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How Starmer could become PM – politicalbetting.com

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  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,116
    Selebian said:

    Carnyx said:

    darkage said:
    Ah, the student doing his best to undermine the intellectual reputation of Loughborough University by going on hols to Kabul a few days ago. Apparently cheap and the food is good.


    'His mother Susan was distraught when approached at the family home, explaining to The Sun, she had urgently been awaiting a call from the Foreign Office to discover whether her son would be kept safe.'

    'In earlier interviews, he had boasted: “I like risk, I’m a banker, so it makes sense,” Routledge told The Times.'
    Typo in that final quote? 'b' in banker should be a 'w'?
    I did wonder. But I left it ...
  • Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,766
    Carnyx said:

    darkage said:
    Ah, the student doing his best to undermine the intellectual reputation of Loughborough University by going on hols to Kabul a few days ago. Apparently cheap and the food is good.


    'His mother Susan was distraught when approached at the family home, explaining to The Sun, she had urgently been awaiting a call from the Foreign Office to discover whether her son would be kept safe.'

    'In earlier interviews, he had boasted: “I like risk, I’m a banker, so it makes sense,” Routledge told The Times.'
    Do you think the interviewer may have misheard or misquoted when he said "I am a banker..."?
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,116

    Carnyx said:

    darkage said:
    Ah, the student doing his best to undermine the intellectual reputation of Loughborough University by going on hols to Kabul a few days ago. Apparently cheap and the food is good.


    'His mother Susan was distraught when approached at the family home, explaining to The Sun, she had urgently been awaiting a call from the Foreign Office to discover whether her son would be kept safe.'

    'In earlier interviews, he had boasted: “I like risk, I’m a banker, so it makes sense,” Routledge told The Times.'
    Do you think the interviewer may have misheard or misquoted when he said "I am a banker..."?
    I wouldn't like to speculate.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,517
    edited August 2021
    RobD said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    BDS is a terrible curse. :smiley:
    I voted remain, but still think BDS is absolutely hilarious. ;)

    for some reason, my mind took the 'B' to mean Brexit, not Boris. But it's hilarious if the syndrome is for Boris or Brexit...
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,960

    isam said:

    MaxPB said:

    Taliban to implement sharia law and in the next breath say there will be no discrimination against women. Who exactly are they kidding?

    Maybe they'll release a song to make it seem more progressive

    "My Sharia Law, lovely as a summer day
    My Sharia Law, distant as the milky way
    My Sharia Law, pretty little one that I adore
    You're the only girl my heart beats for
    How I wish that you were mine"
    Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
    I always get it up for the touch of the younger kind
    My, my, my, my, my
    M-m-m-my Sharia
    M-m-m-my Sharia
    Say it loud and there's music playing,
    Say it soft and it's almost like praying,
    Sharia,
    I'll never stop saying Sharia!
  • CookieCookie Posts: 11,182
    kle4 said:

    isam said:

    MaxPB said:

    Taliban to implement sharia law and in the next breath say there will be no discrimination against women. Who exactly are they kidding?

    Maybe they'll release a song to make it seem more progressive

    "My Sharia Law, lovely as a summer day
    My Sharia Law, distant as the milky way
    My Sharia Law, pretty little one that I adore
    You're the only girl my heart beats for
    How I wish that you were mine"
    Don't think they are keen on singing. Perhaps a poem.
    Ooh, my little pretty one, pretty one
    When you gonna give me some time, Sharia?
    Ooh, you make my motor run, my motor run
    Gun it coming off of the line, Sharia

    Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
    I always get it up for the touch of the younger kind
    My, my, my, I, yi, woo!
    M-m-m-my Sharia
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,597
    UK cases by specimen date

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  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,597
    UK Local R

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  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Interesting. Cases started rising again in Scotland 15 days ago. 10 days later you would have expected admissions to have started rising but we haven't seen it yet (although Scottish admissions data only goes up to the 13th).
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,728

    I'd read about the FT17s.

    One of the FB rabbit holes I've fallen down is German Helmet Collectors (feckin worse bickering than here). Afghanistan bought a load of mainly WWI but also some WWII Stalhelm in the 50s, collectors are a bit sniffy about them.

    I''d like to see one of these:

    'A curious sidenote is that some Afghans took rusty old stahlhelms and soldered on random pieces of tin and aluminum for a “barbarian” appearance; these were then peddled as “relics of Alexander The Great’s invasion of Afghanistan” to uninformed buyers. (The same trick was also tried with ex-Soviet SSh-68s which were abandoned en masse when the USSR withdrew in 1988.)'

    We had learned from war movies that steel helmets could be used for
    boiling things in. On hot summer days, we found out what--our heads.

    The helmets could also be used for pillows. If you went to sleep, your
    head would slip off the helmet and bonk on the ground. Bonking your
    boiled head on the ground kept you awake all night, which was one of
    the reasons for using a helmet for a pillow in the first place.

    Filling up a .45 automatic holster was always a challenge, particularly
    since our parents had indicated they would just as soon we didn't buy
    any .45 automatics. About the only thing you could do with the holster
    was stuff a sardine-cheese-pickle-onion sandwich in it to be
    quick-drawn anytime you got hungry. Actually, a .45 automatic probably
    would have been safer than some of our sandwiches.

    You had to be a shrewd shopper not to get taken by Henry P. Grogan. We
    realized that some of the war surplus was brand-spanking-new. Other
    merchandise had obviously seen combat; it was cracked, tarnished,
    stained, ripped, riddled, rotten, rusty, and moldy. Frequently, Henry
    P. would try to pawn off some of the new stuff on us but we weren't to
    be fooled. We held out for the authentic war surplus. Ah, you can't
    imagine how old Henry P. would roll his eyes and gnash his teeth every
    time one of us kids outwitted him like that. He'd get very angry.

    The real treasure, of course, was any item with a bullet hole in it.

    For a long time you practically never came across anything with a
    bullet hole in it, and then one day Larry Swartze found a canteen with
    what looked like an honest-to-goodness bullet hole drilled through
    it.

    Henry P. himself had to break up the fight to see who was going to get
    the perforated canteen.

    Immediately after that incident, all sorts of war surplus turned up
    with bullet holes in it, and we kept ourselves broke trying to buy it
    all. Then it occurred to us that maybe old Henry P. was going around
    at night with a hammer and large spike, counterfeiting bullet holes.

    The bottom subsequently dropped out of the bullet-hole market at Henry
    P's.


    From Patrick F Macmanus, A Fine and Pleasant Misery
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,517
    Carnyx said:

    darkage said:
    Ah, the student doing his best to undermine the intellectual reputation of Loughborough University by going on hols to Kabul a few days ago. Apparently cheap and the food is good.


    'His mother Susan was distraught when approached at the family home, explaining to The Sun, she had urgently been awaiting a call from the Foreign Office to discover whether her son would be kept safe.'

    'In earlier interviews, he had boasted: “I like risk, I’m a banker, so it makes sense,” Routledge told The Times.'
    He is apparently studying physics. Whenever anyone does a search on his name in the future, this will come up.

    Many moons ago, I recruited graduates. With the Internet and social media the way it is, his CV would rapidly go to the bottom of the pile ...
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,597
    UK case summary

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  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,597
    UK Hospitals

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  • justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527
    TOPPING said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    If the best polls at this stage of Ed Milibands time as LotO had become reality, he’d have been PM too

    But he had no pandemic to hold him back and hide him from public view. In reality , I suspect that midterm in this Parliament will begin in late 2022 - ie a year or so into the return to normal politics.
    He hasn't been hidden from public view, he has had prime time tv specials to address the governments stance on Covid, as well as his Tears for Piers. Probably been on tv more than any other LotO, at a time where people were more invested in politics than ever, and couldnt leave the house!

    What percentage of members of the public have ever met a LotO anyway? and what % of thaose have been so dazzled that they changed their vote???
    Very few people have been tuned in to normal party politics since March 2020. That may now be changing. Much of any exposure received by Starmer has been in support of the Government. The cut and thrust of political debate has been missing - if only because few electors would have been receptive to it. Very similar to what we saw during World War 2.
    I don't see it that way, I think he has more airtime than any other LotO, and that face to face meetings are insignificant.

    But you might be right, we will find out in time
    I am not refering to face to face meetings at all - rather his disappearance from the media and general public comment. For the first few months of 2021 Starmer was pretty invisible - frozen out by the 'vaccine bounce'. Self inflicted wounds highlighted by the holding of by elections at Hartlepool and Batley & Spen provided exceptions to that - for which he bears responsibility.
    Justin, he has yet to oppose a government vote in the House of Commons.

    There has been precisely no opposition for the past 18 months. The Labour Party has supported the government on every possible occasion.

    And now he wants people to support the Labour Party.
    Indeed - which rather reinforces my point that normal party politics has largely absent.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,597
    UK deaths

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  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,597
    Age related data

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  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,341
    Andy_JS said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Andy_JS said:

    A country is only as strong as the willingness of the people of that country to fight for it. It seems like ordinary Afghans weren't interested in fighting for the country the Americans and other western nations had been attempting to set up for the last 20 years.

    I simply don't know enough about Afghanistan to know whether this is true or not or whether the withdrawal of essential US air cover made it impossible or very difficult for the Afghans to fight effectively. And, once the withdrawal was announced and the deal with the Taliban made the US effectively made itself a lame duck ally and signalled to Afghanis that it was content for the Taliban to be in power. So why would anyone fight then.

    But I find something frankly revolting in the way the US are justifying their actions which will have awful consequences for very many brave Afghanis by branding Afghanis cowards.

    There is plenty of cowardice on display and quite a lot if it is coming from the US. Yesterday 56 schoolgirls were slaughtered. A female Afghani MP, interviewed yesterday on the Today programme, is staying to protect her people even though she knows the risks she faces. A female mayor is waiting for the knock on the door and expects to be killed.

    How dare Biden call these people cowards.

    Maybe the US should never have been in Afghanistan. But there are honourable ways of departing and dishonourable ones. Biden's apologia sought to justify the latter. Yuck.
    Not just that.

    Very very few of us alive in Western Europe today have been put in the sort of situation where our courage has been tested like that. That's a blessing we should all be thankful for. But given a choice between resisting ruthless killers and keeping my head down, I don't know what I would do- even thinking about my tweenage daughters watching Frozen in the next room. I might hope, but I can't know. And two things follow from that;

    The first is to be grateful that I live here and now.

    The second is to never condemn those who have been tested and found wanting.
    The reason the Nazis were defeated in 1945 is because people were prepared to risk their lives to make it happen. And millions did die doing so. That was only a couple of generations ago.

    Wrt Afghanistan, the Taliban must have a lot of support among the population for them to be able to take over the country so quickly.
    This is a central issue. Genuine liberals and their heroic predecessors in this country fought intellectually (and more fiercely when necessary) from the 1640s through 1680s (exclusion crisis), 1688-1690 and the Toleration Act, onwards to Catholic emancipation and the 1832 Reform Act, and didn't see even universal suffrage with equal votes until 1928 - in the lifetime of HM the Queen.

    In 1940 the free society looked doomed but a generation some of whom are still living fought when the cause looked dark.

    The evidence at this moment is that among Afghans are substantial numbers of these groups: those who support the dark age regime, who must be numerous or the Taliban would be laughed out the country; those who were happy to freeload their liberalism on the back of western casualties; and those who prefer to adopt the liberal society of other richer western nations by fleeing.

    I am not unsympathetic, but liberal Afghans are not the only progressives to have found it tough going.

  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,597
    Age related data scaled to 100K

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  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,766
    Alistair said:

    Interesting. Cases started rising again in Scotland 15 days ago. 10 days later you would have expected admissions to have started rising but we haven't seen it yet (although Scottish admissions data only goes up to the 13th).

    My guess is that we'll see cases rise meaningfully again in September as schools go back. But not at a doubling rate. I'd guess as well that hospitalisations will start moving up.

    However, there is a natural limit to this, and the most vulnerable are well protected. So, my assumption is that we'll ride this out.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    justin124 said:

    TOPPING said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    If the best polls at this stage of Ed Milibands time as LotO had become reality, he’d have been PM too

    But he had no pandemic to hold him back and hide him from public view. In reality , I suspect that midterm in this Parliament will begin in late 2022 - ie a year or so into the return to normal politics.
    He hasn't been hidden from public view, he has had prime time tv specials to address the governments stance on Covid, as well as his Tears for Piers. Probably been on tv more than any other LotO, at a time where people were more invested in politics than ever, and couldnt leave the house!

    What percentage of members of the public have ever met a LotO anyway? and what % of thaose have been so dazzled that they changed their vote???
    Very few people have been tuned in to normal party politics since March 2020. That may now be changing. Much of any exposure received by Starmer has been in support of the Government. The cut and thrust of political debate has been missing - if only because few electors would have been receptive to it. Very similar to what we saw during World War 2.
    I don't see it that way, I think he has more airtime than any other LotO, and that face to face meetings are insignificant.

    But you might be right, we will find out in time
    I am not refering to face to face meetings at all - rather his disappearance from the media and general public comment. For the first few months of 2021 Starmer was pretty invisible - frozen out by the 'vaccine bounce'. Self inflicted wounds highlighted by the holding of by elections at Hartlepool and Batley & Spen provided exceptions to that - for which he bears responsibility.
    Justin, he has yet to oppose a government vote in the House of Commons.

    There has been precisely no opposition for the past 18 months. The Labour Party has supported the government on every possible occasion.

    And now he wants people to support the Labour Party.
    Indeed - which rather reinforces my point that normal party politics has largely absent.
    Trouble is that people now associate SKS with not being an effective politician/LotO. That will take some shaking off.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,557
    An incredible discovery of a tomb in #Pompeii by the @PompeiNecropoli team. The marble inscription tells us that the deceased is Marcus Venerius Secundio and uniquely mentions that some performances in the theatre were in Greek. Stunning!
    https://twitter.com/pompei79/status/1427582641231089670
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,960

    Carnyx said:

    darkage said:
    Ah, the student doing his best to undermine the intellectual reputation of Loughborough University by going on hols to Kabul a few days ago. Apparently cheap and the food is good.


    'His mother Susan was distraught when approached at the family home, explaining to The Sun, she had urgently been awaiting a call from the Foreign Office to discover whether her son would be kept safe.'

    'In earlier interviews, he had boasted: “I like risk, I’m a banker, so it makes sense,” Routledge told The Times.'
    He is apparently studying physics. Whenever anyone does a search on his name in the future, this will come up.

    Many moons ago, I recruited graduates. With the Internet and social media the way it is, his CV would rapidly go to the bottom of the pile ...
    Not quite - these days, we recruit blind, so all identifying personal information that might bias the recruiter is removed from the form before we see it. Social media checks are performed at offer stage - last year, we had to withdraw an offer because Googling the candidate led straight to a tabloid article about a scandal he'd caused at University after posting unsavoury things on social media. He should really think about changing his name, preferably to something very common (just for safety).
  • justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527
    edited August 2021
    TOPPING said:

    justin124 said:

    TOPPING said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    If the best polls at this stage of Ed Milibands time as LotO had become reality, he’d have been PM too

    But he had no pandemic to hold him back and hide him from public view. In reality , I suspect that midterm in this Parliament will begin in late 2022 - ie a year or so into the return to normal politics.
    He hasn't been hidden from public view, he has had prime time tv specials to address the governments stance on Covid, as well as his Tears for Piers. Probably been on tv more than any other LotO, at a time where people were more invested in politics than ever, and couldnt leave the house!

    What percentage of members of the public have ever met a LotO anyway? and what % of thaose have been so dazzled that they changed their vote???
    Very few people have been tuned in to normal party politics since March 2020. That may now be changing. Much of any exposure received by Starmer has been in support of the Government. The cut and thrust of political debate has been missing - if only because few electors would have been receptive to it. Very similar to what we saw during World War 2.
    I don't see it that way, I think he has more airtime than any other LotO, and that face to face meetings are insignificant.

    But you might be right, we will find out in time
    I am not refering to face to face meetings at all - rather his disappearance from the media and general public comment. For the first few months of 2021 Starmer was pretty invisible - frozen out by the 'vaccine bounce'. Self inflicted wounds highlighted by the holding of by elections at Hartlepool and Batley & Spen provided exceptions to that - for which he bears responsibility.
    Justin, he has yet to oppose a government vote in the House of Commons.

    There has been precisely no opposition for the past 18 months. The Labour Party has supported the government on every possible occasion.

    And now he wants people to support the Labour Party.
    Indeed - which rather reinforces my point that normal party politics has largely absent.
    Trouble is that people now associate SKS with not being an effective politician/LotO. That will take some shaking off.
    I see that point though most people - not being political anoraks -have not really tuned in much. Set against that , he did quite well in his first few months up to Xmas 2020.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,517
    IshmaelZ said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
    An old boss of mine used to do it. It appeared to work for him; perhaps in helping with meetings, and particularly the ending of them.

    You are, I believe, on the left. You are supposed to be the sort of people who shrug and ignore minor idiosyncrasies people have - if a man wants to dress as a woman, or pretend they know about the working class when they went to Westminster School or Chorister School. Yet someone chooses to set their watch ahead of time, and they're suddenly worthy of disdain (at best)?

    What does it matter? Why does it annoy you? Why should it even concern you?
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Nigelb said:

    An incredible discovery of a tomb in #Pompeii by the @PompeiNecropoli team. The marble inscription tells us that the deceased is Marcus Venerius Secundio and uniquely mentions that some performances in the theatre were in Greek. Stunning!
    https://twitter.com/pompei79/status/1427582641231089670

    That is interesting. Knowing nothing about it I'd have assumed that performances in Greek were an everyday occurrence given the extent to which educated Romans knew the language, but obviously not or they wouldn't have put it on a tombstone.
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,960
    rcs1000 said:

    Alistair said:

    Interesting. Cases started rising again in Scotland 15 days ago. 10 days later you would have expected admissions to have started rising but we haven't seen it yet (although Scottish admissions data only goes up to the 13th).

    My guess is that we'll see cases rise meaningfully again in September as schools go back. But not at a doubling rate. I'd guess as well that hospitalisations will start moving up.

    However, there is a natural limit to this, and the most vulnerable are well protected. So, my assumption is that we'll ride this out.
    Isn't every rate a doubling rate if you wait long enough?
  • PhilPhil Posts: 1,919
    edited August 2021

    Carnyx said:

    darkage said:
    Ah, the student doing his best to undermine the intellectual reputation of Loughborough University by going on hols to Kabul a few days ago. Apparently cheap and the food is good.


    'His mother Susan was distraught when approached at the family home, explaining to The Sun, she had urgently been awaiting a call from the Foreign Office to discover whether her son would be kept safe.'

    'In earlier interviews, he had boasted: “I like risk, I’m a banker, so it makes sense,” Routledge told The Times.'
    He is apparently studying physics. Whenever anyone does a search on his name in the future, this will come up.

    Many moons ago, I recruited graduates. With the Internet and social media the way it is, his CV would rapidly go to the bottom of the pile ...
    Word on the UK Reddit is that he’s a 4chan regular who is well known on campus for being like this all the time. Was apparently thrown out of his hall FB group /before he even made it to freshers week/ which is an achievement of sorts.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,116
    IshmaelZ said:

    Nigelb said:

    An incredible discovery of a tomb in #Pompeii by the @PompeiNecropoli team. The marble inscription tells us that the deceased is Marcus Venerius Secundio and uniquely mentions that some performances in the theatre were in Greek. Stunning!
    https://twitter.com/pompei79/status/1427582641231089670

    That is interesting. Knowing nothing about it I'd have assumed that performances in Greek were an everyday occurrence given the extent to which educated Romans knew the language, but obviously not or they wouldn't have put it on a tombstone.
    The tombstone itself is in Latin (and very pretty indeed), but as Cyclefree said they were basically Greek in that part of the world anyway.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 47,786
    TOPPING said:

    justin124 said:

    TOPPING said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    If the best polls at this stage of Ed Milibands time as LotO had become reality, he’d have been PM too

    But he had no pandemic to hold him back and hide him from public view. In reality , I suspect that midterm in this Parliament will begin in late 2022 - ie a year or so into the return to normal politics.
    He hasn't been hidden from public view, he has had prime time tv specials to address the governments stance on Covid, as well as his Tears for Piers. Probably been on tv more than any other LotO, at a time where people were more invested in politics than ever, and couldnt leave the house!

    What percentage of members of the public have ever met a LotO anyway? and what % of thaose have been so dazzled that they changed their vote???
    Very few people have been tuned in to normal party politics since March 2020. That may now be changing. Much of any exposure received by Starmer has been in support of the Government. The cut and thrust of political debate has been missing - if only because few electors would have been receptive to it. Very similar to what we saw during World War 2.
    I don't see it that way, I think he has more airtime than any other LotO, and that face to face meetings are insignificant.

    But you might be right, we will find out in time
    I am not refering to face to face meetings at all - rather his disappearance from the media and general public comment. For the first few months of 2021 Starmer was pretty invisible - frozen out by the 'vaccine bounce'. Self inflicted wounds highlighted by the holding of by elections at Hartlepool and Batley & Spen provided exceptions to that - for which he bears responsibility.
    Justin, he has yet to oppose a government vote in the House of Commons.

    There has been precisely no opposition for the past 18 months. The Labour Party has supported the government on every possible occasion.

    And now he wants people to support the Labour Party.
    Indeed - which rather reinforces my point that normal party politics has largely absent.
    Trouble is that people now associate SKS with not being an effective politician/LotO. That will take some shaking off.
    I hope he doesn't try proving he's a man of action by taking the future of Geronimo into his own hands.
  • IshmaelZ said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
    An old boss of mine used to do it. It appeared to work for him; perhaps in helping with meetings, and particularly the ending of them.

    You are, I believe, on the left. You are supposed to be the sort of people who shrug and ignore minor idiosyncrasies people have - if a man wants to dress as a woman, or pretend they know about the working class when they went to Westminster School or Chorister School. Yet someone chooses to set their watch ahead of time, and they're suddenly worthy of disdain (at best)?

    What does it matter? Why does it annoy you? Why should it even concern you?
    My wife has set her watch forward for all the 60 years I have known her

    Really, with covid and Afghanistan and myriads of other problems are we really so petty to worry if Boris does something my wife has for 60 years
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,840

    isam said:

    MaxPB said:

    Taliban to implement sharia law and in the next breath say there will be no discrimination against women. Who exactly are they kidding?

    Maybe they'll release a song to make it seem more progressive

    "My Sharia Law, lovely as a summer day
    My Sharia Law, distant as the milky way
    My Sharia Law, pretty little one that I adore
    You're the only girl my heart beats for
    How I wish that you were mine"
    Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
    I always get it up for the touch of the younger kind
    My, my, my, my, my
    M-m-m-my Sharia
    M-m-m-my Sharia
    Come Mr Taliban take me to nirvana ...
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328
    rcs1000 said:

    Alistair said:

    Interesting. Cases started rising again in Scotland 15 days ago. 10 days later you would have expected admissions to have started rising but we haven't seen it yet (although Scottish admissions data only goes up to the 13th).

    My guess is that we'll see cases rise meaningfully again in September as schools go back. But not at a doubling rate. I'd guess as well that hospitalisations will start moving up.

    However, there is a natural limit to this, and the most vulnerable are well protected. So, my assumption is that we'll ride this out.
    What we're seeing now in new cases and hospitalizations is the consequence of unlockdown. Which are remarkably few in my view.

    Each subsequent wave will have less amplitude, like the dampened succession of waves in a disturbed bath.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,517
    Nigelb said:

    An incredible discovery of a tomb in #Pompeii by the @PompeiNecropoli team. The marble inscription tells us that the deceased is Marcus Venerius Secundio and uniquely mentions that some performances in the theatre were in Greek. Stunning!
    https://twitter.com/pompei79/status/1427582641231089670

    That's really interested my son, who's oddly into archaeology, Latin and Pompeii. Amongst other things ...
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    IshmaelZ said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
    An old boss of mine used to do it. It appeared to work for him; perhaps in helping with meetings, and particularly the ending of them.

    You are, I believe, on the left. You are supposed to be the sort of people who shrug and ignore minor idiosyncrasies people have - if a man wants to dress as a woman, or pretend they know about the working class when they went to Westminster School or Chorister School. Yet someone chooses to set their watch ahead of time, and they're suddenly worthy of disdain (at best)?

    What does it matter? Why does it annoy you? Why should it even concern you?
    It just does. It's a truly lame gag, because it's like that experiment where they fit you out with glasses which vertically invert everything you see, and within an hour or two you start autocompensating. How can you not do the same thing with a consistently wrong watch?

    I wouldn't say either that I was of the left or that those on the left necessarily have the beliefs you ascribe to them.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,517

    IshmaelZ said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
    An old boss of mine used to do it. It appeared to work for him; perhaps in helping with meetings, and particularly the ending of them.

    You are, I believe, on the left. You are supposed to be the sort of people who shrug and ignore minor idiosyncrasies people have - if a man wants to dress as a woman, or pretend they know about the working class when they went to Westminster School or Chorister School. Yet someone chooses to set their watch ahead of time, and they're suddenly worthy of disdain (at best)?

    What does it matter? Why does it annoy you? Why should it even concern you?
    My wife has set her watch forward for all the 60 years I have known her

    Really, with covid and Afghanistan and myriads of other problems are we really so petty to worry if Boris does something my wife has for 60 years
    Your last sentence could set many a mind boggling. ;)
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    kinabalu said:

    isam said:

    MaxPB said:

    Taliban to implement sharia law and in the next breath say there will be no discrimination against women. Who exactly are they kidding?

    Maybe they'll release a song to make it seem more progressive

    "My Sharia Law, lovely as a summer day
    My Sharia Law, distant as the milky way
    My Sharia Law, pretty little one that I adore
    You're the only girl my heart beats for
    How I wish that you were mine"
    Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
    I always get it up for the touch of the younger kind
    My, my, my, my, my
    M-m-m-my Sharia
    M-m-m-my Sharia
    Come Mr Taliban take me to nirvana ...
    The shareef don't like it...
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 50,753
    Disappointing. I was assuming the death of 40% of the adult population as a bit of a minimum.
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,960

    IshmaelZ said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
    An old boss of mine used to do it. It appeared to work for him; perhaps in helping with meetings, and particularly the ending of them.

    You are, I believe, on the left. You are supposed to be the sort of people who shrug and ignore minor idiosyncrasies people have - if a man wants to dress as a woman, or pretend they know about the working class when they went to Westminster School or Chorister School. Yet someone chooses to set their watch ahead of time, and they're suddenly worthy of disdain (at best)?

    What does it matter? Why does it annoy you? Why should it even concern you?
    My wife has set her watch forward for all the 60 years I have known her

    Really, with covid and Afghanistan and myriads of other problems are we really so petty to worry if Boris does something my wife has for 60 years
    Mine hasn't done it for 60 years yet, but I hope one day to be able to say she has.

    Admittedly she only needs 3-5 minutes extra to be more-or-less on time for everything, but as far as I can see it's done mostly as a courtesy to others. Quite what the criticism here even is, I am extremely unclear.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,164
    A few weeks ago I posted stats from the ONS weekly death stats that suggested that we were currently experiencing fewer deaths than would have been expected, perhaps as a result of earlier deaths from COVID. Well, that trend has reversed in the last five weeks and we're now getting around 6% more deaths each week than the five-year average (excluding all but 100 deaths from COVID each week - I'm assuming that's the level of deaths with rather than from COVID).

    Obviously it's a complicated picture with a lot of moving parts. Perhaps we're starting to catch up on deaths avoided in the winter of 2020-21 when the low hanging fruit benefitted from less flu going around (if they avoided COVID that is). More worryingly, we might be starting to see the effects of lockdown on things like cancer, though I've had a look at the data by age and there doesn't look to be an obvious increase in <70 deaths, which is where we might expect to see changes.

    Weeks 20 to 26 (15 May to 2 July for 2021)

    2010: 62,026
    2011: 61,665
    2012: 63,978
    2013: 63,554
    2014: 63,708
    2015: 66,715
    2016: 65,453
    2017: 66,754
    2018: 65,685
    2019: 67,370
    2020: 75,688
    2021: 64,427


    Weeks 27 to 31 (3 July to 6 August for 2021)

    2010: 42,153
    2011: 42,909
    2012: 44,166
    2013: 42,748
    2014: 44,547
    2015: 44,430
    2016: 46,393
    2017: 45,575
    2018: 45,980
    2019: 45,704
    2020: 44,490
    2021: 48,356 (all COVID deaths excluded except for 100 a week assumed to be with COVID rather than from COVID)
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,766
    TimT said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Alistair said:

    Interesting. Cases started rising again in Scotland 15 days ago. 10 days later you would have expected admissions to have started rising but we haven't seen it yet (although Scottish admissions data only goes up to the 13th).

    My guess is that we'll see cases rise meaningfully again in September as schools go back. But not at a doubling rate. I'd guess as well that hospitalisations will start moving up.

    However, there is a natural limit to this, and the most vulnerable are well protected. So, my assumption is that we'll ride this out.
    What we're seeing now in new cases and hospitalizations is the consequence of unlockdown. Which are remarkably few in my view.

    Each subsequent wave will have less amplitude, like the dampened succession of waves in a disturbed bath.
    Yes... that's exactly what I was thinking... only you actually know what you're talking about.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,517
    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
    An old boss of mine used to do it. It appeared to work for him; perhaps in helping with meetings, and particularly the ending of them.

    You are, I believe, on the left. You are supposed to be the sort of people who shrug and ignore minor idiosyncrasies people have - if a man wants to dress as a woman, or pretend they know about the working class when they went to Westminster School or Chorister School. Yet someone chooses to set their watch ahead of time, and they're suddenly worthy of disdain (at best)?

    What does it matter? Why does it annoy you? Why should it even concern you?
    It just does. It's a truly lame gag, because it's like that experiment where they fit you out with glasses which vertically invert everything you see, and within an hour or two you start autocompensating. How can you not do the same thing with a consistently wrong watch?

    I wouldn't say either that I was of the left or that those on the left necessarily have the beliefs you ascribe to them.
    It probably works for him, just as it apparently did for my ex-boss (*). Why should it concern you?

    (*) The best CTO I ever had, who gave me easiest interview ever. Perhaps those two statements are related. ;)
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,709
    edited August 2021
    By 42% to 28% British voters think it was wrong to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

    48% of Tory voters and 40% of Labour voters and 54% of LD voters think the decision was wrong.
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427300773331968003?s=20

    However by 47% to 20% voters do not want to re inter the war now to restore the deposed government
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427660546774642689?s=20

    64% expect the threat of terrorism within western countries to increase now the Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan again
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427653152225042433?s=20
  • paulyork64paulyork64 Posts: 2,461
    Cookie said:

    kle4 said:

    isam said:

    MaxPB said:

    Taliban to implement sharia law and in the next breath say there will be no discrimination against women. Who exactly are they kidding?

    Maybe they'll release a song to make it seem more progressive

    "My Sharia Law, lovely as a summer day
    My Sharia Law, distant as the milky way
    My Sharia Law, pretty little one that I adore
    You're the only girl my heart beats for
    How I wish that you were mine"
    Don't think they are keen on singing. Perhaps a poem.
    Ooh, my little pretty one, pretty one
    When you gonna give me some time, Sharia?
    Ooh, you make my motor run, my motor run
    Gun it coming off of the line, Sharia

    Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
    I always get it up for the touch of the younger kind
    My, my, my, I, yi, woo!
    M-m-m-my Sharia
    Corona got that treatment in lockdown 1.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
    An old boss of mine used to do it. It appeared to work for him; perhaps in helping with meetings, and particularly the ending of them.

    You are, I believe, on the left. You are supposed to be the sort of people who shrug and ignore minor idiosyncrasies people have - if a man wants to dress as a woman, or pretend they know about the working class when they went to Westminster School or Chorister School. Yet someone chooses to set their watch ahead of time, and they're suddenly worthy of disdain (at best)?

    What does it matter? Why does it annoy you? Why should it even concern you?
    It just does. It's a truly lame gag, because it's like that experiment where they fit you out with glasses which vertically invert everything you see, and within an hour or two you start autocompensating. How can you not do the same thing with a consistently wrong watch?

    I wouldn't say either that I was of the left or that those on the left necessarily have the beliefs you ascribe to them.
    It probably works for him, just as it apparently did for my ex-boss (*). Why should it concern you?

    (*) The best CTO I ever had, who gave me easiest interview ever. Perhaps those two statements are related. ;)
    Because it's all of a piece with this sort of thing

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-boris-johnson-story
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,232

    IshmaelZ said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
    An old boss of mine used to do it. It appeared to work for him; perhaps in helping with meetings, and particularly the ending of them.

    You are, I believe, on the left. You are supposed to be the sort of people who shrug and ignore minor idiosyncrasies people have - if a man wants to dress as a woman, or pretend they know about the working class when they went to Westminster School or Chorister School. Yet someone chooses to set their watch ahead of time, and they're suddenly worthy of disdain (at best)?

    What does it matter? Why does it annoy you? Why should it even concern you?
    My wife has set her watch forward for all the 60 years I have known her

    Really, with covid and Afghanistan and myriads of other problems are we really so petty to worry if Boris does something my wife has for 60 years
    I used to put my watch four minutes fast. I'm not terribly good with mornings, so that let me know that I had to leave to catch the train when my watch said exactly 7.30 - sparing me any unnecessary thinking.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,038
    IshmaelZ said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
    It's Brexit 'init. All the good watch repairers have gone back to east europe.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,517
    Whilst we are on watches:

    My Youtube feed is infested with adverts for a company selling high-end watches. They *really* haven't targeted the ads well. ;)
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,001
    edited August 2021
    HYUFD said:

    By 42% to 28% British voters think it was wrong to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

    48% of Tory voters and 40% of Labour voters and 54% of LD voters think the decision was wrong.
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427300773331968003?s=20

    However by 47% to 20% voters do not want to re inter the war now to restore the deposed government
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427660546774642689?s=20

    64% expect the threat of terrorism within western countries to increase now the Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan again
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427653152225042433?s=20

    The poll 47 to 20 is the one that matters

    And improved intelligence and security is the way to deal with the last one
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    IshmaelZ said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
    An old boss of mine used to do it. It appeared to work for him; perhaps in helping with meetings, and particularly the ending of them.

    You are, I believe, on the left. You are supposed to be the sort of people who shrug and ignore minor idiosyncrasies people have - if a man wants to dress as a woman, or pretend they know about the working class when they went to Westminster School or Chorister School. Yet someone chooses to set their watch ahead of time, and they're suddenly worthy of disdain (at best)?

    What does it matter? Why does it annoy you? Why should it even concern you?
    My wife has set her watch forward for all the 60 years I have known her

    Really, with covid and Afghanistan and myriads of other problems are we really so petty to worry if Boris does something my wife has for 60 years
    I used to put my watch four minutes fast. I'm not terribly good with mornings, so that let me know that I had to leave to catch the train when my watch said exactly 7.30 - sparing me any unnecessary thinking.
    When you do it, it's entirely sensible and rational. When Boris does it, people's heads explode.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,458
    HYUFD said:

    By 42% to 28% British voters think it was wrong to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

    48% of Tory voters and 40% of Labour voters and 54% of LD voters think the decision was wrong.
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427300773331968003?s=20

    However by 47% to 20% voters do not want to re inter the war now to restore the deposed government
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427660546774642689?s=20

    64% expect the threat of terrorism within western countries to increase now the Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan again
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427653152225042433?s=20

    I don't care what the British voter thinks, I really don't. And that includes myself.

    One of the reasons we elect governments is to take really difficult decisions that are complex and unpredictable in their outcome. Afghanistan is one such. The idea that the average voter really has a clue about what is best, or what the outcome will be, is preposterous.

    But I know you, and some others, prefer government by opinion polling.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    HYUFD said:

    By 42% to 28% British voters think it was wrong to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

    48% of Tory voters and 40% of Labour voters and 54% of LD voters think the decision was wrong.
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427300773331968003?s=20

    However by 47% to 20% voters do not want to re inter the war now to restore the deposed government
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427660546774642689?s=20

    64% expect the threat of terrorism within western countries to increase now the Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan again
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427653152225042433?s=20

    I don't care what the British voter thinks, I really don't. And that includes myself.

    One of the reasons we elect governments is to take really difficult decisions that are complex and unpredictable in their outcome. Afghanistan is one such. The idea that the average voter really has a clue about what is best, or what the outcome will be, is preposterous.

    But I know you, and some others, prefer government by opinion polling.
    It's interesting because it may have implications for how the voting intention polls move. People don't tend to vote for a party that does things they disagree with.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,766
    As an aside, the mood music from Afghanistan has probably improved slightly for Biden in the last 24 hours. Yes, the Taliban are now in charge, but the airport is open, and we aren't seeing Americans being executed or imprisoned.

    Of course, terrible things are no doubt happening to ordinary Afghanis, but from a US public perception perspective, the comparison with Saigon is less obvious than it was.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,517
    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
    An old boss of mine used to do it. It appeared to work for him; perhaps in helping with meetings, and particularly the ending of them.

    You are, I believe, on the left. You are supposed to be the sort of people who shrug and ignore minor idiosyncrasies people have - if a man wants to dress as a woman, or pretend they know about the working class when they went to Westminster School or Chorister School. Yet someone chooses to set their watch ahead of time, and they're suddenly worthy of disdain (at best)?

    What does it matter? Why does it annoy you? Why should it even concern you?
    It just does. It's a truly lame gag, because it's like that experiment where they fit you out with glasses which vertically invert everything you see, and within an hour or two you start autocompensating. How can you not do the same thing with a consistently wrong watch?

    I wouldn't say either that I was of the left or that those on the left necessarily have the beliefs you ascribe to them.
    It probably works for him, just as it apparently did for my ex-boss (*). Why should it concern you?

    (*) The best CTO I ever had, who gave me easiest interview ever. Perhaps those two statements are related. ;)
    Because it's all of a piece with this sort of thing

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-boris-johnson-story
    Thanks for that. You've just made me like Boris all the more. To act in that way, and GET PAID FOR IT. You must be so jealous, that you have to work incredibly hard in a week to get what he earns in an hour of impromptu waffling. And he gets free drinks at the end of it.

    He's a genius. You're evidently not. Nether am I. That's why he's PM, and we're not. (From my perspective, thank God for that.)

    Or perhaps. just perhaps, Vine is exaggerating himself, for comic effect. Or Boris does it deliberately, as part of his image. In which case he's even more of a genius.

    I'm sorry, but Boris sets his watch forward a few minutes, and you see this as a reason to call him all the names under the sun. He's going to walk the next election if this is the stupid ephemera that you think is a smoking gun. The opposition really needs to grow up and act like adults.

    (I still don't think he's a very good PM.)
  • "Lily Cole: Model apologises for posing in a burka on Instagram"

    "Model, actress and activist Lily Cole has apologised for posting a picture of herself in a burka as a way to "embrace diversity" and promote her new book.

    "Critics said posing in the garment, worn by some Muslim women, did not help diversity and was ill-advised given the current unrest in Afghanistan.

    "Cole said she understood why the image upset people and wanted to "sincerely apologise for any offence caused"."
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58245304
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,458
    RobD said:

    HYUFD said:

    By 42% to 28% British voters think it was wrong to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

    48% of Tory voters and 40% of Labour voters and 54% of LD voters think the decision was wrong.
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427300773331968003?s=20

    However by 47% to 20% voters do not want to re inter the war now to restore the deposed government
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427660546774642689?s=20

    64% expect the threat of terrorism within western countries to increase now the Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan again
    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1427653152225042433?s=20

    I don't care what the British voter thinks, I really don't. And that includes myself.

    One of the reasons we elect governments is to take really difficult decisions that are complex and unpredictable in their outcome. Afghanistan is one such. The idea that the average voter really has a clue about what is best, or what the outcome will be, is preposterous.

    But I know you, and some others, prefer government by opinion polling.
    It's interesting because it may have implications for how the voting intention polls move. People don't tend to vote for a party that does things they disagree with.
    Yes, sorry, I agree with that. I just object to the notion that polling on serious, complex matters should be the driver of policy, which some seem to think.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328
    rcs1000 said:

    TimT said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Alistair said:

    Interesting. Cases started rising again in Scotland 15 days ago. 10 days later you would have expected admissions to have started rising but we haven't seen it yet (although Scottish admissions data only goes up to the 13th).

    My guess is that we'll see cases rise meaningfully again in September as schools go back. But not at a doubling rate. I'd guess as well that hospitalisations will start moving up.

    However, there is a natural limit to this, and the most vulnerable are well protected. So, my assumption is that we'll ride this out.
    What we're seeing now in new cases and hospitalizations is the consequence of unlockdown. Which are remarkably few in my view.

    Each subsequent wave will have less amplitude, like the dampened succession of waves in a disturbed bath.
    Yes... that's exactly what I was thinking... only you actually know what you're talking about.
    only you actually know what you're talking about.

    LOL. The most I'll admit to is being less ignorant than some :D
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,670

    HYUFD said:

    'A councillor has quit the SNP after claiming Nicola Sturgeon is the party’s worst leader in over 30 years.

    David Baird blasted the SNP’s “lack of direction” on independence and hit out at parts of the Government’s “domestic agenda”, such as reforms making it easier to change gender.

    He also said he had joined Alex Salmond ’s rival pro-independence Alba party.'
    'https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-snp-alex-salmond-24778411

    @malcolmg is that you?
    David = Malcolm, I don't think so!
  • Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,766

    Carnyx said:

    darkage said:
    Ah, the student doing his best to undermine the intellectual reputation of Loughborough University by going on hols to Kabul a few days ago. Apparently cheap and the food is good.


    'His mother Susan was distraught when approached at the family home, explaining to The Sun, she had urgently been awaiting a call from the Foreign Office to discover whether her son would be kept safe.'

    'In earlier interviews, he had boasted: “I like risk, I’m a banker, so it makes sense,” Routledge told The Times.'
    He is apparently studying physics. Whenever anyone does a search on his name in the future, this will come up.

    Many moons ago, I recruited graduates. With the Internet and social media the way it is, his CV would rapidly go to the bottom of the pile ...
    You could take a counter point to this which is that anyone who has not done something stupid when they were a student should go to the bottom of the pile for being dull. A bit like the idea that one should never hire anyone who gets a first, except that this no longer applies because everyone gets them now.
  • paulyork64paulyork64 Posts: 2,461
    new thread (cant think of a witty way to announce it)
  • New thread

  • IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    isam said:

    I have been delving into No10s flickr account for photos of Boris's watch, and sent them to the tweeter linked to by @Quincel - transpires that said timepiece has been 13-14 mins fast for months

    The haters cried wolf again

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427614095889551363?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SpotMonkey/status/1427616498693165060?s=20

    And what sort of complete and utter, total, absolute f---ing, deserving to die on a spike and have diseased camels defecate on his unburied corpse, c--t has his watch continuously set 13 or 14 minutes fast? "Oooh, look at me, I'm so ditsy, my numerous friends tell me I'll be late for my own funeral" sort of deal? What an utter wanker.

    Good old Boris, what a card.
    An old boss of mine used to do it. It appeared to work for him; perhaps in helping with meetings, and particularly the ending of them.

    You are, I believe, on the left. You are supposed to be the sort of people who shrug and ignore minor idiosyncrasies people have - if a man wants to dress as a woman, or pretend they know about the working class when they went to Westminster School or Chorister School. Yet someone chooses to set their watch ahead of time, and they're suddenly worthy of disdain (at best)?

    What does it matter? Why does it annoy you? Why should it even concern you?
    It just does. It's a truly lame gag, because it's like that experiment where they fit you out with glasses which vertically invert everything you see, and within an hour or two you start autocompensating. How can you not do the same thing with a consistently wrong watch?

    I wouldn't say either that I was of the left or that those on the left necessarily have the beliefs you ascribe to them.
    It probably works for him, just as it apparently did for my ex-boss (*). Why should it concern you?

    (*) The best CTO I ever had, who gave me easiest interview ever. Perhaps those two statements are related. ;)
    Because it's all of a piece with this sort of thing

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-boris-johnson-story
    Thanks for that. You've just made me like Boris all the more. To act in that way, and GET PAID FOR IT. You must be so jealous, that you have to work incredibly hard in a week to get what he earns in an hour of impromptu waffling. And he gets free drinks at the end of it.

    He's a genius. You're evidently not. Nether am I. That's why he's PM, and we're not. (From my perspective, thank God for that.)

    Or perhaps. just perhaps, Vine is exaggerating himself, for comic effect. Or Boris does it deliberately, as part of his image. In which case he's even more of a genius.

    I'm sorry, but Boris sets his watch forward a few minutes, and you see this as a reason to call him all the names under the sun. He's going to walk the next election if this is the stupid ephemera that you think is a smoking gun. The opposition really needs to grow up and act like adults.

    (I still don't think he's a very good PM.)
    Just adds to the ridiculous 'Johnson' variant Labour misjudged totally
  • Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,766

    Whilst we are on watches:

    My Youtube feed is infested with adverts for a company selling high-end watches. They *really* haven't targeted the ads well. ;)

    Did you click on one once?

    Reminds me of a story I heard that a Tory MP (don't know who so might be apocryphal), who apparently attacked a Labour MP who had porn sites apparently advertised on his webpage. The Tory MP didn't understand the power of cookies/remarketing of the porn sites he had obviously been viewing!
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,517

    Whilst we are on watches:

    My Youtube feed is infested with adverts for a company selling high-end watches. They *really* haven't targeted the ads well. ;)

    Did you click on one once?

    Reminds me of a story I heard that a Tory MP (don't know who so might be apocryphal), who apparently attacked a Labour MP who had porn sites apparently advertised on his webpage. The Tory MP didn't understand the power of cookies/remarketing of the porn sites he had obviously been viewing!
    I don't think so; but they only appear on my mobile so I might have had fat-finger syndrome at some time.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,517

    Carnyx said:

    darkage said:
    Ah, the student doing his best to undermine the intellectual reputation of Loughborough University by going on hols to Kabul a few days ago. Apparently cheap and the food is good.


    'His mother Susan was distraught when approached at the family home, explaining to The Sun, she had urgently been awaiting a call from the Foreign Office to discover whether her son would be kept safe.'

    'In earlier interviews, he had boasted: “I like risk, I’m a banker, so it makes sense,” Routledge told The Times.'
    He is apparently studying physics. Whenever anyone does a search on his name in the future, this will come up.

    Many moons ago, I recruited graduates. With the Internet and social media the way it is, his CV would rapidly go to the bottom of the pile ...
    You could take a counter point to this which is that anyone who has not done something stupid when they were a student should go to the bottom of the pile for being dull. A bit like the idea that one should never hire anyone who gets a first, except that this no longer applies because everyone gets them now.
    There's stupid, and then there's *really* stupid. He's in the ultra-fu*king stupid category.
This discussion has been closed.