Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
As a Scotland lover, I'd recommend if you haven't ensuring you drive the A887/A87 from Invermoriston across to Skye through the Five Sisters and consider staying in the Cluanie Inn and hiking. Cromarty/Black Isle is heavenly and in the Borders I'd recommend Newcastleton and the surrounding area.
Ta, but I know Scotland well - especially the bits in the north you mention - and I'm looking for more authentically lived-British and often urban places
Skye is gorgeous, as is west Penwith, Primrose Hill and Lindisfarne, but I know them all well, and they are not really representative of where most Brits live
Oh ok for more urban borders life how about the rugby union towns? Hawick, Selkirk, Jedburgh, Melrose etc?
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Brechin cathedral
Muirton housing estate, Perth
Brechin! Muirton! Lovely. Tack
Been wracking my brain trying to think of the worst bit of Edinburgh, and failing miserably. Can name lots of shite buildings, but I think you are more looking for districts. Decades since I’ve been in Buckstone (between Morningside and Fairmilehead), but it was fairly horrific Wimpey Home land in the 80s, and that rubbish hasn’t aged well anywhere.
Best bit of Glasgow? Burrell Collection?
Where's the bit of E'boro that Welsh describes in trainspotting? Is that Leith?
Tho I remember it being windswept, gritty but still quite picturesque rather than grim
Scotland does have some shite towns tho. The old mining towns around Glasgow are some of the most depressing on earth. And this is not a sectarian jibe, rUK has equally shitty towns (my God, parts of S Wales or north of Brum), and Scotland also has some of the most majestic scenery on earth (not true of north Birmingham)
Yep, Leith but also Pilton IIRC are Trainspotting land. It'll take in the peripheral estates to the west, as well as old Leith proper. There are tours (!).
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
As a Scotland lover, I'd recommend if you haven't ensuring you drive the A887/A87 from Invermoriston across to Skye through the Five Sisters and consider staying in the Cluanie Inn and hiking. Cromarty/Black Isle is heavenly and in the Borders I'd recommend Newcastleton and the surrounding area.
Ta, but I know Scotland well - especially the bits in the north you mention - and I'm looking for more authentically lived-British and often urban places
Skye is gorgeous, as is west Penwith, Primrose Hill and Lindisfarne, but I know them all well, and they are not really representative of where most Brits live
Oh ok for more urban borders life how about the rugby union towns? Hawick, Selkirk, Jedburgh, Melrose etc?
Quite a mix, esp if you add Galashiels - very much a wool industry town as is Hawick for instance. Kelso is more trad market town.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Brechin cathedral
Muirton housing estate, Perth
Brechin! Muirton! Lovely. Tack
Been wracking my brain trying to think of the worst bit of Edinburgh, and failing miserably. Can name lots of shite buildings, but I think you are more looking for districts. Decades since I’ve been in Buckstone (between Morningside and Fairmilehead), but it was fairly horrific Wimpey Home land in the 80s, and that rubbish hasn’t aged well anywhere.
Best bit of Glasgow? Burrell Collection?
Where's the bit of E'boro that Welsh describes in trainspotting? Is that Leith?
Tho I remember it being windswept, gritty but still quite picturesque rather than grim
Scotland does have some shite towns tho. The old mining towns around Glasgow are some of the most depressing on earth. And this is not a sectarian jibe, rUK has equally shitty towns (my God, parts of S Wales or north of Brum), and Scotland also has some of the most majestic scenery on earth (not true of north Birmingham)
It wasn't Wester Hailes, was it? I've just looked at Wester Hailes on Streetview. In common with a lot of Britain's terrible council estates, it's a lot better than it was 30 years ago.
Scottish towns often strike me as more extreme, in terms of architecture and streetscape - the best bits are better, the worst bits are worse. Stirling exemplifies this.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
As a Scotland lover, I'd recommend if you haven't ensuring you drive the A887/A87 from Invermoriston across to Skye through the Five Sisters and consider staying in the Cluanie Inn and hiking. Cromarty/Black Isle is heavenly and in the Borders I'd recommend Newcastleton and the surrounding area.
Ta, but I know Scotland well - especially the bits in the north you mention - and I'm looking for more authentically lived-British and often urban places
Skye is gorgeous, as is west Penwith, Primrose Hill and Lindisfarne, but I know them all well, and they are not really representative of where most Brits live
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Immediate suggestion since I've been visiting it a bit recently for unhappy reasons is Aberdeen, if you've not been before. It's very much it's own place and looks like nowhere else due to the granite, loads of these douce little semis built like pill boxes. Union St, its main drag, is very run down and was going that way before Covid; I'm sure it has the same gloomy air as a hundred other neglected places all over the UK. Old Aberdeen provides a contrast with a good bit of history and a pleasant academic vibe. The north east coast and countryside further up has lots of lovely scenery as I'm sure Rochdale Pioneers and Farooq will testify, and may qualify for the description 'undiscovered'. Dunnottar Castle south of Stonehaven is also great.
Not sure if I've been to Aberdeen. In fact, almost certainly not
It's on the list. Thankyou
What's the best bit of Glasgow and the worst bit of Edinburgh? Likewise the best and worst of the Borders?
For Glasgow the Necropolis which provided many a consoling walk during Covid; good views, cathedral, museum of religion and not least all that death. Worst of Edinburgh probably somewhere round the Royal Mile, the levels of tourist tat verges on the grotesque. Muirhouse used to be one of the worst of the estates with some competition but haven’t been there for an age; probably organic delis and chai houses now.
I LOVE the necropolis in Glasgow. It is Alasdair Gray's LANARK encapsulated, and all the beauty and terror of Glasgow. The Satanic climate, yet some sublime architecture, and funny/edgy Glaswegians
But I do know it, and I want to challenge myself with new stuff. Might try Muirhouse
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
As a Scotland lover, I'd recommend if you haven't ensuring you drive the A887/A87 from Invermoriston across to Skye through the Five Sisters and consider staying in the Cluanie Inn and hiking. Cromarty/Black Isle is heavenly and in the Borders I'd recommend Newcastleton and the surrounding area.
Ta, but I know Scotland well - especially the bits in the north you mention - and I'm looking for more authentically lived-British and often urban places
Skye is gorgeous, as is west Penwith, Primrose Hill and Lindisfarne, but I know them all well, and they are not really representative of where most Brits live
Oh ok for more urban borders life how about the rugby union towns? Hawick, Selkirk, Jedburgh, Melrose etc?
Quite a mix, esp if you add Galashiels - very much a wool industry town as is Hawick for instance. Kelso is more trad market town.
Yeah i thought they are quite interesting and diverse but with that rugby thread running through them.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
As a Scotland lover, I'd recommend if you haven't ensuring you drive the A887/A87 from Invermoriston across to Skye through the Five Sisters and consider staying in the Cluanie Inn and hiking. Cromarty/Black Isle is heavenly and in the Borders I'd recommend Newcastleton and the surrounding area.
Ta, but I know Scotland well - especially the bits in the north you mention - and I'm looking for more authentically lived-British and often urban places
Skye is gorgeous, as is west Penwith, Primrose Hill and Lindisfarne, but I know them all well, and they are not really representative of where most Brits live
Oh ok for more urban borders life how about the rugby union towns? Hawick, Selkirk, Jedburgh, Melrose etc?
Yes. You're right. I need to do at least one of the Border towns (I've never beem to any of them). Perhaps a beautiful break between Geordie land and Glasgae
I don't want my tour to be deliberate, unremitting urban grimness ("drain-inspecting" - as the Indians refer to westerners who come to India looking for human suffering and squalor). I'm not a drain-inspector, but I do want to see Britain honest and close
Can't disagree with any of that. But my understanding was that Lisa Nandy was always rather keen on the identity stuff? I may be entirely wrong. On the article linked to: New Statesman being a bit careless with the details. They're not monkeys at Knowsley, they're baboons. Look:
Er, baboons are monkeys (subgroup of the Old World monkeys) ... so both of you are right!
Ook!
Ha, fair enough! And yes, I had Pratchett vaguely in mind. I suspect I was over-excited about being able to share my photo.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Brechin cathedral
Muirton housing estate, Perth
Brechin! Muirton! Lovely. Tack
Been wracking my brain trying to think of the worst bit of Edinburgh, and failing miserably. Can name lots of shite buildings, but I think you are more looking for districts. Decades since I’ve been in Buckstone (between Morningside and Fairmilehead), but it was fairly horrific Wimpey Home land in the 80s, and that rubbish hasn’t aged well anywhere.
Best bit of Glasgow? Burrell Collection?
Where's the bit of E'boro that Welsh describes in trainspotting? Is that Leith?
Tho I remember it being windswept, gritty but still quite picturesque rather than grim
Scotland does have some shite towns tho. The old mining towns around Glasgow are some of the most depressing on earth. And this is not a sectarian jibe, rUK has equally shitty towns (my God, parts of S Wales or north of Brum), and Scotland also has some of the most majestic scenery on earth (not true of north Birmingham)
The Leith of Welsh’s novels barely exists anymore. Gentrification supercharged.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Or Caroline Nokes, Tory Chair of the Equalities Committee - or Crispin Blunt…..
Can't disagree with any of that. But my understanding was that Lisa Nandy was always rather keen on the identity stuff? I may be entirely wrong. On the article linked to: New Statesman being a bit careless with the details. They're not monkeys at Knowsley, they're baboons. Look:
Er, baboons are monkeys (subgroup of the Old World monkeys) ... so both of you are right!
Ook!
Ha, fair enough! And yes, I had Pratchett vaguely in mind. I suspect I was over-excited about being able to share my photo.
No worries - it's a fine photo. Any excuse for some nice baboons. Makes a change from certain other primates.
I wonder if the Government (Truss) may need to temporarily effectively nationalise the gas supply.
If she does I expect it to command broad public support.
The free market works brilliantly at efficiently allocating resources and stimulating production and distribution, competitively, in normal times but if we get to the stage where we have a highly constrained supply and it costs households over £500 a month then we'll be in a bidding war where the wealthiest will be able to carry on as normal, at a very high cost, whilst a lot of ordinary people freeze.
That can't be allowed to happen.
And how exactly will nationalisation help? It's not possible with current technology to physical constrain the volume of gas used by domestic users, other than by giving them price signals which result in them voluntarily reducing consumption. Short of disconnecting users who use over a certain volume, all nationalisation will achieve is making the whole thing even more of the government's problem.
Do smart meters not allow the companies to switch the gas off and on to your house. This is certainly my understanding and there would be little difficulty for them to turn off gas till the following week when you reach the weekly cap
Smart meters do feck all.
If they were smart, they would have differential pricing built in, to encourage consumers to load switch to low demand periods, such as doing your laundry over night. But no such incentive exists, so our washing machine is chugging away right now.
Depends what tariff you are on but there is a further problem that low demand overnight correlates nicely with low solar electricity generation overnight. That might change once most drivers are charging their cars between getting home from work and leaving in the morning.
Which is why solar is a daft idea in the UK. Great where the peak power demand correlates with air conditioning use on hot sunny days, but useless on grim January evenings when our demand is at its maximum.
Not daft if it's cheap enough, which is increasingly the case. And it tends to be negatively correlated with the amount of wind.
It's always going to be relatively niche in the UK (unless we build solar farms in North Africa), but that doesn't mean it's useless.
As I learnt recently*, electricity transmission is very expensive. A high capacity transmission line costs the same as a gas pipeline to build but it only carries 1/30th of the energy. As we move to a fully electric world, we need to localise electricity production.
* I got interested in energy policy following Russia's invasion of Ukraine . Despite Twitter's generally bad reputation, it's a great resource for expertise in niche topics you have an intelligent non-expert interest in
But there is also value in non-localisation if the energy generated is both cheap enough and temporally convenient. As pointed out upthread, building mega scale solar farms in North Africa coupled with HVDC transmission to the UK is likely to be something that's commercially viable.
Pan European interconnects also make something close to 100% renewables a great deal more feasible for Europe than having everything localised.
Interconnects for load-balancing definitely. I think it gets difficult to make the business case for largescale transmission of energy from Point A to Point B because producing baseload electricity locally will always be more cost-effective. Not an expert though.
Generally agree, but I was surprised how low transmission losses are when I looked it up.
eg those for the Norway-UK Nordlink cable are just 3%, which is an overhead but small relative to eg price fluctuations in markets over time.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Brechin cathedral
Muirton housing estate, Perth
Preferably with the Tay not in flood! Though do go to Scone Palace as an antidote, if only to look at the trees.
Some of the 'Red Wall' towns in the East Midlands might prove interesting on the politics front.
Mansfield is probably the archetype and is pretty run down in places. There's almost nothing there. And yet within 10 minutes you can be in Clumber Park, Sherwood Forest, Rufford Park and the rest of the Dukeries.
Best way to get the vibe would be to go to a Mansfield Town game.
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Immediate suggestion since I've been visiting it a bit recently for unhappy reasons is Aberdeen, if you've not been before. It's very much it's own place and looks like nowhere else due to the granite, loads of these douce little semis built like pill boxes. Union St, its main drag, is very run down and was going that way before Covid; I'm sure it has the same gloomy air as a hundred other neglected places all over the UK. Old Aberdeen provides a contrast with a good bit of history and a pleasant academic vibe. The north east coast and countryside further up has lots of lovely scenery as I'm sure Rochdale Pioneers and Farooq will testify, and may qualify for the description 'undiscovered'. Dunnottar Castle south of Stonehaven is also great.
Not sure if I've been to Aberdeen. In fact, almost certainly not
It's on the list. Thankyou
What's the best bit of Glasgow and the worst bit of Edinburgh? Likewise the best and worst of the Borders?
Best bits of Glasgow just now are probably down on the Southside. Strathbungo, the aforementioned Govanhill, Shawlands, Battlefield and maybe towards Cathcart. At least in terms of a mix of just 'decent' areas and 'vibrant' (in it's many senses). You'd be able to peruse some biodynamic wine, get a bagel or two from a Ukrainian bakery, some smack and acid from Jake and off-licenses with inch-thick iron bars at the counter selling bottles just labelled 'Spirits'.
Oh - and the area around Maxwell Park is very nice for a wander. Decent bit of house-ogling to be done. And there's the quite large pink Sikh temple there too.
If you want somewhere a bit more bleak - Port Glasgow just along the river is still suffering from the decline of the shipyards and the associated problems it's brought. I haven't been for a few years now, but it wasn't especially cheery.
Can't help feeling Kemi needs a comma, here, or even a dash
"...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)"
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden bits too.
The Lee Selby doc was really interesting if perhaps slightly voyeurish. Real, grinding poverty. Of course now when anyone thinks of Barry they think of Barry Island off the telly with that James Corden bloke.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Immediate suggestion since I've been visiting it a bit recently for unhappy reasons is Aberdeen, if you've not been before. It's very much it's own place and looks like nowhere else due to the granite, loads of these douce little semis built like pill boxes. Union St, its main drag, is very run down and was going that way before Covid; I'm sure it has the same gloomy air as a hundred other neglected places all over the UK. Old Aberdeen provides a contrast with a good bit of history and a pleasant academic vibe. The north east coast and countryside further up has lots of lovely scenery as I'm sure Rochdale Pioneers and Farooq will testify, and may qualify for the description 'undiscovered'. Dunnottar Castle south of Stonehaven is also great.
Not sure if I've been to Aberdeen. In fact, almost certainly not
It's on the list. Thankyou
What's the best bit of Glasgow and the worst bit of Edinburgh? Likewise the best and worst of the Borders?
Best bits of Glasgow just now are probably down on the Southside. Strathbungo, the aforementioned Govanhill, Shawlands, Battlefield and maybe towards Cathcart. At least in terms of a mix of just 'decent' areas and 'vibrant' (in it's many senses). You'd be able to peruse some biodynamic wine, get a bagel or two from a Ukrainian bakery, some smack and acid from Jake and off-licenses with inch-thick iron bars at the counter selling bottles just labelled 'Spirits'.
If you want somewhere a bit more bleak - Port Glasgow just along the river is still suffering from the decline of the shipyards and the associated problems it's brought. I haven't been for a few years now, but it wasn't especially cheery.
Worst bit of Edinburgh is Edinburgh.
I remember going to Paisley some years back and expected it to be quite nice...
The clinic has treated its whistleblowers badly and what came out about its practices in the Keira Bell case was pretty appalling too. It is worth noting that in Sweden and Finland the medical authorities have stopped the treatment of children with dysphoria with puberty blocking and cross-sex hormones because of the very poor evidence that they help and the evidence of the damage they can do. Two doctors - the Webberleys - have recently been stopped from practising because of their failures in the diagnosis and treatment of allegedly dysphoric children. This whole area is riddled with conflicts of interest - look at the pharmaceutical players behind some of these drugs and those they donate money to - and has all the makings of a Sackler / Oxytocin-style medical scandal in the making.
The drug company issue is the same with the treatment of every disease. Drug companies pay vast sums to ensure that the NHS buys their drugs for even vaster sums.
A lot of money could be saved by creating a new organisation, a sort of challenger to NICE, perhaps attached to a university, investigating and making available generic drugs, alternative treatments and therapies, and remedies that have fallen out of favour due to being unprofitable.
Strangely, going around NICE is exactly what some drug companies want. Because NICE is exactly about not paying any price for marginal effect
It’s almost as if some companies see measuring cost vs effectiveness as bad…
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
After mentioning in another post that Port Glasgow was a bit on the bleak side...
footpaths, footpaths, footpaths Ordnance maps, compass, pack, sustenance thinking and books. Once on a walk from Bristol to Bath I followed a Greenway tunnel through closed 'round by vegetation. At the top a blond friendly Saxon farmer and his smiley blond son offered me water from their farmyard tap. The path then led to the edge of a field. Standing with my back to an eerie impenetrable standing of woods and looking out over the rolling field my mind wandered to our history. Ordinary folk plowing and harvesting, sweaty. To their ancestors back in time. To the Romans and their spas. To prehistory. To the ice age when this wasn't an island but covered in ice. When Neanderthal man roamed over Europe for hundreds of thousands of years. To Africa where many subspecies of folk evolved and strove and evolved. To the super continent Pangea. To the beginnings of life on Earth billions of years ago. To the formation of the Solar system, hammered and violent. To the slow creation of the Sun as hydrogen gas coalesced from the death spasms of earlier stars to began fusing to form heavier elements that became us. To the big bang. To unanswered questions.
Two by elections tonight and an interesting blue wall/red wall contrast. Tory defence in what should be a relatively safe ward in Colchester that the LDs will take if they get a similar swing to other blue wall challenges this month with the Greens stepping aside helping and a Labour defence in Bolsover that sees the Indy not challenging so has an outside chance of going to the Tories given the shifts here in recent times (i predict an LD gain and a Lab hold however)
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Although she has clearly figured out that she needs to pretend not to be. This may well explain why she chose to lie about her past decisions rather than to admit to having been on a journey. A better operator would have figured that out, and not tried the easily disprovable lie.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Immediate suggestion since I've been visiting it a bit recently for unhappy reasons is Aberdeen, if you've not been before. It's very much it's own place and looks like nowhere else due to the granite, loads of these douce little semis built like pill boxes. Union St, its main drag, is very run down and was going that way before Covid; I'm sure it has the same gloomy air as a hundred other neglected places all over the UK. Old Aberdeen provides a contrast with a good bit of history and a pleasant academic vibe. The north east coast and countryside further up has lots of lovely scenery as I'm sure Rochdale Pioneers and Farooq will testify, and may qualify for the description 'undiscovered'. Dunnottar Castle south of Stonehaven is also great.
Not sure if I've been to Aberdeen. In fact, almost certainly not
It's on the list. Thankyou
What's the best bit of Glasgow and the worst bit of Edinburgh? Likewise the best and worst of the Borders?
I was in Aberdeen again last week. I have to say it is no where near as bad as UD presents it. There are plenty of god restaurants and the granite buildings shine in good weather. It has some cracking architecture. They are doing a lot of renovation and renewal at the moment and although parts of Union Street are neglected and run down, the bottom end near Marischal College is really nice.
I would strongly recommend Cafe 52 on The Green (which isn't green at all) as an excellent place to eat. It is run by an old libertarian friend of mine who, like you, does his best to needle people for all the right reasons.
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
After mentioning in another post that Port Glasgow was a bit on the bleak side...
You want bleak? Anyone think the guide price is a bit, er optimistic?
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
After mentioning in another post that Port Glasgow was a bit on the bleak side...
You want bleak? Anyone think the guide price is a bit, er optimistic?
Easier to commute to London from Donny than Port Glasgow (now the steamers aren't running any more).
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Although she has clearly figured out that she needs to pretend not to be. This may well explain why she chose to lie about her past decisions rather than to admit to having been on a journey. A better operator would have figured that out, and not tried the easily disprovable lie.
Indeed
She is probably the first major politician in the UK to lose out on a massive job for being Woke. In her case, the biggest job. Without this, I reckon she'd be home and hosed as PM
This in itself is progress. You can no longer be Woke without paying a price. Onwards
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Brechin cathedral
Muirton housing estate, Perth
Brechin! Muirton! Lovely. Tack
Been wracking my brain trying to think of the worst bit of Edinburgh, and failing miserably. Can name lots of shite buildings, but I think you are more looking for districts. Decades since I’ve been in Buckstone (between Morningside and Fairmilehead), but it was fairly horrific Wimpey Home land in the 80s, and that rubbish hasn’t aged well anywhere.
Best bit of Glasgow? Burrell Collection?
The two worst bits of Edinburgh would probably be Oxgangs and Muirhouse, but there's a reason they had to film Trainspotting in Glasgow.
One of the interesting things about these areas is that the dividing line between them and the wealthy areas can be quite sharp, say between Muirhouse/Silverknowes and Barnton/Cramond.
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
After mentioning in another post that Port Glasgow was a bit on the bleak side...
You want bleak? Anyone think the guide price is a bit, er optimistic?
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Immediate suggestion since I've been visiting it a bit recently for unhappy reasons is Aberdeen, if you've not been before. It's very much it's own place and looks like nowhere else due to the granite, loads of these douce little semis built like pill boxes. Union St, its main drag, is very run down and was going that way before Covid; I'm sure it has the same gloomy air as a hundred other neglected places all over the UK. Old Aberdeen provides a contrast with a good bit of history and a pleasant academic vibe. The north east coast and countryside further up has lots of lovely scenery as I'm sure Rochdale Pioneers and Farooq will testify, and may qualify for the description 'undiscovered'. Dunnottar Castle south of Stonehaven is also great.
Not sure if I've been to Aberdeen. In fact, almost certainly not
It's on the list. Thankyou
What's the best bit of Glasgow and the worst bit of Edinburgh? Likewise the best and worst of the Borders?
Best bits of Glasgow just now are probably down on the Southside. Strathbungo, the aforementioned Govanhill, Shawlands, Battlefield and maybe towards Cathcart. At least in terms of a mix of just 'decent' areas and 'vibrant' (in it's many senses). You'd be able to peruse some biodynamic wine, get a bagel or two from a Ukrainian bakery, some smack and acid from Jake and off-licenses with inch-thick iron bars at the counter selling bottles just labelled 'Spirits'.
Oh - and the area around Maxwell Park is very nice for a wander. Decent bit of house-ogling to be done. And there's the quite large pink Sikh temple there too.
If you want somewhere a bit more bleak - Port Glasgow just along the river is still suffering from the decline of the shipyards and the associated problems it's brought. I haven't been for a few years now, but it wasn't especially cheery.
Worst bit of Edinburgh is Edinburgh.
The worst part of Edinburgh right now is the Royal Mile. Tedious street performers and masses of tourists. I am sure that there are lichen that move faster and are more alert to their environment. And the worst month is still to come. Sob.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Immediate suggestion since I've been visiting it a bit recently for unhappy reasons is Aberdeen, if you've not been before. It's very much it's own place and looks like nowhere else due to the granite, loads of these douce little semis built like pill boxes. Union St, its main drag, is very run down and was going that way before Covid; I'm sure it has the same gloomy air as a hundred other neglected places all over the UK. Old Aberdeen provides a contrast with a good bit of history and a pleasant academic vibe. The north east coast and countryside further up has lots of lovely scenery as I'm sure Rochdale Pioneers and Farooq will testify, and may qualify for the description 'undiscovered'. Dunnottar Castle south of Stonehaven is also great.
Not sure if I've been to Aberdeen. In fact, almost certainly not
It's on the list. Thankyou
What's the best bit of Glasgow and the worst bit of Edinburgh? Likewise the best and worst of the Borders?
Best bits of Glasgow just now are probably down on the Southside. Strathbungo, the aforementioned Govanhill, Shawlands, Battlefield and maybe towards Cathcart. At least in terms of a mix of just 'decent' areas and 'vibrant' (in it's many senses). You'd be able to peruse some biodynamic wine, get a bagel or two from a Ukrainian bakery, some smack and acid from Jake and off-licenses with inch-thick iron bars at the counter selling bottles just labelled 'Spirits'.
Oh - and the area around Maxwell Park is very nice for a wander. Decent bit of house-ogling to be done. And there's the quite large pink Sikh temple there too.
If you want somewhere a bit more bleak - Port Glasgow just along the river is still suffering from the decline of the shipyards and the associated problems it's brought. I haven't been for a few years now, but it wasn't especially cheery.
Worst bit of Edinburgh is Edinburgh.
The worst part of Edinburgh right now is the Royal Mile. Tedious street performers and masses of tourists. I am sure that there are lichen that move faster and are more alert to their environment. And the worst month is still to come. Sob.
I'm so very glad that at least one other person agrees with me.
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
After mentioning in another post that Port Glasgow was a bit on the bleak side...
You want bleak? Anyone think the guide price is a bit, er optimistic?
That property is perfect fodder for an episode of Homes Under The Hammer.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Immediate suggestion since I've been visiting it a bit recently for unhappy reasons is Aberdeen, if you've not been before. It's very much it's own place and looks like nowhere else due to the granite, loads of these douce little semis built like pill boxes. Union St, its main drag, is very run down and was going that way before Covid; I'm sure it has the same gloomy air as a hundred other neglected places all over the UK. Old Aberdeen provides a contrast with a good bit of history and a pleasant academic vibe. The north east coast and countryside further up has lots of lovely scenery as I'm sure Rochdale Pioneers and Farooq will testify, and may qualify for the description 'undiscovered'. Dunnottar Castle south of Stonehaven is also great.
Not sure if I've been to Aberdeen. In fact, almost certainly not
It's on the list. Thankyou
What's the best bit of Glasgow and the worst bit of Edinburgh? Likewise the best and worst of the Borders?
I was in Aberdeen again last week. I have to say it is no where near as bad as UD presents it. There are plenty of god restaurants and the granite buildings shine in good weather. It has some cracking architecture. They are doing a lot of renovation and renewal at the moment and although parts of Union Street are neglected and run down, the bottom end near Marischal College is really nice.
I would strongly recommend Cafe 52 on The Green (which isn't green at all) as an excellent place to eat. It is run by an old libertarian friend of mine who, like you, does his best to needle people for all the right reasons.
Most British cities look best in the rain or the dark. Far most atmospheric.
Manchester when it is sunny looks particularly incongruous.
I don't think I agree, Misty.
It rather depends on the building materials. York looks fantastic in the dark or the wet because the wet sparkles on wet York stone. I suspect Aberdeen might be the same, though I have never been (the largest city on the British mainland to which I have never been, I think). But most of our less ancient settlements, look better in the sun. Manchester, in particular these days, with all the glass towers, looks rather amazing in the sun.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
The key to understanding Scotland is its very long coastline. Most of the interesting places are on the coast and quite separated from each other. So just go anywhere on the coast you haven't been to before - a couple of recommendations: Galloway, Ayrshire, lower Clyde, Banffshire. Fife is an interesting mixture of well known spots like St Andrews and East Neuk along with places like Methil, Kirkcaldy. If you haven't yet been to cities of Aberdeen and Dundee, definitely visit them.
Everyone here wants the best for "trans kids". Sincerely. What we worry about is the kids who aren't actually trans at all - but are going through typical teenage angst, and end up, horrifyingly, on puberty-blocking drugs and on a waiting list for life-changing surgery
It looks like there’s going to be a full clinical trial on whether puberty blockers are an effective treatment or not.
Puberty does not simply change one's body. It also helps the mind and brain grow up. Blocking that needs an awful lot of thought - far more than has been given to it. Leaving a child in an arrested state of development seems to me to be utterly cruel, especially since a lot of dysphoria eventually resolves itself anyway. Careful watching and waiting and appropriate therapy may be much more useful than a lifetime of drugs.
Discovering whether puberty blockers are better or worse than the alternatives is presumably the purpose of the clinical trial. The history of medicine is littered with truths that people believed to be true that turned out not to be - perhaps the prescription of puberty blockers is a net wrong, as you clearly believe & perhaps it is a net good, as many trans activists believe.
A properly run trial will hopefully give us answers to that question that aren’t skewed by our own personal prejudices.
I hope so. It's not my belief or that of the transactivists which matter. But the science. And the science is not at all clear - as the Cass Interim Report suggests and as this report of a decision made by a Swedish hospital also suggests - https://4w.pub/children-suffered-health-problems-after-puberty-blockers-sweden/.
The evidence in the Bell case is also worth reading carefully. To listen to some of the activists you'd think these are properly tested drugs and there is no problem with them. This is very far from the case. From what I have read we are experimenting on children without even making proper diagnoses first. In part this is happening because activists are desperate to push their ideology rather than establishing and understanding the facts first. This too is a point made by the Cass Report.
If the science and long term results are unclear or unknown it is hard to see how informed consent could have been given by these children or their parents to some of the treatment given. Evidence is also needed from detransitioners, a group who should be listened to carefully.
What are the chances of Sunak just dropping out in the next few days?
He might be wise to. Truss has won over the Boris admirers, the ERG and the right-wing media. Combined they'd make his life a misery even if he did happen to win.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Immediate suggestion since I've been visiting it a bit recently for unhappy reasons is Aberdeen, if you've not been before. It's very much it's own place and looks like nowhere else due to the granite, loads of these douce little semis built like pill boxes. Union St, its main drag, is very run down and was going that way before Covid; I'm sure it has the same gloomy air as a hundred other neglected places all over the UK. Old Aberdeen provides a contrast with a good bit of history and a pleasant academic vibe. The north east coast and countryside further up has lots of lovely scenery as I'm sure Rochdale Pioneers and Farooq will testify, and may qualify for the description 'undiscovered'. Dunnottar Castle south of Stonehaven is also great.
Not sure if I've been to Aberdeen. In fact, almost certainly not
It's on the list. Thankyou
What's the best bit of Glasgow and the worst bit of Edinburgh? Likewise the best and worst of the Borders?
Best bits of Glasgow just now are probably down on the Southside. Strathbungo, the aforementioned Govanhill, Shawlands, Battlefield and maybe towards Cathcart. At least in terms of a mix of just 'decent' areas and 'vibrant' (in it's many senses). You'd be able to peruse some biodynamic wine, get a bagel or two from a Ukrainian bakery, some smack and acid from Jake and off-licenses with inch-thick iron bars at the counter selling bottles just labelled 'Spirits'.
Oh - and the area around Maxwell Park is very nice for a wander. Decent bit of house-ogling to be done. And there's the quite large pink Sikh temple there too.
If you want somewhere a bit more bleak - Port Glasgow just along the river is still suffering from the decline of the shipyards and the associated problems it's brought. I haven't been for a few years now, but it wasn't especially cheery.
Worst bit of Edinburgh is Edinburgh.
The worst part of Edinburgh right now is the Royal Mile. Tedious street performers and masses of tourists. I am sure that there are lichen that move faster and are more alert to their environment. And the worst month is still to come. Sob.
I'm so very glad that at least one other person agrees with me.
My Cornish fam have started saying exactly the same about Cornwall. Until recently they have been pleased by the surge in Cornwall's popularity and trendiness - and all the people moving down from London. For a start it means their homes have doubled in value (this is less popular amongst family members who have not bought yet, due to being 26, or 3)
However now they are in despair at the summer hols gridlock. They say the traffic is unbelievably bad in school holidays - Falmouth-Truro can take 80 minutes rather than 20 - and you can't get a table at any decent pub let alone a restaurant. And this is for a whole month
What are the chances of Sunak just dropping out in the next few days?
Nil. Even if he did decide it it was all over and he wasn't going to get the job, Parliament has gone away for 6 weeks so Truss appointing a cabinet/ministers would take a lot of organisation and movement.
The Queen is also in Balmoral so would be mightily p*ssed off if she had to interrupt her summer holiday to return to Buckingham Palace for 1 day just to appoint Truss as PM.
Better to ride it out and find out your actual support. If it ends up being a close run fight he might have a better chance of doing a Hunt and hoping Liz messes up quickly.
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
I think I'm going to start in Ipswich, so I can have - er - oysters in West Mersea. lol. Cut me some slack!
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
*** frantically waves hello ***
Booze on this beach by starlight?
I even have the beach hut.
Plus lots of characterful towns on the West Coast.
You're on!
One of the few things that Simon Jenkins ever got right was his comment about Northern Market Towns.
What did he say?
He's a weird one, Jenkins. Often howlingly wrong, but he can write a fine line, and sometimes makes really acute judgements. He is genuinely good on architecture, his famous 1000 Churches book gets a lot of slack (perhaps out of envy for being so influential?) but it is often brilliantly right: he can sum up whole towns in a terse paragraph
It was about Northern Market towns being better preserved than elsewhere, but I can't remember or find the quote. It may have been in the context of a reference to the writings of Betjeman.
Update: Amazon says "Northern Market Towns" are mentioned on page 222 of "1000 Best Churches". It may be there.
What are the chances of Sunak just dropping out in the next few days?
I don't think he will, but the '22 may decide to bring the vote forwards so the PM is in place within the next couple 2-3 weeks and has their feet under the table before the end of the summer recess.
What are the chances of Sunak just dropping out in the next few days?
I don't think he will, but the '22 may decide to bring the vote forwards so the PM is in place within the next couple 2-3 weeks and has their feet under the table before the end of the summer recess.
If Truss gets over 50% of eligible voters early on, there's not much point continuing.
What are the chances of Sunak just dropping out in the next few days?
He might be wise to. Truss has won over the Boris admirers, the ERG and the right-wing media. Combined they'd make his life a misery even if he did happen to win.
A formal pullout is unlikely, an informal acceptance of defeat and a decision to soft-pedal the rest of the campaign is more likely.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
that may be your view, but to continue the slightly hackneyed (for you) metaphor, they may have dodged the Mordaunt bullet only to be run over by a tank driven by Lightweight Lizzy.
If Mordaunt is genuinely "woke" (I doubt it), it would almost certainly would not have been pushed to the fore had she become PM. Lizzy's general shitness and closeness to Rees Mogg and Dorries almost certainly condemn us to a Labour government, with the likelihood of your much feared woke agenda being pushed by a large part of the next Labour government.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Gay issues and trans issues are not one and the same. Witness the discrimination against gay women by some on the trans side or the redefinition of homosexuality by Stonewall as same gender attraction rather than same sex attraction.
Most sensible people think Sunak would be best for the country. Continuity Borisers if they can't have Boris want Truss.
Sunak is a sensible person and hence will think that the world is likewise full of sensible people who will vote for him.
He ain't pulling out. He may - just - win. But that's only because, not having read (m)any Cons membership threads recently, have lapsed into "people will be sensible" mode.
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
After mentioning in another post that Port Glasgow was a bit on the bleak side...
You want bleak? Anyone think the guide price is a bit, er optimistic?
Superb. I might include it on my Tour de Britain
Did the estate agent describe it as "having breath taking potential" ?
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
After mentioning in another post that Port Glasgow was a bit on the bleak side...
You want bleak? Anyone think the guide price is a bit, er optimistic?
That property is perfect fodder for an episode of Homes Under The Hammer.
I think they may point out the lack of UPVC double glazing and the cause of the damp needing investigating by an expert.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
that may be your view, but to continue the slightly hackneyed (for you) metaphor, they may have dodged the Mordaunt bullet only to be run over by a tank driven by Lightweight Lizzy.
If Mordaunt is genuinely "woke" (I doubt it), it would almost certainly would not have been pushed to the fore had she become PM. Lizzy's general shitness and closeness to Rees Mogg and Dorries almost certainly condemn us to a Labour government, with the likelihood of your much feared woke agenda being pushed by a large part of the next Labour government.
On what are you basing the allegation that she's close to Rees Mogg and Dorries?
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
After mentioning in another post that Port Glasgow was a bit on the bleak side...
You want bleak? Anyone think the guide price is a bit, er optimistic?
That property is perfect fodder for an episode of Homes Under The Hammer.
I'd love to know how it has an EPC rating of "D". It's a mile away from Conisborough Castle, mind. If any PBers fancy buying it I can swing by it on my way home this evening
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
The key to understanding Scotland is its very long coastline. Most of the interesting places are on the coast and quite separated from each other. So just go anywhere on the coast you haven't been to before - a couple of recommendations: Galloway, Ayrshire, lower Clyde, Banffshire. Fife is an interesting mixture of well known spots like St Andrews and East Neuk along with places like Methil, Kirkcaldy. If you haven't yet been to cities of Aberdeen and Dundee, definitely visit them.
Actually, Iyou could mark up Dundee very specifically for Leon's urban sweet and sour trip - Unicorn, Discovery, the new arty museum, and ther view over the Tay - but also the Desperate Dan statue and the way the centre and its relation to the dockland have been mangled Fort William style by the urban planners and the road from the Tay Road Bridge. Used to be used for filming East Germany in le Carre adaptations, but I don't know if those bits still exist.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Although she has clearly figured out that she needs to pretend not to be. This may well explain why she chose to lie about her past decisions rather than to admit to having been on a journey. A better operator would have figured that out, and not tried the easily disprovable lie.
Indeed
She is probably the first major politician in the UK to lose out on a massive job for being Woke. In her case, the biggest job. Without this, I reckon she'd be home and hosed as PM
This in itself is progress. You can no longer be Woke without paying a price. Onwards
Nah, that's massively overplaying it. She wasn't up to it in a few different ways - ultimately an empty suit. Say what you want about Liz (and plenty have), but she at least has some sort of an idea economics-wise.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
that may be your view, but to continue the slightly hackneyed (for you) metaphor, they may have dodged the Mordaunt bullet only to be run over by a tank driven by Lightweight Lizzy.
If Mordaunt is genuinely "woke" (I doubt it), it would almost certainly would not have been pushed to the fore had she become PM. Lizzy's general shitness and closeness to Rees Mogg and Dorries almost certainly condemn us to a Labour government, with the likelihood of your much feared woke agenda being pushed by a large part of the next Labour government.
On what are you basing the allegation that she's close to Rees Mogg and Dorries?
A reasonable guess that their enthusiasm for her is based on promises by them to deliver the right wing of the party, in return for a nudge and a wink that they continue to be in cabinet. It is called politics.
Conservative MP Caroline Nokes has suggested to the BBC that some biological males go through the menopause. "Menopause happens, predominantly to biological women... but there will also be some men who go through it," she said
The "male menopause" (sometimes called the andropause) is an unhelpful term sometimes used in the media.
This label is misleading because it suggests the symptoms are the result of a sudden drop in testosterone in middle age, similar to what occurs in the female menopause. This is not true.
Although testosterone levels fall as men age, the decline is steady at less than 2% a year from around the age of 30 to 40, and this is unlikely to cause any problems in itself.
Everyone here wants the best for "trans kids". Sincerely. What we worry about is the kids who aren't actually trans at all - but are going through typical teenage angst, and end up, horrifyingly, on puberty-blocking drugs and on a waiting list for life-changing surgery
Waiting lists for "life-changing surgery" are disastrously long, to the point where many transmen have been left with half finished surgeries for years. The stories of young people being referred to the GID and having to undergo a puberty they do not want because it takes years for a meeting and years for a prescription are much more common than those being rushed into things - and those being rushed into things are usually so because they understand if they say no at that point they would have to go through the entire process again, years and years of waiting.
Under 18s getting any type of surgery is exceptionally rare, and the scientific consensus on the effect of puberty blockers is they are safe with some complications, like most medication. More cis kids and cis women use puberty blockers and HRT than trans people - because early onset puberty and menopause are more common. I could go to my GP today and get testosterone blockers if I was unhappy with my receding hairline - it is the same drug. If a transwoman went to their GP for exactly the same drug, she could potentially be waiting years, with meeting after meeting, asking unscientific and invasive questions (such as personal sexual habits). This is nothing but medical gatekeeping and stigmatisation.
That's a polite and eloquent reply, thankyou
But my personal experience says otherwise. I have seen families broken by this ideology
I mean, I don't know how to respond to that.
My personal experience tells me the world if flat and the sun goes around the Earth - that's not the reality. I don't know what you mean by "families broken by this ideology". If you mean young people transitioning and then deciding to detransition, that is an inevitable occurrence, and their should be adequate support for those individuals as well (although the largest cause of detransition is the social stigma placed on openly transitioning, and the rate of regret in surgeries and treatment is lower than the rate of regret for knee surgeries and having a child).
Commonwealth Games must confront the truth about its sportswashing past The Games remain an uneasy celebration of ‘common values’ with nations the British empire once exploited
Tom Daley condemns homophobia across Commonwealth ahead of Games Gold medallist diver’s comments come ahead of opening ceremony in Birmingham on Friday
Quite why it's an issue when these awful countries compete at the Commonwealth Games but isn't an issue when they compete at the Olympic games is a bit of a mystery to me.
That's so very Guardian. The self-satire is palpable.
A sanctimonious white * man complaining about how whites have done things to blacks, taking it upon himself to get angry on behalf of black people. Do we call this whitesplaining?
I wonder if he asked anyone if they wanted him to pontificate on their behalf?
Hmm. If we believe in self-determination and that Commonwealth Countries are equals, do we get to impose our values a la Tom Daley?
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Gay issues and trans issues are not one and the same. Witness the discrimination against gay women by some on the trans side or the redefinition of homosexuality by Stonewall as same gender attraction rather than same sex attraction.
Conflating the two is wrong.
I agree: wrong. A lot of the people cheering on the Tavistock decision on Twitter are lesbian - which I expected - but also gay men. The latter is unexpected (to me). I am still trying to understand it, and it seems to be what you say: they were trying to redefine "sexual attraction" in a form deemed hostile by gay men
WTF! Such madness
Also, Mordaunt's twin brother is trans activist, not just gay
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
that may be your view, but to continue the slightly hackneyed (for you) metaphor, they may have dodged the Mordaunt bullet only to be run over by a tank driven by Lightweight Lizzy.
If Mordaunt is genuinely "woke" (I doubt it), it would almost certainly would not have been pushed to the fore had she become PM. Lizzy's general shitness and closeness to Rees Mogg and Dorries almost certainly condemn us to a Labour government, with the likelihood of your much feared woke agenda being pushed by a large part of the next Labour government.
On what are you basing the allegation that she's close to Rees Mogg and Dorries?
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
After mentioning in another post that Port Glasgow was a bit on the bleak side...
You want bleak? Anyone think the guide price is a bit, er optimistic?
Superb. I might include it on my Tour de Britain
Believe it or not, that is now in a Tory constituency (Don Valley). What ex-miners of Edlington pit think of that god only knows - although we must be getting to the point where few are still alive.
If you do dare to go to Edlington, take in nearby Conisbrough Castle while you are there as a respite.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
that may be your view, but to continue the slightly hackneyed (for you) metaphor, they may have dodged the Mordaunt bullet only to be run over by a tank driven by Lightweight Lizzy.
If Mordaunt is genuinely "woke" (I doubt it), it would almost certainly would not have been pushed to the fore had she become PM. Lizzy's general shitness and closeness to Rees Mogg and Dorries almost certainly condemn us to a Labour government, with the likelihood of your much feared woke agenda being pushed by a large part of the next Labour government.
Mordaunt is more than entitled to her stance, but a person of such crassly poor judgement.....Her Majesty's First Minister? Commander in Chief?
Come on. What were the stupid f8cker MPs who put her up for election on?
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
The 'old' Gorbals has been torn down and replaced with nice-to-middling new housing. If you want an interesting spot in Glasgow try Govanhill. You'll find reports varying from 'vibrant hipster hotspot' to 'grooming gangs, people smuggling and giant rats'.
Ah, you pre-empted me. Was in Govanhill yesterday as it happens, it was giving off the hipster vibe, particularly liked the Transylvannian coffee and wine shop. The whole southside seems to be a raging ferment of hipster enterprise, can't move for outside seating, speciality coffee beans and premises being ripped out to house some new business. Can't really square it with the economic outlook tbh.
I meant to add a more sensible paragraph and forgot due to an especially cute cat incident.
There's been a very, very large influx of people from the South of England, selling up and buying here (especially noticeable in Shawlands and Strathbungo/Pollokshields). I guess between halving their mortgages and being able to work remote there's a lot up 20-30-something disposable income going around. Even if they're moving from Southern-England-rent to Southside-Glasgow-rent, I'm sure it's a big win in terms of spending money.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
that may be your view, but to continue the slightly hackneyed (for you) metaphor, they may have dodged the Mordaunt bullet only to be run over by a tank driven by Lightweight Lizzy.
If Mordaunt is genuinely "woke" (I doubt it), it would almost certainly would not have been pushed to the fore had she become PM. Lizzy's general shitness and closeness to Rees Mogg and Dorries almost certainly condemn us to a Labour government, with the likelihood of your much feared woke agenda being pushed by a large part of the next Labour government.
On what are you basing the allegation that she's close to Rees Mogg and Dorries?
Truss only got through by 8 votes.
Switch Rees Mogg, Dorries, Boris and a couple of others and we'd be looking at Mordaunt vs Sunak for the run off.
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
After mentioning in another post that Port Glasgow was a bit on the bleak side...
You want bleak? Anyone think the guide price is a bit, er optimistic?
That property is perfect fodder for an episode of Homes Under The Hammer.
Homes under the wrecking ball might be more appropriate.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Although she has clearly figured out that she needs to pretend not to be. This may well explain why she chose to lie about her past decisions rather than to admit to having been on a journey. A better operator would have figured that out, and not tried the easily disprovable lie.
Indeed
She is probably the first major politician in the UK to lose out on a massive job for being Woke. In her case, the biggest job. Without this, I reckon she'd be home and hosed as PM
This in itself is progress. You can no longer be Woke without paying a price. Onwards
Nah, that's massively overplaying it. She wasn't up to it in a few different ways - ultimately an empty suit. Say what you want about Liz (and plenty have), but she at least has some sort of an idea economics-wise.
I disagree. I believe it was the TransWoke stuff that did it. That and her poor debate performances
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
After mentioning in another post that Port Glasgow was a bit on the bleak side...
You want bleak? Anyone think the guide price is a bit, er optimistic?
That property is perfect fodder for an episode of Homes Under The Hammer.
I'd love to know how it has an EPC rating of "D". It's a mile away from Conisborough Castle, mind. If any PBers fancy buying it I can swing by it on my way home this evening
It's not just a matter of one localised fire. A quick look on Google suggests that shutters scumbled a la OSB is a look adopted by a number of other maisonettes in the same avenue.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Gay issues and trans issues are not one and the same. Witness the discrimination against gay women by some on the trans side or the redefinition of homosexuality by Stonewall as same gender attraction rather than same sex attraction.
Conflating the two is wrong.
Absolutely wrong. A lot of the people cheering on the Tavistock decision on Twitter are lesbian - which I expected - but also gay men. The latter is unexpected (to me). I am still trying to understand it, and it seems to be what you say: they were trying to redefine "sexual attraction" in a form deemed hostile by gay men
WTF! Such madness
Also, Mordaunt's twin brother is trans activist, not just gay
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Although she has clearly figured out that she needs to pretend not to be. This may well explain why she chose to lie about her past decisions rather than to admit to having been on a journey. A better operator would have figured that out, and not tried the easily disprovable lie.
Indeed
She is probably the first major politician in the UK to lose out on a massive job for being Woke. In her case, the biggest job. Without this, I reckon she'd be home and hosed as PM
This in itself is progress. You can no longer be Woke without paying a price. Onwards
Nah, that's massively overplaying it. She wasn't up to it in a few different ways - ultimately an empty suit. Say what you want about Liz (and plenty have), but she at least has some sort of an idea economics-wise.
I disagree. I believe it was the TransWoke stuff that did it. That and her poor debate performances
I think it was all of that combined. She had the opportunity to set the agenda but fluffed it because she wasn't really ready to be PM.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Gay issues and trans issues are not one and the same. Witness the discrimination against gay women by some on the trans side or the redefinition of homosexuality by Stonewall as same gender attraction rather than same sex attraction.
Conflating the two is wrong.
Absolutely wrong. A lot of the people cheering on the Tavistock decision on Twitter are lesbian - which I expected - but also gay men. The latter is unexpected (to me). I am still trying to understand it, and it seems to be what you say: they were trying to redefine "sexual attraction" in a form deemed hostile by gay men
WTF! Such madness
Also, Mordaunt's twin brother is trans activist, not just gay
Yes - it's never been obvious to me why LGB got lumped in with T. It seems particularly inimical to the interests of children unsure of their own sexuality that organisations like Mermaids are suggesting to them that they change their sex to fit. ISTR this is the approach the Islamic Republic of Iran took 30 years ago.
Conservative MP Caroline Nokes has suggested to the BBC that some biological males go through the menopause. "Menopause happens, predominantly to biological women... but there will also be some men who go through it," she said
The "male menopause" (sometimes called the andropause) is an unhelpful term sometimes used in the media.
This label is misleading because it suggests the symptoms are the result of a sudden drop in testosterone in middle age, similar to what occurs in the female menopause. This is not true.
Although testosterone levels fall as men age, the decline is steady at less than 2% a year from around the age of 30 to 40, and this is unlikely to cause any problems in itself.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
that may be your view, but to continue the slightly hackneyed (for you) metaphor, they may have dodged the Mordaunt bullet only to be run over by a tank driven by Lightweight Lizzy.
If Mordaunt is genuinely "woke" (I doubt it), it would almost certainly would not have been pushed to the fore had she become PM. Lizzy's general shitness and closeness to Rees Mogg and Dorries almost certainly condemn us to a Labour government, with the likelihood of your much feared woke agenda being pushed by a large part of the next Labour government.
Mordaunt is more than entitled to her stance, but a person of such crassly poor judgement.....Her Majesty's First Minister? Commander in Chief?
Come on. What were the stupid f8cker MPs who put her up for election on?
Crassly poor judgement? lol. Weren't you one of the few stalwart PB apologists for Boris Johnson at a stage when even a whole flock of ostriches might have realised that something was not quite right about the words Boris Johnson and Prime Minister being in the same sentence?
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
I think the Gorbals will horrify you but not in the way anticipated. It's now now a fairly anodyne area of newbuild apartment blocks and a constructed shopping area and pub. The Brazen Head across the road might give you a whiff of the old days but don't wear your cool, trendy Union Jack leisure wear whatever you do.
Serious question. Where should I go in Scotland for the unexpected, in terms of best and worst?
I know Scotland rather well - actually a lot better than northern England. I've been to Scotland a dozen times in ten years, yet Yorkshire and Lancashire etc almost zero
I know Edinburgh well, Glasgow quite well... all the lovely wilderness bits really well
Don't know the Borders or the east coast (south of Wick)
Brechin cathedral
Muirton housing estate, Perth
Preferably with the Tay not in flood! Though do go to Scone Palace as an antidote, if only to look at the trees.
Some of the 'Red Wall' towns in the East Midlands might prove interesting on the politics front.
Mansfield is probably the archetype and is pretty run down in places. There's almost nothing there. And yet within 10 minutes you can be in Clumber Park, Sherwood Forest, Rufford Park and the rest of the Dukeries.
Best way to get the vibe would be to go to a Mansfield Town game.
Probably better to stay in Nottingham though...
Mansfield is struggling in the town. There is stuff, but levelling up money such as it is has not had much impact yet. There is also the irrepressible Centre Parks, and Sherwood Pines, and similar. And boules in the park.
It suffered from a lot of items, amongst them being the largest town in the country without a Railway Station for decades, and having a not particularly competent Independent run Council for many years.
Chesterfield may well be worth a look - Crooked Spire as ever, but also the outdoor market which is extensive. It also has a very active cycling group who have achieved much in the last 25 years. I have an overweight - 115kg - friend who works there and has just purchased an e-bike with the aim of cycling 17 miles and back one day each week for a start to lose weight. From here that can be done 80% on trails.
I would also say try the Northern Tea Company, where they (obvs) do tea and also roast about a ton of coffee every week. Excellent little cafe with drums of coffee beans and a wall of tea varieties.
Story on the BBC stating that the HO has now granted 166k visas to Ukrainian refugees. Its been embarrassingly slow but they do seem to be finally getting there.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Although she has clearly figured out that she needs to pretend not to be. This may well explain why she chose to lie about her past decisions rather than to admit to having been on a journey. A better operator would have figured that out, and not tried the easily disprovable lie.
Indeed
She is probably the first major politician in the UK to lose out on a massive job for being Woke. In her case, the biggest job. Without this, I reckon she'd be home and hosed as PM
This in itself is progress. You can no longer be Woke without paying a price. Onwards
Nah, that's massively overplaying it. She wasn't up to it in a few different ways - ultimately an empty suit. Say what you want about Liz (and plenty have), but she at least has some sort of an idea economics-wise.
I disagree. I believe it was the TransWoke stuff that did it. That and her poor debate performances
I think it was all of that combined. She had the opportunity to set the agenda but fluffed it because she wasn't really ready to be PM.
Yes. She needed a coherent philosophy - just a measly paragraph would have done it. Yet, nothing
Nonetheless she very nearly made the final two (where she would probably have beaten Sunak). Eight MPs. I am pretty sure she lost more than 8 anti-Woke MPs (see the success of Kemi precisely because of the TransWoke business. So, in effect, her opinions on this cost her the top job in the country
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
that may be your view, but to continue the slightly hackneyed (for you) metaphor, they may have dodged the Mordaunt bullet only to be run over by a tank driven by Lightweight Lizzy.
If Mordaunt is genuinely "woke" (I doubt it), it would almost certainly would not have been pushed to the fore had she become PM. Lizzy's general shitness and closeness to Rees Mogg and Dorries almost certainly condemn us to a Labour government, with the likelihood of your much feared woke agenda being pushed by a large part of the next Labour government.
On what are you basing the allegation that she's close to Rees Mogg and Dorries?
Truss only got through by 8 votes.
Switch Rees Mogg, Dorries, Boris and a couple of others and we'd be looking at Mordaunt vs Sunak for the run off.
That's more a sign of her good political judgment in being the loyalty candidate than her being beholden to any wing of the party.
1. A friend of mine, an economist, was travelling somewhere, can't remember where, sadly, and he said that the local newsagent didn't stock Mars Bars because they were too expensive and no one bought them. 2. I saw a documentary on Lee Selby, who is from Barry and Barry looked pretty shockingly poor. 3. We keep on hearing from various parties how poverty is endemic throughout the country.
I would very much like to know, via our very own PB roving reporter whether such poverty does indeed exist with such frequency.
Of course do your York Minsters and Cotswolds villages and coastal oystershacks.
But I would be super-interested in the "other" side of the UK.
Go on Rightmove and find out where the cheapest houses are in a county. That might be eye-opening.
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
After mentioning in another post that Port Glasgow was a bit on the bleak side...
You want bleak? Anyone think the guide price is a bit, er optimistic?
Superb. I might include it on my Tour de Britain
Believe it or not, that is now in a Tory constituency (Don Valley). What ex-miners of Edlington pit think of that god only knows - although we must be getting to the point where few are still alive.
If you do dare to go to Edlington, take in nearby Conisbrough Castle while you are there as a respite.
I was once taken on a tour of N Shields (in Newcastle) by a mate who lived in the area. Whole streets looked like that. Twenty five years ago - so may have changed.
Poverty safari.
Which is also the title of very good book on what it is like growing up in places like these.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Gay issues and trans issues are not one and the same. Witness the discrimination against gay women by some on the trans side or the redefinition of homosexuality by Stonewall as same gender attraction rather than same sex attraction.
Conflating the two is wrong.
Absolutely wrong. A lot of the people cheering on the Tavistock decision on Twitter are lesbian - which I expected - but also gay men. The latter is unexpected (to me). I am still trying to understand it, and it seems to be what you say: they were trying to redefine "sexual attraction" in a form deemed hostile by gay men
WTF! Such madness
Also, Mordaunt's twin brother is trans activist, not just gay
Yes - it's never been obvious to me why LGB got lumped in with T. It seems particularly inimical to the interests of children unsure of their own sexuality that organisations like Mermaids are suggesting to them that they change their sex to fit. ISTR this is the approach the Islamic Republic of Iran took 30 years ago.
It's because the LGBs have everything they could ever possibly want in terms of equality legislation, and campaign-focused organisations like Stonewall are therefore a solution looking for a problem.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Although she has clearly figured out that she needs to pretend not to be. This may well explain why she chose to lie about her past decisions rather than to admit to having been on a journey. A better operator would have figured that out, and not tried the easily disprovable lie.
Indeed
She is probably the first major politician in the UK to lose out on a massive job for being Woke. In her case, the biggest job. Without this, I reckon she'd be home and hosed as PM
This in itself is progress. You can no longer be Woke without paying a price. Onwards
Nah, that's massively overplaying it. She wasn't up to it in a few different ways - ultimately an empty suit. Say what you want about Liz (and plenty have), but she at least has some sort of an idea economics-wise.
I disagree. I believe it was the TransWoke stuff that did it. That and her poor debate performances
I think it was all of that combined. She had the opportunity to set the agenda but fluffed it because she wasn't really ready to be PM.
Yes. She needed a coherent philosophy - just a measly paragraph would have done it. Yet, nothing
Nonetheless she very nearly made the final two (where she would probably have beaten Sunak). Eight MPs. I am pretty sure she lost more than 8 anti-Woke MPs (see the success of Kemi precisely because of the TransWoke business. So, in effect, her opinions on this cost her the top job in the country
I have absolutely no idea why an emoji has popped up there
Go and see all these great UK cities I haven't visited in many years: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow
I've been to Bangkok probably a dozen times since 2010, yet I haven't been to any of the cities listed above (I have been to Manc, Edinburgh, Bristol)
That's an idea. See it for myself. Are there really "Muslim no-go zones" in Bradford or Luton or Rotherham? (I very seriously doubt it, but I've never been, so I can't say for sure). How bad is the drugs stuff in Gorbals? Is Salford really "hip"??
Kind of like Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier except with better wine and probably not quite as good observation, TBH
Maybe I will find the Worst town in Britain. What is it?? West Bromwich? Watford? Any of them ones near Glasgow?
NEWENT?
Horden is awful.
Newcastle is fantastic, Sunderland less so but they are doing alot to improve it especially along the sea front. Leeds is also a great place to visit.
Why don't you do it just drinking British wines ?
We have some banging wines these days.
I think I'm going to do it. I sit here pontificating about Britain - a lot - from my nice flat in north London (or my rented apartment in Montenegro or Armenia or wherever) - and yet what do I actually know of actual Britain?
My forays around the country are nearly always to obviously attractive places (or where I have friends and fam) - Cornwall, Devon, Bristol, Herefordshire, Brighton, Dorset, the Home Counties, the Highlands and Islands, occasionally the Lakes or the Welsh hills, Edinburgh, Shetland, Wick
It's time for me to see the real Britain, or I should shut up. For a start, I have to actually see NEWENT. It may have improved
Start in Hartlepool. It gets such a drubbing on here. Report back what you find. It might be the last Tory by-election win ever!
I think I'm going to start in Ipswich, so I can have - er - oysters in West Mersea. lol. Cut me some slack!
But after that I will really go for it: including Hartlepool. Why not. I have time, money and insatiable curiosity. I need to see my OWN country. If any PB-er wants to meet for a glass of wine (domestic or imported) on my odyssey, let me know
*** frantically waves hello ***
Booze on this beach by starlight?
I even have the beach hut.
Plus lots of characterful towns on the West Coast.
You're on!
One of the few things that Simon Jenkins ever got right was his comment about Northern Market Towns.
What did he say?
He's a weird one, Jenkins. Often howlingly wrong, but he can write a fine line, and sometimes makes really acute judgements. He is genuinely good on architecture, his famous 1000 Churches book gets a lot of slack (perhaps out of envy for being so influential?) but it is often brilliantly right: he can sum up whole towns in a terse paragraph
It was about Northern Market towns being better preserved than elsewhere, but I can't remember or find the quote. It may have been in the context of a reference to the writings of Betjeman.
Update: Amazon says "Northern Market Towns" are mentioned on page 222 of "1000 Best Churches". It may be there.
p222 of SJ's 1000 Best Churches is a discussion of Northleach which is, of course, interesting but not on the point SFAICS.
For northern towns generally try John Martin Robinson 'The architecture of Northern England' which is very fine and spots what others miss. And of course for the churches of Northern market Towns, and others, nothing begins to replace the indispensable Northern volume of Betjeman's English Parish Churches, despite its age (1950s).
And for small towns, Cumbria outside the lake district and Lincolnshire are magnificently neglected because everyone has gone elsewhere, which is why elsewhere exists.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Although she has clearly figured out that she needs to pretend not to be. This may well explain why she chose to lie about her past decisions rather than to admit to having been on a journey. A better operator would have figured that out, and not tried the easily disprovable lie.
Indeed
She is probably the first major politician in the UK to lose out on a massive job for being Woke. In her case, the biggest job. Without this, I reckon she'd be home and hosed as PM
This in itself is progress. You can no longer be Woke without paying a price. Onwards
Nah, that's massively overplaying it. She wasn't up to it in a few different ways - ultimately an empty suit. Say what you want about Liz (and plenty have), but she at least has some sort of an idea economics-wise.
I disagree. I believe it was the TransWoke stuff that did it. That and her poor debate performances
I think it was all of that combined. She had the opportunity to set the agenda but fluffed it because she wasn't really ready to be PM.
Yes. She needed a coherent philosophy - just a measly paragraph would have done it. Yet, nothing
Nonetheless she very nearly made the final two (where she would probably have beaten Sunak). Eight MPs. I am pretty sure she lost more than 8 anti-Woke MPs (see the success of Kemi precisely because of the TransWoke business. So, in effect, her opinions on this cost her the top job in the country
Nonetheless of the last 5 candidates it was Mordaunt who tended to poll best with swing voters, followed by Tugendhat.
Yes she may have been a bit Woke but she was also a patriot with common sense and a real world early life, her failure to get through to the last 2 may not have saved the Tory majority but has probably cost the Tories the chance of most seats. I can't see either Sunak or Truss beating Starmer unless something dramatic changes
Story on the BBC stating that the HO has now granted 166k visas to Ukrainian refugees. Its been embarrassingly slow but they do seem to be finally getting there.
Conservative MP Caroline Nokes has suggested to the BBC that some biological males go through the menopause. "Menopause happens, predominantly to biological women... but there will also be some men who go through it," she said
The "male menopause" (sometimes called the andropause) is an unhelpful term sometimes used in the media.
This label is misleading because it suggests the symptoms are the result of a sudden drop in testosterone in middle age, similar to what occurs in the female menopause. This is not true.
Although testosterone levels fall as men age, the decline is steady at less than 2% a year from around the age of 30 to 40, and this is unlikely to cause any problems in itself.
Commonwealth Games must confront the truth about its sportswashing past The Games remain an uneasy celebration of ‘common values’ with nations the British empire once exploited
Tom Daley condemns homophobia across Commonwealth ahead of Games Gold medallist diver’s comments come ahead of opening ceremony in Birmingham on Friday
Quite why it's an issue when these awful countries compete at the Commonwealth Games but isn't an issue when they compete at the Olympic games is a bit of a mystery to me.
That's so very Guardian. The self-satire is palpable.
A sanctimonious white * man complaining about how whites have done things to blacks, taking it upon himself to get angry on behalf of black people. Do we call this whitesplaining?
I wonder if he asked anyone if they wanted him to pontificate on their behalf?
Hmm. If we believe in self-determination and that Commonwealth Countries are equals, do we get to impose our values a la Tom Daley?
* Judged from the byline photo.
I think there's contexts where indignation at the treatment of ethnic group a by ethnic group b is permissible on the part of non members of group a. It would be Godwinian to point to examples
Anyone would get very slightly tetchy at
“You have an object lesson of what is in my mind if one looks at cricket,” Cooper said in an interview published in the Observer in March 1929. “Unless you have been and lived among black people, as I have, you can have no idea of what a wonderful moral and disciplinary effect cricket has on the black races entrusted to our charge.”
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Although she has clearly figured out that she needs to pretend not to be. This may well explain why she chose to lie about her past decisions rather than to admit to having been on a journey. A better operator would have figured that out, and not tried the easily disprovable lie.
Indeed
She is probably the first major politician in the UK to lose out on a massive job for being Woke. In her case, the biggest job. Without this, I reckon she'd be home and hosed as PM
This in itself is progress. You can no longer be Woke without paying a price. Onwards
Nah, that's massively overplaying it. She wasn't up to it in a few different ways - ultimately an empty suit. Say what you want about Liz (and plenty have), but she at least has some sort of an idea economics-wise.
I disagree. I believe it was the TransWoke stuff that did it. That and her poor debate performances
I think it was all of that combined. She had the opportunity to set the agenda but fluffed it because she wasn't really ready to be PM.
Yes. She needed a coherent philosophy - just a measly paragraph would have done it. Yet, nothing
Nonetheless she very nearly made the final two (where she would probably have beaten Sunak). Eight MPs. I am pretty sure she lost more than 8 anti-Woke MPs (see the success of Kemi precisely because of the TransWoke business. So, in effect, her opinions on this cost her the top job in the country
I have absolutely no idea why an emoji has popped up there
Apparently it's the 1900th birthday of the southern Wall. So maybe worth a look at the schedule linked therein; would fit well with your idea of going inland rather than the coastal route, and crossing into TeviotTweeddale before heading west through the Biggar Gap perhaps (Hugh MacDiarmid) to Clydesdale.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Although she has clearly figured out that she needs to pretend not to be. This may well explain why she chose to lie about her past decisions rather than to admit to having been on a journey. A better operator would have figured that out, and not tried the easily disprovable lie.
Indeed
She is probably the first major politician in the UK to lose out on a massive job for being Woke. In her case, the biggest job. Without this, I reckon she'd be home and hosed as PM
This in itself is progress. You can no longer be Woke without paying a price. Onwards
Nah, that's massively overplaying it. She wasn't up to it in a few different ways - ultimately an empty suit. Say what you want about Liz (and plenty have), but she at least has some sort of an idea economics-wise.
I disagree. I believe it was the TransWoke stuff that did it. That and her poor debate performances
I think it was all of that combined. She had the opportunity to set the agenda but fluffed it because she wasn't really ready to be PM.
Probably a fair analysis, but there is also no doubt that Lizzy's backers did all they could to chop her legs out, and people like dear old @Leon bought all the woke bollox. It is politics though. A tough game.
I think Tories will regret not supporting her more when they get taken to the cleaners at the next GE. She was a fresh face and it would not have been difficult to say it was a reset. Truss is just continuity Johnson. If she keeps Dorries and Rees Mogg in cabinet (which I expect she will) I will not be returning to vote Conservative, and I suspect there are a lot like me (as suggested in the header)
Commonwealth Games must confront the truth about its sportswashing past The Games remain an uneasy celebration of ‘common values’ with nations the British empire once exploited
Tom Daley condemns homophobia across Commonwealth ahead of Games Gold medallist diver’s comments come ahead of opening ceremony in Birmingham on Friday
Quite why it's an issue when these awful countries compete at the Commonwealth Games but isn't an issue when they compete at the Olympic games is a bit of a mystery to me.
That's so very Guardian. The self-satire is palpable.
A sanctimonious white * man complaining about how whites have done things to blacks, taking it upon himself to get angry on behalf of black people. Do we call this whitesplaining?
I wonder if he asked anyone if they wanted him to pontificate on their behalf?
Hmm. If we believe in self-determination and that Commonwealth Countries are equals, do we get to impose our values a la Tom Daley?
* Judged from the byline photo.
I believe you once remarked that a truly good Guardian Article must contain the requisite mix of posturing anger and lip-quivering anguish.
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
Mordaunt is completely woke and captured by the TRA
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Although she has clearly figured out that she needs to pretend not to be. This may well explain why she chose to lie about her past decisions rather than to admit to having been on a journey. A better operator would have figured that out, and not tried the easily disprovable lie.
Indeed
She is probably the first major politician in the UK to lose out on a massive job for being Woke. In her case, the biggest job. Without this, I reckon she'd be home and hosed as PM
This in itself is progress. You can no longer be Woke without paying a price. Onwards
Nah, that's massively overplaying it. She wasn't up to it in a few different ways - ultimately an empty suit. Say what you want about Liz (and plenty have), but she at least has some sort of an idea economics-wise.
I disagree. I believe it was the TransWoke stuff that did it. That and her poor debate performances
I think it was all of that combined. She had the opportunity to set the agenda but fluffed it because she wasn't really ready to be PM.
Yes. She needed a coherent philosophy - just a measly paragraph would have done it. Yet, nothing
Nonetheless she very nearly made the final two (where she would probably have beaten Sunak). Eight MPs. I am pretty sure she lost more than 8 anti-Woke MPs (see the success of Kemi precisely because of the TransWoke business. So, in effect, her opinions on this cost her the top job in the country
I agree with this. I still though don't understand the anti-Truss group of MPs supporting Sunak who would obviously lose to Truss with the members. They would have been far better off supporting Kemi. This whole leadership election with the members seems now like a massive waste of time. Just annoint Truss now.
Comments
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2)
...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg @stonewalluk in exchange for retweets. (2/2)
https://twitter.com/KemiBadenoch/status/1552640941160370176
I've just looked at Wester Hailes on Streetview. In common with a lot of Britain's terrible council estates, it's a lot better than it was 30 years ago.
Scottish towns often strike me as more extreme, in terms of architecture and streetscape - the best bits are better, the worst bits are worse. Stirling exemplifies this.
Sadly not about Liz Truss.
But I do know it, and I want to challenge myself with new stuff. Might try Muirhouse
On the one hand, I think it's an unfair comment - Penny's twin brother is gay, so these issues are clearly close to her heart. On the other hand, she really does seem to have been captured by the Stonewall agenda.
I don't want my tour to be deliberate, unremitting urban grimness ("drain-inspecting" - as the Indians refer to westerners who come to India looking for human suffering and squalor). I'm not a drain-inspector, but I do want to see Britain honest and close
I suspect I was over-excited about being able to share my photo.
eg those for the Norway-UK Nordlink cable are just 3%, which is an overhead but small relative to eg price fluctuations in markets over time.
Loss factor on the Baltic Cable is set to 2.4%, on the NorNed cable 3.2%, the NordLink cable 3.1%, while the loss factor on the North Sea Link is set to 3,4%.
https://www.nordpoolgroup.com/en/trading/Day-ahead-trading/loss-functionality
The more I investigated the worse it got. The Tories dodged a bullet
Some of the 'Red Wall' towns in the East Midlands might prove interesting on the politics front.
Mansfield is probably the archetype and is pretty run down in places. There's almost nothing there. And yet within 10 minutes you can be in Clumber Park, Sherwood Forest, Rufford Park and the rest of the Dukeries.
Best way to get the vibe would be to go to a Mansfield Town game.
Probably better to stay in Nottingham though...
I'm sure you could go to somewhere like Gwynedd and see a lot of prosperous touristy bits, but there will be more hidden areas too.
Oh - and the area around Maxwell Park is very nice for a wander. Decent bit of house-ogling to be done. And there's the quite large pink Sikh temple there too.
If you want somewhere a bit more bleak - Port Glasgow just along the river is still suffering from the decline of the shipyards and the associated problems it's brought. I haven't been for a few years now, but it wasn't especially cheery.
Worst bit of Edinburgh is Edinburgh.
"...the battles fought to get the review going, the smearing of women who had serious concerns as terfs and bigots, how this links to wider problems such the credulity of some MPs who allow policy-making to be subverted by groups eg
@stonewalluk
in exchange for retweets. (2/2)"
https://twitter.com/KemiBadenoch/status/1552640941160370176?s=20&t=g1m7PfWDZ1TGAQa3wxYs6g
It’s almost as if some companies see measuring cost vs effectiveness as bad…
I like the building in an understated, London County Flats, kind of way.
I hope it isn't seriously damaged.
I would strongly recommend Cafe 52 on The Green (which isn't green at all) as an excellent place to eat. It is run by an old libertarian friend of mine who, like you, does his best to needle people for all the right reasons.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/apr/01/cafe-52-aberdeen-grace-dent-restaurant-review-manager-doesnt-like-guardian-readers
Manchester when it is sunny looks particularly incongruous.
She is probably the first major politician in the UK to lose out on a massive job for being Woke. In her case, the biggest job. Without this, I reckon she'd be home and hosed as PM
This in itself is progress. You can no longer be Woke without paying a price. Onwards
One of the interesting things about these areas is that the dividing line between them and the wealthy areas can be quite sharp, say between Muirhouse/Silverknowes and Barnton/Cramond.
Excellent. Maybe I will meet a couple of PB-ers en route. Cheers
It rather depends on the building materials. York looks fantastic in the dark or the wet because the wet sparkles on wet York stone.
I suspect Aberdeen might be the same, though I have never been (the largest city on the British mainland to which I have never been, I think).
But most of our less ancient settlements, look better in the sun. Manchester, in particular these days, with all the glass towers, looks rather amazing in the sun.
The evidence in the Bell case is also worth reading carefully. To listen to some of the activists you'd think these are properly tested drugs and there is no problem with them. This is very far from the case. From what I have read we are experimenting on children without even making proper diagnoses first. In part this is happening because activists are desperate to push their ideology rather than establishing and understanding the facts first. This too is a point made by the Cass Report.
If the science and long term results are unclear or unknown it is hard to see how informed consent could have been given by these children or their parents to some of the treatment given. Evidence is also needed from detransitioners, a group who should be listened to carefully.
However now they are in despair at the summer hols gridlock. They say the traffic is unbelievably bad in school holidays - Falmouth-Truro can take 80 minutes rather than 20 - and you can't get a table at any decent pub let alone a restaurant. And this is for a whole month
Still, their houses have doubled in value
The Queen is also in Balmoral so would be mightily p*ssed off if she had to interrupt her summer holiday to return to Buckingham Palace for 1 day just to appoint Truss as PM.
Better to ride it out and find out your actual support. If it ends up being a close run fight he might have a better chance of doing a Hunt and hoping Liz messes up quickly.
Update: Amazon says "Northern Market Towns" are mentioned on page 222 of "1000 Best Churches". It may be there.
If Mordaunt is genuinely "woke" (I doubt it), it would almost certainly would not have been pushed to the fore had she become PM. Lizzy's general shitness and closeness to Rees Mogg and Dorries almost certainly condemn us to a Labour government, with the likelihood of your much feared woke agenda being pushed by a large part of the next Labour government.
Cold showers as German city of Hanover reacts to Russian gas crisis
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62335911
Conflating the two is wrong.
Sunak is a sensible person and hence will think that the world is likewise full of sensible people who will vote for him.
He ain't pulling out. He may - just - win. But that's only because, not having read (m)any Cons membership threads recently, have lapsed into "people will be sensible" mode.
*books October flight to Bangkok*
It's a mile away from Conisborough Castle, mind. If any PBers fancy buying it I can swing by it on my way home this evening
Conservative MP Caroline Nokes has suggested to the BBC that some biological males go through the menopause. "Menopause happens, predominantly to biological women... but there will also be some men who go through it," she said
https://twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1552637805972553728
Better tell the NHS:
Is there such a thing as a 'male menopause'?
The "male menopause" (sometimes called the andropause) is an unhelpful term sometimes used in the media.
This label is misleading because it suggests the symptoms are the result of a sudden drop in testosterone in middle age, similar to what occurs in the female menopause. This is not true.
Although testosterone levels fall as men age, the decline is steady at less than 2% a year from around the age of 30 to 40, and this is unlikely to cause any problems in itself.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/male-menopause/
My personal experience tells me the world if flat and the sun goes around the Earth - that's not the reality. I don't know what you mean by "families broken by this ideology". If you mean young people transitioning and then deciding to detransition, that is an inevitable occurrence, and their should be adequate support for those individuals as well (although the largest cause of detransition is the social stigma placed on openly transitioning, and the rate of regret in surgeries and treatment is lower than the rate of regret for knee surgeries and having a child).
A sanctimonious white * man complaining about how whites have done things to blacks, taking it upon himself to get angry on behalf of black people. Do we call this whitesplaining?
I wonder if he asked anyone if they wanted him to pontificate on their behalf?
Hmm. If we believe in self-determination and that Commonwealth Countries are equals, do we get to impose our values a la Tom Daley?
* Judged from the byline photo.
WTF! Such madness
Also, Mordaunt's twin brother is trans activist, not just gay
If you do dare to go to Edlington, take in nearby Conisbrough Castle while you are there as a respite.
Mordaunt is more than entitled to her stance, but a person of such crassly poor judgement.....Her Majesty's First Minister? Commander in Chief?
Come on. What were the stupid f8cker MPs who put her up for election on?
There's been a very, very large influx of people from the South of England, selling up and buying here (especially noticeable in Shawlands and Strathbungo/Pollokshields). I guess between halving their mortgages and being able to work remote there's a lot up 20-30-something disposable income going around. Even if they're moving from Southern-England-rent to Southside-Glasgow-rent, I'm sure it's a big win in terms of spending money.
Switch Rees Mogg, Dorries, Boris and a couple of others and we'd be looking at Mordaunt vs Sunak for the run off.
It suffered from a lot of items, amongst them being the largest town in the country without a Railway Station for decades, and having a not particularly competent Independent run Council for many years.
Chesterfield may well be worth a look - Crooked Spire as ever, but also the outdoor market which is extensive. It also has a very active cycling group who have achieved much in the last 25 years. I have an overweight - 115kg - friend who works there and has just purchased an e-bike with the aim of cycling 17 miles and back one day each week for a start to lose weight. From here that can be done 80% on trails.
I would also say try the Northern Tea Company, where they (obvs) do tea and also roast about a ton of coffee every week. Excellent little cafe with drums of coffee beans and a wall of tea varieties.
Plus Crich / Tramway Museum.
Nonetheless she very nearly made the final two (where she would probably have beaten Sunak). Eight MPs. I am pretty sure she lost more than 8 anti-Woke MPs (see the success of Kemi
Poverty safari.
Which is also the title of very good book on what it is like growing up in places like these.
But I'm going to experiment
Yes, that's it. lol
For northern towns generally try John Martin Robinson 'The architecture of Northern England' which is very fine and spots what others miss. And of course for the churches of Northern market Towns, and others, nothing begins to replace the indispensable Northern volume of Betjeman's English Parish Churches, despite its age (1950s).
And for small towns, Cumbria outside the lake district and Lincolnshire are magnificently neglected because everyone has gone elsewhere, which is why elsewhere exists.
DOJ has multiple possible paths to Trump indictment: Here’s what it could look like
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3576858-doj-has-multiple-possible-paths-to-trump-indictment-heres-what-it-could-look-like/
Yes she may have been a bit Woke but she was also a patriot with common sense and a real world early life, her failure to get through to the last 2 may not have saved the Tory majority but has probably cost the Tories the chance of most seats. I can't see either Sunak or Truss beating Starmer unless something dramatic changes
Anyone would get very slightly tetchy at
“You have an object lesson of what is in my mind if one looks at cricket,” Cooper said in an interview published in the Observer in March 1929. “Unless you have been and lived among black people, as I have, you can have no idea of what a wonderful moral and disciplinary effect cricket has on the black races entrusted to our charge.”
For balance here's a POC
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jul/28/athletic-feats-at-commonwealth-games-cannot-distract-from-britains-colonial-sins
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/jul/28/hadrians-wall-fort-rebuilt-in-wild-colour
Apparently it's the 1900th birthday of the southern Wall. So maybe worth a look at the schedule linked therein; would fit well with your idea of going inland rather than the coastal route, and crossing into TeviotTweeddale before heading west through the Biggar Gap perhaps (Hugh MacDiarmid) to Clydesdale.
I think Tories will regret not supporting her more when they get taken to the cleaners at the next GE. She was a fresh face and it would not have been difficult to say it was a reset. Truss is just continuity Johnson. If she keeps Dorries and Rees Mogg in cabinet (which I expect she will) I will not be returning to vote Conservative, and I suspect there are a lot like me (as suggested in the header)