To be absolutely fair, that's not true.

    We're getting the March ramp, followed by the April slump.

    What will happen after that? Fuck knows.
    Let’s see. Despite all the government over-promising, the highest total vaccinated day is still in late January.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,059

    It looks like Portugal isn't going to bother with vaccine passports.
    https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1372598408452657152

    Desperation. Not that it helps very much if the taking of holidays isn't decriminalised on May 17th. Or if it is but you have to go into quarantine for a fortnight when you get back.
    Portugal is coming off the red list so if you can work from home shouldn't be too much of an issue.
  • tlg86 said:

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.
    Not sure PB has anyone who supports two-tier councils.
    PB has few past and present councillors and they are also pro making everywhere a unitary.

    Sadly given the generous allowances councillors receive I cannot see the move to all unitaries happening.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 3,853
    edited March 2021
    IanB2 said:

    IanB2 said:

    We’re not going to see the long-promised March ramping up, are we? The story for the next six weeks or so, once the 50+ are all done, is all going to be second doses.

    To be absolutely fair, that's not true.

    We're getting the March ramp, followed by the April slump.

    What will happen after that? Fuck knows.
    Let’s see. Despite all the government over-promising, the highest total vaccinated day is still in late January.
    Well, it is until tomorrow.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080

    IanB2 said:

    We’re not going to see the long-promised March ramping up, are we? The story for the next six weeks or so, once the 50+ are all done, is all going to be second doses.

    Aside from the fact that after today's numbers our vaccination rate is the highest it's ever been, no...
    Did we beat the 30 Jan total of 598,389?
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    DougSeal said:

    It looks like Portugal isn't going to bother with vaccine passports.
    https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1372598408452657152

    Desperation. Not that it helps very much if the taking of holidays isn't decriminalised on May 17th. Or if it is but you have to go into quarantine for a fortnight when you get back.
    Portugal is coming off the red list so if you can work from home shouldn't be too much of an issue.
    Oh well, I suppose the old crusties and WFHers with no school age kiddies are still a substantial market.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 47,787
    IanB2 said:

    IanB2 said:

    We’re not going to see the long-promised March ramping up, are we? The story for the next six weeks or so, once the 50+ are all done, is all going to be second doses.

    Aside from the fact that after today's numbers our vaccination rate is the highest it's ever been, no...
    Did we beat the 30 Jan total of 598,389?
    The next three days are quite likely to beat it.
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 4,784

    tlg86 said:

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.
    Not sure PB has anyone who supports two-tier councils.
    PB has few past and present councillors and they are also pro making everywhere a unitary.

    Sadly given the generous allowances councillors receive I cannot see the move to all unitaries happening.
    Unitarisation will happen, but it's a 20-30 year stealth project. This year Bucks and Northants, next year N. Yorks and Cumbria, and so forth.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    tlg86 said:

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.
    Not sure PB has anyone who supports two-tier councils.
    Depends partly upon your local circumstances. Unitarization around here would mean our district being turned into a neglected cash dispenser for the shitty large town next door.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    If we're on the subject of favourite Churches, then can I say this is the kind of Church scene I'd like to see again soon.

    The Unitarian Church in Nottingham, aka Pitcher & Piano
    image
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    edited March 2021

    IanB2 said:

    IanB2 said:

    We’re not going to see the long-promised March ramping up, are we? The story for the next six weeks or so, once the 50+ are all done, is all going to be second doses.

    Aside from the fact that after today's numbers our vaccination rate is the highest it's ever been, no...
    Did we beat the 30 Jan total of 598,389?
    The next three days are quite likely to beat it.
    Shame it won't last.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,164

    tlg86 said:

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.
    Not sure PB has anyone who supports two-tier councils.
    PB has few past and present councillors and they are also pro making everywhere a unitary.

    Sadly given the generous allowances councillors receive I cannot see the move to all unitaries happening.
    Some counties have managed to escape - so there must be some good councillors somewhere.

    Just not in Surrey :cry:
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797

    tlg86 said:

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.
    Not sure PB has anyone who supports two-tier councils.
    Depends partly upon your local circumstances. Unitarization around here would mean our district being turned into a neglected cash dispenser for the shitty large town next door.
    Hello County Durham - where after the council become unitary an out of town shopping centre was approved outside Bishop Auckland decimating Bishop Auckland itself
  • BluestBlueBluestBlue Posts: 4,556
    edited March 2021
    IanB2 said:

    IanB2 said:

    We’re not going to see the long-promised March ramping up, are we? The story for the next six weeks or so, once the 50+ are all done, is all going to be second doses.

    Aside from the fact that after today's numbers our vaccination rate is the highest it's ever been, no...
    Did we beat the 30 Jan total of 598,389?
    Do you understand what a vaccination rate is? It doesn't depend on beating a one-day total. Though we'll probably beat it this week anyway, just to keep you happy.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,038
    IanB2 said:

    CNN: In the EU, leaders will now face the question of how to rebuild any trust in the AstraZeneca vaccine that has been lost over the past week. The bloc's rollout of the jab has stumbled from one obstacle to another since it was approved for use in January, with governments scrambling to secure limited supplies of the jab while simultaneously casting doubts over its efficacy and safety.

    Italy said it will resume AstraZeneca vaccinations on Friday, and other countries are expected to follow. Milan's largest vaccine center told CNN it would overbook appointments in an attempt to make up for the shortfalls of the past few days. Ireland's Prime Minister had earlier told CNN he hoped his country could "catch up fairly quickly" once the vaccination program resumed.

    But experts fear that some damage has already been done. In France, an Elabe poll showed this week that only 22% of the population now trusts the AstraZeneca vaccine. Remi Salomon, a senior French hospitals official, told BFM TV on Thursday that "people are being overly cautious" in the country and that he feared "people will not interpret" the suspensions in "the right way."

    "A scare like this has the potential to increase vaccine hesitancy," Michael Head, senior research fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton in Britain, told CNN earlier in the week. "These vaccines are to protect against a pandemic virus. There is an urgency to the rollout."

    "But experts fear that some damage has already been done."

    No shit.

  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,238

    Leon said:

    As soon as lockdown properly ends, I am going to explore London all over again. Visit all those bars I never got round to visiting before. Try every single restaurant in the entire city. Balloon in weight to 600kg. What the F. Who cares.

    Freedom!!!!

    I tried to book a table at J Sheekey earlier, for June. Any idea why it's not taking any bookings?
    No. Odd. You'd think they'd be desperate for biz. God, I hope Sheekey's survives!
  • JohnOJohnO Posts: 4,211
    tlg86 said:

    tlg86 said:

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.
    Not sure PB has anyone who supports two-tier councils.
    PB has few past and present councillors and they are also pro making everywhere a unitary.

    Sadly given the generous allowances councillors receive I cannot see the move to all unitaries happening.
    Some counties have managed to escape - so there must be some good councillors somewhere.

    Just not in Surrey :cry:
    EXCUSE ME!!!
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,238
    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    fpt

    "Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room."


    Like Topping I'd go for Hawksmoor's Christ Church, Spitalfields. Possibly my favourite church in the world, not just London. But is it in the City, technically? I think not


    So I'd go for either St Brides, Fleet St (Roman foundations in the cellar!), St Stephen Walbrook - Wrenaissance perfection - or St Bartholomew the Great - medieval and picturesque

    https://www.themontcalm.com/blog/a-look-at-christ-church-spitalfields/

    https://ststephenwalbrook.net/tag/church-design/

    https://regentclassicorgans.com/st-bartholomew-the-great/

    I like Christchurch Greyfriars, next to my first place of work, which is bombed out, but provides a great bit of rare open space in the city, which is far more useful than it ever was actually being a church. And LSO St Luke’s, another just outside the city, both for the wonderful outreach musical venue is is nowadays, and for the utterly memorable moment, when it was still bombed out in the 1990s, when I was walking past it accompanying a delegation from the German Post Office to lunch, and they asked me what had happened to it (the idea that it would still be in ruins fifty years later never having occurred to them).
    I always liked St ethelburga’s. Tiny and Saxon and lovely. Squeezed between skyscrapers. I got quite upset when the IRA blew much of it up and I wanted us to nuke Dublin in return, which is unlike me

    https://knowyourlondon.wordpress.com/2019/10/23/st-ethelburga-the-virgin/

    Very like you, I’d say. It is after all less than 24 hours since you wanted to nuke the EU because of a late delivery from an Indian vaccine factory.
    Yes, it was "a joke", at my own expense. I understand these concepts - "jokes" and "self deprecation" and "a sense of humour" - might be alien to you, but there we are.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,392
    Excellent summary info, thank you very much for this.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 113,957
    edited March 2021
    tlg86 said:

    tlg86 said:

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.
    Not sure PB has anyone who supports two-tier councils.
    PB has few past and present councillors and they are also pro making everywhere a unitary.

    Sadly given the generous allowances councillors receive I cannot see the move to all unitaries happening.
    Some counties have managed to escape - so there must be some good councillors somewhere.

    Just not in Surrey :cry:
    Surrey has the finest councillor in the country.

    Edit - Speak of the devil, JohnO is here.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,164
    JohnO said:

    tlg86 said:

    tlg86 said:

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.
    Not sure PB has anyone who supports two-tier councils.
    PB has few past and present councillors and they are also pro making everywhere a unitary.

    Sadly given the generous allowances councillors receive I cannot see the move to all unitaries happening.
    Some counties have managed to escape - so there must be some good councillors somewhere.

    Just not in Surrey :cry:
    EXCUSE ME!!!
    I thought that might smoke you out. :lol:
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,392
    Pro_Rata said:

    tlg86 said:

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.
    Not sure PB has anyone who supports two-tier councils.
    PB has few past and present councillors and they are also pro making everywhere a unitary.

    Sadly given the generous allowances councillors receive I cannot see the move to all unitaries happening.
    Unitarisation will happen, but it's a 20-30 year stealth project. This year Bucks and Northants, next year N. Yorks and Cumbria, and so forth.
    It makes total sense (albeit even I think Bucks has ended up with too many councillors in a single council), and one of the few good things to have been happening in local goverment.
  • I think my interview went very well! We were already talking salary and things, which is positive. Fingers crossed...

    Hooray!
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,195
  • JohnOJohnO Posts: 4,211

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.

    But any government which moved us to all unitaries would face a mass rebellion from their council base.
    It's generally accepted that Amanda Milling persuaded Boris to retreat last autumn from a mass move to unitaries (plus preference for elected Mayors), having been confronted by swathes of mutinous Tory District and Borough Councillors.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,392
    edited March 2021

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.

    But any government which moved us to all unitaries would face a mass rebellion from their council base.
    That's true, most councils hate it. In Wiltshire it was opposed by 3 of the 4 districts, and it was against Conservative policy to support at the time I think, but the Tory leaders at the county at the time pushed ahead anyway.

    But at the end of the day people are not as emotionally invested in their council areas as the councils pretend to think (though ceremonial counties seem to get that approach), and while the public usually do oppose and cause ructions, once it happens people get used to it very quickly.

    But the councillors will mutiny hard, as JohnO rightly says.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,238

    IanB2 said:

    CNN: In the EU, leaders will now face the question of how to rebuild any trust in the AstraZeneca vaccine that has been lost over the past week. The bloc's rollout of the jab has stumbled from one obstacle to another since it was approved for use in January, with governments scrambling to secure limited supplies of the jab while simultaneously casting doubts over its efficacy and safety.

    Italy said it will resume AstraZeneca vaccinations on Friday, and other countries are expected to follow. Milan's largest vaccine center told CNN it would overbook appointments in an attempt to make up for the shortfalls of the past few days. Ireland's Prime Minister had earlier told CNN he hoped his country could "catch up fairly quickly" once the vaccination program resumed.

    But experts fear that some damage has already been done. In France, an Elabe poll showed this week that only 22% of the population now trusts the AstraZeneca vaccine. Remi Salomon, a senior French hospitals official, told BFM TV on Thursday that "people are being overly cautious" in the country and that he feared "people will not interpret" the suspensions in "the right way."

    "A scare like this has the potential to increase vaccine hesitancy," Michael Head, senior research fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton in Britain, told CNN earlier in the week. "These vaccines are to protect against a pandemic virus. There is an urgency to the rollout."

    "But experts fear that some damage has already been done."

    No shit.

    It would be nice if one person in the EU, just one, just one single person, came out and said "Sorry for all the deaths we will be causing with our rank stupidity"

    But they won't. Handelsblatt never apologised over the "8% effective" story.

    My opinion of our EU neighbours - by this I mean some of their media and many of their politicians - could not, I fear, go any lower.
  • JohnO said:

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.

    But any government which moved us to all unitaries would face a mass rebellion from their council base.
    It's generally accepted that Amanda Milling persuaded Boris to retreat last autumn from a mass move to unitaries (plus preference for elected Mayors), having been confronted by swathes of mutinous Tory District and Borough Councillors.
    A shame, I know it was something Dave wanted to do but with Clegg losing so many councillors in 2011/12 it was realised it wasn't going to happen under the coalition.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 9,688
    Does anyone know of some serious AI companies? (As opposed to machine learning type stuff)

    Google clearly wants to be there. Nobody is, but who's trying?
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    fpt

    "Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room."


    Like Topping I'd go for Hawksmoor's Christ Church, Spitalfields. Possibly my favourite church in the world, not just London. But is it in the City, technically? I think not


    So I'd go for either St Brides, Fleet St (Roman foundations in the cellar!), St Stephen Walbrook - Wrenaissance perfection - or St Bartholomew the Great - medieval and picturesque

    https://www.themontcalm.com/blog/a-look-at-christ-church-spitalfields/

    https://ststephenwalbrook.net/tag/church-design/

    https://regentclassicorgans.com/st-bartholomew-the-great/

    I like Christchurch Greyfriars, next to my first place of work, which is bombed out, but provides a great bit of rare open space in the city, which is far more useful than it ever was actually being a church. And LSO St Luke’s, another just outside the city, both for the wonderful outreach musical venue is is nowadays, and for the utterly memorable moment, when it was still bombed out in the 1990s, when I was walking past it accompanying a delegation from the German Post Office to lunch, and they asked me what had happened to it (the idea that it would still be in ruins fifty years later never having occurred to them).
    I did a walking tour of the City churches a couple of years ago and was absolutely bowled over by them. The interiors of some are like jewel-boxes. Quite extraordinary.

    The two that stood out, in the sense that they were that bit different, were St Barts as it is relatively complete medieval, and the one by the Tower (forget its name) due to the crypt.

    But doing a tour of them is highly recommended, just don't do what we did and try to cram in too many at once.
    Spent 25 years working in the place and never did any of that. Really wish I had. If only you could stick your 60 year old sensibility into your 30 year old brain. I worked for quite a while next to St Pauls yet never saw the inside of it until a good mate exchanged Grift for God and got ordained there.

    "My Lord, I believe that I am truly called to the life and work of a deacon in your church."

    I remember that so well. I'd last seen the bloke pissed as a fart and arguing with a taxi driver.

    He went on to serve as an Army Chaplain in Afghanistan. At the time I thought he was nuts but I'm not so sure now.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,392

    I think my interview went very well! We were already talking salary and things, which is positive. Fingers crossed...

    "I'm willing to work under rate, so long as you ensure I have sufficient time to wrangle with political weirdos online"
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    Floater said:
    Isn't the pipeline nearly finished?

    Presumably they can use Russian contractors with no interest in doing business in the United States. Germany won't care about pissing off Biden. Its leadership is Russophile and it's desperate for the gas.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,673
    Interesting update re Scotland................https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-great-burn/#comments
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,238
    kinabalu said:

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    fpt

    "Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room."


    Like Topping I'd go for Hawksmoor's Christ Church, Spitalfields. Possibly my favourite church in the world, not just London. But is it in the City, technically? I think not


    So I'd go for either St Brides, Fleet St (Roman foundations in the cellar!), St Stephen Walbrook - Wrenaissance perfection - or St Bartholomew the Great - medieval and picturesque

    https://www.themontcalm.com/blog/a-look-at-christ-church-spitalfields/

    https://ststephenwalbrook.net/tag/church-design/

    https://regentclassicorgans.com/st-bartholomew-the-great/

    I like Christchurch Greyfriars, next to my first place of work, which is bombed out, but provides a great bit of rare open space in the city, which is far more useful than it ever was actually being a church. And LSO St Luke’s, another just outside the city, both for the wonderful outreach musical venue is is nowadays, and for the utterly memorable moment, when it was still bombed out in the 1990s, when I was walking past it accompanying a delegation from the German Post Office to lunch, and they asked me what had happened to it (the idea that it would still be in ruins fifty years later never having occurred to them).
    I did a walking tour of the City churches a couple of years ago and was absolutely bowled over by them. The interiors of some are like jewel-boxes. Quite extraordinary.

    The two that stood out, in the sense that they were that bit different, were St Barts as it is relatively complete medieval, and the one by the Tower (forget its name) due to the crypt.

    But doing a tour of them is highly recommended, just don't do what we did and try to cram in too many at once.
    Spent 25 years working in the place and never did any of that. Really wish I had. If only you could stick your 60 year old sensibility into your 30 year old brain. I worked for quite a while next to St Pauls yet never saw the inside of it until a good mate exchanged Grift for God and got ordained there.

    "My Lord, I believe that I am truly called to the life and work of a deacon in your church."

    I remember that so well. I'd last seen the bloke pissed as a fart and arguing with a taxi driver.

    He went on to serve as an Army Chaplain in Afghanistan. At the time I thought he was nuts but I'm not so sure now.
    That's criminal neglect. The City churches are one of the jewels of European architecture. No other city in Europe has anything like them, apart from maybe Rome. And the London churches are very different to anywhere else.

    And they are so varied, it's not just Wren. Go!
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,741
    kle4 said:

    dixiedean said:

    How come there are nearly 20000 councillors?
    Northumberland manages with 67.
    Scaled up that would make fewer than 14 000 in the UK.

    Some places have unitary councils others have district councils and county councils.

    But any government which moved us to all unitaries would face a mass rebellion from their council base.
    That's true, most councils hate it. In Wiltshire it was opposed by 3 of the 4 districts, and it was against Conservative policy to support at the time I think, but the Tory leaders at the county at the time pushed ahead anyway.

    But at the end of the day people are not as emotionally invested in their council areas as the councils pretend to think (though ceremonial counties seem to get that approach), and while the public usually do oppose and cause ructions, once it happens people get used to it very quickly.

    But the councillors will mutiny hard, as JohnO rightly says.
    It might be vaguely helpful if they didn’t come up with such utterly stupid names for the unitaries.

    Whoever thought ‘Cheshire West and Chester’ was a clever name should be taken out and shot.

    At least in the ‘70s they *tried* to come up with sensible names.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,741
    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    fpt

    "Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room."


    Like Topping I'd go for Hawksmoor's Christ Church, Spitalfields. Possibly my favourite church in the world, not just London. But is it in the City, technically? I think not


    So I'd go for either St Brides, Fleet St (Roman foundations in the cellar!), St Stephen Walbrook - Wrenaissance perfection - or St Bartholomew the Great - medieval and picturesque

    https://www.themontcalm.com/blog/a-look-at-christ-church-spitalfields/

    https://ststephenwalbrook.net/tag/church-design/

    https://regentclassicorgans.com/st-bartholomew-the-great/

    I like Christchurch Greyfriars, next to my first place of work, which is bombed out, but provides a great bit of rare open space in the city, which is far more useful than it ever was actually being a church. And LSO St Luke’s, another just outside the city, both for the wonderful outreach musical venue is is nowadays, and for the utterly memorable moment, when it was still bombed out in the 1990s, when I was walking past it accompanying a delegation from the German Post Office to lunch, and they asked me what had happened to it (the idea that it would still be in ruins fifty years later never having occurred to them).
    I did a walking tour of the City churches a couple of years ago and was absolutely bowled over by them. The interiors of some are like jewel-boxes. Quite extraordinary.

    The two that stood out, in the sense that they were that bit different, were St Barts as it is relatively complete medieval, and the one by the Tower (forget its name) due to the crypt.

    But doing a tour of them is highly recommended, just don't do what we did and try to cram in too many at once.
    Spent 25 years working in the place and never did any of that. Really wish I had. If only you could stick your 60 year old sensibility into your 30 year old brain. I worked for quite a while next to St Pauls yet never saw the inside of it until a good mate exchanged Grift for God and got ordained there.

    "My Lord, I believe that I am truly called to the life and work of a deacon in your church."

    I remember that so well. I'd last seen the bloke pissed as a fart and arguing with a taxi driver.

    He went on to serve as an Army Chaplain in Afghanistan. At the time I thought he was nuts but I'm not so sure now.
    That's criminal neglect. The City churches are one of the jewels of European architecture. No other city in Europe has anything like them, apart from maybe Rome. And the London churches are very different to anywhere else.

    And they are so varied, it's not just Wren. Go!
    Shrewsbury has an impressive variety of churches too, albeit on a much smaller scale than London.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 24,584

    If we're on the subject of favourite Churches, then can I say this is the kind of Church scene I'd like to see again soon.

    The Unitarian Church in Nottingham, aka Pitcher & Piano
    image

    I am not spiritually minded, but I find a church being repurposed as a pub, vaguely depressing.
  • ChameleonChameleon Posts: 3,886
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    fpt

    "Do others have a favourite City Church?

    Having visited them all I probably go for St Vedast-alias-Foster due to the modest Epstein in the Courtyard and All Hallows on the Wall because the ceiling is like a perfect drawing room."


    Like Topping I'd go for Hawksmoor's Christ Church, Spitalfields. Possibly my favourite church in the world, not just London. But is it in the City, technically? I think not


    So I'd go for either St Brides, Fleet St (Roman foundations in the cellar!), St Stephen Walbrook - Wrenaissance perfection - or St Bartholomew the Great - medieval and picturesque

    https://www.themontcalm.com/blog/a-look-at-christ-church-spitalfields/

    https://ststephenwalbrook.net/tag/church-design/

    https://regentclassicorgans.com/st-bartholomew-the-great/

    I like Christchurch Greyfriars, next to my first place of work, which is bombed out, but provides a great bit of rare open space in the city, which is far more useful than it ever was actually being a church. And LSO St Luke’s, another just outside the city, both for the wonderful outreach musical venue is is nowadays, and for the utterly memorable moment, when it was still bombed out in the 1990s, when I was walking past it accompanying a delegation from the German Post Office to lunch, and they asked me what had happened to it (the idea that it would still be in ruins fifty years later never having occurred to them).
    I did a walking tour of the City churches a couple of years ago and was absolutely bowled over by them. The interiors of some are like jewel-boxes. Quite extraordinary.

    The two that stood out, in the sense that they were that bit different, were St Barts as it is relatively complete medieval, and the one by the Tower (forget its name) due to the crypt.

    But doing a tour of them is highly recommended, just don't do what we did and try to cram in too many at once.
    Spent 25 years working in the place and never did any of that. Really wish I had. If only you could stick your 60 year old sensibility into your 30 year old brain. I worked for quite a while next to St Pauls yet never saw the inside of it until a good mate exchanged Grift for God and got ordained there.

    "My Lord, I believe that I am truly called to the life and work of a deacon in your church."

    I remember that so well. I'd last seen the bloke pissed as a fart and arguing with a taxi driver.

    He went on to serve as an Army Chaplain in Afghanistan. At the time I thought he was nuts but I'm not so sure now.
    That's criminal neglect. The City churches are one of the jewels of European architecture. No other city in Europe has anything like them, apart from maybe Rome. And the London churches are very different to anywhere else.

    And they are so varied, it's not just Wren. Go!
    Shrewsbury has an impressive variety of churches too, albeit on a much smaller scale than London.
    Salisbury has quite a spire. Well worth a small diversion to check it out.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,038
    Leon said:

    IanB2 said:

    CNN: In the EU, leaders will now face the question of how to rebuild any trust in the AstraZeneca vaccine that has been lost over the past week. The bloc's rollout of the jab has stumbled from one obstacle to another since it was approved for use in January, with governments scrambling to secure limited supplies of the jab while simultaneously casting doubts over its efficacy and safety.

    Italy said it will resume AstraZeneca vaccinations on Friday, and other countries are expected to follow. Milan's largest vaccine center told CNN it would overbook appointments in an attempt to make up for the shortfalls of the past few days. Ireland's Prime Minister had earlier told CNN he hoped his country could "catch up fairly quickly" once the vaccination program resumed.

    But experts fear that some damage has already been done. In France, an Elabe poll showed this week that only 22% of the population now trusts the AstraZeneca vaccine. Remi Salomon, a senior French hospitals official, told BFM TV on Thursday that "people are being overly cautious" in the country and that he feared "people will not interpret" the suspensions in "the right way."

    "A scare like this has the potential to increase vaccine hesitancy," Michael Head, senior research fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton in Britain, told CNN earlier in the week. "These vaccines are to protect against a pandemic virus. There is an urgency to the rollout."

    "But experts fear that some damage has already been done."

    No shit.

    It would be nice if one person in the EU, just one, just one single person, came out and said "Sorry for all the deaths we will be causing with our rank stupidity"

    But they won't. Handelsblatt never apologised over the "8% effective" story.

    My opinion of our EU neighbours - by this I mean some of their media and many of their politicians - could not, I fear, go any lower.
    So much for the French Enlightenment.
  • Zack Synder's Justice League so far is such a steaming pile of turds, it makes season two of Westworld look like the finest thing ever made.
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