Good article, but is it really the case that defections "used to be common, but have been unfashionable at Parliamentary level in recent years"?
It's a little tricky to enumerate defections (you'd probably not count whip suspension, fit of pique over deselection, or matters like changes within Ulster Unionism or Scottish Nationalism - but it quickly becomes a bit blurred). However, aside from a big SDP spike in the 1979-83 Parliament (28 to the SDP) and smaller one in the shorter 2017-19 Parliament (11 to Change UK, some going on to the Lib Dems, plus three to the Lib Dems not via ChUK), it's been slow and steady. Only 1983-87 didn't see a "real" defection (John Ryman leaving Labour is hard to classify but certainly wasn't a classic defection) - it's been slow and steady, low single figures counting only "proper" defections.
That's probably a little more than pre-1979 - there were a fair number of whip resignations from the Tories over Suez and Labour over various internal rows, but not floor crossing in the sense we're talking about here.
I'd not be shocked to see a couple more over the remainder of the Parliament - they tend to accelerate a little towards the end as writing appears on walls in some cases, and retirees get demob happy in others.
Nick Ferrari asks Shadow Levelling Up Secretary @lisanandy if a woman can be born with a penis. @NickFerrariLBC
Another frontbencher explains the new Labour policy.
Can we stop asking this pointless question now?
Does Nick Ferrari post on here as @Leon? They both seem equally obsessed with penises.
Great answer from Nandy btw - it's the first time I have really watched her in an interview like that tbh. Rather impressive.
Nah he had a "pro" and "anti" trans person on and he gave the "anti" trans one a far harder time.
But he is also wily (and right wing) enough to know how to trip up politicos.
I like him. And James O'Brien. Both make me want to call them and virulently disagree with their political take on things.
The difference between them is that Nick Ferrari can give people a hard time whilst being polite. James O'Brien is incapable of being anything but rude to people he disagrees with.
I can live with it. If I had a bit more time I'd call him up to argue the toss but I don't so I don't.
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Mornin! Back from my little break away. On topic, get rid of Boris and the next defection will be Rosie Duffield to Conservatives. Istr when the tories were leading a few months ago the Mail were saying a 'few' labour were planning to go Tory. Nahhhhhhh, but Rosie will if the circs are there, the first trans debate/culture wars crosser
I haven't commented much on the trans debate but there must be perplexed parents when their children hear the question from various journalist and innocently ask
'Mummy, do you have a penis' ?
Why on earth does Ferrari think it's important to ask Nandy about this? There's only one reason - he wants to catch her out.
Failed dismally on that clip.
Because its an emporers new clothes thing. 'They said ladies can have a penis!'
So, not just catching out but showing what they are prepared to say becsuse they think its 'right' or, just dont want to be yelled at
Tolerating and accepting minority lifestyles and lives lived versus redefining science and sex. Being kind versus making statements that make you look ridiculous to a great many.
On that note, rumours going around that one of the papers has polls for both byelections, done by NCPolitics mostly after Sue Gray Blue team are getting absolutely hammered in Wakefield (much much worse than YouGov's general election model says). Votes going all over the place. David H (formerly of this parish) apparently getting a few. Overall not even close But Tiverton is close and sliding towards the LDems Voters told the poll they’re livid about the photos, Tories getting theirs out to vote is going to be a big problem for them
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
If you can consider even Liz Truss would be better, things must look grim.
The news from Eastern Ukraine certainly does. It's starting to look as though the question will be whether Luhansk, Donetsk and the Azov coast will be enough to satisfy Putin, at least for now so that he stops his attacks on the rest of Ukraine.
His past record doesn't exactly inspire hope, and it's quite clear that's not what he wanted.
Any further info from your position on what the Russian government might be thinking?
The one thing that put me off Brexit as an idea is the anti-immigration ranting of Farage etc al and one thing that won me around to switching sides during the referendum campaign was Gove and Boris not being anti immigration and actually talking about how if we had controlled immigration it could be liberalised in areas.
Regardless of what one thinks of Brexit, I hope we can all agree liberalising so more of the best and brightest can come here is a good thing. 👍
Providing easier visas for graduates from the top 50 universities in the world however as this policy proposes will not bother Leave voters one bit.
Voters in Stoke and Hartlepool were voting to restrict low skilled and unskilled immigration to their areas, not graduates and phds from Harvard moving to work in central London
But those people in finance and tech were already able to get a short-visa very easily. And also have offers to work practically anywhere in the world. The relevant margin is arts and humanities graduates with no jobs who want to tour the world, and a bunch of non-US university alumni from places employers won't have heard of. The net total extra labour supply is likely to be very small.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees.
How many people that want to come to the UK are still stuck in Europe?
Isn't the issue that genuine refugees, and there are no doubts about that in this case, want to return home. So it doesn't seem strange to me that they are opting for places close to home.
Now, I'd like to think the rest of the world would help countries around Ukraine financially, but unless we start moving people against their will, I'm not sure what can be done to address this issue.
I am glad from a political view that Labour now seem to have a popular view on the whole trans debate but I am going to be totally honest when I say, it doesn't impact how I vote and I don't know anyone else who it does either.
I can't believe there is somebody that goes, that CoL crisis is terrible and I am struggling to eat but those trans policies are a bridge too far, Tory for me. Am I wrong?
Spot on. All these 'trans', 'wokism', 'cancel culture' issues are puffed up by right-wing tossers who generally don't have to worry about mundane things like paying for food or heating.
J K Rowling is right wing ?
Everyone and everything that is not on message now is far right. Radical Democrat America has decreed it!
You can't have it both ways. You don't get to say that people with X views are left wing without saying that those who oppose them are right wing.
Personally I wouldn't call pro-trans views left wing at all, left wing is about tax and spend, public ownership, etc. But you're the one muddying those waters, so enjoy the mud.
Lovely bit of sleight of hand there implying that Rowling is "anti trans." Pure gotcha ism: I have never seen an anti-trans thesis stated, I don't even know what one would look like, and all Rowling has ever said is that other groups have rights too.
"In the area of animal welfare, which is my main focus these days, his government has been better than most so far."
Like favoring dogs over people at Kabul airport? At tax-payer' expense?
I would love to be corrected here.
The case for the defence is that the dogs airlift was (I believe) done at Pen Farthing's charity's expense, that they offered to take refugees as well (the dogs were all in the hold so there was plenty of passenger space) but it didn't fit into the planned evacuation (which is fair enough) and that it didn't detract from the rest of the evacuation at all. The only extra burden was for air traffic control to allow them to land and take off, and a few soldiers to let the consignment through the barrier and take them to the plane.
People with various agendas have blown it up into a big issue when I suspect it actually wasn't. But I wasn't there, so all this is second- or third-hand.
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Imperial measures are not going to be 'restored'.
Though some don't need to.
In Britain we drive in miles, drink beer in pints in a pub, my shirt and trousers are measures in inches, football distances are in yards and various others.
The one thing that put me off Brexit as an idea is the anti-immigration ranting of Farage etc al and one thing that won me around to switching sides during the referendum campaign was Gove and Boris not being anti immigration and actually talking about how if we had controlled immigration it could be liberalised in areas.
Regardless of what one thinks of Brexit, I hope we can all agree liberalising so more of the best and brightest can come here is a good thing. 👍
Providing easier visas for graduates from the top 50 universities in the world however as this policy proposes will not bother Leave voters one bit.
Voters in Stoke and Hartlepool were voting to restrict low skilled and unskilled immigration to their areas, not graduates and phds from Harvard moving to work in central London
But those people in finance and tech were already able to get a short-visa very easily. And also have offers to work practically anywhere in the world. The relevant margin is arts and humanities graduates with no jobs who want to tour the world, and a bunch of non-US university alumni from places employers won't have heard of. The net total extra labour supply is likely to be very small.
Of course it is but it allows Leavers like our very own @BR to say there you see Brexit wasn't about immigration look how come all ye I am.
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Imperial measures are not going to be 'restored'.
Though some don't need to.
In Britain we drive in miles, drink beer in pints in a pub, my shirt and trousers are measures in inches, football distances are in yards and various others.
Do other countries use yards when measuring football distances ?
Do they refer to 'ten yards' or 'nine and a bit metres' ?
I am glad from a political view that Labour now seem to have a popular view on the whole trans debate but I am going to be totally honest when I say, it doesn't impact how I vote and I don't know anyone else who it does either.
I can't believe there is somebody that goes, that CoL crisis is terrible and I am struggling to eat but those trans policies are a bridge too far, Tory for me. Am I wrong?
Spot on. All these 'trans', 'wokism', 'cancel culture' issues are puffed up by right-wing tossers who generally don't have to worry about mundane things like paying for food or heating.
J K Rowling is right wing ?
Everyone and everything that is not on message now is far right. Radical Democrat America has decreed it!
You can't have it both ways. You don't get to say that people with X views are left wing without saying that those who oppose them are right wing.
Personally I wouldn't call pro-trans views left wing at all, left wing is about tax and spend, public ownership, etc. But you're the one muddying those waters, so enjoy the mud.
Lovely bit of sleight of hand there implying that Rowling is "anti trans." Pure gotcha ism: I have never seen an anti-trans thesis stated, I don't even know what one would look like, and all Rowling has ever said is that other groups have rights too.
I honestly don't know what Rowling has said or not, I'm not implying anything about anyone. My only point is to say that wooliedyed can't complain about people being labelled right wing for holding one view when he labels the opposite people left wing.
The conversation ceased to be about Rowling specifically when wooliedyed starting talking about "everyone and everything".
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees.
How many people that want to come to the UK are still stuck in Europe?
Isn't the issue that genuine refugees, and there are no doubts about that in this case, want to return home. So it doesn't seem strange to me that they are opting for places close to home.
Now, I'd like to think the rest of the world would help countries around Ukraine financially, but unless we start moving people against their will, I'm not sure what can be done to address this issue.
It has always been obvious that most refugees would want to stay as close to home as possible.
The lack of handwringing in the press in recent weeks suggests that the answer to your question approximates to zero.
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Whilst I completely agree with your post and can only imagine how absurd we look on the outside, you have committed the cardinal sin.
You said "Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. "
We know that Boris has personally armed and trained the Ukrainian army led the free world and is a Hero in Ukraine unlike EU quislings in France and Germany.
That you would post such heresy in Jubilee week just proves that you are one of those statue-cancelling lady cock advocating wokeist traitors that Leon is always complaining about. You don't even have the decency to post from a leaver patriot place like France. Shame! Shame I say!
On topic: I don't think Nick is right when he says that MPs who have criticised Boris will find it hard to stand as Tory candidates if Boris remains in place. After all, we don't need to go back in history very far to find a spectacular example where no less than 172 MPs supported a vote of No Confidence in their leader, with only 40 expressing confidence. That didn't stop most of them standing under his leadership at the next election, and, although there were defections, they weren't exactly a success either for the careers of the individuals or for furthering political ends. In the current case, no doubt some of those criticising Boris will retire, but most will just grumble and obfuscate.
So I expect the Conservative Party to lumber on, finding excuse after excuse. 'Not while the Ukraine war is on'. 'We need to give him a chance to get things back on track'. It's too soon.' 'It's too late, we're too close to the election'. 'There's no alternative candidate who can do better.' 'It's just discontented Remainers.'
Of course, in electoral terms the consequences of keeping in office as PM someone every MP, and every member of the party, knows perfectly well is totally unsuited and unworthy will be seriously bad for the Conservatives, probably for many years to come. Actions have consequences, as does inaction. But inaction is the line of least resistance now.
The one thing that put me off Brexit as an idea is the anti-immigration ranting of Farage etc al and one thing that won me around to switching sides during the referendum campaign was Gove and Boris not being anti immigration and actually talking about how if we had controlled immigration it could be liberalised in areas.
Regardless of what one thinks of Brexit, I hope we can all agree liberalising so more of the best and brightest can come here is a good thing. 👍
You trying to pretend you were "put off Brexit" by anything or anyone is one of the most unbelievable things I have ever read on here even by your standards. I suspect you were a swivel-eyed ranting rightwinger when you were still sucking a dummy.
The one thing that put me off Brexit as an idea is the anti-immigration ranting of Farage etc al and one thing that won me around to switching sides during the referendum campaign was Gove and Boris not being anti immigration and actually talking about how if we had controlled immigration it could be liberalised in areas.
Regardless of what one thinks of Brexit, I hope we can all agree liberalising so more of the best and brightest can come here is a good thing. 👍
Providing easier visas for graduates from the top 50 universities in the world however as this policy proposes will not bother Leave voters one bit.
Voters in Stoke and Hartlepool were voting to restrict low skilled and unskilled immigration to their areas, not graduates and phds from Harvard moving to work in central London
But those people in finance and tech were already able to get a short-visa very easily. And also have offers to work practically anywhere in the world. The relevant margin is arts and humanities graduates with no jobs who want to tour the world, and a bunch of non-US university alumni from places employers won't have heard of. The net total extra labour supply is likely to be very small.
Of course it is but it allows Leavers like our very own @BR to say there you see Brexit wasn't about immigration look how come all ye I am.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size.
We recently had the first and apparently only visit from Social Services to make sure we aren't mistreating "our" Ukrainians. They were fucking hopeless and the Ukrainians found it very unsettling assuming it to be a visit from our version of the KGB. Which, in a sense, it was.
The one thing that put me off Brexit as an idea is the anti-immigration ranting of Farage etc al and one thing that won me around to switching sides during the referendum campaign was Gove and Boris not being anti immigration and actually talking about how if we had controlled immigration it could be liberalised in areas.
Regardless of what one thinks of Brexit, I hope we can all agree liberalising so more of the best and brightest can come here is a good thing. 👍
Providing easier visas for graduates from the top 50 universities in the world however as this policy proposes will not bother Leave voters one bit.
Voters in Stoke and Hartlepool were voting to restrict low skilled and unskilled immigration to their areas, not graduates and phds from Harvard moving to work in central London
But those people in finance and tech were already able to get a short-visa very easily. And also have offers to work practically anywhere in the world. The relevant margin is arts and humanities graduates with no jobs who want to tour the world, and a bunch of non-US university alumni from places employers won't have heard of. The net total extra labour supply is likely to be very small.
Of course it is but it allows Leavers like our very own @BR to say there you see Brexit wasn't about immigration look how come all ye I am.
(Ans: Brexit was about immigration)
It was about the control of immigration.
Control of immigration was the second-most important issue.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size.
We recently had the first and apparently only visit from Social Services to make sure we aren't mistreating "our" Ukrainians. They were fucking hopeless and the Ukrainians found it very unsettling assuming it to be a visit from our version of the KGB. Which, in a sense, it was.
Interesting. Do you think there are any ways in which social services and the KGB are different?
I am glad from a political view that Labour now seem to have a popular view on the whole trans debate but I am going to be totally honest when I say, it doesn't impact how I vote and I don't know anyone else who it does either.
I can't believe there is somebody that goes, that CoL crisis is terrible and I am struggling to eat but those trans policies are a bridge too far, Tory for me. Am I wrong?
Spot on. All these 'trans', 'wokism', 'cancel culture' issues are puffed up by right-wing tossers who generally don't have to worry about mundane things like paying for food or heating.
J K Rowling is right wing ?
Fair point. I'm not sure she has to worry about her food and heating bills though. ;-)
What is the current Lab policy position on the trans debate?
The last thing I heard was La Creasey's "women can be born with a penis" moment. which is half explanatory and half virtue signalling afaics.
I'm not sure that "pro-trans" or "anti-trans" contain any meaning at all, other than as tactics to position people disagreed with politically.
Now that Bonzo has proposed that we return to the good old days of measuring fields in rods or whatever, can we have a sensible conversation about weights and measures?
This country is absurd. We sell fuel in litres and measure efficiency in miles per gallon. If the Tories want to debate this then fine - lets complete the job and fully convert to metric.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size.
We recently had the first and apparently only visit from Social Services to make sure we aren't mistreating "our" Ukrainians. They were fucking hopeless and the Ukrainians found it very unsettling assuming it to be a visit from our version of the KGB. Which, in a sense, it was.
Interesting. Do you think there are any ways in which social services and the KGB are different?
Social services still exist, the KGB don't.
The KGB had some high profile successes as well as clusterfucks. Social services tend only to manage the latter (for 'high profile' cases).
D.Ross second bottom, only above BJ. Apparently he still intends to soldier on as leader of SCons, convinced that he will be FM one day. As someone on the Betfair Horseracing forum used to say when someone opposed his short priced backs, wasfc.
I am glad from a political view that Labour now seem to have a popular view on the whole trans debate but I am going to be totally honest when I say, it doesn't impact how I vote and I don't know anyone else who it does either.
I can't believe there is somebody that goes, that CoL crisis is terrible and I am struggling to eat but those trans policies are a bridge too far, Tory for me. Am I wrong?
Spot on. All these 'trans', 'wokism', 'cancel culture' issues are puffed up by right-wing tossers who generally don't have to worry about mundane things like paying for food or heating.
J K Rowling is right wing ?
Everyone and everything that is not on message now is far right. Radical Democrat America has decreed it!
You can't have it both ways. You don't get to say that people with X views are left wing without saying that those who oppose them are right wing.
Personally I wouldn't call pro-trans views left wing at all, left wing is about tax and spend, public ownership, etc. But you're the one muddying those waters, so enjoy the mud.
Lovely bit of sleight of hand there implying that Rowling is "anti trans." Pure gotcha ism: I have never seen an anti-trans thesis stated, I don't even know what one would look like, and all Rowling has ever said is that other groups have rights too.
I honestly don't know what Rowling has said or not, I'm not implying anything about anyone. My only point is to say that wooliedyed can't complain about people being labelled right wing for holding one view when he labels the opposite people left wing.
The conversation ceased to be about Rowling specifically when wooliedyed starting talking about "everyone and everything".
No, I'd suggest its the radical left who proposes the radical policies/positions (as opposed to just aceeptance and kindness) and label anyone disagreeing as far right. I understand you disagree.
"In the area of animal welfare, which is my main focus these days, his government has been better than most so far."
Like favoring dogs over people at Kabul airport? At tax-payer' expense?
I would love to be corrected here.
The case for the defence is that the dogs airlift was (I believe) done at Pen Farthing's charity's expense, that they offered to take refugees as well (the dogs were all in the hold so there was plenty of passenger space) but it didn't fit into the planned evacuation (which is fair enough) and that it didn't detract from the rest of the evacuation at all. The only extra burden was for air traffic control to allow them to land and take off, and a few soldiers to let the consignment through the barrier and take them to the plane.
People with various agendas have blown it up into a big issue when I suspect it actually wasn't. But I wasn't there, so all this is second- or third-hand.
There is a parliamentary rule against "imputing motive" for good reason. It is better manners to address an argument on its merits than to dismiss its proponents as "people with an agenda."
Nobody denies the plane was privately funded. Your point about refugees is nonsensical. the plane had plenty of human passengers, all employees of Farthing, who crucially WOULD HAVE BEEN IN NO DANGER WHATEVER if they had remained in Afghanistan (evidence was given to FAC that other animal welfare operations have continued unhindered by the taliban in Afghanistan, and there was never any reason to suppose that would not be the case). If those placesw were taken by, effectively, economic migrants, they could have been taken by people who have now been tortured to death. actually tortured, to actual death.
FAC evidence is also utterly conclusive that masses of admin time in London was wasted over the issue. I don't know if you have read the FAC evidence and conclusions. I have, and watched a lot of the hearings. It is conclusive. Even if it weren't, I think a lot of people would think that even if there was only a 5% chance that just one person who needed to get out would fail because of time wasted by Farthing, he wshould have been told to fuck off.
The one thing that put me off Brexit as an idea is the anti-immigration ranting of Farage etc al and one thing that won me around to switching sides during the referendum campaign was Gove and Boris not being anti immigration and actually talking about how if we had controlled immigration it could be liberalised in areas.
Regardless of what one thinks of Brexit, I hope we can all agree liberalising so more of the best and brightest can come here is a good thing. 👍
Providing easier visas for graduates from the top 50 universities in the world however as this policy proposes will not bother Leave voters one bit.
Voters in Stoke and Hartlepool were voting to restrict low skilled and unskilled immigration to their areas, not graduates and phds from Harvard moving to work in central London
More than that. They were voting to make their lives better. The details of exactly how this was to happen weren't crucial.
How many Labour MPs defected before 2010 to the Conservatives despite the fact 96 Labour seats would then be lost at that general election? 0. Even before 1997 only 1 Tory MP, Alan Howarth, defected to Labour.
It is very rare to get defections from Tory to Labour or vice versa having spent your whole political career with the other party as your main political enemy. You might get a handful to the LDs but even then those would be more likely to be the most EUphile of Tory MPs and before the 2019 general election Boris ensured all Tory candidates were committed to Brexit anyway
'Your main political enemy'
Is this why you threaten Scotland with tanks ?
Opponent is the correct term
More worried about him threatening London and other Labour strongholds with tanks!
Now that Bonzo has proposed that we return to the good old days of measuring fields in rods or whatever, can we have a sensible conversation about weights and measures?
This country is absurd. We sell fuel in litres and measure efficiency in miles per gallon. If the Tories want to debate this then fine - lets complete the job and fully convert to metric.
I drive in statute miles, sail in nautical and walk in kilometres. Doesn't seem to be a problem.
Nick makes a good argument and I could see some defections by the conference season if the conservative party has not come to its senses and removed Boris
I would like to take this opportunity of saying that I am not a monarchist, notwithstanding my respect for the queen, and will not be attending any street parties or even watching much of the coverage
However, I do worry we are turning into a society that is joyless and where some want to denigrate those who are looking forward to the celebrations, which frankly is just acting as killjoys for something that shouldn't really bother anyone
We all need to be more tolerant and understanding to each other
Good morning! On your latter points I feel there is a basic division which causes the problems. There are two groups: Those who will celebrate / not celebrate for their own reasons Those who will or won't celebrate for political reasons because it winds up the other lot
Frankly I find the spectacle of the monarchy to be amazing and preposterous in equal measure. The Ste Opening of Parliament was both the kind of pageant that we are experts at and an absurd spectacle in equal measure. And the Jubilee isn't much better.
The problem is that there are people who want to drape themselves in the Union flag to stick it up socialists / nationalists, and those repulsed by it all precisely because of the kind of people who are draped in the flag.
The solution is to steal back flags and symbols from the idiots. Blair got this right with the whole "Cool Britannia" thing (until we all got bored) and the Saltire up here is a national pride thing not a nat identity thing. So it can be done.
I will be attending a couple of local street parties over the Jubilee weekend, including one on our street. I'm not sure that in the real world they are terribly divisive, where we live there are probably not many ardent royalists but attendees will have a range of views from those like me who support a constitutional monarchy to convinced republicans. We will all have a good time because we live in a nice friendly neighbourhood full of lovely people and the events are more about celebrating our community and having a good time than anything royalist or patriotic.
Well, exactly. In Godalming, there will be a street party and the council have decorated the High Street with all the flags of the Commonwealth, which I think is a nice idea. This has triggered a culture war on Facebook (literally hundreds of posts in 24 hours), with zealous monarchists demanding 100% Union Jacks, and zealous anti-imperialists denouncing Union Jacks. Supporters of the council in just celebrating the UK AND the Commonwealth as part of the Jubilee are murmuring wistfully that this should be an occasion for us all to get together, no?
Time to start planning for the Oak Jubilee. Work with google glass or similar to allow each person individually to see whatever damn flag makes them happy.
Some wokeup woke Woking.
Whodathunkit? .
Round here most of what I have seen has been jubilee displays in front windows, and some shops. I'm just off for the daily bike, which will take me past two of the small number of bits of levelling-up I have physically detected - in this case about 400m of a decent cycle path and wider pavement replacing a dangerous turn-left filter lane, and the second is a significantly improved visitor centre in one of our many country parks.
I'll also be going past the Mansfield Petanque Arena. Yes - boules in Mansfield.
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Imperial measures are not going to be 'restored'.
Though some don't need to.
In Britain we drive in miles, drink beer in pints in a pub, my shirt and trousers are measures in inches, football distances are in yards and various others.
Do other countries use yards when measuring football distances ?
Do they refer to 'ten yards' or 'nine and a bit metres' ?
Think football remains imperial. Which is strange. As both codes of rugby, played mainly in the Commonwealth metricised decades ago.
Nick Ferrari asks Shadow Levelling Up Secretary @lisanandy if a woman can be born with a penis. @NickFerrariLBC
Another frontbencher explains the new Labour policy.
Can we stop asking this pointless question now?
I am afraid that once the media latch onto something they will pursue the ' gocha' moment ad infinitum
Yeah, and it's a bit much for a one-eyed Labourite to complain about the technique only on the rare occasions it's used on them.
You must be gutted your pals are so far behind in the polls, beergate failed and now surely Johnson must be announcing a new bridge to the moon?
My pals? I voted Labour as recently as 2012 and have been begging for months for them to come up with some decent policies so I can consider voting for them again - but all they seem to be able to come up with is "the same mistakes the Tories are making, but bigger" - oh, and the "new policy" that biology is a thing.
You voted Labour in 2012 so in the local elections? What did Ed M do in 2015 to annoy you so much?
Windfall tax, cutting VAT - the Tories keep stealing them
2015? The complete lack of policies, for a start. Out of his great six "policies", as carved in stone, five and a half of them were things that nobody on any side would have disagreed with.
And in any case in 2015 I voted Lib Dem because, on balance, despite some of their shenanigans in coalition, they deserved a better reward for doing the right thing and going into coalition with Cameron.
As for windfall tax - you prove my point. A terrible idea that Labour would do the same, but bigger.
I liked Ed M, he would have been a much better PM than anyone else who has come since.
He had a terrible team of advisers.
Like Ed Balls, hes a better comedy/social media novelty act than politician.
Ed Balls would be a superb PM as of today.
He really wouldnt
Huge insight there.
Horse - why do you think he would? I really didn't like his political side, and I now he struggled with his stammer etc. He seemed very confrontational at the time. Out of politics I like him a lot - warm, funny. charming. Would happily sup a pint with him. I think he is happier out of it too. What do you see in him, taking the totality of it, that would make him a good PM?
Nick makes a good argument and I could see some defections by the conference season if the conservative party has not come to its senses and removed Boris
I would like to take this opportunity of saying that I am not a monarchist, notwithstanding my respect for the queen, and will not be attending any street parties or even watching much of the coverage
However, I do worry we are turning into a society that is joyless and where some want to denigrate those who are looking forward to the celebrations, which frankly is just acting as killjoys for something that shouldn't really bother anyone
We all need to be more tolerant and understanding to each other
Good morning! On your latter points I feel there is a basic division which causes the problems. There are two groups: Those who will celebrate / not celebrate for their own reasons Those who will or won't celebrate for political reasons because it winds up the other lot
Frankly I find the spectacle of the monarchy to be amazing and preposterous in equal measure. The Ste Opening of Parliament was both the kind of pageant that we are experts at and an absurd spectacle in equal measure. And the Jubilee isn't much better.
The problem is that there are people who want to drape themselves in the Union flag to stick it up socialists / nationalists, and those repulsed by it all precisely because of the kind of people who are draped in the flag.
The solution is to steal back flags and symbols from the idiots. Blair got this right with the whole "Cool Britannia" thing (until we all got bored) and the Saltire up here is a national pride thing not a nat identity thing. So it can be done.
I will be attending a couple of local street parties over the Jubilee weekend, including one on our street. I'm not sure that in the real world they are terribly divisive, where we live there are probably not many ardent royalists but attendees will have a range of views from those like me who support a constitutional monarchy to convinced republicans. We will all have a good time because we live in a nice friendly neighbourhood full of lovely people and the events are more about celebrating our community and having a good time than anything royalist or patriotic.
Well, exactly. In Godalming, there will be a street party and the council have decorated the High Street with all the flags of the Commonwealth, which I think is a nice idea. This has triggered a culture war on Facebook (literally hundreds of posts in 24 hours), with zealous monarchists demanding 100% Union Jacks, and zealous anti-imperialists denouncing Union Jacks. Supporters of the council in just celebrating the UK AND the Commonwealth as part of the Jubilee are murmuring wistfully that this should be an occasion for us all to get together, no?
Time to start planning for the Oak Jubilee. Work with google glass or similar to allow each person individually to see whatever damn flag makes them happy.
The Royal Oak? Charles Stuart's perch en route to being run out of the Republic? Oak Apple Day was celebrated for many years after. But I have just been reading how instead of oak boughs radicals would put up nettle wreaths on theior houses. Sounds like Godalming.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees.
How many people that want to come to the UK are still stuck in Europe?
Isn't the issue that genuine refugees, and there are no doubts about that in this case, want to return home. So it doesn't seem strange to me that they are opting for places close to home.
Now, I'd like to think the rest of the world would help countries around Ukraine financially, but unless we start moving people against their will, I'm not sure what can be done to address this issue.
There are many well-documented cases of people who want to come to the UK being denied entry by the Home Office. In particular there appears to be a game where a family of x is issued with x-1 visas, so they can't come because the seven year old in the family isn't granted a visa, but the government gets to proclaim that it has issued another bunch of visas.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size.
We recently had the first and apparently only visit from Social Services to make sure we aren't mistreating "our" Ukrainians. They were fucking hopeless and the Ukrainians found it very unsettling assuming it to be a visit from our version of the KGB. Which, in a sense, it was.
Interesting. Do you think there are any ways in which social services and the KGB are different?
Social services still exist, the KGB don't.
The KGB had some high profile successes as well as clusterfucks. Social services tend only to manage the latter (for 'high profile' cases).
This was a clusterfuck.
They insisted on having their own translator on the phone despite being told many times this wasn't necessary. The translator was fucking terrible and not translating accurately. One of the first things they said was something on the lines of, "We've have to make sure you wouldn't be better off somewhere else". This caused both Ukrainians to start weeping volubly. At this point I thought Mrs DA was going to ask to borrow my Ruger 10/22 and I was going to have to spend all night digging shallow graves in the woods.
Now that Bonzo has proposed that we return to the good old days of measuring fields in rods or whatever, can we have a sensible conversation about weights and measures?
This country is absurd. We sell fuel in litres and measure efficiency in miles per gallon. If the Tories want to debate this then fine - lets complete the job and fully convert to metric.
I drive in statute miles, sail in nautical and walk in kilometres. Doesn't seem to be a problem.
TBF nautical is just the same as metres, only a different divisor for the Earth's circumference (and admittedly also a different estimate thereof).
F1: Azerbaijan is often chaotic. Could be quite intriguing at the sharp end this year. It's essentially Monaco plus a massive straight. That should prove handy for the Red Bulls, but Ferrari were faster in tight and twisty stuff.
Perez won last year and should've won for Force India (or maybe Racing Point, it was when Ocon was his team mate) but the two collided (I was annoyed as I'd backed him at about 201 for the win).
Nick Ferrari asks Shadow Levelling Up Secretary @lisanandy if a woman can be born with a penis. @NickFerrariLBC
Another frontbencher explains the new Labour policy.
Can we stop asking this pointless question now?
I am afraid that once the media latch onto something they will pursue the ' gocha' moment ad infinitum
Yeah, and it's a bit much for a one-eyed Labourite to complain about the technique only on the rare occasions it's used on them.
You must be gutted your pals are so far behind in the polls, beergate failed and now surely Johnson must be announcing a new bridge to the moon?
My pals? I voted Labour as recently as 2012 and have been begging for months for them to come up with some decent policies so I can consider voting for them again - but all they seem to be able to come up with is "the same mistakes the Tories are making, but bigger" - oh, and the "new policy" that biology is a thing.
You voted Labour in 2012 so in the local elections? What did Ed M do in 2015 to annoy you so much?
Windfall tax, cutting VAT - the Tories keep stealing them
2015? The complete lack of policies, for a start. Out of his great six "policies", as carved in stone, five and a half of them were things that nobody on any side would have disagreed with.
And in any case in 2015 I voted Lib Dem because, on balance, despite some of their shenanigans in coalition, they deserved a better reward for doing the right thing and going into coalition with Cameron.
As for windfall tax - you prove my point. A terrible idea that Labour would do the same, but bigger.
I liked Ed M, he would have been a much better PM than anyone else who has come since.
He had a terrible team of advisers.
Like Ed Balls, hes a better comedy/social media novelty act than politician.
Ed Balls would be a superb PM as of today.
He really wouldnt
Huge insight there.
Horse - why do you think he would? I really didn't like his political side, and I now he struggled with his stammer etc. He seemed very confrontational at the time. Out of politics I like him a lot - warm, funny. charming. Would happily sup a pint with him. I think he is happier out of it too. What do you see in him, taking the totality of it, that would make him a good PM?
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size.
We recently had the first and apparently only visit from Social Services to make sure we aren't mistreating "our" Ukrainians. They were fucking hopeless and the Ukrainians found it very unsettling assuming it to be a visit from our version of the KGB. Which, in a sense, it was.
Interesting. Do you think there are any ways in which social services and the KGB are different?
Social services still exist, the KGB don't.
The KGB had some high profile successes as well as clusterfucks. Social services tend only to manage the latter (for 'high profile' cases).
This was a clusterfuck.
They insisted on having their own translator on the phone despite being told many times this wasn't necessary. The translator was fucking terrible and not translating accurately. One of the first things they said was something on the lines of, "We've have to make sure you wouldn't be better off somewhere else". This caused both Ukrainians to start weeping volubly. At this point I thought Mrs DA was going to ask to borrow my Ruger 10/22 and I was going to have to spend all night digging shallow graves in the woods.
I'd like that if I didn't feel so sorry for them - and you and Mrs DA.
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Imperial measures are not going to be 'restored'.
Though some don't need to.
In Britain we drive in miles, drink beer in pints in a pub, my shirt and trousers are measures in inches, football distances are in yards and various others.
Do other countries use yards when measuring football distances ?
Do they refer to 'ten yards' or 'nine and a bit metres' ?
Think football remains imperial. Which is strange. As both codes of rugby, played mainly in the Commonwealth metricised decades ago.
The four home nations have a blocking vote on IFAB, which may not be the case with rugby.
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Imperial measures are not going to be 'restored'.
Though some don't need to.
In Britain we drive in miles, drink beer in pints in a pub, my shirt and trousers are measures in inches, football distances are in yards and various others.
Do other countries use yards when measuring football distances ?
Do they refer to 'ten yards' or 'nine and a bit metres' ?
Think football remains imperial. Which is strange. As both codes of rugby, played mainly in the Commonwealth metricised decades ago.
The four home nations have a blocking vote on IFAB, which may not be the case with rugby.
Possibly. Plus Oz and NZ are fully metricated AIUI. I am old enough to remember the 25 yard line. Don't know if they had to remeasure and re-mark pitches?
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Imperial measures are not going to be 'restored'.
Though some don't need to.
In Britain we drive in miles, drink beer in pints in a pub, my shirt and trousers are measures in inches, football distances are in yards and various others.
Do other countries use yards when measuring football distances ?
Do they refer to 'ten yards' or 'nine and a bit metres' ?
Think football remains imperial. Which is strange. As both codes of rugby, played mainly in the Commonwealth metricised decades ago.
The four home nations have a blocking vote on IFAB, which may not be the case with rugby.
Possibly. Plus Oz and NZ are fully metricated AIUI. I am old enough to remember the 25 yard line. Don't know if they had to remeasure and re-mark pitches?
What's interesting is that 25 yards = 22.86 metres, so I wonder why they went for 22 rather than 23?
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Imperial measures are not going to be 'restored'.
Though some don't need to.
In Britain we drive in miles, drink beer in pints in a pub, my shirt and trousers are measures in inches, football distances are in yards and various others.
Do other countries use yards when measuring football distances ?
Do they refer to 'ten yards' or 'nine and a bit metres' ?
Think football remains imperial. Which is strange. As both codes of rugby, played mainly in the Commonwealth metricised decades ago.
The four home nations have a blocking vote on IFAB, which may not be the case with rugby.
Possibly. Plus Oz and NZ are fully metricated AIUI. I am old enough to remember the 25 yard line. Don't know if they had to remeasure and re-mark pitches?
What's interesting is that 25 yards = 22.86 metres, so I wonder why they went for 22 rather than 23?
Good question. I guess they would have had to change markings then. .86 metres isn't trivial.
The slant on that I saw was allegedly because UK handouts had been loans not grants, like most countries.
Though, reading the article, the headline looks like normal Guardian twitter-bait.
It is the Federation of Small Business with the misleading claims, and the Guardian reporting it. There will be plenty of small businesses that do not even ever try to have 3 months of running costs in cash, it is not a good yardstick of business going bust.
Last year 20k businesses went bust.
Happy to lay the FSB spokesman, or anyone who believes him 10/1 that even 100k businesses go bust in the next 3 months.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
Allowing imperial measurements doesn't impose any costs at all because nobody is obliged to use them if they don't want to.
What's absurd is not giving up on imposing metric conformity but the hysterical reactions of people who engage in this kind of national psychoanalysis. What you're doing is not all that far removed from Maria Zakharova condemning Ukraine for wanting to claim borscht for itself.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
Allowing imperial measurements doesn't impose any costs at all because nobody is obliged to use them if they don't want to.
What's absurd is not giving up on imposing metric conformity but the hysterical reactions of people who engage in this kind of national psychoanalysis. What you're doing is not all that far removed from Maria Zakharova condemning Ukraine for wanting to claim borscht for itself.
Standardisation of measurements reduce costs. Imagine there were a bakers dozen different scales of measurement used for weights. Transactions would take more time, price comparison much harder and trust would decrease. This increases costs. This is really basic economics - and the type of economics that really works in real life, unlike much of the subject.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
Allowing imperial measurements doesn't impose any costs at all because nobody is obliged to use them if they don't want to.
What's absurd is not giving up on imposing metric conformity but the hysterical reactions of people who engage in this kind of national psychoanalysis. What you're doing is not all that far removed from Maria Zakharova condemning Ukraine for wanting to claim borscht for itself.
It shouldn't be difficult with the aid of computers to provide prices in both sets of measures if people wish.
Then customers can use the set of measures that most suit them.
Now that Bonzo has proposed that we return to the good old days of measuring fields in rods or whatever, can we have a sensible conversation about weights and measures?
This country is absurd. We sell fuel in litres and measure efficiency in miles per gallon. If the Tories want to debate this then fine - lets complete the job and fully convert to metric.
@rottenborough : Wish you would stop calling him Bonzo. Bonzo was the nick name for John Bonham, aka the greatest drummer of all time (arguable, but certainly one of).
Not that it is a great claim to fame, but I think I may have been the first person on here to change Bojo to Bozo. Please therefore refer to Boris Johnson as "Johnson" (an American name for penis) or Bozo ( A semi-famous clown or the informal word for a particularly stupid person)
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
Allowing imperial measurements doesn't impose any costs at all because nobody is obliged to use them if they don't want to.
What's absurd is not giving up on imposing metric conformity but the hysterical reactions of people who engage in this kind of national psychoanalysis. What you're doing is not all that far removed from Maria Zakharova condemning Ukraine for wanting to claim borscht for itself.
It shouldn't be difficult with the aid of computers to provide prices in both sets of measures if people wish.
Then customers can use the set of measures that most suit them.
It's just change for the sake of change. Which is what the left were accused of, once upon a time. I sincerely hope. they won't suggest it for medicine. That really would be 'cat, meet some pigeons!'
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
Allowing imperial measurements doesn't impose any costs at all because nobody is obliged to use them if they don't want to.
What's absurd is not giving up on imposing metric conformity but the hysterical reactions of people who engage in this kind of national psychoanalysis. What you're doing is not all that far removed from Maria Zakharova condemning Ukraine for wanting to claim borscht for itself.
What is absurd is banging on about it as though it is an important subject for government to intervene on, but that is what populist apologists for Johnson are doing.
Now that Bonzo has proposed that we return to the good old days of measuring fields in rods or whatever, can we have a sensible conversation about weights and measures?
This country is absurd. We sell fuel in litres and measure efficiency in miles per gallon. If the Tories want to debate this then fine - lets complete the job and fully convert to metric.
@rottenborough : Wish you would stop calling him Bonzo. Bonzo was the nick name for John Bonham, aka the greatest drummer of all time (arguable, but certainly one of).
Not that it is a great claim to fame, but I think I may have been the first person on here to change Bojo to Bozo. Please therefore refer to Boris Johnson as "Johnson" (an American name for penis) or Bozo ( A semi-famous clown or the informal word for a particularly stupid person)
I always knew Scott must have copied and pasted it from someone.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
Allowing imperial measurements doesn't impose any costs at all because nobody is obliged to use them if they don't want to.
What's absurd is not giving up on imposing metric conformity but the hysterical reactions of people who engage in this kind of national psychoanalysis. What you're doing is not all that far removed from Maria Zakharova condemning Ukraine for wanting to claim borscht for itself.
It shouldn't be difficult with the aid of computers to provide prices in both sets of measures if people wish.
Then customers can use the set of measures that most suit them.
It's just change for the sake of change. Which is what the left were accused of, once upon a time. I sincerely hope. they won't suggest it for medicine. That really would be 'cat, meet some pigeons!'
In China and Russia, air traffic controllers give heights in metres - which used to cause no end of fun when plane instruments were steam-powered, rather than computer-powered as they are today.
More than once, has a plane been in trouble because of fuelling in lb rather than kg.
Apart from those examples, everything in aviation is still in Imperial units - knots and feet.
I am glad from a political view that Labour now seem to have a popular view on the whole trans debate but I am going to be totally honest when I say, it doesn't impact how I vote and I don't know anyone else who it does either.
I can't believe there is somebody that goes, that CoL crisis is terrible and I am struggling to eat but those trans policies are a bridge too far, Tory for me. Am I wrong?
Spot on. All these 'trans', 'wokism', 'cancel culture' issues are puffed up by right-wing tossers who generally don't have to worry about mundane things like paying for food or heating.
J K Rowling is right wing ?
Everyone and everything that is not on message now is far right. Radical Democrat America has decreed it!
You can't have it both ways. You don't get to say that people with X views are left wing without saying that those who oppose them are right wing.
Personally I wouldn't call pro-trans views left wing at all, left wing is about tax and spend, public ownership, etc. But you're the one muddying those waters, so enjoy the mud.
Lovely bit of sleight of hand there implying that Rowling is "anti trans." Pure gotcha ism: I have never seen an anti-trans thesis stated, I don't even know what one would look like, and all Rowling has ever said is that other groups have rights too.
I honestly don't know what Rowling has said or not, I'm not implying anything about anyone. My only point is to say that wooliedyed can't complain about people being labelled right wing for holding one view when he labels the opposite people left wing.
The conversation ceased to be about Rowling specifically when wooliedyed starting talking about "everyone and everything".
No, I'd suggest its the radical left who proposes the radical policies/positions (as opposed to just aceeptance and kindness) and label anyone disagreeing as far right. I understand you disagree.
Yeah, I don't necessarily disagree, I just want consistency. If you're labelling them as left, then you have to accept that their opponents are right wing.
I really don't understand people who throw labels about who then screech when similar labels are thrown back.
While treading the fine line between metric and imperial let's not forget those funny pointy things we use every time we fire up a word processor. 1/72 of an inch.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
Allowing imperial measurements doesn't impose any costs at all because nobody is obliged to use them if they don't want to.
What's absurd is not giving up on imposing metric conformity but the hysterical reactions of people who engage in this kind of national psychoanalysis. What you're doing is not all that far removed from Maria Zakharova condemning Ukraine for wanting to claim borscht for itself.
It shouldn't be difficult with the aid of computers to provide prices in both sets of measures if people wish.
Then customers can use the set of measures that most suit them.
It's just change for the sake of change. Which is what the left were accused of, once upon a time. I sincerely hope. they won't suggest it for medicine. That really would be 'cat, meet some pigeons!'
I am glad from a political view that Labour now seem to have a popular view on the whole trans debate but I am going to be totally honest when I say, it doesn't impact how I vote and I don't know anyone else who it does either.
I can't believe there is somebody that goes, that CoL crisis is terrible and I am struggling to eat but those trans policies are a bridge too far, Tory for me. Am I wrong?
Spot on. All these 'trans', 'wokism', 'cancel culture' issues are puffed up by right-wing tossers who generally don't have to worry about mundane things like paying for food or heating.
J K Rowling is right wing ?
Everyone and everything that is not on message now is far right. Radical Democrat America has decreed it!
You can't have it both ways. You don't get to say that people with X views are left wing without saying that those who oppose them are right wing.
Personally I wouldn't call pro-trans views left wing at all, left wing is about tax and spend, public ownership, etc. But you're the one muddying those waters, so enjoy the mud.
Lovely bit of sleight of hand there implying that Rowling is "anti trans." Pure gotcha ism: I have never seen an anti-trans thesis stated, I don't even know what one would look like, and all Rowling has ever said is that other groups have rights too.
I honestly don't know what Rowling has said or not, I'm not implying anything about anyone. My only point is to say that wooliedyed can't complain about people being labelled right wing for holding one view when he labels the opposite people left wing.
The conversation ceased to be about Rowling specifically when wooliedyed starting talking about "everyone and everything".
No, I'd suggest its the radical left who proposes the radical policies/positions (as opposed to just aceeptance and kindness) and label anyone disagreeing as far right. I understand you disagree.
Yeah, I don't necessarily disagree, I just want consistency. If you're labelling them as left, then you have to accept that their opponents are right wing.
I really don't understand people who throw labels about who then screech when similar labels are thrown back.
Well tbf ill try, but i'm a bit hot headed and gung ho at times ill freely admit
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
Allowing imperial measurements doesn't impose any costs at all because nobody is obliged to use them if they don't want to.
What's absurd is not giving up on imposing metric conformity but the hysterical reactions of people who engage in this kind of national psychoanalysis. What you're doing is not all that far removed from Maria Zakharova condemning Ukraine for wanting to claim borscht for itself.
It shouldn't be difficult with the aid of computers to provide prices in both sets of measures if people wish.
Then customers can use the set of measures that most suit them.
It's just change for the sake of change. Which is what the left were accused of, once upon a time. I sincerely hope. they won't suggest it for medicine. That really would be 'cat, meet some pigeons!'
"In the area of animal welfare, which is my main focus these days, his government has been better than most so far."
Like favoring dogs over people at Kabul airport? At tax-payer' expense?
I would love to be corrected here.
The case for the defence is that the dogs airlift was (I believe) done at Pen Farthing's charity's expense, that they offered to take refugees as well (the dogs were all in the hold so there was plenty of passenger space) but it didn't fit into the planned evacuation (which is fair enough) and that it didn't detract from the rest of the evacuation at all. The only extra burden was for air traffic control to allow them to land and take off, and a few soldiers to let the consignment through the barrier and take them to the plane.
People with various agendas have blown it up into a big issue when I suspect it actually wasn't. But I wasn't there, so all this is second- or third-hand.
That's not correct afaics. There was also an interference with time which should have been spent managing the evacuation rather than pandering to Farthing's actions (his threats of doxxing / online harassment are well documented), and Johnson's consequent intervention.
Plus Farthing's staff received a revised prioritisation over people who's lives were at serious risk.
Josie Stewart evidence: I am not aware of any deliberate decision to prioritise animals over people, and do not believe that this happened intentionally.
In my opinion, however, the decision to approve Nowzad’s Afghan staff under LOTR was not in line with policy, as there was no reason to believe these people should be prioritised under the agreed criteria. The issue also certainly carried significant opportunity cost in terms of the amount of senior civil servant time spent on the case.
Now that Bonzo has proposed that we return to the good old days of measuring fields in rods or whatever, can we have a sensible conversation about weights and measures?
This country is absurd. We sell fuel in litres and measure efficiency in miles per gallon. If the Tories want to debate this then fine - lets complete the job and fully convert to metric.
@rottenborough : Wish you would stop calling him Bonzo. Bonzo was the nick name for John Bonham, aka the greatest drummer of all time (arguable, but certainly one of).
Not that it is a great claim to fame, but I think I may have been the first person on here to change Bojo to Bozo. Please therefore refer to Boris Johnson as "Johnson" (an American name for penis) or Bozo ( A semi-famous clown or the informal word for a particularly stupid person)
I always knew Scott must have copied and pasted it from someone.
It starts with: "Russia has likely suffered devastating losses amongst its mid and junior ranking officers..."
Whereas all the new outlets are indicating Russian progress, sadly, e.g. the BBC's "Heavy fighting as Russia advances into key eastern city".
No - both things you quote above are true. Russia is taking territory, but slowly, and at great cost.
Ukraine claimed several T62s destroyed yesterday, so it seems Russia is genuinely reduced to throwing in obsolete replacements for their lost equipment.
They still have significantly superior artillery (in numbers, certainly), but recent and ongoing deliveries to Ukraine are beginning to redress the balance. For now there's no real sign of Ukraine's resolve to fight weakening.
"In the area of animal welfare, which is my main focus these days, his government has been better than most so far."
Like favoring dogs over people at Kabul airport? At tax-payer' expense?
I would love to be corrected here.
The case for the defence is that the dogs airlift was (I believe) done at Pen Farthing's charity's expense, that they offered to take refugees as well (the dogs were all in the hold so there was plenty of passenger space) but it didn't fit into the planned evacuation (which is fair enough) and that it didn't detract from the rest of the evacuation at all. The only extra burden was for air traffic control to allow them to land and take off, and a few soldiers to let the consignment through the barrier and take them to the plane.
People with various agendas have blown it up into a big issue when I suspect it actually wasn't. But I wasn't there, so all this is second- or third-hand.
That's not correct afaics. There was also an interference with time which should have been spent managing the evacuation rather than pandering to Farthing's harassing (his threats are well documented), and Johnson's consequent intervention.
Plus Farthing's staff received a revised prioritisation over people who's lives were at serious risk.
Josie Stewart evidence: I am not aware of any deliberate decision to prioritise animals over people, and do not believe that this happened intentionally.
In my opinion, however, the decision to approve Nowzad’s Afghan staff under LOTR was not in line with policy, as there was no reason to believe these people should be prioritised under the agreed criteria. The issue also certainly carried significant opportunity cost in terms of the amount of senior civil servant time spent on the case.
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Imperial measures are not going to be 'restored'.
Though some don't need to.
In Britain we drive in miles, drink beer in pints in a pub, my shirt and trousers are measures in inches, football distances are in yards and various others.
Do other countries use yards when measuring football distances ?
Do they refer to 'ten yards' or 'nine and a bit metres' ?
Think football remains imperial. Which is strange. As both codes of rugby, played mainly in the Commonwealth metricised decades ago.
The four home nations have a blocking vote on IFAB, which may not be the case with rugby.
Possibly. Plus Oz and NZ are fully metricated AIUI. I am old enough to remember the 25 yard line. Don't know if they had to remeasure and re-mark pitches?
What's interesting is that 25 yards = 22.86 metres, so I wonder why they went for 22 rather than 23?
Good question. I guess they would have had to change markings then. .86 metres isn't trivial.
Don't know. But a penalty (football) is called an "Elfmeter" around here, which is very close to 12 yards.
Men's jeans are sold in inches. As are screens (usually).
'Ok guys, jus' spitballing here, but what if we try tunnels again, only in a different place?'
'Genius, trebles all round!'
Great! They work in Norway and the Faroes. Once again the UK is backwards when it comes to infrastructure.
How many Islands?.... How many tunnels?
Compared to a few ferries now and again?
Tunnels are always going to be better than ferries, due to not having to worry about the weather. Which is why the Greenwich foot tunnel was built during the reign of Queen Victoria.
I don't see any particular reason why the Orkney and Shetland Islands shouldn't follow the Faroes in having tunnels between some of the islands.
"In the area of animal welfare, which is my main focus these days, his government has been better than most so far."
Like favoring dogs over people at Kabul airport? At tax-payer' expense?
I would love to be corrected here.
The case for the defence is that the dogs airlift was (I believe) done at Pen Farthing's charity's expense, that they offered to take refugees as well (the dogs were all in the hold so there was plenty of passenger space) but it didn't fit into the planned evacuation (which is fair enough) and that it didn't detract from the rest of the evacuation at all. The only extra burden was for air traffic control to allow them to land and take off, and a few soldiers to let the consignment through the barrier and take them to the plane.
People with various agendas have blown it up into a big issue when I suspect it actually wasn't. But I wasn't there, so all this is second- or third-hand.
That's not correct afaics. There was also an interference with time which should have been spent managing the evacuation rather than pandering to Farthing's actions (his threats of doxxing / online harassment are well documented), and Johnson's consequent intervention.
Plus Farthing's staff received a revised prioritisation over people who's lives were at serious risk.
Josie Stewart evidence: I am not aware of any deliberate decision to prioritise animals over people, and do not believe that this happened intentionally.
In my opinion, however, the decision to approve Nowzad’s Afghan staff under LOTR was not in line with policy, as there was no reason to believe these people should be prioritised under the agreed criteria. The issue also certainly carried significant opportunity cost in terms of the amount of senior civil servant time spent on the case.
This was a classic no-win situation for the government, as they would have received at least as much vitriol had a single dog been left behind. Remember Benji?
Now that Bonzo has proposed that we return to the good old days of measuring fields in rods or whatever, can we have a sensible conversation about weights and measures?
This country is absurd. We sell fuel in litres and measure efficiency in miles per gallon. If the Tories want to debate this then fine - lets complete the job and fully convert to metric.
@rottenborough : Wish you would stop calling him Bonzo. Bonzo was the nick name for John Bonham, aka the greatest drummer of all time (arguable, but certainly one of).
Not that it is a great claim to fame, but I think I may have been the first person on here to change Bojo to Bozo. Please therefore refer to Boris Johnson as "Johnson" (an American name for penis) or Bozo ( A semi-famous clown or the informal word for a particularly stupid person)
I always knew Scott must have copied and pasted it from someone.
Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band?
I don't think I have every called in Bonzo, so maybe there's a cock up in the thread quoting?
I mainly call him Johnson, because he doesn't want us to. He wants us to call him 'Boris'.
I sometimes have called him 'clown' or 'Clown in Chief' I think.
It starts with: "Russia has likely suffered devastating losses amongst its mid and junior ranking officers..."
Whereas all the new outlets are indicating Russian progress, sadly, e.g. the BBC's "Heavy fighting as Russia advances into key eastern city".
No - both things you quote above are true. Russia is taking territory, but slowly, and at great cost.
Ukraine claimed several T62s destroyed yesterday, so it seems Russia is genuinely reduced to throwing in obsolete replacements for their lost equipment.
They still have significantly superior artillery (in numbers, certainly), but recent and ongoing deliveries to Ukraine are beginning to redress the balance. For now there's no real sign of Ukraine's resolve to fight weakening.
I remember the Korean War. The North attacked, drove the South and the Americans almost out of the peninsula. Then the Americans, ourselves and the South landed behind the Northern lines and they were driven back almost to the Chinese border. Then the Chinese joined in and everyone ended up pretty well where' they'd started.
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Imperial measures are not going to be 'restored'.
Though some don't need to.
In Britain we drive in miles, drink beer in pints in a pub, my shirt and trousers are measures in inches, football distances are in yards and various others.
Do other countries use yards when measuring football distances ?
Do they refer to 'ten yards' or 'nine and a bit metres' ?
Think football remains imperial. Which is strange. As both codes of rugby, played mainly in the Commonwealth metricised decades ago.
The four home nations have a blocking vote on IFAB, which may not be the case with rugby.
Possibly. Plus Oz and NZ are fully metricated AIUI. I am old enough to remember the 25 yard line. Don't know if they had to remeasure and re-mark pitches?
Oz will have to rebadge as 28.3495g to make that claim
'Ok guys, jus' spitballing here, but what if we try tunnels again, only in a different place?'
'Genius, trebles all round!'
Great! They work in Norway and the Faroes. Once again the UK is backwards when it comes to infrastructure.
Linking the smaller islands to the mainland in Shetland could be a bit of a game-changer for the small islands. There's a noticeable difference between e.g. Unst and the main island. The causeways made a big difference to the Western Isles (also some negatives, of course, including implication in the storm surge that took out that family some years back)
See in Faroe this has been done with tunnels. Why tunnels rather than bridges? Weather conditions?
How many Labour MPs defected before 2010 to the Conservatives despite the fact 96 Labour seats would then be lost at that general election? 0. Even before 1997 only 1 Tory MP, Alan Howarth, defected to Labour.
It is very rare to get defections from Tory to Labour or vice versa having spent your whole political career with the other party as your main political enemy. You might get a handful to the LDs but even then those would be more likely to be the most EUphile of Tory MPs and before the 2019 general election Boris ensured all Tory candidates were committed to Brexit anyway
'Your main political enemy'
Is this why you threaten Scotland with tanks ?
Opponent is the correct term
Indeed. After all, even the Opposition is Loyal opposition.
Nick makes a good argument and I could see some defections by the conference season if the conservative party has not come to its senses and removed Boris
I would like to take this opportunity of saying that I am not a monarchist, notwithstanding my respect for the queen, and will not be attending any street parties or even watching much of the coverage
However, I do worry we are turning into a society that is joyless and where some want to denigrate those who are looking forward to the celebrations, which frankly is just acting as killjoys for something that shouldn't really bother anyone
We all need to be more tolerant and understanding to each other
Good morning! On your latter points I feel there is a basic division which causes the problems. There are two groups: Those who will celebrate / not celebrate for their own reasons Those who will or won't celebrate for political reasons because it winds up the other lot
Frankly I find the spectacle of the monarchy to be amazing and preposterous in equal measure. The Ste Opening of Parliament was both the kind of pageant that we are experts at and an absurd spectacle in equal measure. And the Jubilee isn't much better.
The problem is that there are people who want to drape themselves in the Union flag to stick it up socialists / nationalists, and those repulsed by it all precisely because of the kind of people who are draped in the flag.
The solution is to steal back flags and symbols from the idiots. Blair got this right with the whole "Cool Britannia" thing (until we all got bored) and the Saltire up here is a national pride thing not a nat identity thing. So it can be done.
I will be attending a couple of local street parties over the Jubilee weekend, including one on our street. I'm not sure that in the real world they are terribly divisive, where we live there are probably not many ardent royalists but attendees will have a range of views from those like me who support a constitutional monarchy to convinced republicans. We will all have a good time because we live in a nice friendly neighbourhood full of lovely people and the events are more about celebrating our community and having a good time than anything royalist or patriotic.
Well, exactly. In Godalming, there will be a street party and the council have decorated the High Street with all the flags of the Commonwealth, which I think is a nice idea. This has triggered a culture war on Facebook (literally hundreds of posts in 24 hours), with zealous monarchists demanding 100% Union Jacks, and zealous anti-imperialists denouncing Union Jacks. Supporters of the council in just celebrating the UK AND the Commonwealth as part of the Jubilee are murmuring wistfully that this should be an occasion for us all to get together, no?
It starts with: "Russia has likely suffered devastating losses amongst its mid and junior ranking officers..."
Whereas all the new outlets are indicating Russian progress, sadly, e.g. the BBC's "Heavy fighting as Russia advances into key eastern city".
No - both things you quote above are true. Russia is taking territory, but slowly, and at great cost.
Ukraine claimed several T62s destroyed yesterday, so it seems Russia is genuinely reduced to throwing in obsolete replacements for their lost equipment.
They still have significantly superior artillery (in numbers, certainly), but recent and ongoing deliveries to Ukraine are beginning to redress the balance. For now there's no real sign of Ukraine's resolve to fight weakening.
The enemy are making small gains of territory, for large losses of equipment. There has to be a question mark over troop morale and equipment replenishment.
There are also some localised losses of territory, as the defenders seek to interrupt supply lines to the enemy.
Those T-62 tanks are cannon fodder for modern anti-tank weapons. It almost seems a waste of a good NLAW on such an ageing hulk of metal.
"In the area of animal welfare, which is my main focus these days, his government has been better than most so far."
Like favoring dogs over people at Kabul airport? At tax-payer' expense?
I would love to be corrected here.
The case for the defence is that the dogs airlift was (I believe) done at Pen Farthing's charity's expense, that they offered to take refugees as well (the dogs were all in the hold so there was plenty of passenger space) but it didn't fit into the planned evacuation (which is fair enough) and that it didn't detract from the rest of the evacuation at all. The only extra burden was for air traffic control to allow them to land and take off, and a few soldiers to let the consignment through the barrier and take them to the plane.
People with various agendas have blown it up into a big issue when I suspect it actually wasn't. But I wasn't there, so all this is second- or third-hand.
That's not correct afaics. There was also an interference with time which should have been spent managing the evacuation rather than pandering to Farthing's actions (his threats of doxxing / online harassment are well documented), and Johnson's consequent intervention.
Plus Farthing's staff received a revised prioritisation over people who's lives were at serious risk.
Josie Stewart evidence: I am not aware of any deliberate decision to prioritise animals over people, and do not believe that this happened intentionally.
In my opinion, however, the decision to approve Nowzad’s Afghan staff under LOTR was not in line with policy, as there was no reason to believe these people should be prioritised under the agreed criteria. The issue also certainly carried significant opportunity cost in terms of the amount of senior civil servant time spent on the case.
This was a classic no-win situation for the government, as they would have received at least as much vitriol had a single dog been left behind. Remember Benji?
Fuck vitriol, life is sometimes about doing what is right.
I am glad from a political view that Labour now seem to have a popular view on the whole trans debate but I am going to be totally honest when I say, it doesn't impact how I vote and I don't know anyone else who it does either.
I can't believe there is somebody that goes, that CoL crisis is terrible and I am struggling to eat but those trans policies are a bridge too far, Tory for me. Am I wrong?
Ah, I see you're missing the point of the focus on the inability or unwillingness to define a woman.
More that you are missing the point that aside from the hyper partisan and the political zealots nobody else cares.
Its a fascinating bit of political bubble projection that people may be made poorer and may be fed up with the government's massive failings but can't vote Labour because of something one of them said about what a woman us.
Politics was much more fun when the grown ups were on both sides. Could have genuine policy debates. Now its more like having to explain to the other side very excited by lady cocks that their issue is very small and the voters are far away.
I’m not sure telling them they are “very small” is the best choice of phrase
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Imperial measures are not going to be 'restored'.
Though some don't need to.
In Britain we drive in miles, drink beer in pints in a pub, my shirt and trousers are measures in inches, football distances are in yards and various others.
Do other countries use yards when measuring football distances ?
Do they refer to 'ten yards' or 'nine and a bit metres' ?
Think football remains imperial. Which is strange. As both codes of rugby, played mainly in the Commonwealth metricised decades ago.
The four home nations have a blocking vote on IFAB, which may not be the case with rugby.
Possibly. Plus Oz and NZ are fully metricated AIUI. I am old enough to remember the 25 yard line. Don't know if they had to remeasure and re-mark pitches?
What's interesting is that 25 yards = 22.86 metres, so I wonder why they went for 22 rather than 23?
Good question. I guess they would have had to change markings then. .86 metres isn't trivial.
Don't know. But a penalty (football) is called an "Elfmeter" around here, which is very close to 12 yards.
Men's jeans are sold in inches. As are screens (usually).
I have been catching up with the UK media this morning with a growing sense of disbelief and even rage. Here in Estonia, we recognise that the war in Ukraine is existential for European democracy. If Ukraine loses, the full force of Russian brutality will go on to challenge every other European democracy, including the UK and Ireland.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
Imperial measures are not going to be 'restored'.
Though some don't need to.
In Britain we drive in miles, drink beer in pints in a pub, my shirt and trousers are measures in inches, football distances are in yards and various others.
Do other countries use yards when measuring football distances ?
Do they refer to 'ten yards' or 'nine and a bit metres' ?
Think football remains imperial. Which is strange. As both codes of rugby, played mainly in the Commonwealth metricised decades ago.
The four home nations have a blocking vote on IFAB, which may not be the case with rugby.
Possibly. Plus Oz and NZ are fully metricated AIUI. I am old enough to remember the 25 yard line. Don't know if they had to remeasure and re-mark pitches?
According to FIFA pitch measurements are first in metric with imperial in brackets, though the metric value is just the old imperial values converted, unless large values such as length of pitch etc, which are whole numbers of metres.
Comments
It's a little tricky to enumerate defections (you'd probably not count whip suspension, fit of pique over deselection, or matters like changes within Ulster Unionism or Scottish Nationalism - but it quickly becomes a bit blurred). However, aside from a big SDP spike in the 1979-83 Parliament (28 to the SDP) and smaller one in the shorter 2017-19 Parliament (11 to Change UK, some going on to the Lib Dems, plus three to the Lib Dems not via ChUK), it's been slow and steady. Only 1983-87 didn't see a "real" defection (John Ryman leaving Labour is hard to classify but certainly wasn't a classic defection) - it's been slow and steady, low single figures counting only "proper" defections.
That's probably a little more than pre-1979 - there were a fair number of whip resignations from the Tories over Suez and Labour over various internal rows, but not floor crossing in the sense we're talking about here.
I'd not be shocked to see a couple more over the remainder of the Parliament - they tend to accelerate a little towards the end as writing appears on walls in some cases, and retirees get demob happy in others.
There are now over 40,000 refugees here, and this is, please remember, in a population of only 1.3 million. The fact that Britain is still imposing visa restrictions in a piecemeal and incompetent way so that essentially only family members of those Ukrainian citizens already in the country are being let in, means the total number of actual refugeesnin Britain is barely more than Estonia, for a country more than 50 times the size. Poland is dealing with over 3.5 million refugees. Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. Across the Baltic there are crowd funding programmes that are buying equipment and supplies for the Ukrainians. In a single day the Lithuanians (total population 2.7 million) funded €5 million for a Bayraktar. However. although I do find the Daily Mail printing any old rubbish about the war irritating, it is the Johnson circus that has been raising my blood pressure.
The British economy is already trying to compete with one hand behind its back. A chaotic tarrif regime, new restrictions and a massive amount of paperwork have had a strongely negative effect on exports. Small and medium size businesses have been disproportionately affected. I notice daily that the number of previously available British products, from Alpen to Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce are no longer available here. This is happening across British export markets.
The response to this is "restore Imperial measurements". In otherwords, impose further costs on the UK economy for no economic gain whatsoever. Basically no one under the age of 60 has been taught the rules of the Imperial system, it is the kind of nostalgia that allows people in the their fifties to talk about the Second World War as though they had anything to do with it. This is a government that thinks going back to the 70s or even the 50s is the solution to their political ills.
Britian has got to escape this absurdity. The nostalgia trap will see us relegated to the lowest economic leagues. The fact that Johnson is doing it to try to save his own worthless political life is simply contemptible.
The Conservative grown ups: Ben Wallace, Therese Coffey, Anne Marie Trevelyan and even Liz Truss, have got to deal with Johnson (and the absurd Rees Mogg) now. The longer this farce continues, the greater the economic damage and the lower the reputation of the country will fall.
'They said ladies can have a penis!'
So, not just catching out but showing what they are prepared to say becsuse they think its 'right' or, just dont want to be yelled at
Tolerating and accepting minority lifestyles and lives lived versus redefining science and sex.
Being kind versus making statements that make you look ridiculous to a great many.
Zahawi is second and Trevelyan third
https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2022/05/cabinet-league-table-johnson-is-back-in-negative-ratings.html
https://twitter.com/MattSingh_/status/1531022737178771456
The news from Eastern Ukraine certainly does. It's starting to look as though the question will be whether Luhansk, Donetsk and the Azov coast will be enough to satisfy Putin, at least for now so that he stops his attacks on the rest of Ukraine.
His past record doesn't exactly inspire hope, and it's quite clear that's not what he wanted.
Any further info from your position on what the Russian government might be thinking?
Isn't the issue that genuine refugees, and there are no doubts about that in this case, want to return home. So it doesn't seem strange to me that they are opting for places close to home.
Now, I'd like to think the rest of the world would help countries around Ukraine financially, but unless we start moving people against their will, I'm not sure what can be done to address this issue.
People with various agendas have blown it up into a big issue when I suspect it actually wasn't. But I wasn't there, so all this is second- or third-hand.
Though some don't need to.
In Britain we drive in miles, drink beer in pints in a pub, my shirt and trousers are measures in inches, football distances are in yards and various others.
(Ans: Brexit was about immigration)
Do they refer to 'ten yards' or 'nine and a bit metres' ?
My only point is to say that wooliedyed can't complain about people being labelled right wing for holding one view when he labels the opposite people left wing.
The conversation ceased to be about Rowling specifically when wooliedyed starting talking about "everyone and everything".
The lack of handwringing in the press in recent weeks suggests that the answer to your question approximates to zero.
You said "Meanwhile the Brits are running around patting themselves on the back thinking that Boris is leading the charge. Um... he really is not. "
We know that Boris has personally
armed and trained the Ukrainian armyled the free world and is a Hero in Ukraine unlike EU quislings in France and Germany.That you would post such heresy in Jubilee week just proves that you are one of those statue-cancelling lady cock advocating wokeist traitors that Leon is always complaining about. You don't even have the decency to post from a leaver patriot place like France. Shame! Shame I say!
So I expect the Conservative Party to lumber on, finding excuse after excuse. 'Not while the Ukraine war is on'. 'We need to give him a chance to get things back on track'. It's too soon.' 'It's too late, we're too close to the election'. 'There's no alternative candidate who can do better.' 'It's just discontented Remainers.'
Of course, in electoral terms the consequences of keeping in office as PM someone every MP, and every member of the party, knows perfectly well is totally unsuited and unworthy will be seriously bad for the Conservatives, probably for many years to come. Actions have consequences, as does inaction. But inaction is the line of least resistance now.
The last thing I heard was La Creasey's "women can be born with a penis" moment. which is half explanatory and half virtue signalling afaics.
I'm not sure that "pro-trans" or "anti-trans" contain any meaning at all, other than as tactics to position people disagreed with politically.
This country is absurd. We sell fuel in litres and measure efficiency in miles per gallon. If the Tories want to debate this then fine - lets complete the job and fully convert to metric.
The KGB had some high profile successes as well as clusterfucks. Social services tend only to manage the latter (for 'high profile' cases).
Apparently he still intends to soldier on as leader of SCons, convinced that he will be FM one day. As someone on the Betfair Horseracing forum used to say when someone opposed his short priced backs, wasfc.
I understand you disagree.
Nobody denies the plane was privately funded. Your point about refugees is nonsensical. the plane had plenty of human passengers, all employees of Farthing, who crucially WOULD HAVE BEEN IN NO DANGER WHATEVER if they had remained in Afghanistan (evidence was given to FAC that other animal welfare operations have continued unhindered by the taliban in Afghanistan, and there was never any reason to suppose that would not be the case). If those placesw were taken by, effectively, economic migrants, they could have been taken by people who have now been tortured to death. actually tortured, to actual death.
FAC evidence is also utterly conclusive that masses of admin time in London was wasted over the issue. I don't know if you have read the FAC evidence and conclusions. I have, and watched a lot of the hearings. It is conclusive. Even if it weren't, I think a lot of people would think that even if there was only a 5% chance that just one person who needed to get out would fail because of time wasted by Farthing, he wshould have been told to fuck off.
But then again, doggies. Awwww.
They were voting to make their lives better.
The details of exactly how this was to happen weren't crucial.
Whodathunkit?
Round here most of what I have seen has been jubilee displays in front windows, and some shops. I'm just off for the daily bike, which will take me past two of the small number of bits of levelling-up I have physically detected - in this case about 400m of a decent cycle path and wider pavement replacing a dangerous turn-left filter lane, and the second is a significantly improved visitor centre in one of our many country parks.
I'll also be going past the Mansfield Petanque Arena. Yes - boules in Mansfield.
Out of politics I like him a lot - warm, funny. charming. Would happily sup a pint with him. I think he is happier out of it too. What do you see in him, taking the totality of it, that would make him a good PM?
It's an absolute outrage.
They insisted on having their own translator on the phone despite being told many times this wasn't necessary. The translator was fucking terrible and not translating accurately. One of the first things they said was something on the lines of, "We've have to make sure you wouldn't be better off somewhere else". This caused both Ukrainians to start weeping volubly. At this point I thought Mrs DA was going to ask to borrow my Ruger 10/22 and I was going to have to spend all night digging shallow graves in the woods.
Perez won last year and should've won for Force India (or maybe Racing Point, it was when Ocon was his team mate) but the two collided (I was annoyed as I'd backed him at about 201 for the win).
Joey R Johnson 👨👨👦🏳️🌈
@Johnson__joey
Mia, 15, in Alexandria, Virginia, has competed in shooting contests since she was seven.
https://twitter.com/Johnson__joey/status/1530499953944055814
Thanks for the piece.
Can I take you off-topic slightly?
How do you compare the activity around HMQ's 70th Jubilee this year, and the corresponding ones for Queen Margrethe II's 50th Jubilee in Denmark, also this year?
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Jubilee_of_Margrethe_II)
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/30/almost-500000-uk-small-businesses-at-risk-of-going-bust-within-weeks
Every other organisation wants cake too.
I am old enough to remember the 25 yard line.
Don't know if they had to remeasure and re-mark pitches?
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/i-m-with-the-gays-how-new-revelations-of-carrie-johnson-gathering-on-boris-birthday-may-derail-his-premiership/ar-AAXRv3U?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=b0b0645a72e941ce87a0cef24c269190
Last year 20k businesses went bust.
Happy to lay the FSB spokesman, or anyone who believes him 10/1 that even 100k businesses go bust in the next 3 months.
What's absurd is not giving up on imposing metric conformity but the hysterical reactions of people who engage in this kind of national psychoanalysis. What you're doing is not all that far removed from Maria Zakharova condemning Ukraine for wanting to claim borscht for itself.
Then customers can use the set of measures that most suit them.
Not that it is a great claim to fame, but I think I may have been the first person on here to change Bojo to Bozo. Please therefore refer to Boris Johnson as "Johnson" (an American name for penis) or Bozo ( A semi-famous clown or the informal word for a particularly stupid person)
I sincerely hope. they won't suggest it for medicine. That really would be 'cat, meet some pigeons!'
@francis_scarr
This is not a parody
Moscow plastic surgeon Yevgeny Dobreykin is promoting his new Росгрудь breast implants for "real patriots"
They're available in camouflage or the colours of the Russian flag
https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1531215281179205632
'Genius, trebles all round!'
More than once, has a plane been in trouble because of fuelling in lb rather than kg.
Apart from those examples, everything in aviation is still in Imperial units - knots and feet.
I really don't understand people who throw labels about who then screech when similar labels are thrown back.
Putin will win by destroying absolutely everything.
What could possibly go wrong?
Compared to a few ferries now and again?
Plus Farthing's staff received a revised prioritisation over people who's lives were at serious risk.
Josie Stewart evidence:
I am not aware of any deliberate decision to prioritise animals over people, and do not believe that this happened intentionally.
In my opinion, however, the decision to approve Nowzad’s Afghan staff under LOTR was not in line with policy, as there was no reason to believe these people should be prioritised under the agreed criteria. The issue also certainly carried significant opportunity cost in terms of the amount of senior civil servant time spent on the case.
Link: (Para 29 on)
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/107001/html/
The Govt are to blame for not putting Farthing back in his box.
There's plenty in the report about the Govt chaos.
https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/22344/documents/165210/default/
Russia is taking territory, but slowly, and at great cost.
Ukraine claimed several T62s destroyed yesterday, so it seems Russia is genuinely reduced to throwing in obsolete replacements for their lost equipment.
They still have significantly superior artillery (in numbers, certainly), but recent and ongoing deliveries to Ukraine are beginning to redress the balance.
For now there's no real sign of Ukraine's resolve to fight weakening.
Men's jeans are sold in inches. As are screens (usually).
I don't see any particular reason why the Orkney and Shetland Islands shouldn't follow the Faroes in having tunnels between some of the islands.
I mainly call him Johnson, because he doesn't want us to. He wants us to call him 'Boris'.
I sometimes have called him 'clown' or 'Clown in Chief' I think.
Then the Chinese joined in and everyone ended up pretty well where' they'd started.
See in Faroe this has been done with tunnels. Why tunnels rather than bridges? Weather conditions?
There are also some localised losses of territory, as the defenders seek to interrupt supply lines to the enemy.
Those T-62 tanks are cannon fodder for modern anti-tank weapons. It almost seems a waste of a good NLAW on such an ageing hulk of metal.