Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Tamworth – the next by-election? – politicalbetting.com

1235

Comments

  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851

    kinabalu said:

    pm215 said:

    kinabalu said:


    Yes the wage price spiral is a real thing. I think the problem comes if it looks like workers in already not particularly well paid jobs are being asked to take one for the team when those who can more afford to do so aren't.

    I agree, but I also think the economics also makes it inevitable. The reason low paid jobs are low paid in the first place is that they tend to be lower-skilled, there's more competition for them and the workers have lower leverage to push for better terms and conditions -- and for exactly the same reasons employers are better able to keep any pay rises for that group of employees low. On the other hand the employees that companies feel they have to give inflation-matching or -busting pay rises to are the ones in roles critical to the company and where employees can just move on to another job if the pay is bad -- exactly the ones who are more highly paid to start with.

    I'm not sure there's much we can do about this beyond ameliorating things on the margin as long as we have an economic system where cleaners and warehouse workers are paid badly for hard, lousy jobs and computer programmers are paid a ton for a pretty cushy gig.
    It's an interesting point. The market. Is it by definition correct in valuing work done? ie because it's supply & demand and there's no feasible alternative method.

    I think there must be a better way of doing it although it's above my paygrade to come up with it. Trouble is, it seems to be above everybody's paygrade. I've read lots of searing critiques of capitalism, many of them utterly compelling, but I haven't come across anything equally compelling setting out a comprehensive alternative. So on the left of politics you end up just doing the best you can to mitigate the worst impacts of a system which is so entrenched it's less a system than a law of nature.

    I also don't think it IS supply & demand much of the time. Eg, city traders (my ex thing). There's no way the money is justified by supply & demand. There are absolutely tons of bright young people who could be quickly trained up to do most of that stuff - it's about numbers and speed of thought - and most of them would be quite happy to do it for a fraction of what the actual wage is. So why doesn't this happen? I think it's because the sector is awash with money - as it takes its slice from the huge sums flowing through it - and this leads to the bloated remuneration. "There's loads, here mate have some."

    But that's just one example. There are many jobs where I look at it and think, supply & demand does not explain those high/low wages.
    So capitalism is the worst system apart from all the others?
    Yes - but with rider "which is disappointing because it sucks."
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,812
    The problem is not capitalism but late capitalism / neo-liberalism.

    Denmark and other places show that alternatives are possible.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,836
    edited July 2022
    kinabalu said:

    pm215 said:

    kinabalu said:


    Yes the wage price spiral is a real thing. I think the problem comes if it looks like workers in already not particularly well paid jobs are being asked to take one for the team when those who can more afford to do so aren't.

    I agree, but I also think the economics also makes it inevitable. The reason low paid jobs are low paid in the first place is that they tend to be lower-skilled, there's more competition for them and the workers have lower leverage to push for better terms and conditions -- and for exactly the same reasons employers are better able to keep any pay rises for that group of employees low. On the other hand the employees that companies feel they have to give inflation-matching or -busting pay rises to are the ones in roles critical to the company and where employees can just move on to another job if the pay is bad -- exactly the ones who are more highly paid to start with.

    I'm not sure there's much we can do about this beyond ameliorating things on the margin as long as we have an economic system where cleaners and warehouse workers are paid badly for hard, lousy jobs and computer programmers are paid a ton for a pretty cushy gig.
    It's an interesting point. The market. Is it by definition correct in valuing work done? ie because it's supply & demand and there's no feasible alternative method.

    I think there must be a better way of doing it although it's above my paygrade to come up with it. Trouble is, it seems to be above everybody's paygrade. I've read lots of searing critiques of capitalism, many of them utterly compelling, but I haven't come across anything equally compelling setting out a comprehensive alternative. So on the left of politics you end up just doing the best you can to mitigate the worst impacts of a system which is so entrenched it's less a system than a law of nature.

    I also don't think it IS supply & demand much of the time. Eg, city traders (my ex thing). There's no way the money is justified by supply & demand. There are absolutely tons of bright young people who could be quickly trained up to do most of that stuff - it's about numbers and speed of thought - and most of them would be quite happy to do it for a fraction of what the actual wage is. So why doesn't this happen? I think it's because the sector is awash with money - as it takes its slice from the huge sums flowing through it - and this leads to the bloated remuneration. "There's loads, here mate have some."

    But that's just one example. There are many jobs where I look at it and think, supply & demand does not explain those high/low wages.
    The public sector is beginning to feel the first stirrings of supply and demand.
    Years of a pay freeze and you have teaching assistants on ZHC and minimum wage.
    It isn't a no qualifications, low-skilled job either.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851
    Leon said:

    Is it bad that the Spirit of Misrule inside me wants a Trump win? Just for the squits and shizzles?

    If that's a serious question and you want a serious answer - yes it's utterly perverse and shows you have a bad heart.
  • valleyboyvalleyboy Posts: 605
    I wonder if Labour would welcome a by election in Tamworth?
    We know that the Midlands are proving resilient for the Tories in local elections, and there is little in the way of a LibDem vote to squeeze.
    You have to go back to 2005 to find a Labour win, with Pincher increasing the Tory vote markedly since 2010.
    Unfortunately I can only see a Tory hold if a by election is held.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,748
    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    A flummery of guff about Templars and the Holy Grail was never going to be a runner to be fair.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Do you have a novel in you, @Cyclefree?
    As long as it's not a trashy novelist..
    She wouldn't. She just wouldn't.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    Looks like it’s about to rain at Silverstone, just at the qualifying session starts.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,718
    Ms Cyclfree, there are some On Line Creative Writing Groups
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851
    Dura_Ace said:

    kle4 said:

    How does Cheney keep going when she may well lose her primary to one of these useless cultish whackos?


    The Republican Accountability Project
    @AccountableGOP

    This wasn't SNL on a Thursday night.

    This was Wyoming's Republican primary debate.

    https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1542866096537145345

    'May well'? I've not been following but I just naturally assumed she had no chance given the stances she's been taking.
    It's interesting why people like that don't cross the floor. But she probably helps the anti-Trumpcase by staying.
    10 years ago she would have been a right wing Republican. She doesn't have much in common with Democrats, apart from finding Trumpism offensive, corrupt and dangerous.
    I just cannot get my head around the fact that Trump is going to be allowed to run despite trying lead an insurrection and is probably going to win and return to the WH.

    America has lost its mind.

    Assuming he doesn't end up in prison. Not that that would necessarily help matters.
    It's only 18 months until the Iowa Caucus! Nowhere near enough time for an indictment, prosecution and exhausting all avenues of appeal.

    Let's tell ourselves the truth. He's going to run and he's probably going to win and will claim to have won anyway in all circumstances.
    We'll see - but I truly don't think he'll see the WH again.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    A flummery of guff about Templars and the Holy Grail was never going to be a runner to be fair.
    I know!

    And there's my offbeat deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,279
    edited July 2022
    valleyboy said:

    I wonder if Labour would welcome a by election in Tamworth?
    We know that the Midlands are proving resilient for the Tories in local elections, and there is little in the way of a LibDem vote to squeeze.
    You have to go back to 2005 to find a Labour win, with Pincher increasing the Tory vote markedly since 2010.
    Unfortunately I can only see a Tory hold if a by election is held.

    There was a by-election in the seat in 1996 at which Labour gained from the Tories with a 22% swing, turning a Conservative majority of 7,000 into a Labour one of 14,000. The name of the constituency was different but the seat was 95% the same as the current one.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_East_Staffordshire_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_1990s
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 14,912
    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    I think there is a bad novel inside all of us. I wrote one during lockdown. Fair play to anyone who becomes a published writer, it's not easy.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,059
    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 11,059
    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    A flummery of guff about Templars and the Holy Grail was never going to be a runner to be fair.
    I know!

    And there's my offbeat deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer.
    Very dark - how does he get shrunk to fit in the memory stick?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,751
    DougSeal said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    A flummery of guff about Templars and the Holy Grail was never going to be a runner to be fair.
    I know!

    And there's my offbeat deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer.
    Very dark - how does he get shrunk to fit in the memory stick?
    It's his unique selling boint.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,248
    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    A flummery of guff about Templars and the Holy Grail was never going to be a runner to be fair.
    I know!

    And there's my offbeat deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer.
    To be fair, a “deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer” sounds quite good

    Will he get out of the memory stick? Will he be able to find his way through the socks (carefully arranged in rows, by colour and type)?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,248

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    I think there is a bad novel inside all of us. I wrote one during lockdown. Fair play to anyone who becomes a published writer, it's not easy.
    There are probably ten bad novels in most people. if you want to be a writer - so I am told - the key is to write the ten rubbish novels, so you then reach the good stuff

    It’s a bit like letting the cold tap run for ages in the summer, until the water runs deliciously fresh and cool
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,038
    Andy_JS said:

    valleyboy said:

    I wonder if Labour would welcome a by election in Tamworth?
    We know that the Midlands are proving resilient for the Tories in local elections, and there is little in the way of a LibDem vote to squeeze.
    You have to go back to 2005 to find a Labour win, with Pincher increasing the Tory vote markedly since 2010.
    Unfortunately I can only see a Tory hold if a by election is held.

    There was a by-election in the seat in 1996 at which Labour gained from the Tories with a 22% swing, turning a Conservative majority of 7,000 into a Labour one of 14,000. The name of the constituency was different but the seat was 95% the same as the current one.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_East_Staffordshire_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_1990s
    A by-election non-gain by Lab in Midlands might actually be helpful as it would show them they haven't done enough and there is a way to go before looking like government-in-waiting.

  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,145
    Sandpit said:

    It’s 9am here and 25 degrees.
    As far as I can tell, it doesn’t fall below 20 at all in July.

    Lucky you, to be somewhere so cold.

    I had 41ºC at 8:30am last week. I think 35ºC is the minimum I’ll see for the next three months.
    15 degC here - albeit with insolation causing warmer corners or radiating off the pavement, patio etc.; light breeze. Very pleasant.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    I think there is a bad novel inside all of us. I wrote one during lockdown. Fair play to anyone who becomes a published writer, it's not easy.
    No, very very hard, esp with no cv or contacts. I guess if it's utterly wow you'll get published somewhere but otherwise probably not.

    You'd write a heartwarming little number I sense?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,739
    If 🛒 didn't know about Pincher as he's claiming, why did he repeatedly refer to him laughingly in no10 as 'pincher by name pincher by nature' long before appointing him...?
    🛒 lying again but even the Pravda-Mail struggling to spin the latest lies...
    #RegimeChange coming

    https://twitter.com/Dominic2306/status/1543208854325977088
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,145
    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    Not at all. Entirely lucid. I have the same thing: if I haven't written for some time, I need to stop and write down my thoughts becasue too many are queuing up. Albeit for academic papers, not the modern equivalent of Lucky Jim or the History Man.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851
    edited July 2022
    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    A flummery of guff about Templars and the Holy Grail was never going to be a runner to be fair.
    I know!

    And there's my offbeat deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer.
    To be fair, a “deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer” sounds quite good

    Will he get out of the memory stick? Will he be able to find his way through the socks (carefully arranged in rows, by colour and type)?
    It wasn't quite *that* offbeat. Missed a trick. :smile:
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,145
    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    A flummery of guff about Templars and the Holy Grail was never going to be a runner to be fair.
    I know!

    And there's my offbeat deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer.
    To be fair, a “deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer” sounds quite good

    Will he get out of the memory stick? Will he be able to find his way through the socks (carefully arranged in rows, by colour and type)?
    No it wasn't quite *that* offbeat. Missed a trick. :smile:
    Or a comma.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851
    Carnyx said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    A flummery of guff about Templars and the Holy Grail was never going to be a runner to be fair.
    I know!

    And there's my offbeat deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer.
    To be fair, a “deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer” sounds quite good

    Will he get out of the memory stick? Will he be able to find his way through the socks (carefully arranged in rows, by colour and type)?
    No it wasn't quite *that* offbeat. Missed a trick. :smile:
    Or a comma.
    Corrected!
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,396
    When I read earlier on this thread that British programmers are paid a "ton", I immediately thought: "That's why so many of them are over here." Two thousand pounds (or even 2240 pounds) is not high pay, unless it is per day, which seems unlikely.

    Using "ton" for a large amount is common here in America, too, even when it is laughably inappropriate, for example, when our weather folks tell us there is a "ton" of snow in the mountains. When I hear that I start thinking how I would estimate how many "tons" there actually were, but it is too hard for me to do in my head, and so far I have never done the work to get even an order of magnitude.

    But that's my literal mind, and I mention it only because I suspect I am not the only one who notices such things. Incidentally, that literalism often makes misplaced obscenities quite amusing, as I try to picture them.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 6,841
    edited July 2022
    Pincher getting 'professional medical help'.there will be no short term resignation
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,751

    When I read earlier on this thread that British programmers are paid a "ton", I immediately thought: "That's why so many of them are over here." Two thousand pounds (or even 2240 pounds) is not high pay, unless it is per day, which seems unlikely.

    Using "ton" for a large amount is common here in America, too, even when it is laughably inappropriate, for example, when our weather folks tell us there is a "ton" of snow in the mountains. When I hear that I start thinking how I would estimate how many "tons" there actually were, but it is too hard for me to do in my head, and so far I have never done the work to get even an order of magnitude.

    But that's my literal mind, and I mention it only because I suspect I am not the only one who notices such things. Incidentally, that literalism often makes misplaced obscenities quite amusing, as I try to picture them.

    Don't take literalism as your metric.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 14,912
    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    I think there is a bad novel inside all of us. I wrote one during lockdown. Fair play to anyone who becomes a published writer, it's not easy.
    No, very very hard, esp with no cv or contacts. I guess if it's utterly wow you'll get published somewhere but otherwise probably not.

    You'd write a heartwarming little number I sense?
    A science fiction thriller set among the centrist dads of South East London.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,145

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    I think there is a bad novel inside all of us. I wrote one during lockdown. Fair play to anyone who becomes a published writer, it's not easy.
    No, very very hard, esp with no cv or contacts. I guess if it's utterly wow you'll get published somewhere but otherwise probably not.

    You'd write a heartwarming little number I sense?
    A science fiction thriller set among the centrist dads of South East London.
    In that case, definitely nicely demarcated from the Brentford Trilogy. Less allotment golf, more Moebius cycle lanes in Foots Cray, I assume?
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    ydoethur said:

    When I read earlier on this thread that British programmers are paid a "ton", I immediately thought: "That's why so many of them are over here." Two thousand pounds (or even 2240 pounds) is not high pay, unless it is per day, which seems unlikely.

    Using "ton" for a large amount is common here in America, too, even when it is laughably inappropriate, for example, when our weather folks tell us there is a "ton" of snow in the mountains. When I hear that I start thinking how I would estimate how many "tons" there actually were, but it is too hard for me to do in my head, and so far I have never done the work to get even an order of magnitude.

    But that's my literal mind, and I mention it only because I suspect I am not the only one who notices such things. Incidentally, that literalism often makes misplaced obscenities quite amusing, as I try to picture them.

    Don't take literalism as your metric.
    An inch of rain is 101 imperial tons per acre. The snow/rain exchange rate is 12:1.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,145
    Foir Saturday pm light relief - interesting and not very long report on a French ice age cave with Great Auk cave drawings, albeit not up to Lascaux, and how they solve the problems of tourist access and future destruction by climate change.

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jul/02/ice-age-provence-cosquer-cave-archaeology
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,751
    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    When I read earlier on this thread that British programmers are paid a "ton", I immediately thought: "That's why so many of them are over here." Two thousand pounds (or even 2240 pounds) is not high pay, unless it is per day, which seems unlikely.

    Using "ton" for a large amount is common here in America, too, even when it is laughably inappropriate, for example, when our weather folks tell us there is a "ton" of snow in the mountains. When I hear that I start thinking how I would estimate how many "tons" there actually were, but it is too hard for me to do in my head, and so far I have never done the work to get even an order of magnitude.

    But that's my literal mind, and I mention it only because I suspect I am not the only one who notices such things. Incidentally, that literalism often makes misplaced obscenities quite amusing, as I try to picture them.

    Don't take literalism as your metric.
    An inch of rain is 101 imperial tons per acre. The snow/rain exchange rate is 12:1.
    I think I prefer your hectaring to your literalism.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,812

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    I think there is a bad novel inside all of us. I wrote one during lockdown. Fair play to anyone who becomes a published writer, it's not easy.
    No, very very hard, esp with no cv or contacts. I guess if it's utterly wow you'll
    get published somewhere but otherwise probably not.

    You'd write a heartwarming little number I sense?
    A science fiction thriller set among the centrist dads of South East London.
    Two large slug-aliens tunnelled under Telegraph Hill, dormant since their spaceship crashed during Napoleonic times and awoken by gentrification-led basement excavation?

    Cool.
  • ApplicantApplicant Posts: 3,379

    When I read earlier on this thread that British programmers are paid a "ton", I immediately thought: "That's why so many of them are over here." Two thousand pounds (or even 2240 pounds) is not high pay, unless it is per day, which seems unlikely.

    Using "ton" for a large amount is common here in America, too, even when it is laughably inappropriate, for example, when our weather folks tell us there is a "ton" of snow in the mountains. When I hear that I start thinking how I would estimate how many "tons" there actually were, but it is too hard for me to do in my head, and so far I have never done the work to get even an order of magnitude.

    But that's my literal mind, and I mention it only because I suspect I am not the only one who notices such things. Incidentally, that literalism often makes misplaced obscenities quite amusing, as I try to picture them.

    Ton can also mean 100, of course.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    ydoethur said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    When I read earlier on this thread that British programmers are paid a "ton", I immediately thought: "That's why so many of them are over here." Two thousand pounds (or even 2240 pounds) is not high pay, unless it is per day, which seems unlikely.

    Using "ton" for a large amount is common here in America, too, even when it is laughably inappropriate, for example, when our weather folks tell us there is a "ton" of snow in the mountains. When I hear that I start thinking how I would estimate how many "tons" there actually were, but it is too hard for me to do in my head, and so far I have never done the work to get even an order of magnitude.

    But that's my literal mind, and I mention it only because I suspect I am not the only one who notices such things. Incidentally, that literalism often makes misplaced obscenities quite amusing, as I try to picture them.

    Don't take literalism as your metric.
    An inch of rain is 101 imperial tons per acre. The snow/rain exchange rate is 12:1.
    I think I prefer your hectaring to your literalism.
    I was honing my dramatic skills with a post in the voice of HYUFD.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,145
    Applicant said:

    When I read earlier on this thread that British programmers are paid a "ton", I immediately thought: "That's why so many of them are over here." Two thousand pounds (or even 2240 pounds) is not high pay, unless it is per day, which seems unlikely.

    Using "ton" for a large amount is common here in America, too, even when it is laughably inappropriate, for example, when our weather folks tell us there is a "ton" of snow in the mountains. When I hear that I start thinking how I would estimate how many "tons" there actually were, but it is too hard for me to do in my head, and so far I have never done the work to get even an order of magnitude.

    But that's my literal mind, and I mention it only because I suspect I am not the only one who notices such things. Incidentally, that literalism often makes misplaced obscenities quite amusing, as I try to picture them.

    Ton can also mean 100, of course.
    "Ton-up Tony" on his bike? 100mph?
  • ApplicantApplicant Posts: 3,379
    ydoethur said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    When I read earlier on this thread that British programmers are paid a "ton", I immediately thought: "That's why so many of them are over here." Two thousand pounds (or even 2240 pounds) is not high pay, unless it is per day, which seems unlikely.

    Using "ton" for a large amount is common here in America, too, even when it is laughably inappropriate, for example, when our weather folks tell us there is a "ton" of snow in the mountains. When I hear that I start thinking how I would estimate how many "tons" there actually were, but it is too hard for me to do in my head, and so far I have never done the work to get even an order of magnitude.

    But that's my literal mind, and I mention it only because I suspect I am not the only one who notices such things. Incidentally, that literalism often makes misplaced obscenities quite amusing, as I try to picture them.

    Don't take literalism as your metric.
    An inch of rain is 101 imperial tons per acre. The snow/rain exchange rate is 12:1.
    I think I prefer your hectaring to your literalism.
    Go on, pound the message home.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    Carlos Sainz!
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,396
    IshmaelZ - The mountains I was referring to are our Cascades, which range from near sea level to 14,411 feet (Mt. Rainier), so the amounts of snow they receive varies, considerably. Just to complicate things further, the snow is much wetter and heavier on the west side of the Cascades than the east side.
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,336
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 47,787
    Anyone can do it.

    image
  • TheValiantTheValiant Posts: 1,678
    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    Because these days there are self service trolley checkouts too?
    Every supermarket round my way has three or four options:

    Regular cashier (getting less and less these days)
    Self service basket
    Self service trolley
    And sometimes a seperate 'Scan and Go' (or whatever you call them).

    Obviously, don't take a trolley to a self service basket, but after that, everything pretty much seems okay.

    The thing that pisses me off is the random checks[1]. I learnt the hard way that if I wanted five packets of noodles and each one was a different flavour, then they all needed scanning. I couldn't scan one Chicken and hit five [2] and it'd be okay.

    Got selected for a random check. Of course, it failed and I had to take the whole lot (already bagged up nice and neat) through a cashier and unload the whole lot and rebag it. Got my own back however, as it rang through lower.... [3]

    [1] If I'm going to nick something, I'd damn well just going to nick it. A random check isn't going to stop me.
    [2] Yes yes, the accountant in me tells me they are using this for stock levels as well, so what I did I shouldn't have done, same price or not.
    [3] Forgot to put one item out (can't recall how) and only realised after I'd fished it out the bottom of the trolley at the car. Just sighed and drove off, couldn't be bothered.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,248
    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    I think there is a bad novel inside all of us. I wrote one during lockdown. Fair play to anyone who becomes a published writer, it's not easy.
    No, very very hard, esp with no cv or contacts. I guess if it's utterly wow you'll get published somewhere but otherwise probably not.

    You'd write a heartwarming little number I sense?
    Be of good cheer. Getting published does not depend on “contacts”

    It does require persistence. Also helps if you’re young, female, pretty and black - but hey Ho
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,038

    David Frum
    @davidfrum
    As ever, the core fact of American politics is that the Republican base is stronger than the Democratic base; but the Democratic potential coalition is bigger than the Republican potential coalition. 11/x

    https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1543197854906335232
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,933
    F1: interesting qualifying.

    Not happy times at Aston Martin. They seemed to do better when they had less money...
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 14,912

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    I think there is a bad novel inside all of us. I wrote one during lockdown. Fair play to anyone who becomes a published writer, it's not easy.
    No, very very hard, esp with no cv or contacts. I guess if it's utterly wow you'll
    get published somewhere but otherwise probably not.

    You'd write a heartwarming little number I sense?
    A science fiction thriller set among the centrist dads of South East London.
    Two large slug-aliens tunnelled under Telegraph Hill, dormant since their spaceship crashed during Napoleonic times and awoken by gentrification-led basement excavation?

    Cool.
    Uncanny. Are you a literary agent?
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614

    F1: interesting qualifying.

    Not happy times at Aston Martin. They seemed to do better when they had less money...

    Would you want to work for Lawrence Stroll?
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 3,869
    Carnyx said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    A flummery of guff about Templars and the Holy Grail was never going to be a runner to be fair.
    I know!

    And there's my offbeat deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer.
    To be fair, a “deeply creepy black comedy about an alienated insurance clerk confined to a memory stick in my sock drawer” sounds quite good

    Will he get out of the memory stick? Will he be able to find his way through the socks (carefully arranged in rows, by colour and type)?
    No it wasn't quite *that* offbeat. Missed a trick. :smile:
    Or a comma.
    Or a full stop at the end of a paragraph.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    IshmaelZ - The mountains I was referring to are our Cascades, which range from near sea level to 14,411 feet (Mt. Rainier), so the amounts of snow they receive varies, considerably. Just to complicate things further, the snow is much wetter and heavier on the west side of the Cascades than the east side.

    And getting true acreages of actual surface area of mountain rather than mountain's footprint on map is also tricky. I'd just go with trad estimates e.g. a fuckton of snow.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 24,585
    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    It was only a small trolley. I thought they were allowed. Sorry.
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,933
    Mr. Sandpit, usually I watch video game and history stuff on Youtube to waste time but occasionally watch F1 vids and the little I've seen suggests he'd be a pain in the arse.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 14,087
    Scott_xP said:

    If 🛒 didn't know about Pincher as he's claiming, why did he repeatedly refer to him laughingly in no10 as 'pincher by name pincher by nature' long before appointing him...?
    🛒 lying again but even the Pravda-Mail struggling to spin the latest lies...
    #RegimeChange coming

    https://twitter.com/Dominic2306/status/1543208854325977088

    Imagine someone who knew that a politician was a terrible person, but backed them anyway.

    That person would look really silly if it all came out.
  • Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,396
    Here's a thought for those who would like to be published authors: In an afterword to the first story in his collection, "The River of Time" science fiction writer David Brin says: "About half of the profesionally published short fiction in the English language is science fiction, beause of the thriving SF magazines." And he adds that they are friendly to beginners, as he was when he wrote those stories.

    He's describing the publishing scene in the mid 1980's, when he began transitioning from being a scientit to being science fiction writer. I don't know whether what he said then is still true, but those who aspire to be published might want to check it out.

    (And that collection? I like it, though the stories in it vary. I decided after reading it that Brin was teaching himself to be a science ficiton writer by doing a series of exercises. For example, one of the stories is exactly 250 words.)
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,739

    Imagine someone who knew that a politician was a terrible person, but backed them anyway.

    That person would look really silly if it all came out.

    Dom actually thought BoZo would do what he told him, for ever.

    How silly was that?
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,343
    edit
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 14,772

    When I read earlier on this thread that British programmers are paid a "ton", I immediately thought: "That's why so many of them are over here." Two thousand pounds (or even 2240 pounds) is not high pay, unless it is per day, which seems unlikely.

    Using "ton" for a large amount is common here in America, too, even when it is laughably inappropriate, for example, when our weather folks tell us there is a "ton" of snow in the mountains. When I hear that I start thinking how I would estimate how many "tons" there actually were, but it is too hard for me to do in my head, and so far I have never done the work to get even an order of magnitude.

    But that's my literal mind, and I mention it only because I suspect I am not the only one who notices such things. Incidentally, that literalism often makes misplaced obscenities quite amusing, as I try to picture them.

    It's not so hard to estimate tons of snow. One millimetre of rain is one centimetre of snow is one kilogramme of water per square metre.

    Therefore, six inches of snow is 15 kgs per square metre, or about 38,400 tonnes per square mile, or a bit more than 42,300 US tons per square mile. So, near enough, you can say that each inch of snow is a bit more than 7,000 US tons per square mile.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,067

    Here's a thought for those who would like to be published authors: In an afterword to the first story in his collection, "The River of Time" science fiction writer David Brin says: "About half of the profesionally published short fiction in the English language is science fiction, beause of the thriving SF magazines." And he adds that they are friendly to beginners, as he was when he wrote those stories.

    He's describing the publishing scene in the mid 1980's, when he began transitioning from being a scientit to being science fiction writer. I don't know whether what he said then is still true, but those who aspire to be published might want to check it out.

    (And that collection? I like it, though the stories in it vary. I decided after reading it that Brin was teaching himself to be a science ficiton writer by doing a series of exercises. For example, one of the stories is exactly 250 words.)

    Writing popular fiction is like writing tabloid journalism. Anyone looking at it thinks "any moron could write that" but the reality is that it takes a particular rare sort of moron.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,343

    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    It was only a small trolley. I thought they were allowed. Sorry.
    Some younger people are unaware of the existence of non self serve checkouts. (Also unaware of: banks; cheques; radio; CDs; cash; men's hats; gaiters; spats; ties; why Christmas; voting; stamps; greetings cards; non digital/social media activity; non amplified music; lots more.)

  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,019
    Just landed at Heathrow. Got through UK border passport control in 3.5 minutes.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851
    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    I think there is a bad novel inside all of us. I wrote one during lockdown. Fair play to anyone who becomes a published writer, it's not easy.
    No, very very hard, esp with no cv or contacts. I guess if it's utterly wow you'll get published somewhere but otherwise probably not.

    You'd write a heartwarming little number I sense?
    Be of good cheer. Getting published does not depend on “contacts”

    It does require persistence. Also helps if you’re young, female, pretty and black - but hey Ho
    Well everything except professional association football is helped by contacts.

    And I am quite pretty in a certain light - a dim and fuzzy one.

    But anyway, no longer an ambition. Over it now. Happy to just travel.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,739
    Two letters written by a young Mr Johnson have now emerged in which he argued passionately for the return of what are known in Greece as the Parthenon Marbles, accusing Lord Elgin of “wholesale pillage” in removing them to Britain https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/02/boris-johnson-denounced-government-not-returning-elgin-marbles/?utm_content=politics&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1656775217-2
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 14,772

    Here's a thought for those who would like to be published authors: In an afterword to the first story in his collection, "The River of Time" science fiction writer David Brin says: "About half of the profesionally published short fiction in the English language is science fiction, beause of the thriving SF magazines." And he adds that they are friendly to beginners, as he was when he wrote those stories.

    He's describing the publishing scene in the mid 1980's, when he began transitioning from being a scientit to being science fiction writer. I don't know whether what he said then is still true, but those who aspire to be published might want to check it out.

    (And that collection? I like it, though the stories in it vary. I decided after reading it that Brin was teaching himself to be a science ficiton writer by doing a series of exercises. For example, one of the stories is exactly 250 words.)

    There seems to be quite a healthy market for fantasy/science fiction very short stories. I think there are different names for different words lengths, for example a drabble is exactly one hundred words.

    A friend of mine has been writing some short things for fun and has had a few of them published in various collections.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 12,741

    Just landed at Heathrow. Got through UK border passport control in 3.5 minutes.

    I thought the problems were faced by those with the temerity to want to leave the country.

    When we returned from our holiday, we had absolutely no issues.
  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 2,701
    Scott_xP said:

    Two letters written by a young Mr Johnson have now emerged in which he argued passionately for the return of what are known in Greece as the Parthenon Marbles, accusing Lord Elgin of “wholesale pillage” in removing them to Britain https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/02/boris-johnson-denounced-government-not-returning-elgin-marbles/?utm_content=politics&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1656775217-2

    Is there not a physical law requiring the existence of two equally passionate letters arguing the opposite case?
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,336

    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    Because these days there are self service trolley checkouts too?
    Every supermarket round my way has three or four options:

    Regular cashier (getting less and less these days)
    Self service basket
    Self service trolley
    And sometimes a seperate 'Scan and Go' (or whatever you call them).

    Obviously, don't take a trolley to a self service basket, but after that, everything pretty much seems okay.

    The thing that pisses me off is the random checks[1]. I learnt the hard way that if I wanted five packets of noodles and each one was a different flavour, then they all needed scanning. I couldn't scan one Chicken and hit five [2] and it'd be okay.

    Got selected for a random check. Of course, it failed and I had to take the whole lot (already bagged up nice and neat) through a cashier and unload the whole lot and rebag it. Got my own back however, as it rang through lower.... [3]

    [1] If I'm going to nick something, I'd damn well just going to nick it. A random check isn't going to stop me.
    [2] Yes yes, the accountant in me tells me they are using this for stock levels as well, so what I did I shouldn't have done, same price or not.
    [3] Forgot to put one item out (can't recall how) and only realised after I'd fished it out the bottom of the trolley at the car. Just sighed and drove off, couldn't be bothered.
    I notice my local Tesco has just installed turnstyle type entry lanes into the shop and exit barriers at all the checkout lanes, lockable and very sturdy. Is this a reaction to stealing or getting ready for armageddon in the Autumn?
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 50,770

    Just landed at Heathrow. Got through UK border passport control in 3.5 minutes.

    I blame Brexit.
  • Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,336

    Anyone can do it.

    image
    apologies, I'm not a real twitter or facebook user at all
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,038
    The Senate race in crucial PA looks like it is going to be really tight.

    538 have a new dashboard up:

    https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/senate/
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851

    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    Because these days there are self service trolley checkouts too?
    Every supermarket round my way has three or four options:

    Regular cashier (getting less and less these days)
    Self service basket
    Self service trolley
    And sometimes a seperate 'Scan and Go' (or whatever you call them).

    Obviously, don't take a trolley to a self service basket, but after that, everything pretty much seems okay.

    The thing that pisses me off is the random checks[1]. I learnt the hard way that if I wanted five packets of noodles and each one was a different flavour, then they all needed scanning. I couldn't scan one Chicken and hit five [2] and it'd be okay.

    Got selected for a random check. Of course, it failed and I had to take the whole lot (already bagged up nice and neat) through a cashier and unload the whole lot and rebag it. Got my own back however, as it rang through lower.... [3]

    [1] If I'm going to nick something, I'd damn well just going to nick it. A random check isn't going to stop me.
    [2] Yes yes, the accountant in me tells me they are using this for stock levels as well, so what I did I shouldn't have done, same price or not.
    [3] Forgot to put one item out (can't recall how) and only realised after I'd fished it out the bottom of the trolley at the car. Just sighed and drove off, couldn't be bothered.
    That was very unlucky. I've never been selected for a random check at Waitrose and just between the two of us I've occasionally been in a position where such a check would have had me with questions to answer. Nothing too venal or calculated, I hasten to add, just maybe the odd item that's slipped through the cracks.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 12,741
    Catching up on late world electoral news, I missed the Grenada election on June 23rd which saw the centrist National Democratic Congress (NDC) sweep aside more than a decade of absolute rule by the centre-right New National Party (NNP).

    In the last two elections for the 15-member House of Representatives, the NNP won all 15 seats so since 2008 they have had complete control of the House.

    As Labour also discovered in Newham this May, nothing lasts forever and this time NNP lost 9 seats to the returning NDC on a swing of 11.2%.

    Veteran NNP leader Keith Mitchell, who had served one period of 13 years as Prime Minister from 1995-2008 and another 9 years from 2013, had to concede defeat to Dickon Mitchell (no relation) of the NDC.

    Mitchell has led the NNP since January 1989 when there was still a Berlin Wall and Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister in the UK and at 75 this may be his last hurrah though for now he remains NNP leader.

    Dickon Mitchell had, like the rest of NDC, not even been in Parliament before winning the Party leadership in October 2021 and moving straight to the top job at the age of 43.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,019
    stodge said:

    Just landed at Heathrow. Got through UK border passport control in 3.5 minutes.

    I thought the problems were faced by those with the temerity to want to leave the country.

    When we returned from our holiday, we had absolutely no issues.
    It was 8 minutes existing passport control in Bulgaria.

    The problems at Heathrow are with hooking up jetties and baggage collection where it's taking fricking ages due to staff shortages.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 20,454

    The Senate race in crucial PA looks like it is going to be really tight.

    538 have a new dashboard up:

    https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/senate/

    I wonder which way the Supreme Court will go if contested.....
  • BurgessianBurgessian Posts: 2,394
    Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, seems to be gaining traction. This was quite a take-down of Nicola (on cancer treatment). Wonder if the rush to an attempted referendum could backfire?

    https://twitter.com/Iainmackay8/status/1542502680572022784
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 50,770
    kinabalu said:

    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    Because these days there are self service trolley checkouts too?
    Every supermarket round my way has three or four options:

    Regular cashier (getting less and less these days)
    Self service basket
    Self service trolley
    And sometimes a seperate 'Scan and Go' (or whatever you call them).

    Obviously, don't take a trolley to a self service basket, but after that, everything pretty much seems okay.

    The thing that pisses me off is the random checks[1]. I learnt the hard way that if I wanted five packets of noodles and each one was a different flavour, then they all needed scanning. I couldn't scan one Chicken and hit five [2] and it'd be okay.

    Got selected for a random check. Of course, it failed and I had to take the whole lot (already bagged up nice and neat) through a cashier and unload the whole lot and rebag it. Got my own back however, as it rang through lower.... [3]

    [1] If I'm going to nick something, I'd damn well just going to nick it. A random check isn't going to stop me.
    [2] Yes yes, the accountant in me tells me they are using this for stock levels as well, so what I did I shouldn't have done, same price or not.
    [3] Forgot to put one item out (can't recall how) and only realised after I'd fished it out the bottom of the trolley at the car. Just sighed and drove off, couldn't be bothered.
    That was very unlucky. I've never been selected for a random check at Waitrose and just between the two of us I've occasionally been in a position where such a check would have had me with questions to answer. Nothing too venal or calculated, I hasten to add, just maybe the odd item that's slipped through the cracks.
    Really?

    When I was a child I once managed to take a bus into town and deliberately failed to catch the conductor's eye (this being a clue as to how long ago this was). I succeeded in my experiment but immediately went to the bus station office and insisted on paying the fare I had omitted to pay. I have tried to live to that standard my whole life, whether returning excess change or pointing out when a bill omitted something.

    I am genuinely surprised you would make a statement of such a thing.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 50,770

    Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, seems to be gaining traction. This was quite a take-down of Nicola (on cancer treatment). Wonder if the rush to an attempted referendum could backfire?

    https://twitter.com/Iainmackay8/status/1542502680572022784

    He's doing much, much better than I expected. From a Unionist perspective this is hopeful.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 12,741

    stodge said:

    Just landed at Heathrow. Got through UK border passport control in 3.5 minutes.

    I thought the problems were faced by those with the temerity to want to leave the country.

    When we returned from our holiday, we had absolutely no issues.
    It was 8 minutes existing passport control in Bulgaria.

    The problems at Heathrow are with hooking up jetties and baggage collection where it's taking fricking ages due to staff shortages.
    Indeed - our last holiday was a cruise and there seemed to be no shortage of staff at Southampton - there was, however, a shortage of passengers. We travelled on a ship which was 45% full which was an extraordinary experience. Instead of fighting to get service at bars and buffet you could just walk up...

    The cruise line could not have made a dime (or a penny) on the trip - next journey was 90% full but I'm hearing mixed stories of ships travelling with reduced numbers and some instances of Covid onboard (albeit these are well managed by the ship and crew).

    Cruise ships are not immune to rising fuel and energy prices - the newer ships run on LNG and that's not without issues either.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 20,454
    DavidL said:

    kinabalu said:

    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    Because these days there are self service trolley checkouts too?
    Every supermarket round my way has three or four options:

    Regular cashier (getting less and less these days)
    Self service basket
    Self service trolley
    And sometimes a seperate 'Scan and Go' (or whatever you call them).

    Obviously, don't take a trolley to a self service basket, but after that, everything pretty much seems okay.

    The thing that pisses me off is the random checks[1]. I learnt the hard way that if I wanted five packets of noodles and each one was a different flavour, then they all needed scanning. I couldn't scan one Chicken and hit five [2] and it'd be okay.

    Got selected for a random check. Of course, it failed and I had to take the whole lot (already bagged up nice and neat) through a cashier and unload the whole lot and rebag it. Got my own back however, as it rang through lower.... [3]

    [1] If I'm going to nick something, I'd damn well just going to nick it. A random check isn't going to stop me.
    [2] Yes yes, the accountant in me tells me they are using this for stock levels as well, so what I did I shouldn't have done, same price or not.
    [3] Forgot to put one item out (can't recall how) and only realised after I'd fished it out the bottom of the trolley at the car. Just sighed and drove off, couldn't be bothered.
    That was very unlucky. I've never been selected for a random check at Waitrose and just between the two of us I've occasionally been in a position where such a check would have had me with questions to answer. Nothing too venal or calculated, I hasten to add, just maybe the odd item that's slipped through the cracks.
    Really?

    When I was a child I once managed to take a bus into town and deliberately failed to catch the conductor's eye (this being a clue as to how long ago this was). I succeeded in my experiment but immediately went to the bus station office and insisted on paying the fare I had omitted to pay. I have tried to live to that standard my whole life, whether returning excess change or pointing out when a bill omitted something.

    I am genuinely surprised you would make a statement of such a thing.
    There are inevitably errors both sides with supermarket shopping.

    Take two scenarios:

    1. Shopper gets home and finds they have an item for free.
    2. Shopper gets home and finds they have been charged twice for an item.

    If the shopper is expected to contact the supermarket for 1 then the supermarkets must expect to refund in scenario 2. I really doubt they consistently would refund in that scenario, or many customers would feel comfortable requesting such a refund.

    Given the costs of processing the refund for both parties in time and possibly travel or phone for the customer, outweigh most supermarket items anyway, surely the right thing to do is assume scenarios 1 and 2 broadly match over time and ignore any discrepancies found?
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 20,454

    The Senate race in crucial PA looks like it is going to be really tight.

    538 have a new dashboard up:

    https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/senate/

    They are also quite different to the BF market on the Senate overall.

    https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-republicans-are-favored-to-win-the-house-but-not-the-senate/

    BF Rep Senate 1.58-1.62

    * On BF 2 Dems do not count as Dems, so the potential value lies with NOM not Dem.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,739
    @DPJHodges @mailplus EXPLOSIVE NEW DETAIL - The MoS has been told that in 2020, during a discussion about whether to appoint Mr Pincher to the post of Chief Whip, the Prime Minister told aides: ‘He’s handsy, that’s a problem. Pincher by name, pincher by nature’.
    https://twitter.com/MoS_Politics/status/1543264066893922305
  • ApplicantApplicant Posts: 3,379
    Aye.


  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,739
    Applicant said:

    Aye.


    Only 3 years old?
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,038
    OMG.


    Enda O'Dowd
    @endajodowd
    The highlights from yesterday's debate featuring the Republican candidates for the Governor of Arizona

    https://twitter.com/endajodowd/status/1542915789845561346

    ===

    Definitely one for @leon about half way through when one candidate asks why we can't treat human life like we would alien life. I think it was a point about abortion but who can tell with this collection of nutjobs.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 14,772

    DavidL said:

    kinabalu said:

    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    Because these days there are self service trolley checkouts too?
    Every supermarket round my way has three or four options:

    Regular cashier (getting less and less these days)
    Self service basket
    Self service trolley
    And sometimes a seperate 'Scan and Go' (or whatever you call them).

    Obviously, don't take a trolley to a self service basket, but after that, everything pretty much seems okay.

    The thing that pisses me off is the random checks[1]. I learnt the hard way that if I wanted five packets of noodles and each one was a different flavour, then they all needed scanning. I couldn't scan one Chicken and hit five [2] and it'd be okay.

    Got selected for a random check. Of course, it failed and I had to take the whole lot (already bagged up nice and neat) through a cashier and unload the whole lot and rebag it. Got my own back however, as it rang through lower.... [3]

    [1] If I'm going to nick something, I'd damn well just going to nick it. A random check isn't going to stop me.
    [2] Yes yes, the accountant in me tells me they are using this for stock levels as well, so what I did I shouldn't have done, same price or not.
    [3] Forgot to put one item out (can't recall how) and only realised after I'd fished it out the bottom of the trolley at the car. Just sighed and drove off, couldn't be bothered.
    That was very unlucky. I've never been selected for a random check at Waitrose and just between the two of us I've occasionally been in a position where such a check would have had me with questions to answer. Nothing too venal or calculated, I hasten to add, just maybe the odd item that's slipped through the cracks.
    Really?

    When I was a child I once managed to take a bus into town and deliberately failed to catch the conductor's eye (this being a clue as to how long ago this was). I succeeded in my experiment but immediately went to the bus station office and insisted on paying the fare I had omitted to pay. I have tried to live to that standard my whole life, whether returning excess change or pointing out when a bill omitted something.

    I am genuinely surprised you would make a statement of such a thing.
    There are inevitably errors both sides with supermarket shopping.

    Take two scenarios:

    1. Shopper gets home and finds they have an item for free.
    2. Shopper gets home and finds they have been charged twice for an item.

    If the shopper is expected to contact the supermarket for 1 then the supermarkets must expect to refund in scenario 2. I really doubt they consistently would refund in that scenario, or many customers would feel comfortable requesting such a refund.

    Given the costs of processing the refund for both parties in time and possibly travel or phone for the customer, outweigh most supermarket items anyway, surely the right thing to do is assume scenarios 1 and 2 broadly match over time and ignore any discrepancies found?
    I've been given refunds by a supermarket when items that were scanned as part of an online delivery didn't turn up in the boxes of groceries that I emptied, and I confused a checkout assistant at Lidl once by going back to the checkout to pay for a cucumber that hadn't scanned.

    I'd find it very hard to let it slide either way. One time when a vending machine disbursed two chocolate bars for the price of one I felt compelled to pay the extra 35p so that the next person using the vending machine would benefit in my place.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941
    Scott_xP said:
    Single market or not, it wouldn't have helped. See Amsterdam, for example.
  • TheValiantTheValiant Posts: 1,678
    kinabalu said:


    That was very unlucky. I've never been selected for a random check at Waitrose ......

    You what? Never? I get them all the time in the regular supermarkets. Is your lack of checks a Waitrose thing (I don't shop there) or my regular checks a 'You're probably a thieving scouser, you thieving scouser!' thing I wonder?

  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,748
    edited July 2022

    Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, seems to be gaining traction. This was quite a take-down of Nicola (on cancer treatment). Wonder if the rush to an attempted referendum could backfire?

    https://twitter.com/Iainmackay8/status/1542502680572022784

    Gaining traction with Huggy Bear, husband, father of 3, Scottish & British, Rangers, F1, Not a fan of the SNP #no2np? Golly, bit of a turn up for the books and no mistake.

    Is Nicola still around? I was told that she was off to pastures new (PB 2020-2022).
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,620

    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    Because these days there are self service trolley checkouts too?
    Every supermarket round my way has three or four options:

    Regular cashier (getting less and less these days)
    Self service basket
    Self service trolley
    And sometimes a seperate 'Scan and Go' (or whatever you call them).

    Obviously, don't take a trolley to a self service basket, but after that, everything pretty much seems okay.

    The thing that pisses me off is the random checks[1]. I learnt the hard way that if I wanted five packets of noodles and each one was a different flavour, then they all needed scanning. I couldn't scan one Chicken and hit five [2] and it'd be okay.

    Got selected for a random check. Of course, it failed and I had to take the whole lot (already bagged up nice and neat) through a cashier and unload the whole lot and rebag it. Got my own back however, as it rang through lower.... [3]

    [1] If I'm going to nick something, I'd damn well just going to nick it. A random check isn't going to stop me.
    [2] Yes yes, the accountant in me tells me they are using this for stock levels as well, so what I did I shouldn't have done, same price or not.
    [3] Forgot to put one item out (can't recall how) and only realised after I'd fished it out the bottom of the trolley at the car. Just sighed and drove off, couldn't be bothered.
    I notice my local Tesco has just installed turnstyle type entry lanes into the shop and exit barriers at all the checkout lanes, lockable and very sturdy. Is this a reaction to stealing or getting ready for armageddon in the Autumn?
    A large number of customer retail shops are investing heavily in self-checkout systems.

    Amazon Fresh is the future of your local supermarket, probably. And Pret, Itsu etc
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 50,770

    DavidL said:

    kinabalu said:

    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    Because these days there are self service trolley checkouts too?
    Every supermarket round my way has three or four options:

    Regular cashier (getting less and less these days)
    Self service basket
    Self service trolley
    And sometimes a seperate 'Scan and Go' (or whatever you call them).

    Obviously, don't take a trolley to a self service basket, but after that, everything pretty much seems okay.

    The thing that pisses me off is the random checks[1]. I learnt the hard way that if I wanted five packets of noodles and each one was a different flavour, then they all needed scanning. I couldn't scan one Chicken and hit five [2] and it'd be okay.

    Got selected for a random check. Of course, it failed and I had to take the whole lot (already bagged up nice and neat) through a cashier and unload the whole lot and rebag it. Got my own back however, as it rang through lower.... [3]

    [1] If I'm going to nick something, I'd damn well just going to nick it. A random check isn't going to stop me.
    [2] Yes yes, the accountant in me tells me they are using this for stock levels as well, so what I did I shouldn't have done, same price or not.
    [3] Forgot to put one item out (can't recall how) and only realised after I'd fished it out the bottom of the trolley at the car. Just sighed and drove off, couldn't be bothered.
    That was very unlucky. I've never been selected for a random check at Waitrose and just between the two of us I've occasionally been in a position where such a check would have had me with questions to answer. Nothing too venal or calculated, I hasten to add, just maybe the odd item that's slipped through the cracks.
    Really?

    When I was a child I once managed to take a bus into town and deliberately failed to catch the conductor's eye (this being a clue as to how long ago this was). I succeeded in my experiment but immediately went to the bus station office and insisted on paying the fare I had omitted to pay. I have tried to live to that standard my whole life, whether returning excess change or pointing out when a bill omitted something.

    I am genuinely surprised you would make a statement of such a thing.
    There are inevitably errors both sides with supermarket shopping.

    Take two scenarios:

    1. Shopper gets home and finds they have an item for free.
    2. Shopper gets home and finds they have been charged twice for an item.

    If the shopper is expected to contact the supermarket for 1 then the supermarkets must expect to refund in scenario 2. I really doubt they consistently would refund in that scenario, or many customers would feel comfortable requesting such a refund.

    Given the costs of processing the refund for both parties in time and possibly travel or phone for the customer, outweigh most supermarket items anyway, surely the right thing to do is assume scenarios 1 and 2 broadly match over time and ignore any discrepancies found?
    Oh sure, mistakes happen. But "the odd item that has slipped through the cracks" didn't sound like an accident. If it was a joke I apologise.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 20,454

    DavidL said:

    kinabalu said:

    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    Because these days there are self service trolley checkouts too?
    Every supermarket round my way has three or four options:

    Regular cashier (getting less and less these days)
    Self service basket
    Self service trolley
    And sometimes a seperate 'Scan and Go' (or whatever you call them).

    Obviously, don't take a trolley to a self service basket, but after that, everything pretty much seems okay.

    The thing that pisses me off is the random checks[1]. I learnt the hard way that if I wanted five packets of noodles and each one was a different flavour, then they all needed scanning. I couldn't scan one Chicken and hit five [2] and it'd be okay.

    Got selected for a random check. Of course, it failed and I had to take the whole lot (already bagged up nice and neat) through a cashier and unload the whole lot and rebag it. Got my own back however, as it rang through lower.... [3]

    [1] If I'm going to nick something, I'd damn well just going to nick it. A random check isn't going to stop me.
    [2] Yes yes, the accountant in me tells me they are using this for stock levels as well, so what I did I shouldn't have done, same price or not.
    [3] Forgot to put one item out (can't recall how) and only realised after I'd fished it out the bottom of the trolley at the car. Just sighed and drove off, couldn't be bothered.
    That was very unlucky. I've never been selected for a random check at Waitrose and just between the two of us I've occasionally been in a position where such a check would have had me with questions to answer. Nothing too venal or calculated, I hasten to add, just maybe the odd item that's slipped through the cracks.
    Really?

    When I was a child I once managed to take a bus into town and deliberately failed to catch the conductor's eye (this being a clue as to how long ago this was). I succeeded in my experiment but immediately went to the bus station office and insisted on paying the fare I had omitted to pay. I have tried to live to that standard my whole life, whether returning excess change or pointing out when a bill omitted something.

    I am genuinely surprised you would make a statement of such a thing.
    There are inevitably errors both sides with supermarket shopping.

    Take two scenarios:

    1. Shopper gets home and finds they have an item for free.
    2. Shopper gets home and finds they have been charged twice for an item.

    If the shopper is expected to contact the supermarket for 1 then the supermarkets must expect to refund in scenario 2. I really doubt they consistently would refund in that scenario, or many customers would feel comfortable requesting such a refund.

    Given the costs of processing the refund for both parties in time and possibly travel or phone for the customer, outweigh most supermarket items anyway, surely the right thing to do is assume scenarios 1 and 2 broadly match over time and ignore any discrepancies found?
    I've been given refunds by a supermarket when items that were scanned as part of an online delivery didn't turn up in the boxes of groceries that I emptied, and I confused a checkout assistant at Lidl once by going back to the checkout to pay for a cucumber that hadn't scanned.

    I'd find it very hard to let it slide either way. One time when a vending machine disbursed two chocolate bars for the price of one I felt compelled to pay the extra 35p so that the next person using the vending machine would benefit in my place.
    But surely you have had the experience of a vending machine not dispersing anything and you losing your money? If anything these scenarios are significantly rigged against the customer.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,248
    DavidL said:

    Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, seems to be gaining traction. This was quite a take-down of Nicola (on cancer treatment). Wonder if the rush to an attempted referendum could backfire?

    https://twitter.com/Iainmackay8/status/1542502680572022784

    He's doing much, much better than I expected. From a Unionist perspective this is hopeful.
    Yes, that is good. She looks oddly rattled. Or maybe it is odd because she is rarely rattled

    it’s about time someone took her apart; it’s not like there is a lack of targets to aim at. The SNP record is dreadful, they’ve been in power far too long and need a spell in opposition. Just like the Tories
  • ApplicantApplicant Posts: 3,379
    RobD said:

    Scott_xP said:
    Single market or not, it wouldn't have helped. See Amsterdam, for example.
    I'm mildly surprised that O'Leary doesn't have a clue how the last six years of British politics happened.
  • ApplicantApplicant Posts: 3,379

    kinabalu said:


    That was very unlucky. I've never been selected for a random check at Waitrose ......

    You what? Never? I get them all the time in the regular supermarkets. Is your lack of checks a Waitrose thing (I don't shop there) or my regular checks a 'You're probably a thieving scouser, you thieving scouser!' thing I wonder?

    Someone in Tesco told me once that in December they increase random checks to 25%.

    One thing that often seems to trigger them is removing a scanned item.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,842
    Surprised Gauff is out with how well she played in the prior round.
    Might be jabeur's year, grass not looking Swiatek's best surface
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,248
    DavidL said:

    kinabalu said:

    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    Because these days there are self service trolley checkouts too?
    Every supermarket round my way has three or four options:

    Regular cashier (getting less and less these days)
    Self service basket
    Self service trolley
    And sometimes a seperate 'Scan and Go' (or whatever you call them).

    Obviously, don't take a trolley to a self service basket, but after that, everything pretty much seems okay.

    The thing that pisses me off is the random checks[1]. I learnt the hard way that if I wanted five packets of noodles and each one was a different flavour, then they all needed scanning. I couldn't scan one Chicken and hit five [2] and it'd be okay.

    Got selected for a random check. Of course, it failed and I had to take the whole lot (already bagged up nice and neat) through a cashier and unload the whole lot and rebag it. Got my own back however, as it rang through lower.... [3]

    [1] If I'm going to nick something, I'd damn well just going to nick it. A random check isn't going to stop me.
    [2] Yes yes, the accountant in me tells me they are using this for stock levels as well, so what I did I shouldn't have done, same price or not.
    [3] Forgot to put one item out (can't recall how) and only realised after I'd fished it out the bottom of the trolley at the car. Just sighed and drove off, couldn't be bothered.
    That was very unlucky. I've never been selected for a random check at Waitrose and just between the two of us I've occasionally been in a position where such a check would have had me with questions to answer. Nothing too venal or calculated, I hasten to add, just maybe the odd item that's slipped through the cracks.
    Really?

    When I was a child I once managed to take a bus into town and deliberately failed to catch the conductor's eye (this being a clue as to how long ago this was). I succeeded in my experiment but immediately went to the bus station office and insisted on paying the fare I had omitted to pay. I have tried to live to that standard my whole life, whether returning excess change or pointing out when a bill omitted something.

    I am genuinely surprised you would make a statement of such a thing.
    I’ve taken a couple of things from supermarkets - nothing major, usually I just forget to self-checkout an item and I can’t be bothered to go back. I once stole a lime - seriously - because the queues were huge. And all I needed was a lime


    I console myself by remembering the innumerable corked wines I have bought from these same places, and never returned for my deserved repayment, because I can’t be arsed or I’ve lost the receipt (really, how many people return corked wines half drunk to a supermarket?)

    They have made more money out of me than they should, even accounting for the lime
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,145

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    kinabalu said:

    Cyclefree said:

    I find myself getting twitchy if I cannot write for at least part of the day. It is as if something is missing somehow.

    It is an odd sensation because I have not had it for most of my life, possibly because I did spend a large part of my day writing stuff that needed to be read.

    But now it is beginning to bug me and, as there is little more to be said about politics other than WTAF! in as many different ways as one can, I am going to have to concentrate on other topics, of which I've started two. They are of course much harder than berating Westminster twits. Wish me luck!

    Yes - luck!

    Creative or analytical?
    A mix of both. Writing helps me think. I used to do a lot of discussion with my team about the cases we were investigating and those discussions were immensely helpful to my thinking about some often difficult issues. The debate was part of the process. I get some of that on here.

    But being largely on my own now, I miss that. So I churn thoughts and ideas and images and scenes from stories and sometimes whole paragraphs in my head as I pootle about in the garden or house or wherever. My husband sometimes gets to be involved. Occasionally even my poor children who probably think this is the way to stop Mum getting dementia.

    And often the need to get these thoughts and images into some sort of order or shape and down on paper becomes urgent and I cannot settle until I have. I don't know what this is or whether it even needs a name but it is there. It is similar in some ways to the need to garden - there it is about seeing and creating. This is more about seeing something in my head and needing to make sense of it somehow.

    Anyhow, I have probably outed myself as a total loon by now. So best stop and go for a walk.
    No, that sounds quite driven and therefore likely to lead to some good stuff.

    Getting an audience is the hardest thing imo. It's actually easier to write high quality pieces than it is to get anybody to read them.
    Meeks is one of the best there is and has an audience of about 3.
    Yep, and ditto to a lesser extent with other forms, eg fiction, crit, drama. I don't think writing is one of those fields where the most prominent correlates strongly to the best.

    He says, still sore about his mid-noughties novel not getting a publishing deal. :smile:
    I think there is a bad novel inside all of us. I wrote one during lockdown. Fair play to anyone who becomes a published writer, it's not easy.
    No, very very hard, esp with no cv or contacts. I guess if it's utterly wow you'll
    get published somewhere but otherwise probably not.

    You'd write a heartwarming little number I sense?
    A science fiction thriller set among the centrist dads of South East London.
    Two large slug-aliens tunnelled under Telegraph Hill, dormant since their spaceship crashed during Napoleonic times and awoken by gentrification-led basement excavation?

    Cool.
    Uncanny. Are you a literary agent?
    No. A giant alien slug. Look what he/she/it is called. Speaking from personal experience innit, like everyone's first novel outline.
  • ApplicantApplicant Posts: 3,379

    DavidL said:

    kinabalu said:

    DougSeal said:

    What is it with people who take trolleys to the self-service checkout?

    Because these days there are self service trolley checkouts too?
    Every supermarket round my way has three or four options:

    Regular cashier (getting less and less these days)
    Self service basket
    Self service trolley
    And sometimes a seperate 'Scan and Go' (or whatever you call them).

    Obviously, don't take a trolley to a self service basket, but after that, everything pretty much seems okay.

    The thing that pisses me off is the random checks[1]. I learnt the hard way that if I wanted five packets of noodles and each one was a different flavour, then they all needed scanning. I couldn't scan one Chicken and hit five [2] and it'd be okay.

    Got selected for a random check. Of course, it failed and I had to take the whole lot (already bagged up nice and neat) through a cashier and unload the whole lot and rebag it. Got my own back however, as it rang through lower.... [3]

    [1] If I'm going to nick something, I'd damn well just going to nick it. A random check isn't going to stop me.
    [2] Yes yes, the accountant in me tells me they are using this for stock levels as well, so what I did I shouldn't have done, same price or not.
    [3] Forgot to put one item out (can't recall how) and only realised after I'd fished it out the bottom of the trolley at the car. Just sighed and drove off, couldn't be bothered.
    That was very unlucky. I've never been selected for a random check at Waitrose and just between the two of us I've occasionally been in a position where such a check would have had me with questions to answer. Nothing too venal or calculated, I hasten to add, just maybe the odd item that's slipped through the cracks.
    Really?

    When I was a child I once managed to take a bus into town and deliberately failed to catch the conductor's eye (this being a clue as to how long ago this was). I succeeded in my experiment but immediately went to the bus station office and insisted on paying the fare I had omitted to pay. I have tried to live to that standard my whole life, whether returning excess change or pointing out when a bill omitted something.

    I am genuinely surprised you would make a statement of such a thing.
    There are inevitably errors both sides with supermarket shopping.

    Take two scenarios:

    1. Shopper gets home and finds they have an item for free.
    2. Shopper gets home and finds they have been charged twice for an item.

    If the shopper is expected to contact the supermarket for 1 then the supermarkets must expect to refund in scenario 2. I really doubt they consistently would refund in that scenario, or many customers would feel comfortable requesting such a refund.

    Given the costs of processing the refund for both parties in time and possibly travel or phone for the customer, outweigh most supermarket items anyway, surely the right thing to do is assume scenarios 1 and 2 broadly match over time and ignore any discrepancies found?
    I've been given refunds by a supermarket when items that were scanned as part of an online delivery didn't turn up in the boxes of groceries that I emptied, and I confused a checkout assistant at Lidl once by going back to the checkout to pay for a cucumber that hadn't scanned.

    I'd find it very hard to let it slide either way. One time when a vending machine disbursed two chocolate bars for the price of one I felt compelled to pay the extra 35p so that the next person using the vending machine would benefit in my place.
    But surely you have had the experience of a vending machine not dispersing anything and you losing your money? If anything these scenarios are significantly rigged against the customer.
    We've all been there...


This discussion has been closed.