Howdy, Stranger!

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

All Trussed up and nowhere to go – politicalbetting.com

1235

Comments

  • DJ41DJ41 Posts: 792

    Whole raft of outcomes in this group now.

    Including Spain losing to Japan, Germany winning big - and Spain going home.

    lol.

    Would love to see Spain go out

    Cyclefree said:

    DJ41 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    The Wellcome gets worse

    “Taken by a friend at the Wellcome Collection. This is real.”


    https://twitter.com/s8mb/status/1596880839711002630?s=46&t=OTxOvpdbAL3PiHIc5HsPrA

    It’s quite open now. They want to tear down our culture and history. They admit it



    I have to admit that made me laugh.

    It's funny that for all the hostility to privileged cis white men throughout history they seem to make an exception for Karl Marx. Or just Marx if you prefer.
    Naturally the man who wants to dismantle white infrastructure is a fellow of an Oxford college, and white:

    image
    I quite like the irony of an archaeologist saying "time's up"

    Yep, "time's up, who needs all this old shit?"
    That placard reads like a parody, like something from Private Eye.

    Every sentence is a keeper.

    If Wellcome think that the very idea of museums is exploitatively “re-centering the white cis-male body” they shouldn’t stop at one collection but simply close the doors full stop.

    Imagine being working class - both repulsed and intrigued by Bentham’s skin, naturally - and hoping to learn more about Bentham and how his skin got there.

    You’d come way shrugging, wondering why you wasted your bus fare.
    Yes, it is an agenda to close every single museum (and university, and art gallery, etc). Or turn them into conversation spaces for Black poets to express their angst

    We are a white country, with a white history, and the white elite hates us for that

    It is genuinely quite bleak and depressing. And STILL there will be PB-ers claiming Woke is a bogeyman invented by the Right
    Kinda wondering what site I bother coming to where contemptible racist statements such as "We are a white country" stay up.
    I make no comment on the statement itself.

    As a factual matter the figures from the Office of National Statistics are as follows:-


    Ethnic Group Population Percentage
    White 55,010,359 87.1%
    Asian or Asian British 4,373,339 6.9%
    Black or Black British 1,904,684 3.0%
    Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups 1,250,229 2.0%
    Other ethnic group 580,374 0.9%
    Gypsy / Traveller / Irish Traveller 63,193 0.1%
    Would not think that looking at TV adverts…
    I wonder if that's because there's such a split between the demographics in metropolitan and non-metropolitan Britain?

    I know the Houses of Parliament received a report from a consultancy that argued that its staff (both Commons and Lords) should be representative of the demographics in London in the aftermath of George Floyd.

    Maybe MSM broadcasting studios take a similar approach?
    Maybe, but I think it’s more that they are trying to advertise to all in the nation (rightly - maximise your market), and have hit on the wheeze that every family shall be mixed race. Perhaps it’s more noticeable to me in leafy Wiltshire than metroplolitan Britain? *

    *I don’t really care about this, it’s just an observation.


    It's certainly the case that mixed race families are

    hugely overrepresented.



    I think any sort of overreach is a mistake, as it

    happens, as it risks a backlash to what it's trying to promote.
    Yawn. Who gives a fuck?

    Well, comments like this are sort of the point, aren't they? As are the dumb "likes" they garner.

    There is no level of overrepresentation that would garner any criticism because it risks making the person making them look like a secret racist, so why not turn it up to 100%?

    What possible (legitimate) objection could there be?

    One can only really say: I don't care.

    Whilst they are just adverts, which no-one really likes and wants to watch anyone, the problem is they contribute to a view in which some whites may feel unrepresented and unvalued, and to a climate where immigration is perceived to be massively higher than it actually is, both of which could have real world political effects - including both poor policy and polarisation.

    So, the sensible course isn’t to just go for the cheap and easy applause with "Yawn. Who gives a fuck?" but to be brave enough to, yes, challenge overreach whilst also arguing for proper representation and inclusion at the same time.

    This stuff shouldn't be hard.
    Like @Anabobazina, I fail to understand why anyone gets the slightest bit exercised by this. Why does it matter in the slightest?
    I bring it up because it is so noticeable. It’s as if all advertisers have come to the same cunning wheeze at the same time - all families are mixed race so you hit as much of the target audience as possible. And by doing so they no longer represent the U.K. population, at least the vast majority, who don’t live in mixed race couples. And as casino says, it leads to people thinking the U.K. is far less white than it is, which adds to fears about immigration.
    And non of it is done with malice, or harmful intent, it’s just advertisers doing their job.
    And there is no way to change it, nor should we try. But it is noticeable.
    Market forces in operation.
    Fits well with the editorial slant in the right-wing gutter press that has been selling the Powellite line since whenever.

    There really are those who are still fuming about a Coca-Cola ad from 1971.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,259
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    Vivino is lying, not for the first time. The Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet 2019 (a much better year) is £20 from Waitrose.

    https://www.waitrosecellar.com/red-wine/chateau-la-croix-de-marbuzet
    There ya go. Tit

    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/marbuzet-saint-estephe/w/1370641?year=2017
    You're believing Vivino. With no supporting evidence. Who's the tit?

    It's £15 a bottle here:

    https://www.weinprestige.de/shop/Château-La-Croix-de-Marbuzet-2017-AOC-Saint-Estephe-p187519074
    Apologies for the "tit". I got irritated by the accusation of lying

    TBH this wine is not worth £10, maybe not £5 - it is that bad - so the debate is silly. Bordeaux remains ridiculously overpriced at a time when many many regions around the world have learned the knack of knocking out fantastic wine - including England
    Apology accepted - it's Vivino that I was accusing of lying, not you.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,392
    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 24,583
    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    What's the best inexpensive wine?
    Black Tower or Blue Nun? Hmmm.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,259

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    Very interesting. And encouraging. Maybe some good will come of this WC after all.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,259
    edited November 2022

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Tbf, I very much doubt @Leon paid £50 for that bottle.

    Brought round one evening by a 'friend' who wanted to dump it, maybe. (Done it myself in the past tbf)
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,005

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    It is very difficult to know what to think. I was just watching a programme on Sky news about the 2018/2022 bidding process. Showing Putin had seen the value of sport to politics. Clearly some have wanted to separate the two, should we go on about LGBT in Qatar or accept the differences? I've tended to think it best to keep sport and politics apart but then you see the Iranian players making a statement and can't but be impressed. Now we see the tournament is having a cultural impact in China.

    Both the Russian and Chinese governments have got themselves in a hole without an obvious way out.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,111

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    What's the best inexpensive wine?
    Black Tower or Blue Nun? Hmmm.
    Is 7.99 inexpensive? Buckfast is well worth considering, I am told by the local neds.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,873

    Whole raft of outcomes in this group now.

    Including Spain losing to Japan, Germany winning big - and Spain going home.

    lol.

    Would love to see Spain go out

    Cyclefree said:

    DJ41 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    The Wellcome gets worse

    “Taken by a friend at the Wellcome Collection. This is real.”


    https://twitter.com/s8mb/status/1596880839711002630?s=46&t=OTxOvpdbAL3PiHIc5HsPrA

    It’s quite open now. They want to tear down our culture and history. They admit it



    I have to admit that made me laugh.

    It's funny that for all the hostility to privileged cis white men throughout history they seem to make an exception for Karl Marx. Or just Marx if you prefer.
    Naturally the man who wants to dismantle white infrastructure is a fellow of an Oxford college, and white:

    image
    I quite like the irony of an archaeologist saying "time's up"

    Yep, "time's up, who needs all this old shit?"
    That placard reads like a parody, like something from Private Eye.

    Every sentence is a keeper.

    If Wellcome think that the very idea of museums is exploitatively “re-centering the white cis-male body” they shouldn’t stop at one collection but simply close the doors full stop.

    Imagine being working class - both repulsed and intrigued by Bentham’s skin, naturally - and hoping to learn more about Bentham and how his skin got there.

    You’d come way shrugging, wondering why you wasted your bus fare.
    Yes, it is an agenda to close every single museum (and university, and art gallery, etc). Or turn them into conversation spaces for Black poets to express their angst

    We are a white country, with a white history, and the white elite hates us for that

    It is genuinely quite bleak and depressing. And STILL there will be PB-ers claiming Woke is a bogeyman invented by the Right
    Kinda wondering what site I bother coming to where contemptible racist statements such as "We are a white country" stay up.
    I make no comment on the statement itself.

    As a factual matter the figures from the Office of National Statistics are as follows:-


    Ethnic Group Population Percentage
    White 55,010,359 87.1%
    Asian or Asian British 4,373,339 6.9%
    Black or Black British 1,904,684 3.0%
    Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups 1,250,229 2.0%
    Other ethnic group 580,374 0.9%
    Gypsy / Traveller / Irish Traveller 63,193 0.1%
    Would not think that looking at TV adverts…
    I wonder if that's because there's such a split between the demographics in metropolitan and non-metropolitan Britain?

    I know the Houses of Parliament received a report from a consultancy that argued that its staff (both Commons and Lords) should be representative of the demographics in London in the aftermath of George Floyd.

    Maybe MSM broadcasting studios take a similar approach?
    Maybe, but I think it’s more that they are trying to advertise to all in the nation (rightly - maximise your market), and have hit on the wheeze that every family shall be mixed race. Perhaps it’s more noticeable to me in leafy Wiltshire than metroplolitan Britain? *

    *I don’t really care about this, it’s just an observation.


    It's certainly the case that mixed race families are

    hugely overrepresented.



    I think any sort of overreach is a mistake, as it

    happens, as it risks a backlash to what it's trying to promote.
    Yawn. Who gives a fuck?

    Well, comments like this are sort of the point, aren't they? As are the dumb "likes" they garner.

    There is no level of overrepresentation that would garner any criticism because it risks making the person making them look like a secret racist, so why not turn it up to 100%?

    What possible (legitimate) objection could there be?

    One can only really say: I don't care.

    Whilst they are just adverts, which no-one really likes and wants to watch anyone, the problem is they contribute to a view in which some whites may feel unrepresented and unvalued, and to a climate where immigration is perceived to be massively higher than it actually is, both of which could have real world political effects - including both poor policy and polarisation.

    So, the sensible course isn’t to just go for the cheap and easy applause with "Yawn. Who gives a fuck?" but to be brave enough to, yes, challenge overreach whilst also arguing for proper representation and inclusion at the same time.

    This stuff shouldn't be hard.
    Like @Anabobazina, I fail to understand why anyone gets the slightest bit exercised by this. Why does it matter in the slightest?



    I bring it up because it is so noticeable. It’s as if

    all advertisers have come to the same cunning wheeze at the same time - all families are mixed race so you hit as much of the target audience as possible. And by doing so they no longer represent the U.K. population, at least the vast majority, who don’t live in mixed race couples. And as casino says, it leads to people thinking the U.K. is far less white than it is, which adds to fears about immigration.
    And non of it is done with malice, or harmful intent, it’s just advertisers doing their job.
    And there is no way to change it, nor should we try. But it is noticeable.
    If you asked me the colour of the dad, mum, daughter and son in any of the supermarket ads I’d have no fucking idea. Does anyone care, beyond the weird obsessive realms of PB? Does anyone even watch adverts anymore?
    I don’t care, but it is notable. I wonder if you are just more colourblind than I am? I grew up in and still live in rural Wiltshire (technically on the edge of a town, but I overlook fields). In my day job I teach a very mixed race cohort, although most colleagues are white. TV ads don’t reflect my lived experience (I believe this is the correct term).
    Does it matter? A little for the reasons in posts above, but it’s trivial, and not a lot can or should be done.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't really work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west has been rubbish over COVID and not to be trusted, even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Are you really dismissing all wine or just pretending to be boringly northern?
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,259

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west is rubbish / not to be trusted even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Why don't the Chinese government just buy Western mRMA vaccines and rebadge them as Sinovac2? I mean, they dupe their population about everything else.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,873

    dixiedean said:

    My youngest made his university ice hockey debut last night. They lost 22-0.
    I wasn't surprised, as, when he went down in September, I wasn't aware of him ever having been skating.

    A rule-of-thumb in Swedish ice hockey is that, assuming you start about age 5 or 6, you need to ice skate approximately 10,000 hours to achieve excellence, 8,000 hours to be reasonably good, or 4,000 hours to be an average/mediocre player.

    This rule is frequently challenged, however zero skating hours is gonna be a problem.
    Matthew Syed was a proponent of the 10,000 hours theory required for sporting excellence. I think it’s too pat, and too round number to be exact, but there is going to be a correlation between practice and skill. However native talent is also crucial. No matter how hard I trained I never broke 2 hours for a half marathon. I simply don’t have the innate ability. The same is true for sports that require hand eye coordination or other skills. Some people are just better, and it’s usually obvious from an early age.
    The other great 10,000 figure is steps - also likely bunkum.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,724

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    How could you possibly have missed out the DfE?
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,873

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west is rubbish / not to be trusted even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Why don't the Chinese government just buy Western mRMA vaccines and rebadge them as Sinovac2? I mean, they dupe their population about everything else.
    They wouldn't be able keep the purchase of 100s millions of doses under wraps and thus the Great (winnie the) Poobah would be embarrassed and humbled is my guess. Remember he has built his whole leadership on China #1, with purest Chinese ideology, rather than his predecessors was China #1 by embracing bits of the West.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,724
    edited November 2022

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    I wonder if Xi perhaps resembles Winnie the Pooh in ways other than merely his facial features.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't really work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west has been rubbish over COVID and not to be trusted, even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Have they actually said the mRNA vax is dangerous/useless or have they simply promoted their own vax? It seems so easy to rectify I just don’t grasp Xi’s strategy at all
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,392
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
    I see.

    So wishing you had sold it for a profit then.

    By way of contrast, in our house there is a bottle of mulled wine left over from last Christmas and maybe a bottle of some random white from the Coop lurking at the back of a cupboard.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,392

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Are you really dismissing all wine or just pretending to be boringly northern?
    Well I've never had one that I prefer to a pint of decent ale.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't really work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west has been rubbish over COVID and not to be trusted, even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Have they actually said the mRNA vax is dangerous/useless or have they simply promoted their own vax? It seems so easy to rectify I just don’t grasp Xi’s strategy at all
    Remember the older population in China have been brainwashed their whole lives that West bad, plus scandals of safety with tainted food and drugs...But here from this article:

    “The effort to disparage the foreign vaccines, highlighting the side effects, only convinced the elderly that the side effects are a big problem. In a way they have collateral damage for the domestic vaccines as well,” said Dr Huang.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/hong-kong-faces-fierce-resistance-vaccine-mandates-hesistant/

    I think another problem is that China have demanded that Western vaccines companies do the same as they do with other industries, we will buy from you, but you have to show us how you do it.

    Moderna has refused to hand over to China the core intellectual property behind the development of its breakthrough Covid-19 vaccine, leading to a collapse in negotiations on its sale there, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

    https://www.ft.com/content/a481c129-c5aa-4972-84a8-3a45bb000098
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,835
    edited November 2022
    China has never been an autocracy in the way Russia has.
    There are other factions within the CCP. There always were. Especially since the mandate of heaven has been disparaged.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
    I see.

    So wishing you had sold it for a profit then.

    By way of contrast, in our house there is a bottle of mulled wine left over from last Christmas and maybe a bottle of some random white from the Coop lurking at the back of a cupboard.
    lol. I get a weird pleasure out of knowing I have this excellent wine: stored and lurking

    If Putin drops the B I will try and drink it all in 17 minutes

    Actually, to be serious, there IS a strange solace to be had, in knowing there are 30 bottles of fucking great red wine, stored here. Life is shit, but excellent shiraz helps

    "Red wine is milk for old men"
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,457

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,873

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't really work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west has been rubbish over COVID and not to be trusted, even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Have they actually said the mRNA vax is dangerous/useless or have they simply promoted their own vax? It seems so easy to rectify I just don’t grasp Xi’s strategy at all
    I think another problem is that China have demanded that Western vaccines companies do the same as they do with other industries, we will buy from you, but you have to show us how you do it.

    Moderna has refused to hand over to China the core intellectual property behind the development of its breakthrough Covid-19 vaccine, leading to a collapse in negotiations on its sale there, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

    https://www.ft.com/content/a481c129-c5aa-4972-84a8-3a45bb000098
    And so they are left trying to suppress an unsuppressible virus that they may have created in the lab to destroy the West. A trashy airport novelist wouldn’t make it up.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,457
    ydoethur said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    How could you possibly have missed out the DfE?
    Probably because I didn't want to get you started.
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
    Hmm, 2017, second wine of a cru bourgeois. Not a great choice, but I see that Waitrose have the much better 2019 for £19.99, which is probably pretty good value.

    In general, Bordeaux is better value than most non-French fine wines, such as Barolo (always over priced and often pretty moderate), Californian (good but very pricey), etc
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,835
    edited November 2022

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Are you really dismissing all wine or just pretending to be boringly northern?
    Well I've never had one that I prefer to a pint of decent ale.
    Then you haven’t tried anywhere near enough wines. I love my ales, but to dismiss all wine in the way you do is just ignorant
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,111

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Are you really dismissing all wine or just pretending to be boringly northern?
    Well I've never had one that I prefer to a pint of decent ale.
    *happy memories of getting slowly pished in a Whitby pub beer garden*
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,598

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't really work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west has been rubbish over COVID and not to be trusted, even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Have they actually said the mRNA vax is dangerous/useless or have they simply promoted their own vax? It seems so easy to rectify I just don’t grasp Xi’s strategy at all
    Remember the older population in China have been brainwashed their whole lives that West bad, plus scandals of safety with tainted food and drugs...But here from this article:

    “The effort to disparage the foreign vaccines, highlighting the side effects, only convinced the elderly that the side effects are a big problem. In a way they have collateral damage for the domestic vaccines as well,” said Dr Huang.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/hong-kong-faces-fierce-resistance-vaccine-mandates-hesistant/

    I think another problem is that China have demanded that Western vaccines companies do the same as they do with other industries, we will buy from you, but you have to show us how you do it.

    Moderna has refused to hand over to China the core intellectual property behind the development of its breakthrough Covid-19 vaccine, leading to a collapse in negotiations on its sale there, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

    https://www.ft.com/content/a481c129-c5aa-4972-84a8-3a45bb000098
    Interesting. Thanks
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 39,111

    ydoethur said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    How could you possibly have missed out the DfE?
    Probably because I didn't want to get you started.
    Did he ever end? (Not that I would blame him.)
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,873

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Why not just call me a racist and be done with it?😀
    There’s not a lot else happening right now (TV can’t be bothered with reporting the war in Ukraine now the footys started), the hospitals can’t be in crisis because the pesky nurses are happy to go on strike, and Christmas has started already.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited November 2022
    I don't watch it, but I hear HandyCock is out of the jungle in 3rd.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,579

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't really work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west has been rubbish over COVID and not to be trusted, even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Have they actually said the mRNA vax is dangerous/useless or have they simply promoted their own vax? It seems so easy to rectify I just don’t grasp Xi’s strategy at all
    That’s what got spread on Chinese social media - quite a concerted campaign, in an area heavily controlled by the government. An interesting rich was the suggestion that Chinese people were different, so needed a better vaccine.

    As to why they did that - anger at not being given all the intellectual property or Chinese racism/exceptionalism.

    As we have seen with Putin, leadership can start getting high on their own supply.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,724

    ydoethur said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    How could you possibly have missed out the DfE?
    Probably because I didn't want to get you started.
    Surely you know me well enough to be aware I don't need an opportunity to grouse about the Not-Messerschmitts?
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,074

    Truly magnificent programme written and presented by Simon Schama just finished on BBC2. The History of Now looked at “Truth and Democracy” via the Spanish Civil War and Communist Czechoslovakia. Very much recommended if you can catch it on 'Play it Again Sam'.

    Yes - excellent and very moving in parts.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,724
    Carnyx said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    How could you possibly have missed out the DfE?
    Probably because I didn't want to get you started.
    Did he ever end? (Not that I would blame him.)
    The DfE is an end in itself for me.

    Well, I think of it as being full of arses anyway.
  • Cyclefree said:

    Truly magnificent programme written and presented by Simon Schama just finished on BBC2. The History of Now looked at “Truth and Democracy” via the Spanish Civil War and Communist Czechoslovakia. Very much recommended if you can catch it on 'Play it Again Sam'.

    Yes - excellent and very moving in parts.
    Those who learn from the past are doomed to watch others make the same mistakes over and over again.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
    Hmm, 2017, second wine of a cru bourgeois. Not a great choice, but I see that Waitrose have the much better 2019 for £19.99, which is probably pretty good value.

    In general, Bordeaux is better value than most non-French fine wines, such as Barolo (always over priced and often pretty moderate), Californian (good but very pricey), etc
    Bordeaux is reliably overpriced, everywhere and at all times. It is seen as an investment by too many, and the Chinese buy everything good (and now the Indians)

    I agree, however, on Italian. Barolo is wildly variable. You can get a magnificent wine for £15 and then you pay £25 and it is dreck. I have a personal aversion to Californian wine, only partly solved by my recent trip to the States

    NEVER BUY WINE FROM COLORADO

    Much of the best value red wine is found outside trad areas, New or Old World. As I say go for Moldova or Macedonia, high altitude Argentina or weird blends from S Africa

    A good rule of thumb is to try red wine from a slightly obscure white wine area, and vice versa. eg the Alentejo in Portugal - known for hearty reds - actually makes brilliant value whites
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,579
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    How could you possibly have missed out the DfE?
    Probably because I didn't want to get you started.
    Surely you know me well enough to be aware I don't need an opportunity to grouse about the Not-Messerschmitts?
    Fokkers?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,579

    Cyclefree said:

    Truly magnificent programme written and presented by Simon Schama just finished on BBC2. The History of Now looked at “Truth and Democracy” via the Spanish Civil War and Communist Czechoslovakia. Very much recommended if you can catch it on 'Play it Again Sam'.

    Yes - excellent and very moving in parts.
    Those who learn from the past are doomed to watch others make the same mistakes over and over again.
    Part of the enjoyment of history is meeting a familiar mistake like an old friend.

    Putin has a large chunk of Kaiser Bill Goes Tonto about his war.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,727
    EXCL: Members of the armed forces could be asked to drive ambulances and fill other jobs in the NHS as government braces for a winter of strikes https://twitter.com/firstedition/status/1596993589917405184

    Officials are drawing up contingency plans to invoke the military aid to civil authorities protocol, or MACA, to keep the NHS running

    Preliminary assessments are being made of how forces personnel could help the NHS, although no formal request for assistance has yet been made
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,835

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't really work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west has been rubbish over COVID and not to be trusted, even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Have they actually said the mRNA vax is dangerous/useless or have they simply promoted their own vax? It seems so easy to rectify I just don’t grasp Xi’s strategy at all
    That’s what got spread on Chinese social media - quite a concerted campaign, in an area heavily controlled by the government. An interesting rich was the suggestion that Chinese people were different, so needed a better vaccine.

    As to why they did that - anger at not being given all the intellectual property or Chinese racism/exceptionalism.

    As we have seen with Putin, leadership can start getting high on their own supply.
    Never underestimate Chinese racism as an explanation for otherwise baffling behaviour.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,724
    edited November 2022
    dixiedean said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
    You may be interested - depressed, maybe - to hear that Staffordshire CC are unable to recruit sufficient TAs to provide the statutory minimum hours needed for the students in the county.

    They have had to issue an edict saying that no individual support will be offered, only for small groups.

    Most unfortunately for them, they did not realise the father of one of the children affected was a leading equalities lawyer.

    They are now in deep, deep shit and trying to work out how to buy him off before it gets to court.

    But - whatever the outcome - the fact remains they still can't recruit enough TAs. Just like you can't.

    And it's easy to see why. The pay's shit, the conditions are terrible and the management is shocking.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't really work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west has been rubbish over COVID and not to be trusted, even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Have they actually said the mRNA vax is dangerous/useless or have they simply promoted their own vax? It seems so easy to rectify I just don’t grasp Xi’s strategy at all
    I think another problem is that China have demanded that Western vaccines companies do the same as they do with other industries, we will buy from you, but you have to show us how you do it.

    Moderna has refused to hand over to China the core intellectual property behind the development of its breakthrough Covid-19 vaccine, leading to a collapse in negotiations on its sale there, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

    https://www.ft.com/content/a481c129-c5aa-4972-84a8-3a45bb000098
    And so they are left trying to suppress an unsuppressible virus that they may have created in the lab to destroy the West. A trashy airport novelist wouldn’t make it up.
    HOW I'D WRITE COVID, THE THRILLER

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-id-write-covid-the-thriller/


    That @SeanT was prescient on many things, in retrospect. The mods should pay him money to return
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,457
    edited November 2022

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Why not just call me a racist and be done with it?😀
    There’s not a lot else happening right now (TV can’t be bothered with reporting the war in Ukraine now the footys started), the hospitals can’t be in crisis because the pesky nurses are happy to go on strike, and Christmas has started already.
    I don't think my curiosity suggests anything of the sort. You wrote in an earlier post: In my day job I teach a very mixed race cohort, although most colleagues are white, and I noticed the use of the word 'although'. Have you subjected that fact to the same sort of analysis as you use on TV ads?
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 3,853

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    I don't own a TV so I see very few adverts unless at a parent's house (and I usually grab the remote and pause for 3 minutes even then), but it is obviously a trend from those I've actually seen.

    I don't personally care, because these adverts aren't aimed at me. Each company is going to have the same dilemma and they can't all group together and agree to the correct statistics beforehand, so it is almost inevitable.

    What _is_ particularly noticeable that it is always mixed race with a white female. Is there a good reason for this? Not wanting to imply some kind of 'ownership'? It seems horribly sexist and a bit too stereotyped.
  • ydoethur said:

    dixiedean said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
    You may be interested - depressed, maybe - to hear that Staffordshire CC are unable to recruit sufficient TAs to provide the statutory minimum hours needed for the students in the county.

    They have had to issue an edict saying that no individual support will be offered, only for small groups.

    Most unfortunately for them, they did not realise the father of one of the children affected was a leading equalities lawyer.

    They are now in deep, deep shit and trying to work out how to buy him off before it gets to court.

    But - whatever the outcome - the fact remains they still can't recruit enough TAs. Just like you can't.

    And it's easy to see why. The pay's shit, the conditions are terrible and the management is shocking.
    Isn't this where we're meant to invest in robots?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,579

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    What's the best inexpensive wine?
    Black Tower or Blue Nun? Hmmm.
    That’s easy. It’s whatever you like drinking, where you look at the bottle and think - “That’s really cheap for the enjoyment I got from it”.

    If that’s Blue Nun, rock on and open another.

    Wine snobbery is really really boring and gets in the way of important stuff. Like actually drinking wine.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,259
    Leon said:

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't really work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west has been rubbish over COVID and not to be trusted, even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Have they actually said the mRNA vax is dangerous/useless or have they simply promoted their own vax? It seems so easy to rectify I just don’t grasp Xi’s strategy at all
    I think another problem is that China have demanded that Western vaccines companies do the same as they do with other industries, we will buy from you, but you have to show us how you do it.

    Moderna has refused to hand over to China the core intellectual property behind the development of its breakthrough Covid-19 vaccine, leading to a collapse in negotiations on its sale there, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

    https://www.ft.com/content/a481c129-c5aa-4972-84a8-3a45bb000098
    And so they are left trying to suppress an unsuppressible virus that they may have created in the lab to destroy the West. A trashy airport novelist wouldn’t make it up.
    HOW I'D WRITE COVID, THE THRILLER

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-id-write-covid-the-thriller/


    That @SeanT was prescient on many things, in retrospect. The mods should pay him money to return
    Very good. That's definitely one of, er, his better articles.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,005

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Isn't that what pb is? A forum for under-sexed men anxious about the possible soon come collapse of society as we know it due to falling educational standards, poor national infrastructure (particularly energy) and Tory civil wars? Admittedly we try and address it all in a wry manner but why else do you come on here?
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,392

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Are you really dismissing all wine or just pretending to be boringly northern?
    Well I've never had one that I prefer to a pint of decent ale.
    Then you haven’t tried anywhere near enough wines. I love my ales, but to dismiss all wine in the way you do is just ignorant
    My working class taste buds aren't designed for the sophisticated flavours savoured by my betters.

    Yes, I might drink some wine and think it is OK. But I would rather have a pint of Boltmaker. Or good Dandelion and Burdock.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,724

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Isn't that what pb is? A forum for under-sexed men anxious about the possible soon come collapse of society as we know it due to falling educational standards, poor national infrastructure (particularly energy) and Tory civil wars? Admittedly we try and address it all in a wry manner but why else do you come on here?
    For my awesome punning and to profit from my extraordinary cricket insights?
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,873

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Why not just call me a racist and be done with it?😀
    There’s not a lot else happening right now (TV can’t be bothered with reporting the war in Ukraine now the footys started), the hospitals can’t be in crisis because the pesky nurses are happy to go on strike, and Christmas has started already.
    I don't think my curiosity suggests anything of the sort. You wrote in an earlier post: In my day job I teach a very mixed race cohort, although most colleagues are white, and I noticed the use of the word 'although'. Have you subjected that fact to the same sort of analysis as you use on TV ads?
    Yes. It's a big issue in academia. We have made lots of efforts to improve the situation, which some may decry as woke, and some of which does annoy. But it's a long term issue.
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 3,054
    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    What's the best inexpensive wine?
    At the moment, Aldi Chianti at £4.49. But even these cheap formulaic wines vary by vintage, so repeated sampling is key!

    (On the topic of Claret, there is a lot of cheap old claret floating around at supermarkets and places like majestic at the moment: minor 2012s at £15 and so on. Worth a gamble, but have a backup bottle handy...)
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,457

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Isn't that what pb is? A forum for under-sexed men anxious about the possible soon come collapse of society as we know it due to falling educational standards, poor national infrastructure (particularly energy) and Tory civil wars? Admittedly we try and address it all in a wry manner but why else do you come on here?
    Fair enough, but for the record: we're not all under-sexed.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,742
    edited November 2022

    Truly magnificent programme written and presented by Simon Schama just finished on BBC2. The History of Now looked at “Truth and Democracy” via the Spanish Civil War and Communist Czechoslovakia. Very much recommended if you can catch it on 'Play it Again Sam'.

    Yep, it was good. A touch of the Yentobs about Schama's presentation (not a good thing in my view), but interesting and moving, particularly the Czechoslovak section, and moving how moved Schama was by remembering events.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,457
    ydoethur said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Isn't that what pb is? A forum for under-sexed men anxious about the possible soon come collapse of society as we know it due to falling educational standards, poor national infrastructure (particularly energy) and Tory civil wars? Admittedly we try and address it all in a wry manner but why else do you come on here?
    For my awesome punning and to profit from my extraordinary cricket insights?
    Hm. Have you considered a return to full-time teaching? It's a great career.
  • Leon said:

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't really work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west has been rubbish over COVID and not to be trusted, even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Have they actually said the mRNA vax is dangerous/useless or have they simply promoted their own vax? It seems so easy to rectify I just don’t grasp Xi’s strategy at all
    I think another problem is that China have demanded that Western vaccines companies do the same as they do with other industries, we will buy from you, but you have to show us how you do it.

    Moderna has refused to hand over to China the core intellectual property behind the development of its breakthrough Covid-19 vaccine, leading to a collapse in negotiations on its sale there, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

    https://www.ft.com/content/a481c129-c5aa-4972-84a8-3a45bb000098
    And so they are left trying to suppress an unsuppressible virus that they may have created in the lab to destroy the West. A trashy airport novelist wouldn’t make it up.
    HOW I'D WRITE COVID, THE THRILLER

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-id-write-covid-the-thriller/


    That @SeanT was prescient on many things, in retrospect. The mods should pay him money to return
    Any insights on how you'd carve Covid, the dildo thriller?
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,279
    I was wondering why these protests in China were suddenly happening now. Of course, it's the World Cup. Football fans seeing the crowds.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,724

    ydoethur said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Isn't that what pb is? A forum for under-sexed men anxious about the possible soon come collapse of society as we know it due to falling educational standards, poor national infrastructure (particularly energy) and Tory civil wars? Admittedly we try and address it all in a wry manner but why else do you come on here?
    For my awesome punning and to profit from my extraordinary cricket insights?
    Hm. Have you considered a return to full-time teaching? It's a great career.
    Not at the moment it bloody isn't.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,579
    ydoethur said:

    dixiedean said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
    You may be interested - depressed, maybe - to hear that Staffordshire CC are unable to recruit sufficient TAs to provide the statutory minimum hours needed for the students in the county.

    They have had to issue an edict saying that no individual support will be offered, only for small groups.

    Most unfortunately for them, they did not realise the father of one of the children affected was a leading equalities lawyer.

    They are now in deep, deep shit and trying to work out how to buy him off before it gets to court.

    But - whatever the outcome - the fact remains they still can't recruit enough TAs. Just like you can't.

    And it's easy to see why. The pay's shit, the conditions are terrible and the management is shocking.
    Should we add that the Gammon Lazy Tory Scum are refusing to do the jobs, preferring to roll around in the piles of Tory protected dole money? Or is that a different message, just for the pensioners?
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 6,760
    ydoethur said:

    dixiedean said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
    You may be interested - depressed, maybe - to hear that Staffordshire CC are unable to recruit sufficient TAs to provide the statutory minimum hours needed for the students in the county.

    They have had to issue an edict saying that no individual support will be offered, only for small groups.

    Most unfortunately for them, they did not realise the father of one of the children affected was a leading equalities lawyer.

    They are now in deep, deep shit and trying to work out how to buy him off before it gets to court.

    But - whatever the outcome - the fact remains they still can't recruit enough TAs. Just like you can't.

    And it's easy to see why. The pay's shit, the conditions are terrible and the management is shocking.
    If all children in a given cohort are affected how is it an equalities issue?
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,392

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    I don't own a TV so I see very few adverts unless at a parent's house (and I usually grab the remote and pause for 3 minutes even then), but it is obviously a trend from those I've actually seen.

    I don't personally care, because these adverts aren't aimed at me. Each company is going to have the same dilemma and they can't all group together and agree to the correct statistics beforehand, so it is almost inevitable.

    What _is_ particularly noticeable that it is always mixed race with a white female. Is there a good reason for this? Not wanting to imply some kind of 'ownership'? It seems horribly sexist and a bit too stereotyped.
    No, not always. We sometimes see couples like us. White male, brown female.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 6,760

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    I don't own a TV so I see very few adverts unless at a parent's house (and I usually grab the remote and pause for 3 minutes even then), but it is obviously a trend from those I've actually seen.

    I don't personally care, because these adverts aren't aimed at me. Each company is going to have the same dilemma and they can't all group together and agree to the correct statistics beforehand, so it is almost inevitable.

    What _is_ particularly noticeable that it is always mixed race with a white female. Is there a good reason for this? Not wanting to imply some kind of 'ownership'? It seems horribly sexist and a bit too stereotyped.
    My assumption is that women tend to make the majority of buying decisions in white household so ads reflect that. They then include a black husband / male in order to appeal to multiple buying groups

  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,457
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Isn't that what pb is? A forum for under-sexed men anxious about the possible soon come collapse of society as we know it due to falling educational standards, poor national infrastructure (particularly energy) and Tory civil wars? Admittedly we try and address it all in a wry manner but why else do you come on here?
    For my awesome punning and to profit from my extraordinary cricket insights?
    Hm. Have you considered a return to full-time teaching? It's a great career.
    Not at the moment it bloody isn't.
    It's not like you to miss irony.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,702
    MikeL said:

    Matt finishes 3rd - despite being 2nd favourite as vote was announced.

    Welcomed by his mistress at the end of the rope bridge
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 9,005

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Isn't that what pb is? A forum for under-sexed men anxious about the possible soon come collapse of society as we know it due to falling educational standards, poor national infrastructure (particularly energy) and Tory civil wars? Admittedly we try and address it all in a wry manner but why else do you come on here?
    Fair enough, but for the record: we're not all under-sexed.
    Well as I think you have suggested, you are in fact atypical. No shame in being under-sexed.
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
    Hmm, 2017, second wine of a cru bourgeois. Not a great choice, but I see that Waitrose have the much better 2019 for £19.99, which is probably pretty good value.

    In general, Bordeaux is better value than most non-French fine wines, such as Barolo (always over priced and often pretty moderate), Californian (good but very pricey), etc
    Bordeaux is reliably overpriced, everywhere and at all times. It is seen as an investment by too many, and the Chinese buy everything good (and now the Indians)

    I agree, however, on Italian. Barolo is wildly variable. You can get a magnificent wine for £15 and then you pay £25 and it is dreck. I have a personal aversion to Californian wine, only partly solved by my recent trip to the States

    NEVER BUY WINE FROM COLORADO

    Much of the best value red wine is found outside trad areas, New or Old World. As I say go for Moldova or Macedonia, high altitude Argentina or weird blends from S Africa

    A good rule of thumb is to try red wine from a slightly obscure white wine area, and vice versa. eg the Alentejo in Portugal - known for hearty reds - actually makes brilliant value whites
    You are partly right. Portugal in particular produces some excellent and very interesting wines, at reasonable prices.

    Nonetheless, Bordeaux still is by a big margin the primary source of fine wines, and apart from the very expensive trophy wines, remains good value even for seriously good stuff. For example, simply from ones I've drunk this week, La Chenade 2014 and Lafon Rochet 2014 (although this deserves more time). OK, I bought both en primeur, but they were not expensive. Even now, you can buy the Lafon Rochet, which is a very reputable classed growth, for £27.50 a bottle in bond. You're not going to beat that for a seriously good wine very easily.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,724

    ydoethur said:

    dixiedean said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
    You may be interested - depressed, maybe - to hear that Staffordshire CC are unable to recruit sufficient TAs to provide the statutory minimum hours needed for the students in the county.

    They have had to issue an edict saying that no individual support will be offered, only for small groups.

    Most unfortunately for them, they did not realise the father of one of the children affected was a leading equalities lawyer.

    They are now in deep, deep shit and trying to work out how to buy him off before it gets to court.

    But - whatever the outcome - the fact remains they still can't recruit enough TAs. Just like you can't.

    And it's easy to see why. The pay's shit, the conditions are terrible and the management is shocking.
    If all children in a given cohort are affected how is it an equalities issue?
    Because it's not about comparing them to other children with SEND, it's about the support the law demands as a reasonable adjustment for it.

    At the moment, it cannot be provided.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 14,873

    MikeL said:

    Matt finishes 3rd - despite being 2nd favourite as vote was announced.

    Welcomed by his mistress at the end of the rope bridge
    It's been long enough to call her partner now, surely?
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,702

    MikeL said:

    Matt finishes 3rd - despite being 2nd favourite as vote was announced.

    Welcomed by his mistress at the end of the rope bridge
    He looks under sexed
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,724

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Isn't that what pb is? A forum for under-sexed men anxious about the possible soon come collapse of society as we know it due to falling educational standards, poor national infrastructure (particularly energy) and Tory civil wars? Admittedly we try and address it all in a wry manner but why else do you come on here?
    For my awesome punning and to profit from my extraordinary cricket insights?
    Hm. Have you considered a return to full-time teaching? It's a great career.
    Not at the moment it bloody isn't.
    It's not like you to miss irony.
    I'll just have to steel myself to accept the rebuke.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,702

    MikeL said:

    Matt finishes 3rd - despite being 2nd favourite as vote was announced.

    Welcomed by his mistress at the end of the rope bridge
    He looks under sexed
    Despite being a wanker
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,702

    MikeL said:

    Matt finishes 3rd - despite being 2nd favourite as vote was announced.

    Welcomed by his mistress at the end of the rope bridge
    It's been long enough to call her partner now, surely?
    Do you have her partners number?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
    Hmm, 2017, second wine of a cru bourgeois. Not a great choice, but I see that Waitrose have the much better 2019 for £19.99, which is probably pretty good value.

    In general, Bordeaux is better value than most non-French fine wines, such as Barolo (always over priced and often pretty moderate), Californian (good but very pricey), etc
    Bordeaux is reliably overpriced, everywhere and at all times. It is seen as an investment by too many, and the Chinese buy everything good (and now the Indians)

    I agree, however, on Italian. Barolo is wildly variable. You can get a magnificent wine for £15 and then you pay £25 and it is dreck. I have a personal aversion to Californian wine, only partly solved by my recent trip to the States

    NEVER BUY WINE FROM COLORADO

    Much of the best value red wine is found outside trad areas, New or Old World. As I say go for Moldova or Macedonia, high altitude Argentina or weird blends from S Africa

    A good rule of thumb is to try red wine from a slightly obscure white wine area, and vice versa. eg the Alentejo in Portugal - known for hearty reds - actually makes brilliant value whites
    You are partly right. Portugal in particular produces some excellent and very interesting wines, at reasonable prices.

    Nonetheless, Bordeaux still is by a big margin the primary source of fine wines, and apart from the very expensive trophy wines, remains good value even for seriously good stuff. For example, simply from ones I've drunk this week, La Chenade 2014 and Lafon Rochet 2014 (although this deserves more time). OK, I bought both en primeur, but they were not expensive. Even now, you can buy the Lafon Rochet, which is a very reputable classed growth, for £27.50 a bottle in bond. You're not going to beat that for a seriously good wine very easily.
    But do you ever seriously stray far beyond Old World wines, especially France? I rather doubt it. So I am skeptical

    Nonetheless I will take up your challenge and try the Lafon Richet. We shall see!

    I will genuinely report back and kowtow - if you are right
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,835
    edited November 2022
    ydoethur said:

    dixiedean said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
    You may be interested - depressed, maybe - to hear that Staffordshire CC are unable to recruit sufficient TAs to provide the statutory minimum hours needed for the students in the county.

    They have had to issue an edict saying that no individual support will be offered, only for small groups.

    Most unfortunately for them, they did not realise the father of one of the children affected was a leading equalities lawyer.

    They are now in deep, deep shit and trying to work out how to buy him off before it gets to court.

    But - whatever the outcome - the fact remains they still can't recruit enough TAs. Just like you can't.

    And it's easy to see why. The pay's shit, the conditions are terrible and the management is shocking.
    Yeah. Across our 2 units (connected by a small ante room) we've had only 3 of the usual 5 staff for 2 weeks, because of illness. Itself at least 2 short. We've had virtually no supply TA support, and that we have has been almost worse than useless. The TA's simply pick and choose what they do.
    It's spiralled. I was bitten and punched on Thursday. The kid wrecked the classroom.
    On Friday my colleague was badly assaulted by a kid who was after another kid. They eventually fell over a table so I was able to grab assaultee and carry him out of the room. I am legally not allowed to do that. If he has a mark and makes a complaint I could be sacked and banned from teaching.
    He tried to get at him once, but then was just returned to his classroom and allowed to walk out and have another go.
    The little room between the Units we've been using as an isolation room has had a lock placed on it, because "it is essential for management meetings".
    Every evening we flag up "causes for concern".
    Every morning they happen as foretold.
    I'm too busy being woke and enjoying a gold
    plated pension and loads of holidays to notice.
    I don't do this for the money. I do this for the possibility that I may be helping kids who have a really difficult situation to have a slightly better life.
    But I'm actually thinking participating may be hindering. The only solution may just be not to play. Until we all refuse.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,279
    Important to note this has happened before the anticipated government campaign on reducing energy use.

    https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/nov/27/uk-households-have-cut-energy-consumption-by-10-say-suppliers

    "UK households have cut energy consumption by 10%, say suppliers
    E.ON reports up to 15% drop as Grant Shapps writes to firms saying customers cutting back on energy use should not face direct debit rise"
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,835
    dixiedean said:

    ydoethur said:

    dixiedean said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
    You may be interested - depressed, maybe - to hear that Staffordshire CC are unable to recruit sufficient TAs to provide the statutory minimum hours needed for the students in the county.

    They have had to issue an edict saying that no individual support will be offered, only for small groups.

    Most unfortunately for them, they did not realise the father of one of the children affected was a leading equalities lawyer.

    They are now in deep, deep shit and trying to work out how to buy him off before it gets to court.

    But - whatever the outcome - the fact remains they still can't recruit enough TAs. Just like you can't.

    And it's easy to see why. The pay's shit, the conditions are terrible and the management is shocking.
    Yeah. Across our 2 units (connected by a small ante room) we've had only 3 of the usual 5 staff for 2 weeks, because of illness. Itself at least 2 short. We've had virtually no supply TA support, and that we have has been almost worse than useless. The TA's simply pick and choose what they do.
    It's spiralled. I was bitten and punched on Thursday. The kid wrecked the classroom.
    On Friday my colleague was badly assaulted by a kid who was after another kid. They eventually fell over a table so I was able to grab assaultee and carry him out of the room. I am legally not allowed to do that. If he has a mark and makes a complaint I could be sacked and banned from teaching.
    He tried to get at him once, but then was just returned to his classroom and allowed to walk out and have another go.
    The little room between the Units we've been using as an isolation room has had a lock placed on it, because "it is essential for management meetings".
    Every evening we flag up "causes for concern".
    Every morning they happen as foretold.
    I'm too busy being woke and enjoying a gold
    plated pension and loads of holidays to notice.
    I don't do this for the money. I do this for the possibility that I may be helping kids who have a really difficult situation to have a slightly better life.
    But I'm actually thinking participating may be hindering. The only solution may just be not to play. Until we all refuse.
    I couldn't give a fuck about museums obvs.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 3,853
    edited November 2022

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    I don't own a TV so I see very few adverts unless at a parent's house (and I usually grab the remote and pause for 3 minutes even then), but it is obviously a trend from those I've actually seen.

    I don't personally care, because these adverts aren't aimed at me. Each company is going to have the same dilemma and they can't all group together and agree to the correct statistics beforehand, so it is almost inevitable.

    What _is_ particularly noticeable that it is always mixed race with a white female. Is there a good reason for this? Not wanting to imply some kind of 'ownership'? It seems horribly sexist and a bit too stereotyped.
    No, not always. We sometimes see couples like us. White male, brown female.
    OK, fair enough - maybe I just haven't watched enough - as I say, I'm not a connoisseur. StillWaters explanation below is probably also a good one.

    Where I grew up the one mixed race family I knew well (and there were few around in the 70s) was that way round - she was a Zulu, with them having met out in SA. I would guess that staying in SA wasn't an option at the time...

    When we played street cricket their son would always play as the WI.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,579
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    dixiedean said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
    You may be interested - depressed, maybe - to hear that Staffordshire CC are unable to recruit sufficient TAs to provide the statutory minimum hours needed for the students in the county.

    They have had to issue an edict saying that no individual support will be offered, only for small groups.

    Most unfortunately for them, they did not realise the father of one of the children affected was a leading equalities lawyer.

    They are now in deep, deep shit and trying to work out how to buy him off before it gets to court.

    But - whatever the outcome - the fact remains they still can't recruit enough TAs. Just like you can't.

    And it's easy to see why. The pay's shit, the conditions are terrible and the management is shocking.
    If all children in a given cohort are affected how is it an equalities issue?
    Because it's not about comparing them to other children with SEND, it's about the support the law demands as a reasonable adjustment for it.

    At the moment, it cannot be provided.
    It’s one area where the difference between private schools and state is incredible. At my youngest daughters school, they assess *all* of the children for ADHD etc, with tame shrinks on hand to do proper diagnosis, and create plans to help parents, children and teachers work with any issues. In addition to training for all the teachers, they have specialists who can help the teachers as required.

    It’s the kind of setup where you just go - “Yes, this”.
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
    Hmm, 2017, second wine of a cru bourgeois. Not a great choice, but I see that Waitrose have the much better 2019 for £19.99, which is probably pretty good value.

    In general, Bordeaux is better value than most non-French fine wines, such as Barolo (always over priced and often pretty moderate), Californian (good but very pricey), etc
    Bordeaux is reliably overpriced, everywhere and at all times. It is seen as an investment by too many, and the Chinese buy everything good (and now the Indians)

    I agree, however, on Italian. Barolo is wildly variable. You can get a magnificent wine for £15 and then you pay £25 and it is dreck. I have a personal aversion to Californian wine, only partly solved by my recent trip to the States

    NEVER BUY WINE FROM COLORADO

    Much of the best value red wine is found outside trad areas, New or Old World. As I say go for Moldova or Macedonia, high altitude Argentina or weird blends from S Africa

    A good rule of thumb is to try red wine from a slightly obscure white wine area, and vice versa. eg the Alentejo in Portugal - known for hearty reds - actually makes brilliant value whites
    You are partly right. Portugal in particular produces some excellent and very interesting wines, at reasonable prices.

    Nonetheless, Bordeaux still is by a big margin the primary source of fine wines, and apart from the very expensive trophy wines, remains good value even for seriously good stuff. For example, simply from ones I've drunk this week, La Chenade 2014 and Lafon Rochet 2014 (although this deserves more time). OK, I bought both en primeur, but they were not expensive. Even now, you can buy the Lafon Rochet, which is a very reputable classed growth, for £27.50 a bottle in bond. You're not going to beat that for a seriously good wine very easily.
    But do you ever seriously stray far beyond Old World wines, especially France? I rather doubt it. So I am skeptical

    Nonetheless I will take up your challenge and try the Lafon Richet. We shall see!

    I will genuinely report back and kowtow - if you are right
    I've been tasting wines for 50 years, and yes of course that has included many 'new world' wines, including some excellent ones. The excellent ones are not cheap, though.

    If you do try the 2014 Lafon Rochet, be sure to decant it well in advance. It's still a bit young. It will gain in complexity over the next few years

    More ready today is Meyney 2012, not as fine a wine but jolly nice for immediate drinking.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,457
    dixiedean said:

    ydoethur said:

    dixiedean said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
    You may be interested - depressed, maybe - to hear that Staffordshire CC are unable to recruit sufficient TAs to provide the statutory minimum hours needed for the students in the county.

    They have had to issue an edict saying that no individual support will be offered, only for small groups.

    Most unfortunately for them, they did not realise the father of one of the children affected was a leading equalities lawyer.

    They are now in deep, deep shit and trying to work out how to buy him off before it gets to court.

    But - whatever the outcome - the fact remains they still can't recruit enough TAs. Just like you can't.

    And it's easy to see why. The pay's shit, the conditions are terrible and the management is shocking.
    Yeah. Across our 2 units (connected by a small ante room) we've had only 3 of the usual 5 staff for 2 weeks, because of illness. Itself at least 2 short. We've had virtually no supply TA support, and that we have has been almost worse than useless. The TA's simply pick and choose what they do.
    It's spiralled. I was bitten and punched on Thursday. The kid wrecked the classroom.
    On Friday my colleague was badly assaulted by a kid who was after another kid. They eventually fell over a table so I was able to grab assaultee and carry him out of the room. I am legally not allowed to do that. If he has a mark and makes a complaint I could be sacked and banned from teaching.
    He tried to get at him once, but then was just returned to his classroom and allowed to walk out and have another go.
    The little room between the Units we've been using as an isolation room has had a lock placed on it, because "it is essential for management meetings".
    Every evening we flag up "causes for concern".
    Every morning they happen as foretold.
    I'm too busy being woke and enjoying a gold
    plated pension and loads of holidays to notice.
    I don't do this for the money. I do this for the possibility that I may be helping kids who have a really difficult situation to have a slightly better life.
    But I'm actually thinking participating may be hindering. The only solution may just be not to play. Until we all refuse.
    Much sympathy - seriously. What you're doing is genuinely noble, and I hope you stick at it.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 10,456
    Leon said:

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't really work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west has been rubbish over COVID and not to be trusted, even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Have they actually said the mRNA vax is dangerous/useless or have they simply promoted their own vax? It seems so easy to rectify I just don’t grasp Xi’s strategy at all
    I think another problem is that China have demanded that Western vaccines companies do the same as they do with other industries, we will buy from you, but you have to show us how you do it.

    Moderna has refused to hand over to China the core intellectual property behind the development of its breakthrough Covid-19 vaccine, leading to a collapse in negotiations on its sale there, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

    https://www.ft.com/content/a481c129-c5aa-4972-84a8-3a45bb000098
    And so they are left trying to suppress an unsuppressible virus that they may have created in the lab to destroy the West. A trashy airport novelist wouldn’t make it up.
    HOW I'D WRITE COVID, THE THRILLER

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-id-write-covid-the-thriller/


    That @SeanT was prescient on many things, in retrospect. The mods should pay him money to return
    When you provide evidence of the lab leak will you be citing this Sean chap's article. He seems pretty convinced so adds support to your theory.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,724
    dixiedean said:

    ydoethur said:

    dixiedean said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
    You may be interested - depressed, maybe - to hear that Staffordshire CC are unable to recruit sufficient TAs to provide the statutory minimum hours needed for the students in the county.

    They have had to issue an edict saying that no individual support will be offered, only for small groups.

    Most unfortunately for them, they did not realise the father of one of the children affected was a leading equalities lawyer.

    They are now in deep, deep shit and trying to work out how to buy him off before it gets to court.

    But - whatever the outcome - the fact remains they still can't recruit enough TAs. Just like you can't.

    And it's easy to see why. The pay's shit, the conditions are terrible and the management is shocking.
    Yeah. Across our 2 units (connected by a small ante room) we've had only 3 of the usual 5 staff for 2 weeks, because of illness. Itself at least 2 short. We've had virtually no supply TA support, and that we have has been almost worse than useless. The TA's simply pick and choose what they do.
    It's spiralled. I was bitten and punched on Thursday. The kid wrecked the classroom.
    On Friday my colleague was badly assaulted by a kid who was after another kid. They eventually fell over a table so I was able to grab assaultee and carry him out of the room. I am legally not allowed to do that. If he has a mark and makes a complaint I could be sacked and banned from teaching.
    He tried to get at him once, but then was just returned to his classroom and allowed to walk out and have another go.
    The little room between the Units we've been using as an isolation room has had a lock placed on it, because "it is essential for management meetings".
    Every evening we flag up "causes for concern".
    Every morning they happen as foretold.
    I'm too busy being woke and enjoying a gold
    plated pension and loads of holidays to notice.
    I don't do this for the money. I do this for the possibility that I may be helping kids who have a really difficult situation to have a slightly better life.
    But I'm actually thinking participating may be hindering. The only solution may just be not to play. Until we all refuse.
    Liking that post feels somehow wrong. So I'll just say - I feel your pain.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 6,760
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    dixiedean said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
    You may be interested - depressed, maybe - to hear that Staffordshire CC are unable to recruit sufficient TAs to provide the statutory minimum hours needed for the students in the county.

    They have had to issue an edict saying that no individual support will be offered, only for small groups.

    Most unfortunately for them, they did not realise the father of one of the children affected was a leading equalities lawyer.

    They are now in deep, deep shit and trying to work out how to buy him off before it gets to court.

    But - whatever the outcome - the fact remains they still can't recruit enough TAs. Just like you can't.

    And it's easy to see why. The pay's shit, the conditions are terrible and the management is shocking.
    If all children in a given cohort are affected how is it an equalities issue?
    Because it's not about comparing them to other children with SEND, it's about the support the law demands as a reasonable adjustment for it.

    At the moment, it cannot be provided.
    If it can not be provided because of something outside the LEA’s power to resolve (lack of staff) then it’s - by definition - not a reasonable adjustment
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 49,951

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Indeed. Gone-off grape juice. How folk can drink the stuff is a mystery to me.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206
    kjh said:

    Leon said:

    Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches.

    https://twitter.com/DreyerChina/status/1596721748824641536

    The Chinese policy is now beyond bizarre, absolutely irrational beyond even the most ludicrous excesses of the continuity zerocovidians here in 2021.

    Why don’t they just jab the elderly and get on with their lives? I have heard the ‘losing face’ argument but it seems thin - what would they really lose by changing tack?
    Because their vaccines don't really work...otherwise I imagine the same way they make testing / lockdown compulsory they would do the same by making vaccination mandatory. And because they propaganda has been the west has been rubbish over COVID and not to be trusted, even in Hong Kong where Western mRNA vaccines have been available the population won't take them.
    Have they actually said the mRNA vax is dangerous/useless or have they simply promoted their own vax? It seems so easy to rectify I just don’t grasp Xi’s strategy at all
    I think another problem is that China have demanded that Western vaccines companies do the same as they do with other industries, we will buy from you, but you have to show us how you do it.

    Moderna has refused to hand over to China the core intellectual property behind the development of its breakthrough Covid-19 vaccine, leading to a collapse in negotiations on its sale there, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

    https://www.ft.com/content/a481c129-c5aa-4972-84a8-3a45bb000098
    And so they are left trying to suppress an unsuppressible virus that they may have created in the lab to destroy the West. A trashy airport novelist wouldn’t make it up.
    HOW I'D WRITE COVID, THE THRILLER

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-id-write-covid-the-thriller/


    That @SeanT was prescient on many things, in retrospect. The mods should pay him money to return
    When you provide evidence of the lab leak will you be citing this Sean chap's article. He seems pretty convinced so adds support to your theory.
    I am merely following the example of Doctor Antony Fauci, of the NIH, who, when asked in early 2020 for proof that the virus came from the market, cited the Nature Article "Proximal Origins of Sars-Cov-2", while neglecting to mention that he had asked for the article to be written, had provided much of the data, and - in cahoots with other leading scientific figures - had secretly decided what it should say

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 6,760

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
    Hmm, 2017, second wine of a cru bourgeois. Not a great choice, but I see that Waitrose have the much better 2019 for £19.99, which is probably pretty good value.

    In general, Bordeaux is better value than most non-French fine wines, such as Barolo (always over priced and often pretty moderate), Californian (good but very pricey), etc
    Bordeaux is reliably overpriced, everywhere and at all times. It is seen as an investment by too many, and the Chinese buy everything good (and now the Indians)

    I agree, however, on Italian. Barolo is wildly variable. You can get a magnificent wine for £15 and then you pay £25 and it is dreck. I have a personal aversion to Californian wine, only partly solved by my recent trip to the States

    NEVER BUY WINE FROM COLORADO

    Much of the best value red wine is found outside trad areas, New or Old World. As I say go for Moldova or Macedonia, high altitude Argentina or weird blends from S Africa

    A good rule of thumb is to try red wine from a slightly obscure white wine area, and vice versa. eg the Alentejo in Portugal - known for hearty reds - actually makes brilliant value whites
    You are partly right. Portugal in particular produces some excellent and very interesting wines, at reasonable prices.

    Nonetheless, Bordeaux still is by a big margin the primary source of fine wines, and apart from the very expensive trophy wines, remains good value even for seriously good stuff. For example, simply from ones I've drunk this week, La Chenade 2014 and Lafon Rochet 2014 (although this deserves more time). OK, I bought both en primeur, but they were not expensive. Even now, you can buy the Lafon Rochet, which is a very reputable classed growth, for £27.50 a bottle in bond. You're not going to beat that for a seriously good wine very easily.
    But do you ever seriously stray far beyond Old World wines, especially France? I rather doubt it. So I am skeptical

    Nonetheless I will take up your challenge and try the Lafon Richet. We shall see!

    I will genuinely report back and kowtow - if you are right
    I've been tasting wines for 50 years, and yes of course that has included many 'new world' wines, including some excellent ones. The excellent ones are not cheap, though.

    If you do try the 2014 Lafon Rochet, be sure to decant it well in advance. It's still a bit young. It will gain in complexity over the next few years

    More ready today is Meyney 2012, not as fine a wine but jolly nice for immediate drinking.
    This was tonight’s glass… decanted yesterday. Served with a bagel and strawberry jam 😂

    https://www.cellartracker.com/m/wines/2227854
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
    Hmm, 2017, second wine of a cru bourgeois. Not a great choice, but I see that Waitrose have the much better 2019 for £19.99, which is probably pretty good value.

    In general, Bordeaux is better value than most non-French fine wines, such as Barolo (always over priced and often pretty moderate), Californian (good but very pricey), etc
    Bordeaux is reliably overpriced, everywhere and at all times. It is seen as an investment by too many, and the Chinese buy everything good (and now the Indians)

    I agree, however, on Italian. Barolo is wildly variable. You can get a magnificent wine for £15 and then you pay £25 and it is dreck. I have a personal aversion to Californian wine, only partly solved by my recent trip to the States

    NEVER BUY WINE FROM COLORADO

    Much of the best value red wine is found outside trad areas, New or Old World. As I say go for Moldova or Macedonia, high altitude Argentina or weird blends from S Africa

    A good rule of thumb is to try red wine from a slightly obscure white wine area, and vice versa. eg the Alentejo in Portugal - known for hearty reds - actually makes brilliant value whites
    You are partly right. Portugal in particular produces some excellent and very interesting wines, at reasonable prices.

    Nonetheless, Bordeaux still is by a big margin the primary source of fine wines, and apart from the very expensive trophy wines, remains good value even for seriously good stuff. For example, simply from ones I've drunk this week, La Chenade 2014 and Lafon Rochet 2014 (although this deserves more time). OK, I bought both en primeur, but they were not expensive. Even now, you can buy the Lafon Rochet, which is a very reputable classed growth, for £27.50 a bottle in bond. You're not going to beat that for a seriously good wine very easily.
    But do you ever seriously stray far beyond Old World wines, especially France? I rather doubt it. So I am skeptical

    Nonetheless I will take up your challenge and try the Lafon Richet. We shall see!

    I will genuinely report back and kowtow - if you are right
    I've been tasting wines for 50 years, and yes of course that has included many 'new world' wines, including some excellent ones. The excellent ones are not cheap, though.

    If you do try the 2014 Lafon Rochet, be sure to decant it well in advance. It's still a bit young. It will gain in complexity over the next few years

    More ready today is Meyney 2012, not as fine a wine but jolly nice for immediate drinking.
    Withal respect, I have a few dear friends like you, and they do always defer to French wine, in the end. Quite wrongly, to my mind. It is a mindset that is hard to slough. Fine wine = Burgundy or Bordeaux, and that's pretty much it

    It's a little naff and embarrassing. It's the same as thinking Fine Dining = Michelin starred restaurants with tasting menus and tons of cutlery

    Happily, both attitudes are dying out fast now. The tsunami of good wine - and food - from all around the world is too overwhelming

    NONETHELESS, as an elder of PB, I shall pay you the proper respect of trying one of those wines, and giving you my honest opinion. Heck you may be right, and I end up spending the rest of my dwindling days buying claret en primeur

  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
    Hmm, 2017, second wine of a cru bourgeois. Not a great choice, but I see that Waitrose have the much better 2019 for £19.99, which is probably pretty good value.

    In general, Bordeaux is better value than most non-French fine wines, such as Barolo (always over priced and often pretty moderate), Californian (good but very pricey), etc
    Bordeaux is reliably overpriced, everywhere and at all times. It is seen as an investment by too many, and the Chinese buy everything good (and now the Indians)

    I agree, however, on Italian. Barolo is wildly variable. You can get a magnificent wine for £15 and then you pay £25 and it is dreck. I have a personal aversion to Californian wine, only partly solved by my recent trip to the States

    NEVER BUY WINE FROM COLORADO

    Much of the best value red wine is found outside trad areas, New or Old World. As I say go for Moldova or Macedonia, high altitude Argentina or weird blends from S Africa

    A good rule of thumb is to try red wine from a slightly obscure white wine area, and vice versa. eg the Alentejo in Portugal - known for hearty reds - actually makes brilliant value whites
    You are partly right. Portugal in particular produces some excellent and very interesting wines, at reasonable prices.

    Nonetheless, Bordeaux still is by a big margin the primary source of fine wines, and apart from the very expensive trophy wines, remains good value even for seriously good stuff. For example, simply from ones I've drunk this week, La Chenade 2014 and Lafon Rochet 2014 (although this deserves more time). OK, I bought both en primeur, but they were not expensive. Even now, you can buy the Lafon Rochet, which is a very reputable classed growth, for £27.50 a bottle in bond. You're not going to beat that for a seriously good wine very easily.
    But do you ever seriously stray far beyond Old World wines, especially France? I rather doubt it. So I am skeptical

    Nonetheless I will take up your challenge and try the Lafon Richet. We shall see!

    I will genuinely report back and kowtow - if you are right
    I've been tasting wines for 50 years, and yes of course that has included many 'new world' wines, including some excellent ones. The excellent ones are not cheap, though.

    If you do try the 2014 Lafon Rochet, be sure to decant it well in advance. It's still a bit young. It will gain in complexity over the next few years

    More ready today is Meyney 2012, not as fine a wine but jolly nice for immediate drinking.
    This was tonight’s glass… decanted yesterday. Served with a bagel and strawberry jam 😂

    https://www.cellartracker.com/m/wines/2227854
    And that's my point. That is a wine which costs £150 a bottle

    There is almost no way you would, in a blind tasting, be able to distinguish it from a fine bottle from a similar grape/blend and soil costing £30. So you are paying for the brand. Vintage Burgundy. That's fairly mad. £120 of mad

    And for £150 you could get at least three bottles of the best red wine EVER MADE in Portugal, Romania, Greece, Austria, Argentina, Chile, Georgia, Moldova. Daft

    But enjoy

    And now, Barbarians Season 2. G'night PB
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 6,760
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
    Hmm, 2017, second wine of a cru bourgeois. Not a great choice, but I see that Waitrose have the much better 2019 for £19.99, which is probably pretty good value.

    In general, Bordeaux is better value than most non-French fine wines, such as Barolo (always over priced and often pretty moderate), Californian (good but very pricey), etc
    Bordeaux is reliably overpriced, everywhere and at all times. It is seen as an investment by too many, and the Chinese buy everything good (and now the Indians)

    I agree, however, on Italian. Barolo is wildly variable. You can get a magnificent wine for £15 and then you pay £25 and it is dreck. I have a personal aversion to Californian wine, only partly solved by my recent trip to the States

    NEVER BUY WINE FROM COLORADO

    Much of the best value red wine is found outside trad areas, New or Old World. As I say go for Moldova or Macedonia, high altitude Argentina or weird blends from S Africa

    A good rule of thumb is to try red wine from a slightly obscure white wine area, and vice versa. eg the Alentejo in Portugal - known for hearty reds - actually makes brilliant value whites
    You are partly right. Portugal in particular produces some excellent and very interesting wines, at reasonable prices.

    Nonetheless, Bordeaux still is by a big margin the primary source of fine wines, and apart from the very expensive trophy wines, remains good value even for seriously good stuff. For example, simply from ones I've drunk this week, La Chenade 2014 and Lafon Rochet 2014 (although this deserves more time). OK, I bought both en primeur, but they were not expensive. Even now, you can buy the Lafon Rochet, which is a very reputable classed growth, for £27.50 a bottle in bond. You're not going to beat that for a seriously good wine very easily.
    But do you ever seriously stray far beyond Old World wines, especially France? I rather doubt it. So I am skeptical

    Nonetheless I will take up your challenge and try the Lafon Richet. We shall see!

    I will genuinely report back and kowtow - if you are right
    I've been tasting wines for 50 years, and yes of course that has included many 'new world' wines, including some excellent ones. The excellent ones are not cheap, though.

    If you do try the 2014 Lafon Rochet, be sure to decant it well in advance. It's still a bit young. It will gain in complexity over the next few years

    More ready today is Meyney 2012, not as fine a wine but jolly nice for immediate drinking.
    This was tonight’s glass… decanted yesterday. Served with a bagel and strawberry jam 😂

    https://www.cellartracker.com/m/wines/2227854
    And that's my point. That is a wine which costs £150 a bottle

    There is almost no way you would, in a blind tasting, be able to distinguish it from a fine bottle from a similar grape/blend and soil costing £30. So you are paying for the brand. Vintage Burgundy. That's fairly mad. £120 of mad

    And for £150 you could get at least three bottles of the best red wine EVER MADE in Portugal, Romania, Greece, Austria, Argentina, Chile, Georgia, Moldova. Daft

    But enjoy

    And now, Barbarians Season 2. G'night PB
    I paid £140 for a case of 6…
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,206

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    I am drinking a 2017 Chateau La Croix de Marbuzet and it is DISGUSTING. Thin, feeble, one dimensional, meagre, acidic, nasty. Tastes like it cost £3 from Aldi. Why is so much Bordeaux hideously overpriced?

    Vivino tells me this bottle is worth £50. Insane

    You daft bugger.

    You could have had yourself a case of a dozen bottles of good ale and still had change of a fifty for a fish supper.

    Wine. Pfft.
    Dude, I didn't buy it at £50!

    I must have bought it years ago from a supermarket at around £10. Probably Waitrose or Tesco

    I very rarely spend more than £20 on a bottle of wine, retail. It is simply not worth it

    I have about 200 bottles in my flat with some exceptional examples, eg I have two cases of St Henri Shiraz 2016 which I bought for about £12 a bottle yonks ago, and they are now worth:£100-£150 a go


    https://www.vivino.com/GB/en/penfolds-st-henri-shiraz/w/1268?year=2016
    Hmm, 2017, second wine of a cru bourgeois. Not a great choice, but I see that Waitrose have the much better 2019 for £19.99, which is probably pretty good value.

    In general, Bordeaux is better value than most non-French fine wines, such as Barolo (always over priced and often pretty moderate), Californian (good but very pricey), etc
    Bordeaux is reliably overpriced, everywhere and at all times. It is seen as an investment by too many, and the Chinese buy everything good (and now the Indians)

    I agree, however, on Italian. Barolo is wildly variable. You can get a magnificent wine for £15 and then you pay £25 and it is dreck. I have a personal aversion to Californian wine, only partly solved by my recent trip to the States

    NEVER BUY WINE FROM COLORADO

    Much of the best value red wine is found outside trad areas, New or Old World. As I say go for Moldova or Macedonia, high altitude Argentina or weird blends from S Africa

    A good rule of thumb is to try red wine from a slightly obscure white wine area, and vice versa. eg the Alentejo in Portugal - known for hearty reds - actually makes brilliant value whites
    You are partly right. Portugal in particular produces some excellent and very interesting wines, at reasonable prices.

    Nonetheless, Bordeaux still is by a big margin the primary source of fine wines, and apart from the very expensive trophy wines, remains good value even for seriously good stuff. For example, simply from ones I've drunk this week, La Chenade 2014 and Lafon Rochet 2014 (although this deserves more time). OK, I bought both en primeur, but they were not expensive. Even now, you can buy the Lafon Rochet, which is a very reputable classed growth, for £27.50 a bottle in bond. You're not going to beat that for a seriously good wine very easily.
    But do you ever seriously stray far beyond Old World wines, especially France? I rather doubt it. So I am skeptical

    Nonetheless I will take up your challenge and try the Lafon Richet. We shall see!

    I will genuinely report back and kowtow - if you are right
    I've been tasting wines for 50 years, and yes of course that has included many 'new world' wines, including some excellent ones. The excellent ones are not cheap, though.

    If you do try the 2014 Lafon Rochet, be sure to decant it well in advance. It's still a bit young. It will gain in complexity over the next few years

    More ready today is Meyney 2012, not as fine a wine but jolly nice for immediate drinking.
    This was tonight’s glass… decanted yesterday. Served with a bagel and strawberry jam 😂

    https://www.cellartracker.com/m/wines/2227854
    And that's my point. That is a wine which costs £150 a bottle

    There is almost no way you would, in a blind tasting, be able to distinguish it from a fine bottle from a similar grape/blend and soil costing £30. So you are paying for the brand. Vintage Burgundy. That's fairly mad. £120 of mad

    And for £150 you could get at least three bottles of the best red wine EVER MADE in Portugal, Romania, Greece, Austria, Argentina, Chile, Georgia, Moldova. Daft

    But enjoy

    And now, Barbarians Season 2. G'night PB
    I paid £140 for a case of 6…
    In that case, fair play. It is probably worth it

  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,706
    dixiedean said:

    ydoethur said:

    dixiedean said:

    Sometimes it's like a glorified Neighbourhood Watch scheme on here.

    Busybodies peering out of their net curtains in their expensive houses, on the look out for wokeness, violent foreigners, disgraceful TV ads with minorities in them, grubby eco-terrorists, and all other manner of badness. And then reporting them to the PB community so that we can all 'tut' in disapproval. Shame.

    Who has called the ads disgraceful? It’s an observation.
    Yes I know, and it's an observation that, if I recall correctly, has been repeated quite frequently over a period of time by you (and others). I'm guess I'm just curious as to why this particular aspect of media analysis is so beguiling to you and others, when there's lots of other, and more interesting, stuff to analyse in media representations.
    Not to mention far more pressing problems with workers in full time employment unable to cover the very basics of living costs.
    You may be interested - depressed, maybe - to hear that Staffordshire CC are unable to recruit sufficient TAs to provide the statutory minimum hours needed for the students in the county.

    They have had to issue an edict saying that no individual support will be offered, only for small groups.

    Most unfortunately for them, they did not realise the father of one of the children affected was a leading equalities lawyer.

    They are now in deep, deep shit and trying to work out how to buy him off before it gets to court.

    But - whatever the outcome - the fact remains they still can't recruit enough TAs. Just like you can't.

    And it's easy to see why. The pay's shit, the conditions are terrible and the management is shocking.
    Yeah. Across our 2 units (connected by a small ante room) we've had only 3 of the usual 5 staff for 2 weeks, because of illness. Itself at least 2 short. We've had virtually no supply TA support, and that we have has been almost worse than useless. The TA's simply pick and choose what they do.
    It's spiralled. I was bitten and punched on Thursday. The kid wrecked the classroom.
    On Friday my colleague was badly assaulted by a kid who was after another kid. They eventually fell over a table so I was able to grab assaultee and carry him out of the room. I am legally not allowed to do that. If he has a mark and makes a complaint I could be sacked and banned from teaching.
    He tried to get at him once, but then was just returned to his classroom and allowed to walk out and have another go.
    The little room between the Units we've been using as an isolation room has had a lock placed on it, because "it is essential for management meetings".
    Every evening we flag up "causes for concern".
    Every morning they happen as foretold.
    I'm too busy being woke and enjoying a gold
    plated pension and loads of holidays to notice.
    I don't do this for the money. I do this for the possibility that I may be helping kids who have a really difficult situation to have a slightly better life.
    But I'm actually thinking participating may be hindering. The only solution may just be not to play. Until we all refuse.
    Perhaps an argument to restore corporal punishment in the classroom
  • DJ41DJ41 Posts: 792
    Could the Chinese authorities possibly be shutting the stable door?

    From the SCMP:
    "Chinese TV cuts maskless World Cup scenes as Covid anger mounts".

    I hope the dynamic gets centred outside of "social media". Any supposed battle against the government that's centred on social media will be won by the government. That's the same in any country.
This discussion has been closed.