Johnsons needs to be more careful about off the cuff comments like this – politicalbetting.com

First.

I don't think he can be more cautious. Yes he is more calculating than his manner might suggest, but I feel like that it is still probably an exagerration of his real demeanour, and as being off the cuff (or seeming like it) is a bit of a strength in making him more normal seeming for a politician, as OGH suggests, it will also lead to him overstepping.

fpt on this Speccie thing


I have no dog in this fight, but that magazine has boasted some amazing writers in its 2 centuries of publication.

Douglas Murray went through ALL 200 years of them and chose the four best articles ever. And, when you read them, it is hard not to sit back with a certain awed, dumbstruck admiration. Just pure journalistic genius. The kind of stuff you cannot fake.

Occasionally, one simply has to stand, and applaud.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/four-of-the-best-spectator-pieces-i-ve-ever-read

I just want to spend the rest of my life drinking Nyetimber rose

Is that too much to ask of a cruel, cold world?

squareroot2 said:

The miners and ex miners were not going to vote for him anyway. An incautious remark nonetheless.

The results in Bishop Auckland and Sedgefield would suggest that quite a few already have.

TheScreamingEagles said:

squareroot2 said:

The miners and ex miners were not going to vote for him anyway. An incautious remark nonetheless.

As a resident of South Yorkshire and child of the 80s, I was astonished to see just how many ex mining areas went Tory in 2019, I'm sure plenty of ex miners and their families went Tory in 2019.

They'll probably go back to Labour if Johnson keeps on like this.

How does any major, successful club get themselves into such a pathetic financial position?

Barcelona say Lionel Messi will not be staying at the club "because of financial and structural obstacles"...

Barcelona had said Messi was poised to extend his 21-year career with the club by signing the new deal on Thursday, and blame La Liga for the failure to do so.

He had reached an agreement to stay with the Catalan side until 2026 - but La Liga said the club must reduce wages before he and any new players can be registered.

"Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of financial and structural obstacles [Spanish La Liga regulations]," the club said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58108298

Now they're talking about the Kieran (watching the Beeb's highlights).

Is that the one with the Honda C50 in front?

kle4 said:

How does any major, successful club get themselves into such a pathetic financial position?

Barcelona say Lionel Messi will not be staying at the club "because of financial and structural obstacles"...

Barcelona had said Messi was poised to extend his 21-year career with the club by signing the new deal on Thursday, and blame La Liga for the failure to do so.

He had reached an agreement to stay with the Catalan side until 2026 - but La Liga said the club must reduce wages before he and any new players can be registered.

"Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of financial and structural obstacles [Spanish La Liga regulations]," the club said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58108298

Citeh might not be signing Kane after all?

Foxy said:

Leon said:

I just want to spend the rest of my life drinking Nyetimber rose

Is that too much to ask of a cruel, cold world?

I reckon half a case could do it if you drink quickly.

You think 3 bottles of fizz could kill me?! I reckon I could even do 6

StuartDickson said:

kle4 said:

I don't think he can be more cautious. Yes he is more calculating than his manner might suggest, but I feel like that it is still probably an exagerration of his real demeanour, and as being off the cuff (or seeming like it) is a bit of a strength in making him more normal seeming for a politician, as OGH suggests, it will also lead to him overstepping.

He can afford to “overstep” in England. He cannot afford to “overstep” in Scotland. He is way, way out of his depth and out of his comfort zone. And boy, does it show.

Surely Johnson could advocate for anything up to killing the firstborn north of the border, and unless it resonated with his English base its not going to make a blind bit of difference at the next election. Almost no Scots vote for the Tories anyway, they only have 6 Scottish MPs.

What the Scots think of him is probably going to have about as much bearing on the next election as the views of the French - he's unlikely to need a single vote in Scotland to form a working majority.

Different story for Starmer of course, as his performance on Scotland is the potential difference between a difficult coalition with the Nat's and governing on his own right (but in both cases only if Johnson loses enough English votes).

philiph said:

I would love to see a poll in ex mining communities along the lines of:
'Would thou like t'work down t'mine?'
Yes % DK% No %

Us old fossils may not have moved on. Miners and the desolation of the communities they had are still vivid images in our minds. There is no sanitisation of that period.

However that does not mean that an awful lot of good hasn't arisen from closing mines. The good may be unintended consequences, but this far after the act there is more positive than negative from a policy of 40 years ago.

The problem wasn't so much the move against coal (or British Coal at least, as we imported quite a lot since) but rather the perceived abandonment of pit communities. A more planned and supported shift to alternative employment would have helped.

Leon said:

Foxy said:

Leon said:

I just want to spend the rest of my life drinking Nyetimber rose

Is that too much to ask of a cruel, cold world?

I reckon half a case could do it if you drink quickly.

You think 3 bottles of fizz could kill me?! I reckon I could even do 6

Sorry, the joke was in poor taste. I shouldn't have made it.

Foxy said:

Leon said:

Foxy said:

Leon said:

I just want to spend the rest of my life drinking Nyetimber rose

Is that too much to ask of a cruel, cold world?

I reckon half a case could do it if you drink quickly.

You think 3 bottles of fizz could kill me?! I reckon I could even do 6

Sorry, the joke was in poor taste. I shouldn't have made it.

It was. You are forgiven

kle4 said:

This case looks meritless eveb from the statement of the losmg party.

A family-run farm has won a legal battle against the multimillion-pound makers of plant milk, Oatly, which accused it of trademark infringement.

Oatly brought legal action against Glebe Farm Foods, in Cambridgeshire, saying their product PureOaty took "unfair advantage" of their own drink.

A High Court judge ruled in favour of the farm saying he did not see "any risk of injury to the distinctive character" of the Oatly brand...

A spokeswoman for Oatly said the company would not be appealing the decision.

"For us, this case has always been about protecting our trademark and how the single letter Y creates too much of a similarity between Oaty and Oatly."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-58102252

A good friend of mine was on the inside at Glebe Farm. Baseless doesn't cover it - absolutely bloody absurd from Oatly.

Leon needs to broaden his horizons. There are lots of very good vineyards in East and West Sussex.

ydoethur said:

Foxy said:

philiph said:

I would love to see a poll in ex mining communities along the lines of:
'Would thou like t'work down t'mine?'
Yes % DK% No %

Us old fossils may not have moved on. Miners and the desolation of the communities they had are still vivid images in our minds. There is no sanitisation of that period.

However that does not mean that an awful lot of good hasn't arisen from closing mines. The good may be unintended consequences, but this far after the act there is more positive than negative from a policy of 40 years ago.

The problem wasn't so much the move against coal (or British Coal at least, as we imported quite a lot since) but rather the perceived abandonment of pit communities. A more planned and supported shift to alternative employment would have helped.

Arthur Scargill and the NUM would probably have disagreed.

But then, they were so stupid that their opinion probably wasn’t worth an awful lot.

Scargill didn’t want a planned shift to alternative employment. He wanted a violent shift to a socialist dictatorship.

The way the Johnson brand has been managed has been quite masterful ever since before he won the London mayorship. Sure, one facet of him is that he looks and sounds like a complete pillock, but that doesn't seem to have done him much harm so far. Tories both in the party (south of the border) and the British parliament love him. (Checks: there are only six Tory MPs for Scottish constituencies. That's so few that I doubt anyone cares what they think.)

Today's wasn't a mega-gaffe. Hardly anybody likes him north of the border, except maybe a few who have voted at least once in their lives for UKIP. That's a very small part of the electorate. I haven't seen a popularity McSubsample but that's going by the impression I get. Not even Scottish Tory activists and representatives like him. But there probably won't be another Holyrood election until 2026, so I don't think he'll b*llocks things up north of the border. He's obviously the wrong person to lead Britain during an independence referendum in Scotland and he could easily have a Gillian Duffy moment during a campaign. In the unlikely event there's an indyref rerun when he would otherwise be in office, he will be removed for that reason.

That's UNLESS he can pull a plan out of his pocket for reforming the Union in a popular way. (Such an option has been thought of, but I can't mention it here.)

He remains the guy who's headed for the big banana skin moment that doesn't actually come and may in fact never come.

I hope I'm wrong by the way and there's a big swing back to Labour in the north of England...

Foxy said:

philiph said:

I would love to see a poll in ex mining communities along the lines of:
'Would thou like t'work down t'mine?'
Yes % DK% No %

Us old fossils may not have moved on. Miners and the desolation of the communities they had are still vivid images in our minds. There is no sanitisation of that period.

However that does not mean that an awful lot of good hasn't arisen from closing mines. The good may be unintended consequences, but this far after the act there is more positive than negative from a policy of 40 years ago.

The problem wasn't so much the move against coal (or British Coal at least, as we imported quite a lot since) but rather the perceived abandonment of pit communities. A more planned and supported shift to alternative employment would have helped.

North-west Leicestershire made a memorable visit in 1979 - a studert colleague was a RC and I went with him to stay at Mount St Bernard Abbey for a few days of pre-Finals work in the Easter vac before finals. Fascinating experience, but also to get some feel of an English mining area - Whitwick and so on.

Leon said:

fpt on this Speccie thing


I have no dog in this fight, but that magazine has boasted some amazing writers in its 2 centuries of publication.

Douglas Murray went through ALL 200 years of them and chose the four best articles ever. And, when you read them, it is hard not to sit back with a certain awed, dumbstruck admiration. Just pure journalistic genius. The kind of stuff you cannot fake.

Occasionally, one simply has to stand, and applaud.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/four-of-the-best-spectator-pieces-i-ve-ever-read

Self pleasuring to excess is undeniably emblematic of Spectator journalism, I suppose.

StuartDickson said:

squareroot2 said:

I just accidentally clicked on Johnson on the thread header and the dictionary defined it as a man's penis.. interesting if spooky....

Well, it wouldn’t be a woman’s penis.

Okay, call the damned thing a hominine penis and we can all agree.

StuartDickson said:

Foxy said:

philiph said:

I would love to see a poll in ex mining communities along the lines of:
'Would thou like t'work down t'mine?'
Yes % DK% No %

Us old fossils may not have moved on. Miners and the desolation of the communities they had are still vivid images in our minds. There is no sanitisation of that period.

However that does not mean that an awful lot of good hasn't arisen from closing mines. The good may be unintended consequences, but this far after the act there is more positive than negative from a policy of 40 years ago.

The problem wasn't so much the move against coal (or British Coal at least, as we imported quite a lot since) but rather the perceived abandonment of pit communities. A more planned and supported shift to alternative employment would have helped.

Funny that, the Tories at the time thought that Tebbit’s bike was an act of genius.

Britain in the Seventies and Eighties was one of the countries at the forefront of moving to the post industrial age. No more would manufacturing and extractive industries provide secure mass employment of the unskilled. What manufacturing we have left employs far fewer, and those are more highly skilled.

Other countries have followed the same transition, and almost all have had similar dislocated communities, from Picardy, to the Appalachians to the Donbass. To a degree it was inevitable, but the precipitate nature of the transition was perhaps unnecessary, as was the Thatcherites seeming rather uncaring or even gleeful about it.

StuartDickson said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

StuartDickson said:

squareroot2 said:

I just accidentally clicked on Johnson on the thread header and the dictionary defined it as a man's penis.. interesting if spooky....

Well, it wouldn’t be a woman’s penis.

Scottish Nationalism: The home of transphobia.

British Nationalism: The home of Jockophobia..

There you go again.

Conflating criticism of the SNP with criticism of Scotland.

Fortunately the majority of Scots know that too.

TheScreamingEagles said:

StuartDickson said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

StuartDickson said:

squareroot2 said:

I just accidentally clicked on Johnson on the thread header and the dictionary defined it as a man's penis.. interesting if spooky....

Well, it wouldn’t be a woman’s penis.

Scottish Nationalism: The home of transphobia.

British Nationalism: The home of Jockophobia..

There you go again.

Conflating criticism of the SNP with criticism of Scotland.

Fortunately the majority of Scots know that too.

For someone who is professionally assessing the situation in Scotland, you do need to do a little more research on that aspect of SNP policy. But maybe not got that far yet tbf.

Foxy said:

StuartDickson said:

Foxy said:

philiph said:

I would love to see a poll in ex mining communities along the lines of:
'Would thou like t'work down t'mine?'
Yes % DK% No %

Us old fossils may not have moved on. Miners and the desolation of the communities they had are still vivid images in our minds. There is no sanitisation of that period.

However that does not mean that an awful lot of good hasn't arisen from closing mines. The good may be unintended consequences, but this far after the act there is more positive than negative from a policy of 40 years ago.

The problem wasn't so much the move against coal (or British Coal at least, as we imported quite a lot since) but rather the perceived abandonment of pit communities. A more planned and supported shift to alternative employment would have helped.

Funny that, the Tories at the time thought that Tebbit’s bike was an act of genius.

Britain in the Seventies and Eighties was one of the countries at the forefront of moving to the post industrial age. No more would manufacturing and extractive industries provide secure mass employment of the unskilled. What manufacturing we have left employs far fewer, and those are more highly skilled.

Other countries have followed the same transition, and almost all have had similar dislocated communities, from Picardy, to the Appalachians to the Donbass. To a degree it was inevitable, but the precipitate nature of the transition was perhaps unnecessary, as was the Thatcherites seeming rather uncaring or even gleeful about it.

A diplomatic way of putting it.

IshmaelZ said:

Leon said:

Foxy said:

Leon said:

I just want to spend the rest of my life drinking Nyetimber rose

Is that too much to ask of a cruel, cold world?

I reckon half a case could do it if you drink quickly.

You think 3 bottles of fizz could kill me?! I reckon I could even do 6

Half of 12 is 3?

After the first three, that’s entirely plausible maths.

StuartDickson said:

Theuniondivvie said:

StuartDickson said:

Foxy said:

philiph said:

I would love to see a poll in ex mining communities along the lines of:
'Would thou like t'work down t'mine?'
Yes % DK% No %

Us old fossils may not have moved on. Miners and the desolation of the communities they had are still vivid images in our minds. There is no sanitisation of that period.

However that does not mean that an awful lot of good hasn't arisen from closing mines. The good may be unintended consequences, but this far after the act there is more positive than negative from a policy of 40 years ago.

The problem wasn't so much the move against coal (or British Coal at least, as we imported quite a lot since) but rather the perceived abandonment of pit communities. A more planned and supported shift to alternative employment would have helped.

Funny that, the Tories at the time thought that Tebbit’s bike was an act of genius.

Personally can't quite see the philosophical difference between getting on yer bike and in yer inflatable..

We all know what the difference is. Bike-riding ex coal miners in the 1980s were largely white.

After they had been in the pitheid baths. But 'largely' is the operative word. I can still remember the coal dust tattooed into their faces from all the minor grazes and abrasions.

Foxy said:

Carnyx said:

Foxy said:

philiph said:

I would love to see a poll in ex mining communities along the lines of:
'Would thou like t'work down t'mine?'
Yes % DK% No %

Us old fossils may not have moved on. Miners and the desolation of the communities they had are still vivid images in our minds. There is no sanitisation of that period.

However that does not mean that an awful lot of good hasn't arisen from closing mines. The good may be unintended consequences, but this far after the act there is more positive than negative from a policy of 40 years ago.

The problem wasn't so much the move against coal (or British Coal at least, as we imported quite a lot since) but rather the perceived abandonment of pit communities. A more planned and supported shift to alternative employment would have helped.

North-west Leicestershire made a memorable visit in 1979 - a studert colleague was a RC and I went with him to stay at Mount St Bernard Abbey for a few days of pre-Finals work in the Easter vac before finals. Fascinating experience, but also to get some feel of an English mining area - Whitwick and so on.

Mount St Bernard's Abbey is magnificent. I have treated a number of the monks from there and they are a lovely spiritual bunch. I highly recommend it for a retreat and in a glorious setting.

The youngest monks are in their sixties though, and mostly Polish. I do wonder how long the traditions can go on.

It was certainly very different from the Kirk, a\nd a small insight into how the many ruined abbeys might have seemed in their glory. My friend was a novice friar and wanted to have a talk with a mentor of his there. But we had pleasant rambles in Charnwood Forest, ending at the pub outside the gates.

Pulpstar said:

Dingwall axed from JCVI

Seems he was opposed to vaccinating 12-15 year olds. Might see a shift fairly soon then In the policy.

Carnyx said:

StuartDickson said:

Nigelb said:

Leon said:

fpt on this Speccie thing


I have no dog in this fight, but that magazine has boasted some amazing writers in its 2 centuries of publication.

Douglas Murray went through ALL 200 years of them and chose the four best articles ever. And, when you read them, it is hard not to sit back with a certain awed, dumbstruck admiration. Just pure journalistic genius. The kind of stuff you cannot fake.

Occasionally, one simply has to stand, and applaud.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/four-of-the-best-spectator-pieces-i-ve-ever-read

Self pleasuring to excess is undeniably emblematic of Spectator journalism, I suppose.

Some reading for Fraser Nelson and his voyeurs:

“Frequent or rough masturbation can cause minor skin irritation. Forcefully bending an erect penis can rupture the chambers that fill with blood, a rare but gruesome condition called penile fracture.

Köhler has seen guys with it after vigorous masturbation. "Afterward, the penis looks like an eggplant," he says. "It's purple and swollen." Most men need surgery to repair it.”

Ouch! Take care Fraser!

https://www.webmd.com/men/guide/male-masturbation-5-things-you-didnt-know

Please don't. Aubergine, hot smoked salmon, capers and onions, with scrambled egg and tagliatelli, is a staple chez Carnyx.

You strike me a bit of a gourmet

Have you encountered Dr Trouble's hot chili sauce?

Matthew Parris has, apparently, been banging on about it for months. It's made in Zimbabwe of all places, and it is utter genius. Very smoky, very rich, must be used sparingly, but omg

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dr-Trouble-African-Lemon-Chilli/dp/B07QVFYDBG?th=1

I prefer the double oak smoked chile to the lemon version. Both are Wow

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dr-troubles-sauce-is-gift-that-keeps-on-giving-cm3thlbh6

Leon said:

Carnyx said:

StuartDickson said:

Nigelb said:

Leon said:

fpt on this Speccie thing


I have no dog in this fight, but that magazine has boasted some amazing writers in its 2 centuries of publication.

Douglas Murray went through ALL 200 years of them and chose the four best articles ever. And, when you read them, it is hard not to sit back with a certain awed, dumbstruck admiration. Just pure journalistic genius. The kind of stuff you cannot fake.

Occasionally, one simply has to stand, and applaud.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/four-of-the-best-spectator-pieces-i-ve-ever-read

Self pleasuring to excess is undeniably emblematic of Spectator journalism, I suppose.

Some reading for Fraser Nelson and his voyeurs:

“Frequent or rough masturbation can cause minor skin irritation. Forcefully bending an erect penis can rupture the chambers that fill with blood, a rare but gruesome condition called penile fracture.

Köhler has seen guys with it after vigorous masturbation. "Afterward, the penis looks like an eggplant," he says. "It's purple and swollen." Most men need surgery to repair it.”

Ouch! Take care Fraser!

https://www.webmd.com/men/guide/male-masturbation-5-things-you-didnt-know

Please don't. Aubergine, hot smoked salmon, capers and onions, with scrambled egg and tagliatelli, is a staple chez Carnyx.

You strike me a bit of a gourmet

Have you encountered Dr Trouble's hot chili sauce?

Matthew Parris has, apparently, been banging on about it for months. It's made in Zimbabwe of all places, and it is utter genius. Very smoky, very rich, must be used sparingly, but omg

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dr-Trouble-African-Lemon-Chilli/dp/B07QVFYDBG?th=1

I prefer the double oak smoked chile to the lemon version. Both are Wow

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dr-troubles-sauce-is-gift-that-keeps-on-giving-cm3thlbh6

Interesting!

stodge said:

Evening all

Margaret Thatcher understood the threat of climate change and the impact on the environment - her speech to the UN in November 1989 was unfortunately overshadowed by the small matter of the fall of the Berlin Wall 24 hours later.

The cynic might of course argue it was a response to the surge in popularity of the Greens at the 1989 European elections but at least Thatcher started to see the issue.

After that, however, environmental issues faded out of the limelight and some in the Conservative Party, possibly those who had affiliations to the fossil fuel industry, opted to peddle some of the climate change denial lines and I can honestly not remember a single Labour politician talking much about the environment during the Blair years.

David Cameron was the first Conservative I can recall after Thatcher saying anything about the environment though again the cynic might argue it was both about trying to get LD votes and a change from "banging on about Europe".

Johnson sounds confident if not cocky. Perhaps he believes he can say anything and there will be plenty to defend him or excuse him or seek to justify him. To be fair, a GE victory and an 80-seat majority will do that and I suspect he looks at the short-term post-Covid environment with happy people and a surging economy and he thinks it's all going his way.

Well, that's hubris for you - doesn't often end well.

stodge said:

Evening all

Margaret Thatcher understood the threat of climate change and the impact on the environment - her speech to the UN in November 1989 was unfortunately overshadowed by the small matter of the fall of the Berlin Wall 24 hours later.

The cynic might of course argue it was a response to the surge in popularity of the Greens at the 1989 European elections but at least Thatcher started to see the issue.

After that, however, environmental issues faded out of the limelight and some in the Conservative Party, possibly those who had affiliations to the fossil fuel industry, opted to peddle some of the climate change denial lines and I can honestly not remember a single Labour politician talking much about the environment during the Blair years.

David Cameron was the first Conservative I can recall after Thatcher saying anything about the environment though again the cynic might argue it was both about trying to get LD votes and a change from "banging on about Europe".

Johnson sounds confident if not cocky. Perhaps he believes he can say anything and there will be plenty to defend him or excuse him or seek to justify him. To be fair, a GE victory and an 80-seat majority will do that and I suspect he looks at the short-term post-Covid environment with happy people and a surging economy and he thinks it's all going his way.

Well, that's hubris for you - doesn't often end well.

Mrs T does have one whacking great thing to her credit by any standard - her reaction to the BAS discoveries about the ozone layer thinning. In the long term, undoubtedly more important than trivia such as the Falklands war, or economic policy. (And yes, I do know.)

StuartDickson said:

williamglenn said:

Starmer urges Labour to embrace Blair’s legacy

https://www.ft.com/content/34ec43b9-5dcd-46cd-b284-093e8f13714d

Ha ha. I’m almost beginning to feel sorry for poor Anas.

Can't get at it. What's in there to trouble the Glaswegian supermarket magnate shareholder-as-was?

StuartDickson said:

williamglenn said:

Starmer urges Labour to embrace Blair’s legacy

https://www.ft.com/content/34ec43b9-5dcd-46cd-b284-093e8f13714d

Ha ha. I’m almost beginning to feel sorry for poor Anas.

Scottish Labour won their highest percentage of Scottish seats under Blair, in 1997 and 2001.

Heathener said:

stodge said:

Evening all

Margaret Thatcher understood the threat of climate change and the impact on the environment - her speech to the UN in November 1989 was unfortunately overshadowed by the small matter of the fall of the Berlin Wall 24 hours later.

The cynic might of course argue it was a response to the surge in popularity of the Greens at the 1989 European elections but at least Thatcher started to see the issue.

That speech is dynamite. An incredible tour de force. I think she's quite wrong that the solution lay in the private sector but it's an amazingly brilliant speech nonetheless. Astonishing foresight. I wonder how much of it she wrote herself? I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is, the whole thing.

She was a political giant, for all her faults. Wow she would have been good in charge with the pandemic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnAzoDtwCBg&t=10s

I wonder how much it contributed to her overthrow by the Tories? Never even considered that possibility before; could be not at all.

StuartDickson said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

StuartDickson said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

StuartDickson said:

squareroot2 said:

I just accidentally clicked on Johnson on the thread header and the dictionary defined it as a man's penis.. interesting if spooky....

Well, it wouldn’t be a woman’s penis.

Scottish Nationalism: The home of transphobia.

British Nationalism: The home of Jockophobia..

There you go again.

Conflating criticism of the SNP with criticism of Scotland.

Fortunately the majority of Scots know that too.

Yeah, that’s right, BritNats like you are so in tune with “the majority of Scots”.

I accurately forecast that Scotland would vote No in 2014 when you said the clueless wonders on here were in for a shock. I believe 55% of Scots constitutes a majority of Scots.

I also accurately predicted that Alba would do shite in the Holyrood elections when one of your fellow Nats was predicting 12%-14% minimum for Alba on the list.

I also successfully tipped the SCons would get over 9.5 seats in 2017 at 20/1.

StuartDickson said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

StuartDickson said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

StuartDickson said:

squareroot2 said:

I just accidentally clicked on Johnson on the thread header and the dictionary defined it as a man's penis.. interesting if spooky....

Well, it wouldn’t be a woman’s penis.

Scottish Nationalism: The home of transphobia.

British Nationalism: The home of Jockophobia..

There you go again.

Conflating criticism of the SNP with criticism of Scotland.

Fortunately the majority of Scots know that too.

Yeah, that’s right, BritNats like you are so in tune with “the majority of Scots”.

Only 52% of them in fairness.

Theuniondivvie said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

StuartDickson said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

StuartDickson said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

StuartDickson said:

squareroot2 said:

I just accidentally clicked on Johnson on the thread header and the dictionary defined it as a man's penis.. interesting if spooky....

Well, it wouldn’t be a woman’s penis.

Scottish Nationalism: The home of transphobia.

British Nationalism: The home of Jockophobia..

There you go again.

Conflating criticism of the SNP with criticism of Scotland.

Fortunately the majority of Scots know that too.

Yeah, that’s right, BritNats like you are so in tune with “the majority of Scots”.

I accurately forecast that Scotland would vote No in 2014 when you said the clueless wonders on here were in for a shock. I believe 55% of Scots constitutes a majority of Scots.

I also accurately predicted that Alba would do shite in the Holyrood elections when one of your fellow Nats was predicting 12%-14% minimum for Alba on the list.

I also successfully tipped the SCons would get over 9.5 seats in 2017 at 20/1.

You also expected Salmond to get a seat, no?

No, I said the tragic/comedy sweet spot was if Alba ended up with just one seat, and that was Salmond.

I think it was when Sir John Curtice predicted Alba would end up with one MSP and that it was unlikely to be Salmond.

If you remember I kept on flagging up just how bad Salmond's ratings were, even worse than the PM in Scotland.

StuartDickson said:

Foxy said:

StuartDickson said:

Foxy said:

philiph said:

I would love to see a poll in ex mining communities along the lines of:
'Would thou like t'work down t'mine?'
Yes % DK% No %

Us old fossils may not have moved on. Miners and the desolation of the communities they had are still vivid images in our minds. There is no sanitisation of that period.

However that does not mean that an awful lot of good hasn't arisen from closing mines. The good may be unintended consequences, but this far after the act there is more positive than negative from a policy of 40 years ago.

The problem wasn't so much the move against coal (or British Coal at least, as we imported quite a lot since) but rather the perceived abandonment of pit communities. A more planned and supported shift to alternative employment would have helped.

Funny that, the Tories at the time thought that Tebbit’s bike was an act of genius.

Britain in the Seventies and Eighties was one of the countries at the forefront of moving to the post industrial age. No more would manufacturing and extractive industries provide secure mass employment of the unskilled. What manufacturing we have left employs far fewer, and those are more highly skilled.

Other countries have followed the same transition, and almost all have had similar dislocated communities, from Picardy, to the Appalachians to the Donbass. To a degree it was inevitable, but the precipitate nature of the transition was perhaps unnecessary, as was the Thatcherites seeming rather uncaring or even gleeful about it.

I vividly remember Thatcher. She was utterly mesmerising. Like that python in The Jungle Book. Ugly as sin, evil and foul, but so rock-solid sure of herself it was like a spell. She absolutely *loved* screwing folk over. She exuded raw, reptilian pleasure in the pain of others.

She screwed over the scabs and the Nottinghamshire miners as much as the rest.