Yes, total sympathy with Boris here. He was saying what everyone was saying. The idea these concepts should not be broached- by the PM - is insane. No doubt Churchill had pretty robust and ugly arguments during WW2, about the deaths of various civilians, He was simply lucky he didn’t have them recorded on WhatsApp
I agree. It’s this Inquiry culture, following Iraq, that drove all decision making on to WhatsApp (and presumably now has made it all verbal). People in the midst of making impossible decisions need a bit of latitude to make them, and have the real detail secret for years, so that future historians at least have the detail.
I'm not so certain.
Government has a degree of accountability, not least to the electorate, and transparency, so we know the reasons why decisions were taken in our name.
Many individuals have kept diaries as their record of events - perhaps less for future inquiries as for future memoirs. It's been possible for those cited unfavourably in said diaries to deny what was said or suggest an agenda or to be more charitable claim a misinterpretation.
WhatsApp isn't any of that - it enables people to record their most personal thoughts and to share them. Should it be the kind of medium used in a professional working environment? If Cummings or others used WhatsApp in lieu of a diary they can't be surprised if one day what they said comes to light.
Yes, it was a very difficult time but this is Government - these are professional people trained to "make impossible decisions". Johnson schemed and manoeuvred for 20 years to become Conservative leader and Prime Minister - this was the job he always wanted. He was no political novice - neither was Cummings.
Yes, but my point is that I think we ended up with Government by WhatsApp following FOIA and things like the Iraq inquiry, because they thought it was out of scope. It’s the evolution of “sofa Government”. Now they know it’s in scope, I imagine a lot has gone completely verbal or into hand written notes that get destroyed. The worst of all worlds.
You can have properly measured Government with a paper trial, or you can have freedom of information and very public inquires. I don’t think you can have both.
Personally, I think lessons learned reports are vital. I just don’t think we all need to that sausage being made in public. We can see the conclusions later.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
Apparently I am like the most privileged person ever...but come from Stoke, family are working class, none went to uni, didn't go to private school....
hmmm, I think the authors of that test have a very narrow definition of not privileged!
It seems that they are determining privilege according to work/social environment and acceptance, and family circumstances. Not wealth or education.
Not a dreadful way of calculating it before everyone goes all four Yorkshiremen.
But I am an actual Yorkshireman.
Were you brought up in cardboard box in the middle of the road?
Has everyone forgotten that in the initial stages of the pandemic, the expert view from the likes of the WHO was that travel restrictions were stigmatising and counter-productive because of the damage to the economy?
Yeah but Boris was saying old people need to fuck off and die in Dec 2020 (if you belive Vallance)
Not quite. He was posing a difficult question, expecting attempts to answer it to advance understanding about what to do. A bit like Socrates (not our much missed poster of that pseudonym)
I still don't understand why we could not have just locked down old people (e.g. 60+). Surely that would have been a reasonable compromise? I was saying it a lot at the time and I don't understand why it was never even discussed.
What happens to the people who look after the over 60s?
To be fair, Denmark did a great job with this: your phone was your "pass" and it showed the date of your last test.
Want to go into the store? Show a test that's less than a week old.
People who are looking after the elderly were tested all the time, while if you worked from home it was much less stringent.
They did a great job with risk segmentation, and had the least deaths and the least economic impact.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
If I really wanted to show off and rub it in a bit I would burn £50 notes in front of the hard pressed middle classes rather than wasting it on poor/homeless people.
Remember to only burn half of each note.
As a general rule, we will only reimburse you with the face value of a damaged banknote if you still have at least half of the banknote.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
Has everyone forgotten that in the initial stages of the pandemic, the expert view from the likes of the WHO was that travel restrictions were stigmatising and counter-productive because of the damage to the economy?
Once covid was well seeded in a country, travel restrictions probably did little to slow transmission, given you are as likely to export the infected as to import them.
That was actually a sensible part of Cummings’ evidence. He recognised that immediate travel restrictions might have made a very large difference. (Whether he did so at the time, I’ve no idea.)
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
They also have riff-raff like Piers Morgan bank with them...
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Especially given how hard it is to even get hold of a £50 note these days.
Surely a €500 note would be way more.. whatever you are aiming for with this?
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
They also have riff-raff like Piers Morgan bank with them...
I know, Thom Yorke of Radiohead is also a Coutts account holder.
I never actually applied for a Coutts account, my RBS Premier Relationship Manager kindly upgraded me.
Has everyone forgotten that in the initial stages of the pandemic, the expert view from the likes of the WHO was that travel restrictions were stigmatising and counter-productive because of the damage to the economy?
Once covid was well seeded in a country, travel restrictions probably did little to slow transmission, given you are as likely to export the infected as to import them.
That was actually a sensible part of Cummings’ evidence. He recognised that immediate travel restrictions might have made a very large difference. (Whether he did so at the time, I’ve no idea.)
It is why the allowing foreign summer holidays in 2020 was absolutely moronic, but nobody picks up on. Again today the focus was all on travel restrictions before and the Eat Out to Help Out.
When in reality we got the cases right down, all the hard work was undone, as then imported a worse strain from Spain, which resulted in it being widely seeded just as kids went back to school.
Letting everybody who has been locked up in their homes for a few months to go to airports with 1000s of other people, sit on metal tubes with 100s, then get to foreign destinations with everybody else from all over Europe, getting pissed, shagging around, and bringing back new variant back.
Apparently I am like the most privileged person ever...but come from Stoke, family are working class, none went to uni, didn't go to private school....
hmmm, I think the authors of that test have a very narrow definition of not privileged!
It seems that they are determining privilege according to work/social environment and acceptance, and family circumstances. Not wealth or education.
Not a dreadful way of calculating it before everyone goes all four Yorkshiremen.
It seems like the strangest and most boring game of Top Trumps ever.
I've been at meetings where I was the only white person present. Does that mean I'm [A] privileged, [B] not privileged, or [C] it doesn't make any difference at all?
The questions they asked were did that situation make you feel uncomfortable on account of your sexual orientation or race/religion.
To say no it didn't in their book makes you privileged presumably because they think you have never been in the situation you describe and you don't care.
I remember as a callow teenager working in McDonald's for a summer and after three days realising I was the only white bloke there. Meant nothing but they are asking what the only black guy might have felt like working at Fortnums I guess. Or gay guy in the Gaza branch of Pret.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
Romney: If we're going to have a piece of legislation that becomes law, it’s going to include support for Ukraine and as well as Israel. There may be other elements.. It's not acceptable to abandon Ukraine. https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1719438424086601845
Apparently I am like the most privileged person ever...but come from Stoke, family are working class, none went to uni, didn't go to private school....
hmmm, I think the authors of that test have a very narrow definition of not privileged!
It seems that they are determining privilege according to work/social environment and acceptance, and family circumstances. Not wealth or education.
Not a dreadful way of calculating it before everyone goes all four Yorkshiremen.
It seems like the strangest and most boring game of Top Trumps ever.
I've been at meetings where I was the only white person present. Does that mean I'm [A] privileged, [B] not privileged, or [C] it doesn't make any difference at all?
The questions they asked were did that situation make you feel uncomfortable on account of your sexual orientation or race/religion.
To say no it didn't in their book makes you privileged presumably because they think you have never been in the situation you describe and you don't care.
I remember as a callow teenager working in McDonald's for a summer and after three days realising I was the only white bloke there. Meant nothing but they are asking what the only black guy might have felt like working at Fortnums I guess. Or gay guy in the Gaza branch of Pret.
Working in hospitality you're about as likely to be the only straight guy as the only gay one.
Seems a coalition of peacekeepers (Arab, US, UK etc) could be sent into Gaza post harrowing. I think we'd have to be mad to start patrolling the city, catching all the blowback/IEDs.
Yes, total sympathy with Boris here. He was saying what everyone was saying. The idea these concepts should not be broached- by the PM - is insane. No doubt Churchill had pretty robust and ugly arguments during WW2, about the deaths of various civilians, He was simply lucky he didn’t have them recorded on WhatsApp
Traditionally, when a British government decides that keeping some people alive will cost too much they just outsource the dirty work to NICE. Johnson’s mistake was not sending the decision across to a quango.
Yup, sanitise it by expressing it all in terms of Qalys
Given NICE traditionally look at QALYs versus direct healthcare costs, lockdown would be win-win (most NICE-funded assessments don't look at wider societal costs/benefits, mostly because that's too hard)
Ah yes. “It’s too hard to measure/fix, so just ignore that”.
Bringing triumphs of policy ever since a bloke failed to consider the wider implications of half inching some fruit from a tree.
It (kind of) works for a lot of healthcare. Often the direct healthcare costs are the largest, some of the societal benefits are caught in (or proportional) to QALYs and the person making the ultimate decision can factor in wider benefits in that decision.
Without it, we'd be mired in endless arguments about what benefits/costs to include and there would be 200 competing cost-benefit studies for every possible therapy.
Obviously not a good approach for widespread NPIs with large societal impact though.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
They also have riff-raff like Piers Morgan bank with them...
I know, Thom Yorke of Radiohead is also a Coutts account holder.
I never actually applied for a Coutts account, my RBS Premier Relationship Manager kindly upgraded me.
Coutts is hardly a status symbol anymore. It’s like being a millionaire. One in eight households are.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
Seems a coalition of peacekeepers (Arab, US, UK etc) could be sent into Gaza post harrowing. I think we'd have to be mad to start patrolling the city, catching all the blowback/IEDs.
We used to run Gaza on behalf of the League of Nations. Still waiting for a thank you note.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
I like the fact that if you bank with Hoares and you call them they answer the phone good afternoon Mr kyf_100.
Seems a coalition of peacekeepers (Arab, US, UK etc) could be sent into Gaza post harrowing. I think we'd have to be mad to start patrolling the city, catching all the blowback/IEDs.
Where is that being suggested? Bonkers. No way the British Army should get involved there.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
I like the fact that if you bank with Hoares and you call them they answer the phone good afternoon Mr kyf_100.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
It's also outrageously expensive, and you need to do an awful lot of travel to make the benefits worth the cost.
Yes, total sympathy with Boris here. He was saying what everyone was saying. The idea these concepts should not be broached- by the PM - is insane. No doubt Churchill had pretty robust and ugly arguments during WW2, about the deaths of various civilians, He was simply lucky he didn’t have them recorded on WhatsApp
I agree. It’s this Inquiry culture, following Iraq, that drove all decision making on to WhatsApp (and presumably now has made it all verbal). People in the midst of making impossible decisions need a bit of latitude to make them, and have the real detail secret for years, so that future historians at least have the detail.
I'm not so certain.
Government has a degree of accountability, not least to the electorate, and transparency, so we know the reasons why decisions were taken in our name.
Many individuals have kept diaries as their record of events - perhaps less for future inquiries as for future memoirs. It's been possible for those cited unfavourably in said diaries to deny what was said or suggest an agenda or to be more charitable claim a misinterpretation.
WhatsApp isn't any of that - it enables people to record their most personal thoughts and to share them. Should it be the kind of medium used in a professional working environment? If Cummings or others used WhatsApp in lieu of a diary they can't be surprised if one day what they said comes to light.
Yes, it was a very difficult time but this is Government - these are professional people trained to "make impossible decisions". Johnson schemed and manoeuvred for 20 years to become Conservative leader and Prime Minister - this was the job he always wanted. He was no political novice - neither was Cummings.
Yes, but my point is that I think we ended up with Government by WhatsApp following FOIA and things like the Iraq inquiry, because they thought it was out of scope. It’s the evolution of “sofa Government”. Now they know it’s in scope, I imagine a lot has gone completely verbal or into hand written notes that get destroyed. The worst of all worlds.
You can have properly measured Government with a paper trial, or you can have freedom of information and very public inquires. I don’t think you can have both.
Personally, I think lessons learned reports are vital. I just don’t think we all need to that sausage being made in public. We can see the conclusions later.
Yes, there was a time when minutes were taken at meetings and even at informal gatherings. This was how people built up their store of recollections for the memoir. Unfortunately, the response of many public bodies to the coming of FOIA and other attempts to try to make decision making more accountable and transparent has been to refuse to record any meaningful decisions.
I know of key project decisions involving hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money taken by senior officers and even senior councillors via text message. I don't understand this fear of accountability.
Today my adventures consisted of having to go to Golders Green. On the tube (ugh - Boris bikes don't reach that far north).
Some observations.
1. It was much hotter on the Northern Line than likely any day this year on Brighton beach;
2. I saw one of those The Dyke Project (for that is it) posters. "It's hard being gay in Gaza but I kissed lots of boys and now the nasty Israelis are bombing us" vibe. The poster said also no one is free until everyone is free and exhorted the UK to"stop funding Israel and the Israeli military". A very global gay concern I'm sure;
3. In Golders Green itself there were plenty of policemen and private security types around; and
4. I saw a group of presumably Jewish primary school age children trick or treating along the main road. With a police escort.
1. I hope you were wearing more than just your speedos on the Northern Line.
4. Primary school children should never need a police escort to be children. Intolerance needs to be challenged.
My kids’ school still has uniform outside plus unmarked patrols as well. Also primary.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
It's also outrageously expensive, and you need to do an awful lot of travel to make the benefits worth the cost.
Seems a coalition of peacekeepers (Arab, US, UK etc) could be sent into Gaza post harrowing. I think we'd have to be mad to start patrolling the city, catching all the blowback/IEDs.
Where is that being suggested? Bonkers. No way the British Army should get involved there.
Yes, there was a time when minutes were taken at meetings and even at informal gatherings. This was how people built up their store of recollections for the memoir. Unfortunately, the response of many public bodies to the coming of FOIA and other attempts to try to make decision making more accountable and transparent has been to refuse to record any meaningful decisions.
I know of key project decisions involving hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money taken by senior officers and even senior councillors via text message. I don't understand this fear of accountability.
Every Teams call at work is recorded now. I am confident nobody will ever listen to any of them
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Pfft. I use mine to scrape the windscreen. It’s the Illuminati+ charge card all the way for me.
Seriously, what is this? The reverse Four Yorkshiremen Sketch? You really can’t buy taste.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Barclaycard sent me a Platinum which I cut up and returned. I had no desire to flaunt my wealth in front of check-out girls.
Nowadays I do my own checking out and the girl just stands there, poised to confirm my age at the critical moment.
Privilege is not having to be concerned about money.
In my (retail) experience, it's the rich who are the most likely to care about money. It was never the middle class or poor who would ask for a discount, always the consultant/colonel/CEO who wanted 20% off their expedition tent, climbing gear etc
Otoh, I took a great deal of pride in setting up very poor kids with decent kit for DofE expeditions, aware that walking is one of the most accessible outdoor activities. Not all of us have parents who fund sailing lessons. Automatic 20% for them (and more if I could).
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
I like the fact that if you bank with Hoares and you call them they answer the phone good afternoon Mr kyf_100.
That really annoys me, because my name is not kyf_100.
Seems a coalition of peacekeepers (Arab, US, UK etc) could be sent into Gaza post harrowing. I think we'd have to be mad to start patrolling the city, catching all the blowback/IEDs.
Where is that being suggested? Bonkers. No way the British Army should get involved there.
Romney: If we're going to have a piece of legislation that becomes law, it’s going to include support for Ukraine and as well as Israel. There may be other elements.. It's not acceptable to abandon Ukraine. https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1719438424086601845
He's a good guy. Horribly ironic that he should have lost his presidential race while Trump won his. Incomprehensible how he can now be a marginal figure in the GOP.
Has everyone forgotten that in the initial stages of the pandemic, the expert view from the likes of the WHO was that travel restrictions were stigmatising and counter-productive because of the damage to the economy?
Yeah but Boris was saying old people need to fuck off and die in Dec 2020 (if you belive Vallance)
Not quite. He was posing a difficult question, expecting attempts to answer it to advance understanding about what to do. A bit like Socrates (not our much missed poster of that pseudonym)
I still don't understand why we could not have just locked down old people (e.g. 60+). Surely that would have been a reasonable compromise? I was saying it a lot at the time and I don't understand why it was never even discussed.
What happens to the people who look after the over 60s?
To be fair, Denmark did a great job with this: your phone was your "pass" and it showed the date of your last test.
Want to go into the store? Show a test that's less than a week old.
People who are looking after the elderly were tested all the time, while if you worked from home it was much less stringent.
They did a great job with risk segmentation, and had the least deaths and the least economic impact.
Our inability and/or unwillingness to countenance a risk segmentation strategy was the greatest failing during covid, and still has a legacy today: some perfectly fit and healthy people remain fearful of the bug despite it being less dangerous than flu these days.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Barclaycard sent me a Platinum which I cut up and returned. I had no desire to flaunt my wealth in front of check-out girls.
Nowadays I do my own checking out and the girl just stands there, poised to confirm my age at the critical moment.
Truly the past is another country.
The joys of having Apple Pay, the plebs don't get to see your card.
Yes, total sympathy with Boris here. He was saying what everyone was saying. The idea these concepts should not be broached- by the PM - is insane. No doubt Churchill had pretty robust and ugly arguments during WW2, about the deaths of various civilians, He was simply lucky he didn’t have them recorded on WhatsApp
I agree. It’s this Inquiry culture, following Iraq, that drove all decision making on to WhatsApp (and presumably now has made it all verbal). People in the midst of making impossible decisions need a bit of latitude to make them, and have the real detail secret for years, so that future historians at least have the detail.
I'm not so certain.
Government has a degree of accountability, not least to the electorate, and transparency, so we know the reasons why decisions were taken in our name.
Many individuals have kept diaries as their record of events - perhaps less for future inquiries as for future memoirs. It's been possible for those cited unfavourably in said diaries to deny what was said or suggest an agenda or to be more charitable claim a misinterpretation.
WhatsApp isn't any of that - it enables people to record their most personal thoughts and to share them. Should it be the kind of medium used in a professional working environment? If Cummings or others used WhatsApp in lieu of a diary they can't be surprised if one day what they said comes to light.
Yes, it was a very difficult time but this is Government - these are professional people trained to "make impossible decisions". Johnson schemed and manoeuvred for 20 years to become Conservative leader and Prime Minister - this was the job he always wanted. He was no political novice - neither was Cummings.
Yes, but my point is that I think we ended up with Government by WhatsApp following FOIA and things like the Iraq inquiry, because they thought it was out of scope. It’s the evolution of “sofa Government”. Now they know it’s in scope, I imagine a lot has gone completely verbal or into hand written notes that get destroyed. The worst of all worlds.
You can have properly measured Government with a paper trial, or you can have freedom of information and very public inquires. I don’t think you can have both.
Personally, I think lessons learned reports are vital. I just don’t think we all need to that sausage being made in public. We can see the conclusions later.
Yes, there was a time when minutes were taken at meetings and even at informal gatherings. This was how people built up their store of recollections for the memoir. Unfortunately, the response of many public bodies to the coming of FOIA and other attempts to try to make decision making more accountable and transparent has been to refuse to record any meaningful decisions.
I know of key project decisions involving hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money taken by senior officers and even senior councillors via text message. I don't understand this fear of accountability.
It’s a societal problem. What worries them is the idiotic “gotcha” level of questioning of the back of FOIA or these sorts of inquiries. Take the evidence sessions today. I watched a lot of them and there were some interesting and informative passages no one has reported because they just wanted a killer quote.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Barclaycard sent me a Platinum which I cut up and returned. I had no desire to flaunt my wealth in front of check-out girls.
Nowadays I do my own checking out and the girl just stands there, poised to confirm my age at the critical moment.
Truly the past is another country.
And the card is gathering dust in a draw at home. It’s pointless carrying a card around these days, so the idea of a ‘premium’ card is faintly absurd.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Barclaycard sent me a Platinum which I cut up and returned. I had no desire to flaunt my wealth in front of check-out girls.
Nowadays I do my own checking out and the girl just stands there, poised to confirm my age at the critical moment.
Truly the past is another country.
And the card is gathering dust in a draw at home. It’s pointless carrying a card around these days, so the idea of a ‘premium’ card is faintly absurd.
As a pedant, I feel the need to point out that if it’s in a drawer then it can’t be gathering dust.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Barclaycard sent me a Platinum which I cut up and returned. I had no desire to flaunt my wealth in front of check-out girls.
Nowadays I do my own checking out and the girl just stands there, poised to confirm my age at the critical moment.
Truly the past is another country.
And the card is gathering dust in a draw at home. It’s pointless carrying a card around these days, so the idea of a ‘premium’ card is faintly absurd.
Now it's just an opportunity to flaunt the latest expensive phone
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Pfft. I use mine to scrape the windscreen. It’s the Illuminati+ charge card all the way for me.
Seriously, what is this? The reverse Four Yorkshiremen Sketch? You really can’t buy taste.
It's a tribute to the UK.
The children/grandchildren of immigrants from Pakistan and India are accepted and integrated at the top of society.
The UK, London,and Scotland are ruled by Asian heritage chaps. I am considered elite and privileged.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
I like the fact that if you bank with Hoares and you call them they answer the phone good afternoon Mr kyf_100.
That really annoys me, because my name is not kyf_100.
Hah. I think my username is as it is because my original one was rejected by the moderator, and I couldn't quickly think of a number that wasn't my year of birth. I was madly paranoid about being doxxed at the time, and _100 felt suitably generic for a single post or two. Who knew I'd still be posting seven years later.
As I had to think of an alternative fast, the kyf stands for the book that was on my desk at the time, Kill your friends, by John Niven.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Barclaycard sent me a Platinum which I cut up and returned. I had no desire to flaunt my wealth in front of check-out girls.
Nowadays I do my own checking out and the girl just stands there, poised to confirm my age at the critical moment.
Truly the past is another country.
And the card is gathering dust in a draw at home. It’s pointless carrying a card around these days, so the idea of a ‘premium’ card is faintly absurd.
Now it's just an opportunity to flaunt the latest expensive phone
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Barclaycard sent me a Platinum which I cut up and returned. I had no desire to flaunt my wealth in front of check-out girls.
Nowadays I do my own checking out and the girl just stands there, poised to confirm my age at the critical moment.
Truly the past is another country.
And the card is gathering dust in a draw at home. It’s pointless carrying a card around these days, so the idea of a ‘premium’ card is faintly absurd.
As a pedant, I feel the need to point out that if it’s in a drawer then it can’t be gathering dust.
Even if it were on top of the drawers it wouldn't be 'gathering' dust, it would just have dust land on it.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Pfft. I use mine to scrape the windscreen. It’s the Illuminati+ charge card all the way for me.
Seriously, what is this? The reverse Four Yorkshiremen Sketch? You really can’t buy taste.
It's a tribute to the UK.
The children/grandchildren of immigrants from Pakistan and India are accepted and integrated at the top of society.
The UK, London,and Scotland are ruled by Asian heritage chaps. I am considered elite and privileged.
That is to the UK's immense credit.
I have a real issue with the “top” of society being defined by bank balance.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Pfft. I use mine to scrape the windscreen. It’s the Illuminati+ charge card all the way for me.
Seriously, what is this? The reverse Four Yorkshiremen Sketch? You really can’t buy taste.
It's a tribute to the UK.
The children/grandchildren of immigrants from Pakistan and India are accepted and integrated at the top of society.
The UK, London,and Scotland are ruled by Asian heritage chaps. I am considered elite and privileged.
That is to the UK's immense credit.
I have a real issue with the “top” of society being defined by bank balance.
It's not just that, Sunak and myself attended elite schools and nobody batted an eyelid.
Humza Yousaf and I both married white natives and nobody batted an eyelid.
Seems a coalition of peacekeepers (Arab, US, UK etc) could be sent into Gaza post harrowing. I think we'd have to be mad to start patrolling the city, catching all the blowback/IEDs.
We used to run Gaza on behalf of the League of Nations. Still waiting for a thank you note.
Hmm. Not sure that our effort from 1918-1948 deserves another crack at it...
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Pfft. I use mine to scrape the windscreen. It’s the Illuminati+ charge card all the way for me.
Seriously, what is this? The reverse Four Yorkshiremen Sketch? You really can’t buy taste.
It's a tribute to the UK.
The children/grandchildren of immigrants from Pakistan and India are accepted and integrated at the top of society.
The UK, London,and Scotland are ruled by Asian heritage chaps. I am considered elite and privileged.
That is to the UK's immense credit.
I have a real issue with the “top” of society being defined by bank balance.
It's not just that, Sunak and myself attended elite schools and nobody batted an eyelid.
Humza Yousaf and I both married white natives and nobody batted an eyelid.
Oh on those things I am with you, of course. I also think it’s a win that I’m (hopefully politely) having a pop at you for being a stereotypical Tory. As the PM put it, rightly, in his conference speech - the mark of success is him being PM and it not being a bit deal. It’s him being attacked and disliked, but based on his policies and fitness for the role.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Barclaycard sent me a Platinum which I cut up and returned. I had no desire to flaunt my wealth in front of check-out girls.
Nowadays I do my own checking out and the girl just stands there, poised to confirm my age at the critical moment.
Truly the past is another country.
The joys of having Apple Pay, the plebs don't get to see your card.
I'd quite like a Rolex that acts like an Apple Watch. That would cover most of my simple needs.
Yes, total sympathy with Boris here. He was saying what everyone was saying. The idea these concepts should not be broached- by the PM - is insane. No doubt Churchill had pretty robust and ugly arguments during WW2, about the deaths of various civilians, He was simply lucky he didn’t have them recorded on WhatsApp
Traditionally, when a British government decides that keeping some people alive will cost too much they just outsource the dirty work to NICE. Johnson’s mistake was not sending the decision across to a quango.
Yup, sanitise it by expressing it all in terms of Qalys
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Barclaycard sent me a Platinum which I cut up and returned. I had no desire to flaunt my wealth in front of check-out girls.
Nowadays I do my own checking out and the girl just stands there, poised to confirm my age at the critical moment.
Truly the past is another country.
" . . . no desire to flaunt my wealth in front of check-out girls."
Would you object, if yours truly flaunted your wealth? Maybe only on weekends?
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Pfft. I use mine to scrape the windscreen. It’s the Illuminati+ charge card all the way for me.
Seriously, what is this? The reverse Four Yorkshiremen Sketch? You really can’t buy taste.
It's a tribute to the UK.
The children/grandchildren of immigrants from Pakistan and India are accepted and we ar him.integrated at the top of society.
The UK, London,and Scotland are ruled by Asian heritage chaps. I am considered elite and privileged.
That is to the UK's immense credit.
I have a real issue with the “top” of society being defined by bank balance.
It's not just that, Sunak and myself attended elite schools and nobody batted an eyelid.
Humza Yousaf and I both married white natives and nobody batted an eyelid.
Oh on those things I am with you, of course. I also think it’s a win that I’m (hopefully politely) having a pop at you for being a stereotypical Tory. As the PM put it, rightly, in his conference speech - the mark of success is him being PM and it not being a bit deal. It’s him being attacked and disliked, but based on his policies and fitness for the role.
Just the same in Scotland, Humza hardly ever gets racist abuse thrown at him, it’s all about policies and fitness for the role.
I see Liverpool Street Station has been taken over by a demo tonight.
I wonder if they will notice the statue put up to commemorate the Kindertransport. And ask themselves who those Kinder were and why they came here.
When you speak to Palestinians they ask the very reasonable question "Why should we be deprived of our homes, history and country because of the crimes of Europeans* against the Jews?
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
I like the fact that if you bank with Hoares and you call them they answer the phone good afternoon Mr kyf_100.
That really annoys me, because my name is not kyf_100.
Seems a coalition of peacekeepers (Arab, US, UK etc) could be sent into Gaza post harrowing. I think we'd have to be mad to start patrolling the city, catching all the blowback/IEDs.
Where is that being suggested? Bonkers. No way the British Army should get involved there.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
To be honest I value my AMEX Centurion Charge Card more.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
Barclaycard sent me a Platinum which I cut up and returned. I had no desire to flaunt my wealth in front of check-out girls.
Nowadays I do my own checking out and the girl just stands there, poised to confirm my age at the critical moment.
Truly the past is another country.
And the card is gathering dust in a draw at home. It’s pointless carrying a card around these days, so the idea of a ‘premium’ card is faintly absurd.
As a pedant, I feel the need to point out that if it’s in a drawer then it can’t be gathering dust.
Even if it were on top of the drawers it wouldn't be 'gathering' dust, it would just have dust land on it.
IF your drawers are gathering or otherwise accumulating dust, probably NOT a positive sign?
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
I like the fact that if you bank with Hoares and you call them they answer the phone good afternoon Mr kyf_100.
That really annoys me, because my name is not kyf_100.
I see Liverpool Street Station has been taken over by a demo tonight.
I wonder if they will notice the statue put up to commemorate the Kindertransport. And ask themselves who those Kinder were and why they came here.
When you speak to Palestinians they ask the very reasonable question "Why should we be deprived of our homes, history and country because of the crimes of Europeans* against the Jews?
*or the Egyptians, Iraqis, Yemenis etc etc.
It’s an emotionally manipulative question designed to frame the existence of the state of Israel as a wrong to set against the wrong of the holocaust.
I see Liverpool Street Station has been taken over by a demo tonight.
I wonder if they will notice the statue put up to commemorate the Kindertransport. And ask themselves who those Kinder were and why they came here.
I don't suppose anyone is going to make the same effort for the Palestinian kids currently at risk of being blown to bits in Gaza.
Hamas have said that no-one must leave, even foreign nationals trapped there.
If they changed their attitude, there would be plenty who would seek to help children at risk, including me. Currently I contribute to CAFOD, a Catholic relief charity which works in the area.
But Hamas don't want that do they? They want dead children to use them for propaganda purposes. That is why, as pointed out by an Egyptian journalist, Hamas have built lots of underground tunnels for their fighters but no bomb shelters for Gazan civilians.
I see Liverpool Street Station has been taken over by a demo tonight.
I wonder if they will notice the statue put up to commemorate the Kindertransport. And ask themselves who those Kinder were and why they came here.
When you speak to Palestinians they ask the very reasonable question "Why should we be deprived of our homes, history and country because of the crimes of Europeans* against the Jews?
*or the Egyptians, Iraqis, Yemenis etc etc.
It’s an emotionally manipulative question designed to frame the existence of the state of Israel as a wrong to set against the wrong of the holocaust.
It seems a perfectly reasonable question to me. It wasn't the Palestinians behind the Holocaust.
I see Liverpool Street Station has been taken over by a demo tonight.
I wonder if they will notice the statue put up to commemorate the Kindertransport. And ask themselves who those Kinder were and why they came here.
When you speak to Palestinians they ask the very reasonable question "Why should we be deprived of our homes, history and country because of the crimes of Europeans* against the Jews?
*or the Egyptians, Iraqis, Yemenis etc etc.
It’s an emotionally manipulative question designed to frame the existence of the state of Israel as a wrong to set against the wrong of the holocaust.
It seems a perfectly reasonable question to me. It wasn't the Palestinians behind the Holocaust.
No indeed and I'm sure the Palestinians would be horrified if by their actions people, such as you are doing now, are questioning the legitimacy of the State of Israel.
I see Liverpool Street Station has been taken over by a demo tonight.
I wonder if they will notice the statue put up to commemorate the Kindertransport. And ask themselves who those Kinder were and why they came here.
When you speak to Palestinians they ask the very reasonable question "Why should we be deprived of our homes, history and country because of the crimes of Europeans* against the Jews?
*or the Egyptians, Iraqis, Yemenis etc etc.
It’s an emotionally manipulative question designed to frame the existence of the state of Israel as a wrong to set against the wrong of the holocaust.
It seems a perfectly reasonable question to me. It wasn't the Palestinians behind the Holocaust.
It's a false equation. Zionism predated the Holocaust and there's been a lot of history since then,
I see Liverpool Street Station has been taken over by a demo tonight.
I wonder if they will notice the statue put up to commemorate the Kindertransport. And ask themselves who those Kinder were and why they came here.
When you speak to Palestinians they ask the very reasonable question "Why should we be deprived of our homes, history and country because of the crimes of Europeans* against the Jews?
*or the Egyptians, Iraqis, Yemenis etc etc.
The answer to which is two-fold:
(1) Jews are the indigenous people of the area having originated there and been there longer than pretty much any other group, including Palestinians many of whom moved to the area called Palestine from other parts of the Middle Est.
And
(2) That is why the UN proposed two states - and allocated land for a Palestinian state - so that they would have a home. That offer was rejected and the land allocated to the Palestinians stolen by Jordan and Egypt.
(Whether the borders and allocation was fair or viable is another matter. But it is simply not true to say that Palestinians were not offered a state. The world made an attempt to give both groups a state and it is the Palestinians tragedy that they refused that offer and have been trying ever since to get what they could have got more than 70 years ago.)
Seems a coalition of peacekeepers (Arab, US, UK etc) could be sent into Gaza post harrowing. I think we'd have to be mad to start patrolling the city, catching all the blowback/IEDs.
Where is that being suggested? Bonkers. No way the British Army should get involved there.
I see Liverpool Street Station has been taken over by a demo tonight.
I wonder if they will notice the statue put up to commemorate the Kindertransport. And ask themselves who those Kinder were and why they came here.
I don't suppose anyone is going to make the same effort for the Palestinian kids currently at risk of being blown to bits in Gaza.
Hamas have said that no-one must leave, even foreign nationals trapped there.
If they changed their attitude, there would be plenty who would seek to help children at risk, including me. Currently I contribute to CAFOD, a Catholic relief charity which works in the area.
But Hamas don't want that do they? They want dead children to use them for propaganda purposes. That is why, as pointed out by an Egyptian journalist, Hamas have built lots of underground tunnels for their fighters but no bomb shelters for Gazan civilians.
I think CAFOD are calling for a ceasefire, like the demonstrators at Liverpool street Station.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
I closed my Coutts account. It's not that good, it is living off the fact the Royals bank with them.
An offshore account with EFG is where it's at if you actually value people who understand money, rather than just want to flex your credit card.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
I like the fact that if you bank with Hoares and you call them they answer the phone good afternoon Mr kyf_100.
That really annoys me, because my name is not kyf_100.
You’re only one order of magnitude out.
It's genuinely weird now, to remember, how hard I worked to think of a generic and disposable name for a post or two that wouldn't link back to me, because I wanted to post some things about Brexit and being outed as pro-Brexit at my then workplace would have been instant career suicide.
Though if memory recalls, my first couple of posts were actually about housing (but also linked to freedom of movement - which you had to be unequivocally in favour of, even if you thought it was ruining the youth's chance of getting on the housing ladder, which I think was what my first post was about).
We are probably somewhere similar in 2023. 2016's "Are you Brexit or Remain" is 2023's "are you Israel or Palestine?" The truth, as we all know from debating it endlessly for years, ends up being much more nuanced.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Especially given how hard it is to even get hold of a £50 note these days.
Some friends gave me a framed £50 note as a present (tarted up by former PB cartoonist Marf, as it happens) but had not realised the Turing note was in general circulation. They thought it was a one-off special (as with stamps and 50p pieces) so bought one at a high premium from Ebay.
Now I have got my ultra privileged card, does this mean I can go around and act like a total knob throwing paint around, holding up traffic, etc and not get punished for it?
Ultimate privilege is burning £50 notes in front of poor/homeless people.
Ultimate privilege is not having your Coutts account cancelled.
That reminds me. I'm being semi-debanked. Barclays is kicking me off Premium back to an ordinary current account.
Comments
You can have properly measured Government with a paper trial, or you can have freedom of information and very public inquires. I don’t think you can have both.
Personally, I think lessons learned reports are vital. I just don’t think we all need to that sausage being made in public. We can see the conclusions later.
Cambridge train.
When do we want it?
21:45.
Want to go into the store? Show a test that's less than a week old.
People who are looking after the elderly were tested all the time, while if you worked from home it was much less stringent.
They did a great job with risk segmentation, and had the least deaths and the least economic impact.
As a general rule, we will only reimburse you with the face value of a damaged banknote if you still have at least half of the banknote.
To apply for a reimbursement, fill out our damaged banknote application form and send it to us with all of the remains of the banknote.
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/damaged-and-contaminated-banknotes
He recognised that immediate travel restrictions might have made a very large difference.
(Whether he did so at the time, I’ve no idea.)
I never actually applied for a Coutts account, my RBS Premier Relationship Manager kindly upgraded me.
When in reality we got the cases right down, all the hard work was undone, as then imported a worse strain from Spain, which resulted in it being widely seeded just as kids went back to school.
Letting everybody who has been locked up in their homes for a few months to go to airports with 1000s of other people, sit on metal tubes with 100s, then get to foreign destinations with everybody else from all over Europe, getting pissed, shagging around, and bringing back new variant back.
To say no it didn't in their book makes you privileged presumably because they think you have never been in the situation you describe and you don't care.
I remember as a callow teenager working in McDonald's for a summer and after three days realising I was the only white bloke there. Meant nothing but they are asking what the only black guy might have felt like working at Fortnums I guess. Or gay guy in the Gaza branch of Pret.
Romney: If we're going to have a piece of legislation that becomes law, it’s going to include support for Ukraine and as well as Israel. There may be other elements.. It's not acceptable to abandon Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1719438424086601845
Without it, we'd be mired in endless arguments about what benefits/costs to include and there would be 200 competing cost-benefit studies for every possible therapy.
Obviously not a good approach for widespread NPIs with large societal impact though.
Quiet and discreet are not words I would associate with Coutts, even before the Farage thing.
Gets you more benefits than Coutts and their concierge service is the best.
'My bankers are Hoares.'
I know of key project decisions involving hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money taken by senior officers and even senior councillors via text message. I don't understand this fear of accountability.
😁😁😁
Seriously, what is this? The reverse Four Yorkshiremen Sketch? You really can’t buy taste.
Nowadays I do my own checking out and the girl just stands there, poised to confirm my age at the critical moment.
Truly the past is another country.
Otoh, I took a great deal of pride in setting up very poor kids with decent kit for DofE expeditions, aware that walking is one of the most accessible outdoor activities. Not all of us have parents who fund sailing lessons. Automatic 20% for them (and more if I could).
The Danish strategy sounds like a sensible one.
Questions like “Are you comfortable practising your religion in the workplace?” Why should I practice religion in the workplace?
The Yes/No format makes it hard to give truthful answers like I Don’t Know or It Depends.
The children/grandchildren of immigrants from Pakistan and India are accepted and integrated at the top of society.
The UK, London,and Scotland are ruled by Asian heritage chaps. I am considered elite and privileged.
That is to the UK's immense credit.
As I had to think of an alternative fast, the kyf stands for the book that was on my desk at the time, Kill your friends, by John Niven.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoCnwJm1iBo
I realise I am very lucky that I have parents who to this day think their role in life is to fund my life. I tell them off and don't let them.
Humza Yousaf and I both married white natives and nobody batted an eyelid.
https://twitter.com/chiefrabbi/status/1719443425303409067
https://twitter.com/RobDotHutton/status/1719476298085503138/photo/1
Biden expected to meet with Xi Jinping next month for ‘constructive’ talks
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/31/biden-xi-jinping-meeting-us-china
@ClaudiaWebbe
We cannot be silent or silenced
This is Liverpool Street Station, London"
https://twitter.com/ClaudiaWebbe/status/1719423731720761821
Would you object, if yours truly flaunted your wealth? Maybe only on weekends?
For balance, I think it's important to say that nobody needs to take sides on this. It could be the case that Johnson and Cummings are BOTH arseholes.
*or the Egyptians, Iraqis, Yemenis etc etc.
Seriously, I can't see much support here for UK troops on the ground except as part of a UN force.
If they changed their attitude, there would be plenty who would seek to help children at risk, including me. Currently I contribute to CAFOD, a Catholic relief charity which works in the area.
But Hamas don't want that do they? They want dead children to use them for propaganda purposes. That is why, as pointed out by an Egyptian journalist, Hamas have built lots of underground tunnels for their fighters but no bomb shelters for Gazan civilians.
The phrase useful idiots springs to mind.
(1) Jews are the indigenous people of the area having originated there and been there longer than pretty much any other group, including Palestinians many of whom moved to the area called Palestine from other parts of the Middle Est.
And
(2) That is why the UN proposed two states - and allocated land for a Palestinian state - so that they would have a home. That offer was rejected and the land allocated to the Palestinians stolen by Jordan and Egypt.
(Whether the borders and allocation was fair or viable is another matter. But it is simply not true to say that Palestinians were not offered a state. The world made an attempt to give both groups a state and it is the Palestinians tragedy that they refused that offer and have been trying ever since to get what they could have got more than 70 years ago.)
https://cafod.org.uk/news/media/press-releases/christian-leaders-call-for-a-just-peace-in-israel-and-the-occupied-palestinian-territory
Though if memory recalls, my first couple of posts were actually about housing (but also linked to freedom of movement - which you had to be unequivocally in favour of, even if you thought it was ruining the youth's chance of getting on the housing ladder, which I think was what my first post was about).
We are probably somewhere similar in 2023. 2016's "Are you Brexit or Remain" is 2023's "are you Israel or Palestine?" The truth, as we all know from debating it endlessly for years, ends up being much more nuanced.