One of the best bits is Jeremy Farrar's incredulity at leaning the Chinese were dojng their dodgy research in a BSL2 lab, much lower than the required BSL4
His reaction is to call this "Wild West"
Yet about ten days later he co-signed the Lancet letter which said that even discussing the mere possibility of a lab leak is a conspiracy - and probably racist
The closest you ever got to the East End was a trip to Lahore kebab house (We all went there and I think we were all a little disappointed - although the food was very good. The main issue was that it was bring-a-bottle and the obvious shop, over the road, had the worst selection of wines imaginable.)
True fact - I used to live opposite the Lahore Kebab House. Our living room had direct line of sight into the gent's toilets. That didn't encourage me to eat there, although it always smelled amazing.
It was a place of legend (no idea if it's still going). There was another amazing place - called something like 'the India Club' - on the East end of the Strand. It seems perhaps that it's still going. Anyway, you could experience adequate curries with Indian levels of flies.
On the subject of famous old London eateries, anyone else remember Centrale at Cambridge Circus? Famously name checked in a Pogues song, and the best pasta for under £5. I walked past its old spot last night and got quite nostalgic.
Don't know that one, but I think La Poule Au Pot in Belgravia, where I had many work dinners about 10-15 years ago, has been pretty well known for over 50 years - and hasn't changed much
The food's good though not great, but they always had a very nice all French wine list. My boss spent quite a wedge of his company's money on that wine list. His Muslim accountant would always tilt his head, pull a face and mutter when I gave him the receipts!
two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.
Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
Just hang on in there. Once your old jalopy passes its 40th birthday it qualifies for historic status and will be except from ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.
I wouldn't drive to London any more because all my favourite rat-runs have been blocked off in favour of permajams, but if I had to I'd use my MGB. Not on a hot day, though.
I'm afraid it went yesterday. A sad sad day. I was 33 when I got it and I'm 62 now. It was - quite literally - the car of my life.
What was it?
Merc C class Auto. Battleship grey.
Graphite gray? Battleship is a bit Don't mention the Tirpitz.
I was thinking Bond. That's how Fleming described his car in the books. Battleship grey with an engine that "burbled".
The Bentley 4.5 litre?
Because of it's age, it wouldn't be troubled by the ULEZ right?
OT Matt Hancock is second-favourite to win I'm A Celebrity. Jill Scott is odds-on; Owen used to be favourite but has drifted badly this week.
He's doing great apparently. And through gritted teeth you have to say it's a genuine achievement.
But is it enough to be made the next Conservative PM?
He's elevating above that now, I think. Winning I'm a Celeb is premier league in this day and age. The world is now his lobster.
Don't you mean marsupial prepuce?
I could google but as an arch conversationalist I'll ask instead - is that the scientific term for a kangeroo testicle?
Nope. Foreskin of a kangaroo or indeed any of the large category of related pouched mammals to which it belongs. So anything from a honey possum to a giant wombat+.
+ = extinct, alas.
The things you learn on PB...
Yep. I was (in a sense) close with kangaroo testicle but close is not the same as right.
two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.
Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
Just hang on in there. Once your old jalopy passes its 40th birthday it qualifies for historic status and will be except from ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.
I wouldn't drive to London any more because all my favourite rat-runs have been blocked off in favour of permajams, but if I had to I'd use my MGB. Not on a hot day, though.
I'm afraid it went yesterday. A sad sad day. I was 33 when I got it and I'm 62 now. It was - quite literally - the car of my life.
What was it?
Merc C class Auto. Battleship grey.
Graphite gray? Battleship is a bit Don't mention the Tirpitz.
I was thinking Bond. That's how Fleming described his car in the books. Battleship grey with an engine that "burbled".
The Bentley 4.5 litre?
That was it, yes. Became a DB7 on film.
He drove a Bentley MkIV in From Russia With Love
Yes I'm talking bollox here. It was a DB5 not 7 and it didn't have James's decisive hands on its wheel until Goldfinger.
"Casino Royale (1953), "Bond's car was his only personal hobby. One of the last of the 41/2-litre Bentleys with the supercharger by Amherst Villiers, he had bought it almost new in 1933 and had kept it in careful storage through the war. ... It was a battleship-grey convertible coupe, which really did convert, and it was capable of touring at ninety with thirty miles an hour in reserve."
Goldfinger (1959); Bond drove a battleship-grey Aston Martin DB III from the car pool.
Thunderball (1961); Early in the book, Bond got up close to Shrublands osteopath, Patricia Fearing, in her bubble car. But Bond owned a "Mark II Continental Bentley that some rich idiot had married to a telegraph pole", that he had bought for £1,500, and had straightened and fitted with "the Mark IV engine with 9.5 compression" and a "trim, rather square convertible two-seater affair, power operated, with only two large armed bucket seats in black leather", by Mulliners for £3,000, in "battleship grey", of course -- an expensive car for ~1961. He called it "The Locomotive".
two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.
Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
Just hang on in there. Once your old jalopy passes its 40th birthday it qualifies for historic status and will be except from ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.
I wouldn't drive to London any more because all my favourite rat-runs have been blocked off in favour of permajams, but if I had to I'd use my MGB. Not on a hot day, though.
I'm afraid it went yesterday. A sad sad day. I was 33 when I got it and I'm 62 now. It was - quite literally - the car of my life.
What was it?
Merc C class Auto. Battleship grey.
Graphite gray? Battleship is a bit Don't mention the Tirpitz.
I was thinking Bond. That's how Fleming described his car in the books. Battleship grey with an engine that "burbled".
The Bentley 4.5 litre?
That was it, yes. Became a DB7 on film.
He drove a Bentley MkIV in From Russia With Love
Yes I'm talking bollox here. It was a DB5 not 7 and it didn't have James's decisive hands on its wheel until Goldfinger.
I think the first car he drove in the movies was a lake blue Sunbeam Alpine Series II, in Dr No
One of the best bits is Jeremy Farrar's incredulity at leaning the Chinese were dojng their dodgy research in a BSL2 lab, much lower than the required BSL4.
His reaction is to call this "Wild West".
Yet about ten days later he co-signed the Lancet letter which said that even discussing the mere possibility of a lab leak is a conspiracy - and probably racist.
Well the argument that "woke" saps the strength of a nation is not exactly being borne out by the Russian military performance in Ukraine. Perhaps Putin ought to reflect on this.
On the contrary, Russia's poor performance comes from them being excessively woke.
One of the best bits is Jeremy Farrar's incredulity at leaning the Chinese were dojng their dodgy research in a BSL2 lab, much lower than the required BSL4.
His reaction is to call this "Wild West".
Yet about ten days later he co-signed the Lancet letter which said that even discussing the mere possibility of a lab leak is a conspiracy - and probably racist.
Well the argument that "woke" saps the strength of a nation is not exactly being borne out by the Russian military performance in Ukraine. Perhaps Putin ought to reflect on this.
On the contrary, Russia's poor performance comes from them being excessively woke.
My God, you'll be telling us Hitler was "woke" next.
two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.
Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
Just hang on in there. Once your old jalopy passes its 40th birthday it qualifies for historic status and will be except from ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.
I wouldn't drive to London any more because all my favourite rat-runs have been blocked off in favour of permajams, but if I had to I'd use my MGB. Not on a hot day, though.
I'm afraid it went yesterday. A sad sad day. I was 33 when I got it and I'm 62 now. It was - quite literally - the car of my life.
What was it?
Merc C class Auto. Battleship grey.
Graphite gray? Battleship is a bit Don't mention the Tirpitz.
I was thinking Bond. That's how Fleming described his car in the books. Battleship grey with an engine that "burbled".
The Bentley 4.5 litre?
That was it, yes. Became a DB7 on film.
He drove a Bentley MkIV in From Russia With Love
Yes I'm talking bollox here. It was a DB5 not 7 and it didn't have James's decisive hands on its wheel until Goldfinger.
I think the first car he drove in the movies was a lake blue Sunbeam Alpine Series II, in Dr No
One of the best bits is Jeremy Farrar's incredulity at leaning the Chinese were dojng their dodgy research in a BSL2 lab, much lower than the required BSL4
His reaction is to call this "Wild West"
Yet about ten days later he co-signed the Lancet letter which said that even discussing the mere possibility of a lab leak is a conspiracy - and probably racist
The closest you ever got to the East End was a trip to Lahore kebab house (We all went there and I think we were all a little disappointed - although the food was very good. The main issue was that it was bring-a-bottle and the obvious shop, over the road, had the worst selection of wines imaginable.)
True fact - I used to live opposite the Lahore Kebab House. Our living room had direct line of sight into the gent's toilets. That didn't encourage me to eat there, although it always smelled amazing.
It was a place of legend (no idea if it's still going). There was another amazing place - called something like 'the India Club' - on the East end of the Strand. It seems perhaps that it's still going. Anyway, you could experience adequate curries with Indian levels of flies.
On the subject of famous old London eateries, anyone else remember Centrale at Cambridge Circus? Famously name checked in a Pogues song, and the best pasta for under £5. I walked past its old spot last night and got quite nostalgic.
There was an Italian just off Cambridge Circus (I think Old Compton St) that was really good, but had the most amazginly rude staff (perhaps just one lady).
That's the place! I would say brusque rather than rude.
One of the best bits is Jeremy Farrar's incredulity at leaning the Chinese were dojng their dodgy research in a BSL2 lab, much lower than the required BSL4
His reaction is to call this "Wild West"
Yet about ten days later he co-signed the Lancet letter which said that even discussing the mere possibility of a lab leak is a conspiracy - and probably racist
The closest you ever got to the East End was a trip to Lahore kebab house (We all went there and I think we were all a little disappointed - although the food was very good. The main issue was that it was bring-a-bottle and the obvious shop, over the road, had the worst selection of wines imaginable.)
True fact - I used to live opposite the Lahore Kebab House. Our living room had direct line of sight into the gent's toilets. That didn't encourage me to eat there, although it always smelled amazing.
It was a place of legend (no idea if it's still going). There was another amazing place - called something like 'the India Club' - on the East end of the Strand. It seems perhaps that it's still going. Anyway, you could experience adequate curries with Indian levels of flies.
On the subject of famous old London eateries, anyone else remember Centrale at Cambridge Circus? Famously name checked in a Pogues song, and the best pasta for under £5. I walked past its old spot last night and got quite nostalgic.
Don't know that one, but I think La Poule Au Pot in Belgravia, where I had many work dinners about 10-15 years ago, has been pretty well known for over 50 years - and hasn't changed much
The food's good though not great, but they always had a very nice all French wine list. My boss spent quite a wedge of his company's money on that wine list. His Muslim accountant would always tilt his head, pull a face and mutter when I gave him the receipts!
two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.
Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
Just hang on in there. Once your old jalopy passes its 40th birthday it qualifies for historic status and will be except from ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.
I wouldn't drive to London any more because all my favourite rat-runs have been blocked off in favour of permajams, but if I had to I'd use my MGB. Not on a hot day, though.
I'm afraid it went yesterday. A sad sad day. I was 33 when I got it and I'm 62 now. It was - quite literally - the car of my life.
What was it?
Merc C class Auto. Battleship grey.
Graphite gray? Battleship is a bit Don't mention the Tirpitz.
I was thinking Bond. That's how Fleming described his car in the books. Battleship grey with an engine that "burbled".
The Bentley 4.5 litre?
That was it, yes. Became a DB7 on film.
He drove a Bentley MkIV in From Russia With Love
Yes I'm talking bollox here. It was a DB5 not 7 and it didn't have James's decisive hands on its wheel until Goldfinger.
I think the first car he drove in the movies was a lake blue Sunbeam Alpine Series II, in Dr No
Dr. No (1958); Strangeways, the short-lived agent in Jamaica, drove a Sunbeam Alpine, one of the first models. It cannot have been one of the later, rather attractive, "series" Alpines due to dates. Bond also drove the car but switched to a less conspicuous Austin A30 hire-car and, at the end of the novel, also drove a Hillman Minx. We also learn that M was driven to work in an old Rolls Royce Silver Wraith.
"Casino Royale (1953), "Bond's car was his only personal hobby. One of the last of the 41/2-litre Bentleys with the supercharger by Amherst Villiers, he had bought it almost new in 1933 and had kept it in careful storage through the war. ... It was a battleship-grey convertible coupe, which really did convert, and it was capable of touring at ninety with thirty miles an hour in reserve."
Goldfinger (1959); Bond drove a battleship-grey Aston Martin DB III from the car pool.
Thunderball (1961); Early in the book, Bond got up close to Shrublands osteopath, Patricia Fearing, in her bubble car. But Bond owned a "Mark II Continental Bentley that some rich idiot had married to a telegraph pole", that he had bought for £1,500, and had straightened and fitted with "the Mark IV engine with 9.5 compression" and a "trim, rather square convertible two-seater affair, power operated, with only two large armed bucket seats in black leather", by Mulliners for £3,000, in "battleship grey", of course -- an expensive car for ~1961. He called it "The Locomotive".
Ok. Definitive. But I don't see "burbled" re the engine and I could have sworn that was in there. If this is a false memory I'll be disappointed in myself.
two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.
Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
Just hang on in there. Once your old jalopy passes its 40th birthday it qualifies for historic status and will be except from ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.
I wouldn't drive to London any more because all my favourite rat-runs have been blocked off in favour of permajams, but if I had to I'd use my MGB. Not on a hot day, though.
I'm afraid it went yesterday. A sad sad day. I was 33 when I got it and I'm 62 now. It was - quite literally - the car of my life.
What was it?
Merc C class Auto. Battleship grey.
Graphite gray? Battleship is a bit Don't mention the Tirpitz.
I was thinking Bond. That's how Fleming described his car in the books. Battleship grey with an engine that "burbled".
The Bentley 4.5 litre?
That was it, yes. Became a DB7 on film.
He drove a Bentley MkIV in From Russia With Love
Yes I'm talking bollox here. It was a DB5 not 7 and it didn't have James's decisive hands on its wheel until Goldfinger.
I think the first car he drove in the movies was a lake blue Sunbeam Alpine Series II, in Dr No
"Casino Royale (1953), "Bond's car was his only personal hobby. One of the last of the 41/2-litre Bentleys with the supercharger by Amherst Villiers, he had bought it almost new in 1933 and had kept it in careful storage through the war. ... It was a battleship-grey convertible coupe, which really did convert, and it was capable of touring at ninety with thirty miles an hour in reserve."
Goldfinger (1959); Bond drove a battleship-grey Aston Martin DB III from the car pool.
Thunderball (1961); Early in the book, Bond got up close to Shrublands osteopath, Patricia Fearing, in her bubble car. But Bond owned a "Mark II Continental Bentley that some rich idiot had married to a telegraph pole", that he had bought for £1,500, and had straightened and fitted with "the Mark IV engine with 9.5 compression" and a "trim, rather square convertible two-seater affair, power operated, with only two large armed bucket seats in black leather", by Mulliners for £3,000, in "battleship grey", of course -- an expensive car for ~1961. He called it "The Locomotive".
Ok. Definitive. But I don't see "burbled" re the engine and I could have sworn that was in there. If this is a false memory I'll be disappointed in myself.
From Russia with Love (1957); "The twin exhausts of the Bentley woke to their fluttering growl" as Bond set out to drive from his flat off the King's Road to the office, ...
"Casino Royale (1953), "Bond's car was his only personal hobby. One of the last of the 41/2-litre Bentleys with the supercharger by Amherst Villiers, he had bought it almost new in 1933 and had kept it in careful storage through the war. ... It was a battleship-grey convertible coupe, which really did convert, and it was capable of touring at ninety with thirty miles an hour in reserve."
Goldfinger (1959); Bond drove a battleship-grey Aston Martin DB III from the car pool.
Thunderball (1961); Early in the book, Bond got up close to Shrublands osteopath, Patricia Fearing, in her bubble car. But Bond owned a "Mark II Continental Bentley that some rich idiot had married to a telegraph pole", that he had bought for £1,500, and had straightened and fitted with "the Mark IV engine with 9.5 compression" and a "trim, rather square convertible two-seater affair, power operated, with only two large armed bucket seats in black leather", by Mulliners for £3,000, in "battleship grey", of course -- an expensive car for ~1961. He called it "The Locomotive".
Ok. Definitive. But I don't see "burbled" re the engine and I could have sworn that was in there. If this is a false memory I'll be disappointed in myself.
I think you might once have been a Fortune magazine reader
"Say "Aston Martin," and you think of James Bond, Savile Row, and Boodles Gin. Though of late the cars have attracted attention from a younger set (recently they showed up on HBO's Entourage), they remain gentlemen's cars, more notable for their craftsmanship and detail than for raw speed and brute-force handling.
My 48 hours in a shimmering Tungsten Silver DB9 convertible started badly. In a darkened New York City garage, I couldn't find the transmission shift buttons located on the dashboard --to the great annoyance of the driver behind me.
But I quickly left him behind in my fumes as the 450-horsepower, 12-cylinder engine burbled to life. With details like contrasting piping on the leather seats and the chronometer-style gauges on the instrument panel, this is a seriously attractive car."
Travelling home on a fairly quiet tube at 5pm, I was interested to read the Standard's take on the Mayor's proposal to extend the ULEZ from the end of August next year.
The Standard hasn't always been that sympathetic to Sadiq Khan but the got two cheers for this. The truth is 96% of vehicles within the current ULEZ qualified without a problem and it's likely the overwhelming majority of vehicles across the whole of London will. Part of the proposal is some big carrot in scrappage value, a pledge to run more buses in the suburbs and other measures aimed at easing the transition for those whose older vehicles don't meet the requirements.
The goal is cleaner air for all Londoners and that's laudable. Some will complain and as is ever the case, the losers will shout the loudest but the Standard put the argument well around the greater importance and necessity of the general public health.
The wettest November since records began will tend to do that
Some experts were saying in September/October there would be a drought in southern England for a long time "no matter how much rain there is" over the next few months.
"Casino Royale (1953), "Bond's car was his only personal hobby. One of the last of the 41/2-litre Bentleys with the supercharger by Amherst Villiers, he had bought it almost new in 1933 and had kept it in careful storage through the war. ... It was a battleship-grey convertible coupe, which really did convert, and it was capable of touring at ninety with thirty miles an hour in reserve."
Goldfinger (1959); Bond drove a battleship-grey Aston Martin DB III from the car pool.
Thunderball (1961); Early in the book, Bond got up close to Shrublands osteopath, Patricia Fearing, in her bubble car. But Bond owned a "Mark II Continental Bentley that some rich idiot had married to a telegraph pole", that he had bought for £1,500, and had straightened and fitted with "the Mark IV engine with 9.5 compression" and a "trim, rather square convertible two-seater affair, power operated, with only two large armed bucket seats in black leather", by Mulliners for £3,000, in "battleship grey", of course -- an expensive car for ~1961. He called it "The Locomotive".
Ok. Definitive. But I don't see "burbled" re the engine and I could have sworn that was in there. If this is a false memory I'll be disappointed in myself.
From Russia with Love (1957); "The twin exhausts of the Bentley woke to their fluttering growl" as Bond set out to drive from his flat off the King's Road to the office, ...
is close.
It is. But the exact phrase I remember is a "rich satisfying burble" - I think as he's driving down from London to the south coast right at the start of one of the books. Could be Moonraker. Or Thunderball. But I'll go with Moonraker. Villain being Hugo Drax if so.
The wettest November since records began will tend to do that
Some experts were saying in September/October there would be a drought in southern England for a long time "no matter how much rain there is" over the next few months.
The horses run better when I don't watch them either.
One day at Sandown, I stood behind the stands not looking at a screen and listening only to the commentary - backed four winners, walked out over £200 up.
two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.
Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
Just hang on in there. Once your old jalopy passes its 40th birthday it qualifies for historic status and will be except from ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.
I wouldn't drive to London any more because all my favourite rat-runs have been blocked off in favour of permajams, but if I had to I'd use my MGB. Not on a hot day, though.
I'm afraid it went yesterday. A sad sad day. I was 33 when I got it and I'm 62 now. It was - quite literally - the car of my life.
What was it?
Merc C class Auto. Battleship grey.
Graphite gray? Battleship is a bit Don't mention the Tirpitz.
I was thinking Bond. That's how Fleming described his car in the books. Battleship grey with an engine that "burbled".
The Bentley 4.5 litre?
That was it, yes. Became a DB7 on film.
In From Russia With Love, an old Bentley is Bond's original car. A 3.5 litre IIIRC.
I'm trying to ignore this tournament on principle, but there's no point in any of the rest of you investing any hopes in England in any case. This is the team that managed to navigate an entire major international tournament without conceding a goal, and still contrived to lose the final in yet another botched penalty competition. They'll fail. They always do.
The wettest November since records began will tend to do that
Some experts were saying in September/October there would be a drought in southern England for a long time "no matter how much rain there is" over the next few months.
It'll be a blessed relief if Winter is soggy enough to undo all the damage caused by last Summer; nevertheless, a future in which we're almost roasted to death each Summer and then damn well nearly drowned each Winter is not to be welcomed.
two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.
Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
Just hang on in there. Once your old jalopy passes its 40th birthday it qualifies for historic status and will be except from ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.
I wouldn't drive to London any more because all my favourite rat-runs have been blocked off in favour of permajams, but if I had to I'd use my MGB. Not on a hot day, though.
I'm afraid it went yesterday. A sad sad day. I was 33 when I got it and I'm 62 now. It was - quite literally - the car of my life.
What was it?
Merc C class Auto. Battleship grey.
Graphite gray? Battleship is a bit Don't mention the Tirpitz.
I was thinking Bond. That's how Fleming described his car in the books. Battleship grey with an engine that "burbled".
The Bentley 4.5 litre?
That was it, yes. Became a DB7 on film.
In From Russia With Love, an old Bentley is Bond's original car. A 3.5 litre IIIRC.
People seem to know more than me on one of my hot topics (Bond). Perils of PB.
two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.
Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
Just hang on in there. Once your old jalopy passes its 40th birthday it qualifies for historic status and will be except from ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.
I wouldn't drive to London any more because all my favourite rat-runs have been blocked off in favour of permajams, but if I had to I'd use my MGB. Not on a hot day, though.
I'm afraid it went yesterday. A sad sad day. I was 33 when I got it and I'm 62 now. It was - quite literally - the car of my life.
What was it?
Merc C class Auto. Battleship grey.
Graphite gray? Battleship is a bit Don't mention the Tirpitz.
I was thinking Bond. That's how Fleming described his car in the books. Battleship grey with an engine that "burbled".
The Bentley 4.5 litre?
That was it, yes. Became a DB7 on film.
In From Russia With Love, an old Bentley is Bond's original car. A 3.5 litre IIIRC.
People seem to know more than me on one of my hot topics (Bond). Perils of PB.
To be fair, it is only show partially, parked, when Bond takes a call on a car phone, at the very start.
two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.
Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
Just hang on in there. Once your old jalopy passes its 40th birthday it qualifies for historic status and will be except from ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.
I wouldn't drive to London any more because all my favourite rat-runs have been blocked off in favour of permajams, but if I had to I'd use my MGB. Not on a hot day, though.
I'm afraid it went yesterday. A sad sad day. I was 33 when I got it and I'm 62 now. It was - quite literally - the car of my life.
What was it?
Merc C class Auto. Battleship grey.
Graphite gray? Battleship is a bit Don't mention the Tirpitz.
I was thinking Bond. That's how Fleming described his car in the books. Battleship grey with an engine that "burbled".
The Bentley 4.5 litre?
That was it, yes. Became a DB7 on film.
In From Russia With Love, an old Bentley is Bond's original car. A 3.5 litre IIIRC.
People seem to know more than me on one of my hot topics (Bond). Perils of PB.
To be fair, it is only show partially, parked, when Bond takes a call on a car phone, at the very start.
two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.
Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
Just hang on in there. Once your old jalopy passes its 40th birthday it qualifies for historic status and will be except from ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.
I wouldn't drive to London any more because all my favourite rat-runs have been blocked off in favour of permajams, but if I had to I'd use my MGB. Not on a hot day, though.
I'm afraid it went yesterday. A sad sad day. I was 33 when I got it and I'm 62 now. It was - quite literally - the car of my life.
What was it?
Merc C class Auto. Battleship grey.
Graphite gray? Battleship is a bit Don't mention the Tirpitz.
I was thinking Bond. That's how Fleming described his car in the books. Battleship grey with an engine that "burbled".
The Bentley 4.5 litre?
That was it, yes. Became a DB7 on film.
In From Russia With Love, an old Bentley is Bond's original car. A 3.5 litre IIIRC.
People seem to know more than me on one of my hot topics (Bond). Perils of PB.
To be fair, it is only show partially, parked, when Bond takes a call on a car phone, at the very start.
The wettest November since records began will tend to do that
Some experts were saying in September/October there would be a drought in southern England for a long time "no matter how much rain there is" over the next few months.
The horses run better when I don't watch them either.
One day at Sandown, I stood behind the stands not looking at a screen and listening only to the commentary - backed four winners, walked out over £200 up.
It's less of a sacrifice than you might think...
I often attempt to buy wickets in the cricket by turning off, or leaving the room. Humans are weird.
I'm trying to ignore this tournament on principle, but there's no point in any of the rest of you investing any hopes in England in any case. This is the team that managed to navigate an entire major international tournament without conceding a goal, and still contrived to lose the final in yet another botched penalty competition. They'll fail. They always do.
The wettest November since records began will tend to do that
Some experts were saying in September/October there would be a drought in southern England for a long time "no matter how much rain there is" over the next few months.
It'll be a blessed relief if Winter is soggy enough to undo all the damage caused by last Summer; nevertheless, a future in which we're almost roasted to death each Summer and then damn well nearly drowned each Winter is not to be welcomed.
Sadly lots of weather geek excitement about cold blocked weather from the east. Not quite the beast from the east, but would have been if six weeks later. May come to naught.
two-thirds of respondents to the consultation were opposed to Ulez expansion. Mr Khan had promised to drop his plans if there was “overwhelming opposition” when the consultation was launched.
Always find it interesting that some of the talking heads very quick to always talk about any other tax rises as regressive, never say anything about this. Yes a lot of poor people use public transport, but there is also a big chunk who need a car (especially now we aren't just talking central London) and can't afford a new one. Where as rich people, likely to use things like leasing, so they turn them over every 2-3 years.
any petrol car built since 2006 should fit the standards.
So the sweet avoidance spot is an ultra low emissions 2008 petrol Vauxhall Corsa (cough) , or a 2017 Euro 6
Wandering off at a tangent and with half a mind on our recent ID card debate, the ulez zone will presumably mean yet another bureaucratic database of who went where when (and in what car).
Ulez has just consigned the car I've had for 30 years to the scrapheap. It's a measure I support but wish hadn't come in.
Just hang on in there. Once your old jalopy passes its 40th birthday it qualifies for historic status and will be except from ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.
I wouldn't drive to London any more because all my favourite rat-runs have been blocked off in favour of permajams, but if I had to I'd use my MGB. Not on a hot day, though.
I'm afraid it went yesterday. A sad sad day. I was 33 when I got it and I'm 62 now. It was - quite literally - the car of my life.
What was it?
Merc C class Auto. Battleship grey.
Graphite gray? Battleship is a bit Don't mention the Tirpitz.
I was thinking Bond. That's how Fleming described his car in the books. Battleship grey with an engine that "burbled".
The Bentley 4.5 litre?
That was it, yes. Became a DB7 on film.
In From Russia With Love, an old Bentley is Bond's original car. A 3.5 litre IIIRC.
People seem to know more than me on one of my hot topics (Bond). Perils of PB.
To be fair, it is only show partially, parked, when Bond takes a call on a car phone, at the very start.
There were car phones in 1963?
Only for Bonds
A radio telephone - a two way radio dressed up to act a bit like a phone. Available to the rich who happened to be in range of a few base stations - depending on the service.
Having watched England play in a breathless panic with no ability to control the ball for most of the 2000s and 2010s, I can live with patience and not seeing the ball ping 8 feet away every time a player receives a pass.
We’ve been set a challenge - high, disciplined press, and right now they are floundering. I suspect we might see more approach second half. Run the channels, stretch the pitch a bit.
Sadly lots of weather geek excitement about cold blocked weather from the east. Not quite the beast from the east, but would have been if six weeks later. May come to naught.
As I comment on one of the main weather forums, file me under "weather geek".
The prospect of a colder December (and all that flows from that in terms of energy demand and consumption) is very real and indeed some of the more extreme charts are showing the kind of weather we've not experienced since December 2010.
Again, given our precarious energy situation, a real concern were it to happen.
As one of those who earnestly laboured at Glasgow University some years ago to teach Nicola Sturgeon Scots law, I have to admit that we failed miserably in making our classes on democracy understood. Following this week’s Supreme Court rejection of her government’s plea to be allowed to hold a second independence referendum, she has been pontificating about democracy being denied because our law won’t allow her to keep holding referendums as regularly as she wants.…..
But I take comfort from the words of the traditional Scots legal apprenticeship indenture, where it states that we, the qualified professionals, need only teach the young ones “insofar as they are capable of learning”.
Why would anyone go in to the police? The starting salary in the Met, advertised on tube trains or whatever is under £30k, the minimum wage is now £20k. So how are you expected to pay off your student loan, buy a house in the south east, etc? Why are you going to expose yourself to so much risk and danger to do such a job?
Why would anyone go in to the police? The starting salary in the Met, advertised on tube trains or whatever is under £30k, the minimum wage is now £20k. So how are you expected to pay off your student loan, buy a house in the south east, etc? Why are you going to expose yourself to so much risk and danger to do such a job?
Suppose it depends on whether you like being in a position of authority having done nothing to earn it and being able to throw your weight around with a fair degree of impunity.
Why would anyone go in to the police? The starting salary in the Met, advertised on tube trains or whatever is under £30k, the minimum wage is now £20k. So how are you expected to pay off your student loan, buy a house in the south east, etc? Why are you going to expose yourself to so much risk and danger to do such a job?
Suppose it depends on whether you like being in a position of authority having done nothing to earn it and being able to throw your weight around with a fair degree of impunity.
But we can't all be Secretary of State for Justice!
As one of those who earnestly laboured at Glasgow University some years ago to teach Nicola Sturgeon Scots law, I have to admit that we failed miserably in making our classes on democracy understood. Following this week’s Supreme Court rejection of her government’s plea to be allowed to hold a second independence referendum, she has been pontificating about democracy being denied because our law won’t allow her to keep holding referendums as regularly as she wants.…..
But I take comfort from the words of the traditional Scots legal apprenticeship indenture, where it states that we, the qualified professionals, need only teach the young ones “insofar as they are capable of learning”.
Comments
The food's good though not great, but they always had a very nice all French wine list. My boss spent quite a wedge of his company's money on that wine list. His Muslim accountant would always tilt his head, pull a face and mutter when I gave him the receipts!
"Bond's car was his only personal hobby. One of the last of the 41/2-litre Bentleys with the supercharger by Amherst Villiers, he had bought it almost new in 1933 and had kept it in careful storage through the war. ... It was a battleship-grey convertible coupe, which really did convert, and it was capable of touring at ninety with thirty miles an hour in reserve."
Goldfinger (1959);
Bond drove a battleship-grey Aston Martin DB III from the car pool.
Thunderball (1961);
Early in the book, Bond got up close to Shrublands osteopath, Patricia Fearing, in her bubble car. But Bond owned a "Mark II Continental Bentley that some rich idiot had married to a telegraph pole", that he had bought for £1,500, and had straightened and fitted with "the Mark IV engine with 9.5 compression" and a "trim, rather square convertible two-seater affair, power operated, with only two large armed bucket seats in black leather", by Mulliners for £3,000, in "battleship grey", of course -- an expensive car for ~1961. He called it "The Locomotive".
http://www.allisons.org/ll/4/Books/Bond/
http://www.pouleaupot.co.uk/downloads/La-Poule-au-Pot-wine-list.pdf
Strangeways, the short-lived agent in Jamaica, drove a Sunbeam Alpine, one of the first models. It cannot have been one of the later, rather attractive, "series" Alpines due to dates. Bond also drove the car but switched to a less conspicuous Austin A30 hire-car and, at the end of the novel, also drove a Hillman Minx. We also learn that M was driven to work in an old Rolls Royce Silver Wraith.
http://www.allisons.org/ll/4/Books/Bond/
So relatively good book to film fidelity.
books are of course canonical. Vital to wear a R---x, not a poxy Omega.
The Spanish Government has welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling that Holyrood cannot hold Indyref2 without Westminster’s consent.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23149994.indyref2-spanish-government-welcomes-supreme-court-ruling/
"The twin exhausts of the Bentley woke to their fluttering growl" as Bond set out to drive from his flat off the King's Road to the office, ...
is close.
Given our record on ITV and our world cup record against America then a USA! USA! USA! victory is nailed on.
"Say "Aston Martin," and you think of James Bond, Savile Row, and Boodles Gin. Though of late the cars have attracted attention from a younger set (recently they showed up on HBO's Entourage), they remain gentlemen's cars, more notable for their craftsmanship and detail than for raw speed and brute-force handling.
My 48 hours in a shimmering Tungsten Silver DB9 convertible started badly. In a darkened New York City garage, I couldn't find the transmission shift buttons located on the dashboard --to the great annoyance of the driver behind me.
But I quickly left him behind in my fumes as the 450-horsepower, 12-cylinder engine burbled to life. With details like contrasting piping on the leather seats and the chronometer-style gauges on the instrument panel, this is a seriously attractive car."
https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/08/07/8382574/index.htm
Mermaids
@Mermaids_Gender
Mermaids CEO Susie Green has left the charity after six years in charge.
https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/news/susie-green-leaves-mermaids/
https://twitter.com/soniasodha/status/1596204824357670913
Travelling home on a fairly quiet tube at 5pm, I was interested to read the Standard's take on the Mayor's proposal to extend the ULEZ from the end of August next year.
The Standard hasn't always been that sympathetic to Sadiq Khan but the got two cheers for this. The truth is 96% of vehicles within the current ULEZ qualified without a problem and it's likely the overwhelming majority of vehicles across the whole of London will. Part of the proposal is some big carrot in scrappage value, a pledge to run more buses in the suburbs and other measures aimed at easing the transition for those whose older vehicles don't meet the requirements.
The goal is cleaner air for all Londoners and that's laudable. Some will complain and as is ever the case, the losers will shout the loudest but the Standard put the argument well around the greater importance and necessity of the general public health.
England play better when I don't watch.
One day at Sandown, I stood behind the stands not looking at a screen and listening only to the commentary - backed four winners, walked out over £200 up.
It's less of a sacrifice than you might think...
Given how much you like the company it must be worth a fortune!
US are settling into the game though and developing confidence. England ought to win, but I could certainly imagine the States nicking it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_phone
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/60976197
They are the better drilled side
USA full of energy and confidence though.
It might get interesting if we get to the semis
I'm much more excited about the rugby tomorrow
The prospect of a colder December (and all that flows from that in terms of energy demand and consumption) is very real and indeed some of the more extreme charts are showing the kind of weather we've not experienced since December 2010.
Again, given our precarious energy situation, a real concern were it to happen.
This England team isn't getting further than the Quarters
But I take comfort from the words of the traditional Scots legal apprenticeship indenture, where it states that we, the qualified professionals, need only teach the young ones “insofar as they are capable of learning”.
https://www.scottishlegal.com/articles/alistair-bonnington
The Q is whether it works if he doesn’t really mean it?
The starting salary in the Met, advertised on tube trains or whatever is under £30k, the minimum wage is now £20k.
So how are you expected to pay off your student loan, buy a house in the south east, etc?
Why are you going to expose yourself to so much risk and danger to do such a job?
I wasn't able to watch Argentina, Germany or Wales. I wish I could have
ITV - a nervy 0-0