Why do politicians keep being asked about penises?
Can't we mature the debate a bit?
Because politicians keep saying that women have them.
They keep being ASKED if they do, Ed Davey didn't bring it up.
How would you field this question? How would you feel if you were a trans person who really felt they were a woman with the way they are talked about? Why can't we have a more mature conversation and look at this with some kindness and sympathy.
Davey (and Starmer) knows he’s going to be asked the question, and has known for years that he’ll be asked the question.
Yet he still doesn’t have anything close to a coherent answer on the subject.
If and when he has a straight answer, the line of questioning would stop.
I’ve some sympathy for them. It’s a hideously divisive and thorny topic. But then it’s their own mad woke identity politics that have led them here so that sympathy is limited
The Gender Recognition Act of 2004 (and many countries have similar) provides a legal route for someone to change their gender without being compelled to have surgery. No country that has introduced this social reform has ever reversed it and no mainstream political party in the UK (inc the Conservatives) is proposing to repeal it here. So what I conclude is that these 'gotcha' questions about women and penises etc seek to provoke and confuse rather than enlighten.
My point was more political. The question will now always be asked - you can’t wish it away - and a clever politician needs a ready answer that doesn’t sound insane to 70% of voters
I’d go with “no, a woman can’t have a penis. That’s a trans woman”. But I thank allah I am not a politician in this case
Why do politicians keep being asked about penises?
Can't we mature the debate a bit?
Because politicians keep saying that women have them.
They keep being ASKED if they do, Ed Davey didn't bring it up.
How would you field this question? How would you feel if you were a trans person who really felt they were a woman with the way they are talked about? Why can't we have a more mature conversation and look at this with some kindness and sympathy.
Davey (and Starmer) knows he’s going to be asked the question, and has known for years that he’ll be asked the question.
Yet he still doesn’t have anything close to a coherent answer on the subject.
If and when he has a straight answer, the line of questioning would stop.
I’ve some sympathy for them. It’s a hideously divisive and thorny topic. But then it’s their own mad woke identity politics that have led them here so that sympathy is limited
The Gender Recognition Act of 2004 (and many countries have similar) provides a legal route for someone to change their gender without being compelled to have surgery. No country that has introduced this social reform has ever reversed it and no mainstream political party in the UK (inc the Conservatives) is proposing to repeal it here. So what I conclude is that these 'gotcha' questions about women and penises etc seek to provoke and confuse rather than enlighten.
My point was more political. The question will now always be asked - you can’t wish it away - and a clever politician needs a ready answer that doesn’t sound insane to 70% of voters
I’d go with “no, a woman can’t have a penis. That’s a trans woman”. But I thank allah I am not a politician in this case
I’d go on the offensive. “You think this is such a fucking gotcha don’t you. Are you actually interested in the answer or are you just being oh so edgy? Ask me sensible questions about policy on trans rights and I’ll happily answer, but don’t give me all this shit. And don’t go protesting that you’re just voicing “real concerns”, you’re not. You’re trying for a gotcha”.
Or something along those lines. It’s the embarrassed faffing around the topic that looks so silly.
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
FFS. Life is short. This sounds fun
Drink
Haven’t the last 3 years taught us that if nothing else? Carpe diem
Why do politicians keep being asked about penises?
Can't we mature the debate a bit?
Because politicians keep saying that women have them.
They keep being ASKED if they do, Ed Davey didn't bring it up.
How would you field this question? How would you feel if you were a trans person who really felt they were a woman with the way they are talked about? Why can't we have a more mature conversation and look at this with some kindness and sympathy.
Davey (and Starmer) knows he’s going to be asked the question, and has known for years that he’ll be asked the question.
Yet he still doesn’t have anything close to a coherent answer on the subject.
If and when he has a straight answer, the line of questioning would stop.
I’ve some sympathy for them. It’s a hideously divisive and thorny topic. But then it’s their own mad woke identity politics that have led them here so that sympathy is limited
The Gender Recognition Act of 2004 (and many countries have similar) provides a legal route for someone to change their gender without being compelled to have surgery. No country that has introduced this social reform has ever reversed it and no mainstream political party in the UK (inc the Conservatives) is proposing to repeal it here. So what I conclude is that these 'gotcha' questions about women and penises etc seek to provoke and confuse rather than enlighten.
I would be tempted to treat the question with the seriousness that it deserves, though I'm not quick on my feet.
Perhaps a 'If you don't know by now, it's too late to tell you,' or maybe 'I never presume to ask them.'? Teaching acquaintances of mine are very fond of the 'What's in your pants song' to teach younger kids about personal space and boundaries so perhaps singing a rendition of that would get the point across to journalists asking this bad-faith question.
Why do politicians keep being asked about penises?
Can't we mature the debate a bit?
Because politicians keep saying that women have them.
They keep being ASKED if they do, Ed Davey didn't bring it up.
How would you field this question? How would you feel if you were a trans person who really felt they were a woman with the way they are talked about? Why can't we have a more mature conversation and look at this with some kindness and sympathy.
Davey (and Starmer) knows he’s going to be asked the question, and has known for years that he’ll be asked the question.
Yet he still doesn’t have anything close to a coherent answer on the subject.
If and when he has a straight answer, the line of questioning would stop.
I’ve some sympathy for them. It’s a hideously divisive and thorny topic. But then it’s their own mad woke identity politics that have led them here so that sympathy is limited
The Gender Recognition Act of 2004 (and many countries have similar) provides a legal route for someone to change their gender without being compelled to have surgery. No country that has introduced this social reform has ever reversed it and no mainstream political party in the UK (inc the Conservatives) is proposing to repeal it here. So what I conclude is that these 'gotcha' questions about women and penises etc seek to provoke and confuse rather than enlighten.
My point was more political. The question will now always be asked - you can’t wish it away - and a clever politician needs a ready answer that doesn’t sound insane to 70% of voters
I’d go with “no, a woman can’t have a penis. That’s a trans woman”. But I thank allah I am not a politician in this case
I’d go on the offensive. “You think this is such a fucking gotcha don’t you. Are you actually interested in the answer or are you just being oh so edgy? Ask me sensible questions about policy on trans rights and I’ll happily answer, but don’t give me all this shit. And don’t go protesting that you’re just voicing “real concerns”, you’re not. You’re trying for a gotcha”.
Or something along those lines. It’s the embarrassed faffing around the topic that looks so silly.
But that sounds even crazier and more evasive. The fact is: you need an answer
From The Times, I think this mean the report may well be delayed.
The privileges committee, which is investigating claims that Johnson misled parliament over lockdown-breaking parties, has been informed.
So here’s a simple question.
We’re Bozo to resign (for the greater good, to avoid being a distraction) when the inevitable x0 days suspension is given, how likely is he to be given a winnable seat in Oxfordshire come the next election?
The real question is: is there a winnable seat for ANY Tory in Oxfordshire?
The Tories are no longer the majority party in any of the five Districts the county is made up of or in the County. This will all morph into seven seats by 2024 - but the crude numbers are that, on the basis of the latest local council elections, there's a real likelihood the Tories will fail to get the new seat and lose ALL the four seats they currently hold. Partly because of real demographic change sine the county was dominated by retired toffoes and forelock-tugging agriculturals: partly because Tory policies in general and Johnson in particular have destroyed any respect middle of the road Oxonian Tories have for Conservatism.
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
FFS. Life is short. This sounds fun
Drink
Haven’t the last 3 years taught us that if nothing else? Carpe diem
The last three years taught you to drink?
I was under the distinct impression it had happened earlier.
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
FFS. Life is short. This sounds fun
Drink
Haven’t the last 3 years taught us that if nothing else? Carpe diem
Why do politicians keep being asked about penises?
Can't we mature the debate a bit?
Because politicians keep saying that women have them.
They keep being ASKED if they do, Ed Davey didn't bring it up.
How would you field this question? How would you feel if you were a trans person who really felt they were a woman with the way they are talked about? Why can't we have a more mature conversation and look at this with some kindness and sympathy.
Davey (and Starmer) knows he’s going to be asked the question, and has known for years that he’ll be asked the question.
Yet he still doesn’t have anything close to a coherent answer on the subject.
If and when he has a straight answer, the line of questioning would stop.
I’ve some sympathy for them. It’s a hideously divisive and thorny topic. But then it’s their own mad woke identity politics that have led them here so that sympathy is limited
It's not really, though, is it?
Women don't have penises.
So you repeal the right (per the GRA) to change legal gender or amend it to make it conditional on surgery?
Why do politicians keep being asked about penises?
Can't we mature the debate a bit?
Because politicians keep saying that women have them.
They keep being ASKED if they do, Ed Davey didn't bring it up.
How would you field this question? How would you feel if you were a trans person who really felt they were a woman with the way they are talked about? Why can't we have a more mature conversation and look at this with some kindness and sympathy.
From The Times, I think this mean the report may well be delayed.
The privileges committee, which is investigating claims that Johnson misled parliament over lockdown-breaking parties, has been informed.
So here’s a simple question.
We’re Bozo to resign (for the greater good, to avoid being a distraction) when the inevitable x0 days suspension is given, how likely is he to be given a winnable seat in Oxfordshire come the next election?
The real question is: is there a winnable seat for ANY Tory in Oxfordshire?
The Tories are no longer the majority party in any of the five Districts the county is made up of or in the County. This will all morph into seven seats by 2024 - but the crude numbers are that, on the basis of the latest local council elections, there's a real likelihood the Tories will fail to get the new seat and lose ALL the four seats they currently hold. Partly because of real demographic change sine the county was dominated by retired toffoes and forelock-tugging agriculturals: partly because Tory policies in general and Johnson in particular have destroyed any respect middle of the road Oxonian Tories have for Conservatism.
People vote in their perceived self-interest.
So, as soon as Labour/LD stop doing that they will come back, and the Conservatives will recalibrate accordingly.
Why do politicians keep being asked about penises?
Can't we mature the debate a bit?
Because politicians keep saying that women have them.
They keep being ASKED if they do, Ed Davey didn't bring it up.
How would you field this question? How would you feel if you were a trans person who really felt they were a woman with the way they are talked about? Why can't we have a more mature conversation and look at this with some kindness and sympathy.
Davey (and Starmer) knows he’s going to be asked the question, and has known for years that he’ll be asked the question.
Yet he still doesn’t have anything close to a coherent answer on the subject.
If and when he has a straight answer, the line of questioning would stop.
I’ve some sympathy for them. It’s a hideously divisive and thorny topic. But then it’s their own mad woke identity politics that have led them here so that sympathy is limited
The Gender Recognition Act of 2004 (and many countries have similar) provides a legal route for someone to change their gender without being compelled to have surgery. No country that has introduced this social reform has ever reversed it and no mainstream political party in the UK (inc the Conservatives) is proposing to repeal it here. So what I conclude is that these 'gotcha' questions about women and penises etc seek to provoke and confuse rather than enlighten.
My point was more political. The question will now always be asked - you can’t wish it away - and a clever politician needs a ready answer that doesn’t sound insane to 70% of voters
I’d go with “no, a woman can’t have a penis. That’s a trans woman”. But I thank allah I am not a politician in this case
I’d go on the offensive. “You think this is such a fucking gotcha don’t you. Are you actually interested in the answer or are you just being oh so edgy? Ask me sensible questions about policy on trans rights and I’ll happily answer, but don’t give me all this shit. And don’t go protesting that you’re just voicing “real concerns”, you’re not. You’re trying for a gotcha”.
Or something along those lines. It’s the embarrassed faffing around the topic that looks so silly.
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
FFS. Life is short. This sounds fun
Drink
Haven’t the last 3 years taught us that if nothing else? Carpe diem
The last three years taught you to drink?
I was under the distinct impression it had happened earlier.
Er, it reinforced my lifelong beliefs?
In all seriousness I did feel quite validated by covid even if it sent me crazy. Life is bloody perfunctory. Nothing really matters. Martin Amis will probably be forgotten in 20 years
Drink. Tap the barrel of pleasure and have your fill while you can (and try and bang out a couple of kids on the way but dont stress too much on that)
Cherwell District Council has just become a minority Conservative administration after all manner of unseemly shenanigans on the part of the local Labour party, who refused to form a coalition with the LibDem/Green group unless the LibDems jettisoned the Greens.
I suspect this will turn out to be a self-inflicted wound on Labour's part, not least in the next GE where they need LibDem tactical votes in the Banbury constituency.
A very interesting piece of local politics, really useful.
There’s always money to be made at the GE, by identifying the seats which don’t follow the national trend.
Last election: C 54 L 28 LD 14 G 4 Maj: 16,000 MP: Victoria Prentiss
A dead cert Con hold in a sea of seats that become marginal, or on a larger overall swing, a three-way marginal when the incumbent has a chance that she doesn’t have otherwise?
"But Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!"
[continues until the heat death of the universe]
I get that lefties and Remainers hate Boris but, really, Corbyn is in a different and higher league of unacceptability
Corbyn is an unashamed traitor. An IRA supporting, Hamas-hugging, anti semitic commie traitor
Boris is a charismatic reprobate and a selfish libertine. Boris has personal flaws. Corbyn’s flaws are way more dangerous and ideological even if he is probably the “nicer” gent in some ways
Cummings v Milne is an interesting parallel debate
Not really. Cummings is super intelligent and wins elections and referendums. I’ve seen no evidence for Milne being even smart and he certainly never won any elections
Milne is a classic posho public school Marxist. The Winchester version of bouji grammar school Corbyn
And a lot of people who lost a referendum think that Cummings is super evil, while not having much at all to say about the man who wrote Corbyn's Salisbury response
There you go again.
Both Seumas Milne and Dom Cummings are absolute shits of the highest order.
The taxpayers have paid out substantial money because of the latter's bullying.
Yes but Milne is a Marxist traitor. This stuff isn’t hard
Milne supports Islamists and cheered on 9/11. He got jihadists in to write for the guardian. He thinks Stalin is cool
Cummings might be an arrogant dick and even a bully but if you can’t see the crucial political difference between the two of them then there’s no hope for you
There's a genuinely important question here.
How fash does the far right have to get before Marxism is preferable? Not objectively good, but the lesser of two evils.
Hitler obviously. ("If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.")
Franco? Probably, though it needs a pause for thought.
The fringier bits of US National Conservatism?
None of which stops Corbyn being a fool at best and probably a lot worse than that.
I’ll bite. Franco was preferable to the Stalinist communism which was, eventually, the only apparent alternative during the Spanish civil war. As Orwell discovered
I would agree.
Stalin was preferable to Hitler, or Ante Pavelic, or Ferenc Salazy.
I always enjoyed A Very British Coup, because in Harry Perkins, you actually have a PM who is a traitor (even if Chris Mullin does not see him as such). He’s not a Kinnock, or Foot, or Papandreou, but a man who is trying to turn the UK into a satellite of the USSR.
I think a military coup would be justified against such a leader.
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
FFS. Life is short. This sounds fun
Drink
Haven’t the last 3 years taught us that if nothing else? Carpe diem
The last three years taught you to drink?
I was under the distinct impression it had happened earlier.
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
Don't wake up like Leonardo Dicaprio in Wolf of Wall Street on his flight to Zurich...
From The Times, I think this mean the report may well be delayed.
The privileges committee, which is investigating claims that Johnson misled parliament over lockdown-breaking parties, has been informed.
So here’s a simple question.
We’re Bozo to resign (for the greater good, to avoid being a distraction) when the inevitable x0 days suspension is given, how likely is he to be given a winnable seat in Oxfordshire come the next election?
The real question is: is there a winnable seat for ANY Tory in Oxfordshire?
The Tories are no longer the majority party in any of the five Districts the county is made up of or in the County. This will all morph into seven seats by 2024 - but the crude numbers are that, on the basis of the latest local council elections, there's a real likelihood the Tories will fail to get the new seat and lose ALL the four seats they currently hold. Partly because of real demographic change sine the county was dominated by retired toffoes and forelock-tugging agriculturals: partly because Tory policies in general and Johnson in particular have destroyed any respect middle of the road Oxonian Tories have for Conservatism.
There appears to be considerable disquiet amongst the remaining Tories with brains that they may have shit the blue wall bed as badly as Labour did the red wall pre-2019...
From The Times, I think this mean the report may well be delayed.
The privileges committee, which is investigating claims that Johnson misled parliament over lockdown-breaking parties, has been informed.
So here’s a simple question.
We’re Bozo to resign (for the greater good, to avoid being a distraction) when the inevitable x0 days suspension is given, how likely is he to be given a winnable seat in Oxfordshire come the next election?
The real question is: is there a winnable seat for ANY Tory in Oxfordshire?
The Tories are no longer the majority party in any of the five Districts the county is made up of or in the County. This will all morph into seven seats by 2024 - but the crude numbers are that, on the basis of the latest local council elections, there's a real likelihood the Tories will fail to get the new seat and lose ALL the four seats they currently hold. Partly because of real demographic change sine the county was dominated by retired toffoes and forelock-tugging agriculturals: partly because Tory policies in general and Johnson in particular have destroyed any respect middle of the road Oxonian Tories have for Conservatism.
People vote in their perceived self-interest.
So, as soon as Labour/LD stop doing that they will come back, and the Conservatives will recalibrate accordingly.
Flanner is right, though, the demographics have shifted against the Conservatives. Places like London and Oxford are lost to the Tories for the foreseeable future and no one really disputes that. It's not impossible that the Oxfordshire districts, which are increasingly dormitories for London and Oxford, could be the same.
I think the Tories will hold Banbury. Partly because Victoria Prentis is the only Oxfordshire Conservative MP who isn't a blithering idiot, and partly because Labour in Banbury have just pointed a very large gun painted with the words "tactical voting" at their feet and blown both of them clean off.
From The Times, I think this mean the report may well be delayed.
The privileges committee, which is investigating claims that Johnson misled parliament over lockdown-breaking parties, has been informed.
So here’s a simple question.
We’re Bozo to resign (for the greater good, to avoid being a distraction) when the inevitable x0 days suspension is given, how likely is he to be given a winnable seat in Oxfordshire come the next election?
The real question is: is there a winnable seat for ANY Tory in Oxfordshire?
The Tories are no longer the majority party in any of the five Districts the county is made up of or in the County. This will all morph into seven seats by 2024 - but the crude numbers are that, on the basis of the latest local council elections, there's a real likelihood the Tories will fail to get the new seat and lose ALL the four seats they currently hold. Partly because of real demographic change sine the county was dominated by retired toffoes and forelock-tugging agriculturals: partly because Tory policies in general and Johnson in particular have destroyed any respect middle of the road Oxonian Tories have for Conservatism.
I doubt if there will be much change in Oxfordshire at the next GE.
The Conservatives, after all, did not win the Hackney and Islington constituencies in 1970, despite storming to victory in the local elections of 1967/68.
Why do politicians keep being asked about penises?
Can't we mature the debate a bit?
Because politicians keep saying that women have them.
They keep being ASKED if they do, Ed Davey didn't bring it up.
How would you field this question? How would you feel if you were a trans person who really felt they were a woman with the way they are talked about? Why can't we have a more mature conversation and look at this with some kindness and sympathy.
Davey (and Starmer) knows he’s going to be asked the question, and has known for years that he’ll be asked the question.
Yet he still doesn’t have anything close to a coherent answer on the subject.
If and when he has a straight answer, the line of questioning would stop.
I’ve some sympathy for them. It’s a hideously divisive and thorny topic. But then it’s their own mad woke identity politics that have led them here so that sympathy is limited
It's not really, though, is it?
Women don't have penises.
So you repeal the right (per the GRA) to change legal gender or amend it to make it conditional on surgery?
This gets to the heart of the matter. "Man" and "woman" have different meanings depending on the context. There's the legal status, and there's biology. Legal status can change.
So clearly from a legal point of view, a man can have a uterus and a woman can have a penis.
Now my question to everyone is: what, if anything, should we do about this legal fact?
"But Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!"
[continues until the heat death of the universe]
I get that lefties and Remainers hate Boris but, really, Corbyn is in a different and higher league of unacceptability
Corbyn is an unashamed traitor. An IRA supporting, Hamas-hugging, anti semitic commie traitor
Boris is a charismatic reprobate and a selfish libertine. Boris has personal flaws. Corbyn’s flaws are way more dangerous and ideological even if he is probably the “nicer” gent in some ways
Cummings v Milne is an interesting parallel debate
Not really. Cummings is super intelligent and wins elections and referendums. I’ve seen no evidence for Milne being even smart and he certainly never won any elections
Milne is a classic posho public school Marxist. The Winchester version of bouji grammar school Corbyn
And a lot of people who lost a referendum think that Cummings is super evil, while not having much at all to say about the man who wrote Corbyn's Salisbury response
There you go again.
Both Seumas Milne and Dom Cummings are absolute shits of the highest order.
The taxpayers have paid out substantial money because of the latter's bullying.
Yes but Milne is a Marxist traitor. This stuff isn’t hard
Milne supports Islamists and cheered on 9/11. He got jihadists in to write for the guardian. He thinks Stalin is cool
Cummings might be an arrogant dick and even a bully but if you can’t see the crucial political difference between the two of them then there’s no hope for you
There's a genuinely important question here.
How fash does the far right have to get before Marxism is preferable? Not objectively good, but the lesser of two evils.
Hitler obviously. ("If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.")
Franco? Probably, though it needs a pause for thought.
The fringier bits of US National Conservatism?
None of which stops Corbyn being a fool at best and probably a lot worse than that.
I’ll bite. Franco was preferable to the Stalinist communism which was, eventually, the only apparent alternative during the Spanish civil war. As Orwell discovered
I would agree.
Stalin was preferable to Hitler, or Ante Pavelic, or Ferenc Salazy.
I always enjoyed A Very British Coup, because in Harry Perkins, you actually have a PM who is a traitor (even if Chris Mullin does not see him as such). He’s not a Kinnock, or Foot, or Papandreou, but a man who is trying to turn the UK into a satellite of the USSR.
I think a military coup would be justified against such a leader.
Pol Pot was, I believe, the worst of all. The most evil and the most insane. He would have happily killed the majority of humanity - 90% - if it accorded with his ultra-Maoism. And he would have done it with intense and deliberate cruelty to instil terror, which he enjoyed
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
If you woke up this morning on UK time zone, you’ll be screwed when you arrive in Singapore no matter what you do.
So embrace it, drink until you pass out on the plane, wake up when you wake up and then get on the caffeine. Right now, it’s nearly 3am in Singapore.
Wonderful place by the way, one of my favourite cities on Earth. Get yourself a Sling in Raffles Bar.
I like how quickly we got from Boris and Corbyn to Hitler and Stalin. I can only assume that the final part of this mapping document is from Swinson to Pol Pot, but I haven't looked into it.
"But Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!"
[continues until the heat death of the universe]
I get that lefties and Remainers hate Boris but, really, Corbyn is in a different and higher league of unacceptability
Corbyn is an unashamed traitor. An IRA supporting, Hamas-hugging, anti semitic commie traitor
Boris is a charismatic reprobate and a selfish libertine. Boris has personal flaws. Corbyn’s flaws are way more dangerous and ideological even if he is probably the “nicer” gent in some ways
Cummings v Milne is an interesting parallel debate
Not really. Cummings is super intelligent and wins elections and referendums. I’ve seen no evidence for Milne being even smart and he certainly never won any elections
Milne is a classic posho public school Marxist. The Winchester version of bouji grammar school Corbyn
And a lot of people who lost a referendum think that Cummings is super evil, while not having much at all to say about the man who wrote Corbyn's Salisbury response
There you go again.
Both Seumas Milne and Dom Cummings are absolute shits of the highest order.
The taxpayers have paid out substantial money because of the latter's bullying.
Yes but Milne is a Marxist traitor. This stuff isn’t hard
Milne supports Islamists and cheered on 9/11. He got jihadists in to write for the guardian. He thinks Stalin is cool
Cummings might be an arrogant dick and even a bully but if you can’t see the crucial political difference between the two of them then there’s no hope for you
It seems to be a more interesting parallel than you gave it credit for
Btw I’ve been meaning to ask. Did you hear any Breton spoken on your recent hols?
I’m reading a book about old pagan Europe and it’s talking about Celtic languages and I’ve realised I’ve never heard Breton spoken in real life
I’ve heard every other extant Celtic tongue. Welsh, Irish, Gallic - but not Breton
Wiki claims a lot of speakers but I wonder
I'm sure I did hear it in a few of the bar/tabac/betting shops I stopped in for refreshments
One in particular, in Guingamp where I had a few beers watching the end of (I think) Arsenal beating Newcastle. I was stood at the bar and didn't understand or recognise anything that more than half of the locals were speaking. I usually do somewhat better than that with French
I became more popular there with a few "yecʼhed mat" shouts
Why do politicians keep being asked about penises?
Can't we mature the debate a bit?
Because politicians keep saying that women have them.
They keep being ASKED if they do, Ed Davey didn't bring it up.
How would you field this question? How would you feel if you were a trans person who really felt they were a woman with the way they are talked about? Why can't we have a more mature conversation and look at this with some kindness and sympathy.
Davey (and Starmer) knows he’s going to be asked the question, and has known for years that he’ll be asked the question.
Yet he still doesn’t have anything close to a coherent answer on the subject.
If and when he has a straight answer, the line of questioning would stop.
I’ve some sympathy for them. It’s a hideously divisive and thorny topic. But then it’s their own mad woke identity politics that have led them here so that sympathy is limited
The Gender Recognition Act of 2004 (and many countries have similar) provides a legal route for someone to change their gender without being compelled to have surgery. No country that has introduced this social reform has ever reversed it and no mainstream political party in the UK (inc the Conservatives) is proposing to repeal it here. So what I conclude is that these 'gotcha' questions about women and penises etc seek to provoke and confuse rather than enlighten.
My point was more political. The question will now always be asked - you can’t wish it away - and a clever politician needs a ready answer that doesn’t sound insane to 70% of voters
I’d go with “no, a woman can’t have a penis. That’s a trans woman”. But I thank allah I am not a politician in this case
I’d go on the offensive. “You think this is such a fucking gotcha don’t you. Are you actually interested in the answer or are you just being oh so edgy? Ask me sensible questions about policy on trans rights and I’ll happily answer, but don’t give me all this shit. And don’t go protesting that you’re just voicing “real concerns”, you’re not. You’re trying for a gotcha”.
Or something along those lines. It’s the embarrassed faffing around the topic that looks so silly.
But that sounds even crazier and more evasive. The fact is: you need an answer
For most people, it's obvious whether they're a man or a woman. For a very few people, it's complicated and we have to trust the medics on what to do. Shouting YES or NO at trans people doesn't make them go away.
That's not going to fit in a headline. But respecting people and trying to be kind is normally a good start.
> Major - yet more evidence of Fear of RDS by Trump and his entourage, as in this excerpt.
“Have you ever noticed,” Roger Stone, the notorious political mischief-maker who is both a DeSantis antagonist and a many-decades-long Trump loyalist, remarked in a Telegram post last fall, “how much Ron DeSantis’ wife Casey is like Lady Macbeth?” — an agent, in other words, of her husband’s undoing.
Stone’s hyperbolic charge is but a piece of a broader effort on the part of Trump forces to kill in the crib the candidacy they consider their greatest threat.
> Minor - love "the DeSanti" which harkens back (at least to me) to the McManus political clan in New York City, famed for their clout in mid-20th century Tammany Hall (that is, as the Tiger was losing its teeth, stripes and fur) and known in Gotham politico-journo circles as "the McMani".
Which was Hibernian wit back in their day, but also accessible to anyone, esp. Catholics (active, lapsed, recovering) who remembers a smidgen of old Church Latin. Who are reasonably thick on the ground in most of Florida.
Why do politicians keep being asked about penises?
Can't we mature the debate a bit?
Because politicians keep saying that women have them.
They keep being ASKED if they do, Ed Davey didn't bring it up.
How would you field this question? How would you feel if you were a trans person who really felt they were a woman with the way they are talked about? Why can't we have a more mature conversation and look at this with some kindness and sympathy.
Davey (and Starmer) knows he’s going to be asked the question, and has known for years that he’ll be asked the question.
Yet he still doesn’t have anything close to a coherent answer on the subject.
If and when he has a straight answer, the line of questioning would stop.
I’ve some sympathy for them. It’s a hideously divisive and thorny topic. But then it’s their own mad woke identity politics that have led them here so that sympathy is limited
The Gender Recognition Act of 2004 (and many countries have similar) provides a legal route for someone to change their gender without being compelled to have surgery. No country that has introduced this social reform has ever reversed it and no mainstream political party in the UK (inc the Conservatives) is proposing to repeal it here. So what I conclude is that these 'gotcha' questions about women and penises etc seek to provoke and confuse rather than enlighten.
My point was more political. The question will now always be asked - you can’t wish it away - and a clever politician needs a ready answer that doesn’t sound insane to 70% of voters
I’d go with “no, a woman can’t have a penis. That’s a trans woman”. But I thank allah I am not a politician in this case
I’d go on the offensive. “You think this is such a fucking gotcha don’t you. Are you actually interested in the answer or are you just being oh so edgy? Ask me sensible questions about policy on trans rights and I’ll happily answer, but don’t give me all this shit. And don’t go protesting that you’re just voicing “real concerns”, you’re not. You’re trying for a gotcha”.
Or something along those lines. It’s the embarrassed faffing around the topic that looks so silly.
But that sounds even crazier and more evasive. The fact is: you need an answer
For most people, it's obvious whether they're a man or a woman. For a very few people, it's complicated and we have to trust the medics on what to do. Shouting YES or NO at trans people doesn't make them go away.
That's not going to fit in a headline. But respecting people and trying to be kind is normally a good start.
JK Rowling agrees, that being kind would be a good start.
"But Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!"
[continues until the heat death of the universe]
I get that lefties and Remainers hate Boris but, really, Corbyn is in a different and higher league of unacceptability
Corbyn is an unashamed traitor. An IRA supporting, Hamas-hugging, anti semitic commie traitor
Boris is a charismatic reprobate and a selfish libertine. Boris has personal flaws. Corbyn’s flaws are way more dangerous and ideological even if he is probably the “nicer” gent in some ways
Cummings v Milne is an interesting parallel debate
Not really. Cummings is super intelligent and wins elections and referendums. I’ve seen no evidence for Milne being even smart and he certainly never won any elections
Milne is a classic posho public school Marxist. The Winchester version of bouji grammar school Corbyn
And a lot of people who lost a referendum think that Cummings is super evil, while not having much at all to say about the man who wrote Corbyn's Salisbury response
There you go again.
Both Seumas Milne and Dom Cummings are absolute shits of the highest order.
The taxpayers have paid out substantial money because of the latter's bullying.
Yes but Milne is a Marxist traitor. This stuff isn’t hard
Milne supports Islamists and cheered on 9/11. He got jihadists in to write for the guardian. He thinks Stalin is cool
Cummings might be an arrogant dick and even a bully but if you can’t see the crucial political difference between the two of them then there’s no hope for you
It seems to be a more interesting parallel than you gave it credit for
Btw I’ve been meaning to ask. Did you hear any Breton spoken on your recent hols?
I’m reading a book about old pagan Europe and it’s talking about Celtic languages and I’ve realised I’ve never heard Breton spoken in real life
I’ve heard every other extant Celtic tongue. Welsh, Irish, Gallic - but not Breton
Wiki claims a lot of speakers but I wonder
I'm sure I did hear it in a few of the bar/tabac/betting shops I stopped in for refreshments
One in particular, in Guingamp where I had a few beers watching the end of (I think) Arsenal beating Newcastle. I was stood at the bar and didn't understand or recognise anything that more than half of the locals were speaking. I usually do somewhat better than that with French
I became more popular there with a few "yecʼhed mat" shouts
Good to hear. Wiki claims 200,000 speakers which is a LOT - but down from 1m 50 years ago
I love hearing rare languages. I heard Siwi in Siwa. Just 20,000 speakers in the world. Marvellous
I live but a mile away from Ely so surprised to see it all over the news today.
What I find odd is the issue of the police chase. Why would someone be chased by a police van? Some kind of sadistic game? If you have the polic following you, why wouldn't you stop. It's ridiculous to blame them for causing a crash. But then why deny it if you are the police?
Someone being chased by police, because cops think they're breaking the law (the chased, not the cops) MAY stop. But often they will not, because they are trying to evade apprehension and/or arrest.
With teenagers being perhaps even more likely to flee than adults.
Back in my own misspent youth, guys would drive around late at night thus attracting attention of local cops. Who in our very small town, were just as bored as a rule as the kids.
One favorite way of evading the long arm of the law, was to head up a local hill with the fuzz in pursuit, then duck into a handy driveway and kill the lights. Then watch Barney Fife whiz by obvious to what had happened. Cops never did seem to catch on.
As for police statement re: this tragic incident in Wales, seems to me that it is VERY carefully worded, thus NOT exactly a full denial.
The part about no police vehicles being on Snowden Road at the time of the crash probably doesn't mean very much, considering that if the boys followed the most direct route from Frank Road (where the CCTV footage came from) the police van wouldn't have been able to follow them on to Snowden Road because it would have been prevented by a barrier just before the junction.
Why do politicians keep being asked about penises?
Can't we mature the debate a bit?
Because politicians keep saying that women have them.
They keep being ASKED if they do, Ed Davey didn't bring it up.
How would you field this question? How would you feel if you were a trans person who really felt they were a woman with the way they are talked about? Why can't we have a more mature conversation and look at this with some kindness and sympathy.
Davey (and Starmer) knows he’s going to be asked the question, and has known for years that he’ll be asked the question.
Yet he still doesn’t have anything close to a coherent answer on the subject.
If and when he has a straight answer, the line of questioning would stop.
I’ve some sympathy for them. It’s a hideously divisive and thorny topic. But then it’s their own mad woke identity politics that have led them here so that sympathy is limited
The Gender Recognition Act of 2004 (and many countries have similar) provides a legal route for someone to change their gender without being compelled to have surgery. No country that has introduced this social reform has ever reversed it and no mainstream political party in the UK (inc the Conservatives) is proposing to repeal it here. So what I conclude is that these 'gotcha' questions about women and penises etc seek to provoke and confuse rather than enlighten.
My point was more political. The question will now always be asked - you can’t wish it away - and a clever politician needs a ready answer that doesn’t sound insane to 70% of voters
I’d go with “no, a woman can’t have a penis. That’s a trans woman”. But I thank allah I am not a politician in this case
I’d go on the offensive. “You think this is such a fucking gotcha don’t you. Are you actually interested in the answer or are you just being oh so edgy? Ask me sensible questions about policy on trans rights and I’ll happily answer, but don’t give me all this shit. And don’t go protesting that you’re just voicing “real concerns”, you’re not. You’re trying for a gotcha”.
Or something along those lines. It’s the embarrassed faffing around the topic that looks so silly.
Or just tell the truth
The truth is weaponised though. The reality is - and I appreciate this may seem wishywashy, more nuanced.
I could answer that a pre-op trans woman with a penis is, as far as most daily activities in society and how she should be treated by the public, a woman. People may disagree, but it’s how we’ve actually treated trans people for decades.
I could also answer that someone with a plonker is obviously a biological man. That’s also true.
It’s like asking “is someone with facial stubble an adult?”. The right answer is it really depends on context.
But good luck to anyone stupid enough to try to make this sort of argument on This Morning. You’ll by hated by everyone on all sides.
And with that I’m heading into the lounge to carpe diem.
The US news networks are going to be in heaven with De Santis entering the race tomorrow. And of course the debates will be tuned into like never before with the likely onstage fireworks . Pass the popcorn.
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
Abstain. Alcohol is vile and you'll probably be unwell.
"But Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!"
[continues until the heat death of the universe]
I get that lefties and Remainers hate Boris but, really, Corbyn is in a different and higher league of unacceptability
Corbyn is an unashamed traitor. An IRA supporting, Hamas-hugging, anti semitic commie traitor
Boris is a charismatic reprobate and a selfish libertine. Boris has personal flaws. Corbyn’s flaws are way more dangerous and ideological even if he is probably the “nicer” gent in some ways
Cummings v Milne is an interesting parallel debate
Not really. Cummings is super intelligent and wins elections and referendums. I’ve seen no evidence for Milne being even smart and he certainly never won any elections
Milne is a classic posho public school Marxist. The Winchester version of bouji grammar school Corbyn
And a lot of people who lost a referendum think that Cummings is super evil, while not having much at all to say about the man who wrote Corbyn's Salisbury response
There you go again.
Both Seumas Milne and Dom Cummings are absolute shits of the highest order.
The taxpayers have paid out substantial money because of the latter's bullying.
Yes but Milne is a Marxist traitor. This stuff isn’t hard
Milne supports Islamists and cheered on 9/11. He got jihadists in to write for the guardian. He thinks Stalin is cool
Cummings might be an arrogant dick and even a bully but if you can’t see the crucial political difference between the two of them then there’s no hope for you
It seems to be a more interesting parallel than you gave it credit for
Btw I’ve been meaning to ask. Did you hear any Breton spoken on your recent hols?
I’m reading a book about old pagan Europe and it’s talking about Celtic languages and I’ve realised I’ve never heard Breton spoken in real life
I’ve heard every other extant Celtic tongue. Welsh, Irish, Gallic - but not Breton
Wiki claims a lot of speakers but I wonder
I'm sure I did hear it in a few of the bar/tabac/betting shops I stopped in for refreshments
One in particular, in Guingamp where I had a few beers watching the end of (I think) Arsenal beating Newcastle. I was stood at the bar and didn't understand or recognise anything that more than half of the locals were speaking. I usually do somewhat better than that with French
I became more popular there with a few "yecʼhed mat" shouts
Obliged for the very useful Breton lesson - yecʼhed mat back at ye!
AND must say I find your formulation "I was stood at the bar" as interesting.
Sounds like something a West Virginia hillbilly could say. And maybe a few other localities in USA but not many.
NOT that I ever heard one actually heard any American actually say it, that way. I like it.
EDIT - though sadly I HAVE been stood UP at the bar . . .
UPDATE: Privileges Committee say they will take this new evidence into account when they decide whether or not Boris Johnson misled MPs. It is unlikely to help his case.
Today I reached 10,000 km (6,200 miles) run since I took up running at the end of 2016.
I'm feeling quite proud of that.
If you add it onto the distance of walks on my website, then I'm only 130 miles from having walked or run around the circumference of the Earth's equator...
Can a biological woman have a penis? No. Can a trans woman have a penis? Yes.
Can we move on now please?
Personally, the point at which I would recognise a trans woman as a woman (and vice versa) would be upon gender reassignment surgery following a medical diagnosis. And I believe this is the point at which the law should recognise the change of gender too. When someone has taken that very profound step, it is unkind and impolite to continue to call them by their birth gender.
Can a biological woman have a penis? No. Can a trans woman have a penis? Yes.
Can we move on now please?
Personally, the point at which I would recognise a trans woman as a woman (and vice versa) would be upon gender reassignment surgery following a medical diagnosis. And I believe this is the point at which the law should recognise the change of gender too. When someone has taken that very profound step, it is unkind and impolite to continue to call them by their birth gender.
Does it not still depend on the context? The integrity of elite women's sport depends on it being a category based on biology, regardless of any medical procedures someone has undertaken.
Today I reached 10,000 km (6,200 miles) run since I took up running at the end of 2016.
I'm feeling quite proud of that.
If you add it onto the distance of walks on my website, then I'm only 130 miles from having walked or run around the circumference of the Earth's equator...
Can a biological woman have a penis? No. Can a trans woman have a penis? Yes.
Can we move on now please?
Personally, the point at which I would recognise a trans woman as a woman (and vice versa) would be upon gender reassignment surgery following a medical diagnosis. And I believe this is the point at which the law should recognise the change of gender too. When someone has taken that very profound step, it is unkind and impolite to continue to call them by their birth gender.
Does it not still depend on the context? The integrity of elite women's sport depends on it being a category based on biology, regardless of any medical procedures someone has undertaken.
Yes. I would not allow male to female transsexuals to compete as women in any women's sporting events.
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
Abstain. Alcohol is vile and you'll probably be unwell.
Alcohol on flights is pretty awful. Unless you're a complete dipso.
Why do politicians keep being asked about penises?
Can't we mature the debate a bit?
Because politicians keep saying that women have them.
They keep being ASKED if they do, Ed Davey didn't bring it up.
How would you field this question? How would you feel if you were a trans person who really felt they were a woman with the way they are talked about? Why can't we have a more mature conversation and look at this with some kindness and sympathy.
Davey (and Starmer) knows he’s going to be asked the question, and has known for years that he’ll be asked the question.
Yet he still doesn’t have anything close to a coherent answer on the subject.
If and when he has a straight answer, the line of questioning would stop.
I’ve some sympathy for them. It’s a hideously divisive and thorny topic. But then it’s their own mad woke identity politics that have led them here so that sympathy is limited
The Gender Recognition Act of 2004 (and many countries have similar) provides a legal route for someone to change their gender without being compelled to have surgery. No country that has introduced this social reform has ever reversed it and no mainstream political party in the UK (inc the Conservatives) is proposing to repeal it here. So what I conclude is that these 'gotcha' questions about women and penises etc seek to provoke and confuse rather than enlighten.
Interestingly, I've never heard anyone ask whether a man can have a uterus. It always seems to be the other way around.
Yes the popular 'debate' is mainly about M to F transition for reasons both understandable and less so. Although there was that fuss about the NHS referring to 'people with a cervix' rather than 'women' on materials for cervical cancer screening.
"But Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!"
[continues until the heat death of the universe]
I get that lefties and Remainers hate Boris but, really, Corbyn is in a different and higher league of unacceptability
Corbyn is an unashamed traitor. An IRA supporting, Hamas-hugging, anti semitic commie traitor
Boris is a charismatic reprobate and a selfish libertine. Boris has personal flaws. Corbyn’s flaws are way more dangerous and ideological even if he is probably the “nicer” gent in some ways
Cummings v Milne is an interesting parallel debate
Not really. Cummings is super intelligent and wins elections and referendums. I’ve seen no evidence for Milne being even smart and he certainly never won any elections
Milne is a classic posho public school Marxist. The Winchester version of bouji grammar school Corbyn
And a lot of people who lost a referendum think that Cummings is super evil, while not having much at all to say about the man who wrote Corbyn's Salisbury response
There you go again.
Both Seumas Milne and Dom Cummings are absolute shits of the highest order.
The taxpayers have paid out substantial money because of the latter's bullying.
Yes but Milne is a Marxist traitor. This stuff isn’t hard
Milne supports Islamists and cheered on 9/11. He got jihadists in to write for the guardian. He thinks Stalin is cool
Cummings might be an arrogant dick and even a bully but if you can’t see the crucial political difference between the two of them then there’s no hope for you
It seems to be a more interesting parallel than you gave it credit for
Btw I’ve been meaning to ask. Did you hear any Breton spoken on your recent hols?
I’m reading a book about old pagan Europe and it’s talking about Celtic languages and I’ve realised I’ve never heard Breton spoken in real life
I’ve heard every other extant Celtic tongue. Welsh, Irish, Gallic - but not Breton
Wiki claims a lot of speakers but I wonder
I'm sure I did hear it in a few of the bar/tabac/betting shops I stopped in for refreshments
One in particular, in Guingamp where I had a few beers watching the end of (I think) Arsenal beating Newcastle. I was stood at the bar and didn't understand or recognise anything that more than half of the locals were speaking. I usually do somewhat better than that with French
I became more popular there with a few "yecʼhed mat" shouts
Good to hear. Wiki claims 200,000 speakers which is a LOT - but down from 1m 50 years ago
I love hearing rare languages. I heard Siwi in Siwa. Just 20,000 speakers in the world. Marvellous
@christopherhope NEW Conservative right wing MPs are gloomy tonight with Suella Braverman’s future in the balance and Boris Johnson being reported to the police. One blames the Whitehall ‘blob’ saying: “We are like being gobbled up like we are in Pac Man.”
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
Abstain. Alcohol is vile and you'll probably be unwell.
Alcohol on flights is pretty awful. Unless you're a complete dipso.
*sips gin on flight*
What???
Getting fucked up on flights is a gas. Especially on the good stuff in biz and beyond
Haven’t you already said you don’t particularly like booze? Similarly the teetotal @Dura_Ace
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
Abstain. Alcohol is vile and you'll probably be unwell.
Alcohol on flights is pretty awful. Unless you're a complete dipso.
@christopherhope NEW Conservative right wing MPs are gloomy tonight with Suella Braverman’s future in the balance and Boris Johnson being reported to the police. One blames the Whitehall ‘blob’ saying: “We are like being gobbled up like we are in Pac Man.”
"But Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!"
[continues until the heat death of the universe]
I get that lefties and Remainers hate Boris but, really, Corbyn is in a different and higher league of unacceptability
Corbyn is an unashamed traitor. An IRA supporting, Hamas-hugging, anti semitic commie traitor
Boris is a charismatic reprobate and a selfish libertine. Boris has personal flaws. Corbyn’s flaws are way more dangerous and ideological even if he is probably the “nicer” gent in some ways
Cummings v Milne is an interesting parallel debate
Not really. Cummings is super intelligent and wins elections and referendums. I’ve seen no evidence for Milne being even smart and he certainly never won any elections
Milne is a classic posho public school Marxist. The Winchester version of bouji grammar school Corbyn
And a lot of people who lost a referendum think that Cummings is super evil, while not having much at all to say about the man who wrote Corbyn's Salisbury response
There you go again.
Both Seumas Milne and Dom Cummings are absolute shits of the highest order.
The taxpayers have paid out substantial money because of the latter's bullying.
Yes but Milne is a Marxist traitor. This stuff isn’t hard
Milne supports Islamists and cheered on 9/11. He got jihadists in to write for the guardian. He thinks Stalin is cool
Cummings might be an arrogant dick and even a bully but if you can’t see the crucial political difference between the two of them then there’s no hope for you
It seems to be a more interesting parallel than you gave it credit for
Btw I’ve been meaning to ask. Did you hear any Breton spoken on your recent hols?
I’m reading a book about old pagan Europe and it’s talking about Celtic languages and I’ve realised I’ve never heard Breton spoken in real life
I’ve heard every other extant Celtic tongue. Welsh, Irish, Gallic - but not Breton
Wiki claims a lot of speakers but I wonder
I'm sure I did hear it in a few of the bar/tabac/betting shops I stopped in for refreshments
One in particular, in Guingamp where I had a few beers watching the end of (I think) Arsenal beating Newcastle. I was stood at the bar and didn't understand or recognise anything that more than half of the locals were speaking. I usually do somewhat better than that with French
I became more popular there with a few "yecʼhed mat" shouts
Good to hear. Wiki claims 200,000 speakers which is a LOT - but down from 1m 50 years ago
I love hearing rare languages. I heard Siwi in Siwa. Just 20,000 speakers in the world. Marvellous
UPDATE: Privileges Committee say they will take this new evidence into account when they decide whether or not Boris Johnson misled MPs. It is unlikely to help his case.
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
Abstain. Alcohol is vile and you'll probably be unwell.
Alcohol on flights is pretty awful. Unless you're a complete dipso.
It’s free (well, paid for). Therefore good.
I love the tingle of that second glass of champagne in business class on a long haul flight to a warm sunny part of asia (ok, Bangkok) in the middle of a British winter
That, for me, is a genuine moment of pure happiness. You are escaping the cold. The Veuve Cliquot sparkles in the mouth. You look at your little bag of presents. The plane banks over the Alps and the sun awaits. Have another gulp. Aaaaaaaand RELAX
UPDATE: Privileges Committee say they will take this new evidence into account when they decide whether or not Boris Johnson misled MPs. It is unlikely to help his case.
Keep kicking it back til the GE. Then fair chance he is no longer an MP. If he is then say he has a fresh mandate and who are they to disagree with the voters so lets all move on.
@christopherhope NEW Conservative right wing MPs are gloomy tonight with Suella Braverman’s future in the balance and Boris Johnson being reported to the police. One blames the Whitehall ‘blob’ saying: “We are like being gobbled up like we are in Pac Man.”
You can tell that's actually something a gammony tory said because it involves a 40 year old cultural reference.
"But Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!"
[continues until the heat death of the universe]
I get that lefties and Remainers hate Boris but, really, Corbyn is in a different and higher league of unacceptability
Corbyn is an unashamed traitor. An IRA supporting, Hamas-hugging, anti semitic commie traitor
Boris is a charismatic reprobate and a selfish libertine. Boris has personal flaws. Corbyn’s flaws are way more dangerous and ideological even if he is probably the “nicer” gent in some ways
Cummings v Milne is an interesting parallel debate
Not really. Cummings is super intelligent and wins elections and referendums. I’ve seen no evidence for Milne being even smart and he certainly never won any elections
Milne is a classic posho public school Marxist. The Winchester version of bouji grammar school Corbyn
And a lot of people who lost a referendum think that Cummings is super evil, while not having much at all to say about the man who wrote Corbyn's Salisbury response
There you go again.
Both Seumas Milne and Dom Cummings are absolute shits of the highest order.
The taxpayers have paid out substantial money because of the latter's bullying.
Yes but Milne is a Marxist traitor. This stuff isn’t hard
Milne supports Islamists and cheered on 9/11. He got jihadists in to write for the guardian. He thinks Stalin is cool
Cummings might be an arrogant dick and even a bully but if you can’t see the crucial political difference between the two of them then there’s no hope for you
It seems to be a more interesting parallel than you gave it credit for
Btw I’ve been meaning to ask. Did you hear any Breton spoken on your recent hols?
I’m reading a book about old pagan Europe and it’s talking about Celtic languages and I’ve realised I’ve never heard Breton spoken in real life
I’ve heard every other extant Celtic tongue. Welsh, Irish, Gallic - but not Breton
Wiki claims a lot of speakers but I wonder
I'm sure I did hear it in a few of the bar/tabac/betting shops I stopped in for refreshments
One in particular, in Guingamp where I had a few beers watching the end of (I think) Arsenal beating Newcastle. I was stood at the bar and didn't understand or recognise anything that more than half of the locals were speaking. I usually do somewhat better than that with French
I became more popular there with a few "yecʼhed mat" shouts
Good to hear. Wiki claims 200,000 speakers which is a LOT - but down from 1m 50 years ago
I love hearing rare languages. I heard Siwi in Siwa. Just 20,000 speakers in the world. Marvellous
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
Abstain. Alcohol is vile and you'll probably be unwell.
Alcohol on flights is pretty awful. Unless you're a complete dipso.
It’s free (well, paid for). Therefore good.
I love the tingle of that second glass of champagne in business class on a long haul flight to a warm sunny part of asia (ok, Bangkok) in the middle of a British winter
That, for me, is a genuine moment of pure happiness. You are escaping the cold. The Veuve Cliquot sparkles in the mouth. You look at your little bag of presents. The plane banks over the Alps and the sun awaits. Have another gulp. Aaaaaaaand RELAX
Yep. And a window seat on the southern route avoiding Russia and Ukraine so may go over the Himalayas.
Shame they don’t have the upstairs on 747s anymore though.
@christopherhope NEW Conservative right wing MPs are gloomy tonight with Suella Braverman’s future in the balance and Boris Johnson being reported to the police. One blames the Whitehall ‘blob’ saying: “We are like being gobbled up like we are in Pac Man.”
You can tell that's actually something a gammony tory said because it involves a 40 year old cultural reference.
The blob is expanding at the sort of exponential rate seen in pandemics. Like a new variant of woke. The Omicron of woke.
UPDATE: Privileges Committee say they will take this new evidence into account when they decide whether or not Boris Johnson misled MPs. It is unlikely to help his case.
Politico.com - 55 Things You Need to Know About Tim Scott
The senator from South Carolina has a personal story that confounds easy political categories.
#27 - In 2008, [Scott] ran for and won a seat [as a Republican] in the South Carolina state house, and he also took his grandfather to vote. His grandfather couldn’t read the ballot, so he pointed to the name —Barack Obama. As he drove him home, he looked over at his grandfather, who had tears rolling down his face. “Timmy, the miracle isn’t whether he wins or not. The miracle is that he is on the ballot!” his grandfather said. “Timmy, for more than half of my life, I wasn’t allowed to vote.”
BREAKING: 4th Circuit upholds Thomas Jefferson High School admissions policy, 2-1, holding that it does not unconstitutionally discriminate against Asians and Asian-Americans. King (Clinton) writes, Heytens (Biden) joins, Rushing (Trump) dissents.
Read the deets. It’s ok to discriminate against Asians as long as you don’t explicitly say that’s your intention and it’s just a by product of your racialist admissions policy
"But Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Boris was so obviously unacceptable!" "Yes, but Corbyn was so obviously unacceptable!"
[continues until the heat death of the universe]
I get that lefties and Remainers hate Boris but, really, Corbyn is in a different and higher league of unacceptability
Corbyn is an unashamed traitor. An IRA supporting, Hamas-hugging, anti semitic commie traitor
Boris is a charismatic reprobate and a selfish libertine. Boris has personal flaws. Corbyn’s flaws are way more dangerous and ideological even if he is probably the “nicer” gent in some ways
Cummings v Milne is an interesting parallel debate
Not really. Cummings is super intelligent and wins elections and referendums. I’ve seen no evidence for Milne being even smart and he certainly never won any elections
Milne is a classic posho public school Marxist. The Winchester version of bouji grammar school Corbyn
And a lot of people who lost a referendum think that Cummings is super evil, while not having much at all to say about the man who wrote Corbyn's Salisbury response
There you go again.
Both Seumas Milne and Dom Cummings are absolute shits of the highest order.
The taxpayers have paid out substantial money because of the latter's bullying.
Yes but Milne is a Marxist traitor. This stuff isn’t hard
Milne supports Islamists and cheered on 9/11. He got jihadists in to write for the guardian. He thinks Stalin is cool
Cummings might be an arrogant dick and even a bully but if you can’t see the crucial political difference between the two of them then there’s no hope for you
It seems to be a more interesting parallel than you gave it credit for
Btw I’ve been meaning to ask. Did you hear any Breton spoken on your recent hols?
I’m reading a book about old pagan Europe and it’s talking about Celtic languages and I’ve realised I’ve never heard Breton spoken in real life
I’ve heard every other extant Celtic tongue. Welsh, Irish, Gallic - but not Breton
Wiki claims a lot of speakers but I wonder
I'm sure I did hear it in a few of the bar/tabac/betting shops I stopped in for refreshments
One in particular, in Guingamp where I had a few beers watching the end of (I think) Arsenal beating Newcastle. I was stood at the bar and didn't understand or recognise anything that more than half of the locals were speaking. I usually do somewhat better than that with French
I became more popular there with a few "yecʼhed mat" shouts
Good to hear. Wiki claims 200,000 speakers which is a LOT - but down from 1m 50 years ago
I love hearing rare languages. I heard Siwi in Siwa. Just 20,000 speakers in the world. Marvellous
I am on my way to Heathrow. I just left a work do, with wine. I’ll arrive and go into the lounge, where there will be free drinks. Then the plane, where they’ll serve free drinks. All being well I arrive in Singapore tomorrow at 6pm just in time for the “gala event” at our conference with free drinks.
Do I:
A. Treat this as some 24 hour stag-like bender and just drink and eat my way through it, B. Abstain in the lounge and go straight to sleep on the plane?
Decisions decisions
FFS. Life is short. This sounds fun
Drink
Haven’t the last 3 years taught us that if nothing else? Carpe diem
Boris Johnson’s most loyal supporters in the Commons are relatively quiet tonight both in the media and on Twitter. A sign perhaps of how much his political stock has fallen since last autumn, when a comeback looked like a serious possibility.
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I prefer yours. Sounds tranquil and they’re so old they will leave the champagne to you
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I prefer yours. Sounds tranquil and they’re so old they will leave the champagne to you
Indeed my neighbour, a venerable Sheila of mature years, just turned hers down. Saving herself for the good old 19 crimes back home.
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I prefer yours. Sounds tranquil and they’re so old they will leave the champagne to you
Indeed my neighbour, a venerable Sheila of mature years, just turned hers down. Saving herself for the good old 19 crimes back home.
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I prefer yours. Sounds tranquil and they’re so old they will leave the champagne to you
Indeed my neighbour, a venerable Sheila of mature years, just turned hers down. Saving herself for the good old 19 crimes back home.
I am now on champagne no.1, pondering movies
That’s a great movie. Loved it
It’s between that and everything everywhere all at once. (Or both).
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I prefer yours. Sounds tranquil and they’re so old they will leave the champagne to you
Indeed my neighbour, a venerable Sheila of mature years, just turned hers down. Saving herself for the good old 19 crimes back home.
I am now on champagne no.1, pondering movies
That’s a great movie. Loved it
It’s between that and everything everywhere all at once. (Or both).
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I apologise for being incredibly sad, but this you?
I like how quickly we got from Boris and Corbyn to Hitler and Stalin. I can only assume that the final part of this mapping document is from Swinson to Pol Pot, but I haven't looked into it.
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I prefer yours. Sounds tranquil and they’re so old they will leave the champagne to you
Indeed my neighbour, a venerable Sheila of mature years, just turned hers down. Saving herself for the good old 19 crimes back home.
I am now on champagne no.1, pondering movies
That’s a great movie. Loved it
It’s between that and everything everywhere all at once. (Or both).
Also a great movie. Indeed better
Save one for the flight home?
I think EEAAO outbound, TBOI return, with time to (re)read the most relaxing and intellectually undemanding yet utterly compelling book in history in between, A Year In Provence.
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I apologise for being incredibly sad, but this you?
I like how quickly we got from Boris and Corbyn to Hitler and Stalin. I can only assume that the final part of this mapping document is from Swinson to Pol Pot, but I haven't looked into it.
Swinson to Göring.
I can be next Führer.
Oh no you can’t.
Looking back, Swinson had some of the Sunak or Ed Miliband about her. Bright eyed, a bit naive, great ambition but just didn’t really cut it.
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I apologise for being incredibly sad, but this you?
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I prefer yours. Sounds tranquil and they’re so old they will leave the champagne to you
Indeed my neighbour, a venerable Sheila of mature years, just turned hers down. Saving herself for the good old 19 crimes back home.
I am now on champagne no.1, pondering movies
That’s a great movie. Loved it
It’s between that and everything everywhere all at once. (Or both).
Also a great movie. Indeed better
Save one for the flight home?
I think EEAAO outbound, TBOI return, with time to (re)read the most relaxing and intellectually undemanding yet utterly compelling book in history in between, A Year In Provence.
Good call. They are both excellent yet so very different. Worth savouring. If you did both in one flight you might not appreciate the second
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I apologise for being incredibly sad, but this you?
If the police are no longer investigating burglaries do we expect them to continue investigating lockdown offences?
Well when it involved Boris Johnson they didn't last time out. 4 out of the 5 parties Johnson attended, his attendance was ignored by the Met. so probably not.
Durham on the other hand did give Starmer a good going over so perhaps the anomaly is regional.
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I apologise for being incredibly sad, but this you?
It has been reported in The Times that 160,000 proposed new homes have now been banned, because the quango 'Natural England' has insisted that they would add phosphates to Rivers. Their ban is an enforcement of a 2018 ECJ ruling (yes, from when we'd supposedly already left).
But the House Building Federation have a previous story (from March, when it was only 120,000 homes they were blocking) on their website, with more detail. Including the fact that all existing housing stock (25 million or so) accounts for only 5% of the issue, so these new properties would have a negligible impact. https://www.hbf.co.uk/news/nutrient-neutrality-lichfields-report-unblocking-homebuilding/
This is the kind of shit we left the EU to sort it - their burdensome, wrong-headed regulation is real, it is pertinent to important issues, and it does hold us back.
I live but a mile away from Ely so surprised to see it all over the news today.
What I find odd is the issue of the police chase. Why would someone be chased by a police van? Some kind of sadistic game? If you have the polic following you, why wouldn't you stop. It's ridiculous to blame them for causing a crash. But then why deny it if you are the police?
Someone being chased by police, because cops think they're breaking the law (the chased, not the cops) MAY stop. But often they will not, because they are trying to evade apprehension and/or arrest.
With teenagers being perhaps even more likely to flee than adults.
Back in my own misspent youth, guys would drive around late at night thus attracting attention of local cops. Who in our very small town, were just as bored as a rule as the kids.
One favorite way of evading the long arm of the law, was to head up a local hill with the fuzz in pursuit, then duck into a handy driveway and kill the lights. Then watch Barney Fife whiz by obvious to what had happened. Cops never did seem to catch on.
As for police statement re: this tragic incident in Wales, seems to me that it is VERY carefully worded, thus NOT exactly a full denial.
The part about no police vehicles being on Snowden Road at the time of the crash probably doesn't mean very much, considering that if the boys followed the most direct route from Frank Road (where the CCTV footage came from) the police van wouldn't have been able to follow them on to Snowden Road because it would have been prevented by a barrier just before the junction.
I’m no expert but the police don’t normally do pursuit in vans. It seems likely that the youths thought they were being chased, even if they weren’t. My wife feels guilty every time she sees the police, and she’s done nothing wrong…
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I apologise for being incredibly sad, but this you?
so it's flight BA15 on G-ZBKF a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
Yep. Designed to keep travellers fresh in flight, which means I can drink more with no ill effects.
Enjoy. Yes, the new 787 and A350 have a much better atmosphere, and a lower cabin altitude (nearer 5,000’ than the 7,000’ in older planes). It does make quite the difference in how one feels at the other end.
I live but a mile away from Ely so surprised to see it all over the news today.
What I find odd is the issue of the police chase. Why would someone be chased by a police van? Some kind of sadistic game? If you have the polic following you, why wouldn't you stop. It's ridiculous to blame them for causing a crash. But then why deny it if you are the police?
Someone being chased by police, because cops think they're breaking the law (the chased, not the cops) MAY stop. But often they will not, because they are trying to evade apprehension and/or arrest.
With teenagers being perhaps even more likely to flee than adults.
Back in my own misspent youth, guys would drive around late at night thus attracting attention of local cops. Who in our very small town, were just as bored as a rule as the kids.
One favorite way of evading the long arm of the law, was to head up a local hill with the fuzz in pursuit, then duck into a handy driveway and kill the lights. Then watch Barney Fife whiz by obvious to what had happened. Cops never did seem to catch on.
As for police statement re: this tragic incident in Wales, seems to me that it is VERY carefully worded, thus NOT exactly a full denial.
The part about no police vehicles being on Snowden Road at the time of the crash probably doesn't mean very much, considering that if the boys followed the most direct route from Frank Road (where the CCTV footage came from) the police van wouldn't have been able to follow them on to Snowden Road because it would have been prevented by a barrier just before the junction.
I’m no expert but the police don’t normally do pursuit in vans. It seems likely that the youths thought they were being chased, even if they weren’t. My wife feels guilty every time she sees the police, and she’s done nothing wrong…
That said: SMALL COUGHING ANNOYING CHILD BEHIND ME: shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down
One of my friends was stuck on a flight with a small annoying coughing child just last week. Woke up this morning at 5am unable to breath.
Time for a third champagne!
Eeek. This kid is the worst
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
I face the opposite demographic on my plane. I’ve realised it’s the Sydney flight, via Singapore. The clientele in club world is therefore boomer couples returning from visiting their London based kids / going out to visit their Sydney based kids. It’s very much not a business flight. Think I’m the only person in a suit, and possibly one of the youngest in the cabin.
I prefer yours. Sounds tranquil and they’re so old they will leave the champagne to you
Indeed my neighbour, a venerable Sheila of mature years, just turned hers down. Saving herself for the good old 19 crimes back home.
Comments
ar-raheem and al-muyahmin
Or something along those lines. It’s the embarrassed faffing around the topic that looks so silly.
Drink
Haven’t the last 3 years taught us that if nothing else? Carpe diem
Perhaps a 'If you don't know by now, it's too late to tell you,' or maybe 'I never presume to ask them.'? Teaching acquaintances of mine are very fond of the 'What's in your pants song' to teach younger kids about personal space and boundaries so perhaps singing a rendition of that would get the point across to journalists asking this bad-faith question.
The Tories are no longer the majority party in any of the five Districts the county is made up of or in the County. This will all morph into seven seats by 2024 - but the crude numbers are that, on the basis of the latest local council elections, there's a real likelihood the Tories will fail to get the new seat and lose ALL the four seats they currently hold. Partly because of real demographic change sine the county was dominated by retired toffoes and forelock-tugging agriculturals: partly because Tory policies in general and Johnson in particular have destroyed any respect middle of the road Oxonian Tories have for Conservatism.
I was under the distinct impression it had happened earlier.
Seize the Pint.
So, as soon as Labour/LD stop doing that they will come back, and the Conservatives will recalibrate accordingly.
In all seriousness I did feel quite validated by covid even if it sent me crazy. Life is bloody perfunctory. Nothing really matters. Martin Amis will probably be forgotten in 20 years
Drink. Tap the barrel of pleasure and have your fill while you can (and try and bang out a couple of kids on the way but dont stress too much on that)
There’s always money to be made at the GE, by identifying the seats which don’t follow the national trend.
Last election:
C 54
L 28
LD 14
G 4
Maj: 16,000
MP: Victoria Prentiss
A dead cert Con hold in a sea of seats that become marginal, or on a larger overall swing, a three-way marginal when the incumbent has a chance that she doesn’t have otherwise?
Stalin was preferable to Hitler, or Ante Pavelic, or Ferenc Salazy.
I always enjoyed A Very British Coup, because in Harry Perkins, you actually have a PM who is a traitor (even if Chris Mullin does not see him as such). He’s not a Kinnock, or Foot, or Papandreou, but a man who is trying to turn the UK into a satellite of the USSR.
I think a military coup would be justified against such a leader.
I think the Tories will hold Banbury. Partly because Victoria Prentis is the only Oxfordshire Conservative MP who isn't a blithering idiot, and partly because Labour in Banbury have just pointed a very large gun painted with the words "tactical voting" at their feet and blown both of them clean off.
The Conservatives, after all, did not win the Hackney and Islington constituencies in 1970, despite storming to victory in the local elections of 1967/68.
So clearly from a legal point of view, a man can have a uterus and a woman can have a penis.
Now my question to everyone is: what, if anything, should we do about this legal fact?
Hitler next. Then Stalin and Mao
So embrace it, drink until you pass out on the plane, wake up when you wake up and then get on the caffeine. Right now, it’s nearly 3am in Singapore.
Wonderful place by the way, one of my favourite cities on Earth. Get yourself a Sling in Raffles Bar.
I can only assume that the final part of this mapping document is from Swinson to Pol Pot, but I haven't looked into it.
One in particular, in Guingamp where I had a few beers watching the end of (I think) Arsenal beating Newcastle. I was stood at the bar and didn't understand or recognise anything that more than half of the locals were speaking. I usually do somewhat better than that with French
I became more popular there with a few "yecʼhed mat" shouts
That's not going to fit in a headline. But respecting people and trying to be kind is normally a good start.
Can we move on now please?
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/05/19/casey-ron-desantis-wife-profile-00097456
Two thoughts, major and minor
> Major - yet more evidence of Fear of RDS by Trump and his entourage, as in this excerpt.
“Have you ever noticed,” Roger Stone, the notorious political mischief-maker who is both a DeSantis antagonist and a many-decades-long Trump loyalist, remarked in a Telegram post last fall, “how much Ron DeSantis’ wife Casey is like Lady Macbeth?” — an agent, in other words, of her husband’s undoing.
Stone’s hyperbolic charge is but a piece of a broader effort on the part of Trump forces to kill in the crib the candidacy they consider their greatest threat.
> Minor - love "the DeSanti" which harkens back (at least to me) to the McManus political clan in New York City, famed for their clout in mid-20th century Tammany Hall (that is, as the Tiger was losing its teeth, stripes and fur) and known in Gotham politico-journo circles as "the McMani".
Which was Hibernian wit back in their day, but also accessible to anyone, esp. Catholics (active, lapsed, recovering) who remembers a smidgen of old Church Latin. Who are reasonably thick on the ground in most of Florida.
I love hearing rare languages. I heard Siwi in Siwa. Just 20,000 speakers in the world. Marvellous
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siwi_language
I could answer that a pre-op trans woman with
a penis is, as far as most daily activities in society and how she should be treated by the public, a woman. People may disagree, but it’s how we’ve actually treated trans people for decades.
I could also answer that someone with a plonker is obviously a biological man. That’s also true.
It’s like asking “is someone with facial stubble an adult?”. The right answer is it really depends on context.
But good luck to anyone stupid enough to try to make this sort of argument on This Morning. You’ll by hated by everyone on all sides.
And with that I’m heading into the lounge to carpe diem.
AND must say I find your formulation "I was stood at the bar" as interesting.
Sounds like something a West Virginia hillbilly could say. And maybe a few other localities in USA but not many.
NOT that I ever heard one actually heard any American actually say it, that way. I like it.
EDIT - though sadly I HAVE been stood UP at the bar . . .
Bit like Farage and Farage.
Full statement here…
https://twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1661076303108251649
Today I reached 10,000 km (6,200 miles) run since I took up running at the end of 2016.
I'm feeling quite proud of that.
If you add it onto the distance of walks on my website, then I'm only 130 miles from having walked or run around the circumference of the Earth's equator...
Unless you're a complete dipso.
NEW Conservative right wing MPs are gloomy tonight with Suella Braverman’s future in the balance and Boris Johnson being reported to the police.
One blames the Whitehall ‘blob’ saying: “We are like being gobbled up like we are in Pac Man.”
What???
Getting fucked up on flights is a gas. Especially on the good stuff in biz and beyond
Haven’t you already said you don’t particularly like booze? Similarly the teetotal @Dura_Ace
Or do they ludicrously claim (like Palmer a trois) that Corbyn and Milne wouldn't have ended support for Ukraine?
The basic word order of Siwi is subject-verb-object,[27] as in:
akúḅḅi la yušas náčču i támẓa
boy not he. gave. her food to ogress
'The boy didn't give food to the ogress.'
That, for me, is a genuine moment of pure happiness. You are escaping the cold. The Veuve Cliquot sparkles in the mouth. You look at your little bag of presents. The plane banks over the Alps and the sun awaits. Have another gulp. Aaaaaaaand RELAX
Shame they don’t have the upstairs on 747s anymore though.
Time for a third champagne!
The senator from South Carolina has a personal story that confounds easy political categories.
#27 - In 2008, [Scott] ran for and won a seat [as a Republican] in the South Carolina state house, and he also took his grandfather to vote. His grandfather couldn’t read the ballot, so he pointed to the name —Barack Obama. As he drove him home, he looked over at his grandfather, who had tears rolling down his face. “Timmy, the miracle isn’t whether he wins or not. The miracle is that he is on the ballot!” his grandfather said. “Timmy, for more than half of my life, I wasn’t allowed to vote.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/05/22/tim-scott-55-things-you-need-to-know-00097711
BREAKING: 4th Circuit upholds Thomas Jefferson High School admissions policy, 2-1, holding that it does not unconstitutionally discriminate against Asians and Asian-Americans. King (Clinton) writes, Heytens (Biden) joins, Rushing (Trump) dissents.
https://twitter.com/joshgerstein/status/1661014602090708993?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
Read the deets. It’s ok to discriminate against Asians as long as you don’t explicitly say that’s your intention and it’s just a by product of your racialist admissions policy
Surely?
His mother either ignores him or shouts at him (and then he ignores her)
My inner Caligula emerges
Asking for a flint knapper.
Boris Johnson’s most loyal supporters in the Commons are relatively quiet tonight both in the media and on Twitter. A sign perhaps of how much his political stock has fallen since last autumn, when a comeback looked like a serious possibility.
I am now on champagne no.1, pondering movies
Save one for the flight home?
https://www.flightradar24.com/BAW11/3068d6fb
I can be next Führer.
Oh no you can’t.
Doing this sort of thing keeps me off the booze (well that's my excuse anyway)
Durham on the other hand did give Starmer a good going over so perhaps the anomaly is regional.
https://twitter.com/gerashchenko_en/status/1661100901094793223?s=46
The story in The Times is paywalled: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/natural-england-blamed-for-blocking-new-homes-ztfl3b9qv
But the House Building Federation have a previous story (from March, when it was only 120,000 homes they were blocking) on their website, with more detail. Including the fact that all existing housing stock (25 million or so) accounts for only 5% of the issue, so these new properties would have a negligible impact.
https://www.hbf.co.uk/news/nutrient-neutrality-lichfields-report-unblocking-homebuilding/
This is the kind of shit we left the EU to sort it - their burdensome, wrong-headed regulation is real, it is pertinent to important issues, and it does hold us back.
It seems likely that the youths thought they were being chased, even if they weren’t.
My wife feels guilty every time she sees the police, and she’s done nothing wrong…
https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1661093720651907096?s=20