Off-topic, I hope for United's sake that Mason Greenwood is as good on his return as he was before his unfortunate idiocy. Imagine the excitement if he comes back and plays like Harry Maguire...
This is dodgy ground surely.
Greenwood hasn't been found guilty of anything, and AFAIK hasn't admitted any reprehensible behaviour. What he has been accused of is vile of course but don't we have to follow an 'innocent until proved guilty' approach?
Maybe I'm missing something, but if 'his unfortunate idiocy' is the unproven accusation it can't be used to condemn him.
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
Way offtopic, I just bought this badge from a shop in Ukraine.
To anyone who doubts what the Ukranians think of the Brits at the moment… 🇬🇧 🇺🇦
I want one
In fairness the flag seems to be slightly fashionable thing in any case, it seems to pop up around the globe on clothing and tat in some odd places, and not just stamped on flags as a colonial legacy.
One of the nice things about it. It’s fairly politically neutral as a decorative item.
The Butcher's Apron?
Pretty sure you'll be hearing from one of the local secessionists about that.
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
Shame, the poster with long and varied experience of creating new accounts has just left and is therefore unable to give the benefit of his knowledge.
In 2020 Trump got absolutely demolished. What has happened since then to persuade people who didn't vote for him then to do so now? Or for the people who voted to keep him out not to do so again?
An encouraging thought. I suppose whilst he is unlikely to win many people back his hope is a) Biden is more disliked and that depresses his vote a bit, even if those votes just stay at home, and b) those states which were very close last time remain so, and that legal efforts to depress the vote in those areas work, at least enough for c) crazier statehouses going along with him more.
Seems a quite plausible outcome that 2024 is a rerun of 2020 only with more radicalised statehouses refusing to certify Biden.
It would have to be radicalised battleground statehouses.
I have just splashed out £3.49 to watch Get Carter (the proper one) on Amazon, inspired by a quote from same by Dura_Ace last night. Lot of money to most people, but that's how I roll.
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
In 2020 Trump got absolutely demolished. What has happened since then to persuade people who didn't vote for him then to do so now? Or for the people who voted to keep him out not to do so again?
An encouraging thought. I suppose whilst he is unlikely to win many people back his hope is a) Biden is more disliked and that depresses his vote a bit, even if those votes just stay at home, and b) those states which were very close last time remain so, and that legal efforts to depress the vote in those areas work, at least enough for c) crazier statehouses going along with him more.
Seems a quite plausible outcome that 2024 is a rerun of 2020 only with more radicalised statehouses refusing to certify Biden.
From the Dem point of view they have to hope they win sufficiently that enough GOPers back down as it being too ridiculous to attempt in those circumstances, with enough of the honest officials in places like Arizona still in place refusing to go along with a scheme.
But then we have to remember that these are the people who genuinely argued in cases that unevidenced accusations of fraud in particular (Dem heavy) areas, meant an entire state's votes should be discounted, encompassing millions of voters. Trump has claimed that he won literally every state. His false electors scheme included one state he lost by 10%, not just the ones where it was close. And where the governor of one of the states now defends the election as honest disputing Trump's account, but still plans to vote for him.
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
Way offtopic, I just bought this badge from a shop in Ukraine.
To anyone who doubts what the Ukranians think of the Brits at the moment… 🇬🇧 🇺🇦
I want one
In fairness the flag seems to be slightly fashionable thing in any case, it seems to pop up around the globe on clothing and tat in some odd places, and not just stamped on flags as a colonial legacy.
One of the nice things about it. It’s fairly politically neutral as a decorative item.
The Butcher's Apron?
Pretty sure you'll be hearing from one of the local secessionists about that.
Musk, on the other hand, could. A POTUS bid costs what, $100million? He's got $420billion. He could run and not even notice the spend.
I think MMcC, if he got the financial backing, would walk the Rep noms. He is quite an interesting republican with a bit of balance and nuance about issues such as gun control. Comes across as a sensible low tax, small state but socially more liberal. Huge public recognition and also managed to stop the Sahara being a chemical wasteland by some evil solar power magnate/villain.
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
Way offtopic, I just bought this badge from a shop in Ukraine.
To anyone who doubts what the Ukranians think of the Brits at the moment… 🇬🇧 🇺🇦
I want one
In fairness the flag seems to be slightly fashionable thing in any case, it seems to pop up around the globe on clothing and tat in some odd places, and not just stamped on flags as a colonial legacy.
One of the nice things about it. It’s fairly politically neutral as a decorative item.
The Butcher's Apron?
Pretty sure you'll be hearing from one of the local secessionists about that.
Only the ones who are mentally 14, which thankfully are few in number.
...We need the nation to take this team to their hearts so that people will see the ludicrous nonsense of some 3rd division no hoper deciding that he is really Ethel and has been all along and being permitted to play against, or compete for a place on the team with, the lovely Alessia.
This isn't the first time you've pointed this out (apart from your stiffy on the lovely Alessia). Do you really think people transition to get better scores in sports?
Way offtopic, I just bought this badge from a shop in Ukraine.
To anyone who doubts what the Ukranians think of the Brits at the moment… 🇬🇧 🇺🇦
I had a bunch of unprompted "yaay! Britain!" responses from people in Lviv when I was there recently... though, to be fair, I also had a few "oh, yes! Ireland!" responses when they were just looking at my passport.
I got the impression that people are very keen to make a point of encouraging as much external support as possible.
Watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. Pity that @Leon definitely isn't here, he could have given us his thoughts about the learnings we could take from the role of the HAL9000 AI in the film...
I have just splashed out £3.49 to watch Get Carter (the proper one) on Amazon, inspired by a quote from same by Dura_Ace last night. Lot of money to most people, but that's how I roll.
So that's me for the next 2 hours.
Excellent choice of viewing.
Why, only yesterday did I have a cup of tea from my mug depicting the Get Carter car park in Gateshead. Sadly, no longer with us.
Of course, the burning question is which Deltic hauled his train from King's Cross to Newcastle?
Musk, on the other hand, could. A POTUS bid costs what, $100million? He's got $420billion. He could run and not even notice the spend.
A clear sign Trump is nowhere near as rich as he claims is that he would run for and now seek to regain the Presidency in the first place. The real powerhouse billionaires don't give a shit who's President, and it would take up too much of their time.
Yes, many of them will also have giant egos and engage in displays of adolescent posturing on twitter and the like, but as impactful a role as the Presidency is, they can scratch an itch for validation and power in other ways.
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
I'm sure @Leon is sufficiently creative to come up with all sorts of potential new characters, but I doubt that a nerd who bangs on about email deliverability issues is likely to be at the top of his list any time soon...
Grover Cleveland casts a long shadow over the US Presidency - the only man to win the Presidency, lose it and then win it back. It seems his first VP, one Thomas A. Hendricks, died after just 8 months in November 1885 and the office of VP was left vacant during the rest of Cleveland's first term.
His VP in his second tenure was Adlai Stevenson's grandfather.
The later Adlai Stevenson fought Eisenhower twice - in 1952 and 1956, the last time two candidates fought two successive Presidential elections.
There were plenty of concerns about Eisenhower's health and many thought he would not run for a second term after his heart attack in 1955 but not only did he run, he won a second landslide over Stevenson increasing his majority in terms of votes and states in 1956.
Inexact parallels perhaps (aren't they always?) but interesting to note.
Also just to note Cleveland in 1888, like Samuel Tilden in 1876, Al Gore in 2000 and Hilary Clinton in 2016 won the popular vote (i.e: got more votes than the Republican opponent) but lost in the Electoral College.
Has any Republican ever got more votes than the Democrat opponent and lost in the EC - I can't think of one?
Way offtopic, I just bought this badge from a shop in Ukraine.
To anyone who doubts what the Ukranians think of the Brits at the moment… 🇬🇧 🇺🇦
I had a bunch of unprompted "yaay! Britain!" responses from people in Lviv when I was there recently... though, to be fair, I also had a few "oh, yes! Ireland!" responses when they were just looking at my passport.
I got the impression that people are very keen to make a point of encouraging as much external support as possible.
You should write an article in the spectator about the experience.
True, but a real hostage to fortune. Remember when Trump said that if he's indicted, "we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere"?
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
Watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. Pity that @Leon definitely isn't here, he could have given us his thoughts about the learnings we could take from the role of the HAL9000 AI in the film...
He would have appreciated the power of machines over man without man realising. Also Leitmotif of the use of “Thus spake Zarathustra” and it’s theme of eternal recurrence.
Way offtopic, I just bought this badge from a shop in Ukraine.
To anyone who doubts what the Ukranians think of the Brits at the moment… 🇬🇧 🇺🇦
I had a bunch of unprompted "yaay! Britain!" responses from people in Lviv when I was there recently... though, to be fair, I also had a few "oh, yes! Ireland!" responses when they were just looking at my passport.
I got the impression that people are very keen to make a point of encouraging as much external support as possible.
Oh come on, you could could have kept us guessing for 5 seconds before confessing.
Way offtopic, I just bought this badge from a shop in Ukraine.
To anyone who doubts what the Ukranians think of the Brits at the moment… 🇬🇧 🇺🇦
I had a bunch of unprompted "yaay! Britain!" responses from people in Lviv when I was there recently... though, to be fair, I also had a few "oh, yes! Ireland!" responses when they were just looking at my passport.
I got the impression that people are very keen to make a point of encouraging as much external support as possible.
You were in Lviv recently? That’s interesting, I’ll be there next week.
There was a Spectator article by Sean Thomas about Lviv, published last week, so I hope you have something more useful to add to that idiot’s ramblings?
Trump being the next US President will be even more dangerous for the rest of the world than Russia winning in Ukraine.
Trump was already President for 4 years and the world survived. What exactly are you afraid of?
Have you ever played Russian roulette ?
More than anything else about the 'Trump was not as bad as people feared in 2016' weird argument is that even where that might be true, that was before he sought to overturn an election he lost. It's a very different ballgame from the theoretical problems of a first term. A lot of the people who worked for him then are opposed to him now, and he wouldn't make the mistake of bringing on board anyone but total yes men who won't restrain him.
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
Way offtopic, I just bought this badge from a shop in Ukraine.
To anyone who doubts what the Ukranians think of the Brits at the moment… 🇬🇧 🇺🇦
I had a bunch of unprompted "yaay! Britain!" responses from people in Lviv when I was there recently... though, to be fair, I also had a few "oh, yes! Ireland!" responses when they were just looking at my passport.
I got the impression that people are very keen to make a point of encouraging as much external support as possible.
Oh come on, you could could have kept us guessing for 5 seconds before confessing.
No fun any more...
The more competent Russian Trolls stay ambiguous longer than that.
Beyond gay marriage which most Tories voted against, can somebody point to some policies that they've introduced that make life better for anyone under the age of 75?
Of course there's many policies introduced for those under 75. All Governments have a mix of good and bad policies and this is no different.
Biggest problem in the country is housing and on that there's been a mix of bad and good actions. A distinct lack of enough building and the sensible reforms on planning proposed were blocked. But some good policies have gone through.
One of the best policies introduced in recent years is one I have never even seen mentioned on this site, nor on the media either. Indeed it doesn't seem to get any attention at all, that is a policy called Help To Buy Shared Equity. http://sharetobuy.com/
Help To Buy was a completely different policy, which has been discussed here a lot, but this is a new scheme and completely different to what came before.
For new build affordable homes, for people who don't own a property already and can't afford one through traditional means a share of a home can be bought (eg 25%) with the remaining share being bought by an firm like Legal & General. The share is bought just like buying a house normally, eg you can put down say a 10% deposit and get a mortgage on the rest and that then is your home. Rent is then paid to the investment scheme with the rest of the share of the property at a fixed and regulated rate. The homeowner has the right to buy the remaining shares when they are in a position to do so eg buying an additional 1% per annum, or remortgaging down the line in order to buy the rest of their property outright.
So for buying say a flat in central London that is £600k rather than needing £60k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £15k Or for buying a 3 bed house in the North that is £200k then rather than needing £20k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £5k.
The only reason I even heard about this scheme is someone in my family found it and did it. A relative in his 20s has managed to buy a flat in London without parental support and without an inheritance through this - and is now paying for mortgage and rent combined on a new build 2 bedroom flat about half the amount he'd have paid to a private landlord for a 1 bedroom flat. He's now on the property ladder, in Central London, from his own efforts - without this scheme he'd be paying much more in rent with no hope of getting on the ladder.
I don't know why more hasn't been made about schemes like this? Never even heard it mentioned here or on the media. Its a very good idea though.
We need to build lots and lots of more houses in this country and for anyone who can't afford their own home outright, I think this scheme or similar for many more new builds should be available for people to transition onto the property ladder easier.
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
Your first two posts got lost too, if I'm not mistaken. Or else you were given a handicap start at 3
Beyond gay marriage which most Tories voted against, can somebody point to some policies that they've introduced that make life better for anyone under the age of 75?
Of course there's many policies introduced for those under 75. All Governments have a mix of good and bad policies and this is no different.
Biggest problem in the country is housing and on that there's been a mix of bad and good actions. A distinct lack of enough building and the sensible reforms on planning proposed were blocked. But some good policies have gone through.
One of the best policies introduced in recent years is one I have never even seen mentioned on this site, nor on the media either. Indeed it doesn't seem to get any attention at all, that is a policy called Help To Buy Shared Equity. http://sharetobuy.com/
Help To Buy was a completely different policy, which has been discussed here a lot, but this is a new scheme and completely different to what came before.
For new build affordable homes, for people who don't own a property already and can't afford one through traditional means a share of a home can be bought (eg 25%) with the remaining share being bought by an firm like Legal & General. The share is bought just like buying a house normally, eg you can put down say a 10% deposit and get a mortgage on the rest and that then is your home. Rent is then paid to the investment scheme with the rest of the share of the property at a fixed and regulated rate. The homeowner has the right to buy the remaining shares when they are in a position to do so eg buying an additional 1% per annum, or remortgaging down the line in order to buy the rest of their property outright.
So for buying say a flat in central London that is £600k rather than needing £60k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £15k Or for buying a 3 bed house in the North that is £200k then rather than needing £20k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £5k.
The only reason I even heard about this scheme is someone in my family found it and did it. A relative in his 20s has managed to buy a flat in London without parental support and without an inheritance through this - and is now paying for mortgage and rent combined on a new build 2 bedroom flat about half the amount he'd have paid to a private landlord for a 1 bedroom flat. He's now on the property ladder, in Central London, from his own efforts - without this scheme he'd be paying much more in rent with no hope of getting on the ladder.
I don't know why more hasn't been made about schemes like this? Never even heard it mentioned here or on the media. Its a very good idea though.
We need to build lots and lots of more houses in this country and for anyone who can't afford their own home outright, I think this scheme or similar for many more new builds should be available for people to transition onto the property ladder easier.
Interesting. I’ve never quite worked out how these schemes work, but that sounds like a good example - so long at the rent from the other commercial owner can’t be rebased to current interest rates.
Grover Cleveland casts a long shadow over the US Presidency - the only man to win the Presidency, lose it and then win it back. It seems his first VP, one Thomas A. Hendricks, died after just 8 months in November 1885 and the office of VP was left vacant during the rest of Cleveland's first term.
His VP in his second tenure was Adlai Stevenson's grandfather.
The later Adlai Stevenson fought Eisenhower twice - in 1952 and 1956, the last time two candidates fought two successive Presidential elections.
There were plenty of concerns about Eisenhower's health and many thought he would not run for a second term after his heart attack in 1955 but not only did he run, he won a second landslide over Stevenson increasing his majority in terms of votes and states in 1956.
A supporter in '56 told him "Every thinking person in America will be voting for you." Stevenson replied, "I'm afraid that won't do.."
Entirely off-topic, but yesterday's jaunt was far more fun than it should have been. Had to go to a meeting in Coventry for 3 hours over lunchtime. Direct Logainair flights to Brum available but at £gonzo cost and leaving a lot of time free.
So I decided to ape my hero @AlsoLei and do some travel fun. Left home at 04:15 to catch the easyJet 06:10 to Gatwick. 20 minutes late away due to heavy summer traffic, off the plane and onto the shuttle to the station to get a train to Victoria, tube to Euston then onto a Pendolino for a non-stop run to Coventry.
Avanti have been refurbishing these so that the interior is even more airline than Virgin had them. Plenty of free seats on the 11-car train but no table on either side lines up with a table on the other side. So combine that with the arrow slit windows and these Fiat trains are as claustrophobic as ever. Albeit entertaining when they hoof it along at full tilt.
Productive 3 hour meeting then back to the station for the same in reverse. Leaving Victoria at 5pm I shouldn't have been able to get a table seat in the coach closest to the ticket barrier - but you can post-Covid.
easyJet app warning of DELAY to the 19:55 back. 1 hour late is on time for Gatwick in the summer. Runway had been briefly shut earlier that afternoon so a risk of that getting worse. And it did. App and FlightRadar both suggesting 00:09 as the new departure time (which would have been cancelled and us in a hotel) - happily that was reversed and 21:00 put in its place (better).
A day trip from northern Aberdeenshire to Coventry is a bit mentalist anyway, never mind doing it via Gatwick. I'm sure the carbon footprint isn't pretty. But whatever. I enjoy mad trips like this, especially when I am being paid handsomely to do so...
Many critics have contested Lauro’s claim, however, as a legal matter. They contend that the crimes charged actually can, in fact, be proved even if Trump subjectively believed that an imagined election victory was stolen from him. See, for instance, here, here, here, and here. Though the precise criminal intent, or mens rea, required for each of the four counts varies slightly, the argument goes, in essence, that prosecutors need prove only that Trump understood that his legal remedies—through recounts and litigation—had been exhausted. When he intentionally resorted to illicit conduct to hold onto power anyway, he knew he was acting wrongfully—outside lawful channels—and, therefore, committed crimes.
My aim in this post is different. My point is that, given the accusations of the indictment, these nuanced legal arguments will likely be unnecessary. If the government can prove just a fraction of the factual allegations that the indictment charges, jurors should have no trouble concluding that Trump knew he had lost the election and was acting in bad faith...
Juries have no trouble convicting such people. When confronted with individuals who relentlessly and pervasively make false statements, jurors usually conclude that they are liars. Jurors get lying. They’ve met liars in their lives. They’ve been burned by them. They don’t like them.
Interesting idea, and almost idealistic - hopefully true.
Also entirely off-topic - I'm going to send my Surface Pro 8 off to Microsoft for a screen replacement. A massive massive ball ache to get that organised which took 6 attempts to speak to an actual human person to get it sorted. I pointed this out and he laughed. "yeah, I know" - so even MS staff know their system is absurdly bureaucratic?
I decried Apple for years. And now think my MacBook is king shit. Ah well.
Way offtopic, I just bought this badge from a shop in Ukraine.
To anyone who doubts what the Ukranians think of the Brits at the moment… 🇬🇧 🇺🇦
I had a bunch of unprompted "yaay! Britain!" responses from people in Lviv when I was there recently... though, to be fair, I also had a few "oh, yes! Ireland!" responses when they were just looking at my passport.
I got the impression that people are very keen to make a point of encouraging as much external support as possible.
Oh come on, you could could have kept us guessing for 5 seconds before confessing.
Grover Cleveland casts a long shadow over the US Presidency - the only man to win the Presidency, lose it and then win it back. It seems his first VP, one Thomas A. Hendricks, died after just 8 months in November 1885 and the office of VP was left vacant during the rest of Cleveland's first term.
His VP in his second tenure was Adlai Stevenson's grandfather.
The later Adlai Stevenson fought Eisenhower twice - in 1952 and 1956, the last time two candidates fought two successive Presidential elections.
There were plenty of concerns about Eisenhower's health and many thought he would not run for a second term after his heart attack in 1955 but not only did he run, he won a second landslide over Stevenson increasing his majority in terms of votes and states in 1956.
A supporter in '56 told him "Every thinking person in America will be voting for you." Stevenson replied, "I'm afraid that won't do.."
An even better (because unintentional) version of that was David Howell, who said of Geoffrey Howe's 'conflict of loyalty' tirade, 'That speech must have affected every thinking Conservative MP and many others as well.'
Off-topic, I hope for United's sake that Mason Greenwood is as good on his return as he was before his unfortunate idiocy. Imagine the excitement if he comes back and plays like Harry Maguire...
This is dodgy ground surely.
Greenwood hasn't been found guilty of anything, and AFAIK hasn't admitted any reprehensible behaviour. What he has been accused of is vile of course but don't we have to follow an 'innocent until proved guilty' approach?
Maybe I'm missing something, but if 'his unfortunate idiocy' is the unproven accusation it can't be used to condemn him.
go away, listen to the recordings, and come back and think about what you're defending.
It is essential that Trump does not stand in 2024 and anything to help that happen is welcome
I have not been posting much recently and notice it was a rather unpleasant on here last night with @Leon leaving and some seemingly pleased he left
Unless someone breaches the rules of posting on this site, then expressing pleasure that someone you may not agree with has left is rather unnecessary
On representation at the the Women's Final in Australia on Sunday, the question should be asked who would go if it was the Men's team for the first World final since 1966, and in my opinion it is inconceivable the King and the PM would avoid going
Quite. Utterly not on for William not to go as pres of FA. This is the sort of thing he is paid for.
Why? He didn't go to the men's world cup in Qatar last year.
Just another pathetic attempt by republicans to have a whinge at the royals when they would also whinge at the emissions and travel costs if he went to Australia for this one match
It's a World Cup final involving England in a country where King Charles is Head of State.
It's inconceivable that Queen Elizabeth wouldn't have sent someone.
She and the King could send the governor general
Sooner than subject his late mum to the indignity of a seance he could get off his arse and tell his son to get off his. This dereliction of duty is on a par with that lightbulb head guy who couldn't be arsed to cut short his hols over Afghanistan. And if the King doesn't see this it's the job of the PM to tell him so.
Can you even name the GG without googling?
As much as I love you Mik, and as much as I often agree with you I think it’s the correct call. We need to stop this bollocks of everyone jumping for sports matches. It’s sodding embarrassing. It’s sports people playing sports. That is it. I’m desperately hoping, for the first time ever I can imagine, that England lose the final purely because a million tossers are calling for a Bank Holiday if England win.
There shouldn’t be a bank holiday for any England or British team winning an international tournament- the players get their lifetime satisfaction by winning the pinnacle of their chosen sport, they likely make more money through increased sponsorship, the fans get their joy from their team winning. That’s all it should be.
I know self employed electricians, I know of people on ZHCs who don’t get paid when a team wins and the resulting bank holiday. It’s great for those in gov or media to demand it but then they don’t give a crap that it’s another day that the economy pays a price.
It’s a football final. Great. Every seat in a stadium should be fans not VIPs who don’t give a monkey’s in reality. He would be better off setting up a big screen in Kensington palace gardens and inviting a load of kids from London to watch it with him.
OK how does that square with Wimbledon attendance?
If this had been the men's World Cup they'd have gone. I think this is what they are paid for. I am neutral on the monarchy yes/no question, veering very slightly no, but if they like being monarchs I also think they are missing a serious trick. And I am very, very pro the bigging up of cis womens' sport just at the moment. We need the nation to take this team to their hearts so that people will see the ludicrous nonsense of some 3rd division no hoper deciding that he is really Ethel and has been all along and being permitted to play against, or compete for a place on the team with, the lovely Alessia.
Wimbledon is somewhat more convenient for Buck House, or Windsor, or wherever KCIII hangs out these days in his southern kingdom (no idea myself, don't follow that sort of news).
Also less likely to encounter a coked up gent with flare in rectum. Not easy to know what to say to him as one passes along the row of introducees.
Beyond gay marriage which most Tories voted against, can somebody point to some policies that they've introduced that make life better for anyone under the age of 75?
Of course there's many policies introduced for those under 75. All Governments have a mix of good and bad policies and this is no different.
Biggest problem in the country is housing and on that there's been a mix of bad and good actions. A distinct lack of enough building and the sensible reforms on planning proposed were blocked. But some good policies have gone through.
One of the best policies introduced in recent years is one I have never even seen mentioned on this site, nor on the media either. Indeed it doesn't seem to get any attention at all, that is a policy called Help To Buy Shared Equity. http://sharetobuy.com/
Help To Buy was a completely different policy, which has been discussed here a lot, but this is a new scheme and completely different to what came before.
For new build affordable homes, for people who don't own a property already and can't afford one through traditional means a share of a home can be bought (eg 25%) with the remaining share being bought by an firm like Legal & General. The share is bought just like buying a house normally, eg you can put down say a 10% deposit and get a mortgage on the rest and that then is your home. Rent is then paid to the investment scheme with the rest of the share of the property at a fixed and regulated rate. The homeowner has the right to buy the remaining shares when they are in a position to do so eg buying an additional 1% per annum, or remortgaging down the line in order to buy the rest of their property outright.
So for buying say a flat in central London that is £600k rather than needing £60k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £15k Or for buying a 3 bed house in the North that is £200k then rather than needing £20k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £5k.
The only reason I even heard about this scheme is someone in my family found it and did it. A relative in his 20s has managed to buy a flat in London without parental support and without an inheritance through this - and is now paying for mortgage and rent combined on a new build 2 bedroom flat about half the amount he'd have paid to a private landlord for a 1 bedroom flat. He's now on the property ladder, in Central London, from his own efforts - without this scheme he'd be paying much more in rent with no hope of getting on the ladder.
I don't know why more hasn't been made about schemes like this? Never even heard it mentioned here or on the media. Its a very good idea though.
We need to build lots and lots of more houses in this country and for anyone who can't afford their own home outright, I think this scheme or similar for many more new builds should be available for people to transition onto the property ladder easier.
Interesting. I’ve never quite worked out how these schemes work, but that sounds like a good example - so long at the rent from the other commercial owner can’t be rebased to current interest rates.
I went through the contracts with him to ensure there's no nasties like that, and no its all quite regulated and set by contracts from the onset.
The rent is fixed at the start of the contract as the % of unowned property at the contracted exchange price, adjusted by CPI annually, which is a bit at the moment but still massively cheaper than renting through traditional means.
So eg my relatives one the rent is 2.5% per annum on the unowned property share. If he 'staircases' any more shares then the rent goes down proportionately to match, though with interest rates as they are at the minute its probably cheaper not to do so for now.
Also entirely off-topic - I'm going to send my Surface Pro 8 off to Microsoft for a screen replacement. A massive massive ball ache to get that organised which took 6 attempts to speak to an actual human person to get it sorted. I pointed this out and he laughed. "yeah, I know" - so even MS staff know their system is absurdly bureaucratic?
I decried Apple for years. And now think my MacBook is king shit. Ah well.
Bloody Surface Book. I have the first one and the battery is going - but it is irreplaceable as it is glued in.
Is 'king shit' good or bad? Can't keep up with the youthful cant these days.
Off-topic, I hope for United's sake that Mason Greenwood is as good on his return as he was before his unfortunate idiocy. Imagine the excitement if he comes back and plays like Harry Maguire...
This is dodgy ground surely.
Greenwood hasn't been found guilty of anything, and AFAIK hasn't admitted any reprehensible behaviour. What he has been accused of is vile of course but don't we have to follow an 'innocent until proved guilty' approach?
Maybe I'm missing something, but if 'his unfortunate idiocy' is the unproven accusation it can't be used to condemn him.
go away, listen to the recordings, and come back and think about what you're defending.
Exactly. The man has not committed any crime. But was a total idiot in what he did. I hope - whether he plays for us or anyone else going forward - that the experience has made him a Sadder and Wiser engine.
Way offtopic, I just bought this badge from a shop in Ukraine.
To anyone who doubts what the Ukranians think of the Brits at the moment… 🇬🇧 🇺🇦
I had a bunch of unprompted "yaay! Britain!" responses from people in Lviv when I was there recently... though, to be fair, I also had a few "oh, yes! Ireland!" responses when they were just looking at my passport.
I got the impression that people are very keen to make a point of encouraging as much external support as possible.
You were in Lviv recently? That’s interesting, I’ll be there next week.
There was a Spectator article by Sean Thomas about Lviv, published last week, so I hope you have something more useful to add to that idiot’s ramblings?
Yeah, I've been working with a couple of teams based there so thought it was a good idea to show my face... travelled from Przemysl by train, which I think is the same route SeanT took on the way in.
My impression was a bit different from his: less busy than the last time I was there, sandbags around everything, but not so crowded with injured people as he said (there were some people on crutches, but it didn't feel worse than, say, Belfast in the early 2000s), and I didn't meet anyone who expressed anything approaching defeatism. A very long way from the front lines, obviously, but I didn't get the impression of a people on the verge of giving up.
Also entirely off-topic - I'm going to send my Surface Pro 8 off to Microsoft for a screen replacement. A massive massive ball ache to get that organised which took 6 attempts to speak to an actual human person to get it sorted. I pointed this out and he laughed. "yeah, I know" - so even MS staff know their system is absurdly bureaucratic?
I decried Apple for years. And now think my MacBook is king shit. Ah well.
Bloody Surface Book. I have the first one and the battery is going - but it is irreplaceable as it is glued in.
Is 'king shit' good or bad? Can't keep up with the youthful cant these days.
Surface Pro 8. Specced for a previous client's needs and less than 2 years old. Despite the decent spec (i5, 16gb RAM) it struggles with certain apps. Never mind my attempts to render 30 minutes of 4k video, watching Sky Go makes the thing get so hot it burns to touch. And the battery life is c. 2 hours. Brilliant form factor, awful execution. And Windows 11 is Windows, so...
I have been an Apple refuser. But my new MacBook Pro 14" is sensationally built, the OS whilst full of its own quirks is no harder to learn than Windows was, and it can take any work I throw at it and laugh. Though admittedly I bought the M2 Max 32gb version.
I have just splashed out £3.49 to watch Get Carter (the proper one) on Amazon, inspired by a quote from same by Dura_Ace last night. Lot of money to most people, but that's how I roll.
Beyond gay marriage which most Tories voted against, can somebody point to some policies that they've introduced that make life better for anyone under the age of 75?
Of course there's many policies introduced for those under 75. All Governments have a mix of good and bad policies and this is no different.
Biggest problem in the country is housing and on that there's been a mix of bad and good actions. A distinct lack of enough building and the sensible reforms on planning proposed were blocked. But some good policies have gone through.
One of the best policies introduced in recent years is one I have never even seen mentioned on this site, nor on the media either. Indeed it doesn't seem to get any attention at all, that is a policy called Help To Buy Shared Equity. http://sharetobuy.com/
Help To Buy was a completely different policy, which has been discussed here a lot, but this is a new scheme and completely different to what came before.
For new build affordable homes, for people who don't own a property already and can't afford one through traditional means a share of a home can be bought (eg 25%) with the remaining share being bought by an firm like Legal & General. The share is bought just like buying a house normally, eg you can put down say a 10% deposit and get a mortgage on the rest and that then is your home. Rent is then paid to the investment scheme with the rest of the share of the property at a fixed and regulated rate. The homeowner has the right to buy the remaining shares when they are in a position to do so eg buying an additional 1% per annum, or remortgaging down the line in order to buy the rest of their property outright.
So for buying say a flat in central London that is £600k rather than needing £60k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £15k Or for buying a 3 bed house in the North that is £200k then rather than needing £20k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £5k.
The only reason I even heard about this scheme is someone in my family found it and did it. A relative in his 20s has managed to buy a flat in London without parental support and without an inheritance through this - and is now paying for mortgage and rent combined on a new build 2 bedroom flat about half the amount he'd have paid to a private landlord for a 1 bedroom flat. He's now on the property ladder, in Central London, from his own efforts - without this scheme he'd be paying much more in rent with no hope of getting on the ladder.
I don't know why more hasn't been made about schemes like this? Never even heard it mentioned here or on the media. Its a very good idea though.
We need to build lots and lots of more houses in this country and for anyone who can't afford their own home outright, I think this scheme or similar for many more new builds should be available for people to transition onto the property ladder easier.
I agree with you and I don't.
Where I part company would be with a completely unregulated uncontrolled house building programme. Where I agree with you is the recognition more houses are needed. I would also contend we need a planning function while also recognising the current setup in most Councils isn't fit for purpose.
Building large numbers of new properties in an area, whether brownfield or greenfield, town or country, impacts on those currently in residence. The infrastructural framework of schools, houses, medical facilities, roads, transport, sewage, retail, commercial and everything else on which we depend needs to be if not in place then planned to be in place so no one is under any illusions the 5000-10000 extra homes will change the character of the town but not adversely for those already in residence - the new properties will make the town better not worse.
Simply throwing up new properties without the concomitant infrastructural expenditure and planning is what makes those already in place angry - the response to that anger is to brand them NIMBYs - they aren't in most instances but what they do want are developments which are not just sympathetic to the pre-existing community but bring measurable improvements.
Watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. Pity that @Leon definitely isn't here, he could have given us his thoughts about the learnings we could take from the role of the HAL9000 AI in the film...
"Let me put it this way, Mr. Rochdale. The @Leon series is the most reliable computer ever made. No @Leon computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error."
Also entirely off-topic - I'm going to send my Surface Pro 8 off to Microsoft for a screen replacement. A massive massive ball ache to get that organised which took 6 attempts to speak to an actual human person to get it sorted. I pointed this out and he laughed. "yeah, I know" - so even MS staff know their system is absurdly bureaucratic?
I decried Apple for years. And now think my MacBook is king shit. Ah well.
Bloody Surface Book. I have the first one and the battery is going - but it is irreplaceable as it is glued in.
Is 'king shit' good or bad? Can't keep up with the youthful cant these days.
Surface Pro 8. Specced for a previous client's needs and less than 2 years old. Despite the decent spec (i5, 16gb RAM) it struggles with certain apps. Never mind my attempts to render 30 minutes of 4k video, watching Sky Go makes the thing get so hot it burns to touch. And the battery life is c. 2 hours. Brilliant form factor, awful execution. And Windows 11 is Windows, so...
I have been an Apple refuser. But my new MacBook Pro 14" is sensationally built, the OS whilst full of its own quirks is no harder to learn than Windows was, and it can take any work I throw at it and laugh. Though admittedly I bought the M2 Max 32gb version.
So "king shit" in this case is good.
Interesting. I’ve had a whole load of the Surface tablets pass through my hands without major problems. But yes, W11 is sh!t, and even managed computers have somehow upgraded themselves by magic. Not good from MS, who now clearly dislike SMEs and reserve most of the management features for enterprise users only.
Recent Apple laptop stuff is really good though. You get what you pay for, and you dropped a couple of bags of sand on something that will still be really good five years from now.
Off-topic, I hope for United's sake that Mason Greenwood is as good on his return as he was before his unfortunate idiocy. Imagine the excitement if he comes back and plays like Harry Maguire...
This is dodgy ground surely.
Greenwood hasn't been found guilty of anything, and AFAIK hasn't admitted any reprehensible behaviour. What he has been accused of is vile of course but don't we have to follow an 'innocent until proved guilty' approach?
Maybe I'm missing something, but if 'his unfortunate idiocy' is the unproven accusation it can't be used to condemn him.
go away, listen to the recordings, and come back and think about what you're defending.
Off-topic, I hope for United's sake that Mason Greenwood is as good on his return as he was before his unfortunate idiocy. Imagine the excitement if he comes back and plays like Harry Maguire...
This is dodgy ground surely.
Greenwood hasn't been found guilty of anything, and AFAIK hasn't admitted any reprehensible behaviour. What he has been accused of is vile of course but don't we have to follow an 'innocent until proved guilty' approach?
Maybe I'm missing something, but if 'his unfortunate idiocy' is the unproven accusation it can't be used to condemn him.
go away, listen to the recordings, and come back and think about what you're defending.
Here's a transcript.
Jesus Christ. Lack of criminal conviction doesn't mean someone should get a pass for that in terms of career opportunities.
Also entirely off-topic - I'm going to send my Surface Pro 8 off to Microsoft for a screen replacement. A massive massive ball ache to get that organised which took 6 attempts to speak to an actual human person to get it sorted. I pointed this out and he laughed. "yeah, I know" - so even MS staff know their system is absurdly bureaucratic?
I decried Apple for years. And now think my MacBook is king shit. Ah well.
Bloody Surface Book. I have the first one and the battery is going - but it is irreplaceable as it is glued in.
Is 'king shit' good or bad? Can't keep up with the youthful cant these days.
Surface Pro 8. Specced for a previous client's needs and less than 2 years old. Despite the decent spec (i5, 16gb RAM) it struggles with certain apps. Never mind my attempts to render 30 minutes of 4k video, watching Sky Go makes the thing get so hot it burns to touch. And the battery life is c. 2 hours. Brilliant form factor, awful execution. And Windows 11 is Windows, so...
I have been an Apple refuser. But my new MacBook Pro 14" is sensationally built, the OS whilst full of its own quirks is no harder to learn than Windows was, and it can take any work I throw at it and laugh. Though admittedly I bought the M2 Max 32gb version.
Beyond gay marriage which most Tories voted against, can somebody point to some policies that they've introduced that make life better for anyone under the age of 75?
Of course there's many policies introduced for those under 75. All Governments have a mix of good and bad policies and this is no different.
Biggest problem in the country is housing and on that there's been a mix of bad and good actions. A distinct lack of enough building and the sensible reforms on planning proposed were blocked. But some good policies have gone through.
One of the best policies introduced in recent years is one I have never even seen mentioned on this site, nor on the media either. Indeed it doesn't seem to get any attention at all, that is a policy called Help To Buy Shared Equity. http://sharetobuy.com/
Help To Buy was a completely different policy, which has been discussed here a lot, but this is a new scheme and completely different to what came before.
For new build affordable homes, for people who don't own a property already and can't afford one through traditional means a share of a home can be bought (eg 25%) with the remaining share being bought by an firm like Legal & General. The share is bought just like buying a house normally, eg you can put down say a 10% deposit and get a mortgage on the rest and that then is your home. Rent is then paid to the investment scheme with the rest of the share of the property at a fixed and regulated rate. The homeowner has the right to buy the remaining shares when they are in a position to do so eg buying an additional 1% per annum, or remortgaging down the line in order to buy the rest of their property outright.
So for buying say a flat in central London that is £600k rather than needing £60k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £15k Or for buying a 3 bed house in the North that is £200k then rather than needing £20k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £5k.
The only reason I even heard about this scheme is someone in my family found it and did it. A relative in his 20s has managed to buy a flat in London without parental support and without an inheritance through this - and is now paying for mortgage and rent combined on a new build 2 bedroom flat about half the amount he'd have paid to a private landlord for a 1 bedroom flat. He's now on the property ladder, in Central London, from his own efforts - without this scheme he'd be paying much more in rent with no hope of getting on the ladder.
I don't know why more hasn't been made about schemes like this? Never even heard it mentioned here or on the media. Its a very good idea though.
We need to build lots and lots of more houses in this country and for anyone who can't afford their own home outright, I think this scheme or similar for many more new builds should be available for people to transition onto the property ladder easier.
I agree with you and I don't.
Where I part company would be with a completely unregulated uncontrolled house building programme. Where I agree with you is the recognition more houses are needed. I would also contend we need a planning function while also recognising the current setup in most Councils isn't fit for purpose.
Building large numbers of new properties in an area, whether brownfield or greenfield, town or country, impacts on those currently in residence. The infrastructural framework of schools, houses, medical facilities, roads, transport, sewage, retail, commercial and everything else on which we depend needs to be if not in place then planned to be in place so no one is under any illusions the 5000-10000 extra homes will change the character of the town but not adversely for those already in residence - the new properties will make the town better not worse.
Simply throwing up new properties without the concomitant infrastructural expenditure and planning is what makes those already in place angry - the response to that anger is to brand them NIMBYs - they aren't in most instances but what they do want are developments which are not just sympathetic to the pre-existing community but bring measurable improvements.
Houses don't need schools, children do.
That scheme I mentioned, my wife mentioned it to a colleague of hers at work. She's currently living with her partner and 2 children in one bedroom in her own parents house. Soon she'll move into a new build house.
The net change in school usage from a family moving out of their parents home and into a home of their own? Nothing.
We need more schools if we have more population growth, not for more houses. We've had population growth, so we need the service investment either way - the houses are just to ensure people can have a home of their own and not live in overcrowded housing.
...We need the nation to take this team to their hearts so that people will see the ludicrous nonsense of some 3rd division no hoper deciding that he is really Ethel and has been all along and being permitted to play against, or compete for a place on the team with, the lovely Alessia.
This isn't the first time you've pointed this out (apart from your stiffy on the lovely Alessia). Do you really think people transition to get better scores in sports?
I'm sure they don't.
But the difference between male and female performance in sports is so extreme, that many sports would inevitably get dominated to by trans competitors.
Let me give you an example. The US Women's World Cup team played Wrexham (who has just been promoted to the old fourth division!)
This is 11 of the very best female players in the world, against a team that wouldn't be in the top 1,000 worldwide.
Off-topic, I hope for United's sake that Mason Greenwood is as good on his return as he was before his unfortunate idiocy. Imagine the excitement if he comes back and plays like Harry Maguire...
This is dodgy ground surely.
Greenwood hasn't been found guilty of anything, and AFAIK hasn't admitted any reprehensible behaviour. What he has been accused of is vile of course but don't we have to follow an 'innocent until proved guilty' approach?
Maybe I'm missing something, but if 'his unfortunate idiocy' is the unproven accusation it can't be used to condemn him.
go away, listen to the recordings, and come back and think about what you're defending.
Off-topic, I hope for United's sake that Mason Greenwood is as good on his return as he was before his unfortunate idiocy. Imagine the excitement if he comes back and plays like Harry Maguire...
This is dodgy ground surely.
Greenwood hasn't been found guilty of anything, and AFAIK hasn't admitted any reprehensible behaviour. What he has been accused of is vile of course but don't we have to follow an 'innocent until proved guilty' approach?
Maybe I'm missing something, but if 'his unfortunate idiocy' is the unproven accusation it can't be used to condemn him.
go away, listen to the recordings, and come back and think about what you're defending.
Here's a transcript.
Whisky Tango Foxtrot!?
How is that not going to court?
She withdrew her co-operation and gave birth to his child last month.
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
Beyond gay marriage which most Tories voted against, can somebody point to some policies that they've introduced that make life better for anyone under the age of 75?
Of course there's many policies introduced for those under 75. All Governments have a mix of good and bad policies and this is no different.
Biggest problem in the country is housing and on that there's been a mix of bad and good actions. A distinct lack of enough building and the sensible reforms on planning proposed were blocked. But some good policies have gone through.
One of the best policies introduced in recent years is one I have never even seen mentioned on this site, nor on the media either. Indeed it doesn't seem to get any attention at all, that is a policy called Help To Buy Shared Equity. http://sharetobuy.com/
Help To Buy was a completely different policy, which has been discussed here a lot, but this is a new scheme and completely different to what came before.
For new build affordable homes, for people who don't own a property already and can't afford one through traditional means a share of a home can be bought (eg 25%) with the remaining share being bought by an firm like Legal & General. The share is bought just like buying a house normally, eg you can put down say a 10% deposit and get a mortgage on the rest and that then is your home. Rent is then paid to the investment scheme with the rest of the share of the property at a fixed and regulated rate. The homeowner has the right to buy the remaining shares when they are in a position to do so eg buying an additional 1% per annum, or remortgaging down the line in order to buy the rest of their property outright.
So for buying say a flat in central London that is £600k rather than needing £60k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £15k Or for buying a 3 bed house in the North that is £200k then rather than needing £20k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £5k.
The only reason I even heard about this scheme is someone in my family found it and did it. A relative in his 20s has managed to buy a flat in London without parental support and without an inheritance through this - and is now paying for mortgage and rent combined on a new build 2 bedroom flat about half the amount he'd have paid to a private landlord for a 1 bedroom flat. He's now on the property ladder, in Central London, from his own efforts - without this scheme he'd be paying much more in rent with no hope of getting on the ladder.
I don't know why more hasn't been made about schemes like this? Never even heard it mentioned here or on the media. Its a very good idea though.
We need to build lots and lots of more houses in this country and for anyone who can't afford their own home outright, I think this scheme or similar for many more new builds should be available for people to transition onto the property ladder easier.
Interesting. I’ve never quite worked out how these schemes work, but that sounds like a good example - so long at the rent from the other commercial owner can’t be rebased to current interest rates.
I went through the contracts with him to ensure there's no nasties like that, and no its all quite regulated and set by contracts from the onset.
The rent is fixed at the start of the contract as the % of unowned property at the contracted exchange price, adjusted by CPI annually, which is a bit at the moment but still massively cheaper than renting through traditional means.
So eg my relatives one the rent is 2.5% per annum on the unowned property share. If he 'staircases' any more shares then the rent goes down proportionately to match, though with interest rates as they are at the minute its probably cheaper not to do so for now.
The problem with this is that there's a max household income limit of, I think, £90k - so it only really works for those in a fairly narrow range of salaries. If your household income is much below £80k in London, you're going to struggle to buy even with the help of a scheme like this.
A few weeks ago, @HYUFD estimated that an income of £100k was needed in London to buy a property by the age of 40, which I think is about right (albeit with the caveat that you'd need to be on that at 30 in order to buy at 40) - so there's another awkward gap between £90 and £100k.
I assume that, behind the scenes, this scheme is acting as a government guarantee to a commercial mortgage provider. I wonder how much more it would actually cost to raise the limit to, say, £120k - perhaps with some sort of taper in place?
Incidentally, the USAF have just given a company over 200million to build a blended-body aircraft. That design (also known as a hybrid body) is similar to, but not quite, a flying wing has been thrown around for decades but nobody ever really built one. It's the equivalent of the USSF paying Musk to build the USS Discovery to fly to Jupiter/Saturn.
Beyond gay marriage which most Tories voted against, can somebody point to some policies that they've introduced that make life better for anyone under the age of 75?
Of course there's many policies introduced for those under 75. All Governments have a mix of good and bad policies and this is no different.
Biggest problem in the country is housing and on that there's been a mix of bad and good actions. A distinct lack of enough building and the sensible reforms on planning proposed were blocked. But some good policies have gone through.
One of the best policies introduced in recent years is one I have never even seen mentioned on this site, nor on the media either. Indeed it doesn't seem to get any attention at all, that is a policy called Help To Buy Shared Equity. http://sharetobuy.com/
Help To Buy was a completely different policy, which has been discussed here a lot, but this is a new scheme and completely different to what came before.
For new build affordable homes, for people who don't own a property already and can't afford one through traditional means a share of a home can be bought (eg 25%) with the remaining share being bought by an firm like Legal & General. The share is bought just like buying a house normally, eg you can put down say a 10% deposit and get a mortgage on the rest and that then is your home. Rent is then paid to the investment scheme with the rest of the share of the property at a fixed and regulated rate. The homeowner has the right to buy the remaining shares when they are in a position to do so eg buying an additional 1% per annum, or remortgaging down the line in order to buy the rest of their property outright.
So for buying say a flat in central London that is £600k rather than needing £60k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £15k Or for buying a 3 bed house in the North that is £200k then rather than needing £20k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £5k.
The only reason I even heard about this scheme is someone in my family found it and did it. A relative in his 20s has managed to buy a flat in London without parental support and without an inheritance through this - and is now paying for mortgage and rent combined on a new build 2 bedroom flat about half the amount he'd have paid to a private landlord for a 1 bedroom flat. He's now on the property ladder, in Central London, from his own efforts - without this scheme he'd be paying much more in rent with no hope of getting on the ladder.
I don't know why more hasn't been made about schemes like this? Never even heard it mentioned here or on the media. Its a very good idea though.
We need to build lots and lots of more houses in this country and for anyone who can't afford their own home outright, I think this scheme or similar for many more new builds should be available for people to transition onto the property ladder easier.
I agree with you and I don't.
Where I part company would be with a completely unregulated uncontrolled house building programme. Where I agree with you is the recognition more houses are needed. I would also contend we need a planning function while also recognising the current setup in most Councils isn't fit for purpose.
Building large numbers of new properties in an area, whether brownfield or greenfield, town or country, impacts on those currently in residence. The infrastructural framework of schools, houses, medical facilities, roads, transport, sewage, retail, commercial and everything else on which we depend needs to be if not in place then planned to be in place so no one is under any illusions the 5000-10000 extra homes will change the character of the town but not adversely for those already in residence - the new properties will make the town better not worse.
Simply throwing up new properties without the concomitant infrastructural expenditure and planning is what makes those already in place angry - the response to that anger is to brand them NIMBYs - they aren't in most instances but what they do want are developments which are not just sympathetic to the pre-existing community but bring measurable improvements.
Houses don't need schools, children do.
That scheme I mentioned, my wife mentioned it to a colleague of hers at work. She's currently living with her partner and 2 children in one bedroom in her own parents house. Soon she'll move into a new build house.
The net change in school usage from a family moving out of their parents home and into a home of their own? Nothing.
We need more schools if we have more population growth, not for more houses. We've had population growth, so we need the service investment either way - the houses are just to ensure people can have a home of their own and not live in overcrowded housing.
The secondary issue is not just provision of new accommodation but dealing with the vast amount of older hosuing stock which is no longer fit for purpose. We already see suburban infilling or backfilling where one large house occupying a significant footprint with two or more smaller but modern properties.
Following on from the discussions over the last day about the state of PB & lack of new blood, etc.: I've been trying to sign up for a while, but was getting stuck at the email confirmation stage - so perhaps other newbies are having the same problem?
I didn't receive anything as part of the initial signup process, or when hitting the 'resend confirmation' button (and, yes, I checked the 'spam' folder). This was with a bog standard personal gmail account; I eventually signed up again with a freshly-created Yahoo email, which worked fine (hurray!).
I realise that ensuring email deliverability is increasingly a ballache, especially to gmail - but might it perhaps be worth adding an "if you don't receive this, please retry with a different email provider"-type note to the confirmation resend page, @rcs1000 ?
Off-topic, I hope for United's sake that Mason Greenwood is as good on his return as he was before his unfortunate idiocy. Imagine the excitement if he comes back and plays like Harry Maguire...
This is dodgy ground surely.
Greenwood hasn't been found guilty of anything, and AFAIK hasn't admitted any reprehensible behaviour. What he has been accused of is vile of course but don't we have to follow an 'innocent until proved guilty' approach?
Maybe I'm missing something, but if 'his unfortunate idiocy' is the unproven accusation it can't be used to condemn him.
go away, listen to the recordings, and come back and think about what you're defending.
Beyond gay marriage which most Tories voted against, can somebody point to some policies that they've introduced that make life better for anyone under the age of 75?
Of course there's many policies introduced for those under 75. All Governments have a mix of good and bad policies and this is no different.
Biggest problem in the country is housing and on that there's been a mix of bad and good actions. A distinct lack of enough building and the sensible reforms on planning proposed were blocked. But some good policies have gone through.
One of the best policies introduced in recent years is one I have never even seen mentioned on this site, nor on the media either. Indeed it doesn't seem to get any attention at all, that is a policy called Help To Buy Shared Equity. http://sharetobuy.com/
Help To Buy was a completely different policy, which has been discussed here a lot, but this is a new scheme and completely different to what came before.
For new build affordable homes, for people who don't own a property already and can't afford one through traditional means a share of a home can be bought (eg 25%) with the remaining share being bought by an firm like Legal & General. The share is bought just like buying a house normally, eg you can put down say a 10% deposit and get a mortgage on the rest and that then is your home. Rent is then paid to the investment scheme with the rest of the share of the property at a fixed and regulated rate. The homeowner has the right to buy the remaining shares when they are in a position to do so eg buying an additional 1% per annum, or remortgaging down the line in order to buy the rest of their property outright.
So for buying say a flat in central London that is £600k rather than needing £60k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £15k Or for buying a 3 bed house in the North that is £200k then rather than needing £20k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £5k.
The only reason I even heard about this scheme is someone in my family found it and did it. A relative in his 20s has managed to buy a flat in London without parental support and without an inheritance through this - and is now paying for mortgage and rent combined on a new build 2 bedroom flat about half the amount he'd have paid to a private landlord for a 1 bedroom flat. He's now on the property ladder, in Central London, from his own efforts - without this scheme he'd be paying much more in rent with no hope of getting on the ladder.
I don't know why more hasn't been made about schemes like this? Never even heard it mentioned here or on the media. Its a very good idea though.
We need to build lots and lots of more houses in this country and for anyone who can't afford their own home outright, I think this scheme or similar for many more new builds should be available for people to transition onto the property ladder easier.
I agree with you and I don't.
Where I part company would be with a completely unregulated uncontrolled house building programme. Where I agree with you is the recognition more houses are needed. I would also contend we need a planning function while also recognising the current setup in most Councils isn't fit for purpose.
Building large numbers of new properties in an area, whether brownfield or greenfield, town or country, impacts on those currently in residence. The infrastructural framework of schools, houses, medical facilities, roads, transport, sewage, retail, commercial and everything else on which we depend needs to be if not in place then planned to be in place so no one is under any illusions the 5000-10000 extra homes will change the character of the town but not adversely for those already in residence - the new properties will make the town better not worse.
Simply throwing up new properties without the concomitant infrastructural expenditure and planning is what makes those already in place angry - the response to that anger is to brand them NIMBYs - they aren't in most instances but what they do want are developments which are not just sympathetic to the pre-existing community but bring measurable improvements.
Houses don't need schools, children do.
That scheme I mentioned, my wife mentioned it to a colleague of hers at work. She's currently living with her partner and 2 children in one bedroom in her own parents house. Soon she'll move into a new build house.
The net change in school usage from a family moving out of their parents home and into a home of their own? Nothing.
We need more schools if we have more population growth, not for more houses. We've had population growth, so we need the service investment either way - the houses are just to ensure people can have a home of their own and not live in overcrowded housing.
Logical flaw. The new houses into which the family and others move may - often will - be in different school catchments. And catchments with large new developments therefore need new schools, new sewage pumping stations ...
Comments
Greenwood hasn't been found guilty of anything, and AFAIK hasn't admitted any reprehensible behaviour. What he has been accused of is vile of course but don't we have to follow an 'innocent until proved guilty' approach?
Maybe I'm missing something, but if 'his unfortunate idiocy' is the unproven accusation it can't be used to condemn him.
Pretty sure you'll be hearing from one of the local secessionists about that.
https://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2021/06/blind-item-1_9.html
https://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2021/07/blind-item-4_10.html
Musk, on the other hand, could. A POTUS bid costs what, $100million? He's got $420billion. He could run and not even notice the spend.
(Plus, where are the spurious CAPITALS?)
So that's me for the next 2 hours.
But then we have to remember that these are the people who genuinely argued in cases that unevidenced accusations of fraud in particular (Dem heavy) areas, meant an entire state's votes should be discounted, encompassing millions of voters. Trump has claimed that he won literally every state. His false electors scheme included one state he lost by 10%, not just the ones where it was close. And where the governor of one of the states now defends the election as honest disputing Trump's account, but still plans to vote for him.
So clearly anything goes with these people.
I got the impression that people are very keen to make a point of encouraging as much external support as possible.
Why, only yesterday did I have a cup of tea from my mug depicting the Get Carter car park in Gateshead. Sadly, no longer with us.
Of course, the burning question is which Deltic hauled his train from King's Cross to Newcastle?
If I can find another one, I’ll get it and post it to you!
Yes, many of them will also have giant egos and engage in displays of adolescent posturing on twitter and the like, but as impactful a role as the Presidency is, they can scratch an itch for validation and power in other ways.
Grover Cleveland casts a long shadow over the US Presidency - the only man to win the Presidency, lose it and then win it back. It seems his first VP, one Thomas A. Hendricks, died after just 8 months in November 1885 and the office of VP was left vacant during the rest of Cleveland's first term.
His VP in his second tenure was Adlai Stevenson's grandfather.
The later Adlai Stevenson fought Eisenhower twice - in 1952 and 1956, the last time two candidates fought two successive Presidential elections.
There were plenty of concerns about Eisenhower's health and many thought he would not run for a second term after his heart attack in 1955 but not only did he run, he won a second landslide over Stevenson increasing his majority in terms of votes and states in 1956.
Inexact parallels perhaps (aren't they always?) but interesting to note.
Also just to note Cleveland in 1888, like Samuel Tilden in 1876, Al Gore in 2000 and Hilary Clinton in 2016 won the popular vote (i.e: got more votes than the Republican opponent) but lost in the Electoral College.
Has any Republican ever got more votes than the Democrat opponent and lost in the EC - I can't think of one?
Remember when Trump said that if he's indicted, "we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere"?
Since then, he's been indicted 4 times, and there wasn't even a tiny demonstration. Sad!
https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1692235024060322286?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet
No fun any more...
There was a Spectator article by Sean Thomas about Lviv, published last week, so I hope you have something more useful to add to that idiot’s ramblings?
We used to have a cat called Number Six.
Biggest problem in the country is housing and on that there's been a mix of bad and good actions. A distinct lack of enough building and the sensible reforms on planning proposed were blocked. But some good policies have gone through.
One of the best policies introduced in recent years is one I have never even seen mentioned on this site, nor on the media either. Indeed it doesn't seem to get any attention at all, that is a policy called Help To Buy Shared Equity. http://sharetobuy.com/
Help To Buy was a completely different policy, which has been discussed here a lot, but this is a new scheme and completely different to what came before.
For new build affordable homes, for people who don't own a property already and can't afford one through traditional means a share of a home can be bought (eg 25%) with the remaining share being bought by an firm like Legal & General. The share is bought just like buying a house normally, eg you can put down say a 10% deposit and get a mortgage on the rest and that then is your home. Rent is then paid to the investment scheme with the rest of the share of the property at a fixed and regulated rate. The homeowner has the right to buy the remaining shares when they are in a position to do so eg buying an additional 1% per annum, or remortgaging down the line in order to buy the rest of their property outright.
So for buying say a flat in central London that is £600k rather than needing £60k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £15k
Or for buying a 3 bed house in the North that is £200k then rather than needing £20k for a 10% deposit, you can put down a 10% deposit (on a 25% share) for £5k.
The only reason I even heard about this scheme is someone in my family found it and did it. A relative in his 20s has managed to buy a flat in London without parental support and without an inheritance through this - and is now paying for mortgage and rent combined on a new build 2 bedroom flat about half the amount he'd have paid to a private landlord for a 1 bedroom flat. He's now on the property ladder, in Central London, from his own efforts - without this scheme he'd be paying much more in rent with no hope of getting on the ladder.
I don't know why more hasn't been made about schemes like this? Never even heard it mentioned here or on the media. Its a very good idea though.
We need to build lots and lots of more houses in this country and for anyone who can't afford their own home outright, I think this scheme or similar for many more new builds should be available for people to transition onto the property ladder easier.
No, not worth reigniting that conversation.
So I decided to ape my hero @AlsoLei and do some travel fun. Left home at 04:15 to catch the easyJet 06:10 to Gatwick. 20 minutes late away due to heavy summer traffic, off the plane and onto the shuttle to the station to get a train to Victoria, tube to Euston then onto a Pendolino for a non-stop run to Coventry.
Avanti have been refurbishing these so that the interior is even more airline than Virgin had them. Plenty of free seats on the 11-car train but no table on either side lines up with a table on the other side. So combine that with the arrow slit windows and these Fiat trains are as claustrophobic as ever. Albeit entertaining when they hoof it along at full tilt.
Productive 3 hour meeting then back to the station for the same in reverse. Leaving Victoria at 5pm I shouldn't have been able to get a table seat in the coach closest to the ticket barrier - but you can post-Covid.
easyJet app warning of DELAY to the 19:55 back. 1 hour late is on time for Gatwick in the summer. Runway had been briefly shut earlier that afternoon so a risk of that getting worse. And it did. App and FlightRadar both suggesting 00:09 as the new departure time (which would have been cancelled and us in a hotel) - happily that was reversed and 21:00 put in its place (better).
A day trip from northern Aberdeenshire to Coventry is a bit mentalist anyway, never mind doing it via Gatwick. I'm sure the carbon footprint isn't pretty. But whatever. I enjoy mad trips like this, especially when I am being paid handsomely to do so...
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/why-i-doubt-trump-s-sincere-belief-defense-will-fly-before-a-jury
My aim in this post is different. My point is that, given the accusations of the indictment, these nuanced legal arguments will likely be unnecessary. If the government can prove just a fraction of the factual allegations that the indictment charges, jurors should have no trouble concluding that Trump knew he had lost the election and was acting in bad faith...
Juries have no trouble convicting such people. When confronted with individuals who relentlessly and pervasively make false statements, jurors usually conclude that they are liars. Jurors get lying. They’ve met liars in their lives. They’ve been burned by them. They don’t like them.
Interesting idea, and almost idealistic - hopefully true.
I decried Apple for years. And now think my MacBook is king shit. Ah well.
Also less likely to encounter a coked up gent with flare in rectum. Not easy to know what to say to him as one passes along the row of introducees.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ANAZaWPimRQ
Sinostocks trending down, a potential massive contagion coming down the line.
The rent is fixed at the start of the contract as the % of unowned property at the contracted exchange price, adjusted by CPI annually, which is a bit at the moment but still massively cheaper than renting through traditional means.
So eg my relatives one the rent is 2.5% per annum on the unowned property share. If he 'staircases' any more shares then the rent goes down proportionately to match, though with interest rates as they are at the minute its probably cheaper not to do so for now.
Is 'king shit' good or bad? Can't keep up with the youthful cant these days.
My impression was a bit different from his: less busy than the last time I was there, sandbags around everything, but not so crowded with injured people as he said (there were some people on crutches, but it didn't feel worse than, say, Belfast in the early 2000s), and I didn't meet anyone who expressed anything approaching defeatism. A very long way from the front lines, obviously, but I didn't get the impression of a people on the verge of giving up.
I have been an Apple refuser. But my new MacBook Pro 14" is sensationally built, the OS whilst full of its own quirks is no harder to learn than Windows was, and it can take any work I throw at it and laugh. Though admittedly I bought the M2 Max 32gb version.
So "king shit" in this case is good.
I love that soundtrack
Where I part company would be with a completely unregulated uncontrolled house building programme. Where I agree with you is the recognition more houses are needed. I would also contend we need a planning function while also recognising the current setup in most Councils isn't fit for purpose.
Building large numbers of new properties in an area, whether brownfield or greenfield, town or country, impacts on those currently in residence. The infrastructural framework of schools, houses, medical facilities, roads, transport, sewage, retail, commercial and everything else on which we depend needs to be if not in place then planned to be in place so no one is under any illusions the 5000-10000 extra homes will change the character of the town but not adversely for those already in residence - the new properties will make the town better not worse.
Simply throwing up new properties without the concomitant infrastructural expenditure and planning is what makes those already in place angry - the response to that anger is to brand them NIMBYs - they aren't in most instances but what they do want are developments which are not just sympathetic to the pre-existing community but bring measurable improvements.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Recent Apple laptop stuff is really good though. You get what you pay for, and you dropped a couple of bags of sand on something that will still be really good five years from now.
That scheme I mentioned, my wife mentioned it to a colleague of hers at work. She's currently living with her partner and 2 children in one bedroom in her own parents house. Soon she'll move into a new build house.
The net change in school usage from a family moving out of their parents home and into a home of their own? Nothing.
We need more schools if we have more population growth, not for more houses. We've had population growth, so we need the service investment either way - the houses are just to ensure people can have a home of their own and not live in overcrowded housing.
But the difference between male and female performance in sports is so extreme, that many sports would inevitably get dominated to by trans competitors.
Let me give you an example. The US Women's World Cup team played Wrexham (who has just been promoted to the old fourth division!)
This is 11 of the very best female players in the world, against a team that wouldn't be in the top 1,000 worldwide.
Wrexham won 12-0.
How is that not going to court?
A few weeks ago, @HYUFD estimated that an income of £100k was needed in London to buy a property by the age of 40, which I think is about right (albeit with the caveat that you'd need to be on that at 30 in order to buy at 40) - so there's another awkward gap between £90 and £100k.
I assume that, behind the scenes, this scheme is acting as a government guarantee to a commercial mortgage provider. I wonder how much more it would actually cost to raise the limit to, say, £120k - perhaps with some sort of taper in place?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztLDW683rSQ
[EDIT: It has lasers! In space! With shuttles! In space! With much pew pew! Exclamation mark!]
[EDIT 2: Space laser battle! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG5v7ng0o4A]
@AlsoLei is an old poster, but is not @Leon
How exciting is this?