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A significant proportion of Brits don’t support the monarchy – politicalbetting.com

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  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,504

    No 7 is a bit harsh - would expect a free drop.
    Stiffen your upper lip, Caruthers. There's a war on.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,267
    eek said:

    Where are you flying from and using which airline.

    for instance Jet2 is perfectly fine at Manchester but other airlines using different suppliers are a complete mare because the Swissair (to name one of them) binned all their staff and have been unable to replace them...
    Easyjet, BA, Ryanair, Ethiopian, TUI - all fine for us. Looking forward to Arizona golf trip in November (Heathrow with BA). We really went for it post-pandemic and have had the best summer ever.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 18,355
    Re this rapper chap who has been killed by the police - anyone hear any rumours about what was really going on? I've heard the car was flagged as being involved in a firearms incident and that the chap didn't stop, but nothing more.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 18,355

    Stiffen your upper lip, Caruthers. There's a war on.
    "Its just so unfair..."
  • Stocky said:

    Thinking about going up to London later this week to take a look and take some photos. Any tips on where to go other than in addition to Green Park / the Palace?
    I'm not sure. You can walk around Westminster but there's not much to see at the moment as its all been cornered off.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,267

    Stories about logjam to cross the channel, one weekend aside (and that was the start of the summer holidays), have been notable by their complete and utter absence.
    The media will trawl dozens of traveller until they find one who has had a bad experience, interview them and imply that the whole system is fucked.
  • Stocky said:

    Where is the floral tribute area? Is that the same as the Green Park displays?
    Yup
  • Selebian said:

    The quantity of flowers actually make me a little sad, for the missed opportunity. All that money spent, that could perhaps have been redirected to one or more of the charities the Queen supported. People should of course be free to mark her passing in any way they wish, but that's how I feel.
    That's what I did for the DoE.

  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,322
    edited September 2022
    kinabalu said:

    I do keep hearing about air travel chaos. I'm meant to be starting serious foreign travel again, after a long break, and it's not encouraging me. Maybe best to just stay put for now.
    Trouble is we all report the disasters, but not the good experiences. So I was on here complaining about the 1000 deep, 3 hour queue at Lisbon a few months ago, but didn't post about the seamless trip to and from Alicante a week ago.

    Also my experience is coloured by travelling quite a bit during the pandemic which was a joy (other than the UK passenger location forms which were a real pain compared to the French and Portuguese ones). Travelling by plane, even if it goes well, is miserable anyway. Travelling by ferry or train (which I do if taking bikes) is much more pleasurable.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,504
    Stocky said:

    Where is the floral tribute area? Is that the same as the Green Park displays?
    What is happening is that

    1) People queue to see and place flowers at the Buckingham Palace gates. This can take a couple of hours. This is because there is a tightly controlled queue on Mall, and other access routes to the palace are closed. This in turn is to control the crowd - once at the Palace gates there is a fair bit of space to move around.

    2) Each night, the staff remove the flowers (at least some) to the Floral Tribute in Green park (see pictures above). There is much more space there, and less people are going there than to the Palace. So yes, the Floral Tribute = The Green Park displays.

    3) When the flowers at the floral tribute are dead, they are being removed to be composted.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,347

    This. It's a delusion to think that we can meaningfully influence internal Russian politics, except to the extent that we defend our interests and values and reward them for moves towards better international behaviour.

    Russians are responsible for Russian choices. Not the West. The West is responsible for our reactions to those choices, and in this instance that has to be clear that (1) there is no reward for aggression, and, (2) we are not going to meddle in internal Russian affairs.
    Yes the 'aggression brings no gain' outcome is imo the key here. I've never really looked at this as a war. For me it presents more accurately as a crime with a perp and a victim.

    What I wouldn't want to see, however, is bellicosity of the "right, we'll teach these Russian bastards" sort. Fact is, if Putin ends up gaining little or nothing having gone all-in on this "operation" that is in practice a terrible defeat.

    So let's get there and then see what happens.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,347
    Stocky said:

    Ah, but redemption.

    I thought the ending perfect.
    I'm doing BOSCH at the moment since I have a free 30 day Amazon trial which I got for the US Open tennis.

    15 days left to deal with the remaining 4 seasons. Tight.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,031

    Beautiful Royal stool.
    Is the person charged with maintaining it the Groom of the Stool?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,504

    I'm not sure. You can walk around Westminster but there's not much to see at the moment as its all been cornered off.
    There's tons of Museums at South Kensington, which is a very short distance away, for instance. By the time you are working for hours, you can walk down to the river easily. London Eye is popular...

    The main thing I would suggest is pre-booking timed tickets where you can. Since COVID, a number of attractions introduced free, but timed tickets. Which is an excellent way of reducing the pain of visiting.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    I'm not a big air traveller but I cannot fathom anyone thinking any airport, major or otherwise is worse than CDG.

    I prefer Dublin airport to CDG.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,267
    eek said:

    Where are you flying from and using which airline.

    for instance Jet2 is perfectly fine at Manchester but other airlines using different suppliers are a complete mare because the Swissair (to name one of them) binned all their staff and have been unable to replace them...
    Travelled to Santorini a month or so ago (TUI from Birmingham//EasyJet to Luton).

    Johnson resigned shportly before we we joined the check-in queue at Birmingham. I was standing there feverishly getting bet after bet on in a thin market (laying Raab to be next PM as punters hadn't read the rules of the Smarkets market).

    Made £150 while I was waiting.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,288
    kinabalu said:

    Yes the 'aggression brings no gain' outcome is imo the key here. I've never really looked at this as a war. For me it presents more accurately as a crime with a perp and a victim.

    What I wouldn't want to see, however, is bellicosity of the "right, we'll teach these Russian bastards" sort. Fact is, if Putin ends up gaining little or nothing having gone all-in on this "operation" that is in practice a terrible defeat.

    So let's get there and then see what happens.
    Agreed - though starting a war of aggression is a crime.
  • alednamalednam Posts: 186
    I assume that those who are apt to vote Conservative are over-represented in the 62% who want the monarchy to continue. And I suspect that the 22% who don't are likely to be branded "lefties". Certainly such expressions of republicanism as I've heard come from the left. I'm afraid that the death of the Queen so far from spoiling Truss's period of honeymoon is likely to see it extended.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 4,855
    edited September 2022

    Different levels of risk assessment back then - if someone went under the train, it would be their own fault. Now, it would a public enquiry. And when it came out that the risk was recognised in planning and ignored, the person ignoring it would be legally liable.

    By car would have been sensible. And that is what I would have done. A rather meandering route, probably, to make sure that there were many miles of pavement which people could stand on, if they chose. Complete with a phone app detailing the route, the location of the hearse, and the estimated time to a given location...
    It is a bit like organising a bike race - a rolling roadblock of outriders and a timing sheet - which strangely enough they had practice with on Deeside only a few days before as the Tour of Britain passed the gates of Balmoral.

    No need for an app, really, just a list of fast/slow times.

    One way or another, they've missed a trick.

    Berwick, Newcastle, Durham, York, Doncaster, Nottingham, Leicester, Northampton. That's a significant population.

    A lot easier to process (is that a word?) the coffin past the crowds than to process the crowd past the coffin, although I appreciate that doesn't have quite the same meaning.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 5,559

    Does Charles pay inheritance tax? Or is that only for the rest of us?

    He's committed to pay an effective 75% income tax rate, if you'd rather he was taxed at the normal rates everyone else pays I'm sure he'd be happy to do so.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,267
    edited September 2022
    kinabalu said:

    I'm doing BOSCH at the moment since I have a free 30 day Amazon trial which I got for the US Open tennis.

    15 days left to deal with the remaining 4 seasons. Tight.
    Bosch is very good. Second tier though - not in the same league as Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul.

    Now TV is good for short term needs. I used it for Open golf. Doesn't work when one is abroad though - which is annoying.
  • kinabalu said:

    Yes the 'aggression brings no gain' outcome is imo the key here. I've never really looked at this as a war. For me it presents more accurately as a crime with a perp and a victim.

    What I wouldn't want to see, however, is bellicosity of the "right, we'll teach these Russian bastards" sort. Fact is, if Putin ends up gaining little or nothing having gone all-in on this "operation" that is in practice a terrible defeat.

    So let's get there and then see what happens.
    Gaining little or nothing isn't enough. They need to pay reparations to Ukraine for their crime too.

    For this war to end three things need to happen.

    1: Russia needs to be expelled from all of Crimea, the Donbas and other territory it is occupying.
    2: Russia needs to agree compensation to Ukraine for the damages it has inflicted.
    3: Russia needs to sign a peace treaty recognising all of Ukraine, including Crimea and Donbas, as Ukrainian.
  • Driver said:

    He's committed to pay an effective 75% income tax rate, if you'd rather he was taxed at the normal rates everyone else pays I'm sure he'd be happy to do so.
    How are you calculating 75%?

    Or are you claiming the Crown Estates as "tax", which it is not.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,267
    kinabalu said:

    Think I'm just looking for excuses - got used to staying still and the world revolving around me rather than the other way around.
    The thing is if not now when? Despite our excellence, we are both of advancing years. Isn't this what we've been working for? Financially we are in the decumulation stage surely?
  • Russian forces have allegedly withdrawn from the town of Kramina, and local partisans have raised Ukrainian flags over the city - despite the Ukrainian army not yet being there. This is in Luhansk, well on the eastern side of the Oksil River, and not far away from the city of Severodonetsk.

    I (and others) were expecting the Russians to try to make the Oksil river a new defence line, but this is well beyond that.
  • Gaining little or nothing isn't enough. They need to pay reparations to Ukraine for their crime too.

    For this war to end three things need to happen.

    1: Russia needs to be expelled from all of Crimea, the Donbas and other territory it is occupying.
    2: Russia needs to agree compensation to Ukraine for the damages it has inflicted.
    3: Russia needs to sign a peace treaty recognising all of Ukraine, including Crimea and Donbas, as Ukrainian.
    4. Russia needs to accept that it is in the wrong; no 'we were betrayed' myth that will just lead to another war in the future. This involves teaching the next generation what happened.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 5,559
    edited September 2022
    Alistair said:

    I see Senate Republicans are going to introduce a bill to ban abortions nationally. Because what polling has shown is that moderate US voters loves it when the Republicans talk about banning abortion.

    https://twitter.com/AliceOllstein/status/1569494296998383618

    Two observations - first, if it is indeed down to 16 weeks this looks like a cynically focus group tested piece of legislation. Second, I was assured on here repeatedly that it was impossible to pass national legislation banning abortion. So someone should tell the GOP they are wasting their time.

    If it's down to 16 weeks it's hardly "banning" abortion, is it? It's stricter than here, sure, but more lenient than in, say, France.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 5,559

    Charles de Gaulle is only the worst first world airport ... because Heathrow qualifies as a third world airport with its squalor, overcrowding & crap infrastructure.
    Heathrow's fine, I don't see why people hate it so much. It's biggest problem is that it's so big.
  • Charles de Gaulle was the best airport in the world to change flights on 11 August 1999. I was flying from Southampton to Nice, with a two and a half hour wait at CDG on the way

    This coincided perfectly with the solar eclipse that day, and I was waiting in the glass roofed terminal

    I get that eclipse watching opportunities may not be the best way to rate airports
  • And yet both Churchill and King George VI had funeral trains, albeit not over such a long run.

    If railways are too hard to police, then just use the car and follow the old A1.

    They covered nearly 200 miles in Scotland - it is only twice that distance from Edinburgh to London.
    Random bit of trivia. When Bobby Kennedy's body was taken from New York to DC back in 1968, two onlookers were killed and four injured in an accident in New Jersey.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,267
    Driver said:

    Heathrow's fine, I don't see why people hate it so much. It's biggest problem is that it's so big.
    I confess I quite like airport terminals (after you have gone through departures). Like motorway service stations I guess. Sit with a coffee, have a read, people-watch, a bit of googling, have another coffee.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,849

    JFK says hi.
    LAX laughs in the face of JFK and Heathrow.

    Seriously, though, London Heathrow isn't even in the bottom 50 airports in the world.

    I presume that YBard ran into a bunch of remainer skiers at Heathrow, and this has colored his judgement.
  • Charles de Gaulle was the best airport in the world to change flights on 11 August 1999. I was flying from Southampton to Nice, with a two and a half hour wait at CDG on the way

    This coincided perfectly with the solar eclipse that day, and I was waiting in the glass roofed terminal

    I get that eclipse watching opportunities may not be the best way to rate airports

    That's extraordinary, because I was actually there too, going to a wedding in Paris.
  • Cyclefree said:

    And this statement encapsulates precisely the problem.

    As a matter of good manners, you wouldn't normally go to a funeral and shout abuse about the deceased or their family.

    If you don't want to participate in all these rituals, stay away.

    But it is not the role of the police or the criminal law to enforce good manners.

    And this sort of prissy statement telling us all how to behave - as if the Met were the school headmaster - is not on. That statement would have read better if it said something like "We would ask those who want to do so to consider those who wish to mourn HMQ and those who wish to mourn to respect the right of others to express their view". That would better express a live and let live approach rather than this assumption that somehow national mourning should somehow override everything else.

    This is not just a private family event. But a state event. So people are - and should be - allowed to express a view about the political implications of what is happening.

    The reality is that those who want to honour the Queen can and are doing so. They are not being prevented from doing so by people holding up placards saying "Not my King" or "Who elected him" or even people heckling Andrew. So let them do so instead of this heavy-handed behaviour and potential abuse of police powers.



    Are there significant numbers of people suffering the claimed wrong?

    The woman in Scotland is much more likely to have been arrested for the profanity on her sign at a public family event than for the sentiment it expressed.

    The man in Oxford was not arrested for one shout of "who elected him". He went on like the town drunk for so long it was interfering with the ceremony (I was there).

    People in London with more basic protest signs seem mainly to have been moved to a place they weren't in the way, rather than arrested.

    The whole thing looks like an attempt to claim persecution as a PR move to me father than anything that's actually happened.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,063
    ydoethur said:

    I haven't watched it at all since Friday evening. This is an option for all people who find it either boring or OTT.
    Nope, there are no other options whatsoever, it's so unfair.

    Complaining other news is not getting a look in is sounder than complaining 24 hour news is repetitive.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,063

    Also, he served his prison time. She is only starting hers.
    Even so why him? Odd choice.
  • PhilPhil Posts: 2,507
    edited September 2022

    Does Charles pay inheritance tax? Or is that only for the rest of us?

    There is a “Memorandum of Understanding on Royal Taxation” issued by the Major government which explicitly exempts the Royal family from income, capital gains & inheritance taxes. As far as I can see there is no actual exemption in law, but the government takes the view that the Monarch & her family are in effect “outside the law” in this & other matters. (This doesn’t apply to the Crown Estate, which has different rules.)

    Elizabeth II chose to pay income & capital gains taxes during her later lifetime, but her personal estate will pass to Charles III with no inheritance tax. Press reports say that this has been confirmed by the Palace already.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,347
    edited September 2022
    Stocky said:

    The thing is if not now when? Despite our excellence, we are both of advancing years. Isn't this what we've been working for? Financially we are in the decumulation stage surely?
    I retired very early so I don't quite feel that "right let's do things now!" urgency. Also I travelled an awful lot in my 20s and 30s and early 40s.

    But yes, my wife is younger than me and has lots on her list so I'll be tagging along, I think. The consequences of not tagging along aren't appealing.

    We've started small with Bruges. Next Amsterdam. Then Greek Island. Then Japan. Then ... well let's not get ahead of ourselves.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 14,471

    4. Russia needs to accept that it is in the wrong; no 'we were betrayed' myth that will just lead to another war in the future. This involves teaching the next generation what happened.
    That may be wishful thinking. I reckon we are one mad leader away from a real reckoning. We're at the Hague stage (in more ways than one), with IDS is still to come. Or indeed the Ed Miliband stage awaiting Corbyn. There is just too much incipient stab in the back potential in Russia for now. Or put another way, they are moving from the denial stage to anger.

    So, messy and lacking closure as it is, I think the medium term is one of active containment and ongoing vigilance. Normality feels decades away. Russia won't accept blame - it will blame the West, Nazis, its own weak generals, Putin, corruption. Anything but its own imperial delusions. If Putin stays then it's Saddam after Gulf war I or Libya after Lockerbie. If Putin goes then it may well be like Iraq after Gulf War II and Libya after Gaddaffi.

  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,267
    kinabalu said:

    I retired very early so I don't quite feel that "right let's do things now!" urgency. Also I travelled an awful lot in my 20s and 30s and early 40s.

    But yes, my wife is younger than me and has lots on her list so I'll be tagging along, I think. The consequences of not tagging along aren't appealing.

    We've started small with Bruges. Next Amsterdam. Then Greek Island. Then Japan. Then ... well let's not get ahead of ourselves.
    Which Greek island?
  • I have always found JFK to be an absolute nightmare of an airport, though may have just been unlucky. CDG has always been… tolerable.

    I never get the love-in for Schiphol either I’m afraid.
  • This thread is quite extraordinary. It's intended to be an exposé of the journalist Helen Lewis, but instead reveals a lot about the insanity of contemporary identity politics in the US.

    https://twitter.com/chaedria/status/1569392148730068994

    This is the DM that Helen sent to someone who curated an exhibition at the Guggenheim museum.

    image

    In a response which included a "fuck you", Helen Lewis was called a "clueless, rapacious White woman" and told that "there is not enough in your background to suggest to me that you do not defer to Whiteness".
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,617
    Selebian said:

    The quantity of flowers actually make me a little sad, for the missed opportunity. All that money spent, that could perhaps have been redirected to one or more of the charities the Queen supported. People should of course be free to mark her passing in any way they wish, but that's how I feel.
    And a shame about the plastic too. People are not following instructions, rather oddly as they must have looked up where to go.
  • It is a bit like organising a bike race - a rolling roadblock of outriders and a timing sheet - which strangely enough they had practice with on Deeside only a few days before as the Tour of Britain passed the gates of Balmoral.

    No need for an app, really, just a list of fast/slow times.

    One way or another, they've missed a trick.

    Berwick, Newcastle, Durham, York, Doncaster, Nottingham, Leicester, Northampton. That's a significant population.

    A lot easier to process (is that a word?) the coffin past the crowds than to process the crowd past the coffin, although I appreciate that doesn't have quite the same meaning.
    A trifle unambitious. Why not follow the route of the Commonwealth Games "baton"? Surely it's what she'd have wanted. Ending up in Birmingham would be a welcome break from the stultifying embrace of tradition - an unambiguous statement of intent for the 21st century.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,617
    Phil said:

    There is a “Memorandum of Understanding on Royal Taxation” issued by the Major government which explicitly exempts the Royal family from income, capital gains & inheritance taxes. As far as I can see there is no actual exemption in law, but the government takes the view that the Monarch & her family are in effect “outside the law” in this & other matters. (This doesn’t apply to the Crown Estate, which has different rules.)

    Elizabeth II chose to pay income & capital gains taxes during her later lifetime, but her personal estate will pass to Charles III with no inheritance tax. Press reports say that this has been confirmed by the Palace already.
    I saw that, but couldn't believe they would be so unwise.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 39,690
    rcs1000 said:

    LAX laughs in the face of JFK and Heathrow.

    Seriously, though, London Heathrow isn't even in the bottom 50 airports in the world.

    I presume that YBard ran into a bunch of remainer skiers at Heathrow, and this has colored his judgement.
    Nah, JFK is definitely worse than LAX. Heathrow isn't bad at all IMO, T5 could be organised better without the T5B/C annexes but it's still better than most hub airports I've been to in Europe. I think at the moment it's bad because the airport management played it badly and are now playing catch up in a very tight labour market with rock bottom salaries.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,986
    edited September 2022

    Random bit of trivia. When Bobby Kennedy's body was taken from New York to DC back in 1968, two onlookers were killed and four injured in an accident in New Jersey.
    I guess Stalin’s funeral meats wins the prize for funereal death tolls, anything between 100 to 1000s, in the modern age anyway.
    Horribly appropriate for the grisly, old bastard.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,617
    edited September 2022
    Stocky said:

    I confess I quite like airport terminals (after you have gone through departures). Like motorway service stations I guess. Sit with a coffee, have a read, people-watch, a bit of googling, have another coffee.
    Trouble is the bookshops have often been closed down, also at rail stations - last time I was at KX the rather good one had become, I think, a Harry Potter franchise.

    Stocking up on pre-publication books to read on holidays was a small but real treat.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,267
    Carnyx said:

    Trouble is the bookshops have often been closed down, also at rail stations - last time I was at KX the rather good one had become, I think, a Harry Potter franchise.
    Oh I take books with me. Wouldn't buy one at an airport.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,347
    Stocky said:

    Which Greek island?
    Still up for grabs. A new one though - so not Crete or Corfu or Rhodes or Poros.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,617
    Stocky said:

    Oh I take books with me. Wouldn't buy one at an airport.
    Me too - but the new ones were a bonus (also often bought on the way home).
  • This thread is quite extraordinary. It's intended to be an exposé of the journalist Helen Lewis, but instead reveals a lot about the insanity of contemporary identity politics in the US.

    https://twitter.com/chaedria/status/1569392148730068994

    This is the DM that Helen sent to someone who curated an exhibition at the Guggenheim museum.

    image

    In a response which included a "fuck you", Helen Lewis was called a "clueless, rapacious White woman" and told that "there is not enough in your background to suggest to me that you do not defer to Whiteness".

    WTF? "literally demanding that I speak to her" - Again with the "literally", saying "might we talk?" is not a literal demand.
  • Stocky said:

    Oh I take books with me. Wouldn't buy one at an airport.
    A tear just fell in Camden Town.
  • PhilPhil Posts: 2,507
    edited September 2022
    Carnyx said:

    I saw that, but couldn't believe they would be so unwise.
    Current text of the memorandum is here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/208633/mou_royal_taxation.pdf

    Reads like a very British compromise. I wonder what discussions went on behind the scenes?
  • kle4 said:

    Even so why him? Odd choice.
    He was very high profile once. Perhaps he was more involved with the royals then we expect?
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,267
    edited September 2022
    kinabalu said:

    Still up for grabs. A new one though - so not Crete or Corfu or Rhodes or Poros.
    If in July or August take into consideration the wind (the Meltemi) which affects most islands. It can be very unpleasant. The way to avoid it is to choose an Ionian island. Corfu has been pretty much ruined. Zakynthos less so (as long as you avoid certain areas). Kephalonia is a great choice IMO. There are smaller Ionian islands too. Leon could advise.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,504
    Stocky said:

    I confess I quite like airport terminals (after you have gone through departures). Like motorway service stations I guess. Sit with a coffee, have a read, people-watch, a bit of googling, have another coffee.
    You will love Singapore then.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,970

    Utter nonsense

    When you are reading a @roger comment, always keep in mind his VERY FIRST reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Feb 2022:

    “It’s time for NATO to disband”
  • Carnyx said:

    Trouble is the bookshops have often been closed down, also at rail stations - last time I was at KX the rather good one had become, I think, a Harry Potter franchise.

    Stocking up on pre-publication books to read on holidays was a small but real treat.
    Being Aberdonian by upbringing if not descent I hardly ever buy overpriced glossy periodicals, however I tend to make an exception for flying - Iron Cross magazine for my last trip which was appropriately to Berlin.
  • VerulamiusVerulamius Posts: 1,554
    Phil said:

    There is a “Memorandum of Understanding on Royal Taxation” issued by the Major government which explicitly exempts the Royal family from income, capital gains & inheritance taxes. As far as I can see there is no actual exemption in law, but the government takes the view that the Monarch & her family are in effect “outside the law” in this & other matters. (This doesn’t apply to the Crown Estate, which has different rules.)

    Elizabeth II chose to pay income & capital gains taxes during her later lifetime, but her personal estate will pass to Charles III with no inheritance tax. Press reports say that this has been confirmed by the Palace already.
    HMRC manual www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/international-manual/intm860150 states

    The Crown is not within the scope of the taxing acts and claim total relief unless an Act specifically makes it liable.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,267

    WTF? "literally demanding that I speak to her" - Again with the "literally", saying "might we talk?" is not a literal demand.
    Helen Lewis (New Stateman and Guardian journo) was metaphorically crucified a few years ago for the crime of interviewing (yes just talking to) Jordan Peterson.
  • That's extraordinary, because I was actually there too, going to a wedding in Paris.
    I was a few miles north of Paris in Compeigne watching the eclipse.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,267
    edited September 2022

    You will love Singapore then.
    Yes Changi. Been a couple of times. I really liked Singapore but a few days is enough.

    First time with the first Mrs Stocky on honeymoon. Then a few years later with the second Mrs Stocky - staying at - ahem - the same hotel.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,867

    No 7 is a bit harsh - would expect a free drop.
    The aircraft has already given you a free drop...
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,347
    Nigelb said:

    Agreed - though starting a war of aggression is a crime.
    Yes it is. This isn't a "good v evil" conflict - that is not imo the right way to view it - but it is a matter of right v wrong with the wrong all on one side.

    Again, like a crime. A putative killer attacks his victim, the victim fights back. That's not "good v evil" - the victim might be a deeply flawed individual and the killer might have his good points - but it IS a fairly uncomplicated matter of right and wrong.
  • To go contrary to the "worst" airport stories, the best airport I've ever been to is Keflavik (KEF) which is an absolute pleasure to go through.

    Whenever we fly across the Atlantic we fly with Icelandair in recent years, if you don't mind a layover they're a lot cheaper to fly with, the customer service is fantastic every time too. KEF itself is great, every time we have been it is always clean, smooth moving, great service and extremely easy to navigate.

    Iceland is a beautiful country to visit on holiday anyway, but even if you're just looking to go to Canada or America, consider having a look there. It is far, far cheaper for us and much better service too flying with Icelandair and stopping at KEF than flying with Air Canada.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,504
    Stocky said:

    Yes Changi. Been a couple of times. I really liked Singapore but a few days is enough.

    First time with the first Mrs Stocky on honeymoon. Then a few years later with the second Mrs Stocky - staying at - ahem - the same hotel.
    I bought my second engagement ring from the same jeweller as the first. He remembered me and our conservation about his website and the technology behind it, years before. Then gave me a very good price.
  • kinabalu said:

    Yes it is. This isn't a "good v evil" conflict - that is not imo the right way to view it - but it is a matter of right v wrong with the wrong all on one side.

    Again, like a crime. A putative killer attacks his victim, the victim fights back. That's not "good v evil" - the victim might be a deeply flawed individual and the killer might have his good points - but it IS a fairly uncomplicated matter of right and wrong.
    Evil and wrong can by synonyms and Russia in this conflict is both.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,347

    Gaining little or nothing isn't enough. They need to pay reparations to Ukraine for their crime too.

    For this war to end three things need to happen.

    1: Russia needs to be expelled from all of Crimea, the Donbas and other territory it is occupying.
    2: Russia needs to agree compensation to Ukraine for the damages it has inflicted.
    3: Russia needs to sign a peace treaty recognising all of Ukraine, including Crimea and Donbas, as Ukrainian.
    We'll see. I do, however, sense you straying into the sort of bellicosity I specifically said I didn't want to see. But if all of that remains on internet forums rather than in decision rooms I guess it's ok.
  • To go contrary to the "worst" airport stories, the best airport I've ever been to is Keflavik (KEF) which is an absolute pleasure to go through.

    Whenever we fly across the Atlantic we fly with Icelandair in recent years, if you don't mind a layover they're a lot cheaper to fly with, the customer service is fantastic every time too. KEF itself is great, every time we have been it is always clean, smooth moving, great service and extremely easy to navigate.

    Iceland is a beautiful country to visit on holiday anyway, but even if you're just looking to go to Canada or America, consider having a look there. It is far, far cheaper for us and much better service too flying with Icelandair and stopping at KEF than flying with Air Canada.

    Yep, quite charmingly homely and a lavish selection of cured & smoked meats etc as I recall. In fact my memory may be playing up but I seem to remember a gamey smell permeating the place, just hope it wasn’t salted puffin.
  • To go contrary to the "worst" airport stories, the best airport I've ever been to is Keflavik (KEF) which is an absolute pleasure to go through.

    Whenever we fly across the Atlantic we fly with Icelandair in recent years, if you don't mind a layover they're a lot cheaper to fly with, the customer service is fantastic every time too. KEF itself is great, every time we have been it is always clean, smooth moving, great service and extremely easy to navigate.

    Iceland is a beautiful country to visit on holiday anyway, but even if you're just looking to go to Canada or America, consider having a look there. It is far, far cheaper for us and much better service too flying with Icelandair and stopping at KEF than flying with Air Canada.

    What a strangely successful country Iceland is. It seems to have received the best of a combined Anglo-American and Scandinavian, more Continental influence. We could learn a bit from that.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,867

    What a strangely successful country Iceland is. It seems to have received the best of a combined Anglo-American and Scandinavian, more Continental influence. We could learn a bit from that.
    Albeit not around banking regulations.
  • DriverDriver Posts: 5,559
    .

    How are you calculating 75%?

    Or are you claiming the Crown Estates as "tax", which it is not.
    The Sovereign Grant is, I understand, fixed at 25% of the Crown Estates revenue, which effectively makes it a 75% tax. Not literally, but effectively.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,267

    To go contrary to the "worst" airport stories, the best airport I've ever been to is Keflavik (KEF) which is an absolute pleasure to go through.

    Whenever we fly across the Atlantic we fly with Icelandair in recent years, if you don't mind a layover they're a lot cheaper to fly with, the customer service is fantastic every time too. KEF itself is great, every time we have been it is always clean, smooth moving, great service and extremely easy to navigate.

    Iceland is a beautiful country to visit on holiday anyway, but even if you're just looking to go to Canada or America, consider having a look there. It is far, far cheaper for us and much better service too flying with Icelandair and stopping at KEF than flying with Air Canada.

    You've brought back memories of seeing the northern lights and ice chunks floating down rivers. This is where we stayed:

    https://hotelranga.is/
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 34,274

    To go contrary to the "worst" airport stories, the best airport I've ever been to is Keflavik (KEF) which is an absolute pleasure to go through.

    Whenever we fly across the Atlantic we fly with Icelandair in recent years, if you don't mind a layover they're a lot cheaper to fly with, the customer service is fantastic every time too. KEF itself is great, every time we have been it is always clean, smooth moving, great service and extremely easy to navigate.

    Iceland is a beautiful country to visit on holiday anyway, but even if you're just looking to go to Canada or America, consider having a look there. It is far, far cheaper for us and much better service too flying with Icelandair and stopping at KEF than flying with Air Canada.

    Wel,l I agree about Iceland I don't about Keflavík airport. What's more I was searched for weapons at Toronto before I was allowed onto the Icelandair plane and then again when I got off at Keflavik!
  • eekeek Posts: 29,399
    Carnyx said:

    Trouble is the bookshops have often been closed down, also at rail stations - last time I was at KX the rather good one had become, I think, a Harry Potter franchise.

    Stocking up on pre-publication books to read on holidays was a small but real treat.
    Which is why you go to St Pancras if you want to do any actually shopping...
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,920
    edited September 2022
    ydoethur said:

    Albeit not around banking regulations.
    Wasn't there a much more genuine holding of the bankers to account in the end there, though ? Also a much more genuine national effort to recover across society, "all in it together", rather than as a empty slogan.
  • Driver said:

    .

    The Sovereign Grant is, I understand, fixed at 25% of the Crown Estates revenue, which effectively makes it a 75% tax. Not literally, but effectively.
    So neither literally nor effectively. The Crown Estates, like everything belonging to "the Crown" should belong to the state and if we became a republic would do so, they are not and wouldn't be private property. The Crown Estates haven't been worked for, earnt or taxed, by any private individual.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,504
    kinabalu said:

    We'll see. I do, however, sense you straying into the sort of bellicosity I specifically said I didn't want to see. But if all of that remains on internet forums rather than in decision rooms I guess it's ok.
    Perhaps it is worth thinking why you think that asking a county invading another country to completely stop invading another country and go back to the status quo ante is bellicose?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,970
    kinabalu said:

    Think I'm just looking for excuses - got used to staying still and the world revolving around me rather than the other way around.
    Don’t.

    Someone I know got used to doing absolutely nothing and seeing no one during covid. Like a hermit

    Even when covid ended she maintained this new monastic isolation. She went from being sociable and active and keen on travel, to inertia, isolation, staying-at-home

    Recently this person was diagnosed with a terminal illness and was given a few short months to live, at most. And she is now UNABLE to travel. Much as she might want to

    She now bitterly regrets the ~3 years spent in self imposed confinement and it wasn’t even Covid that got her, in the end

    You’re in your 60s. You can still see the world. Do it before you no longer can

  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,617
    eek said:

    Which is why you go to St Pancras if you want to do any actually shopping...
    Oh, really? Decent bookshop? Thanks.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,063
    HYUFD said:

    I doubt he would but if he did most voters oppose fracking anyway and it was not in the 2019 Tory manifesto
    https://yougov.co.uk/topics/science/trackers/should-britain-start-extracting-shale-gas
    Immaterial if it is in a Bill that is passed. I doubt he'd be that foolish.
  • PhilPhil Posts: 2,507
    edited September 2022
    Driver said:

    .

    The Sovereign Grant is, I understand, fixed at 25% of the Crown Estates revenue, which effectively makes it a 75% tax. Not literally, but effectively.
    The Crown Estate is not the personal property of the Monarch & its management is under the control of the government.

    The Sovereign receives a payment out of the revenue of the Crown Estate as a replacement for the Civil List, which was causing political difficulties: Voting on the Monarch’s income every decade was highlighting to the general public exactly how much the Monarch was receiving from them on a regular basis. Now it never comes up, because it’s fixed as a proportion of the income of the Crown Estate.

    So the Monarch (amongst many other things) gets 25% of the lease cost for every off-shore windfarm. Obviously the Monarch has done nothing to deserve that income, but that’s political fudges for you.
  • Perhaps it is worth thinking why you think that asking a county invading another country to completely stop invading another country and go back to the status quo ante is bellicose?
    Precisely.

    The way some apologists are acting, you'd think we were suggesting that the tanks should be rolling down the streets of Moscow and the first born child of every Russian family should be sacrificed in homage.

    Leaving the country that has been invaded, paying reparations for the invasion, and promising not to invade again, is not bellicosity.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,063
    HYUFD said:

    Looks like new King Charles has got a rather bigger poll bounce than new PM Liz then, not that it matters so much for him as he has no election to fight
    No, but support for the institution and its head would be relevant in ensuring its continuation.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,617

    Yep, quite charmingly homely and a lavish selection of cured & smoked meats etc as I recall. In fact my memory may be playing up but I seem to remember a gamey smell permeating the place, just hope it wasn’t salted puffin.
    One favourite was Bournemouth. A bit of a WW2 leftover but small and fast, and I discovered one can sit outside. Trouble is for security reasons it'sd caged in so one feels like one is in the chimp house at Corstorphine, but just sitting in the fresh, avtur-scented air and sun was great. And then a Meteor came out and took off. No idea if this is still a thing, though, either the jet or the zoo experience.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,347

    Evil and wrong can by synonyms and Russia in this conflict is both.
    I'm not happy with calling countries evil.

    Putin is evil and Russia is in the wrong - I'm ok with that.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,504

    Precisely.

    The way some apologists are acting, you'd think we were suggesting that the tanks should be rolling down the streets of Moscow and the first born child of every Russian family should be sacrificed in homage.

    Leaving the country that has been invaded, paying reparations for the invasion, and promising not to invade again, is not bellicosity.
    I am fine with being labelled bellicose about Ukraine. This is because I am quite hard core in my demands for the Ukrainian/China border.
  • Leon said:

    Don’t.

    Someone I know got used to doing absolutely nothing and seeing no one during covid. Like a hermit

    Even when covid ended she maintained this new monastic isolation. She went from being sociable and active and keen on travel, to inertia, isolation, staying-at-home

    Recently this person was diagnosed with a terminal illness and was given a few short months to live, at most. And she is now UNABLE to travel. Much as she might want to

    She now bitterly regrets the ~3 years spent in self imposed confinement and it wasn’t even Covid that got her, in the end

    You’re in your 60s. You can still see the world. Do it before you no longer can

    That is very sound advice

    We have travelled worldwide for 20 years and more, and now neither my wife or I are physically or medically capable of travelling abroad

    However, we have memories stretching from the Artic to the Antarctic and all points in between that live long in our memory and gratitude that we were able to travel so extensively
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,422

    Precisely.

    The way some apologists are acting, you'd think we were suggesting that the tanks should be rolling down the streets of Moscow and the first born child of every Russian family should be sacrificed in homage.

    Leaving the country that has been invaded, paying reparations for the invasion, and promising not to invade again, is not bellicosity.
    I'm uneasy about talking about reparations as I'm not sure it does much good.

    However, Russia should be banned from sport (easy thing to do) until Putin has gone and they are a functioning democracy.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 4,855
    edited September 2022

    A trifle unambitious. Why not follow the route of the Commonwealth Games "baton"? Surely it's what she'd have wanted. Ending up in Birmingham would be a welcome break from the stultifying embrace of tradition - an unambiguous statement of intent for the 21st century.
    A deliberate tour would obviously be a bit weird, but a direct route would surely be fine.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,063

    Moscow confirms Russian teachers in Ukr's Kharkiv Region have been arrested by advancing Ukr forces. The teachers had been reportedly sent by Moscow to teach a Rus curriculum in schools in occupied Ukr territory. When Rus forces retreated, it seems the teachers were left behind.
    https://twitter.com/BBCWillVernon/status/1569586731573301252

    Sucks for them but probably legitimate, given they were engaged in indoctrination on behalf of an occupying power.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,504
    Phil said:

    The Crown Estate is not the personal property of the Monarch.
    IIRC Charles nearly did one on Blair - he proposed the complete end of all payments to the Royals, the Crown Estate give all revenue to the Monarchy, but pay tax on it.

    It took a while for the penny to drop - aside from giving the Monarchy a big pay rise, this would remove the system of financial control by Parliament over the Monarchy.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,347
    Leon said:

    Don’t.

    Someone I know got used to doing absolutely nothing and seeing no one during covid. Like a hermit

    Even when covid ended she maintained this new monastic isolation. She went from being sociable and active and keen on travel, to inertia, isolation, staying-at-home

    Recently this person was diagnosed with a terminal illness and was given a few short months to live, at most. And she is now UNABLE to travel. Much as she might want to

    She now bitterly regrets the ~3 years spent in self imposed confinement and it wasn’t even Covid that got her, in the end

    You’re in your 60s. You can still see the world. Do it before you no longer can
    Well it's not a Covid thing and, like I say, I have travelled a lot previously.

    But, yes, there are some trips I'd like to do and if I don't do them through inertia that wouldn't be great.
  • Selebian said:

    The quantity of flowers actually make me a little sad, for the missed opportunity. All that money spent, that could perhaps have been redirected to one or more of the charities the Queen supported. People should of course be free to mark her passing in any way they wish, but that's how I feel.
    No Cost of Living Crisis for florists!
This discussion has been closed.