They seem to subsist entirely on dry buttered toast and Riesling.
5 minutes would be too long for me. In my very controversial humble opinion they were a good band, but the most overrated of all time.
Sorry, you’re wrong about that.
They remind me of Dylan, and indeed Shakespeare, in that the more you look into the work, the more there is to look at.
One problem they have is their ridiculous ubiquity in the culture, rendering all their stuff like wallpaper.
I have actually tried not to listen for them for the past 20 years, but rediscovered them during lockdown, thus resulting in sheer jubilation and excitement once more.
It’s possible I will try to ignore them again for 20 years.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
Because genocide isn't so bad if you wave a nice red flag when you're filling your atrocity quota.
Wow. Is it going to be removed from Fascism too?
The mass killings under Communism are worse than the mass killings under Fascism, but because the latter happened in western Europe we tend to view the latter as worse rather than them both being evil.
The debate on Wiki is down in the dust - is a famine a mass killing etc?
Sorry don't have time at mo, but will look at it later. Never said they weren't worth appreciating, particularly for great melodies and harmonies, just that musically they are nowhere near many other bands. Their almost universal deification is, again in my opinion, misplaced and based on popularity far more than musicality.
Because genocide isn't so bad if you wave a nice red flag when you're filling your atrocity quota.
Wow. Is it going to be removed from Fascism too?
The mass killings under Communism are worse than the mass killings under Fascism, but because the latter happened in western Europe we tend to view the latter as worse rather than them both being evil.
There isn't a 'mass killings under fascism' wiki article, just saying.
An entertaining catch-up read this morning. If Sadiq Khan is so shit, we have the calm knowledge that Shaun Bailey would have been worse. How on earth did the Tories end up with such an appalling candidate running such an appalling campaign...?
Shaun Bailey got 45% in the runoff in May against Khan, more than Zac Goldsmith got in 2016 against Khan.
Bailey also won a majority of outer London suburban boroughs in the 1st round
Jesus. He *lost*. So I read this morning that Khan is an absolute disaster ripe for the taking. And yet you *lost*. So again, how on earth did you pick such an awful candidate and run such an awful campaign?
Surely the Tory party isn't actually run by arrogant parodies like you?
Given the Tories only got 32% in London at GE19 Bailey got 13% more than the generic Tory vote in the captal
If Rory Stewart had been the Tory candidate he’d have won. One wonders if this has been cooked up for the next London election, serve his penitence at City Hall safely out the way until Boris wants to retire.
No he wouldn't. The only London constituency Stewart might have won that Bailey didn't was Merton and Wandsworth but he might have done worse than Bailey did in Outer London too.
Not a single poll had Stewart beating Khan in the runoff even if he was the candidate (I don't think Khan is that bad by the way either, in some respects he is better than Livingstone was)
But those polls don’t mean anything because Stewart wasn’t the Tory candidate. If he’d had party central behind him it’s a different story. In the runoff Bailey was 225k votes behind. If Stewart had motivated the Tory Remainers to turn up in greater numbers and had flipped maybe half of Sadiq’s second preferences, he’d have been over the line.
They seem to subsist entirely on dry buttered toast and Riesling.
5 minutes would be too long for me. In my very controversial humble opinion they were a good band, but the most overrated of all time.
Sorry, you’re wrong about that.
They remind me of Dylan, and indeed Shakespeare, in that the more you look into the work, the more there is to look at.
One problem they have is their ridiculous ubiquity in the culture, rendering all their stuff like wallpaper.
I have actually tried not to listen for them for the past 20 years, but rediscovered them during lockdown, thus resulting in sheer jubilation and excitement once more.
It’s possible I will try to ignore them again for 20 years.
They're brilliant. By definition overrated simply because you can't be rated that high without being overrated. But brilliant.
So has anyone who had two AZs first then had a reaction to a Pfizer/Moderna booster?
I had no reaction to the Pfizer booster.
Ditto. Had a 48 hour light flu with the 2 AZs but nothing with my Pfizer booster.
Conversely I was perfectly fine after my 2 AZs but had a GodAlmighty 'hangover' after the Pfizer.
Very strange the way the jabs affect people differently.
I'm sure I've seen in multiple cases that if you've had Covid (even without realising) the following covid injection knocks you sideways afterwards (so revealing you've actually had Covid).
I need to cancel my vaccination booked for the 15th as given my wife had Covid last week it's a decent bet that I've had it given how grotty I've been feeling. I will reschedule for early January to leave a 5 week gap
Must admit I have been very fortunate. Got my first two Pfizer shots and apart from a sore arm for a day or so no real effects. Then caught Covid from my son via school and had a few rough days but nothing got near my chest. Serious man flu with all the horrible joint aches. The had my booster a couple of weeks ago - Moderna this time - and again nothing apart from a sore arm. Not sure if ths is al a good thing or a bad thing but having now had 4 lots of protection - 1 natural and 3 man made - I have to say I am feeling pretty laid back about the whole thing at the moment. Mistakenly? Possibly but only time will tell.
Sadiq Khan's mayoralty in a nutshell. Moving City Hall from the iconic, purpose built Norman Foster-designed HQ right by Tower Bridge, to an anonymous, low slung glass thing somewhere in Newham, but no one knows where, a jagged blob that has few transport connections, thus degrading his office and the city governance in the eyes of voters, and not even saving that much money
He really is the Worst Mayor Ever, and this move will be his epitaph. It's terrible in every way
Even worse he is fudging the figures
Most of the saving is because no rent will be paid (£55m of the total saving of £60m over 5 years).
No rent is payable because they BOUGHT the property in 2019.
That may or may not be the right thing (I have no view) but it is misleading to present it as a cost saving measure
Surely if you no longer need to pay £11m a year in rent that is a cost saving.
And from memory - the GLA has owned the Crystal since it was built - but it was leased to Siemens who surrendered the lease in 2019 (for they weren't really using the building).
My comment was based on the BBC article which said they bought from Siemens but if your second paragraph is correct then that’s somewhat different.
On the first paragraph it’s not wrong, it’s just misleading. If you spend £100m to reduce your costs by £10m p.a. that may well be a sensible decision. But simply to say “it’s a cost saving” without highlighting the capital expenditure (and/or netting off the reduced income/opportunity cost of the capital spend) is only telling half the story
In any event, @Leon clutching at the weakest of straws to diss Khan is entirely predictable. I thinke we already get that he doesn't like Khan and is unlikely (!) to vote for him next time.
With respect, you don’t live here. Khan has the air of a jumped up traffic warden, not the mayor of a global metropolis.
This is London, not Lillycrap-on-the-Wold.
Lol! Loving the 'respect'
Yours, from Lillycrap-on-the-Wold, Ben x
Hehe.
I think you live in the lovely South West somewhere.
Great update, @MaxPB What is the 'table' to which you refer (or rather who arranged for the people around it) ?
Reunion of university friends, all of us are chemistry or biochemistry grads plus one grad med who did a biochemistry option with us. I'm the only one who didn't stay in science. The rest are pharma types or in academia. We do it every year, except last year.
One of the reasons I'm inclined to trust them is that there was no sugar coating and in general everyone set aside their political leanings.
Tbh, most of them wanted to know what the economy was going to look like next year and when the doctor among our group was finally going to get married to her bf so we can all go to a wedding overseas.
A point that they don't seem to have registered is that many hospitals are already overwhelmed, in the sense that non-Covid emergencies are responded to very slowly (a wait of hours for an ambulance seems not uncommon if you're not actually dying, just lying on the floor unable to get up) and you have to be lucky to get a slot for a non-urgent hip/knee etc. operation. It's patchy and you can get lucky, but it's a mistake to think that things are basically OK at present and we just need to ponder whether Omicron will disutrb this satisfactory state of affairs.
I think there will also be a weather eye on waiting lists, which may feed into restrictions decisions.
I was surprised how quickly some shrunk in summer 2020.
Politically those need to be back under control for the next election cycle.
Will the other NHSs follow Scotland in more contracting out?
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves
Rural bus services, and indeed bus services across the country, used to be far better. They were killed off by Tory privatisation. A lifeline for the poor, the elderly and the disabled cut off. Just one of the many ways in which opportunity has been limited. The fact that you can't even see that is pretty telling.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
I went to a comprehensive. That was largely left wing inspired, taught by left wing teachers and it was shit. The problems of our education system can't just be blamed on "the Tories". The teaching unions with their sloppy attitudes and "prizes for all" mentality hold an equal portion of blame.
A flagship UK vaccine manufacturing centre that has been at the heart of the government’s efforts to prepare for future pandemics, and the recipient of more than £200m of public funding, is now up for sale.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves
Rural bus services, and indeed bus services across the country, used to be far better. They were killed off by Tory privatisation. A lifeline for the poor, the elderly and the disabled cut off. Just one of the many ways in which opportunity has been limited. The fact that you can't even see that is pretty telling.
HYUFD lives on the outskirts of London - so what do you expect.
Sadiq Khan's mayoralty in a nutshell. Moving City Hall from the iconic, purpose built Norman Foster-designed HQ right by Tower Bridge, to an anonymous, low slung glass thing somewhere in Newham, but no one knows where, a jagged blob that has few transport connections, thus degrading his office and the city governance in the eyes of voters, and not even saving that much money
He really is the Worst Mayor Ever, and this move will be his epitaph. It's terrible in every way
Even worse he is fudging the figures
Most of the saving is because no rent will be paid (£55m of the total saving of £60m over 5 years).
No rent is payable because they BOUGHT the property in 2019.
That may or may not be the right thing (I have no view) but it is misleading to present it as a cost saving measure
Surely if you no longer need to pay £11m a year in rent that is a cost saving.
And from memory - the GLA has owned the Crystal since it was built - but it was leased to Siemens who surrendered the lease in 2019 (for they weren't really using the building).
My comment was based on the BBC article which said they bought from Siemens but if your second paragraph is correct then that’s somewhat different.
On the first paragraph it’s not wrong, it’s just misleading. If you spend £100m to reduce your costs by £10m p.a. that may well be a sensible decision. But simply to say “it’s a cost saving” without highlighting the capital expenditure (and/or netting off the reduced income/opportunity cost of the capital spend) is only telling half the story
In any event, @Leon clutching at the weakest of straws to diss Khan is entirely predictable. I thinke we already get that he doesn't like Khan and is unlikely (!) to vote for him next time.
With respect, you don’t live here. Khan has the air of a jumped up traffic warden, not the mayor of a global metropolis.
This is London, not Lillycrap-on-the-Wold.
Lol! Loving the 'respect'
Yours, from Lillycrap-on-the-Wold, Ben x
Hehe.
I think you live in the lovely South West somewhere.
I merely mean that Khan is not up to the job.
I know, and fair point - I don't live in London. Although here in North Dorset we do of course depend quite heavily on the London economy.
Sorry don't have time at mo, but will look at it later. Never said they weren't worth appreciating, particularly for great melodies and harmonies, just that musically they are nowhere near many other bands. Their almost universal deification is, again in my opinion, misplaced and based on popularity far more than musicality.
That programme, by an expert and great communicator, is made for you, then.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
I went to a comprehensive. That was largely left wing inspired, taught by left wing teachers and it was shit. The problems of our education system can't just be blamed on "the Tories". The teaching unions with their sloppy attitudes and "prizes for all" mentality hold an equal portion of blame.
The 'left wing teachers' don't seem to have succeeded in indoctrinating you, do they? Or indeed, many other people. Still, it's a valuable myth for right-wing culture warriors.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves
Rural bus services, and indeed bus services across the country, used to be far better. They were killed off by Tory privatisation. A lifeline for the poor, the elderly and the disabled cut off. Just one of the many ways in which opportunity has been limited. The fact that you can't even see that is pretty telling.
HYUFD lives on the outskirts of London - so what do you expect.
True. Although I live in London zone 2 and don't have my head so far up my own arse that I am unaware of what happens in the rest of the country.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
This isn't rural bus services. We don't have any. This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do. Nor informing anyone. Nor endeavouring to find a solution. Many of the parents who use the service do drive. They have already left for work. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks. Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss. Led from the top.
An entertaining catch-up read this morning. If Sadiq Khan is so shit, we have the calm knowledge that Shaun Bailey would have been worse. How on earth did the Tories end up with such an appalling candidate running such an appalling campaign...?
Shaun Bailey got 45% in the runoff in May against Khan, more than Zac Goldsmith got in 2016 against Khan.
Bailey also won a majority of outer London suburban boroughs in the 1st round
Jesus. He *lost*. So I read this morning that Khan is an absolute disaster ripe for the taking. And yet you *lost*. So again, how on earth did you pick such an awful candidate and run such an awful campaign?
Surely the Tory party isn't actually run by arrogant parodies like you?
Given the Tories only got 32% in London at GE19 Bailey got 13% more than the generic Tory vote in the captal
If Rory Stewart had been the Tory candidate he’d have won. One wonders if this has been cooked up for the next London election, serve his penitence at City Hall safely out the way until Boris wants to retire.
No he wouldn't. The only London constituency Stewart might have won that Bailey didn't was Merton and Wandsworth but he might have done worse than Bailey did in Outer London too.
Not a single poll had Stewart beating Khan in the runoff even if he was the candidate (I don't think Khan is that bad by the way either, in some respects he is better than Livingstone was)
But those polls don’t mean anything because Stewart wasn’t the Tory candidate. If he’d had party central behind him it’s a different story. In the runoff Bailey was 225k votes behind. If Stewart had motivated the Tory Remainers to turn up in greater numbers and had flipped maybe half of Sadiq’s second preferences, he’d have been over the line.
Yougov in March 2020 had Stewart only getting 55% of 2019 Tory voters in a runoff against Khan, while Khan got 67% of 2019 Labour voters against Stewart and got more LD voters backing him than Stewart too
While Stewart did better than Bailey in Inner London on 23% to 14%, Bailey did better than Stewart in Outer London on 30% to 29% for Stewart.
So has anyone who had two AZs first then had a reaction to a Pfizer/Moderna booster?
I had no reaction to the Pfizer booster.
Ditto. Had a 48 hour light flu with the 2 AZs but nothing with my Pfizer booster.
Conversely I was perfectly fine after my 2 AZs but had a GodAlmighty 'hangover' after the Pfizer.
Very strange the way the jabs affect people differently.
I'm sure I've seen in multiple cases that if you've had Covid (even without realising) the following covid injection knocks you sideways afterwards (so revealing you've actually had Covid).
I need to cancel my vaccination booked for the 15th as given my wife had Covid last week it's a decent bet that I've had it given how grotty I've been feeling. I will reschedule for early January to leave a 5 week gap
Seems counter-intuitive to me (though I am no scientist, of course)...
If you already have antibodies and T-cells wouldn't the body find it easier to deal with the vaccine?
Is there any thought that the worse your reaction to the vaccine, the worse your experience if you caught Covid when unvaccinated would have been?
They seem to subsist entirely on dry buttered toast and Riesling.
5 minutes would be too long for me. In my very controversial humble opinion they were a good band, but the most overrated of all time.
Sorry, you’re wrong about that.
They remind me of Dylan, and indeed Shakespeare, in that the more you look into the work, the more there is to look at.
One problem they have is their ridiculous ubiquity in the culture, rendering all their stuff like wallpaper.
I have actually tried not to listen for them for the past 20 years, but rediscovered them during lockdown, thus resulting in sheer jubilation and excitement once more.
It’s possible I will try to ignore them again for 20 years.
"I wanna hold your hand" is hardly Shakespeare, but I take your point. If I listened to the catchy tunes lots I'd probably kid myself too. My point holds though, and I have listened to them enough, and seen Paul McCartney live: they knew how to make catchy popular tunes, but they are still overrated.
Meanwhile, one has to assume that Omicron is seeded in London and three or four weeks away from supplanting Delta.
It’s been 4.9999 months since my second Moderna jab…
I think it is fair to assume it is here. The second part about supplanting delta depends on how infectious it is - and we don't know that yet.
Time will tell.
Even if there are a hundred cases in London, with an R of 2 it would take more like 6 weeks to supplant Delta.
While that R estimate may seem like the hardest evidence we have at the moment, it's worth bearing in mind that the initial spread of Omicron was among students, and remembering the explosion of "classic" COVID-19 among students in October 2020 in the UK, against a background of a relatively gradual increase in the population at large. It's quite plausible that R=2 could be a significant overestimate.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
This isn't rural bus services. We don't have any. This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do. Nor informing anyone. Many of the parents who use the service do drive. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks. Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss. Led from the top.
It is the gross centralisation of this country…which seems to date back at least to the early 20th century…which is to blame.
The reason nobody gives a toss is that there isn’t anyone with the power, money, or incentives to give a toss.
You can’t possibly expect an Oxbridge grad in Treasury to know or care about a bus service in Dixieland.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves
Rural bus services, and indeed bus services across the country, used to be far better. They were killed off by Tory privatisation. A lifeline for the poor, the elderly and the disabled cut off. Just one of the many ways in which opportunity has been limited. The fact that you can't even see that is pretty telling.
HYUFD lives on the outskirts of London - so what do you expect.
True. Although I live in London zone 2 and don't have my head so far up my own arse that I am unaware of what happens in the rest of the country.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
This isn't rural bus services. We don't have any. This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do. Nor informing anyone. Many of the parents who use the service do drive. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks. Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss. Led from the top.
The government is not responsible for private bus companies by definition and school bus services are rarely 100% reliable, hence parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.
On the other hand bus companies will only provide services based on demand, if services are cut it is because not enough people are using them
They seem to subsist entirely on dry buttered toast and Riesling.
5 minutes would be too long for me. In my very controversial humble opinion they were a good band, but the most overrated of all time.
Sorry, you’re wrong about that.
They remind me of Dylan, and indeed Shakespeare, in that the more you look into the work, the more there is to look at.
One problem they have is their ridiculous ubiquity in the culture, rendering all their stuff like wallpaper.
I have actually tried not to listen for them for the past 20 years, but rediscovered them during lockdown, thus resulting in sheer jubilation and excitement once more.
It’s possible I will try to ignore them again for 20 years.
They're brilliant. By definition overrated simply because you can't be rated that high without being overrated. But brilliant.
Bizarre
do you like the Grateful Dead? They are the closest stab I can have at a guess as to what the beatles would have been like if they'd been any good. Try the "Best Of" album.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
I went to a comprehensive. That was largely left wing inspired, taught by left wing teachers and it was shit. The problems of our education system can't just be blamed on "the Tories". The teaching unions with their sloppy attitudes and "prizes for all" mentality hold an equal portion of blame.
I went to a comprehensive too, I'm pretty sure most of my teachers were pretty left wing (although the only ones who really made their political leanings well known were right wing) and I think I got a pretty good education. My kids seem to be getting a good enough education at their comprehensive school too. I'm sorry you had a bad experience at school but your experience certainly isn't universal.
A flagship UK vaccine manufacturing centre that has been at the heart of the government’s efforts to prepare for future pandemics, and the recipient of more than £200m of public funding, is now up for sale.
Selling off the Harwell centre. A flag that this Govt has no idea about strategic industrial policy, and has not adjusted to the post-Brexit environment. Same reason we went into the gas crisis with the lowest strategic reserves in Europe - 9 days iirc.
"We don't need it today so we'll never need it." Prats. The centre had been scheduled for completion in 2023 but at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic the date was brought forward to spring 2022. Prime minister Boris Johnson visited it in September last year.
However, the need for a state-backed vaccine manufacturing centre has waned as pharmaceutical companies have stepped in to meet demand for Covid-19 jabs, according to people familiar with the VMIC sale process.
“The worry was there would be a surge in vaccine manufacturing requirements [during the pandemic], and we’d need surge capacity, and that reason is gone,” said one person familiar with the efforts to offload the VMIC to the private sector.
The person added that additional investment was needed to complete the VMIC, and this could come from a buyer. The government has put at least £215m into the project through UK Research and Development, a state funding agency, and could now look to recoup some of that investment through the sale process.
Sorry don't have time at mo, but will look at it later. Never said they weren't worth appreciating, particularly for great melodies and harmonies, just that musically they are nowhere near many other bands. Their almost universal deification is, again in my opinion, misplaced and based on popularity far more than musicality.
That programme, by an expert and great communicator, is made for you, then.
I am curious as to what on earth Nigel means when he says that “musically they are nowhere near any other bands”.
It’s like saying “Picasso wasn’t a v good painter, you can hardly recognise the sitter”.
They seem to subsist entirely on dry buttered toast and Riesling.
5 minutes would be too long for me. In my very controversial humble opinion they were a good band, but the most overrated of all time.
Sorry, you’re wrong about that.
They remind me of Dylan, and indeed Shakespeare, in that the more you look into the work, the more there is to look at.
One problem they have is their ridiculous ubiquity in the culture, rendering all their stuff like wallpaper.
I have actually tried not to listen for them for the past 20 years, but rediscovered them during lockdown, thus resulting in sheer jubilation and excitement once more.
It’s possible I will try to ignore them again for 20 years.
They're brilliant. By definition overrated simply because you can't be rated that high without being overrated. But brilliant.
Bizarre
do you like the Grateful Dead? They are the closest stab I can have at a guess as to what the beatles would have been like if they'd been any good. Try the "Best Of" album.
I thought Wings were the band the Beatles could have been? I can understand many things but not liking the Beatles isn't one of them. If anything they are underrated IMHO.
They seem to subsist entirely on dry buttered toast and Riesling.
5 minutes would be too long for me. In my very controversial humble opinion they were a good band, but the most overrated of all time.
Sorry, you’re wrong about that.
They remind me of Dylan, and indeed Shakespeare, in that the more you look into the work, the more there is to look at.
One problem they have is their ridiculous ubiquity in the culture, rendering all their stuff like wallpaper.
I have actually tried not to listen for them for the past 20 years, but rediscovered them during lockdown, thus resulting in sheer jubilation and excitement once more.
It’s possible I will try to ignore them again for 20 years.
They're brilliant. By definition overrated simply because you can't be rated that high without being overrated. But brilliant.
Bizarre
do you like the Grateful Dead? They are the closest stab I can have at a guess as to what the beatles would have been like if they'd been any good. Try the "Best Of" album.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
I went to a comprehensive. That was largely left wing inspired, taught by left wing teachers and it was shit. The problems of our education system can't just be blamed on "the Tories". The teaching unions with their sloppy attitudes and "prizes for all" mentality hold an equal portion of blame.
The 'left wing teachers' don't seem to have succeeded in indoctrinating you, do they? Or indeed, many other people. Still, it's a valuable myth for right-wing culture warriors.
I did say they were shit. Maybe you missed that. They tried their hardest to indoctrinate me but largely failed, like they did all the other kids in all other ways.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
This isn't rural bus services. We don't have any. This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do. Nor informing anyone. Many of the parents who use the service do drive. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks. Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss. Led from the top.
The government is not responsible for private bus companies by definition and school bus services are rarely 100% reliable, hence parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.
On the other hand bus companies will only provide services based on demand, if services are cut it is because not enough people are using them
What a grotesque, tone deaf response.
“parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.”
Thing is, the Beatles became massive playing saccharine girl i love you pop. They only became *giants* when they started to do drugs. I very rarely listen to the early stuff.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
I went to a comprehensive. That was largely left wing inspired, taught by left wing teachers and it was shit. The problems of our education system can't just be blamed on "the Tories". The teaching unions with their sloppy attitudes and "prizes for all" mentality hold an equal portion of blame.
I went to a comprehensive too, I'm pretty sure most of my teachers were pretty left wing (although the only ones who really made their political leanings well known were right wing) and I think I got a pretty good education. My kids seem to be getting a good enough education at their comprehensive school too. I'm sorry you had a bad experience at school but your experience certainly isn't universal.
My eldest daughter went to a state primary. Very highly rated etc. What was interesting was the contrast with the free school my youngest went to.
At the state primary, once you got to certain level of attainment, you were left to cruise, while they concentrated on those at the bottom of the class. Level of attainment was B+ kind of stuff.
At the free school, if you ran out work, the teachers were always finding more stuff. Mind you, at the free school, they let teachers go at the end of the probation period, if they weren't good enough. Which caused shock among the parent group. Interestingly, the *teachers* approved of getting rid of dead wood.
They seem to subsist entirely on dry buttered toast and Riesling.
5 minutes would be too long for me. In my very controversial humble opinion they were a good band, but the most overrated of all time.
Sorry, you’re wrong about that.
They remind me of Dylan, and indeed Shakespeare, in that the more you look into the work, the more there is to look at.
One problem they have is their ridiculous ubiquity in the culture, rendering all their stuff like wallpaper.
I have actually tried not to listen for them for the past 20 years, but rediscovered them during lockdown, thus resulting in sheer jubilation and excitement once more.
It’s possible I will try to ignore them again for 20 years.
They're brilliant. By definition overrated simply because you can't be rated that high without being overrated. But brilliant.
Bizarre
do you like the Grateful Dead? They are the closest stab I can have at a guess as to what the beatles would have been like if they'd been any good. Try the "Best Of" album.
I thought Wings were the band the Beatles could have been? I can understand many things but not liking the Beatles isn't one of them. If anything they are underrated IMHO.
Everyone has their favourites - let it be and hey jude for me.
But otherwise they wrote a lot of catchy pop songs which imo places them somewhere alongside motown and the Osmonds.
The Beatles, the Osmonds and many Motown groups produced very good music. Not about to elevate them to some mythical status.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
I went to a comprehensive. That was largely left wing inspired, taught by left wing teachers and it was shit. The problems of our education system can't just be blamed on "the Tories". The teaching unions with their sloppy attitudes and "prizes for all" mentality hold an equal portion of blame.
The 'left wing teachers' don't seem to have succeeded in indoctrinating you, do they? Or indeed, many other people. Still, it's a valuable myth for right-wing culture warriors.
Haringey in the 80s seemed to quite like left wing indoctrination
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
This isn't rural bus services. We don't have any. This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do. Nor informing anyone. Many of the parents who use the service do drive. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks. Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss. Led from the top.
The government is not responsible for private bus companies by definition and school bus services are rarely 100% reliable, hence parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.
On the other hand bus companies will only provide services based on demand, if services are cut it is because not enough people are using them
Would you like to rethink your post in view Mr D ACTUALLY posted. Please. You really can't be that insensitive.
Sorry don't have time at mo, but will look at it later. Never said they weren't worth appreciating, particularly for great melodies and harmonies, just that musically they are nowhere near many other bands. Their almost universal deification is, again in my opinion, misplaced and based on popularity far more than musicality.
That programme, by an expert and great communicator, is made for you, then.
I am curious as to what on earth Nigel means when he says that “musically they are nowhere near any other bands”.
It’s like saying “Picasso wasn’t a v good painter, you can hardly recognise the sitter”.
That documentary puts them in the appropriate historical context, and analytically takes apart why they were so ground-breaking, and why at the time their sound was so unique, even if it seems less so now.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
I went to a comprehensive. That was largely left wing inspired, taught by left wing teachers and it was shit. The problems of our education system can't just be blamed on "the Tories". The teaching unions with their sloppy attitudes and "prizes for all" mentality hold an equal portion of blame.
I went to a comprehensive too, I'm pretty sure most of my teachers were pretty left wing (although the only ones who really made their political leanings well known were right wing) and I think I got a pretty good education. My kids seem to be getting a good enough education at their comprehensive school too. I'm sorry you had a bad experience at school but your experience certainly isn't universal.
No, but my point is that you can't blame the ills of our education system on "The Tories", though no doubt they have made a lot of mistakes. The teaching unions have been highly damaging to state education, and continue to be so.
Sadiq Khan's mayoralty in a nutshell. Moving City Hall from the iconic, purpose built Norman Foster-designed HQ right by Tower Bridge, to an anonymous, low slung glass thing somewhere in Newham, but no one knows where, a jagged blob that has few transport connections, thus degrading his office and the city governance in the eyes of voters, and not even saving that much money
He really is the Worst Mayor Ever, and this move will be his epitaph. It's terrible in every way
Even worse he is fudging the figures
Most of the saving is because no rent will be paid (£55m of the total saving of £60m over 5 years).
No rent is payable because they BOUGHT the property in 2019.
That may or may not be the right thing (I have no view) but it is misleading to present it as a cost saving measure
Surely if you no longer need to pay £11m a year in rent that is a cost saving.
And from memory - the GLA has owned the Crystal since it was built - but it was leased to Siemens who surrendered the lease in 2019 (for they weren't really using the building).
My comment was based on the BBC article which said they bought from Siemens but if your second paragraph is correct then that’s somewhat different.
On the first paragraph it’s not wrong, it’s just misleading. If you spend £100m to reduce your costs by £10m p.a. that may well be a sensible decision. But simply to say “it’s a cost saving” without highlighting the capital expenditure (and/or netting off the reduced income/opportunity cost of the capital spend) is only telling half the story
In any event, @Leon clutching at the weakest of straws to diss Khan is entirely predictable. I thinke we already get that he doesn't like Khan and is unlikely (!) to vote for him next time.
With respect, you don’t live here. Khan has the air of a jumped up traffic warden, not the mayor of a global metropolis.
This is London, not Lillycrap-on-the-Wold.
I live here and I like Khan.
WHY? Seriously, WHY?
These mayoralties are really, really important. Khan is doing his best to relegate the London one into invisibility and irrelevance.
He's done a solid job in the face of a really quite nasty central government operation designed to undermine him and in the face of extremely credible death threats from both Islamists and the far right. His ULEZ extension was a brave measure to fight the number one challenge faced by London, poor air quality, that is necessary but has I am sure hurt his popularity. He hasn't set the world on fire but he's done a decent job and isn't a source of shame and embarrassment like his predecessor, nor has he wasted public money on expensive vanity projects.
A massive tax rise on the shift-working poor, at a time when the £60k Tube drivers are on strike because they don’t want to work shifts, is hardly something many would consider “a brave measure”.
Eh? First, don't tube drivers already work shifts? The tube is not a 9-5 service. Second, surely the tube drivers are striking *against* Khan's proposals?
On the one hand, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Clever name, hey, and clever to disguise a song about LSD as a playground ditty but you know what, it's a double bluff. It is catchy playground music for 6 year olds, just like everything else by the Beatles. Oh bla di.
On the other, Heroin by the Velvet Underground, who are so useless they don't even know you are meant to use coy codewords for what a song is "really about." And indeed Heroin is about heroin but like all great art it transcends its subject and is also about life, death, the universe and everything. Oh bla da.
Thing is, the Beatles became massive playing saccharine girl i love you pop. They only became *giants* when they started to do drugs. I very rarely listen to the early stuff.
Disagree a bit.
The early stuff is astonishingly “different”, somehow.
Compare almost anything they did in 63/64 with the rest of the charts at the time.
Also read the testimony of people who heard them for the first time on the radio, or on the Ed Sullivan show or whatever. Hair-on-back-of-arms stuff.
Especially for Americans, who were spared the rather plodding “Love Me Do”.
Because genocide isn't so bad if you wave a nice red flag when you're filling your atrocity quota.
I'm sure the legions of the victims of communism all went happily to their doom, thanking their maker that it wasn't fascists or racists that were killing them, just people who wanted the best for them...
One of the benefits of Wikipedia is that if a small number of people from PB weighed in on that it could be overturned.
When they banned the Daily Mail for being an "unreliable source", it was a result of a campaign by half a dozen activists.
Going off at a tangent, following the twitter link reveals that today is the last day of the Telegraph's annual subscription being marked down to £29 from £150-odd. I believe other media outlets currently offer discounts too. The trap is that subscriptions roll over automatically to full cost, unless you remember to cancel.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
This isn't rural bus services. We don't have any. This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do. Nor informing anyone. Many of the parents who use the service do drive. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks. Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss. Led from the top.
The government is not responsible for private bus companies by definition and school bus services are rarely 100% reliable, hence parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.
On the other hand bus companies will only provide services based on demand, if services are cut it is because not enough people are using them
Would you like to rethink your post in view Mr D ACTUALLY posted. Please. You really can't be that insensitive.
No, if you want as a parent to ensure your kids get to an exam or event on time then leave early and drive them there.
Otherwise if you rely solely on the school bus service and it is late then you rely on the school to take that into account (which I assume they would do given it was a school bus service but that is out of your hands)
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
I went to a comprehensive. That was largely left wing inspired, taught by left wing teachers and it was shit. The problems of our education system can't just be blamed on "the Tories". The teaching unions with their sloppy attitudes and "prizes for all" mentality hold an equal portion of blame.
The 'left wing teachers' don't seem to have succeeded in indoctrinating you, do they? Or indeed, many other people. Still, it's a valuable myth for right-wing culture warriors.
I did say they were shit. Maybe you missed that. They tried their hardest to indoctrinate me but largely failed, like they did all the other kids in all other ways.
We had half a dozen teachers at our 80s Comp who would use the first or last 10 minutes of each lesson to rail against Thatcher or promote Unilateralism. I was doing O levels and A levels by then so learnt quickly to ignore them. They were in a small minority but interestingly as a rule they tended to be the poorer teachers. I am friends with a few other teachers from my school still and they say the staff room could be a bit of a bloodbath at times.
Most teachers though kept their politics to themselves and were all the better for it.
On the one hand, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Clever name, hey, and clever to disguise a song about LSD as a playground ditty but you know what, it's a double bluff. It is catchy playground music for 6 year olds, just like everything else by the Beatles. Oh bla di.
On the other, Heroin by the Velvet Underground, who are so useless they don't even know you are meant to use coy codewords for what a song is "really about." And indeed Heroin is about heroin but like all great art it transcends its subject and is also about life, death, the universe and everything. Oh bla da.
Who loves the sun? (Dump-de-doo) Who cares that it makes plants grow? Ba-ba-ba. Who loves the sun?
Because genocide isn't so bad if you wave a nice red flag when you're filling your atrocity quota.
I'm sure the legions of the victims of communism all went happily to their doom, thanking their maker that it wasn't fascists or racists that were killing them, just people who wanted the best for them...
One of the benefits of Wikipedia is that if a small number of people from PB weighed in on that it could be overturned.
When they banned the Daily Mail for being an "unreliable source", it was a result of a campaign by half a dozen activists.
Going off at a tangent, following the twitter link reveals that today is the last day of the Telegraph's annual subscription being marked down to £29 from £150-odd. I believe other media outlets currently offer discounts too. The trap is that subscriptions roll over automatically to full cost, unless you remember to cancel.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
This isn't rural bus services. We don't have any. This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do. Nor informing anyone. Many of the parents who use the service do drive. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks. Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss. Led from the top.
The government is not responsible for private bus companies by definition and school bus services are rarely 100% reliable, hence parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.
On the other hand bus companies will only provide services based on demand, if services are cut it is because not enough people are using them
What a grotesque, tone deaf response.
“parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.”
Yes, family first not just relying on the state to do it. A key Tory philosophy
Thing is, the Beatles became massive playing saccharine girl i love you pop. They only became *giants* when they started to do drugs. I very rarely listen to the early stuff.
Disagree a bit.
The early stuff is astonishingly “different”, somehow.
Compare almost anything they did in 63/64 with the rest of the charts at the time.
Also read the testimony of people who heard them for the first time on the radio, or on the Ed Sullivan show or whatever. Hair-on-back-of-arms stuff.
Especially for Americans, who were spared the rather plodding “Love Me Do”.
They do suffer from the fact that so much of what they did was then new and innovative but once they had shown the way it quickly became the norm - at least in the UK. Others like the Stones might have done bits of it better but even they will always point out the Beatles did it first.
That's blooming obvious Change Management - tell people what you are doing and why you are doing it. Something that clearly the husband hadn't explained to his wife.
Quite; I don't think that he'd realised the implications. And if it had been a male inspector it probably wouldn't have mattered so much. It was 'this woman inspecting my house' that irritated my colleague. Who was a very pleasant, sensible and competent person to work with; part of her duties involved inspecting other peoples workplaces, too.
in the 50s district nurses used to come round to check that kids were being given enough fruit juice etc. - almost textbook Nanny State. My mother was incensed, not so much by the intrusion but by the implication that she wouldn't have thought of it herself. (A small child at the time, I thought it wasn't unreasonable, and appreciated someone nudging her on my behalf.)
You had fruit juice in the 50s? That wasn’t a thing until the late 80s, unless you count posh starters in pubs or frozen concentrate.
Here's an excerpt from a Commons debate in 1952, mentioning am apple juice industry in the uk delivering 200k gallons a year throughout the war years:
The pure unfermented apple juice industry—in which I have no vested interest—commenced in this country in 1936 as a direct outcome of the very considerable wastage of apples, as a result both of glut crops and of the development of the grading of apples for market. The consumption of the product grew very slowly, but at the beginning of the last war consumption had reached about 200,000 gallons a year, and the Minister of Food froze the production at that figure for the duration of the war. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1952-04-23/debates/50d4f33b-e8b6-454e-9fc8-ad1acb9b0856/Canteens(AppleJuice)
Fruit was off-ration. But perhaps exotic fruit (oranges !) were unobtanium.
(Presumably NP is talking about Denmark?)
Those were the days, back when an MP would make a point of saying they had no vested interest in the subject under discussion.
I don't recall 'a lot' of apples, or apple juice from those days, but they were available, in season. Oranges were virtually unobtainable. Seem to recall 'sometimes' having one at Christmas. And as for bananas.......
We forget easily, how recent is the idea of various food items being seasonal.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
I went to a comprehensive. That was largely left wing inspired, taught by left wing teachers and it was shit. The problems of our education system can't just be blamed on "the Tories". The teaching unions with their sloppy attitudes and "prizes for all" mentality hold an equal portion of blame.
The 'left wing teachers' don't seem to have succeeded in indoctrinating you, do they? Or indeed, many other people. Still, it's a valuable myth for right-wing culture warriors.
I did say they were shit. Maybe you missed that. They tried their hardest to indoctrinate me but largely failed, like they did all the other kids in all other ways.
We had half a dozen teachers at our 80s Comp who would use the first or last 10 minutes of each lesson to rail against Thatcher or promote Unilateralism. I was doing O levels and A levels by then so learnt quickly to ignore them. They were in a small minority but interestingly as a rule they tended to be the poorer teachers. I am friends with a few other teachers from my school still and they say the staff room could be a bit of a bloodbath at times.
Most teachers though kept their politics to themselves and were all the better for it.
My only memory of teachers' politics is that the teachers' unions supported the cane, or belt for our Scottish PBers.
On the one hand, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Clever name, hey, and clever to disguise a song about LSD as a playground ditty but you know what, it's a double bluff. It is catchy playground music for 6 year olds, just like everything else by the Beatles. Oh bla di.
On the other, Heroin by the Velvet Underground, who are so useless they don't even know you are meant to use coy codewords for what a song is "really about." And indeed Heroin is about heroin but like all great art it transcends its subject and is also about life, death, the universe and everything. Oh bla da.
Who loves the sun? (Dump-de-doo) Who cares that it makes plants grow? Ba-ba-ba. Who loves the sun?
Thing is, the Beatles became massive playing saccharine girl i love you pop. They only became *giants* when they started to do drugs. I very rarely listen to the early stuff.
Disagree a bit.
The early stuff is astonishingly “different”, somehow.
Compare almost anything they did in 63/64 with the rest of the charts at the time.
Also read the testimony of people who heard them for the first time on the radio, or on the Ed Sullivan show or whatever. Hair-on-back-of-arms stuff.
Especially for Americans, who were spared the rather plodding “Love Me Do”.
Sure, I do appreciate just how revolutionary they were for the time. Its just that I'm not a hormonal teenage girl and a lot of it isn't that interesting for my tastes.
I think it was a Q Magazine Top 100 Albums thing that has Revolver very very high up it. Its review of Tomorrow Never Knows was a brief description "...and then the world asked What the Fuck was that???".
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
This isn't rural bus services. We don't have any. This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do. Nor informing anyone. Many of the parents who use the service do drive. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks. Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss. Led from the top.
The government is not responsible for private bus companies by definition and school bus services are rarely 100% reliable, hence parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.
On the other hand bus companies will only provide services based on demand, if services are cut it is because not enough people are using them
What a grotesque, tone deaf response.
“parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.”
Yes, family first not just relying on the state to do it. A key Tory philosophy
Privatisation and deregulation and contracting out to crap firms - key Tory philosophies.
They seem to subsist entirely on dry buttered toast and Riesling.
5 minutes would be too long for me. In my very controversial humble opinion they were a good band, but the most overrated of all time.
Sorry, you’re wrong about that.
They remind me of Dylan, and indeed Shakespeare, in that the more you look into the work, the more there is to look at.
One problem they have is their ridiculous ubiquity in the culture, rendering all their stuff like wallpaper.
I have actually tried not to listen for them for the past 20 years, but rediscovered them during lockdown, thus resulting in sheer jubilation and excitement once more.
It’s possible I will try to ignore them again for 20 years.
They're brilliant. By definition overrated simply because you can't be rated that high without being overrated. But brilliant.
Bizarre
do you like the Grateful Dead? They are the closest stab I can have at a guess as to what the beatles would have been like if they'd been any good. Try the "Best Of" album.
I do but I don't place that much above the Beatles last 4 or 5 years. Bob's my uber alles.
Sadiq Khan's mayoralty in a nutshell. Moving City Hall from the iconic, purpose built Norman Foster-designed HQ right by Tower Bridge, to an anonymous, low slung glass thing somewhere in Newham, but no one knows where, a jagged blob that has few transport connections, thus degrading his office and the city governance in the eyes of voters, and not even saving that much money
He really is the Worst Mayor Ever, and this move will be his epitaph. It's terrible in every way
Even worse he is fudging the figures
Most of the saving is because no rent will be paid (£55m of the total saving of £60m over 5 years).
No rent is payable because they BOUGHT the property in 2019.
That may or may not be the right thing (I have no view) but it is misleading to present it as a cost saving measure
Surely if you no longer need to pay £11m a year in rent that is a cost saving.
And from memory - the GLA has owned the Crystal since it was built - but it was leased to Siemens who surrendered the lease in 2019 (for they weren't really using the building).
My comment was based on the BBC article which said they bought from Siemens but if your second paragraph is correct then that’s somewhat different.
On the first paragraph it’s not wrong, it’s just misleading. If you spend £100m to reduce your costs by £10m p.a. that may well be a sensible decision. But simply to say “it’s a cost saving” without highlighting the capital expenditure (and/or netting off the reduced income/opportunity cost of the capital spend) is only telling half the story
In any event, @Leon clutching at the weakest of straws to diss Khan is entirely predictable. I thinke we already get that he doesn't like Khan and is unlikely (!) to vote for him next time.
With respect, you don’t live here. Khan has the air of a jumped up traffic warden, not the mayor of a global metropolis.
This is London, not Lillycrap-on-the-Wold.
I live here and I like Khan.
WHY? Seriously, WHY?
These mayoralties are really, really important. Khan is doing his best to relegate the London one into invisibility and irrelevance.
He's done a solid job in the face of a really quite nasty central government operation designed to undermine him and in the face of extremely credible death threats from both Islamists and the far right. His ULEZ extension was a brave measure to fight the number one challenge faced by London, poor air quality, that is necessary but has I am sure hurt his popularity. He hasn't set the world on fire but he's done a decent job and isn't a source of shame and embarrassment like his predecessor, nor has he wasted public money on expensive vanity projects.
A massive tax rise on the shift-working poor, at a time when the £60k Tube drivers are on strike because they don’t want to work shifts, is hardly something many would consider “a brave measure”.
Doing something unpopular but necessary is the definition of bravery in the world of politics.
If it were a Conservative mayor implementing the same policy, it would be described by their opponents as a hateful and viscous attack on the working poor, including nurses, firefighters and hospitality workers, many of whom are in minority groups and rely on their cars..
But when a Labour mayor does it, it’s “a brave measure”
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
I went to a comprehensive. That was largely left wing inspired, taught by left wing teachers and it was shit. The problems of our education system can't just be blamed on "the Tories". The teaching unions with their sloppy attitudes and "prizes for all" mentality hold an equal portion of blame.
The 'left wing teachers' don't seem to have succeeded in indoctrinating you, do they? Or indeed, many other people. Still, it's a valuable myth for right-wing culture warriors.
I did say they were shit. Maybe you missed that. They tried their hardest to indoctrinate me but largely failed, like they did all the other kids in all other ways.
We had half a dozen teachers at our 80s Comp who would use the first or last 10 minutes of each lesson to rail against Thatcher or promote Unilateralism. I was doing O levels and A levels by then so learnt quickly to ignore them. They were in a small minority but interestingly as a rule they tended to be the poorer teachers. I am friends with a few other teachers from my school still and they say the staff room could be a bit of a bloodbath at times.
Most teachers though kept their politics to themselves and were all the better for it.
My only memory of teachers' politics is that the teachers' unions supported the cane, or belt for our Scottish PBers.
On a point of PB pedantry: tawse. Made in Lochgelly. My father was a teacher and had one. I can still remember the smell of chalk dust on it, from being kept in his briefcase.
Because genocide isn't so bad if you wave a nice red flag when you're filling your atrocity quota.
I'm sure the legions of the victims of communism all went happily to their doom, thanking their maker that it wasn't fascists or racists that were killing them, just people who wanted the best for them...
One of the benefits of Wikipedia is that if a small number of people from PB weighed in on that it could be overturned.
When they banned the Daily Mail for being an "unreliable source", it was a result of a campaign by half a dozen activists.
Going off at a tangent, following the twitter link reveals that today is the last day of the Telegraph's annual subscription being marked down to £29 from £150-odd. I believe other media outlets currently offer discounts too. The trap is that subscriptions roll over automatically to full cost, unless you remember to cancel.
£29 is still too much for the Telegraph.....
Isn't one of our more prominent PBers a Telegraph alumnus? I subscribed in order to follow the links Plato (RIP) used to spam us with.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
This isn't rural bus services. We don't have any. This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do. Nor informing anyone. Many of the parents who use the service do drive. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks. Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss. Led from the top.
The government is not responsible for private bus companies by definition and school bus services are rarely 100% reliable, hence parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.
On the other hand bus companies will only provide services based on demand, if services are cut it is because not enough people are using them
What a grotesque, tone deaf response.
“parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.”
Yes, family first not just relying on the state to do it. A key Tory philosophy
One presumes you don’t use any public services, then.
Sorry don't have time at mo, but will look at it later. Never said they weren't worth appreciating, particularly for great melodies and harmonies, just that musically they are nowhere near many other bands. Their almost universal deification is, again in my opinion, misplaced and based on popularity far more than musicality.
That programme, by an expert and great communicator, is made for you, then.
Looking at the title, might I wonder whether the "expert" might be indulging in confirmation bias? People love the Beatles, which is nice for them, but they then attempt to make out that they were something they were not and look for sophistication that isn't there. They wrote good tunes and they gelled together well, but none of them were top level players. The only really good guitar song was "while my guitar gently weeps" and this was actually written by Clapton, and the great Beatles "forgot" to credit him for it. The jokes about Ringo Star not even being the best drummer in the Beatles was a little harsh, but he certainly wasn't anything special compared to many others before or since.
As I say, a good band. Right place, right time. Highly overrated.
@DavidL - assuming no u-turn before next week, are you happy to concede I have won our bet about new restrictions coming into force in England before end of year?
Sadiq Khan's mayoralty in a nutshell. Moving City Hall from the iconic, purpose built Norman Foster-designed HQ right by Tower Bridge, to an anonymous, low slung glass thing somewhere in Newham, but no one knows where, a jagged blob that has few transport connections, thus degrading his office and the city governance in the eyes of voters, and not even saving that much money
He really is the Worst Mayor Ever, and this move will be his epitaph. It's terrible in every way
Even worse he is fudging the figures
Most of the saving is because no rent will be paid (£55m of the total saving of £60m over 5 years).
No rent is payable because they BOUGHT the property in 2019.
That may or may not be the right thing (I have no view) but it is misleading to present it as a cost saving measure
Surely if you no longer need to pay £11m a year in rent that is a cost saving.
And from memory - the GLA has owned the Crystal since it was built - but it was leased to Siemens who surrendered the lease in 2019 (for they weren't really using the building).
My comment was based on the BBC article which said they bought from Siemens but if your second paragraph is correct then that’s somewhat different.
On the first paragraph it’s not wrong, it’s just misleading. If you spend £100m to reduce your costs by £10m p.a. that may well be a sensible decision. But simply to say “it’s a cost saving” without highlighting the capital expenditure (and/or netting off the reduced income/opportunity cost of the capital spend) is only telling half the story
In any event, @Leon clutching at the weakest of straws to diss Khan is entirely predictable. I thinke we already get that he doesn't like Khan and is unlikely (!) to vote for him next time.
With respect, you don’t live here. Khan has the air of a jumped up traffic warden, not the mayor of a global metropolis.
This is London, not Lillycrap-on-the-Wold.
I live here and I like Khan.
WHY? Seriously, WHY?
These mayoralties are really, really important. Khan is doing his best to relegate the London one into invisibility and irrelevance.
He's done a solid job in the face of a really quite nasty central government operation designed to undermine him and in the face of extremely credible death threats from both Islamists and the far right. His ULEZ extension was a brave measure to fight the number one challenge faced by London, poor air quality, that is necessary but has I am sure hurt his popularity. He hasn't set the world on fire but he's done a decent job and isn't a source of shame and embarrassment like his predecessor, nor has he wasted public money on expensive vanity projects.
A massive tax rise on the shift-working poor, at a time when the £60k Tube drivers are on strike because they don’t want to work shifts, is hardly something many would consider “a brave measure”.
Doing something unpopular but necessary is the definition of bravery in the world of politics.
If it were a Conservative mayor implementing the same policy, it would be described by their opponents as a hateful and viscous attack on the working poor, including nurses, firefighters and hospitality workers, many of whom are in minority groups and rely on their cars..
But when a Labour mayor does it, it’s “a brave measure”
I doubt it. Car ownership skews better off, especially in London where public transport is pretty good. The people who will benefit most from this policy are poor people living in inner London close to congestion hot spots, especially children. It is a really great policy, and I say this as someone who had to buy a new car because of it.
Sorry don't have time at mo, but will look at it later. Never said they weren't worth appreciating, particularly for great melodies and harmonies, just that musically they are nowhere near many other bands. Their almost universal deification is, again in my opinion, misplaced and based on popularity far more than musicality.
That programme, by an expert and great communicator, is made for you, then.
Looking at the title, might I wonder whether the "expert" might be indulging in confirmation bias? People love the Beatles, which is nice for them, but they then attempt to make out that they were something they were not and look for sophistication that isn't there. They wrote good tunes and they gelled together well, but none of them were top level players. The only really good guitar song was "while my guitar gently weeps" and this was actually written by Clapton, and the great Beatles "forgot" to credit him for it. The jokes about Ringo Star not even being the best drummer in the Beatles was a little harsh, but he certainly wasn't anything special compared to many others before or since.
As I say, a good band. Right place, right time. Highly overrated.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
This isn't rural bus services. We don't have any. This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do. Nor informing anyone. Many of the parents who use the service do drive. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks. Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss. Led from the top.
The government is not responsible for private bus companies by definition and school bus services are rarely 100% reliable, hence parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.
On the other hand bus companies will only provide services based on demand, if services are cut it is because not enough people are using them
What a grotesque, tone deaf response.
“parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.”
Yes, family first not just relying on the state to do it. A key Tory philosophy
One presumes you don’t use any public services, then.
That's right. He provides his own motorways, defence, medical research, and education.
On the one hand, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Clever name, hey, and clever to disguise a song about LSD as a playground ditty but you know what, it's a double bluff. It is catchy playground music for 6 year olds, just like everything else by the Beatles. Oh bla di.
On the other, Heroin by the Velvet Underground, who are so useless they don't even know you are meant to use coy codewords for what a song is "really about." And indeed Heroin is about heroin but like all great art it transcends its subject and is also about life, death, the universe and everything. Oh bla da.
I loved the NASA scientist talking about the new mission to investigate the asteroids the other day.
When Donald Johansen found the Australopithecus fossils in 1974 he named the specimen Lucy because "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was playing all the time in the camp. When they launched the new mission to study Trojan asteroids a few months ago they named the craft Lucy after the fossil. One of the asteroids is also named after Johansen. So it has come full circle from the Beatles song, via one of our earliest ancestors and back out to the diamond stars with the new space mission.
Thing is, the Beatles became massive playing saccharine girl i love you pop. They only became *giants* when they started to do drugs. I very rarely listen to the early stuff.
Disagree a bit.
The early stuff is astonishingly “different”, somehow.
Compare almost anything they did in 63/64 with the rest of the charts at the time.
Also read the testimony of people who heard them for the first time on the radio, or on the Ed Sullivan show or whatever. Hair-on-back-of-arms stuff.
Especially for Americans, who were spared the rather plodding “Love Me Do”.
Sure, I do appreciate just how revolutionary they were for the time. Its just that I'm not a hormonal teenage girl and a lot of it isn't that interesting for my tastes.
I think it was a Q Magazine Top 100 Albums thing that has Revolver very very high up it. Its review of Tomorrow Never Knows was a brief description "...and then the world asked What the Fuck was that???".
I urge you to channel your inner teenage girl, and cancel your subscription to Q magazine (aka rock music for brexiters monthly).
"Israel’s chief of public health services, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, warned Sunday that the potential for infection with the COVID variant omicron is “very high,” but stressed that in cases where vaccinated people were infected they became only slightly ill.
Speaking at a Knesset meeting, she gave the example of a flight from South Africa to the Netherlands, where 62 out of 600 passengers were found to be infected. “This is very, very fast," Alroy-Preis said."
Mind you I think she is just riffing on the data we have all got from South Africa. But good to see she interprets it this way.
Sorry don't have time at mo, but will look at it later. Never said they weren't worth appreciating, particularly for great melodies and harmonies, just that musically they are nowhere near many other bands. Their almost universal deification is, again in my opinion, misplaced and based on popularity far more than musicality.
That programme, by an expert and great communicator, is made for you, then.
Looking at the title, might I wonder whether the "expert" might be indulging in confirmation bias? People love the Beatles, which is nice for them, but they then attempt to make out that they were something they were not and look for sophistication that isn't there. They wrote good tunes and they gelled together well, but none of them were top level players. The only really good guitar song was "while my guitar gently weeps" and this was actually written by Clapton, and the great Beatles "forgot" to credit him for it. The jokes about Ringo Star not even being the best drummer in the Beatles was a little harsh, but he certainly wasn't anything special compared to many others before or since.
As I say, a good band. Right place, right time. Highly overrated.
I think you need to watch it and then decide. It won't be three quarters of an hour wasted; even if you don't buy the proposition, you're guaranteed to learn a lot about music along the journey
I got the bus to school every day. And back again. Was fun in bad weather one time when it didn't show up and I had a four mile trudge through the snow.
Sadiq Khan's mayoralty in a nutshell. Moving City Hall from the iconic, purpose built Norman Foster-designed HQ right by Tower Bridge, to an anonymous, low slung glass thing somewhere in Newham, but no one knows where, a jagged blob that has few transport connections, thus degrading his office and the city governance in the eyes of voters, and not even saving that much money
He really is the Worst Mayor Ever, and this move will be his epitaph. It's terrible in every way
Even worse he is fudging the figures
Most of the saving is because no rent will be paid (£55m of the total saving of £60m over 5 years).
No rent is payable because they BOUGHT the property in 2019.
That may or may not be the right thing (I have no view) but it is misleading to present it as a cost saving measure
Surely if you no longer need to pay £11m a year in rent that is a cost saving.
And from memory - the GLA has owned the Crystal since it was built - but it was leased to Siemens who surrendered the lease in 2019 (for they weren't really using the building).
My comment was based on the BBC article which said they bought from Siemens but if your second paragraph is correct then that’s somewhat different.
On the first paragraph it’s not wrong, it’s just misleading. If you spend £100m to reduce your costs by £10m p.a. that may well be a sensible decision. But simply to say “it’s a cost saving” without highlighting the capital expenditure (and/or netting off the reduced income/opportunity cost of the capital spend) is only telling half the story
In any event, @Leon clutching at the weakest of straws to diss Khan is entirely predictable. I thinke we already get that he doesn't like Khan and is unlikely (!) to vote for him next time.
With respect, you don’t live here. Khan has the air of a jumped up traffic warden, not the mayor of a global metropolis.
This is London, not Lillycrap-on-the-Wold.
I live here and I like Khan.
WHY? Seriously, WHY?
These mayoralties are really, really important. Khan is doing his best to relegate the London one into invisibility and irrelevance.
He's done a solid job in the face of a really quite nasty central government operation designed to undermine him and in the face of extremely credible death threats from both Islamists and the far right. His ULEZ extension was a brave measure to fight the number one challenge faced by London, poor air quality, that is necessary but has I am sure hurt his popularity. He hasn't set the world on fire but he's done a decent job and isn't a source of shame and embarrassment like his predecessor, nor has he wasted public money on expensive vanity projects.
A massive tax rise on the shift-working poor, at a time when the £60k Tube drivers are on strike because they don’t want to work shifts, is hardly something many would consider “a brave measure”.
Doing something unpopular but necessary is the definition of bravery in the world of politics.
If it were a Conservative mayor implementing the same policy, it would be described by their opponents as a hateful and viscous attack on the working poor, including nurses, firefighters and hospitality workers, many of whom are in minority groups and rely on their cars..
But when a Labour mayor does it, it’s “a brave measure”
I am brave You are heartless He/She is treading on the oppressed.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
This isn't rural bus services. We don't have any. This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do. Nor informing anyone. Many of the parents who use the service do drive. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks. Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss. Led from the top.
The government is not responsible for private bus companies by definition and school bus services are rarely 100% reliable, hence parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.
On the other hand bus companies will only provide services based on demand, if services are cut it is because not enough people are using them
What a grotesque, tone deaf response.
“parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.”
Yes, family first not just relying on the state to do it. A key Tory philosophy
One presumes you don’t use any public services, then.
That's right. He provides his own motorways, defence, medical research, and education.
And tanks, of course.
The HYUFD home guard stands ever ready, fuelled by generous rations of HOT BROTH.
I got the bus to school every day. And back again. Was fun in bad weather one time when it didn't show up and I had a four mile trudge through the snow.
{Opens bottle of Chateau de Chasselas, loads fake Yorkshire accent}
They seem to subsist entirely on dry buttered toast and Riesling.
5 minutes would be too long for me. In my very controversial humble opinion they were a good band, but the most overrated of all time.
Sorry, you’re wrong about that.
They remind me of Dylan, and indeed Shakespeare, in that the more you look into the work, the more there is to look at.
One problem they have is their ridiculous ubiquity in the culture, rendering all their stuff like wallpaper.
I have actually tried not to listen for them for the past 20 years, but rediscovered them during lockdown, thus resulting in sheer jubilation and excitement once more.
It’s possible I will try to ignore them again for 20 years.
They're brilliant. By definition overrated simply because you can't be rated that high without being overrated. But brilliant.
Bizarre
do you like the Grateful Dead? They are the closest stab I can have at a guess as to what the beatles would have been like if they'd been any good. Try the "Best Of" album.
I do but I don't place that much above the Beatles last 4 or 5 years. Bob's my uber alles.
You could retire to a desert island with a playlist of Dylan covers, and never get bored. the only Beatles cover I can think of is hendrix doing Sgt pepper on one occasion, and he covered Wild Thing, so not much of an accolade. let's ponder the reasons for the discrepancy.
Sorry don't have time at mo, but will look at it later. Never said they weren't worth appreciating, particularly for great melodies and harmonies, just that musically they are nowhere near many other bands. Their almost universal deification is, again in my opinion, misplaced and based on popularity far more than musicality.
That programme, by an expert and great communicator, is made for you, then.
Looking at the title, might I wonder whether the "expert" might be indulging in confirmation bias? People love the Beatles, which is nice for them, but they then attempt to make out that they were something they were not and look for sophistication that isn't there. They wrote good tunes and they gelled together well, but none of them were top level players. The only really good guitar song was "while my guitar gently weeps" and this was actually written by Clapton, and the great Beatles "forgot" to credit him for it. The jokes about Ringo Star not even being the best drummer in the Beatles was a little harsh, but he certainly wasn't anything special compared to many others before or since.
As I say, a good band. Right place, right time. Highly overrated.
Dead from the neck down. And deaf, too.
Who? Me? I doubt I am deaf as I am a musician (although Beethoven did OK) with many (much better) musician friends and relatives including pros. Are you? Here is a tip: If someone says the band that you love is maybe not as good as many think, it is just an opinion. Music has a certain objectivity to it's sophistication, but it is fundamentally taste and therefore opinion.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
This isn't rural bus services. We don't have any. This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do. Nor informing anyone. Many of the parents who use the service do drive. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks. Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss. Led from the top.
The government is not responsible for private bus companies by definition and school bus services are rarely 100% reliable, hence parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.
On the other hand bus companies will only provide services based on demand, if services are cut it is because not enough people are using them
What a grotesque, tone deaf response.
“parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.”
Yes, family first not just relying on the state to do it. A key Tory philosophy
One presumes you don’t use any public services, then.
Yes I do but I don't rely on them to be 100% perfect all the time either.
I am not a socialist, I believe in choice and that includes having private hospitals, private schools, private companies and private retailers and private cars etc to choose from as well, not just relying on everything being provided by the state or on one service and complaining if the state or that service is not always 100% perfect rather than trying to choose another private alternative.
I got the bus to school every day. And back again. Was fun in bad weather one time when it didn't show up and I had a four mile trudge through the snow.
"Israel’s chief of public health services, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, warned Sunday that the potential for infection with the COVID variant omicron is “very high,” but stressed that in cases where vaccinated people were infected they became only slightly ill.
Speaking at a Knesset meeting, she gave the example of a flight from South Africa to the Netherlands, where 62 out of 600 passengers were found to be infected. “This is very, very fast," Alroy-Preis said."
Mind you I think she is just riffing on the data we have all got from South Africa. But good to see she interprets it this way.
I think this is why Government ministers have calmed down, Omicron could be good news.
Happy Hannukah to Jewish PBers, doubtless feasting on fish and chips and doughnuts (a week of fried food!). It is very early this year, and is usually closer to Christmas.
I got the bus to school every day. And back again. Was fun in bad weather one time when it didn't show up and I had a four mile trudge through the snow.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
I went to a comprehensive. That was largely left wing inspired, taught by left wing teachers and it was shit. The problems of our education system can't just be blamed on "the Tories". The teaching unions with their sloppy attitudes and "prizes for all" mentality hold an equal portion of blame.
That last remark, Mr Foremain, belongs rather to the world of Tory myth. In what way do the teaching unions as such have any say in determining the attitudes of teachers towards their pupils? Or in the appointment of teachers?
It is surely in the nature of a caring profession to want all individuals to do the best they can, and encouragement is surely a key to this. In contrast, the Tory way of screaming and shouting at everybody is the very worst thing to do if you want to get the best out of people. They tell me that present-day managers in business go in for a lot of shouting and swearing at people too.
The Beatles are good but played to death and rather dated now.
Disagree on the dated. I think they sound completely fresh and timeless. I like their early stuff best, it's got a kind of raw, percussive and melodic power, a sense of urgency and momentum, that I don't think has ever been matched by anyone. I think that Please Please Me is the most perfect two minutes of music ever recorded. Beatlemania was the only rational response to the power of their songwriting and performing.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
@dixiedean lives within 15 miles of the city centre of the biggest city in the north east. Imagine if bus services were shite within 15 miles of Westminster.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
I went to a comprehensive. That was largely left wing inspired, taught by left wing teachers and it was shit. The problems of our education system can't just be blamed on "the Tories". The teaching unions with their sloppy attitudes and "prizes for all" mentality hold an equal portion of blame.
That last remark, Mr Foremain, belongs rather to the world of Tory myth. In what way do the teaching unions as such have any say in determining the attitudes of teachers towards their pupils? Or in the appointment of teachers?
It is surely in the nature of a caring profession to want all individuals to do the best they can, and encouragement is surely a key to this. In contrast, the Tory way of screaming and shouting at everybody is the very worst thing to do if you want to get the best out of people. They tell me that present-day managers in business go in for a lot of shouting and swearing at people too.
In my experience the more hard left the person or teacher, the more likely they are to scream and shout
Sorry don't have time at mo, but will look at it later. Never said they weren't worth appreciating, particularly for great melodies and harmonies, just that musically they are nowhere near many other bands. Their almost universal deification is, again in my opinion, misplaced and based on popularity far more than musicality.
That programme, by an expert and great communicator, is made for you, then.
Looking at the title, might I wonder whether the "expert" might be indulging in confirmation bias? People love the Beatles, which is nice for them, but they then attempt to make out that they were something they were not and look for sophistication that isn't there. They wrote good tunes and they gelled together well, but none of them were top level players. The only really good guitar song was "while my guitar gently weeps" and this was actually written by Clapton, and the great Beatles "forgot" to credit him for it. The jokes about Ringo Star not even being the best drummer in the Beatles was a little harsh, but he certainly wasn't anything special compared to many others before or since.
As I say, a good band. Right place, right time. Highly overrated.
While my Guitar Gently Weeps was not written by Clapton. It was written by George Harrison. Clapton only provided an overdubbed section of guitar. And the best version is not by either of them but by Prince at the tribute concert.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
@dixiedean lives within 15 miles of the city centre of the biggest city in the north east. Imagine if bus services were shite within 15 miles of Westminster.
I use the tube or walk in London or get a taxi, I hardly ever use the bus
Sorry don't have time at mo, but will look at it later. Never said they weren't worth appreciating, particularly for great melodies and harmonies, just that musically they are nowhere near many other bands. Their almost universal deification is, again in my opinion, misplaced and based on popularity far more than musicality.
That programme, by an expert and great communicator, is made for you, then.
Looking at the title, might I wonder whether the "expert" might be indulging in confirmation bias? People love the Beatles, which is nice for them, but they then attempt to make out that they were something they were not and look for sophistication that isn't there. They wrote good tunes and they gelled together well, but none of them were top level players. The only really good guitar song was "while my guitar gently weeps" and this was actually written by Clapton, and the great Beatles "forgot" to credit him for it. The jokes about Ringo Star not even being the best drummer in the Beatles was a little harsh, but he certainly wasn't anything special compared to many others before or since.
As I say, a good band. Right place, right time. Highly overrated.
Dead from the neck down. And deaf, too.
Who? Me? I doubt I am deaf as I am a musician (although Beethoven did OK) with many (much better) musician friends and relatives including pros. Are you? Here is a tip: If someone says the band that you love is maybe not as good as many think, it is just an opinion. Music has a certain objectivity to it's sophistication, but it is fundamentally taste and therefore opinion.
I find that people appealing to this idea have fundamentally bad taste.
Bach is Bach. Mozart is Mozart. Porter is Porter. Miles is Miles. Dylan is Dylan. Beatles are Beatles.
Sorry don't have time at mo, but will look at it later. Never said they weren't worth appreciating, particularly for great melodies and harmonies, just that musically they are nowhere near many other bands. Their almost universal deification is, again in my opinion, misplaced and based on popularity far more than musicality.
That programme, by an expert and great communicator, is made for you, then.
Looking at the title, might I wonder whether the "expert" might be indulging in confirmation bias? People love the Beatles, which is nice for them, but they then attempt to make out that they were something they were not and look for sophistication that isn't there. They wrote good tunes and they gelled together well, but none of them were top level players. The only really good guitar song was "while my guitar gently weeps" and this was actually written by Clapton, and the great Beatles "forgot" to credit him for it. The jokes about Ringo Star not even being the best drummer in the Beatles was a little harsh, but he certainly wasn't anything special compared to many others before or since.
As I say, a good band. Right place, right time. Highly overrated.
I think you need to watch it and then decide. It won't be three quarters of an hour wasted; even if you don't buy the proposition, you're guaranteed to learn a lot about music along the journey
I might, though if I wanted to learn (more) about music I think I would watch a documentary on Pink Floyd, Queen or Dream Theater rather than the much more mundane but highly popular Beatles.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
@dixiedean lives within 15 miles of the city centre of the biggest city in the north east. Imagine if bus services were shite within 15 miles of Westminster.
I use the tube or walk in London or get a taxi, I hardly ever use the bus
Woah what a spectacular missing of the point. Bravo.
Just informed (As seems the received wisdom on this thread) that HR should be able to sort my other half a decent chair (She is perma WFH and has a massive employer) if she wants. Apparently 'HR are not her friends' though
HR are no-ones friends.
The employer should have such a policy in place, anyway. They are saving a vast amount of money with her not taking up office space. And they are still liable, legally, IIRC....
I just bought myself a decent (IKEA) WFH chair after sitting on a wooden chair since last March that was starting to give me backache. I don't know if work would have got me one, they didn't offer but I didn't ask. The issue for me has been that I've never had much certainty as to how long WFH would last so I was never sure whether it was worth forking out the cash. So I waited until I was in actual pain before getting it.
I've been standing or on a stool. Using chairs again is like a return to civilisation.
So. My youngest's school bus has simply not turned up today. On the day of A level mocks which may well count towards final grades, and which, in their wisdom it has been decreed cannot be re-sat. The bus company didn't notify anyone, not parents nor school. Nor is the school open for anyone to complain to till 8:15. Well after the time he would normally be already there. No public transport exists. Nor are there any available taxis at that time of day. So for parents without transport, or already gone to work their kids simply don't take the exam. Getting fed up of this country.
This country sets people up to fail. Successive Tory governments have stripped away all the postwar infrastructure put in place to minimise the advantages of inherited wealth and privilege. The result? A second rate country dominated by well spoken nonentities, that throws away the talents of most of the population while telling them that it's all the fault of immigrants, or the woke, or the EU.
What on earth has that got to do with rural bus services which are always intermittent, hence most people in rural areas mainly drive themselves.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
Mrs Thatcher did have the advantage of two magic money trees in the shape of North Sea Oil and privatisation receipts.
Comments
They remind me of Dylan, and indeed Shakespeare, in that the more you look into the work, the more there is to look at.
One problem they have is their ridiculous ubiquity in the culture, rendering all their stuff like wallpaper.
I have actually tried not to listen for them for the past 20 years, but rediscovered them during lockdown, thus resulting in sheer jubilation and excitement once more.
It’s possible I will try to ignore them again for 20 years.
It was of course Thatcher, a Lincolnshire grammar school girl and grocers' daughter, who rescued this country from becoming an economic basket case which it was becoming by the late 1970s
I think you live in the lovely South West somewhere.
I merely mean that Khan is not up to the job.
I was surprised how quickly some shrunk in summer 2020.
Politically those need to be back under control for the next election cycle.
Will the other NHSs follow Scotland in more contracting out?
A flagship UK vaccine manufacturing centre that has been at the heart of the government’s efforts to prepare for future pandemics, and the recipient of more than £200m of public funding, is now up for sale.
https://www.ft.com/content/d312c4cb-201d-4ce6-a98f-715b20d77998
This is a private company not providing the service they are contracted to do.
Nor informing anyone. Nor endeavouring to find a solution.
Many of the parents who use the service do drive. They have already left for work. But not having a car oughtn't to be a reason to be unable to take your mocks.
Just shoddy arsed lack of service that is all too common these days in a nation that seems not to give a toss.
Led from the top.
While Stewart did better than Bailey in Inner London on 23% to 14%, Bailey did better than Stewart in Outer London on 30% to 29% for Stewart.
https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/t1teszt721/QMUL_LondonResults_200306_VI_MayorVI_W.pdf
If you already have antibodies and T-cells wouldn't the body find it easier to deal with the vaccine?
Is there any thought that the worse your reaction to the vaccine, the worse your experience if you caught Covid when unvaccinated would have been?
While that R estimate may seem like the hardest evidence we have at the moment, it's worth bearing in mind that the initial spread of Omicron was among students, and remembering the explosion of "classic" COVID-19 among students in October 2020 in the UK, against a background of a relatively gradual increase in the population at large. It's quite plausible that R=2 could be a significant overestimate.
The reason nobody gives a toss is that there isn’t anyone with the power, money, or incentives to give a toss.
You can’t possibly expect an Oxbridge grad in Treasury to know or care about a bus service in Dixieland.
On the other hand bus companies will only provide services based on demand, if services are cut it is because not enough people are using them
do you like the Grateful Dead? They are the closest stab I can have at a guess as to what the beatles would have been like if they'd been any good. Try the "Best Of" album.
https://www.ft.com/content/d312c4cb-201d-4ce6-a98f-715b20d77998
Selling off the Harwell centre. A flag that this Govt has no idea about strategic industrial policy, and has not adjusted to the post-Brexit environment. Same reason we went into the gas crisis with the lowest strategic reserves in Europe - 9 days iirc.
"We don't need it today so we'll never need it." Prats.
The centre had been scheduled for completion in 2023 but at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic the date was brought forward to spring 2022. Prime minister Boris Johnson visited it in September last year.
However, the need for a state-backed vaccine manufacturing centre has waned as pharmaceutical companies have stepped in to meet demand for Covid-19 jabs, according to people familiar with the VMIC sale process.
“The worry was there would be a surge in vaccine manufacturing requirements [during the pandemic], and we’d need surge capacity, and that reason is gone,” said one person familiar with the efforts to offload the VMIC to the private sector.
The person added that additional investment was needed to complete the VMIC, and this could come from a buyer. The government has put at least £215m into the project through UK Research and Development, a state funding agency, and could now look to recoup some of that investment through the sale process.
It’s like saying “Picasso wasn’t a v good painter, you can hardly recognise the sitter”.
I can understand many things but not liking the Beatles isn't one of them. If anything they are underrated IMHO.
https://unherd.com/2021/11/the-good-news-about-the-omicron-variant/
Much better than the crap on the likes of Sky this morning.
Edited extra bit: *story about selling a vaccination centre. Just to clarify.
“parents who want to be sure their children get to school at a specific time drive them.”
At the state primary, once you got to certain level of attainment, you were left to cruise, while they concentrated on those at the bottom of the class. Level of attainment was B+ kind of stuff.
At the free school, if you ran out work, the teachers were always finding more stuff. Mind you, at the free school, they let teachers go at the end of the probation period, if they weren't good enough. Which caused shock among the parent group. Interestingly, the *teachers* approved of getting rid of dead wood.
But otherwise they wrote a lot of catchy pop songs which imo places them somewhere alongside motown and the Osmonds.
The Beatles, the Osmonds and many Motown groups produced very good music. Not about to elevate them to some mythical status.
https://youtu.be/COt65HZCJaA
On the one hand, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Clever name, hey, and clever to disguise a song about LSD as a playground ditty but you know what, it's a double bluff. It is catchy playground music for 6 year olds, just like everything else by the Beatles. Oh bla di.
On the other, Heroin by the Velvet Underground, who are so useless they don't even know you are meant to use coy codewords for what a song is "really about." And indeed Heroin is about heroin but like all great art it transcends its subject and is also about life, death, the universe and everything. Oh bla da.
The early stuff is astonishingly “different”, somehow.
Compare almost anything they did in 63/64 with the rest of the charts at the time.
Also read the testimony of people who heard them for the first time on the radio, or on the Ed Sullivan show or whatever. Hair-on-back-of-arms stuff.
Especially for Americans, who were spared the rather plodding “Love Me Do”.
Otherwise if you rely solely on the school bus service and it is late then you rely on the school to take that into account (which I assume they would do given it was a school bus service but that is out of your hands)
Most teachers though kept their politics to themselves and were all the better for it.
Who cares that it makes plants grow?
Ba-ba-ba. Who loves the sun?
Lou Reed started in a doo-wop band.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/11/29/national/japan-omicron-entry-restrictions
I think it was a Q Magazine Top 100 Albums thing that has Revolver very very high up it. Its review of Tomorrow Never Knows was a brief description "...and then the world asked What the Fuck was that???".
But when a Labour mayor does it, it’s “a brave measure”
As I say, a good band. Right place, right time. Highly overrated.
And deaf, too.
When Donald Johansen found the Australopithecus fossils in 1974 he named the specimen Lucy because "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was playing all the time in the camp. When they launched the new mission to study Trojan asteroids a few months ago they named the craft Lucy after the fossil. One of the asteroids is also named after Johansen. So it has come full circle from the Beatles song, via one of our earliest ancestors and back out to the diamond stars with the new space mission.
They want people arriving in the UK from overseas to have to self-isolate for 8 days
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/top-israeli-health-expert-covid-vaccine-reduces-severe-illness-in-omicron-cases-1.10421310
"Israel’s chief of public health services, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, warned Sunday that the potential for infection with the COVID variant omicron is “very high,” but stressed that in cases where vaccinated people were infected they became only slightly ill.
Speaking at a Knesset meeting, she gave the example of a flight from South Africa to the Netherlands, where 62 out of 600 passengers were found to be infected. “This is very, very fast," Alroy-Preis said."
Mind you I think she is just riffing on the data we have all got from South Africa. But good to see she interprets it this way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQS91wVdvYc&t=6s
You are heartless
He/She is treading on the oppressed.
The HYUFD home guard stands ever ready, fuelled by generous rations of HOT BROTH.
Riiiiiiiiiiight.....
I am not a socialist, I believe in choice and that includes having private hospitals, private schools, private companies and private retailers and private cars etc to choose from as well, not just relying on everything being provided by the state or on one service and complaining if the state or that service is not always 100% perfect rather than trying to choose another private alternative.
It is surely in the nature of a caring profession to want all individuals to do the best they can, and encouragement is surely a key to this. In contrast, the Tory way of screaming and shouting at everybody is the very worst thing to do if you want to get the best out of people. They tell me that present-day managers in business go in for a lot of shouting and swearing at people too.
Bach is Bach.
Mozart is Mozart.
Porter is Porter.
Miles is Miles.
Dylan is Dylan.
Beatles are Beatles.
There’s a reason.