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Starmer v Truss – the first PMQs – politicalbetting.com

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  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 113,962
    edited September 2022

    Mr. Twelve, to be fair, May was on for a 200 seat majority before she annihilated her own campaign.

    290 seat majority actually.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950

    TOPPING said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Chaps - one swallow does not make a summer.

    Mrs May made a pretty good speech when becoming PM and a decent fist of her first PMQs as well.

    There's more to being a effective PM than that.

    The relief that normal service appears to be resumed after the clown chaos of Johnson makes the performance appear even better than it was. The ruling out of the windfall tax is a big error.
    Downstream energy company profits are around 2% (£80/£3,500. Source: More or Less, last Sunday).

    Tax them too much and you will push them into loss.

    Not sure that is what people want, is it?
    I think that is a false narrative. Upstream and downstream companies often share the same name. The key is taxing "profits".
    How much do you tax of a 2% net profit margin? What happens to the PEs when this is modelled, to dividends, to shareprices, to the pension fund industry. Windfall taxes can create a whole bunch of unintended consequences.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 47,787
    edited September 2022
    Interesting thread on dropping the bill of rights:

    https://twitter.com/RajivShah90/status/1567493045532213249

    I was a spad in MOJ under @RobertBuckland and, until yesterday, in the No 10 Policy Unit where I worked on constitutional issues for the past three years.

    🧵on this important announcement 👇

    TL;DR: This is great news but would be a mistake to see it from a left v right pov

    Ultimately, the Bill of Rights sought to provide a domestic solution to a problem that only had an international solution. When you look at it, it has a number of provisions that look like red meat, but actually, it is a vegan steak

    To Liz Truss's credit, it looks like she wants to focus on effective reforms and so has wisely chosen to drop this Bill even if it might cause a backlash from the right of the party
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,342
    Pro_Rata said:

    Thought an interesting question today was Peter Bottomley's on local planning control over bigger projects.

    Truss was all spades in the ground yesterday, yet seemed quite warm towards the local control thing.

    They are not direct opposite statements but they do point in somewhat different directions, be interesting how that plays out.

    This is because supporting projects in general but not supporting projects in particular is universal in the human condition, including the political condition.

    To be elected you have have both these views.

  • Phil said:

    FPT

    Phil said:

    kle4 said:



    Invading places is hard.

    I like the classical historical approach was to just withdraw, scour the area of supplies, and the invader would then have to retreat.

    I think the Scots outwitted the English that way many times.

    That’s because historically armies relied on foraging in order to feed themselves. So if you scoured an area of supplies, you were making that region impassable to an army of any significant size. Occasionally an army crossing central Europe would over-forage, starve out the local peasantry entirely & find themselves in the unenviable position of having no food source for their return at the end of the season.

    In the modern era armies are supplied by train or by road; the way to destory an army without fighting is to cut off its transport links.
    Which is the basis for the argument that the discovery of the potato was the most significant factor influencing the industrial revolution (grown underground so not vulnerable, cheap in absolute terms, and high calorie to cost ratio) as it allowed for growth in population and labour surplus



    Ah, to be clear: the military understanding of the term “foraging” at the time meant the taking of food stores built up by the peasantry. This is why military campaigns tended to be timed so that you ran out of your initial food stocks shortly after the first harvest of the year - you rode in, took as much of the harvest as you deemed appropriate & moved on to the next village. No military operated by actually harvesting the crops themselves: that’s far too slow & leaves you vulnerable to counter-attack.

    I suspect they would just as happily have taken potato stocks as they would wheat, barley or oat stocks. Anything portable and resistant to rot would do. The potato’s effect on society was more down to its enormously improved calorie yield per acre compared with other crops, plus the fact that you could grow them almost anywhere.
    You don’t have to dig and store potatoes - they could be kept underground until the army had passed… (or the peasants were hungry)
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 12,880
    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
  • OnboardG1OnboardG1 Posts: 1,272

    Interesting thread on dropping the bill of rights:

    https://twitter.com/RajivShah90/status/1567493045532213249

    I was a spad in MOJ under @RobertBuckland and, until yesterday, in the No 10 Policy Unit where I worked on constitutional issues for the past three years.

    🧵on this important announcement 👇

    TL;DR: This is great news but would be a mistake to see it from a left v right pov

    Ultimately, the Bill of Rights sought to provide a domestic solution to a problem that only had an international solution. When you look at it, it has a number of provisions that look like red meat, but actually, it is a vegan steak

    To Liz Truss's credit, it looks like she wants to focus on effective reforms and so has wisely chosen to drop this Bill even if it might cause a backlash from the right of the party

    I’m hoping it means she’s going to ignore the culture wars and tackle issues, even if I don’t think her solutions will work. That would be infinitely preferable to “do nothing and wank on about pronouns”.
  • I suspect after that PMQs it’s starting to dawn on Labour that they’ve made a mistake in underestimating @trussliz

    https://twitter.com/George_Osborne/status/1567475157815500802

    Thornberry was certainly struggling on WATO
  • WOW.

    They cannot repeat the Lord Advocate's own arguments.

    So “no more than 20 pages” should be a doddle….
  • OnboardG1OnboardG1 Posts: 1,272
    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    Which engine is it? Always had a soft spot for that car.
  • Phil said:

    FPT

    Phil said:

    kle4 said:



    Invading places is hard.

    I like the classical historical approach was to just withdraw, scour the area of supplies, and the invader would then have to retreat.

    I think the Scots outwitted the English that way many times.

    That’s because historically armies relied on foraging in order to feed themselves. So if you scoured an area of supplies, you were making that region impassable to an army of any significant size. Occasionally an army crossing central Europe would over-forage, starve out the local peasantry entirely & find themselves in the unenviable position of having no food source for their return at the end of the season.

    In the modern era armies are supplied by train or by road; the way to destory an army without fighting is to cut off its transport links.
    Which is the basis for the argument that the discovery of the potato was the most significant factor influencing the industrial revolution (grown underground so not vulnerable, cheap in absolute terms, and high calorie to cost ratio) as it allowed for growth in population and labour surplus



    Ah, to be clear: the military understanding of the term “foraging” at the time meant the taking of food stores built up by the peasantry. This is why military campaigns tended to be timed so that you ran out of your initial food stocks shortly after the first harvest of the year - you rode in, took as much of the harvest as you deemed appropriate & moved on to the next village. No military operated by actually harvesting the crops themselves: that’s far too slow & leaves you vulnerable to counter-attack.

    I suspect they would just as happily have taken potato stocks as they would wheat, barley or oat stocks. Anything portable and resistant to rot would do. The potato’s effect on society was more down to its enormously improved calorie yield per acre compared with other crops, plus the fact that you could grow them almost anywhere.
    Yes, it was a brutal fight for survival. I read in a biography of Peter the Great that peasants used to bury their food supplies, but soldiers discovered them by spotting a difference in the overlying snow.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 113,962
    edited September 2022
    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658
  • ChrisChris Posts: 11,009

    Phil said:

    Andy_JS said:

    O/T

    "The suffering of the Chinese people under the ideology of Zero Covid is extraordinary. Lockdown may be a mercifully fading memory for us in the West but it remains the ruthless daily reality for the Chinese. The numbers are staggering. Sixty-eight cities in China are currently in partial or full lockdown. As of last week this includes the megacity of Chengdu, where 21million people have been instructed to stay indoors. Only one person from each household is allowed out to do essential shopping. No exercise, no strolls in the park, no going to work. Briefly nipping out for food is the only civil liberty the people of Chengdu enjoy."

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/09/07/the-neverending-nightmare-of-zero-covid/

    ridiculous when we did it and ridiculous when they do it. Shows governments will do anything to save face . We only did it because China did it first . Lockdowns just delay (at huge cost and human suffering) the inevitable
    Not this shit again.

    The lockdowns in the UK pre-vaccines were brought on by necessity - the death rates if covid rates had spiked beyond the healthcare system’s capacity to cope would have been far, far worse.

    China is caught on the horns of a dilemma. They haven’t vaccinated their population effectively, so they either lockdown or suffer Covid waves that overwhelm their healthcare capacity and cause the avoidable deaths of millions. The real failure here is the failure to vaccinate & that seems completely inexplicible to me.

    well it is this again because we had lockdowns after the vaccines as well.
    "After the vaccines" perhaps. But the last time we came out of lockdown not even everyone over 60 had had even a first vaccination.
  • WOW.

    They cannot repeat the Lord Advocate's own arguments.

    So “no more than 20 pages” should be a doddle….
    Yup, 'Pharaoh, let my people go' would cover it.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,342
    IshmaelZ said:

    Hmm..

    A small step forward, and it would have been a terrible look to deny the SNP the right to intervene even in these 'make the Nats illegal' times.

    Well, hang on, whose case is it in the first place?
    It is a reference by the Lord Advocate under sec 34 of Schedule 6 of the Scotland Act, so it is an action of the Scottish government, not the action of a political party, which has a different corporate nature.

    Allowing written submissions but not oral is quite common in the SC.
  • OnboardG1OnboardG1 Posts: 1,272

    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly) elected dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    Presumably with the caveat *who shares my views. I was chatting with some other occasional PB denizens and we weren’t surprised the generation that tends to “win” in the current electoral setup has the strongest support for it. It would be interesting to compare that to other European nations.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 24,585
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Chaps - one swallow does not make a summer.

    Mrs May made a pretty good speech when becoming PM and a decent fist of her first PMQs as well.

    There's more to being a effective PM than that.

    The relief that normal service appears to be resumed after the clown chaos of Johnson makes the performance appear even better than it was. The ruling out of the windfall tax is a big error.
    Downstream energy company profits are around 2% (£80/£3,500. Source: More or Less, last Sunday).

    Tax them too much and you will push them into loss.

    Not sure that is what people want, is it?
    I think that is a false narrative. Upstream and downstream companies often share the same name. The key is taxing "profits".
    How much do you tax of a 2% net profit margin? What happens to the PEs when this is modelled, to dividends, to shareprices, to the pension fund industry. Windfall taxes can create a whole bunch of unintended consequences.
    There have been eye watering profit figures quoted by supporters of the WF tax. The lack of a future investment narrative linked into the notion of lack of pension fund dividends are both red herrings. My economic ability is 1980s A level, often criticised by Barty Bobbins, but it looks fine to me.

    It is also a simple political mechanism that will assist Labour/Lds/ SNP too. Vicki Young has just said as much on the R4 news by suggesting this is a clear blue water issue for Starmer. Cons. supporting big business, Labour supporting the little people.
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 18,156
    edited September 2022
    Chris said:

    Phil said:

    Andy_JS said:

    O/T

    "The suffering of the Chinese people under the ideology of Zero Covid is extraordinary. Lockdown may be a mercifully fading memory for us in the West but it remains the ruthless daily reality for the Chinese. The numbers are staggering. Sixty-eight cities in China are currently in partial or full lockdown. As of last week this includes the megacity of Chengdu, where 21million people have been instructed to stay indoors. Only one person from each household is allowed out to do essential shopping. No exercise, no strolls in the park, no going to work. Briefly nipping out for food is the only civil liberty the people of Chengdu enjoy."

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/09/07/the-neverending-nightmare-of-zero-covid/

    ridiculous when we did it and ridiculous when they do it. Shows governments will do anything to save face . We only did it because China did it first . Lockdowns just delay (at huge cost and human suffering) the inevitable
    Not this shit again.

    The lockdowns in the UK pre-vaccines were brought on by necessity - the death rates if covid rates had spiked beyond the healthcare system’s capacity to cope would have been far, far worse.

    China is caught on the horns of a dilemma. They haven’t vaccinated their population effectively, so they either lockdown or suffer Covid waves that overwhelm their healthcare capacity and cause the avoidable deaths of millions. The real failure here is the failure to vaccinate & that seems completely inexplicible to me.

    well it is this again because we had lockdowns after the vaccines as well.
    "After the vaccines" perhaps. But the last time we came out of lockdown not even everyone over 60 had had even a first vaccination.
    We had lockdown well after that. Late July 2021 was when lockdown was lifted in full.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,081
    TOPPING said:

    Sorry if I'm the nth person to ask this - but PMQs in one or two lines pls.

    tia

    Just a warm up; a no score draw. Truss did fine although Starmer will find her easier to deal with.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,392

    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly) elected dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    Pah, what's thousands of years of global examples of why the slow complication of executive power is a good idea? I wannabe ban X/implement Y!
  • Truss did well at PMQs. This is however her first go. Theresa May (yes, that Theresa May) absolutely destroyed Corbyn in her first PMQs and many people left expecting great things from her off the back of one performance.

    It’s likely (though not a certainty) Truss’ performances will slip. New PMs know that their first PMQs is important for them and they will prepare and over-prepare for them. Once they are down to the day to day of governing they won’t have the luxury of being able to do this so much.

    On the other hand,
    1) She only got her hands on the keys yesterday
    2) She had to work out appointing a cabinet
    3) She has to put other things in place very quickly- like the energy stuff tomorrow.

    For someone with a lot on their plate, shes done exceedingly well today.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 12,880
    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    Which engine is it? Always had a soft spot for that car.
    4.2 FSI V8 with 6 speed gated manual. It's my track day weapon for next year as I have sold the 911 Cup and won't be competing in Time Attack.

    I have foolishly told the Ukrainians that they can design the livery so I'll probably be lapping the Brands Hatch Indy circuit with BLɅϽKPIИK on the side of the car.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 24,585
    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    You have a Renault R8?

    Just kidding!
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,751

    Truss did well at PMQs. This is however her first go. Theresa May (yes, that Theresa May) absolutely destroyed Corbyn in her first PMQs and many people left expecting great things from her off the back of one performance.

    It’s likely (though not a certainty) Truss’ performances will slip. New PMs know that their first PMQs is important for them and they will prepare and over-prepare for them. Once they are down to the day to day of governing they won’t have the luxury of being able to do this so much.

    On the other hand,
    1) She only got her hands on the keys yesterday
    2) She had to work out appointing a cabinet
    3) She has to put other things in place very quickly- like the energy stuff tomorrow.

    For someone with a lot on their plate, shes done exceedingly well today.
    She leaked her cabinet weeks ago!
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,342
    OnboardG1 said:

    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly) elected dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    Presumably with the caveat *who shares my views. I was chatting with some other occasional PB denizens and we weren’t surprised the generation that tends to “win” in the current electoral setup has the strongest support for it. It would be interesting to compare that to other European nations.
    A nice example of why the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

    And that massive figure supporting the authoritarian strong man is after seeing what happened in USA on 6th January.

  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,751

    WOW.

    They cannot repeat the Lord Advocate's own arguments.

    So “no more than 20 pages” should be a doddle….
    Yup, 'Pharaoh, let my people go' would cover it.
    'It isn't fair-oh' would be a better summary of their arguments.
  • Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    You might be overestimating your appeal to that demographic.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,081

    I suspect after that PMQs it’s starting to dawn on Labour that they’ve made a mistake in underestimating @trussliz

    https://twitter.com/George_Osborne/status/1567475157815500802

    Thornberry was certainly struggling on WATO

    If they have to do some serious politics and not just sit there waiting for the latest Tory numpty to self implode, that will be a good thing.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 24,585

    Cyclefree said:

    Chaps - one swallow does not make a summer.

    Mrs May made a pretty good speech when becoming PM and a decent fist of her first PMQs as well.

    There's more to being a effective PM than that.

    Indeed, I think Truss has already made a fatal mistake.

    JRM as the person in charge/public face of energy prices during this crisis is a bit of a howler.

    Would have been better off making Josef Fritzl minister for women and children.
    That last statement deserves loads more than just 2 likes!
  • pm215pm215 Posts: 926
    OnboardG1 said:

    I’m hoping it means she’s going to ignore the culture wars and tackle issues, even if I don’t think her solutions will work. That would be infinitely preferable to “do nothing and wank on about pronouns”.

    Yes, if she's serious about "deliver deliver deliver" then "identify the handful of critical things to focus on and ruthlessly dump everything else that's likely to chew up time and attention" is an important first step. I don't suppose I'm going to like her proposed solutions but at least some competence and focus in government would be a nice change.
  • Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    You might be overestimating your appeal to that demographic.
    Hey, I recently got somebody in that demographic to agree to marry me.
  • Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    Once again, pensioners to the rescue!

    Strip the under 35s of the vote….
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,620
    kle4 said:

    Pro_Rata said:

    Thought an interesting question today was Peter Bottomley's on local planning control over bigger projects.

    Truss was all spades in the ground yesterday, yet seemed quite warm towards the local control thing.

    They are not direct opposite statements but they do point in somewhat different directions, be interesting how that plays out.

    I cannot at present figure out how she will marry those two together. The 'more local control' is generally a cover for NIMBYs in the shires so went down well with the members (though issues of specific targets can indeed be unfair on localities), but government policy has long been trying to make things easier, not harder, hence the proposals that got Jenrick fired.

    Honestly, giving locals more control over smaller projects but less on bigger projects seems more the way to go - when the country really needs the big stuff, holding it up locally forever just stores up problems, so you need to shortcut that, but the tradeoff is the much more common local stuff they have greater say over than now.
    One possible squaring of the circle - local control of aspects of development. So central government says “build x homes in the area” and locally “… in this way/style to fit in”
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 12,880

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    You have a Renault R8?

    Just kidding!
    R8 Gordini was mint. Would love one.


  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,081

    Truss did well at PMQs. This is however her first go. Theresa May (yes, that Theresa May) absolutely destroyed Corbyn in her first PMQs and many people left expecting great things from her off the back of one performance.

    It’s likely (though not a certainty) Truss’ performances will slip. New PMs know that their first PMQs is important for them and they will prepare and over-prepare for them. Once they are down to the day to day of governing they won’t have the luxury of being able to do this so much.

    On the other hand,
    1) She only got her hands on the keys yesterday
    2) She had to work out appointing a cabinet
    3) She has to put other things in place very quickly- like the energy stuff tomorrow.

    For someone with a lot on their plate, shes done exceedingly well today.
    For just a second, she did that weird frozen-face starey thing that she does when she thinks she’s made a good point, that we saw in the cheese and pork speeches. That will likely become her trade mark.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 24,585

    Truss did well at PMQs. This is however her first go. Theresa May (yes, that Theresa May) absolutely destroyed Corbyn in her first PMQs and many people left expecting great things from her off the back of one performance.

    It’s likely (though not a certainty) Truss’ performances will slip. New PMs know that their first PMQs is important for them and they will prepare and over-prepare for them. Once they are down to the day to day of governing they won’t have the luxury of being able to do this so much.

    On the other hand,
    1) She only got her hands on the keys yesterday
    2) She had to work out appointing a cabinet
    3) She has to put other things in place very quickly- like the energy stuff tomorrow.

    For someone with a lot on their plate, shes done exceedingly well today.
    "Exceedingly" doesn't have the cache it once had after the word was hijacked for use with Mr Kipling's s*** cakes.

    She did OK though.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,392

    kle4 said:

    Pro_Rata said:

    Thought an interesting question today was Peter Bottomley's on local planning control over bigger projects.

    Truss was all spades in the ground yesterday, yet seemed quite warm towards the local control thing.

    They are not direct opposite statements but they do point in somewhat different directions, be interesting how that plays out.

    I cannot at present figure out how she will marry those two together. The 'more local control' is generally a cover for NIMBYs in the shires so went down well with the members (though issues of specific targets can indeed be unfair on localities), but government policy has long been trying to make things easier, not harder, hence the proposals that got Jenrick fired.

    Honestly, giving locals more control over smaller projects but less on bigger projects seems more the way to go - when the country really needs the big stuff, holding it up locally forever just stores up problems, so you need to shortcut that, but the tradeoff is the much more common local stuff they have greater say over than now.
    One possible squaring of the circle - local control of aspects of development. So central government says “build x homes in the area” and locally “… in this way/style to fit in”
    It's the first part locals hate. And it sounds like what they wanted to do with a zonal approach.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    Which engine is it? Always had a soft spot for that car.
    4.2 FSI V8 with 6 speed gated manual. It's my track day weapon for next year as I have sold the 911 Cup and won't be competing in Time Attack.

    I have foolishly told the Ukrainians that they can design the livery so I'll probably be lapping the Brands Hatch Indy circuit with BLɅϽKPIИK on the side of the car.
    Will it tow an Ifor Williams to your girls' first one day event?
  • OnboardG1OnboardG1 Posts: 1,272
    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    Which engine is it? Always had a soft spot for that car.
    4.2 FSI V8 with 6 speed gated manual. It's my track day weapon for next year as I have sold the 911 Cup and won't be competing in Time Attack.

    I have foolishly told the Ukrainians that they can design the livery so I'll probably be lapping the Brands Hatch Indy circuit with BLɅϽKPIИK on the side of the car.
    I keep meaning to get a drift day at knockhill. I can’t afford (money or timewise) to get a Mk2 MX-5, drop in a v6 and drift mod it sadly.
  • pm215pm215 Posts: 926

    Phil said:

    Ah, to be clear: the military understanding of the term “foraging” at the time meant the taking of food stores built up by the peasantry. This is why military campaigns tended to be timed so that you ran out of your initial food stocks shortly after the first harvest of the year - you rode in, took as much of the harvest as you deemed appropriate & moved on to the next village. No military operated by actually harvesting the crops themselves: that’s far too slow & leaves you vulnerable to counter-attack.

    I suspect they would just as happily have taken potato stocks as they would wheat, barley or oat stocks. Anything portable and resistant to rot would do. The potato’s effect on society was more down to its enormously improved calorie yield per acre compared with other crops, plus the fact that you could grow them almost anywhere.

    You don’t have to dig and store potatoes - they could be kept underground until the army had passed… (or the peasants were hungry)
    I imagine armies would have adapted to the idea of having to dig up a potato crop. The Roman army apparently issued its soldiers with sickles, so its foraging parties were capable of taking standing grain from the fields, threshing it in camp and then hand-milling it to bake into bread. In comparison, digging up potatoes is fairly straightforward, so even armies without the discipline of the Romans could I guess have managed it if necessary.

    (Source: https://acoup.blog/2022/07/29/collections-logistics-how-did-they-do-it-part-ii-foraging/ )
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,620
    Phil said:

    FPT

    Phil said:

    kle4 said:



    Invading places is hard.

    I like the classical historical approach was to just withdraw, scour the area of supplies, and the invader would then have to retreat.

    I think the Scots outwitted the English that way many times.

    That’s because historically armies relied on foraging in order to feed themselves. So if you scoured an area of supplies, you were making that region impassable to an army of any significant size. Occasionally an army crossing central Europe would over-forage, starve out the local peasantry entirely & find themselves in the unenviable position of having no food source for their return at the end of the season.

    In the modern era armies are supplied by train or by road; the way to destory an army without fighting is to cut off its transport links.
    Which is the basis for the argument that the discovery of the potato was the most significant factor influencing the industrial revolution (grown underground so not vulnerable, cheap in absolute terms, and high calorie to cost ratio) as it allowed for growth in population and labour surplus



    Ah, to be clear: the military understanding of the term “foraging” at the time meant the taking of food stores built up by the peasantry. This is why military campaigns tended to be timed so that you ran out of your initial food stocks shortly after the first harvest of the year - you rode in, took as much of the harvest as you deemed appropriate & moved on to the next village. No military operated by actually harvesting the crops themselves: that’s far too slow & leaves you vulnerable to counter-attack.

    I suspect they would just as happily have taken potato stocks as they would wheat, barley or oat stocks. Anything portable and resistant to rot would do. The potato’s effect on society was more down to its enormously improved calorie yield per acre compared with other crops, plus the fact that you could grow them almost anywhere.
    During the Napoleonic wars, Wellington had his quartermasters buy crops. When they were in the season, they would buy them in the field, and use the troops to harvest them.

    When the French government tried going after farmers found to have British coinage, Wellington got some convicted coiners in the British Army to run off French gold coins using real gold. IIRC they had a better gold content than the real thing, since Napoleon was playing games with the gold content in French currency.
  • TOPPING said:

    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    You might be overestimating your appeal to that demographic.
    Hey, I recently got somebody in that demographic to agree to marry me.
    "recently"? Congratulations.
    Thanks.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 40,950
    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    Which engine is it? Always had a soft spot for that car.
    4.2 FSI V8 with 6 speed gated manual. It's my track day weapon for next year as I have sold the 911 Cup and won't be competing in Time Attack.

    I have foolishly told the Ukrainians that they can design the livery so I'll probably be lapping the Brands Hatch Indy circuit with BLɅϽKPIИK on the side of the car.
    I keep meaning to get a drift day at knockhill. I can’t afford (money or timewise) to get a Mk2 MX-5, drop in a v6 and drift mod it sadly.
    It's a regret I'm sure we all share.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,620

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Chaps - one swallow does not make a summer.

    Mrs May made a pretty good speech when becoming PM and a decent fist of her first PMQs as well.

    There's more to being a effective PM than that.

    The relief that normal service appears to be resumed after the clown chaos of Johnson makes the performance appear even better than it was. The ruling out of the windfall tax is a big error.
    Downstream energy company profits are around 2% (£80/£3,500. Source: More or Less, last Sunday).

    Tax them too much and you will push them into loss.

    Not sure that is what people want, is it?
    I think that is a false narrative. Upstream and downstream companies often share the same name. The key is taxing "profits".
    How much do you tax of a 2% net profit margin? What happens to the PEs when this is modelled, to dividends, to shareprices, to the pension fund industry. Windfall taxes can create a whole bunch of unintended consequences.
    There have been eye watering profit figures quoted by supporters of the WF tax. The lack of a future investment narrative linked into the notion of lack of pension fund dividends are both red herrings. My economic ability is 1980s A level, often criticised by Barty Bobbins, but it looks fine to me.

    It is also a simple political mechanism that will assist Labour/Lds/ SNP too. Vicki Young has just said as much on the R4 news by suggesting this is a clear blue water issue for Starmer. Cons. supporting big business, Labour supporting the little people.
    It will be interesting to see a real breakdown of the “eye watering” numbers. I would suspect that they involve thing like miscounting all revenue without costs.

    Remember the Tax Gap comedy?
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,878

    Hmm..

    A small step forward, and it would have been a terrible look to deny the SNP the right to intervene even in these 'make the Nats illegal' times.

    What does 'intervene' mean in this case?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,081

    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    Once again, pensioners to the rescue!

    Strip the under 35s of the vote….
    Pensioners get what they want already.

    That most people would prefer a leader of their own choice regardless of what the mass of less enlightened voters think is hardly a surprise. The relative disaffection with democracy of the upcoming generation is a concern, however. Some awareness of the unhappy lot of people unfortunate to live in places with strong leaders who are untroubled by elections might help?
  • OnboardG1OnboardG1 Posts: 1,272
    TOPPING said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    Which engine is it? Always had a soft spot for that car.
    4.2 FSI V8 with 6 speed gated manual. It's my track day weapon for next year as I have sold the 911 Cup and won't be competing in Time Attack.

    I have foolishly told the Ukrainians that they can design the livery so I'll probably be lapping the Brands Hatch Indy circuit with BLɅϽKPIИK on the side of the car.
    I keep meaning to get a drift day at knockhill. I can’t afford (money or timewise) to get a Mk2 MX-5, drop in a v6 and drift mod it sadly.
    It's a regret I'm sure we all share.
    We all secretly want to be Takumi.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 49,958
    TOPPING said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    Which engine is it? Always had a soft spot for that car.
    4.2 FSI V8 with 6 speed gated manual. It's my track day weapon for next year as I have sold the 911 Cup and won't be competing in Time Attack.

    I have foolishly told the Ukrainians that they can design the livery so I'll probably be lapping the Brands Hatch Indy circuit with BLɅϽKPIИK on the side of the car.
    Will it tow an Ifor Williams to your girls' first one day event?
    No. But it will tow a Russian tank....
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    Bloody hell that's the most frightening thing I have ever read. Support for democracy increases with age and having done very nicely out of it, thank you. This is what you get for not building houses

    Not clear about the motivation of ukonward but looks like right wing fuckery and a quest to tame the internet

    https://www.ukonward.com/reports/the-kids-arent-alright-democracy/
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 24,585
    edited September 2022
    Dura_Ace said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    You have a Renault R8?

    Just kidding!
    R8 Gordini was mint. Would love one.


    I've just checked out what they cost, 'kin' 'ell!
  • Screeds of bluster, with the briefest of mentions that the issue is “impact on womens’ rights in the rest of the U.K.:

    New UK Prime Minister Liz Truss is trying to block Scotland’s plans to allow trans people to self-identify as male or female, VICE World News can reveal.

    https://www.vice.com/en/article/3adva3/liz-truss-scotland-gender-identity

    The legislation is poorly thought through and the politicians didn’t like some of the expert witness testimony they received when this was pointed out to them in committee.
  • TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Chaps - one swallow does not make a summer.

    Mrs May made a pretty good speech when becoming PM and a decent fist of her first PMQs as well.

    There's more to being a effective PM than that.

    The relief that normal service appears to be resumed after the clown chaos of Johnson makes the performance appear even better than it was. The ruling out of the windfall tax is a big error.
    Downstream energy company profits are around 2% (£80/£3,500. Source: More or Less, last Sunday).

    Tax them too much and you will push them into loss.

    Not sure that is what people want, is it?
    I think that is a false narrative. Upstream and downstream companies often share the same name. The key is taxing "profits".
    How much do you tax of a 2% net profit margin? What happens to the PEs when this is modelled, to dividends, to shareprices, to the pension fund industry. Windfall taxes can create a whole bunch of unintended consequences.
    There have been eye watering profit figures quoted by supporters of the WF tax. The lack of a future investment narrative linked into the notion of lack of pension fund dividends are both red herrings. My economic ability is 1980s A level, often criticised by Barty Bobbins, but it looks fine to me.

    It is also a simple political mechanism that will assist Labour/Lds/ SNP too. Vicki Young has just said as much on the R4 news by suggesting this is a clear blue water issue for Starmer. Cons. supporting big business, Labour supporting the little people.
    It will be interesting to see a real breakdown of the “eye watering” numbers. I would suspect that they involve thing like miscounting all revenue without costs.

    Remember the Tax Gap comedy?
    It will also be interesting to see if Truss has spoken with the industry, and includes commitments made by the big industry players in invest in UK energy supply in her plans. If so, the implication may be that such activity is contingent on avoiding further windfall taxes. That will give her decision to avoid them far greater credibility.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,145

    Hmm..

    A small step forward, and it would have been a terrible look to deny the SNP the right to intervene even in these 'make the Nats illegal' times.

    What does 'intervene' mean in this case?
    'The party had applied to be allowed to submit its own arguments to the court in early August, despite the Scottish Government’s top law officer – Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain – already having submitted a case.

    The UK Government has also submitted and published its own arguments in the indyref2 case.

    On Wednesday, the Supreme Court said that the SNP would be allowed to intervene and submit a third written case – but it had to be limited to 20 pages and must avoid “repetition of the Lord Advocate’s arguments”.'

    Obvs there will be an element of response to the UKG arguments, I should think.

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/21137558.supreme-court-says-snp-can-intervene-scottish-indyref2-case/
  • BigRichBigRich Posts: 3,489
    As a brake for talking about PMQs and how good Liz was, have many people seen the news from Ukraine?

    it seems that the Ukrainians have advanced quite far, near Isium.

    That's the other side of the front to the 'main' Kerson counter offensive. was the highly publicised caunter-offensive just a big distraction to take the best Russian units away from the main area of offence? or is this just a local Ukraine commander taking the imitative and finding some success?

    We probably wante know for some time, when it will then appear 'obvious' in hindsight.
  • kle4 said:

    Pro_Rata said:

    Thought an interesting question today was Peter Bottomley's on local planning control over bigger projects.

    Truss was all spades in the ground yesterday, yet seemed quite warm towards the local control thing.

    They are not direct opposite statements but they do point in somewhat different directions, be interesting how that plays out.

    I cannot at present figure out how she will marry those two together. The 'more local control' is generally a cover for NIMBYs in the shires so went down well with the members (though issues of specific targets can indeed be unfair on localities), but government policy has long been trying to make things easier, not harder, hence the proposals that got Jenrick fired.

    Honestly, giving locals more control over smaller projects but less on bigger projects seems more the way to go - when the country really needs the big stuff, holding it up locally forever just stores up problems, so you need to shortcut that, but the tradeoff is the much more common local stuff they have greater say over than now.
    One possible squaring of the circle - local control of aspects of development. So central government says “build x homes in the area” and locally “… in this way/style to fit in”
    They should do that with electricity generation as well. "I require that you bring me a gigawatt. I don't care how you do it, just get it done".
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Carnyx said:

    Hmm..

    A small step forward, and it would have been a terrible look to deny the SNP the right to intervene even in these 'make the Nats illegal' times.

    What does 'intervene' mean in this case?
    'The party had applied to be allowed to submit its own arguments to the court in early August, despite the Scottish Government’s top law officer – Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain – already having submitted a case.

    The UK Government has also submitted and published its own arguments in the indyref2 case.

    On Wednesday, the Supreme Court said that the SNP would be allowed to intervene and submit a third written case – but it had to be limited to 20 pages and must avoid “repetition of the Lord Advocate’s arguments”.'

    Obvs there will be an element of response to the UKG arguments, I should think.

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/21137558.supreme-court-says-snp-can-intervene-scottish-indyref2-case/
    Feels like SCon should be in there for balance
  • OnboardG1OnboardG1 Posts: 1,272
    IshmaelZ said:

    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    Bloody hell that's the most frightening thing I have ever read. Support for democracy increases with age and having done very nicely out of it, thank you. This is what you get for not building houses

    Not clear about the motivation of ukonward but looks like right wing fuckery and a quest to tame the internet

    https://www.ukonward.com/reports/the-kids-arent-alright-democracy/
    Hmm, that's interesting. Looks like a headline bait poll to bash on the yoof without thinking "why might this be?".
  • BigRich said:

    As a brake for talking about PMQs and how good Liz was, have many people seen the news from Ukraine?

    it seems that the Ukrainians have advanced quite far, near Isium.

    That's the other side of the front to the 'main' Kerson counter offensive. was the highly publicised caunter-offensive just a big distraction to take the best Russian units away from the main area of offence? or is this just a local Ukraine commander taking the imitative and finding some success?

    We probably wante know for some time, when it will then appear 'obvious' in hindsight.

    I follow an account called Tom Fowdy who's mainly a Chinese Communist Party stan but has been providing a nice, well-informed counterbalance to all the pro-Ukraine spin we've been getting about everything. He just deleted all his tweets.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 49,958
    edited September 2022
    BigRich said:

    As a brake for talking about PMQs and how good Liz was, have many people seen the news from Ukraine?

    it seems that the Ukrainians have advanced quite far, near Isium.

    That's the other side of the front to the 'main' Kerson counter offensive. was the highly publicised caunter-offensive just a big distraction to take the best Russian units away from the main area of offence? or is this just a local Ukraine commander taking the imitative and finding some success?

    We probably wante know for some time, when it will then appear 'obvious' in hindsight.

    The Russian military bloggers are firmly refusing to be panicked.

    Meaning they are panicking. Places now flying the Ukrainian flag (with geolocated images) have got their heads exploding. At the very least, the Ukrainians appear to have retaken in days areas that the Russians have taken months to grind out.

    The Russian air force has made several appearances, but has subsequently made a large radius of damage in a Ukrainian field. Footage of both Russian planes and helicopters going down (caveated by the date it happened, but it is footage not seen before, so likely new).
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,620
    IshmaelZ said:

    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    Bloody hell that's the most frightening thing I have ever read. Support for democracy increases with age and having done very nicely out of it, thank you. This is what you get for not building houses

    Not clear about the motivation of ukonward but looks like right wing fuckery and a quest to tame the internet

    https://www.ukonward.com/reports/the-kids-arent-alright-democracy/
    The “Cut the crap about rights of nasty people, just get it done” has been popular with the young down the ages.

    The biggest critics of Athenian democracy were among the younger age groups, IIRC
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 12,880
    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    Which engine is it? Always had a soft spot for that car.
    4.2 FSI V8 with 6 speed gated manual. It's my track day weapon for next year as I have sold the 911 Cup and won't be competing in Time Attack.

    I have foolishly told the Ukrainians that they can design the livery so I'll probably be lapping the Brands Hatch Indy circuit with BLɅϽKPIИK on the side of the car.
    I keep meaning to get a drift day at knockhill. I can’t afford (money or timewise) to get a Mk2 MX-5, drop in a v6 and drift mod it sadly.
    Just do a welded diff, Destroy or Die angle kit and a hydro. A Yata will drift just fine on the stock motor if you air the rears up to 50 psi.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,574
    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    Just noticed you comment on the previous thread, and wanted to celebrate your Stihl being with us.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,751
    OK, so here is a question:

    I'm trying to find an account for my new business. It's proving tricky for all sorts of reasons. I've been working with Virgin Money to open an account so far but I'm seriously unimpressed - they keep losing correspondence and their emails are masterpieces in missing the point, which is why a month in they still haven't opened an account.

    Is there any reasonably good, preferably free or very cheap, business account out there suitable for a start up? I'm not looking for anything very elaborate although the ability to pay cheques in would be an advantage.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    AlistairM said:

    Looks like training the Ukrainian army is paying off...

    Russian sources report that Ukrainian forces are using effective NATO style combined arms attacks on their positions and they are totally overwhelmed in some areas.
    https://twitter.com/WarMonitor3/status/1567474654310277120

    There’s definitely a book or two to be written, on how the Ukranian army managed to go from Soviet military doctrine, to NATO doctrine, in only a few short years since 2014. This sort of thing usually takes several generations, requiring everyone from the top down to get with the program.
  • MISTYMISTY Posts: 1,594
    ......Brent crude breaks 90 on the downside...

  • OnboardG1OnboardG1 Posts: 1,272
    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    Which engine is it? Always had a soft spot for that car.
    4.2 FSI V8 with 6 speed gated manual. It's my track day weapon for next year as I have sold the 911 Cup and won't be competing in Time Attack.

    I have foolishly told the Ukrainians that they can design the livery so I'll probably be lapping the Brands Hatch Indy circuit with BLɅϽKPIИK on the side of the car.
    I keep meaning to get a drift day at knockhill. I can’t afford (money or timewise) to get a Mk2 MX-5, drop in a v6 and drift mod it sadly.
    Just do a welded diff, Destroy or Die angle kit and a hydro. A Yata will drift just fine on the stock motor if you air the rears up to 50 psi.
    Yeah and you can always put a turbo on it. I just like the sound of V6s. But I still don't have the time, money or garage space to keep such a thing. But maybe one day. I can dream. Or maybe Hyundai will grow a pair and make that Concept 74 for real.
  • bigglesbiggles Posts: 4,339
    MISTY said:

    ......Brent crude breaks 90 on the downside...

    The year to date graph is instructive.
  • Hmm..

    A small step forward, and it would have been a terrible look to deny the SNP the right to intervene even in these 'make the Nats illegal' times.

    What does 'intervene' mean in this case?
    A bit of a guess but perhaps to submit evidence? Who knows?

    This is the type of intervening the Nats like to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPv59649LE4

    Nice people generally I am told.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,620
    Sandpit said:

    AlistairM said:

    Looks like training the Ukrainian army is paying off...

    Russian sources report that Ukrainian forces are using effective NATO style combined arms attacks on their positions and they are totally overwhelmed in some areas.
    https://twitter.com/WarMonitor3/status/1567474654310277120

    There’s definitely a book or two to be written, on how the Ukranian army managed to go from Soviet military doctrine, to NATO doctrine, in only a few short years since 2014. This sort of thing usually takes several generations, requiring everyone from the top down to get with the program.
    Their heavy defeat in 2014 seems to have had the effect it sometimes has on armies - all the vested interests were on the table, and all the bullshit reasons for not changing we’re swept away.

    It must have been a combination of willingness to change and the external support offered.

    That and the Ukrainians have taken things further than the West in some areas. If the reports are correct, their target designation and allocation database system is something that has been talked about but not implemented in Western militaries. Because “doctrine”….
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,574
    kinabalu said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    OnboardG1 said:

    @Dura_Ace and the PB car club, I collected my new replacement for my ageing Punto on Saturday. Bought a Mazda 3 saloon. I’ve been impressed so far. Not far off the C series I rented a while ago comfort and build quality wise, and gets 50mpg with a new engine off a four banger. Their engines are fiendishly clever. Means my MX5 can spend time as a weekend car.

    My R8 still has 14 fault codes showing on the Autel. Think the RHS exhaust manifold is cracked.
    Which engine is it? Always had a soft spot for that car.
    4.2 FSI V8 with 6 speed gated manual. It's my track day weapon for next year as I have sold the 911 Cup and won't be competing in Time Attack.

    I have foolishly told the Ukrainians that they can design the livery so I'll probably be lapping the Brands Hatch Indy circuit with BLɅϽKPIИK on the side of the car.
    I keep meaning to get a drift day at knockhill. I can’t afford (money or timewise) to get a Mk2 MX-5, drop in a v6 and drift mod it sadly.
    This is a nice feature of PB - people are not afraid to speak foreign languages.
    I've said it before; 좋아요.
  • CD13CD13 Posts: 6,349
    As a result of fortumate circumstances - I retired in 2010 with a lump sum, at the very time a gentleman called Ed Milliband was offering solar panels with too good to miss terms. Bless his Labour cotton socks. The pay-back time was around 6 years, and since then I've been enjoying a tax-free annual sum from the government and lower energy bills

    Now I've received an offer from our local metro mayor (he's the one not called Anderson, who is still free to roam the streets) offering group discounts for new panels. and for those who already have them, battery connection - including electric car connections. Another offer that looks to good to be true. Assuming it is, should I take advantage of these feeble-minded gentlemen? Or am I the mug this time?
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797
    edited September 2022
    ydoethur said:

    OK, so here is a question:

    I'm trying to find an account for my new business. It's proving tricky for all sorts of reasons. I've been working with Virgin Money to open an account so far but I'm seriously unimpressed - they keep losing correspondence and their emails are masterpieces in missing the point, which is why a month in they still haven't opened an account.

    Is there any reasonably good, preferably free or very cheap, business account out there suitable for a start up? I'm not looking for anything very elaborate although the ability to pay cheques in would be an advantage.

    Mettle if you can cope with bank transfers only, Starling if you really, really need to handle cheques....

    Mettle (which is part of Natwest) will also give you free access to Freeagent that will do your accounts.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,574
    ydoethur said:

    OK, so here is a question:

    I'm trying to find an account for my new business. It's proving tricky for all sorts of reasons. I've been working with Virgin Money to open an account so far but I'm seriously unimpressed - they keep losing correspondence and their emails are masterpieces in missing the point, which is why a month in they still haven't opened an account.

    Is there any reasonably good, preferably free or very cheap, business account out there suitable for a start up? I'm not looking for anything very elaborate although the ability to pay cheques in would be an advantage.

    You could try Starling ?

  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,620

    kle4 said:

    Pro_Rata said:

    Thought an interesting question today was Peter Bottomley's on local planning control over bigger projects.

    Truss was all spades in the ground yesterday, yet seemed quite warm towards the local control thing.

    They are not direct opposite statements but they do point in somewhat different directions, be interesting how that plays out.

    I cannot at present figure out how she will marry those two together. The 'more local control' is generally a cover for NIMBYs in the shires so went down well with the members (though issues of specific targets can indeed be unfair on localities), but government policy has long been trying to make things easier, not harder, hence the proposals that got Jenrick fired.

    Honestly, giving locals more control over smaller projects but less on bigger projects seems more the way to go - when the country really needs the big stuff, holding it up locally forever just stores up problems, so you need to shortcut that, but the tradeoff is the much more common local stuff they have greater say over than now.
    One possible squaring of the circle - local control of aspects of development. So central government says “build x homes in the area” and locally “… in this way/style to fit in”
    They should do that with electricity generation as well. "I require that you bring me a gigawatt. I don't care how you do it, just get it done".
    What I mean is providing an incentive for the locals to guide, rather than just block development.

    In quite a few places, if the choices were better than yes/no to an estate of shitty brick box houses….
  • IshmaelZ said:

    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    Bloody hell that's the most frightening thing I have ever read. Support for democracy increases with age and having done very nicely out of it, thank you. This is what you get for not building houses

    Not clear about the motivation of ukonward but looks like right wing fuckery and a quest to tame the internet

    https://www.ukonward.com/reports/the-kids-arent-alright-democracy/
    The “Cut the crap about rights of nasty people, just get it done” has been popular with the young down the ages.

    The biggest critics of Athenian democracy were among the younger age groups, IIRC
    You must be very old if you can recall correctly back to the Athenians. What is the secret of eternal youth?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,620
    edited September 2022

    IshmaelZ said:

    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    Bloody hell that's the most frightening thing I have ever read. Support for democracy increases with age and having done very nicely out of it, thank you. This is what you get for not building houses

    Not clear about the motivation of ukonward but looks like right wing fuckery and a quest to tame the internet

    https://www.ukonward.com/reports/the-kids-arent-alright-democracy/
    The “Cut the crap about rights of nasty people, just get it done” has been popular with the young down the ages.

    The biggest critics of Athenian democracy were among the younger age groups, IIRC
    You must be very old if you can recall correctly back to the Athenians. What is the secret of eternal youth?
    Ha

    That young whippersnapper @JackW might know…

    EDIT : Young people - disappointing the old. For 2.5K years and counting…
  • ydoethur said:

    OK, so here is a question:

    I'm trying to find an account for my new business. It's proving tricky for all sorts of reasons. I've been working with Virgin Money to open an account so far but I'm seriously unimpressed - they keep losing correspondence and their emails are masterpieces in missing the point, which is why a month in they still haven't opened an account.

    Is there any reasonably good, preferably free or very cheap, business account out there suitable for a start up? I'm not looking for anything very elaborate although the ability to pay cheques in would be an advantage.

    My advice is not to go for cheap. Banking should probably be one of your lowest overheads, and you certainly don't want to be wasting hours with cheap solutions that generally are not much cheaper than the more "expensive". I have used Barclays for quite a few of the years I have been in business. I don't have any complaints.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851
    ydoethur said:

    OK, so here is a question:

    I'm trying to find an account for my new business. It's proving tricky for all sorts of reasons. I've been working with Virgin Money to open an account so far but I'm seriously unimpressed - they keep losing correspondence and their emails are masterpieces in missing the point, which is why a month in they still haven't opened an account.

    Is there any reasonably good, preferably free or very cheap, business account out there suitable for a start up? I'm not looking for anything very elaborate although the ability to pay cheques in would be an advantage.

    I use Santander for my bits & pieces and have no complaints at all.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,751
    eek said:

    ydoethur said:

    OK, so here is a question:

    I'm trying to find an account for my new business. It's proving tricky for all sorts of reasons. I've been working with Virgin Money to open an account so far but I'm seriously unimpressed - they keep losing correspondence and their emails are masterpieces in missing the point, which is why a month in they still haven't opened an account.

    Is there any reasonably good, preferably free or very cheap, business account out there suitable for a start up? I'm not looking for anything very elaborate although the ability to pay cheques in would be an advantage.

    Mettle if you can cope with bank transfers only, Starling if you really, really need to handle cheques....
    Probably will, due to organ fees, so I will look at Starling. Thanks to you and @Nigelb for the suggestion.
  • eekeek Posts: 24,797

    Hmm..

    A small step forward, and it would have been a terrible look to deny the SNP the right to intervene even in these 'make the Nats illegal' times.

    What does 'intervene' mean in this case?
    Allows the none party to join the litigation...
  • I've just watched one of Owen Jones's latest missives on Twitter (the one posted two days ago). And, my goodness, can someone send for the RNLI? He's drowning in salty, salty tears.

    Here's an idea for him: if he's so irate, then stand for election for Labour. Then he might actually do something for people.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    edited September 2022

    Sandpit said:

    AlistairM said:

    Looks like training the Ukrainian army is paying off...

    Russian sources report that Ukrainian forces are using effective NATO style combined arms attacks on their positions and they are totally overwhelmed in some areas.
    https://twitter.com/WarMonitor3/status/1567474654310277120

    There’s definitely a book or two to be written, on how the Ukranian army managed to go from Soviet military doctrine, to NATO doctrine, in only a few short years since 2014. This sort of thing usually takes several generations, requiring everyone from the top down to get with the program.
    Their heavy defeat in 2014 seems to have had the effect it sometimes has on armies - all the vested interests were on the table, and all the bullshit reasons for not changing we’re swept away.

    It must have been a combination of willingness to change and the external support offered.

    That and the Ukrainians have taken things further than the West in some areas. If the reports are correct, their target designation and allocation database system is something that has been talked about but not implemented in Western militaries. Because “doctrine”….
    Yes, absolutely. There’s also been a lot of innovative uses of technology seen for the first time in a land war, things like using almost invisible consumer drones for reconnaissance, and as spotters for artillery.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,751
    edited September 2022

    ydoethur said:

    OK, so here is a question:

    I'm trying to find an account for my new business. It's proving tricky for all sorts of reasons. I've been working with Virgin Money to open an account so far but I'm seriously unimpressed - they keep losing correspondence and their emails are masterpieces in missing the point, which is why a month in they still haven't opened an account.

    Is there any reasonably good, preferably free or very cheap, business account out there suitable for a start up? I'm not looking for anything very elaborate although the ability to pay cheques in would be an advantage.

    My advice is not to go for cheap. Banking should probably be one of your lowest overheads, and you certainly don't want to be wasting hours with cheap solutions that generally are not much cheaper than the more "expensive". I have used Barclays for quite a few of the years I have been in business. I don't have any complaints.
    Barclays appear not to be taking new small business accounts at the moment for some reason.
  • Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    OK, so here is a question:

    I'm trying to find an account for my new business. It's proving tricky for all sorts of reasons. I've been working with Virgin Money to open an account so far but I'm seriously unimpressed - they keep losing correspondence and their emails are masterpieces in missing the point, which is why a month in they still haven't opened an account.

    Is there any reasonably good, preferably free or very cheap, business account out there suitable for a start up? I'm not looking for anything very elaborate although the ability to pay cheques in would be an advantage.

    You could try Starling ?

    Yes, today I might go for that. Can't be bothered to change, Cater Allen is free and works.
    https://www.caterallen.co.uk/accounts/reserve-account/business-banking
  • MoonRabbitMoonRabbit Posts: 12,415

    Truss did well at PMQs. This is however her first go. Theresa May (yes, that Theresa May) absolutely destroyed Corbyn in her first PMQs and many people left expecting great things from her off the back of one performance.

    It’s likely (though not a certainty) Truss’ performances will slip. New PMs know that their first PMQs is important for them and they will prepare and over-prepare for them. Once they are down to the day to day of governing they won’t have the luxury of being able to do this so much.

    On the other hand,
    1) She only got her hands on the keys yesterday
    2) She had to work out appointing a cabinet
    3) She has to put other things in place very quickly- like the energy stuff tomorrow.

    For someone with a lot on their plate, shes done exceedingly well today.
    Truss was a disaster at PMQs. She fell flat on her face at the first question.

    It was not because of her “Maggie in a Dalek” - though that indeed made the novelty of no blustering Boris wear thin exceedingly quickly - it was her complete lack of political craft. Whatever £XXXB package of help she comes up with she is already helping her opponents shape how it will be known and remembered - bungs to the rich, workers to graft harder and longer to pay it off, as the debt will be round their necks.

    It’s going to be hard, but we will all be in it together, is what the package of support should be known as and remembered, if Tories want a chance of getting the politics of this right. By this measurement that sessionwas an awful start.
  • OnboardG1OnboardG1 Posts: 1,272
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    AlistairM said:

    Looks like training the Ukrainian army is paying off...

    Russian sources report that Ukrainian forces are using effective NATO style combined arms attacks on their positions and they are totally overwhelmed in some areas.
    https://twitter.com/WarMonitor3/status/1567474654310277120

    There’s definitely a book or two to be written, on how the Ukranian army managed to go from Soviet military doctrine, to NATO doctrine, in only a few short years since 2014. This sort of thing usually takes several generations, requiring everyone from the top down to get with the program.
    Their heavy defeat in 2014 seems to have had the effect it sometimes has on armies - all the vested interests were on the table, and all the bullshit reasons for not changing we’re swept away.

    It must have been a combination of willingness to change and the external support offered.

    That and the Ukrainians have taken things further than the West in some areas. If the reports are correct, their target designation and allocation database system is something that has been talked about but not implemented in Western militaries. Because “doctrine”….
    Yes, absolutely. There’s also been a lot of innovative uses of technology seen for the first time in a land war, things like using almost invisible consumer drones for reconnaissance, and as spotters for artillery.
    And sticking bricks of semtex to them and flying them into ammunition depots.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 12,880
    You can tell the Truss Caliphate is going to be utter tedium because on Day One we've already veered off into a Martin Lewis lite discussion on bank accounts and some ponderings on OBG1's drift missile plans that he definitely hasn't told his Mrs (or Mr) about.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,620
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    AlistairM said:

    Looks like training the Ukrainian army is paying off...

    Russian sources report that Ukrainian forces are using effective NATO style combined arms attacks on their positions and they are totally overwhelmed in some areas.
    https://twitter.com/WarMonitor3/status/1567474654310277120

    There’s definitely a book or two to be written, on how the Ukranian army managed to go from Soviet military doctrine, to NATO doctrine, in only a few short years since 2014. This sort of thing usually takes several generations, requiring everyone from the top down to get with the program.
    Their heavy defeat in 2014 seems to have had the effect it sometimes has on armies - all the vested interests were on the table, and all the bullshit reasons for not changing we’re swept away.

    It must have been a combination of willingness to change and the external support offered.

    That and the Ukrainians have taken things further than the West in some areas. If the reports are correct, their target designation and allocation database system is something that has been talked about but not implemented in Western militaries. Because “doctrine”….
    Yes, absolutely. There’s also been a lot of innovative technology seen for the first time in a land war, things like using almost invisible consumer drones for reconnaissance, and as spotters for artillery.
    As ever, the technology was waiting, unused.

    It is a constant, it seems, that technology innovation is nearly never about GeniusGuyInventsInHisGarage. It’s all about actually bringing the product to market.

    Electric cars existed. Electric cars with water cooled Li-ion batteries existed. As one off conversions. Crickets chirped. Years passed. Then a company was started to produce them en mass…..
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851

    IshmaelZ said:

    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    Bloody hell that's the most frightening thing I have ever read. Support for democracy increases with age and having done very nicely out of it, thank you. This is what you get for not building houses

    Not clear about the motivation of ukonward but looks like right wing fuckery and a quest to tame the internet

    https://www.ukonward.com/reports/the-kids-arent-alright-democracy/
    The “Cut the crap about rights of nasty people, just get it done” has been popular with the young down the ages.

    The biggest critics of Athenian democracy were among the younger age groups, IIRC
    You must be very old if you can recall correctly back to the Athenians. What is the secret of eternal youth?
    Malmesbury has always existed. This here is merely the current manifestation.
  • BigRichBigRich Posts: 3,489

    BigRich said:

    As a brake for talking about PMQs and how good Liz was, have many people seen the news from Ukraine?

    it seems that the Ukrainians have advanced quite far, near Isium.

    That's the other side of the front to the 'main' Kerson counter offensive. was the highly publicised caunter-offensive just a big distraction to take the best Russian units away from the main area of offence? or is this just a local Ukraine commander taking the imitative and finding some success?

    We probably wante know for some time, when it will then appear 'obvious' in hindsight.

    I follow an account called Tom Fowdy who's mainly a Chinese Communist Party stan but has been providing a nice, well-informed counterbalance to all the pro-Ukraine spin we've been getting about everything. He just deleted all his tweets.
    interesting?
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 3,054
    ydoethur said:

    OK, so here is a question:

    I'm trying to find an account for my new business. It's proving tricky for all sorts of reasons. I've been working with Virgin Money to open an account so far but I'm seriously unimpressed - they keep losing correspondence and their emails are masterpieces in missing the point, which is why a month in they still haven't opened an account.

    Is there any reasonably good, preferably free or very cheap, business account out there suitable for a start up? I'm not looking for anything very elaborate although the ability to pay cheques in would be an advantage.

    Barclays charge me £7.50 a quarter for an account for a limited company, which I think allows me to pay in some number of cheques for free, although I never have.

    Will you be handling cash too? Especially coins?
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 20,901
    Interesting PMQs. Truss did well. New PMs always do. Curious new Tory concept to borrow billions to lower taxes. Will be interesting to see how that goes, but Thatcherite economics this is not.

    If the economy tanks, she’s out. If she manages to engineer a boom, she might hang on.
  • OnboardG1OnboardG1 Posts: 1,272
    Dura_Ace said:

    You can tell the Truss Caliphate is going to be utter tedium because on Day One we've already veered off into a Martin Lewis lite discussion on bank accounts and some ponderings on OBG1's drift missile plans that he definitely hasn't told his Mrs (or Mr) about.

    Are you kidding? She's the one who, when on a wet roundabout, screams "EPIC DURIFTO" and demands the traction control disabled. I'm genuinely worried about what will happen when she eventually gets her license. At least her Eurobeat playlist is pretty decent.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,620
    kinabalu said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Looks good for my plans to become the country's first (directly elected) dictator.



    https://twitter.com/JLPartnersPolls/status/1567443028364742658

    Bloody hell that's the most frightening thing I have ever read. Support for democracy increases with age and having done very nicely out of it, thank you. This is what you get for not building houses

    Not clear about the motivation of ukonward but looks like right wing fuckery and a quest to tame the internet

    https://www.ukonward.com/reports/the-kids-arent-alright-democracy/
    The “Cut the crap about rights of nasty people, just get it done” has been popular with the young down the ages.

    The biggest critics of Athenian democracy were among the younger age groups, IIRC
    You must be very old if you can recall correctly back to the Athenians. What is the secret of eternal youth?
    Malmesbury has always existed. This here is merely the current manifestation.
    I’m fairly sure I’m not Biblical. There was a time when I was not….
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 38,851

    I've just watched one of Owen Jones's latest missives on Twitter (the one posted two days ago). And, my goodness, can someone send for the RNLI? He's drowning in salty, salty tears.

    Here's an idea for him: if he's so irate, then stand for election for Labour. Then he might actually do something for people.

    He wouldn't get on a shortlist under Starmer.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 24,585
    Jonathan said:

    Interesting PMQs. Truss did well. New PMs always do. Curious new Tory concept to borrow billions to lower taxes. Will be interesting to see how that goes, but Thatcherite economics this is not.

    If the economy tanks, she’s out. If she manages to engineer a boom, she might hang on.

    I just can't see how she engineers a boom. Neither can Norman Lamont.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,751
    carnforth said:

    ydoethur said:

    OK, so here is a question:

    I'm trying to find an account for my new business. It's proving tricky for all sorts of reasons. I've been working with Virgin Money to open an account so far but I'm seriously unimpressed - they keep losing correspondence and their emails are masterpieces in missing the point, which is why a month in they still haven't opened an account.

    Is there any reasonably good, preferably free or very cheap, business account out there suitable for a start up? I'm not looking for anything very elaborate although the ability to pay cheques in would be an advantage.

    Barclays charge me £7.50 a quarter for an account for a limited company, which I think allows me to pay in some number of cheques for free, although I never have.

    Will you be handling cash too? Especially coins?
    I would be astonished if I had any coins to handle. Notes, possibly but not probably.
This discussion has been closed.