I’m genuinely curious. How many PBers would turn down a free £10k holiday in the Maldives for all the reasons @Foxy says? Sharia law, hypocrisy, climate change, etc?
I am happy to accept that @foxy might actually do that - consumed with pompous Puritan moral self congratulation as he is, he also seems sincere
Wouid anyone else say No? Please be honest!
Not for me thanks. Pretty much for the reasons Foxy lists.
Wednesday morning pre-school meeting we were told we finally had the budget for reasonable staffing. We were happy. Posts were advertised. Now we know better. Joy.
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Accepting a £10k freebie = showing some spine? Right.
I'm quite angry about HS2, and the last thread hadn't helped. Sure, travel patterns have changed, but Crossrail* is immensely popular and ScotRail, for example, are adjusting their capacity and removing the concept of peak hours.
Meanwhile roads mileage will probably return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023. People are still moving around.
HS2 is a mirror image of the Edinburgh Trams project. A disaster, far too expensive, late. And yet, patronage has been way higher than expected following the recent extension of the line. And 90% of people want a bus stop within a 15 minute walk.
Public transport gets cheaper the more you build, and the benefits grow as the network becomes more pervasive. The piecemeal approach of a cycle lane here, a bus service there, a couple of tram lines, HS2 only to Birmingham, is weak. It's pathetic, frankly.
*Curiously excluded from the Government's analysis
I'm quite angry about HS2, and the last thread hadn't helped. Sure, travel patterns have changed, but Crossrail* is immensely popular and ScotRail, for example, are adjusting their capacity and removing the concept of peak hours.
Meanwhile roads mileage will probably return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023. People are still moving around.
HS2 is a mirror image of the Edinburgh Trams project. A disaster, far too expensive, late. And yet, patronage has been way higher than expected following the recent extension of the line. And 90% of people want a bus stop within a 15 minute walk.
Public transport gets cheaper the more you build, and the benefits grow as the network becomes more pervasive. The piecemeal approach of a cycle lane here, a bus service there, a couple of tram lines, HS2 only to Birmingham, is weak. It's pathetic, frankly.
*Curiously excluded from the Government's analysis
Also, I'd appreciate it if Londoners could desist from posting accounts of their extraordinary 82 minute public transport triumphs here for a short period.
I'm quite angry about HS2, and the last thread hadn't helped. Sure, travel patterns have changed, but Crossrail* is immensely popular and ScotRail, for example, are adjusting their capacity and removing the concept of peak hours.
Meanwhile roads mileage will probably return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023. People are still moving around.
HS2 is a mirror image of the Edinburgh Trams project. A disaster, far too expensive, late. And yet, patronage has been way higher than expected following the recent extension of the line. And 90% of people want a bus stop within a 15 minute walk.
Public transport gets cheaper the more you build, and the benefits grow as the network becomes more pervasive. The piecemeal approach of a cycle lane here, a bus service there, a couple of tram lines, HS2 only to Birmingham, is weak. It's pathetic, frankly.
*Curiously excluded from the Government's analysis
Well, you live even further away from London than the "North". So **** you, is the UKG thinking.
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Accepting a £10k freebie = showing some spine? Right.
Would you accept a free £10k holiday in the Maldives, @Benpointer?
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Yes I'll take the free holiday please, if you can pay our flight.
I'm quite angry about HS2, and the last thread hadn't helped. Sure, travel patterns have changed, but Crossrail* is immensely popular and ScotRail, for example, are adjusting their capacity and removing the concept of peak hours.
Meanwhile roads mileage will probably return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023. People are still moving around.
HS2 is a mirror image of the Edinburgh Trams project. A disaster, far too expensive, late. And yet, patronage has been way higher than expected following the recent extension of the line. And 90% of people want a bus stop within a 15 minute walk.
Public transport gets cheaper the more you build, and the benefits grow as the network becomes more pervasive. The piecemeal approach of a cycle lane here, a bus service there, a couple of tram lines, HS2 only to Birmingham, is weak. It's pathetic, frankly.
*Curiously excluded from the Government's analysis
Also, I'd appreciate it if Londoners could desist from posting accounts of their extraordinary 82 minute public transport triumphs here for a short period.
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Yes I'll take the free holiday please, if you can pay our flight.
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Accepting a £10k freebie = showing some spine? Right.
I’d accept it. Of course I would. With gusto. Never been to the Maldives or indeed done a tropical beach resort holiday, probably wouldn’t shell out to do so if it were my own money but if it’s a freebie, well of course. I’m not mad.
I see that as a distinct and different question to whether one agrees or has sympathy with Leon’s racial and immigration views, which I must admit I find pretty shocking at times. I am never sure if there are just deliberately provocative or heartfelt. Not least because the remaining 95% of his output is interesting and very sympathetic to the human condition.
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
That’s all well and good but I write for the Knappers Gazette and we’re trying to diversify their economy into granitic vibrators. You should be applauding me not seething with envy
No not envious at all.
When I travel, I am interested in local culture, food, customs, and even politics. I like to spread the money to local people, so that they too can benefit, rather than just be house elves or in a human zoo.
You do realise I have been to all seven continents and maybe 120 countries? And just occasionally I write about things other than exceptional wine cellars? Like, say, customs, culture, food, and even politics?
You should get out more in the city you live in. Then Tooting and most of the rest of London wouldn't be such a foreign country to you.
I wonder how many of the 32 boroughs you've ever spent more than three consecutive hours in.
You praise London for being a "world city", and then you say you want to control immigration because otherwise you fear Britain will be dominated by Africans. You can't have it both ways. Immigration is what makes a world city.
You're Alf Garnett, basically. You can't handle too many black people on an airline video. I bet you're still seething about Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" film. Every decade has its Alfs.
What does the man know about "culture" who refers to wine he gets served at a Rothschild do as "£500 wine"?
The Sex Pistols had a good line when they sang about "a cheap holiday in other people's misery" - or in your case, a paid holiday.
I live in Camden Town. It probably doesn’t get more multiracial - anywhere in the world
Oh it does, in a lot of the rest of London, for starters:
I'm quite angry about HS2, and the last thread hadn't helped. Sure, travel patterns have changed, but Crossrail* is immensely popular and ScotRail, for example, are adjusting their capacity and removing the concept of peak hours.
Meanwhile roads mileage will probably return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023. People are still moving around.
HS2 is a mirror image of the Edinburgh Trams project. A disaster, far too expensive, late. And yet, patronage has been way higher than expected following the recent extension of the line. And 90% of people want a bus stop within a 15 minute walk.
Public transport gets cheaper the more you build, and the benefits grow as the network becomes more pervasive. The piecemeal approach of a cycle lane here, a bus service there, a couple of tram lines, HS2 only to Birmingham, is weak. It's pathetic, frankly.
*Curiously excluded from the Government's analysis
Also, I'd appreciate it if Londoners could desist from posting accounts of their extraordinary 82 minute public transport triumphs here for a short period.
I'm quite angry about HS2, and the last thread hadn't helped. Sure, travel patterns have changed, but Crossrail* is immensely popular and ScotRail, for example, are adjusting their capacity and removing the concept of peak hours.
Meanwhile roads mileage will probably return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023. People are still moving around.
HS2 is a mirror image of the Edinburgh Trams project. A disaster, far too expensive, late. And yet, patronage has been way higher than expected following the recent extension of the line. And 90% of people want a bus stop within a 15 minute walk.
Public transport gets cheaper the more you build, and the benefits grow as the network becomes more pervasive. The piecemeal approach of a cycle lane here, a bus service there, a couple of tram lines, HS2 only to Birmingham, is weak. It's pathetic, frankly.
*Curiously excluded from the Government's analysis
Also, I'd appreciate it if Londoners could desist from posting accounts of their extraordinary 82 minute public transport triumphs here for a short period.
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
That’s all well and good but I write for the Knappers Gazette and we’re trying to diversify their economy into granitic vibrators. You should be applauding me not seething with envy
No not envious at all.
When I travel, I am interested in local culture, food, customs, and even politics. I like to spread the money to local people, so that they too can benefit, rather than just be house elves or in a human zoo.
You do realise I have been to all seven continents and maybe 120 countries? And just occasionally I write about things other than exceptional wine cellars? Like, say, customs, culture, food, and even politics?
You should get out more in the city you live in. Then Tooting and most of the rest of London wouldn't be such a foreign country to you.
I wonder how many of the 32 boroughs you've ever spent more than three consecutive hours in.
You praise London for being a "world city", and then you say you want to control immigration because otherwise you fear Britain will be dominated by Africans. You can't have it both ways. Immigration is what makes a world city.
You're Alf Garnett, basically. You can't handle too many black people on an airline video. I bet you're still seething about Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" film. Every decade has its Alfs.
What does the man know about "culture" who refers to wine he gets served at a Rothschild do as "£500 wine"?
The Sex Pistols had a good line when they sang about "a cheap holiday in other people's misery" - or in your case, a paid holiday.
I live in Camden Town. It probably doesn’t get more multiracial - anywhere in the world
Oh it does, in a lot of the rest of London, for starters:
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
And they have a huge heroin problem.
What, all of the Speccie's writers ?
He’s actually right. They do have a heroin problem in the Maldives. It’s because they don’t allow booze. See Iran for something very similar on vastly greater scale
However most of the locals absolutely love the hotels. Before tourism arrived the Maldives was a fly blown malarial archipelago ignored by the British (we owned it)
Now the men have a route out of poverty and a gateway to global jobs. And the women have a way out of that veiled sharia
I’m genuinely curious. How many PBers would turn down a free £10k holiday in the Maldives for all the reasons @Foxy says? Sharia law, hypocrisy, climate change, etc?
I am happy to accept that @foxy might actually do that - consumed with pompous Puritan moral self congratulation as he is, he also seems sincere
Wouid anyone else say No? Please be honest!
I would turn it down. As reviews go "Sharia law, hypocrisy, climate change" isn't really selling to me.
Honestly? If someone said “here have a free ten grand holiday in Soneva Fushi” - you’d turn it down on moral grounds?
I am surrounded by living saints
If you came along too I'd go. The swimming sounds lovely, tho' lying about sunning myself is not really my cup of tea. But I'd mostly go because teasing and arguing with you long into the night as you got more and more outrageous and drunker and drunker while I wound you up sounds like the most ENORMOUS fun. Plus the stories you and I could tell each other would be epic.
Not as good as the same author's one about the Glenmutchkin Railway company. But a nice period piece. (It refers to one of the Burghs seats - several non-contiguous burghs merged into a single constituency, such as Wick Burghs = Cromarty, Dingwall, Dornoch, Kirkwall, Tain and Wick.)
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
That’s all well and good but I write for the Knappers Gazette and we’re trying to diversify their economy into granitic vibrators. You should be applauding me not seething with envy
No not envious at all.
When I travel, I am interested in local culture, food, customs, and even politics. I like to spread the money to local people, so that they too can benefit, rather than just be house elves or in a human zoo.
You do realise I have been to all seven continents and maybe 120 countries? And just occasionally I write about things other than exceptional wine cellars? Like, say, customs, culture, food, and even politics?
You should get out more in the city you live in. Then Tooting and most of the rest of London wouldn't be such a foreign country to you.
I wonder how many of the 32 boroughs you've ever spent more than three consecutive hours in.
You praise London for being a "world city", and then you say you want to control immigration because otherwise you fear Britain will be dominated by Africans. You can't have it both ways. Immigration is what makes a world city.
You're Alf Garnett, basically. You can't handle too many black people on an airline video. I bet you're still seething about Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" film. Every decade has its Alfs.
What does the man know about "culture" who refers to wine he gets served at a Rothschild do as "£500 wine"?
The Sex Pistols had a good line when they sang about "a cheap holiday in other people's misery" - or in your case, a paid holiday.
I live in Camden Town. It probably doesn’t get more multiracial - anywhere in the world
Oh it does, in a lot of the rest of London, for starters:
I’m genuinely curious. How many PBers would turn down a free £10k holiday in the Maldives for all the reasons @Foxy says? Sharia law, hypocrisy, climate change, etc?
I am happy to accept that @foxy might actually do that - consumed with pompous Puritan moral self congratulation as he is, he also seems sincere
Wouid anyone else say No? Please be honest!
Probably,. For now I only have so much free time to holiday - and I know it would bore my wife witless.
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Accepting a £10k freebie = showing some spine? Right.
Would you accept a free £10k holiday in the Maldives, @Benpointer?
Or would you refuse on grounds of morality?
I just have no interest in going there. I cannot see the point in flying that far for such a destination. I find beach holidays tedious. I think long-haul flights should generally be avoided for environmental reasons and so that is what I do myself. I don't want to go to any country that has sharia law.
So yes, you can stuff your £10k holiday wherever you like.
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Yes I'll take the free holiday please, if you can pay our flight.
Flight is free and included
Well done. One honest PB-er
I would as well.
But I recently went on a lovely holiday to Tenerife, pool, beach etc, and spent the whole time planning long distance walks, cycle tours, Slovenian mountain huts etc.
So it would be a nice place to research a real holiday.
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
And they have a huge heroin problem.
What, all of the Speccie's writers ?
He’s actually right. They do have a heroin problem in the Maldives. It’s because they don’t allow booze. See Iran for something very similar on vastly greater scale
However most of the locals absolutely love the hotels. Before tourism arrived the Maldives was a fly blown malarial archipelago ignored by the British (we owned it)
Now the men have a route out of poverty and a gateway to global jobs. And the women have a way out of that veiled sharia
I’m genuinely curious. How many PBers would turn down a free £10k holiday in the Maldives for all the reasons @Foxy says? Sharia law, hypocrisy, climate change, etc?
I am happy to accept that @foxy might actually do that - consumed with pompous Puritan moral self congratulation as he is, he also seems sincere
Wouid anyone else say No? Please be honest!
I would turn it down. As reviews go "Sharia law, hypocrisy, climate change" isn't really selling to me.
Honestly? If someone said “here have a free ten grand holiday in Soneva Fushi” - you’d turn it down on moral grounds?
I am surrounded by living saints
If you came along too I'd go. The swimming sounds lovely, tho' lying about sunning myself is not really my cup of tea. But I'd mostly go because teasing and arguing with you long into the night as you got more and more outrageous and drunker and drunker while I wound you up sounds like the most ENORMOUS fun. Plus the stories you and I could tell each other would be epic.
Oh, you terrible flirt
How about Nicaragua? That's possibly my next destination. Suitably challenging, even for the likes of @Foxy
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
That’s all well and good but I write for the Knappers Gazette and we’re trying to diversify their economy into granitic vibrators. You should be applauding me not seething with envy
No not envious at all.
When I travel, I am interested in local culture, food, customs, and even politics. I like to spread the money to local people, so that they too can benefit, rather than just be house elves or in a human zoo.
You do realise I have been to all seven continents and maybe 120 countries? And just occasionally I write about things other than exceptional wine cellars? Like, say, customs, culture, food, and even politics?
You should get out more in the city you live in. Then Tooting and most of the rest of London wouldn't be such a foreign country to you.
I wonder how many of the 32 boroughs you've ever spent more than three consecutive hours in.
You praise London for being a "world city", and then you say you want to control immigration because otherwise you fear Britain will be dominated by Africans. You can't have it both ways. Immigration is what makes a world city.
You're Alf Garnett, basically. You can't handle too many black people on an airline video. I bet you're still seething about Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" film. Every decade has its Alfs.
What does the man know about "culture" who refers to wine he gets served at a Rothschild do as "£500 wine"?
The Sex Pistols had a good line when they sang about "a cheap holiday in other people's misery" - or in your case, a paid holiday.
I live in Camden Town. It probably doesn’t get more multiracial - anywhere in the world
Oh it does, in a lot of the rest of London, for starters:
Surprising fact (to me at any rate) both Camden & Islington are less multiracial than Westminster.
Evening from Newham, London's most diverse Borough.
And Trans Central, according to Nancy Kelley miles ahead of Brighton (either that, or a poorly worded census question was not properly understood by people for whom English is not their first language - so much for “inclusion”!)
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
That’s all well and good but I write for the Knappers Gazette and we’re trying to diversify their economy into granitic vibrators. You should be applauding me not seething with envy
No not envious at all.
When I travel, I am interested in local culture, food, customs, and even politics. I like to spread the money to local people, so that they too can benefit, rather than just be house elves or in a human zoo.
You do realise I have been to all seven continents and maybe 120 countries? And just occasionally I write about things other than exceptional wine cellars? Like, say, customs, culture, food, and even politics?
You should get out more in the city you live in. Then Tooting and most of the rest of London wouldn't be such a foreign country to you.
I wonder how many of the 32 boroughs you've ever spent more than three consecutive hours in.
You praise London for being a "world city", and then you say you want to control immigration because otherwise you fear Britain will be dominated by Africans. You can't have it both ways. Immigration is what makes a world city.
You're Alf Garnett, basically. You can't handle too many black people on an airline video. I bet you're still seething about Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" film. Every decade has its Alfs.
What does the man know about "culture" who refers to wine he gets served at a Rothschild do as "£500 wine"?
The Sex Pistols had a good line when they sang about "a cheap holiday in other people's misery" - or in your case, a paid holiday.
I live in Camden Town. It probably doesn’t get more multiracial - anywhere in the world
Oh it does, in a lot of the rest of London, for starters:
Surprising fact (to me at any rate) both Camden & Islington are less multiracial than Westminster.
Evening from Newham, London's most diverse Borough.
And Trans Central, according to Nancy Kelley miles ahead of Brighton (either that, or a poorly worded census question was not properly understood by people for whom English is not their first language - so much for “inclusion”!)
1/2 Rumours abound that SNP are trying to negotiate a smaller venue for their upcoming conference in Aberdeen so the space looks full. It's OK Murray, the Aberdeen exhibition centre has meeting spaces for as few as 45 people arranged conference-style.
2/2 The event has also been skillfully scheduled for 15-17 October to get delegates pumped up for the second indyref Nicola Sturgeon announced only two days later on 19 October. It's going to be a great conference!
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Accepting a £10k freebie = showing some spine? Right.
Would you accept a free £10k holiday in the Maldives, @Benpointer?
Or would you refuse on grounds of morality?
I just have no interest in going there. I cannot see the point in flying that far for such a destination. I find beach holidays tedious. I think long-haul flights should generally be avoided for environmental reasons and so that is what I do myself. I don't want to go to any country that has sharia law.
So yes, you can stuff your £10k holiday wherever you like.
You don't go to any countries with sharia law?
That means you are excluding: Egypt. Iran, Indonesia, and Malaysia, for starters (and many others)
Those are some amazing places - I've been to them all bar Iran - and I pity you. You're missing out
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
That’s all well and good but I write for the Knappers Gazette and we’re trying to diversify their economy into granitic vibrators. You should be applauding me not seething with envy
No not envious at all.
When I travel, I am interested in local culture, food, customs, and even politics. I like to spread the money to local people, so that they too can benefit, rather than just be house elves or in a human zoo.
You do realise I have been to all seven continents and maybe 120 countries? And just occasionally I write about things other than exceptional wine cellars? Like, say, customs, culture, food, and even politics?
You should get out more in the city you live in. Then Tooting and most of the rest of London wouldn't be such a foreign country to you.
I wonder how many of the 32 boroughs you've ever spent more than three consecutive hours in.
You praise London for being a "world city", and then you say you want to control immigration because otherwise you fear Britain will be dominated by Africans. You can't have it both ways. Immigration is what makes a world city.
You're Alf Garnett, basically. You can't handle too many black people on an airline video. I bet you're still seething about Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" film. Every decade has its Alfs.
What does the man know about "culture" who refers to wine he gets served at a Rothschild do as "£500 wine"?
The Sex Pistols had a good line when they sang about "a cheap holiday in other people's misery" - or in your case, a paid holiday.
I live in Camden Town. It probably doesn’t get more multiracial - anywhere in the world
Oh it does, in a lot of the rest of London, for starters:
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Accepting a £10k freebie = showing some spine? Right.
Would you accept a free £10k holiday in the Maldives, @Benpointer?
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Also well done British Airways. An empty economy cabin. Cheerful staff. Perfect WiFi all the way. Plenty of good wine. Nice food. Landed exactly on time
Impressive. Far better than Qatar the other way
What did you think of the new uniforms?
Nice
But the new safety video is painfully Woke. Its actually embarrassing
I’d say 70-80% of the many people in it are black. And definitely black. There’s maybe one or two Asian/Muslim people
I like to see a diverse Britain represented on screen. That’s a good thing. But what BA are presenting is not diverse at all. It’s like it’s trying to say “Britain is 80% black” NOT “diverse”
It’s so weird it’s cringe. God knows what foreigners make of it
Who cares if they are white, black, yellow, green, or turquoise with pink spots like the gecko I once saw?
Because it is completely unrepresentative of Britain to the extent it is truly WEIRD
I mean, they are obviously trying to say “look Britain is a vibrant multicultural multiracial country!” and I totally APPROVE of that - and they are obviously aware of race hence the video - but the video is so slanted to one minority demographic it actually gives a different impression
Would you say a video that is majority black is remotely and racially representative of Britain?
It’s like when I used to fly South African Airways when they had the orange tail fin, everyone in the safety film was white. I was staggered as a ten year old to see that most people in South Africa were black.
So far everyone on PB would turn down a free £10k holiday in the Maldives
Excuse me but
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
I might do - but mainly because I find beach holidays dull. So I’m going to claim superior taste rather than moral virtue
Claim both. Might as well. I do.
As StillW notes, we were being challenged to be honest - by Leon, I know, but still.
Doesn't mean I'm not honest in the knowledge of my virtue. As well as taste. Getting skin cancer while doing SFA is noit something this pale ginger Scot likes.
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
That’s all well and good but I write for the Knappers Gazette and we’re trying to diversify their economy into granitic vibrators. You should be applauding me not seething with envy
No not envious at all.
When I travel, I am interested in local culture, food, customs, and even politics. I like to spread the money to local people, so that they too can benefit, rather than just be house elves or in a human zoo.
You do realise I have been to all seven continents and maybe 120 countries? And just occasionally I write about things other than exceptional wine cellars? Like, say, customs, culture, food, and even politics?
You should get out more in the city you live in. Then Tooting and most of the rest of London wouldn't be such a foreign country to you.
I wonder how many of the 32 boroughs you've ever spent more than three consecutive hours in.
You praise London for being a "world city", and then you say you want to control immigration because otherwise you fear Britain will be dominated by Africans. You can't have it both ways. Immigration is what makes a world city.
You're Alf Garnett, basically. You can't handle too many black people on an airline video. I bet you're still seething about Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" film. Every decade has its Alfs.
What does the man know about "culture" who refers to wine he gets served at a Rothschild do as "£500 wine"?
The Sex Pistols had a good line when they sang about "a cheap holiday in other people's misery" - or in your case, a paid holiday.
I live in Camden Town. It probably doesn’t get more multiracial - anywhere in the world
Oh it does, in a lot of the rest of London, for starters:
So far everyone on PB would turn down a free £10k holiday in the Maldives
Excuse me but
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
I might do - but mainly because I find beach holidays dull. So I’m going to claim superior taste rather than moral virtue
The Maldives isn't a beach holiday, as most people understand it. It is way beyond that
The concept of the over-water villa means you step from your bedroom straight into the Indian Ocean, swimming amongst reef sharks, sting rays, and turtles, before breakfast
It is pretty fucking sensational. Very few people spend time lounging on the beach (even tho the beaches are sublime - made of crushed coral rather than rock, so they don't get hot)
And the snorkelling and the scuba? OMFG
On my previous trip I was so addicted to the snorkelling on one house reef I went round and round and round the island for about two days without cease, and got a terrible ear infection. It was worth it
Anyway while I wait ..... and wait..... and wait ..... and wait ..... for my free holiday with @Leon, on a more serious note the criminal justice system - and the Post Office's investigators and lawyers are now in the crosshairs, rightly so, of the Post Office Inquiry.
The guide given to the Post Office prosecutors completely failed to include their legal obligations to uncover and disclose material which might help the defence. This is an absolutely basic requirement which any half competent lawyer with even the most cursory knowledge of criminal law should know about. It has been around since the Irish miscarriage of justice cases in the 1970's. But no - Post Office prosecutors managed to write a guide to themselves which completely ignored this obligation so that they could avoid knowing about let alone complying with it. The failure of their internal documents to describe this basic obligation has been described by the expert witness on criminal prosecutions as "a fundamental omission" and a "significant failure".
Essentially all these prosecutions were fundamentally unfair and simply did not comply with the basic requirements of any proper investigation or criminal trial.
This goes well beyond reliance on dodgy Horizon data. The criminal process failed. It is a very very significant failing.
I am so angry at this. These prosecutors, these lawyers have helped injustice and misery on innocent people. They have shamed themselves; they have shamed my profession; they have disgraced the criminal justice system.
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
So far everyone on PB would turn down a free £10k holiday in the Maldives
Excuse me but
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
I might do - but mainly because I find beach holidays dull. So I’m going to claim superior taste rather than moral virtue
Claim both. Might as well. I do.
As StillW notes, we were being challenged to be honest - by Leon, I know, but still.
Doesn't mean I'm not honest in the knowledge of my virtue. As well as taste. Getting skin cancer while doing SFA is noit something this pale ginger Scot likes.
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Nah. I'd rather have a week in Wick. Great place.
And rather less rain, apparently.
Better whisky distillery, too.
In Pulteney Town, technically….my grandmother grew up a few streets away.
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Nah. I'd rather have a week in Wick. Great place.
And rather less rain, apparently.
Better whisky distillery, too.
In Pulteney Town, technically….my grandmother grew up a few streets away.
Quite so. One of the best parts of Wick, Pulteneytown.
So far everyone on PB would turn down a free £10k holiday in the Maldives
Excuse me but
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
I might do - but mainly because I find beach holidays dull. So I’m going to claim superior taste rather than moral virtue
The Maldives isn't a beach holiday, as most people understand it. It is way beyond that
The concept of the over-water villa means you step from your bedroom straight into the Indian Ocean, swimming amongst reef sharks, sting rays, and turtles, before breakfast
It is pretty fucking sensational. Very few people spend time lounging on the beach (even tho the beaches are sublime - made of crushed coral rather than rock, so they don't get hot)
And the snorkelling and the scuba? OMFG
On my previous trip I was so addicted to the snorkelling on one house reef I went round and round and round the island for about two days without cease, and got a terrible ear infection. It was worth it
This time I did the dives. Wow
I have been scuba diving and enjoyed it. So .... since my next 2 trips are to Glasgow and Carlisle the Maldives or Nicaragua sound fab. I can try out my Spanish, tell you about my disgraceful great aunt and uncle who ended up in Colombia flogging Martinis and other tall tales and generally put the world to rights.
Better than disappearing into the woods with a mad American axeman promising me a garden cabin, anyway.
Anyway while I wait ..... and wait..... and wait ..... and wait ..... for my free holiday with @Leon, on a more serious note the criminal justice system - and the Post Office's investigators and lawyers are now in the crosshairs, rightly so, of the Post Office Inquiry.
The guide given to the Post Office prosecutors completely failed to include their legal obligations to uncover and disclose material which might help the defence...
I wish I could say that is unbelievable, but we're long since past that.
Who was it that 'gave' the guide to the prosecutors ?
Anyway while I wait ..... and wait..... and wait ..... and wait ..... for my free holiday with @Leon, on a more serious note the criminal justice system - and the Post Office's investigators and lawyers are now in the crosshairs, rightly so, of the Post Office Inquiry.
The guide given to the Post Office prosecutors completely failed to include their legal obligations to uncover and disclose material which might help the defence...
I wish I could say that is unbelievable, but we're long since past that.
Who was it that 'gave' the guide to the prosecutors ?
The Post Office themselves. They wrote it. They based it on the CPS codes and Attorney-General's guidelines and various other guides which prosecutors must follow. But left out a rather important bit. .......
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
Morocco? No! Best desert scenery this side of Utah.
Stockholm archipelago: a great long weekend with my father a few years ago.
Anyway while I wait ..... and wait..... and wait ..... and wait ..... for my free holiday with @Leon, on a more serious note the criminal justice system - and the Post Office's investigators and lawyers are now in the crosshairs, rightly so, of the Post Office Inquiry.
The guide given to the Post Office prosecutors completely failed to include their legal obligations to uncover and disclose material which might help the defence...
I wish I could say that is unbelievable, but we're long since past that.
Who was it that 'gave' the guide to the prosecutors ?
The Post Office themselves. They wrote it. They based it on the CPS codes and Attorney-General's guidelines and various other guides which prosecutors must follow. But left out a rather important bit. .......
So it did not happen by accident.
But then how did their prosecutors overlook the omission ? It's not as though it's a technicality.
I just wouldn’t want to fly that far. I hate flying. I hate airports. Not flown for 4 years now. No intentions of doing so.
Vaguely tempted by the snorkelling. But no.
This is a bad attitude I have found in some of my friends, post-Covid
"Don't want to travel. Don't like it. Hate airplanes. UGH"
I honestly believe it's a kind of post-traumatic reaction, a sort of post-Covid shell shock. You've been institutionalised by lockdowns. It's not good. You are still a young-ish man, the world is out there, you have a life to live, so shake off this mood and go see the globe. In my experience with my reluctant friends, it takes one or two trips and then people suddenly go OMG I LOVE TRAVEL
What a day for Nicola Sturgeon‘s register of interests to be updated on the parly website…she has been paid £75,000 in the first of four instalments from Pan Macmillan for those “deeply personal and revealing” memoirs…
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
Monte Carlo. Ghastly. Also did not much like Provence when I went there. Overpriced. Too many twee lavender goodies everywhere and the food a disappointment.
Also avoid Tuscany in summer. Full of the sort of ghastly English middle classes any sensible person tries to stay away from.
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
I really like Denmark. Great fossil whales and Viking ships.
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Nah. I'd rather have a week in Wick. Great place.
And rather less rain, apparently.
Better whisky distillery, too.
In Pulteney Town, technically….my grandmother grew up a few streets away.
Quite so. One of the best parts of Wick, Pulteneytown.
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
Morocco? No! Best desert scenery this side of Utah.
Stockholm archipelago: a great long weekend with my father a few years ago.
Yes I am possibly being unfair on Morocco. It's just that I've been there on multiple trips for the Gazette and the people can be a tad hostile....
I disagree on the desert scenery. It's pretty good but not a patch on somewhere like Namibia or the Atacama, not even in the same league
Sweden, meh, islands, herrings, whatevs - if you pay me I will go, but not unless
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Nah. I'd rather have a week in Wick. Great place.
And rather less rain, apparently.
Better whisky distillery, too.
In Pulteney Town, technically….my grandmother grew up a few streets away.
Quite so. One of the best parts of Wick, Pulteneytown.
I would 100% rather go to Wick than the Maldives.
I'd take a holiday anywhere just now though.
Better in the spring/early summer to get the seabirds, maybe, though it's tricky not to tread on the oystercatcher chicks when looking for fossils on the beach, they are so well camouflaged.
This time, perhaps best in woodland like Strathpeffer or Aviemore. Ought to be doing it myself but too much to finish.
Also well done British Airways. An empty economy cabin. Cheerful staff. Perfect WiFi all the way. Plenty of good wine. Nice food. Landed exactly on time
Impressive. Far better than Qatar the other way
I’ve wondered occasionally whether, if you could only afford to fly first/club one way and economy the other which way round is best?
If you take the more comfortable option on the way there, you start the holiday more relaxed, your holiday has started earlier in a way. You come back economy and it’s more grim but then your holiday is over and it’s a stark reminder that the holiday is over and normality will resume.
If you do it the other way round you have a more uncomfortable journey there but it doesn’t matter because you get to your destination and luxuriate so the journey didn’t matter and the return in first/club softens the blow of the end of your holiday and just extends that feeling of relaxation to the last moment.
You take the overnight flight in the higher class
I used to fly to and from San Fran on Virgin. I'd book a Premium Economy ticket, and would make enough miles on the trip that I could upgrade my (overnight) ticket home. It worked a treat.
(Virgin closed the loophole by not allowing you to earn any miles on upgraded legs )
I just wouldn’t want to fly that far. I hate flying. I hate airports. Not flown for 4 years now. No intentions of doing so.
Vaguely tempted by the snorkelling. But no.
This is a bad attitude I have found in some of my friends, post-Covid
"Don't want to travel. Don't like it. Hate airplanes. UGH"
I honestly believe it's a kind of post-traumatic reaction, a sort of post-Covid shell shock. You've been institutionalised by lockdowns. It's not good. You are still a young-ish man, the world is out there, you have a life to live, so shake off this mood and go see the globe. In my experience with my reluctant friends, it takes one or two trips and then people suddenly go OMG I LOVE TRAVEL
And they are cured
Not everyone likes travel. Some just don’t. That’s not right or wrong. You need to travel - you made that clear during the winter lockdown, which you found tough. Seeing your travels this year makes it clear why. I’ve never known anyone with as much wanderlust as you. That makes you the extreme, the outlier, the 5 sigma.
I like a bit of travel, but my best experiences were living in NZ. Holiday is not seeing the real place, living and working somewhere gives a different perspective.
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
Monte Carlo. Ghastly. Also did not much like Provence when I went there. Overpriced. Too many twee lavender goodies everywhere and the food a disappointment.
Also avoid Tuscany in summer. Full of the sort of ghastly English middle classes any sensible person tries to stay away from.
Monaco is fun if you accept it for what it is. A sunny place for shady people. Revel in it, enjoy the local culture - which is mad tax exiles and Formula 1 Drivers getting drunk and eating £100 fish and chips with Russian hookers. Why is that any less interesting or authentic than the mosques of Samarkand or the gnus of the Serengeti? Monaco has been like this for 150 years minimum and the coast is spectacular
Provence can be disappointing (completely agree on the food) but then you happen upon an old abbey in a lavender field and its breathtakingly beautiful. Likewise Tuscany. Florence is stunning, one of THE great destinations, even if it is overrun with tourists. IT IS THE RENAISSANCE
I just wouldn’t want to fly that far. I hate flying. I hate airports. Not flown for 4 years now. No intentions of doing so.
Vaguely tempted by the snorkelling. But no.
This is a bad attitude I have found in some of my friends, post-Covid
"Don't want to travel. Don't like it. Hate airplanes. UGH"
I honestly believe it's a kind of post-traumatic reaction, a sort of post-Covid shell shock. You've been institutionalised by lockdowns. It's not good. You are still a young-ish man, the world is out there, you have a life to live, so shake off this mood and go see the globe. In my experience with my reluctant friends, it takes one or two trips and then people suddenly go OMG I LOVE TRAVEL
And they are cured
I had no flights 2019 to 2022. But I have done some this year. Flying is still a pain though. Not the flying but all the preliminary and afterwards. Train is better. But difficult to get to USA on train.
Anyway while I wait ..... and wait..... and wait ..... and wait ..... for my free holiday with @Leon, on a more serious note the criminal justice system - and the Post Office's investigators and lawyers are now in the crosshairs, rightly so, of the Post Office Inquiry.
The guide given to the Post Office prosecutors completely failed to include their legal obligations to uncover and disclose material which might help the defence...
I wish I could say that is unbelievable, but we're long since past that.
Who was it that 'gave' the guide to the prosecutors ?
The Post Office themselves. They wrote it. They based it on the CPS codes and Attorney-General's guidelines and various other guides which prosecutors must follow. But left out a rather important bit. .......
So it did not happen by accident.
But then how did their prosecutors overlook the omission ? It's not as though it's a technicality.
The Post Office took the view from the start that these people must be guilty and nothing was going to stand in their way. Not the law. Not evidence. Not judges. Nothing. They probably still believe that.
For my sins I am halfway through reading the first substantive Frazer judgment which first blew open the scandal. It is 300 pages long. The judge is very careful and polite but he is utterly scathing about the Post Office and the honesty or, more correctly, lack of honesty of the Post Office witnesses. I have never seen so many different ways a judge has described so many people as liars without actually using the word. It is a masterpiece of legal snark.
The PO was so furious they tried to get the judge removed. Not because of bias or some other failing but because they realised that if they lost this would cost them money and credibility so how fucking dare he. That application was described as utterly hopeless, misconceived and without merit.
And here we are years later and we are learning that it is all so very much worse.
I think if I were one of the subpostmasters affected by this I wouldn't be waiting for judicial reports. I'd be going to the houses of those responsible with some baseball bats and dangerous dogs. These people ruined lives. They took lives. They should be living in fear of going to prison and paying for what they have done.
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
I really like Denmark. Great fossil whales and Viking ships.
Sweden? Surely not all boring.
Sarek is one of the last wildernesses in Europe. An expedition to Sarektjakka would definitely make my list of worthwhile destinations.
Not so sure about brother in laws wish to visit the Volvo museum in Gothenburg though.
I just wouldn’t want to fly that far. I hate flying. I hate airports. Not flown for 4 years now. No intentions of doing so.
Vaguely tempted by the snorkelling. But no.
This is a bad attitude I have found in some of my friends, post-Covid
"Don't want to travel. Don't like it. Hate airplanes. UGH"
I honestly believe it's a kind of post-traumatic reaction, a sort of post-Covid shell shock. You've been institutionalised by lockdowns. It's not good. You are still a young-ish man, the world is out there, you have a life to live, so shake off this mood and go see the globe. In my experience with my reluctant friends, it takes one or two trips and then people suddenly go OMG I LOVE TRAVEL
And they are cured
Not everyone likes travel. Some just don’t. That’s not right or wrong. You need to travel - you made that clear during the winter lockdown, which you found tough. Seeing your travels this year makes it clear why. I’ve never known anyone with as much wanderlust as you. That makes you the extreme, the outlier, the 5 sigma.
I like a bit of travel, but my best experiences were living in NZ. Holiday is not seeing the real place, living and working somewhere gives a different perspective.
Sure, I hear you. And you could be right. I accept I am an extreme case. I am probably at my happiest on the road, and that is REALLY unusual. Sometimes I envy homebodies, content in the domestic environment. It sounds restful, my life is not restful. But I am what I am
However I am concerned about @DavidL (genuinely, I've come to like @DavidL even if I've never met him - I remember the near-heart-attack!). I worry that he is someone who used to like travel but has been convinced by Covid that he doesn't want to do it any more. I have seen this in friends and often it is just a mindset that needs to be shaken off. But if he says that is not the case, then all is cool, of course
A fortnight later, the Paterson scandal broke, and that was that.
Funny old world.
One man's inability to accept any personal wrongdoing, using emotional manipulation and bluster to cover for his misdeeds, and one Prime Minister wasting his personal and political capital trying to bail out a piece of sh*t, embarrassing and infuriating the people he would later need to defend him by making them do it too. What a bloody waste.
To brighten up everyone's Friday afternoon, here's some good news - Elizabeth Line passenger numbers keep growing. Last Thursday it carried 738,000 passengers - the highest yet in a single day. Yesterday may have been busier still - numbers awaited. Build it and they will come! 4:17 PM · Oct 6, 2023"
Would be interesting to see the hotspots for which bit is growing fastest and at what times.
Paddington to City is one journey that has massively changed.
Heathrow to my flat is:
90 (uncomfortable) minutes by taxi 55 (expensive) minutes by Heathrow Express plus Taxi 38 (cheap and efficient) minutes by the Elizabeth Line
It helps, of course, that I'm three minutes walk from Tottenham Court Road tube station.
That said, the Elizabeth line has put me right off British Airways. Simply, because the Elizabeth Line goes to Terminals 2/3, I'd much rather travel by Virgin, American or United, than trek out to Terminal 5.
Terminal 5 has been served by the Elizabeth Line since last May. Photo taken June 2022.
While that's technically true, if I go to TCR station, I have six trains an hour to Terminal 2/3, but only two to Terminal 5.
I am happy to go to the station without planning if I want to get to Terminals 2/3, but I have to plan if I want to go to 5. That's a pretty major difference.
Unless they hold the planes for you, surely there must be some planning involved?
If I'm flying Virgin to LA, I simply leave the flat two and a half before my flight. I'll get there an hour and forty-five before, and all is good.
I can't do that with BA. I now actively avoid flying out of Terminal 5. (It's *slightly* better coming back. But then you have the choice about whether to change to the Elizabeth line at Terminals 2/3 - which minimizes walking - or Paddington - which minimizes time. Neither is as convenient as being at Terminals 2/3 from the off.)
But T5 has no annoying long tunnels to trundle down underground
Nor does T3.
T2, I will admit, is about an hour's walk.
(T5 also has the disadvantage that you usually have to take the little train to the main terminal from B and C gates.)
Never take the little train.
You walk instead through the sneaky tunnel
I will normally do that (especially from the B gates) in preference to taking the train. But irrespective, those remote gates add a fair amount onto your "time to home".
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
I really like Denmark. Great fossil whales and Viking ships.
Sweden? Surely not all boring.
Sarek is one of the last wildernesses in Europe. An expedition to Sarektjakka would definitely make my list of worthwhile destinations.
Not so sure about brother in laws wish to visit the Volvo museum in Gothenburg though.
Definitely on my list. Wasa, and much else, to see. Also the Aland Islands and Finland, including their Tank Museum.
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
And they have a huge heroin problem.
Surely, if you're going to be a smack head, that's the place to be?
What a day for Nicola Sturgeon‘s register of interests to be updated on the parly website…she has been paid £75,000 in the first of four instalments from Pan Macmillan for those “deeply personal and revealing” memoirs…
So there is not one PB-er willing to admit that Yeah, they would accept a free £10,000 holiday in the Maldives, you would all refuse because of the whole sharia law/heroin/sewage/house-elves issue, and demand a short yurting weekend in Staffordshire instead?
I mean, guys, this is pitiful. Not a single spine amongst you
Accepting a £10k freebie = showing some spine? Right.
Would you accept a free £10k holiday in the Maldives, @Benpointer?
Or would you refuse on grounds of morality?
I wouldn't refuse on grounds of morality.
I'd refuse because I would be bored shitless in a luxury holiday resort surrounded by nouves like you, Leon, who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
What's a "£10K" holiday if you're not paying for it? Why care how much it costs? It sounds as boring as f***. I'm not surprised you spent much of your time there playing with your smartphone or laptop sending messages to a betting website back in Blighty.
Edit: I'm not envious. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. I wouldn't enjoy it at all, being surrounded by types whose experience of any given 15-minute section of the day is enhanced by knowing how much money somebody paid somebody else for them to have that experience. Or nouveaux as they are also called.
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
And they have a huge heroin problem.
What, all of the Speccie's writers ?
He’s actually right. They do have a heroin problem in the Maldives. It’s because they don’t allow booze. See Iran for something very similar on vastly greater scale
However most of the locals - in my experience - absolutely love the hotels. Before tourism arrived the Maldives was a fly blown malarial archipelago ignored by the British (we owned it)
Now the men have a route out of poverty and a gateway to global jobs. And the women have a way out of that veiled sharia law
And of course it all brings lots of money which DOES go to the locals. I’ve been to the main island of Mahe - and stayed there. And talked to the Maldivians. I doubt if 5% of them want to return to the old impoverished life. All they can offer is tourism
"most of the locals - in my experience - absolutely love the hotels"
Would these be the same locals you've just met at the hotel where you are staying, and they are working?
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
Morocco? No! Best desert scenery this side of Utah.
Stockholm archipelago: a great long weekend with my father a few years ago.
Yes I am possibly being unfair on Morocco. It's just that I've been there on multiple trips for the Gazette and the people can be a tad hostile....
I disagree on the desert scenery. It's pretty good but not a patch on somewhere like Namibia or the Atacama, not even in the same league
Sweden, meh, islands, herrings, whatevs - if you pay me I will go, but not unless
Those places aren’t this side of Utah though, they are ultra long haul. Morocco and Algeria are 2.5 hours away. Short haul, closer than Athens or Helsinki.
Plus they have palm trees, oases, dates and camels which those further flung deserts don’t have.
Hostility wise I’m imagining something like The Forgiven, with you the French Travel journalist. Like that?
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
Monte Carlo. Ghastly. Also did not much like Provence when I went there. Overpriced. Too many twee lavender goodies everywhere and the food a disappointment.
Also avoid Tuscany in summer. Full of the sort of ghastly English middle classes any sensible person tries to stay away from.
Monaco is fun if you accept it for what it is. A sunny place for shady people. Revel in it, enjoy the local culture - which is mad tax exiles and Formula 1 Drivers getting drunk and eating £100 fish and chips with Russian hookers. Why is that any less interesting or authentic than the mosques of Samarkand or the gnus of the Serengeti? Monaco has been like this for 150 years minimum and the coast is spectacular
Provence can be disappointing (completely agree on the food) but then you happen upon an old abbey in a lavender field and its breathtakingly beautiful. Likewise Tuscany. Florence is stunning, one of THE great destinations, even if it is overrun with tourists. IT IS THE RENAISSANCE
I quite like Florence. I have family there. But not in high summer or the depths of winter.
One day I will tell you what other Italians think of Tuscans. It is not flattering. Italians snarking about other Italians is even more fun than legal snark. Though hard to explain to non-Italian speakers.
Disliked Nice town. But the coast road from Nice down to Livorno and beyond is one of the great drives.
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
Monte Carlo. Ghastly. Also did not much like Provence when I went there. Overpriced. Too many twee lavender goodies everywhere and the food a disappointment.
Also avoid Tuscany in summer. Full of the sort of ghastly English middle classes any sensible person tries to stay away from.
Monaco is fun if you accept it for what it is. A sunny place for shady people. Revel in it, enjoy the local culture - which is mad tax exiles and Formula 1 Drivers getting drunk and eating £100 fish and chips with Russian hookers. Why is that any less interesting or authentic than the mosques of Samarkand or the gnus of the Serengeti? Monaco has been like this for 150 years minimum and the coast is spectacular
Provence can be disappointing (completely agree on the food) but then you happen upon an old abbey in a lavender field and its breathtakingly beautiful. Likewise Tuscany. Florence is stunning, one of THE great destinations, even if it is overrun with tourists. IT IS THE RENAISSANCE
I quite like Florence. I have family there. But not in high summer or the depths of winter.
One day I will tell you what other Italians think of Tuscans. It is not flattering. Italians snarking about other Italians is even more fun than legal snark. Though hard to explain to non-Italian speakers.
Disliked Nice town. But the coast road from Nice down to Livorno and beyond is one of the great drives.
My experience of Tuscany in high summer was not Brits but Americans, and Germans, everywhere.
I’m genuinely curious. How many PBers would turn down a free £10k holiday in the Maldives for all the reasons @Foxy says? Sharia law, hypocrisy, climate change, etc?
I am happy to accept that @foxy might actually do that - consumed with pompous Puritan moral self congratulation as he is, he also seems sincere
Wouid anyone else say No? Please be honest!
Probably,. For now I only have so much free time to holiday - and I know it would bore my wife witless.
Good evening
My wife and I would as our travel insurance would probably exceed the free holiday!!!!
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
That’s all well and good but I write for the Knappers Gazette and we’re trying to diversify their economy into granitic vibrators. You should be applauding me not seething with envy
No not envious at all.
When I travel, I am interested in local culture, food, customs, and even politics. I like to spread the money to local people, so that they too can benefit, rather than just be house elves or in a human zoo.
You do realise I have been to all seven continents and maybe 120 countries? And just occasionally I write about things other than exceptional wine cellars? Like, say, customs, culture, food, and even politics?
You should get out more in the city you live in. Then Tooting and most of the rest of London wouldn't be such a foreign country to you.
I wonder how many of the 32 boroughs you've ever spent more than three consecutive hours in.
You praise London for being a "world city", and then you say you want to control immigration because otherwise you fear Britain will be dominated by Africans. You can't have it both ways. Immigration is what makes a world city.
You're Alf Garnett, basically. You can't handle too many black people on an airline video. I bet you're still seething about Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" film. Every decade has its Alfs.
What does the man know about "culture" who refers to wine he gets served at a Rothschild do as "£500 wine"?
The Sex Pistols had a good line when they sang about "a cheap holiday in other people's misery" - or in your case, a paid holiday.
I live in Camden Town. It probably doesn’t get more multiracial - anywhere in the world
Oh it does, in a lot of the rest of London, for starters:
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
And they have a huge heroin problem.
What, all of the Speccie's writers ?
He’s actually right. They do have a heroin problem in the Maldives. It’s because they don’t allow booze. See Iran for something very similar on vastly greater scale
However most of the locals - in my experience - absolutely love the hotels. Before tourism arrived the Maldives was a fly blown malarial archipelago ignored by the British (we owned it)
Now the men have a route out of poverty and a gateway to global jobs. And the women have a way out of that veiled sharia law
And of course it all brings lots of money which DOES go to the locals. I’ve been to the main island of Mahe - and stayed there. And talked to the Maldivians. I doubt if 5% of them want to return to the old impoverished life. All they can offer is tourism
"most of the locals - in my experience - absolutely love the hotels"
Would these be the same locals you've just met at the hotel where you are staying, and they are working?
Have you been to the Maldives? The people are not bashful. They are vivid and outgoing and full of opinions
On my last trip - unlike almost any other tourist - I went to stay on the capital-island of Mahe, so I could actually talk to real Maldivians. And they will happily talk to you, and be open and candid (feel my pain, Mahe is DRY)
They made it pretty plain. Yes, the hotels bring weird social stress and environmental issues, but without the hotels they'd be as impoverished as the people on the Nicobar or Andaman islands. The hotels bring huge income amd opportunity. I didn't meet one person who wants to get rid of them and go back to some imaginary pre-lapsarian paradise
You could probably dig up a mad mullah who would say this. The people do not. And the women REALLY like the freedom from the niqab
Also, Maldivians are now developing their own domestic tourist market. The "guest house"
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
That’s all well and good but I write for the Knappers Gazette and we’re trying to diversify their economy into granitic vibrators. You should be applauding me not seething with envy
No not envious at all.
When I travel, I am interested in local culture, food, customs, and even politics. I like to spread the money to local people, so that they too can benefit, rather than just be house elves or in a human zoo.
You do realise I have been to all seven continents and maybe 120 countries? And just occasionally I write about things other than exceptional wine cellars? Like, say, customs, culture, food, and even politics?
You should get out more in the city you live in. Then Tooting and most of the rest of London wouldn't be such a foreign country to you.
I wonder how many of the 32 boroughs you've ever spent more than three consecutive hours in.
You praise London for being a "world city", and then you say you want to control immigration because otherwise you fear Britain will be dominated by Africans. You can't have it both ways. Immigration is what makes a world city.
You're Alf Garnett, basically. You can't handle too many black people on an airline video. I bet you're still seething about Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" film. Every decade has its Alfs.
What does the man know about "culture" who refers to wine he gets served at a Rothschild do as "£500 wine"?
The Sex Pistols had a good line when they sang about "a cheap holiday in other people's misery" - or in your case, a paid holiday.
I live in Camden Town. It probably doesn’t get more multiracial - anywhere in the world
Oh it does, in a lot of the rest of London, for starters:
So far everyone on PB would turn down a free £10k holiday in the Maldives
Excuse me but
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
I might do - but mainly because I find beach holidays dull. So I’m going to claim superior taste rather than moral virtue
The Maldives isn't a beach holiday, as most people understand it. It is way beyond that
The concept of the over-water villa means you step from your bedroom straight into the Indian Ocean, swimming amongst reef sharks, sting rays, and turtles, before breakfast
It is pretty fucking sensational. Very few people spend time lounging on the beach (even tho the beaches are sublime - made of crushed coral rather than rock, so they don't get hot)
And the snorkelling and the scuba? OMFG
On my previous trip I was so addicted to the snorkelling on one house reef I went round and round and round the island for about two days without cease, and got a terrible ear infection. It was worth it
This time I did the dives. Wow
For me, holidays are about spending time with family and loved ones.
It doesn’t matter where you are.
Plus conspicuous consumption makes me uncomfortable.
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
Monte Carlo. Ghastly. Also did not much like Provence when I went there. Overpriced. Too many twee lavender goodies everywhere and the food a disappointment.
Also avoid Tuscany in summer. Full of the sort of ghastly English middle classes any sensible person tries to stay away from.
Monaco is fun if you accept it for what it is. A sunny place for shady people. Revel in it, enjoy the local culture - which is mad tax exiles and Formula 1 Drivers getting drunk and eating £100 fish and chips with Russian hookers. Why is that any less interesting or authentic than the mosques of Samarkand or the gnus of the Serengeti? Monaco has been like this for 150 years minimum and the coast is spectacular
Provence can be disappointing (completely agree on the food) but then you happen upon an old abbey in a lavender field and its breathtakingly beautiful. Likewise Tuscany. Florence is stunning, one of THE great destinations, even if it is overrun with tourists. IT IS THE RENAISSANCE
I quite like Florence. I have family there. But not in high summer or the depths of winter.
One day I will tell you what other Italians think of Tuscans. It is not flattering. Italians snarking about other Italians is even more fun than legal snark. Though hard to explain to non-Italian speakers.
Disliked Nice town. But the coast road from Nice down to Livorno and beyond is one of the great drives.
My experience of Tuscany in high summer was not Brits but Americans, and Germans, everywhere.
Endless endless Americans, all doing the same fucking circuit. Florence, Siena, Roma. help. And all unfathomably gauche, despite their wealth
The more interesting question is which tourist destination would you not spend your own money to visit.
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Dubai and Qatar are hideous. Quite agree
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
Monte Carlo. Ghastly. Also did not much like Provence when I went there. Overpriced. Too many twee lavender goodies everywhere and the food a disappointment.
Also avoid Tuscany in summer. Full of the sort of ghastly English middle classes any sensible person tries to stay away from.
Monte Carlo manages to make Qatar and Dubai look good. The most overpriced meal I have ever had was there at the Louis XV. A meal which was staggering in the ordinariness of the food, and the outrageousness of the bill.
So far everyone on PB would turn down a free £10k holiday in the Maldives
Excuse me but
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
I might do - but mainly because I find beach holidays dull. So I’m going to claim superior taste rather than moral virtue
The Maldives isn't a beach holiday, as most people understand it. It is way beyond that
The concept of the over-water villa means you step from your bedroom straight into the Indian Ocean, swimming amongst reef sharks, sting rays, and turtles, before breakfast
It is pretty fucking sensational. Very few people spend time lounging on the beach (even tho the beaches are sublime - made of crushed coral rather than rock, so they don't get hot)
And the snorkelling and the scuba? OMFG
On my previous trip I was so addicted to the snorkelling on one house reef I went round and round and round the island for about two days without cease, and got a terrible ear infection. It was worth it
This time I did the dives. Wow
A post I can understand. An unusual place. You walk out of your bedroom onto your private jetty and into he closest thing to an aquarium that I've ever seen. I was shooting a rafaello commercial and our end of shoot party was on a desert island about an hour away by boat. Just a sandbank in the middle of the the Indian Ocean prepared with lights and food and nothing to see on any horizon. Banyan Tree is the Island I liked best. It is unvulgar luxury and something to startle every minute
Anyway while I wait ..... and wait..... and wait ..... and wait ..... for my free holiday with @Leon, on a more serious note the criminal justice system - and the Post Office's investigators and lawyers are now in the crosshairs, rightly so, of the Post Office Inquiry.
The guide given to the Post Office prosecutors completely failed to include their legal obligations to uncover and disclose material which might help the defence...
I wish I could say that is unbelievable, but we're long since past that.
Who was it that 'gave' the guide to the prosecutors ?
The Post Office themselves. They wrote it. They based it on the CPS codes and Attorney-General's guidelines and various other guides which prosecutors must follow. But left out a rather important bit. .......
So it did not happen by accident.
But then how did their prosecutors overlook the omission ? It's not as though it's a technicality.
The Post Office took the view from the start that these people must be guilty and nothing was going to stand in their way. Not the law. Not evidence. Not judges. Nothing. They probably still believe that.
For my sins I am halfway through reading the first substantive Frazer judgment which first blew open the scandal. It is 300 pages long. The judge is very careful and polite but he is utterly scathing about the Post Office and the honesty or, more correctly, lack of honesty of the Post Office witnesses. I have never seen so many different ways a judge has described so many people as liars without actually using the word. It is a masterpiece of legal snark.
The PO was so furious they tried to get the judge removed. Not because of bias or some other failing but because they realised that if they lost this would cost them money and credibility so how fucking dare he. That application was described as utterly hopeless, misconceived and without merit.
And here we are years later and we are learning that it is all so very much worse.
I think if I were one of the subpostmasters affected by this I wouldn't be waiting for judicial reports. I'd be going to the houses of those responsible with some baseball bats and dangerous dogs. These people ruined lives. They took lives. They should be living in fear of going to prison and paying for what they have done.
It seems almost inconceivable that there aren't grounds to charge a number of people with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
To brighten up everyone's Friday afternoon, here's some good news - Elizabeth Line passenger numbers keep growing. Last Thursday it carried 738,000 passengers - the highest yet in a single day. Yesterday may have been busier still - numbers awaited. Build it and they will come! 4:17 PM · Oct 6, 2023"
Would be interesting to see the hotspots for which bit is growing fastest and at what times.
Paddington to City is one journey that has massively changed.
Heathrow to my flat is:
90 (uncomfortable) minutes by taxi 55 (expensive) minutes by Heathrow Express plus Taxi 38 (cheap and efficient) minutes by the Elizabeth Line
It helps, of course, that I'm three minutes walk from Tottenham Court Road tube station.
That said, the Elizabeth line has put me right off British Airways. Simply, because the Elizabeth Line goes to Terminals 2/3, I'd much rather travel by Virgin, American or United, than trek out to Terminal 5.
Terminal 5 has been served by the Elizabeth Line since last May. Photo taken June 2022.
While that's technically true, if I go to TCR station, I have six trains an hour to Terminal 2/3, but only two to Terminal 5.
I am happy to go to the station without planning if I want to get to Terminals 2/3, but I have to plan if I want to go to 5. That's a pretty major difference.
Unless they hold the planes for you, surely there must be some planning involved?
If I'm flying Virgin to LA, I simply leave the flat two and a half before my flight. I'll get there an hour and forty-five before, and all is good.
I can't do that with BA. I now actively avoid flying out of Terminal 5. (It's *slightly* better coming back. But then you have the choice about whether to change to the Elizabeth line at Terminals 2/3 - which minimizes walking - or Paddington - which minimizes time. Neither is as convenient as being at Terminals 2/3 from the off.)
But T5 has no annoying long tunnels to trundle down underground
Nor does T3.
T2, I will admit, is about an hour's walk.
(T5 also has the disadvantage that you usually have to take the little train to the main terminal from B and C gates.)
Never take the little train.
You walk instead through the sneaky tunnel
I will normally do that (especially from the B gates) in preference to taking the train. But irrespective, those remote gates add a fair amount onto your "time to home".
That’s incredible. That’s from literal touchdown to keying the door of my home. So it includes taxiing, parking, waiting to disembark an economy cabin, walk to passport, passport, luggage collection, walk to Heathrow express, train to Paddington, cab from Paddington to Camden
84 minutes!
A NEW INTER-GALACTIC RECORD
How many minutes though until you are on the internet looking for the next travel adventure?
He has certainly confirmed for me that the Maldives doesn't need to be on my to do list. It seems to encapsulate everything I dislike.
Hmm
If someone ever offers you a free holiday in the Maldives: TAKE IT
They are sublime if you want sheer luxury (and world class scuba and snorkelling). Unquestionably the best and biggest cluster of super luxurious resorts in the world
However if you want life and couture and authenticity - or you are averse to dropping £10k of your own cash on a mere week abroad - avoid like the plague
To me the Maldives symbolises everything wrong with long haul tourism.
1) the capital is one of the most crowded islands in the world with a quarter of a million people in a little over 3 Square miles. Raw sewage goes straight into the ocean, and water is in short supply. The Tourist resorts are incredibly spacious on the out lying islands.
2) the government is an Islamic fundamentalist one, under Sharia law with alcohol only allowed to tourists staying in resorts on the outlying islands. Local culture is anathema with food and drink imported.
3) the country may well sink below the waves due to global warming, yet the economy is completely dependent on international air travel that is a major contribution to the islands destruction.
The tourists live in an artificial bubble, deliberately kept away from the grim consequences of their holiday in paradise.
Not my cup of tea, but I don't expect any of this to appear in your paid puffery in The Spectator. Freebies only go to"Travel Journalists" willing to write advertising copy and pretend it is journalism.
That’s all well and good but I write for the Knappers Gazette and we’re trying to diversify their economy into granitic vibrators. You should be applauding me not seething with envy
No not envious at all.
When I travel, I am interested in local culture, food, customs, and even politics. I like to spread the money to local people, so that they too can benefit, rather than just be house elves or in a human zoo.
You do realise I have been to all seven continents and maybe 120 countries? And just occasionally I write about things other than exceptional wine cellars? Like, say, customs, culture, food, and even politics?
You should get out more in the city you live in. Then Tooting and most of the rest of London wouldn't be such a foreign country to you.
I wonder how many of the 32 boroughs you've ever spent more than three consecutive hours in.
You praise London for being a "world city", and then you say you want to control immigration because otherwise you fear Britain will be dominated by Africans. You can't have it both ways. Immigration is what makes a world city.
You're Alf Garnett, basically. You can't handle too many black people on an airline video. I bet you're still seething about Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" film. Every decade has its Alfs.
What does the man know about "culture" who refers to wine he gets served at a Rothschild do as "£500 wine"?
The Sex Pistols had a good line when they sang about "a cheap holiday in other people's misery" - or in your case, a paid holiday.
I live in Camden Town. It probably doesn’t get more multiracial - anywhere in the world
Oh it does, in a lot of the rest of London, for starters:
Comments
Meanwhile roads mileage will probably return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023. People are still moving around.
HS2 is a mirror image of the Edinburgh Trams project. A disaster, far too expensive, late. And yet, patronage has been way higher than expected following the recent extension of the line. And 90% of people want a bus stop within a 15 minute walk.
Public transport gets cheaper the more you build, and the benefits grow as the network becomes more pervasive. The piecemeal approach of a cycle lane here, a bus service there, a couple of tram lines, HS2 only to Birmingham, is weak. It's pathetic, frankly.
*Curiously excluded from the Government's analysis
The rest of the country is feeling a bit sore.
I'm not at all impressed either.
Or would you refuse on grounds of morality?
Well done. One honest PB-er
I see that as a distinct and different question to whether one agrees or has sympathy with Leon’s racial and immigration views, which I must admit I find pretty shocking at times. I am never sure if there are just deliberately provocative or heartfelt. Not least because the remaining 95% of his output is interesting and very sympathetic to the human condition.
https://trustforlondon.org.uk/news/census-2021-deep-dive-ethnicity-and-deprivation-in-london/?#
Surprising fact (to me at any rate) both Camden & Islington are less multiracial than Westminster.
Not so impressive.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35464/35464-h/35464-h.htm#Page_1
Not as good as the same author's one about the Glenmutchkin Railway company. But a nice period piece. (It refers to one of the Burghs seats - several non-contiguous burghs merged into a single constituency, such as Wick Burghs = Cromarty, Dingwall, Dornoch, Kirkwall, Tain and Wick.)
For now I only have so much free time to holiday - and I know it would bore my wife witless.
So yes, you can stuff your £10k holiday wherever you like.
But I recently went on a lovely holiday to Tenerife, pool, beach etc, and spent the whole time planning long distance walks, cycle tours, Slovenian mountain huts etc.
So it would be a nice place to research a real holiday.
How about Nicaragua? That's possibly my next destination. Suitably challenging, even for the likes of @Foxy
2/2 The event has also been skillfully scheduled for 15-17 October to get delegates pumped up for the second indyref Nicola Sturgeon announced only two days later on 19 October. It's going to be a great conference!
https://x.com/rogerlwhite/status/1710363132516847972?s=20
That means you are excluding: Egypt. Iran, Indonesia, and Malaysia, for starters (and many others)
Those are some amazing places - I've been to them all bar Iran - and I pity you. You're missing out
* buffs halo *
Being a bit obnoxious as I get your point.
The concept of the over-water villa means you step from your bedroom straight into the Indian Ocean, swimming amongst reef sharks, sting rays, and turtles, before breakfast
It is pretty fucking sensational. Very few people spend time lounging on the beach (even tho the beaches are sublime - made of crushed coral rather than rock, so they don't get hot)
And the snorkelling and the scuba? OMFG
On my previous trip I was so addicted to the snorkelling on one house reef I went round and round and round the island for about two days without cease, and got a terrible ear infection. It was worth it
This time I did the dives. Wow
The guide given to the Post Office prosecutors completely failed to include their legal obligations to uncover and disclose material which might help the defence. This is an absolutely basic requirement which any half competent lawyer with even the most cursory knowledge of criminal law should know about. It has been around since the Irish miscarriage of justice cases in the 1970's. But no - Post Office prosecutors managed to write a guide to themselves which completely ignored this obligation so that they could avoid knowing about let alone complying with it. The failure of their internal documents to describe this basic obligation has been described by the expert witness on criminal prosecutions as "a fundamental omission" and a "significant failure".
Essentially all these prosecutions were fundamentally unfair and simply did not comply with the basic requirements of any proper investigation or criminal trial.
This goes well beyond reliance on dodgy Horizon data. The criminal process failed. It is a very very significant failing.
I am so angry at this. These prosecutors, these lawyers have helped injustice and misery on innocent people. They have shamed themselves; they have shamed my profession; they have disgraced the criminal justice system.
https://x.com/stugoo17/status/1710146810247815633?s=61&t=wWWeJB3W_ksMJK4LA1OvkA
Having been with work to Dubai and Qatar I am very confident I would never trouble my own wallet to spend time there. Fine on expenses, but not for me.
Sadly some of my most fun work trips of the last couple of decades were to Moscow. That’s not happening again in a hurry.
Proper rugby of highest quality.
Vaguely tempted by the snorkelling. But no.
Better than disappearing into the woods with a mad American axeman promising me a garden cabin, anyway.
Who was it that 'gave' the guide to the prosecutors ?
So it did not happen by accident.
Abu Dhabi. Doha, all of it. YUK
I would never spend my own money to go to Denmark, too fucking boring, ditto Sweden. Morocco is an edge case
Apart from that I find everywhere in the world fascinating in some way
https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/d13w1ni2bk/TheTimes_VI_Results_211006_W.pdf
How time flies.
Stockholm archipelago: a great long weekend with my father a few years ago.
It's not as though it's a technicality.
"Don't want to travel. Don't like it. Hate airplanes. UGH"
I honestly believe it's a kind of post-traumatic reaction, a sort of post-Covid shell shock. You've been institutionalised by lockdowns. It's not good. You are still a young-ish man, the world is out there, you have a life to live, so shake off this mood and go see the globe. In my experience with my reluctant friends, it takes one or two trips and then people suddenly go OMG I LOVE TRAVEL
And they are cured
What a day for Nicola Sturgeon‘s register of interests to be updated on the parly website…she has been paid £75,000 in the first of four instalments from Pan Macmillan for those “deeply personal and revealing” memoirs…
https://x.com/BBCPhilipSim/status/1710368082160468151?s=20
Also avoid Tuscany in summer. Full of the sort of ghastly English middle classes any sensible person tries to stay away from.
I'd take a holiday anywhere just now though.
I disagree on the desert scenery. It's pretty good but not a patch on somewhere like Namibia or the Atacama, not even in the same league
Sweden, meh, islands, herrings, whatevs - if you pay me I will go, but not unless
This time, perhaps best in woodland like Strathpeffer or Aviemore. Ought to be doing it myself but too much to finish.
(Virgin closed the loophole by not allowing you to earn any miles on upgraded legs
You need to travel - you made that clear during the winter lockdown, which you found tough. Seeing your travels this year makes it clear why. I’ve never known anyone with as much wanderlust as you. That makes you the extreme, the outlier, the 5 sigma.
I like a bit of travel, but my best experiences were living in NZ. Holiday is not seeing the real place, living and working somewhere gives a different perspective.
Provence can be disappointing (completely agree on the food) but then you happen upon an old abbey in a lavender field and its breathtakingly beautiful. Likewise Tuscany. Florence is stunning, one of THE great destinations, even if it is overrun with tourists. IT IS THE RENAISSANCE
Funny old world.
For my sins I am halfway through reading the first substantive Frazer judgment which first blew open the scandal. It is 300 pages long. The judge is very careful and polite but he is utterly scathing about the Post Office and the honesty or, more correctly, lack of honesty of the Post Office witnesses. I have never seen so many different ways a judge has described so many people as liars without actually using the word. It is a masterpiece of legal snark.
The PO was so furious they tried to get the judge removed. Not because of bias or some other failing but because they realised that if they lost this would cost them money and credibility so how fucking dare he. That application was described as utterly hopeless, misconceived and without merit.
And here we are years later and we are learning that it is all so very much worse.
I think if I were one of the subpostmasters affected by this I wouldn't be waiting for judicial reports. I'd be going to the houses of those responsible with some baseball bats and dangerous dogs. These people ruined lives. They took lives. They should be living in fear of going to prison and paying for what they have done.
Sarek is one of the last wildernesses in Europe. An expedition to Sarektjakka would definitely make my list of worthwhile destinations.
Not so sure about brother in laws wish to visit the Volvo museum in Gothenburg though.
However I am concerned about @DavidL (genuinely, I've come to like @DavidL even if I've never met him - I remember the near-heart-attack!). I worry that he is someone who used to like travel but has been convinced by Covid that he doesn't want to do it any more. I have seen this in friends and often it is just a mindset that needs to be shaken off. But if he says that is not the case, then all is cool, of course
Another publisher loses a big advance on political memoir.
I'd refuse because I would be bored shitless in a luxury holiday resort surrounded by nouves like you, Leon, who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
What's a "£10K" holiday if you're not paying for it? Why care how much it costs?
It sounds as boring as f***. I'm not surprised you spent much of your time there playing with your smartphone or laptop sending messages to a betting website back in Blighty.
Edit: I'm not envious. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. I wouldn't enjoy it at all, being surrounded by types whose experience of any given 15-minute section of the day is enhanced by knowing how much money somebody paid somebody else for them to have that experience. Or nouveaux as they are also called.
Would these be the same locals you've just met at the hotel where you are staying, and they are working?
Plus they have palm trees, oases, dates and camels which those further flung deserts don’t have.
Hostility wise I’m imagining something like The Forgiven, with you the French Travel journalist. Like that?
One day I will tell you what other Italians think of Tuscans. It is not flattering. Italians snarking about other Italians is even more fun than legal snark. Though hard to explain to non-Italian speakers.
Disliked Nice town. But the coast road from Nice down to Livorno and beyond is one of the great drives.
Rishi Sunak
@RishiSunak
·
3h
On Sunday, I slammed the brakes on anti-motorist measures.
For many, our car is a lifeline. We use them to get to work or see our family.
https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1710352494054826336
Our car? You use a helicopter and a government car to do everything.
Professor Karol Sikora
@ProfKarolSikora
·
59m
Prime Minister.
The best way to reduce cancer deaths, in the short term, is to reopen the three Rutherford cancer centres.
Capable of helping 20,000 patients a year with some of the most advanced cancer tech in the world.
They currently sit empty.
A scandalous waste.
My wife and I would as our travel insurance would probably exceed the free holiday!!!!
Rishi Sunak
@RishiSunak
·
3h
On Sunday, I slammed the brakes on anti-motorist measures.
For many, our car is a lifeline. We use them to get to work or see our family.
This tweet is literally illustrated with Sunak on a private jet.
Just incredible. No idea whatsoever.
On my last trip - unlike almost any other tourist - I went to stay on the capital-island of Mahe, so I could actually talk to real Maldivians. And they will happily talk to you, and be open and candid (feel my pain, Mahe is DRY)
They made it pretty plain. Yes, the hotels bring weird social stress and environmental issues, but without the hotels they'd be as impoverished as the people on the Nicobar or Andaman islands. The hotels bring huge income amd opportunity. I didn't meet one person who wants to get rid of them and go back to some imaginary pre-lapsarian paradise
You could probably dig up a mad mullah who would say this. The people do not. And the women REALLY like the freedom from the niqab
Also, Maldivians are now developing their own domestic tourist market. The "guest house"
https://www.muchbetteradventures.com/magazine/community-tourism-adventure-maldives-leakage/
Got a little drenched though
It doesn’t matter where you are.
Plus conspicuous consumption makes me uncomfortable.
They genuinely thought Richi on a private plane was the message they want to send???
And Jimmyz is a bit shit too.
I suppose you've done the wonderful cable monorail from Birmingham International to the airport too?