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Johnson needs another string to his bow than vaccines – politicalbetting.com

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  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022
    Taiwan is sharing tips with the public on how to drink and cook with rum after it bought 20,000 bottles of Lithuanian rum bound for China.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59877917

    When I think rum, Lithuania is not the first place I think of....in fact I think it would be the last.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598
    MattW said:

    When does this old variant that predates Omicron get a Greek letter, rather than sounding like a sneeze?

    Are we on Pi or Psi?

    FTFY.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 48,909
    edited January 2022
    HYUFD said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Tories are wondering what happened to the Brexit they promised https://on.ft.com/3FXDhh1

    We are out of the EU, have ended free movement and left the CFP and have trade deals with Australia and NZ and are spending more on the NHS. That is what they were promised
    Yet you voted REMAIN in 2016. You're not one of us, HYUFD. You're NOT a True Be-Leaver!
  • TimSTimS Posts: 9,138
    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    Same here. Is this one of those things that nobody comments on for years and accepts as just a fact of life, then everyone suddenly notices and decides enough is enough. I agree, they're a menace
  • sladeslade Posts: 1,920

    TimS said:

    Stocky said:

    MattW said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Cookie said:

    TOPPING said:

    ISTM that "kids" is vaguely pejorative; horrid/horrible I would see more as a class indicator, likewise pudding and dessert; and movie is just going with the times as most people consume films on US streaming services and those films in any case are usually US-made.

    I see kids more as informal than pejorative. But if OKC sees it as pejorative I can see why.
    Horrid feels horribly Enid Blyton and twee. (I have actually read a good argument that horrid is the least horrible of the four horrible words, which, getting more horrible, are horrid, horrible, horrendous and horrific. So perhaps has a use as 'horrible, but not that horrible'.)
    Movie is just not as good a word as film. I have also seen an argument that movie denotes a certain sort of film - big Hollywood blockbuster - whereas film is its more thoughtful or arty counterpart. Again, I could get on board with that. But movie seems to just be used for all films nowadays. Sigh.
    And dessert just sounds to me like an affectation. Though I have an Irish friend who finds the word pudding hilarious - hears it as very English and therefore very posh, which is kind of the reverse of how I hear it.
    Never really had an issue with the horri family. Technically, what is horrible or horrendous is what makes you bristle, and horrid is the state you are consequently in on seeing something horrible.

    Cf suck and suckle: babies suck, mothers suckle.
    Objections to "kids" have completely floored me.

    There are many meanings "pudding", including "you great daft pudding".
    "Kids" it is a long lost cause. "Dessert" rather than pudding annoys still. I get irritated when "students" is used to describe under 18s at school rather than pupils.
    I think dessert is one of that long line of words with French origins considered "non-U" by the upper-middle snobs, with the Germanic or at least non-French version preferred. Others include:

    - Lounge vs sitting room
    - Pardon vs sorry or what
    - Settee vs sofa
    - Dinner vs supper (though dinner seems less frowned on than most)
    - Serviette vs napkin
    - Toilet vs loo

    And so on. The crucial dividing point between the lower-middle and upper-middle class. I don't know if it's true or urban myth that this came about during the Napoleonic wars as an anti-French thing. Almost as salient as a class identifier as the preferred name for grandmother.
    I claim credit for starting the 'kids' thread. Seems lazy to Mrs C. and myself, although we do use it in a casual sense sometimes.
    Anyway as a 60 & 70's Liberal and a committed European, lost causes aren't a problem.

    Inclined to think 'students' are over 16, whether at school or some form of college. Grandson 2, now at Uni was, over Christmas, explaining the difference in attitude in Year 12...... the Lower VIth ..... to his sister and one of his cousins, both of whom are currently in Year 11.

    Not sure about Lounge or sitting room; we have a lounge (or TV) area in our living room. And a dining area. But of course, we're OAP's who down-sized some years ago.
    Def. sofa. And dinner. Except on Sunday. Supper's later. Def. napkin, too, and toilet.
    And Mrs C is a Grannie. Not Granny. And def. not Nan.
    When I was growing up in the 1950s we had a back room and a front room - and the front room was only used on special occasions.
  • FarooqFarooq Posts: 10,775
    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    I'll vote for literally anyone who promises this.
    The reason I live where I live is to get away from that kind of thing. I chose carefully and my life has been immeasurably better as a result.

    I still get helicopters going over, heading to the rigs, but it's less of a roaring, explosive noise so surprisingly easy to get used to. I also lived under a flight path once too, and that wasn't awful. It's the revving that does it. Fuck me, I'm getting angry just thinking about it. If I ever do a murder, it'll be over that.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598

    Not Ihu again. We’ve done this. Repeatedly. FFS.

    @sailorscout

    Guys, B.1.640.2 isn’t new. It actually PREDATES Omicron. It's a sub-lineage of B.1.640- which caused some concern back in mid-November but couldn’t even compete with Delta. B.1.640.2 was first sequenced OVER a month ago and was officially recognized as a lineage in December.

    Its very poor reporting by the media.
    Who'd a thunk it?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206
    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Not just humans, I'll add. They scare pets and livestock, too.
    They’re hideous. They make me murderously angry. Lots in north London

    But also lots in the countryside and lots across mainland Europe. Ban them
    Agreed. It's not a big problem where I currently live -- rural -- but I know that other rural areas do have the problem. I also lived in a city for a while where it was a major issue.
    I have a theory that the noise triggers something primal; a loud animal roar nearby ought to make you produce a shot of adrenaline so you're ready to outrun your fellow tribesfolk and not be eaten by the nearby predator. That's going to cause stress. I'll bet it tips some people into strokes and heart attacks.
    If it were me in charge, I'd crush such vehicles into a small shiny cube. possibly with the drivers still on board.
    Yes, it definitely triggers fight/flight. I get the literal urge to stab the drivers when they race down my road, especially at 3am. And it’s not particularly common here, whereas it is elsewhere

    I read a news report a few weeks back where a guy was so outraged by his neighbour’s bikes - which had these exhausts - he went round and stabbed the bloke to death

    My reaction to the story was ambivalent

  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
    Farooq said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Tories are wondering what happened to the Brexit they promised https://on.ft.com/3FXDhh1

    Which one?
    This one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1xrNaTO1bI
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,080
    Leon said:

    Lots of videos of army/cops surrendering to people. Not sure how the vids are getting out, as Kazakh internet is down 🤷‍♂️

    Fascinating to watch

    Meanwhile Russia has sent in a transport plane - to evacuate or enforce? Rumours that Putin could use the unrest to seize a chunk of the country. 3.5m Russians in Kazakhstan.

    Kaz Prez will have to start shooting soon, or he’s toast

    At least we have a day off worrying about the aliens. I guess.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598
    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    I didn't actually realise they modified them to make them louder. That is absolute ridiculous if true? Clear case for a ban, as Leon says.

    They are a menace, both to rural serenity and to the urban realm.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,584
    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    Think laterally.

    Start a meme that exhaust moding is a secret sign for anti-vax, racist, homophobic, transphobic fascists.

    Bit like 8Chan did with the OK hand sign. The fascists took the meme seriously and started using it.

    This will have the following benefits

    - Nearly all the exhaust mod types will undo the modification.
    - Clear identification of anti-vax, racist, homophobic, transphobic fascists, who we can then target with heat seeking missiles.
  • TazTaz Posts: 10,696
    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    Why can't the Police use a Section 59, its terms are pretty broad. I'd use it for anyone playing loud music with the window down, especially if it is anything after 2005.

    "A section 59 warning is issued in circumstances where vehicles are found to have been used in a manner which causes distress, alarm or annoyance"
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Carnyx said:

    Charles said:

    SKS tests positive - Rayner doing PMQs.

    He does test positive at very convenient times doesn’t he.

    I assume he doesn’t want to be asked about Sir TB
    There is this thing Mr A. G. Bell invented that is called a "telephone". Apparently the gentleman from the Times need no longer actually present his card at SKS's door. Whatever will they think of next?
    PMQ is not quite as genteel as a chat with the Times
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Charles said:

    SKS tests positive - Rayner doing PMQs.

    He does test positive at very convenient times doesn’t he.

    I assume he doesn’t want to be asked about Sir TB
    Asked by whom exactly? I can't see Johnson looking to make capital out of it given that would look like an insult to the Queen and MPs will all be aware of public opinion on the matter.
    It won’t be asking, but it would be emphasising SKS’s own title
  • FarooqFarooq Posts: 10,775
    Leon said:

    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Not just humans, I'll add. They scare pets and livestock, too.
    They’re hideous. They make me murderously angry. Lots in north London

    But also lots in the countryside and lots across mainland Europe. Ban them
    Agreed. It's not a big problem where I currently live -- rural -- but I know that other rural areas do have the problem. I also lived in a city for a while where it was a major issue.
    I have a theory that the noise triggers something primal; a loud animal roar nearby ought to make you produce a shot of adrenaline so you're ready to outrun your fellow tribesfolk and not be eaten by the nearby predator. That's going to cause stress. I'll bet it tips some people into strokes and heart attacks.
    If it were me in charge, I'd crush such vehicles into a small shiny cube. possibly with the drivers still on board.
    Yes, it definitely triggers fight/flight. I get the literal urge to stab the drivers when they race down my road, especially at 3am. And it’s not particularly common here, whereas it is elsewhere

    I read a news report a few weeks back where a guy was so outraged by his neighbour’s bikes - which had these exhausts - he went round and stabbed the bloke to death

    My reaction to the story was ambivalent

    I missed this post before I posted about me doing a murder. I then felt guilty for making such a joke, but only for a moment.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206
    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    I'll vote for literally anyone who promises this.
    The reason I live where I live is to get away from that kind of thing. I chose carefully and my life has been immeasurably better as a result.

    I still get helicopters going over, heading to the rigs, but it's less of a roaring, explosive noise so surprisingly easy to get used to. I also lived under a flight path once too, and that wasn't awful. It's the revving that does it. Fuck me, I'm getting angry just thinking about it. If I ever do a murder, it'll be over that.
    On this, at least, we are in complete agreement! I’d vote for Piers bloody Corbyn if he’d ban these fuckers
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    Friend returning to teaching gig in Bangkok.
    Forced to spend 7 days isolating in Phuket at school's expense.
    Trauma.

    We have family friends (head of languages, head of year) working in Dubai currently having to rest in Istanbul before flying back...

    It's a hard life especially when they are discussing current prices in Istanbul (cheap, cheap cheap for obvious reasons)..
    There’s apparently one of these young social media types who came to the sandpit for new year, and is all over the Daily Mail moaning about the sea view and the balcony she has for quarantine, after testing positive.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    edited January 2022
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,715
    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    The conversion isn't, IIRC correctly difficult. And one could, I suppose, exchange exhausts so that by the time plod stirred itself enough to come round there'd be an innocent, and legal, bike to view.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022
    Alistair said:
    At those rates not going to take long for everybody to have been at very least exposed to Omicron.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,164
    Alistair said:
    Those charts all look rather similar.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 5,779
    Leon said:

    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Not just humans, I'll add. They scare pets and livestock, too.
    They’re hideous. They make me murderously angry. Lots in north London

    But also lots in the countryside and lots across mainland Europe. Ban them
    Agreed. It's not a big problem where I currently live -- rural -- but I know that other rural areas do have the problem. I also lived in a city for a while where it was a major issue.
    I have a theory that the noise triggers something primal; a loud animal roar nearby ought to make you produce a shot of adrenaline so you're ready to outrun your fellow tribesfolk and not be eaten by the nearby predator. That's going to cause stress. I'll bet it tips some people into strokes and heart attacks.
    If it were me in charge, I'd crush such vehicles into a small shiny cube. possibly with the drivers still on board.
    Yes, it definitely triggers fight/flight. I get the literal urge to stab the drivers when they race down my road, especially at 3am. And it’s not particularly common here, whereas it is elsewhere

    I read a news report a few weeks back where a guy was so outraged by his neighbour’s bikes - which had these exhausts - he went round and stabbed the bloke to death

    My reaction to the story was ambivalent

    The flat upstairs doesn't have an operating buzzer, so their extended family/friends either scream at the windows or blast the horn (sometimes letting their kids do it, for the giggles). Not WFH compatible.

    Another woman liked to buy a loaf of bread and scatter it on top of everyone's cars. An extremely aggressive BMW owner put an end to that: "I'll feed you to the fucking gulls next time".

    My girlfriend was late for a night shift once cos of the rampant double parking. Someone had an cardiac arrest on her ward the moment she finally arrived.

    Why get a therapist when you can post to PB.
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
    edited January 2022
    Sandpit said:

    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    Friend returning to teaching gig in Bangkok.
    Forced to spend 7 days isolating in Phuket at school's expense.
    Trauma.

    We have family friends (head of languages, head of year) working in Dubai currently having to rest in Istanbul before flying back...

    It's a hard life especially when they are discussing current prices in Istanbul (cheap, cheap cheap for obvious reasons)..
    There’s apparently one of these young social media types who came to the sandpit for new year, and is all over the Daily Mail moaning about the sea view and the balcony she has for quarantine, after testing positive.
    Oh the reason why they are in Istanbul and running remote lessons is that they got engaged on pick a ridiculously nice African beach over Christmas and this is all arranged.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 9,653

    Alistair said:
    At those rates not going to take long for everybody to have been at very least exposed to Omicron.
    Soon we will have state measures in place to protect us from something we all already have had.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022
    Sandpit said:

    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    Friend returning to teaching gig in Bangkok.
    Forced to spend 7 days isolating in Phuket at school's expense.
    Trauma.

    We have family friends (head of languages, head of year) working in Dubai currently having to rest in Istanbul before flying back...

    It's a hard life especially when they are discussing current prices in Istanbul (cheap, cheap cheap for obvious reasons)..
    There’s apparently one of these young social media types who came to the sandpit for new year, and is all over the Daily Mail moaning about the sea view and the balcony she has for quarantine, after testing positive.
    I started watching the BBC programme on the sand pit, it was utter trash. It was Channel 5 telly.
  • FarooqFarooq Posts: 10,775
    Leon said:

    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    I'll vote for literally anyone who promises this.
    The reason I live where I live is to get away from that kind of thing. I chose carefully and my life has been immeasurably better as a result.

    I still get helicopters going over, heading to the rigs, but it's less of a roaring, explosive noise so surprisingly easy to get used to. I also lived under a flight path once too, and that wasn't awful. It's the revving that does it. Fuck me, I'm getting angry just thinking about it. If I ever do a murder, it'll be over that.
    On this, at least, we are in complete agreement! I’d vote for Piers bloody Corbyn if he’d ban these fuckers
    Yes, it's a rare moment! Most of my friends don't understand my reaction, so I'm glad and relieved that there are others who react in the same way. I console myself with the thought that if the polar bear invasion ever comes, I'll have enough jolt to dance merrily out of their way whilst those who are strangely anaesthetised to the danger sounds will be slow dinner for the bears.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,715
    edited January 2022
    slade said:

    TimS said:

    Stocky said:

    MattW said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Cookie said:

    TOPPING said:

    ISTM that "kids" is vaguely pejorative; horrid/horrible I would see more as a class indicator, likewise pudding and dessert; and movie is just going with the times as most people consume films on US streaming services and those films in any case are usually US-made.

    I see kids more as informal than pejorative. But if OKC sees it as pejorative I can see why.
    Horrid feels horribly Enid Blyton and twee. (I have actually read a good argument that horrid is the least horrible of the four horrible words, which, getting more horrible, are horrid, horrible, horrendous and horrific. So perhaps has a use as 'horrible, but not that horrible'.)
    Movie is just not as good a word as film. I have also seen an argument that movie denotes a certain sort of film - big Hollywood blockbuster - whereas film is its more thoughtful or arty counterpart. Again, I could get on board with that. But movie seems to just be used for all films nowadays. Sigh.
    And dessert just sounds to me like an affectation. Though I have an Irish friend who finds the word pudding hilarious - hears it as very English and therefore very posh, which is kind of the reverse of how I hear it.
    Never really had an issue with the horri family. Technically, what is horrible or horrendous is what makes you bristle, and horrid is the state you are consequently in on seeing something horrible.

    Cf suck and suckle: babies suck, mothers suckle.
    Objections to "kids" have completely floored me.

    There are many meanings "pudding", including "you great daft pudding".
    "Kids" it is a long lost cause. "Dessert" rather than pudding annoys still. I get irritated when "students" is used to describe under 18s at school rather than pupils.
    I think dessert is one of that long line of words with French origins considered "non-U" by the upper-middle snobs, with the Germanic or at least non-French version preferred. Others include:

    - Lounge vs sitting room
    - Pardon vs sorry or what
    - Settee vs sofa
    - Dinner vs supper (though dinner seems less frowned on than most)
    - Serviette vs napkin
    - Toilet vs loo

    And so on. The crucial dividing point between the lower-middle and upper-middle class. I don't know if it's true or urban myth that this came about during the Napoleonic wars as an anti-French thing. Almost as salient as a class identifier as the preferred name for grandmother.
    I claim credit for starting the 'kids' thread. Seems lazy to Mrs C. and myself, although we do use it in a casual sense sometimes.
    Anyway as a 60 & 70's Liberal and a committed European, lost causes aren't a problem.

    Inclined to think 'students' are over 16, whether at school or some form of college. Grandson 2, now at Uni was, over Christmas, explaining the difference in attitude in Year 12...... the Lower VIth ..... to his sister and one of his cousins, both of whom are currently in Year 11.

    Not sure about Lounge or sitting room; we have a lounge (or TV) area in our living room. And a dining area. But of course, we're OAP's who down-sized some years ago.
    Def. sofa. And dinner. Except on Sunday. Supper's later. Def. napkin, too, and toilet.
    And Mrs C is a Grannie. Not Granny. And def. not Nan.
    When I was growing up in the 1950s we had a back room and a front room - and the front room was only used on special occasions.
    IIRC being allowed to sit in the front room with just the 17 year old daughter of the house was a privilege.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 5,779
    edited January 2022
    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    I'll vote for literally anyone who promises this.
    The reason I live where I live is to get away from that kind of thing. I chose carefully and my life has been immeasurably better as a result.

    I still get helicopters going over, heading to the rigs, but it's less of a roaring, explosive noise so surprisingly easy to get used to. I also lived under a flight path once too, and that wasn't awful. It's the revving that does it. Fuck me, I'm getting angry just thinking about it. If I ever do a murder, it'll be over that.
    On this, at least, we are in complete agreement! I’d vote for Piers bloody Corbyn if he’d ban these fuckers
    Yes, it's a rare moment! Most of my friends don't understand my reaction, so I'm glad and relieved that there are others who react in the same way. I console myself with the thought that if the polar bear invasion ever comes, I'll have enough jolt to dance merrily out of their way whilst those who are strangely anaesthetised to the danger sounds will be slow dinner for the bears.
    Outdoor survival tip (Canada etc): Make sure you can run faster than your friends.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022
    Some lefties didn't get the change in zero covid narrative memo....


    We need to be clear what "riding it out" actually means.

    Not everyone will.

    Some will die from Covid - who needn't have.

    Some will die from NHS overcrowding/mistakes/lack of bed/delays - who needn't have.

    *Avoidable* deaths. Lives lost.

    That is what the PM is talking about.

    https://twitter.com/doctor_oxford/status/1478426903195312128?s=20
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,544
    What's rocking the SK presidential contest...

    Bald voters root for Lee's pledge of health insurance coverage for hair loss treatment
    https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2022/01/356_321728.html
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 7,243
    edited January 2022

    Not Ihu again. We’ve done this. Repeatedly. FFS.

    @sailorscout

    Guys, B.1.640.2 isn’t new. It actually PREDATES Omicron. It's a sub-lineage of B.1.640- which caused some concern back in mid-November but couldn’t even compete with Delta. B.1.640.2 was first sequenced OVER a month ago and was officially recognized as a lineage in December.

    Predates Omicron? You mean this shit eats Omicron? It must be real bad! :wink:
  • Local authorities in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou have ordered more than ten million people to be tested for Covid. The order in Zhengzhou came after the discovery of a small number of infections.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614

    Sandpit said:

    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    Friend returning to teaching gig in Bangkok.
    Forced to spend 7 days isolating in Phuket at school's expense.
    Trauma.

    We have family friends (head of languages, head of year) working in Dubai currently having to rest in Istanbul before flying back...

    It's a hard life especially when they are discussing current prices in Istanbul (cheap, cheap cheap for obvious reasons)..
    There’s apparently one of these young social media types who came to the sandpit for new year, and is all over the Daily Mail moaning about the sea view and the balcony she has for quarantine, after testing positive.
    I started watching the BBC programme on the sand pit, it was utter trash. It was Channel 5 telly.
    Because of the unique way the BBC is funded, you’d have thought they had better things to do than travel to a bunch of cities, looking for the most obnoxious handful of people they can find.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    Alistair said:
    At those rates not going to take long for everybody to have been at very least exposed to Omicron.
    Scotland is at a mere 1-in-20. Will take bloody ages here.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,080
    slade said:

    TimS said:

    Stocky said:

    MattW said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Cookie said:

    TOPPING said:

    ISTM that "kids" is vaguely pejorative; horrid/horrible I would see more as a class indicator, likewise pudding and dessert; and movie is just going with the times as most people consume films on US streaming services and those films in any case are usually US-made.

    I see kids more as informal than pejorative. But if OKC sees it as pejorative I can see why.
    Horrid feels horribly Enid Blyton and twee. (I have actually read a good argument that horrid is the least horrible of the four horrible words, which, getting more horrible, are horrid, horrible, horrendous and horrific. So perhaps has a use as 'horrible, but not that horrible'.)
    Movie is just not as good a word as film. I have also seen an argument that movie denotes a certain sort of film - big Hollywood blockbuster - whereas film is its more thoughtful or arty counterpart. Again, I could get on board with that. But movie seems to just be used for all films nowadays. Sigh.
    And dessert just sounds to me like an affectation. Though I have an Irish friend who finds the word pudding hilarious - hears it as very English and therefore very posh, which is kind of the reverse of how I hear it.
    Never really had an issue with the horri family. Technically, what is horrible or horrendous is what makes you bristle, and horrid is the state you are consequently in on seeing something horrible.

    Cf suck and suckle: babies suck, mothers suckle.
    Objections to "kids" have completely floored me.

    There are many meanings "pudding", including "you great daft pudding".
    "Kids" it is a long lost cause. "Dessert" rather than pudding annoys still. I get irritated when "students" is used to describe under 18s at school rather than pupils.
    I think dessert is one of that long line of words with French origins considered "non-U" by the upper-middle snobs, with the Germanic or at least non-French version preferred. Others include:

    - Lounge vs sitting room
    - Pardon vs sorry or what
    - Settee vs sofa
    - Dinner vs supper (though dinner seems less frowned on than most)
    - Serviette vs napkin
    - Toilet vs loo

    And so on. The crucial dividing point between the lower-middle and upper-middle class. I don't know if it's true or urban myth that this came about during the Napoleonic wars as an anti-French thing. Almost as salient as a class identifier as the preferred name for grandmother.
    I claim credit for starting the 'kids' thread. Seems lazy to Mrs C. and myself, although we do use it in a casual sense sometimes.
    Anyway as a 60 & 70's Liberal and a committed European, lost causes aren't a problem.

    Inclined to think 'students' are over 16, whether at school or some form of college. Grandson 2, now at Uni was, over Christmas, explaining the difference in attitude in Year 12...... the Lower VIth ..... to his sister and one of his cousins, both of whom are currently in Year 11.

    Not sure about Lounge or sitting room; we have a lounge (or TV) area in our living room. And a dining area. But of course, we're OAP's who down-sized some years ago.
    Def. sofa. And dinner. Except on Sunday. Supper's later. Def. napkin, too, and toilet.
    And Mrs C is a Grannie. Not Granny. And def. not Nan.
    When I was growing up in the 1950s we had a back room and a front room - and the front room was only used on special occasions.
    Yes, but people between 16 and 18 are minors.

    So how can they be "students"?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    The conversion isn't, IIRC correctly difficult. And one could, I suppose, exchange exhausts so that by the time plod stirred itself enough to come round there'd be an innocent, and legal, bike to view.
    As the Times says today, French cops have invented a machine which detects bikes over xx decibels so the police can hand out instant fines.

    Job done. If, every time you rode your bike, you seriously risked a £200 fine you’d soon stop. Cf drink driving
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022
    China Correspondent BBC correspondent...

    In #Yuzhou (#China's 2nd lockdown city), on the one hand, still zero official local #covid infections with symptoms, on the other, officials say they're preparing 5000 quarantine rooms. Can only be over-zealous local leaders or official figures don't match real infection rate?

    https://twitter.com/StephenMcDonell/status/1478624246725238785?s=20

    In #Xian - apart from a city-wide lockdown - officials say they have 42,000 people in quarantine. That could be because the definition of "close contact" there is quite wide. An infected person in a tower block could result in all residents there going into quarantine. #China

    https://twitter.com/StephenMcDonell/status/1478667213762617344?s=20
  • Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    Friend returning to teaching gig in Bangkok.
    Forced to spend 7 days isolating in Phuket at school's expense.
    Trauma.

    We have family friends (head of languages, head of year) working in Dubai currently having to rest in Istanbul before flying back...

    It's a hard life especially when they are discussing current prices in Istanbul (cheap, cheap cheap for obvious reasons)..
    There’s apparently one of these young social media types who came to the sandpit for new year, and is all over the Daily Mail moaning about the sea view and the balcony she has for quarantine, after testing positive.
    I started watching the BBC programme on the sand pit, it was utter trash. It was Channel 5 telly.
    Because of the unique way the BBC is funded, you’d have thought they had better things to do than travel to a bunch of cities, looking for the most obnoxious handful of people they can find.
    It really was the lowest of the low brand of telly.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,080
    edited January 2022

    kinabalu said:



    Supper is the one that screams privilege.

    Either that, or you’re in a painting by Leonardo.

    Interesting few posts. As far as I'm concerned the three main meals of the day are breakfast, dinner and tea. Supper is a light snack you might have not too long before bed. Anyone who has differing nomenclature to that outlined above is a barbarian.

    And 'scone' rhymes with 'moan'.

    So there.
    Yep, I'm from up there and it was that. 'Lunch' had meaning only if attached to 'picnic'. I used to 'go home for dinner' rather than have it at school and when I got home at the end of the day I'd be asking "what's for tea?" (to which the answer was usually crispy pancakes and chips). Supper would then be, eg, cornflakes just before bed. Breakfast would also likely have been cornflakes. Cornflakes thus bookending the day.

    I've lost all of that now though. Now it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, with supper just not a word.
    Enjoyed this discussion!

    I was a co-signatory with equal rights on the joint family bank account as soon as it was legal, at 18.
    Now that stands out. That's in a category that our family would refer to as "not on your nelly", though we all had our own bank accounts from about 16.

    Yes, we used to have 'sweet' on occasion. It would be a little more stylised than 'pudding'.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022
    Lord Ahmed: Former peer guilty of trying to rape girl

    A former Labour peer has been found guilty of trying to rape a girl when he was a teenager in the 1970s. Lord Ahmed of Rotherham was also convicted of a serious sexual assault against a boy during the same period.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-59607283
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,080
    On a dinner table conversation, did you used to "leave the table", or what?

    We used to "get down".
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,715
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    The conversion isn't, IIRC correctly difficult. And one could, I suppose, exchange exhausts so that by the time plod stirred itself enough to come round there'd be an innocent, and legal, bike to view.
    As the Times says today, French cops have invented a machine which detects bikes over xx decibels so the police can hand out instant fines.

    Job done. If, every time you rode your bike, you seriously risked a £200 fine you’d soon stop. Cf drink driving
    French though. Wouldn't be used here.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,584

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    The conversion isn't, IIRC correctly difficult. And one could, I suppose, exchange exhausts so that by the time plod stirred itself enough to come round there'd be an innocent, and legal, bike to view.
    As the Times says today, French cops have invented a machine which detects bikes over xx decibels so the police can hand out instant fines.

    Job done. If, every time you rode your bike, you seriously risked a £200 fine you’d soon stop. Cf drink driving
    French though. Wouldn't be used here.
    It's almost certainly an imported device that comes from the US - they are used there in a number of states.

    actually made in China, of course.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598
    Angela is up @MoonRabbit @IshmaelZ
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,164

    Lord Ahmed: Former peer guilty of trying to rape girl

    A former Labour peer has been found guilty of trying to rape a girl when he was a teenager in the 1970s. Lord Ahmed of Rotherham was also convicted of a serious sexual assault against a boy during the same period.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-59607283

    Lord Ahmed was charged along with his two older brothers, Mohammed Farouq, 71, and Mohammed Tariq, 65, but both were deemed unfit to stand trial.

    How convenient.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    The conversion isn't, IIRC correctly difficult. And one could, I suppose, exchange exhausts so that by the time plod stirred itself enough to come round there'd be an innocent, and legal, bike to view.
    As the Times says today, French cops have invented a machine which detects bikes over xx decibels so the police can hand out instant fines.

    Job done. If, every time you rode your bike, you seriously risked a £200 fine you’d soon stop. Cf drink driving
    French though. Wouldn't be used here.
    It's almost certainly an imported device that comes from the US - they are used there in a number of states.

    actually made in China, of course.
    Presumably just a speed camera, but with a dB meter replacing the radar?
  • FarooqFarooq Posts: 10,775
    Eabhal said:

    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    I'll vote for literally anyone who promises this.
    The reason I live where I live is to get away from that kind of thing. I chose carefully and my life has been immeasurably better as a result.

    I still get helicopters going over, heading to the rigs, but it's less of a roaring, explosive noise so surprisingly easy to get used to. I also lived under a flight path once too, and that wasn't awful. It's the revving that does it. Fuck me, I'm getting angry just thinking about it. If I ever do a murder, it'll be over that.
    On this, at least, we are in complete agreement! I’d vote for Piers bloody Corbyn if he’d ban these fuckers
    Yes, it's a rare moment! Most of my friends don't understand my reaction, so I'm glad and relieved that there are others who react in the same way. I console myself with the thought that if the polar bear invasion ever comes, I'll have enough jolt to dance merrily out of their way whilst those who are strangely anaesthetised to the danger sounds will be slow dinner for the bears.
    Outdoor survival tip (Canada etc): Make sure you can run faster than your friends.
    I carry a walking pole with a hooked handle when I'm out in the wild. It's good for gripping when you're climbing up rocky hills, and good for hooking the ankle of a friend who's got a metre head start in the Great Polar Panic Dash.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    Friend returning to teaching gig in Bangkok.
    Forced to spend 7 days isolating in Phuket at school's expense.
    Trauma.

    We have family friends (head of languages, head of year) working in Dubai currently having to rest in Istanbul before flying back...

    It's a hard life especially when they are discussing current prices in Istanbul (cheap, cheap cheap for obvious reasons)..
    There’s apparently one of these young social media types who came to the sandpit for new year, and is all over the Daily Mail moaning about the sea view and the balcony she has for quarantine, after testing positive.
    I started watching the BBC programme on the sand pit, it was utter trash. It was Channel 5 telly.
    Because of the unique way the BBC is funded, you’d have thought they had better things to do than travel to a bunch of cities, looking for the most obnoxious handful of people they can find.
    It really was the lowest of the low brand of telly.
    I’m sure the next lot of BBC crew applying for journalist visas, will find out how their programme went down over here.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206
    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    I'll vote for literally anyone who promises this.
    The reason I live where I live is to get away from that kind of thing. I chose carefully and my life has been immeasurably better as a result.

    I still get helicopters going over, heading to the rigs, but it's less of a roaring, explosive noise so surprisingly easy to get used to. I also lived under a flight path once too, and that wasn't awful. It's the revving that does it. Fuck me, I'm getting angry just thinking about it. If I ever do a murder, it'll be over that.
    On this, at least, we are in complete agreement! I’d vote for Piers bloody Corbyn if he’d ban these fuckers
    Yes, it's a rare moment! Most of my friends don't understand my reaction, so I'm glad and relieved that there are others who react in the same way. I console myself with the thought that if the polar bear invasion ever comes, I'll have enough jolt to dance merrily out of their way whilst those who are strangely anaesthetised to the danger sounds will be slow dinner for the bears.
    I reckon there's a process. You have to become aware of "how* irritating if not enraging they are, and how ridiculous it is that people are allowed to do this. Once you cross that psychic Rubicon, you notice all of them - especially the revving. As you say

    A lot of people somehow tune them out. I was one of them. I only first noticed them during Lockdown 1, because everywhere else was so quiet. Apart from these insanely loud bikes. I did a bit of research. Ah. Modified deliberately to be exceptionally loud. Thanks, guys

    I also believe they have simply become more fashionable and widespread. Hence the French reaction

  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598
    Great move from Ange going on wages and prices
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
    The Times
    @thetimes
    Up-pointing red triangle Update: Novak Djokovic has been denied entry to Australia after an extraordinary mix-up with his visa application
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,080

    Lord Ahmed: Former peer guilty of trying to rape girl

    A former Labour peer has been found guilty of trying to rape a girl when he was a teenager in the 1970s. Lord Ahmed of Rotherham was also convicted of a serious sexual assault against a boy during the same period.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-59607283

    (Note: take care with your Lords on this one.

    This is Lord Ahmed, former member of HoL now expelled, not the other similar sounding one who is still a member.)
  • eek said:

    The Times
    @thetimes
    Up-pointing red triangle Update: Novak Djokovic has been denied entry to Australia after an extraordinary mix-up with his visa application

    Lock him up....
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598
    edited January 2022
    Boris fancies the arse off Angela, doesn't he? Hard to watch :s
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950

    kinabalu said:



    Supper is the one that screams privilege.

    Either that, or you’re in a painting by Leonardo.

    Interesting few posts. As far as I'm concerned the three main meals of the day are breakfast, dinner and tea. Supper is a light snack you might have not too long before bed. Anyone who has differing nomenclature to that outlined above is a barbarian.

    And 'scone' rhymes with 'moan'.

    So there.
    Yep, I'm from up there and it was that. 'Lunch' had meaning only if attached to 'picnic'. I used to 'go home for dinner' rather than have it at school and when I got home at the end of the day I'd be asking "what's for tea?" (to which the answer was usually crispy pancakes and chips). Supper would then be, eg, cornflakes just before bed. Breakfast would also likely have been cornflakes. Cornflakes thus bookending the day.

    I've lost all of that now though. Now it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, with supper just not a word.
    Enjoyed this discussion! With my odd background (English southern upper-class dad, Russian-born mum), we had variations - the third course of a meal was always the "sweet" (never pudding), and the evening meal was supper if it was just us but the more formal-sounding dinner if we were having people round (as in "Guess who's coming to dinner", the Poitier film that now seems weirdly quaint for other reasons). Grandparents had pet names like everyone in the family - Zebra, Lion, etc. - as part of the general lack of ranking/authority in the family: the underlying philosophy was that we were all in it together (e.g. I was a co-signatory with equal rights on the joint family bank account as soon as it was legal, at 18).

    As others have said, the thing that jumps out is how people tribalise words - it obviously doesn't matter if one calls a meal supper, tea, or dinner, but it was a signal of class and region. As people move around and absorb usage on TV, the differences have mostly melted to some extent, but it's surprising how much they're still around.
    Have we had this already today? As true now as it ever was:

    "It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him," - GBS
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,517
    I'm unsure that was wise by Rayner... SKS should be checking who is standing behind his back.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 12,880
    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    Motorcycles for reasons of weight and packaging don't electrically pre-heat the cat so they have to run colossaly rich AFRs to avoid burning them out. This gives poor throttle response and a few other issues hence the popularity of aftermarket pipes that delete the cat. Lots of new bikes also have massive midrange flat spots introduced just to get them through emissions regulations which a pipe can help.

    The noise regulations only apply to new bikes and the noise section of the MoT is discretionary. In practice they don't give a fuck even the pipe has RACE ONLY stamped on it.

    Akrapovic, Yoshimura and Leo Vince are all worthy brands.

    Until 2016 France had a 100hp power limit on bikes and the cops used to set up roadside dynos to catch miscreants. That restriction got harmonised away by the EU.

  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 4,784

    kinabalu said:



    Supper is the one that screams privilege.

    Either that, or you’re in a painting by Leonardo.

    Interesting few posts. As far as I'm concerned the three main meals of the day are breakfast, dinner and tea. Supper is a light snack you might have not too long before bed. Anyone who has differing nomenclature to that outlined above is a barbarian.

    And 'scone' rhymes with 'moan'.

    So there.
    Yep, I'm from up there and it was that. 'Lunch' had meaning only if attached to 'picnic'. I used to 'go home for dinner' rather than have it at school and when I got home at the end of the day I'd be asking "what's for tea?" (to which the answer was usually crispy pancakes and chips). Supper would then be, eg, cornflakes just before bed. Breakfast would also likely have been cornflakes. Cornflakes thus bookending the day.

    I've lost all of that now though. Now it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, with supper just not a word.
    Enjoyed this discussion! With my odd background (English southern upper-class dad, Russian-born mum), we had variations - the third course of a meal was always the "sweet" (never pudding), and the evening meal was supper if it was just us but the more formal-sounding dinner if we were having people round (as in "Guess who's coming to dinner", the Poitier film that now seems weirdly quaint for other reasons). Grandparents had pet names like everyone in the family - Zebra, Lion, etc. - as part of the general lack of ranking/authority in the family: the underlying philosophy was that we were all in it together (e.g. I was a co-signatory with equal rights on the joint family bank account as soon as it was legal, at 18).

    As others have said, the thing that jumps out is how people tribalise words - it obviously doesn't matter if one calls a meal supper, tea, or dinner, but it was a signal of class and region. As people move around and absorb usage on TV, the differences have mostly melted to some extent, but it's surprising how much they're still around.
    East of Manchester with a local Dad and "southern" Mum (i.e lived in lots of places, so lacked much discernable accent), dinner was the main meal and lunch and tea fitted around that (best thought of in the phrases school dinner / packed lunch).

    The word Mam was utterly banned and I variously had grandmas and nannys.
  • MattW said:

    Lord Ahmed: Former peer guilty of trying to rape girl

    A former Labour peer has been found guilty of trying to rape a girl when he was a teenager in the 1970s. Lord Ahmed of Rotherham was also convicted of a serious sexual assault against a boy during the same period.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-59607283

    (Note: take care with your Lords on this one.

    This is Lord Ahmed, former member of HoL now expelled, not the other similar sounding one who is still a member.)
    But it this Lord Ahmed....

    Party suspends peer and launches inquiry into reports he blamed Jewish conspiracy for his dangerous driving conviction

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/mar/14/labour-suspends-ahmed-jewish-conspiracy
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,111
    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    Why can't the Police use a Section 59, its terms are pretty broad. I'd use it for anyone playing loud music with the window down, especially if it is anything after 2005.

    "A section 59 warning is issued in circumstances where vehicles are found to have been used in a manner which causes distress, alarm or annoyance"
    What's so significant about five past eight??
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,517
    eek said:

    The Times
    @thetimes
    Up-pointing red triangle Update: Novak Djokovic has been denied entry to Australia after an extraordinary mix-up with his visa application

    Has he been denied entry? The BBC's take is that he *could* be denied entry if his 'evidence' is not up to snuff:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-59884038
  • Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    Why can't the Police use a Section 59, its terms are pretty broad. I'd use it for anyone playing loud music with the window down, especially if it is anything after 2005.

    "A section 59 warning is issued in circumstances where vehicles are found to have been used in a manner which causes distress, alarm or annoyance"
    What's so significant about five past eight??
    IIRC it might be something to do with the time young children go to bed.

    So doing doughnuts in a busy estate will be annoying at that time.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,111

    Boris fancies the arse off Angela, doesn't he? Hard to watch :s

    Eew. I won't try to watch. Is it reciprocated?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited January 2022
    ONS reckons London's peaked klaxon.
    https://twitter.com/PaulMainwood/status/1478739628735803398?s=20

    I remain cautious, due to the number of people who will have headed out of London to visit "home" for Christmas.
  • FarooqFarooq Posts: 10,775
    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    Why can't the Police use a Section 59, its terms are pretty broad. I'd use it for anyone playing loud music with the window down, especially if it is anything after 2005.

    "A section 59 warning is issued in circumstances where vehicles are found to have been used in a manner which causes distress, alarm or annoyance"
    What's so significant about five past eight??
    Taz is enjoying his mint chocolate wafers at that time and does NOT want Feel Good Inc. by Gorrilaz disturbing him.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,111

    Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    Why can't the Police use a Section 59, its terms are pretty broad. I'd use it for anyone playing loud music with the window down, especially if it is anything after 2005.

    "A section 59 warning is issued in circumstances where vehicles are found to have been used in a manner which causes distress, alarm or annoyance"
    What's so significant about five past eight??
    IIRC it might be something to do with the time young children go to bed.

    So doing doughnuts in a busy estate will be annoying at that time.
    Ah, of course, thanks.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603
    Get fucked Djokovic. He was always the least likeable of them.
  • eek said:

    The Times
    @thetimes
    Up-pointing red triangle Update: Novak Djokovic has been denied entry to Australia after an extraordinary mix-up with his visa application

    Best news of 2022.

    He's the worst sportsman in the world, even worse than the Dutch shunt.
  • MaxPB said:

    Get fucked Djokovic. He was always the least likeable of them.

    Always preferred Saint Rog myself.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    ONS reckons London's peaked klaxon.
    https://twitter.com/PaulMainwood/status/1478739628735803398?s=20

    I remain cautious, due to the number of people who will have headed out of London to visit "home" for Christmas.

    There's a Klaxon for everything these days.
  • That was a very enjoyable PMQs
  • Carnyx said:

    Taz said:

    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    A lot of people hate these horrible machines. I have normally calm friends who will happily rant about them

    So I don’t understand why a political party hasn’t taken it up as an issue. “We will ban them”. Thus making everyone’s life that little bit better, apart from the selfish arseholes that ride them

    It will cost virtually nothing, it’s easy to do, it will be widely popular, it’s practical pavement politics.

    I note there is a Times leader on this point today, so maybe it will finally happen
    Why can't the Police use a Section 59, its terms are pretty broad. I'd use it for anyone playing loud music with the window down, especially if it is anything after 2005.

    "A section 59 warning is issued in circumstances where vehicles are found to have been used in a manner which causes distress, alarm or annoyance"
    What's so significant about five past eight??

    eek said:

    The Times
    @thetimes
    Up-pointing red triangle Update: Novak Djokovic has been denied entry to Australia after an extraordinary mix-up with his visa application

    Best news of 2022.

    He's the worst sportsman in the world, even worse than the Dutch shunt.
    Is it twenty two minutes past eight in Australia?
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603

    ONS reckons London's peaked klaxon.
    https://twitter.com/PaulMainwood/status/1478739628735803398?s=20

    I remain cautious, due to the number of people who will have headed out of London to visit "home" for Christmas.

    Eventually the virus runs out of viable hosts, this has clearly started to happen in London. So many people I know have had it in the last two weeks. Wouldn't be surprised if 1/3 Londoners has already had it with over 50% of 25-40 year olds having had it.
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797

    eek said:

    The Times
    @thetimes
    Up-pointing red triangle Update: Novak Djokovic has been denied entry to Australia after an extraordinary mix-up with his visa application

    Best news of 2022.

    He's the worst sportsman in the world, even worse than the Dutch shunt.
    Yep and to add a betting post that HYUFD highlighted earlier

    Rui Pinheiro
    @ruidpinheiro
    Replying to
    @carole_bouchard
    Djokovic is so powerful that he will probably decide the outcome of Australia’s next general elections.

    Remember there are 1,000s of Australians stuck abroad because they can't get flights or quarantine on arrival in Australia.

    Sending people who try and cheat the rules back won't do the PMs election hopes any harm.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206
    Dura_Ace said:

    dixiedean said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Yep.
    Strangely. On the topic of gaps in knowledge I complained to my partner of 33 years about this just the other day. She didn't even realise this was a thing. She thought they were just faulty.
    I had to spend some time convincing her I wasn't winding her up.
    "You mean people deliberately make their engines sound like that? Why?"
    Because they are arseholes.
    No really why?
    Arseholes.
    Etc.
    Motorcycles for reasons of weight and packaging don't electrically pre-heat the cat so they have to run colossaly rich AFRs to avoid burning them out. This gives poor throttle response and a few other issues hence the popularity of aftermarket pipes that delete the cat. Lots of new bikes also have massive midrange flat spots introduced just to get them through emissions regulations which a pipe can help.

    The noise regulations only apply to new bikes and the noise section of the MoT is discretionary. In practice they don't give a fuck even the pipe has RACE ONLY stamped on it.

    Akrapovic, Yoshimura and Leo Vince are all worthy brands.

    Until 2016 France had a 100hp power limit on bikes and the cops used to set up roadside dynos to catch miscreants. That restriction got harmonised away by the EU.

    Also, you're a selfish c*nt, so there's that. Happy to ride around destroying the mental peace of your neighbours with your tiny-dicked exhaust, happy to walk around unvaxxed so they might also end up in hospital. I detect a theme
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 14,911

    kinabalu said:



    Supper is the one that screams privilege.

    Either that, or you’re in a painting by Leonardo.

    Interesting few posts. As far as I'm concerned the three main meals of the day are breakfast, dinner and tea. Supper is a light snack you might have not too long before bed. Anyone who has differing nomenclature to that outlined above is a barbarian.

    And 'scone' rhymes with 'moan'.

    So there.
    Yep, I'm from up there and it was that. 'Lunch' had meaning only if attached to 'picnic'. I used to 'go home for dinner' rather than have it at school and when I got home at the end of the day I'd be asking "what's for tea?" (to which the answer was usually crispy pancakes and chips). Supper would then be, eg, cornflakes just before bed. Breakfast would also likely have been cornflakes. Cornflakes thus bookending the day.

    I've lost all of that now though. Now it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, with supper just not a word.
    Enjoyed this discussion! With my odd background (English southern upper-class dad, Russian-born mum), we had variations - the third course of a meal was always the "sweet" (never pudding), and the evening meal was supper if it was just us but the more formal-sounding dinner if we were having people round (as in "Guess who's coming to dinner", the Poitier film that now seems weirdly quaint for other reasons). Grandparents had pet names like everyone in the family - Zebra, Lion, etc. - as part of the general lack of ranking/authority in the family: the underlying philosophy was that we were all in it together (e.g. I was a co-signatory with equal rights on the joint family bank account as soon as it was legal, at 18).

    As others have said, the thing that jumps out is how people tribalise words - it obviously doesn't matter if one calls a meal supper, tea, or dinner, but it was a signal of class and region. As people move around and absorb usage on TV, the differences have mostly melted to some extent, but it's surprising how much they're still around.
    My parents are pretty posh so it was always "supper" at home. My wife's family are immigrants and she grew up mostly in the East Midlands and called it "tea". Now we both call it "dinner". My wife still takes the piss out of me for calling my parents "mummy" and "daddy".
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797

    eek said:

    The Times
    @thetimes
    Up-pointing red triangle Update: Novak Djokovic has been denied entry to Australia after an extraordinary mix-up with his visa application

    Has he been denied entry? The BBC's take is that he *could* be denied entry if his 'evidence' is not up to snuff:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-59884038
    Most reports on twitter say he didn't get very far within passport control.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 113,956
    edited January 2022

    MaxPB said:

    Get fucked Djokovic. He was always the least likeable of them.

    Always preferred Saint Rog myself.
    I've never been able to look at Saint Rog in the same way until Jimmy Carr pointed out that Saint Rog looks like him whilst having a 'stroke'.
  • eek said:

    eek said:

    The Times
    @thetimes
    Up-pointing red triangle Update: Novak Djokovic has been denied entry to Australia after an extraordinary mix-up with his visa application

    Has he been denied entry? The BBC's take is that he *could* be denied entry if his 'evidence' is not up to snuff:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-59884038
    Most reports on twitter say he didn't get very far within passport control.
    Send him to the Nauru Regional Processing Centre as an illegal.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598
    Carnyx said:

    Boris fancies the arse off Angela, doesn't he? Hard to watch :s

    Eew. I won't try to watch. Is it reciprocated?
    I think not.
  • FishingFishing Posts: 4,555
    edited January 2022
    Leon said:

    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    Farooq said:

    Leon said:

    HYUFD said:

    Meanwhile in France, also in an election year, Macron says he will 'piss off' the unvaccinated and prevent them going to a restaurant, having a coffee or going to the theatre or cinema
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59873833

    God I wish I was French, I would love to be in a country run by somebody committed to pissing of the unvaccinated.
    The French are also cracking down on mopeds/motorbikes with altered exhausts designed to make them louder. This may ruin @Dura_Ace’s next trip to his holiday home, but then he’s unvaxxed so he’s not going anyway

    Why can’t we do this in the UK? These bikes are a fucking menace to human sanity
    Not just humans, I'll add. They scare pets and livestock, too.
    They’re hideous. They make me murderously angry. Lots in north London

    But also lots in the countryside and lots across mainland Europe. Ban them
    Agreed. It's not a big problem where I currently live -- rural -- but I know that other rural areas do have the problem. I also lived in a city for a while where it was a major issue.
    I have a theory that the noise triggers something primal; a loud animal roar nearby ought to make you produce a shot of adrenaline so you're ready to outrun your fellow tribesfolk and not be eaten by the nearby predator. That's going to cause stress. I'll bet it tips some people into strokes and heart attacks.
    If it were me in charge, I'd crush such vehicles into a small shiny cube. possibly with the drivers still on board.
    Yes, it definitely triggers fight/flight. I get the literal urge to stab the drivers when they race down my road, especially at 3am. And it’s not particularly common here, whereas it is elsewhere

    I read a news report a few weeks back where a guy was so outraged by his neighbour’s bikes - which had these exhausts - he went round and stabbed the bloke to death

    My reaction to the story was ambivalent

    Car and burglar alarms that go off for no reason and trucks bleeping when they reverse are also infuriating.
  • MattW said:

    Lord Ahmed: Former peer guilty of trying to rape girl

    A former Labour peer has been found guilty of trying to rape a girl when he was a teenager in the 1970s. Lord Ahmed of Rotherham was also convicted of a serious sexual assault against a boy during the same period.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-59607283

    (Note: take care with your Lords on this one.

    This is Lord Ahmed, former member of HoL now expelled, not the other similar sounding one who is still a member.)
    But it this Lord Ahmed....

    Party suspends peer and launches inquiry into reports he blamed Jewish conspiracy for his dangerous driving conviction

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/mar/14/labour-suspends-ahmed-jewish-conspiracy
    He shouldn't just be investigated by the Labour Party. It should be parliamentary authorities and the police.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,111

    Carnyx said:

    Boris fancies the arse off Angela, doesn't he? Hard to watch :s

    Eew. I won't try to watch. Is it reciprocated?
    I think not.
    Thank goodness.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,836
    Alistair said:
    It's my bad, I know, but whenever I hear someone really banging on about Free Speech I want to gag them.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598

    That was a very enjoyable PMQs


    @MoonRabbit will no doubt appreciate the hairdressing reference from Ange.

    "It's not about brushing your hair, Prime Minister, it's about brushing up your act."
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,261
    MattW said:

    kinabalu said:



    Supper is the one that screams privilege.

    Either that, or you’re in a painting by Leonardo.

    Interesting few posts. As far as I'm concerned the three main meals of the day are breakfast, dinner and tea. Supper is a light snack you might have not too long before bed. Anyone who has differing nomenclature to that outlined above is a barbarian.

    And 'scone' rhymes with 'moan'.

    So there.
    Yep, I'm from up there and it was that. 'Lunch' had meaning only if attached to 'picnic'. I used to 'go home for dinner' rather than have it at school and when I got home at the end of the day I'd be asking "what's for tea?" (to which the answer was usually crispy pancakes and chips). Supper would then be, eg, cornflakes just before bed. Breakfast would also likely have been cornflakes. Cornflakes thus bookending the day.

    I've lost all of that now though. Now it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, with supper just not a word.
    Enjoyed this discussion!

    I was a co-signatory with equal rights on the joint family bank account as soon as it was legal, at 18.
    Now that stands out. That's in a category that our family would refer to as "not on your nelly", though we all had our own bank accounts from about 16.

    Yes, we used to have 'sweet' on occasion. It would be a little more stylised than 'pudding'.
    The joint account thing made me abnormally prudent for a teenager - "it's not just my money I'm spending, I should think whether I really need to buy this". I don't think it was intended to do that - just a gesture of trust.
  • kinabalu said:

    Alistair said:
    It's my bad, I know, but whenever I hear someone really banging on about Free Speech I want to gag them.
    Nearly as bad as the idiots who say we live in a fascist country.

    If you can criticise the PM publicly and not face any sanction from the state then you're not living in a fascist state.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598
    Has anyone handed the smelling salts to @IshmaelZ yet?
  • FarooqFarooq Posts: 10,775

    kinabalu said:

    Alistair said:
    It's my bad, I know, but whenever I hear someone really banging on about Free Speech I want to gag them.
    Nearly as bad as the idiots who say we live in a fascist country.

    If you can criticise the PM publicly and not face any sanction from the state then you're not living in a fascist state.
    There's a non zero chance he'll give your address to someone so they can beat you up. But in any case, you're right.
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,933
    Mr. Eagles, while I also prefer Federer, just wondering why you dislike Djokovic so much (I agree he's a dick)?
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603

    Carnyx said:

    Boris fancies the arse off Angela, doesn't he? Hard to watch :s

    Eew. I won't try to watch. Is it reciprocated?
    I think not.
    Lefty girls love right wingers, speaking from experience.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,164
    For once, the PM was quick on his feet with the "balls" joke.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,080
    Jeremy Hunt congratulating BJ for not increasing restrictions.

    On manoeuvres?

  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,279
    Alistair said:
    This seems like the opposite of free speech.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598
    MaxPB said:

    Carnyx said:

    Boris fancies the arse off Angela, doesn't he? Hard to watch :s

    Eew. I won't try to watch. Is it reciprocated?
    I think not.
    Lefty girls love right wingers, speaking from experience.
    Really? More power to your – er – elbow.
  • Mr. Eagles, while I also prefer Federer, just wondering why you dislike Djokovic so much (I agree he's a dick)?

    He's an antivaxxer.
  • MaxPB said:

    Carnyx said:

    Boris fancies the arse off Angela, doesn't he? Hard to watch :s

    Eew. I won't try to watch. Is it reciprocated?
    I think not.
    Lefty girls love right wingers, speaking from experience.
    Ditto.

    Although it might be down to fashion tastes.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 9,653

    Mr. Eagles, while I also prefer Federer, just wondering why you dislike Djokovic so much (I agree he's a dick)?

    He's an antivaxxer.
    Is he though? I thought he just refused to disclose his vaccination status?
This discussion has been closed.